Lebanon

In an exclusive interview with Arab News on Wednesday, the head of Lebanon’s Maronite church, Bechara Al-Rai, called for all of the many political factions in the country — which has just marked its centenary — to support his call to adopt ‘active neutrality,’ describing it as “part of the …

Hezbollah and the Amal Movement attempted on Thursday to see off a French initiative to form a Lebanese government of non-political technocrats not associated with the parties in power and which rotates the ministries among the country’s sects. The Hezbollah parliamentary bloc held “the extremely negative American role” responsible for …

Under pressure of the United States, Serbia announced last week it will designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. This unexpected decision came after Serbia and Kosovo, under the US President Donald Trump’s auspices, signed a controversial ‘historic deal‘ on economic normalization in Washington. By Nikola Mikovic On …

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, is experiencing a financial crisis that could force it to halt some services to an already impoverished population of more than 5 million people, the head of the agency said on Wednesday. Philippe Lazzarini also warned in an interview with The Associated …

Leading Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt said on Wednesday it seemed some people did not understand that French-led efforts to lift Lebanon out of crisis were the last chance to save the country. Lebanon is in the throes of a crippling economic and financial meltdown that marks the biggest threat to …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday warned France that its efforts to resolve the crisis in Lebanon would be in vain without immediately tackling the issue of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s weaponry. President Emmanuel Macron has spearheaded international efforts to set Lebanon on a new course after decades of corrupt …

A fire has broken out in a downtown Beirut building near the city’s port where an explosion last month killed nearly 200 people, wounded thousands and left the city’s residents traumatised. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire in one of the city’s best-known buildings that was the …

Three Lebanese army soldiers were killed when they came under fire while raiding the home of a wanted militant in northern Lebanon, the army said in a statement overnight. The patrol from Lebanese army intelligence was attacked with gunfire and a hand grenade when it raided the house near the …

Another act of shame by embattled Lebanese president Michel Aoun, this time for stealing a large quantity of tea meant for the poor and needed. Aoun is in hot water after it was revealed that tea donated by Sri Lanka for victims of the Beirut blast was distributed to families …

Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker said his group opposed the way the prime minister-designate was forming a new cabinet and that it would not join on those terms, but that he would still cooperate to stabilise the nation in crisis, his office said. The office of Nabih Berri, head of the Muslim …

Lebanese firefighters and army helicopters on Friday put out the remains of a huge fire at Beirut’s port that had flared up a day earlier, barely a month after a massive blast devastated the port and surrounding area. Thursday’s fire, which officials said was sparked by welding during repair work …

A large fire erupted at Beirut port on Thursday, sending a huge column of smoke over the Lebanese capital weeks after a massive blast devastated the port and surrounding residential area. The blaze began in the shattered duty free zone of the port, prompting some residents to flee the city …

An independent international investigation is the only way to bring to justice those who were directly or indirectly responsible for the massive blast at the port of Beirut on August 4, former Lebanese minister of state for administrative development May Chidiac said in an interview. “If the Lebanese are calling …

The U.S.Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned former Lebanese government ministers Yusuf Finyanus and Ali Hassan Khalil, who provided material support to Hezbollah and engaged in corruption. These designations underscore how some Lebanese politicians have conspired with Hezbollah at the expense of the Lebanese people …

Italy’s prime minister said it was time for Lebanon to rebuild trust between the people and its institutions, joining France’s call for change in a nation devastated by a year-long economic crisis and last month’s massive explosion at Beirut port. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was visiting Beirut a week after …

Lebanon’s top Christian cleric said on Sunday a new government must deliver urgent economic and other reforms in the national interest, rather than returning to past corrupt ways that have plunged the Middle Eastern nation into an economic crisis. Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, leader of the Maronite church, has an …

Rescue workers said Saturday there was no longer any sign of life in a collapsed Beirut building, dashing hopes raised by sensor readings showing a pulse beneath the rubble from last month’s blast. The cataclysmic August 4 explosion in the port of Beirut killed at least 191 people, making it …

The World Bank on Friday said it had canceled $244 million in undisbursed funds for the Bisri Dam project in Lebanon after repeatedly raising concerns about the project since January. In a statement, the World Bank said it had notified the Lebanese government about its decision, which takes effect immediately. …

Lebanon’s army said on Thursday it had found 4.35 tonnes of ammonium nitrate near the entrance to Beirut port, the site of a huge blast last month caused by a large stockpile of the same highly explosive chemical. Army engineers were “dealing with it,” according to an army statement carried …

France’s intelligence chief has joined efforts to push Lebanon to deliver a new government and reforms, Lebanese sources said on Thursday, buttressing President Emmanuel Macron’s bid to pull the country out of a devastating economic crisis. Macron is center stage in international efforts to press fractious Lebanese politicians to address …

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday Lebanese political leaders had agreed to form a government of experts in the next two weeks and that he expected the government to start delivering on a roadmap of reforms within six to eight weeks. “There is no blank cheque,” Macron told a …

Gunfire broke out on Tuesday in a town south of Beirut, where clashes last week killed two people and raised the risk of sectarian strife in Lebanon, the state news agency NNA said. NNA said an army patrol had deployed to the Khaldeh area to calm the situation, but gave …

Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib called for the formation of a new government in record time and the immediate implementation of reforms as an entry point for an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. “The opportunity for our country is small,” Adib said after he was formally designated by President …

French President Emmanuel Macron began his trip to Beirut on Monday by visiting Fairouz, one of the Arab world’s most famous singers whose haunting voice has been Lebanon’s soundtrack from its glamorous heyday through its conflicts and latest trauma. Anger at Lebanon’s political elite over an economic meltdown and this …

Lawmakers in the Iran-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah nominated Mustapha Adib as the next prime minister on Monday, the head of its parliamentary bloc said after a meeting with President Michel Aoun. The bloc “informed President Aoun of its agreement to the nomination of Mustapha Adib and we expressed our …

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday it was only a matter of time before the group killed an Israeli soldier to avenge the death of one its fighters in Syria and that it would not be drawn into clashes on the Lebanon-Israel frontier. Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah …

Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany Mustapha Adib is set to be designated prime minister on Monday ahead of a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron who will press for long-delayed reforms to steer the country out of a major crisis. Former prime minister Najib Mikati was the first MP to formally …

Almost 3 of 5 Arab News readers are cool to the proposition that Lebanon sign a peace agreement with Israel, who continue to be technically at war for decades now and with sporadic clashes erupting in border areas between the two countries. About 57 percent of respondents of a Twitter …

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday the powerful Shi’ite movement was open to discussing a new political order in Lebanon if all factions agree to it, as foreign donors press for deep reforms to tackle the country’s multiple crises. The presidency has called for parliamentary consultations on Monday …

The seizure of thousands of rounds of ammunition being smuggled across the Syrian border has exposed Lebanon’s soaring trade in personal weapons. A Lebanese border patrol intercepted two men on a known smuggling route on the outskirts of Yanta, about 80 km east of Beirut. One of the men hurled …

The death toll from this month’s Beirut port blast has risen to 190 with more than 6,500 injured and three people missing, Lebanon’s caretaker government said in a report dated Sunday. Lebanese authorities are probing what caused highly explosive material stored unsafely for years to detonate in a mushroom cloud, …

Lebanese banks that cannot increase their capital by 20% by the end of February 2021 will have to get out of the market, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh told Reuters on Thursday. Those leaving would do so by giving their shares to the central bank, Salameh added. He said he …

Two people were killed and at least three wounded in clashes in a town south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Thursday evening, the state news agency and a security source said, as several political parties urged calm. The Lebanese army said on its Twitter account that it had deployed …

France’s foreign minister said on Thursday that Lebanon risked disappearing due to the inaction of its political elite who needed to quickly implement a new government to implement crucial reforms for the country. “The international community will not sign a blank cheque if the they (Lebanese authorities) don’t put in …

Lebanon’s security forces used excessive levels of violence against tens of thousands of protesters who had gathered in downtown Beirut on August 8, 2020, to express their rage and frustration over the government and political elites’ incompetence and corruption. The ruling elites’ incompetence is widely considered to have led to …

Israeli attack helicopters struck observation posts of the Hezbollah group along the Lebanon border overnight after shots were fired at Israeli troops operating in the area, the military said Wednesday. It said no Israeli forces were wounded, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage in Lebanon. …

The Beirut explosions on August 4, resulting from 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate igniting along with other explosive materials present in far lesser quantity in a warehouse, left more than 200 dead, dozens missing and around 300,000 homeless. The explosions raised global concern and empathy for Lebanon. Importantly, the explosions …

Israel’s military said on Saturday that one of its drones fell inside Lebanon during “operational activity” along the frontier, and the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah said it shot it down. The drone, which was downed near the border town of Aita al-shaab, was now in the group’s possession, the Iran-backed …

The explosion in Lebanon leads back to an abandoned ship in Beirut that had arrived in the city carrying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. Reporting by DER SPIEGEL and OCCRP has determined that the ship’s owner has connections to Hezbollah’s bank. By Maximilian Popp, Christoph Reuter und Fritz Schaap In …

Judicial investigator into the Beirut port blast Judge Fadi Sawan issued two new arrest warrants on Friday, the National News Agency reported. “The investigating judge, Fadi Sawan, continued his investigations, and today issued two arrest warrants,” the source said. According to the official National News Agency, the subjects of the …

After the disaster in the port of Beirut earlier this month, Hezbollah came under suspicion of having been involved in the storage of the explosive ammonium nitrate. Online news platform WELT has exclusive information from Western secret services. According to this information, Hezbollah bought large quantities of the dangerous substance. …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said the United States welcomed the conviction by a U.N.-backed court of a Hezbollah member of conspiring to kill former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a 2005 bombing. In a statement, Pompeo also slammed Hezbollah’s ‘exploitation’ of the financial system of …

From former fighters repairing damaged buildings to rural women preparing meals, people from across Lebanon have stepped in to help businesses set up to do good after the seismic port explosion in Beirut. The Aug. 4 blast, which officials have blamed on more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being …

Ex-PM Saad Hariri said Tuesday he accepted a special tribunal’s verdict over the 2005 murder of his father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri. “The court has ruled, and in the name of the family of the late prime minister Rafik Hariri and on behalf of the families of the martyrs …