Lebanon

15 Oct 2020; MEMO: Lebanon and Israel have concluded the first round of indirect talks over the demarcation of their disputed maritime borders. The talks ended on Wednesday at the headquarters of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The Naqoura region in southern Lebanon around the building faced tight security imposed by the Lebanese army and UNIFIL soldiers.

14 Oct 2020; MEMO: Lebanese banks have closed hundreds of accounts of Syrians linked to the Assad regime in an effort to avoid US sanctions related to the Caesar Act, Aram Media reported yesterday.

The news site said that the Lebanese banks closed the accounts of Syrians who conducted any financial activity with people linked to the Assad regime after or before the Caesar Act was brought into force on 17 June.

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Lebanon and Israel, formally still at war after decades of conflict, launch talks on Wednesday to address a long-running dispute over their maritime border running through potentially gas-rich Mediterranean waters.

The U.S.-mediated talks follow three years of intense diplomacy by Washington and were announced less than a month after the United States stepped up pressure on political allies of the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

12 Oct 2020; MEMO: The final decision of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, to run for the post once again depends on the parliamentary blocs’ willingness to cooperate with him, a senior source in the Future Bloc said.

10 Oct 2020; MEMO: Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri warned on Thursday evening of the imminent danger of a civil war in the country.

This came in an interview with MTV (a local private TV channel), in which Hariri asserted: “Hezbollah is behind the crisis in Lebanon.”

BEIRUT, Oct 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Lebanon’s former prime minister Saad Hariri said he was a possible candidate to head a new government to stem the country’s economic collapse after a massive port blast.

French President Emmanuel Macron last month extracted a pledge from all political sides in the former French protectorate to back speedy government formation as part of a roadmap out of the crisis, but efforts so far have failed.

“I am definitely a candidate” to head the next government, Hariri said during a live interview on the MTV television channel.

BEIRUT (AP) — For the past two weeks, Raffi Ghazarian has been glued to the TV at home and at work watching news about the fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. If it goes on, the 50-year-old Lebanese of Armenian descent says he’s ready to leave everything and volunteer to defend his ancestral land.

Some from Lebanon’s large ethnic Armenian population have already travelled to join the fight, according to members of the community, although they say the numbers are small.

BEIRUT, Oct 7 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanon’s state security, arrested, on Tuesday, six Egyptian nationals, for attempting to smuggle, through the airport, hundreds of boxes of medicines from Lebanon to Egypt.

The arrested people said, they bought the medicines from different pharmacies in Lebanon. They were released after submitting their residency documents to relevant judicial bodies in Lebanon.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: Lebanese authorities have blocked an oil tanker taking off from Greece and heading to Syria’s Assad regime, Safa news agency reported yesterday.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Safa said that the Lebanese judiciary has been investigating the arrival of the tanker to the country’s coast.

BEIRUT, Oct 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Lebanon and Israel have agreed to a framework for U.S.-mediated talks aimed at ending a long-running dispute along the border between the two nations that have fought several conflicts.

Still in a formal state of war, Lebanon and Israel have contested their land and maritime borders for decades, namely over an area in the sea on the edge of three Lebanese offshore energy blocks. Israel said the talks would cover the sea border.

Washington has mediated between the two sides.