BEIRUT, LEBANON  -  An attack in eastern Syria killed 10 oil field workers, state news agency SANA reported on Friday, a day after Syrian Kurdish-led forces announced an offensive against the Islamic State. In addition to the nearly dozen dead, "two others have been wounded in a terrorist attack that targeted...

A team of investigators from Europe will visit Lebanon next month to probe into the wealth of central bank governor Riad Salameh blamed widely for the country's unprecedented crisis. The long-serving chief is among top officials held responsible for the crisis dubbed as one of the worst in modern global...

BEIRUT, LEBANON - Six Syrian fighters from a pro-Turkish group died in clashes with regime troops that still raged Monday in northwest Syria, rebel forces and a war monitor said. A pro-Turkey rebel statement said the six were killed and three more wounded in the offensive launched by government forces backed...

Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group has handed over a man suspected of killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper earlier this month, a security official said. Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others injured on December 14 when their UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle was attacked near the...

"The problem with Lebanon is that we must solve people's problems and get rid of those who cannot do it," Macron said, referring to the country's entrenched political class -- widely blamed for the country's financial collapse since late 2019.

Beirut, Lebanon--Lebanese investigators have identified suspects in the fatal shooting of an Irish United Nations peacekeeper whose vehicle came under fire earlier this month, a judicial official told AFP on Thursday. Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others injured on December 14 when their UN Interim Force in Lebanon...

Mikati said the economy had grown by nearly two percent in 2022 after two straight years of severe recession that saw Gross Domestic Product fall by 25.9 percent in 2020 and by 10.5 percent in 2021.

The "Baghdad II" meeting in Jordan, which alongside regional powers also includes officials from France and the European Union, follows an August 2021 summit in Iraq's capital organized at the initiative of Macron. "There is a way that is not... a form of hegemony, imperialism, a model that would be...

The announcement on December 5 that the bookshop will close at the end of this month prompted an avalanche of messages. UK-based Algerian journalist and academic Ouissal Harize wrote on Twitter: "You will definitely be missed. Thank you for giving us a home away from home." The editor-in-chief of Esquire...

In the midst of Lebanon's three-year financial collapse, banks have tightened controls on withdrawals in both US dollars and the local currency.

The United Nations' peacekeeping force in south Lebanon urged Beirut to ensure a "speedy" investigation into an Irish soldier's shooting death near the Israeli border. The peacekeeper's convoy came under fire late Wednesday near the village of Al-Aqbiya, the Irish military said, wounding three other members of the UN force...

Aqibya, Lebanon-- An Irish member of the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon was killed and three were wounded after their convoy came under fire, UN and Irish sources said Thursday. "A convoy of two armoured utility vehicles carrying eight personnel travelling to Beirut came under small arms fire" late Wednesday, the Irish...

Paris, France--- French energy giant TotalEnergies said Monday that several teams were working in collaboration with the Lebanese Petroleum Administration to start drilling on its offshore gas project (Block 9) in Lebanon in 2023. “The call for tenders to secure the drilling rig has been launched and should lead to...

A noted Lebanese actor Stephanie Saliba was briefly detained by authorities in Lebanon in connection with a money laundering case. The actor was questioned as a witness in a corruption probe involving the country's central bank governor. She had failed to appear for previous summons in the case.

Parliament is split between supporters of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents, neither of whom have a clear majority. "Holding a session every week won't change anything," said lawmaker Alain Aoun, of former president Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).

The 75-year-old writer, who had received death threats after the publication of his "The Satanic Verses" in 1988, was stabbed several times in the neck and abdomen.

Appealing to the international community to help the country as it faces 'one of its hardest moments', UNHCR chief said that Lebanon hosts 'one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world' and that it needs support. He spoke at the end of a three-day visit to Beirut.

Lawmakers in crisis-hit Lebanon failed to elect a new president for an eighth time, despite the deepening impact of the political deadlock on the country's economic woes. Lebanon has been without a head of state for a month after president Michel Aoun left office at the end of October with...

The industry accounts for almost 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN. Lina recommends refurbishing and retrofitting old buildings in a sustainable way.

Lawmaker Michel Moawad, who is seen as close to the United States, won the support of 42 of parliament's 128 MPs, but his tally fell well short of the required majority and was exceeded by the number of spoilt ballots cast by pro-Hezbollah lawmakers.

Lebanese lawmakers failed for a sixth time to elect a successor to former president Michel Aoun, whose mandate expired last month. Parliament is split between supporters of the powerful Hezbollah movement and its opponents, neither of whom have a clear majority. Lawmaker Michel Moawad won the support of 43 of...

It comes after Lebanon and Israel said in October that they had struck an "historic" deal to resolve a maritime border dispute involving offshore gas fields after years of US-mediated talks.

Accused of involvement in a massacre by the Islamic State group, Abdullah Sabawi, dubbed as the "grandnephew" of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, has been extradited from Lebanon to Iraq. Sabawi is alleged to have been a member of IS and having participated in the Speicher massacre.

Lebanese security officials and politicians have made several visits to Syria in recent years, but almost exclusively in their personal capacity or on behalf of political parties that support President Bashar al-Assad, including the powerful Hezbollah movement, supported by the Iran.

Scuttling an "international trafficking attempt" to West Africa, Morocco has made a large seizure of more than two million amphetamine-type captagon pills on the kingdom's northern coast. The drugs were hidden inside a goods container onboard a maritime transport ship headed from Lebanon to West Africa.

Hawkish former Israeli premier Netanyahu, who on Wednesday appeared on the cusp of returning to power, has staunchly opposed the deal, dismissing it as an "illegal ploy" and warning he would not be bound by its terms. "We obtained sufficient American guarantees that this deal cannot easily be cancelled," said...

Aoun's six-year term, that came to a close on Sunday, was marred by mass protests, a painful economic downturn and the August 2020 mega-explosion of ammonium nitrate that killed hundreds and laid waste to swathes of the capital Beirut.

Michel Aoun was vacating Lebanon's presidential palace, amid acclaim from his supporters, a day before his mandate expires without a designated successor, threatening a new power vacuum in the crisis-torn country. Several well-wishers gathered to pay tribute to the former army chief and head of the Free Patriotic Movement.

Cyprus, which has aspirations of becoming a major energy player in the eastern Mediterranean, has a key exclusive economic zone, divided into 12 blocks and potentially rich in gas. "The cooperation with Cyprus is not like the cooperation with the Israelis, the enemy state," said Elias Bou Saad, deputy speaker...

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he "strongly" believed the deal can promote stability in the region and create "enhanced prosperity for the Lebanese and Israeli peoples". The deal comes as Lebanon hopes to extract itself from what the World Bank calls one of the world's worst economic crises in modern...

Jerusalem, Undefined—Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday claimed Israel's foe Lebanon de-facto "recognizes" the Jewish state, due to a sea border deal the two states are set to sign imminently. "This is a political achievement -- it is not every day that an enemy state recognizes the State of Israel, in...

Jerusalem---Gas production has started at Karish, an offshore field at the centre of a maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon, London-listed Energean said Wednesday. "Gas is being produced from the Karish Main-02 well and the flow of gas is being steadily ramped up," a statement from the company said....

Already governed by a caretaker cabinet, crisis-hit Lebanon is hurtling towards an imminent power vacuum, with just days before the current president's term finishes at the end of the month. Aoun was elected in 2016 after a more than two-year vacancy at the presidential palace, as lawmakers made 45 failed...

Jerusalem, Undefined—Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday paved the way for the signing of a maritime border deal with Lebanon, after it rejected appeals that the pact requires parliamentary approval. The signing is expected later this week. Israel and Lebanon, who are technically at war, agreed to terms earlier this month on...

The political deadlock has hit efforts to form a new government since the outgoing cabinet's mandate expired in May, despite Lebanon being gripped by its worst-ever financial crisis. At the end of a visit to Beirut last week, France's Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna urged election of a new president to...

Thick black smoke sometimes billows from its red-and-white chimneys, leaving a grey haze in the air above the Zouk Mikael industrial district where the toxins remain trapped by a nearby mountain chain. Zeina, aged 40, says she lost her younger sister and a cousin to pulmonary fibrosis and that two...

It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Wednesday said the agreement would make conflict with Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah less likely. The agreement between the countries that have remained technically at war since Israel's creation in 1948 was earlier applauded by world leaders, including US President Joe...

Lebanon's search for gas riches in the hydrocarbon-rich eastern Mediterranean had stalled since 2020 over competing claims with Israel over offshore gas fields. Lebanon has yet to officially agree to the deal, but PM Najib Mikati said he hoped a "conclusion would be reached soon" that could pave the way...

In a statement Sunday, Energean said that "following approval received from the Israeli Ministry of Energy to start certain testing procedures, the flow of gas from onshore to the FPSO has commenced", referring to the Karish floating production storage offloading facility.

With the demand for gas rising worldwide because of an energy crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Lebanon hopes that an offshore discovery would ease its current unprecedented financial downturn. But more than a decade since it declared its maritime boundaries and an Exclusive Economic Zone, it still has...

Cynthia Zarazir, who was elected to parliament in May, is the latest in a growing number of angry depositors who are forcing Lebanese lenders to unlock savings trapped under informal capital controls imposed in the face of an unprecedented financial crisis.

Banks in the country, mired in an economic crisis for more than two years, partially reopened last week under strict security after a week-long closure following a slew of heists by customers desperate to access their money. Banks started imposing draconian restrictions on withdrawals after Lebanon's economy collapsed in 2019.

The draft agreement floated by US envoy Amos Hochstein aims to settle competing claims over offshore gas fields and was delivered to Lebanese and Israeli officials at the weekend. Lebanese authorities, who confirmed receipt of the terms on Saturday, have pledged to deliver a reply "as quickly as possible".

Lebanon said it received a letter from US envoy Amos Hochstein containing an "offer" on a maritime border deal with Israel that could settle competing claims over offshore gas fields. Prime Minister Najib Mikati met with US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea "who delivered a written offer from the US...

Lebanon's parliament failed to elect a new president after a first round of voting amid deep divisions over a replacement for Michel Aoun whose term expires next month. Majority of lawmakers cast blank ballots, suggesting the election process may drag on, an outcome Lebanon can ill afford as it wrestles...

The exchange rate has been officially pegged at 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar since 1997, but will drop to 15,000 to the greenback at the end of October. The pound, however, traded at more than double that value on the black market on Wednesday, selling for more than 38,400...

The term of Michel Aoun expires at the end of October. The session will mark the first attempt by lawmakers to elect a new head of state at a time when the country is in the grips of a financial crisis described by the World Bank as one of the...

Prodded by the IMF to implement reforms, Lebanon's parliament has approved the 2022 budget setting expenditures at $1.2 billion. The crisis-stricken country and the IMF had reached a conditional agreement on a $3 billion loan in April to help the country tackle its economic crisis.

Depositors scuffled and long lines formed at Lebanese banks Monday as they partially re-opened after a week-long closure following a slew of heists by customers desperate to access their money. But most banks remained shuttered and there was anger from those seeking to withdraw frozen funds desperately need to weather...

Jordan Prime Minister Dr. Bisher Khasawneh has a joint meeting with the agriculture ministers of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.