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☆ Hezbollah members wounded in flare-up on Lebanon border with Israel -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] A Lebanese army vehicle drives in Khiam, near the border with Israel, in southern Lebanon July 12, 2023. REUTERS/Aziz TaherBEIRUT/JERUSALEM, July 12 (Reuters) - Several members of Lebanon's powerful armed Hezbollah group were wounded on Wednesday in a flare-up on the southern border with Israel, two Lebanese security sources and a source briefed on the developments told Reuters. The Lebanese source briefed on developments described the incident as an attack and said several Hezbollah members had been wounded, but could not immediately provide more details. A Lebanese security source said Israeli troops had fired "something like a grenade" that emitted shrapnel and hurt three Hezbollah members. A Lebanese parliamentary delegation planning on visiting the southern border on Thursday indefinitely postponed the visit "due to the security developments on the border".

Persons: Aziz Taher, Hassan Nasrallah, Israel, Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam, Dan Williams, Toby Chopra, Howard Goller, Diane Craft Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, United Nations, Hezbollah, Lebanese, Thomson Locations: Lebanese, Khiam, Israel, Lebanon, Aziz Taher BEIRUT, JERUSALEM, U.S, New York, Ghajar, Syria, Beirut, Jerusalem

☆ Lebanon daycare abuse prompts alarm as economic despair deepens
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Emilie Madi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIRUT, July 12 (Reuters) - The alleged abuse of toddlers at a daycare in crisis-stricken Lebanon has sparked alarm over the physical and emotional wellbeing of children in the country, where a nearly four-year economic meltdown is seeping into all aspects of life. The videos - shot on a mobile phone months ago but only recently circulated on social media - prompted an outcry from parents. Lebanon's health ministry meanwhile said in an online statement on Tuesday that it had shut down the daycare after carrying out a "rapid investigation" into the alleged violence. "This closure is not enough, and the punishment must be a lesson," the statement quoted minister Firas al-Abiad as saying. "That was just the tip of the iceberg, what we saw this week at the nursery," Higgins said.

Persons: Tatiana Tannous Hachem, Hachem, Firas, Ettie Higgins, Higgins, Emilie Madi, Rajaa bint Talal, Maya Gebeily, Aurora Ellis Organizations: Reuters, Internal Security Forces, United Nations, UNICEF, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, Lebanon, Beirut

☆ Lebanon PM will not extend central bank governor's mandate
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIRUT, July 10 (Reuters) - Lebanon's caretaker premier, Najib Mikati, will not extend the term of central bank Governor Riad Salameh when it ends later this month, the prime minister's office said on Monday. One of Lebanon's four vice governors told Reuters that all four were considering quitting together if no successor is named, raising the possibility of a leaderless central bank amid a deep financial crisis. Mikati's deputy, Saade Chami, told Reuters last week that such a threat was "dangerous" and that the vice governors should "assume their responsibility in case this appointment is not possible." Central bank governors are typically appointed by the president, but parliament has been unable to elect a president to follow Michel Aoun, whose term ended in late October. The central bank governor, who was once a regular at banking conferences and high-end restaurants, is now rarely seen in public except for occasional media interviews.

Persons: Najib Mikati, Riad Salameh, Salameh, Saade Chami, Michel Aoun, Nabih Berri, Berri, Mikati, Maya Gebeily, Mark Heinrich, Leslie Adler Organizations: Reuters, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, Central

☆ Libya says Rome lifts civil aviation ban in Italian airspace
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TRIPOLI, July 9 (Reuters) - Italy has lifted a 10-year-long ban on Libyan civil aviation using Italian airspace, with flights due to resume from September, the Libyan government said on Sunday. There are currently few airlines operating flights in and out of Libya, a country that has suffered more than a decade of chaos and conflict since Muammar Gaddafi's downfall in 2011. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni informed her Libyan counterpart Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah of the decision on Sunday, the Libyan government said in a statement. Flights out of Libya have long been limited to destinations such as Tunisia, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan, with the European Union banning Libyan civil aviation from its airspace. Libyan and Italian authorities agreed that flights would be operated by one carrier from each country, the statement said.

Persons: Muammar Gaddafi's, Giorgia Meloni, Abdulhamid, Adam Makary, Tom Perry, Elaine Hardcastle, Alexander Smith Organizations: Italian, Libyan, Union, Thomson Locations: TRIPOLI, Italy, Libya, Tunisia, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Cairo, Beirut

"Given the events, their relationship with the Syrian defence ministry is now over." Mali authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the flights and whether any Wagner fighters had been redeployed from Syria to Mali. Wagner fighters secured Syrian oilfields and Western officials say Wagner is linked to Evro Polis, a company that profits from those assets. Reuters was unable to determine the fate of those commercial interests in the wake of the Russian defence ministry's moves against Wagner in Syria and Russia. In the wake of the Wagner uprising, Syria's leadership quickly restated publicly the importance of its military alliance with Russia.

Persons: Wagner, Nawar Shaban, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Bashar al, Assad, Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin, Russian Wagner, Evro Polis, Asmaa al, Laila Bassam, Tom Perry, Ed McAllister, Joanna Plucinska, Mike Collett, White, Daniel Flynn Organizations: Omran Center, Strategic Studies, Syrian Republican Guard, Republican Guard, Reuters, Russian Reconciliation Center, Moscow State University, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, Moscow, Syria, Russian, Russia, Istanbul, Damascus, Ukraine, Belarus, Syrian, Syria's, Homs, Hmeimim, Latakia, Bamako, West African, Mali, Evro Polis, Libya, elswhere, Africa, Western, U.S, Deir, Beirut, London

☆ Rocket launch at Israel from Lebanon draws Israeli cross-border shelling
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Summary Two rockets fired from southern Lebanon towards IsraelIsrael responds with cross-border strikesIncident follows large Israeli incursion in West BankBEIRUT/JERUSALEM, July 6 (Reuters) - Two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon toward Israel on Thursday, prompting cross-border strikes by the Israeli military, sources on both sides said. Three security sources in Lebanon said two rockets were fired toward Israel, one of them landing in Lebanese territory and the second near a disputed area at the border. After initially saying it had no indications of any unusual incidents on its side of the border, the Israeli military said a projectile had exploded there. One resident of Wazzani, the village in southern Lebanon where one of the rockets fell, said artillery fire had hit there from the direction of Israel. Israel blamed the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas for firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon in April during another flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Persons: Israel Israel, Najib Mikati, Israel, Laila Bassam, Aziz Taher, Maya Gebeily, Dan Williams, Ahmed Elimam, Gebeily, Tom Perry, Gareth Jones, Ros Russell Organizations: West Bank, IDF, Israel Defence Forces, Lebanon's National News Agency, Caretaker, Lebanese, United Nations, Thomson Locations: Lebanon, Israel, West Bank BEIRUT, JERUSALEM, Jenin, Palestinian, Wazzani, Ghajar, Syria, Iran, Jerusalem

U.N. investigators in 2012 concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe shabbiha militias committed crimes against humanity, including murder and torture, and war crimes such as arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence and pillaging. PAPER TRAILSome human rights scholars who have studied the role of the shabbiha in the Syrian war say the Assad regime initially used the groups to distance itself from violence on the ground. CIJA is a nonprofit founded by a veteran war crimes investigator and staffed by international criminal lawyers who have worked in Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia. While there is no international war crimes court with jurisdiction over Syria's conflict, there are a number of so-called universal jurisdiction cases in countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Germany which have laws allowing them to prosecute war crimes even if they are committed elsewhere. Ghany said the documents were "necessary" pieces of evidence linking the shabbiha to the state in international justice cases.

Persons: shabbiha, Assad, CIJA, Bashar al, Ugur Ungor, Fadel Abdul Ghany, Nerma Jelacic, Ghany, Stephanie Van Den Berg, Maya Gebeily, Frank Jack Daniel Our Organizations: UN, Reuters, Commission, International Justice, Committees, Assad's Baath, Popular Committees, Crisis Management, Dutch NIOD Institute for, Studies, Syrian Network for Human Rights, National Defence Force, Thomson Locations: HAGUE, BEIRUT, U.S, CIJA, Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Syria, Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Karm, Homs, al, Adawiya

CNN —The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that Israeli warplanes had targeted a Syrian air defense battery from which they claimed an anti-aircraft rocket was launched towards Israel. The anti-aircraft rocket launched from Syria into Israel early Sunday exploded in the air in Israeli territory, the IDF said. No injuries were reported and no special instructions for civilians on the Israeli home front have been issued, it said. Israeli media reported Sunday that debris from the Syrian-launched rocket landed in two neighborhoods of the southern city of Rahat in Israel, damaging homes. Meanwhile Syria’s official news agency SANA said Israel carried out air attacks from the direction northeast of Beirut, targeting some points near the city of Homs.

Persons: Syria’s, SANA, Israel Organizations: CNN, Israel Defense Forces Locations: Israel, Israeli, Syria, Syrian, Rahat, Beirut, Homs

☆ How a dysfunctional mission in the Caribbean became 'the pivotal point' for the creation of US Special Operations Command
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Those problems helped spur the creation of US Special Operations Command several years later. According to Maj. Gen. Richard Scholtes, the first commander of Joint Special Operations Command, US military officers involved in the planning soon butted heads. A task force of Delta Force operators, Rangers, and helicopters from the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment also attacked Fort Rupert and Richmond Hill Prison. Bettmann/Getty Images"The Pentagon was waging a frontal and rear assault in opposition to the creation of a special operations command," William Cohen said in the mid-2000s, according to Kukielski's article. Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.

Persons: —, Peter Carrette, Eagle, JSOC, Reagan, Richard Scholtes, butted, jean, Louis Atlan, Scholtes, Philip Kukielski, frogmen, Fort, Paul Scoon, Bettmann, Formally, William Cohen, Cohen, Nunn, Eric BOUVET, SOCOM, Chance, Stavros Atlamazoglou Organizations: Operations Command, Service, Fury, Pentagon, Delta Force, Soviet Union, Getty, US Atlantic Command, Atlantic Command, US Marine Corps, CIA, State Department, Team, Air Commando, US Defense, Rangers, 2nd Ranger, Porto Salines, Marines, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Radio Free, US, Dover Air Force Base, Special Warfare, Craft, 160th, American, Hellenic Army, 575th Marine Battalion, Army, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins, School, International Locations: Grenada, Caribbean, Tehran, Cuba, Soviet, Richmond, Porto, Fort Rupert, Rupert, Radio Free Grenada, Grenada's, Point Salinas, Scholtes, Beirut, Grenada —, Persian, Johns

☆ Carlos Ghosn sues Nissan for $1 bln in Lebanon, legal document shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A spokesperson for Nissan said the company will not be commenting on the matter. Ghosn, once a titan of the global car industry, was arrested in Japan in late 2018 and charged with financial misconduct. He denied the charge and said his detention was part of a plot by Nissan executives to block a merger. He escaped Japan hidden in a box aboard a private jet in December 2019, fleeing to Lebanon, his childhood home. After arriving in Lebanon Ghosn said he was escaping a "rigged" justice system in Japan and that he intended to clear his name.

Persons: Carlos Ghosn, Ghosn, Lebanon Ghosn, Maya Gebeily, Laila Bassam, Tom Perry, Daniel Leussink, Tala Ramadan, Kirsten Donovan, Louise Heavens, David Goodman Organizations: Nissan Motor, Nissan, Reuters, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, Japan, Lebanon, Beirut

☆ Lebanon’s top Christian cleric slams failed attempt to elect a president
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, June 18 (Reuters) - Lebanon’s top Christian cleric said on Sunday the constitution and democratic system had been violated in "cold blood" during a failed attempt to elect a new president last week, and warned that divisions in the nation had widened. Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai spoke in his first sermon since the Iran-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah and its closest allies thwarted an attempt by factions including the main Christian parties to elect an IMF official as president. Wednesday's events marked the 12th time parliament failed to elect someone to the post - reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon's sectarian system and vacant since the term of the Hezbollah-allied Michel Aoun ended in October. The Hezbollah-allied Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri ended the session when Hezbollah and its allies withdrew, denying a quorum for a second round when 65 votes are needed to win. Without naming him, Lebanon's Shi'ite mufti accused him of being backed by Israel.

Persons: Bechara Boutros, Rai, Michel Aoun, Jihad Azour, Amal, Azour, Suleiman Frangieh, Nabih Berri, Elias Audi, Berri, Maya Gebeily, Tom Perry, Hugh Lawson, Frances Kerry Organizations: Hezbollah, Maronite, Israel, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, Iran, Israel, Lebanon

☆ Syrians need 'way more' than pledged relief funds, ICRC says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A total of $5 billion was pledged in grants for 2023 and another $1 billion for 2024 and beyond. More than 6 million Syrians are displaced in their own country and 5.5 million Syrian refugees live in neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq as well as Egypt. Donors scraped together an additional $1 billion in emergency relief funds following the devastating February earthquake that killed thousands in Syria. But trying to provide humanitarian help in Syria was "frustrating" without a political solution to resolve the protracted crisis. It's only politics, who can do that," Carboni said, adding: "we know that the solution is a political solution and that it's desperately needed."

Persons: Fabrizio Carboni, Carboni, Bashar al Assad's, it's, Maya Gebeily, Grant McCool Organizations: International Committee, Red, ICRC, Syrians, European Union, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, Brussels, U.N, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, United States, Russia, Iran

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

☆ Syria's Kurds to begin trials for IS detainees
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

On Saturday, the Kurdish-led administration said in an online statement that it had decided to submit detainees to its own "open, free and transparent trials" following the international community's lagging response. The issue of foreign fighters is one of the most complex security and rights issues in Syria's 12-year war. A Western diplomat working on Syria told Reuters the administration's decision was a surprise. We take it very seriously that they are holding a lot of people – but this is a separate issue from trying them. The diplomat said such trials would need particularly high levels of security and that the risk of a breakout by IS fighters would become higher.

Persons: IS's, Badran Jia Kurd, Jia Kurd, Letta Tayler, It's, Orhan Qereman, Maya Gebeily, Frances Kerry Organizations: Islamic, Reuters, Human Rights, Thomson Locations: QAMISHLI, Syria, BEIRUT, Kurdish, U.S, Damascus, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Syrian, Qamishli, Beirut

☆ Opinion | From Tel Aviv to Riyadh
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Thomas L. Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — “Your final destination is Tel Aviv?”I’ve been a reporter in the Middle East since 1979, and those are six words I’d never heard in the place where I was standing about the place where I was going. I was checking in to fly from Doha, Qatar, to Tel Aviv, via Dubai. My first instinct was to ask her: Could you please keep your voice down? Now the airport codes DIA, DXB and TLV were fused together on my luggage for all to see. A few days later, I hopscotched to three more cities that suddenly seemed closer than ever: early breakfast in Tel Aviv; lunch in Amman, Jordan; and late dinner in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh.

Persons: Saudi Arabia —, I’ve, I’d, ”, Dixie Organizations: Doha International Airport Locations: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Tel Aviv, Doha, Qatar, Dubai, Cairo, Riyadh, Beirut, Israel, Lebanon, Amman, Jordan, Saudi Arabian

☆ As Assad’s Isolation Lifts, Syrian Refugees Fear Pressure to Return Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Raja Abdulrahim | Hwaida Saad | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Early one recent morning, Lebanese soldiers swept through the Bourj Hammoud neighborhood in Beirut, emptying two buildings of the Syrian refugees living in them. They forced them into trucks and drove them to a no-man’s land between the Lebanese and Syrian borders. After days stuck along the border, hundreds of refugees were taken by Syrian forces back to Syria. The family spent their first night back in Syria sleeping on the streets of the capital, Damascus. If the soldiers ever come back, Rasha vowed, she would die before being forced back to Syria again.

Persons: Rasha, ”, “, ‘, they’ve, ’ ”, Bashar al, Assad Locations: Beirut, Syria, Damascus, Lebanon, East

☆ Lebanese Christian and opposition coalition nominate IMF's Azour for president
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, June 4 (Reuters) - Lebanon's disparate opposition, independent and main Christian parties said on Sunday they had nominated IMF official Jihad Azour for the presidency in a challenge to Hezbollah-backed candidate Suleiman Franjieh. A meeting of the parties endorsed the nomination of Azour, currently director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and also a former Lebanese finance minister. Pro-Iranian Hezbollah, the country's main armed political force, and its Shi'ite ally Amal, had backed Franjieh, 56, heir of an old Lebanese Christian political dynasty and an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with strong ties to the ruling political establishment in Damascus. "This new candidate that was announced is for us a candidate for confrontation," Hezbollah deputy Hassan Fadlallah said on Sunday, without naming Azour. Washington has warned that the administration was considering sanctions on Lebanese officials for their continued obstruction of the election of a new president and warned the paralysis could only worsen the country's crisis.

Persons: Azour, Suleiman Franjieh, Michel Aoun's, Amal, Bashar al, Assad, Michel Mouawad, Lebanon's, Beshara al, Rai, “, Hassan Fadlallah, Suleiman Al, Khalidi, Maya Geibeily, David Holmes Organizations: Central Asia Department, International Monetary Fund, Hezbollah, Lebanese Christian, Maronite, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, East, Lebanese, Lebanon, Damascus, Azour, Syria, Iran, Arab, Washington

☆ The Fictional Spy Thriller With New Details on the Real Killing of a Terrorist Mastermind
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Dov Lieber | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/ghosts-of-beirut-tv-showtime-d7cc9e10

Persons: Dow Jones Locations: beirut

☆ France summons brother, assistant of Lebanon central bank boss in fraud probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Central bank chief Riad Salameh, his brother Raja Salameh, and his assistant Marianne Hoayek are being investigated in Lebanon, France and other countries for allegedly taking hundreds of millions in funds from the central bank. France has set a hearing in Paris for his brother Raja on May 31 and for Hoayek on June 13, a source close to the matter told Reuters. A Lebanese judicial source confirmed to Reuters that Lebanon's judiciary had received the summons and was working to deliver them. France last week issued an arrest warrant for Salameh, 72, after he failed to attend his own hearing in Paris. The Salameh brothers and Hoayek have already been charged in two separate cases in Lebanon related to embezzlement and other financial crimes.

☆ Lebanon’s central bank boss urged to resign after French arrest warrant
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Summary Lebanon's deputy PM says Salameh should quitCentral bank head under investigation for fraudFrench prosecutors issue arrest warrantBEIRUT, May 18 (Reuters) - Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh al-Shami called on Thursday for Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh to resign following France’s issuing of an arrest warrant against him as part of a fraud investigation. He plans to appeal against the French warrant, which he told Al-Hadath violated principles of a Lebanese-French agreement without giving more details. A Lebanese judge overseeing a local case against Salameh has rejected his lawyers' defence arguments, clearing the way for a June 15 hearing, a senior judicial source told Reuters. The judicial source told Reuters a new hearing date for Raja Salameh had also been set for June 15. French prosecutors' warrant for Riad Salameh, issued on Tuesday, was the first from any of the foreign probes into him.

☆ Syria's Assad to steal spotlight at Arab summit after years in the cold
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Aziz El Yaakoubi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others for years supported anti-Assad rebels. While Arab countries appear to have brought Assad in from the cold, they are still demanding that he curbs Syria's flourishing drugs trade and that war refugees can return. His return to the Arab League is likely to revive questions over his human rights record. Government forces have used chemical weapons more than two dozen times during Syria’s civil war, U.N. war crimes investigators said. The Syrian crisis and other regional conflicts including Yemen and Libya, pose further challenges for the Arab League, which is often undermined by internal divisions.

☆ Lebanon strikes deals to get more oil from Iraq
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIRUT, May 16 (Reuters) - Lebanon has agreed deals to secure more fuel supplies from Iraq, the two countries said on Tuesday, as Beirut battles to produce more power to help it emerge from years of economic crisis. Iraq has also agreed a commercial deal to provide 2 million metric tonnes of crude per year to its neighbour, Fayad said. Under the heavy fuel oil deal, first agreed in July 2021, Iraq provides the Lebanese government with the fuel in exchange for services including health care for Iraqi citizens. Lebanon then swaps the heavy fuel oil for gas oil that it can use at its power stations, which have operated for decades at partial capacity but have almost de facto shut down during a financial crisis that has hit the state's ability to buy fuel. Fayad said the two million tonnes of crude under the commercial deal would also be swapped.

☆ British Spies, Japanese Teens and a German Cop’s Wild Ride
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Mike Hale | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It has been a quiet season for international television on American screens — nothing has grabbed attention on a “Squid Game” or “Downton Abbey” scale. But barely a day goes by, in the streaming age, without an interesting series washing up from some foreign shore. Here are four recent shows worth tracking down, from an elegant British thriller to a Chinese dramedy about a demon god and an immortal warrior who meet cute on the mortal plane. ‘A Spy Among Friends’Alexander Cary, a writer and executive producer on “Homeland,” wrote this six-episode spy thriller as a leisurely, literate, three- or four-dimensional game of chess. Tightly controlled yet somehow relaxed, Lewis gives a performance in which the coldblooded manipulator and the sentimentally loyal bro coexist at every moment.

☆ Captagon: the drug fuelling the Gulf party scene - and Syria's finances
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Curbing the captagon trade has become a key demand by Arab states seeking to restore ties with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, whose government is accused of benefiting from the trade. Intelligence sources based in the region say captagon is still produced in small factories along the Syrian-Lebanese border as well as larger ones closer to Syria's frontier with Jordan. The United States, the European Union and Britain have accused the Fourth Division and other Syrian officials of benefitting from the trade, but it is not clear to what extent, if any, it fills state coffers. FUELLING GULF PARTIES, AND ANGEROne of captagon's most lucrative markets is the Gulf region, where party scenes are flourishing, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Intercepted shipments of the drug are typically headed there, including a recent 10 million-pill transfer from Lebanon.

☆ Analysis: Arabs bring Syria's Assad back into fold but want action on drugs trade
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

While denying any role in the trade, for which Syrian officials and Assad relatives have faced Western sanctions, Damascus has sought leverage from the issue. Hezbollah, which deployed fighters to Syria to aid Assad's war efforts, has denied any role in the drugs trade. Aided by Iran and Russia, Assad steadily beat back his rebel enemies, some of whom had support from U.S.-allied Arab states that have now restored ties. The Syrian source confirmed Riyadh had proposed a sum that would be paid as humanitarian aid, but could not say how much. "I would put ending the captagon trade right at the top alongside the other issues", she said.

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