BEIRUT: Lebanon on Tuesday condemned smuggling operations and “all that undermines the security and stability of the Kingdom and the safety of its people.”
Saudi Arabia banned the import of agricultural products from Lebanon after authorities seized a narcotic-stuffed pomegranate shipment in Dammam.
Lebanon’s Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmy has been tasked with updating the Saudi side on the measures being taken to tackle smuggling. He called Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and said: “Lebanon condemns the smuggling operation and all that undermines the security and stability of the Kingdom and the safety of its people.”
President Michel Aoun led a high-level meeting in Beirut to deal with the ban’s fallout and address the country’s smuggling problem.
But the statement issued afterwards was criticized for ignoring the smuggling from Syria and the smuggling that took place through legitimate crossings, some of which, it was said, were run by Hezbollah.
The Lebanese Economic Organizations, chaired by former minister Mohamed Choucair, warned that the state and all its institutions were “at stake.” They criticized the methods adopted by the authorities to face challenges, “especially the announcement of flamboyant positions” that no longer had any value on a domestic or international level.
They hoped the recommendations made during the meeting would lead to practical measures on combating drugs and dealers, controlling legal crossings, and closing illegal crossings.
“Then, the state can protect its reputation, dignity, economy, and foreign relations, especially with sister countries.” They feared that “indolence” in seriously addressing the crisis would allow criminals to further “defy the state” and persist with their conduct.
They called for security crackdowns, pursuing drug dealers and smugglers, prosecuting those involved in drugs, assigning the army and security services to prevent smuggling on the border between Lebanon and Syria, controlling ports, developing a list of exporters with a good reputation, and equipping ports and border crossings with scanners.
Naim Khalil, who leads the Syndicate of Fruit and Vegetable Exporters and Importers, said: “We have been working with Saudi Arabia for 40 years without any harassment.”
He demanded the provision of “sophisticated scanners, police dogs, and strong personnel whose eyes are open to the harbor, as things are now out of control.”
Ibrahim Tarshishi, head of the Bekaa Farmers’ Association, repeated that there were 40 trucks loaded with Lebanese products scattered between the port of Jeddah, the port of Beirut, and the Syrian-Lebanese borders.
He demanded sifting through exporters and giving priority to well-known companies. “As for the companies that entered the market recently, they have neither bank balances nor a commercial registration. We also hope that the certificate of origin is verified.”
A number of farmers said that talk of the ban reducing prices was inaccurate.
The farmers hoped that “the measures would lead to stopping shell companies that export agricultural products when we do not know their owners. The Cedar Company, which was responsible for the pomegranate shipment, is one of these companies.”
Lebanon condemns ‘all that undermines’ KSA stability, security
https://arab.news/8wj3q
Lebanon condemns ‘all that undermines’ KSA stability, security
- Saudi Arabia banned the import of agricultural products from Lebanon after authorities seized a narcotic-stuffed pomegranate shipment in Dammam
Israel military says three projectiles fired from north Gaza
“One projectile was intercepted by the IAF (air force), one fell in Sderot and another projectile fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said in a statement.
Sudan army air strike kills 10 in southern Khartoum: rescuers
- Strike targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt ‘for the third time in less than a month’
- War between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary forces has killed tens of thousands of people
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Ten Sudanese civilians were killed and over 30 wounded in an army air strike on southern Khartoum, volunteer rescue workers said.
The strike on Sunday targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt “for the third time in less than a month,” said the local Emergency Response Room (ERR), part of a network of volunteers across the country coordinating frontline aid.
The group said those killed burned to death. The wounded, suffering from burns, were taken to the local Bashair Hospital, with five of them in a critical condition.
Since April 2023, the war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people.
In the capital alone, the violence killed 26,000 people between April 2023 and June 2024, according to a report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Khartoum has experienced some of the war’s worst violence, with entire neighborhoods emptied out and taken over by fighters.
The military, which maintains a monopoly on the skies with its jets, has not managed to wrest back control of the capital from the paramilitary.
Of the 11.5 million people currently displaced within Sudan, nearly a third have fled from the capital, according to United Nations figures.
Both the RSF and the army have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
Israel says Hamas has not given ‘status of hostages’ it says ready to free
- A Hamas official gave a list of 34 hostages the group was ready to free
JERUSALEM: Israel said on Monday that Hamas had so far not provided the status of the 34 hostages the group declared it was ready to release in the first phase of a potential exchange deal.
“As yet, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment by Hamas regarding the status of the hostages appearing on the list,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after a Hamas official gave a list of 34 hostages the group was ready to free in the first phase.
Shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank kills 3
- The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory
JERUSALEM: A shooting attack on a bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank killed at least three people and wounded seven others on Monday, Israeli medics said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said those killed included two women in their 60s and a man in his 40s.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the ongoing war there.
The attack occurred in the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq, on one of the main east-west roads crossing the territory. The identities of the attackers and those killed were not immediately known. The military said it was looking for the attackers, who fled.
Palestinians have carried out scores of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years. Israel has launched near-nightly military raids across the territory that frequently trigger gunbattle with militants.
The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 835 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Some 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority administering population centers. Over 500,000 Israeli settlers live in scores of settlements, which most of the international community considers illegal.
Meanwhile, the war in Gaza is raging with no end in sight, though there has reportedly been recent progress in long-running talks aimed at a ceasefire and hostage release.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in a massive surprise attack nearly 15 months ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health authorities, who say women and children make up more than half of those killed. They do not say how many of the dead were militants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced 90 percent of the territory’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are enduring a cold, rainy winter in tent camps along the windy coast. At least seven infants have died of hypothermia because of the harsh conditions, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Aid groups say Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order in many areas make it difficult to provide desperately needed food and other assistance.
New Syria foreign minister begins first visit to UAE: state media
Damascus: Syria’s new foreign minister Asaad Al-Shaibani landed in the United Arab Emirates Monday on his first visit to the country since rebels toppled president Bashar Assad last month, official news agency SANA said.
“Shaibani, accompanied by defense minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab, has arrived in the United Arab Emirates,” SANA reported.
Shaibani also posted a picture of himself on X stepping off a plane, and said he looked forward “to building constructive bilateral relations.”
The officials took office after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus in early December, toppling Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.
Their trip to the UAE comes after they visited its Gulf neighbors Qatar on Sunday and Saudi Arabia last week.
Both Qatar and Turkiye, which backed the anti-Assad opposition, reopened their embassies in Damascus in the aftermath of Assad’s flight to Moscow.
Turkiye has long maintained a working relationship with the HTS rebels, leaving it with a direct line to Damascus.
