BEIRUT, July 24 (Xinhua) — The families of nine Lebanese servicemen being held hostage by Islamic State (IS) have expressed concerns over the fate of their sons, local LBCI TV reported. Hussein Youssef, the father of captive soldier Mohammed Youssef, said in an interview with LBCI that he was worried about his son, after Hezbollah […]

by Christopher Woody –Amid ISIS’ defeat in the Iraqi city of Mosul and ongoing fighting in its self-declared capital in Raqqa, Syria, the fate of its leader, Abu Bark al Baghdadi, remains unknown. Russia said in late June that it believed he had been killed in a bombing raid on Raqqa, but earlier this week […]

by catholicherald.co.uk – A Catholic charity has sent 15 statues of the Virgin Mary to the Middle East to replace ones destroyed by ISIS. The group Œuvre d’Orient, a French association dedicated to helping persecuted Christians, has sent the statues from Lourdes to Ankawa, a suburb of the city of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, which […]

By AFP – US President Donald Trump will meet Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Washington next week for talks on issues including refugees and combatting terrorism, the White House announced Friday. Analysts also anticipate US aid will be high on the agenda of the July 25th talks at the White House, which has made […]

by Associated Press – The Syrian army and members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group launched a major ground offensive on Friday aimed at ending the years-long presence of hundreds of militants in a border area between the two countries. The offensive was widely expected after negotiations with militants to leave the area failed over the […]

by english.aawsat.com – Fatah Al-Rahman Youssef Riyadh- The Lebanese Labor and Investment Council in Saudi Arabia  =said it was looking forward to increasing investment partnerships between Riyadh and Beirut in the sectors of health, services, petrochemicals, industry, leisure and tourism. It added that the resumption of “Flynass” flights to Beirut would enable the business sector […]

Our prayers with Nizar Zakkar BEIRUT (AP) ” The family of a Lebanese man with U.S. permanent residency who has been held in Iran for nearly two years says his condition is deteriorating three weeks after starting a hunger strike. The brother of Nizar Zakka, who went missing on Sept. 18, 2015, during his fifth […]

by NAJIA AL-HOUSSARI | Special to Arab News  BEIRUT: The Lebanese army is taking “all necessary measures” to protect towns near the border with Syria from terrorists operating in the area, the commander of the country’s armed forces has said. Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun on Wednesday inspected the military forces in the areas around […]

BEIRUT, July 19 (Xinhua) — After passing the public sector’s salary scale bill on Tuesday, the Lebanese parliament approved on Wednesday a series of laws that raise taxes to secure revenues for funding the wage scale. The house, in the second legislative session, approved a 7 percent tax rate on bank’s profits, along with an […]

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(Reuters) – On Tuesday June 21 Mohammed bin Nayef, a powerful figure in Saudi Arabia’s security apparatus for the past two decades and the next in line to the throne, was summoned to meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz on the fourth floor of the royal palace in Mecca. There, according to a source close to MbN, as he is known, the king ordered him to step aside in favor of the king’s favorite son, Mohammed bin Salman. The reason: an addiction to painkilling drugs was clouding MbN’s judgment. “The king came to meet MbN and they were alone in the room. He told him: ‘I want you to step down, you didn’t listen to the advice to get treatment for your addiction which dangerously affects your decisions’,” said the source close to MbN.

The new details about the extraordinary meeting between the king and MbN that touched off the de facto palace coup help to explain the events that are reshaping the leadership of the world’s biggest oil exporting nation. Reuters could not independently confirm MbN’s addiction issues. Palace officials declined to respond to detailed questions about the circumstances surrounding MbN’s overthrow. Sources with knowledge of the situation said however that the king was determined to elevate his son to be heir to the throne and used MbN’s drug problem as a pretext to push him aside. Three royal insiders, four Arab officials with links to the ruling house of Saud, and diplomats in the region, told Reuters that MbN was surprised to be ordered to step aside. “It was a big shock to MbN,” said a Saudi political source close to MbN. “It was a coup. He wasn’t prepared.” The sources said MbN did not expect to be usurped by the often impulsive Mohammed bin Salman, who MbN considered to have made a number of policy blunders, such as his handling of the Yemen conflict and cutting financial benefits to civil servants.

The high-stakes power grab has placed sweeping powers in the hands of the 32-year-old Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MbS, and appears designed to speed his accession to the throne. Should he get the job, the young prince will preside over a kingdom facing tough times from depressed oil prices, the conflict in Yemen, rivalry with an emboldened Iran and a major diplomatic crisis in the Gulf. The source close to MbN acknowledged that he had health issues, which were aggravated after an al Qaeda attacker tried to blow himself up in front of him in his palace in 2009. The health issues were corroborated by three other sources in Saudi Arabia and Arab official sources with links to the royal family. An Arab source with close Saudi links also provided a similar account of the meeting at which King Salman asked MbN to step down because of his alleged drug addiction. These sources said MbN had shrapnel in his body that could not be removed and he depended on drugs such as morphine to alleviate the pain. One source said MbN had been treated in clinics in Switzerland on three occasions in recent years. Reuters was unable to confirm this independently.