News Briefs
- Political aide to Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hussein Khalil, has contacted Prime Minister Saad Hariri to thank him on behalf of Nasrallah for committing to calm rhetoric, local media reported Sunday. (more...)
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun attacked the government in a televised speech on Sunday and called for resignations of several ministers.
He also criticized president Michel Suleiman .
“For some time we have been telling the government that it is violating the law, but it is as if they are not listening.” (more...)
Lebanon Defense Minister Elias Murr headed to Spain at the official invitation of his Spanish counterpart for talks on military cooperation between the two countries and assistance to the Lebanese Army, National News Agency reported.
NNA said talks would also tackle U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. (more...)
Most banks in the United Arab Emirates, an important trading partner for Iran, have stopped money transfers there after the latest round of sanctions on the Islamic republic, bankers said on Sunday.
A Dubai-based Iranian businessman said that the latest sanctions have halved trade with Dubai, an important re-export centre for Iranian goods. (more...)- According to local reports , a March 8 delegation visited UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams’ office on Saturday and delivered a memorandum asking UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to abolish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). (more...)
Protesters hurled shoes and eggs Saturday at Tony Blair, who held the first public signing of his memoir amid high security in Ireland’s capital. Hundreds more people lined up to have their books autographed — evidence that the divisions left by Blair’s decade as British leader have yet to heal.
Blair’s new book, “A Journey,” is a best-seller, but it has angered opponents of his policies, especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (more...)- At least one Palestinian was killed and two injured in an Israeli airstrike on smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza along the border with Egypt, medical sources at the hospital in the border town of Rafah said. The sources said at least one Palestinian was still missing. (more...)
A re-enactment of the 2005 Beirut assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri is to be staged in France later this month as part of a UN-backed probe into his murder, a source confirmed Saturday.
The exercise is to take place at a military base in southwestern France on September 28, said the source. (more...)- At least five people were killed and 39 wounded on Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked troops at a firing range in Russia's southern region of Dagestan, sources in official security agencies said. (more...)
Lebanon Prime Minister Saad Hariri held a phone conversation with Speaker Nabih Berri on Saturday, to discuss the latest verbal clash with Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Voice of Lebanon (VOL) reported.
Berri is seeking to bring the views of Hariri and Nasrallah closer and the limit tension between the two leaders, VOL added. (more...)- Israel's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, warned Friday that Hezbollah has placed around 15,000 rockets along Lebanon's border with Israel, including some that could hit southern Eilat. (more...)
Phalange MP Nadim Gemayel said on Saturday during an interview with Future TV that “all militias should be disarmed in Lebanon, starting with Hezbollah.”
“The Lebanese army is the only legitimate power that persists, we want it to be well equipped and deployed throughout the country ,” Gemayel said. (more...)
The idea that “we stand as observers to clashes such as those in Beirut on August 24 and remain silent without giving an opinion” is “unacceptable,” Prime Minister Saad Hariri said during an Iftar dinner at Qoreitem on Friday, according to a statement from his office.
His comments come after the bloody street battle that shook the Borj Abi Haidar neighborhood (more...)
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffery Feltman said Friday during an interview with Al-Arabiya TV that the United States wants peace in the region to include Lebanon and Syria, but added that there are great problems and challenges thwarting this aim.
Addressing the launch of direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, the former US ambassador to Lebanon stressed to Al-Arabiya (more...)- Lebanon has officially filed a complaint with the United Nations over what it says is an Israeli spy ring in the country, giving a list of 141 suspected agents, a diplomat said on Friday. (more...)
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech via a video link on the occasion of World Jerusalem Day
He used the occasion to attack the direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The revived Middle East peace talks are "born dead". The majority of Palestinian factions rejected such negotiations. ", he said (more...)
A large explosion rocked a village in southern Lebanon Friday, according to a Lebanese security source.
The explosion took place inside the village of Shehabiyeh , near the border with Israel.
According to a witness, the sounds of further blasts continue to be heard in Shehabiyeh , as ambulances and firefighters were rushing to the area of the initial blast. (more...)- Two crew members aboard an American ( United Parcel Services) UPS cargo plane are believed to have been killed after the aircraft crashed in Dubai today. (more...)
The head of Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL)’s Defense Office François Roux said in an interview with An-Nahar newspaper that “the tribunal’s indictment is just the beginning.”
Roux said that no one knows when the indictment will be issued or who will be indicted. (more...)- March 14 MP Jamal Jarrah told the Voice of Lebanon (VOL) on Friday that calls for a “weapons-free Beirut” are serious. “The issue should be followed up calmly and through dialogue,” Jarrah said, adding that the August 24 clashes in Beirut should not recur. (more...)
Feature Articles
By Ghassan Karam
Although the idea of personal liberty and freedom has preoccupied humans for millennia the notion as we presently know it was best clarified by the work of John Stuart Mill and later on Isaiah Berlin
Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to meet every two weeks during the coming year to work out parameters for a peace agreement
If there were doubts that the rivalry between Syria and Hizbullah has reached new levels of complication, then consider the recent statements
Afghanistan Al Qaeda Aoun Assad Berri Christians Dubai Economy Egypt Elections ET409 Ethiopia Ethiopian Airlines France Gaza Geagea Ghassan Karam Hamas Hariri Hezbollah Iran Iraq Israel Jumblatt Lebanon Libya Municipal elections Nasrallah Nuclear Obama Palestinians Russia Saudi Arabia Shiites STL Suleiman Syria Terrorism Tribunal Turkey U.S. UN UNIFIL US Yemen
While in Lebanon people take bank loans for plastic surgery, some Billionaires cut their own hair at home.
Daniel Bellemare reacts to the recent rumors: People should remember this: “Unless they can read into my brain, everything else is just speculation”
Arabian Gulf citizens spend an estimated Dh91.8 billion a year for treatment abroad
Lebanon President Michel Suleiman said Saturday that the unity of the Mountains is the foundation of Lebanon’s unity
By Ghassan Karam
Utopias are perfect societal structures that are goals to be attained. They are dreams that will never be fulfilled whether they are based on Plato’s Republic or Thomas Mores’ ideal economy
The Burj Abi Haidar battle was, perhaps, the first armed confrontation between Iran and Syria in Lebanon, through proxies
Beirut witnessed last night the worst clash since May 2008, when Hezbollah gunmen swept through its Sunni neighborhoods
By Ghassan Karam
“Water water everywhere ,Nor a drop to drink” from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an adequate description to the water insecurity that is threatening the world as a whole but that is a practical
The State Department has strongly defended the military aid to Lebanon, saying that withdrawing the money could create a dangerous vacuum.
We’ve been here before and if history is a guide, we’ll be here again.
The Lebanese government’s move marks a recognition that there may be no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the foreseeable future.
By Ghassan Karam
Let us be clear, from the outset, that there is no institution, official or person anywhere in the world that is to be held immune from criticism especially when the subject has betrayed and/or violate
In a landmark vote, parliament yesterday approved a measure that gives Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon the right to work in the country.
By Ghassan Karam
After the incident that took place on August 3, 2010 between a small force of the Lebanese Army and the Israeli Defense Force at Adeisseh in Southern Lebanon Mr. Suleiman, the Lebanese Presiden
By Ghassan Karam
It has been obvious for a while that the case against the perpetrators in the former Prime Minister Hariri assassination lacks the proverbial “smoking gun” which is not surprising for a very well organized
The backlash rages on over “Metlak Mesh Ayzin” song by a Lebanese singer that beckons women back to domesticity
The campaign by Iranian leaders and Hezbollah chief against Lebanon Tribunal affirm the role of Iran in triggering crises in the region.
By Ghassan Karam
No matter how the nuclear impasse between Iran and the international community is eventually resolved there will definitely be an unwelcome byproduct
Everywhere in the ME people are muttering about the possibility of war: between Israel and Hamas, or Israel and Hezbollah, or Israel and Syria
Arab support for US president Barack Obama dropped significantly while support for a nuclear Iran has increased , a new poll shows
Israelis used to say:“I don’t know which will be the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but I do know the name of the second.”
By Ghassan Karam
Many Arab countries have large reserves of fossil fuels that make them the envy of the world. Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producer in the world , it is estimated that Iraq carries the same potential as Saudi Arabia
Some Arab nations would happily watch Iran humbled but be furious about an attack on Lebanon.
By Ghassan Karam
The Arab world was abuzz with the news about the “historic” summit that took place in Lebanon last week featuring King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, President Assad of Syria and President Suleiman of Lebanon.
The UN estimates that Israel dropped 4 million cluster bomblets onto southern Lebanon during the 2006 war.
After a century of tragedies in the M.E, it is distressing to see how many dangerous illusions still shape the behavior of so many of the region’s principal players
There is a lot speculation in Lebanon on whether a deal was reached during Friday’s summit over the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
The historic summit between the leaders of Lebanon , Syria and Saudi Arabia was concluded four hours after the arrival of the visiting leaders.
When it comes to tolerating free speech and outspoken media, Lebanon’s track record is often quite better than many other countries in the region
Can Israel afford to continue to occupy Palestinian territory? “Israel’s ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories is damaging the economy of the Jewish state,”
By Ghassan Karam
Mahmud Ahmadinejad the Iranian President is a chauvinist, a traditional ecologically ignorant chauvinist. This post is not about traditional politics, and is not concerned with either the role of the Pasadran,
Increasingly, despite its early military and political successes, Israel cannot for long endure as a colonial project.
The future of Hezbollah, Lebanon’s powerful Shia political and paramilitary organization, has never looked more uncertain.
By Ghassan Karam
In a democracy very few things, if any, justify sedition. Disagreements and dissatisfaction with policies can be opposed vigorously and dealt with through the ballot box during the next electoral cycle
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