Spotlight
An Israeli drone on Sunday bombed an excavator and a Renault Rapid utility car between the southern towns of Zibqin and al-Shuaitiyeh in the Tyre district, the National News Agency said.

Senior Lebanese officials said Saturday's talks with visiting U.S. deputy special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus were positive, focusing on south Lebanon amid a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
President Joseph Aoun and Ortagus discussed "south Lebanon, the work of the international monitoring committee and the Israeli withdrawal" from Lebanese territory, a statement from the presidency said, characterizing the talks as constructive.

Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus held a “constructive” meeting with President Joseph Aoun on Saturday morning as she kicked off an official visit to Lebanon, the Presidency said.

France is clearly supporting the approach of President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in dealing with the situations in the country, a media report said.

Lebanese authorities have started “curbing Hezbollah’s influence at the Rafik Hariri International Airport,” after the Airport Security Apparatus revoked the authorizations of a large number of airport workers who are loyal to Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia’s Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has reported.

As Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus is due in Beirut in a diplomatic bid to resolve several outstanding issues between Lebanon and Israel, Israel carried out Friday a strike on south Lebanon's port city of Sidon, killing a Hamas commander, despite a truce reached in late November.
A senior official told al-Joumhouria newspaper that the three Lebanese leaders - Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Nawaf Salam and President Joseph Aoun - will tell Ortagus that Lebanon's priority is the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the five points where they are still deployed in south Lebanon and the cessation of Israeli attacks and violations.

Lebanon's new central bank governor vowed Friday that the institution will fight money laundering and the financing of "terrorism" and will work independently away from political intervention.
Karim Souaid, who was speaking after officially taking office in Beirut, added that he will work on restructuring the banking sector and public debt and returning money to depositors.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned Friday an Israeli strike on the port city of Sidon as a "flagrant attack on Lebanese sovereignty" and a breach of the November 27 ceasefire.
Hamas commander Hassan Farhat was killed in the strike on his apartment along with his daughter and his son, also a member of the Palestinian group’s military wing.

Israel’s military said it conducted an air strike targeting a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon on Thursday.
"A short while ago, an IAF (Israeli air force) aircraft struck a Hezbollah terrorist who operated" in the area of Alma Al Shaab in southern Lebanon, a military statement said.

The Israeli military said it killed a commander of Palestinian militant group Hamas in a pre-dawn strike on the Lebanese port city of Sidon on Friday.
"Overnight, the (army and the domestic security agency Shin Bet) conducted a targeted strike in the Sidon area, eliminating the terrorist Hassan Farhat, commander of Hamas’s western arena in Lebanon," the military said in a statement.
