Lebanon

BEIRUT, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Around half of Lebanon's population is at risk of food insecurity due to a lack of access to basic food needs amid the current economic crisis, Lebanese Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan said on Friday.

The minister made the remarks during the 14th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture, which was held virtually due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

Lebanon is facing food insecurity since a shortage of U.S. dollars and a depreciation of its local currency, as the country imports about 85 percent of its food, the minister said.

BEIRUT, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's crisis is increasingly forcing young people to drop out of school and engage in ill-paid, irregular and informal work to survive and help feed their families, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a report released on Friday.

Dubbed "Searching for Hope," the report states that more than four in 10 youths in Lebanon reduced spending on education to buy basic food, medicine and other essential items, and three in 10 stopped their education altogether.

BEIRUT, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon and Jordan on Wednesday signed an agreement that Jordan would supply Lebanon with electricity through Syria, the National News Agency reported.

"We will secure 250 megawatts of electricity from Jordan with support from our Syrian brothers. We count on this joint Arab action to expand cooperation between Arab countries," Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayad said during a signing ceremony held at the Ministry of Energy in the capital Beirut.

BEIRUT (AP) — U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces said they wrestled control of the last section of a prison seized by Islamic State militants and freed a number of child detainees they had used as human shields. That ended a deadly, weeklong assault by the extremists on one of the largest detention facilities in Syria.

The attack was the biggest by IS since the fall of the group’s “caliphate” in 2019 and came as the militants staged a number of deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq that stoked fears they may be staging a comeback.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon signed deals on Wednesday to purchase electricity from Jordan via Syria to help the small Mediterranean country deal with its crippling energy crisis.

The deals are expected to bring Lebanon up to 250 megawatts of electricity a day within two months, enough for about two hours of power a day. The electricity will be transmitted through Syria. The World Bank is expected to finance the deals, and negotiations are underway.

Lebanon’s Energy Minister Walid Fayyad said he expects financing negotiations to conclude in two months.

BEIRUT, Jan 25 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanon yesterday kicked off the first round of official talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), seeking to unlock aid for the crisis-hit country.

Lebanon’s deputy prime minister and chief negotiator, Saade Chami, said that, the talks focused on a range of economic and political topics, such as the budget, the banking sector and the exchange rate, the office of Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, said in a statement.

Chami expected other rounds of talks will be necessary, in order to reach a deal with the fund.

BEIRUT, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Lebanese Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri said on Monday he was stepping back from political life and would not run in the parliamentary election, turning Lebanon's sectarian politics on its head as the country grapples with a financial crisis.

Hariri, three times prime minister, also called on his party not to run any candidates in May's vote, indicating several factors were behind his decision, including Iranian influence -- a reference to the heavily armed Shi'ite group Hezbollah.

BEIRUT, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Kuwait's foreign minister said on Sunday Lebanon must not be a platform for hostile acts or words toward Gulf Arab states, an indirect call for curbs on the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in order to improve strained ties.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah spoke after meeting President Michel Aoun in Beirut, during the first visit to Beirut by a senior Gulf Arab official since a diplomatic rift last year. 

BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes between U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters and militants continued for a fourth day Sunday near a prison in northeastern Syria that houses thousands of members of the Islamic State group, the Kurdish force said.

The standoff follows a bold assault by the extremists that breached the premises of Gweiran Prison, allowed an unknown number of militants to escape and killed dozens of U.S.-backed fighters who guard the facility.

Jan 22 (Reuters) - Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah will visit Beirut on Saturday, in the first such visit by a senior Gulf official since a diplomatic spat last year.

In October Kuwait, alongside Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, expelled Lebanese diplomats and recalled their own envoys following a minister's critical comments about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen.

Sheikh Ahmad would meet Prime Minister Najib Mikati's in the evening, the prime minister's office said in a statement.