Lebanon

BEIRUT, Mar 21 (NNN-NNA) – Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said, the resistance has nothing to do with the decision issued by the military court in Lebanon, to acquit Amer Fakhoury, former head of an Israeli-linked prison.

Nasrallah made the remarks in a broadcast on al-Manar local TV channel.

Lebanon’s Military Tribunal issued a decision, to drop charges against Amer Fakhoury, who has been accused of collaborating with Israel, in torturing prisoners in Khiam, in southern Lebanon.

16 Mar 2020; MEMO: Lebanon yesterday declared a state of emergency and ordered a two-week lockdown over coronavirus fears.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab and Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad Najd announced the new measures after meetings of the Supreme Defence Council and the Cabinet yesterday afternoon.

Diab ordered the closure of air, land and sea borders from Wednesday 18 March until 29 March, but excluded UNIFIL, diplomatic missions and cargo aircraft.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria will postpone parliamentary elections to May 20 from April 13 as a precautionary step against the spread of coronavirus, a statement from the president’s office said on Saturday.

Syria has said it has no confirmed cases but is taking preventative steps such as shutting schools and public venues as it monitors for the virus.

BEIRUT (AP) — In a world gripped by a pandemic, global unrest and a fast-moving news cycle, it can be difficult to remember that the war in Syria is still happening.

Even before the coronavirus outbreak took over daily lives around the globe, the conflict, which began in early 2011, had largely fallen off the world’s collective radars — reduced to a never-ending fight involving an ever-more complex web of players and refugees that few remember once lived in a country they called home.

14 March 2020; AFP: Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, which has strongly opposed foreign interference in the country's crisis-hit economy, said Friday it could accept Beirut receiving an International Monetary Fund financial rescue package under "reasonable conditions".

"Any help within reasonable conditions, there's no problem with it in principle," the Shiite movement's chief Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address.

BEIRUT, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A Lebanese security source told Xinhua on Friday that unidentified people punctured the oil pipeline that runs from Iraq to Lebanon via Syria in the Wadi Khaled area located in Akkar, northern Lebanon.

The source pointed out that the aim of the attack was to extract oil, refine it manually, and sell it on the black market.

The security source noted that this is the third time that the pipeline has been punctured during the past two years.

BEIRUT, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The Uruguayan ambassador to Lebanon said on Tuesday that Lebanon is only a few steps away from signing a free trade agreement with Mercosur countries, a local media outlet reported.

"Lebanon has a great opportunity to export its agro-products to Mercosur countries since its weather is different from that in these countries," Luis Ricardo Nario Fagundez said during his meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, according to Elnashra, an online independent newspaper.

BEIRUT, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced on Saturday that Lebanon will not be able to repay Eurobonds due on March 9 and it has decided to restructure its debt, Al Jadeed local TV channel reported.

"Our foreign reserves have dropped to a dangerous level. We need our money to finance the basic necessities of the Lebanese," Diab said following a meeting at Baabda Palace with top leaders and the central bank governor, and another meeting later for the cabinet to discuss options amid prevailing financial deterioration.

BEIRUT, Mar 7 (NNN-NNA) – French Ambassador to Lebanon, Bruno Foucher, said that, the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab is the only chance for Lebanon, to solve its financial and economic crises.

“Paris decided to deal with Diab’s cabinet, as Lebanon is going through a very dangerous crisis, and the priority is to solve the country’s issues as soon as possible,” Foucher was quoted as saying.

Foucher said that French companies are looking forward to returning to work in Lebanon, in sectors, including oil and gas.

BEIRUT (AP) — For the first time in three months, Omar Zaqzaq says he and his family slept through the entire night, without an airstrike or artillery shell jolting them out of bed.

Idlib’s skies were completely free of Russian and Syrian government warplanes Friday as a cease-fire deal took hold in Syria’s northwestern province, the last rebel stronghold.

The truce, brokered by Turkey and Russia, halted a terrifying three-month air and ground campaign that killed hundreds and sent 1 million people fleeing toward the Turkish border.