.lb
.lb is the ccTLD for Lebanon. It is managed by the Internet Society Lebanon (ISOC-LB).[1]
Delegation History[edit | edit source]
In 1993, the .lb top-level domain was delegated by IANA to Nabil Bukhalid at the American University of Beirut (AUB). For nearly thirty years, the domain’s management was led by Mr. Bukhalid.
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.
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.
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.
In October 2018, a new law was ratified and published in the official gazette, and two articles concerned the management of .lb:“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."
On 7 June 2020, AUB announced that it would stop hosting .lb's infrastructure. The management was once again in the hands of Mr. Bukhalid.
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.
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.
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. 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”.[2] ISOC-LB became .lb's manager in February, 2024.[1]
Rules and Restrictions[edit | edit source]
Currently it is not possible to register a domain name under .lb directly.
Certain domain names are reserved or prohibited and may not be registered. See the list of domain names that cannot be registered.[3]
Second-level Domains[edit | edit source]
Registrants under ".com.lb", ".edu.lb", ".net.lb", ".org.lb" and ".gov.lb" must have a Lebanese postal address.
The registration of domain name for Private Individuals is not currently supported, but a proposal for creating a special category for private individuals is under consideration. The private individual applicant must be 18 years or older and must have a valid Lebanese national identity or passport (sic).[3]
Characters[edit | edit source]
- A domain name must consist of at least 3 characters and at most 63 characters.
- The characters permitted in the domain name are, a-z, digits 0-9, and hyphens. The domain name cannot be all digits and cannot start or end with a hyphen.
- The first and the last character of the domain name must be a letter or a digit.
- The domain name cannot be all numeric, consisting of digits 0-9 only.[3]