English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 23/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
When you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you
wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else
will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go you
John 21/15-19: "When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon
Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him,
‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A
second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him,
‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He
said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt
because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him,
‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed
my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your
own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch
out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you
where you do not wish to go.’ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by
which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on April 22-23/2025
Time to Cut Diplomatic Ties with Iran, Expel Its Ambassador, and Seal Its
Embassy in Beirut/Elias Bejjani/April 22, 2025
The Passing of His Holiness Pope Francis: A Lover of Lebanon Who Carried Its
Pain and the Suffering of Its People with Deep Faith/Elias Bejjani/April 21/2025
Israeli Strike South of Beirut Kills Commander in Jama'a Islamiya Group
One killed in Israeli strike on pickup truck in Tyre's al-Hinniyeh
Foreign Ministry to summon Iranian ambassador over arms remarks
Aoun: No one in Lebanon wants to return to war
Berri says Iran not negotiating on behalf of Lebanon
Hezbollah hails the late pope over his stances on Palestine
Hezbollah official urges state to stop being an 'impotent spectator' as to
Israel attacks
Finance Minister Yassine Jaber: Lebanon plans customs reform, eyes full border
scanner installment
Arab League chief meets Lebanese FM, calls for Israel to abide by ceasefire
Indian Philosopher Tagore's bust sculpture arrives in Lebanon
Lebanon's Sports Minister cancels three sports over licensing irregularities
Lebanon Arrests ‘Parent Group’ Behind Rocket Launches toward Israel/Mohamed
Choucair/Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
In the Lebanese Municipal Elections… the Heart of the Coexistence Crisis/Eyad
Abu Shakra/Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
The Lebanese-Israeli War Will Return… Unless/Nadim Koteich/Ashark Al-Awsat/April
22/2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on April 22-23/2025
Pope Francis’s Funeral to Be Held on Saturday, Many World Leaders
Expected
Iran Says Technical Nuclear Meeting with US Postponed to Saturday
US Targets Iranian LPG Magnate with Sanctions, Treasury Says
What Do ‘Expert Level’ Talks Signal for the Progress of the Iran-US Nuclear
Negotiations?
Russia’s Putin Discusses US-Iran Nuclear Talks with Sultan of Oman
Trump Says 'on the Same Side of Every Issue' with Netanyahu After Call
Iran’s IRGC seizes two foreign tankers carrying ‘smuggled diesel’
Israel Steps up Gaza Strikes; Polio Vaccination Halted by Blockade
Israeli Strikes Kill 14 in Gaza and Destroy Heavy Equipment Needed to Clear
Rubble
Hamas team heads to Cairo for Gaza talks
Ukraine Ready to Hold Talks with Russia Once Ceasefire Is in Place, Zelenskiy
Says
Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza
Syria Arrests Assad-era Officer Accused of 'War Crimes'
Jordan Moves to Ban Muslim Brotherhood as ‘Illegal’ Group
IMF Cuts Growth Forecasts for Most Countries in Wake of Century-High US Tariffs
Titles For
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sourceson
on April 22-23/2025
Being
There: Pope Francis’s Death and the Future of the Catholic Church/Jeffrey
Pojanowski/Public Discourse/April 22/2025
Degringolade: How Western Decline Could Lead To Western Conflict/Amb. Alberto M.
Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 755/April 22/2025
The US Must Not Lose the Race for Nuclear Fusion Energy to China/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone
Institute/April 22, 2025
What Acceleration of History in Our Region, What Deceleration?/Hazem Saghieh/Ashark
Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
World leaders sadly ignored Pope Francis’ pleas./Peter Harrison/Arab News/April
22, 2025
Pope Francis a voice of reason in an increasingly unreasonable world/Mohamed
Chebaro/Arab News/April 22, 2025
The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on April 22-23/2025
Elias
Bejjani/Text & Video/Time to Cut Diplomatic Ties with Iran, Expel Its
Ambassador, and Seal Its Embassy in Beirut
Elias Bejjani/April 22, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/04/142592/
In a blatant breach of diplomatic norms and a dangerous escalation that crosses
every red line, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, made a provocative
statement on April 20, declaring that “disarming Hezbollah is a clear conspiracy
that targets the security and stability of the region.”
This was no passing opinion, but rather an outrageous and obscene interference
in Lebanon’s internal affairs—an open threat to what remains of the concept of a
Lebanese state, a state currently occupied by the weapons of Hezbollah, Iran’s
terrorist militia and mere proxy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Amani’s statement is yet another shameless reiteration of Iran’s imperial
vision: one of dominance, arrogance, and foreign occupation. Tehran’s aim has
always been to transform Lebanon into a military base for the IRGC, all under
the deceitful banner of so-called “resistance.”
And because the Lebanese people have had enough, the government, albeit
belatedly, responded with an urgent summons of the ambassador by Foreign
Minister Youssef Raji. This move, though symbolic, was a bold Lebanese stance
against Iran’s ever-deepening intrusion and a direct response to its
ambassador’s violation of the Vienna Convention, which governs the conduct of
diplomatic missions.
What the Lebanese public—and the world—must understand is that this ambassador
is not just a diplomat. He is actively embedded within Hezbollah’s leadership
networks. Amani was severely wounded in the “pager bomb” explosions—operations
executed by Israeli intelligence—that targeted Hezbollah officials across
Lebanon. At the time of the blasts, Amani was carrying a pager device, revealing
his direct involvement in Hezbollah’s security and intelligence infrastructure.
He later appeared publicly alongside Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas
Araghchi, confirming his covert military and security role under a diplomatic
cover.
All the facts point to one conclusion: Iran’s embassy in Beirut has long since
transformed into a de facto military operations room—an IRGC command center that
coordinates arms smuggling, destabilization campaigns, and the subversion of
Lebanese sovereignty. This includes the now-exposed role of Iranian planes, once
landing freely at Beirut International Airport, used to smuggle weapons and cash
until Lebanese authorities were forced to ban their landing after repeated
violations were exposed. It also includes illegal telecom networks that exert
more control over Lebanese territory than the official state apparatus.
The ambassador’s terrorist, anti-Lebanese remarks cannot be viewed in isolation.
They come within a broader climate of threats and intimidation issued by
Hezbollah leaders themselves. Figures like Secretary-General Naim Qassem, and
officials Wafiq Safa and Mahmoud Qamati, have openly and arrogantly declared
that “the hand that reaches for Hezbollah’s weapons will be cut off.”
Are we now living in a Republic of Fear? Or will the Lebanese state reclaim its
stolen sovereignty?
What’s worse, Hezbollah—after dragging Lebanon into a catastrophic war with
Israel—has plunged the country into widespread destruction across the South, the
Bekaa, and Beirut’s southern suburbs. Tens of thousands of Shiites and other
Lebanese have been killed, wounded, or displaced. Yet Hezbollah shamelessly
cloaks this disaster with hollow slogans like “steadfastness,” trying to justify
what was, in truth, a defeat. The ceasefire was imposed on the group, and it
submitted—despite all the loud propaganda and hollow bravado.
At this point, the continued presence of this ambassador and the functioning of
the Iranian embassy in Beirut are no longer just sovereignty issues. They
represent a direct threat to Lebanon’s national security. That is why we loudly
and unequivocally demand the following:
Immediate closure of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, which serves as a military
command center, not a diplomatic mission.
Expulsion of Mojtaba Amani, a proven IRGC officer masquerading as an ambassador.
Total severance of diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime, which occupies
Lebanon, threatens its unity, and prevents the re-establishment of a sovereign
state.
To rebuild Lebanon, the weapons of Hezbollah must no longer supersede the
authority of the state. Its shadow state must be dismantled. So long as Lebanon
remains infiltrated by IRGC intelligence operatives, there will be no reform, no
reconstruction, no rescue, and certainly no real elections.
Hezbollah must be disarmed, its leadership arrested and prosecuted, and its
entire military, educational, financial, and political infrastructure
dismantled—permanently banishing it from all political, social, cultural, and
parliamentary life.
Lebanon will never be free until the Iranian occupation is broken. Ceasefire
agreements and international resolutions, Armistice Agreement,1559, 1701,
and 1680—must be enforced in full. And if necessary, Lebanon must be placed
under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, with immediate steps taken to
reassert state authority, even if only once—before the final light of Lebanon’s
sovereignty is forever extinguished.
The Passing of His Holiness Pope Francis: A Lover of Lebanon Who
Carried Its Pain and the Suffering of Its People with Deep Faith
Elias Bejjani/April 21/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/04/142564/
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that
we shall also live with Him."(Romans 06:08)
With deep sorrow and a heavy heart, we bid farewell to His Holiness Pope
Francis, a shepherd of peace, a champion of the poor, and a tireless messenger
of God's mercy. At a time when humanity yearns for moral clarity and spiritual
hope, his passing marks a painful loss.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he made history in 2013
by becoming the first Jesuit pope, the first from Latin America, and the first
to bear the name of Francis — in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, the humble
servant of the poor. Throughout his papacy, he led with simplicity and
compassion, reminding the world that true greatness lies in service, not in
power.
Pope Francis held a special place in his heart for my beloved homeland, Lebanon.
He consistently raised his voice in support of its people, particularly in times
of crisis. After the Beirut port explosion in 2020, he called for “a generous
and impartial commitment by all political and religious leaders to work for the
common good of Lebanon,” adding that “Lebanon cannot be abandoned in its
solitude.” In 2021, he invited Lebanese Christian leaders to the Vatican for a
day of prayer, affirming: “Lebanon is in crisis, and its stability must be a
concern of the international community. Let us pray that the Lord will give
light and strength to the Lebanese people.” His unwavering support was a beacon
of hope to many.
His Holiness was more than a pontiff — he was a living example of Christ’s love.
In every step he took, he called us to walk the narrow path of humility,
reconciliation, and justice. He reminded us that faith is not a theory but a way
of life.
And yet, even as we grieve, we find solace in the truth of our Christian faith —
that death is not the end but a holy transition. As St. Paul wrote, “For if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him.” Death is but sleep for the faithful, until the trumpet
sounds and our Lord returns in glory. Pope Francis now rests in the peace of
Christ, awaiting the resurrection, his life a testimony to the hope that lies
beyond the grave.
May his soul rest in eternal peace, and may we honor his legacy by striving for
a world where love, truth, and justice prevail.
Israeli Strike South of Beirut
Kills Commander in Jama'a Islamiya Group
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
An Israeli drone strike south of the Lebanese capital killed a top commander
from the Jama'a Islamiya group, the group said in a statement on Tuesday. There
was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The strike on Tuesday
morning killed Hussein Atawi, a leading commander in the armed branch of Jama'a
Islamiya known as the Fajr Forces, as he was driving from his home to his office
in Beirut, the statement said. The Fajr Forces fired rockets across Lebanon's
southern border at Israel throughout the year-long war that ended last year in a
ceasefire deal. Israeli airstrikes killed several of the group's members during
the conflict. Since the ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on
Lebanese territory, mostly targeting fighters from Lebanese armed group
Hezbollah or its arms depots. Israeli troops also still occupy five hilltop
positions in southern Lebanon. Lebanon, Hezbollah and the Jama'a Islamiya have
condemned the strikes and Israeli troop presence, calling them violations of the
truce and of Lebanon's sovereignty. Israel says the fighters and weapons pose a
threat to Israeli civilians.
One killed in Israeli
strike on pickup truck in Tyre's al-Hinniyeh
Naharnet/April 22, 2025
Lebanon's health ministry said a new Israeli strike on Tuesday killed one
person, hours after a deadly raid elsewhere in the country despite a ceasefire
between Israel and Hezbollah.
"The strike launched by the Israeli enemy" in the southern town of al-Hinniyeh
in Tyre district "killed one person," the ministry statement said. Media reports
said the strike targeted a pickup truck. A video circulating online showed a man
escaping the vehicle after a missile lands next to it. It then shows a missile
landing near the fleeing man, apparently killing him.
Foreign Ministry to summon Iranian ambassador over arms
remarks
Naharnet/April 22, 2025
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry will summon Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba
Amani in the coming days over his latest social media post about the removal of
weapons in Lebanon, media reports said on Tuesday. “The disarmament project is a
clear conspiracy against nations. While the United States continues to supply
the Zionist entity with the latest weapons and missiles, it prevents countries
from arming and strengthening their armies, and pressures other countries to
reduce or destroy their arsenals under various pretexts,” Amani wrote on the X
platform on Friday. “Once these countries surrender to demands for disarmament,
they become vulnerable to attack and occupation, as happened in Iraq, Libya and
Syria,” Amani warned. “We, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, are aware of the
seriousness of this conspiracy and its threat to the security of the peoples of
the region. We warn others against falling into the enemy's trap. Maintaining
deterrence is the first line of defense for sovereignty and independence and
should not be compromised,” the ambassador added. President Joseph Aoun stressed
Sunday that the Lebanese “no longer want war,” adding that the thorny issue of
Hezbollah’s arms will be addressed in a calm and responsible manner. “When I
mentioned arms in the inaugural speech, I was not talking to talk … I’m
convinced that the Lebanese no longer want war, cannot bear it and cannot
withstand the rhetoric of war,” Aoun added. “Our armed forces must be in charge
of bearing weapons and we will implement the decision of limiting arms to the
hands of the state,” the president said. “The train of Lebanon’s rise has set
off and no one will obstruct this start,” Aoun reassured.
Aoun: No one in Lebanon wants to return to war
Naharnet/April 22, 2025
President Joseph Aoun reiterated Tuesday that “any controversial issue can be
resolved through dialogue” and that “no one in Lebanon wants to return to
war.”“I’m optimistic, in the presence of determination and will,” Aoun added, in
a meeting in Baabda with the President of the UAE’s Federal National Council
Saqr Ghobash. “The Lebanese-Emirati relations are deep-rooted and I’m looking
forward to my visit to Abu Dhabi to meet with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and open
a new chapter in the ties between the two countries,” the president said. “We
have major challenges before us, topped by reconstruction with support from the
brotherly countries,” Aoun added. Ghobash for his part emphasized UAE President
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed’s keenness on Lebanon’s unity and on “building a
national state that gathers all components of the Lebanese people,” as well as
on “enhancing relations between the two countries.”
Berri says Iran not negotiating on behalf of Lebanon
Naharnet/April 22, 2025
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that Lebanon has fulfilled its
obligations as per the ceasefire agreement with Israel, adding that Israel is
yet to honor the arrangements. Asked by Al-Jadeed TV about the U.S.-Iranian
negotiations, Berri said: “The mere fact that technical teams will meet and
negotiate represents a reassuring factor and there is no link between the
negotiations and the Lebanese file.”“Iran is not negotiating on behalf of
Lebanon, but the impact of any agreement on the region will also reflect on
Lebanon,” Berri added, hoping the two sides will reach a deal. “All the signals
that Lebanon is receiving are reassuring, but my permanent stance is that the
outcome cannot be determined before it becomes tangible,” the Speaker went on to
say.
Hezbollah hails the late pope over his stances on Palestine
Agence France Presse/April 22, 2025
Hezbollah has offered condolences over Pope Francis' death to the Christians of
the world and Lebanon, hailing the late pontiff's "clear positions calling for
an end to the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip... and his support for the
Palestinian cause." President Joseph Aoun has meanwhile called Francis' death "a
loss for all humanity, for he was a powerful voice for justice and peace" who
called for "dialogue between religions and cultures."Multi-confessional Lebanon
has announced three days of official mourning. Francis died at the age of 88. He
had suffered from chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a
young man. He was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14, 2025, for a
respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. He spent 38 days there,
the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy.
Hezbollah official urges state to stop being an 'impotent
spectator' as to Israel attacks
Naharnet/April 22, 2025
Hezbollah Islamic relations official Sheikh Abdel Majid Ammar on Tuesday
strongly condemned an Israeli drone strike that killed a senior Jamaa Islamiya
military commander near Damour, calling it an attack on Lebanese sovereignty and
on “resistance with all its affiliations.”“The enemy’s insistence on its crimes
with a blatant U.S. cover and encouragement is the result of the indifference of
the states sponsoring the ceasefire agreement and the international community’s
failure to perform its responsibilities, which encourages the enemy to press on
with its barbaric hostility,” Ammar added.
He also deplored an Israeli strike that killed one person in the southern town
of al-Hinniyeh, calling on the Lebanese state to “fully shoulder its national
responsibilities” and to “stop being an impotent spectator.”“It should not
settle for the condemnation statements that have proved futile and have not
deterred the enemy,” Ammar added, urging the Lebanese state to “carry out
effective, serious and urgent steps on all levels and with all available means.”
IMF hears reform pitch: Lebanon presents unified reform
vision to IMF at Spring Meetings
LBCI/April 22, 2025
At the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring Meetings, the
Lebanese delegation held a series of meetings with representatives from the IMF
and various international financial institutions. According to sources familiar
with the discussions, the meetings were described as positive, mainly due to the
delegation's serious and unified stance and clear division of responsibilities
among its members. However, IMF officials stressed that execution remains key,
pointing to Lebanon's previous failures to secure an agreement due to internal
divisions, weak leadership, and stalled reform legislation in Parliament. The
delegation, headed by Finance Minister Yassine Jaber and including the Economy
Minister, the Banque du Liban (BDL) governor, and advisors to the president,
presented a comprehensive reform agenda. The discussions covered taxation
reform, social security improvements, economic restructuring, and monetary
policy changes. BDL governor voiced concern over the need to maintain the bank's
independence from political interference and protect small depositors. One of
the main meetings was held with Jihad Azour, IMF Director for the Middle East
and Central Asia, who, while maintaining neutrality on Lebanese internal
affairs, is expected to guide his team in supporting Lebanon's efforts.
Attention now turns to a roundtable scheduled for Friday in Washington, where
donor countries and investment funds will discuss Lebanon's request for a $1
billion loan from the World Bank. The funds would be used to rebuild war-damaged
areas and establish a social safety net, especially for the most vulnerable,
including internally displaced persons. Lebanon's Social Affairs Minister has
pushed for this support, asserting that no sustainable economic recovery is
possible without social stability. Throughout the week, the Lebanese delegation
has conveyed a clear message: reforms are being implemented for Lebanon's own
survival, not to satisfy external demands. The IMF views Lebanon's current team
as more cohesive than in the past, and delegation members highlighted growing
alignment between the government and Parliament, particularly through Finance
Minister Jaber's leadership in advancing reform legislation.
Finance Minister Yassine Jaber: Lebanon plans customs
reform, eyes full border scanner installment
LBCI/April 22, 2025
Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber said the government is preparing a plan
to combat customs evasion by installing scanners at all border crossings in
remarks made during a meeting in Washington.
Arab League chief meets Lebanese FM, calls for Israel to abide by ceasefire
LBCI/April 22, 2025
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit reaffirmed his support for the
Lebanese government's efforts to restore stability and ensure that all weapons
are under the sole authority of the state. During a meeting with Lebanese
Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Aboul
Gheit underscored the importance of implementing U.N. Security Council
Resolution 1701 and called for Israel to abide by the ceasefire and fully
withdraw from all Lebanese territory. According to the Secretary-General's
spokesperson, Jamal Roshdy, the meeting also addressed broader regional
developments on the eve of the Arab League Council's ministerial session,
scheduled in Cairo on Monday. Roshdy noted that Aboul Gheit listened closely to
Minister Rajji's briefing on Lebanon's internal situation and the broader
regional context.
Indian Philosopher Tagore's bust sculpture arrives in
Lebanon
LBCI/April 22, 2025
Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh was informed by the Indian Ambassador
to Lebanon, Mohammad Noor Rahman, about the arrival of a bust of Indian
philosopher Rabindranath Tagore in Lebanon. Minister Salameh and Ambassador
Rahman discussed preparations for unveiling the statue at the National Library
in Sanayeh later this month. A formal delegation from India will attend the
event to participate in this special occasion.
It was also agreed that the bust would later be transferred to the Gibran Khalil
Gibran Museum, given the strong relationship and deep friendship between Gibran
Khalil Gibran and Tagore.
Lebanon's Sports Minister cancels three sports over
licensing irregularities
LBCI/April 22, 2025
Lebanon's Youth and Sports Minister, Nora Bayrakdarian, issued three decisions
on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, canceling the licenses of three sports due to legal
and technical violations. The decisions revoked the recognition of
skateboarding, modern pentathlon, and surfing from licensed sports associations.
The ministry said the cancellation was due to the sports' failure to meet
essential legal, technical, and regulatory conditions required for licensing.
The ministry also announced the formation of interim committees to oversee the
management and regulation of each of the three sports pending further review.
Lebanon Arrests ‘Parent Group’ Behind Rocket Launches
toward Israel
Mohamed Choucair/Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
The Lebanese Army has arrested members of what is believed to be the “parent
group” behind recent rocket launches toward Israel, security sources told Asharq
Al-Awsat. The group was apprehended by Military Intelligence in a raid as they
were preparing to fire rockets from southern Lebanon, in what appears to be part
of a larger, coordinated campaign. According to investigators, the detainees
confessed to carrying out two rocket attacks in March—one launched from the area
between Kfartebnit and Arnoun, and the second from Qaaqaiyat al-Jisr, both in
the Nabatieh district. The projectiles were intercepted by Israeli defenses
before reaching their intended targets in Metula and Kiryat Shmona in northern
Israel. The army announced Sunday that it had seized a number of rockets and
launchers in a raid on an apartment in the Sidon-Zahrani area, and arrested
several individuals involved in the planned operation. The military said the
bust followed extensive surveillance and intelligence-gathering. Security
sources said the volume of weapons recovered suggests a larger logistical
operation designed to supply multiple attacks. The cache included enough rockets
and launch platforms to sustain repeated launches, rather than a single strike.
The weapons were found stored in a residential area in the town of Aqtnit, in
the Zahrani region near Sidon. Investigators believe the cell is part of a
broader Palestinian network operating in the South. The arrests were reportedly
aided by information obtained from earlier detainees and ongoing surveillance.
The sources confirmed that the suspects are now under questioning, with
investigations being conducted under judicial supervision. Following the March
attacks, army units intensified security operations in areas north of the Litani
River and ramped up monitoring of Palestinian camps, particularly Ain al-Hilweh
and Rashidieh. Access to and from the camps has been placed under tighter
scrutiny. The Lebanese Army is also said to be cooperating with Hezbollah in
some areas, particularly along the southern frontier. Military sources
emphasized that the army’s actions reflect Lebanon’s continued commitment to
implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the
disarmament of all non-state actors south of the Litani and reserves military
authority to the state. The arrest operation has been met with praise from
Lebanese political and military circles, who see it as a reaffirmation of the
state’s authority and a message to the international community that Lebanon
remains committed to preventing escalation with Israel.
Carlos Ghosn on Lebanon: ‘Better than a few months ago – but change must be
fast’
Hadley Gamble, Al Arabiya News/22 April ,2025
Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan-Renault chairman now living in Lebanon, says the
country is in a moment of cautious recovery – but warned that quick, visible
wins are essential if the new government is to maintain public trust. “Lebanon
today is better than what Lebanon was a few months ago,” he told Al Arabiya
News’ Hadley Gamble during a wide-ranging interview in Beirut. “Because the
people of Lebanon gained trust into the new leadership that has been
nominated.”Ghosn was referring to the new administration under Prime Minister
Nawaf Salam, whose appointment has raised hopes of political stability and
economic reform after years of paralysis. But the auto executive, once lauded as
a master of corporate turnarounds, said time is running out. “People don’t care
about big speeches,” he said. “What they care [about] is electricity. They want
to be able to pay for the school. They want to be able to have security. They
want to be able to have an airport which is working.” Ghosn urged Lebanon’s
leadership to focus on tangible improvements rather than long-winded policy
debates. “You need to feed them first with quick wins. They are expecting
concrete [results] that they see a modification, something for the better.”
He cited energy, traffic, and public corruption as urgent targets. “Obviously,
electricity is a big win. Traffic is a big win. Environment is a big win.”“There
is a lot of corruption in the administration… even though there is a lot of
speech [about] lack of corruption, you go do certain formalities today,
corruption is still very on.”
A banking system on life support
Lebanon’s financial collapse has decimated savings and gutted faith in the
banking sector. Ghosn described the system as hollowed out. “Most of the banks
are zombies. They are alive, but they are not alive.”He supported the
government’s approach of prioritising small depositors in any recovery plan.
“Starting with a small depositor and moving up is the right approach. It is a
fair approach. It economically makes a lot of sense.”“The small depositor… he
puts his money in the bank because he has no other way to do it. Bigger
depositors have options.” But he warned that no amount of rhetoric will revive
the sector without deep reforms.“To establish the trust into financial
institutions [is] going to take more than a few words and a few promises.”
Hezbollah and the path forward
Asked about Hezbollah, Ghosn said the group’s political role should be respected
but its military posture must be addressed carefully. “As a party, certainly not
[over]. I think they represent a portion of the population and in any democracy
they should be playing the role.”
He said Lebanon’s new government appears to be seeking a peaceful solution.
“Everything I’m seeing from the people who are really leading the country today
is trying to do it as peacefully as possible—without another disruption that the
country doesn’t need.”
No political ambitions
Ghosn ruled out entering politics himself, despite being encouraged by others.
“I’m a nonpolitical person. I’m absolutely not attracted by that.”“In order to
play in politics and to be successful, you need to like politics… I’m an
engineer, and for me, the best road between two different points is a straight
line. And you know that in politics it’s never a straight line.”He said he is
happy to help in an advisory capacity if asked, but not as a political figure.
“I’m ready to advise, I’m ready to consult. If my experience can be helpful, I
will I will do it... But not as a political player,” he told Gamble.
In the Lebanese Municipal
Elections… the Heart of the Coexistence Crisis
Eyad Abu Shakra/Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
While many Lebanese, along with their brothers and neighbors, are focused on
major national and regional threats, a considerable segment of the Lebanese
population is currently obsessing over a more trivial side story... An issue
that may seem insignificant in comparison to the existential threats looming
over the Levant. Next May, Lebanon is set to hold municipal elections. From the
capital Beirut to the smallest and most remote villages, electoral fever that,
at least locally and temporarily, offers momentary respite from the country’s
crushing economic conditions and the worrying security situation.
The deeply rooted tribalism of the Lebanese is pulling off the mask of
“coexistence” from the faces of both men and women. It exposes the knack of the
Lebanese- shared by the other peoples of the Levant- for masking their
religious, sectarian, tribal, and familial divisions... and then “wrapping” them
with claims of openness and tolerance. The Lebanese, along with their fellow
Levantines (especially those who, for decades, preached and postured about
liberation, brotherhood, and progressiveness) might have once believed in the
slogans they raised; some even died for them.
Maybe. Those who are still with us today know that “you can’t fight your nature”
and that each of them has a sectarian identity that rises to the surface at the
first provocation, justifying its backwardness whenever fear strikes.
Many “liberal” and “progressive” slogans have been embraced by enlightened
communities in our region since the late Ottoman period, when the
“Constitutional Movement” and movements advocating religious and social reform
rose to the fore, and they remained prevalent under the global systems that
emerged after the First and Second World Wars, and then the Cold War.
However, with the return of “unipolarity” as Washington became the world’s
dominant player, and with several models of independent governance having
failed, the appeal of “liberalism” and the credibility of “progressivism” began
to decline. This decline was first seen in the “Third World,” which suffered
under the weight of radical military and hereditary regimes... and has
eventually led us to the rise of the hard right, first with the Monetarist Right
and then racist iterations, in Europe and the United States.
In truth, the scourge of tribalism is a key feature of our social and political
heritage, not a bug. Islam was quick to recognize and firmly denounce it.
Nonetheless, politicians found ways to circumvent this religious taboo, cloaking
their tribal and clannish chauvinism in the garb of religion, thereby
sectarianizing the faith and even fueling sedition. And now, as political storms
come to the Arab world from every direction, our societies stand helpless as
they fail to contain the damage. The prudent among us know that formidable
impediments stand in the way of rooting it out altogether.
In the Arab world (especially in the Levant) we have become powerless in the
face of Israel’s escalation. We can do nothing to stand in the way of further
strategic breakthroughs, and the bitter truth is that we have always been...
Even when our “natural immunity” was stronger than it is today, when the world
was more sympathetic to our cause, and when the alignment between the American
right and the Israeli right was less explicit, less complimentary, and less
profound.
To our misfortune, there is now an almost unanimous consensus among global
political commentators from across the spectrum: it is untenable to count on an
“international community,” to take it seriously or await meaningful actions on
its part. This so-called “international community” that, at one point in time,
had the capacity to curb excesses here and impose a “compromise solution” there,
has collapsed. Indeed, in many of the states that had once been its most
powerful proponent, we see openly racist forces brazenly displaying every form
of prejudice, hatred, racism, and exclusion.
Back to Lebanon... and its local elections. In recent weeks, debates have
intensified around the elections in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital and its largest
city by far. A substantial segment of the capital’s Christians fear that the
dominant Sunni Muslim vote (Sunnis being the largest sectarian community in the
city) will overwhelm and marginalize Christian representation. It’s important to
note that, unlike the parliamentary electoral process, no pre-assigned quotas
for sects are allocated in municipal elections. This applies to every locality,
from the major cities down to the smallest villages, where kinship comes into
sharp focus.
What has become increasingly clear is that there is a camp in Lebanon (all too
comfortable with the hypocrisy of “summer and winter under the same roof”) that
is now openly speaking about dividing Beirut’s municipal council in two, leaving
us one with a Muslim majority council... and another with a Christian majority.
This partitionist proposal gives us flashbacks from the nightmare that Beirutis
and the Lebanese at large had undergone during the Lebanese Civil War (1975 to
1990). It also amounts to a deliberate effort to hinder viable and fair
compromises regarding political representation in Lebanon.
This deeply sectarian school of thought that- driven by self-serving and
spiteful interests- has been making tactical side deals since 2006, and has
continued to since then, is reverting back to the sectarian grandstanding that
Lebanese people had grown used to before the “Mar Mikhael Understanding” signed
that same year between the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah. True to its
double standards, this “school” has stubbornly rejected attempts to establish a
Senate whose members elected along sectarian lines (as stipulated by the Taif
Agreement) that would govern the country alongside a Parliament elected on a
non-sectarian basis, with “expansive decentralization” implemented in parallel.
It’s worth noting that for a long time, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM)
endorsed the proposal for “Orthodox Electoral Law,” in which each sect elects
its own members of parliament, while the “Shiite duo” (Hezbollah and Amal) has
backed the proposal for a single electoral district. Neither of them, however,
supports combining the two proposals: applying the Orthodox Law to Senate
elections and the “single district” model to parliamentary elections.
As a result, the intersecting tactical interests of these two sectarian
factions, both intent on monopolizing the representation of their sect, came
together to veto the only realistic and constitutional solution that could offer
fair representation and facilitate inclusion. Indeed, this is part of their
broader approach of rejecting any effort to reinforce genuine coexistence and
avoid reliance on foreign backers.
The upcoming municipal elections might be a minor issue... but they reflect a
much larger, and far more painful, state of affairs.
The Lebanese-Israeli War Will Return… Unless
Nadim Koteich/Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
The war between Lebanon and Israel has reared its head once again. This comes
after the ceasefire announced on November 27 was extended to February 18. While
it was in effect, Israel violated the agreement 1,500 times, and Israel's
Defense Minister announced that the occupied positions in Lebanon would be
turned into a buffer zone. Assassinations of Hezbollah's military apparatus have
accelerated, with several senior field commanders recently targeted. Among them
was Hassan Bdeir, the deputy official in charge of Palestinian affairs in
Hezbollah; an old photo of him aboard a plane with the late Quds Force commander
Qassem Soleimani has surfaced since he was killed. Another is Hassan Abbas
Azeddine, whom the Israeli army identified as the head of the air defense system
in Hezbollah's Badr Unit. Amid this escalation, Hezbollah has turned back its
hardline position on armament. “There is no such thing as disarmament,” we are
now told after months of nods to openness. The fleeting flexibility shown by the
party was the result of its long war with Israel, which cost the party the lives
of both its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and his successor Hashem
Saffiedine, in addition to the first and second line of security and military
leaders. This radical shift could be explained by the position Hezbollah now
finds itself in. It is cornered on all fronts and is particularly troubled by
the challenges it had not anticipated when it agreed to the ceasefire. While
Army Commander Joseph Aoun's election as president of the republic was
predictable, the party had not expected Nawaf Salam to be tasked with forming a
government. The approach with which he named his cabinet was a sharp break with
the framework that Hezbollah had grown accustomed to in recent years,
particularly since 2008. This was the party's first domestic blow, and it also
reflected the new balance of political and moral power in the country.
Hezbollah's difficulties were compounded by the dramatic collapse of the Assad
regime on December 8, 2024 (just two weeks after the ceasefire was announced)
and the subsequent historic rapprochement between the new Lebanon and the new
Syria. The two countries have begun coordinating to cut off one of Iran's most
critical supply lines. The border control agreement between Beirut and Damascus,
signed in Jeddah in March, was followed by the Lebanese Prime Minister's visit
to Damascus. There, he met with Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa
to discuss implementation mechanisms, tightening the noose around the strategic
logistical networks that Hezbollah had relied on for decades. In tandem, the
party's positions south of the Litani River are being handed over to the
Lebanese Army.
On the regional level, Hezbollah now finds itself in a tough spot, particularly
after Israel announced its intention to consolidate its occupation of Lebanese
territory as part of a plan to turn it into a buffer zone. Meanwhile, even as
the truce in Gaza has collapsed and Israel has unveiled a strategy to annex
parts of the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah did not dare to revive the rhetoric of
support that had dragged it into this war that permanently damaged it in the
first place.
The ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Washington on Iran's nuclear program
further complicate Hezbollah's calculus, especially as they are paralleled by a
Washington-led global campaign to disarm the party.
Accordingly, it should be no surprise that, wounded and wary, the party is
doubling down to reaffirm its independence and resist being turned into a
bargaining chip in the talks. Either it is doing so in coordination with Tehran,
which may be trying to send mixed signals, or Hezbollah's confidence in its
regional patron has waned after it had been left to fight the war alone and
received no real support as it was being pummeled.
In this context, Hezbollah's unambiguous refusal to discuss “disarmament,”
insisting that the issue is not up for negotiation and that there is no
compromise to be found, could be useful. Despite the threats it brings, this
rhetoric strips away the mask of ambiguity that has long allowed Lebanese state
institutions and many political forces to remain in the murky gray zone they
exploited to normalize the status quo.
This announcement has liberated the national debate, putting an end to the
spiral of excuses that had long been used to justify Hezbollah's behavior and
belittle this complex dilemma. It was said that Hezbollah's arms were needed as
long as Israeli occupation had not ended and that they provided a deterrent that
protected Lebanon from attacks. Others argued that the state was weak and that
these weapons would only be handed over once its institutions matured...Even
sectarian and political justifications were not offered: Hezbollah represents a
Lebanese community and thus cannot be isolated or confronted militarily. Its
arsenal was thereby rendered “our fate as a nation” - one that we must simply
live with. What has changed today is that Hezbollah has made dithering
untenable: “Disarmament is not up for discussion.” With that statement, all
previous justifications became obsolete. Indeed, it was preceded by the
implosion of the deterrence narrative after it became evident that Israel,
despite Hezbollah's weapons, could kill and occupy without paying a price. It is
now clear that this arsenal is nothing more than a shield in the hands of a
militia. Hezbollah uses its arms to perpetuate its political and security
existence without even pretending to have a national agenda or clearly defined
goals. Accordingly, this clarity about the nature of the confrontation should
compel the Lebanese state to assume its responsibilities. The era of conniving
evasion, rhetorical ambiguity, and calling things by anything other than their
real names, is over.
The only way to prevent the resumption of war, the expansion of which is already
being prepared, is to agree on a clear roadmap for the disarmament of Hezbollah
without euphemisms and to officially declare that Lebanon is fully on board the
region's political settlements.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News
published
on April 22-23/2025
Pope Francis’s Funeral to Be Held on Saturday, Many World Leaders
Expected
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
Pope Francis' funeral will be held on Saturday in St. Peter's Square, Roman
Catholic cardinals decided on Tuesday, setting the stage for a solemn ceremony
that will draw leaders from around the world. Francis, 88, died unexpectedly on
Monday after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, the Vatican said, ending an
often turbulent reign in which he repeatedly clashed with traditionalists and
championed the poor and marginalized. The pontiff spent five weeks in hospital
earlier this year suffering from double pneumonia. But he returned to the
Vatican almost a month ago and had seemed to be recovering, appearing in St.
Peter's Square on Easter Sunday. The Vatican on Tuesday released photographs of
Francis dressed in his vestments and laid in a wooden coffin in the chapel of
the Santa Marta residence, where he lived during his 12-year papacy. Swiss
Guards stand on either side of the casket. His body will be taken into the
adjacent St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. (0700 GMT), in a
procession led by cardinals, allowing the faithful to pay their last respects to
the first Latin American pope. His funeral service will be held in St. Peter's
Square, in the shadow of the Basilica, on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. (0800 GMT). US
President Donald Trump, who clashed repeatedly with the pope about immigration,
said he and his wife would fly to Rome for the service. Among other heads of
state set to attend were Javier Milei, president of Francis' native Argentina,
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskiy, according to a source in his office.
ANCIENT RITUALS
In a break from tradition, Francis confirmed in his final testament released on
Monday that he wished to be buried in Rome's Basilica of Saint Mary Major and
not St. Peter's, where many of his predecessors were laid to rest. Francis's
sudden death has set in motion ancient rituals, as the 1.4-billion-member Church
started the transition from one pope to another, including the breaking of the
pope's "Fisherman's Ring" and lead seal, used in his lifetime to seal documents,
so they cannot be used by anyone else. All cardinals in Rome were summoned to a
meeting on Tuesday to decide on the sequencing of events in the coming days and
review the day-to-day running of the Church in the period before a new pope is
elected. A conclave to choose a new pope normally takes place 15 to 20 days
after the death of a pontiff, meaning it should not start before May 6. Some 135
cardinals are eligible to participate in the secretive ballot, which can stretch
over days before white smoke pouring from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel
tells the world that a new pope has been picked. At present there is no clear
frontrunner to succeed Francis.
PROGRESSIVE
Pope Francis inherited a Church in disarray and worked hard to overhaul the
Vatican's central administration, root out corruption and, after a slow start,
confront the scourge of child abuse within the ranks of the priesthood. He often
clashed with conservatives, nostalgic for a traditional past, who saw Francis as
overly liberal and too accommodating to minority groups. Francis appointed
nearly 80% of the cardinal electors scattered across the world who will choose
the next pope, increasing, but not guaranteeing, the possibility that his
successor will continue his progressive policies. Many of the cardinals are
little known outside their own countries and they will have a chance to get to
know one another at meetings known as General Congregations that take place in
the days before a conclave starts and where a profile of the qualities needed
for the next pope will take shape.
The Vatican said late on Monday that staff and officials within the Holy See
could immediately start to pay their respects before the pope's body at the
Santa Marta residence, where Francis set up home in 2013, shunning the grand,
apostolic palace his predecessors had lived in.
Iran Says Technical Nuclear Meeting with US Postponed to
Saturday
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
Iran's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a technical, expert-level nuclear
meeting with the United States will be held on Saturday, several days after the
date initially planned. "Following Oman's proposal and the agreement of the
Iranian and American delegations, the technical consultative meeting between the
two countries, which was to be held as part of the indirect talks between the
two sides on Wednesday, has been postponed to Saturday," said foreign ministry
spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei. US President Donald Trump has been seeking an
agreement that would curb Iran's nuclear program, which Washington believes is
aimed at developing a nuclear weapon. American and Iranian officials have so far
held two rounds of talks, one in Muscat and the second in Rome. Trump has
threatened to bomb Iran unless a deal is reached; Iran denies seeking atomic
weapons.
US Targets Iranian LPG Magnate with Sanctions, Treasury
Says
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
The United States issued new sanctions on Tuesday targeting Iranian liquefied
petroleum gas magnate Seyed Asadoollah Emamjomeh and his corporate network, the
Treasury Department said, amid ongoing talks with Tehran on its nuclear program.
Emamjomeh's network is responsible for shipping hundreds of millions of dollars’
worth of Iranian LPG and crude oil to foreign markets, Treasury said in a
statement. Both products are a major source of revenue for Iran, helping to fund
its nuclear and advanced conventional weapons programs, it said, as well as
regional proxy groups including Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and the Palestinian
Hamas group. "Emamjomeh and his network sought to export thousands of shipments
of LPG -- including from the United States -- to evade US sanctions and generate
revenue for Iran," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement. Iran
and the United States agreed on Saturday to begin drawing up a framework for a
potential nuclear deal, Iran's foreign minister said, after talks that a US
official described as yielding "very good progress."Top negotiators planned to
meet again in Oman on Saturday. The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran
previously as talks were underway.
What Do ‘Expert Level’ Talks Signal for the Progress of the Iran-US Nuclear
Negotiations?
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing
nuclear program will move Wednesday to what's known as the “expert level” — a
sign analysts say shows that the talks are moving forward rapidly. However,
experts not involved in the talks who spoke with The Associated Press warn that
this doesn't necessarily signal a deal is imminent. Instead, it means that the
talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve
Witkoff haven't broken down at what likely is the top-level trade — Tehran
limiting its atomic program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
“Agreeing to technical talks suggests both sides are expressing pragmatic,
realistic objectives for the negotiations and want to explore the details,” said
Kelsey Davenport, the director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control
Association who long has studied Iran's nuclear program. “If Witkoff was making
maximalist demands during his talks with Araghchi, such as dismantlement of the
enrichment program, Iran would have no incentive to meet at the technical
level.”That technical level, however, remains filled with possible landmines.
Just how much enrichment by Iran would be comfortable for the United States?
What about Tehran's ballistic missile program, which US President Donald Trump
first cited in pulling America unilaterally out of the accord in 2018? Which
sanctions could be lifted and which would be remain in place on Tehran? “The
most important determinant of expert talks’ value lies in whether there is a
political commitment to do something and experts just need to figure out what,”
said Richard Nephew, an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy who worked on Iran sanctions while at the US State Department during
negotiations over what became the 2015 nuclear deal. “If the experts also have
to discuss big concepts, without political agreement, it can just result in spun
wheels.”
Experts and the 2015 nuclear deal
The 2015 nuclear deal saw senior experts involved in both sides of the deal. For
the US under President Barack Obama, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz reached an
understanding working with Ali Akbar Salehi, then the leader of the Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran. Both men's technical background proved key to
nailing down the specifics of the deal. Under the 2015 agreement, Iran agreed to
enrich uranium only to 3.67% purity and keep a stockpile of only 300 kilograms
(661 pounds). Today, Iran enriches some uranium up to 60% purity — a short,
technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The last report by the
International Atomic Energy Agency put Iran's overall uranium stockpile in
February at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 pounds). The deal also limited the types
of centrifuges Iran could spin, further slowing Tehran's ability to rush for a
bomb, if it chose to do so. It also set out the provisions of how and when
sanctions would be lifted, as well as time limits for the accord itself.
Reaching limits, relief and timelines require the knowledge of experts, analysts
say. “A nonproliferation agreement is meaningless if it cannot be effectively
implemented and verified,” Davenport said. “The United States needs a strong
technical team to negotiate the detailed restrictions and intrusive monitoring
that will be necessary to ensure any move by Iran toward nuclear weapons is
quickly detected and there is sufficient time to respond.”It remains unclear who
the two sides will be sending for those negotiations.
Hiccups already heard in these negotiations
Both the Americans and the Iranians have been tightlipped over exactly what's
been discussed so far, though both sides have expressed optimism about the pace.
However, there has been one noticeable dispute stemming from comments Witkoff
made in a television interview, suggesting Tehran could be able to enrich up to
3.67% purity. However, analysts noted that was the level set by the 2015 deal
under Obama.Witkoff hours later issued a statement suggesting that comparison
struck a nerve: “A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump
deal.”“Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization
program,” Witkoff added. Araghchi responded by warning that Iran must be able to
enrich. "The core issue of enrichment itself is not negotiable,” he said.
Despite that, experts who spoke to the AP said they remained positive about the
talks' trajectory so far. “Although still early stages, I’m encouraged so far,”
said Alan Eyre, a former US diplomat once involved in past nuclear negotiations
with Tehran. “The pace of negotiations — to include starting expert level
meetings this Wednesday — is good.”He added that so far, there didn't appear to
be any “mutually exclusive red lines” for the talks as well — signaling there
likely wasn't immediately any roadblocks to reaching a deal. Nephew similarly
described reaching the expert level as a “positive sign.” However, he cautioned
that the hard work potentially was just beginning for the negotiations.
“They imply the need to get into real details, to discuss concepts that senior
(officials) might not understand and to answer questions. I also think too much
can be read into them starting,” Nephew said. “Expert talks can sometimes be a
fudge for seniors to avoid working on tough issues — ‘let’s have experts discuss
it while we move on to other things’ — or to sidestep big political decisions."
Corey Hinderstein, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace and a former US government nuclear expert, described herself
as feeling “cautious optimism” over the expert talks beginning. “Heads of
delegation are responsible for setting strategic goals and defining success,”
she said. “But if there is a deal to be made, the technical experts are the ones
who will get it done.”
Russia’s Putin Discusses US-Iran Nuclear Talks with Sultan
of Oman
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Iran's nuclear program on Tuesday
with the visiting leader of Oman, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, a Kremlin
official was quoted as saying. Oman has been mediating between Iran and the
United States as President Donald Trump seeks an agreement that would curb
Iran's nuclear program, which Washington believes is aimed at developing a
nuclear weapon. "We discussed the progress of negotiations between Iranian and
American representatives," Interfax quoted Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury
Ushakov as saying. "We will see what the result will be. We maintain close
contact with our Iranian colleagues. Where we can, we help."Trump has threatened
to bomb Iran unless a deal is reached; Iran denies seeking atomic weapons.
Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran in January and is also
trying to improve relations with the Trump administration. Moscow has a role in
nuclear talks with Iran as a signatory to a previous nuclear deal that Trump
abandoned during his first term in 2018. Russia has said any US military action
against Iran would be illegal. In televised comments, Putin was shown telling
the sultan that Russian energy companies were interested in developing relations
with Oman. It was the second time in less than a week that Putin has met
face-to-face with a Middle Eastern leader, following a visit by the emir of
Qatar on April 17. Iran's foreign minister visited last week.
Trump Says 'on the Same Side of Every Issue' with Netanyahu After Call
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump spoke by phone, two weeks
after the two met in Washington. Trump wrote on his social networking site Truth
Social that the two spoke about trade and Iran, among other issues. “The call
went very well—We are on the same side of every issue,” he wrote. Netanyahu's
office did not have an immediate comment, but his hastily-arranged visit to
Washington was not deemed a rousing success after he appeared to fail to secure
the support he wanted from Trump on issues such as stopping Iran from developing
nuclear weapons, reducing Trump's tariffs, the influence of Türkiye and the war
in Gaza.
Iran’s IRGC seizes two foreign tankers carrying ‘smuggled diesel’
Al Arabiya English/With AFP/April 22/2025
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has seized two foreign vessels
carrying “smuggled” fuel in the Gulf, local media said on Tuesday. The IRGC
“seized two Tanzanian-flagged vessels carrying 1.5 million liters of smuggled
diesel fuel,” said Iranian news agency Fars. Iranian forces regularly target
tankers they say are illegally transporting fuel in the Gulf. “The vessels, Sea
Ranger and Salama, had 25 foreign crew members,” said Fars, without elaborating
on their fate. It added that the vessels “were transferred to the port of
Bushehr,” in Iran’s southwest, “for legal procedures.”Iran, a major oil
producer, has among the cheapest petrol prices in the world, which encourages
fuel trafficking. In May, Iran released seven crew members from a
Portuguese-flagged container ship, seized on April 13, after accusing them of
links to its arch-foe Israel.
Israel Steps up Gaza Strikes; Polio Vaccination Halted by
Blockade
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
The Israeli military launched one of the biggest waves of strikes in Gaza for
weeks on Tuesday, residents said, and health officials issued a new warning that
healthcare faced total collapse from Israel's blockade of all supplies. Gaza's
health ministry said a UN-backed polio vaccination campaign meant to target over
600,000 children had been suspended, putting the enclave at risk of the revival
of a crippling disease that once had been all-but eradicated. In diplomacy to
end the conflict, a Hamas delegation was due to arrive in Cairo for talks. Two
sources said the delegation would discuss a new offer which would include a
truce for 5-7 years following the release of all hostages and an end to
fighting. The sources said Israel, which rejected a recent Hamas offer to
release all hostages for an end of the war, had yet to respond to the revamped
long-term truce proposal. Israel demands Hamas be disarmed, which the group
reject. Residents said Israeli forces bombed several areas across the enclave
from tanks, planes, and naval boats. The attacks hit houses, tent encampments
and roads, they added. The airstrikes destroyed bulldozers and vehicles being
used to lift rubble and help recover bodies trapped under the ruins, officials
and residents said. Israel has imposed a total blockade on all supplies to Gaza
since the start of March and relaunched its military operations on March 18
after the collapse of a ceasefire. Since then, Israeli strikes have killed more
than 1,600 Palestinians according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds
of thousands have been forced from their homes as Israel seized what it calls a
buffer zone of Gaza land. Israel's 18-month bombing campaign has rendered nearly
all buildings in the Gaza Strip uninhabitable, and Gaza's 2.3 million people now
mostly live in the open under makeshift tents. Since the total blockade was
imposed last month, all 25 UN-supplied bakeries making bread have been shut.
Israel says enough supplies were sent into the enclave during the six-week truce
to keep Gazans alive for months. Aid agencies say they fear the population is on
the precipice of starvation and mass disease. Gaza health ministry spokesperson
Khalil Deqran said the blockage of supplies was putting the lives of hundreds of
thousands of patients in Gaza Strip hospitals at risk due. If polio vaccines
don't arrive immediately, "we anticipate a real catastrophe. Children and
patients must not be used as cards of political blackmail," he said. He said
60,000 children were now showing symptoms of malnutrition.
ISRAEL DENIES BLOCKADE BREAKS INTERNATIONAL LAW
Israel says its blockade is aimed at pressuring the Hamas group that runs Gaza
to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October 2023 attacks
that precipitated the war. Hamas says it is prepared to free them but only as
part of a deal that ends the war.
"Israel is acting in full accordance with international law," Defense Minister
Israel Katz wrote on X, in response to US Senator Bernie Sanders, who called the
total Israeli blockade of Gaza since March a war crime. "The humanitarian
condition in Gaza is constantly monitored and large quantities of aid were
delivered. Whenever it becomes necessary to allow additional aid, it must be
ensured that it does not pass through Hamas, which exploits humanitarian aid to
maintain control over the civilian population and to profit at their expense,"
Katz wrote. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Palestinian
relief agency UNRWA described the blockade as collective punishment of Gaza's
people. "Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip + a weapon of war.
The siege must be lifted, supplies must flow in, the hostages must be released,
the ceasefire must resume," Lazzarini said on Tuesday in a post on X.
Israel says it is still hunting Hamas. "We will pursue Hamas from wherever it
operates, both in the north and south of the Gaza Strip and even outside of it,
anywhere," said Brigadier General Effie Defrin, the Israeli military
spokesperson. The conflict was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on
October 7, 2023, resulting in 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages taken to Gaza,
according to Israeli records. Since then, local health authorities report that
over 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive.
Israeli Strikes Kill 14 in Gaza and Destroy Heavy Equipment
Needed to Clear Rubble
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 14 Palestinians, mostly women
and children, and destroyed bulldozers and other heavy equipment that had been
supplied by mediators to clear rubble. A separate strike in Lebanon on Tuesday
killed a member of a local group. Israel's 18-month offensive against Hamas has
destroyed vast areas of Gaza, raising fears that much of it may never be
rebuilt. The territory already had a shortage of heavy equipment, which is also
needed to rescue people from the rubble after Israeli strikes and to clear vital
roads. A municipality in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza said a strike on its
parking garage destroyed nine bulldozers provided by Egypt and Qatar, which
helped broker the ceasefire that took hold in January. Israel ended the truce
last month, renewing its bombardment and ground operations and sealing the
territory's 2 million Palestinians off from all imports, including food, fuel
and medical supplies. The strikes also destroyed a water tanker and a mobile
generator provided by aid groups, and a truck used to pump sewage, the Jabaliya
al-Nazla municipality said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli
military on the strikes. The military says it only targets fighters and blames
civilian deaths on Hamas because the group operates in densely populated areas.
Israeli strikes kill 14, mostly children
An Israeli airstrike early Tuesday destroyed a multistory home in the southern
city of Khan Younis, killing nine people, including four women and four
children, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. The dead
included a 2-year-old girl and her parents. “They were asleep, sleeping in God’s
peace. They had nothing to do with anything,” said Awad Dahliz, the slain girl's
grandfather. “What is the fault of this innocent child?”A separate strike in the
built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed three children and their parents,
according to the Gaza Health Ministry's emergency service. Israel's air and
ground war has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children,
according to the ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were
civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 fighters,
without providing evidence.The war began when Hamas-led gunmen attacked southern
Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking
251 people hostage. They are still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed
to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or
other deals. Hamas has said it will only free the remaining hostages in return
for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal and a
lasting ceasefire. Israel has said it will keep fighting until the hostages are
returned and Hamas has been either destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile. It
has pledged to hold onto so-called security zones in Gaza indefinitely.
Hamas team heads to Cairo
for Gaza talks
Agence France Presse/April 22/2025
A Hamas delegation left for Cairo to discuss "new ideas" aimed at securing a
Gaza ceasefire, an official from the group said, as Israeli air strikes killed
26 people across the territory Tuesday. The renewed effort follows Hamas's
rejection last week of Israel's latest proposal to secure the release of
hostages still held in Gaza. Talks have so far failed to produce any
breakthrough since Israel resumed its air and ground assault on Gaza from March
18, ending a two-month ceasefire. "The delegation will meet with Egyptian
officials to discuss new ideas aimed at reaching a ceasefire," the Hamas
official said, adding the team included the group's chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya.
The discussions will come a day after newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Israel
Mike Huckabee urged Hamas to accept a deal that would secure the release of
hostages in exchange for humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
"When that happens, and hostages are released which is an urgent matter for all
of us, then we hope that the humanitarian aid will flow and flow freely knowing
it will be done without Hamas being able to confiscate and abuse their own
people", Huckabee said in a video statement. Israel blocked all aid to Gaza on
March 2, days before its renewed offensive began. Israel has accused the
Palestinian militant group of diverting aid, which Hamas denies. "Gaza has
become a land of desperation," Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for
Palestinian refugees UNRWA, said on X on Tuesday. "Hunger is spreading and
deepening, deliberate and manmade.... Humanitarian aid is being used as a
bargaining chip and a weapon of war." Qatar, with the United States and Egypt,
brokered a truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas which began on January 19 and
enabled a surge in aid, alongside exchanges of hostages and prisoners. But the
truce collapsed after disagreements over the terms of the next stage.
Israeli strikes continue
Hamas had insisted that negotiations be held on a second phase of the truce,
leading to a permanent end to the war, as outlined in the January framework
announced by former U.S. President Joe Biden. Israel, however, sought to extend
the first phase.
Following the impasse, Israel blocked aid and resumed its military campaign.
Most recently, Israel proposed a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of
10 living hostages -- an offer Hamas rejected last week. Gaza's civil defense
agency said Israeli air strikes killed at least 26 people across the Hamas-run
territory on Tuesday. Among the fatalities were nine people when a house was
struck in central Khan Yunis, senior agency official Mohammad Mughayyir told AFP,
adding that six others remain trapped. "We found people torn apart," said Ahmad
Shourab who witnessed the strike. "They were all women and children. What do
they want from us?"
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said air strikes also destroyed bulldozers
and other equipment belonging to the Jabalia municipality in northern Gaza. "We
relied on them for rescue operations to clear debris and recover the bodies of
martyrs from beneath the rubble," Bassal said. "Now, if a large-scale strike
occurs and heavy machinery is needed, how will we obtain the equipment to save
lives, pull people from the rubble, or evacuate them from buildings targeted in
attacks?" Israel's military did not immediately comment on the latest strikes.
At least 1,890 people have been killed in Gaza since the military resumed its
offensive, bringing the total death toll since the war erupted to at least
51,266, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Hamas's attack on
Israel on October 7, 2023, which ignited the war, resulted in the deaths of
1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official
Israeli figures. Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held
in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Ukraine Ready to Hold Talks with Russia Once Ceasefire Is in Place, Zelenskiy
Says
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine would be ready to
hold talks with Russia in any format once a ceasefire is in place and the
fighting between Kyiv and Moscow's forces has stopped. The Ukrainian leader also
told reporters at a briefing that a Ukrainian delegation meeting officials from
Western countries in London on Wednesday would have a mandate to discuss a full
or partial ceasefire. "We are ready to record that after a ceasefire, we are
ready to sit down in any format so that there are no dead ends," Zelenskiy said
at the briefing in the presidential office in Kyiv. "It will not be possible to
agree on everything quickly," he warned, noting numerous highly complex issues
such as territory, security guarantees and Ukraine's membership in the NATO
military alliance. The talks in London, which are to set to bring together
officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine, come
amid a flurry of intense US-led diplomatic efforts to find a way to end Russia's
war with Ukraine. Zelenskiy said he would be happy to meet US President Donald
Trump later this week when they attend the funeral of Pope Francis.
Jerusalem Patriarch Hails Pope’s Commitment to Gaza
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on Tuesday
hailed Pope Francis's support for Gazans and engagement with the small Catholic
community in the war-battered Palestinian territory. The Catholic church's
highest authority in the region, who is considered a potential successor to the
late pontiff, Pizzaballa told journalists in Jerusalem that "Gaza represents, a
little bit, all what was the heart of his pontificate". Pope Francis, who died
on Monday aged 88, advocated peace and "closeness to the poor... and to the
neglected one", said the patriarch. These positions became particularly evident
in Francis's response to the Israel-Hamas war which broke out in October 2023,
Pizzaballa said. "He was very close to the community of Gaza, the parish of
Gaza, he kept calling them many times -- for a certain period, also every day,
every evening at 7 pm," said the patriarch. He added that by doing so, the pope
"became for the community something stable, and also comforting for them, and he
knew this".Out of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million people, about 1,000 are
Christians. Most of them are Orthodox, but according to the Latin Patriarchate,
there are about 135 Catholics in the territory. Since the early days of the war,
members of the Catholic community have been sheltering at Holy Family Church
compound in Gaza City, and some Orthodox Christians have also found refuge
there. Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war. The day before his
death, in a final Easter message delivered on Sunday, he condemned the
"deplorable humanitarian situation" in the besieged territory. "Work for
justice... but without becoming part of the conflict," said Pizzaballa of the
late pontiff's actions."For us, for the Church, it leaves an important legacy."
The patriarch thanked the numerous Palestinian and Israeli public figures who
have offered their condolences, preferring not to comment on the lack of any
official message from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Even as "the
local authorities... were not always happy" with the pope's positions or
statements, they were "always very respectful", he said. Pizzaballa said he will
travel to Rome on Wednesday, after leading a requiem mass for the pope at the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the morning. As one of the 135
cardinal electors, the Latin patriarch will participate in the conclave to elect
a new pope. Pizzaballa, a 60-year-old Italian Franciscan who also speaks English
and Hebrew, arrived in Jerusalem in 1990 and was made a cardinal in September
2023, just before the Gaza war began. His visits to Gaza and appeals for peace
since then have attracted international attention.
Syria Arrests Assad-era Officer Accused of 'War Crimes'
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
Syrian authorities said Tuesday they had arrested a former officer in the feared
security apparatus of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad, the latest such announcement
as the new government pursues ex-officials accused of atrocities. The interior
ministry announced in a statement that security forces in the coastal province
of Latakia had arrested the "criminal brigadier-general Sultan al-Tinawi",
saying he was a key officer in the air force intelligence, one of the Assad
family's most trusted security agencies. The statement accused Tinawi of
involvement in "committing war crimes against civilians, including a massacre"
in the Damascus countryside in 2016. It said he was responsible for
"coordinating between the leadership of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and a
number of sectarian groups in Syria". Tinawi has been referred to the public
prosecution for further investigation, the statement said. A security source,
requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said
that Tinawi held senior administrative positions in the air force intelligence
when Jamil Hassan was head of the notorious agency. Hassan has been sentenced in
absentia in France for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes,
while the United States has accused him of "war crimes", including overseeing
barrel bomb attacks on Syrian people that killed thousands of civilians. Tinawi
had been "head of the information branch of the air force intelligence" before
Assad's ouster late last year, the security source told AFP, describing the
branch as "one of the most powerful and secret security agencies in the
country". Since taking power in December, Syria's new authorities have announced
a number of arrests of Assad-era security officials. Assad fled to Moscow with
only a handful of confidants, abandoning senior officials and security officers,
some of whom have reportedly fled to neighboring countries or taken refuge in
the coastal heartland of Assad's Alawite minority community.
Jordan Moves to Ban Muslim Brotherhood as ‘Illegal’ Group
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
As the fallout continues from Jordan’s recent security crackdown on a militant
cell accused of manufacturing missiles and drones, officials remain tight-lipped
about why a court-banned branch of the Muslim Brotherhood continues to operate
freely. The group, declared illegal by a final court ruling in 2020, has
maintained its political activities with apparent impunity—a contradiction
analysts say points to selective enforcement of the law. While Jordanian
authorities have detained extremists over what was described as a “chaos plot,”
they have avoided confronting the unlicensed movement. The Brotherhood’s
continued presence, despite Article 159 of the penal code criminalizing illegal
associations with potential jail sentences, has puzzled observers.Analysts say
the government’s “soft containment” approach reflects a broader political
culture in Amman that avoids clashes with groups enjoying popular support, even
if that means ignoring binding court decisions. Critics argue the state’s
flexibility towards the Brotherhood undermines legal consistency and raises
questions about the rule of law, especially as other groups face swift and
public consequences. Jordan’s government appears to have taken a markedly
tougher stance following the recent exposure of the militant cell allegedly
backed by foreign actors and accused of planning attacks with home-built
missiles and drones targeting domestic sites—not under the pretext of
“supporting the resistance in Gaza”.The discovery of the plot has prompted a
reassessment within the country’s decision-making circles, which are now closely
watching for verdicts from the State Security Court—the judicial body with
jurisdiction over terrorism and national security cases. While authorities have
clamped down on the immediate threat, they have stopped short of confronting the
unlicensed Muslim Brotherhood group and its political wing, the Islamic Action
Front. Analysts say officials are treading cautiously, wary of provoking
parliamentary unrest or street mobilizations that the faction could spearhead if
directly challenged. The government’s current posture suggests a strategic
pause—one that balances national security concerns with the potential political
fallout of taking on a well-rooted opposition force. Jordanian decision-makers,
however, are stepping up preparations on multiple fronts as the country braces
for a possible legal showdown with the Brotherhood.Authorities are weighing the
implications of formally designating the Brotherhood as an unlicensed entity, a
move that would entail shutting down its activities, seizing its assets and
properties, and treating any political statements or public events linked to its
members as violations subject to prosecution under the penal code and
counterterrorism laws. Behind the scenes, government institutions are working to
draw a legal and operational distinction between the Brotherhood and the Islamic
Action Front, which remains registered under the country’s political parties
law. This delicate balancing act hinges on upcoming hearings at the State
Security Court, expected to begin next week. However, officials fear that any
legal escalation could spark backlash, including street protests or social media
campaigns led by the Islamic Action Front. Analysts say such a scenario could
force authorities to take more decisive measures, including dissolving the party
itself, in a bid to dismantle what critics view as a monopolized Islamist
platform and reassert control over religious political representation in the
kingdom.
IMF Cuts Growth Forecasts for Most Countries in Wake of Century-High US Tariffs
Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its growth forecasts for the
United States, China and most countries, citing the impact of US tariffs now at
100-year highs and warning that rising trade tensions would further slow growth.
The IMF released an update to its World Economic Outlook compiled in just 10
days after US President Donald Trump announced universal tariffs on nearly all
trading partners and higher rates - currently suspended - on many countries. It
cut its forecast for global growth by 0.5 percentage point to 2.8% for 2025, and
by 0.3 percentage point to 3% from its January forecast that growth would reach
3.3% in both years.It said inflation was expected to decline more slowly than
expected in January, given the impact of tariffs, reaching 4.3% in 2025 and 3.6%
in 2026, with "notable" upward revisions for the US and other advanced
economies. The IMF called the report a "reference forecast" based on
developments through April 4, citing the extreme complexity and fluidity of the
current moment. "We are entering a new era as the global economic system that
has operated for the last 80 years is being reset," IMF Chief Economist
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told reporters. The IMF said the swift escalation of
trade tensions and "extremely high levels" of uncertainty about future policies
would have a significant impact on global economic activity. "It's quite
significant and it's hitting all the regions of the world. We're seeing lower
growth in the US, lower growth in the euro area, lower growth in China, lower
growth in other parts of the world," Gourinchas told Reuters in an interview.
"If we get an escalation of trade tensions between the US and other countries,
that will fuel additional uncertainty, that will create additional financial
market volatility, that will tighten financial conditions," he said, adding the
bundled effect would further lower global growth prospects. Weaker growth
prospects had already lowered demand for the dollar, but the adjustment in
currency markets and portfolio rebalancing seen to date had been orderly, he
said. "We are not seeing a stampede or a run to the exits," Gourinchas said.
"We're not concerned at this stage about the resilience of the international
monetary system. It would take something much bigger than this."However,
medium-term growth prospects remained mediocre, with the five-year forecast
stuck at 3.2%, below the historical average of 3.7% from 2000-2019, with no
relief in sight absent significant structural reforms.The IMF slashed its
forecast for growth in global trade by 1.5 percentage point to 1.7%, half the
growth seen in 2024, reflecting the accelerating fragmentation of the global
economy. Sharply increased tariffs between the United States and China will
result in much lower bilateral trade between the world's two largest economies,
Gourinchas said, adding, "That is weighing down on global trade growth."Trade
would continue, but it would cost more and it would be less efficient, he said,
citing confusion and uncertainty about where to invest and where to source
products and components. "Restoring predictability, clarity to the trading
system in whatever form is absolutely critical," he told Reuters.
US GROWTH DOWN, INFLATION UP
The IMF downgraded its forecast for US growth by 0.9 percentage point to 1.8% in
2025 - a full percentage point down from 2.8% growth in 2024 - and by 0.4
percentage point to 1.7% in 2026, citing policy uncertainty and trade tensions.
Gourinchas told reporters the IMF did not foresee a recession in the US, but the
odds of a downturn had increased from about 25% to 37%. He said the IMF was now
projecting US headline inflation to reach 3% in 2025, one percentage point
higher than it forecast in January, due to tariffs and underlying strength in
services. That meant the Federal Reserve will have to be very vigilant in
keeping inflation expectations anchored, Gourinchas said, noting that many
Americans were still scarred by a spike in inflation during the COVID pandemic.
Asked about the impact of any moves by the White House to remove Fed Chair
Jerome Powell, Gourinchas said it was "absolutely critical" that central banks
were able to remain independent to maintain their credibility in addressing
inflation. US stocks suffered steep losses on Monday as the US president ramped
up his attacks on Powell, fueling concerns about the central bank's
independence. Stocks opened higher on Tuesday. US neighbors Canada and Mexico,
both targeted by a range of Trump's tariffs, also saw their growth forecasts
cut. The IMF forecast Canada's economy would grow by 1.4% in 2025 and 1.6% in
2026, instead of 2% growth projected for both years in January. It predicted
Mexico would be hard hit by tariffs, with its growth dipping to a negative 0.3%
in 2025, a sharp 1.7 percentage point drop from the January forecast, before
recovering to 1.4% growth in 2026.
LOWER GROWTH IN EUROPE, ASIA
The IMF forecast growth in the Euro Area would slow to 0.8% in 2025 and 1.2% in
2026, with both forecasts about 0.2 percentage points down from January. It said
Spain was an outlier, with a 2.5% growth forecast for 2025, a 0.2 percentage
point upward revision, reflecting strong data. Offsetting forces included
stronger consumption due to rising wages and a projected fiscal easing in
Germany after major changes to its "debt brake." The IMF cut its growth forecast
for Germany by 0.3 percentage point to 0.0% in 2025, and by 0.2 percentage point
to 0.9% in 2026. Growth in Britain would hit 1.1% in 2025, 0.5 percentage point
below the January forecast, edging higher to 1.4% in 2026, reflecting the impact
of recent tariff announcements, higher gilt yields and weaker private
consumption. Trade tensions and tariffs were expected to shave 0.5 percentage
point off Japan's economic activity in 2025, compared to the January forecast,
with growth projected at 0.6%. China's growth forecast was cut to 4% for 2025
and 2026, reflecting respective downward revisions of 0.6 percentage point and
0.5 percentage point from the January forecast. Gourinchas said the impact of
the tariffs on China - hugely dependent on exports - was about 1.3 percentage
point in 2025, but that was offset by stronger fiscal measures.
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on April 22-23/2025
Being There: Pope Francis’s Death and the Future of the Catholic Church
Jeffrey Pojanowski/Public Discourse/April 22/2025
Believing in something like the Catholic Church and her deposit of faith
presupposes a non-contestable core that is insoluble to the political waters
that seem to suffuse everything these days. And that, it seems, is sufficient
unto the day.
I sat down and began writing this essay on the morning of April 21, 2025, less
than thirty minutes after learning of Pope Francis’s death. Now is the time of
pre-written obituaries, the lull before arguments about his “legacy,” or
whispers in the loggia about the politics of succession. But such matters are
not my focus here—nor is, at least directly, any claim about the proper
direction of the Church’s doctrines, teachings, or practices. Absent the kind of
crisis or rupture that would make essays like this irrelevant, my simpler point
pertains no matter who greets the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. My claim is
this: the Church needs to be a site of real, concrete encounter, a place of
face-to-face friendship and even interpersonal friction in a time of
disenchanted angelism that renders real transcendence unreachable. This plea for
concreteness is, thus far, ironically abstract, but I hope the rest of this
essay makes it more tractable.
The Church will always be a hopeful sign of contradiction, though what it
corrects will vary with the errors of the age. The pagan world the Apostles
confronted was one of suffocating immanence: an eternal universe of cyclical
time, the heavens a ceiling, one’s station one’s fate—with most stations leaving
their holders vulnerable to the whims of capricious gods or, more likely, of men
who acted like those pitiless deities. The Gospel was truly good news: the
cosmos had a beginning and an end (in two senses of “end”), that heavy sky would
be torn like a curtain, and our ultimate station was to be united, should we so
choose, with a God who made us in His image and was love Himself. Given the
dark, stuffy stasis of the pagan dispensation, it was not surprising and perhaps
altogether fitting that the Holy Spirit came as fire and wind. Nor, given the
oppressive concreteness of the previous metaphysical regime, was it surprising
that the countervailing temptation would be toward an all-spiritualizing
Gnosticism.
Our current age, by contrast, flees concreteness of any kind. It is by now a
cliché to bemoan the fact that most of us live in a world of distracted
virtuality, but that does not make it any less true or urgent. Antón Barba-Kay’s
bracing book, A Web of Our Own Making, explores how digital culture is changing,
indeed rewiring, our very understanding of ourselves and our world. We reckon
ourselves in terms of what is digitally quantifiable (and commodifiable), and we
spiral toward a frictionless existence of distraction and distance from others—a
world of avatars engaged in mimetic rivalry with other avatars, not a community
of persons. When we unlock our phones, the eyes we are most likely to look into
are our own. In this world acedia is not just one vice among others, but the way
of life. This arrangement combines both unhappy dispensations discussed above:
the suffocating immanence of the pagan cosmos with the abstracted angelism of
the Gnostic. We are disembodied, capricious sublunar gods, fleeing death by
living an infinite doomscroll.
We are not made to be this way, so of course we are unhappy. Nor can we lifehack
our way out of this discontent; seeking out an app for that only reinforces
those imprisoning structures. The Church, as it always manages to do, can name,
speak to, and cure this current ailment. In a disembodied time, it is resolutely
concrete: the splash of holy water, the smear of oil, the pinch of exorcising
salt, the smell of incense, the quiet voice of absolution in your ear, the
gentle slap of confirmation, Blaise’s candles on your throat, the laying on—or
grasp—of hands, the gentle ache of the knees at consecration, the weird,
withered relic of a saint, and, of course, the taste of bread and wine that are,
mysteriously, His flesh and blood—suffering embraced and given loving meaning.
This revolution will not be digitized. Yet unlike the pagan pinch of incense,
this materiality does not point to things sufficient unto themselves, but rather
to the resurrection of a body mysteriously spiritualized, a hypostatic union
that is the heavenly inversion of our slothful abstraction.
The Church needs to be a site of real, concrete encounter, a place of
face-to-face friendship and even interpersonal friction in a time of
disenchanted angelism that renders real transcendence unreachable.
This is not a new program, but a perennial proposition that is providentially
apt for our times. And the most important thing for the Church to do today is to
present it and be aggressively present with it. To be itself, but even more so.
It’s not clear we need new formal initiatives, and I do not have grand
strategies about how best to reach out in new ways. But perhaps we can learn
lessons from earlier times, and embrace successful forms of evangelization: to
be joyously, publicly different and let the world know, one person at a time,
why we are. For parishes it means open doors, opportunities for the sacraments,
preaching the faith, welcoming the curious, and reaching out to the stranger.
Nothing strikingly new, though nothing easy, given the strains and claims put on
a dwindling number of priests. For the laity, it means converting, and
returning, daily to the riches that the faith offers us. It means to pray, to
embrace the sacraments—to draw on the Church’s strength not as a spiritual
lifehack, but as a path to being who we are truly called to be and to loving
Whom we are called to truly love; and, more concretely, to live joyfully and
differently as welcoming witnesses to a way of life that is truly better than
what is on offer. Our priests cannot do it alone, and no parish program is a
substitute for the friction that is actual encounter with another person. As
banal as it sounds, the mission of the Church today boils down to being there:
being there for a dislocated and disembodied world that needs to know that Being
is there.
Catholics disagree on a lot these days, and these disagreements are important.
It would be naïve to say that some kind of vigorous emphasis on an overlapping
consensus among doctrinally, liturgically, or ideologically divided Catholics
will save the day. And I recognize that, to certain kinds of Catholics, the
emphases in the paragraphs above are in themselves an implicitly polemical brief
for a kind of “normie” orthodoxy—neither “beige” nor “based.” That, I guess, is
inevitable, as there is no neutral standpoint on these things. Nevertheless,
believing in something like the Catholic Church and her deposit of faith
presupposes a non-contestable core that is insoluble to the political waters
that seem to suffuse everything these days. And that, it seems, is sufficient
unto the day. Indeed, it is challenging, exciting, and deeply countercultural, a
sign of contradiction that we should aspire to have emblazoned on our foreheads
for all to see—whether we take communion in the hand or on our knees.
In short, what the world needs is mere Catholicism, and a lot more of it.
https://anglicanmainstream.org/article/being-there-pope-franciss-death-and-the-future-of-the-catholic-church/
Degringolade: How Western Decline Could Lead To Western Conflict
Amb. Alberto M. Fernandez/MEMRI Daily Brief No. 755/April 22/2025
We live in an age where doomsayers and techno-optimists fight to control the
narrative. Despite that ongoing struggle, polls show that majorities in both
North America and Europe tend to be pessimistic about the future. There is great
uncertainty about what is to come but also a palpable sense that it will likely
be worse than today, just as today is worse than a generation ago.
On April 6, 2025, UK Prime Minister Starmer said that "the world has changed,
globalization is over and we are now in a new era." That was mostly about the
question of tariffs but the sense that "everything is wrong, everything is
changing" transcends trade and commerce. Because the political vertigo is quite
real, it is easy to say that catastrophe beckons, that we are on the edge of a
precipice. Much more likely, in my view, is less a spectacular collapse than a
steady, relatively slow decline into that new era emerging before our eyes.
Change is coming to the West. The old liberal order seems exhausted. The white
collar "new class" described by Christopher Lasch that ruled through access to
knowledge and specialized expertise seems to be fracturing. Overeducated and
underemployed masses is a recipe for instability. What are the factors that will
play into an unstable conflictive future world in the West and what could that
conflict look like? Three key elements will feed into such a potential conflict,
one has already appeared and the two others seem to be on the way, although the
time of their full arrival is not completely clear.
The first element is extreme political polarization and that is clearly
happening in both North America and Europe. Each election is presented as a
dire, once-in-a-lifetime test, the possibility of the other side winning is
described in apocalyptic terms. Leave aside angst about Trump. Just look at the
white heat rhetoric that accompanied the election of Italy's Giorgia Meloni in
September 2022. The rhetoric today – mostly about populist right-wing parties
winning an election – is even more extreme. Polarization also means the
hollowing out of the supposed "center" and that seems to be happening both
politically and economically.
The second element, clearly on its way if not fully here, is a deep-seated sense
among key parts of the electorate that, no matter the election results,
democratic results will be blocked by the permanent regime already and always in
power. This could go either way but today in the West that "permanent regime" is
the mostly left-leaning conglomeration of unelected bureaucracy, lawfare, and
activism. In Europe we see this in efforts to block immigration control by
democratically elected parties despite polls showing that a majority of
Europeans want less migration into their countries, both legal and illegal. We
see the same situation playing out in the United States with millions being able
to enter (some might say "invade") while ignoring the rule of law and then the
courts and activist community blocking their removal, wrapping themselves in the
same rule of law that was flouted by foreign migrants and their enablers in the
first place.
We see it in attempts at lawfare against candidate Trump in 2023-2024 and today
against European rightist candidates in Romania, France, Spain, and Germany.
Even if they do get elected, the broadly accepted goal is to quarantine such
unacceptable winners from power sharing, whether at the national level or in the
EU bureaucracy. In such scenarios, this looks more and more like a type of
authoritarian "managed democracy" rather than the real sort. Meanwhile the EU
Parliament actually elected a violent hammer-wielding leftist, Ilaria Salis, as
a member in 2024.
Should voters fully internalize that elections do not matter, that "the fix is
in no matter what," they will – many of them – become politically apathetic. But
others will look to non-democratic means at projecting power, including direct
action and open violence.
The third element in this toxic brew that could lead to Western domestic
violence is economic crisis. We are not quite there yet, but how it may come
about – through some combination of the debt bomb, population decline, and
massive job losses as a result of AI – seems relatively clear.
This financial jolt would not be something like the ordinary boom and bust of
the economic cycle but rather something more like the 2008 credit crisis that
would both further discredit government institutions and cause big jumps in
unemployment. The consensus today is that while banks may be less exposed than
they were in 2008, other sectors of the economy, in the so-called "shadow
financial system," are less protected and we are much more in debt, less able to
bail out failing economic sectors, than we were 17 years ago.
So, what sort of instability could a perfect storm of political polarization,
post-democratic disgust, and deep economic crisis lead to in the near future? I
do not expect a "real" civil war or fantastical Mad Max scenario caused by a
total breakdown of institutions. It could be a future of greater "control" and
repression. Part of the result would be a deepening version of the present, as
desperate and cynical populations pick over the carcass of an imploding economy
and government.
But in addition to a repressive future, a situation of low-intensity conflict,
akin to say, Latin America's dirty wars or Italy's "Years of Lead" from the late
1960s to the early 1980s, with far-left and far-right direct action against each
other and against the state, also seems possible.
While the Biden Administration and liberal media talked much of right-wing or
supposedly Christian nationalist "domestic violence," actual leftist violence
has spiked, and been lionized, in recent months. At least one of Trump's
attempted assassins leaned left as did the pro-Palestine arsonist who in April
2025 set alight the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania's mansion right after a
Passover Seder. The vandalism and arson against Tesla cars and car dealerships
are broadly left-wing as is most of the turmoil on many a university campus
since October 2023. Luigi Mangione, the American assassin of an insurance
company executive in December 2024 has become a leftist icon, and maybe even a
progressive sex symbol. Below is an image from Spain combining local football
team colors, "Free Palestine" and Mangione.
A further accelerant in such a violent domestic state of play is the ethnic or
religious dimension. Political polarization, anti-system disgust and economic
crisis are not directly connected to the great controversy in the West over
migration, but the ethnic/religious element found there can serve as an
additional spark or destabilizing element in an already volatile situation.
Lebanon in the 1970s saw polarization and violence for a variety of local
reasons, but the Palestinian factor was a key element in making a volatile
situation even worse, turning bitter, violent politics into outright armed
conflict. With migrant – especially Muslim – populations increasingly becoming
key constituencies for leftist political parties in France, Germany and the
United Kingdom, the ethnic factor is almost built into the equation, in a way to
further destabilize unstable situations along ethnic lines.
We have already seen, in several European countries, crackdowns on dissent by
locals for fear that it would incite the Muslim migrant population. These are
efforts that may win momentary calm but can also erode trust in the political
system and encourage a type of forced "retribalization" in societies that prided
themselves on their liberal tolerance. The political combustibles are already in
place or well on their way. The question remains whether statesmen in the West
can weather or, even better, avoid a coming storm.
*Alberto M. Fernandez is Vice President of MEMRI.
The US Must Not Lose the Race for Nuclear Fusion Energy to
China
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/April 22, 2025
Without the means of harnessing a new, clean, inexpensive, inexhaustible source
of power through fusion, our nation may face the difficult choice of either
powering AI advances to protect our world leadership or keeping the lights on at
our industries and cities -- but not both. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
A visionary, an entrepreneur, a futurist, and perhaps one of the most creative
of his generation, one still needs to spend considerable time in reading the
comments of Elon Musk to determine his current opinion regarding fusion energy.
Prior published interviews suggest he has been a very strong proponent of solar
and wind power, energy sources that have brought Europe to its knees
economically and that, understandably, are not currently in favor at the White
House.
In 2023, Musk told Joe Rogan during a podcast that "You could actually power the
entire United States with 100 miles of 100 miles of solar."
Musk did in fact recognize the power of fusion energy but, in this context, he
meant the sun generating electricity through solar panels:
"We have a giant fusion reactor in the sky.... the sun is converting more than
four million tons of mass to energy every second and requires no
maintenance....If you can generate energy from solar panels and store it with
batteries, you can have energy 24 hours a day."
Yet Musk tacitly recognizes a growing strategic fact. The nation that owns the
stunning advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) may well hold the technology
that dictates who will dominate the rest of the 21st Century. AI consumes an
enormous amount of power, so much so that Microsoft is investing in bringing
back online the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to ensure uninterrupted
electricity to power its AI data centers.
No matter the size of their "farms," solar panels and wind turbines simply
cannot produce enough uninterrupted electricity to protect America's AI
leadership. Consider this quote from a report issued by the International Energy
Association:
"In the United States, power consumption by data centres is on course to account
for almost half of the growth in electricity demand between now and 2030. Driven
by AI use, the US economy is set to consume more electricity in 2030 for
processing data than for manufacturing all energy-intensive goods combined,
including aluminium, steel, cement and chemicals."
All of this points to a startling but simple conclusion. Without the means of
harnessing a new, clean, inexpensive, inexhaustible source of power through
fusion, our nation may face the difficult choice of either powering AI advances
to protect our world leadership or keeping the lights on at our industries and
cities -- but not both. This is the reason the Trump
administration needs to make research and development into fusion power a
national priority that mirrors the Manhattan Project of World War II and the
Apollo moon project of the 1960s. Actually, Musk should be one of fusion's
biggest champions. Both he and President Donald J. Trump, of all people, know
full well what will happen to a nation that loses the race for strategic
technology leadership.
**Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
© 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.
What Acceleration of History in Our Region, What
Deceleration?
Hazem Saghieh/Ashark Al-Awsat/April 22/2025
To say that our history moves slowly is not a great discovery. We have seen, and
continue to see, generation after generation living on "causes" that revert back
to square one every time a solution that ends the struggle seems possible. This
is particularly true of the Palestinian cause and the "vicious attack" on it and
us, but it is also true of the Kurdish cause and sectarianism in the Levant and
even applies to the conflict in the Western Sahara that dates back to 1975. Just
a few days ago, as the Lebanese recalled their civil war, which also broke out
that year, they noticed that our current affairs bear an uncanny resemblance to
those of that time. A sign of our history’s sluggishness is that political
Islam, whose early foundations date back to the later years of Abdul Hamid II’s
rule and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, continues to promise us a state siphoned from
the stomach of the past with which we can respond to the states of the present
and the questions of the future. As for the military and security regimes that
claimed they would accelerate history, they almost brought it to a complete
halt. Thus, Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya from 1969 to 2011, and Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr/Saddam
Hussein ruled Iraq from 1968 to 2003. Meanwhile, the Assads, the father and son,
broke every record, ruling from 1970 till late 2024 and turning history into
"eternity." On top of that, these rulers are not succeeded by a different regime
after they are toppled or die, as was the case in countries like Spain,
Portugal, and Greece, where the fall of dictatorial regimes gave rise to
democratic regimes in the mid-1970s. In our case, civil war, whether manifest or
latent, has emerged as the most prominent, if not the only, heir to those who
die or are overthrown. One domestic development, with the Iranian Revolution in
1979, seemed like it could become the first to accelerate history after drawing
millions of people who were said to be shaping their own lives into the streets.
But the new authorities swiftly sent those same people back to their homes and
used its divine mandate to shackle the empowerment of the people.
This semi-essentialist quality that is almost inherent to our causes, which is
also found in the repetitive cycles of our lives, has led many- and not all of
them are racists- to see us as essentialist beings who inherently “do not change
as the world changes,” per a poet enamored of “authenticity” and “fundamental
constants” put it.
Those who claim the moments that have accelerated our modern history all came
from outside are not wrong. The French campaign in the region is broadly
considered the first of these moments, while the second is split into the
student mission, headed by Tahtawi, that Muhammad Ali sent to France, and the
Ottoman reforms implemented as a result of the European challenges and pressure
exerted on the Sultanate. Our extensive connection to the contemporary world
came with the mandates in the Levant, when, for the first time in modern
history, we became part of it.
The role of the outside world subsequently became more problematic, and its
repercussions became more ambivalent, aggravating the interior’s inclination to
stick to its sluggishness and stagnation.
Israel’s founding in 1948 was colored by its settler dimension and the
displacement it wrought, as well as the bitter animosity between the Israelis
and the Arabs that followed. That is how we- with our fragmented states and
societies- failed to notice the emergence of a state with a parliamentary system
whose society is a melting pot of countless cultures, languages, backgrounds,
and national experiences. Later, after the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David Accords
were signed in the late 1970s, old forces of all kinds managed to besiege the
potential new horizon and prevent it from spreading. Although the Arab-Israeli
peace agreements have expanded since then, their trajectory remained one of
oscillation between cool extraneity and heated accusations of treachery. As the
Americans invaded Iraq in 2003, there seemed to be a chance for a fresh start
that would break with the corrosive past. However, it was not long before it
became clear that the invader and the invaded were both colluding, each in their
own way, in squandering that opportunity. In turn, Iran and Assad’s Syria were
vigilantly standing by, fully prepared to invest in this deal to squander the
opportunity.
Little by little, we were faced with two iterations of historical acceleration,
particularly in the Levant, that do not meet previous definitions of the term.
These two were born of failure and frustration- that is, of chronic domestic
stagnation’s putridity and the impulsiveness of nascent foreign acceleration
efforts. As such, it always seemed unlikely that they would lead to anything but
a form of political annihilation. Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” and the Israeli war
that followed thereby became the point at which these two catastrophic currents
met. Hamas and its allies pushed in the direction of an acceleration that would
eventually culminate in their own suicide and immolation of the societies
neighboring the Jewish state. As for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
genocidal war, it ended up having no real objective beyond its own perpetuation.
Once a flimsy claim, the theory that Netanyahu had been prolonging this war to
save himself now seems increasingly credible and sound. And, despite the Israeli
public’s idle indifference to the tragedy in Gaza and its victims, opposition to
the war is now broadening and has come to include a substantial number of
paratroopers and soldiers in the infantry and armored brigades...
Thus, the sluggishness paralyzing and upending the region continues- interrupted
only by bursts of acceleration that are seemingly fueled by unhinged reckless
impulses that threaten to do away with everything that sluggishness had failed
to root out.
World leaders sadly ignored Pope Francis’ pleas
Peter Harrison/Arab News/April 22, 2025
Pope Francis was the first pontiff to come to the Arabian Gulf. During his
historic visit in February 2019, he held a Mass in Abu Dhabi before tens of
thousands of devoted Catholics and also signed the “Document of Human Fraternity
for World Peace and Living Together.” The agreement, which he signed with Sheikh
Ahmed El-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar Mosque, pledged a lasting
partnership to reject violence and extremism. During that 2019 visit, I attended
several of the events, including a two-day conference on tolerance. The aim of
the conference, like the document, was to promote tolerance across faiths.
Unsurprisingly, all agreed to be nice to each other — and not just the Abrahamic
faiths, as everyone who was there, including Buddhists and Hindus, agreed.There
was a sense of hope that this group of largely men agreed that they were on the
right path to a global community of tolerance. However, when I carried out a
straw poll of faith leaders at the event, asking if they were simply preaching
to the converted, most, if not all, agreed. After all, it was what they and
their predecessors had been doing for at least two millennia. But, in fairness,
those who attended the conference, like the tens of thousands at the Sunday Mass
that week, probably would not have wanted to sit in a room with the truly
intolerant, whether that is hostile nations or international groups fueled by
hatred and a lust for power and murder. The papal visit to the UAE finished with
a Mass at Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi, with tens of thousands of
worshippers bussed in to see the pope. The atmosphere was extraordinary. There
was a buzz in the air as people waited for the moment — a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity for most. He wanted both the church and the world to make a greater
effort to live in a time of peace, acceptance and tolerance
And then he came, with a ripple of cheers and applause gradually working its way
through the crowds outside the stadium as people lined the route of the
popemobile. Then he entered the stadium and the faithful cheered. A baby was
handed to him and a child ran to give him a flower.
Here was the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the “People’s Pope,” the “humble
man,” who had made it clear from the outset of his reign that he wanted to clean
up the reputation of the church and make sure that both it and the world started
making a greater effort to live in a time of peace, acceptance and tolerance.
Is that what happened?
Since that visit in 2019, we have seen the world brought to its knees with the
COVID-19 lockdowns, while we have also been trapped in a long-running era of
economic turbulence and war. It is impossible to say precisely how many people
have been killed as a result of the wars and unrest over the past six years.
Thousands continue to die after boarding unsafe boats in an attempt to cross
seas and secure a better life. Pope Francis spent years pleading with world
leaders, such as Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin and American presidents. If
their hand was on a trigger or behind the person’s who was, then the pope
probably pleaded with them to lay down their arms and follow a path of peace.
Like so many in his generation, Pope Francis lived through the Second World War,
the Korean War and the Vietnam War, to name just three. He saw the creation and
subsequent fall of the Iron Curtain — both physical and metaphorical — and he
lived through the creation of Israel and the dismantling of Palestine. Pope
Francis was around as the rainforests were intentionally depleted so that
farmers could produce more beef. The world has continued to warm, but
politicians have failed to deliver on promise after promise to reverse climate
change and global warming.
There is no denying that he was a modernizer who wanted to bring the church
forward in its attitudes and acceptances
The role of women in most major religions remains far behind that of their
fellow male worshippers. But while Pope Francis pushed forward, clearing the way
for more women to progress through the various layers of the church, he stopped
short of agreeing to them being ordained as clergy.
There is no denying that he was a man of progression, a modernizer who wanted to
bring the church forward in its attitudes and acceptances. Whether he succeeded
will be seen when his successor is announced. But as democracy has shown us, the
apparently good efforts of one person can be negated in an instant by those that
follow. The generation of which Pope Francis was a part was born into turmoil
and war and, sadly, it seems they will leave us in a similar state. Pope Francis
clearly had ambitions of creating a world where people worked together. COVID
presented that opportunity, but instead it ended up being used as a platform for
yet more finger-pointing. The world is increasingly becoming more insular and
nationalistic. The world is mourning the loss of Pope Francis. He called on
world leaders to opt for peace, but they smiled and dismissed his calls. If they
truly cared and if their thoughts of sorrow and remorse were genuine, then
maybe, before he died, they might have come to the table and stopped the
killing. They might have chosen to work together.
**Peter Harrison is a senior editor at Arab News in the Dubai office. He has
covered the Middle East for more than a decade. X: @PhotoPJHarrison
Pope Francis a voice of reason in an increasingly unreasonable world
Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/April 22, 2025
It is no exaggeration to say that on Easter Monday the world united in feeling a
great loss with the passing of Pope Francis. His followers had hardly digested
his appearance among the faithful a day earlier, as if to reassure them that,
despite his illness and frailty, he wanted to underline that he lived for them
and to alleviate the suffering of all, especially the marginalized and the weak
of all faiths. There is a consensus that Pope Francis was a force for good
despite being an outsider, as the first pope to hail from the Global South and
the first non-European pope for more than 1,000 years. The lists of his firsts
and his breaks with tradition are long. The most symbolic was his choice to live
in a modest two-room papal guest house and never move into the official
residence at the Vatican. Though the Argentine pontiff was seen as progressive
and fought to influence issues such as migration and the protection of the
environment, he also fought for a more modern, less rigid Roman Catholic Church.
Above all, Pope Francis brought an outsider’s eye to the Vatican and the church,
with a focus on justice, ecology and humanity. One hopes that the conclave will
produce a like-minded successor, as the world is crying out for voices of reason
amid today’s ever-increasing social, economic and political discord.But for all
his “political genius and charisma,” as described by his biographer, it did not
serve him to, on the one hand, reform and modernize a church hierarchy that he
viewed as remote and self-satisfied. Nor was he capable, on the other hand, of
tilting the church’s energies in favor of the marginalized, while challenging
the power of the entrenched interests of its traditionalists, conservatives and
liberals.
Pope Francis brought an outsider’s eye to the Vatican and the church, with a
focus on justice, ecology and humanity
His famous words “who am I to judge?” skirted the doctrinal debates,
demonstrating an inkling to promote greater tolerance and understanding in a
complex culture war that focused on the questions of sexuality, faith and
marriage in a church that was struggling to hold on to its relevance. He sought
to raise the tone of its moral voice beyond the controversial family and moral
affairs of the modern world, preferring to debate the moral need to protect the
environment and to heal the world of its addiction to consumption — a key driver
of climate change.
His outspoken interventions in support of migrants won him a huge following the
world over, as well as enemies and condemnation by none other than the Trump
administration. For Pope Francis, climate change, migration, global poverty and
conflicts were interconnected. He chose to repeatedly visit migration hot spots
like Lampedusa in Italy and Lesbos in Greece to shed light on the global
indifference to their plight and the efforts of governments to send them back.
He also regularly spoke of his distress at conflicts around the world,
especially Ukraine and Gaza in recent times. But his pleas for peace fell on
deaf ears, despite his clear pattern of choice of overseas trips, as he sought
to make a difference to victims of wars recent and old. He chose to visit
Jerusalem, Bosnia, Egypt, Iraq and South Sudan, to mention just a few,
highlighting his fearlessness and reminding the world of the need to end
suffering, regardless of the faith of the victims.
His outspoken interventions in support of migrants won him a huge following the
world over, as well as enemies
In an era when the postwar legacy of international human rights and the rule of
law is waning, the death of Pope Francis means the loss of yet another voice of
reason in a world that is increasingly light on reason. His vision and mission
will be missed not just by Catholics around the world but by all humans,
particularly those living in increasingly inward-looking, nationalist-dominated
countries. Certain states are today dragging the social and political compass
increasingly to the right, aided by a weaponized tech realm and regulation-light
exercises of freedom of expression. The world has changed from one that upheld,
to a large extent, a respect for universal human rights to one led by the kind
of populism and polarization that last rose to prominence in the 1930s. Pope
Francis’ voice of reason tried to prevent the slip toward identity politics and
the weaponization of Christianity by the populist forces of the ultra-right in
America, Europe and elsewhere. But it is still hoped that his messages of
humility, inclusion and doing good will reverberate around the world and limit
the damage of the culture wars that are threatening the planet and its people.
An ironic coincidence is that the pope’s final public engagement before his
death was a meeting with the Catholic US Vice President J.D. Vance, an advocate
of “America First” and US isolationism whose views on migration and the fueling
of culture wars were criticized by the pope before he fell ill. It is hoped that
some of the reasoning of the late pope will echo in Vance’s mind and he will
work to curb his views. Populism and polarization only make the rich richer and
leave the poor poorer, which is contrary to the aspirations of all the poor
voters of all religions who last year voted for Donald Trump in the hope of
salvation.
*Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’
experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.