Diplomatic Cross

Lebanese foreign minister Gebran Bassil warned Saturday that a recent Syrian property law could prevent thousands of refugees from returning home. The law would allow the Syrian government to seize private property - while only paying compensation under certain circumstances. Foreign minister Gebran Bassil of Lebanon warned that the real estate legislation passed in Syria in early April could dispossess hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and leave them permanently displaced in Lebanon.  "The inability for the displaced to prove ownership in the provided timeframe could cause them to lose their property and dispossess them of one of their main incentives to return to Syria", Bassil said in a letter to his Syrian counterpart. The new law, known as Decree 10, allows the Syrian government to seize private properties for reconstruction projects and compensate proven owners with shares in the new projects, AFP reports. Once an area is declared a ...

Lebanese people will head to the polls tomorrow to elect a new parliament for the first time in nine years after several postponements over security concerns. Polling stations across Lebanon will open at 7:00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday and close at 7:00 p.m. local time (1600 GMT). More than 3.6 million eligible voters will choose among 583 candidates competing for 128 parliamentary seats, which are equally divided among Muslims and Christians. The elections will be held under a new electoral law passed in June 2017 after years of wrangling. The new system reduced the number of voting districts from 26 to 15. It also replaced the current plurality system with a system of proportional representation, increasing the sectarian diversity of lawmakers within each district.  Voters will practically select one list of allied candidates as well as one favourite A polling station official explains the voting procedure to a Lebanese national prepar...