Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri considered that the boycott of a legislative session on Tuesday was not an achievement but an "illusion of victory" as the laws that were to be discussed in the session were not "for his personal interest" but for the public benefit.
"If they don't want to pass the laws, then so much the worse for them," the Speaker told local al-Joumhouria newspaper.
Full Story
Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday adjourned a legislative session due to lack of quorum, after the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and their allies boycotted in rejection of Berri’s refusal to put on the agenda a bill allowing expats to vote for all 128 seas in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The LF had said that participation in the session it would reflect “submission to Speaker Nabih Berri’s hegemony over parliament.”
Full Story
Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Mahmoud Rashad met Tuesday in Lebanon with President Joseph Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri.
The Presidency said Aoun and Egypt’s intelligence head discussed “how to leverage the atmosphere of the Gaza deal and the Sharm el-Sheikh summit to expand it to include Lebanon.”
Full Story
U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus on Tuesday held meetings with President Joseph Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri and was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
A Presidency statement said Aoun emphasized the need to activate the work of the Mechanism ceasefire monitoring committee, especially in terms of “halting the continuous Israeli attacks on Lebanon and implementing Resolution 1701 in the South to enable the Lebanese Army to complete its deployment up to the southern international border.”
Full Story
The Syrian interior ministry said Tuesday it seized about 11 million captagon pills in the southern countryside of Homs.
The pills were smuggled in a car coming from Lebanon, Syria's national news agency said.
Full Story
The European Union condemned Tuesday an Israeli attack that targeted Sunday a UNIFIL detachment, "the latest in a series of similar incidents in recent weeks."
In a statement, the EU recalled that the safety and security of U.N. personnel and premises must be ensured in accordance with international law and U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.
Full Story
Two brothers were killed Monday in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a sawmill on the outskirts of the souhtern town of al-Bayyad in the Tyre district, the National News Agency said.
Israeli strikes over Lebanon had recently intensified amid scrambles to hold a tense ceasefire that ended Israel's war on Lebanon last November, and mounting pressure on the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah.
Full Story
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday blasted Speaker Nabih Berri again over the issue of the latter’s refusal to put a bill allowing expats to vote on the agenda of Tuesday’s legislative session.
“What Speaker Berri is doing represents a blatant violation of the constitution’s rules and (parliament’s) bylaws and an attack on the rights of the parliamentary majority, which is no longer acceptable,” Geagea said.
Full Story
U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus on Monday arrived in Lebanon for talks with Lebanese leaders and participation in a meeting for the Mechanism ceasefire monitoring committee.
Ortagus had visited Israel on Saturday and Sunday.
Full Story
The Lebanese Forces-led Strong Republic parliamentary bloc has announced its boycott of Tuesday’s legislative session, warning that participation in it would reflect “submission to Speaker Nabih Berri’s hegemony over parliament.”
“It would be a cover-up for a constitutional and ethical crime against hundreds of thousands of Lebanese expats who are facing an attempt to deprive them of their right to contribute to changing the situations through ballot boxes,” the LF bloc said.
Full Story


