Kareem Chehayeb

Smoke rises during clashes between members of the Palestinian Fatah group and Islamist militants in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, September 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

September 11, 2023, 1:17 pm

Islamists in Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon say they will honor ceasefire

Tense calm in Ein el-Hilweh after three days of clashes killed at least five people and left hundreds of families displaced

By FADI TAWIL and Kareem Chehayeb

Supporters of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community attend a sit-in to protest the ongoing criminalization of homosexuality and arbitrary arrests in front of Hobeich police station, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, May 15, 2016. (AP/Hussein Malla)

September 1, 2023, 11:45 am

Lebanese politicians ramp up fight against LGBTQ community

Once seen as relatively tolerant for a Middle Eastern country, Lebanon’s political leaders have become unified in efforts to scapegoat the LGBTQ community

By BASSEM MROUE and Kareem Chehayeb

A crowd of people gather at the courtyard of the Sursock Museum during an opening event for the iconic venue in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, May 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

May 27, 2023, 7:00 pm

From ashes and debris, iconic Beirut museum reopens 3 years after port blast

Much of Sursock Museum’s art was heavily damaged by the massive explosion that ripped through the capital in 2020

By Kareem Chehayeb

Syria's empty seat is pictured during an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on May 7, 2023. (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

May 17, 2023, 4:25 pm

Arab League to reinstate Syria amid regional disputes

While trying to resolve conflict in Sudan, League’s readmission of Assad regime marks controversial turning point in war-torn nation’s diplomatic status

By Kareem Chehayeb

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speaks during a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on May 7, 2023. (Khaled Desouki/AFP)

May 9, 2023, 4:26 pm

What drove Syria’s return to the Arab League, and what impact will it have?

Analysts suggest Damascus’s former allies have recognized that 12 years of shutting Assad out had little practical effect on conflict

By Kareem Chehayeb and ABBY SEWELL

Jordanian soldiers patrol along the eastern Jordan-Syria border, in al-Washash, Mafraq governorate, Jordan, February 17, 2022. (Raad Adayleh/AP)

May 8, 2023, 3:30 pm

Alleged Jordanian airstrikes kill Syrian drug kingpin, his wife and six children

War monitor says Amman likely behind bombings that targeted home of Merhi Ramthan near its border and drug factory in southern province of Daraa

By Kareem Chehayeb and Bassam Mroue

File: Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, receives a delegation representing various Arab parliaments in Damascus, February 26, 2023. (SANA via AP)

May 7, 2023, 4:02 pm

Arab League readmits Syria 12 years after its suspension over civil war

Several members, including Qatar, do not attend Cairo meeting; decision also includes commitment to dialogue aimed at reaching political solution to conflict

By MOHAMED WAGDY and Kareem Chehayeb

In this photo released by the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, shakes hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Damascus, Syria, May 3, 2023. (Syrian Presidency via Facebook via AP)

May 3, 2023, 2:05 pm

Raisi meets Assad on first visit to Syria by an Iranian president in 13 years

Leaders sign series of long-term cooperation agreements, including on oil, agriculture and railways; rare meeting comes as some Arab countries have been warming up to Damascus

By Albert Aji and Kareem Chehayeb

LGBTQ activists in Lebanon shout slogans as they march calling on the government for more rights in the country gripped by economic and financial crisis during ongoing protests in Beirut, Lebanon on June 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

February 22, 2023, 12:56 am

Mideast governments targeting LGBTQ people online, rights group says

Report documents dozens of cases of security agencies in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Tunisia extorting members of LGBTQ community based on their social media activities

By Kareem Chehayeb

Rescue teams search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings after a devastating earthquake rocked Syria and Turkey, in Aleppo, Syria, February 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)

February 9, 2023, 7:11 pm

Earthquake stuns Syria’s Aleppo, even after destruction of civil war

With historic city still largely ruined from years of battle, residents express shock at scale of quake’s devastation; ‘It was the first time in my life I got scared,’ one says

By Kareem Chehayeb and Bassam Mroue

Rescue teams search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP/Omar Sanadiki)

February 8, 2023, 4:53 am

Aid to quake-hit Syria slowed by sanctions, war divisions

US and European countries reluctant to route aid directly through Assad government, a pariah in much of the international community

By ABBY SEWELL and Kareem Chehayeb

People stand in front of damaged buildings in the town of Douma, the site of a suspected chemical weapon attack, near Damascus, Syria, on April 16, 2018. (Hassan Ammar/AP)

February 2, 2023, 2:53 pm

Syria blasts chemical watchdog report on 2018 attack as pandering to Western nations

Damascus regime’s representative in Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says group’s findings based on ‘serious irregularities and defects’

By SAMAR KASSABALLI and Kareem Chehayeb

Anti-government protesters scuffle with riot police outside the Ministry of Justice, in Beirut, Lebanon on January 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

January 26, 2023, 6:56 pm

Anger soars in Beirut after prosecutor orders release of all suspects in port blast

Several demonstrators wounded as police pushed crowds back from judiciary after officials moved to cripple probe into explosion that wreaked havoc on Lebanon’s capital

By FADI TAWIL and Kareem Chehayeb

Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun, right, in Ras Baalbek, northeast Lebanon, on August 23, 2017. (Lebanese Army Website via AP)

January 25, 2023, 6:38 pm

US reroutes $72 million in aid to Lebanon to pay wages for army, police

Move marks first time Washington has paid salaries of Lebanese security personnel as economic crisis causes crash in pay

By Kareem Chehayeb

The coffin of UNIFIL Pvt. Seán Rooney at his memorial procession at the Lebanese army airbase, at Beirut airport, December 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

December 18, 2022, 9:28 pm

Lebanon, UN peacekeepers hold memorial for Irish UNIFIL soldier killed by gunfire

24-year-old Pvt. Seán Rooney killed last week in attack on convoy, which passed through town not under force’s mandate; Hezbollah terror group has not commented on incident

By Kareem Chehayeb