The French ambassador in Lebanon

A Western reader sent me this from Lebanon (he/she does not want to be identified): "right wing only begins to scratch the surface. YOU DIDN'T HEAR THIS FROM ME but apparently the word at soirees hosted by the embassy is that Ras en-Nebaa is to be an "Achrafieh II"; the shari3 ish-sham was a "gift" from France that they want to "take back"; France is going to "revitalize" the neighborhood. So far this means knocking down every other building in the mantaqa....I swear real estate criminals have destroyed more of Beirut than both the 2006 war and the Civil War combined."