Lebanon’s Israel boycott law faces renewed pressure as military talks move to Tampa

When Lebanese lawyer Hassan Bazzi filed a complaint against his country’s ambassador to Washington last month, he expected to face the usual slow process of Lebanon ’s courts. Instead, the case prompted a rebuke from the US State Department, threats of sanctions against Lebanese judges, and renewed US pressure on Beirut to repeal laws that have criminalised contact with Israelis for seven decades. The row comes as Lebanese and Israeli military delegations will meet this week at US Central Command (Centcom) headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Critics in Lebanon say the talks are pushing the country’s legal ban on contact with Israel towards collapse.