Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) — President Michel Aoun left Lebanon’s presidential palace Sunday, marking the end of his six-year term without a replacement, leaving the small nation in a political vacuum that is likely to worsen its historic economic meltdown.

As Aoun’s term ends, the country is being run by a caretaker government after Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati failed to form a new Cabinet following May 15 parliamentary elections. Aoun and his supporters warn that such a government doesn’t have full power to run the country, saying that weeks of “constitutional chaos” lay ahead.

BEIRUT, Oct 27 (NNN-NNA) – The poverty rate among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon increased to more than 90 percent, it was reported yesterday, citing a UN official.

“Most of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are unable to secure their daily life necessities,” Leni Stenseth, deputy commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said, during a press conference held at the UNRWA headquarters in Beirut.

BEIRUT, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah announced on Thursday the end of his party's "exceptional" mobilization against Israel after Lebanese and Israeli leaders finalized a maritime demarcation deal.

"The mission was accomplished," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech, adding what happened is considered a great victory for Lebanon and its population.

Lebanese authorities were careful not to take any steps that may be perceived as normalization with Israel, Nasrallah noted. Technically, Lebanon and Israel have remained in a state of war.

27 October 2022; MEMO: Several buses of Syrian refugee families were repatriated Wednesday morning from different areas in Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reports.

According to the NNA, the intelligence branch of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF) accompanied a bus Wednesday morning from Nabatieh to the General Security branch at the Masnaa border crossing on the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley.

25 October 2022; MEMO: The Syrian regime yesterday cancelled a scheduled meeting with Lebanese officials to discuss the delineation of their sea boundaries.

According to Reuters, this came in a letter sent by the Syrian government to the Lebanese Foreign Ministry yesterday, saying "the time was not right" for such a visit.

23 October 2022; MEMO: The Lebanese and Syrian presidents discussed delineating their countries' shared maritime border on Saturday before a visit to Damascus next week by a Lebanese delegation tasked with negotiating the issue, a Lebanese official said, reports Reuters.

A dispute over their shared sea boundary emerged last year after Syria granted a licence to a Russian energy company to begin maritime exploration in an area Lebanon claimed. Several gas discoveries have been made in the eastern Mediterranean.

20 October 2022; MEMO: Lebanon's Parliament failed to elect a president for the third time on Thursday, bringing the country closer to institutional deadlock amid a deep financial crisis, Reuters reports.

Outgoing President, Michel Aoun's term ends on 31 October and divisions remain among political blocs over the makeup of a new cabinet.

Lebanon has been without a fully functioning government since May. The presidency has fallen vacant several times since the 1975-90 Civil War.

BEIRUT, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Before Lebanon's government approved a U.S.-brokered deal settling a decades-long maritime boundary dispute with Israel, the powerful Hezbollah had scrutinized the final draft line by line and given a crucial nod of acceptance.

Branded a terrorist group by Washington and a sworn enemy of Israel, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was certainly nowhere near the negotiating room during U.S. shuttle diplomacy which clinched the landmark deal last week.

BEIRUT, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday launched the National Strategy for Digital Transformation in Lebanon 2020-2030 in partnership with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said a statement by the Council of Ministers.

"The digital transformation initiative has been our government's priority as it is linked to the reform and recovery plan, and converges with the anti-corruption strategy being implemented systematically and gradually," Mikati said.

BEIRUT, Oct 16 (NNN-NNA) – Twenty Lebanese entrepreneurs won a UN-organised competition, that granted them a cash prize for launching businesses, in disadvantaged regions of the country, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) announced.

Most winners of the “Women do Business Experience” competition are women and young people, said the event’s organiser, Beirut-based ILO regional office for Arab States, in a statement.