English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 03/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of
love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our
Lord or of me his prisoner.
Second Letter to Timothy 01/06-14: "For this reason I remind you to
rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands;
for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and
of love and of self-discipline. Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about
our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel,
relying on the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not
according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace
was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been
revealed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death
and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I
was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I
suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my
trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have
entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard
from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure
entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.".
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on April 02-03/2025
Anniversary of the Siege of Zahle/Elias Bejjani/April 02/ 2025
Patriarch Hajoula: From Mamluk to Persian Persecution—A Testament to Bkerke’s
Enduring Victory/Lawyer Fouad Al-Asmar/April 02, 2025
Writer and Director Youssef El-Khoury: And Let History Tell…
Video Link for 2 Interviews with Tom Harb
Video Link to an Interview with Journalist Ali Hamadeh from "DNA"
Aoun and Salam are not serious about disarming Hezbollah
Lebanese army expands presence in areas along Litani River
Ortagus to visit Lebanon in coming hours amid calls to disarm Hezbollah
Timeframe reportedly devised for disarming Hezbollah
Report: US promises to press Israel to deescalate with Lebanon
Report: Lebanon received alarming signals after Dahieh strike
Rocket attacks from Lebanon’s south—US wants answers: What’s the latest?
Reports: Spain arrests suspects accused of buying drone parts for Hezbollah
Baarini Advocates for Conditional Normalization with Israel
Shiite Council Files Legal Complaint Over Rocket Attacks and Pro-Israel Rhetoric
Bassil says Hezbollah military role 'no longer acceptable'
Patriarch al-Rahi congratulates President Aoun on recent appointments, warns
against unilateral breaches of ceasefire
Will Beirut's municipal elections break tradition? Here’s what we know
US State Department Appoints Massad Boulos as Senior Advisor for Africa
Lebanon's finance minister submits draft decree on banking sector reform to
Cabinet
Massive fire destroys Syrian refugee tents in southern Lebanon
Roumieh Prison Courtroom Set to Resume Operations to Ease Overcrowding
Pressure Is Mounting, Lebanon Urged to Set a Timeline for Hezbollah's
Disarmament/Bassam Abou Zeid/This is Beirut/April 02/2025
The Unbearable Burden of the Syrian Crisis in Lebanon/Natasha Metni Torbey/This
Is Beirut/April 02/2025
Eid Celebrations: Joy Amid Conflict’s Shadow/Christiane Tager/This Is
Beirut/April 02/2025
Israeli airstrike in Beirut kills Hezbollah commander, operative/David Daoud/
FDD's Long War Journal/April 02/2025
A ‘Ticking Bomb’: Israeli Eliminates Iran-Linked Terrorist in Beirut
Lebanon’s central bank controversy shows limits of technocracy/NADIM SHEHADI/Arab
News/April 02, 2025
On Lebanese Reform and Reformists’ Need for Politics/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/April
02/2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on April 02-03/2025
Israel Strikes Key Syrian Sites in a Message to Turkey/This is
Beirut/AFP/April 02/2025
Trump announces new ‘reciprocal’ tariffs in financial and political gamble
Trump takes on Canada again with sweeping new tariffs on goods including autos
Military Confrontation 'Almost Inevitable' If Iran Nuclear Talks Fail
Nuclear: Trump and the Iranian Dilemma
Trump 'seriously' considering Iran's offer of indirect nuclear talks
Look at the people expelled from US for pro-Palestinian activism
Israeli strikes on Jabalia, Khan Younis kill at least 30 people including
children
Far-right Israeli minister sparks outcry with visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound
Palestinian man tortured to death by Hamas militants after criticizing group and
attending protests, family says
Israeli leader Netanyahu will visit Hungary, defying an international arrest
warrant
Israel seizing more of Gaza to force Hamas to free hostages
Gaza mass grave underscores ‘war without limits’, UN official says
Israeli strikes on Jabalia, Khan Younis kill at least 30 people including
children
Israel PM Says 'Dissecting' Gaza to Force Hamas to Free Hostages
Hamas warns those who 'spread chaos' after killing of its police officer
Protests broke out against Hamas in Gaza. What do Palestinians think about the
militant group?
US officials object to European push to buy weapons locally
Yemen’s Houthis say one killed in fresh strikes blamed on US
Titles For
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on April 02-03/2025
Australia Must Join Maximum Pressure Against Iran/Saeed Ghasseminejad/Dr.
Reza Arab/ The National Interest/April 02/2025
Europe's Illegal Land-Grab: The Unlawful Palestinian Settlements You've Never
Heard Of/Karys Rhea/Gatestone Institute/April 02/2025
Will US pressure on Iraq succeed in bringing Iran-backed militias to
heel?/JONATHAN LESSWARE/Arab News/April 02, 2025
Europe’s security hangs in the balance/MOHAMED CHEBARO/Arab News/April 02, 2025
Dismantling USAID could boost African self-reliance/HIPPOLYTE FOFACK/Arab
News/April 02, 2025
A better world begins with raising better children/ARNAB NEIL SENGUPTA//Arab
News/April 02, 2025
The Context of the Strategic Relationship/Dr. Abdullah Faisal Alrabeh/Asharq
Al-Awsat/April 02/2025
The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on April 02-03/2025
Anniversary of the Siege of Zahle
Elias Bejjani/April 02/ 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/04/54025/
A homeland whose people are unwilling to offer themselves as sacrifices on its
altar will perish, and they will be reduced to humiliated slaves.
On April 2, 1981, the brave people of Zahle City, alongside all the free
Lebanese under the banner of the Lebanese Resistance led by the Martyr of the
Cedars, Sheikh Bashir Gemayel, defiantly said "No" to the Syrian occupier. They
refused to bow to its terrorism, crimes, and barbarism.
With unwavering faith, honor, and resilience, they defended Zahle, offering
hundreds of martyrs in a heroic stand that repelled the Syrian Assad Baathist
onslaught.
The Holy Apostle, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, speaks of Christ’s redemptive
death: "He had to taste death by the grace of God for the good of all."
Reflecting on Christ’s sacrifice allows us to embrace and transcend the unjust
causes of death, focusing instead on its noble purpose. Similarly, the martyrs
of Zahle, like Christ, had to taste death for the greater good—so that we, Zahle,
and Lebanon might endure. Like a grain of wheat that must fall to the ground to
bear fruit, their sacrifice did not perish with them; it multiplied in meaning
and purpose.
On the evening of April 2, 1981, Sheikh Bashir Gemayel addressed the fighters of
Zahle, giving them the choice to remain or leave.
He sad to them:"The road is open for only a few hours. If you leave, you will
save your lives, but Zahle will inevitably fall, marking the end of our epic
resistance. If you stay, you will have no water, medicine, food, or ammunition.
Your mission will be to organize internal resistance, preserve the identity of
the Lebanese Bekaa, and give meaning to our six-year struggle."
Then he issued the defining words:"If you decide to stay, know this: heroes die
but do not surrender."
Their response was resolute: "We will stay." And from that moment, a legendary
slogan was born. Zahle remained free, and Lebanon endured.
Patriarch Hajoula: From
Mamluk to Persian Persecution—A Testament to Bkerke’s Enduring Victory
Lawyer Fouad Al-Asmar/April 02, 2025
(Free translation from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani)
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/04/141857/
The Garden of the Patriarchs in the Qannoubine Valley holds the relics of the
Maronite community’s forefathers—beacons of faith and unwavering resilience.
Their history is one of struggle, defiance, and ultimate triumph over death and
submission.
Among these pillars of endurance stands Patriarch Hajoula, once the monk Gabriel
of Hajoula, who devoted his life to asceticism, prayer, and spiritual
discipline. Chosen by the monks of Qannoubine to succeed Patriarch John Akouri,
he took up the pastoral staff and moved to the Monastery of Our Lady of Elij,
the patriarchal seat. His tenure began amid an internal schism within the
Maronite Church, but he succeeded in restoring unity—an achievement that drew
the ire of the ruling Mamluks.
The Mamluks, relentless in their campaigns to subjugate Lebanon’s Christians, as
well as the Shiites and Druze, sought to incite discord and shatter their
independence. Patriarch Hajoula, standing firm in defense of his people, was
accused of collaborating with the Crusaders. A death decree was issued against
him.
Forced into hiding, the Patriarch sought refuge in a cave in Hajoula, but the
Mamluks unleashed their wrath upon Byblos and Batroun, slaughtering entire
villages without discrimination. Their cruelty extended beyond massacres—they
burned churches, arrested priests and monks, and inflicted terror to pressure
the Patriarch into surrender.
The weight of his people’s suffering broke Patriarch Hajoula’s heart. Knowing
that his martyrdom could shield them from further persecution, he surrendered
himself. Shackled in chains, he was paraded through devastated villages—his
people weeping as they watched their shepherd led away by Mamluk soldiers.
Upon reaching the Citadel of Tripoli, he was offered a choice: renounce his
Christian faith and live, or stand firm and perish. His response was resolute.
He endured brutal torture—flogging, mutilation, and unspeakable torment—before
being burned alive on April 1, 1367. His body was secretly buried in a Muslim
cemetery at Tell el-Raml, his grave marked with the deceptive name "Sheikh
Masoud" to conceal his resting place from those who would honor his sacrifice.
Patriarch Hajoula’s martyrdom is an eternal testament to the Maronites'
unyielding faith. His sacrifice ensured the survival of the Maronite Church,
securing a free and dignified existence for generations to come. Today, Bkerke
and its Patriarch stand as heirs to this noble legacy of defiance and victory.
And yet, in this age, Lebanon is plagued by political dwarves—agents of
servitude to an axis of humiliation and ignorance. With their vile schemes,
malicious tools, and treacherous accusations of collaboration against honorable
men, they believe they can rewrite history. But history does not bow to cowards.
Their treachery is but a fleeting shadow, destined to vanish in the darkness of
oblivion. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s mountain remains standing—its cedars towering,
their fragrance mingling with the glory of a nation that refuses to kneel.
Will anyone listen? Will anyone learn?
Writer and Director Youssef
El-Khoury: And Let History Tell…
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/04/141878/
On the anniversary of the Zahle War, April 02/981—when the ink dries, the
silence grows, and history speaks. (Footage of the Zahle War taken from my new
film, Bashir: The Leader Who Dared to Dream.)
Video Link for 2 Interviews with
Tom Harb
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/04/141872/
President Aoun sought French intervention to support his stalling positions on
disarming Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s rulers are stalling, and the U.S. is frustrated with them.
It is a disgrace for Lebanon’s leaders that Israel is striking Hezbollah’s
weapon depots near the Ministry of Defense and the Presidential Palace.
The majority of Shiites seek to break free from Hezbollah’s dominance, and the
last parliamentary elections proved this reality.
The ceasefire agreement allows Israel to strike any threat, and its attacks will
remain objective.
If Hezbollah is capable, let it go and fight.
There will be no stability or reconstruction as long as weapons remain.
Naim Qassem’s lies are exposed.
No stability or reconstruction as long as weapons remain.
Criticism of the parliament’s inaction.
An analysis of the possibilities of striking Iran, Syria’s new situation, and
the most important Lebanese and regional issues.
April 02/2025
Video Link to an Interview
with Journalist Ali Hamadeh from "DNA"
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/04/141864/
A remarkable episode exposing all the lies, heresies, and empty bravado of the
terrorist Hezbollah. A word of advice to the remnants of this defeated and
obsolete Iranian gang: pack up and stop the theatrics! Your circus of fake
"resistance" and terrorism is over. Surrender your weapons and spare your
community and Lebanon from new catastrophes dictated by Iranian decrees.
April 02/2025
Aoun and Salam are not
serious about disarming Hezbollah
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/Face Book site/April 02/2025
Aoun and Salam are not serious about disarming Hezbollah. They have delivered
speeches and put out statements that give the impression that they wanted to do
so but, in reality, have not moved a finger. Hezbollah has remained armed and in
charge of war and peace. Washington has done its best to give the Lebanese the
chance to disarm Hezbollah and restore their state’s sovereignty. But if Aoun
and Salam continue politicking instead of enforcing policy, Washington will lose
interest and will let Israel continue doing what it was bent on doing:
Incinerate Hezbollah.
Lebanese army expands presence in areas along Litani River
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/April 02, 2025
BEIRUT: A large contingent of the Lebanese army entered Yohmor Chkeif, north of
the Litani River in Nabatieh governorate, southern Lebanon, on Wednesday.
Rockets were launched from the area toward Israel last week.
A security source said forces patrolled the village, which is surrounded on
three sides by the river. A video shared on social media appeared to show the
troops entering the village. The residents of another village north of the
Litani River reported seeing Lebanese army Cessna drones in the skies over
Nabatieh on Wednesday. An army unit, in cooperation with the UN Interim Force in
Lebanon, recently entered Zawtar Al-Charqiyeh, which is located in the same
governorate. Ali Al-Amin, the editor-in-chief of the Janoubia news website, told
Arab News the region is characterized by its valleys, mountains and rugged
terrain. Under Hezbollah directives, only civilians are allowed in the area. But
a Lebanese army unit entered Hezbollah military sites in Wadi Zawtar Al-Charqiyeh,
close to the river, he added. The valley was targeted by at least 200 raids
during the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah. It reportedly contains large
Hezbollah camps, training centers and weapon storage facilities. The arrival of
the Lebanese army in the area effectively marks the end of Hezbollah’s military
presence there, Al-Amin said, though the group has not officially stated this.
He suggested that Hezbollah might have reached an understanding with the army
behind closed doors.
Last week, the army seized empty rocket launchers that had targeted Israel twice
in the space of a week. An investigation has been launched in an attempt to
identify those who fired the missiles. They remain unknown, although the
Lebanese army said it arrested suspects from Syria and Palestine. The launch of
the rockets resulted in a significant deterioration in the security situation in
Lebanon, jeopardizing the ceasefire agreement as retaliatory Israeli airstrikes
targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut for the first time since the peace deal
came into effect four months ago. Dozens of people were killed or injured by the
Israeli strikes. Army commander Gen. Rodolphe Haikal inspected the South Litani
Sector Command two days ago and reinforced the Lebanese military’s commitment to
the implementation of UN resolutions and the ceasefire agreement. Army command
said the general had highlighted the continued presence of Israeli forces in
occupied Lebanese territory as the main obstacle to deployment of the army south
of the Litani, and reinforcement of the ceasefire.
Further Israeli violations of the peace agreement were reported on Wednesday.
According to media reports from southern Lebanon, the Israeli army “opened fire
on a citizen from the border town of Odaisseh, injuring him slightly while he
was driving his car on the Kfarkela-Odaisseh road.” The Ministry of Health also
said a citizen was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Odaisseh area. The Israeli
army also continued to target shelters being built by residents in border areas
near homes destroyed during the conflict. A combat drone destroyed one such
shelter in the center of the town of Yaroun but no casualties were reported. At
dawn, Israeli vehicles and demolition equipment based in the Labouneh area east
of Naqoura, inside Lebanese territory, advanced toward Ras Naqoura. According to
the National News Agency, they raised a dirt barrier that blocked the road on
both directions opposite the Israeli Jal Al-Alam site, which overlooks the towns
of Naqoura and Alma Al-Shaab. The latest developments come as Russia Today
reported that Lebanese security officials had received “concerning signals”
suggesting that Israeli authorities intend to resume their campaign of targeted
assassinations. A security source said Tel Aviv is committed to dismantling
Hezbollah’s military arsenal and considers the Lebanese government’s efforts so
far to achieve this to be inadequate.The rising tensions followed a pre-dawn
Israeli strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday that killed Hezbollah
member Hassan Badir and his son. Civilians in a neighboring apartment were also
reportedly killed. In a separate security operation, the Lebanese army said on
Wednesday it had shut down two illegal border crossings in the Hermel and
Mashari Al-Qaa regions as part of its ongoing efforts to combat smuggling and
unauthorized movements across the country’s northern and eastern border with
Syria.
Ortagus to visit Lebanon in
coming hours amid calls to disarm Hezbollah
Naharnet/April 02/2025
Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus will arrive in Beirut
in the coming hours, al-Jadeed TV said Wednesday. Ortagus had stressed the need
to fully disarm Hezbollah and said Washington wants diplomatic negotiations and
peace between Lebanon and Israel, but newly elected President Joseph Aoun
assured that Hezbollah’s arms will not be removed by force and that
normalization with Israel was not on the table. "The diplomatic option is the
only choice to implement the (ceasefire) agreement and secure Israel’s
withdrawal from the points it is occupying (in south Lebanon)," Aoun said,
adding that "any negotiations over normalization are not currently on the table"
and that Lebanon will remain linked to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative - which
suggested that Arab states would only normalize ties with Israel in return for a
full withdrawal from the occupied territories in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan
Heights, and Lebanon, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East
Jerusalem as its capital. Ortagus had said last month that the U.S. will be
"bringing together Lebanon and Israel for talks aimed at diplomatically
resolving several outstanding issues between the two countries" -- the release
of Lebanese prisoners, the remaining disputed points along the Blue Line, and
the remaining 5 points where Israeli forces are still deployed. Al-Jadeed said
that U.S. president Donald Trump discussed in a phone call with French President
Emmanuel Macron the situation in Lebanon in a French attempt to de-escalate and
find ways to disarm Hezbollah without using force. MTV meanwhile said that
Lebanese officials are still awaiting a confirmation of Ortagus' visit to
Beirut, which is scheduled for Friday, according to the Lebanese television
station.
Timeframe reportedly devised for disarming Hezbollah
Naharnet/April 02/2025
The Lebanese government has received diplomatic demands for setting a timeframe
for removing Hezbollah’s weapons, LBCI television reported on Wednesday. “The
timeframe has already been devised,” sources told LBCI, adding that “reforms
will be approved in April and the municipal elections will be held in May and
that will be accompanied by a dialogue with the Shiite community to clarify that
their future is within the state and not outside it.”
Report: US promises to press Israel to deescalate with
Lebanon
Naharnet/April 02/2025
President Joseph Aoun’s contacts with the Americans over the past two days
“failed to obtain a decision decision from Washington to sway Israel to halt the
strikes” on Lebanon, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Wednesday. “The
Americans only promised Lebanon to do everything they can to alleviate the
tensions, at a time the U.S. has granted Israel the right to strike targets
inside Lebanon,” the daily added. Informed sources meanwhile told Nidaa al-Watan
that “the Israeli escalation is aimed at pressuring Lebanon ahead of the visit
to Lebanon by Deputy U.S. Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus, with the aim of
achieving certain goals.” The sources added that “communication is ongoing
between the president, the speaker and the prime minister to coordinate stances
prior to the visit.”
Report: Lebanon received alarming signals after Dahieh
strike
Naharnet/April 02/2025
The latest Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs “will not be the
last,” a Lebanese diplomatic source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. “Over the
past hours, Lebanon received alarming signals indicating that Tel Aviv will
carry on with the policy of assassinations,” the source said. Israel “has also
taken upon itself the mission of destroying Hezbollah’s military arsenal, as
long as the Lebanese government’s steps remain insufficient,” the source added.
“The United States considers that the Lebanese state is still avoiding friction
with Hezbollah and that the government so far has not been able to abide by the
implementation of U.N. resolutions, especially Resolution 1559, which is an
essential article in Resolution 1701,” the source said. Foreign Minister Youssef
Rajji meanwhile intensified his contacts with relevant countries, especially the
U.S., to put an end to Israeli attacks, following the second Israeli airstrike
on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Foreign Ministry source told Asharq al-Awsat.
“Despite its limited impact in terms of halting Israeli escalation in a
permanent manner, Lebanese diplomacy remains capable of playing an influential
rule in reining in or curbing Israeli aggression, at least in keep Beirut and
its suburbs safe from attacks,” Lebanon’s former ambassador to the U.S. Antoine
Chedid told the daily.
Rocket attacks from Lebanon’s south—US wants answers:
What’s the latest?
LBCI/April 02, 2025
The investigations by the Lebanese Army Intelligence Directorate and the General
Directorate of General Security have yet to produce clear results in identifying
those responsible for launching rockets from southern Lebanon on March 22 and
28. The General Security has detained three individuals, including two Lebanese
nationals and one Syrian. The investigation is being overseen by the military
judiciary. Sources say the investigation has not reached any substantial
conclusions, as authorities are awaiting the results of DNA and fingerprint
tests to match with evidence collected from the platforms seized by the army and
the location from which the rockets were fired. The military judiciary has
released five detainees due to a lack of evidence against them.The Intelligence
Directorate is still holding five detainees, while others have been released.
The investigation is also waiting for further results from forensic tests and
technical reviews to compare with the suspects. In conclusion, the identity of
the rocket launchers and the party behind them remains undetermined, and no
involvement has been proven for the suspects in either the army's or General
Security's investigations. The mere presence of some suspects in the area where
the rockets were launched does not constitute incriminating evidence, and
authorities are awaiting conclusive proof. This case continues to be a pressing
issue for the Lebanese authorities, with the U.S. demanding identification of
the individuals behind the rocket launches and those responsible for them. In
addition, pressure has mounted on Lebanon, with reports suggesting that the
ceasefire monitoring committee's work is being suspended, awaiting the formation
of committees to continue discussions on unresolved issues between Lebanon and
Israel. However, according to official Lebanese sources, Lebanon has not been
notified of any such decision. A source pointed out that this information comes
ahead of the visit by U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus to Lebanon and could be part of
a pressure tactic to persuade Lebanon into accepting political representation
for negotiations, a proposal it has rejected thus far. According to sources, the
visit may provide a clearer understanding of the situation and the next phase
for Lebanon, including whether the ceasefire monitoring committee's work will
continue or be suspended.
Reports: Spain arrests suspects accused of buying drone
parts for Hezbollah
Naharnet/April 02/2025
The Spanish Civil Guard has carried out an operation against a group of
individuals accused of joining a Hezbollah logistics structure in Spain, Spanish
media reports said. The operation focused on a faction facilitating the
procurement of spare parts for drone assembly, according to Spanish media. This
operation was part of ongoing investigations launched in July in Barcelona,
which were carried out in cooperation with German authorities to dismantle
“Hezbollah logistics networks responsible for manufacturing drones,” the reports
said.
Baarini Advocates for Conditional Normalization with Israel
This is Beirut/April 02/2025
Akkar MP Walid Baarini on Wednesday sparked debate with a controversial tweet on
normalization with Israel, arguing that it should not be approached with
“one-upmanship and bravado.”“Normalization is acceptable if it protects us from
aggression, if it helps us reclaim our land and guarantees that it won’t be
occupied again, and if it brings Lebanon the peace and prosperity it has lacked
for years,” Baarini wrote. He further emphasized his support for aligning with
broader Arab diplomatic efforts, particularly those led by Saudi Arabia,
stating, “Yes to normalization, and no to resisting the Arab pathways,
especially the one spearheaded by Saudi Arabia.”Baarini’s remarks come amid
ongoing regional shifts, as several Arab states have pursued normalization
agreements in recent years, a subject that remains deeply polarizing in Lebanon.
Shiite Council Files Legal Complaint Over Rocket Attacks
and Pro-Israel Rhetoric
This is Beirut/April 02/2025
The Supreme Islamic Shiite Council has filed a legal complaint against
unidentified individuals responsible for launching rockets from southern Lebanon
toward Israel, as well as those accused of spreading Israeli military propaganda
and fueling sectarian tensions. Filed on Wednesday through the council’s
attorney, Dr. Hassan Fadlallah, the complaint was submitted to Lebanon’s Public
Prosecutor’s Office, calling for a thorough investigation and prosecution of
those behind the attacks. The council stated that the attack was designed to
provoke an escalation and further destabilize Lebanon. Beyond the military
confrontation, the complaint also addressed public reactions on social media,
where some Lebanese expressed support for Israel’s warning and subsequent
airstrikes. The council condemned such reactions as incitement to hatred and
sectarian violence, warning that they pose a direct threat to national unity and
internal stability. Moreover, the council asserted that these actions not only
endanger civil peace but also embolden Israel’s military operations against
Lebanon. Calling for swift action, the council urged Lebanese security agencies
to identify those behind the rocket attacks, as well as individuals promoting
Israeli aggression. Finally, the statement stressed that failing to address both
the military and media dimensions of the incident could exacerbate tensions and
further divide the Lebanese population. The legal move comes in response to an
incident on March 27, 2025, when unidentified individuals fired rockets toward
Israel, violating UN Resolution 1701 and prompting retaliatory Israeli strikes
against Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Bassil says Hezbollah military role 'no longer acceptable'
Naharnet/April 02/2025
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has said that its old ally Hezbollah
can no longer have a military role and has to abide by the Lebanese constitution
and rules. "We had an understanding but it no longer exists," Bassil said
Tuesday, accusing Hezbollah of going to a war that was not in Lebanon's
interest. "This has greatly weakened our relations, but it is still a Lebanese
party and we have to talk to them just like we talk to all the other parties."
Bassil went on to say that the Lebanese should protect their homeland against
any aggression but must not engage in a war that is not "ours" and suggested
that Hezbollah be integrated into a national defense strategy. "Hezbollah is
part of the Lebanese people and must be accepted as such, but it must also
accept that its military role is no longer acceptable," he said. "It cannot
protect Lebanon on its own. It's the Lebanese state's responsibility to protect
the country."
Bassil also said that Hezbollah has been weakened in its war with Israel but is
still strong domestically, adding that that Hezbollah cannot be eliminated.
Patriarch al-Rahi congratulates President Aoun on recent
appointments, warns against unilateral breaches of ceasefire
LBCI/April 02/2025
Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, following his meeting with
President Joseph Aoun at Baabda Palace on Wednesday, announced that he
congratulated the president on recent appointments and reiterated his support.
Patriarch al-Rahi also invited President Aoun to attend the Easter Mass in
Bkerke and discussed various matters. The patriarch expressed his opposition to
the unilateral breaches of the ceasefire and diplomatic efforts, warning that
these actions harm Lebanon and the international community. He stressed that the
solution lies in diplomacy, not military force, and called for an end to the
presence of "two armies and two weapons."
Will Beirut's municipal elections break tradition? Here’s
what we know
LBCI/April 02/2025
After three delays, each for a different reason, Lebanon is expected to hold
municipal elections starting May 4, divided into four phases. As with previous
elections, concerns have resurfaced regarding the preservation of sectarian
balance within the Beirut Municipal Council.
The council, made up of 24 members, traditionally consists of Muslims and
Christians, despite Muslims making up roughly 70% of Beirut's electorate, making
them the largest voting bloc. This imbalance has never affected the sectarian
balance in the council. Historically, elections have been held through strong
lists that include all political forces, ensuring no one could bypass the system
under the majority system. However, today, the fear is growing. The Future
Movement has yet to clarify its electoral stance despite its leader's
announcement of his return to politics. The Christian presence in the capital
has also dwindled, further exacerbating fears that Muslims could dominate the
entire municipal council, especially if multiple lists are formed, with winners
primarily from one sect. With one month left until the municipal elections,
discussions are intensifying, and several proposals have emerged. One proposal
is to hold elections based on a closed, complete list system, ensuring sectarian
balance, as suggested by MPs Waddah Sadek and Mark Daou. Another idea is to
divide Beirut into two municipalities under what is called the Beirut
Municipality, or adopting the first and second parliamentary districts, as they
were before 1997. These proposals were put forward by the Strong Lebanon bloc. A
proposal put forward by MP Hagop Terzian suggested that each district select its
own candidates. Another suggestion is to create a single list that includes all
political forces, with Sunni groups, holding the "electoral key," leading the
effort. As weeks pass and the municipal elections approach, the question
remains: Will the principle of sectarian balance hold, or will Beirut surprise
everyone?
US State Department Appoints Massad Boulos as Senior Advisor for Africa
This is Beirut/April 02/2025
The US Department of State announced on Tuesday the appointment of Massad Boulos
as Senior Advisor for Africa. This position adds a new role to Boulos, in
addition to his existing role as Senior Advisor to the President on Arab and
Middle Eastern Affairs. According to the press release, Massad Boulos will
travel to Africa on April 3 to address the crisis in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC). Senior Advisor Boulos and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
for African Affairs Corina Sanders will visit the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda starting April 3. The State Department announced
that Boulos “will meet with heads of state and business leaders to advance
efforts for durable peace in eastern DRC and to promote US private sector
investment in the region.”
Lebanon's finance minister submits draft decree on banking
sector reform to Cabinet
LBCI/April 02/2025
Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber has submitted a draft decree to the
Cabinet concerning the reform and restructuring of Lebanon's banking sector. The
proposal will be discussed in the Cabinet's upcoming session on Friday, paving
the way for its approval and eventual submission to Parliament.
Massive fire destroys Syrian refugee tents in southern
Lebanon
LBCI/April 02/2025
A massive fire broke out in a cluster of tents housing Syrian refugees in the
area behind the Lebanese Red Cross center in Shawakir, east of Tyre, according
to the National News Agency. The cause of the fire remains unknown, but the
blaze completely destroyed all the tents. Firefighters rushed to the scene to
contain the flames.
Roumieh Prison Courtroom Set to Resume Operations to Ease Overcrowding
This is Beirut/April 02/2025
In a significant step, the long-dormant courtroom inside Roumieh Prison is set
to resume operations, offering a solution to Lebanon’s mounting prison
overcrowding crisis. The decision was confirmed on Wednesday during a meeting
between Minister of Justice Adel Nassar and Minister of Interior Ahmad al-Hajjar.
Both officials stressed the urgency of expediting trials while ensuring fair
legal proceedings. During a joint press conference, Nassar revealed that
preparations are nearly complete, and that trials will begin soon, with a focus
on upholding human rights, the right to defense and the judiciary’s authority.
“This move will ease prison congestion and ensure justice is served more
efficiently,” he said, thanking both the Ministry of Interior and Lebanon’s
legal community for their cooperation. Nassar also assured that necessary
measures would be taken to facilitate lawyers’ access to the courtroom,
stressing that the initiative is a vital step in restoring confidence in
Lebanon’s judiciary. Minister of Interior Hajjar highlighted that overcrowding
remains one of the country’s most pressing issues, and the reactivation of
Roumieh’s courtroom is part of broader efforts to accelerate judicial
procedures. “Our goal is clear: to speed up trials, process cases more
efficiently and ultimately reduce the number of detainees,” he stated.
Pressure Is Mounting, Lebanon Urged to Set a Timeline for
Hezbollah's Disarmament
Bassam Abou Zeid/This is Beirut/April 02/2025
A Western diplomatic source voiced concern over the situation in Lebanon,
warning that mounting internal and external pressures on President Joseph Aoun’s
term could lead to its failure if the first year does not yield tangible
progress on multiple fronts. The source noted that high expectations surrounded
Joseph Aoun’s election as president and Nawaf Salam’s appointment to form a
government within a reasonable timeframe. However, challenges persist, and
developments have fallen short of expectations. This fueled criticism of both
the president and the government, even though they are not responsible for the
country’s economic collapse, and they did not negotiate the ceasefire in the
south. Rather, they inherited the burdens of its predecessors. The source added
that this only underscores the warning previously issued by French envoy
Jean-Yves Le Drian, indicating that Lebanon itself could be at risk of collapse.
The Western diplomatic source emphasized that the government is facing both
external pressure from the United States and Israel over Hezbollah's weapons and
internal challenges from groups opposing reform. Given the limited timeframe of
the current administration and the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming
parliamentary elections, the priority remains achieving tangible progress in the
first year. The source warned that failing to do so could result in significant
political deadlock in the years ahead. The Western diplomatic source revealed
that several countries, including France, are working to convince the United
States to reconsider its maximum pressure strategy on Hezbollah’s weapons and
allow President Aoun the chance to address the issue. While the Americans are
aware of the situation, the source noted, they are ultimately influenced by
Israeli concerns and demands. Meanwhile, Hezbollah attempted to shape the
ceasefire agreement on its own terms, but the Israeli message was clear: the
situation would not mirror the post-2006 war period. Israel remains resolute in
its determination to continue targeting Hezbollah and imposing its terms from a
position of strength, with the backing of US President Donald Trump.
The Western diplomatic source emphasized that Israel prioritizes its own
interests over those of Lebanon. The source further warned that some Lebanese
advocating for continued action against Hezbollah must recognize that using
force could jeopardize Lebanon’s future. Meanwhile, the Lebanese government must
demonstrate a clear commitment to address Hezbollah's weapons, starting with a
process that follows the implementation of necessary reforms in April and the
completion of municipal elections in May. Additionally, the state must engage in
meaningful dialogue with the Shiite community, highlighting that their future is
inseparable from the nation’s and that they cannot remain apart from it.
The Unbearable Burden of the Syrian Crisis in Lebanon
Natasha Metni Torbey/This Is Beirut/April 02/2025
With the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the justification long used by the
international community – particularly the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) – for
maintaining the Syrian presence in Lebanon no longer holds. The agency had
argued that “political refugees” would face serious danger if they returned and
that coordinating their repatriation with the Assad regime was too difficult.
The former president is out of power. The war is over. The risks once cited by
stakeholders no longer apply, and the UNHCR’s long-standing classification of
Syrians as “political refugees” is now outdated given the current circumstances.
Yet more than two million Syrians – an estimate in the absence of official
figures – have yet to return home. Their numbers continue to rise, particularly
after the security incidents last March along the Syrian coast, where clashes
broke out between the country’s new armed forces and local civilians, mostly
Alawites. What is the scale of these recent migration flows? How are local and
international authorities responding? And how long will this crisis persist?
Context and Alarming Figures
On December 8, 2024, the world witnessed the collapse of a system that had been
in place in Syria since 1970. For Damascus, a chapter has closed. For Lebanon,
that chapter remains open, as the issue of Syrian presence on Lebanese soil
endures. For nearly a month, the country has again faced a troubling surge in
the arrival of displaced Syrians, primarily from Syria’s coastal regions. This
migration flow has intensified due to targeted violence against Alawites and a
growing sense of insecurity, particularly after the fall of Assad’s regime.
Trapped by sectarian tensions and power struggles, thousands of Syrians have
turned to Lebanon, a country already burdened by one of the world’s largest
migration crises. This is evidenced by data provided by the Lebanese authorities
as well as the UNHCR, which show that 20,496 new displaced persons arrived in
Akkar in just a few weeks, since the beginning of March. As of April 1, within
just 24 hours, approximately 5,000 Syrians crossed the border, fleeing violence.
According to the latest report from the UNHCR, 27 distinct localities in North
Lebanon, particularly in 24 border villages of Akkar, have received displaced
persons fleeing – through illegal crossings – the hostilities that erupted in
the Syrian governorates of Tartus, Latakia, Homs and Hama. Official figures from
the disaster risk management unit report 8,092 people in Massoudiyeh, 2,118 in
Hekr al-Dahri, 1,573 in al-Haissa, 1,549 in Tall Hmayra and 1,522 in Tall Bireh.
These are followed by the villages of Abboudiyeh (1,393), Dahr al-Qanbar (870),
Rihaniyeh (611), Semakiyeh (582), Tall Aabas al-Sharqi (493), al-Haoushab (376),
Ain al-Zeit (342), Rmah (228), Daghleh (169), Haytla (144), Berbara (97), al-Bireh
(74), Aandqet (62), Sheikhlar (51), Uweinat (43), Arida (37), Chadra (17),
Kobeiyat (16), Bkarzla (14), Sheikh Mohammad (12), Menjez (6) and Halba (5).
Furthermore, according to a census conducted by the Lebanese Red Cross, as of
March 20, 2025, of the 1,760 families (7,529 people) in the North governorate,
1,567 are Syrian and 193 are Lebanese.
Lebanon’s Struggle Between Facts and Laws
While the former government could “justify” its inability to manage the issue by
citing “international pressure” and “humanitarian reasons,” the new cabinet can
no longer rely on this excuse. If it positions itself as the guarantor of the
law, the laws are clear. It is simply a matter of enforcing them and ending
violations of legal provisions. According to the memorandum of understanding
established in 2003 between General Security and the UNHCR, Lebanon is a transit
country, not a country of permanent asylum. Furthermore, the UNHCR must work to
resettle refugees in third countries within six months, a period that can be
extended only once, and under exceptional circumstances. While professing
opposition to all forms of corruption, is there still justification for the
distribution of international aid meant for Syrian displaced persons within
Lebanese territory? It is important to note that, in a previous interview with
This is Beirut, a senior official from the European Union made the following
statement: “It is true that Lebanon’s needs surpass the assistance provided, but
do not forget that the country economically benefits from the presence of the
displaced, as the contributions (in foreign currency) we provide to Syrians
remain within its borders.”Although the government expresses a desire to restore
Lebanon’s economic situation, observers believe that addressing the consequences
of these migration pressures is essential. These displacements not only affect
the demographic balance but also escalate social and economic tensions, weaken
public infrastructure, and overload an already saturated labor market. Today,
more than ever, the issue of repatriation has become a national imperative that
the new government must confront, sooner rather than later, and before it’s too
late.
Eid Celebrations: Joy Amid Conflict’s Shadow
Christiane Tager/This Is Beirut/April 02/2025
The Eid al-Fitr holidays, traditionally a time for family gatherings and a surge
in tourism across Lebanon, were overshadowed by recent Israeli airstrikes on
Beirut’s southern suburbs. While tourist areas were largely unaffected, the
attacks created an atmosphere of uncertainty that dampened the festive spirit
and hindered the long-awaited recovery of the tourism industry. Despite the
psychological impact of the airstrikes, Ramzi Salman, the President of the
Lebanese Guesthouses Syndicate, told This is Beirut on Tuesday that the Eid al-Fitr
weekend saw a significant influx of visitors. According to Salman, guesthouses
experienced relatively strong bookings, highlighting the sector’s resilience
amid the ongoing crisis. However, Jean-Claude Hawat, the President of the
Tourist Guides Syndicate in Lebanon, noted that some tourists – particularly
those from Europe and the Arab world – had postponed their trips to Lebanon
following the Israeli airstrikes last Friday. On that day, at the start of the
Eid weekend, Israel launched an airstrike on a building in Hadath, followed by
another strike late Monday night into Tuesday in Haret Hreik. Although these
attacks did not directly disrupt the Eid celebrations, they have introduced a
new layer of uncertainty surrounding the country’s security, especially for
potential tourists. Regarding bookings, Jean Abboud, the President of the
Association of Travel and Tourist Agents in Lebanon (ATTAL), reassured that
there had been no significant changes. Airlines have continued flights to
Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, with Fly Emirates even adding a
daily flight from Dubai starting Tuesday. The ongoing conflict remains a
significant concern for Lebanon’s hotel sector. Pierre Achkar, the Head of the
Lebanese Federation For Tourism Industries and the Syndicate of Hotel Owners,
told This is Beirut that the hospitality industry has been significantly
impacted. While some Beirut hotels saw occupancy rates as high as 80% during the
Eid holidays, others only reached 60%. In contrast, hotels outside the capital
remained virtually empty. Achkar also explained that to cover operational costs,
hotels need an occupancy rate of at least 30-50% throughout the year. Many
establishments are struggling to meet this threshold, leaving their financial
situation precarious. He lamented the ongoing tourism embargo on Lebanon and
stressed the urgent need for the Lebanese government to implement UN Security
Council Resolution 1701 and lift regional and international restrictions on the
tourism sector. The restaurant industry has not been spared either. Khaled Nazha,
the Vice President of the Syndicate of Restaurants, Cafés and Nightclubs Owners
in Lebanon, stated that the airstrikes on Dahyeh have negatively impacted
restaurant activity. Nonetheless, he remains optimistic, hoping that the Easter
holidays and the upcoming summer season will offer a much-needed recovery. Nazha
believes lifting the restrictions that prevent Arab tourists from visiting
Lebanon could be key to this rebound and anticipates a stronger turnout in the
coming months. Although the Eid holidays provided a brief respite, the threat of
further conflict continues to cast a shadow over the future of Lebanese tourism.
Lebanon, though resilient, must overcome these obstacles to reclaim its place on
the international tourism map. The path forward lies in reconciling security
stability with economic recovery, so Lebanon can once again thrive, free from
the constant shadow of war.
Israeli airstrike in Beirut
kills Hezbollah commander, operative
David Daoud/ FDD's Long War Journal/April 02/2025
On Tuesday at approximately 3:44 am, Israeli jets conducted airstrikes in the
southern Dahiyeh suburbs of Beirut for the second time in as many weeks and
since the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire on November 27, 2024. The strikes appear to
have hit the top three floors of two buildings in the Madi neighborhood of
Dahiyeh’s Haret Hreik area.
Almost immediately after the strikes, the IDF issued a statement saying it
targeted “a Hezbollah terrorist a short while ago in the Dahiyeh area of Beirut
who was recently directing Hamas operatives and aided them in attempts to
conduct a serious terrorist attack in the near future against Israeli citizens.”
Hours later, the IDF revealed it had killed Hassan Ali Mahmoud Badeer, an
operative in Hezbollah’s Unit 3900 who was also affiliated with the Quds Force,
the external arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The IDF said that the terror attack Badeer had been aiding Hamas
operatives to commit “was planned to be carried out immediately and intended to
hurt Israeli citizens and therefore Hassan Badeer was killed immediately to
eliminate the threat.” The IDF statement noted that Badeer’s activities
“constitute a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.” Ynet
reported the attack was meant to target “an Israeli target abroad” and would
have “killed hundreds of Israelis” had it succeeded.
Soon after the strike, Hezbollah announced the death of two of its operatives,
Badeer, whose nom de guerre is Al Hajj Rabia, and his son, Ali Hassan Badeer,
whose nom de guerre is Jawad. The Lebanese Health Ministry announced four people
had been killed in the strike, including Hassan and Ali Badeer. The other two
fatalities were Ahmad Mohammad Mahmoud and his sister, Hiyam Mohammad Mahmoud.
The Ministry announced seven other people were wounded, including the Mahmoud
siblings’ mother Iman.
Hezbollah has yet to issue an official statement on the strike. However, one of
the group’s parliamentarians, Ibrahim Al Musawi, called the strike “a massive
aggression that has shifted the situation into a new phase” and referenced
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem’s cryptic threats from last week to
resume attacking Israel. At the same time, Musawi also
stressed that while Israel had “practically declared the end of the ceasefire,”
Hezbollah remains committed to the deal. However, he noted that if diplomatic
avenues failed to end Israel’s attacks, “then [Hezbollah will] deal with the
situation appropriately.” Musawi added that “any change in [our] position will
be announced at the appropriate time by Hezbollah’s leadership.”Musawi held the
United States and the West responsible for the strike and called on the Lebanese
state to employ all diplomatic pressure possible to put an end to Israel’s
ongoing attacks in Lebanon. Musawi’s fellow Hezbollah parliamentarians also
weighed in. Hussein Al Hajj Hassan echoed Musawi, saying Hezbollah “is
monitoring [the situation] and following [developments] and will have a
[response] at the appropriate time.” Ali Ammar stressed that Hezbollah’s
“exceptional patience in dealing with the enemy […] has limits.” Ammar said
Israel only “understands the language of resistance, endurance, and
steadfastness” and “the resistance remains present and is completely ready to
face any new aggression.”
**David Daoud is Senior Fellow at at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs.
A ‘Ticking Bomb’: Israeli Eliminates Iran-Linked Terrorist
in Beirut
FDD/April 02/2025
Latest Developments
‘A Real and Immediate Threat’: Hassan Ali Mahmoud Bdeir — a member of both
Hezbollah’s intelligence Unit 3900 and of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps Quds Force — was eliminated in an Israeli air strike on Beirut’s Dahiyeh
district on April 1. According to a joint IDF, Shin Bet, and Mossad statement,
Bdeir had been working with Hamas operatives on an imminent attack against
Israeli civilians. “The terrorist posed a real and immediate threat, what we
call a ticking bomb,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.
Lebanese Government Accuses Israel: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam charged
Israel with breaching the November 27 ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, as well as
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended Hezbollah and Israel’s previous
war in 2006. According to Lebanese media, four people were killed in the strike.
The identities of the three fatalities besides Bdeir were not immediately known.
Passover Terror Alert: Israel issued its annual travel advisory for the
extended vacation for the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins on April 12.
According to the advisory, Iran has redoubled its efforts to orchestrate terror
attacks on Israelis abroad in a bid to avenge the decimation of its proxies in
Gaza and IDF strikes on Iran. Similar threats from Hamas and ISIS operatives in
various global locations had also been registered, the advisory said.
FDD Expert Response
“This was Israel’s first lethal strike in Beirut since the truce with Lebanon —
carried out with no prior warning. Clearly, the Israelis judged the target
urgent enough to risk diplomatic fallout. That Bdeir served as a hub connecting
Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas should spark serious questions about how Lebanese
authorities allowed him to operate openly in their capital.” — Mark Dubowitz,
FDD CEO
“Hezbollah and Hamas have taken a beating in their strongholds as Israel’s
dramatic reversal in the war continues to shift momentum. Rather than reengage
the IDF and risk shattering the ceasefires that let them lick their wounds,
these Iran-backed terrorist organizations are now trying to exploit Israel’s
softer civilian underbelly.” — Ben Cohen, FDD Senior Analyst and Rapid Response
Director
Lebanon’s central bank controversy shows limits of
technocracy
NADIM SHEHADI/Arab News/April 02, 2025
The controversy over last week’s appointment of Karim Souaid as the new central
bank governor in Lebanon reveals the limits of what a technocratic government
can achieve. The process was accompanied by an intensive and sometimes vicious
media campaign, including personal attacks and populist conspiracy theories. It
divided the country along unexpected lines, creating a rift between newly
elected President Joseph Aoun and his prime minister, Nawaf Salam, as well as
one within the Cabinet. One wonders what all the fuss was about. If the most
competent people cannot discuss a technical problem, then the problem is not
technical and needs a broader perspective to address other ideological and moral
dimensions. There is little doubt that the reformist government of PM Salam, if
credentials are to be considered, is probably the most honest and technically
competent in the history of humanity. I recall just one British prime minister
ever having a doctorate, while ours has a doctorate from France and a Master of
Laws from Harvard, in addition to a brilliant academic and diplomatic career,
during which he presided over both the UN Security Council and the International
Court of Justice. French historian Henry Laurens described Salam as “the master
of the world.” His Cabinet of 24 ministers includes thirteen doctorates, three
Masters of Laws, three Masters of Business Administration, two brigadier
generals and one major general. The government, if credentials are to be
considered, is probably the most honest and technically competent in the history
of humanity
Due to the country’s economic crisis and the devaluation of the currency, the
salary of Cabinet ministers is barely equal to that of their driver. This also
implies that ministers largely have to pay staff and cover expenses out of their
own pocket, while having left brilliant careers and businesses behind in order
to perform their patriotic duty. You could not find a more dedicated bunch. One
of the risks of such excessive ministerial talent and decency is that they could
propose reforms that would work for a time, but only as long as the people in
government are both as gifted and as clean as they are. Whereas what you really
want is a system where you know that, whatever happens, incompetent and corrupt
people cannot do much harm. The debate raised many questions about policymaking
and the independence of the central bank, as well as analyses of the causes of
the crisis, the restructuring of the banking sector and the handling of the
government's default on Eurobond debt service payments in March 2020. These are
practical and legal issues that our ministers should be able to handle. It gets
complicated with the question of burden-sharing, or who should bear the losses
from the financial crisis between three parties: the state, the banks and the
depositors. The polarization is also similar to discussions over the
“socialization” of financial losses that happened in the US after the 2008
financial crash, when hard-earned taxpayer money was used to bail out financial
institutions, while bankers were allowed to keep their bonuses.
The division is interesting because it runs along classic left and right
economic views and across sectarian and political lines. The chorus on the PM’s
side call themselves the reformers who want to build a state, while using highly
emotional language resembling Karl Marx’s text describing France’s “July
Monarchy (as) nothing more than a joint stock company for the exploitation of
France’s national wealth.”
The other side uses equally dramatic descriptions, with imagery of a global
conspiracy backed by George Soros-funded “woke” nongovernmental organizations
and expatriate financial executives who want to destroy the Lebanese banking
system and replace it with their own banks. There is a Byzantine feel to all
this, oblivious to the fact that the country is technically still at war — I
could even hear an air raid in Beirut while writing this article. Ultimately,
everybody knows that some sort of agreement, a compromise, will have to be
reached between the new governor of the central bank, together with the
government, and the banks. This deal will have to satisfy the International
Monetary Fund, with the objective of rebuilding confidence in Lebanon’s
financial sector and putting the economy and the country back on a positive
track.
The Lebanese financial crisis will go down in history as the perfect crime,
where the victims are fighting over the losses and the actor that is responsible
gets away with it. All three parties — the state, the banks and the depositors —
are going to incur major losses and it will be a long time before they can get
back to where they would have been had the crisis not occurred. It all boils
down to the question: what will you save from the burning house?
In fact, the intense debate is over the financial repercussions, whereas the
real cause of the collapse is in a different realm. Throughout the last 20
years, Lebanon has been held hostage by Hezbollah and no country could have
survived the constant battering that brought it to its ruin. It became the
battleground and the front line of a regional and international confrontation,
resulting in a decade of assassinations starting in 2004; a destructive war in
2006; an occupation of the capital, which was then attacked by black-shirted
armed men in 2008; a coup in 2011; and paralysis, as Lebanon was without a
president and parliament and had no effective government for almost three years.
The intense debate is over the financial repercussions, whereas the real cause
of the collapse is in a different realm. The country was isolated from its main
economic partners in the Gulf. Huge revenue losses were incurred through
Hezbollah’s control of Beirut’s port and airport. The constant declarations of
war ruined summer tourist seasons and deterred investment. The Syrian war
brought close to 2 million refugees to the country. One way of looking at it is
that Hezbollah milked the country dry to subsidize the so-called axis of
resistance’s wars, which have resulted in a fiasco. No society could have
survived such pressures and the financial aspects we are arguing about represent
the mechanisms of the collapse, rather than the cause. In the meantime, the law
is very clear that the state has full responsibility to recapitalize the central
bank. If this happens, it would save the banking sector and whatever is left of
the depositors’ money, while establishing the rule of law and confidence in the
future. Lebanon has the expertise and wizardry to work out the mechanisms and
the details. Perhaps a better definition of the central bank’s prerogatives and
limitations will result from this, but it was not the main reason for the
collapse.
While every skill is present in the Cabinet, ministers may also need to consult
a historian, who would explain that, in the mid-1940s, there were barely half a
dozen banks in the country. In fact, they could be more accurately described as
exchange and trading counters. By the mid-1960s, there were more than 90
sophisticated financial institutions. The Lebanese banking sector is in fact
worth saving, as it is the inheritor of centuries of Levantine trading history,
with merchant families and their networks from all over the region taking refuge
in Beirut to escape nationalist and socialist revolutions. The banking sector is
the cumulative experience gathered through ancient trade routes via Damascus,
Aleppo and Mosul and the financial operations to build and manage trade through
the Suez Canal. What is really at stake is the future shape of Lebanon’s economy
and its role in the region. This could be beyond the concerns of accountants,
lawyers and economists, no matter what degrees they hold.
**Nadim Shehadi is an economist and political adviser. X: @Confusezeus
On Lebanese Reform and
Reformists’ Need for Politics
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/April 02/2025
Some Lebanese take pleasure in concocting a narrative that presents the pursuit
of disarmament that establishes a state monopoly on arms and the fight against
corruption in public life as contradictory objectives. Mind you, there is plenty
of glaring evidence that impunity for one sustains the impunity of the other.
Some of those peddling this false dichotomy have gone so far, in their
anti-reformist narrative, as to parrot antisemitic tropes about “conspiracies,”
“the fifth column,” and “hidden hands” moving in the shadows. These kinds of
entirely pitiful, fantastical accusations have also been leveled at the media
outlets that support reform: “destroying the national economy,” “undermining
patriotism,” and other formulations drawn from the lexicon of the defunct Syrian
regime. As became evident with Mr. Karim Soueid’s appointment as Governor of the
Lebanese Central Bank, however, the reformists are waging a war with kitchen
knives, or they are counting on a mechanical process that spares them the hassle
of playing politics, albeit in the convoluted Lebanese sense. Since the Lebanese
will likely cross many junctures similar to that of Soueid’s appointment as the
country’s political life is reformulated, a multi-pronged reassessment of the
fundamentals seems necessary.
Confronting the logic of sectarian spoil-sharing, along with the old banking
system and its cabal of interests, both extremely formidable adversaries, is not
the easy task that some reformists may sometimes deludedly see it to be. This
confrontation calls for playing on the contradictions within the bloc of
politicians and bankers, trying to break its unity or at the very least
undermine its cohesion, and striving to build common ground with factions that
could, for one reason or another, potentially take a distinct position and
diverge from the others’ course.
A sort of sentimental attachment to the model of October 17, 2019, might be what
is impeding such an effort. However, the October movement was an exception to
the rule, a glaringly exceptional moment that, by definition, one that cannot be
replicated. Indeed, political-sectarian contentions and the polarization they
engender remain unresolved, while their weight on public life has only
increased.
That also applies to the purist slogan “All of them means all of them.” While
its prominence a decade ago is understandable, given the context in which it
emerged, it cannot be allowed to remain a permanent barrier to politics until
the end of times.
The reform efforts of modern Lebanese history, regardless of one’s opinion on
their reformist credentials, suggest that reformists should neither overestimate
their own power when they operate as a self-sufficient force, nor underestimate
the power of their opponents. That reality is what pushed Fouad Chehab, whom
many Lebanese agree was a reformist, to secure a Muslim political umbrella for
his project, even though this required making significant concessions to
Nasserism, in addition to soliciting the support of a Christian faction,
represented then by the Kataeb Party.
As for leftists, when they believed they were reforming and transforming the
country, they came under Kamal Jumblatt’s Druze umbrella, which entailed
Marxists breaking with Marxist orthodoxy and the nationalists breaking with
their orthodoxy.
Several movements seeking reform emerged before the war of 1975 (like the
Democratic Party and the student-led “Awareness Movement”) and sought to
distance themselves from “the sectarian establishment” to the greatest extent
possible. However, the eruption of civil war swiftly annihilated them before
they could mature.
Left-wing and secular parties largely proved to be “time-out” parties; when push
came to shove, they took shade under the “sect’s” umbrella, that of the armed
Palestinian factions.
Such conclusions can be drawn from an overview of their many historical
experiences, both those that unfolded during times of peace and those that
unfolded during wartime, regardless of whether we look into attempts at
reforming society through the state or grassroots social movements that sought
to reform the state. Today, taking purism too far might amount to being
excessively self-centered, especially as sectarianism heightens across the
Levant and sects take on an increasingly rigid and insular ethnic character.
Purist reformists could, under fleeting exceptional circumstances, find a place
in the political mainstream, but they are far more susceptible to being pushed
to the margins. And mind you, they will resist constituting a cohesive block in
this marginal position, as the “change” deputies are currently demonstrating. As
for, “all of them”, they are unfortunately well-placed- amid the inflating
sectarian polarization that inflates them - to become the overwhelming majority
of the population. If it is true that most Lebanese would benefit from change
and reform, and it is, that does not, in itself, grant the push for reform a
social-political base with enough influence to contest spoil-sharing and
corruption. This, without a shadow of a doubt, is a conservative view of
Lebanese affairs, and of the slim odds that reform and change will be achieved
unless they are coupled with politics that engage influential sectarian forces
and seek to court those among these forces whom it could potentially find common
ground with as it confronts those with whom no accord could ever be reached.
Moreover, this assessment conservative label does not discredit it; only reality
and experience determine whether it is sound or not. While the obscene discourse
of the offensive against reformists and those seeking change is undoubtedly
harmful, it is even more harmful to underestimate reality and count on
voluntaristic resolve whose power is derived from good intentions.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on April 02-03/2025
Israel Strikes Key Syrian Sites in a Message to Turkey
This is Beirut/AFP/April 02/2025
Syrian state media said Israel struck near a defence research centre in Damascus
and hit central Syria on Wednesday, as Israel said it struck "military"
capabilities and a monitor reported four dead. Israel has launched hundreds of
strikes on sites in Syria since Islamist-led forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar
al-Assad, saying it wants to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of the
new authorities, whom it considers jihadists. "An Israeli occupation aircraft
strike targeted the vicinity of the scientific research building" in Damascus's
northern Barzeh neighbourhood, Syria's SANA news agency said. It also reported
an Israeli raid targeting "the vicinity of the city of Hama" in central Syria,
without specifying what was hit. The Israeli military said in a statement that
forces "struck military capabilities that remained at the Syrian bases of Hama
and T4, along with additional remaining military infrastructure sites in the
area of Damascus". Last month, Israel said it struck the T4 military base in
central Homs province twice, targeting military capabilities at the site. The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that "four people were killed
and others wounded, including Syrian defence ministry personnel, in the strikes
on Hama military airport". It said those raids, which targeted "remaining
planes, runways and towers, put the airport completely out of service," also
reporting that the Damascus strikes targeted the research centre in Barzeh. In
the days after Assad's fall on December 8, the Britain-based Observatory
reported Israeli strikes targeting the centre. Western countries including the
United States had previously struck the defence ministry facility in 2018,
saying it was related to Syria's "chemical weapons infrastructure". Also since
Assad's fall, Israel has deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the
strategic Golan Heights and called for the complete demilitarisation of southern
Syria, which borders the Israeli-annexed Golan. Authorities in south Syria's
Daraa on Telegram late Wednesday said that several Israeli military vehicles
entered an area in the province's west, reporting that "three (Israeli)
artillery shells" targeted the area. The Observatory has reported repeated
Israeli military incursions into southern Syria beyond the demarcation line in
recent months. Last month, during a visit to Jerusalem, EU foreign policy chief
Kaja Kallas said that Israeli strikes on Syria were "unnecessary" and threatened
to worsen the situation. Syria's foreign ministry has accused Israel of waging a
campaign against "the stability of the country".
Trump announces new ‘reciprocal’ tariffs in financial and political gamble
AFP/April 02, 2025
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled a raft of punishing
tariffs targeting countries around the world including some of its closest
trading partners, in a move that risks sparking a ruinous trade war. Speaking in
the White House Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags, Trump slapped the
most stinging tariffs on China and the European Union on what he called
“Liberation Day.”The dollar fell one percent against the euro and slipped
against other major currencies as Trump was speaking. “For decades, our country
has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both
friend and foe alike,” Trump said. Trump reserved some of the heaviest blows for
what he called the “nations that treat us badly,” including 34 percent on goods
from superpower rival China, 20 percent on key ally the European Union and 24
percent on Japan.
But the 78-year-old Republican — who held up a chart with a list of levies —
said that he was “very kind” and so was only imposing half the amount that those
countries taxed US exports. For the rest, Trump said he would impose a
“baseline” tariff of 10 percent, including Britain. An audience of cabinet
members, as well as workers in hard hats from industries including steel, oil
and gas, whooped and cheered as Trump said the tariffs would “make America
wealthy again.” “This is Liberation Day,” Trump said, adding that it would
“forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day
America’s destiny was reclaimed.”Sweeping auto tariffs of 25 percent that Trump
announced last week are also due to take effect at 12:01 am (0401 GMT) Thursday.
Trump has telegraphed the move for weeks, insisting tariffs will keep the United
States from being “ripped off” by other countries and spur a new “Golden Age” of
American industry. But many experts warn the tariffs risk triggering a recession
at home as costs are passed on to US consumers, and a damaging trade war
abroad.The world has been on edge ahead of Trump’s announcement. Markets have
been volatile as investors hedged their bets, and the announcement came after
Wall Street stocks closed. The tariffs will also reinforce fears that Trump is
backing even further away from US allies toward a new order based on a vision of
American supremacy. US trading partners have vowed swift retribution, while also
trying to persuade Trump to reach deals to avoid tariffs in the first place.
Germany warned Wednesday that trade wars hurt “both sides.”
The European Union will react to new Trump tariffs “before the end of April,”
said a French government spokeswoman. The 27-nation bloc’s initial salvo would
counter US actions on steel and aluminum, followed by sector-by-sector measures.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who made intense, said a “trade war is in
nobody’s interests.”“We have prepared for all eventualities — and we will rule
nothing out,” he told parliament. Trump has had a long love affair with tariffs,
insisting in the face of experts that they are a cure-all for America’s trade
imbalances and economic ills.
The billionaire insists the levies will bring a “rebirth” of America’s
hollowed-out manufacturing capacity, and says companies can avoid tariffs by
moving to the United States. But critics say US businesses and consumers could
bear the burden if importers pass on the cost, adding that the policy could
increase risks of a recession. “If this trade war continues through Labor Day
(on September 1), the US economy will likely suffer a recession this year,” Mark
Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, told AFP. Negotiations are likely
to continue though as countries seek to halt the tariffs. Trump has previously
been persuaded however to halt tariffs on neighbors Canada and Mexico while
trade talks continued. He ordered levies on both on the grounds that they had
failed to stop the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States. “I
understand that it’s a game of tug-of-war,” truck driver Alejandro Espinoza told
AFP as he waited in a queue to cross the Mexican-US border. “But unfortunately,
we’re the ones who pay in the end.”
Trump takes on Canada
again with sweeping new tariffs on goods including autos
CBC/Wed, April 2, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday his long-awaited plan to impose
what he's calling "retaliatory" tariffs on imports coming from dozens of
countries, including a punishing 25 per cent levy on Canadian-made automobiles
as of midnight Wednesday. Trump singled out Canada for criticism when announcing
the latest tariff regime, repeating his oft-cited falsehood that the U.S.
somehow "subsidizes" this country by $200 billion a year. The U.S. trade deficit
with Canada — which is largely driven by cheap oil imports — is much smaller
than that. Trump said he would apply "a minimum baseline tariff of 10 per cent"
on all goods coming into the U.S., with rates higher than that for some
countries that the president said have supposedly been more egregious about
ripping off the Americans. It wasn't immediately clear how much American
importers will have to pay to bring in Canadian goods under this new program.
"Our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered," by other nations,
Trump said. "They rip us off, it's so pathetic. Now, we're going to charge."
It's Trump's latest broadside against Canada, its one-time ally and free-trading
partner. In the roughly 10 weeks he's been president, Trump has been on a
rampage against Canada, levying tariffs to supposedly spur action on drugs and
migrants at the border, imposing steep tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum,
spreading misinformation about the dairy sector, threatening the country's
sovereignty with near-daily "51st state" taunts and repeatedly saying the
Americans need nothing from Canada despite trade data that shows that's patently
false. Those persistent attacks and insults have damaged bilateral relations.
Some Canadians are boycotting American goods, pulling travel plans to the U.S.
en masse and booing the American national anthem at sporting events, actions
that were thought unthinkable only a few months ago. How to handle Trump, his
tariffs and the takeover threats have also become the central issue of the
upcoming federal election campaign.
Military
Confrontation 'Almost Inevitable' If Iran Nuclear Talks Fail
AFP/April 02/2025
France's foreign minister warned Wednesday that a military confrontation with
Iran would be "almost inevitable" if talks over Tehran's nuclear program failed.
"In the event of failure, a military confrontation would appear to be almost
inevitable," Jean-Noel Barrot said in parliament, adding that it would severely
destabilize the region.Earlier on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron chaired a
meeting on Iran. US President Donald Trump has threatened that Iran will be
bombed if it persists in developing nuclear weapons. Iran's supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has promised to hit back.
"Our confidence and our conviction remain intact," Barrot said. "Iran must never
acquire nuclear weapons.""Our priority is to reach an agreement that verifiably
and durably constrains the Iranian nuclear program," he added. Since taking
office in January, Trump has reinstated his "maximum pressure" policy, which in
his first term saw the United States withdraw from a landmark 2015 agreement on
Iran's nuclear program and reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
Nuclear: Trump
and the Iranian Dilemma
Marie de La Roche Saint-André/This is Beirut/April 02, 2025
Since his return to power, US President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on
Iran, particularly targeting its nuclear program. In March, he sent a letter to
Tehran urging it to negotiate a new nuclear agreement and issued a two-month
ultimatum. Then, in an interview with NBC on Sunday, Trump threatened the
Iranians, stating that “if they do not sign an agreement, there will be
bombings.”These threats highlight the race against time in which Iran and the
United States are engaged. “US pressure on Iran has accelerated due to the
October 18, 2025 deadline – the expiration date of the 2015 Iran nuclear
agreement,” says David Rigoulet-Roze, the Editor-in-Chief of Orients
Stratégiques and a Middle East specialist, in an interview with This is Beirut.
“Even though the United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in May
2018, it remains formally in effect.”
The End of the “Snapback” Threat
Signed in 2015, the Vienna nuclear agreement aimed to limit Iran’s nuclear
program to civilian purposes under strict supervision by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in exchange for a partial lifting of international
sanctions. The treaty includes sunset clauses ranging from 10 to 15 years, after
which Iran is theoretically no longer bound by its commitments – although the
purpose of these clauses was primarily to renegotiate a new agreement before its
expiration. As part of the deal, a “snapback” mechanism, introduced at France’s
request, allows for the automatic reimposition of sanctions if Iran violates the
agreement. This was a significant addition to the treaty, as such provisions are
rare in arms control agreements. October 18, 2025 – the tenth anniversary of the
treaty – also marks the deadline for deciding whether to terminate or extend UN
Security Council Resolution 2231. After this date, international (non-US)
sanctions imposed by six Security Council resolutions can no longer be
automatically reinstated. Additionally, all remaining sanctions and restrictions
related to Iran’s nuclear program – including those on nuclear activities and
sensitive transfers – will be lifted unless the Security Council decides
otherwise before the deadline. This includes restrictions on uranium enrichment,
enriched uranium stockpiles, and the use of certain advanced centrifuges.
However, before the deadline, any permanent member of the Security Council –
such as France or the United Kingdom – could still initiate the snapback
procedure to reinstate sanctions. “Iran fears that this request will go before
the UN Security Council, especially as President Donald Trump is pushing for
this to happen,” explains Rigoulet-Roze. “Iran is already facing US ‘maximum
pressure,’ but it has not yet suffered the consequences of a potential
reimposition of international sanctions that were officially lifted by the 2015
agreement. If the snapback mechanism were triggered before the deadline, even
China and Russia would theoretically be forced to comply,” he adds. This risk is
heightened by Iran’s actions since the US withdrawal from the agreement in 2018,
as Tehran has resumed uranium enrichment beyond the treaty’s limits.
The Dilemma and the Nuclear Bomb
The pressure exerted by Trump since March has placed Iranian authorities in a
dilemma: either accept the terms of his new agreement – effectively dismantling
their nuclear program – or, as he has threatened, risk a military strike. “The
Iranians are trying to buy time, giving the impression that they are willing to
negotiate while refusing direct talks with the United States. This is also a way
to stall until the October 18 deadline, which would render the snapback
mechanism obsolete,” says Rigoulet-Roze. “This is why President Donald Trump has
sent a letter that reads like an ultimatum, with a two-month deadline for
negotiating a new agreement – one that the Iranians seem unlikely to accept, as
it would be even more restrictive than the 2015 deal. This raises the
possibility that Tehran may now be willing to risk strikes on its nuclear
facilities,” he adds. This risk is further underscored by increased military
activity at the US base on Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean.
Satellite images show the deployment of at least six B-2 Spirit stealth bombers
(out of the 18 in service) to the base. “This is not just posturing,” confirms
Rigoulet-Roze. “This kind of operational adjustment has happened twice before –
first in October 2001 for the air campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan,
and then in March 2003 in preparation for the invasion of Iraq. US B-2 Spirit
bombers are the only aircraft capable of carrying GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs,
which can penetrate up to 60 meters underground.”Additionally, refueling
aircraft have been spotted on the island, which remains out of reach of Iranian
ballistic missiles, whose maximum range is estimated at 2,000 km. In response to
the US threat, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed a “firm
response” if the country is bombed, making the statement in Tehran during a
speech marking the end of Ramadan. On Monday night, Ali Larijani, a close
adviser to the Ayatollah, reinforced this stance, asserting that while Iran does
not seek to develop nuclear weapons, it would have “no choice but to do so” if
attacked. If Iran wishes to acquire the deterrent power of nuclear weapons, it
must make a decision quickly – before a possible US attack. It is a weighty
decision, faced with a US president determined to achieve his objectives.
Trump 'seriously'
considering Iran's offer of indirect nuclear talks
Naharnet/April 02, 2025
The White House is seriously considering an Iranian proposal for indirect
nuclear talks, while at the same time significantly boosting U.S. forces in the
Middle East in case President Donald Trump opts for military strikes, two U.S.
officials told U.S. news portal Axios.
Trump has repeatedly said he'd prefer a deal, but warned that without one "there
will be bombing." His timeline is tight: he gave Iran a two-month deadline to
reach a deal, but it's not clear if and when that clock started ticking. The
White House is still engaged in an internal debate between those who think a
deal is achievable and those who see talks as a waste of time and back strikes
on Iran's nuclear facilities, Axios said. In the meantime, the Pentagon is
engaged in a massive buildup of forces in the Middle East. If Trump decides the
time is up, he will have a loaded gun at the ready. Over the weekend, Trump
received Iran's formal response to the letter he sent Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei three weeks ago, a U.S. official said. While Trump proposed direct
nuclear negotiations, the Iranians would agree only to indirect talks mediated
by Oman. The U.S. official said the Trump administration thinks direct talks
would have a higher chance of success, but isn't ruling out the format the
Iranians proposed and doesn't object to the Omanis serving as mediators between
the countries, as the Gulf state has in the past. Both U.S. officials said no
decision has been made and internal discussions are ongoing. "After the exchange
of letters we are now exploring next steps in order to begin conversations and
trust building with the Iranians," one said. The rhetoric between Tehran and
Washington was already ratcheting up before Trump's threat Sunday to bomb Iran
if a deal isn't reached. On Monday, Khamenei fired back and said that while he
doesn't believe the U.S. would attack Iran "they will certainly receive a heavy
blow in return" if they do so. Iran also lodged a formal diplomatic protest --
channeled via the Swiss embassy, as the U.S. and Iran lack diplomatic relations
-- and warned it would "respond decisively and immediately to any threat." "The
U.S. has 10 bases and 50,000 soldiers in the region. ... If you live in a glass
house you shouldn't throw stones," the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guards Corps told Iranian TV earlier this week.
Khamenei adviser and former parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani stressed that if
the U.S. bombs Iran's nuclear facilities, Iranian public opinion will press the
government to change its policy and develop a nuke. Trump abandoned the 2015
nuclear deal and argued that his "maximum pressure" approach would force Iran to
sign a better deal. He failed to get a new deal, as did former U.S. president
Joe Biden. In the meantime, Iran has dramatically increased its enrichment of
uranium and is now effectively a nuclear threshold state -- though Tehran
insists it does not seek a nuclear weapon.
Iran also says it's unwilling to negotiate on non-nuclear matters, such as its
missile program, which Trump and his team have previously said must be on the
table. On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced that it was sending additional troops
and air assets to the region, and that two aircraft carriers — Truman and Vinson
— would remain in the region. Last week, the Pentagon sent several B-2 stealth
bombers to the Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean in a deployment a
U.S. official said was "not disconnected" from Trump's two-month deadline to
Iran. The B-2 bombers can carry huge bunker buster bombs that would be a key
element in any possible military action against Iran's underground nuclear
facilities. "Should Iran or its proxies threaten American personnel and
interests in the region, the U.S. will take decisive action to defend our
people," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. A U.S. official
said Trump doesn't want to go to war with Iran but needs the military assets to
establish deterrence in the negotiations -- and to be prepared to act if
negotiations fail and things escalate quickly.
Look at the people expelled from US for pro-Palestinian
activism
Associated Press/April 02, 2025
Since President Donald Trump took office, the U.S. government has used its
immigration enforcement powers to crack down on international students and
scholars at several American universities who had participated in
pro-Palestinian demonstrations or criticized Israel over its military action in
Gaza. Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being
"pro-Hamas," referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on
Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against Israel's
actions in the war.
Trump's administration has cited a seldom-invoked statute authorizing the
secretary of state to expel noncitizens from the country if their presence was a
threat to U.S. foreign policy interests. Some people been taken into custody or
deported. Others fled the U.S. after learning their visas had been revoked.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist from Lebanon who previously
worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported this month, even though a federal
judge ordered that she not be removed until a hearing could be held. Homeland
Security officials said Alawieh was deported as soon as she returned to the U.S.
from Lebanon, despite having a U.S. visa, because she "openly admitted"
supporting former Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Alawieh told
officers she followed him for his religious and spiritual teachings and not his
politics, court documents said. She was to start work at Brown University as an
assistant professor of medicine. Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh's lawyer, has said
she will fight to get the 34-year-old doctor back to the U.S.
Rumeysa Ozturk
Federal officers detained 30-year-old Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk on Tuesday
as she walked along a street in suburban Boston. A senior Department of Homeland
Security spokesperson said without providing evidence that an investigation
found Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, "engaged in activities in
support of Hamas," which is also a U.S.-designated terrorist group. Friends and
colleagues of Ozturk said her only known activism was co-authoring an op-ed in a
student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands
to cut ties with Israel. Ozturk has been taken to an ICE detention center in
Louisiana. A U.S. District judge in Massachusetts on Friday said Ozturk can't be
deported to Turkey without a court order and gave the government until Tuesday
evening to respond to an updated complaint filed by Ozturk's attorneys.
Mahmoud Khalil
This month, immigration enforcement agents arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil,
a legal U.S. resident, Palestinian activist and graduate student who was
prominent in protests at Columbia last year. The administration has said it
revoked Khalil's green card because his role in the campus protests amounted to
antisemitic support for Hamas. He is fighting deportation.
Khalil served as a negotiator for Columbia students as they bargained with
university officials over ending their campus encampment last spring. He was
born in Syria and is married to an American citizen. His lawyers have asked a
federal judge to free their client from a Louisiana immigration detention
center. That legal challenge is still pending.
Yunseo Chung
Yunseo Chung is a Columbia student and lawful U.S. resident who moved to America
from Korea as a child. Chung attended and was arrested at a sit-in this month at
nearby Barnard College protesting the expulsion of students who participated in
pro-Palestinian activism.
The Department of Homeland Security wants to deport Chung and has said she
"engaged in concerning conduct," including being arrested on a misdemeanor
charge. A judge ordered immigration agents not to detain Chung while her legal
challenge is pending.
Badar Khan Suri
Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown scholar from India, was arrested outside his
Virginia home and detained by masked Homeland Security agents on allegations
that he spread Hamas propaganda. Suri's attorney wrote in a court filing that he
was targeted because of his social media posts and his wife's "identity as a
Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech." Suri holds a visa
authorizing him to be in the U.S. as a visiting scholar, and his wife is a U.S.
citizen, according to court documents. Suri was taken to a detention facility in
Louisiana, according to a government website. His lawyers are seeking his
immediate release and to halt deportation proceedings.
Leqaa Kordia
Leqaa Kordia, a resident of Newark, New Jersey, was detained and accused of
failing to leave the U.S. after her student visa expired. Federal authorities
said Kordia is a Palestinian from the West Bank and that she was arrested at or
near Columbia during pro-Palestinian protests. Columbia has said it has no
record of her being a student there. Kordia is being held in an immigration
detention center in Alvarado, Texas, according to a government database.
Ranjani Srinivasan
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian citizen and doctoral student at Columbia, fled the
U.S. after immigration agents searched for her at her university residence. The
Trump administration has said it revoked Srinivasan's visa for "advocating for
violence and terrorism." Srinivasan opted to "self-deport." Officials didn't say
what evidence they have that Srinivasan advocated violence. Her lawyers deny the
accusations, and she told The New York Times that she didn't help to organize
protests at Columbia.
Alireza Doroudi
University of Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi of Iran was detained by
ICE on Tuesday. David Rozas, a lawyer representing Doroudi, says Douridi was
studying mechanical engineering. His student visa was revoked in 2023, but his
lawyer has said he was eligible to continue his studies as long as he maintained
his student status and met other requirements of his entry into the United
States. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Friday that the
arrest was made over the revocation of Doroudi's student visa, saying he "posed
significant national security concerns." A spokesperson said they could not
share additional details. Unlike some other students targeted by ICE, Dorudi's
lawyer said there is no indication that his client was involved in any political
protests. Doroudi told his lawyer he isn't aware of any suspected criminal
activity or violations. He was detained in Alabama but will be moved to an
immigration facility in Jena, Louisiana.
Momodou Taal
Momodou Taal was a doctoral student at Cornell University whose visa was revoked
after he participated in campus demonstrations. Taal, a citizen of the United
Kingdom and Gambia, said on April 1 that he had left the U.S. after a judge
declined to halt his possible detention while he fought deportation in court.
The government says it revoked Taal's student visa because of his alleged
involvement in "disruptive protests."His attorneys say the 31-year-old doctoral
student in Africana studies was exercising free speech rights. Taal said in a
court declaration that "I feel like a prisoner already, although all I have done
is exercise my rights."
Israeli strikes
on Jabalia, Khan Younis kill at least 30 people including children
Agence France Presse/April 02, 2025
Gaza's civil defense agency said nine children were among 16 people killed in an
Israeli strike on what it called a U.N. clinic in Jabalia Wednesday, which the
army did not immediately confirm. Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said
there were also dozens of people wounded in the strike which "targeted an UNRWA
building housing a medical clinic in Jabalia refugee camp". The U.N. agency for
Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was not immediately able to confirm the strike.
Earlier Israeli air strikes on two homes in Khan Younis had also killed at least
15 people, including children. "Thirteen martyrs, including children, were
killed at dawn when occupation forces (the Israeli army) bombed a house
sheltering displaced people in central Khan Younis, in southern Gaza," Bassal
told AFP, adding two other people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in
the Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza.
Far-right Israeli
minister sparks outcry with visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound
Agence France Presse/April 02, 2025
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir prompted strong
condemnation from Arab nations and Palestinian militants Hamas on Wednesday with
his latest visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City. The
firebrand politician was visiting the site, which is sacred to Jews and Muslims,
in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem after returning to the government last month
following the resumption of the war against Hamas in Gaza. Ben Gvir had quit the
cabinet in January in protest at the ceasefire agreement in the Palestinian
territory. The compound is Islam's third holiest site and a symbol of
Palestinian national identity, but it is also Judaism's holiest place, revered
as the site of the ancient temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Under the
status quo maintained by Israel, which has occupied east Jerusalem and its Old
City since 1967, Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound
during specified hours, but they are not permitted to pray there or display
religious symbols. Since the formation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
government at the end of 2022, Ben Gvir has visited the compound on at least
eight occasions, each time triggering international outcry. Jordan, the
custodian of the site, condemned Wednesday's visit as a "storming" and "an
unacceptable provocation" in a foreign ministry statement. Hamas called it a
"provocative and dangerous escalation", saying the visit was "part of the
ongoing genocide against our Palestinian people". "We call on our Palestinian
people and our youth in the West Bank to escalate their confrontation... in
defence of our land and our sanctities, foremost among them the blessed Al-Aqsa
Mosque," it said in a statement. Meanwhile, the Saudi foreign ministry expressed
in a statement its "strongest condemnation" of the "storming" of the compound by
Ben Gvir. Egypt also expressed "its total condemnation and denunciation" of Ben
Gvir's "storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli
police".The site is administered by Jordan under the status quo, while access to
it is controlled by Israeli security forces.
'Desecration'
Ben Gvir's spokesperson told AFP the minister "went there because the site was
opened (for non-Muslims) after 13 days," during which access was reserved for
Muslims for the festival of Eid al-Fitr and the end of the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan.In recent years, growing numbers of Jewish ultranationalists have defied
the rules, including Ben Gvir, who publicly prayed there in 2023 and 2024.
Influential ultra-Orthodox politician Moshe Gafni, a member of the government
majority, criticized Ben Gvir's visit on Wednesday as a "violation of the
sanctity of the holiest place for the Jewish people"."It does not demonstrate
sovereignty, on the contrary, it constitutes a desecration of the holy place and
provokes unnecessary incitement in the Muslim world and beyond", he wrote on
X.Some Jewish leaders warn against visiting the site on religious grounds. The
Israeli government has said repeatedly that it intends to uphold the status quo
at the compound but Palestinian fears about its future have made it a flashpoint
for violence. The UN has previously denounced "any efforts to change the status
quo within the holy sites".
Palestinian man tortured to death by Hamas militants after criticizing group and
attending protests, family says
Ibrahim Dahman and Nadeen Ebrahim,
CNN/April 02, 2025
A 22-year-old Palestinian man was tortured and killed by Hamas militants after
he criticized the group publicly and participated in rare anti-Hamas protests in
Gaza, his family said.
Uday Rabie was taken last week by dozens of armed fighters with Hamas’ military
wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, his
brother Hassan Rabie told CNN on Tuesday. Hassan said his brother had
altercations with members of the group around a month before his death and had
expressed fears that militants would come for him. Uday Rabie had also
participated alongside thousands of others in anti-Hamas and anti-war protests
that took place in the enclave earlier last week, his brother said. Rabie
demonstrated in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, Hassan said, chanting
“No to Hamas” during the rally. Last Friday, a group of armed men affiliated
with the Al-Qassam Brigades kidnapped and then tortured Rabie, Hassan said. The
Palestinian man was taken off the street, days after he protested. “They took
him, they kept torturing him,” Hassan told CNN. “They then called me and said:
come get your brother.”“He was still alive” when the militants returned him,
Hassan said. Rabie was only wearing underwear and the fighters had him “tied by
the neck with a rope, and were dragging him, beating him,” Hassan added.“They
handed him over to me, and told me, in these words: This is the fate of everyone
who disrespects Al-Qassam Brigades and speaks ill of them,” Hassan said.
Hassan said he collected his injured brother and took him to a nearby
hospital. Footage shared on social media showed Rabie lying on a hospital bed,
covered in large cuts and bruises that stretched along his arms, back and feet.
Hassan confirmed the authenticity of the video, and said the man on the bed was
indeed his brother. Rabie died shortly after being
taken to the hospital, he said. Hassan, 32, said that
the family is “sure” Rabie was killed by members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, and
“we have half of their names.”CNN has reached out to Hamas’ Government Media
Office for comment. The media office has, however, previously said that
Palestinians’ right to express their opinions and participate in peaceful
demonstrations is a “legitimate right, and an essential part of the national
values we believe in and defend,” adding that the protests were reflective of
the “tremendous pressure and daily massacres our people are subjected to.”The
Al-Qassam Brigades has not yet publicly commented on the accusations.
A written statement published by Rabie’s family on Facebook said that “a
group claiming to be from Al-Qassam Brigades” kidnapped Rabie at 8:30 p.m. on
Friday. After hours of searching for Rabie, the statement said, his family was
told he was in the hands of the group, who said he needed to be “disciplined”
for “cursing them.”According to the statement, Rabie was “tortured in the most
severe manner with all kinds of sharp and hard objects.” He suffered “internal
bleeding,” as well as several injuries to the head, pelvis and back, his family
said. In the statement, Rabie’s family demanded
retribution, and that Hamas bring those who killed him to justice. In a video
that his brother said was shot about a week before his death, Rabie is seen
speaking into the camera: “They (Hamas) want to take me, they want to kill me …
I don’t know what they want from me.” Large
demonstrations against Hamas have been held in northern Gaza in recent days as
Palestinians call for end to a war in which more than 50,000 people have been
killed during Israel’s military campaign following Hamas’ October 7, 2023,
attack on Israel. In a statement, the Independent
Commission for Human Rights, a Palestinian rights organization established by
former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) head Yasser Arafat, condemned
Rabie’s killing, saying it views “this crime as part of the deteriorating
security chaos, the proliferation of weapons, and the absence of the rule of law
in Gaza, posing a serious threat to public rights and freedoms.”
CNN’s Eyad Kourdi, Irene Nasser and Mitchell McCluskey contributed reporting.
Israeli leader Netanyahu will visit Hungary, defying an international arrest
warrant
Justin Spike/BUDAPEST, Hungary
(AP)/April 2, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Hungary on
Wednesday to meet with its nationalist prime minister despite an international
arrest warrant for the Israeli leader over the war in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu's four-day visit to Budapest is a sign of both his close relationship
with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the latter's growing hostility toward
international institutions like the International Criminal Court, of which
Hungary is a member. Orbán, a conservative populist and close Netanyahu ally,
has vowed to disregard the ICC warrant, accusing the world’s top war crimes
court based in The Hague, Netherlands, of “interfering in an ongoing conflict
for political purposes.”Members of Orbán's government have suggested that
Hungary, which became a signatory to the court in 2001, could withdraw.
Currently, all countries in the 27-member European Union are signatories, and
all members are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on
their soil. But the court relies on member countries to enforce that. The ICC,
the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide, issued
the arrest warrant in November for Netanyahu as well as for his former defense
minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in
connection with the war in Gaza after the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7,
2023.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them children, have been killed
during the Israeli military’s response, which it resumed last month while
shattering a ceasefire. The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu
and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant used “starvation as a method of
warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid to Gaza, and intentionally targeted
civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas — charges that Israeli officials
deny. The ICC has criticized Hungary's decision to defy its warrant for
Netanyahu. The court's spokesperson, Fadi El Abdallah, said it's not for parties
to the ICC “to unilaterally determine the soundness of the Court’s legal
decisions.” Participating states have an obligation to enforce the court’s
decisions, El Ebdallah told The Associated Press in an email, and may consult
with the court if they disagree with its rulings. Orbán, regarded by critics as
the EU's most intransigent spoiler in the bloc's decision-making, is seen as
using some of the tactics that Netanyahu has been accused of employing in
Israel: subjugation of the judiciary, antagonism toward the EU and cracking down
on civil society and human rights groups. The two leaders are practitioners of
“illiberal” governance — a term adopted by Orbán rejecting the tenets of liberal
democracy — and are allied with U.S. President Donald Trump, who signed an
executive order in February imposing sanctions on the ICC over its
investigations of Israel.
For Netanyahu, the visit to Hungary offers another opportunity to defy the ICC
warrant and project an image of statesmanship while he faces mounting protests
at home. He has faced mass protests by Israelis who fear his decision to resume
the war endangers the lives of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. He has also
sparked anger by trying to fire or sideline top officials in what critics view
as a power grab and an attack on state institutions. Along with resuming its
offensive in Gaza last month, Israel halted all imports of food, fuel and
humanitarian aid to the territory’s 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to
release more hostages and accept proposed changes to the truce agreement.Erika
Guevara-Rosas, the head of global research, advocacy and policy of human rights
group Amnesty International, said in a statement that Hungary must arrest
Netanyahu if he travels there and hand him over to the ICC. “Hungary’s
invitation shows contempt for international law and confirms that alleged war
criminals wanted by the ICC are welcome on the streets of a European Union
member state,” Guevara-Rosas said. Liz Evenson, international justice director
at Human Rights Watch, said Hungary allowing Netanyahu's visit "would be Orban’s
latest assault on the rule of law, adding to the country’s dismal record on
rights.”In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President
Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of responsibility for the abductions
of children from Ukraine. Putin visited Mongolia, which is also a member of the
ICC, in September last year, but he wasn't arrested. Last year, judges found
that the country failed to uphold its legal obligations and referred the matter
to the court’s oversight body.
Israel seizing more of Gaza to force Hamas to free hostages
AFP/April 02, 2025
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the
military was “dissecting” the Gaza Strip and seizing territory to pressure Hamas
into freeing hostages still held in the territory. It came as rescuers said 34
people were killed in continued Israeli strikes on the territory, including on a
UN building. The military is “dissecting the (Gaza) Strip and increasing the
pressure step by step so that (Hamas) will return our hostages,” Netanyahu said
in a statement, adding that Israel “is seizing territory, striking terrorists,
and destroying infrastructure.”He added that the army is “taking control of the
‘Morag Axis’,” a strip of land that is expected to run between the southern
governorates of Khan Yunis and Rafah. The name of the axis refers to a former
Israeli settlement that was evacuated when Israel unilaterally pulled out of
Gaza in 2005. Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier said Israel would bolster its
military presence in the Palestinian territory to “destroy and clear the area of
terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”The operation would “seize large areas
that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones,” he said in a statement,
without specifying how much territory. Gaza’s civil defense agency said an
Israeli strike that targeted a UN building “housing a medical clinic in Jabalia
refugee camp” killed at least 19 people, including nine children. The Israeli
army said it struck Hamas militants “inside a command and control center” in
north Gaza’s Jabalia. It separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN
clinic.
The Palestinian foreign ministry, based in the occupied West Bank, condemned the
“massacre” at the clinic run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian
refugees, and called for “serious international pressure” to halt Israel’s
widening offensive.
Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing
displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18
months. The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where
thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian
militant group. Israel also carried out deadly air strikes in southern and
central Gaza on Wednesday. The civil defense said dawn strikes killed at least
13 people in Khan Yunis and two in Nuseirat refugee camp. In February, Katz
announced plans for an agency to oversee the “voluntary departure” of
Palestinians from the territory. That followed Israel’s backing of a proposal
from US President Donald Trump for the United States to take over the territory
after relocating its 2.4 million Palestinian inhabitants. The proposal outraged
Gazans and drew widespread international condemnation.
Israel resumed intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 before launching a new ground
offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire. An Israeli group representing
the families of hostages still held in Gaza said they were “horrified” by Katz’s
announcement of expanded military operations.
“Has it been decided to sacrifice the hostages for the sake of ‘territorial
gains?’” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum asked in a statement. At least
1,066 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed military operations,
the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
That took the overall toll to at least 50,423 since the war began with Hamas’s
October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people,
according to Israeli figures. Hunger loomed in Gaza City as bakeries closed due
to worsening shortages of flour and sugar since Israel blocked the entry of
supplies from March 2. “I’ve been going from bakery to bakery all morning, but
none of them are operating, they’re all closed,” Amina Al-Sayed told AFP. On
Sunday, Netanyahu offered to let Hamas leaders leave Gaza but demanded the group
abandon its arms.
Hamas has signalled willingness to cede power in Gaza but calls disarmament a
“red line.”Egypt, Qatar and the United States are attempting to broker a new
ceasefire and secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. A senior
Hamas official said Saturday the group had approved a new ceasefire proposal,
while Netanyahu’s office said Israel had submitted a counteroffer. The details
remain undisclosed. Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben
Gvir visited Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Wednesday. The
visit drew condemnation not only from Hamas but also from neighboring Jordan,
which acts as custodian of the holy site, as well as Qatar and other
governments. Ben Gvir has repeatedly challenged the longstanding convention that
Jews may visit but not pray at the compound, stoking Palestinian fears about
Israeli intentions.
Gaza mass grave
underscores ‘war without limits’, UN official says
AFP/April 02, 2025
UNITED NATIONS: The mass grave in Rafah where the bodies of 15 medics were found
after the Israeli army fired on ambulances illustrates the “war without limits”
that Israel is leading in Gaza, a UN aid official said Wednesday. “It was
shocking” to see medical workers “still in their uniforms, still wearing gloves,
killed while trying to save lives,” said Jonathan Whittall, head of the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the
Palestinian territories. “The ambulances were hit one by one,” he said in a
video conference after a mission to Gaza uncovered the mass grave. Of the 15
bodies, eight were members of the Palestinian Red Crescent and one was from the
United Nations. UN chief Antonio Guterres also expressed revulsion Wednesday at
the killings. “The secretary-general is shocked by the attacks of the Israeli
army on a medical and emergency convoy on March 23 resulting in the killings of
15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza,” spokesman Stephane
Dujarric told a briefing. OCHA said Tuesday that the first team of first aid
workers was killed by Israeli forces on March 23, and that other emergency and
aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for
their missing colleagues. After several weeks of ceasefire in Gaza, Israel
resumed its bombardments on March 18 and announced Wednesday the extension of
its military operations to seize “large areas” of the territory. Whittall said
64 percent of Gaza is under displacement orders, and that 200,000 people have
been uprooted since the end of the ceasefire. He said the 25 bakeries run by the
UN’s World Food Programme have been closed since Tuesday. “It’s an endless loop
of blood, pain, death and Gaza has become a death trap,” he said. “What is
happening here defies decency, it defies humanity, it defies the law.”
Israeli strikes
on Jabalia, Khan Younis kill at least 30 people including children
Agence France Presse/April 02/2025
Gaza's civil defense agency said nine children were among 16 people killed in an
Israeli strike on what it called a U.N. clinic in Jabalia Wednesday, which the
army did not immediately confirm. Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said
there were also dozens of people wounded in the strike which "targeted an UNRWA
building housing a medical clinic in Jabalia refugee camp". The U.N. agency for
Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was not immediately able to confirm the strike.
Earlier Israeli air strikes on two homes in Khan Younis had also killed at least
15 people, including children. "Thirteen martyrs, including children, were
killed at dawn when occupation forces (the Israeli army) bombed a house
sheltering displaced people in central Khan Younis, in southern Gaza," Bassal
told AFP, adding two other people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in
the Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza.
Israel PM Says
'Dissecting' Gaza to Force Hamas to Free Hostages
AFP/April 02/2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the military
was "dissecting" the Gaza Strip and seizing territory to pressure Hamas into
freeing hostages still held in the territory. It came as rescuers said 34 people
were killed in continued Israeli strikes on the territory, including on a UN
building. The military is "dissecting the (Gaza) Strip and increasing the
pressure step by step so that (Hamas) will return our hostages," Netanyahu said
in a statement, adding that Israel "is seizing territory, striking terrorists,
and destroying infrastructure." He added that the army is "taking control of the
'Morag Axis'," a strip of land that is expected to run between the southern
governorates of Khan Younes and Rafah. The name of the axis refers to a former
Israeli settlement that was evacuated when Israel unilaterally pulled out of
Gaza in 2005. Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier said Israel would bolster its
military presence in the Palestinian territory to "destroy and clear the area of
terrorists and terrorist infrastructure." The operation would "seize large areas
that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones" already under military
control, he said in a statement, without specifying how much territory. Gaza's
civil defense agency said an Israeli strike that targeted a UN building "housing
a medical clinic in Jabalia refugee camp" killed at least 19 people, including
nine children. The Israeli army said it struck Hamas militants "inside a command
and control center" in north Gaza's Jabalia. It separately confirmed to AFP the
building housed a UN clinic. The Palestinian foreign ministry, based in the
occupied West Bank, condemned the "massacre" at the clinic run by UNRWA, the
United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, and called for "serious
international pressure" to halt Israel's widening offensive.
'Horrified'
Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing
displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18
months.The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where
thousands of Gazans have sought shelter -- a charge denied by the Palestinian
militant group. Israel also carried out deadly air strikes in southern and
central Gaza on Wednesday. The civil defense said dawn strikes killed at least
13 people in Khan Younes and two in Nuseirat refugee camp. Late Wednesday, the
military said it had intercepted "two projectiles that crossed into Israeli
territory from northern Gaza" after air raid sirens sounded in border
communities. Shortly after, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in an online
post that "terrorist organizations... launch their rockets from among
civilians," telling Palestinians in parts of northern Gaza to evacuate "for your
safety" ahead of an attack. Israel resumed intense bombing of Gaza on March 18
before launching a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire. An
Israeli group representing the families of hostages still held in Gaza said they
were "horrified" by Katz's announcement of expanded military operations. "Has it
been decided to sacrifice the hostages for the sake of 'territorial gains?'" the
Hostages and Missing Families Forum asked in a statement. UN chief Antonio
Guterres on Wednesday called for "a full, thorough, and independent
investigation" into the killing of 15 emergency responders in Gaza, whose bodies
had been recovered days after a shooting last month in the southern city of
Rafah. "The secretary-general is shocked by the attacks of the Israeli army on a
medical and emergency convoy on March 23," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a
briefing. "It was shocking" to see medical workers "still in their uniforms,
still wearing gloves, killed while trying to save lives," said Jonathan Whittall,
head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
in the Palestinian territories. "The ambulances were hit one by one," he said.
Hunger
At least 1,066 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed military
operations, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said. That took the
overall toll to at least 50,423 since the war began with Hamas's October 2023
attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to
Israeli figures. Hunger loomed in Gaza City as bakeries closed due to worsening
shortages of flour and sugar since Israel blocked the entry of supplies from
March 2. "I've been going from bakery to bakery all morning, but none of them
are operating; they're all closed," Amina al-Sayed told AFP. On Sunday,
Netanyahu offered to let Hamas leaders leave Gaza but demanded the group abandon
its arms. Hamas has signaled willingness to cede power in Gaza but calls
disarmament a "red line". Egypt, Qatar, and the United States are attempting to
broker a new ceasefire and secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages.
A senior Hamas official said Saturday the group had approved a new ceasefire
proposal, while Netanyahu's office said Israel had submitted a counteroffer. The
details remain undisclosed.
Hamas warns those
who 'spread chaos' after killing of its police officer
Nidal al-Mughrabi/April 2, 2025
Gaza family's open admission this week that they killed an officer from the
Hamas-run police force after they said a relative was shot dead has added to
signs of popular dissent against the militant group after 18 months of war with
Israel. It drew a warning from the Hamas-run interior ministry that actions that
undermined public order would not be tolerated. But following protests against
Hamas by hundreds of demonstrators in northern Gaza last month, the incident
underscored the increasing willingness of some Gaza civilians to voice criticism
or act against Hamas, which has run the Palestinian enclave since defeating the
rival Fatah faction in 2007. On Wednesday, hundreds of Palestinians also rallied
in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, chanting "Hamas out" and "Enough
death" in renewed protests against the Islamist faction. Residents were angered
by new Israeli military evacuation orders, which the military said followed
rocket salvoes by militants from the area. They may have been emboldened to take
the streets by a sharply reduced presence of Hamas police and security forces in
the past weeks since Israel's large-scale attacks have resumed, after a surge
during a ceasefire in January. The pockets of anti-Hamas sentiment were
highlighted by the video of the street killing of the police officer going viral
on social media. It showed him being shot in the head and then sprayed with
bullets from an assault rifle as other men urged on the family members. The
family, well known in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, issued a statement on
social media, which was shared by several relatives, saying they had killed the
officer, without identifying who had pulled the trigger, but also said it had
not been a planned action. They said one of the family had been killed by a
police officer as police tried to resolve a feud outside a flour storage site -
rejecting that he had been caught by shrapnel. "We will not allow any party to
spread chaos in Gaza Strip or take the law into their hands," Hamas said in a
statement, adding that it had begun measures to bring those involved to justice.
In a separate statement, Hamas said the killing of the officer was a crime that
only "serves Zionist goals in breaking the internal Palestinian front and
spreads chaos and anarchy".In a different incident, in Gaza City, another family
accused Hamas police of killing a relative and vowed vengeance. "The blood of
our son will not be wasted," the family said in a statement. There was no
immediate comment by the Hamas-led police about that incident.
Protests broke out against Hamas in
Gaza. What do Palestinians think about the militant group?
Samy Magdy And Joseph Krauss/The
Associated Press/April 2, 2025
Thousands of Palestinians chanted against Hamas during anti-war protests last
week in the Gaza Strip, the biggest show of anger at the militant group since
its attack on Israel ignited the war. Protesters said they were venting anger
and desperation as they endure a new round of war and displacement after Israel
ended a ceasefire. They leveled unusually direct criticism at Hamas even while
remaining furious at Israel, the United States and others for their plight.
Public expressions of dissent have been extremely rare since Hamas seized power
in Gaza in 2007. The militant group has violently dispersed occasional protests
and jailed, tortured or killed those who challenged its rule. Hamas has faced no
significant internal challenge since the start of the war and still controls
Gaza, despite losing most of its top leaders and thousands of fighters. There is
also nearly universal anger at Israel, whose offensive has killed tens of
thousands of Palestinians and flattened entire neighborhoods. Israel has blocked
all humanitarian aid for a month and renewed its offensive. Israel blames the
high death toll on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas,
accusing it of showing no concern for Palestinian civilians. “The protest was
not about politics. It was about people’s lives,” said Mohammed Abu Saker, a
father of three from the bombed-out town of Beit Hanoun who joined a
demonstration. “We can’t stop Israel from killing us, but we can press Hamas to
give concessions.”
Is Hamas popular?
Nearly all Palestinians support some form of resistance to Israel’s military
occupation and expansion of settlements — which predate Hamas’ founding in the
1980s. In general, support for Hamas in the occupied West Bank and Gaza tends to
increase when it battles Israel and subside during periods of relative calm. The
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which has conducted
scientific polling in Gaza and the West Bank for decades, found before this war
began that about equal numbers of Palestinians supported Hamas and the secular
Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who recognizes Israel and
cooperates with it on security. But polls taken since the start of the war show
Hamas has been consistently more popular than Fatah. The change is particularly
pronounced in the West Bank, where support for Hamas rose immediately after the
Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people that day,
mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
In Gaza, the polls provide some evidence that support for Hamas rose slightly in
the immediate aftermath of the attack, but since then has returned to about
where it stood previously. Hamas has not had the support of most Palestinians,
in either territory, either before or after the war began. Wartime polling in
Gaza is especially challenging due to a lack of access to some regions and mass
displacement. There is also potentially even more pressure on respondents to
answer a particular way. Tahani Mustafa, senior analyst at the International
Crisis Group, said it's difficult to gauge Hamas' support. “I wouldn’t say it’s
either popular or unpopular at this point in time," she said. The Associated
Press contacted dozens of Palestinians about Hamas in recent months. The vast
majority declined to be interviewed or requested anonymity, fearing retribution
from Hamas — or from Israel if they voiced support for the group. Many said they
were just struggling to stay alive. Israel’s offensive has killed over 50,000
Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many
were civilians or combatants. The ministry is led by medical professionals but
reports to the Hamas-run government. Its toll is seen as generally reliable by
U.N. agencies and independent experts, though Israel has challenged its numbers.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Hamas has not disclosed the full extent of its losses.
How does Hamas handle dissent?
Hamas has violently suppressed dissent since seizing power from the Palestinian
Authority —led by Fatah. Rights groups say both Palestinian authorities crack
down on protests and detain and torture critics. In the past, Hamas has killed
people it accused of being collaborators with Israel, as well as some who have
challenged its rule. There are no confirmed reports of anyone being killed for
taking part in the latest protests. Israel and Western nations consider Hamas a
terrorist organization because of its long history of attacks that have killed
Israeli civilians.
Gaza residents, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, say
plainclothes Hamas security men have patrolled the territory throughout the war,
maintaining law and order while also quashing dissent. But Hamas' detractors may
have other reasons for staying quiet.
Any perceived criticism of armed resistance against Israel is generally frowned
upon in Palestinian society and seen as treasonous by some, especially during
wartime.
Family elders of Beit Lahiya, where the first protest erupted last week,
released a statement backing demands to end to the war while reaffirming their
support for armed resistance.
Saeed Abu Elaish, a medic from Jabaliya, one of the most heavily damaged areas
in Gaza, lost his wife, their two daughters and several relatives in an Israeli
airstrike. He said he's sick of hearing Hamas leaders call for more sacrifice.
“Stop this war. Stop these massacres,” he said.
But he was also angry at Israel's expressions of support for the protests,
accusing it of exploiting them. "It’s mainly against Israel before it’s against
Hamas,” he said.
Many Palestinians see armed resistance as the only path to independence because
peace negotiations and forms of nonviolent resistance — like boycotts — have
largely failed.
“There is a red line in the Palestinian national discourse. You simply don’t
criticize armed resistance,” Mustafa said. “To do that will then provide the
kind of pretext that Israel and the international community are looking for” to
support Israel’s actions.
Why is there no alternative to Hamas in Gaza?
The last serious Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down in 2009, at the
start of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nearly unbroken 15 years in
power. Abbas, who is 89 and deeply unpopular, is still committed to a two-state
solution, while the Israeli government is opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Netanyahu has vowed to eliminate Hamas and ruled out any role for Abbas'
Palestinian Authority in Gaza, saying it is not truly committed to peace. He
says Israel will maintain open-ended security control, as it does in the West
Bank, where the Palestinian Authority administers population centers.
That means there is no one around whom opponents of Hamas might rally, and no
postwar plan. Most Palestinians alive today were not old enough to vote the last
time national elections were held, in 2006, when Hamas won a landslide victory.
Abbas, whose mandate ended in 2009, has repeatedly promised elections only to
postpone them, blaming Israeli restrictions. Polling indicates he would struggle
to win reelection. Hamas has said it's willing to cede power in Gaza to other
Palestinians but has rejected Israeli and U.S. demands that it disarm and go
into exile. An armed Hamas would maintain influence in Gaza even if it gives up
nominal authority. With no clear alternative to Hamas and no end in sight to the
war, some protesters have expressed despair. “Our children have been killed. Our
houses have been destroyed,” said Abed Radwan. He said the protest he joined
last week was against the war, Hamas, other Palestinian factions, Israel and
"the world’s silence.”
US officials object to
European push to buy weapons locally
Gram Slattery, John Irish and Daphne Psaledakis/Reuters/April 2, 2025
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. officials have told European allies they want
them to keep buying American-made arms, amid recent moves by the European Union
to limit U.S. manufacturers' participation in weapons tenders, five sources
familiar with the matter told Reuters. The messages delivered by Washington in
recent weeks come as the EU takes steps to boost Europe's weapons industry,
while potentially limiting purchases of certain types of U.S. arms.The Trump
administration's early foreign policy steps, including briefly cutting military
aid for Ukraine and easing pressure on Moscow, have deeply unnerved European
allies, prompting many to ask if the United States is a reliable partner. In
mid-March, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, proposed boosting
military spending and pooling resources on joint defense projects, as Europe
girds for decreased U.S. military engagement under President Donald Trump. Some
of the proposed measures could mean a smaller role for non-EU companies,
including those based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, experts say. In a
March 25 meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the foreign ministers of
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that the United States wants to continue
participating in EU countries' defense procurements, the sources told Reuters.
According to two of the sources, Rubio said any exclusion of U.S. companies from
European tenders would be seen negatively by Washington, which those two sources
interpreted as a reference to the proposed EU rules. One northern European
diplomat, who was not part of the Baltic meeting, said they had also been
recently told by U.S. officials that any exclusion from EU weapons procurements
would be seen as inappropriate. Rubio plans to discuss expectations that EU
countries keep buying U.S. weapons during his visit to Brussels this week, where
he will attend the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting, said a senior State
Department official. "It's a point the secretary has raised and will continue to
raise," the official said. A State Department spokesperson said Trump welcomes
recent efforts from European allies to "strengthen their defense capabilities
and take responsibility for their own security," but warned against creating new
barriers that exclude U.S. companies from European defense projects.
"Transatlantic defense industrial cooperation makes the Alliance stronger," the
spokesperson said. The foreign ministries of Latvia and Estonia did not respond
to requests for comment. The foreign ministry of Lithuania declined to comment.
U.S. POLICY PULLS IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS
The U.S. concern about limits on arms purchases reflects a tension at the center
of the Trump administration's Europe policy. Trump has urged European allies to
spend more on defense and take greater responsibility for their own security. As
it does so, the EU is looking to bring manufacturing in-house in light of the
U.S. president's suggestions that his commitment to NATO is not absolute. That
runs counter to another Trump administration goal, which is to open foreign
markets to U.S. manufacturers. The mid-March defense proposal by the European
Commission, dubbed ReArm Europe, included a plan to borrow 150 billion euros
($162 billion) for loans to EU governments to spend on defense projects. Many EU
governments say they are in favor of a more pan-European approach to defense.
But how it would work is likely to be the subject of fierce debate - over who
should have the power to decide on joint projects, who should run them and how
they should be funded. While the Commission insists there are ways for companies
outside the EU to compete for defense funds under the proposed plan, arms
manufacturers outside the bloc would in practice face a number of practical and
administrative hurdles. The Trump administration - like previous administrations
- has pushed for European purchases of U.S. weapons before, including at this
year's Munich Security Conference. Some of the sources consider the recent
messages from Washington as a continuation of U.S. policy. Still, several
sources said the U.S. emphasis on the matter has intensified in recent weeks as
the EU has moved more decisively to decouple its weapons procurement.
"They are upset about ReArm proposal and that the U.S. is excluded," said one
senior European source.
Yemen’s Houthis say one killed in fresh strikes blamed on US
AFP/April 02, 2025
SANAA: Yemen’s Houthi militants said fresh US air strikes on Wednesday killed
one person in Hodeida province, after overnight air raids left four people dead
in the same area. Anees Alasbahi, spokesman for the Houthis’ health ministry,
reported “one civilian martyr and one wounded” in the Red Sea port of Ras Issa,
saying they were “victims of the US enemy’s air force.”Houthi-controlled media
said strikes hit Ras Issa as well as the Iran-backed group’s northern stronghold
of Saada.Earlier on Wednesday the Houthis said overnight air strikes on Hodeida
province killed four, in an attack also blamed on the United States. The United
States, which has carried out major raids in Yemen in recent weeks, has not
confirmed it was behind the latest strikes.Houthi media said the targets of the
overnight strikes included water infrastructure in Hodeida and areas of the
northwestern region of Hajjah. US President Donald Trump has vowed that attacks
on Yemen’s Houthis would continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.
Early Wednesday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group targeted
US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman for “the third time in 24 hours.”His
statement came just as Washington said it was increasing the number of aircraft
carriers deployed in the Middle East to two, keeping the Truman and sending
another from the Indo-Pacific. The Carl Vinson would join the Truman “to
continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free
flow of commerce in the region,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. Houthi-held
parts of Yemen have witnessed near-daily attacks blamed on the United States
since Washington launched a campaign against the rebels on March 15 to force
them to stop threatening vessels in key maritime routes. Since then, the Houthis
have also claimed attacks targeting US military ships and Israel. On Tuesday,
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the campaign of “over 200
successful strikes against the Houthis” had been effective. The rebels had
targeted passing ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as Israeli
territory, from shortly after the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023 until
a January ceasefire, claiming to act in solidarity with Palestinians. Renewed US
strikes followed Houthi threats to resume attacks on vessels over Israel’s aid
blockade on Gaza and attacks on the Palestinian territory after truce talks
stalled. The Houthi attacks had crippled the vital Red Sea route, which normally
carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, forcing many companies into
a detour around the tip of southern Africa.
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on April 02-03/2025
Australia Must Join Maximum Pressure Against Iran
Saeed Ghasseminejad/Dr. Reza Arab/ The National Interest/April 02/2025
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/australia-must-join-maximum-pressure-against-iran
Australia must take decisive action: designate the IRGC as a terrorist
organization and expand sanctions on Tehran’s cyber and illicit financial
networks.
Last month, comments by Fatima Payman, an Afghan-born Australian senator, in
defense of the Islamic Republic and its treatment of Iranian women rightfully
outraged many in Australia. Although the senator apologized for her statement,
the affair put a spotlight on Canberra’s Iran policy. For most Australians, the
Islamic Republic of Iran may seem like a small challenge. It abuses human
rights, takes foreign tourists and academics hostage, pursues nuclear ambitions,
and stokes conflict with Israel. While Tehran’s malign behaviour may seem
thousands of kilometres away, the increasing cooperation between like-minded
aggressors like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea highlights the potential
for these countries to form a more unified axis.
In 2024, navy chiefs from the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS)
alliance warned politicians about increasing collaboration between China,
Russia, and Iran. This concern is not limited to military officers. The
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director Mike Burgess
issued an alert on February 19, 2025, stating that Australia faces its most
complicated and difficult security situation to date. Without mentioning Iran
specifically, he disclosed that adversarial intelligence agencies now target
critics on Australian territory. In 2023, Australian authorities uncovered an
Iranian plot to spy on an Australian citizen on Australian soil.
Both Indo-Pacific power shifts and the traditional alliance with the United
States and the United Kingdom have long shaped Australia’s security outlook, but
challenges now grow. Iran’s support for Russia in Ukraine exemplifies how
authoritarian regimes collaborate across the globe. In another sign of this
emerging alliance, China, Iran, and Russia held joint naval drills in the Gulf
of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz earlier in March. In a future
Pacific crisis, Tehran will be on the side of Canberra’s adversaries with at
least cyberattacks if not direct military support.
China’s recent military drill in the Tasman Sea, which caused the diversion of
international commercial flights, shocked many in Australia. Such “gunboat
diplomacy”, as the Australian opposition described it, occurred amid growing
fears about a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan.
As global tensions rise, Australia faces a defining moment in its foreign policy
toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas War,
with U.S. President Donald Trump back in office, and the “maximum pressure”
campaign revived, global focus will return to Tehran’s destabilizing actions.
For Australia, aligning with this effort shouldn’t be just about supporting both
other Western allies and the Iranian people chafing under a repressive regime;
it should be a strategic necessity tied to its security and values.
Australia already imposes some sanctions on Iran, both UN-aligned and
unilateral, to target Iran’s nuclear program and human rights abuses. Two weeks
after Tehran’s missile barrage against Israel in October 2024, Australia imposed
financial sanctions and travel bans targeting individuals associated with Iran’s
missile program to pressure Tehran into compliance with international norms.
Yet, a glaring inconsistency persists: Australia has not designated the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be a terrorist group, despite its role in
conflicts, terror sponsorship, and domestic repression. Differentiating between
IRGC units is disingenuous given that the IRGC’s business network funds its
terror even more than official government budgetary support.
Ahmad Sadeghi, Iran’s ambassador to Australia, has praised terror leaders and
posted calls to “wipe out” the “Zionist plague.” The problem is not just
rhetoric. Iran poses a real threat to Australia. Before Burgess’ recent
statement, the ASIO had flagged Tehran’s cyber espionage targeting Australians.
The threat from the Islamic regime is no minor issue; a 2024 Lowy Institute poll
cited cyberattacks as a top concern for 70 percent of Australians.
The regime in Iran uses advanced cyber tools to intimidate dissidents and gather
intelligence, threatening the Australian digital economy and critical
infrastructure.
During his first term, the Trump administration targeted the Islamist regime in
Iran with sanctions on oil, finance, and other IRGC-linked sectors. Now, with
mounting evidence of Iranian assassination plots against U.S.
officials—including Trump himself—Trump signals an even tougher approach. With
the Middle East still a powder keg, pressuring rather than coddling could
contribute to peace and change.
Security threats to Australia usually prompt bipartisan support for action
across the political spectrum in Canberra. The threat posed by Tehran today is
no different. The Islamist regime is undermining Australia’s strategic interests
and domestic security. Supporting the United States and Jerusalem in their
efforts against Tehran isn’t simply about backing American or Israeli
interests—it’s about Australia’s own future and safety. A firm stance would
bolster the global effort to curb its malign influence and help create a safer
world.
Australia must take decisive action: designate the IRGC as a terrorist
organization and expand sanctions targeting Tehran’s cyber and illicit financial
networks. These moves would send a clear message that Canberra will not tolerate
Tehran’s tactics. It’s time for Australia to act with strength and resolve.
**Dr. Saeed Ghasseminejad is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies, a non-partisan think tank in the United States. Dr. Reza Arab is a
lecturer at the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of
Queensland.
Europe's Illegal Land-Grab: The Unlawful Palestinian
Settlements You've Never Heard Of
Karys Rhea/Gatestone Institute/April 02/2025
Israel's complete jurisdiction over Area C, which legally includes building
permits, zoning, construction, law enforcement and planning, was recognized and
agreed to by the Palestinian leadership and the world at large for almost three
decades. As stipulated in the agreement, only when direct negotiations determine
the permanent fate of the territories that had illegally been occupied by Jordan
until 1967, can the Oslo Accords be replaced. Until then, it is the law.
First, they fabricated a name for this illegal encampment to make it appear
"historic": "Khan al Ahmar." From there, they complained to the media that this
destitute group of Arabs were being threatened with supposed "crimes against
humanity": forced population transfer and ethnic cleansing. They accompanied
their manufactured narrative with images of barefoot Bedouin children, and began
pumping money into the settlement, and building these "dispossessed" children a
school.
Khan al Ahmar is representative of a pattern of tactics that the PA regularly
employs when wresting land rights from the State of Israel. First, it identifies
a strategic point located far from an existing population center. Second, it
illegally seizes the land, invents a name for this "historic" village that never
existed, and insists the squatters have been there since the dawn of time,
despite historic aerial photographs showing otherwise. Third, it broadcasts any
pushback from Israel as "cruel" and "oppressive," and "ethnic cleansing"....
Then, it finds another location to invade.
As of today, the PA has built over 90,000 illegal structures and aggressively
seized more than 23,000 acres of land.
[T]he UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been
known to partner with the PA, and it actually plowed over the royal city of
Shomron (Sebastia), the seat of the ancient Israelite Kingdom and one of the
largest, most important archaeological sites in the area. UNESCO has also
literally "reinvented" the Tomb of the Patriarchs -- where Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah are buried -- as the purported tomb of a Muslim
sheikh.
Attempted legal action against the EU, on the basis of its undermining the Oslo
Accords, is met with the claim that its funding for the PA merely amounts to
"humanitarian aid" and that the EU has full "diplomatic immunity." Carver,
however, argues that this defense is invalid because the Vienna Convention
stipulates that diplomats may only be granted immunity if they do not interfere
in the internal affairs of a state, which the EU is actively doing by seizing
land that is recognized legally as being under Israel's jurisdiction. In
claiming immunity by falsely declaring that it is not interfering in Israel's
internal affairs, the EU is also disregarding a foundational element of the UN
charter: the principle of non-intervention.
The Europeans appear to want it both ways, on the one hand paying lip service to
the Oslo Accords in order to criticize Israel, while on the other hand actively
helping the PA to ignore the terms of the Accords. The chasm between proclaimed
intention and actual behavior renders any commitment to peace laughable. The
irony of the Europeans condemning Israel for expropriating questionable
Palestinian land when the Europeans themselves are helping Palestinians to
expropriate Israeli land is lost on the public at large.
Khan al Ahmar is representative of a pattern of tactics that the Palestinian
Authority regularly employs when wresting land rights from the State of Israel.
First, it identifies a strategic point located far from an existing population
center. Second, it illegally seizes the land, invents a name for this "historic"
village that never existed, and insists the squatters have been there since the
dawn of time, despite historic aerial photographs showing otherwise. Third, it
broadcasts any pushback from Israel as "cruel" and "oppressive," and "ethnic
cleansing"
Yesterday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich announced their commitment to "foil what they said was the Palestinian
Authority's scheme to seize land across Judea and Samaria." Most of this vast,
lawless land-grab, it turns out, has been energized and financed by the European
Union (EU). For decades, members of the media, activist groups, academics,
international organizations, NGOs, and countless politicians have insisted that
Jewish settlements in the West Bank are the primary obstacle to peace between
Israelis and Palestinians. These settlements, the assumption goes, represent an
illegal and inhumane "occupation," and until they are dismantled and the
territory handed over to a Palestinian state, there can be no resolution to the
conflict.
Beyond these power-broker narratives exists another dimension to the story that
is deliberately neglected worldwide. It is a far more labyrinthine and sinister
tale -- one of stunning hypocrisy, moral bankruptcy, quasi-legal bureaucracy and
colossal abuse of international law -- that exposes the questionable motivations
of quite a few bad-faith actors at the core of an Israeli-European alliance
supposedly based on "shared democratic values."
The deception begins with a 2009 document, "The Fayyad Plan," and ends with the
unlawful Palestinian takeover of hundreds of thousands of dunams of land, with
direct subsidies and encouragement from the EU. This land, under the
internationally recognized and mutually agreed to Oslo Accords, rightfully
belongs to Israel. In 1993, in Washington, DC, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin and Yasser Arafat, a Palestinian terrorist who had been evicted from
Jordan and Lebanon, signed the first and only agreement achieved between Israel
and Palestine Liberation Organization, which was brokered by the United States
government under President Bill Clinton, and witnessed by the EU. In 1995, the
parties signed a follow-on agreement called the Oslo II Accord, also known as
the Taba Agreement or the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip. A critical component of Oslo II separated the West Bank into
three jurisdictions -- Areas A, B and C -- and outlined specific
responsibilities and obligations of its administrators.
Area A would be exclusively controlled, both for civil and security matters, by
the newly-created Palestinian Authority (PA). Area B would be administered for
all civil matters by the PA while the Israeli government would maintain security
of its periphery, and Area C would be solely administered by Israel until all
final borders would theoretically be negotiated face-to-face with the
Palestinians. In other words, Israel's complete jurisdiction over Area C, which
legally includes building permits, zoning, construction, law enforcement and
planning, was recognized and agreed to by the Palestinian leadership and the
world at large for almost three decades.
As stipulated in the agreement, only when direct negotiations determine the
permanent fate of the territories that had illegally been occupied by Jordan
until 1967, can the Oslo Accords be replaced. Until then, it is the law.
Unlike United Nations General Assembly resolutions, which are non-binding, the
Oslo Accords are legally obligatory. Yet on August 23, 2009, 14 years after the
signing of Oslo II, Salam Fayyad, then the prime minister of the PA, published a
blueprint titled, "Palestine: Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State,"
known today as the Fayyad Plan, in which he took it upon himself to unilaterally
abandon the Oslo framework and reject direct negotiations with Israel. Instead,
Fayyad explicitly called for the creation of a de-facto Palestinian state in
Area C.
Fayyad's usurpation of an international legal framework consisted of a plan to
disregard the territorial divisions in the West Bank established by the Oslo
Accords and de facto annex the land by building "facts on the ground" throughout
Area C, presumably creating irreversible possession, establishing an
extra-judicial foothold in an off-limits area, and eventually reshaping the
demographic and sovereign facts on the ground.
Fayyad recognized that the brutal wave of Palestinian terror attacks that began
in 2000, initiated by the Palestinian Authority, had distracted the world from
the fact that they once again had rejected, without even a counter-proposal, yet
another offer by Israel for a supposedly wished-for Palestinian state. The wave
of terror attacks, in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered in what came
to be known as the Second Intifada, had a transformative effect on Israeli
public opinion. The argument of the Israeli peace-camp that, by ceding tangible
land for intangible promises, Israel could buy peace, was finally discredited.
Terrorism had failed to break the Israeli spirit, and Fayyad needed a new plan.
That plan was to build. Despite valid fears that Israeli authorities would
immediately destroy any illegally-erected structures in Area C, the Palestinians
went ahead. When the European Union saw that the Israeli leadership was ignoring
the illegal construction and saw what their protected Palestinian wards could
get away with, they became massively involved, encouraging the Palestinians to
build as if there was no Oslo, financing the land-grab with structures labeled
"European Union," and, in the event that Israel enforced the law, guaranteeing
legal assistance. First, in Ramallah, the Palestinians' de facto capitol in Area
A, the EU established "consultancy offices of permanent representation" -- a de
facto embassy, but for a state that does not exist -- and together with the PA
developed multiple master plans to build infrastructure, roads, schools and
other puzzle-pieces that, when completed, would connect to form an uninterrupted
band of Arab territory, north-to-south – effectively covering all of Israel's
Area C.
The EU also trained Palestinians in the use of advanced technology and helped to
modernize their bureaucracy -- essential tasks to overcome the conservative,
tribal nature of Arab societies. This sociological model, traditionally adhered
to by the Palestinians, is one factor why they have failed to create a modern
state, despite receiving more humanitarian aid than any group in history.
Dr. Yishai Spivak, an investigative researcher with Ad Kan, an Israeli
non-profit organization, noted:
"It wasn't just about the Europeans throwing money at the Palestinians or
teaching them to build single structures. It was about teaching them how to
think about the other families so they could cooperate and share land. Fayyad
had the vision. The EU led him by the hand and gave the vision a soul."
Since 2009, the Europeans have invested anywhere from hundreds of millions to
more than one billion euros in Area C Palestinian development in the form of
direct subsidies for construction, legal assistance, and aid to administration
and planning. Once money is allocated, it is transferred to the Municipal
Development and Landing Fund (MDLF), an executive arm of the PA Ministry of
Local Government. A contract is drawn-up between a local municipality and
UN-Habitat or other UN branches. Finally, the UN contracts directly with
builders and field workers. These contracts actually acknowledge that the
construction projects they are carrying out are, in fact, illegal, and that the
Israeli government is within its rights to demolish them. In fact, legal costs
for the defense and appeals process in Israeli courts are built right into the
contracts, and budgets are set aside to cover the occasional impounding of
construction machinery by Israel. Yet at no point in this process is Israeli
permission sought.
This is not some secret conspiracy. In 2015, John Gatt-Rutter, the EU
Representative to the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the time, dismissed the
legally binding Oslo Accords by declaring that "Area C remains an integral part
of the occupied Palestinian territory and compromises crucial natural resources
and land for a viable Palestinian state." That same year, the EU spent 3.5
million euros on Palestinian Area C development. Its spatial plans for Area C
construction are publicly available on the website of the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and reveal exactly where the EU is funding
infrastructure projects. Or simply take a drive through Area C and see dozens of
Palestinian squatter camps with an EU flag or logo displayed on their
structures.
In December 2022, an unpublished policy plan was leaked to the media and sparked
outrage among politicians and Jewish groups. Drafted by the EU and dated June
2022, the document provided an "overview of the EU's approach in its Area C
programme." The six-page policy plan, addressed to European Commission President
Ursula Von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, and European
Parliament President Roberta Metsola, bafflingly claimed to be "in line with the
Oslo Accords," while, in the same sentence, declaring its aim to "preserv[e]
Area C as part of a future Palestinian State." The plan discussed re-mapping the
territory, thwarting Israeli archaeological activity, building infrastructure
for Palestinians, and providing them with legal aid.
Since 2009, the PA has paved over 1,200 miles of new roads, put up thousands of
electricity poles, and used agricultural projects to take over Israeli state
land that had been untouched for decades. Some 3,500 illegal structures are
erected every year in Area C, with an average of seven new illegal structures
per day. By 2009, 29,784 structures had been built. By 2020, there were close to
70,000 structures. As of today, the PA has built over 90,000 illegal structures
and aggressively seized more than 23,000 acres of land. Israel's Civil
Administration tears down a mere 200 to 250 of these illegal structures each
year, and generally chooses insignificant enforcement targets, such as animal
pens or garages that do not bear intentional sponsorship signs.
Over the last decade or so, the PA has also illegally built more than 100
schools in Area C.
One school, built in 2021 in Gush Etzion, was constructed with funds from the
supposedly "neutral" Switzerland, which is not even an EU member. That school is
still standing today. The PA also routinely takes advantage of Jewish holidays
to implement lightning-speed large-scale construction, including in Area C sites
already under court-issued work-stop orders. Palestinians have more than enough
room to build in Areas A and B, with 63% of that land empty and suitable for
construction, but they apparently have the strategic goal of suffocating Israeli
towns and villages. Brigadier General Amir Avivi (res.), founder of the Israel
Defense and Security Forum, explains:
"If the Palestinians manage to create an impossible life for Jews, at the end of
the day, Jews won't be able to live there. It's a disaster beyond anyone's
imagination. Everybody living in Judea and Samaria will eventually have to leave
because they will be surrounded by people shooting at them on the roads from all
sides."The particular case of Khan al Ahmar demonstrates how far the PA and EU
will go in its quest to delegitimize Israel and draw international sympathy. By
the 1970s, many Bedouin Arabs had abandoned their nomadic, shepherding
traditions, taking advantage of the livelihood the newly established state of
Israel afforded them. During this time, after a blood feud occurred within the
large Jahalin Bedouin tribe, some families were forced out and migrated from
southern Israel, and eventually settled on land adjacent to Maaleh Adumim, an
Israeli town 4 miles east of Jerusalem. Ignoring its hazardous location next to
a major highway, they set up a cluster of tents, and began illegally tapping
into the municipality's water and electricity lines. Knowing full-well that
their presence was illegal, many of the Bedouins cooperated with Israeli orders
to evacuate. Some relocated, while others signed relocation agreements.
Following the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, instead of allowing
this routine zoning case to be settled like any other real estate dispute
involving squatters, the Palestinians and their European backers decided to act
as the Jahalin's representatives and turn this streetcorner into an
international spectacle.
First, they fabricated a name for this illegal encampment to make it appear
"historic": "Khan al Ahmar." From there, they complained to the media that this
destitute group of Arabs were being threatened with supposed "crimes against
humanity": forced population transfer and ethnic cleansing. They accompanied
their manufactured narrative with images of barefoot Bedouin children, and began
pumping money into the settlement, and building these "dispossessed" children a
school.
Eventually, the Bedouins were convinced that they should stay put, while,
starting in 2009, the PA and EU launched four separate lawsuits with the Israeli
Supreme Court, an activist body consisting of self-selected and largely
left-wing judges, who have crafted a supra-democratic system in which anyone,
with no legal standing, is invited to file unlimited petitions against the
State. Israel's Supreme Court is notoriously lenient towards Palestinians, often
at the expense of the safety and security of Israelis, yet even it ruled, in
every one of the six Khan al Ahmar petitions, that the squatters must evacuate.
The French courts called the verdicts a "violation of international law," a rich
claim given that country's own sordid history of forced transfer of its Roma
population to eastern European countries.
The Israeli government offered the Jahalin a generous relocation package to the
Arab community of Abu Dis, located roughly 4 miles away. This initiative would
provide every wife of the polygamous Jahalin households with nearly $140,000, as
well as each a plot of land zoned for residential construction in a new
community named "Jahalin West," equipped with water and electricity, proper
sanitation, education and welfare services. If they had accepted, these Bedouins
would be living today in functional homes as part of a community designed
specifically for them. Instead, they have been kept in limbo and cynically used
as pawns in a perverse and corrupt European battle against the Jewish state. For
10 years, the evacuation, relocation and demolition orders were suspended, while
Jahalin West remained uninhabited. Recently, squatters have begun to creep in
and erect homes on the plots that had been standing empty, a rather ironic
predicament given that critics had once complained that the Jahalin could not
possibly be relocated to this site because it was "unfit for human settlement."
Khan al Ahmar is representative of a pattern of tactics that the PA regularly
employs when wresting land rights from the State of Israel. First, it identifies
a strategic point located far from an existing population center. Second, it
illegally seizes the land, invents a name for this "historic" village that never
existed, and insists the squatters have been there since the dawn of time,
despite historic aerial photographs showing otherwise. Third, it broadcasts any
pushback from Israel as "cruel" and "oppressive," and "ethnic cleansing."
Often, the next step is to create a land bridge between the new "village" and an
existing Arab settlement, often through agricultural projects, again often
funded by Europe. Then, it finds another location to invade. Rather than using
its resources legally to build homes, schools, businesses, public buildings or
parks on the vast open spaces under its control, the PA invests in politically
motivated land seizures in Area C with the conscious aim of denying the right of
Jews to live and thrive in their own sovereign country, amidst a sea of 50
Muslim-majority countries. Such behavior would appear to indicate that neither
the Palestinians nor the Europeans have any interest in a lasting peace with
Israel, which presumes an atmosphere of cooperation and direct negotiations.
Avivi openly considers this illegal takeover of land by the PA as big a national
security threat to Israel as are Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and even
Iran, adding:
"Unfortunately, many other high-ranking officers from the Israeli defense
establishment don't understand. We are not treating this situation as a state of
emergency, even though it's crystal clear that the Palestinian Authority is an
enemy, and a dangerous one at that, even apart from its funding of terror and
inciting hatred in education."
James Carver, a former Member of the European Parliament and its Committee on
Foreign Affairs, is one of the few European parliamentarians who agrees. In
2016, he called out the EU for its obsessive meddling in Israeli affairs in a
Times of Israel article:
"The EU professes to support a lasting Middle East peace settlement, yet I've
highlighted both EU funding of the PLO, which pays salaries to murderers, as
well as how EU funding of illegal Palestinian buildings in Area C, is in breach
of the Oslo accords, thus acting as an obstacle to peace and expunging any
pretense of the EU being an honest broker."
In diluting Israeli sovereignty, argued Carver, the EU is only creating further
conflict, because those who genuinely support a two-state solution would never
actively work to undermine either of those states.
Especially troubled by the fact that Europeans are building in nature reserves,
he stated:
"It's very hypocritical that the European Union claimed to be environmental
champions but seemed to be quite happy to illegally put-up buildings with their
logo and develop settlements in nature reserves. Can you imagine the audacity of
the European Union to believe they can violate legal facts? They've got skin as
thick as a rhinoceros. They genuinely believe they can carry on with this, carte
blanche."
These ongoing European-supported construction project are in nature reserves
that were, in fact, internationally mandated as no-construction zones in the Wye
River Memorandum, an agreement that concluded the Oslo Accords' division of the
territory. Regavim, an Israeli non-governmental organization dedicated to
protecting Israel's national lands and resources, has been mapping Palestinian
illegal construction and land seizures for more than a decade. Regavim uses
archival material, land deeds, official documents, historic photographs,
historic and up-to-date aerial photographs, and geographic information system
(GIS) maps. Its legal department often petitions the courts to compel Israeli
authorities to act against instances of environmental abuse. Illegal
construction, for instance, often produces illegal junkyards, which ignore
regulations and requirements, and seriously pollute major water supplies used by
both Arabs and Jews. In many instances, Regavim has also petitioned against
illegal construction on archaeological sites, a method by which the Palestinian
Authority achieves two goals simultaneously: taking over territory and erasing
the physical remains that attest to the Jewish historical connection to the
land, dating back more than 3,000 years, to 1400 BCE. Israel previously carved
out nature reserves around some archaeological sites in order to protect them.
As far as the PA is concerned, these are the most sought-after construction
sites, and the Europeans are full-fledged partners in this destruction of
history, the environment and international law. In fact, the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been known to partner with the
PA, and it actually plowed over the royal city of Shomron (Sebastia), the seat
of the ancient Israelite Kingdom and one of the largest, most important
archaeological sites in the area. UNESCO has also literally "reinvented" the
Tomb of the Patriarchs -- where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah
are buried -- as the purported tomb of a Muslim sheikh.
While the European Parliament is generally considered a great seat of power,
Carver, as an MEP, did not have the ability to initiate legislation, and his
objections were never addressed. He explained that it is actually the purview of
the European Commission to initiate laws, which only then go before parliament,
where they are chewed over by the different political groups until a "consensus"
is reached. Unlike the parliamentarians, who are elected by the voters of
individual EU member states, the commissioners are appointed. As such, their
loyalty lies with the EU over its member states. An ideologically-driven entity
that seems to sanctimoniously revel in the belief that it has the moral right to
usurp power from democracies and bestow it upon themselves, passing legislation
that overrides national laws, the European Commission has – not surprisingly,
considering its history -- swallowed the Palestinian's Jew-hating narrative
whole. According to Carver, the Palestinian lobby is noisy and well-organized,
and its members are vociferous in their actions compared to the far calmer,
legalistic and reflective Israeli advocates.
Attempted legal action against the EU, on the basis of its undermining the Oslo
Accords, is met with the claim that its funding for the PA merely amounts to
"humanitarian aid" and that the EU has full "diplomatic immunity." Carver,
however, argues that this defense is invalid because the Vienna Convention
stipulates that diplomats may only be granted immunity if they do not interfere
in the internal affairs of a state, which the EU is actively doing by seizing
land that is recognized legally as being under Israel's jurisdiction. In
claiming immunity by falsely declaring that it is not interfering in Israel's
internal affairs, the EU is also disregarding a foundational element of the UN
charter: the principle of non-intervention.
The Europeans appear to want it both ways, on the one hand paying lip service to
the Oslo Accords in order to criticize Israel, while on the other hand actively
helping the PA to ignore the terms of the Accords. The chasm between proclaimed
intention and actual behavior renders any commitment to peace laughable. The
irony of the Europeans condemning Israel for expropriating questionable
Palestinian land when the Europeans themselves are helping Palestinians to
expropriate Israeli land is lost on the public at large. Germany, in particular,
leads the charge in this systematic assault on Israel's autonomy. According to
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch:
"It is outrageous that Germany, who, in the 20th century, led Europe in trying
to exterminate the Jews, is the country leading 21st century Europe in policy
that threatens Israel's survival."
It is unlikely that the Europeans -- insisting they are an "honest broker" in
the Israel-Palestinian arena, and masking their antisemitic agenda of negating
Jewish national and individual rights -- will ever be held to account. Many
Israelis, however, believe it is their own leaders who have been too compliant
to European demands that weaken them, and giving away the future of the country.
Karys Rhea is a producer at The Epoch Times and works with the Middle East
Forum, Jewish Leadership Project and Baste Records. Her articles have appeared
in Commentary, NY Daily News, Newsweek, The Federalist, Washington Examiner and
Townhall, among others. You can find her on X.com under @rheakarys.
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Will US pressure on Iraq succeed in bringing Iran-backed
militias to heel?
JONATHAN LESSWARE/Arab News/April 02, 2025
LONDON: It was a message that was both unequivocal and uncompromising. Iraq must
rein in the sprawling network of militia groups that take their orders from
Iran, and if they threaten American interests in the country, the US will
respond.
The comments were delivered last week by Tammy Bruce, the US State Department
spokesperson, in response to a question on a new law being wrangled over in Iraq
about the future of the Popular Mobilization Forces.
The PMF, an umbrella group for dozens of militias in Iraq, includes many that
take their money and orders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
despite belonging to Iraq’s formal state security apparatus. Along with
Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza, they are
considered part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” — a network of proxy
militias throughout the Middle East loyal to the IRGC.
America’s renewed military campaign against the Houthis, along with the
degradation of Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel and the fall of Iranian ally Bashar
Assad in Syria, has placed increased focus on Iraq’s Iran-backed militias. They
remain the only major Iranian proxy in the region to avoid significant Israeli
or US military action since the Gaza conflict began in October 2023. Doubts have
been cast over whether the long-proposed Iraqi law to assert greater central
government control over the militias would have much of an effect — or
sufficiently appease US concerns. But domestic events in Iraq, along with US
President Donald Trump’s renewal of the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran
to suspend its nuclear program, place the PMF increasingly in the firing line.
There is a lot of pressure from the Trump administration on the government of
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani to rein in the Iran-backed militias,
Renad Mansour, a senior Iraq research fellow at Chatham House, told Arab News.
“Especially to stop any kind of attacks on American citizens or interests in
Iraq.”Mansour said the policy stemmed from renewed US efforts to combat Iranian
influence in the region. “It’s very clear that the Trump administration is
looking at Iraq as an important vehicle where Iran maintains economic and other
types of authority,” he said. The PMF, known in Arabic as Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi,
was created in 2014 in response to a fatwa issued by the country’s top Shiite
religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, after the extremist group
Daesh seized swathes of territory. The sprawling network of armed groups
included many armed and funded by Iran. Many came from existing militias
mobilized by the IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force.
The PMF comprised approximately 70 predominantly Shiite armed groups made up of
around 250,000 fighters. They played a major role in the defeat of Daesh in Iraq
alongside the Iraqi Security Forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, and the US-led
coalition. After the extremist group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017
and attention turned to its holdouts in Syria, questions began to be raised over
the purpose of the PMF. A flimsy Iraqi law in 2016 attempted to exert more state
control over the militias and included some basic details about their structure
and employment terms.
IN NUMBERS
• 250k Fighters the PMF claims to have under arms.
• $3.3 billion Iraqi state funding at the PMF’s disposal.
Meanwhile, the PMF developed political wings that contested elections. These
party blocs were accused by political rivals and Western governments of causing
instability and acting in Iran’s interest. The militias suffered a major blow in
January 2020 when the first Trump administration killed PMF chief Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis
alongside Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad
airport. Later that year, Al-Sistani, who had given the PMF its religious
legitimacy when it was originally formed, withdrew his own factions as concerns
over Iranian influence grew. Yet the PMF managed to rebound from these setbacks,
increasing both its funding and armory, including Iranian drones and missiles.
It has also been at the center of domestic turmoil, with its factions accused of
an assassination attempt on then-Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi in November
2021 and militias clashing with supporters of cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr in 2022.
After the Gaza war began in October 2023, the militias launched drones and
missiles at Israel and carried out dozens of attacks on US bases in Iraq, where
some 2,500 troops remain as part of the coalition mission against Daesh. In
February last year, the Biden administration bombed 85 militia targets in Iraq
and Syria after three US soldiers were killed in a drone attack on a Jordanian
outpost known as Tower 22.
The US said senior commanders from the Kataib Hezbollah militia were among those
killed. Since then, Iran has urged its militias in Iraq to refrain from
attacking US interests.
“The Iraqi militias’ harassment of US targets in Iraq ended when the Biden
administration took out three top commanders from the Kataib Hezbollah,” Hussain
Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense
of Democracies, told Arab News.
“This signaled to militia leaders that their safety became at risk and their
attacks stopped.”
The second Trump administration made clear in February when it issued the
National Security Presidential Memorandum that Iraq’s militias would be central
to renewed pressure on Iraq to reduce economic ties to Iran. The other front is
for Iraq to reduce dollar transactions with Tehran, particularly through cutting
purchases of energy.
But there is also the wider geopolitical pressure on the militias as a result of
US and Israeli attacks on Iran’s other proxies in the region, including Hamas,
Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
“The Iraq militias became the last resort for all other Iranian militias across
the region,” said Abdul-Hussain. “Since Israel crushed Hezbollah in Lebanon and
Syria, the pro-Iran militia weight has shifted to Iraq.”On the economic pressure
now being exerted on Iran, he said the US is aware that the IRGC is siphoning US
dollars from Iraq’s oil revenues, mainly using the $3.3 billion budget allocated
to the PMF. In response to this renewed pressure, the PMF Service and Retirement
Law was introduced to the Iraqi parliament last week after months of wrangling
over its contents.
The bill aims to fully integrate the PMF into Iraq’s state security forces.
However, critics say it has been hijacked by rival Shiite blocs jostling for
advantage within the organization.
In its current form, the bill is unlikely to fill the US with confidence that
the PMF will fully submit to central government control and renounce fealty to
Iran. Abdul-Hussain described the bill as a “total smoke screen.”He said:
“Parliament is trying to enshrine PMF perks by law for fear that the next
executive chief might not be Iran-friendly and could thus cut the $3.3 billion
with a decree. Laws trump decrees, and that’s why the Iraqi parliament is racing
to enshrine PMF funding in a law. “The irony is that the same law does not
demand that the organization follow a military order or be included under the
military’s rank or supervision. They want to take the money but keep the
hierarchy in the hands of the IRGC.”
Europe’s security hangs in the balance
MOHAMED CHEBARO/Arab News/April 02, 2025
It is hard not to notice the wrecking power that the Donald Trump 2.0 presidency
is inflicting on the world. However, it might not be all bad. It might instill a
new sense of purpose into old machines of government that have become
inefficient, stale and, to the younger generation, outdated. The jury is still
out on whether Trump’s domestic and international shake-up of processes and
reform will amount to much. But the key factor is whether the world will be
safer, more stable and certain and reliable or if it will be marred by
divisions, discord, wars and instability. The established wisdom about defense
up until today has been whether we mobilize states and armies to defend borders,
to defend ideas or both. In the current lens of world affairs, one sees that the
Western world is splitting between two visions: one that wants to use brute
force to change borders and/or utilize it in the pursuit of more land, hegemony
and wealth, and another that still believes in self-defense, sovereign borders
and the rule of law, as well as the defense of ideas such as liberty, freedom
and democracy.
The advocates of the latter idea are the Europeans, who are finding themselves
pushed into new territories of not only having to choose sides, but also having
to be more active and ruthless in defending ideas, as not doing so is likely to
cost them their borders, sovereignty and freedom. Many historians have long
argued that nation states need occasional shocks to wipe away the dust and
cobwebs that have gathered over the years. Trump is certainly having this effect
on the US and the rest of the world, especially its oldest Western allies in
Europe.
Up until recently, NATO was an umbrella that shielded Western sovereignty and
territorial integrity and, more broadly, freedom and democracy. But as Trump has
been racing to break the norms and seek accommodation with Russian President
Vladimir Putin seemingly at any price, leaders in the EU, UK and Canada are
finding themselves unable to underwrite their own security. They are also
struggling to offer enough guarantees to defend the territorial integrity of
Ukraine and safeguard the international rule of law as far as Russia’s invasion
is concerned.
Many new defense formats have been discussed. NATO minus the US is a nonstarter.
The so-called coalition of the willing is yet to offer a functioning formula.
The E5 — a core group of European powers made up of the UK, France, Germany,
Poland and Italy — could offer interim support for Kyiv and prevent its total
capitulation. But it remains less than perfect, as Italy could side with Trump
and Putin. And many say that the E5 should widen to include the Baltic nations
that share borders with Russia, as well as having good standing armies, defense
budgets, advanced defense industries and mobilized societies.
Europe is increasingly having to face the inevitable questions and is being
pushed to redefine its doctrines for politics, war, peace and its role in the
world.
Many historians have long argued that nation states need occasional shocks.
Trump is certainly having this effect. Love French President Emmanuel Macron or
loathe him, he was the first to highlight the need for an EU security initiative
back in 2017. He even agreed with Trump and said that NATO is “brain dead,”
arguing in 2019 that European countries could no longer rely on America to
defend its NATO allies. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, 44 nations
came together within a European Political Community that rallied to help Kyiv,
but its members continued to work under US leadership on the conflict.
What Europe did not do in 2022, it needs to do in 2025. All states need to rally
behind a united defense doctrine to do whatever is necessary to protect their
borders, as well as their democratic models, values and freedoms.
The EU, UK and Canada need to stop wavering and agree that the US has changed.
And maybe that is not all for the worse, especially if it instills in them the
drive to finally become self-reliant. In their soul-searching exercise, they
must agree that they will not stop being aligned with their oldest and biggest
Western power and ally. But somehow they need to find a modus vivendi to coexist
with, while being independent of, the new transactional, isolationist-leaning
Make America Great Again leadership in Washington.
The US president is acting like a bull in a china shop. If the American people
agree to that, then that is their business. It will also not be the business of
the US’ Western allies if Trump goes on to change course domestically. But the
sooner they embrace the fact that the norms and conventions guiding their
policies and governance of recent decades have changed, the more likely it will
be that they rise to meet the challenge in a realistic way. Nothing is forever
in life and that includes war and peace. So, maybe Trump’s actions, however
disconcerting they may appear, will trigger the start of something better —
something that ends the war in Ukraine and pushes those countries that are
reliant on the US to redefine where their best interests lie and how best to
achieve them, whether they are related to the defense of their borders or the
defense of their values and way of life. Then they can put their money where
their mouth is, even if it means redrawing the social contract and the purpose
of the state and governance in the post-Western-dominated age that is forming as
we speak.
• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’
experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.
Dismantling USAID could boost African self-reliance
HIPPOLYTE FOFACK/Arab News/April 02, 2025
Back in 2015, then-Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta warned the Pan-African
Parliament about the dangers of development assistance. “The future of our
continent cannot be left to the good graces of outside interests,” he said.
“Foreign aid, which often comes with terms and conditions that preclude
progress, is not an acceptable basis for prosperity and freedom. It is time to
give it up.”Kenyatta’s call for self-reliance seems prescient in light of US
President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the US Agency for International
Development and recent cuts to already-diminished foreign aid budgets in France,
Germany and the UK. He had a point: as aid dependence became more entrenched
over the decades, Africa’s share of global trade steadily fell. It now stands at
less than 3 percent. National ambitions to build productive industries that can
meet domestic demand have atrophied and continent-wide efforts to strengthen
regional integration have waned.That is why, despite the disproportionate impact
of these cuts on the continent, some Africans see the demise of foreign aid as
an opportunity. An Afrobarometer survey of 34 African countries found that 65
percent of respondents wanted their governments to finance development with
their own resources, rather than with external loans.
Self-reliance was an aspiration of independence leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah,
Ghana’s first president and a co-founder of the Organization of African Unity (a
forerunner of the African Union), who viewed the foreign aid system as a form of
neocolonialism. Current Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has taken up the
cause, calling the destruction of USAID “a signal to Africa that the time has
come for us to be more self-reliant.”
Africa’s muted response contrasts sharply with the dire predictions of
development professionals in Western capitals, who are warning that a
humanitarian catastrophe will soon unfold on the continent. According to
Nicholas Enrich, formerly USAID’s acting assistant administrator for global
health, gutting the agency would result in an additional 71,000 to 166,000
deaths per year from malaria and 1 million children annually with untreated
severe acute malnutrition, among other harmful consequences.
True, Africa has long depended on foreign aid not just for short-term emergency
relief but also for critical health funding. The US President’s Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief and the President’s Malaria Initiative, decades-old programs
created by US President George W. Bush, have been instrumental in combating
HIV/AIDS and malaria, which are disproportionately prevalent in Africa. About 67
percent of people living with HIV worldwide reside in sub-Saharan Africa and the
continent accounts for more than 90 percent of malaria cases and deaths. Africa
has long depended on foreign aid not just for short-term emergency relief but
also for critical health funding
This aid is not confined to Africa’s neediest and most vulnerable countries,
such as the Central African Republic, Somalia and South Sudan, where official
development assistance accounts for more than 20 percent of gross national
income. Even Nigeria and South Africa, two of the continent’s largest economies,
rely heavily on USAID programs. The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief funds nearly 20 percent of South Africa’s $2.3 billion annual HIV/AIDS
program, providing life-saving antiretroviral treatments to 5.5 million people
every day. And the President’s Malaria Initiative’s support comprises about 21
percent of the national health budget in Nigeria, which has the world’s highest
burden of malaria.
African countries’ dependence on the US for public health expenditure poses a
national security risk, as vaccine nationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic made
clear. It also implies massive governance costs. A 2023 study showed that
foreign aid tends to weaken fiscal capacity in African democracies. These
governments may become less accountable to their citizens and more autocratic,
propped up by official development assistance.
Foreign aid precludes economic progress precisely because of its “terms and
conditions,” as Kenyatta put it. The aid industry in Africa runs largely on
foreign contractors, limiting opportunities for African entrepreneurs and
undercutting local growth. This constrains the expansion of governments’ very
narrow fiscal space, sustains persistently high unemployment rates and fuels
migration pressures. Even South Africa, the continent’s most advanced economy,
has an unemployment rate exceeding 30 percent.
In the wake of the White House’s assault on USAID, Africa should put itself on a
path toward health self-sufficiency. That means taking more control over the
response to HIV/AIDS and malaria, from research and development to manufacturing
diagnostics and treatments, rather than relying on extra-regional solutions and
imports. To mitigate the risks of aid dependence and to bolster economic growth,
African countries must take advantage of the opportunities inherent in health
crises and unleash the animal spirits of local entrepreneurs. The Nigerian
government has already approved an additional $200 million in health spending as
part of its 2025 budget and other countries are contemplating similar increases.
African countries must take the same approach to other strategic sectors,
especially nutrition security, because overreliance on foreign aid-funded food
imports harms African farmers by distorting markets and depressing local prices.
The continent needs fair trade, not aid. With an estimated 60 percent of the
world’s uncultivated arable land, Africa should not be dependent on external
suppliers to feed itself.
To be sure, African governments with limited fiscal space and poor access to
international markets may not be able to build the infrastructure required to
drive domestic production. This problem can be solved by pooling resources with
other countries to develop productive infrastructure and resilient regional
supply chains, thus boosting intra-African trade and deepening regional
integration. India is an example of what can be achieved. After all, its
world-beating and uber-price-competitive generic drug industry began to take off
long before India’s national economy did.
Achieving economies of scale through the African Continental Free Trade Area
could help crowd in private capital to build up critical industries. This would
enable Africa to expand aggregate output and increase trade levels, both of
which have remained dismally low.
The US’ attack on development assistance can be the wake-up call African leaders
need. After decades of lowering ambitions and outsourcing development, it is
time for the continent to take full advantage of the growth opportunities
associated with domestic crises, rather than ceding control to the aid system
and the foreign contractors that fill its ranks. Necessity is the mother of
invention, as the cliche goes, which means that the end of USAID could galvanize
African governments to confront their countries’ challenges head-on.
• Hippolyte Fofack, a former chief economist and director of research at the
African Export-Import Bank, is a former World Bank economist, a research
associate at the Harvard University Center for African Studies, and a fellow at
the African Academy of Sciences. ©Project Syndicate
A better world begins with raising better children
ARNAB NEIL SENGUPTA//Arab News/April 02, 2025
To people born between the mid-1960s and about 1980, Gen Xers in short, the
world can seem increasingly complex. We deal with political challenges, economic
uncertainties and rapidly changing social norms. Often, we look for grand
solutions in famous quotations, autobiographies, speeches and even podcasts, but
overlook the most fundamental building block of a thriving society: our
children.
A better world will not be built on abstract ideals but on the values, skills
and character that parents impart to the next generation. Even while caught up
in the pressures of day-to-day life and the demands of the modern world, parents
cannot afford to forget that early childhood experiences provide the foundation
for cognitive and emotional growth.
A nurturing environment all the way from infancy through adolescence to
adulthood is, therefore, a necessity. The interactions a young man or woman has
with their parents, caregivers, friends, teachers and the world around them in
those formative years will shape their intellectual development. They could make
all the difference between an individual ending up as a radical political
activist or a job-creating serial entrepreneur.
The media that we expose our children to also plays a crucial role. Positive
media exposure can help impart lasting social-emotional skills, which in turn
enable children to manage their emotions and forge healthy relationships.
Conversely, exposure to heated rhetoric, misguided narratives, violence and
negativity can have detrimental effects on their development, delaying
intellectual maturity.Parents cannot afford to forget that early childhood
experiences provide the foundation for cognitive and emotional growth
Research conducted in various parts of the world consistently demonstrates the
tangible benefits of parental involvement. Children with hands-on parents tend
to perform better academically. It is not just about helping with homework, but
about instilling a love of learning, encouraging intellectual curiosity and
creating an environment where children feel empowered to explore their
potential. In her book, “My Life in Full: Work, Family and Our Future,” and in
numerous interviews, Indra Nooyi has credited her upbringing for instilling
discipline, hard work and gratitude, which influenced her journey from the
Indian city of Chennai to becoming the US-based CEO of PepsiCo. Raised in a
disciplined environment with supportive yet strict parents who balanced freedom
with boundaries, Nooyi’s parents encouraged her to think about how she could
contribute to the world, rather than just what she wanted to be. “I think I am a
product of my family, my upbringing, the city and the country,” she said in one
interview.
In the Arab world, the concept of “tarbiyah” encompasses not just education but
overall upbringing — the nurturing of a child’s intellectual, moral and
spiritual development. It emphasizes the importance of building character,
instilling values such as honesty, compassion and respect for others. Family
background continues to exert a strong influence on educational outcomes.
Studies have shown that socioeconomic status significantly influences a child’s
academic achievements, which is why excellence in medicine, law, engineering,
business, mathematics and literature seems to run in some families instead of
all.
The Arab world, where family and community ties are deeply valued, is well
placed to utilize its cultural strengths to raise better children
The downside is that this phenomenon can also reinforce inequalities that can be
difficult to overcome. This is not a Western, or “First World,” problem but a
global one. In many parts of the Middle East and North Africa, for instance,
access to quality education remains uneven, meaning children from
underprivileged backgrounds face significant barriers to success.
Fortunately, early interventions have the potential to generate crucial
long-term benefits. Indeed, investments in early childhood care and education
are a lot more than just a social good. Such programs have been shown to improve
academic performance and reduce social problems later in life. There is also a
strong need to recognize the importance of neighborhood and peer influences.
Children from low-income families who form friendships with wealthier friends or
classmates have been found to earn significantly more as adults, underscoring
the importance of diverse social interactions.
The Arab world, where family and community ties are deeply valued, is well
placed to utilize its cultural strengths to raise better children. It can draw
on its rich traditions of support spanning generations, strong family networks
and emphasis on moral education to create ideal environments for children to
thrive and become role models.
This is not to say Arab communities can afford not to adapt and evolve. The need
to embrace modern educational techniques, promote gender equality and address
the socioeconomic challenges that hinder the development of children cuts across
borders and geographical boundaries. While embracing these responsibilities,
every generation must demonstrate to members of the next the overarching goal of
contributing to society and making a difference. This perspective should ideally
shape their values, crucial decisions, conversations and actions for the rest of
their lives. All things considered, creating a better world starts at home, in
schools and in communities, whether in North America or North Africa. It
requires a collective commitment to investing in the well-being of children,
nurturing their potential and instilling in them the values that will help build
a brighter future for all humankind. The children society raises today will
determine, for better or worse, the world they inhabit tomorrow.
**- Arnab Neil Sengupta is a senior editor at Arab News. X: @arnabnsg
The Context of the Strategic Relationship
Dr. Abdullah Faisal Alrabeh/Asharq Al-Awsat/April 02/2025
The Saudi-US relationship is a complex subject. In-depth discussions of their
strategic vision for the global economy and Middle Eastern security necessarily
branch out in multiple directions. Several books have been written about this
strategic alliance that has ebbed and flowed over its eighty-year history. Here,
we will focus on this relationship in the post-September 11, 2001, era, since
George W. Bush was president. This bilateral relationship has reshaped the
Middle East’s geopolitical landscape over the past quarter-century, and changes
are accelerating at a rate that has left observers with little time to catch
their breath. Despite their divergences on regional issues, the Bush
administration maintained a reasonable level of mutual understanding with Saudi
Arabia. However, that changed once the Democrats came to power. The liberal
policies of President Barack Obama’s administration contributed to fueling mass
protests in several regional countries that eventually became known as the "Arab
Spring." The Obama administration supported parties tied to the Muslim
Brotherhood in various countries, most notably Egypt. Saudi Arabia did not
support this stance, as it views political Islamist movements as a source of
regional instability.
The leaders of both countries visited one another during the first year of King
Salman’s reign. President Obama came to Riyadh on January 27, 2015, to offer
condolences on the passing of King Abdullah, and later that year, in September,
King Salman went to Washington.
However, the country’s relationship cooled during Obama’s term, especially after
he attended the Gulf Cooperation Council/GCC-US Summit in Riyadh on April 20,
2016.
Political developments in the region favor Saudi Arabia’s effort to curb the
influence of Islamist politics in the Middle East. This trajectory continued
into the start of Republican President Donald Trump’s term in January 2017.
Notably, Trump’s first trip abroad was to Riyadh. This was an unusual move, as
US presidents traditionally head to neighboring countries or, at most, Europe,
on their first foreign visit.
Trump’s first term proved fruitful for the strategic alliance between the US and
Saudi Arabia. He ended the nuclear agreement with Iran, imposed additional
sanctions on Iran, and launched multiple strikes that limited its influence in
the region, particularly in Syria and Iraq. These measures marked a turning
point that revived Saudi-American relations. Trump further reinforced these ties
with his positive remarks about the Kingdom and its leadership, even after
calls, mainly from Democratic politicians and media outlets, for a negative
approach.
With Democrats back in the White House in January 2021, Saudi-American relations
cooled once again. Nonetheless, President Joe Biden visited Jeddah in July 2022,
to meet with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. At the time,
former US diplomat Alberto Miguel Fernandez tweeted, in Arabic: "This is clearly
a concession by Biden that comes after his foolish remarks about Saudi Arabia
during the election campaign and early in his term. However, his soft words are
driven more by the US focus on Russia than genuine respect."
With Donald Trump in office and a Republican majority in both chambers of
Congress, the strategic partnership between Riyadh and Washington is expected to
flourish once again for many reasons, chief among President Trump and Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s alignment behind prioritizing economic interests
avoiding escalation. Both leaders advocate for de-escalation and see economic
development as the key to political success, seeking "win-win" arrangements.