LEBANON: Government infrastructure losses assessment showed that 85 per cent OF country's bridges were destroyed by Israeli offensive

The Lebanese government infrastructure losses assessment showed that 85 per cent of the country's bridges were destroyed by the Israeli offensive on Lebanon, cutting the country into pieces and making movement very difficult for refugees returning home and for aid delivery. The Israeli offensive on Lebanon erupted when Hizbollah guerillas captured two Israeli soldiers at a border raid on July 12. The one month old fighting ended on August 14 following a U.N. Security Council resolution calling truce between Hizbollah and Israeli forces. Lebanese Minister of transport and work affairs Mohamad al-Safadi said on Tuesday (August 15) that 85 per cent of Lebanon's bridges were destroyed or semi-destroyed by Israel's bombardment. "We have over 85% of our bridges completely destroyed or semi destroyed. This is a total of 80 bridges but Lebanon is a small country so 80 bridges is a lot of bridges for us. All our main roads where the Israeli wanted to close the roads and there wasn't a bridge to blow up, they blew the road up to make sure that it's cut. They have cut Lebanon into small pieces," said Mohamad al-Safadi. In the first days of the Israeli attack on the country Israel targeted the most vital infrastructure, bombing one of the main power plants at Jiyyeh southern Beirut, causing great shortage in electricity feeds. The power plant hit engendered the worst oil spill crisis in Lebanon and the Mediterranean sea estimated at least at $200 million U.S. dollars. Al-Safadi said the country needs two to three years to recover from the damages caused by Israel's offensive. "There are some bridges in one particular area that connects Beirut to the Bekaa Valley and Syria which we call 'the Arab highway,' one of the bridges there took five years to build. It has been very badly hit and part of it is completely destroyed. We hope that we will rebuild it in no longer than two to three years time. So some bridges could be built a lot faster some depending on the size of these bridges. If we use anything between two and a half years to three years to fully build everything that has been damaged now this would be a good assessment," said al-Safadi. Israeli attacks also targeted the country's only international airport forcing it to close. Repair operations began this week to fix again the airport runways. Lebanese economic analyst Marwan Iskandar said that if adding infrastructure losses to housing and the government stop to collect fees and taxes, taking into consideration the killing of Lebanon's tourism season, the total loss of this war will be 7 billion U.S. dollars. "If you add all the total (of losses) you are well over 7 billion U.S. dollars of losses by the Lebanese economy from the duration of the war and expectation of aftermath," said Marwan Iskandar. Lebanon is already suffering from a heavy national debt estimated at 34 billion U.S. dollars equal to 180 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Iskandar said that Lebanon's economy growth was proceeding at 6 per cent because it seemed to have very good indicators about performance. Now the country lost the 6 per cent (evaluated at 1.4 billion U.S. dollars). Any growth is not expected until the end of the year as recovery aspects will start to show between 2008 and 2009, Iskandar added.

ITN Source | August 17, 2006

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