Month: December 2016

President Michel Aoun held talks Friday with visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Jaber Ansari. Ansari relayed to Aoun a verbal message from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Lebanon’s National News Agency said. The message reiterated “the importance of the Iranian-Lebanese ties and the need to […]

Prime Minister Saad Hariri welcomed, in a tweet on Friday, a fresh resolution by the UN Security Council, hereby demanding that Israel halt settlements building in the occupied Palestinian lands.

General Jean-Pierre Bosser, the Chief of Staff of the French Army, held separate talks Friday in Lebanon with the new defense minister, Yaaqoub al-Sarraf, and Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji. During his meeting with Sarraf, the visiting French general explored means to “support the Lebanese […]

The Lebanese Forces has “strongly rejected” a clause in the government’s policy statement related to the “role of the Resistance” and has therefore demanded a replacement and for some time to study the policy before the cabinet convenes, al-Joumhouria daily reported Saturday. “The Lebanese Forces […]

The Syrian army’s recapture of the northern city of Aleppo has put an end to hopes that President Bashar Assad’s regime could be ousted, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Friday, while noting that his party does not want to “control Lebanon.” “After Aleppo, one […]

A ministerial committee tasked with drafting the new government’s policy statement finalized the draft on Friday evening after a second meeting at the Grand Serail, Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s office said. “We finalized the draft policy statement in today’s session, and after a phone call […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday Russia, Iran, Turkey and Syria have agreed to hold peace discussions in the Kazakh capital of Astana to resolve the conflict in Syria. Speaking at his annual, end-of-the-year news conference, Putin said the recent evacuation of Aleppo was “the […]

Anis Amri attended mosque hours after carrying out his deadly attack Monday on a Berlin Christmas market that left 12 dead and dozens injured, but there was nothing especially pious about the 24-year-old Tunisian before or even after he was radicalized. On Friday morning, Islamic […]

Rasid Tugral won fans in the social media stratosphere for his mesmerizing photos of the night sky over his Turkish homeland. He shared images – such as one of a juniper tree against a glistening Milky Way – on a National Geographic website. He entered […]