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Bitar questions two defendants in Beirut blast probe

The Lebanese judge investigating the 2020 Beirut port explosion questioned two people on Friday in connection with the deadly blast after a years-long pause, a judicial official said.

Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation last month, charging 10 people including security, customs and military personnel after a two-year hiatus in the probe into the August 4, 2020 explosion that killed more than 220 people, injured thousands and devastated swathes of Lebanon's capital.

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Jumblat says there should be 'no winners and losers' in Lebanon

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat quoted Friday former Lebanese Prime Minister Saeb Salam, urging Lebanese leaders to form an inclusive government as progress stalled following a meeting Thursday between the Lebanese President, PM-designate, and Parliament speaker.

Jumblat said, in remarks published Friday in al-Joumhouria, that it is time to remember Salam's words "There are no winners and no losers" in order to succeed in managing Lebanon's complicated situation and national junctures, including the new government formation.

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Hezbollah supporters protest Ortagus' remarks outside airport as Aoun distances himself

A number of Hezbollah supporters started gathering Friday outside Beirut’s airport for a sit-in protesting the anti-Hezbollah remarks that U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus voiced from Baabda after her meeting with President Joseph Aoun.

“The Lebanese Army has reinforced its deployment outside the airport,” the National News Agency said.

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Syrian fighter killed in battles with 'drug smugglers' near Lebanon border, monitor says

New Syria's Military Operations Administration managed to take control of the Hawik village on the Syria-Lebanon border after fierce battles against drug smugglers and gunmen "close to the Lebanese Hezbollah" group, a Syria war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday that the Syrian militants attacked different villages in the western countryside of Homs, including Hawik, Bluzah, Al-Fadliyah, and Akoum "with Shaheen drones, artillery fire, and heavy weapons."

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Cyprus jails Syrian over child death on migrant boat from Lebanon

A Cyprus court sentenced a Syrian national to three years in prison after finding him guilty of causing the death by negligence of a 3-year-old girl from dehydration aboard an overloaded migrant boat that was adrift for six days without adequate supplies of food and water.

The Attorney-General's Office said Friday the Famagusta criminal court ruled that the 48-year-old captain had failed to ensure the safety of the 60 Syrian migrants aboard the small wooden craft that carried no navigational aids or appropriate communications equipment.

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Aoun tells Ortagus south stability linked to Israeli pullout

President Joseph Aoun on Friday told the visiting Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus that “permanent stability in the South hinges on completing Israel’s withdrawal from the territory that it occupied during the last war, and the implementation of Resolution 1701 with all its terms, including the requirements of the Nov. 27 agreement.”

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Bassil says LF 'gave cover' for 'Christian loss' in new govt.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Friday said the FPM cannot be in a new government that contains “privileged and non-privileged members.”

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Hezbollah member, 2 daughters killed in explosion in Tayr Harfa

A Hezbollah member and his two daughters were killed Friday in an explosion of a house in the southern border town of Tayr Harfa, media reports said.

The man, called Abbas Haidar, is a Hezbollah official, LBCI said, adding that his two daughters who were with him were also killed and other members of his family were injured.

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US envoy says Hezbollah 'defeated', must not be in Lebanon government

A senior U.S. official visiting Beirut said Friday that Hezbollah's presence in Lebanon's new government was a red line, calling the Iran-backed group "defeated" in its war with Israel.

The visit by U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus comes as prime minister-designate Nawaf Salam struggles to form a government amid political pressure from dominant blocs insisting on their share of ministerial portfolios.

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Israel strikes Iqlim al-Tuffah, Bissariyeh and east Lebanon

Israel said late Thursday it had struck two sites in Lebanon that allegedly contained weapons belonging to the Hezbollah group, despite a ceasefire deal.

Israeli forces "conducted a precise strike in Lebanese territory on two military sites that contained Hezbollah weapons, which were in violation of the ceasefire agreement", the army said on social media.

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