January 31st, 20190BEIRUT - Lebanon formed a new national unity government on Thursday, ending nine months of wrangling, and Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said bold moves were needed without delay to address chronic problems facing the heavily indebted state.
This cabinet of Hariri, who has Western backing, includes most parties including the Hezbollah...
January 26th, 20190BEIRUT — Hezbollah has “for years” been able to enter Israel, the Lebanese group’s leader said on Saturday, responding for the first time to Israel’s discovery of tunnels dug into Israeli territory from Lebanon.
Israel’s unveiling of what it called Hezbollah “attack tunnels” last month, and Lebanon’s accusation that...
December 21st, 20180TEL AVIV — The Israeli military claimed it sealed off four tunnels on Thursday that it said had been dug by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah under the border from Lebanon.
The work was being carried out on the Israeli side of the frontier demarcation, known as the “Blue Line”, according to an Israeli military...
December 21st, 20180TEL AVIV — Israel will escalate its attacks against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Some Israeli officials have said President Trump’s move, announced on Wednesday, could help Iran by removing a U.S. garrison that...
December 7th, 20180WASHINGTON — A Lebanese businessman sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for being an important financial supporter of Hezbollah pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges associated with evading U.S. sanctions imposed on him, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Kassim Tajideen, 63, pleaded guilty to conspiring with at least five...
December 7th, 20180Israel asked Lebanon’s army and U.N. peacekeepers on Thursday to destroy a tunnel it said had been dug by the Hezbollah group across the border into what it called its territory.
Israel’s occupation forces said this week it had identified a number of passages and sent diggers and troops close the front line with Lebanon to block...
October 26th, 20180DEARBORN— Ibrahim Souedan, a 59-year-old husband and father to five, is currently facing deportation back to his homeland of Lebanon. According to his lawyer, he has no criminal record, but Souedan was an FBI informant who helped to convict a man associated with Hezbollah, a predominately Shi’a political party based in...
October 7th, 20180On Wednesday, an Israeli official played down the Russian upgrading of Syria’s air defenses, saying the newly supplied S-300 missile system could be defeated by Israel’s stealth fighters and possibly destroyed on the ground.
Moscow said on Tuesday that it had delivered the S-300, a decision it took after accusing Israel of...
September 21st, 20180BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Thursday, Sept. 20, that his group had obtained precision rockets despite Israeli strikes in recent years aimed at cutting the supply route through Syria.
“No matter what you do to cut the route, the matter is over and the resistance possesses precision and non-precision rockets...
September 19th, 20180BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, a key Damascus ally, said on Wednesday that his group will keep its military presence in Syria until further notice, commending the Idlib Russian-Turkish agreement as a step toward reaching a political solution in the country.
“We will stay there (in Syria) even after the...
August 17th, 20180BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Party, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Tuesday his group was stronger than ever and would “very soon” celebrate victory in Syria, where it has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad government.
Nasrallah was speaking on live television to mark the anniversary of a 2006 war...
May 23rd, 20180BEIRUT — Politician Nabih Berri, a close ally of the Hezbollah group, was re-elected for a sixth term as speaker of Lebanon’s parliament in an uncontested vote on Wednesday.
Reflecting a shift in Lebanon’s political landscape in favor of the heavily armed Shi’a Muslim group, another Hezbollah ally, Elie Ferzli, was elected...
May 11th, 20180"The poor turnout was due to the limited time many voters had to register and prepare necessary documents, as they had not initially expected that elections would be held outside Lebanon." -Salim Sassin, a Free Patriotic Movement leader
DEARBORN – Lebanese Americans in Metro Detroit are proud to have participated in their...
May 11th, 20180BEIRUT — Hezbollah and its political allies won just over half the seats in Lebanon's parliamentary elections, unofficial results showed, boosting an Iranian-backed movement fiercely opposed to Israel and underlining Tehran's growing regional clout.
Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, called it a "political and moral...
May 11th, 20180"The poor turnout was due to the limited time many voters had to register and prepare necessary documents, as they had not initially expected that elections would be held outside Lebanon." -Salim Sassin, a Free Patriotic Movement leader
DEARBORN – Lebanese Americans in Metro Detroit are proud to have participated in their...
May 4th, 20180By Farah Harb and Hassan Khalifeh
The Arab American News
DEARBORN — On April 29, the Lebanese community in the U.S. voted for the first time in the Lebanese Parliamentary elections, which will be held in that country on May 6.
In Michigan, Lebanese expatriates came out in droves to the three voting centers located at...
April 23rd, 20180By Farah Harb
The Arab American News
DEARBORN — In a town hall meeting at the Byblos Banquet Hall in Dearborn on Wednesday, April 18, Suzan Mouzi-Yassine, the Lebanese Consul General of Lebanon in Detroit, joined with other speakers in addressing Lebanese Americans on the process of voting in the upcoming Lebanese...
April 13th, 20182Is voting for Hezbollah candidates considered material support?
DEARBORN – Some Lebanese Americans who are seeking to vote in Lebanon’s May 6 parliamentary elections for the first time are concerned that casting their ballots will label them as supporters of terrorism and lead to their facing persecution and extra...
March 30th, 20180BRUSSELS/PARIS — France, Britain and Germany are struggling to persuade their E.U. partners to back new sanctions on Iran to preserve its nuclear deal, diplomats said, with Italy doubting whether the measures can stop the United States from pulling out in May.
At a closed-door meeting of E.U. ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday,...
March 23rd, 20180BEIRUT/DAMASCUS — Syrian rebels withdrew in busloads from a town in eastern Ghouta on Thursday and handed it over to the Syrian army, the first such surrender since one of the fiercest campaigns of the seven-year war began more than a month ago.
The Ahrar al-Sham group's decision to accept the army's terms and abandon the town of...
March 21st, 20180BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Wednesday that the deeply indebted country faced disaster if it continued on the same financial path.
Iran-backed Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s coalition government and wields extensive influence in Lebanese politics. Nasrallah was...
March 16th, 20180BEIRUT — Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah does not expect its arch foe Israel to launch a war for now in Lebanon but is prepared for one, the deputy leader of the group told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
As the war in Syria enters its eighth year, Sheikh Naim Qassem also said there was no end in sight to the conflict which would...
March 16th, 20180ROME — Lebanon plans to increase its military presence along its southern border with Israel, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Thursday at a meeting in Rome, where he is seeking financial support for the armed forces.
Some 40 countries participated in the meeting, along with United Nations Secretary General Antonio...
March 9th, 20180NAQOURA, LEBANON — Lebanon and Israel have been holding talks nearly every day over a border dispute that has raised tensions between the two enemy states, according to the U.N. peacekeeping force on the frontier that is mediating their discussions.
"There is a full engagement from all the sides and there have been meetings almost...
February 16th, 20180BEIRUT — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned Lebanon on Thursday that Hezbollah's growing arsenal and involvement in regional conflicts threatened Lebanon's security.
Speaking alongside Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in a Beirut news conference, Tillerson also said the United States was engaging with Lebanon and Israel...
February 13th, 20180DAMASCUS - Israel will face “more surprises” should it again attack Syrian territory, Damascus said on Tuesday, after Syria’s air defenses shot down an advanced Israeli warplane during the fiercest flare-up between the old foes in 36 years.
The F-16 jet was hit over northern Israel on Saturday as it returned from a raid on a...
February 9th, 20180BEIRUT — A U.S. envoy has assured Lebanon that Israel does not seek an escalation between the countries following a surge in hostile rhetoric, Lebanese and Israeli officials said on Thursday.
Lebanon and Israel have exchanged threats and condemnation over a border wall being built by Israel, a tender issued by Beirut for oil and gas...
February 2nd, 20180BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun said on Thursday that Lebanon was using diplomatic means to counter Israel's stance regarding an offshore energy block in disputed territory on their maritime border.
On Wednesday Israel described as "very provocative" Lebanon's first offshore oil and gas exploration tender and said it would be a...