Lebanon
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UNRWA postpones start of school year in South due to Ain el-Helweh clashes

More than 11,000 Palestine Refugees children in South Lebanon will not be able to join their peers at the beginning of the school year on 2 October. This is a quarter of refugee school children and is due to violence and clashes in the Ain el-Helweh camp, the largest in the country.

“UNRWA was forced to take this decision given all our eight schools inside the camp have been taken over by armed groups. They have sustained significant destruction and damage. Other schools – outside the camp- are currently being used by displaced families,” said Dorothée Klaus, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon.

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Military court sentences IS group official to 160 years in prison

A Lebanese military court has sentenced an official with the extremist Islamic State group to 160 years in prison for carrying out deadly attacks against security forces and planning others targeting government buildings and crowded civilian areas, judicial officials said Wednesday.

The officials said Imad Yassin, a Palestinian in his 50s, confessed to all 11 charges against him, including joining a "terrorist organization," committing crimes in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh, shooting at Lebanese soldiers, and transporting weapons and munitions for militant groups.

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Bukhari heads to Riyadh to 'meet Aloula and Le Drian'

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari on Wednesday traveled to the Saudi capital Riyadh, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

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'You haven't done your utmost': Geagea asks Berri to move directly to voting

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea urged Tuesday Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to skip dialogue and call for open sessions to elect a president.

"A second electoral round would likely lead to a president," Geagea said, after Berri earlier called on those who rejected his call for dialogue to propose an alternative.

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France warns Lebanon financial aid at risk over presidency deadlock

French President Emmanuel Macron's special envoy urged Lebanese factions to find a "third way" for electing a new president, warning that France and its allies were losing patience after almost a year of deadlock and now reviewing their financial aid.

"The life of the Lebanese state itself is at risk," Jean-Yves Le Drian, a former foreign minister, told AFP in an interview.

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Reports: Toters driver shot at US embassy after guard 'insulted' him

The man arrested for firing around a dozen shots at the U.S. Embassy in Awkar has been identified by media reports as Mohammed Mahdi Hussein Khalil, a 26-year-old deliveryman who works for Lebanon’s leading food delivery company Toters.

The detainee hails from the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh and had opened fire at a General Security department in the past, the reports said.

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'No breakthrough on the horizon': Berri mourns dialogue initiative

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called those who rejected his call for dialogue to propose an alternative, "if they have one."

In remarks published Tuesday in al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri announced the end of his initiative. "I no longer have anything to propose," he said. "Do they have an alternative?"

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Bassil meets Mufti, says dialogue needs specific conditions to succeed

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday held talks at Dar al-Fatwa with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan.

“There is no solution for the presidency issue except through understanding and balanced partnership, and this naturally needs dialogue. We have never been against dialogue, but we know that dialogue must be effective, that’s why we stressed to His Eminence and agreed with him that dialogue requires certain circumstances, if we don’t want to say conditions, in order for it to succeed,” Bassil said after the meeting.

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Qatari ambassador meets with Hezbollah's Raad

Qatari Ambassador to Lebanon Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met Monday with the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, the Qatari embassy said.

The talks tackled “the bilateral relations between the two countries and the general situations in Lebanon and the region,” the embassy added in a post on the X platform.

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MP Hashem says Berri's dialogue initiative 'frozen'

Speaker Nabih Berri has “frozen” his presidential dialogue initiative and the ball now is in the court of those who rejected it, MP Qassem Hashem of Berri’s bloc said on Tuesday.

Asked whether Berri is willing to discuss the nomination of General Security acting chief Elias Bayssari, Hashem said: “Speaker Berri is clear in his proposals and he has supported the nomination of a certain candidate (Suleiman Franjieh).”

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