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Lebanon Postpones Ex-central Bank Governor's Hearing

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gives an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Beirut on December 20, 2021. (AFP)
Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gives an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Beirut on December 20, 2021. (AFP)
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Lebanon Postpones Ex-central Bank Governor's Hearing

Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gives an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Beirut on December 20, 2021. (AFP)
Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh gives an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Beirut on December 20, 2021. (AFP)

Lebanon's judiciary postponed a hearing scheduled Wednesday for former central bank governor Riad Salameh, accused of embezzling more than $300 million, a judicial official told AFP.

Salameh, who headed the central bank for three decades and was arrested in 2024, has faced numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.

He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The judicial official said that the hearing concerned the transfer of $330 million from the central bank to Forry Associates Ltd, a British Virgin Islands-registered company, and was postponed due to a lawsuit Salameh filed against the presiding judge.

The former governor and his brother Raja are also the subject of criminal proceedings in Europe, where funds embezzled from the central bank were allegedly laundered.

In May 2023, a French judge issued an international arrest warrant for Salameh, who also holds French citizenship.

The judicial official said a separate hearing is scheduled on July 30 regarding a complaint filed against Salameh by current central bank governor Karim Souaid.

The central bank had filed a lawsuit against Salameh, without naming him, and another former banking official this year on charges related to the misappropriation of central bank funds, illicit enrichment and suspected money laundering.

The investigation into ill-gotten Lebanese assets took on a new dimension with the indictment in May in Paris of the Swiss subsidiary of the British bank HSBC, suspected of having helped Salameh embezzle funds.

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Arab World

Arab League Chief Says Blocked by Israel from Visiting West Bank

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Fahmy. (Arab League)
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Fahmy. (Arab League)
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Arab League Chief Says Blocked by Israel from Visiting West Bank

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Fahmy. (Arab League)
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Fahmy. (Arab League)

The new secretary-general of the Arab League, Nabil Fahmy, said Wednesday Israel had blocked him from visiting Ramallah, in what would have been his first foreign visit since taking office this month.

The regional bloc's secretariat was informed by Palestinian authorities "of the Israeli occupation authorities' rejection of a visit... to the occupied Palestinian territories" to visit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Fahmy's office said in a statement.

Arab World

RSF Drone Strikes on Civilian Vehicles Kill at Least 20 in Sudan, Rights Groups Say

Sudanese women gather for a hot meal in al-Rahmaniyah camp for displaced people, near the city of el-Obeid in the southern Kordofan region on July 7, 2026. (AFP)
Sudanese women gather for a hot meal in al-Rahmaniyah camp for displaced people, near the city of el-Obeid in the southern Kordofan region on July 7, 2026. (AFP)
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RSF Drone Strikes on Civilian Vehicles Kill at Least 20 in Sudan, Rights Groups Say

Sudanese women gather for a hot meal in al-Rahmaniyah camp for displaced people, near the city of el-Obeid in the southern Kordofan region on July 7, 2026. (AFP)
Sudanese women gather for a hot meal in al-Rahmaniyah camp for displaced people, near the city of el-Obeid in the southern Kordofan region on July 7, 2026. (AFP)

Drone strikes on civilian vehicles headed to social gatherings in Sudan have killed more than 20 people in recent days, rights groups said, as the use of unmanned aircraft becomes increasingly common in the northeastern African country’s war.

A drone strike on a road west of Omdurman on the outskirts of Khartoum on Tuesday killed 10 civilians, including five women from the same family, as they drove to a wedding, the Sudan Doctors Network said Wednesday.

The medical aid group, which has been tracking violence been the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces throughout the more than three-year war, blamed the attack on the RSF.

The vehicle immediately caught fire after the strike and all 10 people inside died, a witness told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The doctors group said the strike “was deliberate and carried out using a guided drone” and called for the international community to pressure RSF leadership to stop targeting civilians.

A separate drone strike on Tuesday hit a transport vehicle near a water facility in the province, killing two people, according to Emergency Lawyers, which tracks violence in Sudan.

The previous day, 13 civilians, including five women, were killed when a drone hit their vehicle as they headed to a wedding in al-Shaatout town, in North Kordofan province, Emergency Lawyers said.

“This attack is part of an escalating pattern of drone attacks on civilians as drones continue to fly over the northern parts of the province ... monitoring residents’ movements,” the group said in a statement.

North Kordofan has seen a surge in drone strikes amid international concerns about the RSF closing in on the strategic city of el-Obeid, which is home to the army’s 5th Infantry Division.

Drone strikes on the city have destroyed civilian infrastructure, including power facilities and neighborhoods, and targeted bridges and key supply routes, according to the UN.

The war in Sudan, which started in April 2023 after long-simmering tensions between the army and the RSF, has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million and pushed many parts of the country into famine. More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Kordofan and Darfur have been the epicenters of the war, but heavy fighting also has broken out across the Blue Nile State.

The army said in a statement Wednesday that it had recaptured the strategic border town of Kurmuk in Blue Nile State after heavy fighting with the RSF, claiming the paramilitary withdrew from the area, leaving behind weapons and military vehicles. The Associated Press couldn't indecently verify the army's claim.

Arab World

Trump Says He Thinks Israel Will Withdraw Troops from Southern Lebanon

An Israeli flag hangs from a building in Lebanon as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, July 5, 2026. (Reuters)
An Israeli flag hangs from a building in Lebanon as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, July 5, 2026. (Reuters)
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Trump Says He Thinks Israel Will Withdraw Troops from Southern Lebanon

An Israeli flag hangs from a building in Lebanon as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, July 5, 2026. (Reuters)
An Israeli flag hangs from a building in Lebanon as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel, July 5, 2026. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he thought Israel would withdraw troops from southern Lebanon because it wanted to take that step, despite comments from Israel's leader indicating otherwise.

Trump told reporters at the ‌NATO Summit in ‌Ankara that he ‌had discussed ⁠a withdrawal with ⁠Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Yeah, I think they're going to. I think they want to," Trump said. "So we have a deal with Israel ⁠and Lebanon. Yeah, they'll leave. ‌And ‌I think it's going to work ‌out very well."

Netanyahu visited ‌Lebanese territory occupied by the Israeli military last week, telling soldiers that Israel would not withdraw from ‌the country's south as long as Iran-backed Hezbollah continued ⁠to ⁠pose a threat.

The Israeli and Lebanese governments on June 26 reached a security agreement mediated by the United States under which Israel will hand over two areas to Lebanon's army.