Lebanon security chief returns to Beirut after positive COVID-19 test in U.S.

BEIRUT – Top Lebanese security official Major-General Abbas Ibrahim returned to Beirut from the United States on Friday where he had tested positive for COVID-19, local media reported.

Ibrahim’s positive test result, announced on Monday, had delayed his return from talks in Washington and forced him to cancel scheduled meetings in Paris.

“General Ibrahim will continue his work after the end of the necessary quarantine period due to him contracting corona,” local broadcaster LBC said. There were no more details on the nature of his quarantine.

Last week, General Ibrahim arrived in Washington on a private jet at the invitation of national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien, who welcomed him at the White House on Friday. Ibrahim also met with CIA Director Gina Haspel and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale. On Saturday evening, he was feted at a private dinner at the home of Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese national and U.S. permanent resident who was detained in Iran for four years before being released last year, in part due to Ibrahim’s back-channel intervention.

Lebanon’s directorate of General Security, which he heads, had said he was in good health when it announced his diagnosis on Monday.

(Reuters)/YL