Lebanese security chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim visited Damascus after a trip to Washington as part of efforts to free US national Austin Tice, who is thought to be held in Syria, Lebanese broadcaster Al Jadid reported on Saturday.
Maj Gen Ibrahim told the Lebanese channel that he went on a two-day visit to Damascus and was in regular contact with Mr Tice's mother to tell her that he would continue to work on her son's "file".
"I won't stop working on this subject and I promised Tice's mother whom I met in Washington and am in daily touch with on the phone," he told the broadcaster.
But Maj Gen Ibrahim, the head of General Security that works closely with the US, has been listed in a Congress bill as a target for sanctions. The Hezbollah Money Laundering Prevention Act of 2020, referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs on September 30, singles Maj Gen Ibrahim as a figure who has “knowingly provided material support to or engaged in a significant transaction with Hezbollah.”
Maj Gen Ibrahim said he was unconcerned by the threat and said it would not deter his work either to free Mr Tice or in service of Lebanon.
“They may be upset in Washington about my role in the region, and these articles may be considered a threat, but they will not deter me from my role for what is in the interest of Lebanon," he said “I have sworn allegiance to the homeland – not to any other country in the world – and I am continuing on this oath.”
US President Donald Trump has adopted the case of Mr Tice, a freelance journalist and former Marine officer who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012.
Maj Gen Ibrahim said the trip to Damascus came after he visited Washington last month where he met with national security adviser Robert O’Brien.
The General Security head said that his trip to the US had shown him the shortcomings of the US-Lebanese relationship and said Beirut needs a stronger voice in Washington – something he would work to change.
A Trump administration official on October 18 confirmed a newspaper report that a White House official travelled to Damascus earlier this year for secret meetings with the Syrian government seeking the release of Tice and another US citizen.
The trip was the first time such a high-level US official had met in Syria with the isolated government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in more than a decade.
Syria erupted into civil war nearly a decade ago after Assad in 2011 began a brutal crackdown on protesters calling for an end to his family’s rule.
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Kerala Knights 103-7 (10 ov)
Parnell 59 not out; Tambe 5-15
Sindhis 104-1 (7.4 ov)
Watson 50 not out, Devcich 49
The five pillars of Islam
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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