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  Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced that he would not run for prime minister, requesting that his name be withdrawn from circulation, and said in a statement: “I had instructed myself not to take a political position before the issuance of the judgment of the Special Court in Lebanon regarding the assassination of the martyr Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and before completing contacts with friendly countries and society. The international community and the Lebanese political forces regarding the initiative that the friendly President Emmanuel Macron took during his recent visit to Lebanon. He continued: "In fact, I see that the renewed international interest in our country, headed by President Macron's initiative and the visits by a number of international and Arab officials, represents an opportunity that may be the last and cannot be missed to rebuild our beloved capital Beirut, and to achieve a series of reforms demanded by the Lebanese and we are trying Its implementation...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Fifteen years after the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, Hezbollah has risen to become the overarching power in a country that is now collapsing under its feet amid a series of devastating crises.  A U.N.-backed tribunal on Tuesday convicted a member of the Iranian-backed group of conspiring to kill Hariri in a 2005 bombing and acquitted three others. The verdict came at a time when Lebanon’s economy has collapsed. Institutions from the security services to the presidency, occupied by a Hezbollah ally, have been found wanting, and people are struggling with the aftermath of the massive explosion that shredded central Beirut this month. Added to this, there is no functioning government and there is a spike in the COVID-19 pandemic. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has denied that the group has ever controlled Lebanese governments or that it has a majority that would allow it to act on its own. But Lebanon is sli...

  AL-JOUMHOURIA: Rope of conditions strangles premiership appointment negotiations  Rising bets on Macron’s intervention to rescue premiership appointment AL-AKHBAR: Premiership appointment negotiations: France names Hariri!  THE DAILY STAR: Lebanon records 457 COVID-19 cases, three deaths Containers of 'dangerous chemicals' at Beirut Port: Army

  NNA - Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Charbel Wehbe, met on Tuesday with Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon, Wang Kigian, with whom he discussed the extension of UNIFIL's mandate.  Earlier on Tuesday, Wehbe welcomed Russian Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, and French Ambassador to Lebanon, Bruno Foucher.  Source: http://nna-leb.gov.lb/en/show-news/119335/Foreign-Minister-meets-with-ambassadors-of-China-Russia-and-France

  In September 2013, eight Ukrainians and a Russian departed Georgia on a beat-up freighter, apparently heading for Mozambique. Their ship was already in bad shape before it even left the Black Sea port of Batumi. Called the Rhosus, the vessel was leaking, its alarm system was faulty and so was its rescue equipment. But the cargo on board was extremely volatile: 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a highly concentrated variant, the kind used to make explosives, with a nitrogen enrichment level of almost 35 percent. Seven years later, on August 4, 2020, it would devastate parts of Lebanon's capital city Beirut, killing around 200 people and injuring thousands. Since then, the world has taken an interest in the Rhosus and its history, with investigators trying to piece together the details of its final voyage. How did the Rhosus end up in Beirut? And who had really ordered the explosive chemicals? Thus far, the story has been that the ship belonged to a Russian man name...

  Beirut is still reeling from the August 4 explosion at its seaport—an event that’s being described as one of the largest ever non-nuclear explosions in the world and the worst disaster in Lebanon’s tragically violent history. As the Lebanese capital tends to its wounds, officials are investigating and promising to hold those responsible accountable. But citizens are understandably loathe to trust the same ruling clique whose incompetence and negligence caused this tragedy. Trending Arabic hashtags like #Prepare_the_Gallows capture their anger, which is generally directed towards Lebanese officialdom rather than just a single party or group. Some, however, are pointing their accusatory finger squarely at the militant group Hezbollah . Despite indications that the Party of God may not have been directly responsible for the incident, the group should not escape scrutiny. Suspicions that the stash of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate belonged to Hezbollah aren’t ent...

  After a long and involved investigation, a U.N.-backed tribunal emerged with only a single conviction, of a minor Hezbollah figure, in the 2005 bombing that killed the former prime minister of Lebanon. Credit... Mohamed Azakir/Reuters The case went to trial in a country far from the crime scene with none of the accused in custody. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars to prosecute and employed armies of investigators, researchers and lawyers. But when the verdict on the most consequential political assassination in Lebanon’s recent history arrived on Tuesday, it left the country without a sense of closure and failed to answer even the most basic question: Who ordered the killing ? For a huge suicide car bomb attack in Beirut in 2005 that rattled the Middle East and killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others, a United Nations-backed tribunal in the Netherlands acquitted three defendants for lack of evidence. The fourth man, Salim Ayyash, was convicted ...