Lebanon

29 Dec 2022; MEMO: The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, has criticised what he described as an "attempt to impose a president" by the Hezbollah-led camp, by demanding that the president supports and protects the Lebanese "resistance".

"What is happening today is not due to the might of the Axis of Defiance, but rather due to the weakness of those who should have shouldered their responsibilities and are still refusing to do so," Geagea said at a party event.

BEIRUT, December 28. /TASS/: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has accused the US and Western countries of igniting anti-government protests in Iran by spreading rumors and misinformation, the Al-Alam TV channel reported on Wednesday.

27 Dec 2022; MEMO: Lebanon's maritime border demarcation for oil exploration and extraction must be completed, Hezbollah's deputy secretary general said yesterday.

Naim Qassem told Al-Nour radio station that oil extraction in Lebanon had nothing to do with "electing the Lebanese president," adding that his group was keen on "reaching tangible results on the issue of Lebanon's wealth."

22 Dec 2022; MEMO: Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Thursday that Lebanon is at a crossroads: improve its conditions or further deteriorate, Anadolu reports.

Mikati's statement was made at the opening of the Arab Economic Forum in Beirut.

Mikati said if the country managed to realize the first scenario, the economy will grow 4% or 5% in 2023 and will help stabilize the Lebanese pound.

19 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Israeli spy agency Mossad is cooperating with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to recruit and train Lebanese spies to carry out specific tasks, Iran's Nour news website has reported.

The site said Lebanese citizens who declare their readiness to cooperate with the Mossad are immediately sent to the UAE to avoid being uncovered by Lebanese security institutions.

BEIRUT, Dec 18 (NNN-NNA) – The levels of food security for refugees in Lebanon are extremely worrisome, said Abdallah AlWardat, World Food Programme (WFP) Representative and Country Director in Lebanon.

AlWardat’s remarks came in a report, released by the United Nations Information Centre on the preliminary findings of the 2022 Vulnerability Assessment of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, showing a continuing sharp decline in living conditions for all Syrian refugees.

BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers held a memorial at the Beirut airport on Sunday for an Irish soldier killed by a mob that opened fire last week at two vehicles belonging to the U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

The attack that killed 24 year-old Pvt. Seán Rooney of Newtowncunningham took place near the southern town of Al-Aqbiya on Wednesday night, as he and seven other Irish peacekeepers from U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, were on their way to the Beirut airport.

17 Dec 2022; MEMO: Ninety per cent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon need humanitarian assistance to survive during the worst economic crisis the country has witnessed in decades, according to announcements made by international organisations on Friday.

16 Dec 2022; MEMO: An Irish UN peacekeeper was killed and several others were wounded after unidentified attackers opened fire on a convoy in southern Lebanon, Irish and Lebanese military officials said yesterday according to Reuters.

The news wire said a pair of armoured vehicles carrying eight Irish UNIFIL peacekeeping troops was fired at as they drove north toward Beirut on Tuesday night from the town of Al-Aqbiya.

BEIRUT, Dec 14 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, yesterday said that, as one of the countries suffering the most from terrorist acts, Lebanon called for collective cooperation and intensive coordination to fight terrorism.

He made the appeal in a speech, delivered at a symposium on “Coordination Mechanisms in Combating Terrorism” organised by the Lebanese government, in cooperation with the “Advanced Counter Terrorism Project for Lebanon Security,” which is funded by the European Union.