Lebanon

A special UN-backed court has found two members of the Hezbollah militant organisation guilty for the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafic Hariri in 2005, sentencing them to life imprisonment in absentia, after 13 years of investigations into the matter.

BEIRUT, June 16. /TASS/: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday said the US controls both terrorists and neo-Nazis, meaning Russia and Syria are in battle against the same enemy.

"Russia and Syria are in battle against the same enemy. Both terrorists and neo-Nazis are controlled by the same country: the US," he said at a meeting with Dmitry Sablin, deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on defense, and a delegation of the Donetsk People’s Republic, according the SANA news service.

BEIRUT, Jun 16 (NNN-NNA) – Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), urged yesterday, countries to increase financial contributions, as the agency suffers from a 100-million-U.S.-dollar funding gap.

Philippe Lazzarini said, at a press conference, held on the occasion of UNRWA’s Advisory Commission meeting in Beirut that, “We are facing a major financial crisis, which reduced our ability to deal with the Palestinian refugees’ crisis.”

BEIRUT, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese army on Thursday arrested 34 Syrian nationals, including women and children, in Lebanon's southern village of Sarafand over plans to illegally leave for Europe by sea.

A statement released by the Lebanese army noted that the arrested people also include members of a human smuggling network.

The arrested people were referred to relevant judicial bodies for further investigations and other legal procedures, it added.

14 June 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's state-run aid agency, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has supported the renovation and reopening of an Orthodox church in Lebanon, built 170 years ago.

BEIRUT, May 20 (NNN-NNA) – The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), yesterday called on Lebanon and Israel, to use the tripartite meetings, to find win-win solutions to the contentious issues along their border.

A tripartite meeting was held yesterday in Ras Al Naqoura, Lebanon, which was attended by the UNIFIL, as well as, senior military officers from Lebanon and Israel.

Aroldo Lazaro Saenz, the UNIFIL head, said, “The tripartite meeting is underscored by the UN Security Council as a vital tool to defuse tensions and avoid miscalculations.”

BEIRUT, May 19 (Reuters) - When Halime El Kaakour enters Lebanon's parliament as a newly elected lawmaker next week, she will step past the same concrete barriers that security forces erected to keep her and other protesters out during massive anti-government rallies in 2019.

Powered by that protest movement and popular anger over the financial implosion that followed, about a dozen activists and reform-minded newcomers like her were elected to the 128-member legislature on Sunday.

18 May 2022; MEMO: A newly-elected Lebanese Member of Parliament has come under heavy criticism over a tweet she posted in the past which called for the "genocide" of Syrians within Lebanon.

Cynthia Zarazir, who early this week won a parliamentary seat for the opposition Li Watani [For My Nation] list in the first district of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, is being criticised for her tweet in a Twitter post she wrote back in 2016, which has re-emerged following her election.

BEIRUT, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The results of Lebanon's 2022 parliamentary elections have reflected the strong desire of the Lebanese people for political changes to lift Lebanon out of its worst financial meltdown in decades, Lebanese experts said.

Final election results released on Tuesday showed that Hezbollah and its allies have lost the parliamentary majority as their seats combined are fewer than the 65 seats needed to secure a majority in the 128-seat parliament.

17 May 2022; MEMO: Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and its allies have lost their parliamentary majority after the final results of the country's general elections were announced today.

The Hezbollah-led bloc won 62 of the 128 seats up for grabs, three fewer than it needed and was a reversal of the 2018 results when it won a majority of 71.