Lebanon

Lebanese General Security director Major General Abbas Ibrahim brought to Washington a list of demands for Damascus including sanctions relief and closing Al-Tanf garrison in exchange for help on returning Austin Tice and Majd Kamalmaz, Newsweek has learned.

The Iranian people should be encouraged, and the Iranian government discouraged by the West, as strongly as possible.

The only way to help Lebanon will be when the good people of Lebanon can rise up and finally divest themselves of Hezbollah.

After journalists arrived at the site and began to inspect, a Hezbollah spokesperson told Newsweek that "with this tour, journalists saw directly and with their bare eyes what these sites are."

Columns of smoke could be seen rising from the southern town of Ain Qana after reports of a large blast, where Lebanon's Hezbollah told Newsweek mines planted during the 2006 war with Israel caused the explosion.

Justice can't be fully served unless Hezbollah, which masterminded the 2012 bombing that killed six and injured dozens more, is held accountable by Bulgaria, the European Union and the global community.

The latest blaze in Beirut broke out far from the site of the blast that killed more than 190 people last month, but last week Lebanese authorities discovered several tons of explosive ammonium nitrate at the port.

The Lebanese Army said a warehouse storing oil and tires is burning at the duty-free market in the port of the Lebanese capital

The Lebanese Armed Forces announced Thursday that its army engineering regiment discovered 4.35 tons of ammonium nitrate during an inspection of four containers at Beirut port entrance 9.

UNIFIL has been an unmitigated failure. The Trump administration should veto its renewal.

Salim Ayyash was found guilty of assassinating Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, while Assad Sabra, Hassan Issa, and Hassan Habib Merhi were cleared and both Hezbollah and Syria were found to be not directly involved.

"The resistance against the Zionist enemy will lead them to certain defeat, and this is a great lesson to all governments and nations in the region," the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.

A financial crisis, coronavirus pandemic, the Beirut explosion and a government collapse has left the powerful Hezbollah group on the defensive amid popular demands for systemic reforms.

The Ministry of Public Health announced a record-high of 309 new infections on Tuesday.

It is hard to see a happy end to the current problems plaguing Lebanon.

Last week's explosion devastated the city and pushed Lebanon—already grappling with multiple crises—into deeper turmoil.

"It's very important for us to stand up to this corrupt government that's caused this failed state to happen," a Lebanese protester told Newsweek.

The departure of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, backed by technocrats and the Hezbollah party, would reopen a vacuum for the premiership in a country whose leaders are carefully chosen based on a sectarian power-sharing system.

France and the United Nations hosted an international summit dedicated to determining a relief plan for Lebanon on Sunday.

More than 150 people have died after an explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

"Hang the nooses," angry Lebanese wrote on social media and protest signs.

"Right now, everyone in Lebanon is afraid of shortages," said UNRWA spokesperson Huda Samra.

May something good ultimately emerge from the tragedy in Beirut this week.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged the Iran-backed group to prioritize the interests of Lebanese people over its foreign backers.

Israeli politician Moshe Feiglin's comments about the devastating explosions in Beirut prompted widespread criticism online.

Neutrality, impartiality and independence are important principles—but not taking sides is not the same as not taking a position.

"If they [the Lebanese leaders] can't do it, I'll take my political responsibility," the French leader said in Beirut.

The intensity of the Beirut explosion is thought to be around 10 percent of the intensity of the Hiroshima bomb.

The ammonium nitrate that caused the massive explosion had been stored at the port since 2013, when it was confiscated from a Russian-owned ship.

"We have nothing here, and it keeps getting worse by the day. I have wasted my youth," Mohammad Hijazi told Newsweek.