القاضي بيتر جرمانوس ‏يكشف عبر الـMTV ‏أنه ساهم بانتاج دراسة قانونية ‏في عهد ميشال سليمان ‏تقول إن حكومة تصريف الاعمال ‏لا تستطيع …

by english.aawsat.com — A Lebanese ministerial delegation is expected to carry out an official visit to Damascus this week for the first …

نايلة تويني لبنان خارج الحياد وخارج المنظومة قد لا يحلو لكثيرين تذكيرهم بـ”#إعلان بعبدا” الذي جهد لتحييد #لبنان عن الاصطفاف الحاد حيال …

By Kareem Chehayeb, Harun al-Aswad -- middleeasteye.net -- The Lebanese Army, following days of contradictory reports, announced on Saturday in a statement that it had arrested six Syrian nationals for allegedly entering the country illegally. Two of those arrested were transferred to Lebanon's General Security, the army said, without providing details on the locations of the other four. The border agency initially denied holding any of the missing Syrian nationals prior to confirmation from the army's press office. Five of the six men have been identified as Tawfik al-Haj, Mohammad Abdelillah al-Waked, Mohammad Saeed al-Waked, Ahmad Ziad al-Eid and Ibrahim Majed al-Shammari. It has been reported that several of those arrested had been affiliated with the Syrian opposition movement. The army's announcement came days after news surfaced that five men from Daraa province went missing at the Syrian embassy near the Lebanese capital. The detentions allegedly took place after embassy staff told the men to come pick up their Syrian passports. Middle East Eye obtained the number of one of the missing men and tried to contact him on WhatsApp, but there was no reply.

'Arrested inside the embassy'?

A relative of one of the missing men told MEE that they had received a call from a private number, introducing themselves as Lebanese intelligence and telling them that their family member had been detained for entering the country on 18 August illegally. "They do not have personal identification papers so they cannot enter Lebanon legally," one of the relatives said. "They went to the Syrian embassy to try to get a passport processed the day after they arrived." Embassy staff originally told them their passports would be processed on 25 August, but when they went back to the embassy that day, they were asked to return two days later, the relative told MEE. It is still unclear whether those detained were arrested at the Syrian embassy or nearby, and the Lebanese Army's statement does not specify where exactly they were apprehended. One relative of the missing told MEE that they are adamant that the men were arrested at the embassy. "The embassy told them to come in on Friday at 9am. They went. But we lost contact with them at noon," the family member said. "I was with many of our other relatives in direct contact with them. They went missing inside the Syrian embassy in Lebanon."