Lebanon

03 Mar 2020; MEMO: Japan’s Deputy Justice Minister Hiroyuki Yoshiie met yesterday with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Lebanese Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem to discuss the return of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn who fled house arrest in Japan to Lebanon last year.

Aoun’s office said on Twitter after the meeting that the officials discussed mutual relations and means of developing them, in addition to the matters that concern the two countries; without referring to Ghosn’s case.

BEIRUT, Feb 29 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese Information Minister, Manal Abdel Samad, said that, Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, will visit Arab countries soon, to seek support for the country’s economy.

Abdel Samad’s remarks came, after a meeting of the council of ministers over what should be done to ease the financial and economic crisis in Lebanon.

The minister said, Diab is keen to cooperate with Arab countries for the sake of Lebanon.

BEIRUT (AP) — An air strike by Syrian government forces killed 29 Turkish soldiers in northeast Syria, a Turkish official said Friday, marking the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016.

The deaths were a serious escalation in the direct conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has been waged since early February.

BEIRUT (AP) — Abdullah Mohammed would do anything for his daughter, even forcing himself to laugh with her at the sound of bombs to help her overcome her fear.

In Idlib, that’s a lot of laughter.

BEIRUT (AP) — In northern Syria, heavy exchanges between Syrian and Turkish troops are erupting with more frequency, threatening to escalate into full-blown conflict. Russian and U.S. convoys crisscross each other on remote dirt roads, the tension between them on full display. U.S. troops even have had a deadly clash with Syrian gunmen at a checkpoint.

BEIRUT, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani announced on Sunday that Iran is keen on maintaining excellent bilateral ties with Lebanon, LBCI local TV channel reported.

"Lebanon is an influential country in the region and Iran is keen to always see that the country is free, sovereign and independent," Larijani said upon his arrival at Beirut's airport.

Larijani also congratulated Lebanon on its new government.

BEIRUT, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah warned on Sunday that the U.S. Middle East peace plan, known as the Deal of the Century, will have a huge negative impact on Lebanon, TV Channel Al Manar reported.

"This deal will give Shebaa Farms, Kfarchouba Hills and Ghajar village to Israel ... and deprive Lebanon of its total rights in the oil and gas wealth," Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech remembering the martyrs of the resistance.

BEIRUT (AP) — A military offensive on an opposition-controlled region of northwestern Syria has created one of the worst catastrophes for civilians in the country’s long-running war, sending hundreds of thousands of people fleeing, many of them sleeping in open fields and under trees in freezing temperatures.

The military campaign in Idlib province and the nearby Aleppo countryside has also killed hundreds of civilians, and a bitter winter has compounded the pain.

BEIRUT (AP) — Over 140,000 Syrians have been displaced in the last three days alone by violence in the country’s northwest, bringing the total of those uprooted in a Syrian government offensive against the last opposition stronghold to over 800,000, the United Nations said Thursday.

The U.N. said at least 60% of the more than 800,000 displaced since Dec. 1 are children. The humanitarian crisis in the already overcrowded opposition-held enclave is compounded by freezing weather conditions, and existing severe needs.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon will ask the International Monetary Fund for technical assistance to draw up a stabilization plan in the face of a financial and economic crisis, including how to restructure its public debt, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday.

“There has been contact with the IMF but Lebanon will send an official request in the coming hours to have a team dedicated to dealing with technical assistance,” the source said.