English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 01/2024
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
Such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth
talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded
Letter to the Romans 16/17-20/:"I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye
on those who cause dissensions and offences, in opposition to the teaching that
you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but
their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of
the simple-minded. For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice
over you, I want you to be wise in what is good, and guileless in what is evil.
The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you."
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese
& Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July
31-August 01/2024
Body of Hezbollah Military Commander Found
in Beirut Rubble, Two Security Sources Say
Hezbollah: Fuad Shukr Was in Building Targeted by Israeli Strike
Hezbollah Officially Announces Death of Fouad Shokr
Hezbollah military commander claimed killed by
Israel was blamed by the US for 1983 Marine bombing
Reactions to Haret Hreik Attack
US 'committed to Israel security': Austin and Gallant discuss Lebanon 'solution'
Israel says wants to end hostilities with Hezbollah without 'wider war' but
ready 'for any scenario'
Katz urges world to seek Hezbollah withdrawal to north of Litani
Mikati: Lebanon doesn't want war but rather dignity and sovereignty
Outrage, pro-Hezbollah chants after Israeli strike on Dahieh
Hezbollah condemns killing of Hamas chief
Cabinet Meeting: Mikati Condemns Strike on Southern Suburb
Harris says Israel has 'right to defend itself' against Hezbollah, still calls
for 'diplomatic solution'
Full-Scale War Scenarios Are Taking Shape
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on July 31-August 01/2024
Netanyahu says Israel will exact heavy price
for revenge attacks
UN Says Attacks in Beirut, Tehran Are a Dangerous Escalation
Arab League Secretary General Warns Israeli Escalation Triggers Regional Turmoil
Israel Says Wants to End Hostilities Without 'Wider War' But Ready 'For Any
Scenario'
Israel Not Seeking War Escalation, but Preparing for All Scenarios, Defense
Minister Says
Austin Says Middle East War Not Inevitable, Seeks to 'Take The Temperature Down'
Blinken Says US Not Involved in Killing of Hamas Leader
Iran Vows ‘Harsh Punishment’ for Haniyeh Killing, Türkiye Condemns Assassination
Killing of Hamas political leader points to diverging paths for Israel, US, on
ceasefire
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas Leader on Israel’s Hit List Since Oct. 7, Is Killed in
Airstrike in Tehran
Tough-Talking Haniyeh Was Seen as the More Moderate Face of Hamas
Hamas' top political leader is killed in Iran in strike that risks triggering
all-out regional war
Qatar and Egypt Say Assassinations Damage Gaza Truce Chances
Khaled Meshaal, who survived Israeli assassination attempt, tipped to be new
Hamas leader
Houthis vow to aid Iranian retaliation against Israel for killing of Hamas
leader in Tehran
France calls on Iran for restraint in regional crises as new leader sworn in RFI
Iran vows to make Israel 'regret' Haniyeh killing
Israeli Assets Tumble After Hamas Political Leader Killed
Al Jazeera Says Reporter, Cameraman Killed in Israel Strike on Gaza
The war in Gaza might complicate Haniyeh's replacement. Here are the possible
contenders
Iran has no good options after two deadly strikes on senior allies
Ukraine receives first F-16 fighter jets to bolster defenses against Russia, a
US official tells AP
Sudan's military leader survives a drone strike that killed 5, says the army
Türkiye Will Invite Palestinian President to Address Parliament
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources on July 31-August 01/2024
As U.S.-Iran Conflict Builds Across Mideast, Iraq Is Caught in Middle/Alissa J.
Rubin//The New York Times/July 31/2024
Why Has the Biden Administration Donated Close to One Billion Dollars in "Aid"
to Hamas since the October 7 Massacre?/Robert Williams/Gatestone Institute/July
31, 2024
Who Will Write the Ending of the War in Gaza?/Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/July
31/2024
The Harris We Don’t Know/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
The Muslim Roots of Assassination/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/July 31/2024
Haniyeh is Dead, What Does Iran Do Next?/Cian ward/This Is Beirut/July 31/2024
The Impact of Haniyeh’s Death on Gaza Talks/Sana Richa Choucair/This Is
Beirut/July 31/2024
Where Does the Saudi-Iranian Agreement Stand Now?/Rami Rayess/This Is
Beirut/July 31/2024
Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on July 31-August 01/2024
Body of Hezbollah Military Commander
Found in Beirut Rubble, Two Security Sources Say
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
The body of senior Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr was found in the
rubble of a building in Beirut's southern suburbs on Wednesday, a day after it
was hit by an Israeli strike, two Lebanese security sources said. Hezbollah said
early on Wednesday that Shukr had been in the building struck by Israel, but it
did not confirm his fate. Israel's military announced late on Tuesday it had
killed Shukr, whom it named as Hezbollah's most senior commander and whom it
blamed for an attack at the weekend that left a dozen youngsters dead in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Iran-backed Hezbollah denied any involvement in
Saturday's attack. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Shukr "has the
blood of many Israelis on his hands. Tonight, we have shown that the blood of
our people has a price, and that there is no place out of reach for our forces
to this end".A senior security source from another country in the region
confirmed Shukr had died of his wounds. At least two women and two children were
also killed in the Israeli strike, medical and security sources said.
Hezbollah's long-awaited statement on Wednesday said Israel had attacked a
residential building in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold for the
group, and that "a number of citizens" had been killed and others wounded. It
said Shukr "was present in this building at the time" but that the group was
still awaiting definitive results on his fate. Shukr was an adviser to Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah, according to Hezbollah sources and to the Israeli
military's announcement of his killing. If his death is officially confirmed, he
would be the most senior Hezbollah commander to have been killed in nearly 10
months of exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, taking
place in parallel with the Gaza War.The strike on Beirut came shortly before the
assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the early hours of Wednesday in
Iran, in a development that has further fanned fears of wider regional
escalation. Hezbollah is an ally of Hamas.
'WE ARE UP FOR IT'
On Wednesday morning, Lebanon's civil defense teams were on the ground in the
southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, clearing rubble from the strike, a
Reuters witness said. The attack appeared to have shorn off the top corner of a
multi-storey building and scattered bits of charred debris onto the surroundings
buildings and streets. Lebanese ministers and lawmakers visited the scene on
Wednesday. Speaking from the ruins, Hezbollah parliamentarian Ali Ammar
condemned the strike on Dahiyeh as well as the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel has made no comment on Haniyeh's assassination.
"This enemy (Israel) demands war and we are up for it, God willing, we are up
for it," Ammar said. Lebanon's cabinet held an emergency meeting on Wednesday
morning to discuss the strike on Beirut and issued a statement read to reporters
by Information Minister Ziad Makary. Makary condemned the strike and said
retaliation by Hezbollah was anticipated but that the government was worried the
situation could "spiral". "Lebanon does not want war," he said, adding that the
government would engage in diplomatic efforts to calm tensions.
Hezbollah: Fuad Shukr Was in Building Targeted by
Israeli Strike
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Lebanon's Hezbollah said early on Wednesday its senior commander Fuad Shukr was
in the building in the southern suburbs of Beirut targeted by an Israeli strike,
but it did not confirm his fate. Hezbollah's long-awaited statement on Wednesday
said Israel had attacked a residential building in the southern suburbs of
Beirut, a stronghold for the group, and that "a number of citizens" had been
killed and others wounded. It said Fuad Shukr "was present in this building at
the time," but that the group was still waiting for definitive results on his
fate. Israel's military announced late on Tuesday it had killed Shukr, whom it
named as Hezbollah's most senior commander and blamed for an attack at the
weekend that left a dozen youths dead in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The
White House, which previously also attributed Saturday's attack to Hezbollah,
reiterated its commitment to Israel's security against "all Iran-backed threats
including Hezbollah" and said it was working on a diplomatic solution. Lebanon's
foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said his government condemned the Israeli
strike and planned to file a complaint to the United Nations. "We were not
expecting them to hit Beirut and they hit Beirut," he told Reuters, saying he
hoped Hezbollah's response would not trigger an escalation. "Hopefully any
response will be proportionate and will not be more than that, so that this wave
of killing, hitting and shelling will stop," he said. On Wednesday morning,
Lebanon's civil defence teams were on the ground in the southern suburbs, known
as Dahiyeh, clearing rubble from the strike, according to a Reuters witness.
Hezbollah set up a security cordon around the area but granted limited access to
reporters to film. The attack appeared to have shorn off the top corner of a
multi-storey building and scattered bits of charred debris onto the surroundings
buildings and streets. There were no other residents in sight. The Israeli
strike killed a woman and two children, medical and security sources told
Reuters late Tuesday.
Hezbollah Officially Announces Death of Fouad Shokr
This Is Beirut/July 31/2024
More than 24 hours after the Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut,
Hezbollah officially announced the death of Fouad Shokr, Hezbollah’s military
leader and an influential adviser to Hassan Nasrallah. Following the Israeli
strike, Hezbollah denied and then confirmed the presence of the military
official in the targeted building. Also known as Hajj Mohsen, Shokr is described
as “a major symbol of the resistance” by Hezbollah. “His great martyrdom will be
a powerful impetus for his brother fighters to continue with firmness and
courage to preserve the achievements, victories and gains and to reach the goals
and hopes to which this great commander aspired,” stressed the Hezbollah
statement issued on Wednesday evening. Hezbollah also announced that it would be
organizing Fouad Shokr’s funeral on Thursday afternoon. The funeral is due to
begin with a speech by the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who
is expected to comment on the death of his military commander, as well as that
of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, who was also killed on Wednesday night
by an Israeli strike on Tehran. Hezbollah military commander claimed killed by
Israel was blamed by the US for 1983 Marine bombing
Bassem Mroue And Kareem Chehayeb/The Associated Press/July 31/ 2024 The
Hezbollah commander who the Israeli military says it killed in an airstrike
Tuesday had been blamed by Israel for a deadly weekend rocket attack and was
accused by the U.S. of orchestrating the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed 241
American servicemen. A statement from Israeli military spokesperson Daniel
Hagari said the target of the strike, Fouad Shukur, was behind the Saturday
rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams that killed 12 young people in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights of Syria. Hezbollah, which denied it was behind
the Majdal Shams attack, didn't confirm that Shukur was the target of Tuesday's
airstrike or that he was killed.
If Israel's claim proves true, Shukur would be the most senior Hezbollah
commander to be killed since 2016, when Mustafa Badreddine, the group’s military
commander in Syria, died in an explosion in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The
Israeli military said that Shukur had directed Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel
since Oct. 8, after the Israel-Hamas war erupted, and that he was also involved
in “the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign nationals over the years.”It
said Shukur was responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced
weaponry, including guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles,
long-range rockets and UAVs. The 62-year-old, secretive Shukur was in charge of
Hezbollah’s forces in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel as well as
being a top official in the group’s missile program.
He had been a close aide to Hezbollah’s top military chief, Imad Mughniyeh, who
was assassinated in 2008 by a car bomb in Damascus. Shukur had since been a
close military adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Like most of Hezbollah's military officials, little is known about Shukur, who
was also known as Sayed Mohsen. The U.S. Treasury Department had offered a $5
million reward for information about him. He joined Hezbollah when the group was
founded following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon that forced the Palestine
Liberation Organization to leave Lebanon. Shukur, who was a member of
Hezbollah’s Jihadi Council, the group’s top military body, was accused by the
United States of planning and staging the truck bombing of a Marine Corps
barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American service members. The bombing near
the Beirut International Airport on Oct. 23, 1983, remains the deadliest
single-day attack on Marines since the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. A
near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers. The U.S.
Treasury Department listed Shukur as a “specially designated national” on July
21, 2015, for acting for or on behalf of Hezbollah. Like most Hezbollah military
officials, Shukur played a role during Syria’s conflict that broke out in 2011
in which the Iran-backed Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters to join President
Bashar Assad's Syrian forces, helping tip the balance in his favor. After the
Israel-Hamas war broke out Oct. 7, Shukur was accused by Israel of being behind
many of the drone and missile attacks that Hezbollah carried out against Israel.
In the thousands of rockets it has fired since October, Hezbollah has insisted
it targets military and intelligence installations. Still, Hezbollah rockets
have hit civilian areas. Before Saturday’s bloodshed, its strikes had killed 13
civilians and 22 soldiers in Israel. In Lebanon. Israel’s attacks have killed
more than 500 people, including 90 civilians.
**Bassem Mroue And Kareem Chehayeb, The Associated Press
Hezbollah military commander claimed killed by Israel
was blamed by the US for 1983 Marine bombing
Bassem Mroue And Kareem Chehayeb/The Associated Press/July 31/ 2024 The
Hezbollah commander who the Israeli military says it killed in an airstrike
Tuesday had been blamed by Israel for a deadly weekend rocket attack and was
accused by the U.S. of orchestrating the 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed 241
American servicemen. A statement from Israeli military spokesperson Daniel
Hagari said the target of the strike, Fouad Shukur, was behind the Saturday
rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams that killed 12 young people in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights of Syria. Hezbollah, which denied it was behind
the Majdal Shams attack, didn't confirm that Shukur was the target of Tuesday's
airstrike or that he was killed. If Israel's claim proves true, Shukur would be
the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed since 2016, when Mustafa
Badreddine, the group’s military commander in Syria, died in an explosion in the
Syrian capital of Damascus. The Israeli military said that Shukur had directed
Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel since Oct. 8, after the Israel-Hamas war erupted,
and that he was also involved in “the killing of numerous Israelis and foreign
nationals over the years.”
It said Shukur was responsible for the majority of Hezbollah’s most advanced
weaponry, including guided missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles,
long-range rockets and UAVs. The 62-year-old, secretive Shukur was in charge of
Hezbollah’s forces in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel as well as
being a top official in the group’s missile program.
He had been a close aide to Hezbollah’s top military chief, Imad Mughniyeh, who
was assassinated in 2008 by a car bomb in Damascus. Shukur had since been a
close military adviser to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Like most of Hezbollah's military officials, little is known about Shukur, who
was also known as Sayed Mohsen. The U.S. Treasury Department had offered a $5
million reward for information about him. He joined Hezbollah when the group was
founded following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon that forced the Palestine
Liberation Organization to leave Lebanon. Shukur, who was a member of
Hezbollah’s Jihadi Council, the group’s top military body, was accused by the
United States of planning and staging the truck bombing of a Marine Corps
barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American service members. The bombing near
the Beirut International Airport on Oct. 23, 1983, remains the deadliest
single-day attack on Marines since the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. A
near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58 paratroopers. The U.S.
Treasury Department listed Shukur as a “specially designated national” on July
21, 2015, for acting for or on behalf of Hezbollah. Like most Hezbollah military
officials, Shukur played a role during Syria’s conflict that broke out in 2011
in which the Iran-backed Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters to join President
Bashar Assad's Syrian forces, helping tip the balance in his favor. After the
Israel-Hamas war broke out Oct. 7, Shukur was accused by Israel of being behind
many of the drone and missile attacks that Hezbollah carried out against Israel.
In the thousands of rockets it has fired since October, Hezbollah has insisted
it targets military and intelligence installations. Still, Hezbollah rockets
have hit civilian areas. Before Saturday’s bloodshed, its strikes had killed 13
civilians and 22 soldiers in Israel. In Lebanon. Israel’s attacks have killed
more than 500 people, including 90 civilians.
**Bassem Mroue And Kareem Chehayeb, The Associated Press
Reactions to Haret Hreik Attack
This Is Beirut/July 31/2024
Local reactions after the Israeli attack on Haret Hreik were numerous on
Wednesday. The targeting resulted in the death of four and the wounding of
around 79, according to the Health Ministry, with many still trapped under the
rubble.A Hezbollah parliamentary delegation, headed by MP Ali Ammar, visited the
scene of the attack in Haret Hreik. Ammar emphasized that “the Israeli enemy
targeted a residential area, causing enormous harm, including material damage.”
He also denounced the attack, stating that “this shows Israel’s intransigence
and contempt for international resolutions,” and assured that Hezbollah “will do
everything in its power to respond.'”
Official condemnations
On the other hand, Caretaker Minister of Education, Abbas Halabi, “strongly”
condemned “the criminal aggression carried out by the Israeli enemy in this dear
region of Lebanon, near a hospital and a civilian residential building, in which
martyrs and wounded were killed and injured.”
“Lebanon, which does not want war, is a victim of Israeli criminality through
this aggression,” Halabi added. Additionally, Caretaker Minister of Youth and
Sports, George Kallas, emphasized that “the Israeli attack on the southern
suburb is an attack on all of Lebanon and its people,” calling for “considering
what happened as a criminal act in the eyes of the international community.”
“Lebanon is strong with the solidarity of its people and the solidarity of the
political forces that strive to preserve the entity of the homeland and
strengthen the pillars of the state,” he added.
Caretaker Minister of Information, Ziad Makari, strongly condemned the attack on
the southern suburb of Beirut, expecting “Hezbollah to respond to the attack.”
Caretaker Minister of Labour, Moustapha Bayram, acknowledged that ‘Lebanon is
suffering but it will not fall because it is strong’. In his view, ‘the fact
that the Israelis targeted a public figure does not justify a blatant attack of
such magnitude against civilians’, considering that the Hebrew State ‘broke all
the rules of engagement’. The Secretary General of the Higher Relief Commission,
Major General Mohammed Khair, also inspected the damages in Haret Hreik after
the Israeli targeting. He declared that “he was assigned by Prime Minister Najib
Mikati to inspect the damage and check on the conditions of the wounded.” Khair
wished a speedy recovery for the wounded, stressing that the commission “will be
by the side of all citizens and will not allow anyone affected by the Israeli
aggression to be without a home.”
An additional stream of reactions
The Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian, and the Muftis of the
Lebanese regions, on a visit to Mecca, issued a statement condemning ‘the
barbaric and terrorist Zionist aggression against the southern suburbs’,
considering it to be an aggression against all Lebanese regions. They called for
‘unity of ranks to spare Lebanon’. Dar al Fatwa also urged ‘the Arab League, the
international community and all free peoples to dissuade the Zionist enemy,
which is practising terrorism against our people in South Lebanon, Gaza and
Palestine (…) without any moral or humanitarian distinction, and in defiance of
all international resolutions. Strongly condemning the strike on the southern
suburbs, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called on the international
community to ‘put an end to Israel’s persistent criminality and violation of
international law so that peace and stability can return to South Lebanon’. He
also deplored the deaths and injuries among the citizens of the Haret Hreik
region. For his part, MP Ghassan Atallah, a member of the ‘Strong Lebanon’
parliamentary bloc, said in an interview with local channel Al-Jadeed that ‘the
situation is very dangerous’ and that ‘we need to think in a balanced way about
how to rebuild power in Lebanon’. We will all stand together in the face of any
Israeli aggression, and today’s position is to defend Lebanon, and there is no
time for political quarrels. On his X account, the leader of the ‘Koullouna Li
Beirut’ political grouping and former Minister of Telecoms, Mohamed Choucair,
called on ‘the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Security Council,
countries friendly to Lebanon and reasonable people around the world to
intervene to convince Israel to put an end to its malicious actions in Lebanon,
Gaza and the entire region’. He also accused Israel of wanting ‘to drag the
whole region into an open and destructive war’, calling on Lebanese leaders to
reject ‘division and hatred during this fateful period’.
Amal: a crime against humanity
‘The crime committed by the Israeli entity targeting Beirut and its southern
suburbs is a cowardly aggression, a crime against humanity that requires not
verbal, local, Arab and international condemnations but urgent global action by
the parties mentioned and by the UN to stop the Israeli killing machine and its
aggression’, declared the presidency of the Amal movement in a statement. For
the latter, Israel has ‘not only crossed geographical borders, but also laws and
moral rules’. For the Amal movement, ‘with this perfidious raid, which targeted
people in the safety of their homes and shops, the Zionist entity wants to bring
the southern suburbs of Beirut back to the war of July 2006’.
Diplomats calling for a calming of the situation
The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert,
considered that “there is no military solution to the current situation.”She
expressed her “deep concern at the Israeli bombardments against the densely
populated southern suburbs of Beirut, resulting in numerous civilian
casualties.”Plasschaert urged “Israel and Lebanon to use all diplomatic channels
to obtain a return to a cessation of hostilities and to recommit to the
implementation of Security Council resolution 1701.”The French Ambassador to
Lebanon, Hervé Magro, sounded the alarm, warning that “the situation is delicate
and dangerous.” He also announced that he had “worked a lot to avoid escalation
and called on relevant parties to do so.” Responding to a question, he said, “We
are unfortunately in a situation that we have always warned about, and we have
constantly called on the concerned parties not to escalate.”Magro added, “We
were aware that anything could happen if there was tension, and unfortunately we
are now in the situation that we expected,” pointing out that “this is why we
have made a lot of effort in recent months to try to avoid escalation.” “We will
continue our efforts, and we have no reason not to do so, to calm down the
situation,” he noted. The US ambassador, Lisa Johnson, left the Serail without
making any statement. The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, said
that “all political developments, including the aggression in Dahyeh (Haret
Hreik), are being followed up with close attention.”
US 'committed to Israel security': Austin and Gallant
discuss Lebanon 'solution'
Naharnet /July 31/2024
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken with Israeli Defense Minister
Yoav Gallant regarding the “threat” posed by Hezbollah, the Pentagon said, hours
after Israel said it killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander Fouad
Shukur in a rare strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. “They discussed the
threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including
Lebanese Hezbollah,” the readout said without referring to the strike on Shukur
and the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, an operation also
blamed on Israel. “Secretary Austin reaffirmed his unwavering commitment to
Israel’s security and right to self-defense. They also discussed ongoing efforts
to achieve a diplomatic solution that enables citizens on both sides of the
Israel-Lebanon border to safely return to their homes,” the statement said.
Gallant for his part “highlighted that especially during these times, the State
of Israel is working to achieve a framework for the release of hostages,” his
office said. The statement said Gallant gave an update on the “precise
operation” that killed Shukur. “Minister Gallant emphasized that Israel does not
seek war; however the IDF (Israeli army) remains prepared to defend its citizens
and to respond to any attack by Hezbollah,” the statement added.
Israel says wants to end hostilities with Hezbollah without
'wider war' but ready 'for any scenario'
Agence France Presse/July 31/2024
The Israeli military said late Tuesday that it wanted to avoid any wider war
with Hezbollah but that its forces were ready for "any scenario.""Hezbollah's
ongoing aggression and brutal attacks are dragging the people of Lebanon and the
entire Middle East into a wider escalation," military spokesman Rear Admiral
Daniel Hagari said in a statement. "While we prefer to resolve hostilities
without a wider war, the IDF (Israeli army) is fully prepared for any scenario,"
he said. The Israeli military meanwhile said its fighter jets "eliminated"
Hezbollah military commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut's southern suburbs on
Tuesday, accusing him of being responsible for a rocket strike on the annexed
Golan Heights. "Israeli air force fighter jets eliminated the Hezbollah
terrorist organization’s most senior military commander and the head of its
strategic unit, Fouad Shukur, in the area of Beirut," the military said in a
statement. The attack killed two children and a woman and wounded 74 other
people according to Lebanon's health ministry.
Katz urges world to seek Hezbollah withdrawal to north of
Litani
Naharnet/July 31/2024
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has sent a letter to dozens of foreign
ministers, calling on them to demand “an immediate cessation of Hezbollah’s
attacks, its withdrawal to north of the Litani River, and its disarmament in
accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.”“Israel is not interested
in an all-out war,” he continues, “but the only way to prevent it is the
immediate implementation of Resolution 1701.”Katz also said that in the strike
on Hezbollah top military head Fouad Shukur, Israel “sent a clear message: We
will harm with great force whoever harms us.”“Tens of thousands of Israeli
residents who have been forced to leave their homes in northern Israel must
return home safely,” Katz went on to say.
Mikati: Lebanon doesn't want war but rather dignity and
sovereignty
Naharnet/July 31/2024
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday described Israel’s deadly
strike on Haret Hreik as “a strike on initiatives, pacification efforts and
understandings.”“We will continue to work to rescue our country and protect our
society from any danger,” Mikati added, during an emergency cabinet session
tackling the strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs and its repercussions.“Lebanon
does not want war but rather to preserve the dignity of its sons and its
sovereignty over land, sea and air, without any leniency regarding its rights,”
Mikati went on to say. “Beirut is being bombarded and humanitarian justice is
being assassinated in it. The south is still under bombardment, torching,
killing, displacement and destruction under the eyes of the world, as if all the
criminality that is happening is a mere incident,” the premier decried.Calling
for “the immediate and full implementation of Resolution 1701,” Mikati said
Lebanese authorities “will remain in constant communication with Lebanon’s
friends and its Arab brothers to prevent an escalation of matters.”
Outrage, pro-Hezbollah chants after Israeli strike on
Dahieh
Agence France Presse/July 31/2024
Anger simmered after Israel struck a southern Beirut suburb that is also a
Hezbollah stronghold, with young men chanting in support of the group at the
site of the strike. Israel hit Hezbollah's stronghold in retaliation for rocket
fire from Lebanon that killed 12 children over the weekend in the occupied Golan
Heights, saying it had targeted the commander responsible for the attack. An AFP
photographer at the scene saw an eight-story building that had partially
collapsed in the strike, while ambulances struggled through crowds and rescue
workers combed through the rubble for survivors. In nearby streets, the impact
of the blast smashed the windows of dozens of cars and shop facades. Young men
gathered at the site amid dust and broken glass shards, chanting "We are at your
service, Nasrallah", a reference to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah security quickly cordoned off the site of the strike, while ambulances
transported the wounded. Mohammed Alaam, 27, who lives half a kilometer from the
site of the strike, said he was at home when he heard two explosions. "We looked
out the balcony and saw smoke... They said there had been a strike," he said,
adding that "people were running to donate blood". "People are angry, but you
don't see anyone who is afraid. Everyone was expecting a strike," he said. "They
are now demanding retaliation".
Hezbollah condemns killing of Hamas chief
Agence France Presse/July 31/2024
Hezbollah condemned Israel's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on
Wednesday, warning his death will only increase the resolve of Iran-backed
"resistance" groups. Hamas said Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike in the
Iranian capital, where he was attending the swearing-in of the country's new
president, and vowed the act "will not go unanswered". "The martyrdom of leader
Haniyeh... will increase the determination and stubbornness of the mujahideen
resistance fighters on all resistance fronts... and will make their resolve
stronger in confronting the Zionist enemy," Hezbollah said in a statement.
The group described Haniyeh as "one of the great resistance leaders of our time
who stood bravely against the American hegemony project and the Zionist
occupation."Hezbollah has been trading near-daily cross-border fire with Israel
since its ally Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has met Hamas leaders several times to
discuss the war and U.S.-backed negotiations for a truce.
Cabinet Meeting: Mikati Condemns Strike on Southern Suburb
This Is Beirut /July 31/2024
In an extraordinary Cabinet session, on Wednesday, Caretaker Prime Minister
Najib Mikati condemned the Israeli aggression on the southern suburb of Beirut,
calling on the international community and peace mediators to “work for the sake
of security and stability.”Mikati called for the immediate and full
implementation of Resolution 1701 adding that Lebanon does not want war. The
prime minister said “We also strongly condemn the assassination of Ismail
Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of Hamas,” indicating that “this act
represents a serious threat of escalating global concern and danger in the
region.”
He also commented on the fact that some ministers still chose to boycott
Wednesday’s ministerial session, noting that “a boycott is useless in this
dangerous circumstance.”“We will remain in constant contact with Lebanon’s
friends and Arab brothers to prevent things from getting worse,” Mikati
concluded.
Harris says Israel has 'right to defend itself' against Hezbollah, still calls
for 'diplomatic solution'
Agence France Presse/July 31/2024
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic election nominee,
said Tuesday that Israel had a "right to defend itself" following a strike in
Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs. Harris -- who last week
struck a tough tone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel's
war on Gaza -- also called for a diplomatic solution to reduce the risk of
all-out conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border. "I want to address what's
happened over the last few hours in terms of the Middle East, and be very clear
Israel has a right to defend itself," Harris told reporters as she headed to an
election rally in Atlanta, Georgia. Israel said the attack on Tuesday targeted
Hezbollah's most senior military commander Fouad Shukur, claiming that he was
responsible for rocket fire that killed 12 children in the occupied Golan
Heights at the weekend. "What we know in particular is it (Israel) has the right
to defend itself against a terrorist organization, which is exactly what
Hezbollah is," added Harris. "But all of that being said, we still must work on
a diplomatic solution to end these attacks, and we will continue to do that
work," she added.Harris is effectively locked in as the Democratic presidential
nominee for November's U.S. election after President Joe Biden's shock decision
to drop out of the White House race just over a week ago. With speculation
swirling about whether she would moderate Biden's stalwart support for Israel's
Gaza war, Harris said last week after meeting Netanyahu in Washington that she
"will not be silent" about Palestinian casualties there. Harris said on Thursday
she expressed "serious concern about the scale of human suffering" to Netanyahu,
who held separate meetings with her and Biden.
Full-Scale War Scenarios Are Taking Shape
Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beirut/July 31/2024
All efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and south Lebanon have unraveled
following two recent Israeli attacks: one targeting Hezbollah in the southern
suburbs, where they struck the party’s military commander, Fouad Shokr, and
another targeting Hamas with the assassination of the head of its political
bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Full-scale war scenarios have now surfaced,
shifting the focus to the timing and potential duration of such a conflict. Key
considerations include Hezbollah’s response to the assassination of Shokr and
the civilian casualties, as well as Tehran’s decisions regarding this situation.
In fact, Tehran holds significant sway in this matter, as it must decide whether
to contain the war within established boundaries or allow it to escalate beyond
the recognized rules of engagement. Amos Hochstein, the Senior Advisor to
President Joe Biden, is likely to be the most affected by this development. In
fact, Hochstein was aiming to achieve another significant milestone in Lebanon
by easing tensions along the Israeli-Lebanese borders with a long-term solution
in line with Resolution 1701. This effort would build on his previous success in
brokering a maritime border agreement in October 2022.
According to information from the United States, Amos Hochstein may not remain
in his position even if Democratic candidate Kamala Harris wins the presidential
election in November. As a key ally of current President Joe Biden, Hochstein is
expected to exit the White House alongside him should Harris win the presidency
and bring in her own team. Hochstein would also step down if former President
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, wins the election. In fact, Trump has a
different team specializing in the Middle East, known for its hardline stance
against Iran and its regional proxies, especially Hezbollah. This team is likely
to reinstate sanctions targeting Lebanese officials, politicians and leaders, if
challenges arise in addressing issues with Israel and within Lebanon. Sources
indicate that Hochstein is spearheading efforts to pressure both the Israelis
and the Lebanese into achieving a lasting ceasefire on the southern front. This
includes addressing disputes along the Blue Line and Israeli violations.
Hochstein is also offering significant incentives to Lebanon, including an
additional $400 million in US military aid to deploy 6,000 soldiers south of the
Litani River, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars for the reconstruction
of the southern region. Meanwhile, Hochstein and the US administration are fully
aware that the Lebanese government is unlikely to make decisions that go against
Hezbollah’s position in this war. They also recognize that failing to reach a
border agreement could be disastrous for Lebanon, as the potential for failure
is ever-present, even if negotiations are ongoing. Hezbollah’s agenda clashes
with that of the Lebanese majority, and the Shiite party may reject some terms
approved by the government. In this context, Hezbollah’s aim is to keep the
current government, which acts as its official political arm. Thus, the party
continues to obstruct the presidential elections to ensure that the new
president and the forthcoming government will not, even theoretically, challenge
its agenda.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 31-August 01/2024
Netanyahu says Israel will exact heavy price
for revenge attacks
Reuters/July 31, 2024
JERUSALEM: Israel will respond forcefully to any attack on it, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, after the killing of Hamas leader Ismail
Haniyeh in Tehran and of a senior Hezbollah leader in Beirut. Netanyahu said
Israel had delivered crushing blows to Iran’s proxies over the past few days,
including Hamas and Hezbollah. But he did not mention Haniyeh’s killing, which
has drawn threats of revenge on Israel and fueled further concern that the
conflict in Gaza was turning into a wider Middle East war. “Citizens of Israel,
challenging days lie ahead. Since the strike in Beirut there are threats
sounding from all directions. We are prepared for any scenario and we will stand
united and determined against any threat. Israel will exact a heavy price for
any aggression against us from any arena,” Netanyahu said in a televised
statement. Israel’s military announced late on Tuesday it had killed Fuad Shukr,
whom it named as Hezbollah’s most senior commander and whom it blamed for an
attack at the weekend that left a dozen youngsters dead in the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights. Shukr was an adviser to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,
according to Hezbollah sources and to Israeli officials. Iran-backed Hezbollah
confirmed his death on Wednesday, hours after the Palestinian armed group Hamas
announced its leader, Haniyeh, had been assassinated in Teheran. Although the
Tehran attack was widely assumed to have been carried out by Israel, Netanyahu’s
government made no claim of responsibility and said it would make no comment on
Haniyeh’s killing.
UN Says Attacks in Beirut, Tehran Are a
Dangerous Escalation
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believes that attacks in
Beirut and Tehran this week mark a "dangerous escalation" of the conflict in the
Middle East, his spokesperson said on Wednesday. "It is increasingly clear ...
that restraint alone is insufficient at this extremely sensitive time. The
Secretary-General urges all to vigorously work toward regional de-escalation in
the interest of long-term peace and stability for all," spokesperson Stephane
Dujarric said in a statement.
Arab League Secretary General Warns Israeli Escalation
Triggers Regional Turmoil
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit cautioned that Israel's reckless
actions in the region could have dire consequences. In a statement on Wednesday,
Aboul Gheit said Israel is "practicing a reckless policy without foreseeing the
dire consequences that could affect the region as a result of its actions." He
condemned the recent Israeli "assassinations" as breaches of international law,
demonstrating a disregard for the regulations that govern state relations. He
urged the international community to step up pressure on Israel in order to
avert additional escalation and the possibility of a wider regional conflict.
Israel Says Wants to End Hostilities Without 'Wider War'
But Ready 'For Any Scenario'
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
The Israeli military said late Tuesday that it wanted to avoid any wider war
with Hezbollah but that its forces were ready for "any scenario". "Hezbollah's
ongoing aggression and brutal attacks are dragging the people of Lebanon and the
entire Middle East into a wider escalation," military spokesman Rear Admiral
Daniel Hagari said in a statement. "While we prefer to resolve hostilities
without a wider war," the army is "fully prepared for any scenario," he said. In
this regard, UN's special coordinator for Lebanon on Tuesday voiced concern
after the Israeli strike. "UN Special Coordinator Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert is
deeply concerned by tonight's strike," the envoy's office said in a statement,
adding that she "underscores once again that there is no such thing as a
military solution" to the ongoing conflict.
Israel Not Seeking War Escalation, but Preparing for All
Scenarios, Defense Minister Says
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Israel is not seeking to escalate war, but is preparing to handle all scenarios,
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday while praising forces who
carried out an attack on a Hezbollah commander in Beirut overnight. During his
visit, Gallant spoke with air defense officers regarding Israel's killing of the
top commander in Iran-backed Hezbollah, who Israel says was responsible for a
rocket attack on Saturday that killed 12 children and teenagers in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. "The performance (last) night in Beirut was
focused, high quality and contained," Gallant said, according to a statement
from his office. "We don't want war, but we are preparing for all possibilities,
and that means you must be prepared as needed, and we will do our job at all the
levels above you," he said.
Austin Says Middle East War Not Inevitable, Seeks to 'Take
The Temperature Down'
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday he did not think a wider war
in the Middle East was inevitable and the United States was seeking to cool
rising tensions in the region. "I don't think war is inevitable. I maintain
that. I think there's always room and opportunities for diplomacy," Austin told
reporters during a visit to the Philippines. His remarks come after Israel
claimed on Tuesday to have killed the Hezbollah commander who it said was behind
a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Reuters reported. Asked
also if he could confirm information about another strike that killed Hamas
leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran on Wednesday, Austin said: "I don't have any
additional information to provide". Palestinian group Hamas said the strike was
a "severe escalation" that would not achieve its goals. Iran's Revolutionary
Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, hours after he attended a swearing in
ceremony for the country's new president, and said it was investigating. Asked
what assistance the United States would provide if a wider conflict should break
out in the Middle East, Austin said Washington would continue to help defend
Israel if it were attacked, but the priority was de-escalating tensions. "We
don't want to see any of that happen. We're going to work hard to make sure that
we're doing things to help take the temperature down and address issues through
diplomatic gatherings," he said.
Blinken Says US Not Involved in Killing of Hamas Leader
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the United States was not
involved in the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and reiterated the
importance of a ceasefire in Gaza. "This is something we were not aware of or
involved in. It's very hard to speculate," Blinken said in an interview with
Channel News Asia during a visit to Singapore, Reuters reported. Iran's
Revolutionary Guards confirmed Haniyeh's death, hours after he attended a
swearing-in ceremony for the country's new president. Haniyeh, who leads the
Palestinian militant group and is normally based in Qatar, has been the face of
Hamas's international diplomacy as the war set off by the Hamas-led attack on
Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza. "I've learned over many years never to
speculate on the impact one event may have on something else," Blinken said when
asked what impact Haniyeh's death might have on the war.
The assassination, less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed a
Hezbollah commander it said was behind a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights, could be a major setback for chances of a ceasefire agreement in
the 10-month-old war. Blinken, who has been in Asia since late last week, said a
ceasefire and the release of hostages being held in Gaza was crucial and the
United States would do everything to make that happen. "It's vitally important
to hopefully put things on a better path for more enduring peace and more
enduring security, so that focus remains."
Iran Vows ‘Harsh Punishment’ for Haniyeh Killing, Türkiye
Condemns Assassination
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Avenging Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's assassination is "Tehran's duty" because
it occurred in the Iranian capital, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on
Wednesday. He said Israel had provided the grounds for "harsh punishment" for
itself. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the killing. He said in a
post on the X platform that his country will defend its territorial integrity
and make those responsible regret their actions. Hamas has blamed Israel for the
assassination. Hamas said Haniyeh was killed at his residence in Tehran in an
Israeli airstrike after he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new
president. Israel has not commented on the accusation. Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan condemned the assassination, saying the killing would not break
Palestinians' will. "This assassination is a vileness that aims to disrupt the
Palestinian cause, Gaza's noble resistance and our Palestinian siblings'
rightful struggle, to break the will of Palestinians, and to intimidate them,"
Erdogan said on social media platform X. "However, just as until today, the
Zionist barbarism will not reach its goals."Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan
said he was "deeply saddened" to hear that Haniyeh had been "martyred", adding
that he had become a symbol of Palestinian resistance. "He had devoted his life
to the Palestinian cause, and to bringing peace and tranquility to Palestine,"
Fidan added on social media platform X, sharing a photograph of himself and
Haniyeh. Russia's foreign ministry also condemned the killing and called for
restraint to stop the Middle East tipping into a large-scale war. China
condemned the assassination, with its foreign ministry warning the incident
could lead to further regional instability.
Killing of Hamas political leader points to diverging
paths for Israel, US, on ceasefire
AP/July 31, 2024
WASHINGTON: Israel’s suspected killing of Hamas’ political leader in the heart
of Tehran, coming after a week in which Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahupromised US lawmakers he would continue his war against Hamas until
“total victory,” points to an Israeli leader ever more openly at odds with Biden
administration efforts to calm the region through diplomacy. US Secretary of
State Antony Blinken, speaking on an Asia trip, was left to tell reporters there
that Americans had not been aware of or involved in the attack on Hamas
political leader Ismail Haniyeh, whose roles included overseeing Hamas’ side in
US-led mediation to bring a ceasefire and release of hostages in the Gaza war.
The US remains focused on a ceasefire in the 9-month-old Israeli war in Gaza “as
the best way to bring the temperature down everywhere,” Blinken said after
Haniyeh’s killing.
The targeting, and timing, of the overnight strike may have all but destroyed US
hopes for now.
“I just don’t see how a ceasefire is feasible right now with the assassination
of the person you would have been negotiating with,” said Vali Nasr, a former US
diplomat now at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International
Studies.
If the expected cycles of retaliation and counter-retaliation ahead start
unspooling as feared, Haniyeh’s killing could mark the end of Biden
administration’s hopes of restraining escalatory actions as Israel targets what
Netanyahu calls Iran’s “axis of terror,” in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in
Israel.
And with the US political campaign entering its final months, it will be more
difficult for the Biden administration to break away — if it wants to — from an
ally it is bound to through historical, security, economic and political ties.
The killing of Haniyeh, and another suspected Israeli strike on a senior
Hezbollah leader in the Lebanese capital of Beirut hours earlier, came on the
heels of Netanyahu’s return home from a nearly weeklong trip to the US, his
first foreign trip of the war.
The Biden administration had said it hoped to use the visit to overcome some of
the remaining obstacles in negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza and to free
Israeli, American and other foreign hostages held by Hamas and other militants.
President Joe Biden has been Israel’s most vital backer in the war, keeping up
shipments of arms and other military aid while defending Israel against any
international action over the deaths of more than 39,000 Palestinians in the
Israeli offensive.
But Biden has also put his political weight behind efforts to secure the
ceasefire and hostage release, including publicly declaring that the two sides
had both agreed to a framework and urging them to seal the deal.
Netanyahu told a joint meeting of Congress during his visit that Israel was
determined to win nothing less than “total victory” against Hamas. Asked
directly by journalists on the point later, he said that Israel hoped for a
ceasefire soon and was working for one.
Following the visit, Biden administration officials dodged questions about
reports that Israel’s far-right government had newly raised additional
conditions for any ceasefire deals.
Haniyeh had been openly living in Doha, Qatar, for the months since the Oct. 7
attack. But he wasn’t attacked until he was in Tehran for the inauguration of
Iran’s president. Nasr said Iran will see it as a direct Israeli attack on its
sovereignty, and respond.
“If you wanted to have a ceasefire, if Haniyeh was in your sights, you might
have said, ‘I’ll kill him in a few months. Not now,” said Nasr, who said it
suggested overt undermining of ceasefire negotiations by Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s far-right government says Israel is fighting in Gaza to destroy
Iran-allied Hamas as a military and governing power there. Israel warns that it
is also prepared to expand its fight further to include an offensive in Lebanon,
if necessary to stop what have been near-daily exchanges of rocket fire between
Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel.
Hezbollah is by far the most powerful of the Iran-allied groups in the Middle
East. Analysts and diplomats warn of any such expansion of hostilities touching
off uncontrollable conflicts throughout the region that would draw in the United
States as Israel’s ally. The US, France and others have urged Israel and Iran
and its allies to resolve tensions through negotiations. In a letter to foreign
diplomats made public Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that
Israel “is not interested in all-out war,” but that the only way to avoid it
would be to implement a 2006 UN resolution calling for a demilitarized zone
along Israel’s border with Lebanon and an end of hostilities with Hezbollah. US
national security adviser John Kirby, who earlier this week called fears of
major escalation from the killing of the Hezbollah official in Beirut
“exaggerated,” told reporters that the news of the more momentous strike on the
Hamas leader in Tehran “doesn’t help ... with the temperature going down in the
region. We’re obviously concerned.”At the same time, Kirby said, “We also
haven’t seen any indication...that this process has been completely torpedoed.
We still believe that this is a worthy endeavor...and a deal can be had.” The US
had a team in the region Wednesday for negotiations, he said. “We don’t want to
see an escalation. And everything we’ve been doing since the 7th of October has
been trying to manage that risk,” he said.
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas Leader on Israel’s Hit List Since
Oct. 7, Is Killed in Airstrike in Tehran
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ supreme leader in exile who landed on Israel’s hit list
after the armed group staged its surprise Oct. 7 attacks, was killed in an
airstrike in the Iranian capital early Wednesday. He was 62. Hamas said Haniyeh
was killed at his residence in Tehran in an Israeli airstrike after he attended
the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new president. Israel has not commented on
the accusation. Haniyeh's death makes him the latest Hamas official to be killed
by Israel since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, when militants killed 1,200 people
and took about 250 hostages. The devastating Israel-Hamas war the attacks set
off has become the deadliest and longest in the Arab-Israeli conflict. More than
39,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in Gaza.
While Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar is believed to have been the mastermind of
the attacks, Haniyeh, seen as a more moderate force in Hamas, lauded them as a
humiliating blow to Israel's aura of invincibility. “The Al-Aqsa flood was an
earthquake that struck the heart of the Zionist entity and has made major
changes at the world level,” Haniyeh said in a speech in Iran during the funeral
of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in May.
“We will continue the resistance against this enemy until we liberate our land,
all our land,” Haniyeh said. Hours after the Oct. 7 attacks, Haniyeh appeared in
a video released by Hamas leading prayers with other top Hamas officials. They
thanked God for the success of the attack, which blasted through Israel's
vaunted defenses and resulted in the deadliest assault in Israel’s history.
Michael Milshtein, a Hamas expert at Tel Aviv University, said Haniyeh had a
commanding role in the group's foreign policy and diplomacy, but was less
involved in military affairs. “He was responsible for propaganda, for diplomatic
relations, but he was not very powerful,” said Milshtein, a former military
intelligence officer. “From time to time, Sinwar even laughed and joked: ‘He’s
the more moderate, sophisticated leader, but he doesn’t understand anything
about warfare.’” Still, Israel pledged to target all of Hamas’ leaders following
the attacks and has gradually worked to fulfill that promise. Haniyeh was also
under the eye of the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor sought
arrest warrants against him and two other Hamas leaders, Sinwar and Mohammed
Deif, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Similar requests were issued
for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Haniyeh lived in self-imposed exile in Qatar since 2019 and the threats against
him did not prevent him from traveling. He visited Türkiye and Iran throughout
the war. From Doha, he was involved in negotiations meant to bring about a
ceasefire and free the hostages. His role in Hamas’ leadership also cost him his
closest relatives. In April, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed three of
Haniyeh’s sons, after which he accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of
revenge and murder.” Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also
killed as well as his sister in a separate strike last month. Haniyeh, who was
born in Gaza’s urban Shati refugee camp on Jan. 29, 1963, joined Hamas when it
was founded in 1987. He served as an aid to Ahmad Yassin, the group’s founder,
and rose throughout the years until he became its top political leader,
replacing Khaled Meshaal in 2017. Haniyeh was deeply religious and studied
Arabic literature at university. He was known for delivering lengthy speeches
using flowery language to his supporters while serving as prime minister in
Gaza. Hani Masri, a veteran Palestinian analyst who met Haniyeh several times,
said the late leader’s personality was a natural fit for the head of the group’s
political bureau in Doha. He described him as having been sociable and well
spoken. Haniyeh, like thousands of other Palestinians, was detained by Israeli
authorities in 1989 for being a member of Hamas and spent three years in jail
before he was deported to Lebanon in 1992 with a group of top Hamas officials
and founders. He later returned to the Gaza Strip following the 1993 interim
peace accords, which were signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization. Haniyeh assumed the position of prime minister in the Palestinian
government after Hamas won legislative elections in 2006. He presided over the
gravest crisis in the Palestinian leadership in its history, which continues
until today. Hamas violently overran Gaza in 2007, routing forces loyal to
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction and installing itself as
ruler of the tiny coastal enclave, with Haniyeh as prime minister.
Tough-Talking Haniyeh Was Seen as the More Moderate Face of Hamas
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was killed in Iran, was the tough-talking
face of the Palestinian group's international diplomacy as war raged back in
Gaza, where three of his sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike. But despite
the rhetoric, he was seen by many diplomats as a moderate compared to the more
hardline members of the Iran-backed group inside Gaza. Appointed to the Hamas
top job in 2017, Haniyeh moved between Türkiye's and Qatar's capital Doha,
escaping the travel curbs of the blockaded Gaza Strip and enabling him to act as
a negotiator in ceasefire talks or to talk to Hamas' ally Iran.
Hamas fighters launched on Oct. 7 a raid which killed 1,200 people in Israel,
according to Israeli tallies, and took another 250 or so to hold as hostages in
Gaza, one of the most crowded places on earth. Israel's response to the strike
has been a military campaign that has killed more than 39,000 people inside Gaza
so far, and bombed much of the enclave into rubble, according to health
authorities in the territory. In May, the International Criminal Court
prosecutor's office requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, including
Haniyeh, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war
crimes. Israel and Palestinian leaders have dismissed the allegations.
SONS KILLED IN AIRSTRIKE
Hamas' 1988 founding charter called for the destruction of Israel, although
Hamas leaders have at times offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for
a viable Palestinian state on all Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in
the 1967 war. Israel regards this as a ruse. Hamas also sent suicide bombers
into Israel in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2012, when asked by Reuters if Hamas had
abandoned the armed struggle, Haniyeh replied "of course not" and said
resistance would continue "in all forms - popular resistance, political,
diplomatic and military resistance". Three of Haniyeh's sons - Hazem, Amir and
Mohammad - were killed on April 10 when an Israeli air strike struck the car
they were driving, Hamas said. Haniyeh also lost four of his grandchildren,
three girls and a boy, in the attack, Hamas said. Haniyeh had denied Israeli
assertions that his sons were fighters for the group, and said "the interests of
the Palestinian people are placed ahead of everything" when asked if their
killing would impact truce talks. "All our people and all the families of Gaza
residents have paid a heavy price with the blood of their children, and I am one
of them," he said, adding that at least 60 members of his family were killed in
the war.
Yet for all the tough language in public, Arab diplomats and officials had
viewed him as relatively pragmatic compared with more hardline voices inside
Gaza, where the military wing of Hamas planned the Oct. 7 attack. While telling
Israel's military they would find themselves "drowning in the sands of Gaza", he
and his predecessor as Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, had shuttled around the
region for talks over a Qatari-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel that would
include exchanging hostages for Palestinians in Israeli jails as well as more
aid for Gaza. Israel regards the entire Hamas leadership as terrorists, and has
accused Haniyeh, Meshaal and others of continuing to "pull the strings of the
Hamas terror organization". But how much Haniyeh knew about the Oct. 7 assault
beforehand is not clear. The plan, drawn up by the Hamas military council in
Gaza, was such a closely guarded secret that some Hamas officials seemed shocked
by its timing and scale. Yet Haniyeh, had a major hand building up Hamas'
fighting capacity, partly by nurturing ties with Iran, which makes no secret of
its support for the group. During the decade in which Haniyeh was Hamas' top
leader in Gaza, Israel accused his leadership team of helping to divert
humanitarian aid to the group's military wing. Hamas denied it.
SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY
When he left Gaza in 2017, Haniyeh was succeeded by Yahya Sinwar, a hardliner
who spent more than two decades in Israeli prisons and whom Haniyeh had welcomed
back to Gaza in 2011 after a prisoner exchange. "Haniyeh is leading the
political battle for Hamas with Arab governments," Adeeb Ziadeh, a specialist in
Palestinian affairs at Qatar University, said before his death, adding that he
had close ties with more hardline figures in the group and the military wing.
"He is the political and diplomatic front of Hamas," Ziadeh said.Haniyeh and
Meshaal had met officials in Egypt, which has also had a mediation role in the
ceasefire talks. Haniyeh travelled in early November to Tehran to meet Iran's
supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian state media reported. Three senior
officials told Reuters that Khamenei had told the Hamas leader in that meeting
that Iran would not enter the war having not been told about it in advance.
Hamas did not respond to requests for comment before Reuters published its
report, and then issued a denial after its publication. As a young man, Haniyeh
was a student activist at the Islamic University in Gaza City. He joined Hamas
when it was created in the First Palestinian intifada (uprising) in 1987. He was
arrested and briefly deported. Haniyeh became a protégé of Hamas' founder Sheikh
Ahmad Yassin, who like Haniyeh's family, was a refugee from the village of Al
Jura near Ashkelon. In 1994, he told Reuters that Yassin was a model for young
Palestinians, saying: "We learned from him love of Islam and sacrifice for this
Islam and not to kneel down to these tyrants and despots."By 2003 he was a
trusted Yassin aide, photographed in Yassin's Gaza home holding a phone to the
almost completely paralyzed Hamas founder's ear so that he could take part in a
conversation. Yassin was assassinated by Israel in 2004.
Haniyeh was an early advocate of Hamas entering politics. In 1994, he said that
forming a political party "would enable Hamas to deal with emerging
developments". Initially overruled by the Hamas leadership, it was later
approved and Haniyeh become Palestinian prime minister after the group won
Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 a year after Israel's military
withdrew from Gaza. The group took control of Gaza in 2007. In 2012, when asked
by Reuters reporters if Hamas had abandoned the armed struggle, Haniyeh replied
"of course not" and said resistance would continue "in all forms - popular
resistance, political, diplomatic and military resistance".
Hamas' top political leader is killed in Iran in strike
that risks triggering all-out regional war
Abby Sewell/BEIRUT (AP)/July 31, 2024
Hamas' top political leader was killed Wednesday by a predawn airstrike in the
Iranian capital, Iran and the militant group said, blaming Israel for a shock
assassination that risked escalating into an all-out regional war. Iran's
supreme leader vowed revenge against Israel.
Israel, which kept silent about the strike, had pledged to kill Ismail Haniyeh
and other Hamas leaders over the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that
sparked the war in Gaza. The strike came just after Haniyeh had attended the
inauguration of Iran’s new president in Tehran — and hours after Israel targeted
a top commander in Iran's ally Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.The
assassination was potentially explosive amid the region's volatile, intertwined
conflicts because of its target, its timing and the decision to carry it out in
Tehran. Most dangerous was the potential to push Iran and Israel into direct
confrontation if Iran retaliates. The U.S. and other nations scrambled to
prevent a wider, deadlier conflict. In a statement on his official website,
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said revenge was “our duty” and
that Israel had “prepared a harsh punishment for itself” by killing “a dear
guest in our home.”Bitter regional rivals, Israel and Iran risked plunging into
war earlier this year when Israel hit Iran’s embassy in Damascus in April. Iran
retaliated, and Israel countered in an unprecedented exchange of strikes on each
other's soil, but international efforts succeeded in containing that cycle
before it spun out of control.
Haniyeh's killing also could prompt Hamas to pull out of negotiations for a
cease-fire and hostage release deal in the 10-month-old war in Gaza, which U.S.
mediators had said were making progress. And it could inflame already rising
tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, which international diplomats were trying
to contain after a weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the
Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel carried out a rare strike Tuesday
evening in the Lebanese capital that it said killed a top Hezbollah commander
allegedly behind the rocket strike. Hezbollah, which denied any role in the
Golan strike, said Wednesday it was searching for the body of Fouad Shukur in
the rubble of the building that was hit in a Beirut suburb. The strike killed
three women and two children, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. There
was no immediate reaction from the White House to Haniyeh's death. A key
question was whether Israel told the U.S., its top ally, ahead of time. Asked
about Haniyeh's killing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "This is
something we were not aware of or involved in.” Speaking to Channel News Asia,
Blinken said he would not speculate about the impact on cease-fire efforts. "But
I can tell you that the imperative of getting a cease-fire, the importance that
that has for everyone, remains.”
A top Hamas official, Khalil al-Hayya, told journalists in Iran that whoever
replaces Haniyeh will “follow the same vision” regarding negotiations to end the
war — and continue in the same policy of resistance against Israel. U.S.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he still had hopes for a diplomatic
solution on the Israeli-Lebanon border. “I don’t think that war is inevitable,”
he said. “I think there’s always room and opportunity for diplomacy, and I’d
like to see parties pursue those opportunities.”But international diplomats
trying to defuse tensions were alarmed. One Western diplomat, whose country has
worked to prevent an Israeli-Hezbollah escalation, said the strikes in Beirut
and Tehran have “almost killed” hopes for a Gaza cease-fire and could push the
Middle East into a “devastating regional war.” The diplomat spoke on condition
of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation.
Spokespeople for Israel's military and government declined to comment. Israel
often refrains from commenting on assassinations carried out by its Mossad
intelligence agency or strikes on other countries. In a statement by his office,
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel doesn't want war after its
strike on the Hezbollah commander in Beirut, “but we are preparing for all
possibilities.” He did not mention the Haniyeh killing, and a U.S.-provided
summary of his call with Austin did not mention it. The killing of Haniyeh
abroad comes as Israel has not had a clear success in killing Hamas' top
leadership in Gaza, who are believed to be primarily responsible for planning
the Oct. 7 attack. Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip in 2019 and had lived in exile in
Qatar. Israel has targeted Hamas figures in Lebanon and Syria during the war,
but going after Haniyeh in Iran was vastly more sensitive. Israel has operated
there in the past: It is suspected of running a yearslong assassination campaign
against Iranian nuclear scientists. In 2020, a top Iranian military nuclear
scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun
while traveling in a car outside Tehran.
During Haniyeh's last hours in Iran, a close ally of Hamas, he was smiling and
clapping at the inauguration ceremony of the new President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Associated Press photos showed him seated alongside leaders from the Palestinian
Islamic Jihad militant group and Hezbollah, and Iranian media showed him and
Pezeshkian hugging. Haniyeh had met earlier with Khamenei.
Hours later, the strike hit a residence Haniyeh uses in Tehran, killing him,
Hamas said. One of his bodyguards was killed, Iranian officials said. Hamas
official Al-Hayya later said on Iranian state television that Haniyeh was killed
by a missile. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Israel will face a
“harsh and painful response” from Iran and its allies around the region. An
influential Iranian parliamentary committee on national security and foreign
policy was to hold an emergency meeting on the strike later Wednesday. Hamas’
military wing said in a statement that Haniyeh’s assassination “takes the battle
to new dimensions and will have major repercussions on the entire
region.”Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will continue
its devastating campaign in Gaza until Hamas is eliminated. Israel's bombardment
and offensives in Gaza have killed more than 39,300 Palestinians and wounded
more than 90,900, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose count does not
differentiate between civilians and combatants. After months of pounding, Hamas
has shown its fighters can still operate in Gaza and fire volleys of rockets
into Israel. But it is unclear if it has the capacity to step up attacks in
retaliation over Haniyeh's killing. Instead, the impact may be regional. Besides
a direct retaliation on Israel, Iran could work to increase attacks through its
allies, a coalition of Iranian-backed groups known as the “Axis of Resistance,”
including Hezbollah, Hamas, mainly Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria and the
Houthi rebels who control much of Yemen. As a show of support for Hamas,
Hezbollah has been exchanging fire almost daily with Israel across the
Israeli-Lebanese border in a simmering but deadly conflict that has repeatedly
threatened to escalate into all-out war. The Houthis and Iraqi and Syrian
militias have also fired rockets and drones at Israel and at American bases in
the region, though most have been intercepted. A strike Tuesday night southwest
of the Iraqi capital Baghdad killed four members of one Iranian-backed militia,
Kataib Hezbollah, which has targeted U.S. bases previously, according to Iraq's
Popular Mobilization Forces, a militia coalition. It accused the U.S. of being
behind the strike. A U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
in accordance with regulations, said American forces had carried out a
“defensive airstrike" against combatants who, “based on recent attacks in Iraq
and Syria ... posed a threat to U.S. and coalition forces.”
Qatar and Egypt Say Assassinations Damage Gaza Truce
Chances
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Qatar and Egypt, which have acted as mediators in ceasefire negotiations between
Israel and Hamas, suggested on Wednesday that the killing of Hamas leader Ismail
Haniyeh could jeopardize efforts to secure a truce in Gaza. "Political
assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue
leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the
negotiator on the other side?" Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X. "Peace needs serious partners & a global stance
against the disregard for human life." Egypt's foreign ministry said in a
statement that a "dangerous Israeli escalation policy" over the past two days
had undermined efforts to broker an end to the fighting in Gaza. "The
coincidence of this regional escalation with the lack of progress in the
ceasefire negotiations in Gaza increases the complexity of the situation and
indicates the absence of Israeli political will to calm it down," the statement
said. "It undercuts the strenuous efforts made by Egypt and its partners to stop
the war in the Gaza Strip and put an end to the human suffering of the
Palestinian people," it added. Qatar, Egypt and the United States have
repeatedly tried to clinch a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian group
Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 39,000 Palestinians
since Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel in October, killing 1,200 people. A
final deal to halt more than nine months of war has been complicated by changes
sought by Israel, sources have told Reuters, and there was no sign of progress
at the latest round of talks in Rome on Sunday. Haniyeh, who mainly resided in
Qatar, was assassinated in the early hours of the morning in Iran, raising fears
of wider escalation in a Middle East shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and a
worsening conflict in Lebanon.
Qatar condemned Haniyeh's assassination in the Iranian capital Tehran, saying it
was a dangerous escalation. His demise occurred less than 24 hours after Israel
claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander in Beirut whom it blamed for a
deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Haniyeh had not been
directly involved in the day-to-day Gaza ceasefire negotiations and was not
leading the talks. The senior Hamas figure who has been central throughout
ceasefire and hostage release negotiations is Khalil Al-Hayya, an official
briefed on the talks told Reuters previously. Haniyeh's killing also came as
Egypt's recently appointed Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty was in Qatar for
talks on issues including the Gaza crisis. He discussed the assassination with
Sheikh Mohammed, the Qatari foreign ministry said.
Khaled Meshaal, who survived Israeli assassination attempt,
tipped to be new Hamas leader
Nidal al-Mughrabi/Reuters/July 31, 2024
Khaled Meshaal, tipped to be the new Hamas leader, became known around the world
in 1997 after Israeli agents injected him with poison in a botched assassination
attempt on a street outside his office in the Jordanian capital Amman. The hit
against a key senior figure of the Palestinian militant group, ordered by
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so enraged Jordan's then-King Hussein
that he spoke of hanging the would-be killers and scrapping Jordan's peace
treaty with Israel unless the antidote was handed over.
Israel did so, and also agreed to free Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, only to
assassinate him seven years later in Gaza. For Israelis and Western states, the
Iran-backed Hamas, which has directed suicide bombings in Israel and fought
frequent wars against it, is a terrorist group bent on Israel's destruction.
For Palestinian supporters, Meshaal and the rest of the Hamas leadership are
fighters for liberation from Israeli occupation, keeping their cause alive when
international diplomacy has failed them. Meshaal, 68, became Hamas' political
leader in exile the year before Israel tried to eliminate him, a post that
enabled him to represent the Palestinian Islamist group at meetings with foreign
governments around the world, unhindered by tight Israeli travel restrictions
that affected other Hamas officials. Hamas sources said Meshaal is expected to
be chosen as paramount leader of the group to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was
assassinated in Iran in the early hours of Wednesday, with Tehran and Hamas
vowing retribution against Israel. Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, who is
based in Qatar and has headed Hamas negotiators in indirect Gaza truce talks
with Israel, has also been a possibility for the leadership as he is a favourite
of Iran and its allies in the region. Meshaal's relations with Iran have been
strained due to his past support for the Sunni Muslim-led revolt in 2011 against
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Israel has assassinated or tried to kill
several Hamas leaders and operatives since the group was founded in 1987 during
the first Palestinian uprising against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Meshaal has been a central figure at the top of Hamas since the late 1990s,
though he has worked mostly from the relative safety of exile as Israel plotted
to assassinate other prominent Hamas figures based in the Gaza Strip. After the
wheelchair-bound Yassin was killed in a March 2004 airstrike, Israel
assassinated his successor Abdel-Aziz Al-Rantissi in Gaza a month later, and
Meshaal assumed the overall leadership of Hamas. Like other Hamas leaders,
Meshaal has grappled with the critical issue of whether to adopt a more
pragmatic approach to Israel in pursuit of Palestinian statehood - Hamas' 1988
charter calls for Israel's destruction - or keep fighting.
SOFTENS STAND ON ISRAEL
Meshaal rejects the idea of a permanent peace deal with Israel but has said that
Hamas, which in the 1990s and 2000s sent suicide bombers into Israel, could
accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as a
temporary solution in return for a long-term ceasefire. The Oct. 7, 2023 attack
on Israel by Hamas-led militants from Gaza, which killed 1,200 people and led to
the kidnapping of over 250 people, according to Israeli tallies, made the
militant group's priorities clear. Israel retaliated with airstrikes and an
invasion of Gaza that have killed over 39,000 Palestinians, pursuing a campaign
to eradicate Hamas that has reduced much of the densely populated coastal
enclave to rubble. Meshaal said the Oct. 7 Hamas attack returned the Palestinian
cause to the centre of the world agenda. He urged Arabs and Muslims to join the
battle against Israel and said Palestinians alone would decide who runs Gaza
after the current war ends, in defiance of Israel and the United States who want
to exclude Hamas from post-war governance.
JOINED MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AT 15
Meshaal has lived most of his life outside the Palestinian territories. Born in
Silwad near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Meshaal moved as a boy with his
family to the Gulf Arab state of Kuwait, a hotbed of pro-Palestinian sentiment.
At the age of 15 he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, the Middle East's oldest
Islamist group. The Brotherhood became instrumental in the formation of Hamas in
the late 1980s during the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Meshaal became a schoolteacher before turning to lobbying for Hamas from abroad
for many years while other leaders of the group have languished for long periods
in Israeli jails. He was in charge of international fund-raising in Jordan when
he barely escaped assassination. Netanyahu played an accidental but important
role in establishing Meshaal's militant credentials when he ordered Mossad
agents to kill him in 1997 in retaliation for a Jerusalem market bombing that
killed 16 people and was blamed on Hamas. The suspected assassins were caught by
Jordanian police after Meshaal was injected with poison in the street.
Netanyahu, then in his first term as premier, was forced to hand over the
antidote for the poison, and the incident turned Meshaal into a hero of the
Palestinian resistance. Jordan eventually closed Hamas' bureau in Amman and
expelled Meshaal to the Gulf state of Qatar. He moved to Syria in 2001. Meshaal
ran Hamas, a Sunni Muslim movement, from exile in Damascus in 2004 until January
2012 when he left the Syrian capital because of President Assad's fierce
crackdown on Sunnis involved in an uprising against him. Meshaal now divides his
time between Doha and Cairo. His abrupt departure from Syria initially weakened
his position within Hamas, as ties with Damascus and Tehran, which were vital
for the group, gave him power. With those links damaged or broken, rivals based
within Gaza, the birthplace of Hamas, began to assert their authority. Meshaal
himself told Reuters that his move affected relations with Hamas' main paymaster
and weapons supplier Iran - a country Israel believes poses by far the greatest
threat to it because of its ambitious nuclear programme. In December 2012,
Meshaal paid his first visit to the Gaza Strip and delivered the main speech at
Hamas' 25th anniversary rally. He had not visited the Palestinian territories
since leaving the West Bank at age 11. While he was abroad, Hamas asserted
itself over its secular rival, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which
has been open to negotiating peace with Israel, by seizing control of Gaza from
the PA in a brief 2007 civil war. Friction between Meshaal and the Gaza-based
Hamas leadership surfaced over his attempts to promote reconciliation with
President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority. Meshaal then
announced that he wanted to step down as leader over such tensions and in 2017
was replaced by his Gaza deputy Haniyeh, who was elected to head the group's
political office, also operating overseas. In 2021, Meshaal was elected to head
the Hamas office in the Palestinian diaspora.
Houthis vow to aid Iranian retaliation against Israel for
killing of Hamas leader in Tehran
Saeed Al-Batati/Arab NewsJuly 31, 2024
AL-MUKALLA: The Houthi militia in Yemen pledged on Wednesday to participate in
an anticipated Iranian reprisal attack on Israel, following the assassination of
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday. Mahdi Al-Mashat, president
of the militia’s Supreme Political Council, reiterated support for Iran, Hamas
and other Iran-backed groups in the region as he ordered a three-day period of
mourning and the lowering of flags after Haniyeh was killed by a suspected
Israeli air strike, hours after attending the swearing-in ceremony for Iran’s
new president. The official Houthi news agency reported that Al-Mashat
“reaffirmed Yemen’s unwavering support for Hamas and the resistance axis,
emphasizing that the Zionist and American enemies must bear responsibility for
the escalating conflict and targeted assassinations of resistance leaders.”Since
November, the Houthis have been targeting vessels in international shipping
lanes in the Red Sea and other waters off the coast of Yemen with missiles,
armed drones and drone boats. They say that are doing so in support of the
Palestinian people, in an attempt to force Israel to halt its military
operations in the Gaza Strip. The Houthi attacks have also extended to a direct
assault on Israel. On July 19, an explosives-laden drone launched by the militia
hit a residential area in Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring at least 10.
Israeli authorities responded by attacking the sea port and oil-storage
facilities in the Houthi-held Yemeni city of Hodeidah, killing six people and
injuring at least 80, according to the militia. Hamed Asem, the deputy governor
of Sanaa province, said during an interview with Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV that
the militia would join in reprisal attacks by regime in Tehran and its proxy
groups in the region in retaliation for the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran.
“Iran, us and the rest of the axis of resistance will all respond with deadly
force,” he said. In a message posted on social media network X, Houthi leader
Mohammed Al-Houthi condemned the killing of the Hamas political leader as “a
heinous terrorist crime and a flagrant violation of laws and ideal values,” but
did not say whether the militia would assist Iran in any retaliation against
Israel. Israel has yet to claim responsibility for the assassination. But Yemeni
experts believed that by targeting Haniyeh deep within Iranian territory,
Israeli authorities intended to send a message to Tehran and its proxies that it
can and will kill their leaders if they continue to attack Israel. “Iran and
proxies plunged the region in turmoil with total impunity because the
international community has been reluctant to take strong action to hold them
accountable,” Nadwa Al-Dawsari, a nonresident fellow at the Middle East
Institute in Washington, D.C., told Arab News. “With recent assassinations,
Israel has established its deterrence. It will go directly after top leaders if
Iran and its proxies continue to target Israel. “The Houthis have been the most
reckless of Iran’s proxies, as evidenced by their attacks in the Red Sea. Given
their past actions, it’s certainly possible they could attempt another attack
against Israel.” Meanwhile, the US Central Command said on Wednesday morning
that it destroyed three remotely operated boats in the Red Sea with which the
Houthis intended to attack international shipping. The US and the UK have
carried out military strikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa, Hodeidah and other
provinces in Yemen held by the militia, targeting missile and drone launchers,
storage facilities and military locations in an effort to weaken the militia and
halt the attacks on shipping.
France calls on Iran for restraint in regional crises as
new leader sworn in RFI
AP - Vahid Salemi/Wed, July 31, 2024
French President Emmanuel Macron discussed regional conflicts with his new
Iranian counterpart, a day before Masoud Pezeshkian was due to be sworn in.
Pezeshkian was finally sworn in yesterday, Tuesday. In a phone call between the
two men on Monday, Macron called on Iran to "cease its support of destabilising
actors" in the Middle East. He told Pezeshkian that "all must be done to avoid a
military escalation" between Israel and Lebanon after a deadly rocket strike in
the Golan Heights blamed on Tehran-backed Hezbollah. Hezbollah has denied
responsibility for the Majdal Shams rocket attack, which killed 12 youths on
Saturday, though the group claimed multiple strikes on Israeli military
positions that day. The French leader asked Iran to call for restraint, saying
that a new war would have "devastating consequences for the region", which is
already on edge as a result of Israel's war with Palestinian militant group
Hamas in the Gaza Strip. France 'committed' to de-escalation of regional
conflict after Golan attack Need for real change. Congratulating Pezeshkian for
the reformist candidate's election victory on 5 July, Macron nonetheless
underscored the "necessary" need for "real change" in the country. Pezeshkian
assumed official responsibilities on Sunday after official endorsement from
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, and is to be sworn in to parliament on
Tuesday. Macron called on the new Iranian leader to not support Russia's "war of
aggression".
Iran vows to make Israel 'regret' Haniyeh killing
Associated Press/This Is Beirut/July 31/2024
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the killing of Hamas leader Ismail
Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday. He said in a post on the X platform that his
country will defend its territorial integrity and make those responsible regret
their actions. "The Islamic Republic of Iran will defend its territorial
integrity, honor, pride and dignity, and make the terrorist invaders regret
their cowardly action," said Pezeshkian in a post on X where he mourned Haniyeh
as "a brave leader". Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed "harsh
punishment" for Israel. "With this action, the criminal and terrorist Zionist
regime prepared the ground for harsh punishment for itself, and we consider it
our duty to seek revenge for his blood as he was martyred in the territory of
the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said in a statement carried by official news
agency IRNA.
Israeli Assets Tumble After Hamas Political Leader Killed
Srinivasan Sivabalan/(Bloomberg)/July 31, 2024
Israel’s shekel headed for the biggest three-day selloff in two years and the
nation’s bonds tumbled as traders worried the killing of Hamas political leader
Ismail Haniyeh on Iran’s soil raised the danger of a broader Middle East war.
The currency fell as much as 1.2% to 3.7886 per US dollar after Hamas blamed
Israel for the airstrike in Tehran. That took its three-day decline to 3.3%, the
worst in the world only after the recently floated Ethiopian birr. Israel’s
10-year sovereign yield rose 6 basis points to 4.99%, while dollar bonds posted
the biggest losses in emerging markets. In nearly 10 months of war between
Israel and Hamas, investors had repeatedly hoped for a return to peace, leading
to sporadic resilience in the shekel as well as the country’s stock and bond
markets. But as cease-fire talks in Gaza drag on, the latest events have eroded
traders’ optimism in a quick resolution, and fear is growing that Iran and its
allies will be drawn into direct conflict with Israel. “It is difficult to see a
scenario where Iran does not respond given that this was an attack not just on
Iranian soil, but targeting a guest of the new President in Tehran itself,” said
Nick Rees, FX strategist at Monex Europe Ltd. in London. “It is hard to see a
scenario where the shekel does not continue to trade under pressure, unless and
until both sides step back from the brink.” This week’s selloff has pushed the
shekel to trade near the weakest level since April after it breached multiple
support levels at the 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages. Its
volatility is surging too: one-month implied swings, based on options prices,
have jumped for five successive days, the longest streak since November. On
Wednesday, the 10 worst performers in a Bloomberg gauge of sovereign dollar
bonds were all from Israel. The 2043 note lost 1.1 cent on the dollar, halting a
four-day rally. Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Haniyeh’s
killing “will strengthen the deep and unbreakable bond between the Islamic
Republic of Iran, dear Palestine and the resistance.” Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Prime
Minister Najib Mikati warned of things “getting worse” and the Houthis condemned
what they called an “Israeli assassination” and “great escalation.”
Al Jazeera Says Reporter, Cameraman Killed in Israel Strike
on Gaza
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Qatar's flagship Al Jazeera TV said on Wednesday that its reporter Ismail
al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify were killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza
City. Anas Al-Sharif, a colleague of the two dead journalists, told Al-Jazeera
that Ghoul and Rify were on mission to film near the house of Ismail Haniyeh,
the Hamas chief killed in Iran earlier on Wednesday in an attack the movement
blamed on Israel. The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said the new deaths
raised to 165 the number of Palestinian journalists who were killed by Israeli
fire since Oct 7.
The war in Gaza might complicate Haniyeh's replacement.
Here are the possible contenders
Sarah El Deeb And Bassem Mroue/BEIRUT (AP)/July 31, 2024
The militant Palestinian group Hamas has a history of swift and smooth
replacement of fallen leaders killed in Israeli airstrikes. Ismail Haniyeh’s
assassination in the Iranian capital early Wednesday comes at a time when Hamas
is under extreme pressure since the war in Gaza started nearly 10 months ago
following the group's attack on southern Israel. “We are not discussing this
matter now,” a Hamas official told The Associated Press, on condition of
anonymity in line with regulations, when asked about the process to replace
Haniyeh. Haniyeh headed the group's political bureau until his death. His deputy
was Saleh Arouri, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut in January and
would have been the automatic replacement. Arouri's post remained empty since
his death. The group's Shura council, the main consultative body, is now
expected to meet soon, likely after Haniyeh's funeral in Qatar, to name a new
successor. The council’s membership is kept secret but represents regional
chapters of the group, in Gaza, the West Bank and diaspora and those imprisoned.
One of Haniyeh’s deputies was Zaher Jabarin, who has been described as the
group’s chief executive officer because of the important role he plays in
managing the group’s finances, and with that, his good offices with Iran.
Hani al-Masri, an expert on Palestinian organizations, said the choice is now
likely between Khaled Mashaal, a veteran Hamas official and former leader, and
Khalil al-Hayya, a powerful figure within Hamas who was close to Haniyeh. “It
will not be easy,” said al-Masri, who also heads the Palestinian Center for
Policy and Research and Strategic Studies. Hamas’ new political leader will have
to decide on whether to continue the military option, and become essentially a
guerrilla and underground group, or choose a leader that can offer political
compromises — an unlikely option at this stage. Hugh Lovatt, an expert on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the European Council on Foreign Relations,
said Haniyeh's killing is likely to “strengthen hardliners within the movement
and further shift Hamas toward hardline strategies and away from diplomacy and
politics.”Mashaal has political and diplomatic experience, but his relations
with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah have soured over his support for Arab protests in
2011. When he was in Lebanon in 2021, Hezbollah leaders reportedly refused to
meet with him. But Mashaal has good relations with Turkey and Qatar and is
considered a more moderate figure who headed the group until 2017. Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas called him on Saturday to offer his condolences for the
killing of Haniyeh. Yahya Sinwar, the powerful Hamas figu re leading the war in
Gaza, is at the opposite end of that spectrum and is unlikely to support
Mashaal’s leadership. Al-Hayya is considered close to Haniyeh, a prominent
leader living in exile and originally from Gaza, with important international
connections and good relations with the military wing as well as with Iran and
Turkey. He was the first leader to speak after the attack on Haniyeh. He said
the killing of Haniyeh proves that “our options (with Israel) is blood and
resistance,” not talks or negotiations.
“As much as it pains us the killing of Haniyeh, we reassure the nation, our
option in Hamas and resistance is continuing with a clear strategy...that
doesn’t deviate with the martyrdom of a leader or 10," al-Hayya said, speaking
from Tehran. Jabarin was standing next to him.
After years of cold relations with the Iran-led “axis of resistance” over
Hamas’s backing of the opposition against Syrian President Bashar Assad during
Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011, Hamas began mending its relations
with Iran and reconciled with Assad. Al-Hayya headed a delegation that went to
Syria in 2022 and met Assad. Al-Hayya also has good relations with Iran, Turkey
and Hezbollah. “He is like Haniyeh, who was balanced and flexible and both sides
didn’t see his leadership as problematic,” al-Masri said. The role of the
group’s leader is important in maintaining relations with Hamas’ allies outside
the Palestinian territories and the selection is likely to be influenced by the
group’s choices in the coming days. Al-Masri said any choice will have to be
temporary until elections in the political bureau which were supposed to take
place this year but have been derailed by the war. The Hamas leadership meeting
may also be complicated by efforts to reach Sinwar, who remains influential and
will be consulted on the choice. A third possible contender, said al-Masri, is
Nizar Abu Ramadan, who had challenged Sinwar for the role of Gaza chief, and is
considered close to Mashaal. With cease-fire talks faltering, Israel's strategy
so far appeared to have left the group with a few options now: surrender or
continue war. It is not down to Sinwar alone, said Lovatt, but is more about
internal consensus-making between Gaza leadership, and those abroad. The killing
of Haniyeh and the blow it deals to the prospects of reaching a cease-fire are
likely to play into the hands of the more radical elements within the group,
Lovatt added. The war in Gaza started on Oct.7 after the Hamas attack that
killed some 1,200 people. The group also took 250 others hostage. Israel’s
retaliatory operation has obliterated entire neighborhoods in Gaza and forced
some 80% of the population to flee their homes. Over 39,000 Palestinians have
been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry which doesn’t distinguish
between civilians and combatants in its count.
Iran has no good options after two deadly strikes on senior allies
Analysis by Nick Paton Walsh, CNN/July 31, 2024
CNN reporter explains why assassination of Hamas political leader is ‘huge
embarrassment’ for IranScroll back up to restore default view. One of the few
things working in Iran’s favor after the humiliating news that Hamas political
leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in the Iranian capital overnight is that
the regime controls most of the information the world gets to see. What Iran has
said so far is that Haniyeh died after being hit by an “airborne guided
projectile” in Tehran where he was attending the inauguration of the Iranian
president. But we know little else. Israel has not claimed responsibility for
the strike but has previously vowed to eliminate Hamas and its leaders following
the October 7 attacks. Haniyeh’s death came hours after Israel confirmed it
carried out a strike in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday that killed the most senior
military commander of Hezbollah, another Iranian-backed militant group, who it
blamed for a deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The precise
details of what happened at around 2 a.m. (5.30 p.m. ET) in Tehran, will dictate
what comes next, as Iran looks to present a narrative that justifies and
fashions its response.
Whatever the truth and whatever Iran proffers, the attack is clearly a grave
violation of its sovereignty and the supposed security bubble of the Iranian
capital. Haniyeh was the regime’s guest, and its role as a regional power is
compromised if it’s unable to guarantee the simple safety of visiting allies.
There are reports he was staying in a guest house for veterans, and it is
unclear whose technical responsibility it was to protect this facility – and
whether the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) will be explicitly embarrassed,
outside of the wider humiliation of an apparent Israeli assassination deep
inside of Iran.
But Iran has stomached comparable violations in the past. The death of its
leading nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was met with limited wrath in 2020.
The killing of Quds commander Qasem Suleinami, the country’s most fabled
military figure, months earlier, led to fiery rhetoric, but instead a limited
hit on a remote US base. Iran has stepped back before – and may do so again.
There is no shortage of furious rherotic the day after the strikes, but there is
no easy route for Iran. It is clear Tehran has been reluctant, for the months
since October 7, to launch its most ferocious proxy, Hezbollah, into a
full-scale war with Israel from Lebanon. Putting aside the huge humanitarian
horror such a conflict would muster for Lebanese and Israelis alike, Hezbollah
remains a powerful card that Tehran gets to play probably once. The regime
retains apparent ambitions in its nuclear program and a military eroded by
sanctions, so Hezbollah is an ace that must be tabled with astute timing.
Iran has also tried an unprecedented direct all-out attack on Israel before, in
April, after senior IRGC commanders were killed in an Israeli strike on
Damascus. In short, the 300 drone and missiles fired - straight from Iran at
Israel - just didn’t get through. Around 99% of them were intercepted.
The regime’s response to Haniyeh’s death will define its role as a regional
power, and, if it fails to appear potent enough, risks that slipping. A
stealthy, asymmetric strike, weeks from now, may not fix the damage done to its
prestige. The risk of the unchartered territory we are in is that the gravity of
expected responses is not defined – the tit for tat is occurring in an
environment evolving by the day. Indeed, the characters making the decisions are
changing rapidly, or under intense domestic pressure themselves. This simply
accentuates the risk of miscalculation, or of actions taken to satisfy selfish,
insular concerns, rather than a wider regional impact. In short, it is a mess
that grows, and with it surges the chance of the unexpected.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s first statement on the matter said of
Israel, “You killed our dear guest in our house and now have paved the way for
your harsh punishment.” But remember this is a superannuated, octogenarian
leader who has just endured years of popular unrest and rising conflict with
Israel, and 24 hours ago saw a surprisingly moderate president, Masoud
Pezeshkian, get sworn in. He is projecting strength internally as much as he is
internationally. Separately, Hezbollah had stumbled it seemed into an acute
crisis though the militant group’s apparently mistaken targeting of Druze
schoolchildren in the Golan Heights at the weekend. It may feel the strike on
Haniyeh has removed the spotlight to respond, for the shortest while, although
it may be dragged into Iran’s eventual response. But the fact the assassination
of its commander, Fuad Shukr, now seems like a distant memory, exposing how
rapidly events are unfolding. Tehran is taking its time to reveal how, yet
again, its innermost sanctum was violated by Israel. The IRGC trailed a
statement about Haniyeh at 2.50 a.m. US time, but it eventually avoided most
details of how he was killed. Perhaps it doesn’t know, or doesn’t want to say,
or is working out what to say in order to find a response that fits – and that
it can execute. Still, red lines have been criss-crossed for months, and this
morning we lept a few rungs higher up the ladder of escalation. The agonizing
question of the next 24 hours - as Iran fashions its narrative of how this major
humiliation came to be - is what remaining steps are there on this well-trodden
ladder, and what is at its peak?
Ukraine receives first F-16 fighter jets to bolster
defenses against Russia, a US official tells AP
Tara Copp/The Associated Press/July 31, 2024
Ukraine has received the first F-16 fighter jets that it has sought for months
to fight back against an onslaught of Russian missile strikes, a U.S. official
confirmed to the Associated Press. Ukraine has been pushing its Western allies
for F-16s for Ukraine for months, saying they were critically needed to fight
back against the onslaught of missiles Russia has fired against it. The F-16 is
specialized in suppressing enemy air defenses. The West has hesitantly moved
toward providing the jets, after previous concerns that arming Ukraine with
advanced weaponry would further escalate the war with Russia. The U.S. has also
been training Ukrainian pilots on how to fly the jets and has already graduated
the first group of pilots on its operation. During his visit to Washington
earlier this month for the NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
pressed NATO allies to remove all limitations on how Western-provided weapons
are used, specifically allowing Ukraine to fire Western-provided weapons against
an expanded set of Russian targets. It’s not clear how many jets were provided
in the first tranche or which nations provided them. The Ukrainian government
has not confirmed receipt of the jets. U.S. President Joe Biden authorized
sending the U.S.-built warplanes to Ukraine in August 2023. That came after
months of pressure from Kyiv and internal debate in the U.S. administration
where officials feared the move could escalate tensions with the Kremlin.
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway — all NATO members — have committed
to providing Ukraine with more than 60 planes. That number is dwarfed by the
Russian jet fighter fleet, which is estimated to be around 10 times larger.
Ukraine needs at least 130 F-16 fighter jets to neutralize Russian air power,
Ukrainian officials say. F-16s can fly up to twice the speed of sound and have a
maximum range of more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers). The arrival of the
jets was first reported by Bloomberg.
Sudan's military leader survives a drone strike that killed
5, says the army
Samy Magdy And Fatma Khaled/CAIRO (AP)/July 31, 2024
Sudan’s military leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, survived a drone attack
Wednesday on an army graduation ceremony he was attending in the country’s east,
the military said. The attack that killed five people was the latest twist in
the conflict Sudan has been going through since a popular uprising removed its
veteran leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The attack by two drones took place in
the town of Gebeit after the ceremony was concluded, the military added. Burhan
was not hurt, according to Lt. Col. Hassan Ibrahim, from the military
spokesman's office. Videos posted by Al Araby TV showed multiple people running
along a dusty road at the time of the drone attack, while other footage showed
people at the graduation ceremony apparently looking to the sky as the drone
strike hit. Another video posted on Facebook by the Sudanese Armed Forces showed
a crowd of people gathering around Burhan following the drone strike, cheering
for him as he smiled. “A spontaneous popular gathering of the people of the
Jebait region with the President of the Sovereign Council and Commander-in-Chief
following the graduation of a new batch of officers,” the post read. Sudan has
been torn by war for more than a year between the military and a powerful
paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces or RSF. With fighting in the
capital, Khartoum, the military leadership largely operates out of eastern Sudan
near the Red Sea Coast.
The RSF has not commented on the assassination attempt yet, which comes nearly a
week after its leader said that he planned to attend cease-fire talks in
Switzerland next month arranged by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Gen.
Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces fighting Sudan’s army,
emphasized at the time that the talks would become “a major step” toward peace
and stability in Sudan and create a new state based on “justice, equality and
federal rule.”The Sudanese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday responded to the U.S.
invitation to the talks in Geneva, saying the military-controlled Sudanese
government is prepared to take part but said that any negotiation before
implementing the Jeddah Declaration “wouldn’t be acceptable to the Sudanese
people.”The Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect Civilians passed last
year meant to end the conflict, but neither side committed to its objectives.
Representatives from the Sudanese Army and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamadan
Dagalo, engaged in revived talks brokered by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in
Jeddah, focusing on the delivery of humanitarian aid, achieving ceasefires and
paving the way toward a permanent cessation of aggression, among other
objectives.
In its Tuesday statement, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry accused the RSF of being
the only party that attacks cities, villages and civilians. The
military-controlled Sudanese government demanded sanctions be imposed on “rebels
to stop their continuous aggression, end their siege on cities, and open roads.”
“Those taking part in the initiative are the same as the parties who
participated in the Jeddah talks, and the topics are identical to what was
agreed upon,” the statement read. The ministry added that the military-led
government must be consulted about the planned agenda for any negotiations and
parties taking part, with the provisions in the Jeddah Declaration being the
basis of future talks. Cameron Hudson, the former chief of staff to the special
envoy to Sudan, said the military government's response is “far more positive
and open” than he had anticipated because it opened the door to preliminary
talks with the U.S. The Rapid Support Forces were formed from Janjaweed fighters
created under former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country
for three decades before being overthrown during a popular uprising in 2019. He
is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other
crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s. The conflict has created the
world’s largest displacement crisis with more than 10 million people forced to
flee their homes since April 2023, according to the U.N. migration agency. They
include more than 2.2 million who crossed into neighboring countries, it said.
Türkiye Will Invite Palestinian President to Address
Parliament
Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Türkiye will invite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address the Turkish
parliament in the coming days, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus was cited as
saying by state-owned Anadolu news agency on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "If
there are no issues, we will invite Mr. Abbas to the Turkish Parliament General
Assembly and he will explain the Palestinian cause in front of lawmakers,"
Kurtulmus was quoted as saying.
The Latest English LCCC analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 31-August 01/2024
As U.S.-Iran Conflict Builds Across Mideast,
Iraq Is Caught in Middle
Alissa J. Rubin//The New York Times/July 31/2024
BAGHDAD — When Iraq’s prime minister traveled to Washington in the spring, he
hoped to negotiate a much-needed economic development package and discuss shared
strategic interests with the United States, one of his country’s most important
international allies.
But the very day he arrived in mid-April, events unfolding at home served as a
stark reminder of the competing influences that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed
Shia al-Sudani, is caught between: Iran was sending drones and missiles to
attack Israel and at least one Iraqi militia backed by Iran participated in the
attack. Both the United States and Iran have long held sway in Iraq. But since
the war between U.S. ally Israel and Iran-backed Hamas broke out in the Gaza
Strip almost 10 months ago, they are increasingly at odds.
With regards to Iraq, one of the most contentious issues is the continued
presence of 2,500 U.S. troops on Iraqi soil. Over the past 20 months, Iran has
used its considerable influence to try to persuade the Iraqis to push those
forces out, and if it succeeds, it would give Iran even more say over Iraqi
policies.
Last week, in the latest round of discussions in Washington on a reconfiguration
of the military relationship, Iraq called for a drawdown of the U.S.-led
multinational force within about a year, underscoring its determination to thin
out the U.S. presence. Iran’s clout in Iraq has grown in the past few years as
Iraqi Shiite political factions close to Iran have come to dominate the national
government. At the same time, the Iraqi militias that Iran has cultivated over
the past 20 years have come to form a growing part of the national security
forces since they were folded in a few years ago.
The militias form part of Iran’s network of proxy forces in the Middle East,
including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. The war in Gaza has escalated
tensions regionally, and the American, British and Israeli governments have all
noted that Iraqi proxies of Iran joined in the April attack on Israel — in
defiance of demands by al-Sudani to stay out of the conflict.
Most recently, a rocket from Lebanon on Saturday killed at least 12 children and
teenagers in an Israeli-controlled town in the Golan Heights. The United States
and Israel blamed Hezbollah, but the group denied responsibility.
Even before the Iraqi militias participated in the attack on Israel, a senior
member of Iraq’s security forces, Abdulaziz al-Mohammadawi, made no attempt to
hide his allegiance to Iran.
Israeli warplanes hit an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria in April,
preceding the Iranian attack on Israel. After the Israeli strike, al-Mohammadawi
said the forces he oversees were awaiting orders from Iranian Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while making no mention of Iraq’s prime minister.
Al-Mohammadawi is the chief of staff of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, an
umbrella organization for militias that now encompasses more than 170,000
fighters, including a number of brigades backed by Iran. His announcement
suggested that at least some Iraqi forces were ready to attack Israel on Iran’s
behalf — a startling proclamation from such a senior Iraqi security official.
Publicly, the Iraqi prime minister said nothing, perhaps suggesting his
reluctance to openly confront those closest to Iran. Iran’s goal is clear, said
Sajad Jiyad, an Iraqi analyst and fellow at Century International, a research
and policy nonprofit in New York.
“The Iranians always say: ‘This is our region. America doesn’t live here.
America is on the other side of the world. What’s it doing here?’”Still, Iraq is
the last Middle Eastern country where there has been something of a balance
between Iranian and U.S. interests for many years now. At times, those interests
have even converged, for example when both powers supported Iraq’s military
offensive to expel the Islamic State terror group. As prime minister, al-Sudani
has often managed to finesse competing U.S. and Iranian demands. But whether to
allow U.S. troops to remain on Iraqi soil is one of the thorniest dilemmas he
faces. In addition to some 2,500 U.S. forces in Iraq, 900 more, most of them
Special Operations forces fighting in Syria, are supported by the U.S.
contingent in Iraq and pass through Iraq regularly for resupply and training.
Those in Syria are fighting alongside Syrian Kurdish forces in an attempt to
keep remnants of the Islamic State in check.
U.S. forces have been on the ground in Iraq off and on since the 2003 invasion
that ousted longtime dictator Saddam Hussein. They withdrew completely in 2011.
But after the Islamic State invaded Iraq in 2014 and took control of much of the
country’s north, the Iraqi government asked the U.S. military to return. A U.S.
troop withdrawal would amplify Iran’s influence over Iraqi foreign policy — much
in the way that Iran influences Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, the other Middle
Eastern countries where it has cultivated powerful proxy forces — according to
Urban Coningham, a Middle East research fellow at the Royal United Services
Institute in London. In some of these cases, the armed groups that Iran fostered
in those countries are now so strong they effectively control the governments,
making them important vessels for Iran to project its anti-Western agenda across
the Middle East.
But Iraq is different.
For one, the United States has had a far greater stake in the country and still
wields considerable leverage there, in part because many Iraqis — inside and
outside the government — have welcomed it as a counterweight to Iran. But since
Iraqi Shiite parties close to Iran gained the greatest share of power after the
2021 parliamentary elections, demands for a speedy drawdown of U.S. forces have
moved front and center. The prime minister and his advisers have tried to take a
nuanced position. They are hoping for a reconfiguration that guarantees some
continued U.S. military involvement, supplies of much-needed equipment and
ongoing training. It would entail some troop withdrawals, which they could
present as a drawdown to satisfy the demands of the pro-Iran political factions.
However, Iran is pressing hard for all U.S. troops to leave as soon as possible.
Iraqi political leaders close to Iran are backing that position.
Mahmoud Al-Rubaie, a longtime strategist for Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, one of the most
influential of the Iraqi political parties close to Iran, said the U.S. image in
Iraq had worsened since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country.
“The generation of 2003 had hopes and dreams that the U.S. would change the
reality of the country,” he said. But as the U.S. troop presence stretched out
over the years, the Iraqi people did not see the transformation they had hoped
for, he added. Those views hardened — especially among the country’s Shiite
Muslim majority — in 2020 after the U.S. assassination of a top Iranian general,
Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad, said Al-Rubaie.
Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the overseas arms of Iran’s powerful
Revolutionary Guard. He was the architect of Iran’s regional network of proxy
forces, including some of the Shiite militias in Iraq, which he helped to
recruit, train and initially finance.
Jiyad of Century International said one of Iraq’s major weaknesses “is that we
do not have a cohesive government or cohesive policies and so that makes our
country reactive to outside influence.”
c.2024 The New York Times Company
Why Has the Biden Administration Donated Close to One Billion Dollars in "Aid"
to Hamas since the October 7 Massacre?
Robert Williams/Gatestone Institute/July 31, 2024
Since October 7.... the total of US taxpayer funds donated to Gaza as a reward
since the massacre on October 7 to $896 million, or close to a billion dollars.
A lawsuit, brought in December 2022 and updated in March 2024, by Rep. Ronny
Jackson and victims of terror attacks in Israel, alleges that President Joe
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken "knowingly and unlawfully" provided
more than $1.5 billion in aid to Gaza and the West Bank since taking office.
Biden and Blinken have "known for years" that the US aid is providing "material
support" for Hamas' "tunnels, rockets, weapon procurement, and command and
control infrastructure," among other terror structures, the lawsuit stated.
The Biden administration has sought to have the case dismissed twice but failed.
On June 28, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled
that the lawsuit can proceed, and that there is evidence the Biden
administration continued awarding taxpayer cash to UNRWA even after Congress
blocked funding to that group due to its support for Hamas's military
infrastructure.
In short, the Biden administration has donated less to Sudan and DRC Congo
combined, where a total of nearly 50 million people face starvation, than to
Gaza, where 2 million people face no such thing. What is going on? And where is
Congress?
According to FBI director Christopher Wray, "the actions of Hamas and its allies
will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven't seen since ISIS
launched its so-called caliphate years ago." Iran, officially labeled the
world's leading sponsor of state terrorism by the 2023 US annual Terrorism
Report, calls the US "the Great Satan" and continues to vow "Death to America."
Blinken casually announced in a July 19 interview that Iran had reduced the time
it would need to create sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon "to one
to two weeks." He then went on to gaslight the audience by claiming that the
Biden administration has been "maximizing pressure on Iran across the board."
Why is the Biden administration, under the pretense of "humanitarian aid,"
drowning these terrorist enemies of America in US taxpayer money? And what, if
anything, is Congress going to do about it?
A lawsuit, brought in December 2022 and updated in March 2024, by Rep. Ronny
Jackson and victims of terror attacks in Israel, alleges that President Joe
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken "knowingly and unlawfully" provided
more than $1.5 billion in aid to Gaza and the West Bank since taking office.
Biden and Blinken have "known for years" that the US aid is providing "material
support" for Hamas' "tunnels, rockets, weapon procurement, and command and
control infrastructure."
The US has donated close to a billion dollars of taxpayer money to Gaza, ruled
by the officially designated terrorist group, Hamas, in the eight months
following October 7, 2023. On that day, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the
Iranian proxies that invaded southern Israel, carrying out this act of war on
behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran. There, they brutally murdered 1,200
people, raped and mutilated women and children, burned children to death in
front of their parents, and abducted more than 250 people into Gaza.
Also, starting on October 7, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – in close
cooperation with their allies in Iran's terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon –
have launched more than 19,000 rockets, missiles and attack-drones at Israel, a
country smaller than New Jersey.
And yet, since October 7 the Biden administration has rewarded Hamas with the
gift of close to a billion dollars in US taxpayer money, disguised as
"humanitarian aid", most of which clearly ends up in the hands of Hamas (here,
here, here, here, here and here).
Since October 7, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
gave more than $674 million in "humanitarian aid" to Gaza. On July 11, USAID
announced another $100 million for Gaza, making it a total of more than $774
million. In addition, since October, the Biden administration has given $122
million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which effectively
functions as a branch of Hamas in Gaza, bringing the total of US taxpayer funds
donated to Gaza as a reward since the October 7 massacre on to $896 million, or
close to a billion dollars.
The overlap between UNRWA and Hamas has been an open secret for the past decade,
but became fully public only after October 7 with the findings that at least 12
UNRWA staff actively participated in the October 7 attack. Most recently, on
July 4, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked UNRWA to terminate the
employment of 100 terrorist operatives still working for the organization.
"In recent months Israel has discovered that hundreds of terrorists, members of
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have been employed by UNRWA in the
Gaza Strip, some of them holding high-ranking positions in UNRWA or in Hamas,"
Ambassador Amir Weissbrod wrote in the letter to UNRWA.
A lawsuit, brought in December 2022 and updated in March 2024, by Rep. Ronny
Jackson and victims of terror attacks in Israel, alleges that President Joe
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken "knowingly and unlawfully" provided
more than $1.5 billion in aid to Gaza and the West Bank since taking office.
Biden and Blinken have "known for years" that the US aid is providing "material
support" for Hamas' "tunnels, rockets, weapon procurement, and command and
control infrastructure," among other terror structures, the lawsuit stated.
The Biden administration has sought to have the case dismissed twice but failed.
On June 28, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled
that the lawsuit can proceed, and that there is evidence the Biden
administration continued awarding taxpayer cash to UNRWA even after Congress
blocked funding to that group due to its support for Hamas's military
infrastructure.
So, billions in US aid for the Gaza Strip, which is home to just two million
people, most of whom actively support the terrorists running the territory and
their Iranian handlers according to poll after poll. The Biden administration
would have Americans believe it is all about humanitarian aid for people in
extreme need. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (ICP), a
UN-affiliated body, published two reports in June, concluding that there is no
famine and that the supply of food to Gaza has, in fact, increased, not
decreased, in recent months. The UN has also admitted that until now there have
only been 32 deaths in Gaza from malnutrition, 28 of them among children under 5
years old.
The question nobody seems to ask is whether it is a reasonable policy to send
billions in aid to a terrorist group supposedly for two million people who
apparently do not receive it -- rather than to, for instance, according to the
US World Food Program (US WFP), which works in cooperation with USAID, "nearly
350 million people around the world [who] are experiencing the most extreme
forms of hunger right now. Of those, nearly 49 million people are on the brink
of famine."
US WFP lists the ten countries suffering the most from hunger right now (updated
on June 25), including Sudan (26 million people facing extreme hunger), the
Democratic Republic of Congo (23.4 million facing extreme hunger), Yemen, (17
million), Syria (12.9 million), Afghanistan (12.4 million), and South Sudan (7.1
million people). Gaza is nowhere to be found on the list.
Sudan is the country in the world with the most people facing hunger and the
situation is extreme, with people eating grass and peanut shells.
"At least 750,000 people are on the brink of starvation and death in Sudan,
where a devastating civil war has left over half the country's 48 million people
in a situation of chronic hunger," the New York Times reported last month. The
famine has been deliberately induced by the warring sides, according to
anonymous sources within the UN, and is therefore a war crime. By the UN's own
admission, although Sudan is the country with the worst famine, it is also the
most forgotten and ignored.
How much aid has the Biden administration, so concerned with humanitarian
assistance and people in dire need, donated to Sudan in fiscal year 2024? About
one third of the aid to Gaza, namely $280 million. Let that sink in: Gaza's
Hamas terrorists, who shoot at their own people when they try to take some of
the aid intended for them, received almost three times as much as Sudan in
fiscal year 2024, even though Sudan, a country of 48 million, is in the midst of
devastating famine.
How about DRC Congo, where 23.4 million people face starvation? The Biden
administration, so concerned with humanitarian compassion for victims of famine
and war, has donated around $424 million dollars from June 2023 to June 2024 to
DRC Congo -- about half the amount that Gaza received.
In short, the Biden administration has donated less to Sudan and DRC Congo
combined, where a total of nearly 50 million people face starvation, than to
Gaza, where 2 million people face no such thing. What is going on? And where is
Congress?
There is more: Hamas is an Iranian proxy: Iran orchestrated the October 7
attacks. Iran sends $100 million to Hamas, $700 million to Hezbollah, and tens
of millions to Islamic Jihad every year. Biden has actively enabled those
Iranian donations by propping up the Iranian Islamic regime's generous financing
of its terrorist proxies, most recently in March by offering Iran sanctions
waivers worth $10 billion.
It is evident that US foreign aid is not premised on humanitarianism and
alleviating suffering, as the Biden administration would like to have us all
think. Because if it were, its foreign aid would be channeled where people are
actually starving to death -- not to Gaza and straight into the pockets of Hamas.
According to FBI director Christopher Wray, "the actions of Hamas and its allies
will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven't seen since ISIS
launched its so-called caliphate years ago." Iran, officially labeled the
world's leading sponsor of state terrorism by the 2023 US annual Terrorism
Report, calls the US "the Great Satan" and continues to vow "Death to America."
Blinken casually announced in a July 19 interview that Iran had reduced the time
it would need to create sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon "to one
to two weeks." He then went on to gaslight the audience by claiming that the
Biden administration has been "maximizing pressure on Iran across the board."
Why is the Biden administration, under the pretense of "humanitarian aid,"
drowning these terrorist enemies of America in US taxpayer money? And what, if
anything, is Congress going to do about it?
*Robert Williams is a researcher based in the United States.
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Who Will Write the Ending of the War in Gaza?
Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
Generals and conquerors have long recognized Gaza's strategic significance.
Napoleon once said that "Gaza is the outpost of Africa and the gate to Asia."
However, the path to Gaza was never paved with roses. Courageous resistance and
the plague crushed Napoleon's army in the Levant. Despite occupying Gaza for a
few months, he was eventually defeated and forced to retreat.
Gaza has now become the largest open-air prison in history. It is reminiscent of
the 20th-century fascist Italian camps in Libya, and it may not be very
different from the camps that Jews were placed in during the Holocaust. Just as
Jews were victims of the Holocaust, today the Palestinians in Gaza are victims
of a new Holocaust against a different victim.
If it were not rooted in religious tradition, we would not have seen this
systematic displacement implemented so easily. The line from the bible: "But if
you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will
become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides," is among the justifications
for the expulsion and displacement pursued by the extreme right-wing government
in Israel today, whose ministers threaten dissolution in the event that the war
stops. Even the slightest concession towards a two-state solution, which the
extreme right rejects outright, could blow up this government. Rather, it sees
the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, and even the West Bank, which they call
"Judea and Samaria," as their only choice.
The war on Gaza has precipitated a mass exodus, with refugees and displaced
persons crammed into sites unfit for human habitation and upending their lives.
Thirty years ago, we were told that there would be peace in the Middle East
built around the Gaza-Jericho Agreement. However, with time, Gaza and Jericho
proved to be nothing more than territory without peace. "Cursed be he who builds
a stone in it," their tradition goes. Peace with its inhabitants, even its
stones, has been perpetually vetoed.
The open-ended war on Gaza could be seen as a new Holocaust with different
victims. Benjamin Netanyahu's actions speak for themselves. Those who follow
Arab-Israeli affairs can all see that Netanyahu does not see peace or an end to
the war. He is indifferent to the return of the hostages and the release of
Israeli soldiers. Netanyahu is stymying negotiations and believes that he must
unburden himself of the captured Israeli soldiers, even if that means killing
them to prevent them from being used as leverage in negotiations. This was
evident when three Israeli captives were killed by Israeli soldiers despite
waving white flags and crying out for help in Hebrew. Netanyahu's soldiers shot
them dead. Ido Shmerez, the brother of one of the three victims, Alon, affirmed
this during the latter’s funeral. "Those who abandoned you killed you after you
did everything right."
An Israeli negotiator has admitted that Netanyahu is deliberately undermining
the negotiations because he believes he can improve his position. However, the
negotiator adds, “This risks the lives of the hostages.” Meanwhile, the mother
of an Israeli prisoner has openly accused Netanyahu of systematically sabotaging
the deal.
The Israeli public, which is up in arms against the war cabinet led by Benjamin
Netanyahu, is fully aware of Netanyahu's stalling and his attempts to foil any
process that could end the war and facilitate an exchange of prisoners between
Palestinians and Israelis. Netanyahu believes that he can force Hamas to make
major concessions through military pressure. However, Hamas continues to insist
on its terms, meaning that the war will continue. That is what Netanyahu wants,
despite there being no buildings left to destroy in Gaza. The list of targets
was exhausted months ago, and Israel has failed to annihilate Hamas or destroy
its tunnel network. It has only succeeded in killing civilians, displacing two
million Palestinians, and creating poverty and hunger.
Now is not the time to discuss Hamas and how it instigated this war with
unpredictable consequences against a vastly superior fighting force that has no
red lines and does not respect rules of engagement. What’s done is done. We now
need to end the war and start rebuilding Gaza. Arabs are increasingly demanding
an end to "the war, the extermination of civilians, the destruction of Gaza's
infrastructure, and the siege on Gaza." Their stance does not equate to support
for Hamas in its actions. Hamas is fully responsible for every step it takes,
and Palestinian people have the right to decide who governs them in Gaza.
Gaza is devastated and destroyed. The only solution is allowing the Palestinians
to have a viable Palestinian state. Then, the Palestinians can elect their
representatives and remove Hamas. It should be pushed out through the ballot
box, not the destruction of Gaza and the elimination of Yahya Sinwar.
Israeli politicians, world leaders, and the next American president must
recognize that "there can be no peace without the establishment of a Palestinian
state." Delaying or evading this outcome will only fuel and justify more
violence.
The question remains: who will write the ending of the war in Gaza?
The Harris We Don’t Know
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 31/2024
If Trump stumbles on airplane stairs, it might be enough for him to recalculate
his profit and loss, with more than three eventful months left until the US
presidential elections.
Trump’s remarkable bravery on stage, after his ear was grazed by a bullet, was a
pivotal moment in his life. This incident earned him significant sympathy and
boosted his confidence, swaying those who were skeptical and hesitant to choose
between him and Biden, who has since dropped out of the race.
But the shooting incident has become history, as rapid events eat away at a
candidate’s credentials, unless he has a broad and stable popular base. The
voter base usually consists of those who rarely change their minds, are
concerned with issues, and party loyalists. Each candidate has their own base,
and each party has its dedicated followers. The voter competition consists of
those who are skeptical and hesitant, the undecided voters.
The awaited Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris may lack significant
popularity, sufficient media presence, or widely recognized ideas, but this does
not diminish her importance. While Trump is a real estate developer, Harris
comes from a legal background. And, 26 out of 46 US presidents came from legal
backgrounds as law students and lawyers. For 13 years, Harris served as a
district attorney in San Francisco then Attorney General of California. Another
significant point of her career was when she reached the Senate; the most
significant house in Congress.
Joe Biden dropped out of the race after Trump eliminated him with his popularity
the Republican party’s media campaign after Biden’s health issue was exposed.
Harris was nominated to replace him, and she will undoubtedly be chosen by the
party. But can we truly believe this relatively unknown woman in the world of
major players will become a shining star next to a giant personality like Trump?
If she wins the race, it will be a major event, and there are those who do not
rule out her victory for several reasons, the most prominent of which is not
love for Harris, but because of the sharp division among Americans.
Following and paying attention to the American elections is a global matter, not
just a local one, due to the influence and supremacy of this great power.
Contrary to what some believe, foreign issues are not decisive in the American
vote, including the conflict with China, the war in Ukraine, the hostility with
Iran, the Israel-Palestine conflict, terrorism, NATO, and others.
The American voter’s priority is domestic issues, which often dominate election
campaigns. This does not negate the importance of internal forces with external
connections like the Jewish, Armenian, Turkish, and Latino lobbies, but they are
not as crucial as economic issues like jobs and living costs, nor social issues
like women’s rights, gun control, and education. Abortion is more important than
the conflict with China or the Gaza War.
Seeking to understand the American voter process, its issues, and its figures is
essential for political culture, which we notice has become more attractive even
among young people. Naturally, we focus more on understanding the political
agendas of the candidates and parties that matter to us: energy, confronting
Iranian expansion and its proxies, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Horn of
Africa, military alliances, bilateral relations, and international balances,
among others. However, there is little information about these.
We know a lot about Trump from his first presidency, whom most of us discovered,
was better than his predecessors, but we know little about his agendas and the
officials who will move with him to the White House if he wins the upcoming
election. Trump this time around might not be the same unless we see familiar
and active faces like Jared Kushner. Meanwhile, we know very little about our
region’s issues with regard to potential candidate Harris, but we can infer from
the Democratic Party’s agenda.
In my opinion, any candidate who reaches the presidency will generally adopt the
high-level foreign policy of the United States, but presidents differ in detail,
which can be important. For example, US support for Saudi Arabia in facing Iran
will be embraced by the winner, whether Trump or Harris, for the better interest
of the US. But will Trump or Harris support the military agreement negotiated
and inherited by Biden? This remains to be seen. Will either of them press for a
Palestinian state project or a final solution with Lebanon? And what about the
fate of US forces in Syria and Iraq, and dealing with the Iranian-backed Houthi
threat to navigation in the Red Sea? All these issues lack clear commitments at
this stage, and are not part of the candidates’ election campaigns.
The Muslim Roots of Assassination
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/July 31/2024
So many historical events — from the rise of the “Dark Ages,” to why Columbus
had to find a new naval route to the East, to why Vlad the Impaler was such a
savage — find their origins in Islam.
Now, with the recent assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump, yet another
forgotten origin — concerning the very word assassination itself — occasions an
explanation.
The word and its meaning — the planned and stealthy killing of someone, usually
an important political figure — are based on the Hashashin (a group whose name
reached the West as assassin), and their modus operandi. Since their founding in
1090 AD, and late into the thirteenth century, this shadowy sect lived in the
mountainous regions of Syria and Iran. From there, they launched countless
assassination attempts on their enemies, mostly Sunni Muslims such as the Seljuk
Turks, and the Christians of the Crusader states. (As a Shia sect, the Assassins
saw both Sunnis and Shias as enemies.)
They were known to their contemporaries as Hashashin due to their use of
hashish, a hallucinogenic cannabis plant with which they drugged their young
male recruits as part of their indoctrination process. Once fully committed,
these young Assassins would carefully and secretly track down their targets
until the opportune moment arrived, at which point they would pounce on and
ideally stab their target to death — preferably in public, for a maximum show of
terror. Then they would just stand there, waiting to be cut down by their
target’s guard.
While these facts are recounted in many modern (secondary) history books, what
is seldom mentioned is the distinctly Islamic origins of the Assassins. Modern
academics, who believe their duty is to whitewash Islam before an already
suspicious Western public, tend to make the opposite argument, saying (for
example) that because the Assassins targeted both Christians and Muslims, they
were very obviously not religiously oriented or motivated.
In reality, there are many telling markers of their Islamic pedigree.
The first revolves around why hallucinogenic cannabinoids were employed in the
first place: to give recruits a taste of Muslim paradise. The head of the order,
known to contemporaries as the “Sheikh (or Old Man) of the Mountain,” would get
young male recruits thoroughly “stoned,” and then, while they were dazed and
confused, lead them to a beautiful garden, “where every species of sensual
gratification should be found” in the company of scantily clad and “amorous”
women, writes Marco Polo, a contemporary of the Assassins who left us with the
best and most extant description of the group. (Needless to say, because Polo’s
memoirs, based on his travels through Muslim lands, present Islam in a negative
light, more than a few academics have dismissed the Venetian traveler as an
“Islamophobe” and his work as a “Christian polemic.”)
At any rate, the purpose of the hashish-induced orgy the recruit experienced was
to convince him that fulfilling his master’s wishes — that is, assassinating
whomever the Sheikh ordered him to assassinate, and then getting killed himself
afterward — the paradise he had already temporarily experienced (while drugged)
would be his forever.
This entire fiasco is, of course, based on the direct teachings of Muhammad.
Thus, before sending them on their mission, the Sheikh would tell young
Assassins: “We have the assurances of our prophet that he who defends his lord
shall inherit Paradise, and if you show yourselves devoted to the obedience of
my orders, that happy lot awaits you.”
The fact is, not only did the prophet of Islam make use of and call for the
assassinations of his enemies (which included elderly poets and mothers), but he
promised a decidedly carnal paradise to those men who died fighting in the name
of Islam. This included 72 hooris: supernatural, celestial women (“wide-eyed”
and “big-bosomed,” says the Koran 56:22, 78:33) created by Allah for the express
purpose of sexually gratifying his favorites in perpetuity. (Whether or not the
English word “whore” is etymologically connected to the Arabic hoori in the same
way “assassin” is based on hashashin is ultimately a moot point, as both seem to
serve the same function.)
The damsels in the gardens of the Assassins were dressed and behaved in a manner
that would make the drug-addled recruits believe them to be hooris — thus
whetting their appetite for more.
Incidentally, Muslims the world over, from ISIS to “radicals” living in Europe,
still cite and aspire to meet the hooris — further underscoring that this belief
is not limited to some bizarre sect, but is purely Islamic in provenance.
Then there is the specific name of those Assassins who actually carried out the
assassinations: they were known as Fedayeen — they who sacrifice themselves. If
that Arabic word sounds familiar, it’s because numerous Muslim terror groups
still use it, most notably Palestinian suicide bombers. Hence, as Bernard Lewis
writes, “the Assassins may indeed be regarded as the forerunners of the suicide
bombers of today.”
Finally, the Assassins were Shias (specifically Nizari Ismailis), and this
explains why many of their victims were Sunni Muslims — default enemies on the
same scale as Christians.
Whereas Islam endorses deception of all sorts — Muhammad personally permitted
lying to one’s wife, to one’s enemy, and in order to reconcile quarreling
parties —Shiasm especially perfected the art of subterfuge. Why? Because unlike
their enemies, the Sunnis, the Shias were an often-weakened minority, and
therefore had more reason to use deception in their struggle for mastery of the
Muslim world.
As Bernard Lewis again writes in his little book on the Assassins, taqiyya, an
Islamic doctrine that permits deception,
is by no means peculiar to the Shia; it was they, however, who were most
frequently exposed to the dangers of persecution and repression [by the Sunni
majority], and by them therefore that the principle was most frequently invoked.
It was used to justify concealment of beliefs.
As such, Shias arguably remain the world’s dissimulation experts par excellence.
Indeed, Iran — which is Shia — has openly boasted of employing deceptive tactics
against the West (here and here).
At any rate, here, then, are the true origins of the word, and act, of
assassination — to which America’s most famous man nearly succumbed recently.
**Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is
the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the
Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum
Haniyeh is Dead, What Does Iran Do Next?
Cian ward/This Is Beirut/July 31/2024
Following the killing of Haniyeh in Iran on Wednesday, the region may be on the
precipice of war, as an Iranian response seems likely, which may pull its entire
so-called “axis of resistance” into war. In the early hours of Wednesday, Israel
struck a building in Tehran in an attack that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
This follows an Israeli strike in Beirut on Tuesday that resulted in the deaths
of two children and a woman, injuring 74 others, according to the latest
figures. The region now finds itself on the precipice of the long-feared
escalation that has hung over it since October 7th. Iran’s Supreme Leader,
Ayatollah Khamenei, has promised ‘harsh punishment’ for Israel following
Haniyeh’s killing. The powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that the
killing “will be met with a harsh and painful response” by Iran and the entire
“axis of resistance.”
In April, an Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate building killed seven and
precipitated a major and unprecedented Iranian response in the form of missiles
and drone attacks on Israel. Yet this represents a more dangerous moment. A
direct Israeli attack on Iran and the killing of Hamas’ most senior leader, less
than 12 hours after Israel struck Beirut for the second time in 10 long months
of war, resulted in the as-of-yet unconfirmed assassination of Hezbollah’s
second-most senior leader.
It now seems self-evident that Iran will respond; the question is how severe
will their retaliation will be and whether the whole region will be set alight.
According to Yeghia Tashjian, International Affairs Cluster Coordinator at the
Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, at the
American University of Beirut the killing crossed a red line that Iran
established following April’s missile attack, making it unlikely that things
will calm down.
CNN reported at the time that Iran’s April attack on Israel was highly
choreographed; drones and missiles were launched 1,000 miles away in order to
give Israel time to respond, and the US was notified ahead of time. According to
the Center for Strategic and International Studies, it was strategically
calibrated to demonstrate Iran’s capacity to target Israel while signaling its
intent to do so in the face of any more attacks. This signal marked an unspoken
red line—a red line that Israel has now crossed—in effect, making Iran’s policy
of deterrence a failure.
The possibility of seeing another choreographed response is unlikely, as Iran
will feel obliged to respect the red line they established in order to reinstate
deterrence. According to Tashjian, there are also a number of domestic and
regional pressures that will push Iran to respond.
Iran’s newly elected President Pezeshkian, a reformer, will have to “show some
teeth” in order to face off criticism from hardliners who fear he may be “soft”
on foreign policy, says Tashjian. Tashjian adds that this high-profile
assassination in Tehran, just hours after the inauguration of the President, is
a “total embarrassment for Iran, the IRGC, and its intelligence agencies.”
Its failure to protect one of its most significant allies in the heart of its
capital on one of the biggest days in the political calendar is a damning
display of their ability to protect and support their so-called “axis of
resistance.”. On a regional level, Iran will feel compelled to demonstrate that
“it is still in control,” says Tashjian. As a result, it is quite possible that
retaliation will come from across the “axis of resistance.” According to
Mohammed Al Basha, analyst at the US-based Navanti Group, we may well see “a
coordinated joint reaction from Hezbollah in Lebanon to avenge Fuad Shukr, from
Houthis in Yemen to retaliate for the bombing of Hudaydah Port, and from the
Islamic Resistance in Iraq, increasing the potential for further escalation”
across the region. Tehran would almost certainly be a direct participant, says
Al Basha, following Khamenei’s post on X, claiming it is their “duty to take
revenge.”
It is unclear where Iran would decide to target, but the likely choices are
“Israeli military or intelligence bases,” claims Tashjian. US military bases in
Syria may also potentially be a target, due to perceptions that the US may have
green-lit the operation or at the very least failed to pressure Netanyahu enough
to stop it. The careful choreography of geopolitics that has largely held since
October between Iran, the “axis of resistance”, and Israel appears to be
breaking down. Israel has struck Yemen for the first time in recent weeks; it
struck Beirut on Tuesday, and now Iran. According to Al Basha, it is these
“shifting thresholds for conflict… that make the coming days critical for
regional stability.”
The Impact of Haniyeh’s Death on Gaza Talks
Sana Richa Choucair/This Is Beirut/July 31/2024
Negotiations over the Gaza ceasefire and hostages have already been complex. How
might they shift following the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, killed on
Tuesday night in Iran? Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed on
Tuesday night in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he was attending the
investiture of the new Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian. This event entirely
changes the situation, as Haniyeh was a key figure in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. He was not only seen as one of the organizers of the October 7 Hamas
attack on Israel, but he also played a crucial role in the ongoing Gaza
negotiations, which have been at a standstill for months. As recently as July
29, Israel and Hamas were accusing each other of sapping ceasefire talks in Gaza
and obstructing the return of hostages by imposing new conditions. In April,
Hamas reported that three of Ismail Haniyeh’s sons and four of his grandchildren
were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Haniyeh had stated at the time, “Anyone who
thinks that attacking my children during negotiations and before an agreement is
reached will push Hamas to change its position is delusional.”Now that he has
been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran on Tuesday night, what will happen
to the talks regarding Gaza’s fate?
Areepen Uttarasin, a Thai politician and former hostage negotiator in Gaza,
quoted by the British agency Reuters, asserted that “the Hamas leader’s
assassination will make negotiations and de-escalation efforts more
challenging.”“Things will become more violent, and the situation will rather
deteriorate,” he added on Wednesday. He also emphasized that “this assassination
is particularly serious because it occurred in Iran,” highlighting that “Hamas’s
adversaries are capable of striking anywhere.”For his part, Barak Ravid, a
political and foreign policy analyst for CNN, has suggested that Haniyeh’s death
could significantly impact the ongoing negotiations regarding Gaza, even though
Israel does not view him as having military significance. According to Ravid,
the Israeli government perceives Haniyeh as a key figure responsible for the
Hamas attack on October 7.
In parallel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to hold a
“situation assessment” meeting on Wednesday concerning Haniyeh’s death,
according to The Washington Post. The meeting is expected to be held in Tel
Aviv, at the Kirya military base, the Ministry of Defense’s headquarters.
Ismail Haniyeh was based in Qatar, which has hosted the Hamas political bureau
since 2012 at the request of the United States. However, in April, Secretary of
State Antony Blinken conveyed a message from Washington urging Qatar to expel
Hamas members if the group persisted in rejecting ceasefire proposals. Qatar has
been actively involved for months, alongside Egypt and the US, in negotiations
to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza. However, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al Thani questioned on Wednesday even the possibility of continuing
the process, casting doubt on Qatar’s role as a mediator. “Political
assassinations and the ongoing targeting of civilians in Gaza (…) raise the
question of how mediation can succeed when one party is assassinating the
negotiator of the other side,” the Qatari Prime Minister wrote on his X account.
“Peace requires serious partners,” he added. In this context, the fate of both
Gaza and the entire region remains more uncertain than ever.
Where Does the Saudi-Iranian Agreement Stand Now?
Rami Rayess/This Is Beirut/July 31/2024
It’s been nearly a year and a half since the Saudi-Iranian agreement, brokered
under China’s auspices, which surprised many observers. The decision by the two
longtime rivals to turn to Beijing to settle their differences was unexpected.
This agreement underscored the emerging role of Chinese diplomacy in a complex
issue that had troubled the entire Middle East, raising concerns about the
potential for a lasting deterioration in relations, particularly given the
significant sectarian and religious elements involved. The agreement can be seen
as successful in re-establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries
and alleviating regional tensions that had reached high levels before it was
signed. However, there were high expectations following the agreement,
especially regarding Iranian policies toward several Arab countries such as
Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, which have not been fully met.
It’s important to recognize that this agreement has enabled Tehran to normalize
its relations with Jordan, Egypt, and Bahrain – nations with close ties to Saudi
Arabia and careful foreign policy considerations. It has also revived some trade
and economic exchanges between the two countries. However, these exchanges have
not reached significant levels due to the financial structures of both nations,
as well as the United States and international sanctions on Iran, which make
trade more challenging and less smooth compared to other countries.
Some argue that, despite its importance, the agreement’s outcomes have been
limited to restoring diplomatic relations and reopening embassies that had been
closed for many years. Many contentious and pressing issues between the two
countries have not seen significant political progress. This includes the
election of a new president in Lebanon, where Tehran can exert influence through
its allies, who are firmly supporting a single candidate while also calling for
dialogue sessions to agree on a president. Additionally, there has been no
progress in the Yemeni reconciliation process thus far.
While there hasn’t been as much progress as desired on the Yemeni and Lebanese
fronts, Riyadh has managed to restore some of its severed ties with Damascus,
Iran’s primary ally in the region since the days of the late President Hafez al-Assad.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seeking to normalize relations with Arab
countries after Syria’s membership in the Arab League was suspended in the early
months of the Syrian revolution. There is no doubt that revitalizing and
strengthening relations with Saudi Arabia is a crucial step, given its
significant influence in the Arab world.
Regardless of the circumstances, the Saudi-Iranian agreement has been a crucial
step toward reducing sectarian tensions in the region, which had been
exacerbated by dubious television channels and satellite networks and had
reached dangerous levels. If this agreement leads to de-escalation in other Arab
areas as well, the situation in the region will undoubtedly improve. A
reconciliation with a sole emphasis on security issues, or giving them priority
over other political matters, while important, is not enough to achieve the key
objectives needed for greater regional stability. The region remains a hotspot
of tensions due to the Israeli conflict with Gaza, unrest in southern Lebanon,
and other recent developments in that area.