Lebanon slaps travel ban on central bank chief wanted by France

Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh. (File/Reuters)
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Updated 24 May 2023
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Lebanon slaps travel ban on central bank chief wanted by France

  • Salameh, his brother Raja, and his assistant Marianne Hoayek are suspected of being involved in corruption in European banks
  • The Lebanese government cannot dismiss the governor, and its only move is to call on Salameh to resign

BEIRUT: A Lebanese judge on Wednesday banned the country’s central bank chief Riad Salameh from traveling, days after Beirut received an Interpol red notice following a French arrest warrant.

Imad Qabalan, general prosecutor at the Lebanese Court of Cassation, questioned Salameh before releasing him pending investigation, and confiscating his Lebanese and French passports.

Salameh, 72, appeared before Qabalan, who informed him of the Interpol warrant issued against him by the French judiciary on May 16. He was then charged with the accusations listed in the red notice.

Lebanon’s long-serving central bank chief has been the target of a series of judicial investigations both at home and abroad over allegations including fraud, money laundering and illicit enrichment.

The latest step comes in the context of investigations being conducted by the European judiciary. Salameh, his brother Raja, and his assistant Marianne Hoayek are suspected of being involved in corruption in European banks.

Interpol circulated the red notice last week after a French magistrate issued a warrant for Salameh, who failed to appear for questioning in Paris before investigators probing his sizeable assets across Europe.

Aude Buresi, the French judge in charge of investigating Salameh’s funds and assets in Europe, issued an international arrest warrant against Salameh on May 16 after he failed to appear at his interrogation session in Paris.

The session was expected to charge Salameh with suspicion of accumulating a huge fortune in Europe, including money and real estate, through complex financial arrangements and embezzlement of large sums of public funds in Lebanon.

Qabalan’s hearing with Salameh was off camera and away from journalists at the Palace of Justice in Beirut. The floor where the meeting was held was cleared of media personnel and lawyers.

A judicial source who followed the details told Arab News that the session was limited to “notification, confiscation of passports, and leaving Salameh subject to investigation.”

“The Lebanese judiciary, through the International Communication Branch, notified the French judiciary of Lebanon’s execution of the red notice and asked the French side to fulfill a Lebanese request to recover Salameh’s file from the Paris court,” the source said.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the German consul in Lebanon told Judge Ghassan Oueidat, Lebanon’s prosecutor general, about the issuance of a German arrest warrant against Salameh.

The source said Lebanon is “not concerned with this notice, as it is an internal German judicial matter.”

Riad Salameh told Al-Hadath TV channel that he “has not been informed of any German arrest warrant against him.”

The European investigations, which involve France, Germany, and Luxembourg, focus on the relationship between the central bank of Lebanon and the company Forry Associates registered in the Virgin Islands, with an office in Beirut, owned by Raja Salameh.

There are suspicions that it was a shell company used to transfer money from Lebanon to European countries, amounting to more than $330 million, which is suspected to have been embezzled from the central bank through a grant contract for the mentioned company and obtaining illegal commissions from local Lebanese banks.

Riad Salameh’s term as the bank governor ends at the end of July, and the debate in political circles focuses on his successor, given the presidential vacancy, the caretaker government, and the repercussions of Salameh’s legal pursuit in Lebanon and abroad on Lebanon’s financial and economic reputation.

On Wednesday, the caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati emphasized that “the law provides for procedures to address the issue of the governor of the central bank of Lebanon.”

He responded to those who accused him of covering up for Salameh by demanding that they give “a legal opinion on taking appropriate measures against the governor contrary to what was agreed upon during Monday’s consultative ministerial meeting, which emphasized the need to prioritize the public interest over private interests.”

The ministers are divided between those who support Salameh’s dismissal and those who support the status quo until a judicial decision is issued.

The Lebanese government cannot dismiss the governor, and its only move is to call on Salameh to resign.

MP Qassem Hashem said: “The judicial process against Salameh is taking its course in accordance with legal principles.”

Hashem said he hoped “the presidential elections could be be completed before the end of July, the end of the governor’s term.”

He also believed that “if that is not possible, we will have two options: either the government, even if it is caretaker, makes a decision to appoint a new governor with political cover from all political forces, or according to the monetary and credit law, the deputy governor assumes the responsibilities of the governorship for a temporary period to maintain financial and monetary stability in the country.”


Netanyahu appoints adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire talks

Updated 8 sec ago
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Netanyahu appoints adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire talks

  • The US-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser.
  • Dermer currently serves as Israel’s strategic affairs minister
An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a close confidant to lead negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire with Hamas.
The US-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the US and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate a second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire, and the first ends in early March. Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.
Since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.
Here’s the latest:
Netanyahu appoints close adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire negotiations
An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a close confidant to lead negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire with Hamas.
The official says that Cabinet Minister Ron Dermer will head the Israeli team. Previous talks have been led by the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet security agencies.
Talks have not yet started on the second stage, which is meant to include an end to the war, return of all hostages and Israeli pullout from Gaza.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the appointment has not been officially announced.
The US-born Dermer is widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the US and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Dermer currently serves as Israel’s strategic affairs minister, where he has been a key player in relations with the US as well as Gulf Arab countries.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps

Updated 19 February 2025
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Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps

  • The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups

JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.
Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Jan. 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.
“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.

An Israeli army excavator demolishes a residential building in the Tulkarem camp for Palestinian refugees during an ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.
“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.
“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will. But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
The operation began as Israel moved to banish the main UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials.
The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.
Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and said some UNRWA workers even took part in the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that set off the 15-month war in Gaza.

 


Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps

Updated 18 February 2025
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Tens of thousands of Palestinians flee West Bank refugee camps

  • The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups

JERUSALEM: Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank have left their homes as a weeks-long Israeli offensive has demolished houses and torn up vital infrastructure in the heavily built up townships, Palestinian authorities said.
Israeli forces began their operation in the refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Jan. 21, deploying hundreds of troops and bulldozers that demolished houses and dug up roads, driving almost all of the camp’s residents out.
“We don’t know what’s going on in the camp but there is continuous demolition and roads being dug up,” said Mohammed Al-Sabbagh, head of the Jenin camp services committee.

An Israeli army excavator demolishes a residential building in the Tulkarem camp for Palestinian refugees during an ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The operation, which Israel says is aimed at thwarting Iranian-backed militant groups in the West Bank, has since been extended to other camps, notably the Tulkarm refugee camp and the nearby Nur Shams camp, both of which have also been devastated. The camps, built for descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around the creation of the state of Israel, have long been major centers for armed militant groups. They have been raided repeatedly by the Israeli military but the current operation, which began as a ceasefire was agreed in Gaza, has been on an unusually large scale. According to figures from the Palestinian Authority, around 17,000 people have now left Jenin refugee camp, leaving the site almost completely deserted, while in Nur Shams 6,000 people, or about two thirds of the total, have left, with another 10,000 leaving from Tulkarm camp.
“The ones who are left are trapped,” said Nihad Al-Shawish, head of the Nur Shams camp services committee. “The Civil Defense, the Red Crescent and the Palestinian security forces brought them some food yesterday but the army is still bulldozing and destroying the camp.” The Israeli raids have demolished dozens of houses and torn up large stretches of roadway as well as cutting off water and power, but the military has denied forcing residents to leave their homes.
“People obviously have the possibility to move or go where they want, if they will. But if they don’t, they’re allowed to stay,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
The operation began as Israel moved to banish the main UN Palestinian relief organization UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem and cut it off from any contact with Israeli officials.
The ban, which took effect at the end of January, has hit UNRWA’s work in the West Bank and Gaza, where it provides aid for millions of Palestinians in the refugee camps.
Israel has accused UNRWA of cooperating with Hamas and said some UNRWA workers even took part in the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that set off the 15-month war in Gaza.

 


More than one million Syrians return to their homes: UN

People walk past shops in Homs on February 10, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 19 February 2025
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More than one million Syrians return to their homes: UN

  • “Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees

GENEVA: More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Assad, including 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.
Assad was toppled in December in a rebel offensive, putting an end to his family’s decades-long grip on power in the Middle Eastern country and bookmarking a civil war that broke out in 2011, with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions from their homes.
The Islamist-led rebels whose offensive ousted Assad have sought to assure the international community that they have broken with their past and will respect the rights of minorities.
“Since the fall of the regime in Syria we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.
“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though, otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.
At a meeting in Paris in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Turkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”
The meeting’s final statement also pledged support for Syria’s new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”
 

 


Israeli military says it struck weapons belonging to former Syrian administration in southern Syria

Updated 19 February 2025
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Israeli military says it struck weapons belonging to former Syrian administration in southern Syria

CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it struck weapons which it said belonged to the former Syrian administration in southern Syria.