Lebanon

19 Sep 2022; MEMO: Israel has raised the state of alert and ordered its troops to prepare for any scenario following Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah's threats to target the offshore Karish gas drilling rig, Hebrew Walla news site said.

On Saturday, Nasrallah said Israel's extraction of gas from the Karish gas field before Lebanon obtained its rights is a "red line."

BEIRUT, Sept 17 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese banks will close for three days starting Monday amid mounting security concerns, local media reported.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced the closures, after angry depositors across the country stormed banks yesterday, demanding their savings, according to a TV channel.

More than five banks, yesterday, were broken into and raided by depositors, some of whom wielded pistols and brought fuel jerricans, threatening to commit arson.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese depositors, including one armed with a hunting rifle, broke into at least four banks Friday to demand their trapped savings, a sign of growing chaos in the small Mediterranean nation amid a historic economic meltdown.

Friday’s raids were the most in a single day, and raised the possibility that more desperate depositors would try to extract their money by force. The break-ins reflect public anger at the banks’ strict informal controls on cash withdrawals, a byproduct of the financial crisis.

15 Sep 2022; MEMO: The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that a staff mission will visit Lebanon next week to discuss ways to "speed up" implementation of agreed reforms required for an IMF loan program amid deteriorating living conditions in the country, Reuters reports.

BEIRUT, Sept 15 (NNN-NNA) – A Lebanese university and a Chinese institute, signed here yesterday, a cooperation agreement, regarding the scientific research on the peaceful development and use of nuclear energy.

The agreement was signed by the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Institute of Plasma Physics, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP), one of the most important laboratories in China, on plasma physics.

BEIRUT, Sept 14 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanon, Cyprus and Greece, signed yesterday, a tripartite agreement, to strengthen their cooperation on diaspora affairs, it was reported.

Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, Greece’s Deputy Foreign Minister of Diaspora Greeks, Andreas Katsaniotis, and Cyprus’ Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues and Overseas Cypriots, Fotis Fotiou signed the agreement at Lebanon’s foreign ministry, here.

BEIRUT (AP) — A woman accompanied by activists and brandishing what she said was a toy pistol broke into a Beirut bank branch on Wednesday, taking $13,000 from her trapped savings.

Sali Hafez told the local Al-Jadeed TV that she needed the money to fund her sister’s cancer treatment. She said she had repeatedly visited the bank to ask for her money and was told she could only receive $200 a month in Lebanese pounds. Hafez said the toy pistol belonged to her nephew.

BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group killed six U.S.-backed Syrian fighters in eastern Syria saying on Monday that the killing was in retaliation for an ongoing operation inside a sprawling camp housing tens of thousands of family members of the extremist group.

The IS-linked Aamaq news agency released a video showing the shooting of the six members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces near the eastern village of Ruwaished where they were captured alive and later shot dead late Sunday.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s central bank lifted its remaining subsidies on fuel on Monday, gas station owners said, ending a year-long process of scaling back on the expensive program.

The Central Bank over a year ago announced it would gradually lift fuel subsidies, to slow down the draining of its foreign exchange reserves. Fuel subsidies once cost the cash-strapped country some $3 billion annually. Last week, it subsidized just 20% of the cost of fuel imports.

BEIRUT, Sept 11 (NNN-NNA) – Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, yesterday, reiterated his country’s readiness to provide Lebanon with fuel commodities, construct new power stations, and rehabilitate existing power networks.

He made the remarks during a meeting with Lebanese Energy Minister, Walid Fayad, in Beirut, which came a day after Fayyad indicated that a Lebanese technical delegation would soon visit Iran to discuss the free fuel offer.