Although Nouhad Al Mashnouq, the Minister of Interior, tried to quell security concerns in the aftermath of the BLOM Bank headquarters bombing on June 12, the cabinet once again postponed a discussion of the sorely contentious fate of the State Security agency that became an orphan institution after senior government officials abandoned it.
Israel's head of military intelligence has said that Hizbullah should be wary of another war with Israel.
Marking 10 years since the monthlong 2006 summer war with Hizbullah, Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi said Wednesday that Israel is more prepared than ever and that Hizbullah would suffer a great deal if it initiated another battle.
Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, Halevi said that if Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah "knew our abilities, our knowledge, our preparedness, he wouldn't risk another conflict."
Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri on Monday called for “solidarity” with Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, the baking sector and “all the heroes who are defiant in the face of terrorism,” a day after a blast rocked the Beirut headquarters of Lebanon's second largest bank.
“Yesterday, Lebanon and its economy and banking sector were subjected to a clear terrorist message,” said Hariri at an iftar banquet he held at the Center House for students from several Lebanese universities and children from the Khaled Foundations.
A bomb exploded outside the headquarters of Lebanese Blom Bank in central Beirut on Sunday, causing damage but no fatalities, the interior minister said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The Lebanese banking sector has been at the centre of an escalating crisis since the United States passed a law requiring banks to take steps to target the finances of the armed Shi'ite political group Hezbollah.
Lebanon's politics might be in a mess but the country's central bank is determined to maintain the country's financial stability, its governor told CNBC, and to make sure U.S. sanctions are implemented against the supporters of militant political group Hezbollah,
El presidente del Parlamento de Líbano, Nabih Berri, ha expresado este miércoles su insatisfacción con la incapacidad de los partidos para acordar una nueva ley electoral para el país.
"Los encuentros de los comités parlamentarios conjuntos para discutir la ley electoral no han logrado aún resultados, y siguen estancados", ha dicho, según ha informado el diario local 'An Nahar'.
"Trataré el asunto durante el encuentro de diálogo nacional del 21 de junio, para que todo el mundo asuma sus responsabilidades", ha manifestado, agregando que "se trata de una pérdida de tiempo".
El Banco Central del Líbano ha cerrado cien cuentas bancarias vinculadas al grupo chií Hizbulá en el marco de las sanciones previstas por el Acta para la Prevención de la Financiación Internacional de Hizbulá, aprobada por el Congreso de EEUU en diciembre, confirmó a Efe una fuente de la entidad.
French President Francois Hollande told al-Mustaqbal Movement chief MP Saad Hariri that the only solution to the presidential impasse is through the election of founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun, al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday.
“During Hariri's latest visit to France in May, Hollande told the Mustaqbal chief that the solution to the internal crisis can only come from Aoun's side,” March 14 sources told the daily on condition of anonymity.
Parliament speaker Nabih Berri’s recent proposal to hold parliamentary elections before electing a president is due to despair with political parties and some of his allies, which prevent electing a president, boycott parliamentary sessions, involve Lebanon in foreign wars, and suggest proposals that violate the constitution.
Beirut-Lebanon’s fourth and final round of municipal elections ended on Sunday after voters in the North and Akkar Governorates cast their ballots amid a calm situation and a turnout of around 40 percent.
While the competition was mainly development-based in many villages and towns in the North and Akkar, the political confrontation was obvious in several regions.
A hawkish Lebanese Sunni politician has won local elections in the second largest city of Tripoli in a result that marks a blow to long-established Sunni leaders and risks reviving tensions among rival sectarian groups there.
The municipal elections under way nationwide for a month have been seen as an important indicator of sentiment in Lebanon, where a political crisis has twice forced the postponement of parliamentary elections that should have been held in 2013.
Lebanon has officially completed two years of vacuum in the presidency with no end in sight to the dispute that has crippled the country's top post since May 2014.
An Nahar daily on Wednesday marked the occasion by surveying the opinion of major Lebanese political leaders, with Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, and head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Mohammed Raad abstaining from the interview.
Elections in Lebanon rarely elicit the same anticipation as they do elsewhere in the world; municipal elections — even less so.
Lebanese voted Sunday in municipal elections in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley amid tight security and a low turnout in the capital that has recently seen the largest anti-government protests in years following a months-long trash crisis.
