Nasrallah: Israeli attacks crossed “all red lines” and made a “declaration of war”, vows retaliation
September 20th, 20240 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah says the pager and walkie-talkie attacks against its members in Lebanon and Syria this week crossed “all red lines” and the group will retaliate and is undeterred in its fight against Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza. On Thursday, in his first televised speech since the...
Alleged Hezbollah financier expected to plead guilty in U.S. sanctions case
September 7th, 20240 NEW YORK — A dual Lebanese-Belgian citizen accused by the United States of financing the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah is expected to plead guilty in a criminal case charging him with sanctions evasion and money-laundering conspiracies. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said in a court filing on Thursday that lawyers for Mohammad...
Lebanese justice ministry accuses former central bank chief of financial crimes
September 6th, 20240 Lebanon's justice ministry formally accused former central bank governor Riad Salameh of financial crimes on Thursday, the state news agency and judicial sources said, echoing charges brought against him by state prosecutors when he was arrested this week. Salameh, 73, was arrested on Tuesday over alleged financial crimes, including...
Travelers in Lebanon attempting to leave the country, airlines halt flights to Beirut amid rising tensions
August 10th, 20240 LEBANON — As tensions rise in the Middle East and an anticipated attack from Iran looms, Lebanese natives and foreigners attempt to evacuate the region at Lebanon's Rafic Hariri airport. Following Israel's strike in Beirut's southern suburbs that killed Hezbollah's second in command as well as Israel's strike in Tehran that killed...
White House grants deportation reprieve to Lebanese, citing Israel-Hezbollah tensions
August 2nd, 20240 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House will offer deportation relief and work permits to an estimated 11,500 Lebanese nationals already in the U.S., due to conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, President Biden said in a memo on Friday. The measure, under an authority known as Deferred Enforced Departure, will allow...
Biden’s administration tells Americans in Lebanon: “Be prepared to shelter in place”
August 2nd, 20240 WASHINGTON – D.C. – On Wednesday, the Biden administration urged Americans in Lebanon to “shelter in place” amid rising tensions in the Middle East over a series of attacks and retaliation among Hezbollah, Israel and Iran. The State Department updated its travel advisory for the entire country of Lebanon to Level 4: Do Not...
Nasrallah: War with Israel has entered “new phase” after killings of top resistance leaders
August 2nd, 20241 On Thursday, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that the conflict with Israel has entered a “new phase,” as he addressed mourners at the funeral of a commander from the group who was killed by an Israeli airstrike this week in Beirut. Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei prayed over the...State Department issues DO NOT TRAVEL advisory for Lebanon
July 31st, 20240 FROM U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib's Office With the Israeli government escalating the risk of regional war, we want to make sure you are aware of recent travel advisories. The State Department has issued a Level 4 Do Not Travel Advisory for Lebanon, and has encouraged Americans who are already in the country to leave at the earliest and...
Hezbollah’s leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah warns Israel against wider war
June 21st, 20240 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Hezbollah has new weapons and intelligence capabilities that would allow it to target and destroy more critical Israeli military and infrastructure positions deeper inside Israel in case of an all-out war, the powerful group’s leader warned on Wednesday. Sayed Hassan Nasrallah’s comments came as the...
Federal lawsuit filed against Lebanese banks and their American affiliates for defrauding U.S. depositors
May 17th, 20240 WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to a complaint filed May 15 in federal court, for years, Banque du Liban (BDL), Byblos Bank, S.A.L. (Byblos) and others (together, the “Lebanese Banking Enterprise”) have stolen billions of dollars from U.S. depositors. These U.S. citizens and residents claim the Lebanese Banking Enterprise...
Hezbollah strikes at northern Israel in retaliation for deadly day in southern Lebanon
February 16th, 20240 BEIRUT — On Thursday, Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at a northern Israeli town in a "preliminary response" to the killing of 10 civilians in southern Lebanon, the deadliest day for Lebanese civilians in four months of cross-border hostilities. The United Nations urged a halt to what it called a "dangerous escalation" of the...
Nasrallah vows revenge after Hamas leader’s killing, “cannot be silent”, warns Israel against spreading Gaza war
January 5th, 20240 BEIRUT — On Wednesday, the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah said it "cannot be silent" after the killing of Hamas' deputy leader in the suburb of Beirut and warned that his heavily armed forces would fight to the finish if Israel chose to extend war from Gaza to Lebanon. Israeli forces meanwhile kept up their aerial and ground assaults...
Growing concerns over mysterious military flights from Tel Aviv to Lebanon
November 21st, 20230 According to a report from Al-Akhbar on November 21, multiple mysterious foreign military cargo flights are continuing to land at Beirut and Hamat airports. There has been increased speculation about whether the flights are bringing in equipment to be used against Hezbollah. Between November 14 and 20, at least nine planes from...
Nasrallah threatens escalation of fighting against Israel at the Lebanese border
November 3rd, 20230 BEIRUT — The leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah group said Friday that his powerful militia is engaged in unprecedented cross-border fighting with Israel and threatened escalation. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s widely anticipated speech was his first since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, sparked by the Palestinian militants’...
Jordan and Lebanon no longer safe havens for refugees fleeing Syria
September 8th, 20230 On September 7, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announced that the Hashemite kingdom could no longer accept Syrian refugees. He stressed that the future of displaced Syrians lies within their own country. During a joint press conference in Amman with Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, Safadi said, “Jordan will not be......
Arab American activists urge DHS to declare temporary protected status for Lebanese nationals in the U.S.
September 2nd, 20231 Arab American community activists are urging the Department of Homeland Security to declare Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Lebanese nationals in the U.S.. It would grant temporary immigration status for people to live and work in the U.S. due to challenges in their home country. Adam Beddawi, policy manager for the National...
Forensic audit into Lebanon’s central bank reveals misconduct and “illegitimate” commissions
August 18th, 20230 BEIRUT — A forensic audit into Lebanon’s central bank by a New York-based company has revealed years long misconduct by the bank’s former governor and $111 million in “illegitimate commissions,” according to a report by the company. It’s the latest chapter in the saga of Lebanon’s embattled former central bank governor......
Israel-Hezbollah tensions elevate risks of conflict
August 18th, 20230 An escalating war of words between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon echoes heightened tension at the border, with each vowing to return the other to the "stone age" and preparing for a possible conflict even as they deny seeking one. Israel and Hezbollah have avoided war across the Lebanese-Israeli frontier since their last major clash...
Two killed in clash between a Hezbollah truck driver and armed Christian villagers
August 12th, 20230 The clashes on Wednesday between Hezbollah members and armed Christian villagers in the town of Kahaleh, which is a Lebanese Forces stronghold, stole the limelight and overshadowed all other events in Lebanon. The clashes that claimed two casualties — a member of Hezbollah and a Christian villager — came after a series of security...
Hamas looks to Hezbollah for help restoring peace in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp
August 4th, 20230 The Hamas resistance movement has asked the secretary general of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, to make the best effort he could to end the deadly clashes between factions in the Palestinian Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon. The head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, requested that Nasrallah get...
Palestinian clashes continue for a third day at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Saida, Lebanon
July 31st, 20230 According to local media, heavy fighting between armed Palestinian groups at a refugee camp in Lebanon continued for a third consecutive day on Monday morning. At least nine people have been killed since the clashes began on Saturday. More than 40 people have been wounded. Tensions sparked at the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Saida......
U.S sanctions Lebanese brothers who sold “compromised fuel”
April 8th, 20230 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned two Lebanese brothers accused of selling “dangerously compromised fuel” to Lebanon’s state utility company. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control blocked Raymond Zina Rahme and Teddy Zina Rahme from accessing U.S. bank accounts and the larger U.S....
Middle East flashpoints that could be affected by Saudi-Iran deal
March 17th, 20230 Here is a summary of the situation in parts of the Middle East where Iran and Saudi Arabia have been involved in proxy conflicts and which could be affected by a Beijing-brokered deal to re-establish relations between the two regional powers. Yemen In 2015, Riyadh intervened in Yemen at the head of a Western-backed coalition......
Lebanon’s central bank chief says he will not renew his term
February 21st, 20230 Lebanon's embattled central bank chief Riad Salameh said on Sunday he would leave his post once his latest term ends in July even if he is asked to stay longer. "No one has asked me to continue , but even if they do, I think this is enough," he said in a televised interview with Egypt's AlQahera News on Sunday. Salameh, who became the...
Nasrallah warns U.S.: If you push Lebanon into chaos, we will retaliate against your “protégé” Israel
February 17th, 20231 BEIRUT – Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is threatening the Israeli Karish gas field with warnings that if there is “procrastination” with gas extraction from Lebanese waters for Lebanon, operations will be stopped at the Israeli Karish field. “If there is an intentional procrastination regarding the issue......
