Lebanon

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: Protesters stormed a bank in the Downtown district of Beirut yesterday and staged a sit-in, demanding the institution return their savings which have been trapped since late last year, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Hundreds of thousands of bank account holders have been unable to access their entire savings since November, when the country’s financial institutions imposed informal restrictions, limiting withdrawals to meagre weekly sums.

29 Sep 2020; MEMO: The European Union yesterday expressed its disappointment and concern over the resignation of Lebanon’s prime minister–designate, while urging the Mediterranean country to form a new government in order to obtain financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The EU said that “the Lebanese leaders need to come together and do their best to form the government promptly … It will also be necessary to reach an urgent agreement with the International Monetary Fund.”

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s economic challenge is restoring confidence not a lack of financial assets, Carlos Ghosn, the former head of Renault and Nissan, told a news conference in Beirut to launch a management training programme at a Lebanese university.

“On paper, the assets are here,” he said, saying the challenge facing the nation which is facing an economic crisis that has paralysed its banking industry was “the restoration of confidence.”

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Leading Lebanese politician Gebran Bassil has been infected with a “mild” case of the coronavirus, his party said, as cases surge throughout the country.

Bassil, the son-in-law of Lebanese President Michel Aoun and a former foreign minister who heads the country’s largest Christian political bloc, discovered he was infected on Saturday after several tests, a statement released by his party said.

27 Sep 2020; MEMO: Lebanon’s prime minister-designate quit on Saturday after trying for almost a month to line up a non-partisan cabinet, dealing a blow to a French plan aimed at rallying sectarian leaders to tackle the worst crisis since the nation’s 1975-1990 civil war, Reuters reports.

BEIRUT, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 13 militants were killed in clashes between the Lebanese army and an armed group in Wadi Khaled of northern Lebanon, Elnashra news website reported on Saturday.

The Lebanese army raided on Saturday the armed group in Wadi Khaled leading to severe clashes between the two sides near the Syrian border.

On Friday, the Lebanese army arrested a member of the Islamic State (IS) group in the north of the country for his involvement two weeks ago in al-Beddawi area in a battle that killed four army soldiers and a leader of a IS group. 

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s prime minister-designate resigned Saturday amid a political impasse over government formation, dealing a blow to French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to break a dangerous stalemate in the crisis-hit country.

The announcement by Moustapha Adib nearly a month after he was appointed to the job further delays the prospect of getting the foreign economic assistance needed to rescue the country from collapse. Adib told reporters he was stepping down after it became clear that the kind of Cabinet he wished to form was “bound to fail.”

25 Sep 2020; MEMO: Lebanon’s security forces have started carrying out DNA tests on bodies that washed up on the country’s coast to determine whether they are victims of the 4 August Beirut blast or of a recent migrant boat tragedy, Arab News reported.

At least five bodies that were discovered washed up on Lebanon’s northern coast are being DNA tested by security forces so they can be identified.

24 Sep 2020; MEMO: The Lebanese president on Wednesday called on the international community to force Israel to end violating Lebanese sovereignty, and using its airspace to attack Syria, Anadolu reports.

Michel Aoun, in his speech to the UN General Assembly’s 75th session, said Lebanon is committed to implementing the UNSC resolution 1701, which calls for full cessation of hostilities and Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

BEIRUT (AP) — Facing an economic meltdown and other crises, Lebanon’s president on Wednesday asked for the world’s help to rebuild the capital’s main port and neighborhoods that were blown away in last month’s catastrophic explosion.

President Michel Aoun made the plea in a prerecorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly’s virtual summit, telling world leaders that Lebanon’s many challenges are posing an unprecedented threat to its very existence.