BREAKING NEWS

Lebanon to postpone parliamentary poll to 2017

Lebanon is set to postpone next month's parliamentary elections to 2017 because instability linked to the Syrian crisis has made it impossible to hold a nationwide poll, a government minister said on Monday.
The civil war in neighboring Syria has stoked sectarian tensions and aggravated long-standing rivalries in Lebanon. This would be the second postponement of the elections, which should have taken place in June 2013.
Now the 128-member parliament is set to delay them for another two years and seven months from November, the minister said.
"There is no longer a possibility of holding the elections because of the deteriorating security situation in the country," the minister told Reuters. He declined to be named because the parliament has not yet voted on the new postponement.
Lebanon's interior minister and MPs have frequently said a new delay is inevitable. A postponement to 2017 would mean that the current parliament would serve two four-year terms in a row.