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......
Lebanese central bank devalues official exchange rate: 15,000 liras for one dollar
February 4th, 20230 BEIRUT – Lebanon devalued its official exchange rate for the first time in 25 years on Wednesday, weakening it by 90 percent, but still leaving the local currency well below its market value. The lira has crashed since a financial meltdown in 2019 after decades of corruption, profligate spending and mismanagement by the ruling elite...
Lebanese protest record low value of local currency
January 29th, 20230 BEIRUT – Lebanese protesters burned tires and held up handfuls of local currency bills on Wednesday at the entrance of the Lebanese central bank in Beirut, furious over the spiraling devaluation of the lira. Lebanon's economic meltdown, which began in 2019, has cost the lira around 97 percent of its value. The decline has been......
Lebanese protest as fate of port explosion probe hangs in balance
January 29th, 20230 BEIRUT – More than 200 people protested outside Lebanon's justice palace on Thursday over efforts to derail an investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion, as top judges cancelled a meeting to discuss the fate of the inquiry. Judge Tarek Bitar announced on Monday he was resuming his investigation into the blast that...
Former Lebanese Parliament Speaker Hussein al-Husseini, architect of Tiaf Peace Accord, dies at 86
January 14th, 20230 Lebanese Shi'a politician Hussein al-Husseini, a former parliament speaker who was an architect of the peace agreement ending the 1975-90 civil war, died on Wednesday aged 86. Husseini, speaker from 1984 to 1992, was central in asserting a larger role for a Shi'a community that was largely downtrodden at the time, including by helping...
U.S. court decision against Lebanon’s banks gives hope to depositors
December 20th, 20220 A U.S. court of appeals determined this week that cases against Lebanese commercial banks can be tried outside Lebanon, paving the way for more cases by depositors seeking to unlock their frozen funds. The court decision, issued on Thursday in a case brought by Lebanese depositors against leading lender Bank Audi, overturned a federal...
Sendwave app: Send money to loved ones in Lebanon without charging them fees!
December 17th, 20220 By Eric Schloeffel Sending money to Lebanon traditionally includes fees on both sides: You pay a fee to send and your loved one pays a 2 percent fee to receive. But the app from Boston-based company Sendwave has disrupted the U.S.-Lebanon transfer market by eliminating fees for recipients in Lebanon while also offering......
Who is Michael Boulos? Trump’s new Lebanese son-in-law
November 21st, 20220 - This story was originally published in Business Insider Donald Trump's daughter Tiffany, 29, wed billionaire Michael Boulos before 250 guests at the former president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on November 12. Boulos, 25, joins the family after he and Tiffany began dating in 2018. They were engaged in January 2021 with Tiffany...
Analysis: Power vacuum adds to risks for crisis-hit Lebanon
November 10th, 20220 Lebanon faces an indefinite government crisis that further complicates the path out of its financial meltdown, adding to risks of instability as hardship deepens and state institutions teeter on the brink of collapse. Lebanon has had neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet since Michel Aoun's term as president ended on......
Israel, Lebanon finalize maritime demarcation deal without mutual recognition; Hezbollah mobilization to end
October 28th, 20220 BEIRUT — Lebanese and Israeli leaders finalized a U.S.-brokered maritime demarcation deal on Thursday, bringing a measure of accommodation between the enemy states as they eye offshore energy exploration. Leaders from Lebanon, Israel and the U.S. have all hailed the deal as "historic" but the possibility of a wider diplomatic...
Looped in “line by line”, Hezbollah shows pragmatic side in Lebanon-Israel deal
October 24th, 20220 Before Lebanon's government approved a U.S.-brokered deal settling a decades-long maritime boundary dispute with Israel, the powerful Hezbollah had scrutinized the final draft line by line and given a crucial nod of acceptance. Branded a "terrorist group" by Washington and a sworn enemy of Israel, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was certainly......
