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Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli drone strike in the south killed one person on Saturday, the latest deadly raid despite a more than two-week ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
"An Israeli enemy drone strike... killed one person" in al-Khardali in the Marjayoun district, the health ministry said in a statement. The official National News Agency reported a car was targeted.
Full StoryHezbollah leader Naim Qassem said on Saturday that Syria's new rulers, who ousted the Lebanese armed group's ally Bashar al-Assad, should not recognize neighboring Israel or establish ties with it.
"We hope that this new party in power will see Israel as an enemy and not normalize relations with it," Qassem said in a televised speech, his first public remarks since Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad following an offensive launched on November 27, the same day that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect.
Full StoryA severely hobbled Hezbollah was in no position to help defend former Syrian President Bashar Assad, a longtime ally, from the lightning-fast insurgency that toppled him. With Assad gone, the militant group based in Lebanon is even weaker.
Hezbollah was dealt a major blow during 14 months of war with Israel. The toppling of Assad, who had strong ties to Iran, has now crippled its ability to bounce back by cutting off a vital weapons-smuggling route through Syria.
Full StoryPresident-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East adviser, the Lebanese-American Massad Boulos, has enjoyed a reputation as a billionaire mogul at the helm of a business that bears his family name.
Boulos has been profiled as a tycoon by the world’s media, telling a reporter in October that his company is worth billions. Trump called him a “highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the international scene.”
Full StoryThe Vatican urged Lebanon on Friday to elect a president, after two years of vacuum amid deadlock between pro- and anti-Hezbollah blocs in parliament.
Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who met Friday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, said the Vatican has been calling for the election of a president for two years.
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An Israeli drone on Friday bombed the Tebna area near the Sidon district town of Bayssarieh, the state-run National News Agency said.
Full StoryA meeting Wednesday between the Quint's ambassadors and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was "one of the best", Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa said in a televised interview.
Moussa said that Berri is committed to electing a consensual president who supports the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.
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Speaker Nabih Berri has two presidential candidates: ex-ambassador to the Vatican and former army intelligence chief Brig. Gen. George Khoury and MP Farid Haykal al-Khazen, Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper reported on Friday.
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The Israeli army has claimed that Hezbollah militants were the target of a drone strike that killed a person in Khiam on Thursday and was swiftly condemned by caretaker PM Najib Mikati.
Full StoryAn Israeli drone targeted Thursday the square of the town of Khiam, reportedly killing one person and injuring another, a day after Israeli troops withdrew from the strategic town, handing it back to the Lebanese army.
The Lebanese army had warned civilians to stay out of Khiam until it can clear the area of any unexploded munitions. The strategic hilltop town, located less than 5 kilometers from the border with Israel, saw some of the most intense fighting during the war.
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