Crisis in the Middle East: Private Concerns

When Israel invaded Lebanon few days ago, I was away on a business trip to Morocco fortunately. I am very grateful to those who tried to contact me out of concern for my safety.

During the start of the crisis, most of my expats co-workers were either travelling or on vacation with their families. It has been decided to temporary set up our office at our distributor office in Morocco. For the time being, I am going to be based between Morocco and Algeria.

At present, there are few personal concerns over the situation in Lebanon

The first concern is to the colleagues who are still in Beirut. As the telephone lines and internet are down and the office closed, we have no knowledge of their well-being. At this stage, I think Beirut is still pretty safe but it is very difficult to speculate what will happen next. If the situation worsen, they will be endangered.

The second concern pertains to the relocation of our office. Even if the crisis ends in a few months time, it will be in the best business and employees' interest to relocate to another country. The question is when and where?

The third concern is whether I can ever get back to my apartment in Beirutto retrieve my personal belongings. If I do return in a few month's time after the end of the crisis, I wonder if my landlord will give me a war time discount and not charge me months of unpaid rent? The content in my fridge must be spoilt by then and it will be difficult to clean up.
As each day passes, we follow the news closely to grasp the situation in Lebanon and hope that the situation doesn't worsen.