English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  August 10/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 12/22-32:”Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute; and he cured him, so that the one who had been mute could speak and see. All the crowds were amazed and said, ‘Can this be the Son of David?’ But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons.’He knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property, without first tying up the strong man? Then indeed the house can be plundered. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 09-10/2025
Lebanese Army Sacrifices on the Altar of the Nation – Defending Free Lebanon Against Hezbollah’s Terrorism and Persian Agenda/Elias Bejjani/August 09/2025
Saint Dominic Founding the Dominican Order & Patron of Astronomers/Elias Bejjani/August 08/2025
Video link of an interview on “MTV” with Dr. Saleh Al-Machnouk
Hezbollah ammunition depot explosion kills 6 soldiers south of Litani
Explosion at Lebanese Arms Depot Kills 6 Army Experts, Wounds Several Others
Wadi Zebqin Blast: Accident or Deliberate Attack?/Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beyrouth/August 09/2025
Lebanese Leaders Pay Tribute to Soldiers Killed in Hezbollah's Arms Depot Blast
Lebanon Condemns Iranian Official’s Remarks as 'Blatant Interference'
Iran in Lebanon: The Toxic Interference of a Declining State/Marc Saikali/Shutterstock/August 09/2025
Mohammad Raad’s Misfortunes with Life and Death!/Johnny Kortbawi/AFP/August 09/2025
Lebanon: Hezbollah Confronts Disarmament Decision with 'Measured Objection’/Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025
Saudi Arabia extends condolences to Lebanon after explosion kills 6 soldiers
Lebanon… and its Approval of the American Paper’s ‘Objectives’/Fahid Suleiman al-Shoqiran/Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 09-10/2025
Gaza civil defense says 34 killed by Israeli fire
UK arrests 365 protesters backing banned Palestine Action group
Thousands protest in Tel Aviv against Israeli govt move to expand Gaza war
UK to donate additional $11.4m for Gaza if Israel allows ‘flood’ of aid to enter
Greece air-drops food aid over Gaza
Arab ministerial committee holds Israel fully responsible for ongoing genocide in Gaza
Turkiye says Muslim countries must be united against Israel’s Gaza takeover plan
‘I don’t create suffering, I document it:’ Gaza photographer hits back at Bild over accusation of staging scenes
Syria will not take part in meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, state TV says
Syria’s Minorities Demand Decentralized State, Constitution That Guarantees Pluralism
Iran Threatens Planned Trump Corridor Envisaged by Azerbaijan-Armenia Peace Deal
Iran Says Negotiates with US Will ‘Destroy Israel’
Iran Arrests 20 Alleged Spies of Israel
Europe and Ukraine press US ahead of Trump-Putin talks

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on August 09-10/2025
Iran's Regime Is Plotting Its Comeback — Do Not Let It Happen/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./August 09/2025
Halimah Returned to Her Old Habits/Ravid Yair- Abu Daoud/Ynetnews/August 09/ 2025
The Frenchman who Challenged Marx/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/09 August/2025
Brussels and Beijing can work together on climate transition/Emmanuel Guerin and Bernice Lee/Arab News/August 09, 2025
G7 under growing scrutiny on its big birthday/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/August 09, 2025
Libya: How to govern around fragmentation/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/August 09, 2025
Selected tweets for 09 August/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 09-10/2025
Lebanese Army Sacrifices on the Altar of the Nation – Defending Free Lebanon Against Hezbollah’s Terrorism and Persian Agenda
Elias Bejjani/August 09/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/08/146104/
Today, the blessed soil of South Lebanon was soaked with the blood of six heroes from our valiant Lebanese Army, martyred while carrying out a sovereign mission to seize illegal weapons belonging to Hezbollah – the Iranian terrorist and criminal gang that usurps the state’s decision-making and assassinates its sovereignty. These martyrs are sacred sacrifices on the altar of the nation, in the battle to defend Lebanon’s free identity against an expansionist Iranian project built on terrorism, jihadism, and aggressive Persian ambitions. May their pure souls rest in peace, and may consolation be granted to their families and to the free and sovereign people of Lebanon.
It remains impossible for any sane Lebanese, regardless of excuses or submissive statements, to absolve Hezbollah – the terrorist organization and its machine of assassinations and invasions – from the presumption of responsibility for the deliberate and premeditated killing of Lebanese Army soldiers in the South today. Most likely, Hezbollah have rigged the facility that the army entered based on similar past incidents committed by this terrorist Iranian Armed proxy.
For this reason, a serious and swift investigation into the incident is required, and at the same time, Mohammad Raad must be arrested for his threats, shamelessness, and blatant defiance of the state.

Saint Dominic Founding the Dominican Order & Patron of Astronomers
Elias Bejjani/August 08/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/08/146015/
Full Name: Dominic de Guzmán
Born: circa 1170, Caleruega, Castile (modern-day Spain)
Died: August 6, 1221, Bologna, Italy
Canonized: July 13, 1234, by Pope Gregory IX
Feast Day: August 8 (formerly August 4 in some calendars)
Patron of: Astronomers, the Dominican Republic, scientists, and educators
Early Life and Education
Saint Dominic was born into a noble family. His father, Félix de Guzmán, was a respected nobleman, and his mother, Blessed Joan of Aza, was renowned for her piety and charity. According to tradition, she had a prophetic dream before his birth of a dog leaping from her womb holding a torch in its mouth, which would “set the world on fire” — a symbol later interpreted as Dominic’s preaching mission.
Dominic received a classical education in Palencia, one of the oldest universities in Spain. He studied liberal arts and theology, and distinguished himself for both academic brilliance and deep spirituality. During a time of great famine in Spain, he sold his precious books to feed the poor, saying, “Would you have me study from these dead skins while people are dying of hunger?”
Priesthood and Early Ministry
In 1196, Dominic joined the cathedral chapter of Osma and was ordained a priest. He accompanied Bishop Diego de Acebo on diplomatic and missionary journeys, including a critical trip through southern France in 1206. There, they encountered the growing heretical movement of the Albigensians (also called Cathars), who rejected Catholic sacraments, the physical world, and Church authority.
Dominic was profoundly moved by the spiritual ignorance and error he saw. Rather than using force to convert heretics — as was becoming common — Dominic believed in conversion through persuasion, preaching, and personal example. He adopted a lifestyle of radical poverty and simplicity, mirroring the Apostles, to better reach the common people.
Founding the Dominican Order
In 1215, while in Toulouse, Dominic gathered a group of men committed to preaching and living simply in imitation of Christ. He traveled to Rome in 1216 to seek papal approval for his community. On December 22, 1216, Pope Honorius III officially approved the Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum), now commonly known as the Dominicans.
Key Features of the Dominican Order:
Purpose: Combat heresy through sound preaching and theology.
Lifestyle: A blend of monastic discipline, academic study, and active preaching.
Vows: Poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Motto: Veritas (Latin for “Truth”).
Dominic emphasized education. Dominicans were trained in philosophy and theology at major universities like Paris and Bologna. This academic focus enabled the order to counter heretical teachings intellectually and spiritually.
Mission and Legacy
Dominic spent the remainder of his life organizing the new order, founding convents and sending missionaries across Europe. He tirelessly preached in France, Spain, and Italy. He was known for:
His compassion and humility.
A deep devotion to prayer, often spending nights in contemplation.
Miracles, including healings and prophecies (documented by early hagiographers).
Spreading devotion to the Rosary — tradition holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary gave Dominic the Rosary as a spiritual weapon against heresy. While the historical roots are complex, this tradition had a lasting impact.
He died on August 6, 1221, in Bologna, Italy, worn out from travel and work, surrounded by his brothers. He was canonized only 13 years later, a testament to his sanctity and widespread veneration.
Influence and the Dominican Legacy
Saint Dominic’s foundation left a profound and lasting mark on the Church. Among the most notable Dominicans:
Saint Thomas Aquinas – a towering figure in Catholic theology.
Saint Catherine of Siena – mystic, reformer, and Doctor of the Church.
Bartolomé de las Casas – advocate for Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Dominican friars played crucial roles in:
The medieval university system
The Inquisition (though this came later and is a complex part of their history)
Global missionary work
The intellectual defense of the faith through the centuries
Today, Dominicans serve worldwide in preaching, education, and pastoral ministry.
Spiritual Legacy
Saint Dominic remains a model of:
Evangelical zeal
Intellectual integrity
Apostolic poverty
Devotion to truth and to Mary
His motto, “Speak only to God or about God,” reflects his singular focus on the salvation of souls and the glory of God.

Video link of an interview on “MTV” with Dr. Saleh Al-Machnouk
09 آب/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/08/146096/
A striptease-style scandalous exposé of the heresies, absurdities, delusions, hallucinations, anti-patriotism, Iranian agenda, madness, Intellectual decay, and criminal mafia of Iran in Lebanon, blasphemously and sacrilegiously called “Hezbollah.”
August 09/2025

Hezbollah ammunition depot explosion kills 6 soldiers south of Litani
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/August 09, 2025
BEIRUT: Six Lebanese army soldiers were killed and others wounded in an explosion while inspecting a weapons depot in Majdal Zoun and Wadi Zibqin, Tyre.
The victims include four members from the 5th Infantry Brigade and two from the Engineering Regiment. The Lebanese army is dismantling and detonating weapons and ammunition confiscated south of the Litani River, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel and UN Resolution 1701. Most of the ammunition belongs to Hezbollah, and according to a military source, the incident occurred in a Hezbollah facility. President Joseph Aoun held a phone call with Army Commander Gen. Rodolph Haykal, during which he was briefed on the circumstances of the incident. The Presidential Palace’s media office stated that “the incident occurred when ammunition exploded in an army engineering regiment unit as its members were working to remove and dismantle it.”In an official statement, Aoun expressed “deep sadness over the martyrdom of the soldiers,” offering “his condolences to their families and the army” and wishing the injured “a speedy recovery.”Aoun said: “The country has lost today a group of its finest men, who sacrificed their pure souls in defense of Lebanon’s territory and sovereignty.
“They demonstrated that the Lebanese army remains the country’s protective shield and the faithful guardian of its borders. “I affirm that their martyrdom is not the end, but a beacon of hope that lights the way for future generations and reminds them that only significant sacrifices can protect the nation’s freedom.”Prime Minister Nawaf Salam mourned “with deep sadness the army martyrs who died in the south while carrying out their national duty.”He affirmed that “our army is the nation’s stabilizing force, the bastion of sovereignty, the protector of unity, and the guardian of legitimate institutions.”The incident follows the Lebanese government’s decision to restore state control over arms and execute the objectives of the US plan regarding the enforcement mechanism. The decision is publicly opposed by Hezbollah, which refuses to hand over its weapons without any guarantees that Israel will fulfill the required provisions. On Friday night, the Lebanese army pursued groups of bikers who attempted to block the airport road in an effort to enter Beirut’s neighborhoods, following calls on social media to stage random demonstrations in support of Hezbollah and its weapons.
Footage was shared showing army members pursuing bikers to prevent them from engaging in acts of unrest. In a statement shared on Saturday, the Lebanese Army Command said: “In light of the exceptional challenges facing Lebanon currently, particularly the continued Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty and the sensitive security situation, there have been calls on social media for protests, accompanied by old and manipulated videos aimed at inciting unrest among citizens.”The army command warned “citizens against engaging in actions with unpredictable consequences that could destabilize the country.”
It added: “The army, while affirming its respect for the peaceful expression of opinions, will not tolerate any breach of security, disruption of civil peace, road blockades, or attacks on public and private property.”The army called on all citizens and political factions to “act responsibly during this difficult period,” emphasizing the importance of “unity and solidarity to overcome the dangers facing our country.”

Explosion at Lebanese Arms Depot Kills 6 Army Experts, Wounds Several Others
Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025
Munition in an arms depot in south Lebanon exploded Saturday as army experts were dismantling them, killing six of them and wounding several others, the army said.
The incident occurred on the edge of the southern village of Zibqin in Tyre province, the army said. It added that efforts were being made to determine the cause of the blast but gave no further details. The depot is believed to have been used by the armed group Hezbollah.
The blast took place south of the Litani River in an area where Hezbollah withdrew its fighters under the terms of a ceasefire that ended a 14-month conflict with Israel in November. Over the past months, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers have been taking over Hezbollah posts in the area. On Thursday, the Lebanese Cabinet voted in favor of a US-backed plan to disarm Hezbollah and implement a ceasefire with Israel. The Lebanese government asked the national army to prepare a plan in which only state institutions in the small nation will have weapons by the end of the year. Hezbollah officials have said they will not disarm before Israel withdraws from five hills along the border and stops airstrikes that have killed more than 250 people since the ceasefire. The government’s decision has angered Hezbollah and its supporters, who have been staging protests in areas where the Iran-backed group enjoys support.
The army warned in a statement Friday that it will not allow any attempts to endanger the country’s security. It warned protesters that it will not allow the closing of roads or attack private or public property.

Wadi Zebqin Blast: Accident or Deliberate Attack?
Bassam Abou Zeid/This Is Beyrouth/August 09/2025
Six Lebanese Army soldiers were killed in an explosion at a Hezbollah ammunition depot in Wadi Zebqin, in the Tyre region south of the Litani River. Four of the victims belonged to the Fifth Infantry Brigade, while two were members of the Engineering Regiment.
The incident occurred amid an ongoing campaign targeting the Lebanese Army and senior officials—most notably President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam—following the government’s decision to disarm Hezbollah. Statements by MP Mohammad Raad, head of the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc, and Hajj Mahmoud Qomati escalated to the point of declaring a “holy war” against Lebanon’s executive authority, its military, and all factions advocating for the state’s exclusive monopoly on arms.
Against this backdrop, some have linked the tense political climate to the blast, questioning whether it was a mere coincidence that the explosion struck during intensified rhetoric and attacks against the army. The Lebanese Army said its units were operating inside the Wadi Zebqin depot at the time of the explosion and confirmed that investigations are ongoing to determine the exact circumstances. The statement did not indicate who controls the site, noting only that the area is under Hezbollah’s influence and that Israeli forces had not entered it during recent ground operations. According to available information, the army learned of the depot’s existence from the ceasefire monitoring committee. Units from the Fifth Infantry Brigade and the Engineering Regiment were dispatched to the site—without any UNIFIL presence. Military protocol typically requires engineering units to enter first to detect and neutralize hazards before infantry follow. This departure from standard procedure raises key questions: Did the blast occur inside or outside the depot? And was it an accident—or deliberate? Meanwhile, unverified claims circulating on social media—particularly in Hezbollah-affiliated circles—suggest that the depot may have been booby-trapped to target Israeli forces, and that the Lebanese Army entered without Hezbollah’s knowledge.
The army has pledged to uncover the full truth, especially as the government’s decision to enforce the state’s exclusive control over arms by year’s end is expected to increase army raids on Hezbollah’s ammunition depots and infrastructure across Lebanon—operations that could carry similar risks. The Wadi Zebqin tragedy recalls a June 2007 attack near Khiam, when a roadside bomb killed six Spanish UNIFIL soldiers. That incident was widely believed to have targeted the Spanish contingent for its active enforcement of Resolution 1701, aimed at keeping the area south of the Litani River free of weapons.

Lebanese Leaders Pay Tribute to Soldiers Killed in Hezbollah's Arms Depot Blast
This is Beirut/August 09/2025
The death of six soldiers in a powerful explosion at a Hezbollah arms depot during a dismantling operation in the Tyre district on Saturday drew tributes and condemnations by Lebanese officials and politicians. President Joseph Aoun contacted Army Commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal to learn the details of the tragedy, expressing “deep sorrow” and honoring “the sacrifice of soldiers who fell for Lebanon’s sovereignty.”Prime Minister Nawaf Salam declared, “The entire nation bows before the courage of our soldiers who fell in the line of duty,” stressing that the army remains “the pillar of sovereignty and national unity.”Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri offered his condolences to the Lebanese Army and to the families of the soldiers who fell in the South. He praised “a national institution that constantly sacrifices to preserve Lebanon’s unity, security, and sovereignty.”On the international front, U.S. ambassador in Turkey and President Donald Trump’s envoy to Syria and LebanonTom Barrack, extended his “deepest condolences to the families of the martyrs, and to the people of Lebanon, on behalf of President Trump and the American people.” “We mourn these brave soldiers who dedicated their lives to defending Lebanon’s security and safety,” Barrack said in a message to President Aoun, adding that “the United States stands with Lebanon in this sad moment.”Defense Minister Michel Menassa described the troops as having “joined their comrades who fell defending the South,” and called for unwavering support for the military. The Interior Ministry extended condolences to the army and families of the victims, calling the soldiers’ demise a proof of “the heavy sacrifices made to protect Lebanon’s sovereignty.”Among the political reactions, Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel denounced “the dangers posed by the illegal presence of non-state weapons on Lebanese territory.” MP Raji El-Saad spoke of a “battle to restore the state’s sovereignty over the entire territory,” while Walid El-Baarini (National Moderation) stressed that “Lebanon’s sovereignty is not negotiable, and the sacrifices of the army must not be exploited.”Finally, the Progressive Socialist Party called for national unity around the army, emphasizing its role as “the sole guarantor of stability in such an unstable phase.”The explosion has reignited debate over Hezbollah’s weapons outside state control and the dangers faced by the Lebanese army in areas under the group’s influence. Hezbollah has yet to issue a statement. The army has opened an investigation to determine the exact cause of the blast.

Lebanon Condemns Iranian Official’s Remarks as 'Blatant Interference'
This is Beirut/This is Beirut/August 09/2025
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants on Saturday sharply criticized recent comments by Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, denouncing them as “a blatant and unacceptable interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs.”
In a statement, the ministry said Velayati’s remarks were the latest in a series of interventions by high-ranking Iranian officials who have “persisted in making suspicious comments” on purely domestic Lebanese matters that “have nothing to do with the Islamic Republic.”
“The Lebanese state will not tolerate such practices under any circumstances,” the statement read, adding that no foreign party, “friend or foe,” would be allowed to speak on behalf of the Lebanese people or claim guardianship over the country’s sovereign decisions.
The ministry urged Tehran to “focus on the issues of its own people and work to meet their needs and aspirations, instead of interfering in matters that do not concern it.”Reaffirming Lebanon’s independence in setting its policies and determining its political system, the ministry stressed that such decisions rest “solely with the Lebanese people, through their democratic constitutional institutions, free from interference, dictates, pressure or encroachment.”It concluded by pledging that Lebanon “will remain steadfast in defending its sovereignty” and will respond, in line with diplomatic norms, to any attempt to undermine the authority of its decisions or incite against them. On Friday, the Iranian news agency Mehr reported a phone conversation between Velayati and former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a close ally of Tehran, during which they discussed what they described as “American and Israeli conspiracies,” including Lebanon’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah.They vowed to oppose “these plots and prevent their objectives from coming to fruition.”

Iran in Lebanon: The Toxic Interference of a Declining State
Marc Saikali/Shutterstock/August 09/2025
The Lebanese state has taken a bold and historic decision: to disarm Hezbollah and other militias, and to restore full sovereignty over the entire national territory. This goal is fundamental and shared by nations worldwide. It is an essential milestone for Lebanon to emerge from the shadow of weapons and conflict, rebuild the war-torn villages of the South, revive its economy and restore the confidence of friendly countries willing to offer support. The entire international community has praised this decision, everyone except Iran, which flagrantly disregards even the most basic rules of diplomatic conduct.
Tehran has positioned itself as the chief provocateur. Through its officials, the foreign minister and the Supreme Leader’s adviser, Iran openly calls for the failure of this plan, seeking instead to perpetuate chaos, war and instability. The mullahs grip on Lebanon is like that of a praying mantis, unable to accept that Persian expansionism is a relic of the past. Their obsession with controlling Lebanon is out of touch with the regional realities. The Lebanese must remain vigilant against repeated attempts by the mullah regime to sow instability. Yet, following the humiliating defeat it suffered against Israel during the 12-day war last June, Iran is hardly in a position to lecture others or offer advice. It would be better served focusing on its own deeply troubled affairs.On what grounds does Iran impose its will on a sovereign country? What possible interest could it have in Lebanon remaining at war, its villages left in ruins and its people continuing to suffer? The answer is stark: Iran has never sought peace in Lebanon but rather control. It prefers to see the country broken rather than free. Such a cynical stance is intolerable. Lebanon has chosen to reclaim its future. Those who seek to keep it under foreign domination must end their interference and let the country progress.Lebanon is not a playground for regional ambitions. It is a country yearning for peace, reconstruction and, above all, freedom.The Battle of Thermopylae has been decisively lost for the Dariuses 2.0. Could someone please let them know? Thank you.

Mohammad Raad’s Misfortunes with Life and Death!
Johnny Kortbawi/AFP/August 09/2025
Mohammad Raad has served as a Lebanese MP for over three decades, since the first post-Taïf Parliament in 1992. As head of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, which marked Hezbollah’s first parliamentary entry, Raad has witnessed all phases of post-war Lebanon. His combat experience is evident in his speech, marked by a stern expression even in laughter, rough language, political cant and a formal, somewhat rigid style that commands respect yet unsettles. Unlike typical politicians, Hajj Mohammad lacks the usual oratorical gifts: charisma, striking appearance, vocal modulation and tone. Yet, by divine grace, he captivates the Mumanaa’s audience who choose him not for his personality per se, but rather for what he symbolizes. In the last elections, Mohammad Raad secured nearly fifty thousand preferential votes, competing strongly with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a significant leap from the narrow margin of about one thousand votes in previous elections. Raad’s overwhelming support illustrates how the electorate often backs figures for ideological loyalty rather than ideas, policies or eloquence. His recent interview on Al-Manar TV showed him struggling, resembling a heavy fish out of water.
In the interview, Mohammad Raad blurred the lines between life and death on several issues, such as his pledge to vote for Nabih Berri as Speaker of Parliament “even if he dies.” This logic, rooted in the denial of reality, also suggests that Mohammad Raad is steering his followers toward literal slaughter and suicide. He rejects government decisions as well as the outcomes of the recent war, and refuses to commit to disarming the weapons that he equates with honor and dignity. These declarations leave opponents speechless, as they are difficult to contest.
Mohammad Raad, though aware that the game is effectively over and that the weapons will ultimately be seized by the state, or else the consequences will be far more severe than just war, refuses to concede. Hezbollah’s combat and ideological doctrine simply does not allow for capitulation. While the party may see adopting a stance above the crisis as a means to buy time in the hope that circumstances improve, denying the new regional reality is essentially an attempt to mislead the public and drag it into further turmoil.Hezbollah will not accept the status quo nor tell the state, “Please proceed to the arsenals and confiscate the weapons.” This is an insult to their dignity, and as Hajj Mohammad expressed it, an attack on their honor. According to him, Hezbollah would rather die fighting and end its legacy with a heroic saga than surrender its pride and dominant position. But what responsibility does the Shiite community bear for being led into this tragic predicament? If the leadership chooses martyrdom and heroism, must it also consciously or unconsciously drag the entire community into this dark abyss?Ultimately, Hezbollah itself is the greatest enemy of the Shiites, with its fearsome doctrine and ideology turning it into a bitter foe of its own people, steering them toward collective self-destruction.

Lebanon: Hezbollah Confronts Disarmament Decision with 'Measured Objection’
Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025
Lebanon’s “duo”, Hezbollah and Amal parties, approach with “realism” the government’s decision to bring weapons under the state’s control and end all armed presence across Lebanese territory. Despite the escalatory rhetoric that pro-Hezbollah individuals and officials are displaying, the early indicators seen during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting and the second session on Thursday, suggest that Hezbollah, which had already agreed to the terms of the ceasefire, is aware of the new limits set by the shifting balance of power in recent weeks. Although Hezbollah and Amal ministers have walked out of the Cabinet meeting during discussions of the US proposal to disarm the party, the ministers assured that they would not resign from the Cabinet. Meanwhile, the “duo’s” protests on Thursday in opposition to the government decision were limited and confined to Beirut’s southern suburbs - Hezbollah’s stronghold. The Lebanese Army was on high alert, preventing demonstrators from moving into surrounding areas. The leadership of Amal has notably issued a firm and decisive statement calling on its supporters not to take part in the protests. On Thursday, the government approved part of the proposal presented by US envoy Thomas Barrack, agreeing to end all armed presence across Lebanese territory - including that of Hezbollah - and to deploy the Lebanese Army in the border areas. No Resignation from Government. No Organizational Decision Regarding Popular Demonstrations. Ministers affiliated with Hezbollah and Amal were keen not to escalate rhetoric after Thursday’s Cabinet meeting. Amal parliamentary sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that there is no organizational decision by the Hezbollah-Amal alliance to escalate measures, whether politically or through popular mobilization. “The calls circulating on social media for protests and gatherings are spontaneous and not endorsed by any official party” they said. The sources also affirmed that “there is no decision to resign from the government or move toward a point of no return. On the contrary, there is a strong desire to find solutions that spare the country an avoidable political crisis”.
On the other hand, ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah and Amal plan no political or popular escalation and that the ministers’ withdrawal from the Cabinet meeting was only to protest the timing. “They want the Israeli withdrawal from five contentious points in Lebanon to take place before the disarmament of Hezbollah”, they noted.“The decision has been made, and undoubtedly its implementation will not be easy mainly for a party that has possessed arms and power decision-making for the last 40 years. But a solution must be reached. It is in no one’s interest to confront the logic of the state with violence. They need to recognize that the situation has changed, and time will make that clear”, stated the sources. Amal-affiliated Environment Minister Tamara Al-Zein said in a televised address: “No one can outbid us on this. Our objection was never to tasking the Lebanese Army. Rather, the agreement touches on Lebanon’s sovereignty and requires broader consultations and national consensus.”
Hezbollah Has No Options But to Act with ‘Realism’
Amid the local and regional developments, Dr. Sami Nader, Director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, believes that Hezbollah has come to realize that the balance of power in the region has shifted, and what was once possible is no longer feasible today.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Nader said the regional landscape has shifted, and Hezbollah no longer possesses a surplus of power following the systematic destruction it has endured and the assassination of its leaders following Israel’s war in 2024.
He said Hezbollah has come to realize that its options are limited, a realization that came evident during the formation of the government, when the Hezbollah-Amal alliance lost its blocking third. He said that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has also realized the extent of these changes and understands the need to deal with them realistically, despite the narrowing room for political maneuvering. Nader also pointed to the internal Lebanese situation saying that the political game has changed its course in the Mediterranean country with the election of President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. Both have taken firm and decisive decisions, “something that came as a surprise to some and represents a new dynamic in Lebanon’s political equation”.

Saudi Arabia extends condolences to Lebanon after explosion kills 6 soldiers
Arab News/August 09, 2025
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Saturday extended its condolences to Lebanon after six soldiers were killed and others wounded in an explosion while they were inspecting a weapons depot and dismantling its contents in the southern city of Tyre. A military source said the troops were removing munitions from a Hezbollah facility. “The Kingdom expressed its condolences to the families of the victims and its solidarity with the Lebanese government and people,” a foreign ministry statement said. It also praised the efforts made by the army to extend the sovereignty of the Lebanese government to the entire country, ensuring its security and stability and contributing to the prosperity of Lebanon and its people.Under a truce that ended last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanese troops have been deploying in the country’s south and dismantling the group’s infrastructure in the region.
The deaths come after the Lebanese government decided this week to disarm Hezbollah and tasked the army with drawing up a plan to complete the process by the end of the year.

Lebanon… and its Approval of the American Paper’s ‘Objectives’
Fahid Suleiman al-Shoqiran/Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025
The recent cabinet sessions of the Lebanese government were anything but easy; they were a turning point that redefined the domestic balance of power and resolved momentous questions that had not been debated since the end of the civil war. That is why Thomas Barrack’s intervention was at the heart of the dispute among Lebanese officials. At the time of writing, the government has reinforced several decisions that can serve as a basis for future action. According to the announcement by Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos, these include: requesting an operational plan on the restriction of armament to the state, ensuring stability and reconstruction, and, most importantly, approving the provision that arms be limited to the state and that the army be deployed in the south; initiating the demarcation of international borders with Israel and Syria; all of this, the government says, is an “approval of the goals of the American paper, not its details”!The fraught debate in the cabinet went on for a long time, with many objections made and with Hezbollah’s ministers walking out before the objectives were approved.
However, why did the American paper create so much ?
Simply put, some believe the paper is reasonable, even suitable, given the timing of its proposal- it was put forward following the defeat of Hezbollah and the regional axis it belongs to, the evisceration of its organizational structure, and the exposure of all its operational and intelligence zones. Those who hold this view have strong arguments within Lebanon. Others, however, believe that the framework it puts forward is unworkable and that the paper cannot be implemented any time soon, given its substance. They fear it will necessarily lead to confrontation, whether among the Lebanese themselves, or between the army or political parties, and Hezbollah’s armed forces. Some have gone so far as to deem it impossible to disarm Hezbollah without collateral damage and clashes, whether brief or prolonged, with the group. Advocates of this view prefer to be granted more time to deal with the issue gradually and rationally, so as to avoid dragging Lebanon into a domestic conflict, especially since Hezbollah’s support base is still reeling from the shock and trauma of defeat. Regional and international interest in Lebanon’s fate and future is genuine and serious. However, support comes with conditions that are extremely simple: the past phase, with its slogans and poetry, its speeches and ideologies, must be left behind. Today, nations live in an era of the strong state that has the capacity to make and enforce decisions.
It is clear that Hezbollah is now confronted with a major international push that it seeks to defuse through two tracks. The first is to delay, in order to take the wind out of the international momentum in anticipation of a regional shift or the eruption of other crises that could distract the United States from Lebanon. This is evident from the cabinet sessions and discussions Hezbollah has participated in; it is stalling to prevent the resolution of the debate around its arms for as long as possible. Second: grievances and dejection within its base to close ranks and mobilize support. In the exchange between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Health Minister Rakan Nasser Al-Din, for example, the latter threatened the prime minister with “the street,” to which Salam replied: “There is a street for a street.”Hezbollah pushing its supporters to take to the street is a possibility, but it would come at a steep price, especially as it now faces fundamental questions (that had long been buried) coming from its own base. The party is being tested by part of its devastated constituency, and thus, an insurgency against the state is possible, even likely. Indeed, it is openly proposed by some of the party’s officials and media figures. In conclusion, when we speak of Hezbollah’s weapons, what matters to us is their catastrophic impact on the region. As for Lebanon, its own people know best how to deal with the details. The world has grown weary of this unchecked lawlessness, tolerated for decades by Lebanese officials who granted it legitimacy and civilian cover (the Mar Mikhael Agreement being a major example), allowing Hezbollah to expand in the region and beyond. Who will seize this international opportunity to save Lebanon and its people? The Lebanese deserve to join the journey of emerging developmental states and benefit from this trajectory. A human being is born to live, learn, work, and thrive, not to embrace a culture of death, nor to wake and sleep to the smell of gunpowder. This is an opportunity to set out on a path toward development and prosperity that will not come again.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 09-10/2025
Gaza civil defense says 34 killed by Israeli fire
AFP/August 09, 2025
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said at least 34 people were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday, including more than a dozen civilians who were waiting to collect aid. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP nine people were killed and 181 wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on them as they gathered near a border crossing in northern Gaza that has been used for aid deliveries. Six more people were killed and 30 wounded after Israeli troops targeted civilians assembling near an aid point in central Gaza, he said. Strikes in central Gaza also resulted in multiple casualties, according to Bassal, while a drone attack near the southern city of Khan Yunis killed at least three people and wounded several others. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swathes of the territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense and the Israeli military. Thousands of Palestinians congregate daily near food distribution points in Gaza, including four managed by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Since launching in late May, its operations have been marred by almost-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect aid. Israeli restrictions on the entry of supplies into Gaza since the start of the war nearly two years ago have led to shortages of food and essential supplies, including medicine and fuel, which hospitals require to power their generators. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to agree to a ceasefire to bring the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants. But early Friday, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of outrage across the globe.
Despite the backlash and rumors of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Netanyahu has remained defiant over the decision. In a post on social media late Friday, he said “we are not going to occupy Gaza — we are going to free Gaza from Hamas.”The Palestinian militant group, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war, has slammed the plan to expand the fighting as a “new war crime.”Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, figures the United Nations says are reliable. Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

UK arrests 365 protesters backing banned Palestine Action group
AFP/August 09, 2025
LONDON: Police in London arrested at least 365 people Saturday for supporting Palestine Action, at the latest and largest protest backing the group since the government banned it last month under anti-terror laws. The Metropolitan Police said it made the hundreds of arrests, thought to be one of the highest ever at a single protest in the UK capital, for “supporting a proscribed organization.”It also arrested seven for other offenses including assaults on officers, though none were seriously injured, it added. The government outlawed Palestine Action in early July days after it took responsibility for a break-in at an air force base in southern England that caused an estimated £7 million ($9.3 million) of damage to two aircraft. The group said its activists were responding to Britain’s indirect military support for Israel amid the war in Gaza. Britain’s interior ministry reiterated ahead of Saturday’s protests that Palestine Action is also suspected of other “serious attacks” that involved “violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.”But critics, including the United Nations and NGOs like Amnesty International and Greenpeace, have lambasted the move as legal overreach and a threat to free speech. A group called Defend Our Juries, which organized Saturday’s protests and previous demonstrations against the ban, said “unprecedented numbers” had risked “arrest and possible imprisonment” to “defend this country’s ancient liberties.”“We will keep going. Our numbers are already growing for the next wave of action in September,” it added. Attendees began massing near parliament at lunchtime bearing signs saying “oppose genocide, support Palestine Action” and other slogans, and waving Palestinian flags.
Psychotherapist Craig Bell, 39, was among those holding a placard.
He branded the ban “absolutely ridiculous.”
“When you compare Palestine Action with an actual terrorist group who are killing civilians and taking lives, it’s just a joke that they’re being prescribed a terrorist group,” he told AFP. As police moved in on the demonstrators, they applauded those being arrested and shouted “shame on you” at officers.
“Let them arrest us all,” said Richard Bull, 42, a wheelchair-user in attendance.“This government has gone too far. I have nothing to feel ashamed of.”Defend Our Juries had claimed only a “fraction” of the hundreds who turned out had been detained, but the Met insisted that “simply isn’t true” and that all those showing support for Palestine Action would be arrested. The London force noted some of those there were onlookers or not visibly supporting the group. The Met also detailed how the hundreds arrested were taken to temporary “prisoner processing” points, where their details were confirmed and they were either instantly bailed or taken into custody elsewhere. Police forces across the UK have made scores of similar arrests since the government outlawed Palestine Action on July 5, making being a member or supporting the group a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Police announced this week that the first three people had been charged in the English and Welsh criminal justice system with supporting Palestine Action following their arrests at a July 5 demo. Seven people have so far been charged in Scotland, which has a separate legal system.Amnesty International UK Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh wrote to Met Police chief Mark Rowley this week urging restraint be exercised when policing people holding placards expressing support for Palestine Action. The NGO has argued arrests of such people are in breach of international human rights law. A UK court challenge against the decision to proscribe Palestine Action will be heard later this year.

Thousands protest in Tel Aviv against Israeli govt move to expand Gaza war
AFP/August 09, 2025
TEL AVIV: Thousands took to the streets in Israel’s Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for an end to the war in Gaza, a day after the government vowed to expand the conflict and capture Gaza City. Demonstrators waved signs and held up pictures of hostages still held captive in the Palestinian territory as they called on the government to secure their release.

UK to donate additional $11.4m for Gaza if Israel allows ‘flood’ of aid to enter
Arab News/August 09, 2025
LONDON: The UK will donate an additional £8.5 million ($11.4 million) for Gaza humanitarian assistance if Israel allows a “flood” of aid to enter the Palestinian enclave, said Development Minister Jenny Chapman. It is part of a £101 million UK package for the Occupied Territories this year, The Independent reported on Saturday. The funds will “help address urgent need” in Gaza, said Chapman. “It is unacceptable that so much aid is waiting at the border — the UK is ready to provide more through our partners, and we demand that the government of Israel allows more aid in safely and securely,” she added. “The insufficient amount of supplies getting through is causing appalling and chaotic scenes as desperate civilians try to access tiny amounts of aid.”The UK is delivering the funds through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which has warned of worsening famine among the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Greece air-drops food aid over Gaza
AFP/August 09, 2025
ATHENS: Greece on Saturday joined EU countries in dropping food aid over Gaza, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. “This morning, two aircraft of the Hellenic Air Force dropped 8.5 tons of essential food supplies in areas of Gaza,” Mitsotakis said on Facebook. “The operation was organized in collaboration with countries from the European Union and the Middle East, aiming to support the basic needs of people in the afflicted region.”“Greece will continue to undertake initiatives for the immediate cessation of hostilities, the release of hostages, and the unhindered flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. It is the duty of all of us to put an end to human suffering immediately,” he said.Western countries including Britain, France, and Spain have recently partnered with Middle Eastern nations to deliver humanitarian supplies by air to the Palestinian enclave. But the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini has warned that airdrops alone would not avert the worsening hunger. The UN estimates that Gaza needs at least 600 trucks of aid per day to meet residents’ basic needs. Concern has escalated about the situation in the Gaza Strip after more than 21 months of war, which started after Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a deadly attack against Israel in October 2023. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a ceasefire to bring the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.But early Friday, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to launch major operations to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of outrage across the globe.

Arab ministerial committee holds Israel fully responsible for ongoing genocide in Gaza
Arab News/August 09, 2025
CAIRO: The Arab ministerial committee on Gaza said on Saturday that it holds Israel fully responsible for the genocidal crimes against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. “We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the ongoing genocide and the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe taking place in the Gaza Strip,” read a statement issued by ministers of the Joint Extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit on developments in Gaza. The committee called upon the international community – particularly the permanent members of the Security Council – to take urgent action to stop Israel’s illegal aggressive policies.
The committee also urged for the “immediate and comprehensive cessation of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, and an end to the ongoing violations committed by the occupying forces against civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.”The committee also demanded unconditional access to Gaza. “The demand that Israel, as the occupying power, immediately and unconditionally allow the entry of humanitarian assistance at scale into the Gaza Strip — including food, medicine, and fuel — and ensure the freedom of operation of relief agencies and international humanitarian organizations, in accordance with international humanitarian law and its applicable principles,”It also emphasized “the need to work on the immediate start of the implementation of the Arab-Islamic plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, and calls for active participation in the Gaza Reconstruction Conference to be held in Cairo soon.”After a security cabinet meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed a plan to take over Gaza City had been approved. Israel’s military offensive since October 7 attack has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Turkiye says Muslim countries must be united against Israel’s Gaza takeover plan
Reuters/August 09, 2025
ANKARA: Muslim nations must act in unison and rally international opposition against Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday after talks in Egypt.Regional powers Egypt and Turkiye both condemned the plan on Friday. Ankara has said it marked a new phase in what it called Israel’s genocidal and expansionist policies, while calling for global measures to stop the plan’s implementation. Israel rejects such description of its actions in Gaza. Speaking at a joint press conference in El Alamein with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, after also meeting Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Fidan said the Organization of Islamic Cooperation had been called to an emergency meeting. Fidan said Israel’s policy aimed to force Palestinians out of their lands through hunger and that it aimed to permanently invade Gaza, adding there was no justifiable excuse for nations to continue supporting Israel. Israel denies having a policy of starvation in Gaza, and says Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed 1,200 people in its October 2023 attack, could end the war by surrendering. “What is happening today is a very dangerous development... not only for the Palestinian people or neighboring countries,” Abdelatty said, adding that Israel’s plans were “inadmissible.”Abdelatty said there was full coordination with Turkiye on Gaza, and referred to a statement issued on Saturday by the OIC Ministerial Committee condemning Israel’s plan. The OIC committee said Israel’s plan marked “a dangerous and unacceptable escalation, a flagrant violation of international law, and an attempt to entrench the illegal occupation,” warning that it would “obliterate any opportunity for peace.”Mediating teams from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been working for months to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The OIC urged world powers and the United Nations Security Council to “assume their legal and humanitarian responsibilities and to take urgent action to stop” Israel’s Gaza City plan, while ensuring immediate accountability for what it called Israeli violations of international law.

‘I don’t create suffering, I document it:’ Gaza photographer hits back at Bild over accusation of staging scenes
Arab News/August 09, 2025
LONDON: Gaza-based photojournalist Anas Zayed Fteiha has rejected accusations by the German tabloid Bild that some of his widely circulated images — depicting hunger and humanitarian suffering — were staged rather than taken at aid distribution sites.
Fteiha, who works with Turkiye’s Anadolu Agency, described the claims as “false” and “a desperate attempt to distort the truth.”“The siege, starvation, bombing, and destruction that the people of Gaza live through do not need to be fabricated or acted out,” Fteiha said in a statement published on social media. “My photos reflect the bitter reality that more than two million people live through, most of whom are women and children.”The controversy erupted after Bild published an article on Tuesday alleging that Fteiha’s photos were manipulated to amplify narratives of Israeli-inflicted suffering — particularly hunger — and citing content from his personal social media accounts to suggest political bias. The German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung also questioned the authenticity of certain images from Gaza, though without naming Fteiha directly. Bild claimed the emotionally charged imagery served as “Hamas propaganda,” a charge Fteiha rejected as “ridiculous” and a “criminalization of journalism itself.”“It is easy to write your reports based on your ideologies, but it is difficult to obscure the truth conveyed by the lens of a photographer who lived the suffering among the people, heard the children’s cries, photographed the rubble, and carried the pain of mothers,” Fteiha said. Fteiha also accused Bild of repeated breaches of journalistic ethics, citing previous criticism and formal complaints against the paper for publishing misinformation. The episode has fueled a broader debate on the challenges of reporting from conflict zones such as Gaza, where foreign press access is restricted and local journalists are often the only source of visual documentation. Following Bild’s allegations, several news agencies, including AFP and the German Press Agency, severed ties with Fteiha. However, Reuters declined to do so, stating that his images met the agency’s standards for “accuracy, independence, and impartiality.”“These aren’t outright fakes, but they do tap into visual memory and change how people see things,” said photography scholar Gerhard Paul in an interview with Israeli media. Christopher Resch, of Reporters Without Borders, said that while photographers sometimes “guide” subjects to tell a visual story, that does not invalidate the reality being portrayed. “The picture should have had more context, but that doesn’t mean the suffering isn’t real,” he said, cautioning media outlets against labeling photojournalists as “propaganda agents,” which he warned could endanger their safety. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also weighed in, using his official X account to describe one of the accused images — used on the cover of Time magazine — as an example of “Pallywood” — a portmanteau of “Palestine” and “Hollywood” — to sway global opinion. However, the credibility of Bild’s report has itself come under scrutiny. Israeli fact-checking group Fake Reporter posted a series of rebuttals on X, disputing several claims. The group pointed out that the Time magazine cover image often linked to Fteiha was taken by a different photographer, and argued that claims the children in the photograph were not at an aid site were “inaccurate.”“From our examination, one can see, in the same place, an abundance of documentation of food being distributed and prepared,” the group wrote.

Syria will not take part in meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, state TV says
Reuters/August 09, 2025
The source cited an earlier forum arranged by the US-backed SDF that it said was a violation of an accord between the government and the group. Syria will not take part in planned meetings with Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Paris, Syria’s state news agency SANA quoted a government source as saying on Saturday.

Syria’s Minorities Demand Decentralized State, Constitution That Guarantees Pluralism
Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025
Hundreds of representatives of Syria’s various ethnic and religious groups called Friday for the formation of a decentralized state and the drafting of a new constitution that guarantees religious, cultural and ethnic pluralism. The declaration came at the conclusion of a one-day conference where some 400 representatives of Syria's ethnic and religious minorities gathered in an attempt to assert the rights of their communities in the country’s evolving political framework following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last December. The transition is to include elections scheduled for September and the eventual drafting of a constitution — a process that could take years. The post-Assad transition has so far been marred by violence against minorities, raising fears about the future. Ghazal Ghazal, the spiritual leader of Syria’s Alawite minority, to whom Assad belongs, called for setting up a decentralized or federal system in Syria that protects religious and cultural rights of all components of the Syrian people. The conference was held in Hasakeh, a northeastern Syrian city under the control of the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Elham Ahmad, a senior official with the autonomous administration in northeast Syria, said she hopes to see the emergence of a Syria built on cultural and ethnic pluralism. “This conference sends a message of civil peace and national reconciliation,” she said. Hakemat Habib, one of the conference organizers, said that central governments and “tyrannical regimes” over the past decades have failed and that a democratic and decentralized state agreed upon by all Syrians is the only way to move forward. “Syrian identity includes all Syrians,” he said. Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, whose fighters clashed with pro-government gunmen last month, told the conference in a televised speech that “pluralism is not a threat but a treasure that strengthens unity.”The interim government in Damascus did not comment on the conference.

Iran Threatens Planned Trump Corridor Envisaged by Azerbaijan-Armenia Peace Deal
Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025
Iran threatened on Saturday to block a corridor planned in the Caucasus under a regional deal sponsored by US President Donald Trump, Iranian media reported, raising a new question mark over a peace plan hailed as a strategically important shift.
A top Azerbaijani diplomat said earlier that the plan, announced by Trump on Friday, was just one step from a final peace deal between his country and Armenia, which reiterated its support for the plan.The proposed Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) would run across southern Armenia, giving Azerbaijan a direct route to its exclave of Nakhchivan and in turn to Türkiye. The US would have exclusive development rights to the corridor, which the White House said would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources. It was not immediately clear how Iran, which borders the area, would block it but the statement from Ali Akbar Velayati, top adviser to Iran's supreme leader, raised questions over its security. He said military exercises carried out in northwest Iran demonstrated the country's readiness and determination to prevent any geopolitical changes.
"This corridor will not become a passage owned by Trump, but rather a graveyard for Trump's mercenaries," Velayati said. Iran's foreign ministry earlier welcomed the agreement "as an important step toward lasting regional peace", but warned against any foreign intervention near its borders that could "undermine the region's security and lasting stability".Analysts and insiders say that Iran, under mounting US pressure over its disputed nuclear program and the aftermath of a 12-day war with Israel in June, lacks the military power to block the corridor.
MOSCOW SAYS WEST SHOULD STEER CLEAR
Trump welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House on Friday and witnessed their signing of a joint declaration aimed at drawing a line under their decades-long on-off conflict. Russia, a traditional broker and ally of Armenia in the strategically important South Caucasus region which is crisscrossed with oil and gas pipelines, was not included, despite its border guards being stationed on the border between Armenia and Iran. While Moscow said it supported the summit, it proposed "implementing solutions developed by the countries of the region themselves with the support of their immediate neighbors – Russia, Iran and Türkiye" to avoid what it called the "sad experience" of Western efforts to mediate in the Middle East. Azerbaijan's close ally, NATO member Türkiye, welcomed the accord. Baku and Yerevan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory's 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia. "The chapter of enmity is closed and now we're moving towards lasting peace," said Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Britain, predicting that the wider region's prosperity and transport links would be transformed for the better."This is a paradigm shift," said Suleymanov, who as a former envoy to Washington who used to work in President Aliyev's office, is one of his country's most senior diplomats.Suleymanov declined to speculate on when a final peace deal would be signed however, noting that Aliyev had said he wanted it to happen soon. There remained only one obstacle, said Suleymanov, which was for Armenia to amend its constitution to remove a reference to Nagorno-Karabakh."Azerbaijan is ready to sign any time once Armenia fulfils the very basic commitment of removing its territorial claim against Azerbaijan in its constitution," he said.
MANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED
Pashinyan this year called for a referendum to change the constitution, but no date for it has been set yet. Armenia is to hold parliamentary elections in June 2026, and the new constitution is expected to be drafted before the vote. The Armenian leader said on X that the Washington summit had paved the way to end the decades of conflict and open transport connections that would unlock strategic economic opportunities. Asked when the transit rail route would start running, Suleymanov said that would depend on cooperation between the US and Armenia whom he said were already in talks. Joshua Kucera, Senior South Caucasus analyst at International Crisis Group, said Trump may not have got the easy win he had hoped for as the agreements left many questions unanswered. The issue of Armenia's constitution continued to threaten to derail the process, and it was not clear how the new transport corridor would work in practice. "Key details are missing, including about how customs checks and security will work and the nature of Armenia's reciprocal access to Azerbaijani territory. These could be serious stumbling blocks," said Kucera. Suleymanov played down suggestions that Russia, which still has extensive security and economic interests in Armenia, was being disadvantaged. "Anybody and everybody can benefit from this if they choose to," he said.

Iran Says Negotiates with US Will ‘Destroy Israel’
Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025
A representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Friday that negotiations may be a way to forward to achieve Tehran's constant goal: the “destruction of Israel.”Khamenei’s Deputy Representative to the Revolutionary Guards Abdullah Haji Sadeqi said Iran will not hold negotiations with any party to the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, reported Iran’s ILNA news agency.“Negotiations are an option in the path to destroy Israel,” he added.The Iranian foreign ministry had denied new claims that a new time and place had been set to resume negotiations with Washington. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump taunted Iranian slain General Qassem Soleimani, whose killing he ordered during his first term in office. Soleimani was killed in an attack near Baghdad airport in January 2020.“You know who did the roadside bomb, right? Soleimani. Where is he? Where is he? Where is Soleimani?” he wondered mockingly. He made his remarks before a White House ceremony recognized nearly 100 recipients of the Purple Heart.Trump described Soleimani as “father of the roadside bomb.”“They say 92% of the people who got either killed or badly hurt, it was Soleimani. He was the one that did it more than anybody else by far,” he added.

Iran Arrests 20 Alleged Spies of Israel
Asharq Al Awsat/August 09/2025
Iran has arrested 20 people it alleges are operatives of Israel's Mossad spy agency in recent months, the judiciary said on Saturday, warning that they will face no leniency and will be made an example of. On Wednesday, Iran executed a nuclear scientist named Rouzbeh Vadi, who was convicted of spying for Israel and passing on information on another nuclear scientist killed in Israel's air strikes on Iran in June, state media reported. Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told reporters in Tehran on Saturday that charges against some of the 20 suspects arrested had been dropped and they were released. He did not give a number."The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all," Jahangiri was quoted as saying by Iranian media. He said full details would be made public once investigations were complete. Executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel have significantly increased this year, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Israel carried out 12 days of air strikes on Iran in June, targeting Iran's top generals, nuclear scientists, nuclear installations, as well as residential neighborhoods. Iran responded with barrages of missiles and drones on Israel. Rights group HRANA reported 1,190 Iranian deaths during the 12-day Israeli attacks, including 436 civilians and 435 security personnel. Israel said 28 were killed in Iran's retaliatory attack.

Europe and Ukraine press US ahead of Trump-Putin talks
Reuters/August 10, 2025
KYIV/LONDON: European officials presented their own Ukraine peace proposals to the United States on Saturday as President Donald Trump prepared for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the war. Trump announced on Friday that he would meet Putin in Alaska on August 15, saying the parties, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, were close to a deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict. Details of the potential deal have yet to be announced, but Trump said it would involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.” It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory — an outcome Kyiv and its European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression. US Vice President JD Vance met Ukrainian and European allies on Saturday at Chevening House, a country mansion southeast of London, to discuss Trump’s push for peace. A European official confirmed a counterproposal was put forward by European representatives at the meeting but declined to provide details. The Wall Street Journal said European officials had presented a counter-proposal that included demands that a ceasefire must take place before any other steps are taken and that any territory exchange must be reciprocal, with firm security guarantees. “You can’t start a process by ceding territory in the middle of fighting,” it quoted one European negotiator as saying. A US official said “hours-long” meetings at Chevening “produced significant progress toward President Trump’s goal of bringing an end to the war in Ukraine, ahead of President Trump and President Putin’s upcoming meeting in Alaska.” The White House did not immediately respond when asked if the Europeans had presented their counter-proposals to the US.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke and pledged to find a “just and lasting peace” in Ukraine, a Downing Street spokesperson said. “They discussed the latest developments in Ukraine, reiterating their unwavering support to President Zelensky and to securing a just and lasting peace for the Ukrainian people.”“They welcomed President Trump’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine and end Russia’s war of aggression, and discussed how to further work closely with President Trump and President Zelensky over the coming days.”It was not clear what, if anything, had been agreed at Chevening, but Zelensky called the meeting constructive. “All our arguments were heard,” he said in his evening address to Ukrainians. “The path to peace for Ukraine should be determined together and only together with Ukraine, this is key principle,” he said.
He had earlier rejected any territorial concessions, saying “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.”Macron also said Ukraine must play a role in any negotiations. “Ukraine’s future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians, who have been fighting for their freedom and security for over three years now,” he wrote on X after what he said were calls with Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Starmer. “Europeans will also necessarily be part of the solution, as their own security is at stake.”
‘Clear steps needed’
Zelensky has made a flurry of calls with Ukraine’s allies since Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit to Moscow on Wednesday which Trump described as having achieved “great progress.”“Clear steps are needed, as well as maximum coordination between us and our partners,” Zelensky said in a post on X earlier on Saturday. Ukraine and the European Union have pushed back on proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what Moscow called threats to Russia’s security from a Ukrainian pivot toward the West. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab. Moscow has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions and Russia has demanded that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts of all four of them that they still control. Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia’s Kursk region a year after its troops crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations. Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, described the current peace push as “the first more or less realistic attempt to stop the war.”“At the same time, I remain extremely skeptical about the implementation of the agreements, even if a truce is reached for a while. And there is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine,” she said. Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1,000-km (620-mile) front line along eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country’s territory.
Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine’s east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say. Ukrainians remain defiant. “Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories,” Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on August 09-10/2025
Iran's Regime Is Plotting Its Comeback — Do Not Let It Happen
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute./August 09/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/08/146089/
Iran's regime is built on the belief that it must export its revolutionary Islamist vision, overthrow secular governments, and unify the Muslim world under a single Shiite Islamist state. This project is its purpose. It is what gives the Islamic Republic of Iran its identity. Its constitution enshrines that vision, and its institutions — from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to its intelligence services — are structured around advancing this goal.
A regime built on these foundations does not abandon its mission when it suffers setbacks. It adapts, regroups and strikes again when the world is distracted or divided. It is important not misread its current weakness as evidence of defeat.
This danger is not limited to the Middle East. It is now reaching deep into Europe and North America. Recently, the United States, joined by thirteen NATO members and Austria, issued a joint statement accusing Iran of carrying out a growing number of plots on Western soil.... The goal is clear: to silence critics, spread fear and expand Iran's ability to operate with impunity on foreign soil.
Iran is not a normal country acting in pursuit of its people's national interest. It is a fundamentalist theocratic regime committed to conquest. It thrives on conflict. Every dollar that flows into its coffers is a dollar that funds terrorism. Every embassy it maintains abroad is a potential command post for espionage and assassination. Every day the West relaxes its vigilance is a day the Iranian regime uses to regroup and retaliate. That is why the international community must stay united and focused — not just on holding Iran to account for past behavior, but on thwarting its future plots.
Iran must not be allowed to rearm under this regime. It must not be allowed to continue its campaign of terror. This objective means keeping "maximum pressure" in place. It means cutting off Iran's oil exports. It means denying it access to the global economy. It means shutting down its diplomatic outposts, which serve as centers of espionage. It means reimposing UN sanctions and enforcing them without compromise.
The world cannot afford another mirage of Iranian "reform" or "moderation." Iran is rebuilding its war machine. The mission to stop it must continue, relentlessly and without apology.
Iran's regime is built on the belief that it must export its revolutionary Islamist vision, overthrow secular governments, and unify the Muslim world under a single Shiite Islamist state. Its constitution enshrines that vision, and its institutions are structured around advancing this goal.
The Iranian regime does not think in terms of four-year election cycles or short-term political wins. It thinks in decades and acts on long-term strategic objectives. Its leadership, unelected, is essentially permanent. Iran is ruled by a Supreme Leader, who occupies the office for life, and by a military and clerical elite who are driven not by pragmatism but by an Islamist revolutionary ideology.
Over the past 46 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has become a primary source of instability in the Middle East, a hub of global terrorism, and a headache for Western democracies. The Iranian regime's survival has been the result of relentless ideological focus, brutal repression, and an ability to exploit the weaknesses and short-term thinking of its adversaries.
Recently, the regime suffered a significant blow. Israeli and American strikes hit Iran's nuclear infrastructure and proxy leadership networks with devastating precision. Iran's leadership is bruised and its capabilities degraded, but this circumstance should not lull us into a false sense of security.
The damage, while significant, is not permanent. The West must resist the temptation to see this as the beginning of the end for Iran's radical regime. Rather than force the mullahs into submission, the damage is likely to fuel a desire for revenge. The regime responds to perceived humiliations with long-term, carefully-planned vengeance. This revenge may not come tomorrow or next month — it will be calculated, methodical and likely deadlier than anything seen before, including the murderous October 7, 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, the downing of civilian airliners, or the murder of hundreds of U.S. soldiers by Iran-backed militias in Lebanon, Syria or Iraq.
To believe that the Iranian regime has learned its lesson is to engage in wishful thinking — just a Western psychological projection that mistakes tactical restraint for ideological reform. Iran's regime is built on the belief that it must export its revolutionary Islamist vision, overthrow secular governments, and unify the Muslim world under a single Shiite Islamist state. This project is its purpose. It is what gives the Islamic Republic of Iran its identity. Its constitution enshrines that vision, and its institutions — from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to its intelligence services — are structured around advancing this goal.
A regime built on these foundations does not abandon its mission when it suffers setbacks. It adapts, regroups and strikes again when the world is distracted or divided. It is important not misread its current weakness as evidence of defeat. It is more likely a prelude to escalation.
This danger is not limited to the Middle East. It is now reaching deep into Europe and North America. Recently, the United States, joined by thirteen NATO members and Austria, issued a joint statement accusing Iran of carrying out a growing number of plots on Western soil. The statement condemned Iran's intelligence agencies for attempting to kill, kidnap and harass individuals in Europe and North America, in direct violation of national sovereignty. The statement warned that Iranian operatives are cooperating with transnational criminal organizations to carry out acts of violence and intimidation. The targets are not only Iranian dissidents and exiled political activists, but also journalists, Jewish citizens, and even former and current officials. The goal is clear: to silence critics, spread fear and expand Iran's ability to operate with impunity on foreign soil.
The Iranian regime's growing campaign of terror is a sharp reminder that it does not recognize limits — not national borders, not international law, and not diplomacy. The regime continues to run its embassies and consulates abroad like outposts for intelligence operations. Its diplomats, in many instances, are nothing more than agents facilitating the regime's foreign operations. Those undoubtedly include tracking and monitoring dissidents, plotting assassinations, and organizing campaigns of propaganda and money-laundering. Western intelligence agencies have already thwarted countless plots in countries such as France. Each successful disruption, however, is also a signal of the scale of the threat. If even a fraction of these plots were to succeed, the consequences would be devastating. This is no time to become complacent.
In response to the growing threat, under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, the United States has rightly reimposed and expanded its "maximum pressure" campaign: sweeping new sanctions aimed at crippling the Iran's financial and military capabilities. One of the most significant moves came on July 30, 2025, when the U.S. Treasury imposed the largest single package of sanctions against Iran since 2018. This round of sanctions targeted more than 115 vessels, companies and individuals, involved in an elaborate oil-smuggling network run by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, a senior regime insider. That network has played a key role in exporting oil to China and laundering billions of dollars back to Tehran— funds that are then used to fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorists and proxy militias across the region.
The effort to bring Iran's oil exports down to zero must continue with full force. The regime's lifeline is oil; China remains its most important customer. While it may be difficult to get Beijing to cooperate fully, targeted diplomatic and economic pressure on Chinese firms and shipping companies, and especially secondary sanctions on countries that do business with them, can significantly curtail the flow of Iranian crude. The Trump administration proved during its first term that when sanctions are enforced strictly and secondary sanctions used effectively, even countries such as China will reduce their purchases. What is needed now is the political will to deny Iran access to global energy markets, seize illicit oil shipments, and penalize any country or company that facilitates Iran's oil exports.
Europe, too, has a critical role to play. European countries have long maintained diplomatic and economic relations with Iran, which uses its embassies as command centers for espionage and terrorism. If Europe is serious about defending its citizens and its sovereignty, it needs finally to take decisive action. This means suspending diplomatic relations, expelling Iranian diplomats, and shutting down all front organizations tied to the Iran. It also means ending trade: it only benefits Iran's military and intelligence sectors.
One of the most important tools for the international community is the United Nations mechanism of "snapback" sanctions. That provision, embedded in the original 2015 "nuclear deal" (JCPOA), allows for the automatic reimposition of all UN sanctions if Iran is found to be in violation of its commitments. This mechanism is set to expire on October 18, 2025, and Iran is racing to outlast the deadline. If snapback sanctions are not reimposed now, Iran will have succeeded in outmaneuvering the international community once again. European powers must act by triggering the mechanism.
Iran is not a normal country acting in pursuit of its people's national interest. It is a fundamentalist theocratic regime committed to conquest. It thrives on conflict. Every dollar that flows into its coffers is a dollar that funds terrorism. Every embassy it maintains abroad is a potential command post for espionage and assassination. Every day the West relaxes its vigilance is a day the Iranian regime uses to regroup and retaliate. That is why the international community must stay united and focused — not just on holding Iran to account for past behavior, but on thwarting its future plots.
Iran must not be allowed to rearm under this regime. It must not be allowed to continue its campaign of terror. This objective means keeping "maximum pressure" in place. It means cutting off Iran's oil exports. It means denying it access to the global economy. It means shutting down its diplomatic outposts, which serve as centers of espionage. It means reimposing UN sanctions and enforcing them without compromise.
The world cannot afford another mirage of Iranian "reform" or "moderation." Iran is rebuilding its war machine. The mission to stop it must continue, relentlessly and without apology.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu
**Follow Majid Rafizadeh on X (formerly Twitter)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21821/iran-plotting-comeback
© 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.

Halimah Returned to Her Old Habits
Ravid Yair- Abu Daoud/Ynetnews/August 09/ 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/08/146123/
(Translated from Hebrew)
The saying “Halimah returned to her old habits” perfectly fits Lebanon’s latest political theater. The government is once again “debating” the disarmament of Hezbollah, the dismantling of its private army, and its supposed transformation into a normal political party. On paper, the idea enjoys support from across Lebanon’s sects and parties. In reality, Hezbollah’s answer is a flat, contemptuous “No.” The organization refuses even to discuss it—because in Hezbollah’s worldview, the Lebanese state exists to serve it, not the other way around.
This sudden talk of disarmament is not random. It comes only after Hezbollah and its master, the Iranian regime, suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Israel. Iran, now busy licking its own wounds and repairing the devastating damage from IDF strikes, will not waste resources trying to rebuild its Lebanese militia—its “day of reckoning” weapon that failed miserably in battle. And with Israel’s intelligence and military vigilance blocking every attempt by Hezbollah to regroup, the so-called “Resistance” is left with nothing to show but body bags and rubble.
Even crippled, Hezbollah remains Lebanon’s most powerful armed force—better equipped, better trained, and more battle-hardened than the official Lebanese Armed Forces. The high proportion of Shiite officers and soldiers in the army further tilts the balance. In any real confrontation between the army and Hezbollah, the chain of loyalty is clear, and it does not lead to the Lebanese state. The Christian military power that once acted as a counterweight has long vanished, leaving no deterrent.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah clings to its dominance in politics as tightly as it clings to its weapons. It will not surrender its control over Lebanon’s strategic decisions, whether domestic or foreign. The government ministries and budgets it drains are just the gravy; the real prize is total veto power over the country’s future.
And yet, there are still those among Lebanon’s Christians who dream of an Israeli rescue. As someone who worked with the Christians of southern Lebanon and the Phalange in 1976, I must say: abandon these illusions. Israel no longer has an Ariel Sharon, nor Mossad operatives from the “Tebel” unit spinning fantasies about a “new order in Lebanon” under a friendly president who would sign a separate peace. That era is dead.
Even France, once romanticized by Lebanese Christians as the “merciful mother” (al-umm al-ḥanūna) who would ride to their rescue, has in their eyes become a cynical trader—selling influence to the highest bidder, with no sentiment left for the Lebanese cause.
Let’s be honest: Lebanon does not do decisive action. It does endless “dialogue” and “consultations,” often in luxurious foreign hotels, while the real issues rot. Talks on Hezbollah’s weapons will drag on for months, maybe years—bouncing between Beirut, Riyadh, and Paris—until they produce some ridiculous “compromise” like a national decree on water conservation. That will be sold to the public as a grand achievement “restoring national unity.”
I’ve seen this play before. In 1983, when I headed the Mossad’s operational station in Beirut, the city was on fire from constant shelling. Yet the parliament and government never convened—until one day, they suddenly met “to take fateful decisions to save the country.” After ten hours of speeches, their unanimous resolution was… to require health warnings on cigarette packs.
That’s how Lebanon tackles existential threats. And if the disarmament talks fail entirely, they will do what they’ve always done: blame the Italians.
Why the Italians? Because they’re far away, and nobody will bother to check. In Lebanon, whenever disaster strikes and no one dares take responsibility, the reflex is automatic: al-ḥaqq ʿala al-Ṭalyān—“It’s the Italians’ fault.”

The Frenchman who Challenged Marx
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/09 August/2025
Even long after Deng Xiaoping had led China out of the Marxist impasse created by Mao Zedong, official discourse was always centered on the letter P for Proletariat. The leadership emphasized its legitimacy with reference to the working class that is to say producer in supply side economics. From that angle the producer of surplus value was the focus of economic policy. In his latest interventions in public debate, however, Chinese President Xi Jinping has introduced a new letter, C for consumer. He has emphasized the need to prioritize the interests of the consumer in shaping the economic strategy of the People’s Republic.The switch from P to C reflects the dramatic changes China has experienced in its emergence as a modern global economic powder. Twenty years ago the Chinese were producers, supplying the world with inexpensive products that most citizens of the People’s Republic couldn’t afford. Today, however, China has the second largest consumers market after the United States and is set to surpass it in consumer purchasing power parity (ppp).
While the producer was the focus of policy, it was assumed that improvements in living standards could come only with rising wages and salaries. But taking that route was bound to deprive China of one of its comparative advantages, cheap labor. Rising wages and salaries would make Chinese goods and services more expensive and thus lead to loss or shrinkage of its export markets. It seems that while Chinese economists were looking for other options they run into a semi-forgotten 19th century French economist who challenged the rising
tide of Marxian economics in his time and its emphasis on the producer of surplus value, that is to say the working class.
The rediscovered French challenger to Marx is Frederic Bastiat whose book “Seen and Unseen” was translated into Chinese in 2014 and, according to best information, sold millions of copies. That was followed by the translation of a collection of speeches that Bastiat had made in his stint as member of the French National Assembly.
It is likely that President Xi got hold of Bastiat’s book a decade earlier he and other Chinese leaders had discovered German Carl Schmitt’s treatise on politics.
Schmitt thought Xi about how a state wins legitimacy through success in imposing discipline, ensuring security, offering prosperity and curbing corruption.
For his part, Bastiat taught three things: reducing the state machinery to its smallest size possible, thus allowing the energies of the so called civil society to play a bigger part.
While Marxian economists preached centralized planning and greater state expenditure, Bastiat showed that the most successful states created by the industrial revolution managed to keep the share of the gross domestic product (GDP) controlled by the state to a minimum.
The next thesis Bastiat advanced was that improving the living standards of citizens cannot come only from raising wages and salaries because that could lead to rising prices through inflation and produce the opposite result. He showed that more than 60 percent of improvements in living standards in Western European industrialized nations in the 19th century came through lowering prices rather that rising wages.
That suggestion led to Bastiat’s biggest thesis: the surest way to better lives for all mankind is free trade in a system of market economy.
If lower prices are the key to prosperity, producers would need more consumers, that is to say expanding markets which can foster mass production that brings down the costs. In other words, expand the demand and Bob is your uncle.
In his signature satirical manner in which he argued his theses, Bastiat suggested that the government of the time, concerned with mass unemployment, instead of adopting protectionism should burn Paris down and then rebuild it by employing hundreds of thousands and creating an economic boom.
In its most radical form that thesis would translate into a no-tariffs policy. US President Donald Trump, obviously no fan of Bastiat, says he regards tariffs as the sweetest word in English vocabulary and is determined to dismantle as much of the structure erected by four decades of globalization as possible.
So we are witnessing an unusual spectacle , one in which the leader of a nation that first raised the flag of global free trade for decades facing the leader of another nation based on Marxian theories of command economics as opponent and supporter of Bastiat’s no-tariffs doctrine. Needless to say, the Bastiat system, though he would have ejected such a phrase, is anti-protectionist. That the Chinese leaders have discovered Bastiat, the opposite of their former idol Marx is good news for both China and the world. However, it would be wrong to transform Bastiatism, if one could coin such a shibboleth, into a dogma would be wrong.
Much of what Bastiat asserts in support of free markets, comparative advantage, low tariff, no protectionism and putting the consumer before the producer is present in Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” and Richard Cobden’s “The Big Loaf”.
More importantly, Bastiat was not familiar with the modern state structures that have transformed Hobbes’s “Leviathan” into a regulating machine in the service of special interests, fashionable ideologies, and the cult of the imaginary victim.
Bastiat didn’t win the debate even in mid-19th century France when “The Leviathan” was certainly not as all-controlling machine as is the Chinese state apparatus today.
The current war of tariffs pits Trump as a protectionist inspired by David Ricardo, not to say Karl Marx, against Xi Jinping who has discovered Adam Smith via Frederic Basiat. The duel shows that ideas too have a free market and could spread in different directions with different time-spans.

Brussels and Beijing can work together on climate transition
Emmanuel Guerin and Bernice Lee/Arab News/August 09, 2025
Earlier this year, the Chinese firm CATL, the world’s largest battery-maker, unveiled an electric-vehicle battery capable of delivering a remarkable 520 km of driving range after just five minutes of charging. The announcement came a month after BYD, China’s leading EV manufacturer, launched its own ultra-fast charging system. In solar, too, the numbers are staggering: Chinese firms can now produce over 1,200 GW of solar panels annually. These feats are a product of the global green-tech race, which China leads by a wide margin. Some frame this as a problem of Chinese oversupply. But another way of looking at it is that the rest of the world is not deploying these technologies fast enough. While China’s green-manufacturing engine is running at high speed, others are idling. Given this, Europe confronts a strategic choice. It can respond with defensive industrial policy: securing supply chains, raising tariffs, and futilely attempting to catch up. Or it can forge a shared competitiveness agenda, which will allow Brussels to use its strengths — rulemaking, coalition-building, and norm-setting — to shape the deployment environment, define standards, and guide green investment frameworks.
Despite the breakdown in ties between the EU and China in recent years, the idea of collaborating on clean trade and investment is not so far-fetched. The climate transition is the defining political and economic challenge of the 21st century. And on this front, the EU and China have become interdependent: If Europe pumps the brakes on decarbonization, Chinese assets could be stranded, whereas China could face retaliation if it refuses to collaborate or align with global norms. The question now is whether they can constructively shape their interdependence. Taking advantage of the narrow window for establishing a climate partnership requires a deal that promotes each government’s core economic interests. For the EU, that means reducing reliance on Chinese imports while moving up the value chain. For China, it means maintaining access to a high-value export market amid a shifting global trade environment. Success requires pragmatism on both sides.
Europe confronts a strategic choice
Whether the EU and China can cooperate effectively depends on several factors. First, they must reach an agreement on local-content requirements. The EU should target domestic production of at least 40 percent of green technologies by 2030 — not just low-paid assembly, but higher-value activities such as research and development — to create jobs and build resilience. Second, any partnership must open the door for joint ventures, which have helped China reach the technological frontier and are already emerging in the EU battery and automotive sectors. If correctly structured, such partnerships can drive mutual gains while building cooperation into long-term industrial strategies. Third, trade measures must be carefully calibrated. While the EU has imposed tariffs as high as 45.3 percent on Chinese EVs, import barriers alone cannot close competitiveness gaps. At best, they can complement more strategic policy efforts such as local-content rules and industrial partnerships. If poorly implemented, they could further weaken Europe’s technological position, rather than buying it time to catch up with China.
Fourth, there is a need for structured mobility schemes. Some EU member states have begun restricting visas for Chinese engineers. This is short-sighted. Enabling European firms to host Chinese talent and vice versa would ensure that R&D and design, not just final assembly, occur in Europe.
Ultimately, finding a way to collaborate on decarbonization efforts would yield economic and geopolitical dividends for both sides. Collaboration with China would strengthen the EU’s resilience, bolster its industrial sector, and cement the bloc as a leader in clean tech. China would be able to offload surplus green goods; secure market access; and signal to the world that while the US is retreating from climate action, it remains dedicated to green growth.
The EU and China are more aligned than many realize. Both are net fossil-fuel importers. Both are major producers of zero-carbon technologies, and thus have an interest in sustaining global demand for green products. And, amid growing uncertainty, both have bet on the energy transition as the most viable path to competitiveness and innovation.
Both have wagered their future on green growth
This window of opportunity will not stay open forever. As scientific and political timelines converge, the coming months are critical to keep the world on track to meet the Paris climate agreement’s 1.5 C goal. The recent EU-China Summit laid the groundwork for closer cooperation on decarbonization. But, as pressure mounts to submit 2035 climate targets ahead of November’s UN Climate Change Conference in Belem, the next meeting of the Council of the EU in September, under the Danish presidency, will be pivotal.
With many European countries, most notably France, pushing for a clearer industrial and investment plan before committing to a strong 2035 emissions-reduction target, EU heads of state and government must devise a framework for transforming industry at the September meeting. An important part of that plan will be how the bloc engages with China. By coalescing around the belief that the new must be built before the old can be phased out, Europe is starting to follow China’s strategy. But to do so, it must also learn from China’s coherent and systematic execution, which centers on long-term planning across the entire clean-tech value chain.China, too, must step up with an ambitious 2035 emissions target that is aligned with its 2060 net-zero goal — meaning a roughly 30 percent reduction from peak emissions, which are expected to be reached this decade. This would bolster its international credibility and help create space for a strong EU target. Both Europe and China have wagered their future on green growth. To make it a winning bet, and capture the full benefits of decarbonization, they must find common cause on clean trade and investment — one of the few areas where strategic self-interest and global public goods still converge.
• Emmanuel Guerin is a fellow and Special Adviser to the CEO at the European Climate Foundation.
• Bernice Lee is a distinguished fellow and Special Adviser at Chatham House.
©Project Syndicate

G7 under growing scrutiny on its big birthday
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/August 09, 2025
The international relations landscape this summer has been unusually busy — from the Trump tariffs to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Yet, underneath the global radar screen, one of the world’s longest-standing institutions, the G7, has celebrated the half-century of its founding. While the G7 has its critics, in many respects it has been a successful institution during the five decades since the club’s first summit in 1975. Alongside other bodies, including NATO, it has helped underpin in the post-1945 era one of the longest periods of sustained peace in the West’s modern history.
However, in the period since at least Donald Trump’s first US presidency from 2017 to 2021, tensions within the club have become more apparent, giving rise to the moniker of the “G6 plus 1.”This was shown in 2018 when Canada hosted a hugely disruptive, tumultuous year of G7 diplomacy. In June that year at the club’s leadership summit, Trump refused to endorse the end of summit G7 communique, and called for Russia’s re-entry into the club of advanced industrial democracies when it was the G8. Yet, other G7 members are opposed to this. So, there is little sign that Moscow, which joined the G8 summits from 1997 to 2014, will be invited back into the club while Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in office.
Burden sharing has long been a sore spot
On a range of issues from trade to climate change, the US is dividing from key Western partners at a time of significant geopolitical and international economic turbulence. While these fissures within the G7 did not begin with Trump, they have been exacerbated by his presidencies. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there have been a series of intra-Western disagreements over issues ranging from the Middle East, including the Iraq War opposed in 2003 by France and Germany, through to the rise of China, with some European powers and the US disagreeing over the best way to engage the rising superpower.
There have been disputes over burden sharing, which has long been a sore spot, not least as the US has paid for about two-thirds of total NATO defense spending. US presidents other than Trump have previously urged all NATO allies to boost military expenditure.
Yet, despite occasional discord, key Western nations generally continued to agree around a broad range of issues until the Trump presidency. These include international trade under the WTO rules-based system; backing for a Middle Eastern peace process between Israel and the Palestinians along the so-called Oslo Accords from 1993; plus strong support for the international rules-based system and the supranational organizations that make this work. Today, however, more of these key principles are being disrupted during Trump’s second term, which, if anything, is more disruptive than his first presidency. This includes trade tariffs, where the US is at odds with all of its G7 partners: Canada, the UK, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy. In the midst of this important change, the G7 has also evolved as an organization. Its original mandate in the 1970s was to monitor developments in the world economy and assess macroeconomic policies.
Trump’s presidencies have widened divisions
However, it has become a key security lynchpin over time. At the recent G7 meeting, for instance, geopolitical topics included Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security; regional peace and stability in the Middle East; cooperation to increase security and resilience across the Asia-Pacific region; building stability and resilience in Haiti and Venezuela; supporting enduring peace in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and strengthening sanctions and countering hybrid warfare and sabotage. To be sure, economic issues were also on the agenda, but these often are shaped nowadays by security issues and are geoeconomic in nature. This included building energy security and accelerating the digital transition, including fortifying critical mineral supply chains. This agenda has come to higher prominence since Moscow’s military invasion of Ukraine in 2022 which exposed the huge reliance of Europe, in particular, on Russian energy. Since then, there has been an intensified emphasis by advanced industrialized economies to diversify dependence for raw materials driving a recent series of major trade deals, including the EU-Mercosur agreement. Reflecting this global focus, a wider range of world leaders have been invited to summits in recent years. Other attendees at this year’s G7 forum included Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, and India Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The G7’s involvement in this multitude of geopolitical dialogues is not without controversy given its original macroeconomic mandate. For instance, Beijing strongly objects to G7 discussion of security issues in Asia, let alone internal issues in China.
It is sometimes asserted, especially by non-Western countries, that the G7 lacks the legitimacy of the UN to engage in these international security issues, and/or is a historical artefact given the rise of new powers, including China. However, it is not the case that the international security role of the G7 is new.
An early example of the lynchpin function the body has played here was in the 1970s and 1980s when it helped coordinate Western strategy toward the Soviet Union. Moreover, following the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the then G8, including Russia, assumed a key role in the US-led “campaign against terrorism.”Taken together, the G7 can claim some big successes on its 50th birthday, despite the splits within the club. While some of these pre-date Trump, his presidencies have widened these divisions into what have become the largest strains in the G7’s long history.
• Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

Libya: How to govern around fragmentation
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/August 09, 2025
Libya has since become a brutal case study in the consequences of institutional and governance collapse. The 2011 rebellion shattered Muammar Qaddafi’s hyper-centralized state but failed to replace it with a functional alternative. Instead, the international community’s fixation on centralized power-sharing deals with warlords and loose militia coalitions continues to neglect the crucial work of subnational institution-building. Thirteen years of political limbo have not yielded a single coherent local governance framework, enabling parallel power structures to metastasize. To date, Libya remains split between the Tripoli-based, UN-recognized Government of National Unity and a rogue eastern fiefdom dominated by the warlord Khalifa Haftar and his sons. These, in turn, also compete with more than 100 autonomous militias, including tribal-affiliated groups exploiting administrative vacuums.
A conspicuous absence of well-defined, legally enforceable administrative boundaries is the principal accelerant. Law 59 of 2012 envisaged governorates as intermediaries between municipalities and the state, but zero have been operationalized. Proposed maps, like the Government of National Unity’s 2022 blueprint for 19 provinces, remain theoretical amid venomous disputes over territorial jurisdiction. Meanwhile, tribal councils fill service-delivery voids in regions like Fezzan, where public structures have simply vanished. Elsewhere, municipalities consequently shoulder functions spanning healthcare, policing and infrastructure without budgets or coordination mechanisms, resulting in woeful outcomes such as crippled hospitals and extremely high dropout rates in schools. Such an operational vacuum is now fueling resource predation as local factions continue to seize parts of Libya’s petroleum sector.
Tribal and militia leaders have also become adept at exploiting institutional ambiguity, converting geographic influence into lucrative monopolies. Illicit economies and networks are now generating sums close to one-tenth of Libya’s pre-2011 gross domestic product via ports and desert crossings administered by de facto warlords. At the same time, boundary disputes between Zintan and Gharyan municipalities have frozen $120 million in reconstruction funds for three years.
Such paralysis is not incidental; it is structural.
The persistent failure to establish legitimate subnational governance structures, particularly resolving the question of administrative boundaries, entrenches division and dims prospects for a unified, sovereign state. Delaying the resolution of this cartographic standoff means that Libya’s fragmentation risks becoming irreversible at the cost of more than 2 million Libyans who require humanitarian aid in a country that once boasted high life expectancy, literacy rates and per capita income. There is some precedence to the depth of the challenge Libya faces now. The country’s territorial administration has always been unstable, from the Ottoman sanjaks designed for tax extraction, to Italy’s colonial divisions, to King Idris’ short-lived federal experiment (1951-1963) balancing Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan. Qaddafi’s 1969 coup replaced provinces with “people’s districts,” eviscerating local capacity. Post-Qaddafi, the 2012 Local Administration Law envisioned governorates, municipalities and sub-municipal tiers, yet the critical governorate level remains non-existent. This absence cripples coordination on regional transport, resource management and security, overburdening a weak central authority and leaving municipalities isolated.
Current proposals for administrative boundaries reveal crippling tensions.
Advocates of three regions (Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, Fezzan) invoke historical legitimacy but ignore perilous realities. Similar “federalizations” around the world with minimal regional units, e.g. Bosnia (two entities), Comoros (three) and Pakistan (1973: four) all exhibit chronic instability. In addition, Nigeria’s post-independence shift from three to 36 states deliberately diluted ethnic domination. Libya’s three-region model risks entrenching the very divisions that fueled past civil strife: Fears of secessionism, resource-hoarding by dominant cities like Benghazi or Misrata, and the marginalization of smaller tribes within macro-regions. Alternative frameworks, for instance, 12 provinces or 13 units based on electoral districts, aim for balance but face legitimacy deficits. Electoral districts, drawn for technical convenience, often ignore deep-seated tribal animosities or socioeconomic ties. Proposals for “economic regions” coordinating multiple governorates require robust planning institutions and fiscal autonomy that Libya lacks. Crucially, all models stumble on the core political schism: Federalists demanding regional autonomy vs. centralists fearing state fracture. This deadlock paralyzes reforms while illicit economies flourish; fuel-smuggling alone generates at least half a billion annually for militias, entrenching rule-by-gun-barrel.
However, there is still some hope yet.
South Africa’s post-apartheid boundary delimitation offers curious parallels. Facing similar risks of ethnic polarization, it established a technocratic Commission on Demarcation and Delimitation guided by clear criteria: Historical boundaries, economic viability, infrastructure and cultural realities.
Crucially, it embedded this within a Multi-Party Negotiating Forum, separating technical work from political bargaining. Four months of consultations yielded 780 written submissions and 157 oral testimonies, with hearings translated into 11 languages. The result: Nine provinces replacing apartheid’s racial Bantustans, validated through inclusive participation.
Libya’s path demands a similarly structured process, not just a map.
A boundary commission must integrate multidisciplinary expertise, such as demographers to quantify population distributions, economists to model resource allocation and geographers to assess topographical constraints, as seen with South Africa’s commission, which included 16 specialists across seven fields. Crucially, such a body must derive its mandate from an inclusive political forum representing Libya’s fragmented power centers, ensuring decisions reflect negotiated consensus rather than unilateral imposition.
Historical continuities must be weighed alongside contemporary realities: Tribal land claims governing 65 percent of southern territories, hydrocarbon reserves concentrated in three basins and population disparities where Tripoli hosts 2 million residents while southern municipalities average 30,000. Resource distribution formulas must be codified to prevent rent-seeking, particularly given Libya’s lucrative oil revenues. Public consultations require robust methodologies, not tokenism. Besides, imposing boundaries without tribal and community buy-in guarantees rebellion. Yet Libya’s context demands added safeguards: Independent dispute-resolution mechanisms and explicit rejection of referendums, which magnify polarization in fractured societies. Lastly, dispute resolution necessitates permanent architecture. Nigeria’s National Boundary Commission, operational since 1987, offers a template: A neutral technical body empowered to adjudicate inter-provincial conflicts and manage cross-boundary resources. However, in Libya, where 40 percent of proposed boundaries overlap with militia territories, such a commission will require authority to deploy verification teams and impose binding arbitration, backed by international guarantors to prevent politicization. A tall order, given the current context, but the cost of inaction escalates daily. Libya’s chief export — oil, remains hostage to blockades by armed groups, even as 1.5 million people lack healthcare access, while municipalities, starved of funds and authority, cannot provide basic services. Each year of fragmentation deepens kleptocratic networks, radicalizes marginalized populations and erodes faith in public institutions.
Strangely, the 2011 rebellion demanded dignity and equitable development. Redrawing administrative boundaries should therefore not be a mere cartography exercise but the very foundation for dismantling militias, redistributing resources and rebuilding social contracts.
Without this, Libya’s sovereignty will remain a fiction sustained only by foreign patrons and kleptocrats.
• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and program director at the Stimson Center and senior fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies. X: @HafedAlGhwell

Selected tweets for 09 August/2025
Zéna Mansour
The abduction of 81 DRZwomen by terrorist militias constitutes a violation of HRights& Int Law.The Int Com must take action to secure their release safety dignity. This includes DIPL efforts with regional countries sponsoring militias &UN involvement to monitor their well-being.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
The Islamist Ottoman Empire was so successful that your Christian grandfather fled to the New World for a better life.Enjoy the Bosphorus, but please leave history alone.
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Ambassador Tom Barrack
In rapture in Bebek - modern culture on the ancient and enchanting Bosphorus. The currents and the civilization flow together as a steadfast connection between continents, politics, religions, and dreams.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
@hahussain
This preservation is unintentional. Given the chance, most people would emulate a Western lifestyle. To compensate for failing to achieve a Western standard, they pretend to reject it and revive their own culture as an alternative. The act is a sham.