Spotlight
Following the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail, the Minister of Information Jamal Jarrah read the following information:

President Michel Aoun urged the world leaders to exert all efforts needed for the safe return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, warning against turning them into "hostages in an international game.”

Chairman of the Parliamentary Telecommunications Committee, MP Hussein Hajj Hassan, pushed in a press conference for the formation of a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the mobile network file, the National News Agency said on Wednesday.

A Lebanese man mistakenly detained in Greece over involvement in a 1985 plane hijacking case returned to Lebanon on Wednesday.

The brief visit of US Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea to Beirut, comes as part of “Washington's inclusion of Lebanon on the list of countries subject to its strict control,” the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.

President Michel Aoun met with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi at the UN headquarters in New York on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly meeting, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Talks between the two men highlighted the bilateral relations between Lebanon and Egypt and discussed the means to “develop” them, said NNA.

Washington has reportedly begun “tough” measures for Lebanese wishing to travel to the United States, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri assured that the government is working seriously to close all illegal crossings and smuggling routes between Lebanon and Syria, stressing that smugglers will be brought to justice.

The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), Judge Ivana Hrdličková, has ordered today that the service of the indictment against Salim Jamil Ayyash relating to the attacks against Marwan Hamade, Georges Hawi and Elias El- Murr (Prosecutor v. Salim Jamil Ayyash, Case No. STL‑18‑10), be effected in an alternative manner, including through public advertisement, the STL said in a press release on Monday.

A general legislative session was held in Parliament on Tuesday during which a dispute erupted between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Strong Lebanon bloc lawmakers over a clause on the construction of a water dam in the northern region of Dinnieh.
