Lebanon foiled a plot by a suicide bomber to blow up a plane bound for the United Arab Emirates from Australia earlier this month, Lebanon's interior minister said on Monday.

Nohad Machnouk told Saudi-owned television station Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath that the bomber was Lebanese and had planned to blow up a plane bound for Abu Dhabi.

Earlier this month an Australian man was detained in Sydney during raids to disrupt what authorities described as an Islamic State-inspired plot to bomb an Etihad Airways flight.

Reuters