Lebanon

Salam: State Must Regain Monopoly over Arms
Salam: State Must Regain Monopoly over Arms

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam reiterated on Sunday the need to fully implement the Taif Agreement, stressing that Lebanon’s failure to confine arms to the hands of the state remains a fundamental obstacle to national stability. “Arms must be confined to the hands of the state, and we have failed to fulfill this clause since the Taif ...

Patriarch Rai: 'Those in Charge Have Forgotten That Responsibility Is a Service, Not a Business'
Patriarch Rai: 'Those in Charge Have Forgotten That Responsibility Is a Service, Not a Business'

From the Maronite Patriarchate's summer headquarters in Diman, Maronite Patriarch Rai denounced the loss of a sense of duty and mission among Lebanon's leaders in his Sunday homily. “The country is a mission, and the Lebanese are sent to their homeland to participate, not to withdraw,” he declared. The Patriarch pointed to the forgetfulness ...

Mufti Derian's First Official Visit to Syria: Prayer, Symbols and Rapprochement
Mufti Derian's First Official Visit to Syria: Prayer, Symbols and Rapprochement

Lebanon's Grand Mufti Abdel Latif Derian paid a visit to Syria, his first since taking office in 2014. Accompanied by a delegation of senior Lebanese Sunni religious leaders, he began his visit with a solemn prayer at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, one of the most important sites of Islam and Arab-Muslim heritage. Mufti Derian and the ...

Lebanon’s Beaches: The Great Slimming Down
ChronicleLebanon’s Beaches: The Great Slimming Down

When we usually talk about beaches in Lebanon, it’s only to bemoan their polluted state. But this summer, something has changed. People aren’t scanning the waves for floating plastic bags anymore. It’s not the heat (still sweltering), the entrance fees (still outrageous), or the music volume (still unbearable). No, the real shift is in the ...

Aoun to Lammy: Only LAF and UNIFIL Will Operate in South Lebanon
Aoun to Lammy: Only LAF and UNIFIL Will Operate in South Lebanon

President Joseph Aoun announced that the Lebanese Army (LAF) will soon have 10,000 troops deployed south of the Litani River as part of the government’s efforts to reinforce state authority and comply with United Nations Resolution 1701. The announcement was made on Saturday during a meeting with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Lammy at ...

Barrack Calls for Unity in Lebanon, Citing ‘Historic Moment’ for National Renewal
Barrack Calls for Unity in Lebanon, Citing ‘Historic Moment’ for National Renewal

US Special Envoy and Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack described the current period as “a historic moment to supersede the strained confessionalism of the past and finally fulfill Lebanon’s true hope of one country, one people and one army.” In a post on X on Saturday, Barrack emphasized that “Lebanon’s hope awakens and the opportunity ...

Hezbollah’s Last Bargain
AnalysisHezbollah’s Last Bargain

Hezbollah continues to maneuver under the weight of periodic foreign pressure, and the discourse of its remaining leadership around disarmament is beginning to shift. At the outset of the conflict, the party maintained an unyielding stance, categorically rejecting any discussion of surrendering its weapons and insisting that the aggression it ...

Israeli Drone Strikes Kill One and Injure Six in Southern Lebanon
Israeli Drone Strikes Kill One and Injure Six in Southern Lebanon

An Israeli drone strike on Saturday killed one person in the Saf al-Hawa area of Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon. In a separate incident, two people were seriously wounded in another Israeli drone attack targeting a car in the town of Shaqra, also in the Bint Jbeil district. The Ministry of Public Health said both victims were transferred to ...

Are Lebanon’s Nature Reserves at Risk?
Are Lebanon’s Nature Reserves at Risk?

In the scorching summer heat, wildfires creep through the dense forests of Lebanon, burning everything on their trail. The forest of Kobayat, Akkar, was the latest victim of this auburn nightmare, and possibly not the last. While the fire was eventually extinguished, it left irreparable damage on the forest. In response, Minister of Environment ...

Suzanne El Hakim: The Sea as Refuge
VideosSuzanne El Hakim: The Sea as Refuge

Close to the Beirut shoreline, Suzanne El Hakim has built a world of her own, a tight-knit community united by a love for the sea. For this professional diver, the sea isn’t a backdrop but a lifeline: a space for freedom, healing and renewal. In Suzanne’s eyes, the deep blue isn’t a passing escape, it’s a living refuge, open to anyone in ...

Climate Change: Salvation Through Poetry
ChronicleClimate Change: Salvation Through Poetry

The current heatwave scorching Europe and the drought gripping Lebanon trace back to a single root cause: climate disruption driven by global warming and soaring CO₂ emissions—both reflecting what Pope Francis memorably called “despotic anthropocentrism,” a worldview that elevates humankind above all else, heedless of the rich diversity ...