DUBAI (Reuters) – The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) named Hezbollah a terrorist organisation on Wednesday, opening up the possibility of further sanctions against the Iran-allied group that wields influence in Lebanon and fights in Syria.

The Sunni Muslim dominated council – representing Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar – already imposed sanctions on the Shi’ite Muslim group in 2013 after it entered Syria’s war in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

In Wednesday’s announcement, GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani said the council would now "take the necessary measures to implement its decision … based on anti-terrorism laws applied in the GCC and similar international laws".

alaraby.co.uk

Beirut: On the heels of recent disputes over the appointment of three officers to the Military Council, the Lebanese Minister of Defence Samir Moqbel approved the appointment of Brigadier General Camille Daher as the new head of Military Intelligence, to succeed General Edmond Fadel, whose term of office was extended for six months in September 2015.

The surprise announcement was a victory for Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, whose retirement was postponed for one year until September 30, 2016, and who wanted Daher in the intelligence post. According to the generally well-informed Al Nahar daily that reported the news without providing any personal details on the contender, the decision was a purely military one based on merit, which upset the country’s political establishment that was prevented from interfering.

Blood, sweat and tears: Maternal jus sanguinis in Lebanon During the first year of the Arab Uprisings, Lebanese women married to noncitizens reiterated claims they have been raising since the turn of the millennium for the right to give their nationality to their children. The Lebanese nationality law, formed under French mandate rule in 1925, […]

By Dana Halawi

BEIRUT (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Syrian refugee Fatmeh fled to safety in Lebanon in 2011 after militants raided the family home, beat her up and tried to rape her. But her problems were far from over.

Two months after the attack Fatmeh – then aged about 12 – developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). "Her mental illness became obvious when she started walking down the streets while screaming and beating herself," said Lebanese psychotherapist Charelle Ghazal.

"She had regular nightmares of someone trying to rape her. She put knives under her pillow to protect herself. She was awake all night and slept during the day when her family was awake."

Iran’s former Parliament speaker, Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri.

Natasha Bertrand

Iran’s reformists are cheering the results of the Islamic Republic’s elections, held on Sunday in what was widely seen as a referendum on President Hassan Rouhani’s more moderate policies that have ushered in an opening with the West.

Final election tallies showed that candidates on the reformist ticket — who espouse a political movement aimed at changing Iran’s system to include more freedom and democracy — won 27% of the overall vote and gained roughly 30 parliamentary seats in the Tehran constituency, Reuters reported.

daily star.com.lb

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and Lebanese bankers dismissed claims that Gulf nationals are withdrawing their deposits from Lebanon in a sign of solidarity with Saudi Arabia.

Washington D.C., Feb 25, 2016 / 04:43 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. must not ignore the Islamic State’s genocide of Christians. That is the position of a petition drive and television campaign seeking to persuade Secretary of State John Kerry.

“Christians in Iraq and Syria have suffered injustice after injustice by being kidnapped, killed, having their homes and churches confiscated or destroyed, and being forced to flee for their lives,” Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, said Feb. 25. “Because of hit squads, they fear to enter U.N. refugee camps and, as a result, are then often excluded from immigration to the West.”

He said that these Christians “deserve to have the U.S. State Department call what has happened to them by its rightful name: genocide.”

by Madawi Al-Rasheed

It was only a matter of time before the latent tensions brewing between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon boiled over, given the current rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran and the rising influence of the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But it seems Saudi Arabia is truly acting in an erratic manner that, instead of bringing Lebanon back into its sphere of influence, is likely going to create more of a rift in an already-strained relationship.