Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Sunday aired drone footage of Israeli ships in a disputed gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, highlighting the tension at the center of U.S.-mediated maritime border talks between Lebanon and Israel.

The footage was aired as the U.S. energy envoy, Amos Hochstein, was landing in Beirut to mediate ongoing talks between Lebanon and Israel over their sea borders. Lebanon claims the Karish gas field is disputed territory under ongoing maritime border negotiations, whereas Israel says it lies within its internationally recognized economic waters.

29 July 2022; MEMO: Lebanese Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said on Friday there is more optimism than ever on reaching a deal to delineate the country's maritime border with Israel via US mediation, according to a tweet from the Ministry's account, Reuters reports.

"There has never been optimism to the extent that there is today," Bou Habib said, noting that the US official mediating the dispute, Amos Hochstein, would arrive in Beirut over the weekend for talks with Lebanese officials.

29 July 2022; MEMO: An official at a Turkey-based grains trading company denied on Friday that barley and flour aboard a ship docked in a Lebanese port had been stolen from Ukraine, saying the source of the flour was Russia, Reuters reports.

The official at Loyal Agro Co Ltd, who declined to be identified, told Reuters that the company had sought to import 5,000 tonnes of the flour on the ship to Lebanon to sell to private buyers, not to the Lebanese government.

BEIRUT, July 28 (Reuters) - A Syrian ship under U.S. sanctions has docked in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli carrying barley and wheat that the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut told Reuters on Thursday had been plundered by Russia from Ukrainian stores.

The Laodicea docked in Tripoli on Wednesday, according to shipping data website MarineTraffic.

"The ship has traveled from a Crimean port that is closed to international shipping, carrying 5,000 tonnes of barley and 5,000 tonnes of flour that we suspect was taken from Ukrainian stores," the embassy told Reuters.

28 July 2022; MEMO: The leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea, has backed a proposal by the Hezbollah movement to import fuel from Iran.

27 July 2022; MEMO: The Lebanese parliament approved a loan agreement with the World Bank on Tuesday worth $150 million to secure wheat supplies. The agreement comes as the country witnesses an unprecedented shortage of bread.

Images of long queues of people waiting outside bakeries to buy government-subsidised bread have gone viral. Queuing has not been without problems, with occasional intervention by security officers required in some locations.

BEIRUT, Jul 23 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanon’s Health Ministry, yesterday announced that, it has so far detected four cases of monkeypox in the country.

The ministry confirmed that the cases are males with travel history.

It added that, cases had home isolation, with follow-up for contacts with no reported hospital admissions.

The ministry urged the public to remain at a safe distance from infected people, not share their personal items, avoid animals from countries where the disease is endemic, and refrain from eating bushmeat.

BEIRUT, Jul 22 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, yesterday, urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to conclude the aid agreement with the country, saying, Lebanon has been adopting the needed structural reforms.

The Lebanese president made the remarks during his meeting in Beirut with Pierre Duquesne, French presidential envoy for coordinating international support to Lebanon, said a presidential statement.

21 July 2022; MEMO: Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah, said yesterday that his movement will not allow Israel to extract gas from the disputed maritime area unless Lebanon gets its share, Israel's Kan channel reported.

"War is not inevitable, but Hezbollah will respond to any attack by Israel," Nasrallah is reported to have said, adding that confrontation with Israel is "possible" but it is not the best option.

BEIRUT, Jul 19 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, yesterday called on the United States, to activate its mediation, in the indirect border demarcation negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.

“It is not acceptable to delay the process of demarcating the southern maritime borders,” Aoun was quoted as saying in a statement, released by Lebanon’s Presidency.