The Daily Star BEIRUT: Veteran TV host Marcel Ghanem will leave LBCI TV channel after more than two decades of hosting the late night political show Kalam Ennas. The news was confirmed Friday night in a joint statement issued by Ghanem and LBCI’s CEO Pierre Daher. The statement reported that Ghanem’s departure from the station […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – IMF criticism of Lebanon’s public finances is valid, but the country’s draft 2018 budget sends a good signal as it seeks to cut one of the world’s highest debt-to-GDP ratios from above 150 percent, the head of its central bank said. Riad Salameh also said in an interview with Reuters on Friday […]

Article represents opinion of the Publication NPR –  by NPR-  Saudi Arabia’s future king has hidden the whereabouts of his mother from his father and the public, according to U.S. officials. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has given his father, King Salman, a number of different explanations for her absence, say 14 current and former U.S. […]

by al-monitor.com – Nour Samaha — BEIRUT — It is officially election season in Lebanon, and the air is quickly filling up with the chatter of candidates, programs, videos, publicity stunts and alliances. Who can blame them? It has been almost a decade since Lebanon’s last parliamentary elections on June 7, 2009; the delay has been caused political […]

  Today the European Union has announced a €50 million package to support the Lebanese security sector, as part of its longstanding commitment to the stability and security of Lebanon. This package includes €46.6 million for promoting the rule of law, enhancing security and countering terrorism until 2020 and €3.5 million in support of airport […]

By Sune Engel Rasmussen and Nazih Osseiran – WSJ – BEIRUT—A high-level Lebanese delegation, faced with a tense border with Syria and financial strains at home, is setting off on a three-city European tour to solicit aid from allies who see Lebanon as a bulwark for stability in a volatile region. At a 40-nation donor […]

BEIRUT (AP) — ACCLAIMED Lebanese author and feminist Emily Nasrallah, who articulated women’s experiences in her writing about Lebanon’s civil war, has died at the age of 87, her daughter said. Her writing touched on women’s determination, migration and the terror of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 Civil War. She was the author of several books for adults […]

by aawsat.com — Lebanese President Michel Aoun will place the file of “Hezbollah’s” arms on the negotiation table following the May 6 parliamentary elections. On Monday, the President said his country demands “the necessary international support for the Lebanese armed forces so that they are able to carry on assuming their duty of preserving security […]

A judge freed Ziad Itani from detention and ordered the arrest of a security officer who built the case against him. Mr Itani was suspected of gathering information on Lebanese politicians with a view to passing it on to Israel. It was alleged that Mr Itani had confessed to being “tasked to monitor a group […]

Washington (CNN)Hours before President Donald Trump agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters the US was “a long way” from direct talks with North Korea. It was just the latest episode of public dissonance between the President and his secretary of state on the thorniest and most significant foreign policy issue facing the US. It would also be the last. The next day, Tillerson was roused from his sleep in a Nairobi, Kenya, hotel room by a call from White House chief of staff John Kelly, who told the former Exxon CEO that his time as the US’ top diplomat was up, three administration officials said. Two people familiar with the matter said the North Korea issue was the biggest factor in the decision, as Trump and Tillerson have clashed over the US approach for months.

Washington Post – On the flight back from Nigeria, Tillerson appeared to break with the White House in his assessment of the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Britain. He singled out Russia as responsible for the attack, echoing the finger-pointing of the British government. “It came from Russia,” Tillerson said, according to the Associated Press. “I cannot understand why anyone would take such an action. But this is a substance that is known to us and does not exist widely.” Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned the attack as “reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible,” and expressed solidarity with Britain, but would not say whether the United States believes Russia was behind it.

Pompeo long has been mentioned as Tillerson’s most likely replacement. As CIA director, the former Republican lawmaker from Kansas developed a warm relationship with Trump, often delivering the President’s Daily Brief to Trump in person and racing over to the West Wing at a moment’s notice to field the president’s queries on a range of topics. Pompeo often is found in a host of meetings that do not necessarily deeply involve his agency, simply because Trump likes him, said one White House official. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was initially mentioned as a replacement for Pompeo, but Trump opted to promote from within by elevating Haspel. Tillerson emerged as one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia. For months, he has been saying Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, even as Trump shied away from any critical remarks. Trump seemed to resent pressure to stay the course on such issues as China’s trade practices, the war in Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear deal, those people said. Tillerson pushed Trump to preserve the Iran accord, at least for now, with a July pronouncement that Iran was meeting its end of the bargain — which curbs Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions. Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview that he regretted making that determination. In October, Trump kept in place the sanctions waivers, but warned he may not continue the policy when the next review is due in May. Although Tillerson supported the approach to the war in Afghanistan that Trump announced last year, he felt no need to frame U.S. goals in the same maximal terms as the commander in chief. Where Trump proclaimed on Aug. 21 that “our troops will fight to win,” Tillerson laid out a much more modest agenda