Hands off!

Yet another extension for companies to submit bids in Lebanon’s first offshore oil and gas licensing round was announced in mid-August by Minister of Energy and Water Arthur Nazarian, indefinitely extending the deadline to no more than six months after the two needed decrees are adopted. But oddly enough, the youth wings of Lebanon’s political parties — the future politicians and party leaders themselves — agree that the current batch of politicians is obstructing the licensing round with their meddling. Today’s politicians, youth leaders suggest, are keen on securing a piece of a future gas revenue pie rather than focusing on how the potential resource would benefit the country and its citizens. Related issues on the Lebanese political scene are also implicitly holding up the process — the country is without a president while the parliament looks set to again extend its own mandate. [pullquote]Lebanon’s youth political leaders are doing