By Dale Gavlak -- voanews.com -- Political opponents of Lebanese President Michel Aoun are resisting his call for a national dialogue conference on the worsening economic crisis and other issues, sensing he may try to use it for his and Hezbollah's political gain. Meanwhile, the nation’s currency has plummeted further, by more than 15% of its value since the start of the year, leading to more misery for ordinary Lebanese. Michel Aoun, Lebanon’s Christian president who provides political cover for the Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah militia and political powerbroker, says a national defense strategy could be part of the talks. Lebanon observer Michael Young said calling for a national “defense strategy has particular resonance for Hezbollah.” Writing in Dubai’s The National newspaper, Young said this is “another term for finding a formula to integrate the party’s weapons arsenal into the state.”

Many Lebanese have long called for Hezbollah, which is the only militia to have kept its arms from Lebanon’s 1975 to 1990 civil war, to decommission its weapons. But Aoun’s opponents suspect he may be hedging for talks as a means to corner Hezbollah into bolstering his son-in-law Gebran Bassil’s chances to succeed him in the presidency when his term ends later this year. So far, former Sunni Muslim prime minister Rafik Hariri, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, and Aoun’s Christian rival Samir Geagea have rejected his invitation for talks. Habib Malik of the Lebanese American University told VOA he sees Aoun and Bassil jockeying for influence ahead of elections for parliament in May and those for the presidency later in the year. “It is political theater. Much of it is contrived and calculated with very clear aims in mind. Bassil is sinking fast in terms of any popularity among the Christians and for him to even remotely hope to succeed in the upcoming May elections, let alone be Hezbollah’s candidate for the presidency next November, he’s going to really have to put on a Houdini-like contortion. What we are seeing right now is a calculated move to try and polish his image before any remaining gullible Christians,” he said.

لماذا الإمعان في معاكسة إرادة الشعب اللبناني ومصالحه عبر الإصرار على مهاجمة دول الخليج واستعداء المملكة العربية السعودية؟ ألا تستحق المصلحة الوطنية …

PARIS (REUTERS) – France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday (Jan 11) the United Arab Emirates would join a Saudi-French fund that aimed …

BEIRUT, Jan 11 (Reuters) - A Lebanese judge said on Tuesday she had imposed a travel ban on central bank governor Riad Salameh, who is at the centre of investigations into alleged fraud and other misconduct launched after Lebanon was plunged into a deep financial crisis. Salameh, who said he had no knowledge of the ban and denied any wrongdoing, is being probed by the authorities in Lebanon and at least four European countries, including a Swiss inquiry over alleged money laundering. Salameh, who has been governor for almost three decades, has stayed in his post even as the economy has been crushed by a mountain of debt, the currency has collapsed and swathes of the nation have been driven into poverty. read more

Judge Ghada Aoun told Reuters she had imposed the ban as part of a Lebanese investigation she was leading into Salameh's conduct and said the next step would be to seek to question him. When asked about allegations ranging from fraud to abuse of public funds being investigated in the Lebanese probe, Salameh said: "These cases raised against me personally are part of the campaign to fool the public opinion." "All the actions of the central bank are executed according to the law of money and credit and thus are not the actions of one person that takes decisions by himself," he told Reuters.