MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Lebanon expects additional support of Russia in the fight against terrorism, Lebanon’s Finance Minister Ali Khalil said at the meeting with Russian Federation Council lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev. “You backed our security forces and our army a long time ago, and now we would like this effort to be increased and to […]

oseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Beirut: Although Nouhad Al Mashnouq, the Minister of Interior, tried to quell security concerns in the aftermath of the BLOM Bank headquarters bombing on June 12, the cabinet once again postponed a discussion of the sorely contentious fate of the State Security agency that became an orphan institution after senior […]

BY yalibnan.com

The Lebanese presidency will be discussed during separate
visits by  Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif and Deputy
Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman to France late in June,
An Nahar daily reported on Saturday.

Paris,which began preparations for the visit
of its Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to Beirut on the tenth of
July, is seeking to further consultations with the regional and
international powers to push towards helping Lebanon out of the
political impasse linked to disruption of the election of a president
for more than two years now, according to the daily.

In a somewhat related development Wiam Wahhab, a close ally of Syria and Hezbollah told Free
Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun that he has an
“authorization” from Hezbollah to negotiate with former Lebanese PM
and Future movement leader  Saad Hariri over the latter’s possible
return to the premiership under the country’s next president.

by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Gulf News

Beirut: Phalange Party leader Sami Gemayel pulled two ministers out
of Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s cabinet, as Sejaan Qazzi (Labour) and
Alain Hakim (Economy) joined Ashraf Rifi (Justice), who quit on February
21 to protest cabinet procrastination in referring the case of former
Minister of Information Michel Samaha to the Judicial Council.

“The
Phalange Party has decided to resign from the government because
Lebanon needs a ‘positive shock’,” Gemayel affirmed at a carefully
staged press conference, and rejected what he termed “cabinet
mechanisms” that stifled objections, which apparently prevented classic
deal-makings.

Flanked by Qazzi and Hakim, Gemayel attacked
ministers who, he claimed, were not concerned with the protection of the
banking sector against regular verbal attacks — presumably by Hezbollah
officials against Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh — and showed
little interest in the plan submitted by the Minister of Economy to
revitalise the sector. Gemayel did not mince his words when he declared
that ministers “are only concerned with passing suspicious deals,” which
may have been in reference to the waste disposal solution that was
agreed to after an eight-month-long ordeal that left Beirut and Mount
Lebanon reeking in garbage.

by Alexandra Talty, When the Hells Angels arrived in Beirut this spring, they showed up at
the Four Seasons, located in the upscale neighborhood of Zaytouna Bay,
whose clean and empty streets are sprinkled with high-end hotels and
swim clubs. The unlikely setting was the site of the Harley-Davidson
Owner’s Group (HOGs) annual general assembly. Given Harley-Davidson’s
appeal to the upper middle class, the Four Seasons was not an unusual
location for a HOGs event, but few expected the presence of the world’s
most notorious motorcycle club.

Marwan Tarraf, the 47-year-old founder of Lebanon’s first Harley
dealership, recognized the outlaws instantly because of their signifying
tattoos and heavy chains. Approaching three “full-time” Angels, whom he
assumed were Germans of Lebanese descent, he asked why they were there.
When Angels expressed interest in opening a chapter in Beirut, he
explained a few things about the country to them.

“It would be like going to Somalia and trying to start an outlaw
group,” Tarraf tells me. “There are militias with 10,000 armed men in
them. The rulers of those militias are basically ruling the country.”

From a spate of trendy repair shops to the plethora of biker bars,
motorcycles are having their moment in Beirut. What began as a few men
in the 1970s and 80s drawn to the abandon of the road and the freedom of
a world outside of politics has now become a subculture in its own
right.

TheGuardian, by John Brunton – Despite being in a conflict zone, Beirut is somehow rising like a
phoenix from the ashes. The past 12 months have seen the reopening of
the Sursock Museum,
a contemporary art gallery supervised by renowned French architect
Jean-Michel Wilmotte, and the inauguration of Aishti, a cutting-edge art
foundation that rivals the Punta della Dogana in Venice. In September,
the doors will open to Beit Beirut (beitbeirut.org), a museum and arts centre dedicated to the memory of decades of conflict.

It’s housed in an imposing neo-Ottoman villa on the former “green
line” between Muslim and Christian Beirut and served as a sniper bunker
during the civil war. Its crumbling, half-destroyed state has been
deliberately preserved, complete with bullet holes and shell pockmarks.
Youssef Haidar, the architect of the project, says: “The new museum will
hopefully be a step towards replacing the mass amnesia here for what
has happened in the past, so that we can come to terms with our
uncertain, but promising and wishful future.”

These new museums are just a small part of what is happening in the
Lebanese capital. While the guidebooks talk up luxury hotels and haute
couture in the restored downtown area, a host of bars and restaurants,
local designer boutiques and art galleries are popping up in the more
bohemian neighbourhoods of Mar Mikhael, Badaro and Gemmayzeh.

By NAZANIN LANKARANI

PARIS — The designer Karen Chekerdjian
is known in her native Lebanon for modernist objects made with
traditional materials and techniques. Now, two exhibitions in Paris — at
the Institut du Monde Arabe and at the private Dutko Gallery
— offer a close look at an artist who addresses the divide between art
and function, and the wider gap between Western and Arab cultures.

The
show at the Institut du Monde Arabe, “Respiration,” opened on May 30
and runs until Aug. 28. The exhibition at the Dutko with the same title
closed on Sunday, with pieces offered for sale through August.

“The
idea was to show the positive elements of the Arab world,” said
Philippe Castro, the chief adviser to Jack Lang, the president of the
institute and a former French culture minister. “Today, that can only be
shown through Arab art. There is real creativity coming out of the Arab
world, especially Lebanon. Given the geopolitical context, we felt it
was important to give a voice to this narrative.”

Lebanese authorities said Monday that a bomb blast the previous day that
damaged the headquarters of Lebanon’s second biggest bank specifically
targeted that financial institution. However, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk warned against casting blame before an investigation is finished.

Reuters, A powerful bomb has exploded outside the headquarters
of the Lebanese Blom Bank in central Beirut, causing damage and injuries
but no fatalities, the Interior Minister said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

The
Lebanese banking sector has been at the centre of an escalating crisis
since the United States passed a law targeting the finances of
Hezbollah The powerful Shiite Muslim group has launched verbal attacks on the central bank over the implementation of the act in Lebanon. Blom Bank is one of the banks that has closed accounts belonging to people suspected of links to Hezbollah.

by Pamela Engel, Business Insider

The terrorist group ISIS has claimed responsibility for another
massacre – an
attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando that killed at least 50
people. The shooting was
the deadliest in US history. The suspected gunman,
29-year-old Omar Saddiqui Mateen, reportedly
pledged allegiance to ISIS (also known as the Islamic State,
ISIL, or Daesh) in a 911 call.

After news outlets reported this, the ISIS-affiliated Amaq agency
released a statement on its online propaganda channels claiming
the attack. But the statement differed from those released after other
ISIS-claimed attacks in Paris and Brussels. In the Amaq statement
released Sunday, the ISIS link to the Orlando attack was
attributed to a “source.” The brief statement also did not
describe or provide any details about the attack.

While the Paris and Brussels attackers had direct ties to ISIS
leaders, it’s unclear how closely Mateen is connected to the
group. Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical and security analyst at the
Levantine Group, a Middle-East based risk consultancy, told
Business Insider that so far, there’s nothing “that even remotely
proves the attacker was in contact with ISIS.”