Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's charges that the Central Intelligence Agency had infiltrated his group in Lebanon were "empty accusations," a U.S. embassy spokesperson said Friday.
"These are the same kinds of empty accusations that we have repeatedly heard from Hizbullah," the spokesperson told Agence France Presse shortly after Nasrallah made the allegations in a televised speech.
Full StoryHizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday announced that members of his party had confessed to being CIA agents and accused arch-foe Israel of turning to the U.S. spy agency when it failed to infiltrate his Iran-backed group.
In the first such acknowledgment of infiltration since the group's founding in the 1980's, Nasrallah refused to disclose the identities of the two party members but said a third case was under investigation, slamming the U.S. embassy in Lebanon as a "den of spies."
Full StoryEight wounded Syrians were hospitalized in northern Lebanon Friday after entering the country through an illegal crossing at the border with Syria, a Lebanese security official told Agence France Presse.
"Eight Syrians with gunshot wounds were evacuated from their country via the unofficial crossing of al-Qusair in the region of Akkar" at Lebanon's northern border with Syria, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Full StoryLebanon's highest Sunni Muslim authority on Friday rejected a bill aimed at protecting women against domestic violence and marital rape, saying it would lead to the demise "of the family as in the West."
"Islam is very aware of and concerned with ... resolving problems of poor treatment ... but this should not happen by cloning Western laws that encourage the breakdown of the family and do not suit our society," Dar al-Fatwa said in a statement on its website.
Full StoryWell-informed military sources have ruled out the possibility that the U.S. might decide to halt military assistance to the Lebanese army following the letter sent by the Congress to President Barack Obama’s administration in this regard in response to the formation of the new Lebanese cabinet, the Central News Agency reported Friday.
“A high-ranking Lebanese military delegation will visit Washington after the government gains (parliament’s) confidence … to provide the necessary clarifications and stress Lebanon’s commitment to the applicable international principles, resolutions and laws,” the agency noted.
Full StoryGovernment Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr on Friday charged seven people with engaging in a deadly gunfight in the northern port city of Tripoli a week earlier.
Saqr Saqr charged the seven suspects with forming armed gangs, exchanging gunfire with unlicensed arms, and killing a soldier and several civilians.
Full StoryPremier Najib Miqati does not intend to make any suggestion on the clause of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the draft policy statement before holding talks with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, al-Mustaqbal daily reported Friday.
The final decision on the controversial clause is awaiting a meeting between Miqati and Nasrallah, the newspaper said.
Full StoryThe Justice Palace in Baabda was evacuated on Friday after a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, media reports said.
The National News Agency said that a call was made on Friday morning threatening to blow up the building while Judge Faisal Haidar was holding judicial hearings.
Full StoryPrime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday urged President Bashar Assad to “speed up the implementation of reforms,” stressing that the new government will deal with the displaced Syrians from a humanitarian aspect.
Miqati said during an interview with al-Arabiya television network that his government will treat the Syrian refugees “away from any political aspect.”
Full StoryThe March 14-led opposition would launch a National Council whose mission is to follow-up political developments, assess them and take the appropriate stance, a March 14 leader told al-Mustaqbal daily published Friday.
The leader, who refused to be identified, said March 14 officials who met at the Center House on Wednesday agreed on confronting the Hizbullah-led March 8 with all democratic means given that PM Najib Miqati's cabinet was formed due to the presence of illegal arms.
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