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Nazir Rida wrote in Asharq Al-Awsat:
The explosion of the economic and living crisis in Tripoli last week was not an unexpected event for many of the city’s actors and those working in Lebanese public affairs, as the city was “abandoned” to its fate as a result of Political “disregard” and “willful negligence” for decades.
From the “forgotten” sports stadium at the southern entrance to the city to the oil refinery at its northern entrance, its development sites and economic capabilities have been disrupted, and only its seaport, which plans to develop it, was put into operation. for the efforts of Lebanese politician Tawfiq Sultan, who was appointed president of the port in 2016 during his honor. In the presence of the Egyptian Prime Minister and the Jordanian Minister of Transport at the time, the title was “Abu Al Mirfa”. The raising of a poster of a century-old crane was an indication of the plan to continue to trust him. During his existence with the late founder of the Progressive Socialist Party, Kamal Jumblatt, he transformed his political struggle into a struggle for development. now in his city, the port, with the aim of alleviating social charges and live crises.
Tripoli’s suffering with political power dates back to the establishment of the state of Greater Lebanon in 1920, and to the French proposal not to annex it to Lebanon, to avoid disturbing the Lebanese demography, which was rejected by the late Maronite patriarch Elias Al-Hawaik, and secondly when the late Lebanese president Camille Chamoun refused to deepen the basins of the port of Tripoli in the 1950s. Following the suggestion of its mayor, Rashid Sultan, to the obstruction that was practiced during the era of the president Michel Aoun, according to politicians and actors of the same.
Sultan said, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, that “the disruptive forces change every time,” the last of whom is President Aoun, who asked his agents to meet with Minister Gebran Bassil when he was presented with a plan for electricity production with an investment of a quarter of a billion dollars contributed by the people of the city to ensure electricity. He adds: “The obstructionist forces want to transform Tripoli from a state to which large cities and regions have belonged a hundred years ago to a suburb of the Batroun district”, from which the deputy Gebran Bassil comes.
The port development plan did not start until the beginning of the new millennium, after the change of political times and the appointment of Minister Ghazi Al-Aridi (of the Socialist Party) as Minister of Public Works. The stability of the port of Tripoli today is the world center of attention after the visit of ambassadors from foreign countries to it last year, which culminated Approved by the French international company (CMA – CGM), to be a base station for it in the eastern Mediterranean, through whose ships come two lines: one from western Asia through the ports of the Persian Gulf to southern Italy, and the second from the ports of the Persian Gulf to Mersin in Turkey. The depth of the basin is now 15.5 meters, which means that it can now receive giant ships, and the wide area of the basins allows them to turn. The importance of the port increases with the presence of 35 nautical kilometers to the north belonging to the Lebanese state, which paves the way for its expansion at any time, in addition to its open capacity, and the presence of a railway for goods and passengers. , and it’s close to the airstrip at Klayaat in the north.
This economic power for Tripoli is capable of securing hundreds of job opportunities. While the port administration obtained a loan from the Islamic bank in the amount of $ 87 million to develop it, as long as the port administration paid for it with its income, regardless of the Lebanese government, the expansion projects await the formation of the government.
The crises in Tripoli are not limited to economic difficulties and the weakening of development projects. Politicians see in him that Tripoli was facing a politically systematic plan, and he was wearing a “masquerade dress that does not belong to him”, referring to some of them calling it “Kandahar”, pointing out that the city inhabited by the majority of Muslims and Christian Orthodox has launched in recent months the names of five Maronite metropolitans along five of its streets, as well as other streets with Christian names, in response to the accusations directed at the city, which affected it politically and socially.
In exchange for disrupting development plans, placing obstacles in front of projects, townspeople try to develop facilities that the state is absent from its own capabilities, to counter the “plan to hit Tripoli economically and portray it as” Kandahar “.
Sultan says: “The problem with Tripoli is that it is silent, even though it is the second capital of the country.” He explains: “Decades ago, in response to the state’s neglect, his children went to provide services through companies, in terms of securing the water from the Rush’in spring (about 17 kilometers away)., And the property of the people of the city to the Qadisha Electricity Company, which received a concession from the government, before its ownership was transferred to the Lebanese Electricity Company years ago. And when townspeople tried in the last decade to offer to produce electricity to secure it, plans were thwarted.
Sultan believes that “the conspiracy against Tripoli is persistent”, because “the city can work with its own capacities, if the authority left it, it gave it freedom to work and develop, and allowed it to implement development plans and provide services.” : “The Olympic stadium is left without maintenance or investment, the Rashid Karami International Fair is also abandoned, and Chinese investment projects have been hampered from approval as a permanent exhibition, in addition to the departure station for the trip has not been completed …
He is pained by the persistence of conventions that impede the development of Tripoli, as he says: “Is it conceivable that there are 23 museums in Lebanon, while there are no museums in Tripoli, the city of originality, heritage and civilizations? ” And he affirms that “holding your breath pushed towards this security tension”, pointing out that there is no solution to crises and their exacerbation but by developing the city “and giving its people freedom to work and develop it, as long as the central political authority he’s absent “.
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