Lebanon Financial News

Lloyd Austin recently spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant to explore opportunities for de-escalation amidst rising Middle East tensions. Their conversation highlighted the US' support for Israel's security, particularly in the face of threats from Iran and Iranian proxies. Sharing a post on X, Austin wrote, «I spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant today to discuss opportunities for regional de-escalation. I reaffirmed that the United States remains fully prepared to defend US personnel, Israel, and partners across the region against threats from Iran and Iran-backed proxies.»

A Lebanese judge has charged the country’s detained former central bank governor with illicit enrichment and issued an arrest warrant

A Paris commercial court has lifted a ban that had prevented Israeli defense companies from exhibiting weapons used by its military in the Mideast conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon at the upcoming Euronaval trade show

Israeli cabinet ministers were to start voting later on Thursday on a long-awaited wartime budget for 2025 that will rein in spending and raise a host of taxes to pay for the military conflicts that have engulfed the country. The wars in Gaza and Lebanon have cost Israeli coffers tens of billions of shekels on spending for defence — equipment and in manpower after hundreds of thousands of citizens were called into reserve duty — and in compensation for those impacted. «Our security also depends on the economy. We cannot have a strong military if we have no way of financing it,» Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the outset of the cabinet meeting before the budget vote, which could run into the night.

Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem on Wednesday said the group would agree to a ceasefire with Israel under acceptable terms, but added that a viable deal has yet to be presented. Qassem, who was named Hezbollah secretary-general on Tuesday, did not explicitly link a Lebanon ceasefire to an end to fighting in Gaza, a position previously held by the Iran-backed group. «If the Israelis decide that they want to stop the aggression, we say we accept, but under the conditions that we see as appropriate and suitable,» Qassem said in a pre-recorded speech, his first since he was named the group's new leader.

The sources — a person briefed on the talks and a senior diplomat working on Lebanon — said the two-month period would be used to finalise full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006 to keep southern Lebanon free of arms that do not belong to the Lebanese state. The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gaza war, the Israeli army's reservists are exhausted and it is struggling to recruit soldiers just as it opens a new front in Lebanon. Some 300,000 reservists have been called up since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, according to the army, 18 percent of them men over 40 who should have been exempted. Military service is mandatory from the age of 18 for Israeli men and women, though several exemptions apply.

A prime-time CNN discussion that went off the rails led to a conservative writer being thrown off the air and banned from the network

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Iran’s “axis of resistance" has suffered a series of blows delivered by Israel over the past month, including operations targeting the leadership of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah, and a strike last week on Iran’s missile-making facilities used, in part, to supply the groups. That hasn’t stopped Yemen’s Houthis from targeting more ships this week in the Red Sea with drones and missiles, the latest demonstration of how an escalating regional war appears to be boosting a once minor Iran-backed player in the region.

Israeli strike on a five-story building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 34 people early Tuesday, more than half of them women and children, Gaza's Health Ministry said. In a separate development, Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah said it has chosen Sheikh Naim Kassem as its new top leader following the killing of Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike last month. The group said in a statement that Hezbollah's decision-making Shura Council elected Kassem, who had been Nasrallah's deputy leader for over three decades, as the new secretary-general. Hezbollah vowed to continue with Nasrallah's policies «until victory is achieved.»

Benjamin Netanyahu said he's open to a short truce in the country's war with Hamas that would lead to the release of a small number of the around 100 hostages still held by the militant group in Gaza. Netanyahu's remarks followed a meeting between his top negotiator and senior Qatari and US officials in Doha on Monday, aimed at reviving stalled cease-fire talks following Israel's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar this month. Discussions centered on a plan proposed by Egypt, one of the mediators between the warring sides. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday proposed a two-day suspension of hostilities and the freeing of four hostages in exchange for a number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the West Bank’s economy could collapse if Israel doesn’t preserve its banking relationship with Palestinian financial institutions in the territory it occupies, highlighting another potential source of instability as Israel also fights foes in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yellen and several of her global counterparts urged the Israeli leader’s government to approve a waiver that would continue to allow Palestinian and Israeli banks to correspond.

Iron Beam". «The Ministry of Defence has signed a major deal worth approximately 2 billion shekels to significantly expand procurement of the laser interception systems, 'Iron Beam,',» a statement said. The system is aimed at improving the interception of drones and other projectiles, which Hezbollah in Lebanon has fired at Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Another urgent conflict in the Middle East is playing out on the border between Syria and Jordan: a war against captagon, an amphetamine-like drug that’s taken off across the region. The drug cuts across social class and borders.

How the Islamic Republic chooses to respond to the unusually public Israeli aerial assault on its homeland could determine whether the region spirals further toward all-out war or holds steady at an already devastating and destabilizing level of violence. In the coldly calculating realm of Middle East geopolitics, a strike of the kind that Israel delivered before dawn Saturday would typically be met with a forceful response.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—Two weeks before Israeli warplanes struck Iran Saturday morning, President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed on the parameters of the attack in a half-hour phone call, their first in almost two months. After mounting worry that Israel might strike Iran’s oil infrastructure or even nuclear installations, the Israeli leader set his sights on military targets—to the relief of American officials.

The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted facilities that Iran used to make the missiles fired at Israel as well as surface-to-air missile sites. Crucially, there was no indication that Iran’s oil or nuclear sites were struck. Iran insisted the strikes caused only «limited damage», and Iranian state-run media downplayed them. Taken together, the moves suggested at least for now that both countries are trying to avoid a more serious escalation.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. U.S., Arab and Israeli officials are planning to meet this weekend in Qatar to renew talks over a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, with mediators proposing a short-term pause in fighting that could build toward a permanent agreement. Negotiators are skeptical of a breakthrough in the talks, which are scheduled for Sunday in Doha.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A year into the war in Gaza, Israel is back at the site of its first battles and engaged in one of the most ferocious campaigns of the conflict, a do-over that offers a cautionary tale for its other war in Lebanon. Homed in on northern Gaza, Israel has issued evacuation orders for every town north of Gaza City and dispatched two new brigades, in what the military says is its latest attempt to eradicate Hamas from the enclave.

humanitarian assistance sent by India to Lebanon. Lebanon's Health Minister Firas Abiad received the consignment of medicines. Indian Embassy in Lebanon expressed India's commitment to strengthening close ties with Lebanon. In a post on X, the Indian Embassy in Lebanon stated, «First tranche of India's humanitarian assistance arrives in Beirut. Lebanon's Health Minister HE Dr Firas Abiad received the consignment of medicines in the presence of Amb @NoorRahman_IFS. India stands committed to strengthening close ties with Lebanon.»

Russian President Vladimir Putin has presided at the closing session of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, hailing its role as a counterbalance to the West