BEIRUT: Lebanese refugees in Israel reportedly threatened to resort to international courts if the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati failed to grant them amnesty. A report published Tuesday by pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat said the few hundred Lebanese families residing in Israel since the end of the 1990 Civil War […]
By Rami G. Khouri The Daily Star Lebanon The Middle East continues to experience one of its most tumultuous moments of structural change in several generations, and countries are reconfiguring both their domestic power structures as well as their intra-regional relations. In this context, we can expect much of the […]
BEIRUT: Christians and Muslims in Lebanon and the region have nothing to fear from each other, Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani said Tuesday at the opening of a Muslim-Christian religious summit in Beirut. “We in Lebanon today, Muslims and Christians together, pledge to safeguard each other,” Qabbani said in […]
By Annie Slemrod, The Daily Star , Beirut, Lebanon Palestinian refugees will not become citizens of a new Palestinian state, according to Palestine’s ambassador to Lebanon. From behind a desk topped by a miniature model of Palestine’s hoped-for blue United Nations chair, Ambassador Abdullah Abdullah spoke to The Daily Star […]
By Rami G. Khouri The Daily Star Lebanon To arrive in the United States, as I did a few days ago, one week before the 10th anniversary commemoration of the 9/11 terror attacks is to reach a land that is, remarkably, little changed from what it was on that shocking […]
LONDON (AFP) (Jordan Times) – Sheikh Maymun Zarzur, a Lebanese imam, was killed after leading prayers at the Muslim Welfare House in London, the Islamic centre said Saturday. Zarzour was found dead on Friday after leading the early morning Fajr prayers at the Islamic community centre, Muslim Welfare House said. […]
By Rami G. Khouri The Daily Star For those many honest people around the world perplexed by the variations and inconsistencies in so many aspects of the current citizen revolts across the Arab world, historical analogies may be a good starting point to understand the full dimensions and implications of […]
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Daily Star, Beirut AMMAN: Syrian tanks firing shells and machineguns stormed the city of Hama on Sunday, killing at least 45 civilians in a move to crush demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, residents and activists said. Assad’s forces began their assault on the city, scene […]
By Rana Moussaoui Agence France-Presse, Jordan Times. BEIRUT – The unprecedented revolt threatening the regime in Syria has placed key ally Hizbollah in a tight spot and prompted the Lebanese group to adopt a more measured attitude, analysts say. “Hizbollah’s margin of manoeuvre is currently very limited because the strategic […]
BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has reportedly requested that the Lebanese Army commander post, which is traditionally allocated to a Maronite Christian, be given to a Shiite. Berri’s proposal was made during talks with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, Al-Liwaa newspaper reported Tuesday. It said Berri pointed out to […]
JERUSALEM: Israel approved Sunday a proposed map for the Jewish State’s maritime borders with Lebanon different from Lebanon’s proposed map and will submit it to the U.N. for an opinion. Israel’s maps lays out maritime borders that conflict significantly with those proposed by Lebanon in its own submission to the […]
BEIRUT: Lebanon said Sunday it would file a complaint with the United Nations against Israel, after the Jewish state approved a map of its proposed maritime borders, which Lebanon is calling an aggression and an infringement on its right to an exclusive economic zone. “For sure we will [file a […]
The indictment reportedly accusing Hezbollah members of killing a former prime minister will fuel unrest, not justice. Hicham Safieddine. The indictment delivered by the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) to Lebanon’s state prosecutor Saeed Merza marks the latest twist in a widely publicised and highly controversial operation of international […]
By Ahmad Suaedy The Daily Star, Beirut In Yogyakarta, the cultural center of the island of Java in Indonesia, the governor, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, has set an interesting precedent by refusing to ban the Ahmadiyah religious group. The group was founded by a 19th century Indian religious leader, Mirza Ghulam […]
BEIRUT: Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s acknowledgment that three members of Hezbollah had been caught spying, two of them for the CIA, is the first time that the party has admitted in public that a Western intelligence organization has infiltrated its ranks. The internal security of Hezbollah is known to be formidable. […]
BEIRUT: Two Hezbollah members have confessed to working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and a third had links to an as-yet-undetermined foreign intelligence service, the group’s leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Friday, admitting for the first time the penetration of one of the most secretive organizations in the region. […]
BEIRUT (AP) – Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, crossed into neighbouring Lebanon in search of a refuge from the growing government crackdown in their homeland, a Lebanese security official said Saturday. Other Syrians marched in a funeral for victims of the crackdown outside Damascus, demanding President Bashar Assad’s […]
BEIRUT: Response teams are trying to put out a massive fire that erupted on the premises the Beddawi oil refinery in north Lebanon Sunday which led to the injury of one individual. The fire, which erupted on the premises of the oil refinery near the port city of Tripoli, quickly […]
The Muslim population in the Middle East and North Africa region is expected to grow by 37 per cent in the next 20 years, while the world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35 per cent in the same period. Meanwhile, among the Muslim majority countries of the world, the […]
Amending the Taif Accord turned to be the main subject of debate in Lebanon this week, following the call made by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rahi to modify in the interest of the country, given its gaps which were proven by experience. The patriarch called for an amendment of the Taif […]