by msn.com — Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. general in the Middle East, said he is closely monitoring the conflict between Israel and Hamas in case it widens into Lebanon. McKenzie, who is overseeing the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, also said that he would present a plan in early June to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for how the U.S. would carry out its “over-the-horizon” operations after all 2,500 American troops have left. The U.S. Central Command commander talked with a small group of reporters traveling with him to the Middle East Wednesday about how CENTCOM will soon incorporate Israel into its area of responsibility, assuming the primary U.S. military relationship that for decades has been undertaken by U.S. European Command.

McKenzie said the current conflict between Israel and Hamas has not affected the planned transition in any way, but he said CENTCOM is “closely monitoring” the conflict in case it should widen further. “I think a conflict on that scale isn’t good for any kind of stability anywhere,” said McKenzie. “There is a danger any time that a conflict like this drags on — of it widening — that would be dangerous.” McKenzie said the main concern is that the conflict could widen into neighboring Lebanon, which is home to some Palestinian extremist groups and Hezbollah. “We certainly don’t want that to happen, I’m sure that Israel doesn’t want that to happen,” he added. “That is very concerning,” said McKenzie. “Although it looks like there haven’t been any significant attacks from Lebanon, that could change.” “I hope that the status quo remains and that does not occur,” said McKenzie. “But I think that would be the principal area where it could widen, I hope it doesn’t happen.”

The rockets fired by militants in Lebanon into northern Israel threatened to open up a new front in the fighting. The rocket attack, which drew Israeli artillery fire in response but did not cause any injuries, raised the possibility of dragging Israel into renewed conflict with the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah to its north. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, and Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war against Israel in 2006, has stayed out of the fighting for now. The rockets were widely believed to be fired by Palestinian factions based in south Lebanon. But they cannot operate without Hezbollah’s tacit consent, and the barrage appears to be carefully calibrated to send a political message that the group, which has tens of thousands of missiles, could join the battle at any time. Israel considers Hezbollah to be its most formidable threat, and has threatened widespread destruction in Lebanon if war were to erupt.

رئيس سليمان يطالب حكومة تصريف الأعمال بإجراءات فورية لإصلاح ما أفسدته المواقف  نبه الرئيس العماد مبشال سليمان إلى وجوب التزام السلطات السياسية والمسؤولين كافة في مواقفهم من الدول الصديقة، سقف السياسة العامة للدولة التي يقررها مجلس الوزراء بما يخدم المصلحة الوطنية والعلاقات التاريخية مع هذه الدول. وأشار في بيان إلى ان التعرض للدول العربية الصديقة […]

by aljazeera.com — In a television interview on Monday, Wehbe Lebanese Foreign Minister, Top diplomat appeared to blame Gulf nations for the rise of the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in the Levant region. “Those countries of love, friendship and fraternity, they brought us Islamic State,” he told Alhurra, without naming the countries. Wehbe made the comment during a verbal duel with a Saudi guest on the show, who blamed Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun for “handing over” his country to the Lebanese Shia movement, Hezbollah, which is backed by Riyadh’s rival Tehran. The Saudi foreign ministry strongly condemned Wehbe’s “insulting” remarks, saying they were “inconsistent with the simplest diplomatic norms”. The ministry “summoned the Lebanese ambassador to express the kingdom’s rejection and denunciation” of his comments, said the statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency. Wehbe apologised on Tuesday, saying he did not mean to offend “brotherly Arab countries”. In a separate statement, Nayef al-Hajraf, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), demanded a formal apology from Wehbe to Gulf states for his “unacceptable” remarks.

by alarabiya.net — Joseph Haboush — Lebanon’s top diplomat is expected to step down from his position this week, a senior Foreign Ministry official said late Tuesday, hours after the minister accused Gulf countries of supporting ISIS in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Charbel Wehbe, who is currently the foreign minister in a caretaker capacity, unleashed a reckless diatribe against Saudi Arabia and the Gulf during a televised interview with Al-Hurra on Monday.. Following public backlash from Lebanese officials, politicians and the public, Wehbe will now “probably announce that he’s stepping down,” the ministry official told Al Arabiya English. Beirut has already been reeling from strained ties with the Gulf due to Hezbollah’s increased influence and role in state institutions following the election of President Michel Aoun, an ally of the Iran-backed group, in 2016.

By LAMA ALHAMAWI — arabnews.com — RIYADH: Italy and the UN’s cultural arm have signed a €1 million ($1.21 million) funding agreement to renovate one of Beirut’s most famous museums. Located in a historic villa in Achrafieh, the Sursock Museum was severely damaged in the Beirut port blasts last August. The building houses more than […]

by ndtv.com — The Israeli army said it launched artillery towards Lebanon on Monday in response to rocket fire from the neighbouring country that failed to hit the Jewish state. “Six failed launch attempts were identified from Lebanon that did not cross into Israeli territory,” the army said in a statement. “Artillery forces fired toward the sources of the launches.” A Lebanese military source told AFP three rockets had been fired from Southern Lebanon towards Israel. “Three Grad-type rockets were fired from the Shebaa Farms area,” not far from the Israeli border, the Lebanese military source said. “The situation in the area is now calm,” tweeted the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, which is in contact with both countries, several hours after the rocket fire. It is the second time rockets have been launched from Lebanese territory towards Israel since hostilities flared between the Jewish state and armed Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip last week.

Last Thursday, three rockets were fired from southern Lebanon near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh toward Israel, a Lebanese military source said. Israel’s army said those rockets had landed in the sea. A source close to Israel’s arch-enemy Hezbollah said the Lebanese Shiite group had no link to the incident.

by Naharnet — Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called on Lebanese authorities to “control the Lebanese-Israeli border” and “prevent the use of Lebanese territory as a launchpad for rockets,” after three rockets were fired recently from Lebanon at the sea off Israel amid a major Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Beware that some become implicated in the […]

By by Giulia Dal Bello — globalriskinsights.com — With the Lebanese Lira hitting a new low at the beginning of March, Lebanon is at the brink of collapse, undergoing fuel shortages and driving its population into poverty. The economic crisis has worsened in the last year due to the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, the explosion of the port of Beirut in August, and, above all, to the Lebanese political class that has repeatedly failed to form a government. The political vacuum has given room to Hezbollah, which is likely one of the actors responsible for stalling the government’s formation, to demonstrate its abilities in managing the country through its apparently well-developed social welfare.

Hezbollah, namely the Party of God, has been largely criticized for being one of the main causes behind the current financial crisis, many Lebanese are turning to the terrorist organization in order to enjoy basic services that the state is no longer able to provide. As a means of gaining consensus, Hezbollah has implemented a series of programs and initiatives to assist the population economically, such as expanding the services of its parallel banking system, carrying out smuggling with Syria in order to provide cheaper goods, making donations to the Shi’ite population, and supporting agricultural projects to ensure weak families’ economic independence. Parallel Banking System

Firstly, when traditional banks shut their doors and froze dollar accounts, Hezbollah was able to supply hard currency through its parallel banking system known as Al-Qard al-Hasan Association. Al-Qard al-Hasan Association (AQAH), literally the “benevolent loan”, is managed as a charity, but, in fact, it can be considered a banking system for all intents and purposes. Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader, encouraged depositing the money at Al-Qard al-Hasan, claiming that the bank had already provided $3.7 billion in loans to some 1.8 million people. He depicted the association as rock-solid, declaring that the Party’s supporters, who deposited money at the al-Qard al-Hasan, managed to keep their money when banks claimed that they were unable to pay their depositors in dollars.

by arabnews.com — Najia Houssari — BEIRUT: Lebanon’s response to the violence in Gaza and its relationship with Palestine is the subject of angry debate after rockets were fired from southern Lebanon toward Israeli settlements. Former MP Nadim Gemayel warned that “Lebanon is neither a military base nor a missile platform for Palestinian factions or Iranian militias.” He demanded that “the state and security services act quickly and strike with an iron fist, for Lebanon today cannot afford to repeat the experience of the 60s.” Gemayel said the “number one cause today is the Lebanese cause only.” MP Bilal Abdallah said that “Lebanon is facing an economic collapse and a vacuum in its political power, and the Palestine issue should not be put at the forefront.” He told Arab News: “What is happening requires insight and calm.”

The remarks of both political figures came as Lebanese and Palestinian youths stormed a fence on the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel on Friday. However, they were unable to cross the Israeli security barrier that stood in their way. Groups of young men demonstrated near the border area facing the settlement of Al-Mutla, and attempted to cross a barbed-wire fence to gain access, but were met with tear-gas canisters fired by Israeli troops, forcing them to disperse and return to Lebanese territory. The incident came after rockets were launched from southern Lebanon on Thursday toward Israeli settlements. While Hezbollah denied any connection to the strikes, a statement hinted at the group’s potential involvement in the conflict if violence worsens.

By ZEINA KARAM — BEIRUT (AP) — A Turkish company that provides electricity to Lebanon from two power barges shut down its operations on Friday over delayed payments and the threat of legal action against its vessels. The move is expected to increase outages in the crisis-hit Mediterranean country. The company Karpowership has been threatening to shut down its power supply to Lebanon for weeks and said it took the decision on Friday because of 18 months of overdue payments in excess of $100 million. However, the decision comes after a Lebanese prosecutor last week threatened to seize the ships, pending an investigation into corruption and graft allegations. The company has called those accusations baseless. The company provides around 370 megawatts — about a quarter of Lebanon’s supply – through two electricity barges that have been anchored off the Lebanese coast since 2013. The company’s contract expires in September. “For 18 months, we have been exceedingly flexible with the (Lebanese) state, continually supplying power without payment or a payment plan, because the country was already facing very hard times,” the Karpowership statement said. “However, no company can operate in an environment with such direct and undue risk,” it added.

The decision is expected to decrease electricity supply by about four to six hours a day in a country that already suffers prolonged electricity cuts. It comes at a time the Central Bank and government are considering ending fuel subsidies, a move that would lead to a sharp increase in the price of gasoline and diesel, making even generator subscriptions unaffordable to most Lebanese. Blackouts have been a fixture of life in this Mediterranean country since the 1975-1990 civil war, with Lebanon relying mostly on imported diesel for the powerful generators cartel that lights up people’s houses in the absence of government electricity. Beirut residents have set their routines around three-hour cuts that determine when they can turn on their air conditioning in the summer and water heaters in the winter. Outside the capital of Beirut, the outages can last up to 12 hours or more. Successive governments have failed to agree on a permanent solution for the chronic electricity failures, largely because of profiteering, endemic corruption and lack of political will.

by AFP — Ibrahim al-Dika had raised his Belgian shepherd Lexi since she was a tiny pup, but then Lebanon’s economic crisis made him jobless and he had to sell her to repay a bank loan. “It got to the point where I was no longer able to feed her, the bank was pressuring me, and I hit a wall,” said the 26-year-old, devastated beside her empty kennel outside his Beirut home. “I didn’t sell a car or a telephone. I sold a soul. I sold a part of me.” Can you afford to keep your pet? Animal activists say this is a dilemma a growing number of Lebanese owners are facing as their purchasing power nosedives.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese have lost their jobs or seen their income reduced to a pittance due to Lebanon’s worst economic crisis in decades. As many families struggle to stay afloat, activists say increasingly more pet owners are asking for help to feed or re-home their animals, selling them, or in the worst cases abandoning them. Dika, after losing his father to illness, was laid off last year when his employer, a fashion retailer, closed shop, affecting his ability to support his mother and brother. He had spent around a year caring for Lexi, and training her to sit, heel, give him the paw, and play dead. But when the bank started calling, he saw no option other than to sell her. He drove over a few days later to check in on her, and Lexi thought he had come to take her home. “She leapt straight into my car,” he said. “She broke my heart the way she looked at me.”