Spotlight
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he will call for a second presidential election session before the middle of the current month.
“All parties must shoulder their responsibilities regarding this juncture,” Berri added, in remarks to Annahar newspaper published Monday.
Full StoryPresident Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and PM-designate Najib Mikati held a meeting Monday in Baabda to discuss a U.S. proposal to demarcate the maritime border with Israel -- a step that could allow both countries to explore offshore resources.
The meeting followed another by a Lebanese technical team and advisors to Aoun, Berri and Mikati. The technical team later joined the meeting of the three leaders.
Full StoryIsraeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Monday hit out at opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu over the latter’s criticism of the emerging sea border deal with Lebanon.
“Some facts for Netanyahu, simply because he did not see the agreement: Israel receives 100% of its security needs, 100% of the Karish field and even some of the profits of the Lebanese field,” Lapid tweeted.
Full StoryPresident Michel Aoun announced Monday that there will be no “partnership” with Israel in the offshore gas fields, as an Israeli media report said Israel is discussing its “share” in Lebanon’s Qana field with French oil giant TotalEnergies.
“Lebanon will today decide its stance on the written proposal presented by U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein in consultation with Speaker Nabih Berri and PM-designate Najib Mikati and in light of the observations of the technical committee formed for this purpose,” Aoun said in a Baabda meeting with Anne Gueguen, the head of the MENA region at the French foreign ministry.
Full StoryFour individuals stormed BLOM Bank’s branch in Haret Hreik on Monday and managed to take their deposit, worth $11,000, prior to the arrival of the army, the National News Agency said.
The Depositors Outcry Association meanwhile announced that “the depositor Zaher Khawaja has liberated $11,750 from the aforementioned bank” and that he “still has $750” in his account.
Full StoryIsraeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, under whom the sea border talks with Lebanon began in 2020 and who is hoping to return to power in November elections, has said that he opposes the emerging gas fields deal and wouldn't be bound by it if reelected.
Israel’s caretaker premier Yair Lapid is hoping to fend off Netanyahu in the polls.
Full StoryWhen the bulk cargo ship Laodicea docked in Lebanon last summer, Ukrainian diplomats said the vessel was carrying grain stolen by Russia and urged Lebanese officials to impound the ship.
Moscow called the allegation "false and baseless," and Lebanon's prosecutor general sided with the Kremlin and declared that the 10,000 tons of barley and wheat flour wasn't stolen and allowed the ship to unload.
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Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday expressed concern that the fate of presidential election sessions will continue to be linked to "consensus."
Full StoryIsraeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday said that both Lebanon and Israel have “accepted the American mediator's proposal for an agreement on the maritime border between the countries.”
“We are conducting discussions on the final details, so it is not yet possible to congratulate on the finality, but as we demanded from day one, the proposal fully preserves Israel's political-security interests, as well as our economic interests,” Lapid told his Cabinet.
Full StoryThe leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has said that the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody was a "vague incident" that was being exploited against Tehran.
A wave of street violence has rocked Iran since Amini, 22, died after her arrest by the morality police for allegedly failing to observe the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.
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