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Christian opposition backs Jihad Azour’s nomination for Lebanon presidency

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By Najia Houssari -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai has praised Christian politicians as they united around a presidential candidate, in a move that could end a nearly eight-month power vacuum in Lebanon. His blessings during Sunday sermon came after opposition parliamentary blocs agreed to support the nomination of Jihad Azour, a former minister who is the director of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia department. He is expected to contest the presidency against Suleiman Frangieh, the preferred candidate of Hezbollah, the Amal Movement and their allies. Al-Rahi also sent Bishop Paul Abdel Sater on Sunday to meet Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah as part of “dialogue with non-Christian forces, especially Hezbollah, to elect a president for all of Lebanon.” The bishop is expected to continue visiting all political forces this week.

Sunday’s move by the opposition parliamentary blocs follows an announcement by the Free Patriotic Movement on Saturday. There is now agreement between Christian MPs, Change MPs and some independent MPs to nominate Azour after Michel Moawad, an MP, withdrew from the election on Sunday. Some had previously supported Moawad, whom Hezbollah saw as a provocative candidate. The Progressive Socialist Party bloc is due to announce its position on Azour on Tuesday. The decision to back Azour by the FPM, the largest Christian party in parliament, came after its leader Gebran Bassil fell out with Hezbollah after the group’s nomination of Frangieh. “In the event of a call to a presidential election session, the FPM will vote for the agreed-upon name instead of submitting a blank ballot,” he said. Waddah Sadek, an MP, told Arab News that estimates of the opposition indicate that Azour will receive more than 65 votes, which means he would win if a vote went to a second round. “The ball will then be in the court of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been delaying the call for an election session since January unless he and his allies secure the election of Frangieh,” he said.

Gadhafi's son goes on hunger strike in Lebanon to protest detention without trial

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The Associated Press BEIRUT -- A son of Libya’s late leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has been held in Lebanon for more than seven years, began a hunger strike Saturday to protest his detention without trial, his lawyer said. Hannibal Gadhafi has been held in Lebanon since 2015 after he was kidnapped from neighboring Syria where he had been living as a political refugee. He was abducted by Lebanese militants demanding information about the fate of a Shiite cleric who went missing in Libya 45 years ago. Gadhafi was later taken by Lebanese authorities and has been held in a Beirut jail without trial.

Attorney Paul Romanos told The Associated Press that his client started the hunger strike Saturday morning and “he is serious and will continue with it until the end.” Romanos did not go into details of the case as he was not authorized to speak about it to the media. Gadhafi issued a statement describing his conditions. “How can a political prisoner be held without a fair trial all these years?” Gadhafi, who is married to a Lebanese woman, wrote in his statement. The Libyan citizen added that now that he is on hunger strike, “those who are treating me unjustly” will be responsible for the results. He added that “the time has come to liberate the law from the hands of politicians.” Romanos said his client suffers from back pain due to being held in a small cell for years without being able to move or exercise.

Lebanese ambassador in France accused of rape, violence

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By The New Arab Staff -- Lebanon's ambassador to France, Rami Adwan, has been investigated for rape and intentional violence following complaints by two former embassy employees, informed sources said Friday confirming an earlier media report. Due to his position, Adwan enjoys diplomatic immunity from prosecution, but the French government urged the Lebanese authorities to lift this and allow him to go on trial. "In view of the seriousness of the facts mentioned, we consider it necessary for the Lebanese authorities to lift the immunity of the Lebanese ambassador in Paris in order to facilitate the work of the French judicial authorities", the French foreign ministry told AFP late Friday. The first woman, aged 31, filed her complaint in June 2022 for a rape she says was committed in May 2020 in the ambassador's private apartment, according to sources close to the investigation confirming a Mediapart report.

According to her deposition seen by AFP, she made clear her lack of interest in having sex and that she screamed and burst into tears. The woman, who was working as an editor, had already reported to police in 2020 that Adwan, in his post since 2017, had struck her during an argument in his office. She said she had not filed a complaint because she did not want to "break the life" of the ambassador. According to the complaint, she had a relationship with the ambassador, who carried out "psychological and physical violence with daily humiliations".

Lebanese crowned No.1 ‘puff-daddies’ as world’s biggest spenders on cigars

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by arabnews.com -- LONDON: Their country’s economy may be collapsing around them, but the Lebanese are still the people most likely to treat themselves to a cigar or two, according to recently released statistics. A report from Statista Consumer Insights on 2022 spending habits found that Lebanese spent the most on cigars per capita in the world at $36.70, over a dollar more than those living in the US. Their fellow Arabs in Qatar were the third-biggest spenders at $27.40, while Bahrainis came in eighth with a $12.40 spend per capita. European nations Luxembourg, Iceland, Switzerland, UK, Netherlands and Finland rounded out the rest of the top 10.

According to Tobacco Atlas figures, Lebanon has the highest rate of smoking in the Middle East. In 2022, the Lebanese smoked 1,955 cigarettes per person, according to its report. This was compared with 1,849 in Kuwait and 1,764 in Libya. At the other end of the scale, in Saudi Arabia the figure was 485, in the UAE 438, and in Yemen 214. In a bid to tackle rampant tobacco use, the Lebanese parliament passed a law in August 2011 banning smoking in all enclosed public spaces. This included government buildings, airports, schools, modes of public transport, shopping malls, restaurants, bars and nightclubs. It also made health warnings on tobacco product packages mandatory, and banned all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.

US considering sanctions against Lebanon officials: Top diplomat

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by Joseph Haboush, Al Arabiya English -- The US is considering sanctions on top Lebanese officials for their continued obstruction of electing a new president in the country, a top State Department official said Wednesday. Meanwhile, the top two US House Foreign Affairs Committee lawmakers urged the Biden administration to sanction Lebanese individuals for corruption and to “make clear to Lebanon’s political class that the status quo is not acceptable.” Since last October, Lebanon has had no president and a fully functioning government. Pro-Syria parties, including Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, are backing Sleiman Frangieh, who has long boasted of his close ties with Bashar al-Assad. Opposition groups and the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement, have reportedly agreed to endorse Jihad Azour, a former finance minister and current International Monetary Fund (IMF) employee.

During a Senate committee hearing on the Middle East, the top US diplomat for the region said the US was considering the possibility of sanctions. Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf said Washington was working with regional and European partners to push the Lebanese parliament to do its job. “It’s a collective effort,” Leaf said.

Separately, the members of Congress slammed Lebanon’s central bank governor, Riad Salameh, as well as those responsible for the catastrophic Beirut Port blast in 2020. Salameh has an Interpol arrest warrant out for him, and there are charges against him from Germany and France over alleged corruption.

US to build regional CIA hub in Lebanon, report says

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by middleeastmonitor.com -- The US is working on building a new regional hub for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Lebanon, within a huge embassy complex with an area of 93,000 square meters on a 27-hectares (about 64 acres) site in the capital, Beirut, intelligence sources reported yesterday. The complex, which is estimated to cost $1 billion, will also include an arts centre, a hospital, a swimming pool, residential towers and a data collection centre, according to the French Intelligence Online website. The sources added that the US intelligence sees Lebanon as a safe and strategic location for the deployment of intelligence agents. Washington also intends to benefit from its excellent intelligence partnership with the Lebanese army's B2 military intelligence unit, according to the sources. The French website learned that US funding for the Lebanese army includes a guarantee that allows the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) unlimited access to its intelligence information.

Lebanon frees kidnapped Saudi national, arrests nine suspects -officials

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DUBAI/BEIRUT, (Reuters) - Lebanon's army intelligence freed a Saudi national who was abducted on Sunday in Beirut and also arrested some of those involved, the army announced on Tuesday. An online army statement said that Saudi citizen Mashari al-Mutairi had been freed in an operation along the Lebanese border with Syria. Saudi's state-run Al Ekhbariya television station reported late on Monday that a man working for Saudi Arabian Airlines had been kidnapped in the Lebanese capital on Sunday, and that those responsible had demanded a $400,000 ransom.

In a press conference at the Saudi embassy after Mutairi's release, Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said that no ransom was paid, and that Lebanese security forces had taken nine people into custody over the kidnapping. Mawlawi said the incident would not impact diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Ties between the two countries withered in 2021, when the kingdom and other Gulf states withdrew their envoys following years of frustration at the growing influence of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement over Lebanon's state. They sent ambassadors back to Beirut in April 2022.