Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam has reversed his approval of allotting the finance portfolio to ex-MP Yassine Jaber who is close to Speaker Nabih Berri, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.
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President Joseph Aoun has called on the country’s political parties to “shun bickering, narrow policies and wrangling over shares.”
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An Israeli drone raided Thursday an engineering vehicle in the town of Yarin in south Lebanon, local media reports said, as Israeli soldiers fired machineguns at the southern town of Markaba.
Two civilians were later lightly wounded on the outskirts of Tallousa near Markaba, as a drone struck near their motorbike.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, Massad Boulos, said the new U.S. administration is “closely following up on the political developments in Lebanon” and is “looking forward to comprehensive changes.”
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Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam has stressed that he “will not give up any of the standards” that he has announced for the government formation process, which are separation between parliamentary and ministerial posts and naming “competent” ministers who are not party members or intend to run in the parliamentary or municipal elections.
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Air France will resume service to Beirut this Saturday, initially with five weekly flights, the airline announced.
Transavia, the low cost subsidiary of the Air France-KLM group, will resume its flights to the Lebanese capital on February 13, starting with three flights a week, it. Both airlines had ceased serving Beirut in September as tensions rose in the region.
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The Israeli military said it intercepted a surveillance drone launched by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Thursday amid a fragile ceasefire.
"A short while ago, a Hezbollah surveillance UAV that was launched toward Israeli territory was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force," the military said in a statement.
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Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that “the problem in the cabinet formation process is not from the Shiite Duo.”
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The head of the Israeli army’s Northern Command Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin on Wednesday warned Hezbollah that Israel’s “readiness to resume fighting” is “extremely high,” although he said that the Lebanese group was “defeated” in the latest war.
"The view from this hill in Kiryat Shmona is uplifting. Sitting here safely -- this reflects how much the reality in the north has changed. This was our commitment, and I am glad we fulfilled the mission. The situation is safe, and it is completely different now," Gordin said in an interview with the Israel Hayom newspaper.
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The formation of the new government is stuck at the issue of the finance portfolio and the “fifth Shiite minister,” Al-Jadeed TV quoted “presidential” sources as saying on Wednesday.
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