BEIRUT: Lebanon, Syria and Egypt on Tuesday agreed to ship 650 million cubic meters of natural gas per year from Egypt to Lebanon via Syria, part of a US-backed effort to address Lebanon’s crippling blackouts with electricity and gas transfers.
The deal, signed at a ceremony at the Lebanese energy ministry in Beirut, would see gas piped to Lebanon’s northern Deir Ammar power plant, where it could add some 450 megawatts, or around four extra hours of power per day to the grid.

JERUSALEM: An Israeli settler stabbed a Palestinian man to death during a confrontation in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry and a witness said.
An Israeli police spokesperson said it was unclear who stabbed the man. They were investigating the incident but no arrests had been made.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the 28-year-old, identified as Ali Hassan Harb, had been stabbed in the heart by a settler.

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun stressed on Monday that Lebanon is “committed to carrying out the required reforms,” but said the country “needs the IMF’s program within the limits of its applicability in Lebanon.”

Aoun’s stance coincided with a warning by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati for “the international community to cooperate with Lebanon to secure the return of Syrian refugees to their country, or else Lebanon will work to get Syrians out through legal means and the firm application of Lebanese law.”

TUNIS: A legal expert charged with writing a new constitution presented a draft to Tunisian President Kais Saied Monday, less than a month before a referendum on the document.
The planned referendum is set for July 25, the one year anniversary of a power grab by Saied that saw him sack the government and suspend an elected parliament.
Sadeq Belaid, the legal expert appointed to head a committee drafting the new document, handed the draft to the president at his palace in the coastal Tunis district of Carthage.

LONDON: The US Department of State on Monday announced it was offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on Haseeb Hadwan, a senior official in Hezbollah’s General Secretariat, and his office manager, Ali Al-Shaer.

Both men are accused of using the international financial system to transfer money to Lebanon, where it is used to finance the Hezbollah militia.On September 17, 2021, the US Department of Treasury designated Hadwan and Al-Shaer as Specially Designated Global Terrorists in accordance with Executive Order 13224.