June 24th, 20220BEIRUT — Lebanon's Najib Mikati was named prime minister on Thursday, urging fractious politicians to set aside differences to secure an IMF deal which he said was the only chance to save the country from financial collapse.
Facing a politically difficult path to agreeing on a new cabinet, the billionaire tycoon who led three...
May 20th, 20220Lebanon's emboldened opposition goes from protest to parliament
BEIRUT – When Halime El Kaakour enters Lebanon's parliament as a newly elected lawmaker next week, she will step past the same concrete barriers that security forces erected to keep her and other protesters out during massive anti-government rallies in 2019.
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March 24th, 20220BEIRUT — A Lebanese military court has charged Christian politician Samir Geagea over deadly clashes in Beirut last October, a judicial source and broadcaster Al Jadeed said on Thursday, a move that could stoke political tension two months before an election.
An official in Geagea's Lebanese Forces (LF) party said the charge...
February 23rd, 20220BEIRUT — Lebanese security forces have foiled plans by militants linked to ISIS to carry out three suicide attacks in Beirut's southern suburbs, the interior minister said on Wednesday.
The plans for the attacks involved rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire as well as suicide vests rigged with explosives that would have killed...
February 3rd, 20220Lebanese authorities said on Monday that the country's intelligence and security agencies dismantled 17 Israeli spy rings and made numerous arrests in connection with the network.
The spy network was embedded in various aspects of Lebanese society and collected data on politicians and NGOS, specifically targeting Palestinian...
January 24th, 20220BEIRUT - In a bombshell announcement, Lebanon's leading Sunni Muslim politician Saad al-Hariri said on Monday he was suspending his role in political life and would not run in a forthcoming parliamentary election.
The news comes as the country is tackling a dire financial crisis that has seen the country depend into social and...
December 7th, 20210BEIRUT — The probe into last year's deadly Beirut port blast has been cleared to resume after being suspended for more than a month on legal claims against its lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar, a judicial source said.
A Beirut court rejected the last of the suits preventing Bitar from questioning top officials on...
November 5th, 20210Lebanon is facing its worst rift yet with oil-rich Gulf Arab states, spurred by comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi before his official appointment about the Saudi-led campaign that has created a severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday he had agreed with...
October 22nd, 20210The subject of decades-old sectarian strife has been rekindled in Lebanon, following a deadly shooting of protesters last Thursday.
The leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) dismissed accusations by Hezbollah that it has a militia and seeks civil war as the fallout of deadly violence, in which seven Shi’a Lebanese were shot...
October 14th, 20210BEIRUT — At least six Shi'as were shot dead in Beirut on Thursday, in an attack on protesters who were heading for a demonstration called by Hezbollah to demand the removal of the judge investigating the explosion that ripped through the city's port last year.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah and its ally, the Shi'a Amal Movement, accused...
October 4th, 20210BEIRUT — The judge investigating Beirut's catastrophic port explosion survived attempts to have him removed from the inquiry when a court dismissed two complaints against him on Monday.
The investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion, one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts in history, has made little headway amid a smear campaign...
September 29th, 20210BEIRUT — Hundreds of relatives of victims of last year's Beirut port explosion, some chanting and some silent, took to the streets on Wednesday, angry that an investigation into the disaster had been delayed for the second time this year.
Some carried miniature figures of people on death row with signs below reading "the end for...
September 16th, 20210Hezbollah began bringing Iranian fuel into Lebanon via Syria on Thursday, a move the group says should ease a crippling energy crisis but which opponents say risks provoking U.S. sanctions.
Dozens of trucks carrying Iranian fuel oil entered northeastern Lebanon near the village of al-Ain, where Hezbollah's yellow flag fluttered from...
September 10th, 20210BEIRUT - Lebanese leaders agreed a new government led by Sunni Muslim tycoon Najib Mikati on Friday after a year of feuding over cabinet seats that has exacerbated a devastating economic collapse, opening the way to a resumption of talks with the IMF.
The breakthrough followed a flurry of contacts with France, which has led efforts to...
September 1st, 20210BEIRUT — The Lebanese government has received no request for fuel to be imported from Iran, the caretaker energy minister said on Wednesday, appearing to confirm that the Shi'a group Hezbollah has bypassed the state with a move to import Iranian fuel.
Hezbollah, a heavily armed group founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982,...
August 19th, 20210A group of lawmakers wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power, calling on U.S. support towards Lebanon’s deteriorating economic and political situation.
U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), Charlie Crist (D-FL), Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Darin LaHood (R-IL), co-chairs of the...
August 10th, 20210BEIRUT — On Tuesday, President Michel Aoun condemned criticism of Lebanon's Christian Maronite patriarch after he expressed opposition to the Iran-backed Shi'a group Hezbollah, warning that insults must be avoided to safeguard national unity.
Following a cross-border salvo between Israel and Hezbollah, Patriarch Bechara Boutros...
August 6th, 20210The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets towards Israeli forces on Friday, drawing fire from Israel into south Lebanon, in a third day of cross-border salvoes amid wider regional tensions with Iran.
Suggesting its attack was calibrated to avoid further escalation, Hezbollah said it had targeted open ground...
July 26th, 20210BEIRUT — Wealthy Lebanese businessman Najib Mikati secured enough votes in parliamentary consultations on Monday to be designated the next prime minister.
Mikati, who has been prime minister twice before and unlike many Lebanese leaders does not hail from a political bloc or dynasty, received 72 votes out of a total of 118 members...
February 5th, 20210BEIRUT — Activist, publisher and filmaker Lokman Slim was found dead in a car in Southern Lebanon on Thursday.
Slim died from four bullets in the head and one in the back. Slim’s sister Rasha al-Ameer suggested he had been murdered because of his ardent criticism of Shi’a Hezbollah. He was last seen after visiting a poet...
December 16th, 20200BEIRUT — Two former Lebanese ministers charged with negligence over a huge explosion at Beirut port in August that killed 200 people snubbed a judge on Wednesday by not turning up for questioning.
Judge Fadi Sawan charged three former ministers and the caretaker prime minister last week, sparking fierce debate about whether he had...
November 9th, 20200BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that Lebanon would seek evidence and documents from the United States that led Washington to impose sanctions on his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, a prominent Christian politician.
On Friday, the United States blacklisted Bassil, leader of Lebanon’s biggest Christian political...
September 17th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions on a Hezbollah official and two Lebanon-based companies as the country experiences a deep economic crisis, accusing them of being linked to the Hezbollah group.
The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it blacklisted Arch Consulting and Meamar Construction,...
August 18th, 20200LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands — On Tuesday, a U.N.-backed tribunal convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash, allegedly a member of the Hezbollah group, of conspiring to kill former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a 2005 bombing that set the stage for years of confrontation between Lebanon’s political forces.
Hariri, a Sunni Muslim...
August 15th, 20201On August 4, hours before a massive explosion rocked the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an ominous warning to Lebanon.
“We hit a cell and now we hit the dispatchers,” Netanyahu said during an official tour of a military facility in central Israel. “I suggest to all of them, including,...
August 26th, 20190BEIRUT - Lebanese farmers and residents of Beirut suburbs hit by drones at the weekend vowed on Monday to stand their ground in the event of any Israeli attack, amid heightened tensions between the Hezbollah group and Israel.
Two drones crashed on Sunday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which are dominated by the the Shia, prompting...
July 22nd, 20190BEIRUT — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah spoke during the annual commemoration of the 2006 victory of Lebanon's second war with Israel, addressing his support for Iran and saying he sees it as a partner that not only threatens Israel, but also views itself as a proud part of an “axis of resistance” against the U.S. and its...
July 13th, 20190BEIRUT - The leader of Hezbollah said on Friday that Washington was seeking to open channels of communication despite ramping up sanctions against the Iran-backed movement’s officials.
“Trump’s administration is seeking to open channels of communication to Hezbollah in Lebanon through mediators. ... These are the American...
