Pope Francis has announced plans to soon visit – though no dates were given – Lebanon and South Sudan – but without explaining why these two countries are being singled out. He has already scheduled a visit to Iraq at the beginning of March. The report on his plans is here: “Pope promises to visit […]
Greek intelligence operation tracking illegal Muslim migrants discovers Turkish and Lebanese spies
Turkey, which has been bullying Greece for some time, recently threatened the EU that it shouldn’t “dare” to impose sanctions over Turkish aggression toward Greece and Cyprus. For the past few months, Greece has been bolstering its military, amid Turkey’s ongoing “provocative statements” and “near-daily” threats of war. Particularly worrying with the latest spy news […]
Hezbollah Sues Those Who Claim It Was Responsible For Beirut Blast
Hezbollah announced on December 4 that it is suing a number of entities who have accused it of being behind the explosion at Beirut’s port that killed over 200 people and wounded thousands in early August, as Walla, an Israel internet site, reported on December 5. The Jerusalem Post report on this act of monumental […]
Lebanon Agrees to Talk with Israel on Maritime Borders
For the last decade, Israel has been discovering huge undersea deposits of natural gas in the Tamar and Leviathan fields under the Mediterranean, and is now producing that gas both for its own use and for sale to Egypt and Jordan. Lebanon, meanwhile, has stood on the sidelines, needing to demarcate its maritime border with […]
France’s Macron Furious with Lebanese Politicians, Especially Hezbollah
French President Emmanuel Macron has been to Lebanon twice since the August 4 blast in Beirut. During his last visit, he read the Lebanese politicians the riot act, saying that they had to institute reforms before they could expect any aid from abroad. On September 28, he raged on television against the Lebanese political elite, […]
Macron to Hezbollah Politician: ‘Everyone Knows You Have an Iranian Agenda. Are You Lebanese, Yes or No?’
On his second visit to Lebanon after the Beirut blast, between August 31 and September 2, French President Macron has demanded that the Lebanese institute reforms of the political system. Otherwise, he has warned, the aid that was pledged to Lebanon in a 2018 Donor’s Conference in Paris — $10.2 billion in loans and $860 […]
Macron, Back in Beirut, Gives Lebanese Leaders a Warning on the Need to Reform (Part 2)
Macron, in Beirut at the end of August, engaged in some symbolic acts before getting down to the business of lecturing his hosts on the need for meaningful reform. Earlier, Macron planted a cedar sapling at a forest reserve in the mountains northeast of Beirut. The Elysée palace said this was to show Macron’s “confidence […]
Macron, Back in Beirut, Gives Lebanese Leaders a Warning on the Need to Reform (Part 1)
The French President, who has been the foreign leader most involved in pushing for reforms of the Lebanese political system, is back in Beirut to pressure the Lebanese leadership to make haste with those “reforms,” which may help bring the country back from the brink of economic ruin. His visit is described here. French President […]
Trump administration preparing sanctions to weaken Hizballah’s influence in Lebanon
Previous administrations would be reaching out to Hizballah and offering it billions in exchange for a temporary semblance of peace and order. “U.S. Prepares Sanctions Against Hezbollah’s Allies in Lebanon,” by Dion Nissenbaum, Ian Talley and Benoit Faucon, Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2020: The Trump administration is preparing to impose anticorruption sanctions against prominent […]
Dima Sadek: Hezbollah ‘Worse Than Israel’
Dima Sadek was until last year an anchor for a popular political program in Lebanon, when she dared to criticize Hezbollah, and was promptly fired. Fortunately she still has her social media outlet, and her latest video tweet has been viewed 715,000 times. The story of her video is here. A Lebanese blogger’s criticism of […]