Canines play critical role in police operations

ROUMIEH, Lebanon: Officer Boston searched energetically under the white car, scaling the tiny crevices where drugs or explosives are often hidden. He circled to the back of the car and stuck his face high under the rear bumper. Here, after finding the explosives, Boston sat down, looked over to his partner, and began panting. Boston, a Belgian shepherd in the ISF’s K9, had successfully completed a drill.

“He smells it then he sits in front of it. That’s when the trainer knows that the last place the dog’s nose was is the location of the explosive,” said Captain Eddy al-Ghrayeb, head of the ISF’s K9 Bureau. “After that, the explosives expert intervenes.”

The ISF’s K9 division serves as a backup unit when the primary police force is searching for drugs, explosives or missing people.

Three breeds comprise the majority of the division: Labradors, German Shepherds, and Belgian Shepherds that are imported from breeders in France.

According to Ghrayeb, American and Chinese law enforcement agencies also import their police dogs from France.

Ghrayeb, who joined the ISF in 2004 and the K9 unit in 2005, travels to France once a year where he picks up a handful of dogs to return and train for the Lebanese police.

A French trainer chooses around 100 dogs from a pool of 200. From there, Ghrayeb spends about a half an hour with each dog and whittles down the pool until he’s found around 10 to 15 dogs that he brings back to Lebanon.

“I do both psychological and work tests, which means I make the dog work and test his personality,” Ghrayeb said, sitting in his office at Roumieh prison, north of Beirut. “I know that the dog and his trainer will be in stressful situations.”

The ideal dog is young – older than eight months but younger than two years.

Like people, each dog has its own personality, strengths and weaknesses, Ghrayeb said. Some are hard workers while others might not be as driven.

The ISF trainer’s job is to find a position that best fits the dog’s strengths and personality.

“Labradors and German Shepherds are very good dogs, but they have trouble enduring the high temperature. In Lebanon, during summer the temperature reaches sometimes 40?C and because we work under the sun ... we can’t tell the dog to wait until the sun sets and the temperature goes down. We have to work in this tough condition. So we have found that the [dog] breed that doesn’t get very bothered is the Malinois [Belgian Shepherd].”

Labradors, however, are the dog of choice for operations or demonstrations at schools because they are less intimidating.

The personality of each individual dog also comes into play.

Some dogs are better suited for the airport, where they sniff out drugs, while others monitor cars and other areas for explosives.

Some perform tracking duty – chasing the scent of criminals on the run. There is also the new search-and-rescue program, where dogs search for missing people – an example being seeking out people hidden under wreckage following an explosion.

“Either he has it from birth or he doesn’t,” Ghrayeb said.

The dogs reside in Roumieh and are paired up with police officers. When the dogs hit 9 years old they are at retirement age and often live out the rest of their lives as civilian dogs at their partner’s family home, Ghrayeb said.

In fact, the ISF officer said the bond between the dog and partner grows to quite deep levels. “You know, the dog builds a relationship with his trainer and they become a team.”

“The dog gets affected by his owner’s feelings through facial expressions and heartbeats. The dog knows if his trainer’s blood pressure is high or low. So, if the handler is under stress the dog will be under stress. That’s why we want dogs that can bear the stress and perform at a certain level.”

The training takes four to five months in all before a team is formed. “We also choose elite dogs that are not afraid of gunfire and have a good ability to attack criminals,” Ghrayeb said.

The captain also squashed rumors that drug dogs may get a taste or even overdose on products during their careers.

“It’s a myth that dogs that look for drugs actually consume them,” Ghrayeb said.

“[Think of it this way], do dogs who look for explosives consume them? We let the dog smell but the material does not reach the dog’s nose. The drug’s powder stays 30 to 40 centimeters away from the dog’s face, and the dog only smells the particles of the drugs from the air and doesn’t consume the powder itself.

“We prevent our dogs from touching this substance, because it’s poisonous and it kills the dogs.”

To date, Ghrayeb said no dogs have been martyred in the line of duty. “We care about protecting the dogs and their health ... It never happened that a dog died on a mission or during work, not even from explosions.”

After Officer Boston discovered the explosives, his partner tossed him a toy and ran over to praise him.

The dog broke his sitting pose and jumped around happily, wagging his tail excitedly and gnawing on the toy. Just another day on the job for Officer Boston.

Siniora: Future-Hezbollah dialogue will be held very soon

BEIRUT: A first round of talks between the Future Movement and Hezbollah will be held “very soon,” former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Friday, a move that is likely to ease sectarian tensions fueled by the raging war in Syria.

“Matters concerning the Future-Hezbollah dialogue are on the right track,” Siniora told The Daily Star. “A first round of this dialogue will be held very soon.”

He said the planned Future-Hezbollah talks are primarily aimed at defusing sectarian tensions and facilitating the election of a president.

Strained ties between the two powerful rival factions, exacerbated by Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria, have at times put the country on edge.

Siniora spoke after he and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk returned Friday from Saudi Arabia, where they held talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri ahead of the upcoming talks with Hezbollah.

In addition to Siniora and Machnouk, a Future delegation that met with Hariri at his residence in Riyadh also included former MPs Ghattas Khoury and Bassem Sabeh and Nader Hariri, chief of Hariri’s staff.

The talks focused on the proposed dialogue with Hezbollah and how to end the stalemate that has left Lebanon without a president for more than six months.

Future MP Ammar Houri said the atmosphere was “positive” for talks with Hezbollah. “Efforts are underway to agree on an agenda for the dialogue,” he told The Daily Star.

The Central News Agency quoted political sources close to the Future Movement and Hezbollah as saying the first round of talks would be held between Nader Hariri and Hussein Khalil, a political aide to Hezbollah head Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, under the sponsorship of Speaker Nabih Berri at Ain al-Tineh on Dec. 29.

Future MP Mohammad Hajjar said the proposed talks with Hezbollah were designed to protect Lebanon from the reverberations of the war in Syrian, now in its fourth year.

“We are ready for a dialogue aimed at protecting the country by discussing several items, including how to spare Lebanon the repercussions of what is happening in the region, with Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syria war, and working to end the paralysis in the state institutions in the absence of a president,” he told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.

The Future delegation’s visit came a day after Hariri held talks at his residence in Riyadh with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, who returned to Beirut Thursday night, ending a weeklong official visit to Saudi Arabia.Hariri and Geagea stressed the need to expedite the presidential vote, defuse political tensions and preserve stability and security in Lebanon.

Geagea, on his second visit to Riyadh this year, held talks with senior Saudi officials dominated by the presidential election deadlock.

“Geagea discussed with senior Saudi officials how to end the presidential vacuum,” sources close to the LF told The Daily Star. The sources said if any regional consultations, mainly between Saudi Arabia and Iran via France, were held over the Lebanese presidential crisis, this would be done in “full coordination with Geagea and [former] Prime Minister Saad Hariri.”

“The discussions in Saudi Arabia focused on Geagea’s initiative in June to break the presidential deadlock,” the sources said, referring to the LF leader’s proposal to either withdraw from the presidency race, contest the election with MP Michel Aoun, or to search for a neutral candidate who does not belong to either the March 8 or March 14 camp.

Geagea is the March 14-backed presidential candidate, while Aoun is supported by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies for the top Christian post.

The Saudi officials did not bring up names of any presidential candidates during their meetings with Geagea, the sources said.

They added that the talks in Riyadh also touched on the war in Syria. “The two sides stressed that there can be no solution to the conflict in Syria while Bashar Assad stayed in power. The solution begins with Bashar Assad stepping down,” the sources said. On attempts to bring Geagea and his arch political foe, Aoun, together, the sources said: “Efforts are still ongoing to make a meeting between the two leaders productive.”

Geagea also discussed with Saudi officials protecting Lebanese interests, including the possibility of exporting apples to the kingdom, the sources said.

Meanwhile, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani is scheduled to visit Lebanon in the coming days as part of a regional tour that will also take him to Syria and Iraq for talks centering on the ISIS threat.

In Beirut, Larijani will hold talks with Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Nasrallah. The main objective of Larijani’s trip is to discuss with officials in the three countries the threat posed by ISIS.

“I think that the trip will be focused on the ending the crisis posed by Daesh in the region,” Hossein Sheikholeslam, a foreign policy adviser to Larijani, told The Daily Star by phone, using the Arabic acronym of ISIS.

“It’s going to be about supporting the will of the people to implement what they want. And mainly about the resolution of the crisis by peaceful means of cooperation and also about supporting the resistance,” he said.

Asked whether Larijani would also discuss the presidential deadlock with Lebanese officials, he said: “Lebanon is the least problematic matter in the region. The much bigger problem is in Daesh and the much bigger problem is in Palestine and the way the Israelis are treating the Palestinian issue.”

Larijani’s visit comes amid a flurry of stepped up political activity by French, Russian and European Union officials who visited Lebanon last week in an attempt to push rival Lebanese leaders to resolve the presidential crisis. – Additional reporting by Kristin Dailey

Berri assures families swap deal approved in principle

BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri Friday assured a delegation of the families of captive servicemen that the principle of a swap deal to win their release was approved by authorities, noting that he had received positive information regarding efforts to end their plight.

“Be assured that all Lebanese, regardless of their religion, sect, faction or region, consider the cause of the captive servicemen as their own,” Berri told families who visited him at his Ain al-Tineh residence.

The speaker said that the government had approved the principle of a swap deal, adding that he was coordinating on resolving the issue with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt.

Berri said he had received information that “matters were improving” toward ending the soldiers’ four-month-long ordeal.

The speaker reiterated his stance calling for complete discretion on the progress of negotiations leading to the aspired outcome.

ISIS and Nusra Front militants have been holding 25 troops and policemen captive on the outskirts of Arsal since overrunning the northeast border town in early August. They seek to trade them with Islamist detainees held in Lebanese and Syrian prisons.

Meanwhile, Jumblatt said on Twitter he would not drop mediation efforts under any circumstances.

His comments came after ISIS said in a recent video that the PSP leader, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea were responsible for the lives of the captives.

A French-speaking ISIS fighter in a video originally handed to Tripoli Sheikh Wissam Masri before being uploaded online said, “To France’s allies: Hariri, Geagea and Jumblatt. Listen to me carefully. You certainly are criminals, and today you added a new crime to your crimes through your cooperation with [Hezbollah] and by turning the Lebanese Army into a puppet in [Hezbollah’s] hands, targeting the Sunni people through them.”

“ISIS is in a state of war with Hezbollah, which meddles in [Syrian] Muslim affairs and which has killed our women and children,” warned the militant, who was flanked by captors holding knives to the necks of three of the Lebanese captives on their knees and wearing blue jumpsuits.

“Therefore you are solely responsible for the future of your fellow citizens [captives], their fate – the decision between life or death – is in your hands,” ISIS threatened.

Jumblatt expressed puzzlement regarding the ISIS remarks, saying, “We have nothing to do with what others do or say.”

He added that Health Minister Wael Abu Faour would proceed independently with efforts to implement a swap deal, and voiced hope that ISIS would appreciate his stance.

Masri, who claims he has been appointed as a mediator by militants holding the Lebanese servicemen, said Thursday that he checked on the captives held on the outskirts of the northeastern border village of Arsal.

News emerged that Masri was appointed by Nusra shortly after both the government and Islamist militants turned down an offer by the Muslim Scholars Committee to mediate the release of the captives.

Hussein Youssef, the spokesperson of the families of the captives, told the Central News Agency that the families were trying to meet Prime Minister Tammam Salam in the coming hours to convince him to formally commission Masri with negotiating the release of their loved ones.

Youssef said Masri informed the families Thursday evening that he had a “good and not complicated” initiative to resolve the case, but that he would not reveal its details and would only launch it once he was tasked by the government to do so.

“Once he’s commissioned, the captors will release three or four servicemen as a goodwill gesture,” Youssef added.

Police arrest Baath Party cell sending abducted rebels to Assad

MAJDAL ANJAR, Lebanon: Lebanese authorities have arrested a Baath Party cell allegedly involved in handing over Syrian rebel fighters to Bashar Assad’s regime after kidnapping them in Lebanon, security sources said Friday.

The sources told The Daily Star that the all-Lebanese, seven-member cell was arrested in Kfar Qouq, in the southeastern district of Hasbaya, earlier this week.

Another security source told The Daily Star the Internal Security Forces Information Branch has so far arrested nine suspects over the case, including several members of the Hezbollah-linked Resistance Brigades.

Police raided the house of Majed Mansour, a Baath Party official in the Bekaa Valley village of Gaza, but he had escaped, the source said.

But the raid resulted in the arrest of his brother, who was also suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of Syrian Mohammad Naamani one week ago.

Another abductee was identified as Syrian Fayez Abdallah, and was kidnapped one month ago. The source said the two hostages were transferred to Syria either through a tunnel in Qusaya in the Bekaa Valley, or through a Syrian army controlled crossing in the village of Yanta in Rashaya al-Wadi.

The sources said one group member, identified as Haitham Hamad, was wounded during the raid, then taken to a local hospital and kept under strict watch by the police.

The cell has been in close contact with Ali Deeb, who was an official of the intelligence branch of Syria’s Baath Party during the era of Syrian tutelage over Lebanon between 1990 and 2005, a security source said.

Local leaders from the Bekaa Valley met Friday at Dar al-Fatwa in Majdal Anjar to condemn the reported abductions and laud police efforts.

The Mufti of Bekaa and Zahle Sheikh Khalil al-Mais accused the Resistance Brigades of standing behind the “condemned kidnappings,” and underlined that “such acts harm the prestige of the state and its security agencies.”

For their part, pro-Syrian regime officials held a meeting in the Bekaa town of Khiara to denounce the arrests. The meeting included members of the Baath party and other pro-Syrian regime Lebanese parties.

They accused the police of acting “like a gang,” warning it against repeating such actions.

The wife of rebel fighter Mohammad Naamani, Wafaa al-Akle, told The Daily Star that her husband was kidnapped after being chased by two cars last week.

She claimed that her two children, aged 3 and 13, were also abducted for three hours before being left in a field.

She said she had not yet received any calls from the kidnappers to inform her about the location of her husband, who she said arrived to Lebanon almost two years ago for medical treatment after he was wounded in fighting.

She said Naamani joined the Free Syrian Army as soon as the conflict erupted in neighboring Syria nearly four years ago, adding that he had spent seven years in a Syrian prison.

Akle also said her husband was wanted in Lebanon after being sentenced to one year and three months behind bars for using a fake Lebanese ID to enter the country.

U.K.-Lebanon: A growing partnership

The history of Lebanon is one of a country at the crossroads of civilizations, religions, customs and economies. And the same is true today as the country faces yet another chapter of challenges and opportunities. And as I confirmed throughout my visit, Britain stands ready to assist.

It has been humbling to see the magnitude of the threats Lebanon faces from terrorism. I hope the mothers of Lebanon’s captive sons and daughters – of all faiths – will be able to spend Christmas with their children. Like Lebanon, the U.K. also knows too well that terrorism is a global problem. The sad events in Sydney this week have reminded us of that. The U.K. is a target too, and we are proud to stand beside the Lebanese state as it faces down the threat of terror and chaos.

I am pleased that Britain is working with key Lebanese voices to discredit the violent ideology of groups like ISIS and promote instead security, justice and opportunity for all. And as I saw firsthand, we are working ever closer to support the Lebanese Armed Forces to improve their border surveillance, to counter the threat of incursions from ISIS, the Nusra Front and other armed groups.

The Syrian refugee crisis is affecting the entire region and the international community owes Lebanon a huge debt of gratitude for the enormous burden it has undertaken in providing over 1.2 million Syrians safety and security from the civil war. I am pleased Britain has already gifted Lebanon $273 million for humanitarian, development and state-building aid. I’ve highlighted how we are the largest donor to the World Bank Trust Fund.

But it is easy to get caught up in today’s problems, and to forget that the U.K.’s partnership with Lebanon is not simply about humanitarian and security challenges, but also about bilateral trade and economic prosperity.

We are both great trading nations. In 2015 we expect U.K.-Lebanon trade to have doubled since 2011. Both our economies will benefit from the U.K.-Lebanon Tech Hub, to be launched next year, which will establish Lebanon as a regional technology hub and boost both British and Lebanese companies. With Lebanese entrepreneurialism and British innovation, there is huge potential for further growth.

I also want to see the U.K. sharing its enormous expertise in hydrocarbons, to benefit both our countries. The British company Spectrum has been contracted to survey Lebanon’s on- and offshore gas reserves. Spectrum is one of over 3,000 companies involved in the U.K. oil and gas supply chain: these companies can help Lebanon build the infrastructure it will need to extract, deliver and sell its gas reserves. This year we sent our first Lebanese Chevening Energy scholar to study oil and gas law in Aberdeen, Europe’s oil and gas capital. And here in Lebanon we are helping to develop transparent mechanisms to manage the revenues: these precious reserves must promote peace, not prolong conflict.

In education, we are also strengthening our relationships. Indeed, from the home of the alphabet to the country of Shakespeare, we are natural partners in education. The British Embassy team are working with the Ministry of Education to supply textbooks to every student in Lebanese public schools, and have just finalized a new three-year package of support to help expand the public school system to accommodate over 100,000 Syrian children whilst also improving its quality. The British Council has trained 549 head teachers and 3,014 teachers in schools throughout the country, delivering the English language to a global nation. Sixty-five schools in the U.K. have paired up with Lebanese counterparts under the Connecting Classrooms initiative. And some of Lebanon’s top talent study in the U.K. through the prestigious Chevening scholarship scheme: Its graduates this week told me that studying in the U.K. has sharpened their aspirations for a future Lebanon.

There is no doubt our two countries already enjoy a strong and prosperous relationship and my visit confirms there is much potential and that more can be achieved together. Lebanon is in a tough neighborhood but in so many ways it is an example of inclusivity, diversity and prosperity to other countries in the region.

Tobias Ellwood is the U.K.’s Foreign Office minister for the Middle East.

With rise of ISIS, Brital more welcoming of Hezbollah

BRITAL, Lebanon: The paved road, once a smuggling route, leads through Hezbollah and Lebanese Army checkpoints to a majestic view of the Qalamoun mountains, perched across the deep valley. Behind the closest peaks is a road that once led from Syria’s Zabadani to the embattled Lebanese border town of Arsal, now severed as a result of Hezbollah and the Syrian army’s takeover of the villages on the Syrian side of the border, from Rankous to Asal al-Ward, and the emptying of the Lebanese border enclave of Tfeil.

At first glance, it is evident why the party placed so much emphasis on controlling the border villages, which its second-in-command, Sheikh Naim Qassem, declared earlier this year were firmly in its control, despite suffering the occasional attack from Syrian rebels camped out in the rugged terrain.

The party is believed to maintain numerous ambush points and hidden outposts throughout the mountain range nearby, and residents say they sometimes see unmanned drones flying overhead.

But Hezbollah was not always so firmly entrenched in this majority-Shiite border village, which in October repelled a surprise attack by Nusra Front militants on a party observation point on its mountainous outskirts.

Predominantly Shiite Brital, once home to a thriving weapons trade, and whose residents once even sold arms and trained some rebel fighters aiming to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s regime, has gone from seeing the Syrian revolution as an extension of the Arab Spring that it could profit from to existential fear at the rise of extremist groups like ISIS along the border.

“We now have a choice between the bad and the worse,” said one former arms smuggler from the village.

Brital has long been fiercely independent, and residents said the village was split between supporters of Hezbollah and others who would have preferred not to see its influence on the rise at the start of the Syrian uprising.

Some say the party has a nonexistent social program in their region of the Bekaa Valley, and has been unable to develop the area or to bring jobs and good quality health care and education.

Socially, the party was a “failure,” the former smuggler said. “They cannot be a state,” he added.

But the rise of ISIS and the Nusra Front transformed the dynamic, convincing many that Hezbollah was prescient in identifying the militant threat.

“Hezbollah intervened and said they would defend the Sayyida Zeinab [shrine] and the others emerged to erase us and cut out our hearts,” said the former smuggler. “We are not in the party but now we would fight on its behalf.”

Hezbollah vehemently argues that its intervention in Syria and the driving away of jihadis from border villages nipped in the bud a potential influx of extremist rebels across the border into Lebanon, going so far as to claim that if it were not for the intervention, militants would have had checkpoints in Jounieh, Beirut and Sidon by now.

But critics of the party say its intervention invited attacks and spillover from the Syrian war into fragile Lebanon. A series of suicide bombings and attacks, both against areas associated with the party and the Lebanese Army, happened after Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria. Most were claimed by radical Syrian rebels.

But many in Shiite border villages see the party’s actions as protecting them from cross-border attacks, rather than a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Is there an FSA anymore?” the former smuggler asked rhetorically, referring to the umbrella group of moderate Syrian opposition fighters. “I used to oppose Hezbollah’s policies but then I saw that [Sayyed Hasan] Nasrallah had a vision 10 years ahead of its time.”

Their fears of cross-border fallout were realized with the invasion and brief occupation of Arsal, a half hour drive away from Brital, by militants pledging loyalty to ISIS and the Nusra Front back in August and the ensuing hostage crisis involving Lebanese servicemen.

A man who gave access to his land to Hezbollah said the fall of border villages would have easily given access to the militants through the Western mountain range to the towns on the Mediterranean.

That was why when news arrived on the attack on the outskirts of Brital, hundreds or thousands of residents rushed in their pickups and cars to the outskirts and helped hold off the assault, some firing mortars and small arms at the militants’ position until they withdrew.

Locals said the weapons trade stopped with the emergence of extremist militant groups, and the old smuggling routes were closed off by the townsfolk.

After a spate of car bombings against majority-Shiite areas in Lebanon, some of which were reportedly conducted using stolen cars smuggled through Brital, Hezbollah’s presence in the area increased.

Residents say this is the first time the border is so thoroughly sealed. It is a far cry from what one resident said was the norm earlier in the uprising, when rebels would go into town to buy food and supplies to use in their fight, back before Hezbollah entered the fray.

“Even those who used to sell weapons and diesel to the FSA stopped doing so,” the former smuggler who was involved in the arms trade said, adding that residents provided all kinds of small arms and artillery.

When asked why residents aided the rebels, the ex-smuggler said: “It was the Arab Spring.”

He said the village had sold weapons to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood back during a short-lived uprising in Hama against then-President Hafez Assad in 1982. But it was also a lucrative trade for a region that feels abandoned by the state.

Back before the emergence of extremist rebels, Hezbollah had little recourse to impose its will on the clannish and fiercely independent region. There were some areas where residents said portraits of Nasrallah and Hezbollah were not allowed, and roads where its vehicles were not permitted to go through.

The lack of development in the area around Baalbek prompted many local farmers to plant marijuana openly for hash export abroad, driving prices down as the supply skyrocketed.

But now, residents say the majority supports Hezbollah’s actions and many villagers of Brital have allowed the party to use their land to protect the village.

“I give them my land and tractors,” said the man who allowed the party access to use his land.

“We closed [the road into Brital] after Qusair,” he added, referring to a Syrian town invaded by Hezbollah in June 2013. “[Rebels] used to come and buy food, but how can we keep it open if the village’s people are getting killed?”

Book sales turn new page at Arab international fair

BEIRUT: Contrary to a commonly held belief, the popularity of printed books is on the rise in Lebanon, as evidenced by the turnover of this year’s Beirut International Arab Book Fair, according to several publishing houses who took part in the exhibition.

“People were coming to read. I felt this year that there was a young generation present [among the book fair visitors], more than usual,” said Rana Idriss, the director of Beirut-based publishing house Dar al-Adab, which took part in the book fair.

Idriss said the turnover at this year’s edition of BIABF was far from disappointing, with the level of sales almost the same as last year. “This is not bad. We are always concerned that sales will drop,” she said.

Idriss said new novels and children’s books were most in demand.

Bestsellers at Dar al-Adab included books by novelists Hanan al-Shaykh, Wassim al-Aaraj and Bassima al-Khatib.

Idriss noted that wholesalers from countries that Lebanese publishing houses could no longer reach because of instability, such as Libya and Iraq, have also bought books from the BIABF this year.

Organized by the Arab Cultural Club and the Union of Publishers in Lebanon, the 58th edition of the BIABF took place between Nov. 28 and Dec. 11.

Ghassan Chebaro, from the Arab Scientific Publishers, said that business this year was even more fruitful than the previous edition of BIABF.

“This year was better than the last one in terms of sales,” Chebaro said. “Last year was very bad.”

Commenting on large crowds drawn to BIABF this year, Chebaro said that not all those who showed up were actually interested in reading. “Many people come to the book fair just to attend a book signing event ... but still some people wait for the book fair from year to year to buy books at cheaper prices,” he said.

For the last five years, all of ASP’s books have been available for download on e-readers such as Kindles.

But Chebaro said that demand for paper books was much higher during this year’s edition of BIABF: “Many people began demanding e-books when they were first introduced. But now, demand has dropped and this is not only the case in the Arab world.”

The BIABF issued the final statistics on the sales: In the category of general works, topping sales was an English-Arabic dictionary by Munir and Ramzi Baalbaki; for political books, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah’s “Hezbollah and the State” was the bestseller; in social sciences, Saoud El-Mawla’s “Shiite Politics” was No. 1; while in poetry, Ahlam Mustaghanmi’s collection “Alayka al-Lahfa” topped the lists.

Nirmin al-Khansa’s “Another Person” was the most popular novel, while “Qahwajiyat,” a book of humorous literature, was the most sold in the category of literature. In history and geography, “Arab and the Civilized Challenges,” by Ahmad Bu Melhem was the bestseller, and in sciences it was Ziad Kreidieh’s “Our Digestive System.”

Talal Shatawi’s “You Are Still in my Thoughts,” topped sales in the category of biographies and translated works, while “Ma’akul al-Hana” by Chef Antoine Hajj was the best-performing art book.

Saqi Books’ Manal Chamoun described this year’s sales as “much better” than last year.

“The turnover was better and we had important book signing events,” she said. “There was high demand for political books and novels this year.”

“The Islamic State: Roots, Savagery: Future,” by Palestinian journalist Abdel-Bari Atwan and a translated version of “Jamila” by Russian novelist Chingiz Aytmatov were among the titles by Saqi Books that sold the most this year.

Echoing Chamoun, Mahmoud, from Egyptian publishing house Dar al-Shurouq, said that business in the latest edition of BIABF turned out to be better than last year.

“It was not bad, there were a lot of shoppers,” he said.

He explained that novels, poetry books and politics books were demanded the most this year.

“Many people bought books by [Egyptian journalist Mohammad Hassanein] Haykal and [novelist] Alaa al-Aswany,” he explained.

But Nasser Fleiti, from Riad El-Rayyes Books, had something different to say.

He noted that the turnover in the previous edition of BIABF was better than this year.

“Last year was better in terms of sales and the number of participating Arab publishing houses,” Fleiti said.

According to Fleiti, Lebanese and Arabs in general were becoming more and more interested “in hearing and seeing rather than reading.”

Other reasons for the drop in sales were the deteriorating economic and security situations, according to Fleiti.

He said that topping sales at Riad El-Rayyes Books this year were poetry books, novels and political titles.