by reuters -- The United States on Sunday denied a report by Iran's state television that the arch-foes had reached a prisoner swap deal in exchange for the release of $7 billion frozen Iranian oil funds under U.S. sanctions in other countries. Iranian state television said on Sunday that Tehran would free four Americans accused of spying in exchange for four Iranians held in the United States and the release of the frozen Iranian funds. The U.S. government denied that an agreement has been reached. Iran's envoy to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said the report could not be confirmed, adding that Tehran has always called for a full prisoner exchange with Washington. The state TV, quoting an unidentified Iranian official, also said British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe would be released once Britain had paid off a debt on military equipment owed to Tehran.

A British Foreign Office official played down that report. Iran and world powers are holding talks to revive the 2015 nuclear accord that Washington abandoned three years ago and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. Iranian officials told Reuters last month that an interim deal could be a way to gain time for a lasting settlement that involved unfreezing Iranian funds blocked under U.S. sanctions. "Informed source says Biden administration has agreed to release four Iranian prisoners jailed for bypassing U.S. sanctions in exchange for four American 'spies'," the Iranian state TV report said on Sunday.

by reuters -- Lebanon’s public prosecutor has launched an investigation into central bank governor Riad Salameh, a judicial source said, after a Swiss legal request alleged that more than $300 million had been embezzled from the bank through a company owned by his brother. The senior judicial source told Reuters the offices of Salameh’s younger brother Raja had been sealed off, with computers and files confiscated in the course of the investigation. The public prosecutor had no comment. For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. Riad Salameh, who denies any wrongdoing, had no comment when asked by Reuters about the opening of the investigation, the sealing of his brother’s office and the confiscation of the files. “The governor declared that all his actions and the actions of the Central Bank of Lebanon are legal and that no funds at the detriment of the central bank exist,” the central bank told Reuters in a statement. “Not one dollar has ever been paid from central bank money or funds or any budget as commission,” the statement said.

The central bank declined to provide contact details for Raja Salameh, and Reuters was not immediately able to ask him for comment. The Swiss attorney general’s office said in January that it had requested legal assistance from Lebanon in investigating “aggravated money laundering” and possible embezzlement relating to the Lebanese central bank, the Banque du Liban. The Swiss request, seen by Reuters, alleges that Forry Associates, a company owned by Raja Salameh with a bank account in Switzerland that took commission on sales of Lebanese Eurobonds and Treasury bills, was paid $326 million by the central bank between 2002 and 2014 in transactions labelled as fees and commissions. Most of the payments to Forry were then transferred to an account in Raja Salameh’s name. More than $7 million were also transferred from Forry Associates between 2008 and 2012 to an account in Riad Salameh’s name, the document said. Reuters was unable to find any contact details for Forry Associates. The Swiss attorney general’s office had no comment about the content of the legal request other than repeating its statement from January. It has not said whether Riad Salameh is a suspect.

by thearabweekly.com -- PARIS--France has begun imposing entry restrictions on certain Lebanese figures as a sanction for their role in Lebanon’s political crisis or corruption, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday. “We reserve the right to adopt additional measures against all those preventing an exit from the crisis, and we will do so in coordination with our international partners,” added Le Drian, without naming which figures targeted by the measures. France has spearheaded international efforts to rescue Lebanon from its deepest crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, but after eight months has failed so far to persuade squabbling politicians to adopt a reform roadmap or form a new government to unlock international aid.

With the European Union, Paris has been working on creating a sanctions regime for Lebanon that could ultimately see asset freezes and travel bans. However, that is likely to take time. As part of efforts to raise pressure on key Lebanese actors, France intends to stop issuing visas to certain officials, diplomats have said. “On a national basis, we have started to implement restrictive measures in terms of access to French territory against personalities involved in the current political blockage, or involved in corruption,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in remarks alongside his Maltese counterpart. “It’s not just words in the air,” said a French diplomat. They (Lebanese officials) can reassure themselves that it’s not just threats.” Two diplomats said a list of names had been put together and people were being made aware. The French foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment. As many senior Lebanese politicians have homes, bank accounts and investments in the EU and France and send their children to universities there, a withdrawal of that access could be a lever to focus minds.

 Born in Lebanon at the beginning of the twentieth century, Marie el Khazen evolved into a modern, unconventional woman in a patriarchal society; a member of one of the oldest Lebanese families. Independent and with the famed Khazen sense of humor, her love of life and freedom inspired pastimes that encompassed broderie (with porcupine needles!), taxidermy, riding, driving, hunting, fishing, a fondness for animals, a love of literature and of course photography, at which she became famous only after her death. She grew up in a mansion in Tallet el Khazen, near Zgharta; her father being Said el Khazen, her mother Wardeh Torbey, and her grandmother Sultana Daher, the wife of Sheikh Fendi el Khazen, from Ghosta.

Rather than turning professional, Marie remained a serious amateur photographer. With her Eastman Kodak camera and keen on experimenting, she had the skills to set up and use her own darkroom. She would pose, and occasionally dress up her subjects, such as in the 1929 portrait of Two Women Disguised as Men, in which both Marie el Khazen and Alice her sister are sitting on plush chairs with their legs crossed, beneath an ancestral portrait within a handsome room in Talle. Dressed in suits and ties and wearing tarbooshes (traditional Arab hats), they are enjoying cigarettes in long elegant holders of the period,  and seem to be comfortable, even complacent in their newfound freedom.

 The New York Times art critic Adam Shatz said of it: "Such pictures don't come along often, but once seen, they are impossible to forget, lodging themselves in the mind with the visceral force of revelation."