By Zainab Calcuttawala

Last month, the Israeli company that was authorized to drill in the $320 million Hatrurium oil reservoir in the Dead Sea confirmed that the find sat completely within the Israeli maritime zone. Some estimates say that when drilling starts, the crude oil and gas recovered from the well could make the net energy-importer Israel completely energy independent, especially since the country authorized Houston-based Noble Energy and Israeli partner Delek to develop the massive Leviathan gas field—an offshore play located in the increasingly prolific Levant basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel shares access to the basin—estimated by the 2010 United States Geological Survey to hold 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil—with Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus.

Earlier this year, Cyprus offered licensing tenders for 12 blocks of maritime space in the basin.The Syrian Civil War and the infiltration of the Islamic State and
other terrorist groups have kept Syria too occupied to think about
pricey new offshore drilling ventures. But what has been keeping Lebanon from reaping the benefits of the “underexplored” oil in the sea right in its backyard?

Stephanie d’Arc Taylor

Nabatieh, Lebanon – Nabatieh, the sleepy city in southern Lebanon with a small-town feel, is going through a cinema renaissance.

Once a local cultural capital, Nabatieh has been
without a theatre since Stars Cinema closed in 1990 amid the Israeli
occupation of southern Lebanon. By the end of this year, however, the
city will boast two cinemas. One will be new: Empire Cinema, part of a
multinational chain, is set to showcase big-budget Hollywood films. The
other will be old: Stars Cinema, now derelict, is being renovated by a team of volunteers led by actor and theatre manager Kassem Istanbouli.

The theatre will hold its grand reopening in August, and
plans to feature classic Arabic films alongside free theatre and
photography training workshops. Istanbouli and his team of volunteers say they hope the
reopening of Stars Cinema will revitalise the cultural life of the city,
which has stagnated in recent years.

MOSCOW,
June 10. /TASS/. Lebanon wants to export its wines to Russia and is
interested in expanding fruit exports, the press service of the Russian
ministry of agriculture said on Friday after talks between Russian
Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev and his Lebanese counterpart
Akram Shuhayib.

We
plan to look at a possibility of exporting Lebanese wines to the Russian
market. We are also interested in expanding exports of fruits, in
particular apples and grapes,” the press service quoted the Lebanese
minister as saying.

Tkachev, in turn, said that Russia is interested in expanding its
exports of plant products to Lebanon and plans to begin supplies of beef
and poultry. The Russian minister noted that the potential of
Russia-Lebanon trade is not used to the full. “We should maintain the
tendency of qualitative and quantitative growth in trade volumes,”
Tkachev said.

by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Gulf News

Beirut: Lebanese speaker of parliament Nabih Berri stressed that he
will not accept a third extension of parliament’s term, that elections
will be held at all costs, and warned of “public outrage” if current
efforts by the joint parliamentary committees failed to agree on a new
electoral law to replace the 1960 voting system.

Berri told his weekly
meeting with selected lawmakers that gather every Wednesday at his Ain
Al Tineh residence that citizens will be outraged if no agreement is
reached on a new law, and renewed his “absolute rejection” of yet
another extension under any pretext, although he issued similar notices
in the past.

By

Nicholas Blanford,

Beirut, Lebanon — The death last month of a top Hezbollah
commander in Syria prompted proud eulogies from the party’s leadership,
satisfaction from his enemies – and, in a quiet suburb of The Hague, a
legal quandary. For Mustafa Badreddine was not only a veteran
Hezbollah commander who oversaw the party’s military intervention in
Syria. He is also being tried in absentia by an international tribunal
for helping to organize the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former
billionaire prime minister who was killed, along with 22 other people,
in a massive truck bombing in central Beirut.

Although Badreddine
was given a full public funeral and his body lies buried in Hezbollah’s
“martyrs” cemetery in southern Beirut, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
(STL) has concluded that his trial would continue. The Judges do not believe that sufficient evidence has yet been
presented to convince them that the death of Mr. Badreddine has been
proved,” the STL said in a statement last week.

The STL’s decision has hardened the perception among many in Lebanon
that the tribunal, which is tasked with uncovering and prosecuting Mr.
Hariri’s killers, has failed in its core mission. After 11 years and
hundreds of millions of dollars, those that ordered Hariri’s murder and
the motive behind the assassination are still unknown and the subject of
intense and conflicting speculation. The only men currently on trial
are Badreddine and four other Hezbollah men, who are alleged to have
been foot soldiers rather than architects of the assassination plot.

“[The
STL] has been beneath all expectations … it’s a case of justice
delayed, justice denied … and this idiotic rejection of the death of
Badreddine is another expression of their surreal impotence,” says
Chibli Mallat, presidential professor at the University of Utah and
author of “Philosophy of Nonviolence: Revolution, Constitutionalism, and
Justice beyond the Middle East.”

AP, Daily Star Lebanon’s Agricultural Ministry is banning the import of Syrian produce in an effort to protect Lebanese farm revenues.

Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb says he is trying to protect
“production and farmers” in the country. He says authorities will crack
down on cross-border smuggling. Lebanon’s agricultural sector has suffered under the strain of the war in neighboring Syria,
now in its sixth year. The Jordanian-Syrian border has been closed
since 2015, freezing overland exports from Lebanon to the rich Gulf
market, and causing a glut of agricultural produce in Lebanon.

Vegetables and fruits have overwhelmed the local markets, having a
huge negative effect on the farms, which can no longer handle the
situation,” he said, adding that there has been an “unprecedented” flow
of Syrian produce over the past few days.

By Samar Marwan – Struggling to find the words to inspire the graduating class of 2016 at American University of Beirut, critically acclaimed Lebanese filmmaker and actress Nadine Labaki. The 2015 Cannes Film Festival judge told the story of how she found her happiness after graduation, after losing her enthusiasm she found her happiness again when she […]

by Joseph A. Kechichian

Beirut: The pro-Hezbollah Lebanese daily Al Akhbar reported in its
Wednesday edition that several Lebanese banks started implementing the
Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act, which the Office of
Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of Treasury
introduced in December 2015, as a condition to doing business with the
Lebanon.

Al Akhbar claimed that
unnamed sources confirmed that the banking accounts of Hezbollah
institutions, including the “Imdad Committee for Islamic Charity,” the
“Martyrs’ Foundation” and the “St. George Hospital,” were suspended
along with “hundreds or maybe thousands of other accounts.”

These same sources
anticipated additional closures in the weeks ahead, although it was
unclear why organisations, schools, and hospitals were targeted for
retribution. The newspaper did not provide any details on links between
the groups that saw accounts closed or suspended, with Hezbollah,
although it identified the affected charities

American actress Milla Jovovich, Lebanese designer Elie Saab and
Tunisian actress Afef Jnifen pose as the arrive for the amfAR’s 23rd
Cinema Against AIDS Gala on May 19, 2016 at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in
Cap d’Antibes, France (Photo Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)

Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle

OK, so we all know Elie Saab
as the couturier of choice to Tinseltown’s stars ever since Halle Berry
walked the red carpet in one of his burgundy dresses at the 2002 Oscars
and won Best Actress. An overnight success after he became the first
Lebanese designer to dress an Academy Award winner, A-list celebrities,
including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Emmanuelle Béart, Beyoncé, Michelle
Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Aishwarya Rai, Marillon Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker,
Diane Kruger, Dita Von Teese and Sophie Marceau, figure among his
clients clamoring to get their hands on his modern, elegant apparel
showcasing his great attention to detail, intricate finishes and
fastidiously-selected fabrics. He has today established himself as one
of the most respected names in the fashion industry globally, known for
dressing royalty like Queen Rania of Jordan and Middle Eastern
princesses, and is present regularly at large media events, displaying
his personal touch and developing close relationships over time.

By Joseph A. Kechichian, gulfnews

Beirut: Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and Druze leader Waleed
Junblatt noted on Sunday that the presidential chances of the Marada
Movement’s pro-Syrian Sulaiman Franjieh have “started to collapse” and
he was now willing to endorse Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader
Michael Aoun for the post.Franjieh’s chances probably ended after the Minister of the Interior,
Nouhad Mashnouq, revealed that the UK, the US and Saudi Arabia played
key roles in his nomination.

“Franjieh went too far during his trip to Paris and his chances to
reach the presidency have started to collapse,” Junblatt said in an
interview with the LBCI television station, referring to Franjieh’s
Paris meeting with Future Movement leader Sa‘ad Hariri, though he added
that the real roadblock was in Damascus because “Syria cannot accept a
Lebanese president whose policies are not guaranteed”.

Junblatt was highly critical of Ashraf Rifi, who stunned all
establishment parties with an unprecedented victory in last month’s
municipal election in Tripoli, concluding that the Hariri machine’s
failure — even when backed by former Prime Minister Najeeb Mikati and
such figures as Mohammad Safadi and Faisal Karami — was “the beginning
of Sulaiman Franjieh’s fall in the presidential race”.