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Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Saturday held the army leadership responsible for the clash that took place between his supporters and troops at a protest earlier this week.
“It is a shame for the (army) leadership to behave this way with peaceful protesters,” Aoun told a delegation of supporters from Aley.
Full StoryLebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced Friday that the LF would support the creation of a popular brigade to defend border towns in the Bekaa against any jihadist attack, while stressing that such a paramilitary force should only operate under the supervision of the Lebanese army.
In a speech in Maarab during an LF ceremony, Geagea called for “preventing the movement of arms and gunmen convoys across the border and halting some parties' continued involvement in the Syrian conflict.”
Full StoryHizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called Friday for a “serious dialogue” between the Free Patriotic Movement and al-Mustaqbal movement to resolve the cabinet dispute, as he declared that “the road to Jerusalem” goes through Syria.
“Weeks ago, it was obvious that the country was heading towards a clash over the issue of government and the FPM is a key party in the equation,” said Nasrallah in a televised address commemorating Quds (Jerusalem) Day.
Full StoryPolice arrested on Friday the Lebanese ringleader of a gang which kidnapped a six-year-old child in the Jbeil district town of Amchit last week, reports said.
The man, S.Aa., was apprehended by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch in the town of Dora near Beirut, which lies around 40 kilometers away from Amchit, they said.
Full StoryMarada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh denied on Friday he was engaged in a row with the Free Patriotic Movement, but said he had different viewpoints with it on several issues, including a proposal to have a federal system.
“We don't have differences with the FPM,” Franjieh said at a press conference he held in Bnashii.
Full StoryForeign Minister Jebran Bassil hailed on Friday the street protests that took place on Thursday by Free Patriotic Movement supporters, saying that they have restored hope for the Christians in Lebanon.
He said during a press conference: “ We are waging the battle of defending all the Christians and Lebanese.”
Full StoryA Lebanese Islamic State group fighter, who hails from the northern city of Tripoli, has been killed in Iraq, media reports said Friday.
Hassan al-Masri, known as Aba Qassem al-Lubnani, died while fighting alongside the IS, they said, without specifying in which area.
Full StoryThe Lebanese army arrested overnight suspected Islamist Amin Mansour, the brother of Osama Mansour, in the northern city of Tripoli's, the army said in a statement on Friday.
The arrest in Bab al-Tebbaneh triggered a wave of popular protests in the streets of the city, NNA added.
Full StoryGeneral Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim is expected to travel to Turkey next week to discuss with Qatari officials the case of Lebanese servicemen taken hostage by jihadists last year.
Security sources told al-Akhbar daily published on Friday that Ibrahim, who is the official Lebanese negotiator in the case of the troops and policemen, will inform the Qataris that Lebanon has completed the file on the prisoner exchange which was mediated by Doha's envoy.
Full StoryEuropean Union Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst has expressed regret that she will leave Lebanon at the end of her mission amid a continued vacuum at the presidential palace in Baabda.
In remarks to An Nahar daily published on Friday, the diplomat said: “I regret that I will leave Beirut in this situation, without knowing when a president will be elected.”
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