Hizbullah's parliamentary bloc on Thursday called for “serious efforts” to secure the return of the Free Patriotic Movement to the cabinet's sessions and to resume the suspended national dialogue.
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A Palestinian delegation held talks Thursday with General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim.
Full StoryThe army intelligence arrested on Thursday the so-called emir of the Islamic State group in Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian Refugee camp Imad Yassine, the National News Agency reported.
“Following close surveillance and followup and in a special operation, a force from the Intelligence Directorate managed this morning to arrest the Palestinian Imad Yassine, who is known as the emir of the IS group in Ain el-Hilweh,” an army statement said.
Full StoryGunbattles renewed on Thursday between the Fatah Movement and members of an Islamist group led by Bilal Badr in the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh.
The sounds of intermittent shooting continued early on Thursday between the fighting parties, NNA said.
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Speaker Nabih Berri called the parliamentarians for a meeting on September 28 to elect a head for the Lebanese republic after they failed over 44 sessions to achieve the goal.
Full StoryBelow is ex-PM Saad Hariri's OP-ED published in the New York Times on Thursday:
On Feb. 14, 2005, a massive bomb killed the former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, my father, along with 22 other Lebanese. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon at The Hague identified five Hizbullah operatives as suspected collaborators in the murder. If proved, that would mean his assassination was carried out by Iran’s allies in Lebanon, who are financed and controlled by the regime in Tehran.
Full StoryForeign Minister Jebran Bassil blamed the Arab countries for the worsening refugee crisis as he pointed out that “terrorism has surpassed all boundaries,” the National News Agency reported on Thursday.
Bassil highlighted the simmering refugee crisis, he wondered whether encouraging migration and losing diversity in the region was what Arabs really wanted.
Full StoryPrime Minister Tammam Salam will call the cabinet for a meeting as soon as he returns from a U.N. meeting in New York, to address a pending agenda that was postponed from an earlier gathering including delaying the term extension of Army commander General Jean Qahwaji and Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Walid Salman, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.
Ministerial sources spoke on condition of anonymity and asserted to the daily that Salam will call the cabinet to session next Thursday to discuss an agenda that was postponed after it was boycotted by ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement and Tashnaq party. It is planned to address other issues that surfaced.
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Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel reiterated Wednesday that his party cannot vote for any presidential candidate endorsing the March 8 camp's political vision for the country.
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French Ambassador to Lebanon Emmanuel Bonne briefed Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Wednesday on his country's preparations for hosting a meeting for the International Support Group for Lebanon, state-run National News Agency reported.
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