Lebanon

21 July 2020; MEMO: A Lebanese court has issued a decision to freeze the assets of central bank governor, Riyad Salameh.

Judge Faisal Makki issued the order, which came into effect immediately, yesterday and stipulated the seizure of Salameh’s movable and immovable assets, including his home in Beirut’s Rabieh area and personal car.

BEIRUT, July 21 (NNN-NNA) – Former CEO of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, said that he failed to appear before the court in France on July 13, due to “technical obstacle,” Lebanon’s local media reported on Monday.

Ghosn said that his passport is held by the Attorney General in Lebanon, since Japan issued an international arrest warrant on him.

21 July 2020; MEMO: Leader of the Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement and former Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil on Sunday called for expelling Palestinian refugees from the country, Arab48 reported.

After a meeting with the Maronite Patriarch, Mar Bechara Al Rahi, Bassil said that Lebanon would be able to be neutral if it expelled “explosive opponents” in the country.

He pointed out that the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are part of these “explosive opponents” and they should be forced out.

19 July 2020; MEMO: Zawqan Abdelkhalek, a nurse at the American University of Beirut’s (AUB) medical centre since 2012, was laid off on Friday along with hundreds of colleagues as even hospitals buckle under the weight of Lebanon’s economic collapse.

16 July 2020; MEMO: A senior Hamas delegation headed by its chief in Lebanon, Ahmed Abdul-Hadi, met on Wednesday with Cuba’s Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Moraga, a statement disclosed.

BEIRUT, July 15 (NNN-NNA) – A team of Lebanese cardiologists, on Tuesday, successfully performed the first complete artificial heart transplant for a 22-year-old patient.

The operation was conducted at the Rassoul al Aazam Hospital, by a team headed by surgeon, Mohamed Saab, the report said.

The hospital stated that, this is the first time that such an operation was done in Lebanon, despite the difficult circumstances prevailing in the country.

15 July 2020; MEMO: A Lebanese man accused of financing Hezbollah was freed from jail in the United States last month as a result of indirect contacts between Tehran and Washington that are expected to yield more releases, three senior Middle East officials told Reuters.

BEIRUT (AP) — Facing a worsening economic crisis and with little chance of Western or oil-rich Arab countries providing assistance without substantial reforms, Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is looking east, hoping to secure investments from China that could bring relief.

But help from Beijing risks alienating the United States, which has suggested such a move could come at the cost of Lebanese-U.S. ties.

14 July 2020; MEMO: The former in the Lebanese Ministry of Finance, Bifani said Monday that Lebanese bankers have smuggled nearly $6 billion out of the country since October despite financial regulations imposed to save the country from the worst financial crisis in 30 years, a former Ministry of Finance official revealed yesterday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn is helping everyone who stood by him, he said in an interview broadcast on Saturday, though he declined to comment on cases of people accused of helping him flee to Lebanon from Japan.

Ghosn, the ex-chairman of an automaking alliance of Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp was arrested in Japan in late 2018 on charges of underreporting his salary and using company funds for personal purpose - charges he denies.