By AGNES HELOU -- BEIRUT — The Lebanese navy expects to receive three Protector-class patrol boats in coming days as part of US military aid, but the country’s naval commander said Beirut will need twice that number — plus larger patrol boats — to better secure its maritime borders. “This number is not sufficient to meet the needs of the navy to protect the country’s natural resources and sovereign rights in its economic waters,” Lebanese navy commander Adm. Haissam Dannaoui told Breaking Defense. “Since these boats have limited capabilities to navigate in difficult weather conditions, the navy has a plan to acquire large-sized patrol boats that can navigate in difficult weather conditions, have greater firepower, and can transport more equipment and items.” He told Breaking Defense that larger vessels are also more effective in search and rescue operations and protection of oil platforms.

But before any additional ships, Lebanon expects to accept the first three Protector-class vessels on Aug. 21, a source told Breaking Defense. Earlier in 2023, Lebanese navy teams were trained for operating these vessels in the US. A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Beirut declined to comment on the timing of the ship delivery. Another US State Department told Breaking Defense, “The United States is providing maintenance and training to support the transfer of protector class patrol boats to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Crew training began earlier this year. The U.S. takes a total package approach to Foreign Military Sales to ensure customers are able to fully employ capabilities to meet their security requirements.” When asked about the possibility of increasing the number of vessels, the official said, “At this time we are focused on transferring and building up the LAF’s capacity to employ the protector class patrol boats.”

by Bassen Moure -- BEIRUT (AP) — Libya’s judicial authorities have formally asked Lebanon to release one of the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s sons, held without charges in Lebanon since 2015, because of his deteriorating health, officials said Monday. The health of Hannibal Gadhafi has been deteriorating since he went on hunger strike on June 3, to protest his detention without trial. He was taken to hospital at least twice since then and has been only drinking small amounts of water. According to two Lebanese judicial officials, Libya’s prosecutor general Al-Sediq al-Sour, sent a request earlier this month to his Lebanese counterpart, Ghassan Oueidat, regarding Hannibal Gadhafi. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The note stated that Lebanon’s cooperation in this matter could help reveal the truth regarding the fate of a prominent Lebanese Shiite cleric, Moussa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978. It questioned why Gadhafi was being held and asked that he be either handed over to Libya or be allowed to return to Syria, where he had been living in exile with his Lebanese wife, Aline Skaf, and children until he was abducted and brought to Lebanon eight years ago.

The Lebanese prosecutor then referred the case to Zaher Hamadeh, the investigative judge in the missing cleric's case, who is studying the Libyan request and would respond in time. Hannibal Gadhafi has been detained in Lebanon since 2015 after he was abducted by Lebanese militants demanding information on the whereabouts of the cleric. Lebanese police later announced it had picked up Gadhafi from the city of Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon, where he was being held. He has since been held in a Beirut jail. The disappearance of al-Sadr in 1978 has been a long-standing sore point in Lebanon. The cleric’s family believes he may still be alive in a Libyan prison, though most Lebanese presume al-Sadr is dead. He would be 94 years old. He was the founder of the Amal group, Arabic for “hope,” and an acronym for the militia’s Arabic name, the Lebanese Resistance Brigades. The group later fought in Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. Lebanon’s powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads the group. Most of al-Sadr’s followers are convinced that Moammar Gadhafi ordered al-Sadr killed in a dispute over Libyan payments to Lebanese militias. Libya has maintained that the cleric and his two traveling companions left Tripoli in 1978 on a flight to Rome and suggested he was a victim of a power struggle among Shiites.

by The National News — The head of Lebanon’s Maronite Church called for state control over weapons on Sunday, days after a …

by arabnews.com — DUBAI: Lebanese filmmaker and actress Nadine Labaki has been announced as a jury member for the 80th Venice International …