The Daily Star — BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun Thursday said the joint statement by the European Union and United Nations after yesterday’s Brussels conference on the Syrian refugee crisis infringed on Lebanese sovereignty. “I declare my rejection of the statement issued by the [EU and UN], including what was stated on ‘voluntary return,’ ‘temporary return,’ ‘will […]

Congratulations from khazen.org to Dr. Cheikh Farid Elias el Khazen for being nominated as the Lebanese Ambassador at the Vatican by elnashra علمت “​النشرة​” أن “​مجلس الوزراء​ عيّن النائب ​فريد الياس الخازن​ سفيراً ل​لبنان​ في ​الفاتيكان​”. وكان قد شغل الخازن وظيفة أستاذ ورئيس قسم الدراسات السياسية في الجامعة الاميركية في بيروت وهو أيضا نائب حالي […]

by business insider –Prachi Bhardwaj — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos spends a tiny fraction of his net worth to fund Blue Origin, the space company he started back in 2000. For a man worth $127 billion dollars, that tiny fraction amounts to $1 billion a year, which he gets by liquidating Amazon stock, Bezos said at an […]

the dailystar.com.lb –The Constitutional Court is set to convene Thursday to consider an appeal brought forth Tuesday by MP Sami Gemayel against a controversial article in the 2018 state budget, the state-run National News Agency reported. The MP is fighting against Article 49 of the budget, which allows for temporary residency for foreigners who acquire […]

The Daily Star BEIRUT: President Michel Aoun in a televised speech Wednesday evening called on the Lebanese public to exercise their right to vote and reject sectarianism, days before thousands of expatriates head to the polls for parliamentary elections. The president warned voters against those “who foment feelings of sectarianism and fanaticism because they undermine the stability of the country.” He told voters not to the give their support to candidates who offer money in return for their ballots, “because those who buy you will eventually sell you and those who sell the citizen will sell the country just as easily.” Aoun also said to “beware of those who launch campaigns based on the negative aspects of others and who only resort in their political speeches to defamation, slander and rumor without really having a concrete project to showcase.” The full text of the speech: To the Lebanese men and women, in Lebanon and abroad, You will be invited to vote in a few days, nine years after the last [parliamentary] elections, during which Lebanon has seen major events including the scourge of terrorism that has hit the Middle East. Our country, by its strength, was able to combat terrorism, remained intact, and regained its security and stability. After the presidential elections, it was normal to adopt a new law for the legislative elections, as promised in my inaugural speech. This new electoral law guarantees the fairest representation to all the components of the Lebanese people, be it the majority or the minority, and also grants, for the first time, the right to vote to the Lebanese diaspora wherever it may be. In addition to the effective representation, this law determines the political choice through the closed list. Through this choice, it is now possible for the voter to show his personal appreciation of the candidates in the selected list by giving his preferential vote to the candidate he deems the best. However, the reverse of the medal, as pointed out by almost all observers, is a conflict that has emerged between members of the same list to obtain the preferential vote. However, this fact is not attributable to the law per se, but rather to the candidates themselves. Indeed, the law is the framework that gives voters the freedom of choice, while the conflict is due to the lack of cooperation between members of the same list or to the fact that they are still not used to be part of a positive competition. Another downside that has emerged recently is the decline of the political discourse, and the most dangerous is that it is currently moving towards feeding fanaticism.

By reuters –Dahlia Nehme  The May 6 vote will take place using a complicated new electoral law. It is not expected to cause major changes to the government or its policies. Analysts expect Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri will head the next cabinet. But the law has made the outcome less predictable in some places. This […]

Article represents opinion of the author do not necessarily represents khazen.org   by Seth Frantzman –tsarizm.com – On April 22, 2018 Ali al-Amine (Amin علي الامين), a Lebanese politician and journalist was attacked and hospitalized. He was a candidate for the Shbeana Haki (شبعنا حكي) or “we are fed up” list. He is a candidate for […]

by aawsat.com – Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese detainee currently held in Iran, is in “very bad health,” his family members said in a statement presented to Prime Minister Saad Hariri Monday. PM Hariri received a delegation from the town of Kalamoun, headed by the President of the Municipality Talal Dankar, in the presence of the […]

Article represents opinion of the author -Khazen.org not responsible of the content 

by MARK MACKINNON theglobeandmail.com– Between Syria’s civil war and Tehran’s escalating standoff with Israel, Lebanon’s ‘Party of God’ has been busy lately. Now, analysts say, the Iranian-backed militia’s members are coming home. Mark MacKinnon investigates what they’re returning to, and why Young Hezbollah supporters attend a rally in the southern suburbs of Beirut with a poster of Imad Mughniyah, one of the main founders of Hezbollah in the 1980s. Lebanese voters head to the polls for a parliamentary election on May 6. Standing on a hill overlooking Lebanon’s border with Israel, Talal Saad is telling his brother, visiting from Germany, tales of the last war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia − and the destruction that was wrought in the south of this country. The border is quiet now, and has been for most of the intervening 12 years. But few things in the Middle East feel permanent these days, as the multisided war in Syria grinds on and the risk of a major clash between Israel and Hezbollah’s main backer, Iran, grows larger.

The seven-year-old conflict in Syria has grown into something like a mini-world war in recent months, further dragging regional and global players into the fray at an alarming pace. The United States and its allies Britain, France and Saudi Arabia stand on one side of the conflict, seeking to isolate and perhaps topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russia and Iran, both of which have forces on the ground to support Mr. al-Assad. There’s a separate, but related, conflict in the north of the country, pitting Turkey’s army against a Kurdish militia that it considers to be a “terrorist” group, while Turkey’s NATO allies the United States and France support the same Kurds in a fight that has pushed the Islamic State to the brink of defeat. But none of those dynamics is as flammable as the confrontation between Israel and Iran. And Tehran’s firmest ally in any fight with the Jewish state would be Hezbollah, the Shia militia − called “terrorist” by Canada and the United States − that is the dominant military and political force in Lebanon, a country with fading hopes of staying out of the fighting that surrounds it. Hezbollah is armed and funded by Iran, and for the past six years it has fought on the side of Mr. al-Assad’s forces, helping prevent the collapse of the regime. There are reports Hezbollah fighters have also been dispatched to help train pro-Iranian forces in Iraq and Yemen. Now, Lebanese analysts say, with the Syrian regime increasingly gaining control over the country, Hezbollah is starting to bring the bulk of its fighters home. The question hanging over Lebanon and the region is what Hezbollah intends to do with them next. In the valley below the road the two brothers paused on, Israel has begun erecting a concrete barrier between the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila and Metula, an Israeli town a shouting distance away. Eventually, the seven-metre-high wall is supposed to extend along the entire Israel-Lebanon frontier. Mr. Saad isn’t sure it will matter. “If there’s another war, it will happen whether this wall is here or not.” ‘I wouldn’t call it peaceful’

On Feb. 10, an Iranian drone that Israel says was armed with explosives was shot down over the Golan Heights, prompting an exchange of fire that saw Israeli fighter jets strike at the Syrian base the drone was launched from, while Syrian anti-aircraft defences shot down one of the attacking planes, which crashed just after it crossed back into Israeli airspace. On April 8, Israeli jets − this time operating from Lebanese airspace − struck again, attacking another Syrian airbase, known as T-4. Seven Iranians were among the dead. Israel, in a break with past practice, acknowledged it was behind the strike. “It was the first time we attacked live Iranian targets − both facilities and people,” an unnamed military source told The New York Times. Israel has signalled repeatedly that it will not allow Iran to continue building up its military infrastructure in Syria. The nightmare scenario for the Jewish state would be to see Iran take advantage of Syria’s civil war to replicate a Hezbollah-like force there, the same way it used the chaos of Lebanon’s wars in the 1980s to create the original. Assaf Orion, a retired Israeli brigadier-general, recently told The Globe and Mail that any effort to confront Iran in Syria would almost certainly involve Hezbollah and Lebanon as well. Iran has vowed vengeance for the strike on T-4. The country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Thursday the Islamic Republic was facing its enemies on “a large battlefield.” In words that will be taken as orders by the country’s military establishment, Ayatollah Khamenei added that “besides defending, we should have offensive plans against the enemy, too.”