A parliament session for looking into a request for withdrawing confidence from Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib was adjourned Thursday due to lack of quorum.
After the session was cancelled, Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan accused Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil of being the "de facto foreign minister," saying that his consultant Pascale Dahrouj is the one organizing the elections instead of Bou Habib.
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Ex-PM Fouad Saniora has warned against “falsifying the will of the Lebanese and the people of Beirut,” following talks with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan.
Full StoryFree Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has said that Lebanon’s political system is “paralyzed” and “cannot be sustained.”
In an interview with al-Mayadeen TV aired overnight, Bassil added that he believes that “there is integration between the project of protecting the arms that protect the state” and “the priority of building the state.”
Full StoryLebanese rescue teams searched the Mediterranean by helicopters Thursday for dozens of bodies still missing at sea, after an overloaded people-smuggling boat capsized near Tripoli's coast.
Some family members of the boat victims accompanied the rescue teams, while the hunt also continued by sea and land for the fifth consecutive day.
Full StoryFree Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil is keen on holding a Parliamentary session to discuss withdrawing confidence from Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, OTV said Thursday.
The TV station said that Bassil wants the session to be held, "despite that some parties are trying to strip the session of its quorum."
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A Lebanese Army post in the Wadi Khaled border town of al-Majdal was on Wednesday targeted by heavy gunfire from the Syrian town of al-Maajir, al-Jadeed TV said, after an Islamic State-linked fugitive was killed earlier in the day by Lebanese military intelligence agents.
Full StoryPresident Michel Aoun on Wednesday reiterated the accusation that some parties are “manipulating the dollar exchange rate,” which has been fluctuating in recent days.
“Some are manipulating the financial issues and the dollar exchange rate, which is negatively reflecting on citizens, amid reports by local and international experts indicating the presence of sides seeking to aggravate the situation, some of whom are in power,” Aoun said.
Full StoryThe families of the capsized boat victims rallied Wednesday at Tripoli's port, where at least seven people tragically died in an overloaded people-smuggling boat, just three weeks before May 15 parliamentary elections.
The accident ignited widespread public anger, as rescue teams are still searching for dozens of survivors still missing at sea.
Full StoryFears are growing over the fate of the May 15 parliamentary elections amid the latest security and political tensions in the country, a media report said on Wednesday.
“A political party is telling its members that there will be no elections on May 15 and that the beginning of May will be critical in this regard,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported.
Full StoryProtesters blocked several Beirut roads overnight and removed pictures of parliamentary elections candidates, reportedly over lengthy power cuts, as senior security sources described the move as politicized.
Media reports said hundreds of protesters, some of them on motorbikes, blocked the roads of Cola and the Sports City and smashed posters of parliamentary candidates.
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