Lebanon

12 Nov 2019; MEMO: The Governor of Lebanon Central Bank, Riad Salameh, said yesterday that the 2017 resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri following pressure from Saudi authorities has negatively affected the country’s economy.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s banks and schools were shut on Tuesday in a new wave of disruption as politicians struggled to agree on a new government to steer the country out of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

President Michel Aoun said formal consultations with MPs to nominate a new prime minister and form the cabinet would be held soon. Ahead of the formal discussions, politicians have been trying to agree on the composition of the government to replace caretaker Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri’s outgoing cabinet.

9 Nov 2019; MEMO: Lebanon’s grand mufti on Saturday called for the formation of an emergency government of experts amid protests rocking the Arab country, reported by Anadolu Agency. 

“It is time for reforms to start … [and] to form a government of experts and implement [caretaker] Prime Minister [Saad] Hariri’s economic paper,” Abdel-Latif Derian, the top cleric for Sunni Muslims, said in his message to the nation on Prophet Mohammad’s birthday.

9 Nov 2019; MEMO: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) head of mission and force commander major general, Stefano Del Col, met on Thursday with senior officers of the Lebanese and Israeli armies.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s grand mufti, the top cleric for Sunni Muslims, called on Saturday for the formation of a new emergency government of technical experts and for those in power to meet protesters’ demands.

The country is in political and economic turmoil after three weeks of nationwide protests that prompted Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to resign last week.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s protests are bringing out people from across the country’s spectrum of faiths and communities trying to throw out the entire ruling elite. They give a glimpse into a Lebanon transcending longtime divisions among sects.

But the young protesters face an entrenched political leadership that depends on sectarianism and an older generation that fears disrupting it could bring back civil war.

That threat resonates less with a generation that has little or no memory of a war that ended in 1990.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Wednesday it stood ready to extend all possible support to a new Lebanese government that was committed to good governance and creating opportunities for its citizens.

The rapid formation of a government that meets the expectations of all Lebanese people is the most urgent step required in Lebanon, the bank said in a statement after its World Bank regional director Saroj Kumar Jha met with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Wednesday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The powerful Lebanese Hezbollah group said on Friday a new government must listen to the demands that fueled protests against the country’s rulers and led Saad al-Hariri to quit as prime minister this week.

The unprecedented, nationwide protests that erupted on Oct. 17 tipped Lebanon into political turmoil as it grapples with the worst economic crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

Lebanese banks reopened for the first time in two weeks on Friday, with dozens of people waiting at some branches.

BEIRUT, Nov 2 (NNN-NNA) – Hezbollah Leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said that, the resistance in Lebanon is stronger than ever before and it has never been that powerful, NBN local TV channel reported.

“We did not support the resignation of the government, not because we were worried about Hezbollah, but we feared chaos, which would disable the cabinet from paying its employees’ salaries,” Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah said that some foreign powers accused Hezbollah of dominating the past cabinet’s decisions, which is not true.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov 2 (NNN-NNA) – Around 85 Syrian refugees returned, on Friday, to their homeland from Lebanon.

The Syrian refugees returned from Bekaa area, under the supervision of Lebanon’s general security.

More than one million Syrian refugees are registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, while the Lebanese government estimated the true number of Syrians in the country at 1.5 million.

According to the Lebanese authorities, the number of refugees, who had returned to their homeland from Lebanon, reached 172,046 by Mar, 2019.