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Iran-backed Hezbollah knows this and is keeping Lebanon's crises in mind as it plots the next steps in the conflict with Israel, sources say. As the war between Israel and Hezbollah's Palestinian ally Hamas reverberates across the Middle East, the risk of war between Hezbollah and Israel remains higher than at any point since their last big conflict in 2006. Lebanon has no interest in war", a source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said. However, Hezbollah has also indicated a readiness for war, reflecting its position as the spearhead of an Iran-backed alliance against Israel and the United States. Lebanon took years to rebuild from the 2006 war which killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Persons: Lisi Niesner, Israel, Walid Jumblatt, Isaac Herzog, Hezbollah's, Suleiman Frangieh, Nabil Boumonsef, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Ghassan Hasbani, Mohanad Hage Ali, Maya Gebeily, Tom Perry, Angus MacSwan Organizations: REUTERS, Analysts, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanese, Annahar, Lebanese Forces, Christian, Carnegie Middle East Center, Thomson Locations: Israeli, Lebanon, Israel, BEIRUT, Iran, Hamas, Gaza, Arab, United States, Lebanese, LEBANON, Beirut

Neither Azour nor Hezbollah-backed candidate Suleiman Frangieh came close to winning the 86 votes needed to win in a first round vote. Azour, the IMF's Middle East Director and an ex-finance minister, won the support of 59 of 128 lawmakers. Hezbollah and its allies then withdrew from the session, denying the two-thirds quorum required for a second vote in which 65 votes are enough for victory. Azour thanked lawmakers who backed him, saying he hoped the will expressed by "the majority of deputies" would be respected. George Adwan, a Christian lawmaker with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party, said the vote was "a major victory" because it showed Azour close to 65 votes.

Persons: Gebran Bassil, Azour, Suleiman Frangieh, Frangieh, Nabih Berri, Michel Aoun, Hussein al, Haj Hassan, Bashar al, Assad, George Adwan, Mohamed Azakir, Matthew Miller, Miller, Mohanad Hage Ali, Riad Salameh, Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan dialled, Issam Abdallah, Simon Lewis, Tom Perry, John Stonestreet, Mark Heinrich, William Maclean Organizations: BEIRUT, Hezbollah, IMF, Maronite, Hezbollah Lebanese Forces, REUTERS, U.S . State Department, Carnegie Middle East Center, West, Thomson Locations: Lebanon, Iran, Muslim, Saudi Arabia, Lebanese, Yemen, Beirut, Washington, U.S, United States, Israel, Damascus

☆ Lebanon postpones local elections by a year to avoid more paralysis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, April 18 (Reuters) - Lebanon's parliament on Tuesday voted to extend the terms of municipal councils and other local officials, delaying elections to avoid further political paralysis in a country still in the throes of an economic meltdown. Staggered municipal and council elections had been scheduled for May but funding has not yet been secured by the state, according to caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi. Some parliamentarians, including from the Lebanese Forces party boycotted the vote, saying elections were a right. Others have disputed parliament's ability to legislate at all, arguing that the constitution stipulates it should elect a president before working on laws. Lawmakers have held repeated sessions to elect a new president in recent months but no candidate was able to secure a majority.

☆ Lebanese MPs denounce top prosecutor's moves against judge probing port blast
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File PhotoBEIRUT, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Some 40 Lebanese lawmakers on Friday became the latest group to back the judge investigating the catastrophic 2020 Beirut port blast and call for the country's top prosecutor to be held accountable for steps taken against the judge and his probe. Judge Tarek Bitar on Monday resumed his probe into the blast that killed more than 220 people after a 13-month suspension caused by legal wrangling and high-level political pressure. He issued charges against senior security, political and judicial officials, including top public prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat. It said judges who have "sold themselves in service of political authorities" should resign and be held accountable. The Beirut Bar Association, representing lawyers, said that Oueidat's decisions "constituted an abuse of power and a violation of the law".

☆ Lebanese forces rescue about 200 migrants after boat sinks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

CAIRO, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Lebanese naval forces carried out rescue operations on Saturday after the sinking of a boat transporting about 200 would-be migrants, the army said on Twitter. Separately, State TV tweeted that initial information was that the boat had been carrying people from Lebanon, Syria and Palestinian territories. The army said the boat had carried people who had tried to illegally cross Lebanese territorial waters, adding that three naval vessels escorted by a UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) vessel arrived at the site of the sinking, off the coast of Selaata, north of Beirut, and proceeded to rescue about 200 people. In September, 34 bodies of migrants were found off the coast of the northern Syrian port city of Tartus, suspected of having left north Lebanon heading towards Europe. Reporting by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by David HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ At war for decades, Lebanon and Israel edge towards a rare deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A general view shows the Lebanese-Israeli border as seen from the southern Lebanese village of Khiam, Lebanon October 11, 2022. Some 100,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in Palestine during the war arrive in Lebanon as refugees. 1978Israel invades south Lebanon and sets up an occupation zone in an operation against Palestinian guerrillas. 1985Israel establishes an occupation zone in southern Lebanon, about 15 km (nine miles) deep, after it pulled back from a line further north, controlling the area with a proxy force, the South Lebanon Army. 2000Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon, ending 22 years of occupation.

As Russia bombs its neighbor, what has become the biggest European war since 1945 has had an outsized impact far south, in the Middle East. Here are four ways the Ukraine war has affected the Middle East over the last six months:Energy exporters are cashing inThe war has seen oil prices rise to as much as a 14-year high. Despite vowing to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah, US President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia in a landmark trip last month. Saudi Arabia: #How_many_wives_would_you_takeSaudi men took to Twitter to ask each other how many wives they’d like to take. According to the 2019 report by the Doha International Forum called State of Marriage in the Arab World, information on polygamy in Saudi Arabia is not readily available.

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