.LB ccTLD (a Country Code Top Level Domain for Lebanon) was delegated by IANA to Nabil Bukhalid at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1993 [1]. For nearly thirty years, the domain’s management was led by Mr. Bukhalid. After the death of Nabil Bukhalid, a former AUB employee, AUB has made representations to IANA that AUB has no ongoing role or responsibility for the domain and further, AUB has requested to be removed from IANA’s records so that AUB is no longer listed in the IANA database as the manager for .LB. This presents a challenge as IANA does not have a successor organization to appoint in its place. IANA’s current operational procedures and the existing policies on ccTLD transfers assume a qualified successor organization will be available for appointment [2].
Below are the events in chronological order
1993
.LB ccTLD (a Country Code Top Level Domain for Lebanon) was delegated by IANA to Nabil Bukhalid at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1993.
2008
On 3 February 2008, the Lebanese Council of Ministers issued Decree No. 103/86 and approved a request from the Ministry of Telecom to transfer .LB from AUB to Ogero, a state-owned telecommunications operator. However, Ogero never sought a transfer from IANA and AUB remained the designated manager of the .LB top-level domain.
2011
On 20 December 2011, the Internet Society Lebanon (also known as “ISOC-LB” or “مجتمع الانترنت في لبنان” in Arabic), was established as an association by Notice Statement No. 2073, published in the Lebanese Official Gazette.
2012
In 2012, the E-Transaction draft law was issued, giving the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MoET) the role of sponsoring the .lb domain registry. As a result, MoET and Mr. Bukhalid reportedly established a formal relationship and updated the .lb top-level domain’s registration policies. In August, Mr. Bukhalid left AUB and informed MoET that AUB would continue hosting the .lb database while he would manage its operations.
2014
In February 2013, Fadi Chehadé, ICANN’s then CEO, met with several members of the Lebanese government and
other Internet stakeholders in Lebanon. Among the topics discussed were the benefits of moving to a bottom-up,
multistakeholder model of administration for the .LB top-level domain.
After a year of discussions, the Lebanese Internet community ratified general bylaws and internal bylaws for
a not-for-profit association to manage the .lb top-level domain. On 2 June 2014, the Lebanese Internet Center (LINC)
was established as an association for this purpose at the Ministry of Interior. On 13 June 2014, LINC’s first board
was elected and it appointed Mr. Bukhalid as its CEO. LINC intended to submit a transfer request to IANA and apply
for an Arabic-script ccTLD. However, it informed IANA it was ultimately unable to operate in Lebanon due to
recognition issues within the country under government regulations.
[3]
2017
On 16 June 2017, AUB notified Mr. Bukhalid that it did not want to continue hosting .LB’s servers and
associated infrastructure. Subsequently, AUB provided IANA with a letter of consent for the transfer of
the .LB top-level domain from AUB to either LINC or ISOC-LB.
2018
In October 2018, Law No. 81/2018 Relating to Electronic Transactions and Personal Data was ratified and published in the official gazette. Articles 79 and 80 of Part IV of the Law address the management of the .LB top-level domain:
“Under the present Law, a body shall be established under the name of the ‘Lebanese Domain Name Registry’ (LBDR). LBDR's mandate is to manage and register the names of websites, including websites featuring the Lebanese domains (.lb) and (. (ﻟﺒﻨﺎنin their names…LBDR shall be comprised of representatives from the Ministry of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Economy and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Minister of State for Administrative Development, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, the Bar Association and representatives of three to five associations operating in this sector…LBDR shall define the administrative and technical terms and conditions for granting and managing the Lebanese domain names and accredited registrars subject to the rules set out by the international domain name registration bodies."
2020
On 7 June 2020, AUB announced that it would stop hosting .LB’s infrastructure. Mr. Bukhalid consulted with LINC’s Board and the Prime Minister's Office and was directed to work with the Office of the Minister of Administrative Reform (OMSAR) on a plan to transfer the .LB top-level domain to LINC.
On 30 June 2020, AUB, ISOC-LB, and Mr. Bukhalid informed OMSAR of the urgent need to transfer the .LB top-level domain to a multistakeholder entity and relocate .LB’s infrastructure away from AUB.
In July 2020, AUB reportedly terminated the contracts of its two employees who had volunteered part of their time to help manage the .LB top-level domain and notified Mr. Bukhalid that they considered him the responsible party for the management of the .LB top-level domain.
On 23 September 2020, AUB notified Mr. Bukhalid and OMSAR that it would be decommissioning the services hosted on AUB infrastructure no later than 30 September 2020. Mr. Bukhalid stated he negotiated an extension with AUB to retain some infrastructure until 30 May 2021 and began migrating .LB’s services to a third-party registry service provider, COCCA.
On 12 October 2020, the President of the Republic of Lebanon and the Prime Minister gave Mr. Bukhalid exceptional approval for “securing the management and hosting of the Government domain name data with entities that he enters into contractual agreement with on his responsibility, similar to the other (.lb) domain zones.”
In December 2020, the migration of .LB’s infrastructure to COCCA was completed. AUB retained some infrastructure that was supporting .LB at this time.
2021
In 2021, Mr. Bukhalid incorporated LBDR LLC in the United States as a limited liability company.
In 2021, AUB asked IANA to remove its contact information from .LB’s delegation record in the IANA database, given their lack of involvement in its current operation. It also asked IANA to work with Mr. Bukhalid to transfer .LB to LBDR LLC.
2023
On 3 January 2023, Mr. Bukhalid passed away unexpectedly and the request to transfer .LB to LBDR LLC was withdrawn. Known associates of Mr. Bukhalid notified IANA that they would continue operating the domain. As circumstances clarified, ISOC-LB was identified as a potential place to rehome these operations on a permanent basis.
In March 2023, the last remaining infrastructure that had been hosted by AUB was moved to Beirut-IX.
On 7 March 2023, the Minister of State for Administrative Development sent a request to the attention of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers regarding the continuity of managing and hosting the data of Lebanese domain names. The request noted that Mr. Bukhalid, a Vice President of ISOC-LB, had managed .LB from its inception until he passed away. It also noted that the circumstances in Lebanon have prevented the establishment of a committee to manage .LB according to the e-transaction law. Given these circumstances, she suggested the extraordinary approval of transferring the duties of managing .LB to Mr. Jacques George Bakaev, the Secretary of ISOC-LB. On 4 May 2023, the Prime Minister of Lebanon approved this request.
AUB wrote to IANA again and asked to be removed from the .LB delegation record. In response, IANA explored with ICANN and key community stakeholders how such a request could be implemented in compliance with policies. ICANN approved IANA’s proposal in May subject to some additional engagement with stakeholders.
On 13 July 2023, ISOC-LB formally submitted its transfer request to IANA.
On 14 July 2023, IANA finalized removing AUB from the .LB delegation record and placed the domain in “Caretaker Operations”. In external communications around this topic, IANA confirmed that this was a temporary measure until such time as a transfer could be successfully completed.
ISOC-LB became .lb's manager in February, 2024