NAHNOO, a Lebanese non-governmental organization, launched Friday in collaboration with the U.N. Information Center in Beirut (UNIC Beirut), a campaign titled “Our Crafts, Our Identity,” to advocate for the ratification of a law that organizes and develops the crafts sector in Lebanon in line with the market needs.

The campaign will be promoted on social media and local TV stations. It aims at advocating for a legal framework for the Lebanese crafts sector to ensure much-needed economic, social, and cultural protection for craftsmen and craftswomen. It also falls within the framework of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that Lebanon is working on achieving, particularly SDGs 8 and 9 on promoting decent work, sustainable industrialization and innovation.

The U.N. Security Council has held closed consultations on the report of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006) and the situation in Lebanon.

The Council was briefed by U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka and Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Thursday that voting for the Free Patriotic Movement is exactly like voting for Hizbullah.

Geagea slammed, in a statement, the relation between Hizbullah and the FPM, after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that Hizbullah's battle is to make its allies succeed in the parliamentary elections.

President Michel Aoun told UNIFIL chief Major General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz, Thursday in a meeting, that the Israeli violations are threatening Lebanon's stability and sovereignty.

Aoun underlined Lebanon's commitment to the U.N. resolution 1701, condemning the Israeli violations.

Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun on Thursday ordered the detention of the businessman Raja Salameh, the brother of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, after questioning him for several hours.

"Raja Salameh was detained during his interrogation at the Justice Palace and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh will be summoned," the lawyers of the People Want to Reform the Regime group told al-Jadeed TV.

The assets of Fransabank were seized and all monetary operations were suspended and safes and registers were sealed with red wax, after a depositor filed a lawsuit against the bank.

Earlier this week, Judge Ghada Aoun had also frozen the assets of five of Lebanon’s largest banks and those of their board of directors as she investigates possible transfers of billions of dollars aboard during the country’s economic meltdown.

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the long-awaited electricity plant, the information minister said after the session, while noting that the power plant that will be set up in the North will not necessarily be in the town of Selaata.

Moreover, the sector’s regulatory commission will be formed in 2022, not in 2023, while some articles and environmental conditions were amended, Information Minister Ziad Makari said.

Relatives of Beirut port blast victims staged a protest Wednesday outside the residence of Justice Minister Henri Khoury.

“Cowardly Minister!” was one of the phrases that they wrote on the external walls of Khoury’s apartment. The protesters also wrote names of victims.

Ukraine and Russia have made “significant progress” on a tentative 15-point peace plan that would involve Kyiv renouncing NATO membership ambitions in return for security guarantees, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The plan include a ceasefire and Russian withdrawal if Kyiv declares neutrality and accepts limits on its armed forces, the FT quoted three people involved in the talks as saying.

Lebanese authorities on Wednesday seized the assets of Fransabank, one of the country’s biggest banks, based on an order issued by Judge Mariana Anani, the head of the Enforcement Department in Beirut.

The order followed a lawsuit filed by the depositor Ayyad Gherbawi Ibrahim who requested that he be paid his money in banknotes and not through a check.