August 3rd, 20210BEIRUT — A report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday concluded there was strong evidence to suggest some Lebanese officials knew about and tacitly accepted the lethal risks posed by ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut port before the fatal blast there on Aug. 4 last year.
HRW called for a U.N. investigation into the...
August 1st, 20210BEIRUT — The amount of ammonium nitrate that blew up at Beirut port last year was one fifth of the shipment unloaded there in 2013, the FBI concluded after the blast, adding to suspicions that much of the cargo had gone missing.
As the first anniversary approaches on Aug. 4, major questions remain unanswered, including how a huge...
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...
July 25th, 20210By Osama Siblani / Publisher
One of the most unfortunate aspects of Lebanon’s continuing crisis is the way criminal investigations into major violent acts are handled. This has been the case since Lebanon was founded last century. Most of these investigations either did not occur at all, were done unprofessionally or were derailed by...
July 15th, 20210BEIRUT — Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri abandoned his months-long effort to form a new government on Thursday, dimming the chances of a cabinet being agreed on any time soon that could start rescuing the country from financial meltdown.
Hariri announced his decision after meeting with President Michel Aoun, saying it was clear...
July 12th, 20210PARIS — On Monday, the European Union agreed to adopt a sanctions regime for Lebanese leaders by the end of July, France said, in an effort to force a stable government to emerge from nearly a year of political chaos following the Beirut blast.
"There was a moment ago a political consensus to put in place a legal sanctions framework...
July 6th, 20210BEIRUT — Lebanon is a few days away from a social explosion, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab warned on Tuesday, calling on the international community to save a country in deep economic crisis.
The World Bank has called Lebanon's crisis one of the worst depressions of modern history. The currency has lost more than 90 percent...
June 30th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Institute for Palestine Studies has launched a new online database documenting political and military events surrounding the Israeli occupation of Palestine since 1982.
The Palestine Chronology will allow researchers, readers, journalists, students, scholars and activists to easily access day-by-day summaries...
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing an end to his long reign over the country, as his rivals pressed on with a political pact to unseat him on Tuesday.
After March’s inconclusive election, the country's fourth in two years, Likud emerged as the party with most votes. But after wooing smaller right-wing and...
May 14th, 20210GAZA — Israel’s violent assault on Gaza continued into Friday, with the reports confirming Israel’s airstrikes had killed at least 115 killed, including 27 children, 11 women and wounding over 600. More bodies remain trapped under the rubble.
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has responsibility for the welfare of...
May 7th, 20210— The following article was contributed by the Lebanese American Foundation in Los Angeles, California.
LOS ANGELES — To mark the culmination of Arab Heritage Month, The House of Lebanon, the cultural center for the Lebanese American Foundation, composed a star-studded message featuring top Arab and Lebanese leaders and...
May 7th, 20210BEIRUT – Lebanon's lights may go off this month because cash for electricity generation is running out, a lawmaker said on Thursday, as the country grapples with a deep economic crisis.
Lebanon's parliament had approved a $200 million emergency loan to finance fuel imports for power generation in March, but a committee reviewing the...
April 28th, 20210BEIRUT — Samir Sfeir, a well-known Lebanese music composer, is believed to be detained in Saudi Arabia for unknown reasons, according to local media and international news sources.
Sfeir has sung about Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun and is said to be close to the president’s party. He is from Ajaltoun, Lebanon.
The Lebanese...
April 16th, 20210BEIRUT - Lebanon's caretaker energy minister on Thursday blamed the country's fuel crisis on profiteers who smuggle gasoline into neighboring Syria.
At a Cabinet meeting to discuss the issue, Raymond Ghajar said the gap in gasoline prices between the two countries meant smugglers could make huge profits.
"The price of 20 liters of...
April 13th, 20210DUBAI — A commercial vessel owned by an Israeli firm was attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in Gulf waters, pro-Iran media and an Israeli television channel said on Tuesday.
Israel’s top-rated Channel 12 quoted unnamed Israeli officials as blaming arch-foe Iran for the assault, which it described as a missile...
April 2nd, 20210BEIRUT — Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday the country could face chaos before it can recover from a financial meltdown.
Crushed under a mountain of debt and decades of graft, Lebanon has plunged into its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Aoun, a former army commander, and Saad al-Hariri, a three-time...
March 27th, 20210BEIRUT — Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), warned prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri on Saturday against sidelining President Michel Aoun and other parliamentary blocs in talks over forming a cabinet.
Hariri and Aoun have been at loggerheads over the cabinet for months, dashing hopes of a...
March 12th, 20210BEIRUT — Growing resentment and outrage among the Lebanese led to eight days of protests this week, with protesters using burnt tires to block roadways across the country in anger over the nation's economic meltdown and political deadlock amid a pandemic lockdown.
The Lebanese army said on Wednesday it had started clearing...
March 6th, 20210BEIRUT — Protesters blocked some roadways in Lebanon for a second day on Wednesday, after the currency’s fall to a new low further enraged a population long horrified by the country’s financial meltdown.
In the past year, Lebanon has been through a popular uprising against its political leaders, the bankruptcy of the state and...
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...
January 28th, 20210TRIPOLI — A man was killed in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Thursday in clashes between security forces and protesters angry over a strict lockdown that has cut off livelihoods in a collapsing economy.
Omar Taybah, 30, was hit by a bullet overnight, according to a local hospital that treated him, a security source and...
January 18th, 20210BEIRUT — COVID-19 patients wait on pavements outside hospitals in Beirut, where emergency rooms are packed and intensive care beds full.
Inside, exhausted healthcare workers are succumbing themselves — doctors at one hospital, asking not to be named, said around 40 percent of staff were sick or in isolation.
Countries...
January 4th, 20210BEIRUT - Lebanon announced a full lockdown for three weeks, including a night curfew, to stem a rise in COVID-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals in a country already facing financial meltdown.
Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan said the lockdown would start on Thursday and run until Feb. 1, with further details on...
December 20th, 20200BEIRUT — The head of Lebanon’s airline said on Sunday the carrier would at some point need to demand payment for tickets bought in Lebanon using “fresh dollars”, or recently transferred currency that is not subject to restrictions imposed since a financial crisis.
Middle East Airlines (MEA) Chairman Mohamad El-Hout did not...
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 28th, 20200DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates has stopped issuing new visas to citizens of 13 mostly Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a document issued by a state-owned business park.
A source briefed on the matter told Reuters the visas had temporarily stopped being issued to Afghans,...
October 28th, 20200BEIRUT — The first of many warnings about a deadly cargo in Beirut’s port came in February 2014, about three months after its arrival. It was made by Colonel Joseph Skaf, described by his family as a diligent customs official.
Skaf, then the head of the anti-narcotics and money laundering division, informed the customs authority...
October 8th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has gained a prominent endorsement from several diplomatic and policy experts on the Middle East.
A substantial list of former ambassadors to Middle East and North African (MENA) nations, foreign policy advisors and Middle East affairs experts have signed on to a letter,...
