English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For August 22/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
lccc Site
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2025/english.August22.25.htm
News Bulletin Achieves
Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Click On
The Below Link To Join Elias Bejjaninews whatsapp group
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FPF0N7lE5S484LNaSm0MjW
اضغط
على الرابط في
أعلى للإنضمام
لكروب
Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group
Elias Bejjani/Click
on the below link to subscribe to my youtube channel
الياس
بجاني/اضغط
على الرابط في
أسفل للإشتراك في
موقعي ع اليوتيوب
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOOSioLh1GE3C1hp63Camw
Bible Quotations For today
To whom much has been given, much will be
required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be
demanded.”
Luke 12/42-48: “The Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and
prudent manager whom his master will put in charge of his slaves, to give them
their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his
master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one
in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says to himself, “My master
is delayed in coming”, and if he begins to beat the other slaves, men and women,
and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day
when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut
him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful. That slave who knew what his
master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a
severe beating. But one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will
receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be
required; and from one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be
demanded.”."
Titles For The
Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on August 21-22/2025
A Series of
Heresies, Blasphemies, and Betrayals by the Inciter—Mufti Ahmad Qabalan/Elias
Bejjani/Augst 20/2025
Nabih Berri and the Heresy of Dialogue: A Fake Cover for the Iranian
Occupation/Elias Bejjani/August 18/2025
Link to a video report from the "Aura Union" Youtube Platform
Hezbollah Softens Tone after US Envoy Barrack’s Beirut Visit
Lebanese President asks UK to support UNIFIL mandate renewal by UN Security
Council
Lebanese troops collect first weapons surrendered in Palestinian camps
Palestinian camps in Lebanon to start disarming
Pope Leo’s first international trip could be to Lebanon, cardinal says
Israel says citizen released from Lebanon
Berri: How Can a Peacemaker Undermine His Own Efforts?
Arms and the State... The Shiite Gathering Between Two Discourses/Mustafa Fahs/Asharq
Al-Awsat/August 21, 2025
The Authority of the Two Legitimate Authorities Over the Camps/Asaad Bishara/Nidaa
Al Watan/August 22, 2025
From "Excess Power" to "Excess Impudence"/Jean Feghali/Nidaa Al Watan/August 22,
2025
Lebanon needs IMF for fiscal 'discipline' rather than $3bn loan, Carlos Ghosn
says
Expats can help fund country's rebuilding efforts, fugitive former auto
executive says Carlos Ghosn
On The New Tripartite Formula: Defeat, Isolation, and Collapse!/Hanna Saleh/Asharq
Al Awsat/21 August 2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on August 21-22/2025
UN warns situation in Syria remains fragile amid shaky ceasefire/Ephrem Kossaify/Arab
News/August 21, 2025
Syrian authorities ease roadblocks near Sweida ahead of possible reopening of
Damascus road/Khaled Yacoub Oweis/The National/August 21, 2025
Iran launches first major naval drill since 12-day war with Israel
Iran/Military exercise comes as fears of resumption in fighting increase
Gaza civilian death toll could be as high as 83%: Israeli data
Netanyahu approves Gaza City attack, orders hostage negotiations
Israel pounds Gaza City ahead of 'intolerable' new offensive
Facing troop shortage, Israeli army looks to deserters and the diaspora
UNRWA chief warns many malnourished children will die in Gaza City operation
Israel army calls on hospitals, aid groups in north Gaza to prepare for
evacuations
Two-state solution not a US priority: Ambassador Huckabee/Melinda Nucifora &
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/21 August/2025
Saudi Foreign Ministry accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza
Turkish ports asking ships to declare they are not linked to Israel, shipping
sources say
21 countries condemn Israel’s West Bank settlement project
Israel begins bombing Gaza City after expanded offensive gets green light
UNRWA chief warns many malnourished children will die in Gaza City operation
U.S. Imposes New Sanctions on Four ICC Officials
Iraqi Kurd court extends detention of opposition leader
Saudi Crown Prince, Egyptian president discuss regional developments
Ukrainian man arrested over Nord Stream pipeline attacks
UK Ministry of Defence admits 49 breaches of Afghans’ data
Titles For
The Latest English LCCC analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources
on August 21-22/2025
Blow after blow, losing ground: How Iran’s regional influence is
unravelling/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya English/20 August /2025
Turkey’s Neo-Ottoman Moment/Sinan Ciddi/The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune/August
21/2025
Donald Trump’s Tariffs Can Cripple Russia—If Done Right/Max Meizlish & Angela
Howard/The National Interest/August 21/2025
The single negotiation goal with Iran should be complete dismantlement of
nuclear program/Trump’s ultimatum to Tehran is clear: accept American terms or
face the consequences/Jacob Nagel &Mark Dubowitz/The Jerusalem Post/August
21/2025
Iran’s web of terror and propaganda: The case of Al Mustafa University/Dr.
Emanuele Ottolenghi/FDD's Long War Journal/August 21/2025
Do Not Be Fooled By Hamas's 'Positive Response'/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone
Institute/August 21/2025
Pope Leo’s first 100 days in office inspire hope/Mohamed Chebaro/Arab
News/August 21, 2025
Netanyahu’s plan to reoccupy Gaza is a deadly delusion/Hani Hazaimeh/Arab
News/August 21, 2025
Selected tweets for 21 August/2025
The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on August 21-22/2025
A Series of Heresies, Blasphemies, and Betrayals by
the Inciter—Mufti Ahmad Qabalan
Elias Bejjani/Augst 20/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/08/146478/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N99kYdAmdxA
It is no longer a secret to anyone that Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan, the “Supreme
Jaafari Mufti,” does not represent his religious denomination or his country. He
is merely a paid mouthpiece and instigator for Iran and its armed terrorist
group,blasphemously named “Hezbollah.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, he responded to Maronite
Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi’s interview with AlArabiya TV using provocative and
inflammatory language. He declared: “The weapons of Hezbollah and Amal are the
weapons of God, and no one can take them away.”
What kind of moral and religious decline is this? How can a religious leader who
receives his salary from the Lebanese state declare rebellion against it, its
constitution, and its decisions, turning the weapons of a foreign, Jihadi, and
terrorist militia into the "weapons of God"? Shouldn't he be a voice of unity
and peace, instead of a cheap instrument for Iran’s clerics?
A Comparison Between Patriarch Al-Rahi and the Instigator Mufti Qabalan
Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi clearly and unambiguously defined the national
position:
“The government’s decision is clear: all illegal weapons must be in the hands of
the state.”
“There is a decisive Lebanese consensus on implementing the decision to disarm
Hezbollah.”
“The members of the Shiite community are tired of war and want to live in
peace.”
“The army protects all Lebanese without discrimination.”
“Resistance is not about submitting to Iran’s dictates.”
“There is no objection to peace with Israel in the future when conditions are
appropriate.”
Meanwhile, the instigator Qabalan, instead of speaking with a language of
religion and unity, responded with arrogant superiority and a disgusting
fanaticism:
“Hezbollah’s weapon is God’s weapon.”
“Whoever wants Israel should go to live there.”
“There will be no peace with the killers of prophets.”
Who speaks for Lebanon? The Patriarch, who is guided by the constitution and
legitimacy, or the instigator who deifies the arsenal of Iran and its party?
Let's remind Mufti Qabalan: if peace with Israel is a crime, then why did Iran
itself negotiate with the "Great Satan," America? And why did "Hezbollah,"
through Nabih Berri, negotiate with American envoys and sign ceasefire
agreements with Israel—agreements that Hezbollah itself accepted after losing
the war and surrendering? Furthermore, why did Nabih Berri recognize Israel in
the agreement that he and Hezbollah brokered in 2022, the "Agreement on the
Delimitation of the Maritime Border between Lebanon and Israel," surrendering
Lebanese land and maritime waters?
Legitimacy Invalidates the Heresies of the Instigator Qabalan
The instigator Qabalan conveniently forgets that his claims are nullified by
several key agreements:
The Taif Agreement (1989): This called for the dissolution of all Lebanese and
non-Lebanese militias.
UN Resolution 1559 (2004): This explicitly called for the disarmament of all
armed groups in Lebanon.
UN Resolution 1701 (2006): This mandated an end to armed presence south of the
Litani River and restricted weapons to the state.
The Latest Ceasefire Agreement (2025): This clearly stipulated that all weapons
must be limited to the legitimate Lebanese forces—from the army to the smallest
municipal guard—and that any militia, particularly Hezbollah, must be disarmed.
By what right does Qabalan defy the constitution, government, and international
resolutions to grant a fake religious legitimacy to an illegal Iranian firearm?
A Reply to His False Slogan
Qabalan said defiantly: “Whoever wants peace with Israel should go to live
there.”
And we say to him: You, O instigator of Iran, should go to Tehran and take its
weapons with you.
Lebanon is a land of peace, not a land of perpetual war. Lebanon is a land of
coexistence, not a battlefield for proxy conflicts. Lebanon belongs to its
legitimate army, not to sectarian militias.
The Mask Falls Off
Ahmad Qabalan has never been a true mufti; he is an instigator who plants the
seeds of division between Christians and Muslims and among the Lebanese
themselves. With his culture, rhetoric, and actions, he is more Iranian than the
Iranians, raising Khamenei's flag above Lebanon's and legitimizing Hezbollah’s
occupation of the state’s decisions.
In contrast, the voice of Patriarch Al-Rahi is the true voice of Lebanon: for
sovereignty, the constitution, the Taif Agreement, international resolutions,
peace, and neutrality. Whoever desires otherwise should look for another
homeland besides Lebanon.
The fact remains that the Iranian terrorist and Jihadi "Hezbollah" has never
protected Lebanon. Instead, it has plunged it into futile wars that have
destroyed villages, killed young men, displaced families, and placed the
Lebanese, particularly the Shiite community, in a state of hostility with their
Arab surroundings and the international community. The weapon he claims is
“divine” is, in reality, a tool of Iranian occupation that uses the Lebanese as
fuel for battles that are none of their concern.
A Direct Call to the Esteemed Shiite Community
Dear brothers and sisters in the Shiite community: you are not hostages, and you
are not mere numbers in the project of "Wilayat al-Faqih." "Hezbollah" has
kidnapped you from your state, confiscated your decision-making, killed your
sons in wars that do not concern you, destroyed your regions, and involved you
in animosity with the entire world. The time has come for you to say: enough.
Free yourselves from this great prison that has been imposed on you in the name
of religion and false resistance. Your future and the future of your children
are contingent upon your return to the Lebanese state, to normal life, and to a
genuine partnership with all components of the nation.
Lebanon cannot be built with illegal weapons or Iranian ideological illusions,
but with peace, the constitution, and the sovereignty of a single, unified
state.
Nabih Berri and
the Heresy of Dialogue: A Fake Cover for the Iranian Occupation
Elias Bejjani/August 18/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/08/146411/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb2a8NKddKk
For decades, the Speaker of Parliament and head of the Amal Movement, Nabih
Berri, has been selling illusions to the Lebanese people under the banners of
“dialogue” and the so-called “defensive strategy,” as if the Constitution, the
Taif Agreement, and international resolutions were mere opinions or negotiable
papers. In reality, everything Berri does is nothing but a circumvention of the
law, an assault on the Constitution, and a blatant collusion with Hezbollah to
keep Lebanon hostage to illegal weapons and under Iranian tutelage.
Constitutional Heresies in the Name of Dialogue
All that is being called “dialogue” or a “defensive/national strategy” is
nothing but constitutional heresy. Its sole purpose is to jump over clear legal
texts and to justify the continued existence of Hezbollah’s weapons, its
parallel state, and its occupation of Lebanon. Sovereignty is not a matter of
negotiation but a binding duty of the state, one that cannot be subjected to
political bargaining or opportunistic deals.
Berri’s Empty Roundtables
The so-called national dialogue sessions presided over by Nabih Berri in 2006
are the clearest evidence: not a single clause was ever implemented. They turned
into a dull theatrical performance to waste time. President Michel Suleiman
followed the same path, launching a dialogue that ended with the Baabda
Declaration, only to see Hezbollah openly defy it. The group told Suleiman,
“Tear it up and drink its water,” before sending its militias into Syria to help
the criminal Bashar al-Assad massacre the Syrian people demanding freedom.
No Mention of Dialogue in Any Agreement
Neither the Taif Agreement, nor international resolutions 1559, 1701, and 1680,
nor even the most recent ceasefire agreement—signed by Nabih Berri himself with
Hezbollah’s approval to halt the war with Israel—contained a single mention of
“dialogue” or a “defensive strategy.” All of these agreements explicitly
affirmed that weapons must remain exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese
state. Berri signed these clauses, only to betray them later, hiding behind
false slogans to justify Hezbollah’s continued dominance.
No State With Hezbollah’s Weapons
There can be no independent, sovereign state that shares its decision-making in
war and peace with a militia or a party. The use of force must rest solely with
the state and its legitimate army. Any claim to the contrary is high treason and
an assault on national sovereignty.
Berri: Corruption and Betrayal of Sovereignty
Nabih Berri, who has dominated Parliament for decades, is the number one corrupt
politician and the ultimate protector of corruption. He prostituted the
Constitution, dismantled the pillars of the state, and turned it into a personal
fiefdom for himself and his cronies. In fact, he is a million times more
dangerous than Hezbollah, because he provided the group with the political,
legal, and parliamentary cover it needed. Anyone who describes him as “concerned
for the country” is either a fool who understands nothing, or a submissive
lackey who accepts humiliation.
No Legitimacy for Dialogue or Fake Strategies
Nabih Berri’s call for dialogue on disarming Hezbollah is rejected outright:
Because with a President of the Republic in place, Berri has no right to usurp
executive roles that do not belong to him.
Because enforcing the Constitution and the law is not a matter of “opinion” or a
negotiable item.
Because the legislative authority, which Berri chairs, has no executive power,
and any attempt to cross that line is a constitutional crime.
Conclusion
Anyone who boasts about dialogue or defensive strategies as a way to resolve the
issue of Hezbollah’s weapons is nothing but a traitor, a collaborator, and an
accomplice to the Iranian occupation against Lebanon. The Constitution is clear,
the international resolutions are even clearer, and the solution will never come
from new, futile dialogues, but from a sovereign and decisive decision that
enforces the state’s monopoly over arms and permanently dismantles Hezbollah’s
mini-state and Nabih Berri’s corrupt regime.
Hezbollah Softens Tone after US Envoy Barrack’s Beirut
Visit
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/21 August 2025
The Lebanese government’s decision to move toward ending the armed presence of
Hezbollah across the country has set off a heated political debate, with eyes
now on how Israel will respond following US-brokered talks in Beirut. US envoy
Tom Barrack met Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace this
week in what officials described as a constructive round of diplomacy. The envoy
conveyed that Beirut had taken the “first step” by pledging to disarm Hezbollah
by year’s end, and said Israel must now reciprocate within the framework of a
ceasefire. Hezbollah, which initially reacted with fiery rhetoric to the
government’s announcement, has notably toned down its messaging since Barrack’s
visit. The group has issued no fresh threats, while Mustafa Bayram, a former
minister aligned with Hezbollah, struck a more symbolic note on Wednesday,
saying the movement “will remain like a seed growing in the dark, destined to
blossom into spring.”
Kataeb Party Slams Hezbollah Rhetoric
The Kataeb Party lashed out at Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem, who recently
warned of civil war if the group’s weapons were challenged. Party leader Samy
Gemayel chaired a political bureau meeting that described Qassem’s remarks as a
“serious threat to national security and social peace.”Kataeb said Qassem’s
comments echoed those of senior Iranian official Ali Larijani, accusing
Hezbollah of prioritizing Tehran’s interests over Lebanon’s. The party
reaffirmed that only constitutional institutions had the authority to decide on
weapons, urging the army to present its operational plan for implementing the
government’s decision.
Lebanese Forces: Hezbollah’s Legitimacy Eroded
Fadi Karam, a lawmaker from the Lebanese Forces bloc, said Hezbollah had lost
any “legitimate cover” for its arsenal. He dismissed talk of internal strife,
arguing security forces were in control. “All this scaremongering is pressure to
prevent the army from executing government decisions,” he said, adding Hezbollah
had brought only “destruction” to Lebanon. Karam called for curbing Hezbollah’s
“ideological project” and stressed Lebanon must resist external ambitions,
whether from Israel or Iran. Bilal Abdallah of the Progressive Socialist Party
expressed strong backing for Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and his cabinet. He said
the government was committed to stability and implementing UN Security Council
Resolution 1701, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese
land, the return of detainees and an end to attacks and assassinations.
“Stability is a prerequisite for political consensus, investment and economic
recovery,” Abdallah said, while warning against personal attacks on Salam, who
he said enjoyed parliamentary legitimacy and significant national support.
Lebanese
President asks UK to support UNIFIL mandate renewal by UN Security Council
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/August 21, 2025
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday urged the UK to back
Lebanon’s request to the UN Security Council for the renewal of the mandate for
the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, the international peacekeeping force in the
south of the country.
He stressed the important role it plays in upholding the ceasefire agreement
with Israel and efforts to guarantee regional stability. He reaffirmed Lebanon’s
commitment to the continued presence of UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon and
told the British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamish Cowell, that he “attaches great
importance to the UK’s support for his position calling on the Security Council
to extend UNIFIL’s mandate, both to ensure the full implementation of Resolution
1701, and to enable the complete deployment of the Lebanese Army along Lebanon’s
internationally recognized borders.”
Resolution 1701 was adopted by the Security Council in 2006 with the aim of
resolving the conflict that year between Israel and Hezbollah. It calls for the
withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, the withdrawal of Hezbollah and other
forces from southern Lebanon, and the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed
groups.The Security Council will meet on Monday to discuss the annual extension
of UNIFIL’s mandate to assist in the deployment of the Lebanese Army in the
south, and work to ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces. The extension talks
this time differ from previous years as a result of major shifts on the ground,
including the occupation by Israeli forces of five strategic hills in southern
Lebanon during their recent ground offensive against Hezbollah.The ceasefire
agreement that halted this conflict, which called for the full withdrawal of
Hezbollah from areas south of the Litani River and the deployment of the
Lebanese Army there, also contributed to a decline in US support for UN efforts
in Lebanon, particularly UNIFIL. Cowell reaffirmed the UK’s support for Lebanon
during this critical period, including efforts to enhance stability and
strengthen the capabilities of the Lebanese Army.
The Security Council initially granted UNIFIL its mandate more than 47 years
ago, and it has been monitoring the situation along Lebanon’s volatile border
with Israel since the 1970s. The size of the force increased after the 2006 war
to about 10,000 peacekeepers from more than 47 countries. The assistant
secretary-general of the Arab League, Hossam Zaki met President Aoun and other
Lebanese officials during a visit to Beirut on Thursday.
Zaki said he conveyed the League’s support for recent moves by Lebanese
authorities to exert their authority over all Lebanese territory, and to
restrict possession of weapons to the state, noting that “such principles are
stipulated in Arab League resolutions, particularly the most recent resolution
issued at the Baghdad Summit a few months ago.”He called on the international
community to put pressure on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory it
occupies and refrain from any actions that violate Lebanese sovereignty.
“All relevant parties, particularly the US, have been informed, through
Ambassador Thomas Barrack, that what is now required is Israel’s commitment to
withdraw from the areas it occupies in southern Lebanon, return prisoners, and
fully implement Resolution 1701,” Zaki said. “Only then can the necessary
conditions be created for the Lebanese state to extend its sovereignty, through
its own armed forces, to all territories up to the internationally recognized
borders.”He also welcomed Lebanon’s commitment to the enforcement of exclusive
state control over weaponry in a manner that protects the interests of all
Lebanese citizens. Zaki addressed what he described as the ongoing “media
squabbling” in Lebanon over the efforts to ensure non-state groups surrender
their weapons, Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm and the group’s resultant threats
of unrest and civil war. He said the issue must be handled with caution, as “no
one wants to see the country slide into a situation with undesirable
consequences.”He also emphasized the need to restore stability and civil peace
in Lebanon, and to pursue policies that ensure the state sovereignty over all of
its territory.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is facing a campaign by Hezbollah
supporters who have accused him of treason over the call for Hezbollah and other
militias to disarm.
A banner with words “A collaborator has no sect and no religion” was raised
alongside a road in the Hermel area accusing him of working with Israel. It was
signed by “the clans and families of Hermel.”However, the “clans of Baalbek-Hermel”
subsequently issued a statement in which they said “banners that incite strife
do not represent our clans or our values.”
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi has also been accused of treason after he
said that “the resistance’s slogan has collapsed and the words of Hezbollah
Secretary-General Naim Qassem are political rhetoric.”MP Samy Gemayel, the
leader of the Kataeb Party, speaking after a meeting with Parliament Speaker
Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, said: “We condemn the accusations of treason
against our patriarch, which are unacceptable as they aim to undermine all
efforts for consensus and solutions, including those proposed by Berri through
his attempts to find common ground.”He also rejected “any marginalization of the
Shiite community, which must be a partner in building the new Lebanon.”In other
developments, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported that Lebanon
had returned an Israeli citizen, Saleh Abu-Hussein, who had been detained in
Lebanon for more than a year, to Israel through the Ras Al-Naqoura border
crossing. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The
return was carried out following negotiations with the help of the Red
Cross.”Security sources said Abu-Hussein is a Palestinian with Israeli
citizenship from the Rumana area of Galilee Region, who suffers from mental
health issues. “His family does not know how he arrived in Lebanon,” the sources
said. “He was detained in Lebanon in July last year after he entered Lebanese
territory and requested water, and was subsequently handed over to the Lebanese
General Security.”
Lebanese troops collect first weapons surrendered in
Palestinian camps
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/August 21, 2025
BEIRUT: Lebanese troops entered the Burj Al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut’s
southern suburbs late on Thursday and began collecting the first weapons
surrendered as part of a government move to disarm Palestinian factions. The
weapons handover is part of a broader disarmament push that follows a Lebanese
government decision, announced on Aug. 5, to limit possession of arms
exclusively to the state. It also follows an earlier meeting between Lebanese
President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, held on May 21 in
Beirut. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the start of the process, saying
that the initial handover of Palestinian weapons to the Lebanese Army marked an
important step. Additional batches will be transferred in coming weeks from Burj
Al-Barajneh and other camps, he added. Ramez Dimashqieh, head of the
government’s Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, described the operation as
“a handover based on lists prepared in advance by the Lebanese Army in
coordination with the Palestinian forces inside the camp.”
He told Arab News: “The Lebanese Army has prepared lists of the weapons present
in the camp, specifically heavy weapons, and the operation will take place in
phases and will not be completed in one day.” Dimashqieh said that “the weapons
being handed over (to the military) are not new weapons brought into the camps,
but have been present in the camp for a long time.” At the time of the weapons
handover, Hezbollah activists circulated claims on social media that the arms
surrendered in Burj Al-Barajneh camp “belonged to a defector from the Fatah
movement and had been brought into the camp two days earlier.” The Lebanese
Army’s Engineering Regiment examined the weapons before removing them. Ahead of
the transfer, army personnel told journalists gathered at the camp entrance to
leave the area. Dimashqieh said that the weapons will be held by the Lebanese
Army, with the crackdown eventually extending to other camps. Lebanon hosts 12
Palestinian refugee camps, spread across Beirut and its southern suburbs, the
Bekaa, the north, and the south. The largest is Ain Al-Hilweh, located in the
Sidon region.
In the past, the Lebanese Army has avoided entering the Palestinian camps,
instead dealing mainly with committees set up by Palestinian leaders. A
Palestinian official described “diverging views” among Palestinian forces in the
camps regarding the surrender of weapons, with factions allied with Hezbollah
opposing the handover. Ghassan Ayoub, a member of the leadership of the
Palestinian People’s Party in Lebanon, told Arab News: “This does not mean that
all Palestinian factions are not interested in reaching an understanding with
the Lebanese state. There is no barter process, but the Palestinians are
committed to obtaining human rights.” Thomas Barrack, US envoy to Lebanon and
Syria, praised the Palestinian weapons handover on Thursday night, describing it
as a “bold measure and a historic step toward unity and stability.” The previous
night, Lebanese Army Intelligence, in a targeted security operation inside the
Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel in Beirut, arrested Shadi Mahmoud Mustafa
Al-Far, a former Fatah official in the Burj Al-Barajneh camp. While it remains
unclear if the operation was linked to the weapons surrender on Thursday, a
Palestinian security source said Al-Far had been dismissed from Fatah more than
two months ago for violating the movement’s organizational decisions. A Lebanese
security source confirmed that Al-Far is “pursued by several Lebanese judicial
warrants.” Another Palestinian political source, who declined to be named,
described the weapons handover in Burj Al-Barajneh camp as a “step in the right
direction.” The source added: “There is a need to dismantle networks that have
emerged over 50 years, intersecting arms and drug trafficking, and implicated in
major corruption operations.” The weapons handover in the camp comes two days
after a delegation from the Palestinian Liaison Committee with the Lebanese
side, including Yasser Abbas, held talks decision-makers in Lebanon, including
political officials and officers in the Lebanese Army Command, the Palestinian
source said. “The delegation’s most prominent meeting was with Lebanese
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, who is negotiating on
behalf of the party with the US side regarding the implementation of the
ceasefire agreement,” the source said.
Palestinian camps in Lebanon to start disarming
AFP/August 21, 2025
BEIRUT: Armed Palestinian groups in refugee camps in Lebanon will start handing
over their weapons to the authorities on Thursday, a joint committee said,
following a deal reached in May. The announcement comes after the Lebanese
government also tasked the army with formulating a plan to disarm the militant
group Hezbollah by the end of the year. “Today marks the beginning of the first
phase of the process of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps,”
Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee chairman Ramez Dimashkieh said in a
statement. The process would begin with the Burj Al-Barajneh camp in Beirut,
where an initial batch of weapons would be placed in the custody of the Lebanese
army, Dimashkieh added. An AFP photojournalist saw dozens of fighters in
military fatigues holding Kalashnikov rifles as crowds gathered in front of the
Beirut headquarters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement. A
Palestinian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that “Fatah
will begin handing over its weapons in Burj Al-Barajneh camp within the
framework of the coordination with the Lebanese army.”Abbas visited Beirut in
May and reached an agreement with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that all arms
in Palestinian camps would be surrendered to the state.A Palestinian security
source at Burj Al-Barajneh camp said “Fatah’s initiative in beginning to hand
over weapons is symbolic, and came as a result of an agreement between Aoun and
the Palestinian president’s son, Yasser Abbas, who is currently visiting
Beirut.”It aims to “encourage the remaining (Palestinian armed) factions to take
the same step,” the source said, noting that the other influential factions in
the camp “have not yet decided to hand over their weapons.”The Palestinian
Authority does not exercise power over the remaining factions in the camps, most
notably Hamas. Lebanon has come under heavy US pressure to disarm Hamas’s ally
Hezbollah after the Iran-backed Lebanese movement was dealt a massive blow
during its war with Israel last year. That conflict was the culmination of a
year of hostilities launched by Hezbollah in support of Hamas after the
Palestinian group’s October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United
Nations agency UNRWA, with many living in overcrowded camps outside of the
state’s control.
Pope Leo’s first international trip could be to Lebanon,
cardinal says
Arab News/August 21, 2025
ROME: Pope Leo XIV is planning to visit Lebanon this year on his first foreign
visit, the country’s Catholic cardinal said, a trip that would give history’s
first American pope a chance to speak in broad terms about peace in the Middle
East and the plight of Christians there.
A visit to Lebanon could be the second leg of a planned visit to Turkiye at the
end of November to commemorate an important anniversary with the Orthodox
Church. Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, the patriarch of the Lebanese Maronite
faithful, told the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV that Leo “will visit Lebanon.”
“It’s unclear to be honest when he will visit, but he will visit anytime from
now until December,” the cardinal said when asked about a possible visit. “There
needs to be an agreement from the Vatican on when the visit will happen. But
there are preparations for the visit, but it’s unclear until the Vatican’s
announcement.”Leo, like his predecessor Pope Francis, has consistently called
for peace and dialogue in the Middle East, especially as Israel’s offensive
rages on in Gaza. The last pope to visit Lebanon was Pope Benedict XVI in
September 2012 on what was the last foreign trip of his papacy. A Vatican
spokesperson on Thursday declined to confirm or deny a trip by Leo. But word of
papal trips usually originates with the local church that will host the pope.
Pope Francis, who died on April 21, had long hoped to visit Lebanon, but the
country’s political and economic instability prevented a visit during his
lifetime.
The Mediterranean nation of around 6 million, including more than 1 million
Syrian and Palestinian refugees, has the largest percentage of Christians in the
Middle East and is the only Arab country with a Christian head of state.
However, the Vatican fears the country’s instability has been particularly
dangerous for the continued presence of its Christian community, a bulwark for
the church in the Mideast. Lebanon is currently struggling to recover after
years of economic crisis and a bruising war between Israel and the Lebanese
militant group Hezbollah that ended with a US and France-brokered ceasefire in
November. Formation of a new, reformist government in November ended a two-year
political vacuum and brought hopes of recovery but the situation remains
tense.Israel has continued to occupy five strategic points on the Lebanese side
of the border and carry out near-daily airstrikes that it says aim to stop
Hezbollah from regrouping. Hezbollah is under increasing domestic and
international pressure to give up its remaining arsenal but has refused to do so
until Israel withdraws and halts its strikes. There are fears of civil conflict
if Lebanese authorities attempt to forcibly disarm the group.About one-third of
Lebanon’s population is believed to be Christian, though there is no official
number since there hasn’t been an official census since 1932. The Maronites are
the largest and most powerful sect and, by convention, Lebanon’s president is
always a Maronite Christian. Leo is already expected to travel to Turkiye at the
end of November to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea,
Christianity’s first ecumenical council. It was a trip Francis had intended to
make in May. The Vatican has not confirmed the Turkiye trip, but Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s
Orthodox Christians and the host of the anniversary commemoration, has said Leo
told him he wants to go.
Israel says citizen released from Lebanon
Reuters/August 21, 2025
JERUSALEM: The Israeli prime minister's office said on Thursday that Israeli
citizen Saleh Abu-Hussein, who was detained in Lebanon for about a year,
returned to Israel following negotiations with the help of the Red Cross.The
office said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the citizen's
return. "This is a positive step and a sign of things to come," it wrote on
social media platform X. The prime minister's office did not disclose details on
the circumstances of the Abu-Hussein's detention.
Berri: How Can a
Peacemaker Undermine His Own Efforts?
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/21 August 2025
Lebanon’s top officials urged visiting US lawmakers on Wednesday to back the
Lebanese army and support the renewal of a UN peacekeeping force in the south,
while criticizing Washington’s stance on extending its mandate. President Joseph
Aoun told Senator Markwayne Mullin, a member of the US Senate Armed Services
Committee, that the army needed urgent support to carry out its duties,
particularly deploying along Lebanon’s southern border. He stressed that Beirut
rejects any attempt to cede territory and insists on “full, undiminished
sovereignty.”Aoun also called for Israel’s withdrawal from five occupied border
points, the release of Lebanese prisoners, an end to military operations, and
donor contributions for reconstruction to fully implement a US-backed plan.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who also met Mullin and a bipartisan delegation
accompanied by US Ambassador Lisa Johnson, sharply criticized Washington’s
opposition to renewing the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
“How can a mediator seeking to secure a ceasefire undermine its own efforts?”
Berri asked, pointing to US sponsorship of the November 2024 truce between
Lebanon and Israel.
Israel and the United States have both opposed a full one-year renewal of
UNIFIL’s mandate, arguing for a gradual drawdown. The force, created in 1978 and
expanded after the 2006 war under Security Council resolution 1701, currently
numbers more than 10,000 troops from some 50 countries. France has submitted a
draft resolution at the UN Security Council to extend the mandate for a year
before phasing it out. Berri accused Israel of repeatedly violating UN
resolutions with airstrikes and cross-border attacks, not only south of the
Litani River – where UNIFIL operates – but across Lebanon.
He said Washington was sending “mixed signals” by pressing Israel to respect the
ceasefire while opposing the peacekeepers tasked with monitoring it. The
Security Council debate comes amid US pressure on Beirut to disarm Hezbollah
before year-end as part of the ceasefire deal, with Israeli officials
threatening fresh military action if the Iran-backed group retains its arsenal.
US envoy Tom Perriello, who visited Beirut earlier this week, praised Lebanon’s
commitment to confining arms to the state, calling it “the first step” toward
implementing the truce, and urged Israel to take “a parallel step.”
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told the US delegation his government had adopted
reforms and was committed to asserting state control over weapons, but urged
Washington to press Israel to halt its strikes, withdraw from occupied border
points, and release Lebanese detainees.
Meanwhile, UNIFIL said peacekeepers, working with the Lebanese army, had
discovered a 50-meter tunnel and unexploded ordnance near the southern village
of Qusayr, which were handed over to the army in line with resolution 1701.
Israeli violations have persisted at a lower intensity, the force said.
Lebanon’s state news agency reported that Israeli drones flew over several
southern villages, while Israeli forces fired four flares into the Hermon area
near Yaroun and Rmeish, sparking brush fires.
Arms and the
State... The Shiite Gathering Between Two Discourses
Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 21, 2025
(Free translation from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani)
The elites of Shiite political Islam, along with cultural and ideological elites
in Lebanon and Iraq, are justifying their adherence to their weapons by what
they consider a strategic necessity to ward off existential threats. This
argument or pretext, which these elites are currently promoting within Shiite
gatherings in both countries, aims to link two dualities: the first, doctrine
and weapons, and the second, weapons and existence. In their battle to defend
weapons, they had two missions: the first, internal, to impose hegemony, and the
second, external, to strengthen Iranian influence. When the latter mission
suffered severe blows as a result of the repercussions of Operation Protective
Edge, these elites are making tremendous efforts to propagate a new narrative
about the role of weapons and link them to protection; that is, protecting the
2003 regime in Iraq and protecting the hegemony of the "Shiite duo" in Lebanon.
While the first narrative contradicts the nature of classical Shiite
jurisprudence (the seminary), which has succeeded for centuries in averting
dangers from followers of the Shiite sect, avoiding the use of the principle of
"violence for violence," especially during the Sultanate era, and is being
repeated by the Najaf authority during this period. Historians do not deny that
Shiites have been subjected to oppression, the establishment of the modern
nation-state in Lebanon (1920) and Iraq (1921), despite being founded on Ottoman
heritage, constituted the first independent national geography for Shiites in
both countries. Despite the grave errors in their founding, and the Shiites'
sense of marginalization, exclusion, and diminished rights, their social and
cognitive development, their gradual integration into the state and its
institutions, and dramatic events in both countries, led to the expansion of
their role. They even reached the peak of influence and dominance, benefiting
from their status as the majority in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein's
regime, and their expanded involvement in the state in Lebanon after the Taif
Agreement. The dilemma now is that the ruling Shiite political class in Iraq and
Lebanon is facing a crisis of influence that is not existential, especially
after failing two tests: "power and arms." It is waging a difficult and costly
battle for Shiite unity in order to preserve these two powers, which, in turn,
somewhat preserves the influence of the axis to which it belongs. Therefore,
this class is working to link doctrine and arms, characterizing them as a
political identity for Shiites, linking them to the 1920 Revolution in Iraq, the
Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon. Therefore,
these political, ideological, and cultural elites are working to link arms with
existence, pushing to separate the Shiite community from other sectarian and
ethnic groups, attempting to influence collective consciousness through dual
loyalty to the nation or to the sectarian project, and pushing to enshrine arms
as the sole tool that preserves the independence of Shiite decision-making
outside of state institutions. In contrast, a strong, rational, and realistic
Shiite discourse is emerging in Iraq, and is becoming more pronounced in
Lebanon. Its narrative is based on a historical aspect that affirms that the
presence of followers of the Ahl al-Bayt sect in previous centuries (the era of
the sultanates) was linked to patience and demands for reform and justice, not
to weapons. It also emphasizes that weapons in the modern state were a
circumstantial tool, not an ideological pillar, and that it is the state, not
weapons, that protects this group. Furthermore, insisting on these dualities
will exacerbate the crisis and divide it into two strands: the first is
Shiite-national, and the second, and more dangerous, is Shiite-Shiite, the signs
of which are very clear in Iraq. Accordingly, the first, dualistic discourse
could escalate the confrontation to its peak. However, the model of rationality
and integration, with its calm discourse, remains present. At this critical
moment, a discourse rich in definitions and descriptions is being offered by
wise people who have courageously expressed their opinions, particularly in
"redefining the role of Shiites from a group seeking protection through arms to
a national component participating in shaping the state, and that the future is
not built through permanent resistance or sectarian isolation, but rather
through citizenship and partnership in a comprehensive national project,"
according to the literature and texts of the late Hani Fahs. Perhaps averting
dangers requires a dialogue between the two discourses... and there is more to
come.
The Authority of
the Two Legitimate Authorities Over the Camps
Asaad Bishara/Nidaa Al Watan/August 22, 2025
(Free translation from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani)
The implementation of the decision to withdraw weapons from the Palestinian
camps in Lebanon represents a long-awaited historic turning point. This issue,
which for decades has been a powder keg ready to ignite, is being resolved today
with a practical step that places the security of the camps under the control of
the Lebanese state and removes from the hands of regional players a card long
used to obstruct or blackmail the Lebanese state. The
decision, which was made in full coordination with the Palestinian National
Authority, was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but rather the result of a
long process of communication. President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) played a
pivotal role in preparing the conditions for its adoption, believing that
Palestinians in Lebanon will not benefit from the continued chaos of weapons; on
the contrary, they will pay a heavy security and social price. In doing so,
Abbas has linked the fate of the camps to the legitimacy of the Lebanese state,
at a regional and international moment that cannot tolerate the continuation of
any uncontrolled security enclaves. What is happening today is reminiscent of
previous experiences, starting with the 1969 Cairo Agreement, which granted
factions the freedom to engage in armed operations within the camps, and
continuing with the Nahr al-Bared experience in 2007, which demonstrated the
cost of establishing independent security zones. The difference, however, is
that what is happening now is not the result of war or military pressure, but
rather a joint political decision by both the Lebanese and Palestinian
legitimacies. The repercussions of this decision will
be twofold: On the Lebanese level, the state will
gradually be able to extend its authority over areas that have remained outside
its control for nearly half a century, enhancing the image of the state and
restoring the concept of sovereignty. On the Palestinian level, disarmament will
improve the relationship between the camps and their Lebanese surroundings and
prevent them from being transformed into an arena for internal or regional
conflicts. Most importantly, the refugees themselves will shift from being
constantly accused of possessing illegal weapons to being partners in promoting
stability. On the broader political level, this step
removes a card long used by the resistance forces to threaten chaos and restores
the balance within Lebanon. It also contributes to the "normalization" of the
Palestinian reality in Lebanon, by transforming the camps from a problematic
issue into a matter governed by the framework of legitimacy. Ultimately, we are
witnessing a founding moment that enshrines the authority of two legitimate
bodies: the Lebanese state with its sovereignty, and the Palestinian Authority
with its responsibility. Such a step not only ends the era of weapons, but also
establishes a new phase of political and social stability, whereby Palestinians
become part of the security equation, not part of the explosion equation.
From "Excess
Power" to "Excess Impudence"
Jean Feghali/Nidaa Al Watan/August 22, 2025
(Free translation from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani)
Neither Imam Musa al-Sadr's son, Sadr al-Din al-Sadr, nor the Imam's sister,
Mrs. Rabab al-Sadr, nor the son of the late Sheikh Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din,
Vice President of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, Ibrahim Shams al-Din, nor
Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, son of the late scholar Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah,
accept what the distinguished Ja'fari Mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan, wrote about
the Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rahi. It seems that
Sheikh Qabalan forgot the contemporary history of the Shiite community's role in
re-establishing post-war Lebanon, and one of the figures of that era was the
late President Kamel al-Asaad, followed by Sayyed Hussein al-Husseini, whose
sons have the certainty and reliable documents, and they can tell him about it.
I'll open a couple of lines to say that one of the problems with clerics in
general is that they invoke flimsy immunity, leaving no "senior" untouched, and
the Patriarchs of Bkerke have the lion's share of this attack and targeting. The
late, historic Patriarch, Cardinal Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, had his sermons
"banned" from being published by the National News Agency, by direct order of
then-Minister of Information Michel Samaha, who "ordered" but was not the "orderer"
he was known to be. He would send an intelligence officer, one of his aides,
every Saturday afternoon in an attempt to dissuade "His Beatitude" from
escalating the final lines of his sermon, which the Lebanese were eagerly
awaiting and which would provide them with a balm for their wounds during these
dark times. Unfortunately, there were Maronites who helped the aggressors.
Didn't General Michel Aoun attack Patriarch Sfeir and urge him to focus on
church affairs? Asked in 2011 about Patriarch Sfeir's role, Aoun replied, "I am
a committed Maronite, but I am against the interference of clergy in national
affairs." Instead of re-examining reality and shifting from "excess power" to
"excess realism," those who attacked Patriarch al-Rahi instead moved on to
"excess impudence." An example of this impudence was a tweet from their "senior"
media figure on their television channel, in which he addressed Patriarch al-Rahi
with a torrent of descriptions, including: "Even you, Chief Rabbi... have
returned to your evil ways of unleashing your evil, malice, and hatred... You
have thrown yourself into the arms of the enemy... O bear of grief." This tweet,
and other similar and offensive tweets, are the work of the aforementioned media
"employers." Return to the books of the originals among you. Read the book "The
Commandments" by Imam Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din, in which he delves into the
role of Christians in Lebanon. Read a second book of his, "Lebanon: The Entity
and the Role." It would be useful to review an audio recording of Imam Shams
al-Din in which he says: "Hezbollah and the Amal Movement want to control the
Supreme Islamic Shiite Council. This is forbidden because once the council
becomes a fiefdom for an organizational body, it becomes a curse on the Shiites
and must be abolished. I advise the Shiites to abolish it. Today, there is the
university and its presidency, headed by an independent figure. The council was
handed over to me in 1978 and is today an Arab, Islamic, and global reality. It
now has a university and an existing Endowments Directorate, some of whose
powers have been usurped by Hezbollah or the Amal Movement." Isn't it unfair for
Sheikh Qabalan to bear all this legacy? And the only culture left is "excessive
rudeness"?
Lebanon needs IMF
for fiscal 'discipline' rather than $3bn loan, Carlos Ghosn says
Expats can help fund country's rebuilding efforts, fugitive former auto
executive says Carlos Ghosn
The National/August 21, 2025
Fugitive car tycoon Carlos Ghosn has said Lebanon needs the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure fiscal discipline rather than to lend money, which
can be easily sourced from Lebanese diaspora to fund rebuilding efforts.
The IMF's $3 billion programme by itself will not save Lebanon but it would help
restore investors' confidence in the economy, Mr Ghosn said in an exclusive
interview with CNN Business Arabic. “We are going to the IMF to organise us [the
Lebanese], not because of the $3 billion,” he said in Beirut. “The $3 billion
you can easily collect from the Lebanese living abroad … Why? because it is good
business, not because of sentiment. Everything is so cheap in Lebanon,” he said
referring to land, companies and asset prices.
If investors were confident in the government's rebuilding efforts, they would
buy assets now and sell them later for a bigger profit, he added. Lebanon has
been grappling with deep financial crises, as successive governments'
unrestrained borrowing sent the economy into a tailspin in 2019. Lebanon's
economy, which plunged into the worst crisis in its history after the Covid-19
pandemic, suffered another blow after Israel bombed the country heavily during
its fight against Hezbollah. The bombing campaign has severely damaged critical
infrastructure and devastated residential neighbourhoods in several areas of the
country.In April 2022, Lebanon reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF on a
comprehensive economic reform programme supported by a 46-month extended fund
facility, proposing access to about $3 billion. However, Lebanese authorities
have been accused of dragging their feet on the required reforms. Lebanon's new
government is committed to implementing vital reforms to lift the country out of
its economic crisis, but such changes could take time, Minister of Economy and
Trade Amer Bisat told The National in April. Mr Ghosn was speaking about
Lebanon's economy during an interview in Beirut, where he has lived in exile for
the last six years since his dramatic escape from Japan. The former Nissan chief
executive, who is wanted by France and Japan over financial misconduct claims,
last year said he remains “blocked in Lebanon” due to an Interpol red notice
issued after he fled Tokyo in a musical equipment case. Mr Ghosn has Lebanese,
French and Brazilian nationality, and Lebanon does not extradite its citizens.
'Theft' not reform
The former auto executive urged the private sector in Lebanon to help run
government-owned projects, but stopped short of calling for the privatisation of
state assets. “I'm not talking about privatisation, because today prices are so
cheap … If you privatised [projects] in Lebanon today it would be theft, you'd
be robbing the government and the Lebanese people,” he said. Private companies
should manage these projects, while the state continues to own them without
interfering with their work, Mr Ghosn said. This will boost the quality of these
entities and increase their value and profitability. “This alone will help the
country stand back up,” he said. Despite a $93 billion deposit hole in Lebanese
banks since 2019, Mr Ghosn is cautiously optimistic about the banking system.
“Deposits will come back, but it will take a long time,” he said. Lebanese banks
imposed arbitrary restrictions on their clients in 2019 after the state failed
to honour its bond commitments and the economy went into a tailspin. Customers
have been waiting to access their life savings, which have been stuck in banks
for the past six years.
Chinese EVs to dominate
In the wide-ranging interview, the motors tycoon turned his trademark candour on
China’s automotive dominance, Nissan’s decline, AI disruption and
cryptocurrencies versus banks. Mr Ghosn traced China’s rise back to 2006–2007,
when Beijing turned the auto-making industry into a strategic national priority.
“It was clear that the Chinese will be a very important factor in the industry,”
he said. “Legacy players mocked Chinese cars back then. Today, BYD’s market cap
dwarfs Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi.”The rapid rise to supremacy of China’s
electric vehicles is enabling Beijing to wage a successful economic contest with
the US, analysts have said. China's BYD is locked in a supercharged competition
in the electric vehicle market with Tesla Motors. China has transformed from 10
to 20 years ago and is now competing with US, German and Japanese car makers, Mr
Ghosn said. “The Chinese will become a major part in the car manufacturing
industry from now and into the next 10 years, especially in EVs,” he said.
Toyota, Mercedes and BMW are among the rivals who will endure and will face
Chinese competition, he added. “Companies who fear [competition] and hide in
their own markets and ask the state to protect them and put tariffs, will
disappear,” he said. “It might take a year, two or three, but they will
vanish.”The former Nissan executive highlighted the Japanese company's early EV
lead with the Leaf model, which debuted in 2009, and Renault’s Zoe model, which
entered the market in 2012. “Five per cent is strategy, 95 per cent is
execution. Nissan lost because of poor management after I left,” Mr Ghosn said.
Nissan’s stock now trades at less than $2, compared to $15 during his tenure,
even during global recessions, he said. He slammed current executives for “empty
promises and TV appearances”, saying trust and vision are the only levers to
restore market value.
On The New
Tripartite Formula: Defeat, Isolation, and Collapse!
Hanna Saleh/Asharq Al Awsat/21 August 2025
For decades, fear-mongering and conspiracy theories (that went so far they
almost sparked a civil war) have been among key tools and tactics of Lebanon’s
sectarian faction, especially in the face of attempts to curtail their
influence. Nonetheless, the denial we see from Hezbollah, a party that walked
right into a war that destroyed the country and broke the Lebanese people, is
truly unprecedented, with its new trilogy becoming defeat, isolation, and
collapse.
For the first time in the history of Lebanon, a political faction has dared to
threaten that “there will be no life in Lebanon if the constitution is applied.”
Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem escalated this threat to the country's survival
with apocalyptic rhetoric: “Either our weapons, or a battle that mirrors the
heroism of Karbala,” if the government insists on confining Hezbollah’s armament
to the state forces.
This position has shattered the longstanding narrative that Hezbollah maintains
its arms to defend the country. Seventeen years ago, on May 5, 2008, the
Lebanese government decided to replace Wafiq Shuqair (the head of airport
security at the time and a Hezbollah ally) and prosecute those behind
Hezbollah’s private telecommunications network, which it deemed to be in
violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty that defrauded the state.
Hezbollah’s response did not take long. Its slogan became “the weapons are
needed to defend the weapons.” Clashes erupted as a result on May 7, 2008.
Beirut was invaded and debased, and unarmed civilians were killed as the state
authorities did nothing to protect them. Hassan Nasrallah said it was a
“glorious day,” and his allies cheered, paving the way for the Doha Agreement
that awarded Hezbollah substantial gains, most notably the “blocking third,”
which handed the minority the power to control the fate of the entire country.
The difference between the years 2008 and 2025 is not limited to just 17 years.
Back then, Hezbollah was riding high after having convinced its community that
it had achieved a “divine victory” over Israel in the 2006 war. Lebanon had been
hostage to the “Axis of Resistance,” and the US had taken a "tolerant" approach
with Iran’s regime. Today’s Lebanon, however, is a totally different place.
Ravaged by the banking collapse and the catastrophe of the “Support War,”
Lebanon is part of a regional landscape that has also changed dramatically after
the Axis of Resistance was shattered. Hezbollah knows this full well. That is
why Hezbollah has been opting for rhetoric escalation since the Lebanese
government’s historic decision to confine armament to state bodies and
institutions. Hezbollah’s unhinged accusations of treason and overt threats
reflect a total disregard for the catastrophic implications its unruly behavior
and words could have on its own community and the Lebanese people more broadly.
The cabinet’s historic decisions end a 56-year chapter that began with the 1969
Cairo Agreement, when Lebanon effectively surrendered its sovereignty and
removed Hezbollah’s pursuit of hegemony from the political market- after this
pursuit had enjoyed the final say on every significant question in Lebanon for
two decades. And while it is clear that an isolated Hezbollah does not have the
capacity to drag Lebanon into a full-scale civil war, it can stir tensions and
undermine security. These risks must be contained and confronted. But the
central question remains: why does Hezbollah insist on clinging to a narrative
of denial to justify holding onto its weapons? It claims that Israel requested
the ceasefire- without explaining why it agreed to it and continues to comply
with it. It insisted that it had managed to prevent Israel from advancing even
as Israeli forces reached the Litani River 25 years after Lebanon’s
“liberation”. The villages south of the Litani River have become essentially
uninhabitable; entire frontline villages have been wiped off the map.
Hezbollah clings to denial as though it were a lifeline. Despite its refusal to
acknowledge defeat, the government’s decisions have effectively declared the end
of Hezbollah’s project of foreign dependency that was crushed in the “Support
War.” It has lost its domestic protection, and after the Syrian earthquake
(political, military, and demographic) its regional patron has grown distant and
become focused on domestic priorities.
That is, its illegitimate weapons have proven powerless. They failed to deliver
even the least ambitious of the promises it once made: “deterrence,” “balance of
power,” and “protection.” Meanwhile, Israel has flipped its strategy on its
head: moving from defense to offense, imposing buffer zones and scorched-earth
along the entire northern frontier. It is in this context that Naim Qassem makes
threats and issues warnings, seeking to hinder any effort to rebuild the
Lebanese state, which would serve the interests of the nation and its people,
giving them the upper hand over a militia subordinate to foreign powers.
Hezbollah fears a return to normalcy after decades of constitutional paralysis
and “non-state” dominance. Today, whatever the divergent views on Ambassador Tom
Barrack’s adapted plan, they do nothing to reduce the importance of ensuring
that only the state has the right to bear arms. A state monopoly on the
legitimate use of violence would strengthen Lebanon’s state institutions,
enabling them to pursue a different kind of confrontation: a political,
diplomatic, and legitimate battle. This trajectory opens the door wide to the
arrival of the long-promised state that is capable of overcoming the challenges
of transition and building the foundations needed to safeguard sovereignty,
freedoms, and pluralism. By implication, the stage for an era of accountability
would be set.
The
Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on August 21-22/2025
UN warns
situation in Syria remains fragile amid shaky ceasefire
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/August 21, 2025
NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, told the
Security Council on Thursday that the situation in the country remains “deeply
fragile,” with a ceasefire in Sweida under growing strain and political tensions
on the rise. He urged the international community to renew its efforts to
protect civilians, ensure accountability, and support a Syrian-led political
process that is capable of delivering lasting peace. Marking the anniversary of
the 2013 chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, carried out by the forces of former
President Bashar Assad, Pedersen described the occasion as “a painful reminder
of the suffering endured by Syrian civilians, and of the grave abuses and
violations of international law that must never be repeated.”He urged council
members to help Syria “emerge from a dark past toward a brighter future.”
The July 19 ceasefire agreement in Sweida has so far prevented a return to open
conflict following a spike in violence, Pedersen said, but he warned that the
peace remains tenuous. “We are still seeing dangerous hostilities and skirmishes
on the margins of Sweida and violence could resume at any moment,” he said.
“Absent more tangible and binding measures, including to build confidence, the
ceasefire risks remaining fragile — an interim truce rather than the foundation
for lasting stability.” He welcomed the creation by the US, Jordan and Syrian
authorities of a trilateral working group to support the truce. However, he
cautioned that “a month of relative military calm belies a worsening political
climate, with escalatory and zero-sum rhetoric hardening among many.”He also
condemned ongoing Israeli ground operations in southwestern Syria, despite a
pause in airstrikes.
“Such actions are unacceptable,” Pedersen said. “We must insist on full respect
for Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”The
humanitarian cost of unrest, he added, remains severe, with more than 186,000
people displaced in Sweida, Daraa and rural Damascus. Access to affected areas
is limited as a result of insecurity and road closures, and widespread damage to
infrastructure compounds the suffering. Referring to reports of abuses during
fighting in Sweida last month, including a video that appeared to show the
execution of an unarmed man in a hospital, Pedersen said it was “essential” that
the conclusions of a fact-finding committee’s investigation into such violations
“are made fully public and that all perpetrators — regardless of affiliation —
are held responsible.”He called on all sides to combat divisive rhetoric and
build a shared national vision, adding: “Security forces must demonstrate that
they are acting solely to protect all Syrians and do not constitute a threat.”To
avoid future violence, Pedersen stressed the need for comprehensive reforms of
the security sector, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of
armed factions. He praised efforts by the new Syrian authorities to counter
Daesh and Al-Qaeda but emphasized that “continued vigilance” remains critical.
On the political front, Pedersen noted a decree that was issued on Wednesday for
indirect elections to appoint two-thirds of the 210 members of an interim
People’s Assembly. The remaining 70 will be appointed by the president. For this
process to succeed, he said, it must be transparent, inclusive and allow the
participation of all major groups within Syrian society, not only “trusted
individuals,” and include the “equal and visible” representation of women.
“Anything less,” he warned, “would entrench skepticism, aggravate the forces
pulling Syria apart, and impede reconciliation.” He called for dialogue with all
communities, including those critical of the interim authorities.Pedersen also
voiced concern about stalled efforts to implement the March 10 agreement between
the interim government and the Syrian Democratic Forces for the integration of
the latter into state institutions, citing in particular recent flare-ups of
violence in Aleppo. “We hope that reported further contacts between interim
authority officials and SDF representatives can be cemented into real
compromise,” he said. He also underscored the role of civil society in the
political transition process, and the important need for women to play a
significant part.
“Syrian women continue to stress the necessity of meaningful political
participation,” Pedersen said, while acknowledging the risks and pressures they
face. Tom Fletcher, the UN’s humanitarian chief, echoed Pedersen’s concerns and
warned that “the humanitarian crisis is not over.” He said 16 million Syrians
remain in need of support, a situation he described as “dire.”UN teams are
managing to provide life-saving aid to about 3.5 million people a month, despite
funding shortfalls and access challenges, he revealed. “Our humanitarian appeal
for 2025 is only 14 percent funded,” Fletcher said, warning that budget cuts
could reduce humanitarian staffing levels by 40 percent. Already, he noted, “16
percent of health facilities have suspended or reduced capacity.”He welcomed
recent sanctions-relief measures announced by the US, EU and UK, but said it
will take time to feel the full effects of this. “We need investment in
longer-term support for development and reconstruction that will allow the
people of Syria to reduce, and ultimately end, reliance on humanitarian aid,” he
said. “With funding and access, we aim to no longer be needed.” Fletcher
concluded his remarks with a direct appeal to members of the Security Council:
“The people of Syria do not need us to be commentators and problem-observers.
They need us to move with genuine urgency, generosity and purpose.”
Syrian
authorities ease roadblocks near Sweida ahead of possible reopening of Damascus
road
Khaled Yacoub Oweis/The National/August 21, 2025
The Syrian government has scaled back roadblocks near Sweida in preparation for
the reopening of a route from the area to Damascus, sources told The National on
Thursday. The move came as the US piled pressure on the authorities who replaced
Bashar Al Assad last year to improve the conditions of the Druze, and in the
shadow of Israeli threats. Hundreds of Druze civilians were killed last month
when regular forces and militias loyal to President Ahmad Al Shara tried to take
control of the provincial capital, Sweida city, by force, but were repelled by
the Israeli air force. The government said it intervened to restore order after
violence erupted between Druze inhabitants and a small community of Sunnis of
Bedouin origin in the city. Syrian security forces began in the last 24 hours to
remove roadblocks on the Sweida motorway, an umbilical cord for the Sweida
economy that also links its inhabitants with their Druze relatives in Damascus,
the sources said. “Al Shara seems intent on curbing the transgressions against
the Druze and lessening Sweida's isolation, because if he doesn't do it, the
Israelis will,” one of the sources said. Thousands of security forces and
auxiliaries have been surrounding Sweida governorate since the government
takeover of Sweida city was repelled in the middle of June. This has resulted in
shortages of basic goods and medicine and left hundreds of thousands of Druze
trapped in a mostly barren landscape with no access to the rest of Syria. The
authorities have rejected the establishment of a humanitarian corridor to Sweida
from outside the country. Israel has previously called for a passage to deliver
aid directly to the city. Sweida city has effectively been under siege for the
past month since clashes broke out involving local tribes, Druze fighters and
security forces. Small-scale aid deliveries have been permitted in recent weeks.
Israel also intervened in the violence last month, saying it was shielding the
Druze population in the area. The Druze, who number about a million worldwide,
are an offshoot of Islam. Only several hundred thousand members of the sect
remain in Syria. The Druze are also present in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.
Quoting a government source, Syria's state-run Sana news agency said no
humanitarian corridors would be established from outside the country to Sweida
and that aid would be provided in co-ordination with state institutions. The
Syrian government said it granted relevant UN organisations approvals to carry
out humanitarian missions. The national relief groups continue to send convoys
with aid, it added. The rejection of a corridor from outside of Syria came as
Israeli media reported that Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer
raised the possibility of establishing a humanitarian passage to send aid
directly to Sweida during a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al
Shibani. While it did not mention Mr Dermer, Syria acknowledged that Mr Al
Shibani met an Israeli delegation in Paris on Tuesday to discuss security in the
region. Israel and Syria have never established diplomatic relations, although
both signed a disengagement agreement in 1974 that created a UN-monitored buffer
zone separating them. Sana reported that the Paris discussions touched on
reactivating the agreement.
Iran launches
first major naval drill since 12-day war with Israel
Iran/Military exercise comes as fears of resumption in fighting increase
The National/August 21, 2025
Iran began on Thursday a two-day naval drill, its largest such exercise since
the 12-day war with Israel in June. Iranian officials repeatedly call for
preparation for the "worst-case scenario" in case fighting resumes. Iranian
officials have warned that Tehran will increase military capabilities and have
vowed to launch a stronger response in the event of another attack by Israel or
the US. Admiral Abbas Hassani said the drill consists of surface and sub-surface
vessels, aircraft, coastal and sea-based missile units, and electronic warfare
teams in the northern Indian Ocean and the Sea of Oman, Tasnim news agency
reported.
While military drills are common in Iran, the Sustainable Power 1404 exercise
comes as belligerent threats between the two regional foes continue. The Iranian
navy, based in Bandar Abbas, patrols the Gulf of Oman, the Indian Ocean and the
Caspian Sea, while the strategic Strait of Hormuz is left to the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Israel launched a surprise military offensive
on June 13 that eliminated Iranian generals and scientists, while also bombing
nuclear enrichment sites and air defences. Iran retaliated by launching missile
and drone attacks at Israel. The US then joined in, striking Iranian nuclear
bases and claiming to have "obliterated" them. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas
Araghchi has warned Tehran will respond to Israel or the US in a “more decisive
manner” should they attack the country again.During the war two months ago,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed his forces had destroyed half
of Iran's missile launchers. The drill features surface and sub-surface vessels,
aircraft, coastal and sea-based missile units. Photo: Irna. Adm Hassani said the
exercises would involve an extensive missile and drone drill, drawing on the
lessons learnt from the war with Israel. He said the two objectives were to
create deterrence and assure the Iranian people that the country's armed forces
are ready to repel any threats. On Tuesday, the IRGC claimed it is stronger now
than before the war. “This success exists for us to increase our power and
capability, and people see its manifestation in action, like the 12-day war,
when the whole world was determined to confront Iran," the forces' deputy
commander Ali Fadavi said. Defence Minister Brig Gen Aziz Nasirzadeh said the
country has equipped its forces with new missiles. "In response to any potential
enemy adventurism, our forces are prepared to use these new missiles
effectively," he told the state-run Irna outlet. Yahya Rahim Safavi, a military
adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran supreme leader, told Iranian media the
country was “preparing plans for the worst-case scenario", warning that war with
Israel could once again erupt at any moment, describing the lull since the June
24 ceasefire as a temporary halt. “We must be prepared at every moment for
confrontation. Right now, we are not even in a ceasefire [agreement], we are in
a cessation of hostilities,” said First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was in Belarus on Wednesday where he signed
a package of 13 documents with President Alexander Lukashenko. The two did not
disclose further details on how they intend to co-operate in the defence sector.
Both countries are under western sanctions and are close allies of Russia.
Gaza civilian death toll could be as high as 83%: Israeli
data
Arab News/August 21, 2025
LONDON: As many as 83 percent of Palestinian casualties in Gaza could be
civilians, classified Israeli data suggests. A joint investigation by The
Guardian, Hebrew-language Local Call and the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine
found that Israeli officials had been able to name 8,900 people killed or
“probably dead” in Gaza as members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as of May this
year. At the time, the total death toll from the war was believed to be at least
53,000 people according to local authorities, meaning that just 17 percent of
those identified were combatants. The database used to assess combatant casualty
figures is based on documents seized by the Israeli military in Gaza. In total,
47,653 Palestinians are identified as being members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad,
meaning that a little under 40,000 are believed to be still alive. The Israeli
military also believes Gaza’s health authorities’ data on casualties to be
reliable, Local Call reported, though these figures are likely to be an
underestimate as thousands of people remain buried under rubble, and only bodies
positively identified are counted. Therese Pettersson of the Uppsala Conflict
Data Program told The Guardian: “That proportion of civilians among those killed
would be unusually high, particularly as it has been going on for such a long
time. “If you single out a particular city or battle in another conflict, you
could find similar rates, but very rarely overall.”She added that since 1989,
UCDP had only identified the siege of Srebrenica, the Rwandan genocide and the
2022 siege of Mariupol as conflicts that saw civilian casualties outnumber
combatants.
Previously, Israeli politicians have cited a far more balanced casualty rate,
with some suggesting it could even be equal between combatants and civilians.
Others have suggested in the past that 20,000 people killed in Gaza were
militants.
This could be on account of collating members of the enclave’s civilian
infrastructure or people with loose ties to fighters — such as police and
politicians — with membership of militant groups, but it is also believed that
civilians without ties to Islamic Jihad or Hamas are included in those tallies.
One source who spent time with the Israeli military in Gaza told The Guardian
that “people are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death,” adding:
“If I had listened to the brigade, I would have come to the conclusion that we
had killed 200 percent of Hamas operatives in the area.”Retired Gen. Itzhak Brik,
a former commander of Israel’s military colleges, told The Guardian that he had
been told by former colleagues the numbers were inflated. “There is absolutely
no connection between the numbers that are announced and what is actually
happening,” he said. “It is just one big bluff.”
Palestinian analyst Muhammad Shehada told the newspaper that by last December,
the number of dead Hamas and Islamic Jihad members from their own data was
around 6,500. “Israel expands the boundaries so they can define every single
person in Gaza as Hamas,” he said. “All of it is killing in the moment for
tactical purposes that have nothing to do with extinguishing a threat.”Moreover,
the number of dead, and the disparity between civilian and combatant deaths, may
have increased since May, with hunger now believed to be widespread due to a
lack of food in Gaza, and an increase in the number of civilian deaths at aid
distribution sites in the enclave. The impending Israeli ground offensive in the
north of Gaza will likely further widen this gap. So far, in excess of 62,000
people are believed to have been killed in the enclave. Mary Kaldor, professor
of global governance at the London School of Economics, said the nature of the
Gaza conflict is also causing a disproportionate number of civilian casualties.
“In Gaza we are talking about a campaign of targeted assassinations, really,
rather than battles, and they are carried out with no concern for civilians,”
she added. Comparing Gaza to recent conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Sudan, she
said: “These are wars where the armed groups tend to avoid battle. They don’t
want to fight each other, they want to control territory and they do that by
killing civilians. “Maybe that is the same with Israel, and this is a model of
war (in Gaza) that is about dominating a population and controlling land. Maybe
the objective always was forced displacement.”Neta Crawford, professor of
international relations at Oxford University, said tactics used by Israel mark a
“worrisome” departure from previously established norms to protect civilians.
“They say they’re using the same kinds of procedures for civilian casualty
estimation and mitigation as states like the United States. But if you look at
these casualty rates, and their practices with the bombing and the destruction
of civilian infrastructure, it is clear that they are not,” she said. In a
statement to The Guardian, the Israeli military said the figures published in
the investigation “are incorrect.”
Netanyahu approves Gaza City attack, orders hostage negotiations
AFP/August 21, 2025
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he had
ordered the beginning of immediate negotiations to release the remaining Israeli
hostages in Gaza. The announcement comes a day after the defense ministry
approved a plan authorizing the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists to help
capture Hamas’s last major strongholds in Gaza City.“I have come to approve the
IDF’s (military’s) plans to take control of Gaza City and defeat Hamas,” the
prime minister said in a video statement during a visit with the Gaza
division.“At the same time, I have instructed to immediately begin negotiations
for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war under conditions
acceptable to Israel.” Meditators have been waiting for days for an official
Israeli response to their latest ceasefire proposal, after Hamas accepted the
plan earlier this week. “I greatly appreciate the commitment of the reserve
soldiers, and of course the regular army, for this vital mission,” said
Netanyahu. “These two matters — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages —
go hand in hand.”Israel and Hamas have held indirect negotiations throughout the
nearly two-year conflict, resulting in two short ceasefires during which Israeli
hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Of the 251 hostages
seized during Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel that triggered the
war, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel pounds Gaza City ahead of 'intolerable' new offensive
AFP/August 21, 2025
GAZA CITY: Israel hammered Gaza City and its outskirts overnight, residents said
Thursday, as the military announced it had taken the initial steps in its push
to capture Hamas’s last major stronghold. The newly approved plan authorizes the
call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, deepening fears the campaign will worsen
the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. “We are
advancing with the efforts toward operations in Gaza City,” military chief Eyal
Zamir told troops on Thursday. “We already have troops operating on the
outskirts of the city, and more forces will join them later on.”Israel’s plans
to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City have sparked international outcry as
well as domestic opposition, with the Red Cross joining the condemnation on
Thursday, calling the moves “intolerable.”Ahead of the offensive, the Israeli
military said the call-up of the reservists would begin in early September,
adding the second phase of operation “Gideon’s Chariots” had begun. Gaza City
residents described relentless bombardments overnight. “The house shakes with us
all night long — the sound of explosions, artillery, warplanes, ambulances, and
cries for help is killing us,” Ahmad Al-Shanti told AFP. “The sound is getting
closer, but where would we go?“ Another resident, Amal Abdel-Aal, said she
watched the heavy strikes on the area, a week after being displaced from her
home in Gaza City’s Al-Sabra neighborhood. “No one in Gaza has slept — not last
night, not for a week. The artillery and air strikes in the east never stop. The
sky flashes all night long,” she added. Gaza civil defense agency spokesman
Mahmud Bassal said air strikes and artillery fire overnight targeted areas to
the northwest and southeast of the city.
Facing troop
shortage, Israeli army looks to deserters and the diaspora
Sophian AUBIN/France 24/August 21/2025
IDF soldiers attend the funeral of Sergeant Yuliy Faktor, who was killed in
action in Gaza, at the Rishon LeZion military cemetery in central Israel on July
16, 2025. Israel is looking for new ways to recruit soldiers to fill up to
12,000 vacant positions, Israeli Army Radio announced this week. Struggling
after 23 months of war, the longest in Israeli history, the army is looking to
the Jewish diaspora abroad, the Orthodox community and even former deserters,
who have been offered a one-time amnesty if they sign up. The Israeli army is
seeking to recruit young volunteers from the Jewish diaspora – particularly from
France and the United States – to address a manpower shortage that has left the
military strained after nearly two years of intense combat in Gaza. It is
looking into how to appeal to Jewish communities abroad to convince those
between 18-25 years of age to sign up. The goal is to recruit some 600 to 700
soldiers per year from the diaspora to to fill the up to 12,000 estimated
vacancies, Israeli Army Radio announced Monday. “No one has officially informed
us of such a move,” a representative from the Jewish Agency, the organisation in
charge of promoting and organising immigration to Israel, told the French daily
Le Figaro. Foreign volunteers without Israeli citizenship could only work in
support tasks, but not in combat units, according to him. The Israeli army is
seeing its numbers dwindle even as the government of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu vows to expand its military offensive to occupying Gaza City by
October 7, 2025 – the two-year anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in
southern Israel. To combat the shortfall, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last
week offered those facing jail time for desertion a one-time amnesty if they
registered within five days. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who were once exempt from
military service, can now be drafted into the armed forces. In January, the
Israeli army welcomed its first batch of ultra-Orthodox into a new fighting
brigade. But the army faces an uphill battle to actually enlist a significant
number of ultra-Orthodox. The recruitment effort comes amid mounting
international criticism over the destruction of Gaza, the displacement of an
estimated 1.9 million people and more than 60,000 Palestinian deaths, most of
them civilians. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant
for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders on suspicion of war crimes."A majority
of Israelis now believe that the conflict in Gaza is no longer about Israeli
security but about pursuing a political agenda," he said. After 23 months, the
war in Gaza is the longest in Israeli history. And it has taken a toll on its
armed forces: almost 900 soldiers have died in Gaza, according to official
figures, while media reports say at least 18,500 have been wounded or are
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Some 50 have reportedly committed
suicide.
The IDF lists an additional 14,600 Israelis as draft dodgers or deserters.
The stated goal of occupying Gaza City could require the mobilisation of more
than 100,000 reservists, according to IDF estimates. The Israeli army began
sending call-up orders to some 60,000 of them on Wednesday as Netanyahu's office
spoke of a "shortened" timeline in a post on X. Reservists are part-time
soldiers who have agreed to fight when reinforcements are necessary. But many
are disillusioned with the conflict and beleaguered by almost two years of war.
Many have already served multiple tours and say they have lost trust in Israel's
leadership and the reasons for the war. A survey by Agam Labs at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem found that almost 36 percent of reservists said they
were either slightly or significantly less motivated to serve than they were at
the beginning of the conflict. Only a little more than 13 percent felt more
motivated.
The largest group of respondents, 47 percent, expressed negative feelings
towards the government's handling of the war and the hostage crisis. "While some
deserters resign for ideological reasons, many surrender out of fatigue, for
financial reasons or at the behest of their families, after hundreds of days of
fighting far from home," Poran said from Tel Aviv. Many military personnel,
including the highest-ranking officers, have been overcome by doubt. Army Chief
of Staff Eyal Zamir initially called Netanyahu's plan to occupy Gaza City a
"strategic trap", warning that it would endanger the remaining hostages and
strain the army. Zamir later changed his tune, approving the "main framework" of
an expanded offensive in mid-August. "He could have resigned, but he chose to
play along," Poran observed. But Zamir's vocal objections may have a lasting
effect, according to Poran. "Can you imagine the state of mind of the military
personnel who are asked to risk their lives in Gaza City carrying out a mission
that the chief of staff himself disapproves of?" he asked. "It is tremendously
demoralising, and I expect the number of reservists refusing to report for duty
to increase."
Cracks in Israeli society
Disillusion with the war is spreading across Israeli society, from the front
line to the political and religious spheres. "Israeli democracy is seeing an
unhealthy corrosion of the visceral bond between the nation and its current
leaders," said David Rigoulet-Roze, a researcher at the French Institute for
Strategic Analysis and a Middle East specialist.The war has also turned a
spotlight on the privileged position enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi.
Since the founding of Israel, they have enjoyed a near-universal exemption from
military service based on the idea that they would devote themselves instead to
studying Judaism's holy texts. But the crisis that followed October 7, 2023,
have prompted a reconsideration. As the war in Gaza dragged on, "Haredi life has
largely continued as usual, untouched by the war and its toll," Yair Rosenberg
observed in The Atlantic, adding that the exemption is getting harder to
justify. "Yeshiva students have even been photographed enjoying ski vacations
abroad while their same-age peers are on the battlefield."Israel's Supreme Court
ended the draft exemption for ultra-Orthodox men in June 2024, making an
estimated 70,000 more soldiers eligible to fight. But the move had little
effect: almost a year later, only 2 percent of the 10,000 who were called up
obeyed their draft orders. As Rosenberg put it, "more Arab Israelis serve in the
Israel Defense Forces than ultra-Orthodox Jews". (This article has been
translated from the original in French.)
UNRWA chief warns many malnourished children will die in Gaza City operation
Arab News/August 21, 2025
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that its data showed a
six-fold increase in the number of children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza
City since March. “We have a population that is extremely weak that will be
confronted with a new major military operation,” he told a Geneva press club
meeting. “Many will simply not have the strength to undergo a new
displacement.”“Many of them will not survive,” he said of the children,
addressing the audience in French. “It is a manufactured and fabricated famine.
It is deliberate. Food has been used as an instrument of war,” he said.In May, a
global hunger monitor said that half a million people in the Gaza Strip faced
starvation but stopped short of using the term famine. Israel’s military agency
that coordinates aid, COGAT, has previously said it invests considerable efforts
to ensure aid reaches Gaza and has denied restricting supplies.
Israel army calls on hospitals, aid groups in north Gaza to
prepare for evacuations
AFP/August 21, 2025
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military on Thursday said it had informed medical
personnel and aid groups in northern Gaza to start making evacuation plans ahead
of a military offensive to seize the area.Israeli military officials this week
informed “medical officials and international organizations in the northern Gaza
Strip... to prepare for the evacuation of the population to the southern Gaza
Strip,” read the statement released by the military.The announcement comes as
the defense ministry this week approved an offensive to capture Gaza City and
ordered the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, deepening fears the campaign
will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
According to the statement, the military had informed relevant parties in Gaza
to begin making plans to relocate hospital equipment to the south. “The officers
emphasized to the medical officials that adjustments are being made to the
hospital infrastructure in the south of the Strip to receive the sick and
wounded, alongside an increased entry of necessary medical equipment,” said the
statement.
Two-state
solution not a US priority: Ambassador Huckabee
Melinda Nucifora & Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/21 August/2025
The creation of a Palestinian state is not a priority for the Trump
administration, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Al Arabiya English in
an exclusive interview, signaling a shift from decades of American policy that
traditionally backed a two-state solution. “I certainly haven’t heard the
president say that this is one of the most important things we’ve got to look
for,” Huckabee said in an interview on CounterPoints presented by Melinda
Nucifora, adding that while President Donald Trump supports peace in the region,
statehood for Palestinians is not part of his current agenda.
Blame on Palestinian leadership and Europe
With the latest push for recognizing Palestinian statehood, Huckabee accused the
Palestinian Authority and European governments of actions that undermine peace
efforts. “Every time we think we’re working toward them and getting there, we
see actions by the Europeans or the Palestinian Authority that completely
disrupt it,” he said. He criticized the PA for “pushing for unilateral
recognition” of statehood and continuing policies such as paying stipends to the
families of attackers calling it “counterproductive.” ‘Gaza was already a
Palestinian state’The ambassador argued that Gaza itself was once a “100
percent” Palestinian state, and that its trajectory has damaged confidence in a
two-state framework. “It was a 100 percent Palestinian state. People see how
that turned out. That did not exactly endear folks looking at it to say, yeah,
that ought to work out really, really well,” he said. “For the present moment, I
would say, by [Palestinians] going around the Oslo agreement… it’s not going to
be something that is going to be on the table,” Huckabee said. “But it’s not the
US decision to make. The US is going to be supportive of our allies. We’re going
to be supportive of peace.”
Call for Europe to ‘reassess’
The ambassador also urged European leaders to “reassess their actions” on
recognizing Palestinian statehood, and place greater pressure on Hamas rather
than Israel. “Stop putting so much pressure on how Israel is defending itself
against Hamas,” Huckabee said, “and start putting the pressure on radical
military actions that were intended to kill Jewish people.”
Saudi Foreign
Ministry accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ in Gaza
Arab News/August 21, 2025
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry has accused Israel of acts amounting to
“genocide” in Gaza, in a statement on X on Thursday. The Kingdom “condemns in
the strongest possible terms the Israeli occupation authorities’ persistence in
their crimes against the Palestinian people and their occupied land.”Tel Aviv
was continuing to “displace” Palestinians on their land and preventing them from
establishing an independent state. “This includes their ongoing expansion of
settlement construction around occupied Jerusalem, and the expansion of their
operations and aggression, amounting to crimes of genocide against defenseless
civilians in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry stated. The ministry condemned what
it called “serious violations of international law” and UN Security Council
resolutions. The “implementation of these dangerous Israeli plans … without
deterrence” threatens regional “security and stability” and the “legitimacy of
the international order,” the ministry stated. Israel currently faces charges of
war crimes and genocide at the International Court of Justice. In addition, the
International Criminal Court has issued warrants of arrest for Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
Turkish ports asking ships to declare they are not linked
to Israel, shipping sources say
Reuters/August 21, 2025
ISTANBUL: Turkish port authorities have begun informally requiring shipping
agents for letters declaring that vessels are not linked to Israel and are not
carrying military or hazardous cargo bound for the country, according to two
shipping sources. The sources said the harbor master’s office had verbally
instructed port agents to provide written assurances, adding that there was no
official circular on the issue. One of the sources said the instruction applied
to ports across Turkiye. The guarantee letter should state that vessel owners,
managers, and operators have no ties to Israel, and that certain types of cargo,
including explosives and radioactive materials or military equipment, are not on
board en route to Israel, the second source said. The transport ministry did not
immediately respond to a request for comment. Last year, Turkiye severed trade
with Israel worth $7 billion annually, over its war in Gaza with Palestinian
militant group Hamas.
21 countries condemn Israel’s West Bank settlement project
AFP/August 21, 2025
LONDON: Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement
Thursday calling Israel’s approval of a major settlement project in the West
Bank “unacceptable and a violation of international law.”Israel approved the
plans for the roughly 12-square-kilometer (five-square-mile) parcel of land
known as E1 just east of Jerusalem on Wednesday. “We condemn this decision and
call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms,” said the statement of
foreign ministers, whose signatories also included Australia, Canada and Italy.
Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden also
signed the statement, as did the European Commission’s foreign affairs chief.
The statement noted that Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich
said the plan “will make a two-state solution impossible by dividing any
Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem.”“This brings
no benefits to the Israeli people,” the foreign ministers said. “Instead, it
risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us
further away from peace. “The government of Israel still has an opportunity to
stop the E1 plan going any further. We encourage them to urgently retract this
plan,” they added. The plan seeks to build around 3,400 homes on the
ultra-sensitive tract of land, which lies between Jerusalem and the Israeli
settlement of Maale Adumim. All of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank,
occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless
of whether they have Israeli planning permission. The Ramallah-based Palestinian
Authority (PA) has slammed the latest move, which has also been criticized by UN
chief Antonio Guterres. Britain on Thursday summoned Israeli ambassador to the
UK Tzipi Hotovely to the foreign ministry to protest the decision. “If
implemented, these settlement plans would be a flagrant breach of international
law and would divide a future Palestinian state in two, critically undermining a
two-state solution,” the foreign office said in a statement.
Israel begins bombing
Gaza City after expanded offensive gets green light
FRANCE 24 with AFP/Thu, August 21, 2025
Israel launched overnight attacks on Gaza City and its outskirts, residents said
on Thursday, despite rising domestic and international opposition to its
military action in the Palestinian enclave. The Israeli defence ministry on
Wednesday approved plans to call up 60,000 reservists as part of major assault
on the Gazan capital. Israel hammered Gaza City and its outskirts overnight,
residents said Thursday, after the defence ministry approved an expanded
offensive to target the remaining Hamas strongholds in the strip. The newly
approved plan authorises the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, deepening
fears the campaign will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in
the Palestinian territory. "We are not waiting. We have begun the preliminary
actions, and already now, IDF (army) troops are holding the outskirts of Gaza
City," the Israeli military said in a statement.
Israel's plans to expand the fighting and take control of Gaza City have sparked
international outcry as well as domestic opposition. Ahead of the offensive, the
Israeli military said the call-up of the reservists would begin in early
September. Gaza City residents described relentless bombardments overnight. "The
house shakes with us all night long – the sound of explosions, artillery,
warplanes, ambulances, and cries for help is killing us," one of them, Ahmad al-Shanti,
told AFP. "The sound is getting closer, but where would we go?". Another
resident, Amal Abdel-Aal, said she watched the heavy strikes on the area, a week
after being displaced from her home in Gaza City's Al-Sabra neighbourhood. "No
one in Gaza has slept – not last night, not for a week. The artillery and air
strikes in the east never stop. The sky flashes all night long," she added. Gaza
civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said air strikes and artillery fire
overnight targeted areas to the northwest and southeast of Gaza City. Late
Thursday, the Israeli military detailed a range of operations across the Gaza
Strip in recent weeks. It said the manoeuvres and strikes "created the
conditions" for the military to intensify pressure on Hamas and lay the
groundwork for the next stages of the campaign. As Israel tightened its grip on
the outskirts of Gaza City, meditators continued to wait for an official Israeli
reaction to their latest ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted earlier this
week.
'Ball' in Israel's court
Israel and Hamas have held a string of indirect negotiations throughout the
nearly two-year conflict, paving the way for a pair of short ceasefires during
which Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Qatar
and Egypt, backed by the United States, have overseen several rounds of shuttle
diplomacy. Qatar said the latest ceasefire proposal was "almost identical" to an
earlier version approved by Israel, while Cario said Monday that "the ball is
now in its (Israel's) court". Late Wednesday, Hamas lambasted the Israeli
defence ministry's approval of plans to take control of Gaza City, saying it
showed its "blatant disregard" for efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage
release deal. "Today's announcement by the terrorist occupation army of the
start of an operation against Gaza City and its nearly one million residents and
displaced persons... demonstrates... a blatant disregard for the efforts made by
the mediators," it said in a statement. Israel's offensive has killed at least
62,122 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the
health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.
UNRWA chief warns many malnourished children will die in Gaza City operation
Reuters/August 21, 2025
GENEVA (Reuters) -The head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency on Thursday
voiced concern that children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza will die if
emergency provisions are not immediately put in place during Israel's Gaza City
military operation. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that its
data showed a six-fold increase in the number of children suffering from
malnutrition in Gaza City since March. "We have a population that is extremely
weak that will be confronted with a new major military operation," he told a
Geneva press club meeting. "Many will simply not have the strength to undergo a
new displacement." "Many of them will not survive," he said of the children,
addressing the audience in French. "It is a manufactured and fabricated famine.
It is deliberate. Food has been used as an instrument of war," he said. In May,
a global hunger monitor said that half a million people in the Gaza Strip faced
starvation but stopped short of using the term famine. Israel's military agency
that coordinates aid, COGAT, has previously said it invests considerable efforts
to ensure aid reaches Gaza and has denied restricting supplies.
U.S. Imposes New Sanctions on
Four ICC Officials
FDD/August 21/2025
Latest Developments
Fresh Sanctions Against ICC: The U.S. State Department issued fresh sanctions
against four International Criminal Court (ICC) judges and prosecutors on August
20 as part of President Trump’s Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on
the International Criminal Court.” Judge Kimberly Prost of Canada, Judge Nicolas
Guillou of France, Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameen Khan of Fiji, and Deputy
Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal were designated for engaging “in
efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detail, or prosecute nationals of the
United States or Israel, without consent of either nation,” according to
Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio confirmed that “it remains the policy of
the United States Government to take whatever actions we deem necessary to
protect our troops, our sovereignty, and our allies from the ICC’s illegitimate
and baseless accusations.”
Previous Rounds of Sanctions: The ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November
2024, prompting Trump’s executive order sanctioning the court. In June, the
State Department levied sanctions against four other ICC judges, a move the
court called “an attempt to undermine the independence of an international
judicial institution.” The court also authorized an investigation in March 2020
that accused the United States of committing war crimes and crimes against
humanity in Afghanistan since 2003, which led to U.S. sanctions against ICC
chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her aides in late 2020. Israel
Welcomes Sanctions: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar stated that he
“commend[s] Secretary Rubio for again standing on the side of truth and justice
and imposing sanctions against judges of the so-called ‘International Criminal
Court’.” He accused the ICC of undermining “international law in its zest to
harm Americans [and] Israelis.” Netanyahu’s office released a statement
congratulating Rubio for imposing the sanctions, adding that “this is a firm
measure against the mendacious smear campaign against the State of Israel and
the IDF, and for truth and justice.”
FDD Expert Response
“It’s clear the Trump administration is methodically implementing the ICC
sanctions to force the court to shut down its illicit activities targeting
democracies like the United States and Israel. There are many more targets still
not designated — people and organizations that are still conducting lawfare
against our countries. It’s time to cast the net wide and grind these attacks to
a halt.” — Richard Goldberg, Senior Advisor
“The ICC has brought these proceedings in a politically motivated fashion while
ignoring significant human rights violations by China, Iran, Russia, and North
Korea. The court has failed to live up to its mandate as a neutral arbitrator
for the international community.” — Tyler Stapleton, Director of Government
Relations, FDD Action
FDD Background and Analysis
“Marco Rubio Fights Lawfare with Sanctions — and Wins,” by Enia Krivine
“Entire UN Panel Targeting Israel Resigns Following U.S. Sanctions Against
Special Rapporteur for Palestinians,” FDD Flash Brief
“‘Open Contempt for the United States, Israel and the West’: U.S. Places
Sanctions on UN Palestinian Rights Rapporteur Albanese,” FDD Flash Brief
“‘No Longer an Impartial Court’: Hungary Announced Withdrawal From ICC,” FDD
Flash Brief
Iraqi Kurd court
extends detention of opposition leader
AFP/August 21, 2025
SULAIMANIYAH: A court in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday extended the detention of
opposition leader Shaswar Abdulwahid following his arrest last week, his party
said. Abdulwahid — who heads the New Generation party, which holds 15 of the 100
seats in the autonomous northern region’s parliament — was taken into custody on
August 12. His detention stemmed from a six-month prison sentence handed down in
absentia after he repeatedly failed to attend hearings in a defamation case
filed by a former MP, a judicial official said. The opposition leader appeared
before a judge on Thursday in a hearing attended by dozens of supporters,
lawmaker Omed Mohammed of the New Generation party told AFP. Abdulwahid’s lawyer
had sought his release on bail, a request the judge denied. Court spokesman
Salah Hassan said the refusal was due to Abdulwahid’s failure to appear for
hearings and questioning. “This does not give the judge sufficient guarantees
for a bail release... which could disrupt future proceedings,” he told AFP.
Abdulwahid has been arrested several times since he launched the party in 2017.
He was also wounded in an assassination attempt. The region’s ruling alliance of
the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has been
criticized by human rights groups for its intolerance of dissent and for
resorting to arbitrary arrests. Abdulwahid’s trial was adjourned until August
28.
Saudi Crown
Prince, Egyptian president discuss regional developments
Al Arabiya English/21 August/2025
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
met at NEOM Palace on Thursday to discuss bilateral ties and review reviewed
regional developments, with a focus on the situation in Palestine, the Saudi
Press Agency (SPA) reported. The meeting took place during al-Sisi’s visit to
NEOM in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The Egyptian presidency said the visit came
at the invitation of Prince Mohammed. Presidential spokesperson Mohammed al-Shenawy
said the visit reflects the “deep-rooted historical ties” between Egypt and
Saudi Arabia and underscores the two leaders’ commitment to strengthening
bilateral cooperation, as well as maintaining continuous coordination and
consultations on regional and international issues of mutual concern. The
Egyptian presidency had said talks between the Crown Prince and al-Sisi would
cover regional developments, with a particular focus on the war in Gaza, as well
as issues related to Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen, in addition to the
security of the Red Sea.
Ukrainian man arrested over Nord Stream pipeline attacks
Reuters/August 21, 2025
BERLIN/MILAN: A Ukrainian man was arrested at a holiday bungalow in Italy on
Thursday on suspicion of coordinating attacks on three Nord Stream gas pipelines
in 2022, marking a breakthrough in an episode that sharpened tensions between
Russia and the West. Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of
sabotage, the explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe,
prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy
supplies on the continent. No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and
Ukraine has denied any role. The arrest comes just as Kyiv is engaged in fraught
diplomatic discussions with the United States over how to end the war in Ukraine
without giving away major concessions and swathes of its own territory to
Russia. “Politically we are firmly on Ukraine’s side and will continue to do
so,” said Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig when asked if the arrest would affect
Berlin’s ties to Kyiv. “What is important for me is that Germany is a country of
laws and crimes in our jurisdiction are fully investigated.”An official in the
Ukrainian president’s office said he could not comment as it was not clear who
had been arrested. The official reiterated Ukraine’s denial of any role in the
blasts. The suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was
part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish
island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, a statement from the prosecutor’s office
said. He and his accomplices had set off from Rostock on Germany’s northeastern
coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack, it said. The vessel had been
rented from a German company with the help of forged identity documents via
middlemen, it added. Authorities acted on a European arrest warrant for the
suspect, who faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion,
anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.
Carabinieri officers arrested him overnight in San Clemente in the province of
Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast, where he was supposed to spend a few days with
his family. “Once his presence had been verified, the Carabinieri surrounded the
bungalow and launched a raid, during which the man surrendered without
resistance,” a statement by the Carabinieri said, adding the suspect was 49
years old. A police official told Reuters the suspect was arrested because, when
providing documents at a hotel check-in, an alert flagging he was wanted popped
up at the police headquarters, which dispatched a Carabinieri police patrol. In
September 2022, one of the two lines of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was damaged
by mysterious blasts, along with both lines of Nord Stream 1 that carried
Russian gas to Europe.
Moscow, without providing evidence, blamed Western sabotage for the blasts,
which cut off most Russian gas supplies to the lucrative European market. The US
denied having anything to do with the attacks. Denmark and Sweden closed their
investigations in February 2024, leaving Germany as the only country continuing
to pursue the case.
The Washington Post and Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine have previously said the
team that carried out the attack was put together by a former Ukrainian
intelligence officer, who has denied involvement. In January 2023, Germany
raided a ship that it said may have been used to transport explosives and told
the United Nations it believed trained divers could have attached devices to the
pipelines at about 70 to 80 meters deep. The boat, leased in Germany via a
Poland-registered company, contained traces of octogen, the same explosive that
was found at the underwater blast sites, according to the investigations by
Germany, Denmark and Sweden. German media reported last year that Germany had
issued a European arrest warrant against a Ukrainian diving instructor who
allegedly was part of the team that blew up the pipelines. Citing unnamed
sources, several outlets reported that German investigators believed the man,
last known to have lived in Poland, was one of the divers who planted explosive
devices on the pipelines. Successive Ukrainian governments had seen the
pipelines as a symbol of, and vehicle for, Russia’s hold over European energy
supplies that Kyiv argued made it hard to act against Moscow ever since Russia’s
annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine
in February 2022, triggering Europe’s deadliest conflict in 80 years, in which
analysts say more than 1 million people have been killed or injured.
UK Ministry of Defence admits 49 breaches of Afghans’ data
Arab News/August 21, 2025
LONDON: The UK’s Ministry of Defence has admitted that 49 separate data breaches
relating to Afghan relocations took place over the past four years, the BBC
reported on Thursday. The breaches occurred within the unit responsible for
processing relocation claims from Afghans seeking refuge in the UK. Of the 49
breaches, four were publicly known, including the massive 2022 leak of a
spreadsheet containing the personal details of almost 19,000 people fleeing the
Taliban. That leak led to thousands of Afghans being secretly relocated to the
UK, a fact that was concealed from the public for years under a gagging order
lifted last month. The latest figure of 49 breaches was revealed to the BBC
through the Freedom of Information Act. Initially, the UK’s information watchdog
described the highly controversial 2022 leak as a “one-off occurrence.”It took
place “following a failure to (follow) usual checks, rather than reflecting a
wider culture of non-compliance,” the watchdog claimed. The latest figure raises
concerns about a lax security culture among people working on the resettlement
scheme, lawyers representing Afghans affected by the breaches said. The MoD has
not disclosed the details of each breach. However, previous incidents that were
made public included officials accidentally revealing the personal details of
Afghan applicants to third parties. Barings Law is representing hundreds of
Afghans affected by the major 2022 breach. The firm’s head of data protection,
Adnan Malik, said: “What began as an isolated incident, which the Ministry of
Defence initially sought to keep from public view, has now escalated into a
series of catastrophic failings. “We urge the Ministry of Defence to be fully
transparent with both those affected and the wider public. Victims should not be
forced to learn the truth through legal action or news reports.”In the wake of
the Afghanistan withdrawal, the British government established the Afghan
Relocations and Assistance Policy in April 2021. The scheme was designed to help
at-risk Afghans seek refuge in the UK, specifically those with close ties to the
British presence in the country during the war against the Taliban.
ARAP, which closed in July this year, was beset by constant complaints relating
to data security. More than 250 Afghans seeking relocation to Britain were
mistakenly copied into an email from the MoD, putting them at risk of revenge
attacks by the Taliban, the BBC reported in 2021. The UK government at the time
announced “significant remedial actions” in the wake of the incident, including
a new rule that any external email required a “second set of eyes” for review
for before being sent. Yet the breaches continued, including the catastrophic
2022 leak caused by a soldier at Regent’s Park barracks, who sent a spreadsheet
with what they believed to be a small number of applicants’ names to trusted
Afghan contacts. Hidden data in the spreadsheet, however, were the names,
personal information and family contacts of almost 19,000 people. Jon Baines,
senior data protection specialist at law firm Mishcon de Reya, said the new
figures represent a “remarkable number of data security incidents in relation to
the ARAP scheme. “It is difficult to think of any information more sensitive
than that which is involved with the scheme, and it baffles me why there were
not better security measures in place.”An MoD spokesperson said: “We take data
security extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring that any incidents
are dealt with properly, and that we follow our legal duties.”
The Latest English LCCC analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources
on August 21-22/2025
Blow after blow, losing ground: How Iran’s
regional influence is unravelling
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya
English/20 August /2025
The geopolitical and strategic tide seems to have significantly turned against
Iran’s government – and things don’t seem to get better. In the span of just
over twelve months, Tehran has endured an unrelenting sequence of blows –
external military defeats, internal structural losses, and mounting domestic
crises – all of which together are reshaping the power dynamics in the Middle
East and beyond.
Less than a year ago: The collapse of the Assad regime
Just eight months ago, in December 2024, the long-standing Assad’s regime in
Syria – Tehran’s most reliable Levantine ally – collapsed under the sustained
pressure of insurgent forces. For more than a decade, Syria had served as the
central artery for Iran’s regional ambitions: it was the overland conduit
through which Iran transported ballistic missiles, military advisors, arms, and
ideological influence directly to the Israeli-bordering frontier. With Assad’s
fall, this critical route was severed. Tehran’s smuggling routes became longer,
riskier, and more exposed. Iran’s ability to sustain logistical synergy among
Hezbollah, its other proxies, and its own Revolutionary Guards was drastically
weakened. Beyond the logistical nightmare, Assad’s demise was symbolic – a blow
to the illusion of permanence that Iran sought to project.
Israel’s campaign: Undermining Hezbollah
Hezbollah also felt the brunt of Israel’s intensified military pressure in
Lebanon from 2024 into 2025. Hezbollah has been Tehran’s most potent instrument
of deterrence and influence all the way to Israel’s northern border. But
Israel’s campaign partially changed the equation: Targeted airstrikes demolished
missile depots, rocket launch sites, weapon caches, and troop barracks.
Hezbollah’s command-and-control structure was hit hard; senior officers were
killed or forced into hiding; its ability to target Israeli cities with massed
rocket salvos was severely curtailed.
Politically, the campaign generated palpable momentum toward disarmament. Under
heavy domestic dissent and mounting international pressure, Lebanon’s parliament
began seriously considering measures to channel all armed groups under official
state control by years’ end. Hezbollah publicly rejected the proposals, yet the
very fact that such a plan is on the legislative table – once unthinkable –
signals a substantive erosion in its political authority. For Iran, this is
another strategic loss. Without Hezbollah’s full strength and credibility, the
deterrent posture that had shielded Iran’s proxies and fueled its regional
influence is now compromised. Israel’s militarized ceilings limit Tehran’s room
to counter flank. Moreover, the prospect of an increasingly disarmed or
politically contested Hezbollah undercuts Tehran’s ability to project credible
asymmetric responses to Israeli threats, shifting the deterrence balance
westward – and away from Iran’s advantage.
The 12-day war: A Pervasive strategic setback
Then came June 2025’s dramatic and devastating “12-Day War” between Israel and
Iran – unmistakably a watershed event. Over the course of less than two weeks,
starting June 13, Israel’s air and intelligence campaign seized the initiative,
striking hundreds of targets across Iran. Nuclear research centers, military
bases, arsenals, and suspected weapons factories were hit with precision.
Estimates now suggest more than 30 high-ranking Iranian security officials and
at least 11 nuclear scientists were killed – a whittling loss of both command
capacity and technical expertise.
Strategically, the strikes exposed profound and multifold weaknesses. Iran’s
air-defense apparatus proved insufficient – early waves of airstrikes penetrated
deep with little resistance, visibly shaking the perception of invulnerability
on which Tehran relied around the region. The concentration of physical damage,
coupled with the attrition of senior figures, struck a blow not just to military
capacity, but to institutional continuity and morale. Regionally and
internationally, the message reverberated. Iran’s domestic propaganda– long
centered on resilience and inescapable resolve – was undermined by images of
smoking military installations, gutted bunkers, and evacuated compounds. Even if
operational planning and scientists regroup, the symbolic adage remains: If your
skies are not defensible, your deterrence posture is not credible.
Water crisis: A domestic disaster unfolding
On the domestic front, Iran is grappling with a cascading water crisis that
might prove as politically destabilizing as any external blow. Years of
over-extraction from aquifers, entrenched mismanagement of irrigation systems,
denial of escalating drought, and inadequate infrastructure investment have
resulted in reservoirs and rivers that are plummeting to historically dangerous
lows. Officials in Tehran have floated rationing plans targeting “heavy
consumers” such as industry, agriculture, and affluent areas – signaling that
water scarcity is no longer abstract, but imminent. The concept of “Day Zero” –
when taps could literally run dry in urban centers – is being floated in serious
internal debates, even if pragmatic officials insist it remains a planning
scenario. For the Iranian government, which must balance maintaining government
legitimacy with economic stability, a multifront crisis has turned into a
nightmare.
When powers start to weaken
Sovereignty, influence, and power are easier to dismantle than they are to
forge. History offers many lessons: once a great power loses its symbolic
anchors, regional leverage, and home-front legitimacy, its decline becomes
self-accelerating. For Iran, the sequence of events over the past year – Assad’s
collapse, Hezbollah’s attrition, the 12-Day War’s bruising, and the domestic
hydrological emergency – form not disparate crises, but a single frame of
decline, each blow compounding the previous. Syria is no longer an assured
transit route. Lebanon and Hezbollah’s cohesion are fraying. Iran’s strategic
domain and credibility have been punctured. And socially, the prospect of water
scarcity threatens to ignite protests in cities – hardwired to consume but
fueled by grievance. This emerging alignment of external defeat and internal
stress tests whether Iran’s elite can still hold its strategic doctrine together
– or whether fractures will translate into real political fragmentation.
Blow after blow – What lies ahead
In conclusion, Iran’s government has faced a relentless succession of shocks
over the past year – with each one eroding a pillar of its power. Assad’s fall
dismantled regional logistics; Hezbollah’s weakening reshaped deterrence; the
12-Day War exposed vulnerabilities in command, nuclear capability, and air
defense; and the advancing water crisis threatens the social compact at home.
The cumulative pattern is unmistakable: The axis appears structurally fraying.
Absent dramatic reversals – like a resurgent proxy bottom line, breakthrough
alliances, or transformative internal reform – what we’re witnessing may be the
beginning of a thaw that Washington and Jerusalem have long aspired toward.
Strategic unravelling is rarely linear, but the signs are unmistakable: Iran’s
strategic foundations are shifting beneath it. Whether that leads to
recalibration or further decline, or something else depends on the resiliency of
the government, the coherence of its elite, and the speed at which a new reality
is recognized – not denied.
Turkey’s Neo-Ottoman Moment
Sinan Ciddi/The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune/August 21/2025
https://jstribune.com/ciddi-turkeys-neo-ottoman-moment/
Turkey’s Syria policy didn’t materialize in a vacuum. Rather, it was a reaction
to the Arab uprisings that began in January 2011, known as the Arab Spring,
which Turkish policymakers interpreted as a providential opportunity. The fall
of entrenched dictators (in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and, eventually, Syria)
would, the Turks believed, open the door for Ankara to assume leadership of the
broader Muslim world. No Turkish official bought into this vision more fervently
than Ahmet Davutoğlu, the intellectual architect of what would become Turkey’s
neo-Ottoman moment. Davutoğlu served as Erdoğan’s chief foreign policy advisor
from 2003 to 2009 and as foreign minister from 2009 to 2014. Known among party
elites as “the professor,” Davutoğlu was the ideological theorist of Turkey’s
regional ambitions. He distinguished himself from his peers in Milli Görüş (the
“National View” Turkish Islamist movement) by having serious academic
credentials from one of Turkey’s top universities, Boğaziçi (formerly Robert
College). Davutoğlu’s 2001 book, Strategic Depth: Turkey’s International
Position, lays out the thesis that Turkey is uniquely suited, by virtue of its
historical, political, and cultural ties, to lead the Muslim world in the 21st
century. He prophesizes: “A new Middle East is about to be born. We will be the
owner, pioneer and the servant of this new Middle East.”
Davutoğlu’s thesis leans heavily into a grievance narrative familiar to many
Muslim intellectuals – lamenting Western imperialism and the colonial carve-up
of the Ottoman Empire. For Davutoğlu, the post-World War I order in the Middle
East was a historical aberration, a “parenthesis” that must be closed with
Turkey’s resurgence as a political and economic force. Within this Turkish
Islamist worldview, the secular authoritarian regimes across the Arab world were
illegitimate, brittle holdovers from a Western-imposed system destined for
collapse.
Strategic Depth reads as a manifesto of Turkish exceptionalism: Muslims, weary
of post-colonial stagnation, long for the return of Turkish leadership.
Davutoğlu’s confidence was bolstered, ironically, by Western praise. The Obama
administration in 2009 dubbed Turkey a “model country,” citing its secular
institutions and robust economic performance under Erdoğan and his Justice and
Development Party (AKP is its Turkish acronym).
But just as Obama was praising the Turkish model, Erdoğan and the AKP were
moving off the country’s democratic path and beginning to dismantle the secular
foundations of the republic. In partnership with the Gülen movement – another
Turkish Islamist actor with adherents throughout the security establishment –
the AKP moved to delegitimize Turkish secular elites and reengineer state
institutions. In 2014, the method of appointing judges was changed to give the
ruling party a majority vote. Judges soon began prosecuting secular journalists
and military leaders. Legislative efforts flirted with criminalizing adultery
and banning abortion. At the same time, education policy shifted dramatically:
religious schools were favored, math and science curricula were diluted, and
admissions preferences were extended to students from conservative religious
backgrounds.
This domestic transformation paralleled an equally ambitious foreign policy
shift. As Arab regimes fell one by one beginning in spring 2011, Turkey wasted
little time in backing Sunni Islamist movements, particularly those affiliated
with the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt became the prime example. After the fall of
Hosni Mubarak, Turkish President Abdullah Gül was the first foreign leader to
visit Mohamed Morsi, the Brotherhood-backed candidate. Ankara provided Cairo
with $2 billion in aid and even dispatched professional campaign advisors to
help Morsi win the presidential elections of 2012.
In Libya, following Muammar Qaddafi’s ouster in 2011, Ankara extended a $300
million credit line to the Transitional National Council, facilitating the
emergence of the Brotherhood-linked Justice and Construction Party. After Libya
descended into civil war, Turkey backed several Islamist factions, culminating
in their capture of Tripoli and the eventual formation of the internationally
recognized government.
Even in countries where Turkey didn’t directly facilitate political transition,
its ideological influence was clear. In Tunisia, for instance, Muslim
Brotherhood-inspired leader Rachid Ghannouchi praised Erdoğan’s model, insisting
that his movement should be likened to Turkey, not Iran. By supporting these
populist Islamist movements across the region, Erdoğan and Davutoğlu achieved
two goals. Domestically, they cultivated their image as defenders of the
international Muslim community, the ummah. Regionally, Erdoğan’s popularity
surged. His outspoken support for Islamist causes earned him credibility on the
Arab street.
This period also marked the unraveling of Turkey’s once-close ties with Israel.
For decades, Ankara and Jerusalem had enjoyed strategic cooperation,
particularly in trade, intelligence, and military affairs. Erdoğan was willing
to torch that relationship, beginning with his now-famous confrontation with
Israeli President Shimon Peres at the 2009 World Economic Forum, where he
accused Israel of being a nation of “killers.” The outburst earned him applause
at home and across the Muslim world, and paved the way for Turkey to become one
of Hamas’ primary patrons, alongside Iran and Qatar.
Before the Arab Spring, Davutoğlu’s dream of Turkish leadership in the Muslim
world was confined to academic theory. But the uprisings transformed his ideas
into policy. As discussed in the first installment of this series, Erdoğan had
initially invested significant diplomatic capital in improving ties with Bashar
al-Asad. But once the uprisings spread to Syria, Davutoğlu and Erdoğan concluded
that Asad’s fall was inevitable and they aligned Turkish policy accordingly.
Erdoğan’s timing was off in treating Syria’s regime as another domino that would
fall like Egypt’s or Tunisia’s. But al-Asad had powerful patrons in Russia and
Iran. The Syrian conflict began as an opportunity for Turkish ascendancy but is
increasingly looking like a quagmire for Turkish aspirations.
**Sinan Ciddi is a non-resident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies where he contributes to its Turkey Program and Center on Economic
and Financial Power. You can follow Sinan on X, @sinanciddi.
Donald Trump’s Tariffs Can Cripple Russia—If Done Right
Max Meizlish & Angela Howard/The National Interest/August 21/2025
With the right touch, President Donald Trump can thwart Putin’s war machine
while helping India shed its energy dependence on Russia. The weapon that can do
the most damage to Russia’s war machine isn’t a drone or a tank—it’s America’s
economic leverage. That’s why President Donald Trump’s August 6 announcement of
50 percent tariffs on India—Russia’s second-largest crude oil customer—could
mark a turning point in the campaign to constrain Russia. The policy’s success,
however, depends on how decisively Washington follows through and how New Delhi
responds.
Countries like India have helped sustain Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war
in Ukraine by prioritizing short-term economic gain over strategic alignment
with the United States and its allies in Europe. India’s imports of Russian
fossil fuels have jumped from just 1 percent of its crude supply in 2021 to more
than 40 percent today. Trade between the two countries now amounts to more than
$5 billion per month, with most coming from the oil trade. Meanwhile, Indian
state-owned firms continue purchasing Russian weapons, including S-400
air-defense systems. Reports suggest an Indian company may have even recently
sent explosive compounds to Russia that the United States assesses are “critical
for Russia’s war effort.”Trump’s move to double the already significant 25
percent tariffs on Indian goods announced last week introduces even more
meaningful economic consequences for New Delhi’s ongoing support of the Kremlin.
And the timing is smart. With global oil prices down roughly 40 percent since
mid-2022, the financial upside of buying sanctions-laden Russian crude is
shrinking. Meanwhile, nearly one-fifth of all Indian exports reach the United
States. Aggressive tariffs on those goods could further incentivize a rapid
reorientation of India’s energy basket away from Russian exports.
Signs are emerging that the pressure may be working. While some reports suggest
India will not acquiesce to Trump’s demands, others detail how India’s
state-owned oil refineries—which have been some of the largest single buyers of
Russian oil—are already pausing their demand. Officials are reportedly directing
these state-owned firms to identify alternative sources, though privately held
Indian refineries do not appear to have received similar guidance yet. Critics
may argue that India, with its longstanding ties to Russia, cannot simply pivot
and align with the United States against its ally. But that underestimates how
unattractive Russia has become as a partner. Moscow is a global pariah, an
increasingly junior partner to China, and a security ally with little left to
offer as it remains mired in Ukraine. India has reason to reconsider the
relationship on its own. The United States simply needs to accelerate India’s
shift away from Russia with the right combination of carrots and sticks. It
worked in 2019, when the United States imposed sweeping sanctions on Iranian oil
while offering India alternative supplies and deeper energy cooperation. Similar
measures were taken in 2012 as well. The same model can work here. The United
States should offer India a six-month waiver to give the country enough time to
identify and transition to alternative suppliers. Washington should actively
support this process, helping India to diversify its energy imports and reduce
its dependence on Russia. It can be a model for how the United States works with
countries that have spent far too long trying to play both sides of a global
rivalry.
This sharper posture toward India also raises a necessary question: why isn’t
China, which plays an even more significant and nefarious role in propping up
Russia, facing similar penalties? Unlike India, China is not a partner of the
United States. Yet, Beijing continues to purchase sanctioned Russian oil, enable
trade in dual-use goods, and shield Russian financial transactions from scrutiny
without facing the kind of Russia-based tariff escalation now directed at New
Delhi. If the Trump administration wants to cut off Russia’s economic oxygen, it
must show at least equal aggressiveness toward China, whose support for Moscow
is deeper, more deliberate, and more dangerous. Until then—and if done
right—Trump’s tariffs against India could be the start of something far bigger.
India, like the United States, imports more than it exports—a reality that has
made both countries vulnerable to trade manipulation by surplus economies like
China’s. India, therefore, stands to benefit from the accelerating push to
diversify global supply chains and develop additional industrial capacity in
countries beyond China, provided it makes meaningful reforms that align with US
interests. If Indian prime minister Narendra Modi makes the right choice, Trump
should follow through by making him a better deal than Putin ever could.
Ultimately, India’s growth alongside and in partnership with the United States
hinges on New Delhi recognizing a hard truth: it cannot be a bridge between
democracies and dictatorships forever.
**Max Meizlish is a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies (FDD). Follow him on X: @maxmeizlish. Angela Howard is a research
analyst at FDD. Follow her on X: @angela__howard.
The single negotiation goal with Iran should be complete dismantlement of
nuclear program/Trump’s ultimatum to Tehran is clear: accept American terms or
face the consequences.
Jacob Nagel &Mark Dubowitz/The Jerusalem Post/August 21/2025
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-864778
After the 12-day US-Israel campaign that demolished much of Iran’s nuclear and
missile infrastructure, there is only one acceptable objective for any future
negotiations: the total dismantlement of what remains. No more illusions. No
more incremental deals. No more diplomatic games. President Trump’s special
envoy, Steve Witkoff, is reportedly preparing a new round of talks with Tehran,
possibly alongside France, Germany, and the UK, perhaps to prevent the
activation of the “snapback” mechanism, which reinstates all the UN Security
Council sanctions on Iran, at the 90th minute, because the ability to activate
it will expire very soon. But this cannot be “round six” of the same failed
diplomacy. As Trump rightly stated, “the old deals and proposals are not on the
table anymore.” This is the first round of a new approach, defined by the hard
lessons of war, not the naïve approach of past negotiations.
Trump’s ultimatum to Tehran is clear: accept American terms or face the
consequences. That warning must be backed by resolve. Before the war, we warned
that resuming talks without strict preconditions would be dangerous. Now, with
Iran’s capabilities exposed and degraded, the bar for reengagement must be
higher. Talks should begin only once Iran meets concrete, verifiable demands. As
Trump bluntly put it: “Iran is stupid to keep pushing for uranium enrichment
after being beaten up very badly. We’re not going to allow that to happen.” That
clarity must now guide US and allied strategy.
We’ve seen this movie before. The Obama administration began with the right
demand—zero enrichment, aligned with binding UN Security Council resolutions—but
folded under pressure. The result: the disastrous 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action (JCPOA), which legitimized enrichment, ignored weaponization evidence,
and unlocked billions in sanctions relief. Had Trump not withdrawn from the
JCPOA—and had this war not occurred—Iran might now possess a nuclear bomb.
Instead, we have a rare opportunity to ensure it never gets there. For years,
Israel’s position was clear: “0-0-0”, zero enrichment, zero heavy water
reactors, zero fissile material. That included full compliance with UN
resolutions, removal of enriched uranium, dismantling sites like Fordow, ending
heavy water production, and full inspector access. The demands also included:
legal accountability, tight controls on dual-use tech, and ballistic missile
development oversight.
Those demands were the floor. Today’s reality demands more.
Iran didn’t just enrich uranium, it launched ballistic missiles at Israel before
and during the war, firing hundreds of rockets, drones, and cruise missiles at
civilian and military targets. That alone justifies new red lines: Iran must
dismantle all missile production facilities, eliminate its stockpiles, and halt
development of delivery systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads, including
ICBMs that can strike the United States. Tehran’s support for terrorism must
also be on the table. Hamas, which carried out the October 7 massacre, along
with Hezbollah and the Houthis, which launched hundreds of attacks during the
war, are all armed and financed by Iran. Any future agreement must include an
end to this “proxy war” network. For decades, Iran has used diplomacy to stall,
deceive, and build its capabilities. Another deal focused on inspections or
delayed snapbacks, without dismantling core infrastructure, would repeat the
same fatal errors.A credible agreement must eliminate the three pillars of
Iran’s nuclear weapons program: It must begin with the complete destruction of
all enriched uranium, centrifuges, and enrichment facilities. It must also
require full disclosure and termination of all nuclear warhead design, related
research and development, and any remaining weaponization infrastructure.
Finally, it must dismantle Iran’s ballistic missile program entirely and subject
it to strict international oversight. There is no peaceful reason for Iran to
retain these capabilities. Over 20 countries access nuclear energy without
enrichment or heavy water. Iran can too, buying fuel rods and returning the
irradiated rods, under strict international control, to power its reactors. The
regime will not accept these terms voluntarily. That’s why the United
States—ideally with Israel—must be ready for a long-term campaign: diplomatic,
economic, and, if needed, military. The goal is permanent neutralization of
Iran’s nuclear and missile threat.
US strikes against a US adversary
Some claim the US “joined” Israel’s war, attacking Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
That’s false. These were American strikes against an American adversary. Israel
launched one of the most daring preemptive strikes in its history. The US
followed with overwhelming airpower to eliminate a shared threat. Going forward,
US-Israel coordination must deepen. A united front boosts deterrence and
operational success. Together, we must finish the job. The lessons of 2015 are
clear: half-measures fail, bad deals collapse, and weak demands empower tyrants.
No more appeasement. No more enrichment. No more missiles. No more terror. The
only path forward is total dismantlement—nothing less.
**Brig. Gen. (res.) Jacob Nagel is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies and a professor at the Technion. He served as Israel’s National
Security Advisor and acting head of the National Security Council. Mark Dubowitz
is CEO of FDD and an expert on Iran’s nuclear program and threat network. He was
sanctioned by Iran in 2019 and Russia in 2022.
Iran’s web of terror and propaganda: The case of Al Mustafa University
Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi/FDD's Long War Journal/August 21/2025
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2025/08/analysis-irans-web-of-terror-and-propaganda-the-case-of-al-mustafa-university.php
Last July, Israel’s ambassador to Argentina gave an interview to Latin America’s
leading news platform, Infobae, where he named Edgardo Ruben (aka Suhail) Assad,
Abdallah Cerrilla, and Abdul Karim Paz, three Argentinian-born and Iran-trained
Shi’a clerics, as part of an Iran terror network. The network has links to
Sheikh Mohsen Rabbani, one of the masterminds of the 1992 bombing of Israel’s
embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA, the Buenos Aires
Jewish cultural center. The accusation that Iranian-trained Argentinian clerics
have links to terrorism may seem unusual. However, in fact, it is consistent
with Iran’s efforts to export its revolutionary message abroad. Iran is both a
clerical regime and the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. The clergy
takes the lead in giving religious endorsements, moral justifications, guidance,
and leadership when it comes to terrorism.
One of the places where faith meets terror is Al Mustafa International
University, a religious school based in the Iranian city of Qom—the home of
Shiite religious seminars—which focuses on training non-Persian speakers,
including a large cohort of converts to Shiite Islam from all over the world.
Its extensions, including those in Europe, which have recently come under the
attention of German investigators, may be a likely target of closer scrutiny by
law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Both the US Department of the Treasury and Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
have sanctioned Al Mustafa University in 2020 and 2022, respectively. Treasury
noted that Al Mustafa “maintains dozens of international branches that
facilitate [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force] operations
through the recruitment of international students, including Americans,” while
Canada’s designation stated that Al Mustafa is “an entity that spreads the
regime’s ideology abroad through its global branches.”
Sheikh Mohsen Rabbani, a mentor to all three Argentinian clerics named by
Israel’s ambassador in Buenos Aires, was not just a key figure in the 1992 and
1994 bombings. Since his return to Iran in 1997, he has headed Islam Oriente,
the Al Mustafa department in charge of indoctrinating and training aspiring
Shiite clergy from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries. His disciples now
run Shiite Islamic centers in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba,
Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, among other places.
Alongside Islam Oriente, Al Mustafa runs programs in dozens of foreign languages
on its main campus in Qom, Iran, while managing foreign campuses in far-flung
places both within and outside the Middle East, including Berlin, Beirut,
Johannesburg, and London. Graduates, in turn, have established mosques and
cultural centers across the globe, where they propagate the teachings of their
alma mater, promote regime propaganda, and recruit converts to its cause. Such
centers exist and thrive across Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North
America.
The confluence of militant clergy and terror activities is a result of the
indoctrination imparted by Al Mustafa teachers and has reverberated across the
globe well beyond the mayhem Iran and its proxies unleashed in Argentina in 1992
and 1994. According to Washington Institute scholar Hamdi Malik, the Iraqi
branch of Al Mustafa, for example, is closely tied to the US-sanctioned terror
organization Kataib Hezbollah (KH), with two leaders of KH also serving as
officials there.
A Tajik graduate of Al Mustafa, Mohamad Ali Burhanov, was implicated in terror
plots against Israelis in Central Asia. Another member of the Al Mustafa
network, a Brazilian convert and anti-Israel activist, was in close contact with
members of the Hezbollah terror cell implicated in Brazil’s Trapiche
investigation—which, in November 2023, uncovered a Hezbollah plot to recruit
Brazilian nationals to carry out attacks against Jewish targets in Brazil’s
capital, Brasilia. The Jamestown Foundation recently revealed the role of a Thai
professor at Al Mustafa in mediating Hamas’ release of Thai hostages held in
Gaza through his ties with the Iranian regime.
While the US and Canada have sanctioned Al Mustafa, and plots and terror links
keep emerging, the organization’s branches continue to operate abroad. Just
recently, Al Mustafa’s chancellor undertook an official visit to Brazil, a home
to many of its graduates and a key center of Iranian and Hezbollah operations in
Latin America. Last year, the German news outlet Bild revealed that over 700
affiliates of the Berlin branch of Al Mustafa were under close watch from
Germany’s security services. So far, the Iranian-affiliated school remains
active, although pressure is mounting—its PayPal account was reportedly
deactivated in November 2024. German authorities have also closed mosques and
Islamic centers linked to Iran and Hezbollah, including the Bremen Al Mustafa
community center in 2022 and the Iran regime-linked Hamburg Shi’a Mosque in July
2024. The former chairman of the Bremen center, whom German authorities arrested
in 2022, was reportedly a former member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan military
unit.
Despite these enforcement actions, Berlin’s Al Mustafa remains open, and so do
other Islamic centers which, while not institutionally tied to Al Mustafa, are
run by its graduates. That is the case of the Hannover Shiite Payame Nour
Mosque, whose sheikh is Radwan Harb, a graduate of Al Mustafa University,
according to his Facebook page. Sheikh Radwan, a Lebanese national, has close
family links to Hezbollah. His late brother Ali is a Hezbollah martyr—the sheikh
visited his grave and posted a photo of the occasion on his Facebook page.
Radwan has also frequently memorialized other fallen fighters of the group. He
posted a martyr’s eulogy for Ali Hussein Khalil in 2022, on the anniversary of
his death, and on November 28, 2024, he eulogized multiple Hezbollah martyrs
from his hometown of Al Mansouri who were killed during the recent war with
Israel. “Few are those who ascend the heights of immortality, sublimity and
greatness, who give a soul and take souls,” Radwan commented in the latter post.
Radwan’s posts leave little doubt about his sympathies for the Iranian regime
and its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. His contacts also attest to his closeness
to both the world of Iran’s overseas networks and Hezbollah expatriates. One of
them is Fadel Raad, whom German authorities arrested on December 3, 2024, on
suspicion of being a Hezbollah member. Raad and Radwan are mutual social media
friends and have 144 contacts in common.The sheikh also has connections with the
now closed Iranian center in Hamburg, both through social media friendships with
the mosque’s leadership and in person—he was their guest, representing the
Hannover Mosque, at the opening of a new center in 2017. Beyond Germany’s
borders, Radwan is friends with an Iranian center in Ghana and with the former
Iranian cultural attaché to Algeria, Ali Moussawi, who was expelled from Algeria
for seeking to spread Shiite Islam in the country. Radwan is but one example of
Al Mustafa’s graduates around the world, whose daily work and contact networks
faithfully reflect the worldview of the Iranian regime and the institution that
trained them. Given the track record that Al Mustafa has—sanctioned for
indoctrinating its recruits, counting terrorists among its graduates, and being
dedicated to spreading the Islamic Republic’s hateful ideology beyond its
borders—it is remarkable that few countries so far have followed the US and
Canada in issuing sanctions and continue to let the organization operate
unhindered.
**Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi is an independent analyst focusing on Iran’s and
Hezbollah’s overseas illicit finance and influence networks.
Do Not Be Fooled By Hamas's 'Positive Response'
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/August 21/2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21852/hamas-ceasefire-response
The Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas said earlier this week that it
has delivered a "positive response" to mediators on the latest US proposal for a
Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal with Israel. The group's leaders, however,
continue to talk about the need to continue the "armed struggle" against Israel.
"Hamas and the Palestinian resistance factions will not lay down their weapons.
We will continue to exert pressure on the Zionist enemy through the armed
struggle. We met with the Palestinian factions in Cairo and agreed to escalate
the confrontation and the struggle..... Resistance is the only way to confront
the enemy." — Mahmoud Mardawi, senior Hamas official, palininfo.com, August 15,
2025. Mardawi does not live in the Gaza Strip. He and most of the Hamas leaders
are based in Qatar and Turkey. When [Hamas's] leaders say the "armed struggle"
will continue, they are actually threatening to launch more attacks similar to
the October 7 atrocities. If Hamas is indeed ready to accept a ceasefire, the
reason is not because it wants to stop the death and destruction in the Gaza
Strip. Rather, Hamas wants to ensure that it will be able to continue ruling the
Gaza Strip after the war.... so it can pursue its jihad (holy war) to murder
Jews and destroy Israel. This has been Hamas's goal since its establishment more
than three decades ago. In the weeks before the October 7 attack, Hamas leaders
went to great lengths to create the false impression that they were not
interested in engaging in another war with Israel.
Hamas has not – and will never – give up its goal of eliminating Israel and
replacing it with an Islamist state.
Even if a ceasefire deal is reached, the US and the rest of the international
community must insist that Hamas be totally disarmed and removed from power.
Hamas, unfortunately, really needs to be obliterated, and its leaders put on
trial for committing war crimes against Israel and their own people.
If Hamas is indeed ready to accept a ceasefire, the reason is not because it
wants to stop the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Rather, Hamas wants
to ensure that it will be able to continue ruling the Gaza Strip after the war.
Hamas remains as defiant as ever. Hamas leaders are actually threatening to
launch more attacks similar to the October 7 atrocities. Hamas official Ghazi
Hamad has clearly said that the terror group will repeat the October 7 attack,
time and again, until Israel is annihilated. The Iran-backed Palestinian terror
group Hamas said earlier this week that it has delivered a "positive response"
to mediators on the latest US proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal
with Israel. The group's leaders, however, continue to talk about the need to
continue the "armed struggle" against Israel. For Hamas, the "armed struggle"
means launching more terror attacks against Israel and murdering as many Jews as
possible. Hamas leaders, in addition, continue to stress that they refuse to lay
down their weapons. In a recent interview with Hamas's unofficial mouthpiece,
the Qatari state-owned television empire Al-Jazeera, senior Hamas official
Mahmoud Mardawi said:
"Hamas and the Palestinian resistance factions will not lay down their weapons.
We will continue to exert pressure on the Zionist enemy through the armed
struggle. We met with the Palestinian factions in Cairo and agreed to escalate
the confrontation and the struggle. What other choice do we have? Surrender?
Gaza will not surrender. The Palestinian resistance sticks to its positions.
Resistance is the only way to confront the enemy."
Mardawi does not live in the Gaza Strip. He and most of the Hamas leaders are
based in Qatar and Turkey. From there, they continue to issue calls to the
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to step up the "armed struggle"
against Israel. These leaders are determined to fight Israel to the last
Palestinian. They do not care about the suffering of the Palestinians,
especially those living in the Gaza Strip. They do not care because they and
their families lead comfortable lives in Qatar and Turkey.
The war in the Gaza Strip started on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas
terrorists invaded Israel and murdered 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals,
wounded thousands and kidnapped 251 men, women and children. Hamas terrorists
continue to hold 50 hostages, of whom only 20 are believed to be alive. Nearly
two years later, Hamas remains as defiant as ever. When its leaders say the
"armed struggle" will continue, they are actually threatening to launch more
attacks similar to the October 7 atrocities. Two weeks after the October 7
attack, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, based in Qatar, said:
"We must teach Israel a lesson, and will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa
Flood [the name Hamas uses to describe the massacre] is just the first time, and
there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination,
the resolve, and the capabilities to fight."
If Hamas is indeed ready to accept a ceasefire, the reason is not because it
wants to stop the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Rather, Hamas wants
to ensure that it will be able to continue ruling the Gaza Strip after the war.
Hamas wants to stay in power and hold on to its weapons so it can pursue its
jihad (holy war) to murder Jews and destroy Israel. This has been Hamas's goal
since its establishment more than three decades ago. In its 1988 charter, Hamas
describes itself as "one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine." At
the beginning of the charter, Hamas quotes Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder
of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization as saying: "Israel will exist
and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it
obliterated others before it."
Hamas took advantage of previous ceasefire deals with Israel to regroup, rearm
and plan for the next round of fighting. In the weeks before the October 7
attack, Hamas leaders went to great lengths to create the false impression that
they were not interested in engaging in another war with Israel. A source close
to Hamas told Reuters:
"Hamas used an unprecedented intelligence tactic to mislead Israel over the last
months by giving a public impression that it was not willing to go into a fight
or confrontation with Israel while preparing for this massive operation."
Hamas leaders seem to believe that they can deceive Israel and the rest of the
world again by pretending that they want an end to the war with Israel. They
might accept a ceasefire, but it would be only on a temporary basis until they
were ready for the next attack on Israel.
Hamas has not – and will never – give up its goal of eliminating Israel and
replacing it with an Islamist state.
As Atef Seif, a Palestinian writer and spokesman for the ruling Fatah faction,
wrote:
"Hamas only wants what is best for Hamas and its survival. Is there anyone who
doubts that? Hamas seeks to secure itself after the war ends. Hamas knows that
after the war ends, the people will question it about the adventures (wars with
Israel) it has been undertaking for two decades, which have only brought people
more suffering. We, the Fatah members who were thrown into Hamas prisons, saw
the tortured people with our own eyes and heard their screams. The goal of the
negotiations is to serve Hamas's agenda, not to stop the people's suffering.
Hamas has committed a historical precedent that no other organization, political
or military entity has ever committed before it anywhere else in the world.
History will record that Hamas is the first organization to sacrifice its people
for its own survival. Hamas is more important than everyone else; it is more
important than Palestine, more important than Gaza, and its leadership is more
important than more than two million Palestinians facing death and awaiting
exile. Nothing is greater than Hamas except Hamas. This is the inner voice of
the Hamas negotiator as he moves between hotels in various capitals. Note that
the Hamas leadership will be the Palestinian group in history that has lived in
the hotels of the world's capitals the most. It practically lives in hotels and
moves between them, all in the name of Palestine and in the name of Gaza, which
is being slaughtered; because Hamas has decided to build glory at the expense of
the oppressed people."
Even if a ceasefire deal is reached, the US and the rest of the international
community must insist that Hamas be totally disarmed and removed from power.
Hamas, unfortunately, really needs to be obliterated, and its leaders put on
trial for committing war crimes against Israel and their own people.
**Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
**Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
© 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.
Pope Leo’s first 100 days in office inspire hope
Mohamed Chebaro/Arab News/August 21, 2025
Pope Leo XIV, in his first 100 days in office, has restored stability to the
papacy, calming nerves as he signals continuity with the pontificate of his
predecessor Pope Francis, while making his reign one that focuses not on himself
but on the church and the faith as a whole.
In a recent impromptu meeting with faithful around St. Peter’s Square, his
informal spontaneity alarmed some looking for a change from Pope Francis’
papacy, but his message underlined his unifying and hopeful mantra when he asked
young people to spread hope, faith and peace. In the world witnessing major
shifts in international relations resulting in wars, displacement, suffering,
and uncertainty, one can only look at the new pope’s first 100 days in office
and hope that his quiet, yet forceful, message can inspire leaders and nations
in a way that re-instills hope and diminishes the hate that we see everywhere.
It is clear that Pope Leo has gone out of his way at the start of his papacy to
heal the divisions that deepened within the church during Francis’s pontificate,
offering messages of unity and avoiding controversy. His approach, even on
highly complex issues such as his signature topic — confronting the promise and
perils posed by artificial intelligence — is something that conservatives and
progressives both in the church and outside agree is important. His recent
invitation to several dozen homeless people and church volunteers to join him at
his summer vacation residence, celebrating a special Mass for his guests, is
unlikely to raise eyebrows, even though his predecessor’s emphasis on caring for
the environment and migrants often alienated conservatives in the church.
Compared with US President Donald Trump, who was immediately busy on the world
stage with volleys of statements, executive orders, bruising remarks, and
tantrums, the pope seems to have eased into his new job slowly, deliberately,
and quietly, almost trying not to draw attention to himself. He has refused to
do lengthy interviews, avoided creating headlines with off-the-cuff comments,
and failed to make any senior staff appointments or even undertake a major trip
abroad.
The pope has gone out of his way to heal divisions.
Many believe that at 69, the new pope seems to know that he has time on his
side, and that after Francis’ revolutionary papacy, the church might need a bit
of a breather. One Vatican official who knows Pope Leo said that he expects his
papacy will have the effect of a “calming rain” on the church.
Nevertheless the pope has been far from idle in his first 100 days in office. In
the church, his style and actions were seen as offering the Vatican bureaucracy
a reassuring and a conciliatory message compared with his predecessor’s
occasionally authoritarian style.
Continuity with the previous pope’s environmental legacy was celebrated through
the first ecologically inspired Mass, while Pope Leo also gave the go-ahead to
turn a 430-hectare site north of Rome into a vast solar farm that will generate
enough electricity to meet the Vatican City’s needs and turn it into the world’s
first carbon-neutral state. Challenges and adversity will surely be lurking in
the wings and will test his moral influence. Gender identity issues will no
doubt test his papacy, as will his position regarding genocide and atrocities
from Ukraine to Gaza to Sudan.
Pope Leo is clearly an Augustinian pope, insisting he is, first and foremost, a
“son of St. Augustine” — a reference to the fifth-century theologian and
devotional giant of early Christianity who inspired a monastic order that
advocated a life of poverty but was known for its activism in urban communities,
preaching, teaching, and ministering to the poor and sick. It is this flavor of
Augustine’s teachings that has characterized the early work of the pope — his
quiet activism, advocacy, and positive influence in a world becoming less
hospitable for its inhabitants because of greed and excessive individualism.
With hope and peace looking increasingly deficient everywhere, it is to be hoped
the weight and symbolism of Pope Leo’s teachings and actions can stir debate and
help raise the guardrails that protect the weak and dispossessed. In an age when
multilateralism and rule of law are being eroded, efforts ought not to be spared
to preserve those values that for centuries have limited powers and the use of
force, preserving our world and preventing its descent into disorder and social
breakdown.
• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’
experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.
Netanyahu’s plan to reoccupy Gaza is a deadly delusion
Hani Hazaimeh/Arab News/August 21,
2025
Benjamin Netanyahu is once again playing with fire — only this time it threatens
not just Gaza, but Israel itself, the broader region, and what remains of a
fragile international order. The Israeli leader’s reckless scheme to reoccupy
Gaza is not merely shortsighted; it is criminal in intent, catastrophic in
consequence, and dripping with the arrogance of a man who believes he can bend
history to his will.Let us be clear: The idea of reoccupying Gaza is not about
security. It is not about peace. It is about one thing and one thing only:
Netanyahu’s desperate bid to cling to power, evade accountability for his
corruption charges, and present himself to the Israeli public as a strongman at
a time when his leadership is defined by chaos, failure, and bloodshed. Gaza,
once again, is being used as a pawn in his political survival game.
Netanyahu sells the illusion that sending Israeli tanks back into Gaza will
somehow bring security to Israel. But history has already written the verdict:
Occupation breeds resistance. The decades-long suffocation of Gaza has done
nothing but radicalize new generations who see no horizon, no dignity, no life
worth living under perpetual siege. Does Netanyahu truly believe that by
reoccupying Gaza, by tightening the noose around 2 million people, he will
extinguish their will to resist? On the contrary, he will ignite a firestorm of
resistance fiercer than ever before. The Israeli military may occupy land, but
it cannot occupy hearts. And the more brutal the occupation, the deeper the
rage, the stronger the determination, the longer the conflict burns.
Security built on the graves of starving children and bombed-out families is not
security; it is barbarism masquerading as defense. What makes Netanyahu’s plan
especially vile is his willingness to weaponize humanitarian suffering. Gaza
today is already enduring famine conditions. Children are wasting away as food
and medicine are deliberately withheld. Hospitals are reduced to rubble. Entire
neighborhoods are flattened. And still, Netanyahu talks of “managing” Gaza, as
though human beings can be managed like cattle.What he proposes is not
management; it is subjugation. It is the calculated use of hunger, displacement,
and despair to force a population into submission. It is collective punishment
on a scale that meets every definition of a war crime.
Justice will never emerge from the barrel of an occupying tank.
The Israeli leader dares to cloak his scheme in the language of “stability.” But
whose stability? Certainly not Gaza’s. Not the region’s. It is only the
stability of his grip on power that he seeks. The tragedy is not Netanyahu
alone. It is the silence — or, worse, the complicity — of the so-called
international community. Washington mumbles about “restraint,” but continues to
bankroll the very bombs raining down on Gaza. Europe, forever haunted by its own
guilt, lectures about “two states,” while rewarding Israel with trade deals and
diplomatic cover.
A reoccupation of Gaza would be the match that lights this regional powder keg.
Israel may think itself powerful, but no army, however advanced, can withstand
the cumulative fury of millions pushed to desperation. What Netanyahu offers is
not a vision but a nightmare. He would reduce Gaza to an open-air prison policed
directly by the Israeli army, stripped of any semblance of autonomy, permanently
dependent on Israel’s whims for survival. He would condemn generations of
Palestinians to lives of humiliation and despair, and in so doing, guarantee
that Israelis themselves would never know peace. Because peace is not built on
domination. It is built on justice. And justice will never emerge from the
barrel of an occupying tank. The world must not allow this scheme to succeed. To
reoccupy Gaza would be not only a moral abomination but also a strategic
disaster that ensures endless conflict. Those who claim to stand for human
rights must prove it now, by cutting the weapons shipments, conditioning aid,
holding Israel accountable in international courts, and refusing to normalize
relations with a government that tramples every principle of humanity. And for
the Israeli people, the question is this: How long will you allow one man’s
delusions to drag your nation into perpetual war? Netanyahu does not act for
your security. He acts for himself. The blood that will be spilled — Palestinian
and Israeli alike — will stain his hands, but history will not forget the
silence of those who allowed him to carry on.
Netanyahu’s plan is not just a policy, it is a declaration of perpetual war. It
is an attempt to suffocate a people into nonexistence. And it is a gamble that
will fail, as every attempt to crush the Palestinian spirit has failed before.
But the cost of his failure will not be borne by him alone. It will be borne by
the starving children of Gaza, the grieving families of Israel, and the
stability of an entire region already teetering on the edge. This is the hour of
reckoning. Netanyahu’s delusions must be confronted with clarity, courage, and
unyielding resistance — political, legal, and moral. The world has a choice: to
stand by as Gaza is dragged back into the abyss of occupation, or to draw a line
and say, enough. For the sake of justice, peace, and our shared humanity —
enough.
• Hani Hazaimeh is a senior editor based in Amman. X: @hanihazaimeh
Selected tweets for
21 August/2025
Joseph Gebeily
President Trump @POTUS : “Lebanon is a great place with brilliant people…
hopefully we can bring it back again to what it was.”
Lebanon’s 1960s golden era, Beirut as the Paris of the Middle East, a hub of
finance, tourism & culture was lost when sovereignty was surrendered: first to
Palestinian guerrillas, then to Assad’s Syria, and now to Iran’s Hezbollah
militia. Today, Lebanon has a once-in-a-generation chance for peace & prosperity
with U.S. support. The gov’t has taken the historic decision to restore
sovereignty. The world (except Iran) stands behind it. Now it’s time for the
Lebanese Armed Forces to implement it by disarming militias, starting with
Hezbollah. Only then can Lebanon reclaim its rightful place in the Arab world &
beyond.
wassim Godfrey
Even the culture is arabismo songs,ethics ,norms and manners are gone,egoistic
and ignorance ,can't work in group became barbaric mentality
Ambassador Tom Barrack
Congrats to the Lebanese government & Fatah for their agreement on voluntary
disarmament in Beirut camps, a great accomplishment as a result of the bold
action recently taken by the Lebanese Council of Ministers. A historic step
toward unity and stability, showing true commitment to peace and cooperation.
ܬܐܘܕܪܘܣ ܒܪܝܘܠܝܘܣ ܐܠܟܣܢܕܪ Amine Bar-Julius Iskandar
A Maronite school textbook dated 1913.
Our schools were teaching our Syriac language until 1943, when President Bechara
Khoury gave up our independence and offered Lebanon to the Arab League.
ܬܐܘܕܪܘܣ ܒܪܝܘܠܝܘܣ ܐܠܟܣܢܕܪ Amine Bar-Julius Iskandar
The Synod of Bishops of the Maronite Church in 2003, published in 2005:
Clause n•10 stipulates the teaching of Syriac language and heritage in all
Maronite schools and universities. After 20 years, we are still hoping