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Lebanon

Lebanon

December 20, 2025

Beirut 5:45 am

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Rabih DAHER / AFP via Getty Images

Second Lebanon-Israel meeting agrees to strengthen Lebanese army: What to know

The second round of civilian-led talks between Israel and Lebanon focused on the economic track while also addressing the removal of Hezbollah's weapons.

This photograph taken during a press tour organised by the Lebanese army shows Lebanese soldiers standing atop a military vehicle in Alma Al-Shaab, near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon, on November 28, 2025. It was the first guided tour the army gave journalists since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP via Getty Images)

US, France and Saudi Arabia agree to conference to bolster Lebanon’s army

France is looking for more support for a committee monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

Latest News

Syria foils major arms smuggling attempt to Lebanon: What we know

The Internal Security Directorate in the Zabadani area of rural Damascus thwarted an attempt to smuggle a shipment of weapons and seized large quantities of RPG shells that were hidden in an organized manner and prepared for smuggling towards Lebanon, on Dec. 17, 2025.

Analysis

Trump's Syria envoy Barrack tests Israel's patience as Netanyahu pushes back

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) meets with US special envoy Tom Barrack, Jerusalem, Dec. 15 2

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Lebanon FM lashes out at Iran amid ambassador impasse: What to know

Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Youssef Rajji meets with Maj. Gen. Diodato Abagnara, UNIFIL head of mission and force commander, at the UN peacekeeping headquarters in Naqoura, southern Lebanon, Oct. 24, 2025.

Lebanon's FM snubs Iran, turns down invitation to visit Tehran: What to know

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji visits the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura, southern Lebanon, on October 24, 2025, touring border villages and the Blue Line aboard a UNIFIL helicopter as part of efforts to assess the security situation along the frontier. (Photo by Courtney Bonneau / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by COURTNEY BONNEAU/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Joyce Karam

Senior News Editor

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional geopolitics, China in the Middle East

Ali Hashem

In Doha, reporting on Iran, regional politics, conflict

Hanna Davis

In Beirut, reporting on politics, migration, human rights

Rodayna Raydan

In Boqaata, reporting on culture

Joseph Kai

Culture

Beirut artists interpret experience of nonconformance in Middle East

A comic book artist and a photographer/editor speak of the queer community in Lebanon, and how it has changed over time.

Lebanese workers pack fruits and vegetables.

Lebanon seeks alternative wheat sources, bans some food exports amid war in Ukraine

Ukraine and Russia provide several Middle Eastern states with wheat, sunflower oil and more.

A Syrian refugee child sells flowers in the street in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Children's education at risk in Lebanon due to economic crisis

More than 700,000 kids are at risk of never returning to a classroom due to rising poverty, while thousands have dropped out of school to engage in child labor or get married.

Wheat grains spilled from the silos at Beirut port in the massive explosion Aug. 4, 2020, are fully grown, Lebanon, May 27, 2021.

Lebanese fear wheat shortage amid Ukrainian crisis

Amid the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, concerns are growing in Lebanon over a shortage of wheat supplies, as the country imports the bulk of its wheat needs from Ukraine.

Lebanese anti-government protesters take part in a candlelight vigil outside the headquarters of Lebanon Electricity company in Beirut on Nov. 11, 2019.

Lebanese wary of rise of customs duties amid economic crisis

The cash-strapped Lebanese government has approved a draft budget law for 2022 that hikes the customs dollar and imposes new duties, as the country battles a severe economic crisis.

Beirut university

Culture

Lebanese seniors get second chance at education

Hundreds of elderly in Lebanon enroll at the University for Seniors division of the American University of Beirut — some to fight boredom, others to achieve long-lost dreams.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Sabah attends a parliament session at the national assembly in Kuwait City on Aug. 18, 2020.

The Takeaway: Kuwait takes lead in Gulf effort to solve Lebanon crisis

Egypt, Iran, Iraq water crises; China and the Horn of Africa; Turkish pop queen under fire; Egypt’s Temple of Millions; and more … in less than 1,300 words.

Lebanon's Energy Minister Walid Fayad (C) during the signing of a deal that will supply Lebanon with electricity, in Beirut on Jan. 26, 2022.

Lebanon signs new electricity deal with Jordan, Syria

A previously announced agreement to export Egyptian gas to Lebanon has yet to come to fruition.

Israeli navy vessels patrol the Mediterranean waters off the coast of Rosh Hanikra, an area at the border between Israel and Lebanon (Ras al-Naqura), as indirect talks on maritime borders between the two countries, still technically at war, resume under UN and US auspices, on May 4, 2021.

Israel says maritime talks with Lebanon to resume next week

The Israel Energy Ministry said talks would resume with its longtime foe over natural gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.

A man sorts through discarded electric devices at a scrap workshop in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on June 3, 2020.

Economic meltdown drives some Lebanese to collect recyclables for a living

Lebanon’s increasing poverty and lack of jobs drive desperate people to live off of selling collected recycled materials in kilos to scrapyards, shops and manufacturers.

The US Department of Treasury building is seen in Washington, DC, early on Jan. 12, 2022.

US Treasury sanctions Hezbollah financial network in Lebanon

A US Treasury official says the department is targeting Hezbollah's "misuse of the international financial system" to raise funds for terrorism.

NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images

UN agency seeks urgent support for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

The UNRWA said $87.5 million in new funding is needed to continue operations in crisis-ravaged Lebanon.