Lebanon - Page 11

Lebanese Ambassador to Germany Mustapha Adib, 48, was confirmed as the next prime minister of Lebanon in a parliamentary vote on Sunday.

BEIRUT — Lebanon is in such a deep political and economic crisis the country risks collapsing altogether, France’s foreign minister said Thursday, ahead of the French president’s visit to the country next week.

Lebanon’s effort to form a new government is not going well. Virtually every administration official except President Michel Aoun resigned soon after the August 4 explosion that devastated the city of Beirut. The search for a new prime minister appears to be deadlocked by Lebanon’s factional rivalries and resistance to reform, even as the country’s already shaky economy teeters on the edge of utter ruin.

Police arrested the owner of a café in Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday after failing to provide identification documents and refusing to vacate the premises, devastated by the massive explosion in the capital this month.

The German newspaper Der Spiegel published a report this weekend claiming that the ship suspected of bringing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to the Port of Beirut in 2013 had ties to a bank involved in laundering money for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization and Lebanese political party.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, the highest-ranking Sunni Muslim cleric in Lebanon, added his support Wednesday to calls for an independent international investigation of the massive Beirut explosion on August 4.

A United Nations tribunal convicted a member of Hezbollah for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on Tuesday over his role in a 2005 terror attack that led to years of violent conflict between the country’s political factions.

Beirut — From his office in Beirut, Shady Rizk had a front-row view of the cataclysmic explosion at the Lebanese capital’s port.

Analysis of the historic peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tends to focus on Iran and Turkey as the big losers. They were certainly the loudest complainers.

The National on Thursday discussed efforts of Lebanese Christians to cope with social, political, and sectarian fallout from the massive explosion in Beirut. To the surprise of few, but the dismay of many, the catastrophe has inflamed religious tensions that are never far from the surface in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s parliament approved a state of emergency Thursday granting sweeping powers to the army.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has revised estimates of material damage caused by the recent explosion in Beirut to $15 billion, as the city begins the process of rebuilding itself in the wake of such a devastating event. 

Beirut’s port partially opened again Wednesday as officials and residents continued to recover from last week’s devastating blasts that killed hundreds and left thousands homeless in Lebanon’s capital city.

Former Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti has warned that potential government collapse in Lebanon following the Beirut blast could trigger a domino effect and sweep chaos across the Mediterranean.

Lebanese officials on Wednesday hastened to reassure the public that imported goods, including foodstuffs, will not be seriously hindered by last week’s massive explosion in Beirut, even though the blast destroyed the city’s vital port facilities.

A Lebanese blogger’s attack on Hezbollah in the wake of the deadly August 4 explosion at the Beirut port went viral on social media.

A Qatari sociologist says “blasphemy” in Lebanon – including an anti-Islamic culture of gays, promiscuous women, and plastic surgery – is to blame for last week’s port explosion in Beirut.

Subhi al-Tufayli, leader of the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah in the 1980s, on Tuesday held current leader Hassan Nasrallah responsible for last week’s deadly Beirut explosion and called on Lebanese authorities to put him on trial, along with his patron Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

A bombshell report published by Reuters on Tuesday revealed that senior Lebanese officials received warnings as recently as last month that a cache of highly combustible ammonium nitrate held at the Port of Beirut was a threat to its densely populated surroundings and should be moved.

Tehran — Iran is watching developments in Lebanon closely, wary of losing any of its hard-won influence after a deadly mega-blast in Beirut sparked angry demands for reforms to its delicately balanced system.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned on Monday afternoon, following the resignations of several other top ministers and effectively bringing the current Lebanese government to a close.

A police officer in Beirut was reportedly killed on Saturday and hundreds were injured as angry protests swept the devastated city over the weekend.

Reports in multiple Middle Eastern outlets suggested on Sunday that Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab may soon step down following the mass resignations of nine lawmakers and four of the nation’s 20 ministers. A third of ministers must resign for the government to collapse.

Lebanese protesters have hung in effigy an image of Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah during protests outside the country’s parliament in Beirut, amid mounting anger over the government’s silence after last Tuesday’s explosion killed more than 160 people, injured 6,000 more and destroyed large swaths of the city.

An estimated 80,000 children have been displaced by the explosion in the Port of Beirut on Tuesday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

Lebanese diaspora from all over the world are mobilizing a “financial bloodline” to the crisis-stricken country after a series of devastating explosions rocked the capital of Beirut on Tuesday, causing billions of dollars worth of damage. 

Col. Joseph Skaf, former chief of drug control for the Lebanese customs agency, wrote a letter in 2014 warning that a cargo of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate seized from a Russian-owned ship the previous year at the Port of Beirut was “highly dangerous and constitutes a threat to public safety.” Skaf died under cloudy circumstances in 2017, while the cargo he warned about evidently detonated on Tuesday, causing over a hundred deaths and wiping out a sizable portion of the city.

Dozens of residents of Beirut, Lebanon, took the streets late Thursday to demand accountability from their government after an explosion destroyed much of the city’s port area, leaving at least 150 dead, 5,000 injured, and hundreds of thousands homeless. Security forces responded by tear-gassing desperate residents.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Friday that the cause of the titanic explosion in Beirut on Tuesday “has not been determined yet,” and authorities have not ruled out “possibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act.”

International rescue teams were still hard at work in Beirut’s port searching for bodies on Friday, a full three days after a cataclysmic blast sent a wave of destruction through Lebanon’s capital, killing nearly 150 people and wounding thousands.

The U.S. “should lift sanctions imposed against Lebanese people” following the port explosion in Beirut on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

A Lebanese lawmaker revealed evidence on Wednesday that customs officials tried to get the government to secure a stash of ammonium nitrate, a combustible material, at least six times and received no guidance.

A woman being filmed in her wedding dress on Tuesday was knocked to the ground by a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, but she survived.

Iran’s state-run Fars News Agency quoted “experts” on Wednesday who said the massive explosion in Beirut, currently deemed an accident by Lebanese officials, bears a suspicious resemblance to “Israeli-style operations in the past.”

A prominent commentator in Lebanon suggested late Wednesday that a top Chinese construction firm could take up the herculean task of reconstructing the Port of Beirut after a massive explosion destroyed much of the site and surrounding neighborhoods.

French President Emmanuel Macron toured the streets of Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, becoming the first head of state to do so following Tuesday’s devastating explosion, including Lebanese President Michel Aoun.