lebanon

FM Warns of Imminent Israeli Offensive, Slams Hezbollah and Iran

Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi told Al Jazeera on Friday that Lebanon has received warnings from various Arab and international sources indicating that Israel may be preparing a large-scale military operation against the country. Raggi said the Lebanese government is intensifying diplomatic contacts to prevent any potential Israeli strikes on the ...

Israeli Army Strikes Hezbollah Training Compounds in Southern Lebanon

A new wave of Israeli airstrikes hit multiple areas in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley on Friday morning, targeting a training camp and Hezbollah positions in the region. The strikes reportedly focused on the villages of Jarmak, Mahmoudiyeh, Jabal Rafih (Jezzine), Jabal Safi (Nabatieh), the outskirts of Soujoud in Iqlim al-Tuffah, and the ...

Storms in Lebanon: Why We Name Them, Why We Fear Them, Why We Wait for Them

Adam, Farah, Norma, Zeina, Yohan, Oscar… In Lebanon, winter storms have taken on the appearance of characters. They pop up on weather maps, scroll across TV tickers and flood Instagram stories, as if winter too had its own cast. Yet behind the folklore of first names and the debates about “one storm too many” lies a much more serious ...

Araghchi "Surprised" by Raggi’s Decision to Decline Tehran Visit

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi voiced surpirse after his Lebanese counterpart, Youssef Raggi, declined an official invitation to visit Tehran, citing “unsuitable conditions” at the present time. Araghchi noted that countries maintaining “brotherly relations and full diplomatic ties” should not require neutral ...

Lebanese Red Cross Praises Support from ABC Group

The Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) commended the ABC Group for its sustained commitment, welcoming the company’s CEO, Ron Fadel, to its headquarters in Spears. The visit falls under an initiative launched in November 2024 to provide long-term support for the LRC’s humanitarian missions. Entering its second year, the partnership was created to ...

Blast Investigator Tarek Bitar to Interrogate Rhosus Ship Owner

According to reports by Al-Modon, Beirut Port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar is expected to travel to Bulgaria in the coming days to question Igor Grechushkin, the owner of Rhosus, the ship that transported the ammonium nitrate and exploded at the port in one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions.  Bulgarian ...

Beirut Sports Festival: Karim Andari Invests 4 Billion LBP to Support 80 Students Through “Loubnaniyoun”

Sports are stepping into the classroom. At the Qubic Center in Horch Tabet, the president of the Beirut Sports Festival, Karim Andari, and the president of the association “Loubnaniyoun,” Nadine Daher, formalized an unprecedented partnership: 4 billion Lebanese pounds granted to the NGO to cover school fees for 80 students from various regions ...

Lebanon’s Collective Trauma Needs Peace

There was an unmistakable irony on Monday as Lebanon’s “Sunni street” marked the first anniversary of the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime. The same community that has condemned its Shia counterparts for venerating Iran’s rulers now engages in the same political canonization, this time for Syria’s new leaders. The motorbike convoys ...

No More Free Passes: U.S. Ties Security Aid to Lebanese Action

The U.S. Congress has sent a clear, stern message to Beirut that Washington’s support for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is no longer a blank check. The latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), up for a vote in the House of Representatives, imposes new conditions and restrictions on U.S. aid to the Lebanese army, ...

Israel’s Power Vacuum Dilemma

On December 2 Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israel Defense Forces soldiers wounded in recent fighting in southern Syria. Their injuries followed a November 26 IDF raid on the village of Beit Jinn in southern Syria, an operation that left several Syrians dead and wounded a number of Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu had a ...

Barrack's Glaring Error on Syria and Lebanon

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack keeps warning that Lebanon will be “reabsorbed” into Syria unless Hezbollah is disarmed, a historically unfounded threat from someone who derides the Sykes-Picot boundaries as colonial nonsense yet treats Syria’s borders as sacrosanct. His selective anti-colonialism spares Syria, disregards Kurdish and Druze ...

Al-Qard al-Hassan’s Gold: Hezbollah’s New Financial Scheme

After introducing ATMs, easy-access loans, and clandestine counters scattered throughout the alleys of Beirut’s southern suburbs, al-Qard al-Hassan (AQAH), Hezbollah’s financial arm, has taken its operations a step further: direct gold trading. Gold bars, coins, and jewelry are reportedly now being offered to the Shiite community, turning gold ...