Lebanon

14 Sep 2020; MEMO: Hamas yesterday welcomed the formation of the “United Leadership of Popular Resistance”, considering it a practical step to turn the national consensus into measures on the ground.

BEIRUT, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army killed on Monday Khaled al-Tallawi, head of a suspected terrorist cell in northern Lebanon, after targeting it in a raid overnight, a statement by the Lebanese army reported.

Al-Tallawi had opened fire and threw hand grenades at Lebanese army soldiers as they raided the house of a suspected terrorist in Beddawi which killed four soldiers.

Al-Tallawi then fled with three other militants into fields on the outskirts of the village Kfar Habou in Minyeh-Dinnieh.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron has held a call with Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker to try to remove an obstacle to meeting this week’s deadline for forming a new government to drag the nation out of crisis, a Lebanese politician said on Sunday.

Speaker Nabih Berri leads the Amal Movement, a Shi’ite Muslim party allied to the powerful Hezbollah group.

Lebanon’s leadership promised Macron in Beirut on Sept. 1 that they would form a government of technocrats without party loyalties in about two weeks. They have just days left.

10 Sep 2020; MEMO: A secret group which identified itself as the Freedom movement claimed to have captured at least two Israeli Mossad agents in Lebanon, Aliwaa newspaper said.

The Intel Sky Twitter account on Wednesday published a video clip saying “a party calling itself a freedom movement claims that they captured Israeli Mossad officers and publishes a short video clip of them, and they promise Netanyahu to pay the price!”.

BEIRUT (AP) — During his visit this month, French President Emmanuel Macron gave Lebanon’s politicians a road map for policy changes and reform, set deadlines for them to take action and told them he’d be back in December to check on progress.

It was a hands-on approach that angered some in Lebanon and was welcomed by others. And it revived a bitter question in the tiny Mediterranean country: Can Lebanese rule themselves?

BEIRUT, Sept 10 (NNN-NNA) – Hezbollah announced on Wednesday that, the U.S. sanctions policy, will not achieve its goal in Lebanon.

“U.S. sanctions will increase people’s commitment to their rights to free decision, national dignity and full sovereignty,” Hezbollah said, in a statement.

The Hezbollah’s statement comes, after the U.S. treasury’s latest sanctions against Former Finance Minister, Ali Hassan Khalil and Former Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Youssef Fenianos, over allegedly providing material support to Hezbollah and for corruption.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A store of oil and tires at Beirut port caught fire on Thursday, a military source said, a little more than a month after a massive blast devastated the port and a surrounding residential area of the Lebanese capital.

The fire erupted in the duty free zone of the port, sending a huge column of smoke above the city. The military source said the cause of the blaze was not immediately clear.

Television footage showed firefighters trying to douse the blaze at the port, where warehouses and concrete grain silos were shattered by the Aug. 4 blast.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Italy’s prime minister said it was time for Lebanon to rebuild trust between the people and its institutions, joining France’s call for change in a nation devastated by a year-long economic crisis and last month’s massive explosion at Beirut port.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was visiting Beirut a week after a trip by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been leading international efforts to push through major reforms in Lebanon to end decades of state corruption and mismanagement.

08 Sep 2020; MEMO: Investigating Judge Fadi Sawwan has started questioning witnesses as well as former and current ministers as part of a probe into the causes behind the 4 August Beirut blast, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Sawwan yesterday questioned four witnesses to the explosion and is set to hear testimonies from other bystanders today.

BEIRUT (AP) — A month after Beirut’s devastating explosion, Ghassan Toubaji still sits under a gaping hole in his ceiling — he can look up through the dangling plaster, wires and metal struts and the broken brick roof and see a bit of sky.

The 74-year-old survived the Aug. 4 blast with bruises, but his fall from its impact worsened his heart and blood circulation diseases. Between that and Lebanon’s crumbled economy, he can’t go back to work.