Lebanon

BEIRUT, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Lebanon's parliament on Monday extended a law that lifts banking secrecy regulations to facilitate a forensic audit of the country's central bank, a key condition for foreign aid that has hit a roadblock, MPs said after the session.

20 Feb 2022; MEMO: Lebanon's Hezbollah movement says it has flown a reconnaissance drone over northern Israel on Friday, adding that the UAV returned intact after completing the mission.

A statement said that the group launched the "Hassan" drone into "the occupied Palestinian territories" on a reconnaissance mission lasting 40 minutes, which extended along 70 kilometres.

19 Feb 2022; MEMO: Lebanese security agencies thwarted the smuggling of 700,000 Captagon pills to Saudi Arabia, Anadolu Agency reported Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi disclosing on Friday.

Captagon is a type of amphetamine-style stimulant fenethylline manufactured for illegal recreational use, mostly in Lebanon and Syria.

18 Feb 2022; MEMO: France's container transportation and shipping company CMA-CGM was awarded a contract to manage, operate and maintain the container terminal in Lebanon's Beirut Port for ten years yesterday.

The Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister, Ali Hamieh, told reporters that the contract included "rebuilding and expanding the port's infrastructure, which was damaged in a massive chemical explosion in 2020."

17 Feb 2022; MEMO: The leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group said, for the first time on Wednesday, that it has the ability within Lebanon to convert thousands of rockets into precision missiles and to produce drones, Reuters reports.

"We have been producing drones in Lebanon for a long time, and whoever wants to buy them, submit an order," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech to followers.

BEIRUT, February 16. /TASS/: A working visit by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to Damascus was linked with the tensions in the relations between the West and Russia around Ukraine and it came as a surprise for the United States and NATO, Lebanese expert on military strategy, General Charles Abi Nader told TASS on Wednesday.

BEIRUT (AP) — From his small music shop on Beirut’s Hamra Street, Michel Eid witnessed the rise and fall of Lebanon through the changing fortunes of this famed boulevard for more than 60 years.

Hamra Street represented everything that was glamorous about Beirut in the 1960s and 1970s, with Lebanon’s top movie houses and theaters, cafes frequented by intellectuals and artists, and ritzy shops. It saw a revival the past decade, with international chain stores and vibrant bars and restaurants.

13 Feb 2022; MEMO: Lebanon has banned the newly-released movie 'Death on the Nile' due to the fact that the Israeli actress, Gal Gadot, plays a starring role in it. The Lebanese move follows closely in the footsteps of Kuwait which banned it earlier this week.

BEIRUT, Feb 12 (NNN-NNA) – Head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Stefano Del Col, yesterday called on Lebanon and Israel, to resume technical Blue Line talks, in order to reach agreements on a number of contentious areas along the Blue Line.

During this year’s first tripartite meeting with senior officers from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Israel Defence Forces (IDF), in Ras Al Naqoura, south of Lebanon, Del Col urged both sides to use the tripartite platform, to build on previous accomplishments and move towards a more stable environment.

11 Feb 2022; MEMO: Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, indicated, on Thursday, difficulties in agreeing to a financial recovery plan critical to steering Lebanon out of its devastating economic collapse, calling it a "Kamikaze operation", Reuters reports.

A plan for addressing a $70 billion hole in the financial system is seen as the starting point for talks with the International Monetary Fund, and vital to reviving the paralysed banking system.