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Home - el Khazen Family Prince of Maronites : Lebanese Families Keserwan Lebanon

US and Gulf states impose more sanctions on Hezbollah leaders

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Gulf countries, joined by the United States, on Wednesday imposed further sanctions on Hezbollah leaders, proclaiming the Iran-backed Lebanese group a terrorist organisation and dismissing the distinction between the party's political and armed wings. Additional US sanctions targeted Hezbollah's top officials, including its leader Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy Naim Qassem. The measures were imposed jointly by Washington and its partners in the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center (TFTC), which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the US Treasury Department said. The Iran-backed group is a major political party in Lebanon, and has emerged with one of the biggest parliamentary blocs after the country's elections earlier this month. Washington also blacklisted members of Hezbollah's Shura Council, its primary decision-making body, the US Treasury said.

"By targeting Hezbollah’s Shura Council, our nations collectively rejected the false distinction between a so-called ‘Political Wing’ and Hezbollah’s global terrorist plotting,” said Steven T Mnuchin, US treasury secretary. “Under the dictates of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), secretary general and head of the Shura Council, Hasan Nasrallah, is prolonging the human suffering in Syria, fueling the violence in Iraq and Yemen, putting the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people at risk, and destabilising the entire region.” The statement issued by the US Treasury described Nasrallah as Hezbollah's highest ranking official who exercised "direct command over Hezbollah’s military and security apparatus as its supreme commander, including its involvement in the war in Syria". It said the measures were part of attempts to limit "Iran's malign activities" after US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif responded to Saudi Arabia's role in supporting the sanctions on Hezbollah, which fought Israel until it withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. "Israeli snipers shoot over 2,000 unarmed Palestinian protesters on a single day. Saudi response, on eve of Ramadan? Collaboration with its US patron to sanction the first force to liberate Arab territory and shatter the myth of Israeli invincibility. Shame upon shame," tweeted Zarif. The new sanctions also targeted founding Hezbollah member Muhammad Yazbak, Nasrallah's adviser Husayn Al-Khalil and former spokesman Ibrahim al-Amin al-Sayyid, preventing them from using finances, themselves or through partners, in the US. Previously, the US and TFTC members have sanctioned other Lebanese figures accused of links to Hezbollah, including businessmen Ali Youssef Charara and Adham Tabaja for allegedly facilitating the group's financial investments through their own companies.

In May 2017, the Lebanese Blom Bank published a report claiming US financial sanctions limited Lebanon's economic growth but that Lebanese banks had to comply because so much of the country's banking system used dollars and relied on US partners. One of Blom's branches in west Beirut was hit by an explosion a year earlier that reports linked to Hezbollah after the bank complied with US sanctions by shutting down accounts of alleged Hezbollah associates. Nasrallah has been subject to US sanctions since 1995, when he was placed on a "Prohibiting Transactions with Terrorists Who Threaten to Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process" Treasury list. He is also subject to sanctions imposed by the Treasury in 2012 in relation to the war in Syria. The US statement on Hezbollah's political wing was echoed by Saudi Arabia. "Hezbollah is a global terrorist organisation," the kingdom's official news agency SPA said in a statement. "Its leaders do not distinguish between its military and political wings, and we reject the false distinction between the so-called 'Hezbollah political wing' and its military and terrorist activities." The Gulf states targeted four of the movement's committees. A number of those targeted by the TFTC had previously been blacklisted by the United States. Earlier on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, discussed Qatar's efforts to "counter terrorism financing," the State Department said. Last year, Nasrallah downplayed the implications of US sanctions against his group. "The American administration, with all available and possible means, will not be able to damage the strength of the resistance," Nasrallah said in a speech last August

A bizarre, threatening statement from Trump's hawkish security adviser may have derailed the North Korea talks

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by Alex Lockie -- business insider -- North Korea appeared to flip on the US on Tuesday with a variety of complaints and statements that marked the first real backslide of a diplomatic push for peace in Korea — and much of it was pinned on a dark, threatening statement made by President Donald Trump's hawkish new national security adviser. North Korean media specifically targeted Trump's new national security adviser, John Bolton. "We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him," wrote Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's vice-minister of foreign affairs. Bolton, who has written extensively advocating that the US bomb North Korea, recently made a strange statement that appears to have provoked North Korea's anger. "I think we're looking at the Libya model of 2003, 2004," to denuclearize North Korea, Bolton told CBS' "Face the Nation" in late April. Shortly after the US invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi agreed to have international inspectors visit his country to certify that his nuclear and chemical weapons programs had halted. In 2011, a popular uprising in Libya got backing from the US and some NATO countries, and a salvo of cruise missile strikes pummeled the Libyan government. Within months, Gaddafi was filmed being dragged out into the streets by rebels, who then violently killed him. Gaddafi's violent end and the parallels between Libya and North Korea appear to have been noted in Pyongyang. "World knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq which have met miserable fate," North Korea's vice minister wrote, responding to Bolton. "It is absolutely absurd to dare compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya which had been at the initial stage of nuclear development," he continued, using North Korea's formal title.

What was Bolton thinking?

To be clear, the US did not kill Gaddafi; his own people did. Gaddafi enjoyed eight years of international prestige and acceptance before he met his violent end, but it's still a comparison Bolton could have easily steered clear of. It's unclear why Bolton would want to compare North Korea to Libya, as the countries are very different and Libya carries unsavory associations. Now, a much-awaited summit between Trump and Kim has taken a negative turn, with Pyongyang reconsidering its approach and the US likely considering appeasing Kim — and Bolton's Libya remark appears at the center of the setback.

Beirut Pride Canceled After Organizer Is Detained By Authorities

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - The organizer of Beirut Pride said he was detained overnight by Lebanese authorities who released him only when he signed a pledge to cancel the week’s remaining events. Lebanon last year became the first Arab country to hold a gay pride week, though the opening event was canceled because of safety concerns after threats of violence. This year’s pride week began on May 12 and was due to run until May 20. Lebanon is widely seen as more socially liberal than most other Arab countries, but lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people say they are still discriminated against by state and society.

In a statement on the Beirut Pride website, organizer Hadi Damien said that security services turned up late on Tuesday at a public reading of a theater play. Damien said he was taken to a police station overnight and questioned. Damien said he was asked to sign a pledge promising to cancel upcoming events and in return he would be released. The Interior Ministry said it was unable to provide immediate comment. Damien said he was told that if he refused to sign the pledge, he would be referred to the investigation judge for interrogation on the basis of articles pertaining to the incitement to immorality and to the breach of public morality for coordinating the activities. On legal advice, Damien signed the pledge, he said in the statement. Lebanon’s laws prohibit “unnatural” sex, without giving further definition, which has been used to criminalize gay sex. Last year a Lebanese judge said that same-sex relations do not contradict laws of nature, a move welcomed by rights activists.

Damien said the public prosecution had received an Arabic version of the Beirut Pride program that was “completely distorted, making Beirut Pride appear like events of debauchery and disrespect of general law,” while using derogatory terms to refer to LGBT individuals. Ghenwa Samhat, executive director of Lebanese LGBT rights organization Helem, said that many rights organizations in Lebanon experience such pressures. “These things are not new to us,” Samhat said. But in the 20 years since the LGBT rights movement began in Lebanon, progress has been made. “People can express themselves in public places, there are placers friendly to LGBTQ+, where they face no problems,” she said. Positive media coverage surrounding Beirut Pride and activities for the annual International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17 can also be counted as an achievement, Samhat said.

Murr Tower in Beirut decorated by Lebanese street artist with sun clothes

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The Murr Tower in Beirut is decorated by the Lebanese street artist Jad Khoury with sun clothes in Beirut, Lebanon, May 14, 2018. The Tower is a famous symbol of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990). Its construction began in 1974, a year before the beginning of the civil war, and until now this about 40-storeys building is still being abandoned. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

Lebanese press for accountability after claims of election fraud

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wagingnonviolence.org -- Rayyan Dabbous -- Following Lebanon’s parliamentary elections on May 6, more than a thousand Lebanese gathered in front of the Ministry of Interior to challenge its official electoral results. According to the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, an election monitoring group, there were approximately 7,300 legal complaints, including the removal of its monitors from electoral polls during the counting of votes. Few media outlets, national or global, have focused on these electoral violations, covering instead the unexpected victories of Hezbollah in several districts and the severe losses for the pro-West Future Movement party. Nevertheless, Lebanese civil society groups are continuing to push for accountability. “We would have accepted the results if the electoral process was fair,” said Gilbert Hobeich, a member of the new political party Sabaa. “But there have been all kinds of violations even before election day, from buying votes to threats.” Civil society groups like Sabaa, LiBaladi, and You Stink have been organizing in recent years and are beginning to catch the country’s attention. The latter only recently got involved in elections, having initially formed during Lebanon’s 2015 trash crisis — a political stalemate that resulted in the piling up of trash all over the country’s streets. The group first gained attention for organizing a protest on August 29, 2015, which attracted 250,000 Lebanese from all sides of the political spectrum. More peaceful protests followed, but they were met with violence from police forces when, according to You Stink, infiltrators sent by the regime vandalized several commercial properties.

Since then, You Stink has been unable to protest in public spaces, forcing its members to build a strong online presence, with a Facebook page that has amassed more than 250,000 followers. The group posts cartoons mocking party leaders as well as memes that add ironic captions next to politicians’ tweets, which regularly go viral in Lebanon. Other actions have reached more of a global audience, including one that involved the use of drones to spoof a film made by the Ministry of Tourism. You Stink juxtaposed the picturesque beaches and mountains of the country in the official video with shots of “rivers of trash,” some of which were real footage from locations the original film had intentionally left out of the frame. Sabaa is another political party born shortly after the trash crisis. Described on their website as “modern” and “cross-sectarian,” Sabaa is considered to be one of the more organized and better funded new parties. As a result, the traditional parties have accused it of being a “foreign export.” Sabaa’s candidate, Paula Yacoubian, a famous television host, won the party’s only parliamentary seat, although Hobeich insists they should have won “at least two or three more seats.” Despite having a smaller online presence than Sabaa, LiBaladi is another new political party gaining momentum. It has reached a wide audience in its campaigning by partnering with celebrities — like award-winning director Nadine Labaki and actor Fouad Yammine — who often have more followers on social media than the average Lebanese TV channel. Even TV host Dima Sadek dedicated the last show of her popular program to LiBaladi’s Naila Geagea and Ziyad Baroud, a former Minister of Interior who doesn’t affiliate himself with any of the traditional parties.

Despite the three groups’ intense campaigning in the last few months, Lebanon’s traditional parties have created a united front against them to limit their rise through methods used by totalitarian regimes. Sabaa, LiBaladi and You Stink have all received limited coverage from the country’s main TV channels, which are affiliated with the mainstream parties. They have also faced difficulty hosting their campaigning activities in private spaces. For example, Sabaa had to cancel an event at a restaurant last year because its host received pressure from local officials to close. Meanwhile, around the same time, more than 10 members from You Stink were arrested for hanging posters in Beirut that depicted the faces of the country’s leaders with a caption, saying, “Report them to 112 [911 in Lebanon], those who raped the power of the state.” Despite the renewed shunning of these groups following claims of election fraud, the nonviolent fight is far from over. While Sabaa and LiBaladi intend to appeal several electoral results, You Stink asked its followers via a Facebook poll if it should “move to the streets.” The results showed resounding support.

THE MARITIME BORDER DISPUTE BETWEEN LEBANON AND ISRAEL EXPLAINED

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This article does not necessarily represents khazen.org 

BY: MONA SUKKARIEH

The comments made by Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman at a Tel Aviv conference on January 31 sparked outrage in Lebanon. It brought the issue of the maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel back into the spotlight and managed to catch Washington’s attention once again. Little was happening on this front after the change of Administration in the U.S. After a few months, Lebanese officials stopped announcing that a resumption of mediation efforts was imminent. Then, in October, the decision, by a Total-led consortium to place a bid for Block 9 (which includes a disputed area) in Lebanon’s first licensing round, rekindled interest once again in the topic. But the buzz was discreet, confined to experts and diplomatic circles, until it was out in the open when Liberman described Lebanon’s offshore tender as “very provocative” and urged international companies not to bid, about a month and a half after licenses were awarded. The dispute unfolded in December 2010, when Cyprus and Israel signed a maritime border agreement that was denounced by Lebanon because it encroached on parts of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). On July 10, 2011, the Israeli cabinet approved a map of Israel’s northern maritime border, and two days later, the Israeli mission to the United Nations submitted a list of geographical coordinates for the delimitation of the northern limit of Israel’s territorial sea and EEZ. Some of the points defined in the Cypriot-Israeli agreement and submitted later to the U.N. overlap with the Lebanese EEZ.

But to understand how we got here, we must go back to 2007. On January 17 of that year, Lebanon signed a maritime border agreement with Cyprus. It followed standard procedure outlined in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), marking a series of points that are equidistant from Cyprus and Lebanon (median line). Point 1 was used to mark the southernmost point along this line, while Point 6 marked its northernmost point. The agreement included a standard clause specifying that the geographical coordinates of the first and last markers, in this case Point 1 in the south, and Point 6 in the north, may be adjusted in light of future delimitation of the EEZ with other neighboring States, since a bilateral agreement cannot pretend to define the borders of third states. The agreement was never ratified by the Lebanese Parliament, largely because of pressure from Turkey, which denounces all maritime border agreements signed by the Republic of Cyprus with its neighboring countries. As such, the agreement never entered into force.

But it wasn’t until April 2009 that a Lebanese commission tasked with defining the coordinates of Lebanon’s EEZ completed its work, identifying Point 23, 17 km south of Point 1, as the southernmost point of the EEZ. The coordinates were approved by the cabinet on May 13, 2009, and by the Parliament on August 4, 2011. In accordance with UNCLOS, Lebanon submitted the relevant charts and lists of coordinates to the U.N. in July and October 2010 and in November 2011. Just like the Israeli submissions mentioned above, these are unilateral submissions and do not amount to border delimitation. Israel objects to the southernmost coordinates submitted by Lebanon. Less known is the fact that Syria also objected to the delineation provided by Lebanon in a letter transmitted to the U.N. Secretary-General on 15 July 2014, saying that it does not have “any binding legal effect on other States. It remains only a notification, and one to which the Syrian Arab Republic objects”.

Read more ...

More Lebanese tourists expected to visit Greece, travel agencies say

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by lebaneseexaminer.com --Greece is expected to welcome more tourists from Lebanon in 2018, according to travel agencies that participated in the recent ‘Greek Tourism Workshop‘ held in Beirut. Organizers believe the number of Lebanese tourists in Greece is expected to rise by at least 20 percent. “Greek culture has a lot in common with the culture of the Lebanese people — who love Greece and consider the country an exceptional tourism destination that provides them with happy moments and memories,” said Katerina Mousbeh, general manager of Mideast Travel.Travel agents say Lebanese tourism in Athens and Central Macedonia is already gaining popularity. Charter flights to Crete and the South Aegean islands are set to increase this year. The Greek Aegean Airlines is also planning to launch direct flights from Beirut to Heraklio on Crete, Rhodes and Mykonos this summer, according to the Greek Travel Pages. The ‘Greek Tourism Workshop’ in Beirut was held by the Greek National Tourism Organization to attract more tourists from the Arab market. The workshop was also held in New Delhi, Kuwait, Riyadh and Dubai.

  1. Lebanese leaders denounce Israeli aggression as dozens of Palestinians killed
  2. Sony Pictures acquires Lebanese film “Capernaum” ahead of Cannes
  3. Lebanon’s Hariri replaces chief of staff after election setback
  4. From Lebanon to American dream, via the FBI
  5. Pentagon to keep backing Lebanon military
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Page 460 of 544

Khazen History

      

 

Historical Feature:

Churches and Monasteries of the Khazen family

St. Anthony of Padua Church in Ballouneh
Mar Abda Church in Bakaatit Kanaan
Saint Michael Church in Bkaatouta
Saint Therese Church in Qolayaat
Saint Simeon Stylites (مار سمعان العامودي) Church In Ajaltoun
Virgin Mary Church (سيدة المعونات) in Sheilé
Assumption of Mary Church in Ballouneh

1 The sword of the Maronite Prince
2 LES KHAZEN CONSULS DE FRANCE
3 LES MARONITES & LES KHAZEN
4 LES MAAN & LES KHAZEN
5 ORIGINE DE LA FAMILLE
 

Population Movements to Keserwan - The Khazens and The Maans

ما جاء عن الثورة في المقاطعة الكسروانية 

ثورة أهالي كسروان على المشايخ الخوازنة وأسبابها

Origins of the "Prince of Maronite" Title

Growing diversity: the Khazin sheiks and the clergy in the first decades of the 18th century

 Historical Members:

   Barbar Beik El Khazen [English]
  
 Patriach Toubia Kaiss El Khazen(Biography & Life Part1 Part2) (Arabic)
 
  Patriach Youssef Dargham El Khazen (Cont'd)
  
 Cheikh Bishara Jafal El Khazen 
   
 Patriarch Youssef Raji El Khazen
  
 The Martyrs Cheikh Philippe & Cheikh Farid El Khazen
  
 Cheikh Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
  
 Cheikh Hossun El Khazen (Consul De France)
  
 Cheikh Abou-Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France) 
  
 Cheikh Francis Abee Nader & his son Yousef 
  
 Cheikh Abou-Kanso El Khazen (Consul De France)
  
 Cheikh Abou Nader El Khazen
  
 Cheikh Chafic El Khazen
  
 Cheikh Keserwan El Khazen
  
 Cheikh Serhal El Khazen [English] 

    Cheikh Rafiq El Khazen  [English]
   
Cheikh Hanna El Khazen

    Cheikha Arzi El Khazen

 

 

Cheikh Jean-Philippe el Khazen website


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