Another pharmacist said a masked man had held her up at gunpoint, asking for baby food.

Fouad Khamasi fills his taxi every day with about 40,000 Lebanese pounds’ worth of fuel. It could cost at least four times that much if subsidies come to an end.

The Beirut cab driver, 53, can just about afford to buy fuel and feed his kids. He worries the price of subsidised foods and key imports – wheat, fuel, medicine – will skyrocket.

“These are the toughest days I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Some days, you stick your hand in your pocket and find nothing … I leave the house and just pray. Whatever I make, it does nothing. It’s a joke.”

Time and money are running out for Lebanon.

Foreign reserves have dropped far below what the state already deemed “dangerous levels” when it defaulted on its huge debt in March, meaning it cannot afford to keep subsidies for long.

Leaders in power for decades have yet to enact a financial rescue plan, a year after huge protests against them swept the country, and they have failed to secure aid from foreign donors.

Talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stalled earlier this year when Lebanese government officials, bankers and political parties could not agree over how big the losses were in the financial system and who should bear them.

After a massive explosion at Beirut’s port in August that killed nearly 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage, former colonial power France stepped in.

But rival sectarian politicians could not get past the first hurdle on the French roadmap towards financial aid: naming a new cabinet quickly.

The currency, which has lost more than 80% of its value against the U.S. dollar since last autumn, weakened after the French effort faltered.

Meanwhile, comments from officials indicating an end to some subsidies within months have triggered panic buying, raising the spectre of food shortages and a more dramatic crash in the currency.

In the nation of some six million people, more than 55% of whom are below the poverty line, many are bracing for hunger and cold as winter looms.

Kicking the Can

“Everything that happened since last October could have been avoidable,” Nasser Saidi, a former vice central bank governor, told Reuters.

He said targeted aid to the poorest Lebanese would be more effective than subsidies across the board, which had benefited smugglers taking goods into Syria.

“It’s all kicking the can down the road. What should have been done is a full economic and financial plan,” Saidi said.

Importers of key commodities said they had not been given a timeline to plan for how long subsidies could last.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has said the bank could not finance trade indefinitely, although he gave no timeframe. President Michel Aoun said recently of reserves: “The money will run out. What can we say?”

An official source close to the government told Reuters the money left for subsidies would last six more months by cutting support for some goods.

The state, which critics say is mired in corruption, and the paralysed banking sector, its biggest creditor, have traded blame for the crisis.

Meanwhile, the wealth gap, already one of the region’s largest, widens. In a country that relies heavily on imports and produces little, prices for many items including diapers have tripled.

In Beirut, men and women, some with young children, can often be seen digging for food in dumpsters near city intersections.

Stockpiling Medicines

Two months after the port blast, Lebanese expect life to get even harder.

Many families now rely on charity. The meltdown could render people more dependent on political factions for aid and security, in a throwback to the militia days of the civil war.

Some analysts have warned that security forces, their wages fast losing value, would not be able to contain rising unrest.

Hospitals fighting a surge in COVID-19 cases are overstretched. Fuel shortages have left city streets dark. Cars line up at petrol stations for rationed fuel.

“We’re scared we won’t be able to go on,” said Siham Itani, a pharmacist who fears price hikes and being robbed. She said supplies of insulin and blood pressure medication had dwindled.

Another pharmacist said a masked man had held her up at gunpoint, asking for baby food.

Mostafa al-Mohalhal, who at 62 suffers from diabetes, stored four insulin vials in his fridge, but the daily power cuts spoiled them.

“If the price rises, how will I pay for them?” he said. “People will die in the streets.”

Hariri, a Sunni Muslim billionaire, had close ties with the West and Sunni Gulf Arab allies, and was seen as a threat to Iranian and Syrian influence in Lebanon. He led efforts to rebuild Beirut following the 1975-1990 civil war.

While the court found no evidence of direct involvement by the leadership of Hezbollah or the Syrian government, the judges said the killing was clearly a politically-motivated act of terrorism.

Delivering their verdict over several hours, they found main defendant Salim Jamil Ayyash guilty on all counts and said prosecutors had established his affiliation with Hezbollah.

“Mr. Ayyash had a central role in the execution of the attack and directly contributed to it,” said Presiding Judge David Re, reading from a 2,600-page ruling.

“Mr. Ayyash intended to kill Mr. Hariri and had the required knowledge about the circumstances of the assassination mission, including that explosives were the means to be used,” he said.

The judges said there was insufficient evidence against three other men charged as accomplices in the Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, also alleged members of the Shi’ite Muslim group, and they were acquitted.

Hariri’s son, Saad, like his slain father a former Lebanese prime minister, reacted to the verdict by vowing he would not rest until punishment is served. He said it was time for the Hezbollah movement to assume responsibility.

“Hezbollah is the one that should make sacrifices today,” he said. “I repeat: we will not rest until punishment is served.”

Hezbollah has denied any involvement in Hariri’s killing. Its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday he was not concerned with the trial and that if any members of the group were convicted, it would stand by their innocence.

Polarised Country

Hariri’s assassination plunged Lebanon into what was then its worst crisis since the war, setting the stage for years of confrontation between rival political forces.

It removed a powerful Sunni leader and allowed the further political expansion of Shi’ite power led by Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon.

All four defendants were tried in absentia. Ayyash was formally convicted of a terrorist attack and the homicide of Hariri and 21 others. He will be sentenced at later hearings and could face life in prison.

“I’m very disappointed, like many Lebanese,” said 36-year old Lebanese-born Ahmad Sayed, who drove out from Bielefeld in neighbouring Germany to witness the decision.

“Fifteen years we waited for this verdict and it was very weak. We don’t like this decision,” he said.

The verdict comes as Lebanon is still reeling from the aftermath of a huge explosion in Beirut that killed 178 people, and from a devastating economic meltdown. The Aug. 4 explosion at the port, where authorities say unsafely stored ammonium nitrate detonated, fuelled public outrage and led to the government’s resignation.

Political Motivation

The judges noted that days before he was slain, Hariri endorsed a call for Syria to end its then-occupation of Lebanon.

While the judges did not say who had planned the attack, they said it was “very likely” that the decision to kill him was only made after a Feb. 2, 2005, political meeting at which participants had agreed to call for the “immediate and total withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.”

The investigation and trial of the four alleged Hezbollah members has taken 15 years and cost roughly $1 billion.

Prosecutors used cell phone records to argue the men on trial — Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Assad Hassan Sabra and Hussein Hassan Oneissi — carefully monitored Hariri’s movements in the months leading up to the attack to time it and to put forward a fake claim of responsibility as a diversion.

DNA evidence showed that the blast that killed Hariri was carried out by a male suicide bomber who was never identified.

Beirut tour guide Nada Nammour, 54, speaking before the reading of the verdict began, said the 2005 bombing was a crime that should be punished. “Lebanon needs to see law and justice.”

Shadowy groups, which Lebanese security officials and Western intelligence say are linked to Hezbollah, launched suicide attacks on Western embassies and targets and kidnapped Westerners…

Four suspects belonging to Lebanon’s armed Shi’ite Hezbollah group have been tried in absentia by the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the 2005 murder of former Sunni Muslim prime minister Rafik al Hariri. The verdict is due on Friday.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and is a close ally of Syria, has denied any role in the 2005 bombing. Here is some background on the group:

Tribunal

• Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has accused the tribunal of serving a political agenda — to undermine Hezbollah — and has said it is a tool of its enemies in the United States and Israel.
• None of the four suspects named have been detained by Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah has said they will not be. The indictment said the suspects were linked to the attack largely by circumstantial evidence gleaned from phone records. Hezbollah said the accusations are fabricated.

History

• Founded in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and classified by the United States and other Western countries as a terrorist organisation, Hezbollah (Party of God) is the most powerful group in Lebanon due to a heavily armed militia that fought several wars with Israel. It grew stronger after joining the war in Syria in 2012 in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
• It is both a political movement and guerrilla army, drawing its support from among Lebanon’s Shi’ite population. The group and its allies helped form Lebanon’s current government.
• Hezbollah’s arsenal has been a major point of contention. The group says its arms are needed to deter Israel and, more recently, to guard against Islamist insurgents in Syria.
• Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US, Canada, Germany, Britain, Argentina and Honduras as well as the U.S.-allied, mainly Sunni Muslim Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. The EU classifies Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist group, but not its political wing.
• Shadowy groups, which Lebanese security officials and Western intelligence say are linked to Hezbollah, launched suicide attacks on Western embassies and targets and kidnapped Westerners in the 1980s. A suicide bombing destroyed the U.S. Marine headquarters and French military barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 US servicemen and 58 French paratroopers. One group, Islamic Jihad, was thought to be led by Imad Moughniyah, a senior Hezbollah military commander killed — possibly by Israel — in 2008 in Syria.
• Argentina blames Hezbollah and Iran for the deadly bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in which 85 people died in 1994 and for an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that killed 29 people. Both deny any responsibility.
• Bulgaria accuses Hezbollah of carrying out a bomb attack that killed five Israeli tourists in the Black Sea city of Burgas in 2012.

Government

• 2005: Hezbollah entered Lebanese politics more visibly after Hariri’s killing and Syrian troops left Lebanon. A coalition of anti-Syrian factions took power following an election which gave Hezbollah 14 seats in the 128-seat parliament.
• 2006: Hezbollah and its allies quit a government led by Western-backed prime minister Fouad Siniora over the governing coalition’s refusal to give the opposition effective veto power.
• 2008: Hezbollah clashed with domestic foes and briefly seized west Beirut in the worst civil strife since the 1975-1990 civil war, after the government vowed to take action against the group’s military communications network. After mediation, rival leaders signed a deal to end 18 months of political conflict.
• 2011: Syria’s civil war lead to years of political paralysis in Lebanon. In January, the first government of Saad al-Hariri, Rafik al-Hariri’s son, was toppled when Hezbollah and its allies quit over the U.N.-backed tribunal. Six months later, Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced a government dominated by Hezbollah and its allies.
• 2016: Saad al-Hariri, who spent years abroad due to security fears, struck a deal making Hezbollah ally Michel Aoun president, and him premier. Saad al-Hariri’s ties with backer Saudi Arabia, furious at Hezbollah’s expanding role, hit a nadir in 2017.
• 2018: Hezbollah and its allies won parliamentary majority.
• 2019: Protests broke out against a deep economic crisis. Hariri quit in October. Hezbollah and its allies backed Hassan Diab as premier. He formed a new government in January 2020.

Conflicts

• U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France and adopted in 2004, called for all Lebanese militias to be disbanded and disarmed. Hezbollah is the only militia to keep its arms since the civil war.
• 2012: Hezbollah fighters deployed in Syria to aid Syrian government forces facing a mostly Sunni rebellion against Assad. The group played a major role in beating back the rebellion.
• 2006: Hezbollah crossed the border into Israel, kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed others, sparking a five-week war that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
• Hezbollah waged a prolonged military campaign against Israeli forces which occupied south Lebanon until their withdrawal in 2000.

According to the local reports, the explosion on Tuesday was in the port area of Beirut containing warehouses. The authorities fear many casualties.

A UN tribunal is due to issue its verdict on Friday in the trial of four suspects in the murder by car bomb of Hariri. All the four suspects are members of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, which has consistently denied any role in Hariri’s death.

There are unconfirmed reports of a second blast, which is reported to be at the Hariri’s residence.

Lebanon’s health minister has spoken of many injuries and extensive damage, while the cause of the explosions is not yet clear.