BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon cannot ask for support at upcoming donor conferences unless it first passes the 2018 budget, the finance minister said on Monday, a move which would signal to potential financial backers that the government is serious about economic reforms. Political tensions had left Lebanon without a government budget from 2005 until it […]

The Daily Star BEIRUT: Electricite du Liban contract workers briefly blocked a main highway during a protest Monday that erupted into intermittent clashes with riot police. The workers, who initially were demonstrating at EDL headquarters in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael, headed to the adjacent highway, blocking it and bringing traffic to a halt. President of the […]

Source AFP and Naharnet – Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz met Sunday with a senior United States official seeking to defuse an escalating oil and gas dispute with Lebanon, his office said. A statement from his spokesman said Steinitz held talks with Acting Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield about conflicting claims to energy reserves […]

Al bawaba – A video of an Internal Security Forces officer slapping an Electricité du Liban worker went viral over the weekend, sparking outrage and prompting the ISF to promise to open an investigation. The incident took place Friday when EDL contract workers held a protest at the state-run company’s headquarters in Mar Mikhael in east […]

by ansamed.info – VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Friday received staff and students from the Pontifical Maronite College here in Rome, telling them that these years of training were the foundation stone of their future as pastors in Lebanon and the whole of the Middle East. Greeting seminarians and staff, Francis began by reflecting on […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah on Friday urged Lebanon to stand firm in its offshore energy dispute with Israel and warned it could act against Israeli oil facilities if necessary, as the U.S. mediates between the two countries. In a televised address, the leader of the heavily-armed, Iran-backed movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, described the issue as […]

by Naharnet – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Lebanon Thursday where he held talks with senior Lebanese officials. Tillerson’s visit, part of a tour of the Middle East, comes at a time of tension between Lebanon and neighboring Israel, notably over the role of Hizbullah and Israel’s encroachment on the country’s land and […]

by The Daily Star BEIRUT: Lebanon paid tribute to the late Rafik Hariri Wednesday as politicians and friends of the former prime minister visited his tomb and a torch was lit near the place of his assassination 13 years ago. Speaking from a commemoration ceremony at Beirut’s BIEL, the late prime minister’s son and current prime […]

by AFP – AMMAN: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday conceded that Iran-backed Hezbollah is part of the “political process” in Lebanon, appearing to soften Washington’s tone ahead of a visit to the country. “We support a free, democratic Lebanon free of influence of others, and we know that Lebanese Hezbollah is influenced […]

BEIRUT, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) — Beirut’s First Investigative Judge Ghassan Oueidat dropped on Monday a case against Saudi Arabia’s Arab Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer Sabhan because it conflicted with Lebanon’s supreme interest, the Daily Star reported. It said Oueidat justified his decision based on the idea that “the tweets made by Minister Sabhan came within […]