English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For December 11/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
Jesus Embarrasses The Chief Priests & The
Elders
Matthew 21/23-27: When he had come into the temple, the chief
priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said,
“By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?”Jesus
answered them, “I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I
likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John,
where was it from? From heaven or from men?”They reasoned with themselves,
saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask us, ‘Why then did you not believe
him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a
prophet.” They answered Jesus, and said, “We don’t know.”
Titles For The
Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on
December 10-11/2025
Text & video/A/E/The Dresses of the Wives of Our Political Parties’
Owners, Officials, and Rulers: A Thousand Mercies and Blessings upon Marie
Antoinette and the Biscuits/Elias Bejjani/December 09/2025
The Other Choice Movement: Work is Resistance and Resilience... Work so that we
and Lebanon can endure. The Lebanese must be prioritized in employment.
UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in southern Lebanon
Lebanon Moves to Reset Syria Ties With Envoy Appointment
Lebanon Foreign Minister Declines Tehran Visit, Proposes Talks in Neutral
Country
Bulgarian Court Rejects Lebanon's Extradition Request for Russian Over Beirut
Blast
Le Drian Holds Talks in Lebanon to Consolidate Ceasefire with Israel
Issa says negotiations with govt and war on Hezbollah are two separate things
Aoun reportedly explores possibility of Oman facilitating talks with Israel
Report: Khamenei tells Qassem Hezbollah can take its own decisions
Israel-bound plane flies over Beirut due to bad weather
Le Drian discusses Hezbollah disarmament, army support as he meets Gemayel in
Beirut
Turkey launches Syria-Hezbollah and Syria-Iran mediation
Beirut woman's rooftop becomes sanctuary for pigeons
Time for Lebanon to end the witch hunt and move on/Nadim Shehadi/Arab
News/December 10, 2025
Will Lebanon Survive the Schemes of the Next Phase?/Rami al-Rayes/Asharq Al
Awsat/December 10/2025
Lebanon Still Held Hostage by Hezbollah; Christians Forced Out/Uzay
Bulut/Gatestone Institute/December 10/2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published
on
December 10-11/2025
IDSF/Video link/Israeli Laser Beam Tech Deployed as Air Defense -
Revolutionizing War
IDSF/Video link/Iran vs. the West: How Containment & the Abraham Accords Are
Shaping the Middle East’s Future
JNS TV/Video link/More Media Lies: Trump-Netanyahu Summit Is More Than We're
Told
JNS TV/Video link/Sen. John Fetterman Sends A CLEAR Message To The Anti-Israel
Left Attacking Him!
Israeli Druze Leader Seeks US Security Guarantees for Syrian Minority
Attack by Gunmen Kills Three Members of Revolutionary Guard in Southeast Iran
Washington Cool on Nuclear Talks, Tehran Signals Conditional Readiness
Hamas proposes weapons ‘freeze’ in return for long-term truce: leader to Al
Jazeera
Anti-Hamas Groups Vow to Fight On as Movement Warns
Aid Flow Into Gaza Falls Short of Ceasefire Terms, Analysis of Israeli Figures
Shows
Netanyahu Denies Contacts with Syria Have Led to Final Agreement
Israel Approves Nearly 800 Housing Units in Three West Bank Settlements
Ukraine to give revised peace plans to US as it readies for more talks with
partners
Ukraine disables ‘shadow fleet’ vessel with sea drones in Black Sea
UK's Starmer Says Europe is Strong and United Behind Ukraine
US condemns Houthi detention of embassy staff in Yemen
Saudi Arabia Presses for Easing Tensions, Restoring Stability in East Yemen
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on
December 10-11/2025
Islam’s “Humanitarian” Conquests? Dismantling Egypt’s Latest Myth/Raymond
Ibrahim/Coptic Solidarity/December 10, 2025
How a perfect storm of crises pushed Iran into acute, nationwide water
scarcity/GABRIELE MALVISI/Arab News/December 10, 2025
Lifting sanctions on Syria will prevent Daesh resurgence and strengthen the
nation, experts say/RAY HANANIA/Arab News/December 11, 2025
‘Either Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu’/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al
Awsat/December 10/2025
Selected Face Book & X tweets for /December 10, 2025
The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on
December 10-11/2025
Text &
video/A/E/The Dresses of the Wives of Our Political Parties’ Owners, Officials,
and Rulers: A Thousand Mercies and Blessings upon Marie Antoinette and the
Biscuits
Elias Bejjani/December 09/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/12/149240/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj1nNxZX044
Anyone observing from outside
Lebanon the debauchery in the lifestyle of the Rulers of the Nation of the
Cedars, the owners of the so-called Political Parties’ companies, the
extravagance of many of the Clergy, and all those surrounding them—their wives,
relatives, consultants, sycophants, flocks, and idol worshippers—will, for a
million certainties, curse and disbelieve the hour they all reached positions of
responsibility.
Meanwhile, if you want to know people’s true mettle, the depth of their
humanity, their values, and their morals, give them money, power, and abundance…
either they walk through the Wide Gates and cling to their uncle Lucifer, the
Head of the Devils, or they walk through the Narrow Gates, extend their hands to
the people, and dedicate their lives to serving them.
And it is in this context—the context of the Wide and Narrow Gates—the choice
between good and evil—let us remember some of the wise proverbs of our villages:
“Woe to you from a poor man who gets rich and has no faith… he starts to rage
and cannot be calmed.”
“Woe to a people whose rulers have sold their conscience, are wicked and
shameless… and whose wives—a thousand mercies on Marie Antoinette of the
biscuits—live in total alienation from their people and their suffering.”
“Tell me what your wife wears, O owner of the Political Party, the ruler, and
the cleric, so I can tell you who you are, and if we can trust you and hand over
our lives and the country to you.”
“Show me who you have gathered around you, O ruler, official, cleric, and owner
of the Political Party, so I may know if your mettle is good or rotten.”
Today in Lebanon, the holy land of holiness and the saints, there is something
fundamentally wrong with everything connected to the officials, the rulers, the
owners of the Political Parties, and many of the people of robes and caps
(Clergy).
Lebanon’s current status today greatly resembles the miserable and evil status
of Sodom and Gomorrah, the days of Noah and the Flood, and the time of Nimrod.
The question, which definitely has no human answer, is: Has the Almighty God’s
wrath, directed at Lebanon and the officials responsible for its terrible state,
reached the level of ultimate punishment and retribution?
In the days of Noah, He punished them with the Flood, and in the time of Sodom
and Gomorrah, He burned them, and with Nimrod, He struck them with the confusion
of Babel.
So, how will His retribution and punishment be for us in Lebanon?
The Other Choice Movement: Work is Resistance and
Resilience... Work so that we and Lebanon can endure. The Lebanese must be
prioritized in employment.
Date: December 10, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/12/150076/
War isn't always fought with weapons, and resistance isn't always carried out
with a rifle... Today, the war is economic and social... Work so that we may
remain, and so our nation can survive. "The Lebanese come first, and work is
never a shame!"
On the occasion of Independence Day and the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Lebanon,
and with the aim of confronting the Syrian encroachment on professions and
livelihoods, "The Other Choice Movement" has launched this campaign to encourage
Lebanese citizens to return to all types of work in their beloved homeland,
Lebanon.
UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in
southern Lebanon
AFP/December 10/2025
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Wednesday that Israeli forces
fired on its peacekeepers a day earlier in the country’s south, urging Israel’s
army to “cease aggressive behavior.”It is the latest such incident reported by
the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL acts as a buffer between
Israel and Lebanon and has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a
year-old truce between Israel and militant group Hezbollah. “Yesterday,
peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by (Israeli
army) soldiers in a Merkava tank,” a UNIFIL statement said, referring to the de
facto border. “One ten-round burst of machine-gun fire was fired above the
convoy, and four further ten-round bursts were fired nearby,” the statement
said. It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese
territory at the time of the incident and that the Israeli military had been
informed of the location and timing of the peacekeeping patrol in advance.
“Peacekeepers asked the [Israeli military] to stop firing through UNIFIL’s
liaison channels... Fortunately, no one was injured,” it said. Last month UNIFIL
said Israeli soldiers shot at its troops in the south, while Israel’s military
said it mistook blue helmets for “suspects” and fired warning shots. In October,
UNIFIL said one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a
UN position in the country’s south, the third incident of its kind in just over
a month. “Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of (UN)
Security Council Resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said on Wednesday, referring to the
2006 resolution that formed the basis of the November 2024 truce. “We call on
the [Israeli military] to cease aggressive behavior and attacks on or near
peacekeepers working to rebuild stability along the Blue Line,” the peacekeepers
said. Israel carries out regular attacks on Lebanon despite the truce, usually
saying it is targeting sites and operatives belonging to Hezbollah, which it
accuses of rearming. It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas it
deems strategic. On Saturday, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Lebanon
urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire. It
emphasized that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must
never be targeted,” after gunmen on mopeds attacked UNIFIL personnel last week.
Lebanon Moves to Reset Syria Ties With Envoy Appointment
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2025
The appointment of Lebanese ambassador Henry Kastoun in Damascus, formalized
Wednesday when he presented his credentials to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa,
signals a significant reset in relations between Lebanon and Syria. It ends a
four year diplomatic vacuum and opens a new chapter in which both governments
are expected to confront long standing issues, including the fate of Syrian
detainees in Lebanon, the refugee crisis, and cross border smuggling, in a bid
to place the relationship on firmer and more transparent footing.
Representation after vacancy
The Syrian presidency said on Wednesday that al-Sharaa received the credentials
of Ambassador Kastoun, Lebanon’s envoy to the Syrian Arab Republic, at the
People’s Palace in Damascus, in the presence of Foreign Minister and Expatriates
Asaad al Shibani. Kastoun fills a four year vacancy, arriving seventeen years
after the establishment of full diplomatic representation between the two
countries. Diplomatic ties were formalized in 2008 when Michel el-Khoury was
appointed Lebanon’s first ambassador to Syria since independence, a historic
step that ended decades of uneven representation. El-Khoury remained in the post
until late 2013, after which the position remained vacant until 2017, when Saad
Zakhia took over as the second ambassador and served until the end of 2021. His
term was followed by a second diplomatic void that lasted until Kastoun’s
appointment in 2025, restoring the Lebanese diplomatic presence in Damascus.
Amending the relationship
While the appointment ushers in a new path for official engagement, Deputy Prime
Minister Tarek Mitri had earlier said that diplomatic exchange would resume
soon, noting that the past five decades witnessed an unequal relationship
between Lebanon and Syria. The current phase allows for opening a new diplomatic
page based on reciprocity and mutual respect. It follows the suspension of the
Higher Council in October 2024, coinciding with a visit by Syrian Foreign
Minister Asaad al-Shaibani to Beirut, during which he spoke of a historic
opportunity to shift the relationship from a troubled security driven trajectory
to a political and economic partnership. At the time,
authorities announced the suspension of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council,
which for decades served as the central mechanism for managing joint issues
during the period of Syrian influence in Lebanon, a sign of an evolving approach
rather than a continuation of previous institutional frameworks.
Detainees
In parallel with the diplomatic step, a senior Lebanese judicial delegation
visited Damascus on Wednesday to discuss a draft agreement that would allow the
transfer of detainees and convicts to their home countries in a manner that does
not conflict with Lebanese law, according to local media reports. The delegation
was headed by Government Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Claude Ghanem
and included Judges Mona Hanqir and Jad Maalouf. They met Syrian Justice
Minister Mazhar al-Weis and senior judicial officials. Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed
television said the two sides reached an initial draft that requires amendments
before final approval. The talks did not cover the cases of convicts involved in
fighting against the Lebanese army.
Lebanon Foreign Minister Declines Tehran Visit, Proposes
Talks in Neutral Country
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji said on Wednesday he had declined an
invitation to visit Tehran for now, proposing instead talks with Iran in a
mutually agreed neutral third country, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.
Rajji cited “current conditions” for the decision not to go to Iran,
without specifying further, and stressed that the move does not mean rejection
of dialogue with Iran. Last week, Iran's Foreign
Minister Abbas Araqchi invited Rajji to visit Iran in the near future to discuss
bilateral ties. Rajji expressed “readiness to establish a new phase in
constructive ties between Lebanon and Iran on condition that they are strictly
based on mutual and absolute respect of each country’s independence and
sovereignty and non-interference in their internal affairs in any way and under
any pretext.”“The establishment of any strong state cannot take place if the
state, through its army, does not have sole control over possession of arms and
does not have monopoly over decisions of war and peace,” he stressed. Rajji
added that Araqchi was “always welcome to visit Lebanon.”The Lebanese government
earlier this year decided to impose state monopoly over arms, which effectively
calls for Hezbollah to disarm. Iran is the party’s main backer. Hezbollah’s
critics have over the years accused it of following an Iranian agenda at the
expense of Lebanon’s interests. They also accuse it of usurping the state’s
decision-making power when it comes to war and peace. In 2023, the party started
firing rockets at Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza. The clashes escalated to
all-out war in 2024 with Hezbollah left severely battered.
In August, Iran's top security official Ali Larijani visited Beirut,
warning Lebanon not to “confuse its enemies with its friends”. In June, Foreign
Minister Araqchi said Tehran sought a “new page” in ties.
Bulgarian Court Rejects Lebanon's Extradition Request for
Russian Over Beirut Blast
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
A Bulgarian court has rejected Lebanon's request to extradite a Russian
shipowner linked to the 2020 Beirut port blast, citing insufficient security
guarantees from Lebanese authorities. Igor Grechushkin, a Cyprus-based Russian
businessman whose vessel transported the explosive material that detonated at
Beirut port in August 2020, killing more than 220 people, was detained in
Bulgaria in September for possible extradition to Lebanon, where he is wanted
over his role in the disaster, Reuters reported. "According to the court,
Lebanon did not provide sufficient evidence to ensure that the death penalty
will not be imposed on him or, if imposed, will not be carried out," Ekaterina
Dimitrova, Grechushkin's lawyer, told reporters after the hearing which was
closed to media. The blast, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in
history, devastated large parts of Beirut and left tens of thousands homeless.
Grechushkin was placed on Interpol’s wanted list at Lebanon's request in 2020.
PROSECUTOR TO APPEAL RULING
Angel Kanev, the supervising prosecutor, said he would appeal the ruling,
arguing that Lebanon’s justice minister, Supreme Court and Prosecutor General
had all provided the required guarantees. "Given that they have been given by
such an authority ... I believe that the grounds for extradition exist," Kanev
told reporters. In response to a question about Bulgaria's objection to a
possible death penalty for Grechushkin, a Lebanese judicial source said Beirut
"could not change its laws on a case-by-case basis", but that it was working on
a way to reassure Bulgaria and that it intended to appeal Wednesday's decision.
The source said the investigative judge presiding over the probe would still
have the opportunity to question Grechushkin in person in Bulgaria. "It's a
victory for the time being because the most important thing is that he is
questioned so we can find out the truth and have accountability," the source
told Reuters. Lebanon's probe into the causes of the blast and possible
negligence by top Lebanese officials has dragged on for years, with families of
the explosion's victims blaming political interference. The first investigative
judge was removed after charging top officials. His successor, Tarek Bitar, also
charged senior politicians, who refused questioning, denied wrongdoing and froze
his probe.Bitar resumed his investigation earlier this year and has questioned
several officials in recent months but he has yet to issue a long-awaited
preliminary indictment.
Le Drian Holds Talks in Lebanon to Consolidate Ceasefire with Israel
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian continued his meetings with
Lebanese officials on Tuesday over consolidating the ceasefire between Israel
and Hezbollah. Le Drian held talks on Monday with
President Joseph Aoun and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Nawaf
Salam, Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, Army Commander Rodolphe Haykal and former
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and his son MP Taymur Jumblatt
on Tuesday. Aoun told Le Drian that Lebanon welcomes any role France can play
within the Mechanism committee overseeing the ceasefire, rejecting accusations
that the Lebanese army was not doing enough to meet its end of the agreement.
The committee aims to end the hostilities, ensure Israel’s withdrawal from
regions it is occupying in southern Lebanon and release Lebanese detainees held
by Israel. A Lebanese presidency statement said Aoun welcomed French President
Emmanuel’s constant support for Lebanon, stressing that they reflect the depth
of Lebanese-French ties. Aoun revealed to Le Drian that the Mechanism will meet
again on December 19. “Our desire to activate the
Mechanism meetings reflects our willingness to negotiate to reach diplomatic
solutions because we never want to adopt war rhetoric,” Aoun added. Lebanese and
Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades last
week under the auspices of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism.
The two sides met at the UN peacekeeping force's headquarters in
Lebanon's Naqoura near the border with Israel, where the guarantors of the
November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah regularly convene. Former
Lebanese ambassador to the US Simon Karam and Israeli National Security Council
official Uri Resnick were included as civilian representatives in the ceasefire
mechanism for the first time. Aoun told Le Drian that “the positive stances from
fraternal and friendly states that followed last week’s meeting reflect their
support for this step and will inevitably ease the pressure” that Lebanon was
under. He reiterated his rejection of criticism that the army was not doing
enough to enforce the ceasefire agreement. He instead accused Israel of
continuing its attacks against Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire. He said it
has destroyed homes and properties, preventing the army, United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Mechanism from completing their duties. He
stressed that the army and UNIFIL were acting in complete coordination, while
urging the need to provide the military with the necessary equipment to allow it
to fulfill its mission in full. The mission, he remarked, is not limited to
regions south of the Litani River, but includes all of Lebanon. Le Drian, for
his part, conveyed to Aoun Macron’s support for Karam’s appointment to the
Lebanon’s negotiating team, adding that Paris “will always stand by Beirut’s
national choices.”Talks between Berri and the envoy, which lasted over an hour,
tackled the situation in Lebanon and the region, especially Israel’s ongoing
violations of the ceasefire. Paris is set to hold next week a meeting between
France, the United States and Saudi Arabia in preparation for a conference aimed
at backing the Lebanese army and support a roadmap for a long-term ceasefire.
Issa says negotiations with govt and war on Hezbollah
are two separate things
Naharnet /December 10/2025
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa said Wednesday that Israel differentiates
between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah. "The negotiations with the
Lebanese government and the war on Hezbollah are two separate things to Israel,"
Issa told reporters in a press conference after a meeting with Speaker Nabih
Berri and the American Task Force for Lebanon. Issa answered a reporter that
Hezbollah must fulfill its duties and that the group knows what these duties
are, and said that the U.S. support to the Lebanese Army has never stopped.
Issa, who had previously stated that he is working on rescheduling a visit of
Army chief Rodolphe Haykal to Washington, said the visit has not been organized
yet but that he thinks it will happen. "I think it
will happen because the army chief has a message to the Americans and its better
that he delivers it himself," Issa said. Haykal was scheduled to visit
Washington last month but the trip was called off after U.S. political and
military officials cancelled their meetings with him just hours before he was
scheduled to depart. Those who cancelled included influential Republican Senator
Lindsey Graham, who in a statement on X slammed what he said was Haykal's "weak
almost non-existent effort to disarm Hezbollah".Graham also criticized an army
statement that referred to Israel as the "enemy" -- a standard term even in
official discourse in Lebanon, which has been technically at war with Israel
since 1948.
Aoun reportedly explores possibility of Oman facilitating
talks with Israel
Naharnet/December 10/2025
The main meeting between President Joseph Aoun and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of
Oman on Tuesday included in-depth discussions on various issues, with Aoun
providing a detailed explanation of the Lebanese situation, particularly in the
South, in addition to the work of the Mechanism committee and the ongoing
Israeli attacks, media reports said. “Given the Sultanate's role and its strong
relations with various countries in the region, especially the United States and
Iran, the discussion addressed the possibility of Muscat contributing to
facilitating Lebanese-Israeli negotiations by playing a mediating role to bridge
the gaps and push towards practical results,” the Nidaa la-Watan newspaper
reported on Wednesday. The expanded meeting also addressed strengthening
bilateral relations, with a focus on activating joint committees, intensifying
meetings, and enhancing cooperation in the aviation sector. The talks are
expected to continue today, Wednesday due to the importance of the issues under
discussion.
Report: Khamenei tells Qassem Hezbollah can take its own
decisions
Naharnet/December 10/2025
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sent a letter to Hezbollah
chief Sheikh Naim Qassem telling him that “Hezbollah’s decisions are left to its
leadership in Lebanon,” sources told An-Nahar newspaper in remarks published
Wednesday.
“This is what he (Khamenei) used to practice with the late Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah,” the sources added. Iran has told Washington and other parties that
Hezbollah is “free to take its own decisions regarding the fate of its weapons
and its vision for negotiations with Israel,” the sources said.“Go to Hezbollah
and you’ll find the answer,” the sources quoted Tehran as telling those who have
raised the issue of Hezbollah with it.
Israel-bound plane flies over Beirut due to bad weather
Naharnet/December 10/2025
An Aegean Airlines flight from Cyprus’ Larnaca to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport
was unexpectedly diverted through Lebanese airspace on Wednesday morning due to
severe winter weather, Israel’s Channel 12 reported. “The passengers were not
informed in real time that the aircraft had crossed into the territory of a
country officially at war with Israel,” the channel noted. According to
flight-tracking data, the jet passed directly over Beirut for several minutes
before rejoining its revised approach path toward Israel. The diversion occurred
after storm conditions made the planned route unsafe. The Israel Airports
Authority confirmed the incident, stressing that the decision was made “for the
sake of passenger safety.” The IAA noted that while the plane was inside
Lebanese airspace, it remained under the supervision of Cyprus’ air traffic
control center. Responsibility transferred to Israeli controllers only after the
aircraft had already exited Lebanon. Images from Flightradar24 show the aircraft
making a clear detour northward into Lebanese territory before turning south
toward Ben Gurion. Channel 12, which first reported the event, said passengers
remained unaware until after landing. Aviation officials said the diversion
complied with international air-traffic procedures. Weather-related rerouting is
standard practice, though entering the airspace of a hostile state is considered
rare and typically avoided unless necessary.The incident occurred as Storm Byron
continued to disrupt regional flight patterns, forcing multiple aircraft to
adjust routes or delay landings. No irregular communication with Lebanese
authorities was reported, and Israel’s airports authority emphasized that the
flight experienced no danger at any stage. Aegean Airlines did not immediately
issue a comment.
Le Drian discusses Hezbollah disarmament, army support as
he meets Gemayel in Beirut
Naharnet/December 10/2025
French Special Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian met Wednesday with Kataeb leader Sami
Gemayel as he visits Lebanon to prepare for a conference to support the Lebanese
Army. Le Drian arrived Monday in Beirut and met with President Joseph Aoun,
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Foreign Minister
Joseph Rajji, Army chief Rodolphe Haykal, former PSP leader Walid Jumblat, and
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. Under heavy U.S. pressure and fears of
expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon's government has committed to disarming
Hezbollah, and the army is set to dismantle the group's military infrastructure
near the border by year's end before tackling the rest of the country, but
Lebanon’s army is cash-strapped and lacks resources and equipment. It has also
suffered from the repercussions of the country’s economic meltdown six years
ago, and depends heavily on U.S. aid.
Western and Arab countries have also offered support.
Gemayel said he urged Le Drian for more French coordination and audit of the
army deployment in south Lebanon. He said Lebanon needs to know exactly how the
army is failing to do its job, in case it is.In a press conference, the Kataeb
leader stressed that the main point that Le Drian is discussing in Lebanon is
Hezbollah's disarmament. "Hezbollah's unwillingness to hand over its arms north
of the Litani river is a proof that the weapons' goal is not to defend Lebanon
and liberate Palestine but to terrorize the Lebanese people," he said, blaming
Hezbollah for the current situation in Lebanon. France is a member of a
U.S.-chaired committee monitoring a year-long ceasefire between Lebanon and
Israel. The five-member committee, which also includes Lebanon, Israel, the U.S.
and the U.N. peacekeeping force, is set to meet with Lebanese and Israeli
civilian representatives on December 19. Paris has promised to organize two
conferences for supporting Lebanon. One of the conferences is to drum up
financial aid for the reconstruction and the second is to support the Lebanese
Army, but Le Drian has only discussed the army support conference in his
meetings with Lebanese officials."The conference to support the army is the most
urgent priority today and it comes before reconstruction. To rebuild we must
first be sure that what we build will not be destroyed again," Gemayel said.
Turkey launches Syria-Hezbollah and Syria-Iran mediation
Naharnet/December 10/2025
Turkey is mediating between Syria and Hezbollah on the one hand and between
Syria and Iran on the other, which reflects Ankara's attempt to control the
dynamics of a delicate regional phase characterized by rapidly shifting
balances, a media report said.
A well-informed source told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper that Turkey has
succeeded in recent weeks in bringing together a high-ranking official from the
new Syrian regime and a prominent Hezbollah official in meetings held repeatedly
behind the scenes. Ankara has also hosted high-ranking officials from Syria and
Iran. The source added that the results of these
meetings appear to be positive, as they addressed “highly sensitive issues.”“The
focus was on restructuring the relationship between Damascus and both Tehran and
Hezbollah, in an attempt to readjust it in a way that serves the interests of
all three parties and prevents any disruption to the understandings currently
being established,” the source said.The Turkish role is not coordinated with the
Arab world. However, the main obstacle hindering this process, according to the
source, lies in the fact that these meetings are being held without any
coordination or agreement with key Arab states, with the exception of Qatar,
which “seems to be aware of the details and is providing some facilitation for
the meetings to take place.”
Beirut woman's rooftop becomes sanctuary for pigeons
Associated Press/December 10/2025
Every evening as the sun drops behind Beirut's concrete skyline, Loubna Hamdan
steps onto her rooftop and whistles. A flutter of wings follows. Dozens of
pigeons — white, speckled, chestnut, black — circle above her, catching the
day's last light. Here, the 36-year-old office worker has found an unexpected
refuge.Hamdan never imagined she would keep pigeons. The interest began a decade
ago through her husband, Ibrahim Ammar, who has raised birds since childhood.
She admired how calmly they settled on him and how he always sensed when one was
missing. "I fell in love with pigeons because of the way he loved them," she
said. She scatters grain, checks the water and looks
for any bird that seems weak or hurt. Ammar joins her, showing her how to handle
them gently and how to read their behavior in the air. As dusk deepens, the
flock settles into the loft. "When the pigeons return," Hamdan said, "it feels
like home."
Time for Lebanon to end the witch hunt and move on
Nadim Shehadi/Arab News/December 10, 2025
It is no use talking about forgiveness while quoting Nelson Mandela, Desmond
Tutu or Mahatma Gandhi to ruined depositors whose life savings are stuck in
Lebanese banks and may be lost forever. They want justice, accountability and
perhaps revenge or retribution; someone needs to be punished for the crime,
heads need to roll.This is the mood in the country and it is more emotional than
it is rational. You can lose many friends arguing for a financial amnesty, for
turning the page, moving on and looking forward to rebuilding the country and
the economy instead of bickering over the past. I am willing to make the
sacrifice.
We are all victims of the catastrophic financial collapse. Behind it are “real”
economic and political causes that no single actor had control over. For the
last 20 years, the country has been the target of constant battering until it
disintegrated. It was dragged into two major wars with Israel, accompanied by
assassinations, paralytic political crises, smuggling, the cost of the Syrian
war, the Beirut port explosion and much more.
Lebanon was isolated from its main economic partners and boycotted. The country
was drained year after year at huge cost in wealth, in income, in people and in
friends. The loss was not purely economic, it was also reputational — the
country is now seen as a hopeless failed state. What we are arguing about are
merely the mechanics of that collapse and the financial repercussions.As I write
this, every family in Lebanon is wondering whether to cancel their expatriate
children’s trip home for the holidays because of the rumors of an upcoming war.
It is difficult to evaluate the economic cost of this uncertainty or of a failed
season. This has happened almost every summer since at least 2011. These are the
real losses to the economy and they are continuing. The crisis is not over.
What we are arguing about are merely the mechanics of the collapse and the
financial repercussions.There is a misguided belief that a grand theft has been
committed, represented by a myth about “plundered” or “looted” funds, and that
the money can be recuperated by pursuing those who benefited. One example is the
talk of illegitimate deposits, such as from drug smugglers or corrupt foreign
politicians, and that these deposits should be dismissed without being repaid.
Or that there is a possibility of chasing after transfers abroad or recovering
the higher interest paid to some depositors. Basically, that people’s deposits
were stolen and can be recovered, which is not the case.
Even if true, the methods suggested to recover the looted funds are
either impossible to achieve, of dubious legality or will yield insignificant
results. There is no such thing as an illegitimate deposit. Bankers conduct due
diligence about the legitimacy of funds before taking in deposits — they cannot
do that after they accept the deposits and in order to justify not returning
them. Such suggestions, if followed, would engage us in years of litigation and
a damaging blame game that would be catastrophic for the country, especially if
led by the government.
Measures to recover funds lack coherence and sound arbitrary — you can only
pursue people if they have demonstrably violated the law. This is not how you
rebuild trust in the system. The five years since the collapse have been as
destructive as the crisis itself. The country cannot afford another five years
of the same. The key is rebuilding trust in the
system. This is far more of a challenge when it comes to trust in institutions
like the state and the rule of law. The private sector is easier because it is
built on individual connections and relations.
All are guilty and all are victims at the same time: politicians and the state
bear much of the responsibility, the central bank is blamed, bankers too, of
course, but that is too easy. Even depositors are deemed not innocent for having
benefited from high interest rates. We have seen accusations of corruption,
greed, incompetence and negligence.
Decline can be permanent if we continue arguing about the past instead of
developing a new vision. There is a risk of punishing the innocent while
searching for the guilty. In medieval witch hunts, the suspected witches would
be thrown in the river — if they survived, it would be proof they were guilty
and so they were burned at the stake or hanged, while the innocent drowned. Both
the guilty and the innocent died. Today, we are all accusing each other and, in
the meantime, the country is falling apart, with the economy less than half what
it was in 2018. A country’s economy has many elements,
some of which are concrete and palpable: resources, production, transactions,
trade figures, human capital and value added. But there are also intangibles
that cannot be measured or easily explained. They are about trust, confidence,
mood, leadership, faith, drive and positive energy. When these turn negative,
they are a symptom of self-destruction. Lebanon needs to be rescued from this
negativity and additional self-destruction. People lost more than just money in
the banks; the whole country’s economy is in freefall and this even affects
those who have no deposits. But then there is the
larger picture and broader historical perspective. Lebanon’s rise and fall
cannot be reduced to a crisis in 2019 — it is part of an 80-year history with
regional and international dimensions. The country’s founders had a vision that
became a reality when Beirut turned into a hub and a refuge for wealth and
talent escaping transformations in the region. This is how the Lebanese banking
sector was born. The losses are far more than generational wealth; this is the
historical wealth of Levantine trading families and their connections going back
centuries. Most of all, there is the harsh reality
that not every fall is followed by recovery and rebirth. Decline can be
permanent if we continue arguing about the past instead of developing a new
vision that will revive Lebanon’s potential in line with global and regional
changes. An amnesty and an end to the witch hunt is the first step.
**Nadim Shehadi is an economist and political adviser. X: @Confusezeus
Will Lebanon Survive the Schemes of the Next Phase?
Rami al-Rayes/Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Lebanon finds itself in an unenviable political and military situation. At this
difficult stage of its modern history, the US is exerting unprecedented
political pressure; not a day goes by without an Israeli assault, and Hezbollah,
the party primarily concerned, is not backing down. In fact, Hezbollah has never
deviated from its insistence on maintaining its arms despite the collapse of the
deterrence it had celebrated since 2006. It is clear
that the overwhelming majority of Lebanese will not tolerate the maintenance of
Hezbollah’s arms in the way that it has since the end of the civil war in 1990.
The Lebanese seek a strong, capable, and modern state. This is a legitimate and
justifiable position, though a segment of the population is turning a blind eye
- if not encouraging - Israel’s aggression in order to get rid of the party.
The previous status quo has become untenable following Hezbollah’s
dramatic defeat: the ongoing assassination of its senior commanders, with the
pager and walkie-talkie attacks that exposed the scale of this once impenetrable
organization, and the obliteration of its weapons depots and villages and towns
of southern Lebanon, which have yet to be rebuilt a full year later amid
Israel’s ongoing attacks.
Some believe that Hezbollah committed a historic mistake when it waged the
“support war,” which failed to achieve its primary (least nominally) objective
of supporting Gaza and its people. Over 77,500 people, according to figures
published by the Palestinian Studies Institute, have died in Gaza, which is now
in ruins. Thus, instead of the Lebanese southern front
supporting the Palestinian people, it ended up granting Israel a golden
opportunity. With unprecedented international support and solidarity following
October 7, 2023, Israel pounced and destroyed the military and political
infrastructure of Hezbollah over 40 years after the party evolved through the
direct and continuous support from Iran. In any case,
the decision to restrict weapons to the hands of the Lebanese state is the
correct one. It is long overdue and irreversible. Nonetheless, that is not to
say that the arms should be confiscated by force. This approach poses major
risks given Lebanon’s social composition, as well as Hezbollah’s doctrine and
its existential attachment to its arms. Even though it could continue political
activity without arms, just like the other Lebanese parties, it has insisted on
this position for ideological, political, and regional-project reasons.
The Lebanese National Reconciliation Document (the Taif Agreement), reached in
1989, stipulated the disarmament of all Lebanese militias. Hezbollah, however,
was exempt because Lebanese territory remained under occupation until 2000. The
polarization that followed the 2006 war, with the national debate revolving
around the party’s responsibility for the destruction and accusations that
Hezbollah had “dragged” Lebanon into a war that brought only destruction, was
mirrored in 2024. If Hezbollah must account for the
major shift of the past two years and hand over its arms both south and north of
the Litani, Israel’s allies, foremost among them the United States, must compel
the Jewish state to end its daily attacks on Lebanon and the Lebanese if the
arrangements for the next phase are to be implemented. Indeed, the talks
received an additional boost after civilians were tasked with heading the
Lebanese and Israeli delegations to the Mechanism. It
is clear that Lebanon has nowhere to run - not from Israel’s assault nor the
political pressure - to reach an agreement that adds to the “breakthroughs”,
political and non-political, in Syria and several other Arab states.
Lebanon Still Held Hostage by Hezbollah; Christians Forced
Out
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/December 10/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/12/150087/
Christianity -- Maronite, Orthodox, Catholic, as well as other denominations --
was the dominant religion in the entire Levant before the Islamic military
invasions and conquests in the seventh century. Constantinople (renamed Istanbul
in 1930) was the capital of the great Christian Byzantine Empire.
After defeating the Byzantine Empire in 636... the Islamic Arab Caliphate
conquered Lebanon.... Today, Lebanon, like formerly Christian Turkey and Egypt,
is majority-Muslim. Shia Muslims in southern Lebanon
have been moving to Christian areas, increasingly displacing the Christians
there. Increasingly, Shia Hezbollah families, with financial backing from Iran,
have been purchasing properties in Christian areas, threatening Christians with
weapons, and gaining wider control while many Christians flee the
country."Christians also have lower birth rates than Muslims. Muslims can marry
more than one wife and create many more children than in monogamous marriages."
— Habib C. Malik, Lebanese retired associate professor of history and cultural
studies at the Lebanese American University, to Gatestone, November 2025.
"The new Lebanese government and President have pledged to 'disarm'
Hezbollah and concentrate all weapons in the hands of the state-run Lebanese
armed forces, but so far very little of this has actually happened; the pro-Iran
group has been openly defiant in handing over its arms." — Habib C. Malik, to
Gatestone, November 2025.
"Hezbollah remains an armed force capable of paralyzing the Lebanese state and
defying its policy of concentrating all weapons in the hands of the Lebanese
authorities. Hezbollah, which still has several MPs in the Lebanese parliament
and at least two ministers in the Lebanese cabinet, act as a
state-within-a-state inside Lebanon and are the main obstacle thus far
preventing a Lebanese-Israeli peace treaty from materializing." — Habib C.
Malik, to Gatestone, November 2025.
"Whatever the preferred political outcome, it would help if the West could
shepherd any such process to protect the Christians and their freedom." — Habib
C. Malik, to Gatestone, November 2025.
Today, Lebanon, like formerly Christian Turkey and Egypt, is majority-Muslim.
The once-thriving Christian community has plummeted to roughly one-third of the
population. Increasingly, Shia Hezbollah families, with financial backing from
Iran, have been purchasing properties in Christian areas, threatening Christians
with weapons, and gaining wider control while many Christians flee the country.
Pictured: A view of St. Paul Cathedral on August 11, 2024 in Beirut. (Photo by
Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Although Lebanon is in the news today largely due to the actions of the terror
group Hezbollah and the economic hardships in the country, Lebanon in the
mid-20th century was one of the wealthiest, most prosperous and stable countries
in the Middle East. It was also, until a few decades ago, the only
majority-Christian country in the Middle East. Thanks to its being a center of
commerce and a thriving mixture of Muslims, Christians and Jews, Lebanon was
known as the "Switzerland of the Middle East" and its capital, Beirut, as the
"Paris of the Middle East."
Lebanon, historically, was a Christian-majority land. The religion was
introduced to the area in the first century by St. Peter and St. Paul, and the
faith spread early throughout the region.
Lebanon ceased to be majority-Christian during the years of Lebanon's 1975-1990
civil war. Since then, the Christian share of the population has steadily
declined to a rough third of the population for each of the three largest
religious groupings -- Sunni Muslim, Shia Muslim, and Christian.
Christianity -- Maronite, Orthodox, Catholic, as well as other denominations --
was the dominant religion in the entire Levant before the Islamic military
invasions and conquests in the seventh century. Constantinople (renamed Istanbul
in 1930) was the capital of the great Christian Byzantine Empire.
After defeating the Byzantine Empire in 636 in the six-day Battle of Yarmouk,
the Islamic Arab Caliphate conquered Lebanon. Later, as part of the vast Islamic
Ottoman Empire, Lebanon was occupied by the Ottoman Turks from 1516 to 1918.
The League of Nations granted France a mandate to govern Lebanon from 1920 to
1943, and the country officially gained independence on November 22, 1943,
during World War II.
Today, Lebanon, like formerly Christian Turkey and Egypt, is majority-Muslim.
The once-thriving Christian community has plummeted to roughly one-third of the
population. The largest Christian community in the country, the Maronites, while
maintaining affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church for centuries, has its
own patriarch, liturgy and ecclesiastical traditions. Originally
Aramaic/Syriac-speakers, today Maronites speak Arabic, and use Syriac as their
liturgical language.
The 15-year civil war, the crushing influence of the Iranian-backed terrorist
group Hezbollah, an influx of Palestinian and Syrian refugees, large-scale
emigration, and massive corruption, among other causes, has turned Lebanon into
one of the poorest and least stable countries in the Middle East.
In September 2024, Israel's offensive weakened Hezbollah, causing it heavy
losses and forcing its retreat from key areas, thereby significantly diminishing
the terrorist group's military and political power.
Hezbollah, however, is currently rearming and rebuilding its battered ranks,
defying the terms of the ceasefire agreement and raising the prospect of renewed
conflict with Israel.
Due to the political and economic crises in the country, Christians continue
leaving Lebanon, reducing their population and influence. According to the human
rights organization Open Doors, pressures on Christians have been growing.
Increasingly, Shia Hezbollah families, with financial backing from Iran, have
been purchasing properties in Christian areas, threatening Christians with
weapons, and gaining wider control while many Christians flee the country.
Habib C. Malik, a Lebanese retired associate professor of history and cultural
studies at the Lebanese American University, told Gatestone:
"Lebanon's Christians were a majority demographically for most of the 20th
century until the 1975 war. The 1975-1990 war in Lebanon took a toll on
Christian numbers both physically. Thousands died and thousands more emigrated
out of the war-shattered country. Many never returned.
"Christians also have lower birth rates than Muslims. Muslims can marry more
than one wife and create many more children than in monogamous marriages.
Christians generally have valued education for their children, but as the costs
of education began to rise steeply, large families became a thing of the past,
particularly in the urban areas of the country.
"In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, who were mostly
Muslims, added to Muslim numbers, although it is important to keep in mind that
these refugees are not Lebanese citizens and don't have the right to vote.
Lebanon's Shiites have been an integral community in Lebanon for centuries; the
increase in their numbers has mostly been due to polygamy and higher birth rates
and not to Shiite immigration from elsewhere.
"Once there is some degree of peace and stability in and around Lebanon, many
Christians will return with their families from abroad and Christian numbers
will pick up."
Malik, author of the policy paper "Between Damascus and Jerusalem: Lebanon and
Middle East Peace," also noted how mass immigration of Syrians and Palestinians
to Lebanon has affected the country:
"Both these populations have remained for the most part unnaturalized as
Lebanese citizens. In the case of the Palestinians, they caused instability from
the armed PLO when they relocated from Jordan to Lebanon in 1970. Their entry
was a direct cause of the outbreak of the 1975-1990 war in Lebanon. Syrian
refugees have augmented, indeed doubled, the million or so Syrian migrant
workers already in Lebanon. Despite international relief efforts to both these
refugee populations, the Palestinians and the Syrians, they have strained to the
limit the meager resources of Lebanon and caused prices of basic goods and
services for ordinary Lebanese to rise. Being mainly Sunni Muslims, and despite
not being naturalized as Lebanese citizens, they have also introduced an element
of sectarian imbalance into the already precariously calibrated demographics
among the various Lebanese sects. This is regarded as ominous by the other sects
such as the Christians, the Druze, and the Shiites. Lebanon's authorities on
several occasions have appealed to the United Nations and other international
humanitarian agencies to help in repatriating the Syrian refugees to Syria where
the civil war has all but ended since the collapse of the Assad regime. However,
there has been little real response by the UN and these relief agencies."
Malik spoke of the relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and
Hezbollah:
"Since its founding, Hezbollah has always been a military arm of Iran's IRGC
(Iranian Revolutionary Guard Core), and it sees itself as an integral part of
the ideology of the Iranian regime's Wilayat al-Faqih -- "guardianship of the
Islamic jurist, meaning that an Islamic jurist should lead the community in the
absence of the infallible Imam -- first under Khomeini and now under Khamenei.
From day one they began to acquire weapons and to train under the
self-proclaimed heading of "Resistance to the Zionist Enemy". With time they
emerged as the strongest force on the ground inside Lebanon rivaling, and indeed
in many areas exceeding, the power of the official Lebanese armed forces.
Hezbollah along with the Amal movement of Shiites under the leadership of aging
Speaker of the House Nabih Berri formed a Shiite duo that became the main
political and paramilitary face of the Shiite community in Lebanon. After the
July 2006 War between Hezbollah and Israel, the Lebanese Iranian proxy, which
received a major battering at the time, declared "victory" and proceeded to
rearm, retrain, and rebuild its paramilitary infrastructure across Lebanon with
direct input from Iran's IRGC—a move that has included acquiring long-range
precision-guided missiles and drones, anti-tank munitions, and other weapons.
"On October 8, 2023, Hezbollah single-handedly dragged Lebanon into the bloody
war between Hamas and Israel without consulting anyone inside Lebanon and
against the wishes of the majority of Lebanese from all sects. The result has
been a renewed battering of Hezbollah, with widespread decimation of its
military assets plus the wholesale destruction of Shiite villages along the
border with Israel in the south. Hezbollah's biggest loss came with the "Pager
Operation" on September17, 2024 engineered by Israel's Mossad. Ten days later,
top Hezbollah leaders including Hassan Nasrallah and his designated successor
were taken out by the IDF along with much of the group's elite fighting force,
the "Radwan" brigade. Since the "end" of that round of fighting on November 27,
2024, Hezbollah has been attempting to rebuild itself militarily and financially
while Israel has been going after it with targeted assassinations and
airstrikes. The new Lebanese government and President have pledged to "disarm"
Hezbollah and concentrate all weapons in the hands of the state-run Lebanese
armed forces, but so far very little of this has actually happened; the pro-Iran
group has been openly defiant in handing over its arms. Despite the military
setbacks Hezbollah has endured since October 8. 2023, Hezbollah remains an armed
force capable of paralyzing the Lebanese state and defying its policy of
concentrating all weapons in the hands of the Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah,
which still has several MPs in the Lebanese parliament and at least two
ministers in the Lebanese cabinet, act as a state-within-a-state inside Lebanon
and are the main obstacle thus far preventing a Lebanese-Israeli peace treaty
from materializing."
Malik noted that Christians in Lebanon are against Hezbollah and Iran
controlling their country:
"Except for the remnants of former Lebanese President Michel Aoun's Free
Patriotic Movement, a receding political grouping in the Christian community
with dwindling popular support, virtually all other Christians in Lebanon are
vehemently opposed to Hezbollah and to Iran's influence in their country. This
opposition is spearheaded by the largest and strongest Christian political party
in the country, the Lebanese Forces (LF) led by Samir Geagea. The vast majority
of Christians support the government's policy of confiscating Hezbollah's
weapons and monopolizing all arms in the hands of the Lebanese state. This same
majority wishes to see Lebanon move towards specific long-term security
arrangements with Israel paving the way towards an official and historic peace
treaty between the two states. In addition to the Christians, this is supported
by huge swaths of Sunnis and Druze and even some intrepid and independent-minded
Shiites, and it is in direct and open opposition to Iran's regional stance and
the wishes of its main proxy, Hezbollah. The continued impotence of the Lebanese
government in acting upon its pledge to confiscate Hezbollah's weapons has
hampered any tangible moves towards the rehabilitation of Lebanon as an
independent and once-again prosperous state. We hope that Isreal, the United
States, and the international community are losing patience with this endemic
condition of official Lebanese paralysis."
Malik also pointed to the need for establishing a federal political system in
Lebanon:
"The opportunity for creating a Maronite state in mount Lebanon came and was
missed back in 1920 when Greater Lebanon was fashioned. Since then, the uneasy
and precarious coexistence of disparate communities within a sectarian pluralist
Lebanon has been exposed to repeated external interventions on behalf of this or
that sect or religious community at the expense of all the others. There have
been repeated calls, including among Christians, for applying a federal formula
to Lebanon to accommodate its religious and sectarian diversity. The federalism
of heterogeneous religious communities could be a workable solution for a
divided and composite society like that of Lebanon. Such a federal configuration
need not involve any population transfers or geographic tampering—it would be
constitutional federalism whereby each community would have proportional
representation within one legislative chamber made up of two tiers as well as
layers of local and regional protections for each community and its citizens
(something along the lines of an Ombudsman or Oblast). Such a system would
liberate the respective communities from the vicissitudes of demographic
fluctuations, namely from the tyranny of sheer numbers, and would provide, in
addition to the existing laws of the land applied to all, specific local
protections to members of minority communities embedded within larger minority
communities. The details of a constitutional federal arrangement for Lebanon
have been worked out by legal and other experts; they only require a national
decision to move them to actual implementation.
"Given the tensions that have emerged recently among Lebanese communities after
Hezbollah's October 8, 2023 unilaterally launched war against Israel, many
within the Christian as well as Sunni and Druze communities have become more
vocal in their calls for a federal solution for Lebanon. Some have even
surpassed federalism and desire open secession from a unitary state in favor of
autonomous and homogeneous sectarian enclaves—recall that it was Hezbollah's
creation of their own statelet and army ideologically beholden to an alien
foreign power, Iran, that provoked the others to embrace the alternative of
splitting apart completely. Increasing numbers of Christians and their political
parties are entertaining both the federal option and this idea of separation
leading to a recognized Christian/Maronite entity. Even Sunnis in Lebanon have
had enough of feeling constantly threatened by Hezbollah and its Shiite
community; these Sunnis for the first time have been seriously contemplating a
divorce from coexistence with the Shiites and are even considering the federal
alternative or outright secession. The West can surely be more mindful of the
plight of beleaguered native Christians in Lebanon, given that Lebanon's
Christians are the only remaining free and indigenous Christian community in the
entire Near and Middle East. They did not succumb to dhimmitude, or second-class
dehumanization and servitude under Islamic rule. Mount Lebanon, particularly the
region from East Beirut northwards to encompass the Koura plain, and eastwards
to include the Bekaa city of Zahle, continues to exhibit a pretty solid
Christian demography. Whether it will achieve a degree of autonomy through a
federal formula applied to all of Lebanon, or split from the rest of the unified
state to form its own recognized entity, remains to be seen. Whatever the
preferred political outcome, it would help if the West could shepherd any such
process to protect the Christians and their freedom."
**Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at
Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22094/lebanon-hostage-to-hezbollah
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published
on
December 10-11/2025
IDSF/Video link/Israeli Laser Beam
Tech Deployed as Air Defense - Revolutionizing War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsnjtlYoVf0
IDSF - Israel's Defense and Security Forum/December 10/2025
In this episode, IDF Major Res. Yohanan Ben Yaakov talks about the Iron Beam
laser defense system that is now being deployed in Israel to protect against
rocket fire, drones and UAVs. He reviews the tremendous innovation of this
technology and the dramatic advatages that it has over the Iron Dome and other
missile defense systems. He reviews some of the limitations and vulnerabilities
of this devise and how it must therefore be incorporated into the defense
strategy.
IDSF/Video link/Iran vs. the West: How Containment & the
Abraham Accords Are Shaping the Middle East’s Future
IDSF - Israel's Defense and Security Forum/December 09/2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmVfBC9uHIE
In this episode, Head of IDSF Research Or Yisachar from the David Institute
explains how the geopolitical concept of containment explains much of what is
happening in the Middle East. He discusses the continued efforts of Iran to
attack Israel and the West and how expanding the Abraham Accords stands to build
a strong military and economic alliance to push back the Russia-China-Iran
alliance that threatens Israel, the US and the West.
JNS TV/Video link/More Media Lies: Trump-Netanyahu Summit
Is More Than We're Told
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3y1LSTrk3Q
Daniel Seaman tears through the week’s most explosive controversies, from the
backlash over Israel’s new Mossad chief to the political firestorm surrounding
left‑wing protest groups, battlefield propaganda and foreign efforts to
delegitimize Jewish sovereignty. Seaman exposes how global activists, Western
media, NGOs and even Hollywood celebrities are fueling narratives that empower
Hamas, undermine Israel’s right to self‑defense and distort the truth about the
war. Add in President Trump’s looming Mar‑a‑Lago meeting with Prime Minister
Netanyahu, revelations about NGO infiltration, and a White House “Wall of Shame”
targeting dishonest journalism and this episode becomes a blistering takedown of
the misinformation machine Israel is facing on every front.
JNS TV/Video link/Sen. John Fetterman Sends A CLEAR
Message To The Anti-Israel Left Attacking Him!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCsjHMuSIVQ&t=14s
Senator John Fetterman pulls no punches in this conversation with Gabe Groisman
from the U.S. Senate studios. From his unwavering support for Israel
post-October 7th to calling out antisemitism on American campuses and inside his
own party, Sen. Fetterman reveals how one war redefined his politics and
worldview. He talks about crying with orphans, defying his party, backing the
Trump-era peace deal and why he proudly stands with the 8% of Democrats who
didn’t flinch during the Gaza War.
CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro: Why Fetterman Matters Now
01:45 - The Orphan Visit That Changed Everything
05:10 - Hostage Posters and Making a Statement
08:25 - The Tree of Life Massacre: Personal Wake-Up Call
11:10 - Rise of Antisemitism in America
14:30 - Being the Last Democrat Standing on Israel
17:00 - From Harvard to Standing Alone in the Senate
20:10 - Meeting Soldiers, Widows and True Courage
23:55 - Cities in Crisis: Socialism and the Far Left
27:45 - Losing the Working Class & the 2024 Warning
Israeli Druze Leader Seeks US Security Guarantees for
Syrian Minority
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Israeli Druze leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif urged the United States to guarantee
the security of the Druze community in Syria to prevent a recurrence of intense
violence earlier this year in Sweida. Washington needed to fulfill its "duty" to
safeguard the rights of Syria's minorities in order to encourage stability,
Tarif told Reuters on Tuesday during an official visit to the UN in Geneva,
adding that US support would also remove the need for Israeli intervention in
Syria's south. "We hope that the United States, President Trump, and America as
a great power, we want it to guarantee the rights of all minorities in Syria ...
preventing any further massacres," he said. US President Donald Trump vowed in
November to do everything he can to make Syria successful after landmark talks
with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
BLOODY CLASHES IN JULY
The Druze are a minority group whose faith is an offshoot of Islam and have
followers in Israel, Syria and Lebanon. In July, clashes between Druze and
Bedouin residents broke out in Sweida after tit-for-tat kidnappings, leading to
a week of bloodletting that shattered generations of fragile coexistence.The
violence worsened when government forces dispatched to restore order clashed
with Druze militiamen, with widespread reports of looting, summary killings and
other abuses. Israel entered the fray with encouragement from its Druze
minority, attacking government forces with the stated aims of protecting Syrian
Druze and keeping its borders free from militants. Tens of thousands of people
from both communities were uprooted, with the unrest all but ending the
Bedouins’ presence across much of Sweida.In the aftermath, Druze leaders called
for a humanitarian corridor from the Israeli-occupied Golan to Sweida and
demanded self-determination, which the government rejects.
'NEED TO REBUILD TRUST'
Asked about proposals by influential Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari to separate
Sweida from Syria, Tarif took a different stance, stressing the need for
internal autonomy or self-governance within Syria as a way of protecting
minorities and their rights and pointing to federal systems in Switzerland and
Germany as examples. It was inconceivable to ask the
Druze to surrender their weapons, he said. Talks to bring Sweida's former police
force onto Damascus' payroll — while allowing the Druze to retain wide local
autonomy — had been making steady progress until July's bloodshed derailed them.
Al-Sharaa has vowed to protect the Druze. However, Hajari insists he poses an
existential threat to his community and in September rejected a 13-point,
US-brokered roadmap to resolve the conflict, according to Reuters.
Asked if talks should be revived, Tarif said trust had to be rebuilt by
allowing residents to return to their homes, and permitting full humanitarian
access to Sweida."There is no trust today ... Trust must be rebuilt," he said.
Attack by Gunmen Kills Three Members of Revolutionary Guard in Southeast Iran
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Gunmen killed three members of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran’s southeastern
province of Sistan and Baluchistan near the Pakistan border, state media
reported. The Guard members were ambushed while
patrolling near the city of Lar in a mountainous area about 1,125 kilometers
(700 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, the official IRNA news agency
reported. IRNA did not report whether any Guard members were injured in the
attack. The Revolutionary Guard is pursuing the attackers it calls “terrorists,”
but they remain at large. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, IRNA
reported. The province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, one of the least
developed in Iran, has been the site of occasional deadly clashes involving
militant groups, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces. In August,
Iran’s security forces killed 13 militants in three separate operations in the
province a week after the group killed five policemen who were on patrol.
Washington Cool on Nuclear Talks, Tehran Signals
Conditional Readiness
Washington : Elie Youssef/Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Washington’s silence toward Iran’s repeated calls to revive nuclear negotiations
is not simply a lapse in diplomatic attention. For many analysts, it resembles a
calculated test of nerves at a moment of exceptional sensitivity in Tehran. As
the United States juggles a crowded foreign policy agenda, critics say Iran’s
state is fraying from within under the strain of a deep economic downturn and
growing uncertainty over who will rule after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
And while Tehran continues to signal conditional readiness for talks,
Washington appears content to wait, perhaps for deeper internal unraveling or
for a political landscape reshaped by a full reordering of Iran’s power
structure. In recent weeks, Iranian officials have repeatedly spoken of Tehran’s
willingness to enter serious negotiations with the United States over the
nuclear program, while Washington’s silence toward these overtures has been
striking. Tehran insists on showing a desire for dialogue under what it calls
fair and balanced terms, but Washington appears in no hurry. Analysts describe
Washington’s posture as a mix of tactical patience and prioritization at a
moment when Iran faces economic and political strains and lingering uncertainty
over who will lead the country after Khamenei.
Washington’s Priorities
Patrick Clawson, director of research at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy, says the cool US reaction is not a final rejection but a natural result
of an American political arena crowded with urgent issues from Venezuela to
Ukraine, along with domestic pressures. Clawson told Asharq Al-Awsat that
President Donald Trump’s team believes Iran’s nuclear program has suffered major
setbacks in recent years and no longer represents an immediate threat, making
the file less pressing. He added that US chief negotiator Steve Witkoff is
overseeing dossiers the White House sees as more urgent at the moment. This
approach gives Washington comfortable room to maneuver. The US administration
does not want to enter a new round of complex and politically costly
negotiations before ensuring that the right conditions exist, particularly in
the absence of clear signals that Iran is ready to offer substantive concessions
beyond rhetoric.
Signals of Conditional Openness
Tehran has amplified its public messaging. In an interview with Japan’s Kyodo
news agency, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran remains open to
diplomacy but is not convinced Washington is ready for genuine and serious
negotiations.
Araghchi said Washington still operates with an attitude of dictates and that
any return to the negotiating table must be based on fair and balanced outcomes.
Tehran also opened a technical channel with Japan, seeking assistance
based on Japanese experience in dealing with nuclear crisis fallout to help
secure Iranian facilities damaged by recent Israeli and US attacks. The request
reflects an implicit acknowledgment of the scale of damage to Iran’s nuclear
infrastructure, even as Araghchi described the attacks as the greatest violation
of international law.This technical engagement does not indicate a shift in
Tehran’s core position. Iran continues to insist on
the right to enrichment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and links any
acceptance of new constraints to the lifting of sanctions and international
recognition of its peaceful nuclear program.
Deepening Internal Divisions
Inside Iran, the situation is becoming more complex. Clawson points to
unprecedented public sparring among Iranian officials and open speculation about
post-Khamenei scenarios, which he says reflect sharp disagreements within the
elite. Iranian researcher Farzin Nadimi argues the real confrontation is between
two principal camps: Khamenei and his institutions on one side, and former
president Hassan Rouhani and his team seeking to play a decisive role in the
next phase. There are other groups in between, Nadimi says, but these two blocs
are the main poles. Nadimi told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps is acting as an observer for now, despite its direct allegiance to
Khamenei. It could, however, move forcefully after Khamenei exits the scene,
possibly triggering a power struggle between the Guard and Rouhani unless the
latter is pushed aside before then. Iran is also grappling with a severe
economic crisis. The national currency has lost more than 10 percent of its
value in only ten days, amid persistent water shortages, repeated power outages,
and what critics describe as an ineffective economic model. Clawson cited the
new gasoline pricing system, which imposes a high rate on excess consumption but
remains below the cost of importing fuel, for which the government pays four
billion dollars annually. Experts describe this approach as a clear sign of poor
governance.
Missile Buildup and Preparing for Israel
Regionally, Israel remains a central factor in Tehran’s calculations.
Barak Barfi, a researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington,
told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iran is offering no indication it is prepared to scale
back its nuclear or missile programs and is instead building up its missile
stockpile in preparation for another confrontation with Israel. Barfi believes
Iran aims to acquire a capacity that can overwhelm Israeli defenses through
dense volleys of missile fire. Barfi does not expect Israel to launch a military
strike in the near term, citing its need to preserve freedom of action in
Iranian airspace and concerns that Tehran could rebuild its air defenses.
Israeli decision makers are also weighing the risks of overstretching the home
front and the possibility of an inconclusive strike, especially with the 2026 US
midterm elections approaching.
A Strategy of Waiting
For now, Washington appears positioned to wait, while Tehran appears intent on
buying time. With internal pressures escalating and factional rivalries
sharpening, Iran’s leadership may need external de-escalation more than it needs
a comprehensive agreement. The US administration, meanwhile, believes any new
negotiations require a different environment and stronger leverage, whether
through sanctions or Israel’s continued “campaign between the wars.”The American
coolness is not a definitive rejection but part of a strategy of waiting and
watching as Iran’s domestic situation evolves. The only scenario that could open
a genuine window for negotiation, analysts say, is Iran’s transition to the
post-Khamenei era, when the system reshapes its hierarchy and when the battered
economy and looming social crisis could drive Tehran to offer concessions that
are not possible under current conditions.
Hamas proposes weapons ‘freeze’ in return for long-term
truce: leader to Al Jazeera
AFP/December 11, 2025
DOHA: A top Hamas leader told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on Wednesday that
the militant group is open to a weapons “freeze,” but rejects the demand for
disarmament put forward in the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza.
“The idea of total disarmament is unacceptable to the resistance (Hamas).
What is being proposed is a freeze, or storage (of weapons)... to provide
guarantees against any military escalation from Gaza with the Israeli
occupation,” said Khaled Meshaal in an interview aired Wednesday. “This is the
idea we’re discussing with the mediators, and I believe that with pragmatic
American thinking... such a vision could be agreed upon with the US
administration,” he said. The US-sponsored ceasefire deal, in effect since
October 10, halted the war that began after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on
October 7, 2023. But it remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other
almost daily of breaches. The agreement is composed of three phases. Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently indicated that it was about to enter
the second phase. Under that phase Israeli troops
would further withdraw from their positions in Gaza and be replaced by an
international stabilization force (ISF), while Hamas would lay down its weapons.
Netanyahu is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump in the US later
this month to discuss the steps forward in the truce.But the Palestinian
militant group has indicated it would not agree to giving up its arsenal.
“Disarmament for a Palestinian means stripping away his very soul. Let’s achieve
that goal another way,” Meshaal added. In the first
phase of the deal Palestinian militants committed to releasing the remaining 48
living and dead captives held in the territory. All of the hostages have so far
been released except for one body. In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000
Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead
Palestinians. As for the international peacekeeping force, Meshaal said the
group was open to its deployment along Gaza’s border with Israel, but would not
agree to it operating inside the Palestinian territory, calling such a plan an
“occupation.” “We have no objection to international
forces or international stabilization forces being deployed along the border,
like UNIFIL,” he said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force deployed in
southern Lebanon near the Israeli border. “They would
separate Gaza from the occupation,” he added, referring to Israel.
“As for the presence of international forces inside Gaza, in Palestinian
culture and consciousness that means an occupying force.”Mediators as well as
Arab and Islamic nations, he said, could act as “guarantors” that there would be
no escalation originating from inside Gaza. “The
danger comes from the Zionist entity, not from Gaza,” he added, referring to
Israel.
Anti-Hamas Groups Vow to Fight On as Movement Warns
Asharq Al Awsat/December 11/2025
Groups operating in Israeli controlled pockets of the Gaza Strip say they will
press ahead with their fight against Hamas despite the killing of their most
senior commanders, insisting that they have expanded their ranks with new
recruits since the October ceasefire as they seek a foothold in Gaza’s political
future. Their emergence, still modest in size and influence, has added a new
layer of pressure on Hamas and threatens to complicate efforts to stabilise and
reunify a territory battered and divided by two years of war. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in June that Israel had supported anti
Hamas groups, saying Israel had “activated” some tribal linked factions,
although Israeli authorities have given few details since then.
Hamas sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the campaign against what they called
“armed gangs collaborating with Israel” would continue through various means.
One source said Israel’s attempt to promote and empower such groups “failed from
the outset” because they had not posed any meaningful challenge capable of
threatening the movement. Last week, Yasser Abu Shabab, widely seen as the
central figure in efforts to form anti-Hamas forces in the southern city of
Rafah, was killed. The Popular Forces group he led said he died while trying to
mediate a family dispute, without disclosing who shot him. His deputy, Ghassan
al-Dahini, has taken charge and vowed to continue the same path. Hamas, which
has run Gaza since 2007, has so far refused to disarm under the ceasefire plan
and has described its opponents as Israeli “agents”, a view that Palestinian
analysts say enjoys broad public support. The movement acted quickly against
Palestinians who challenged its authority after the United States backed
ceasefire took effect in October, killing dozens of people including some it
accused of collaborating with Israel.
Hamas consolidates control
Almost all of Gaza’s roughly two million residents live in areas under full
Hamas control, where the group is reasserting its hold. Four Hamas sources said
it still commands thousands of fighters despite heavy losses during the war.
Hamas figures told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel has failed to eliminate the
movement during two years of war and that Hamas retains its manpower and much of
its military infrastructure to varying degrees. Residents in areas west of the
yellow line that separates Hamas held zones from Israeli controlled territory
say the group deploys security forces including police and other agencies, and
at night members of the Qassam Brigades, to maintain order and prevent
infiltration by Israeli special units. One source stressed that preserving the
group’s strength “does not mean we insist on keeping control of the Strip or
prolonging the war. We are committed to completing the agreement stages through
a Palestinian national consensus”. Israel still controls more than half the
enclave, areas where Hamas’s rivals are active outside the group’s reach. With
implementation of President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan moving slowly, there are no
signs of further Israeli withdrawals for now.
Anti-Hamas forces expand
Three Egyptian security and military sources said Israeli backed groups have
stepped up activity since the ceasefire. They estimated their numbers at around
one thousand fighters, up by four hundred since the truce began. Egypt plays a
central role in negotiations to end the conflict. The sources said these groups
are likely to escalate operations in the absence of a comprehensive agreement on
Gaza’s future.
A diplomat who requested anonymity said the factions lack any popular base but
added that their emergence raises concerns about Gaza’s stability and heightens
the risk of Palestinian infighting. Since Abu Shabab’s death, his faction and
two others have released videos showing gatherings of dozens of fighters. On
December 7, al-Dahini said two men were executed in late November. He described
them as Hamas fighters and said they had killed a Popular Forces member. A
senior security official in the armed factions alliance led by Hamas in Gaza
said the killing of a “collaborator”, along with the group’s public display of
images, was an empty victory. “It will not change the facts on the ground,” he
said.
Tactical motives
Witnesses said some Palestinians in nearby Khan Younis celebrated Abu Shabab’s
death by handing out sweets. Ghassan al-Khatib, a lecturer in international
studies at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, said that although
Hamas’s popularity has declined due to the impact of the war, the anti Hamas
factions have no future because Palestinians view them as collaborators. “Israel
uses them only for tactical reasons, especially to undermine Hamas’s control,”
he said. A spokesman for Fatah, the movement led by Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas and which Hamas ousted from Gaza, said it rejects any armed groups
backed by Israel. He said such factions have no connection “to our people or to
our national institutions, neither directly nor indirectly”.
Coordination with Israel
Hussam al-Astal, who heads another anti-Hamas faction based in Khan Younis, said
he and al-Dahini agreed to continue what he called the “war on terrorism” during
a visit to Abu Shabab’s grave in Rafah. He added, “Our project, New Gaza, will
continue”.
In a separate phone call with Reuters in late November, al-Astal said his group
had received weapons, money and other support from international friends whose
identities he declined to reveal. He denied receiving military assistance from
Israel but confirmed contacts with Israeli authorities for coordinating the
entry of food and all the resources we need to survive. He said he was speaking
from inside Gaza in the Israeli controlled zone near the yellow line where
Israeli forces have pulled back. Al-Astal said the group has recruited new
members since the truce and now has several hundred personnel including fighters
and civilians. A source close to the Popular Forces also said the group had seen
significant growth in its ranks but gave no figures.
The Popular Forces did not respond to messages seeking comment via its Facebook
page. The group previously denied receiving Israeli support.
Housing complexes
Beyond the disarmament of Hamas, the Trump plan calls for the creation of a
transitional authority, deployment of a multinational force and reconstruction
of the enclave. But with no clarity on next steps, concerns are growing over a
de facto partition between an interior area under Israeli control with few
inhabitants and a coastal zone packed with displaced Palestinians and largely
reduced to rubble. During a tour of Gaza on Sunday,
Israeli army chief of staff Eyal Zamir said Israel “controls wide parts of the
Gaza Strip and we will remain on those defensive lines”.
Anti-Hamas factions have said their objectives include creating safe zones for
displaced Gazans. In October, United States Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s
son in law Jared Kushner said reconstruction funds could flow into Israeli
controlled areas without waiting for the next phase of the plan, aiming to
create model zones for Gazan residents. According to two Israeli officials and
three Western diplomats involved in planning for Gaza’s post war phase, Rafah is
among the first sites identified by United States officials for such housing
compounds, described as “alternative safe clusters”, although no timeline has
been set. A United States State Department spokesperson said Washington is
working with partners “to provide housing and other services to the people of
Gaza as quickly as possible”.A United States official said Washington has had no
formal contact with anti-Hamas groups and “provides no funding or support”.They
added that the US is not choosing winners or losers in Gaza. Aside from the
exclusion of any future role for Hamas, it will be up to the people of Gaza to
determine who governs Gaza.
Aid Flow Into Gaza Falls Short of Ceasefire Terms, Analysis
of Israeli Figures Shows
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under
the US-brokered ceasefire, an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli
military’s figures showed. Under the October ceasefire deal between Israel and
Hamas, Israel agreed to allow 600 trucks of aid into Gaza each day. But an
average of around 459 trucks a day have entered Gaza between Oct. 12, when flow
of the aid restarted, and Dec. 7, according to an AP analysis of latest figures
by COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid entry. By all
accounts, aid has fallen short in Gaza COGAT said that roughly 18,000 trucks of
food aid had entered Gaza between the ceasefire taking effect and Sunday. It
said that figure amounted to 70% of all aid that had entered the territory since
the truce. That means COGAT estimates that a total of just over 25,700 trucks of
aid have entered Gaza — well under the 33,600 trucks that should have entered by
Sunday, under the terms of the ceasefire.
In response to the AP analysis, COGAT insisted Wednesday that the number of
trucks entering Gaza each day was above the 600 mark. But when asked, it refused
to elaborate why the figures it gave did not reach that amount or provide raw
data on truck entry. Throughout most of the war, COGAT gave detailed figures of
daily trucks entering Gaza but stopped doing so when the ceasefire began. Rights
groups say that because it controls the crossings, it is the only entity with
the access and visibility necessary to track how much aid and commercial goods
are entering Gaza.
The UN and aid groups have often said the amount of aid entering Gaza is far
lower than COGAT claims. The UN says only 6,545 trucks have been offloaded at
Gaza crossings between the ceasefire and Dec. 7, amounting to about 113 trucks a
day. That's according to its online database. The UN figures do not include aid
trucks sent bilaterally by organizations not working through the UN network.
A Hamas document on Saturday provided to the AP put the amount of aid trucks
that have entered at 7,333. This week, United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stressed a “dire” need for more aid to
enter Gaza, saying Israeli restrictions on aid have bottlenecked recovery
efforts.
Food remains scarce in Gaza, aid groups say Humanitarian groups say lack of aid
has had harsh effects on many of Gaza's 2 million residents, most of whom were
forcibly displaced by war. Food remains scarce as the Palestinian territory
struggles to bounce back from famine, which hit parts of Gaza during the war.
Starving mothers in Gaza are giving birth to malnourished babies, some of whom
have died in hospital, according to a recent report by UNICEF. As winter rains
pick up, displaced families living in tents have been left exposed to the
elements and without supplies to cope with floods and the biting cold. “Needs
far outpace the humanitarian community’s ability to respond, given persistent
impediments,” the agency wrote in a report on Monday. “These obstacles include
insecurity, customs clearance challenges, delays and denials of cargo at the
crossings, and limited routes available for transporting humanitarian supplies
within Gaza.”Israel temporarily stopped all aid entry at least once in response
to alleged Hamas violations of the truce. Israel said that Hamas has failed to
return the bodies of the hostages in the time period established by the
ceasefire, while Hamas has said it struggled to find the bodies due to the
destruction left by Israel in the Palestinian territory. Hamas has also accused
Israel of violating the ceasefire terms because of the slow flow of aid,
continued closure of the Rafah crossing and ongoing deadly strikes on Gaza.
Dispute over remains of final hostage Meanwhile, Israel says it is demanding the
return of the final hostage, Ran Gvili. The Office of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu told the AP on Wednesday that Gvili’s remains must be returned, a
condition of the first phase of the ceasefire. “Once phase one is completed,
phase two will begin,” the office said in a statement. Hamas militants and Red
Cross crews continued to comb the ruins of Gaza City for the final body this
week, while the militant group Islamic Jihad claimed it had handed over the last
hostage body in its possession. On Tuesday, Hamas
called for more international pressure on Israel to open key border crossings,
cease deadly strikes on the territory and allow more aid into the strip. The
accusations mark the latest road bump at what regional leaders have described as
a critical time for the ceasefire agreement, as mediators seek to push the truce
into its second, more complicated phase.
Netanyahu Denies Contacts with Syria Have Led to Final
Agreement
Ramallah: Kifah ZbounAsharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Contacts and meetings held between Israel and Syria have not reached any final
understanding or agreement between both sides, the office of Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday in response to a report published by
Asharq Al-Awsat. Asharq Al-Awsat had quoted unnamed sources saying US mediation
brought Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa together for a meeting
during September’s UN General Assembly in New York.
Those talks advanced far enough that Netanyahu declined to endorse a draft
security arrangement with Damascus, it wrote. The Prime Minister’s Office said
in statement: “There were contacts and meetings organized by the US, but no
agreements and understandings with Syria were ever reached.”Amid the
controversy, a Syrian source familiar with the details told Channel 12: “The
final draft of the agreement is almost ready and in its last stages. A
breakthrough could happen very soon.”The source added: “The agreement’s terms
are largely agreed upon, with many clauses symbolically signed and written,
waiting for US officials to approach Israel and say: ‘This is the final formula,
and we want to move forward.’”He said the pause is currently on Israel’s side,
not Syria’s. “So far, the formula is acceptable to Syria and largely acceptable
to Israel.”Israeli media outlets recalled what happened between both sides last
September.The i24 News channel said that at the time, Sharaa had affirmed
Damascus and Jerusalem will soon share a new security agreement. His comments
came shortly after Reuters said Washington is pushing for enough progress to be
made by the time world leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly at
the end of the month to allow Trump to announce a breakthrough. The Israeli
channel said the deal was obstructed after Syria presented territorial demands
that Israel cannot accept, including a withdrawal from the strategically
sensitive Mount Hermon and areas in Syria’s buffer zone.
Later, the Times of Israel newspaper confirmed the reports saying that while
there was optimism in September that a deal could be signed, Reuters reported at
the time of the assembly that contacts between Israel and Syria regarding the
deal had reached a dead end due to Israel’s demand to open a “humanitarian
corridor” into the Sweida province in southern Syria – where sectarian violence
has killed hundreds of people from the Druze community, which Israel has vowed
to protect. The newspaper also cited an Axios report
saying Israel has reportedly presented Syria with a detailed proposal for a new
security agreement regarding southwest Syria, demanding a no-fly zone and
demilitarized zone over its border in Syria, with no limits on Israeli
deployment on its own territory. In return, Israel would withdraw in stages from
the buffer zone it established after Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad fell last
December, but would remain on the peak of Mount Hermon. The Israeli army has
been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria for nearly a year, since the
Assad regime was brought down, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the
border between the countries. Two posts are on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.
Israel said it seized the areas in southern Syria last December due to
fears they would fall into the wrong hands after the regime collapsed and said
it would hold on to them until a new security deal was signed. The Walla website
reported that Netanyahu was present at the UN General Assembly meeting and was
planning to meet with the Syrian leader and sign a security deal with Syria. But
Damascus insisted on Israel’s withdrawal from territory seized in the Golan
Heights since Assad’s fall. Tel Aviv refused, saying its troops need to remain
in the area to protect its residents in the north.
Israel Approves Nearly 800 Housing Units in Three West Bank Settlements
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Israel has given final approval for 764 housing units to be built in three
settlements in the occupied West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on
Wednesday. The ultra-nationalist Smotrich, who opposes
the creation of a Palestinian state, said that since the beginning of his term
in late 2022, some 51,370 housing units have been approved by the government's
Higher Planning Council in the West Bank, territory Palestinians seek for a
future state. "We continue the revolution," Smotrich said in a statement, adding
the latest approval of housing units "is part of a clear strategic process of
strengthening the settlements and ensuring continuity of life, security, and
growth ... and genuine concern for the future of the State of Israel."The units
will be spread out between Hashmonaim, just over the Green Line in central
Israel, and Givat Zeev and Beitar Illit near Jerusalem. Most world powers deem
Israel's settlements - on land it captured in a 1967 war - as illegal and
numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all
settlement activity. "For us, all the settlements are illegal...and they are
contrary to all the resolutions of international legitimacy," Wasel Abu Yousef,
a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, told
Reuters. Israel says settlements are critical to its security and cites
biblical, historical and political connections to the territory. Israeli settler
attacks against Palestinians have been on the rise. At least 264 attacks in the
West Bank against Palestinians were reported in October, the biggest monthly
total since UN officials began tracking such incidents in 2006, according to a
UN report.
Ukraine to give revised peace plans to US as it readies
for more talks with partners
Associated Press/December 10/2025
Ukraine is expected to hand its latest peace proposals to U.S. negotiators
Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, a day ahead of his urgent talks
with leaders and officials from about 30 other countries supporting Kyiv's
effort to end the war with Russia on acceptable terms. As tension builds around
U.S. President Donald Trump's push for a settlement and calls for an election in
Ukraine, Zelensky said his country would be ready for such a vote within three
months if partners can guarantee safe balloting during wartime and if its
electoral law can be altered. Washington's goal of a swift compromise to stop
the fighting that followed Russia's all-out invasion in February 2022 is
reducing Kyiv's room for maneuvering. Zelensky is walking a tightrope between
defending Ukrainian interests and showing Trump he is willing to make some
compromises. Ukraine's European allies are backing Zelensky's effort to ensure
that any settlement is fair and deters future Russian attacks.
The French government said Ukraine's allies — dubbed the "Coalition of
the Willing" — will discuss the negotiations Thursday by video. Zelensky said it
would include those countries' leaders. "We need to bring together 30 colleagues
very quickly. And it's not easy, but nevertheless we will do it," he said late
Tuesday. Zelensky's openness to an election was a
response to comments by Trump in which he questioned Ukraine's democracy and
suggested the Ukrainian leader was using the war as an excuse not to stand
before voters. Those comments echo similar remarks often made by Russian
President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky told reporters late Tuesday he is "ready" for
an election but would need help from the U.S. and possibly Europe to ensure its
security. He suggested Ukraine could be ready to hold balloting in 60 to 90 days
if that proviso is met. "To hold elections, two issues must be addressed:
primarily, security — how to conduct them, how to do it under strikes, under
missile attacks; and a question regarding our military — how they would vote,"
Zelensky said.
"And the second issue is the legislative framework required to ensure the
legitimacy of elections," he said. Previously,
Zelensky had pointed out that a ballot can't legally take place while martial
law — imposed due to Russia's invasion — is in place. He has also asked how a
vote could happen when civilian areas of Ukraine are being bombarded by Russia
and almost 20% of the country is under Moscow's occupation. Zelensky said he has
asked lawmakers from his party to draw up legislative proposals allowing for an
election while Ukraine is under martial law. Ukrainians have on the whole
supported Zelensky's arguments, and have not clamored for an election. Under the
law that is in force, Zelensky's rule is legitimate.Putin has repeatedly
complained that Zelensky can't legitimately negotiate a peace settlement because
his five-year term that began in 2019 has expired.
US seeks closer ties with Russia
A new U.S. national security strategy released Dec. 5 made it clear that Trump
wants to improve Washington's relationship with Moscow and "reestablish
strategic stability with Russia."The document also portrays European allies as
weak. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised Trump's role in the Ukraine
peace effort, saying in a speech to the upper house of parliament that Moscow
appreciates his "commitment to dialogue." Trump, Lavrov said, is "the only
Western leader" who shows "an understanding of the reasons that made war in
Ukraine inevitable."Trump's peace efforts have run into sharply conflicting
demands from Moscow and Kyiv. The initial U.S.
proposal was heavily slanted toward Russia's demands. To counter that, Zelensky
has turned to his European supporters. Zelensky met this week with the leaders
of Britain, Germany and France in London, the heads of NATO and the European
Union in Brussels, and then to Rome to meet the Italian premier and Pope Leo
XIV. Zelensky said three documents were being discussed with American and
European partners — a 20-point framework document that is constantly changing, a
document on security guarantees, and a document about Ukraine's recovery.
Military aid for Ukraine declines
Europe's support is uneven, however, and that has meant a decrease in military
aid since the Trump administration this year cut off supplies to Kyiv unless
they were paid for by other NATO countries. Foreign military help for Ukraine
fell sharply over the summer, and that trend continued through September and
October, a German body that tracks international help for Ukraine said
Wednesday. Average annual aid, mostly provided by the U.S. and Europe, was about
41.6 euros billion ($48.4 billion) between 2022–24. But so far this year Ukraine
has received just 32.5 billion euros ($37.8 billion), the Kiel Institute said.
"If this slower pace continues in the remaining months (of the year), 2025 will
become the year with the lowest level of new aid allocations" since the war
began, it said. This year, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have
substantially increased their help for Ukraine, while Germany nearly tripled its
average monthly allocations and France and the U.K. both more than doubled their
contributions, the Kiel Institute said. On the other hand, it said, Spain
recorded no new military aid for Kyiv in 2025 while Italy reduced its low
contributions by 15% compared with 2022–2024.
Ukraine disables ‘shadow fleet’ vessel with sea drones in Black Sea
Reuters/December 10/2025
Ukrainian sea drones on Wednesday hit and disabled a tanker involved in trading
Russian oil as it sailed through Ukraine’s exclusive economic zone in the Black
Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, a Ukrainian official said. The attack
is the third naval drone strike in two weeks on vessels that are part of
Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” unregulated ships which Kyiv says are helping
Moscow export large quantities of oil and fund its war in Ukraine despite
Western sanctions. War insurance costs for ships sailing to the Black Sea have
spiked, with insurers reviewing policies daily as the conflict in Ukraine spills
into sea lanes. The Dashan tanker was sailing at
maximum speed with its transponders off when powerful explosions hit its stern,
inflicting critical damage on the vessel, the official at the Security Service
of Ukraine said. He made no mention of possible casualties in the incident. The
strike on the Dashan, which is under European Union and British sanctions and is
sailing without a known flag registry, was also confirmed by three maritime
security sources. There was no immediate comment from Russia on the incident.
Naval drones could be seen speeding towards the hulking tanker followed by
powerful explosions as they reached it, video footage provided by the official
showed. “The SBU continues to take active measures to
reduce petrodollar revenues to the Russian budget,” said the official. “Over the
past two weeks, this is the third tanker of the shadow fleet put out of action
that had helped the Kremlin circumvent international sanctions.”Russian
President Vladimir Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in
February 2022, threatened last week to sever Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea
in response to the attacks on tankers, which he derided as piracy. Ukraine has
been attacking Russian oil refineries for months, using long-range aerial drones
to strike far behind the front lines of Moscow’s war against Ukraine. The
strikes on the tankers represent a different line of attack. There have been at
least seven blasts on other tankers that called at Russian ports since December
2024 at locations including in the Mediterranean. Ukraine is suspected of
carrying out those attacks using limpet mines, maritime security sources said,
but Kyiv has not confirmed or denied any role.
UK's Starmer Says Europe is Strong and United Behind Ukraine
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that Europe was strong and
he would stand up for its values of freedom and democracy after US President
Donald Trump said the continent was decaying. In an interview with Politico on
Tuesday, Trump called Europe's political leaders weak and denounced Europe for
failing to end the war in Ukraine. Trump's comments followed the publication
last week of the US national security strategy that warned Europe faced
"civilizational erasure" and must change course. "What I see is a strong Europe,
united behind Ukraine and united behind our long-standing values of freedom and
democracy, and I will always stand up for those freedoms," Starmer said,
responding to a question by a British lawmaker in parliament about the national
security strategy, Reuters reported. Trump, in his
interview with Politico, also described London Mayor Sadiq Khan as a
"disaster."Khan, who represents Starmer's centre-left Labour Party, in 2016
became the first Muslim to be elected mayor of London. The US president has long
been critical of Khan, and the two men have clashed repeatedly in recent years.
Starmer's press secretary said on Wednesday that Trump's comments were "wrong"
and defended Khan's record. "The prime minister is hugely proud of the Mayor of
London's record, and proud to call him a colleague and a friend." Khan's office
did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Speaking to Reuters from
Brazil ahead of the COP30 environmental summit last month, Khan defended his
record. "London, like New York, is a city that is liberal, multicultural,
progressive, and also incredibly successful," he said. "We are the antithesis of
everything that Donald Trump is about," he added, as he hailed Zohran Mamdani's
victory in the New York City mayoral race. Mamdani describes himself as a
democratic socialist and is the first Muslim mayor of New York.
US condemns Houthi detention of embassy staff in Yemen
Reuters/December 11, 2025
The US on Wednesday condemned the ongoing detention of current and former local
staffers of the US embassy in Yemen by the Houthi movement. “The United States
condemns the Houthis’ ongoing unlawful detention of current and former local
staff of the US Mission to Yemen,” US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott
said in a statement. “The Houthis’ arrests of those staff, and the sham
proceedings that have been brought against them, are further evidence that the
Houthis rely on the use of terror against their own people as a way to stay in
power,” Pigott said.
Saudi Arabia Presses for Easing Tensions, Restoring
Stability in East Yemen
Riyadh: Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
In the wake of the latest military moves by the Southern Transitional Council
(STC) in the eastern Yemeni governorates of Hadhramaut and al-Mahra, the head of
the visiting Saudi delegation to Hadhramaut, Lt. Gen. Mohammed al-Qahtani, said
the Kingdom, which leads the Arab coalition supporting legitimacy in Yemen, is
working to defuse the crisis and resolve the conflict. Yemen’s state media
reported that the Saudi delegation arrived in the districts of Wadi and Desert
Hadhramaut after concluding meetings in the city of Mukalla and the coastal
districts. Governor of Hadhramaut Salem al-Khenbashi, along with several deputy
governors, notables and tribal sheikhs from the region, received the delegation.
According to the government-run Saba news agency, al-Khenbashi welcomed the
delegation, saying the visit reinforces the bonds of brotherhood, kinship,
neighborhood and shared faith between Yemen and the Kingdom. He hoped that the
visit would support Hadhramaut and its local authorities in easing citizens’
hardships in service, economic and security sectors. Al-Qahtani reaffirmed Saudi
Arabia’s firm position toward Yemen and Hadhramaut, stressing the need to
enforce calm, support security and stability, and reject any attempts to impose
faits accomplis by force or drag the governorate into new cycles of conflict.
The Saudi official renewed Riyadh’s position calling for all forces affiliated
with the STC to withdraw from Hadhramaut and Mahra and restore the situation to
its previous state.
Al-Qahtani said Saudi Arabia rejects any moves that obstruct the path of
de-escalation. He noted that Hadhramaut is a cornerstone and a top priority for
stability, not a theatre for conflict, and that the province has qualified local
cadres capable of managing its affairs and resources. Hadhramaut must be
administered through official state institutions represented by the government
and local authorities, he urged.
State media quoted al-Qahtani as saying the delegation’s visit to Hadhramaut
resulted in agreement on a comprehensive set of measures to support security,
stability and de-escalation with all parties, including the STC. The Arab
coalition is working to end the crisis, resolve the conflict and restore
conditions to what they were, he stressed. Saudi Arabia has historic fraternal
ties with all of Yemen, he remarked, saying the southern issue is a just cause
that cannot be ignored. He noted it is reflected in the outcomes of the Yemeni
National Dialogue and remains central to any coming political settlement with
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates supporting a comprehensive political
solution in Yemen. Al-Qahtani said the delegation reached an initial arrangement
with local authorities and the Hadhramaut Tribes Alliance to ensure continued
oil production at PetroMasila, avoid disrupting people’s interests and keep oil
facilities away from conflict. Under the arrangement, forces currently stationed
in PetroMasila will withdraw and be replaced by Hadhramaut forces under the
direct supervision of the local authority to help restore normal life.
UN Envoy in Riyadh
Amid the recent developments in Hadhramaut and Mahra, United Nations envoy to
Yemen Hans Grundberg visited Riyadh, where he met with Yemeni Foreign Minister
Shaya al-Zindani, Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al-Jaber, UAE Ambassador to
Yemen Mohamed al-Zaabi, representatives of the UN Security Council's five
permanent members, and other diplomats. A statement from the envoy’s office said
meetings focused on the latest developments in Hadhramaut and Mahra, noting that
eastern Yemen is politically and economically vital. Grundberg underscored the
need for all actors to exercise restraint and reduce escalation through
dialogue. He stressed the importance of maintaining space for discussion among
Yemeni parties to support stability and serve the interests of the Yemeni
people. During his meetings, the envoy reaffirmed his commitment to continue
working with Yemeni, regional and international parties to support de-escalation
and strengthen prospects for a negotiated political settlement to the conflict.
Yemen’s state media reported that al-Zindani met Grundberg and reiterated the
government’s full support for UN efforts. He affirmed the government’s readiness
to cooperate with the United Nations and the international community in ways
that help ease humanitarian suffering and enhance security and stability. The
meeting discussed developments linked to the ongoing negotiations on prisoner
and detainee swaps. Al-Zindani stressed the need for tangible progress on this
humanitarian file and for all sides to honor agreements to ensure the release of
all prisoners and detainees without exception.
Calls for calm
Following American, British, French and German calls urging calm and support for
stability in Yemen, the European Union mission said it supports the Presidential
Leadership Council (PLC) and the Yemeni government in their efforts to boost
security and stability. In a post on the X platform, the mission praised the
comprehensive briefing by PLC Chairman Rashad al-Alimi on the recent
developments in Hadhramaut and Mahra. It emphasized the need to resolve
political disputes through political means and dialogue. The mission welcomed
all mediation efforts aimed at de-escalation and reiterated the EU’s support for
the Yemeni people and its commitment to their aspirations for freedom, security
and prosperity. Al-Alimi held a meeting in Riyadh with ambassadors of countries
sponsoring the political process in Yemen. He briefed them on the latest
political and field developments, especially the recent events in the eastern
provinces, which he said undermine the legitimate government, threaten the unity
of security and military decision making, and violate the frameworks of the
transitional process. Al-Alimi said one effective path to calm lies in a
unified, clear and explicit international stance that rejects unilateral
measures, reaffirms full commitment to the references of the transitional phase,
and supports the legitimate government as the sole executive authority
responsible for safeguarding the country’s higher interests.
He reiterated that the PLC’s position remains unchanged from past
experience, which is to not provide political cover for any unilateral actions
outside the institutional framework of the state whenever there is genuine
national, regional and international will.
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published
on
December 10-11/2025
Islam’s “Humanitarian” Conquests? Dismantling Egypt’s Latest Myth
Raymond Ibrahim/Coptic
Solidarity/December 10, 2025
https://www.copticsolidarity.org/2025/12/09/islams-humanitarian-conquests-dismantling-egypts-latest-myth/
Muslim clerics have become remarkably adept at rewriting Islamic history. Faced
with a Western audience that prizes individual liberty and human rights, they
increasingly refashion Islam’s early military expansion into a kind of
seventh-century humanitarian NGO mission — a myth as historically untenable as
it is intellectually insulting.
The latest example comes from Egyptian sheikh, Khaled El-Gendy, a member of
Egypt’s Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, who recently proclaimed that Islam’s
sweeping jihadist conquests were “not for expansion,” but “in defense of human
freedom and the human right to choose.”
El-Gendy’s presentation begins with a textbook example of what can only be
described as Orwellian inversion. He cites Muhammad’s famous ultimatum to the
Byzantine governor of Egypt — “Submit and you will be safe, otherwise you will
bear the sin of the Copts” — as evidence of Islam’s concern for “human freedom.”
That this threat — using a variation (aslam taslam) on Islam — is held up as a
model of liberty is astonishing. The letter is not an invitation to religious
self-determination but a coercive demand: accept Islam—or else.
If this is a blueprint for “human rights,” then words have lost their meaning.
Back in the real world, for well over a millennium, Muslim historians never
dissembled the nature of Islam’s conquests. They celebrated them. They recorded
the vast booty, the slaves, the tribute, the rapid expansion of the Dar al-Islam
“by the sword,” and the humiliation of conquered peoples—all as “proof” that God
was on their side. Only in the modern era, under the gaze of Western humanists,
do clerics like El-Gendy suddenly pretend the conquests were defensive struggles
conducted in the name of “universal dignity.”
That narrative collapses immediately under historical scrutiny. When the Islamic
armies burst out of Arabia around 636 AD, they brutally conquered — in a single
century — more territory than Rome acquired in five centuries. From Spain to
India, cities fell, populations were enslaved, churches were seized or
destroyed, and local peoples were subjugated under the now-infamous Conditions
of Omar, which reduced Christians and Jews to second-class status. These dhimmis
were forbidden to bear arms, forbidden to build new churches, forbidden to
publicly practice their faith. They lived under a crushing poll tax — the jizya
— levied precisely because they refused to convert and were even required to
give up their seats if Muslims demanded them.
This is not human “freedom” or “dignity.” This is engineered submission and
inequality backed by the threat of violence.
The same applies to El-Gendy’s invocation of the Abyssinian migration[a1] . Yes,
early Muslims fled to Christian Ethiopia — precisely because the Christian king
offered them protections which competing tribes in Arabia did not provide.
Ethiopia’s tolerance is a credit to Christianity, not Islam. The irony of using
Christian mercy as proof of Islamic humanitarianism would be laughable if it
weren’t so brazen.
Such dishonesty concerning Islamic expansion is hardly new. Fifteen years ago, I
responded to an even more brazen claim—also by an Egyptian cleric: that Egypt’s
Copts who were conquered by the early Islamic armies were not really Christians
at all, but “proto-Muslims” just waiting to be liberated. The argument was
absurd then; it is no less absurd now.
More importantly: these Christians never asked for liberation. They resisted it
— with their lives, their blood, and their testimony. The chronicles of the era
overflow with accounts of resistance, martyrdom, and pleas for outside help.
Conquered Christians did not welcome the advancing armies as brothers in
monotheism. The oldest Christian chronicle by John of Nikiou — a Coptic bishop
who lived in Egypt during Islam’s invasion – is riddled with bloodshed,
suffering, and resistance from the Copts against their supposed “brothers in
monotheism.”
That El-Gendy and others now describe these episodes as “defending freedom” is
both insulting and historically grotesque.
Furthermore, El-Gendy, like all modern apologists, clings to the verse “There is
no compulsion in religion” as if it cancels out the entire body of Islamic
jurisprudence on jihad, conquest, and the treatment of non-Muslims. He omits the
well-established fact — known to classical Muslim exegetes, and no doubt known
to him — that this verse was considered abrogated by later, more militant
verses, such as Koran 9:5 and 9:29.
Why, then, do influential clerics like El-Gendy engage in intellectual
gymnastics? Because the truth is unsellable today. The conquest tradition, proud
and unembarrassed in the classical sources, is incompatible with modern ideals.
And so it must be reinterpreted, smoothed over, sanitized, and dressed up in the
language of human “rights” and “dignity.”
Even so, this brand of fake history continues to achieve its goal: fooling
Western people who know nothing about Islamic history. Meanwhile, past and
present Muslims would and could not recognize the watered-down version of
history El-Gendy and his ilk peddle.
In the end, the facts speak for themselves:
Non-Muslim populations—including Egypt’s most indigenous group, the Christian
Copts—were invaded[a2] , defeated, and subjugated.
Those who survived were taxed, restricted, and humiliated into conversion.
Churches were destroyed or repurposed; Christian public life was suppressed.
The conquests spread not human rights, but a brutal empire.
To present any of this as a defense of “freedom,” “equality” or “human rights”
is to replace history with fantasy.
How a perfect storm of crises pushed Iran into acute, nationwide water scarcity
GABRIELE MALVISI/Arab News/December 10, 2025
LONDON: During the summer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed
Iranians directly in a video on social media, promising that Israeli water
technology would reach the country “once the regime is deposed.”
The appeal echoed a similar message made during the June 12-day war, drawing a
sharp rebuke from Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, who dismissed the offer as
“an illusion.”The unusual appeal nevertheless highlights a stark reality that
the Iranian state and its citizens are now struggling to confront: a spiraling
water crisis that shows no sign of easing, driven by years of drought, crumbling
infrastructure, and chronic mismanagement. Lake Urmia,
once Iran’s largest lake and the Middle East’s biggest saltwater body, has
almost completely dried up, with satellite images showing the 4,000-year-old
“turquoise jewel” turned into a vast salt plain, fuelling salt storms, ecosystem
collapse and serious public health risks. Yet the most potent symbol of the
emergency is now Tehran, where dam reserves have plunged so low that in early
November Pezeshkian warned the capital’s 15 million residents could face
rationing and even evacuation if rains failed to arrive by late November.“Iran
has been suffering from a chronic water problem, what we call water bankruptcy,
for a number of years, and the symptoms of that have appeared in different parts
of the world,” Kaveh Madani, director of the UNU Institute for Water,
Environment and Health, told Arab News. “However, this is the first time the
capital and metropolis of more than 15 million people is facing this issue. This
is the richest city, the most influential in terms of politics, being impacted.
And that shows how serious the problem is.”Rural areas and farmland have long
been on the front line, but amid the worst drought in six decades, exceptionally
low rainfall is now hitting cities as well.
Despite 3-4 millimeters of rain in early December, Tehran province remains
around 97 percent below normal levels for this time of year. ERA5 data analysed
by Dr. Mojtaba Sadegh of Boise State University shows autumn precipitation this
year at just 13.9 millimeters, compared with a historical peak of 257.6
millimeters in 1994, while many major reservoirs have fallen to single-digit
capacity. But today’s crisis is neither a sudden twist of fate nor confined to
Tehran; it is the predictable outcome of what experts have long warned is “water
bankruptcy” after decades of withdrawing more water than nature can replenish
and draining strategic aquifers. Madani described a “failing state being driven
by human decisions, decades of poor management, lack of foresight, and
overreliance on engineering solutions that were only seeking increasing water
supply, like building more dams or transferring water from one location to
another. “The moment you increase supply, then demand increases would follow
because growth is further encouraged, and then the problem keeps coming back.
That’s a typical fix that backfires,” he added. In May, during his visit to
Saudi Arabia, US President Donald Trump criticized Iran’s “corrupt water mafia”
for engineering droughts and emptying riverbeds — a charge many Iranians saw not
as a revelation but an overdue validation of what activists and experts have
long warned. Pezeshkian recently conceded that “past mistakes” have left Iran
with shrinking options, while Isa Kalantari, former vice president and head of
the Department of Environment, warned that the drought poses “a more dangerous
threat to Iran than Israel.”
Independent Iran scholar Alireza Nader told Arab News: “I would describe it as a
man-made disaster. Because, yes, Iran is an arid country, and there is drought,
but the government in Iran had decades to prepare for this eventuality, which it
actually created.”Nader explained that “as long as you have this closed economic
system, where the state makes the decisions and the state exploits Iran’s
natural and mineral resources to empower itself, you’re going to have this sort
of ‘water mafia’ that relies on construction to make money,” something he
described as a dangerous “self-perpetuating system.”
Opaque contracts and weak oversight have fueled the problem.
Since the 1979 revolution, and especially during the reconstruction drive that
followed the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, the country has built roughly 600 dams of
various sizes, up from only about 20-30 modern dams before 1979.
This boom — averaging about 20 new dams a year over several decades — has turned
Iran into one of the world’s most aggressive dam‑building states.
Framed as a way to meet rising water demand, it also enriched a small
circle of firms and insiders, including Khatam Al‑Anbiya, the construction arm
of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which critics accuse of siphoning off
billions in public funds through dam and inter‑basin transfer projects,
deepening what many now call “water corruption.”Combined with reckless
agricultural expansion, these policies have devastated ecosystems, worsened
shortages and uprooted communities across Iran, particularly in areas like
Balochistan, one of the country’s poorest regions, where 62 percent of the
population lacks access to safe drinking water.
Desperate farmers have resorted to over‑pumping groundwater, often illegally,
draining aquifers and causing the land to sink, a largely irreversible process
known as land subsidence. “This is an issue of water governance,” said Nader.
“This is not a political system that can take care of the people and can take
care of the environment, and the last 46 years have shown that it is a system
that has caused this problem. Iran is literally sinking because of the water
disaster. The ground is subsiding.”A University of Leeds study has identified
106 subsiding regions spanning 12,120 square miles — around 2 percent of Iran.
In Tehran and surrounding areas, where aquifers have been pushed to their
limits, the ground is sinking by up to 31 centimeters a year — enough to wreck
infrastructure and prompt talk of eventual evacuation.
“If we assume that they’re going to move, where are they going to move?” asked
Madani. Drinking water can still be provided through tankers and other means,
such as redirecting water from resource-intensive activities such as
agriculture. Indeed, agriculture is a key culprit.
Iran is one of the Middle East’s leading producers of wheat, pistachios,
watermelons and cucumbers, all highly water‑intensive crops. In 2025, the sector
accounted for more than 90 percent of all water allocation.
“The country can produce more strategic food with less water and less
land area, provided that it can find alternative opportunities for the farmers,”
said Madani, himself a former deputy head of Iran’s Department of Environment.
While oil still brings in the most revenue, agriculture is a core
economic and strategic sector, employing about 14.8 percent of the workforce.
Yet despite the environmental damage it causes, the government plans to increase
agricultural exports by 20-25 percent to prop up an economy strained by
international sanctions — measures that have themselves worsened the water
crisis.“Foreign companies and individuals can’t invest in improving Iran’s water
governance,” said Nader. “What the sanctions also do is choke off Iran from
expertise and technology that is necessary to fix this environmental issue.”He
argued there is no quick fix, but that repairing leaking pipes, especially in
Tehran, would be a crucial first step. Citizens, he added, can also act
individually and collectively to confront a crisis that is now “existential.”If
large areas become uninhabitable, Nader warned, millions of Iranians could be
forced to leave, leading to what he called “the collapse of Iran as a
civilization” and, eventually, of the regime itself. The impact, he added, does
not stop at Iran’s borders but affects the “entire Middle East” and could reach
“Europe and America much more quickly than we realize.”Madani, however, sketched
a less apocalyptic future. To tackle “water bankruptcy,” he argued, Iran must
pursue politically painful reforms, above all decoupling its economy from water
by creating jobs for farmers in other sectors — a difficult task while the state
remains in “resistance mode” under sanctions. He noted
that although climate stress and migration can fuel tensions and security risks,
the link is complex and shaped by many other factors, making precise forecasts
speculative. “We don’t know how wet or dry this year would be, and whether there
would be some relief, but whatever it is, it’s not going to address the
human-made policy-related problems,” said Madani. What is certain, he added, is
that a “quick evacuation is not possible.” Instead, authorities might rely on
temporary measures already used for pollution or power crises — extending
weekends, closing schools and offices, and encouraging people to leave the city
for short periods to ease pressure on the system. “If you only have a few days
or a few weeks of water left, that’s a practice that can function and can be
helpful.”
Lifting sanctions on Syria will
prevent Daesh resurgence and strengthen the nation, experts say
RAY HANANIA/Arab News/December 11,
2025
Conference in Washington discusses effects US policies are having on post-Assad
Syria, and the continuing economic hardships in the country that could fuel
terrorism
Participants praise US President Donald Trump for taking the right steps to help
the war-torn nation move towards recovery and stabilization
Syria faces serious challenges in the aftermath of the fall of the Assad regime
a year ago, including rebuilding its economy, lifting refugees and civilians out
of poverty, and preventing a resurgence of Daesh terrorism. But experts in two
panel discussions during a conference at the Middle East Institute in
Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, attended by Arab News, agreed that US President
Donald Trump had so far taken all the right steps to help the war-torn nation
move toward recovery and stabilization.
One of the discussions explored the effects American policies are having on the
rebuilding of Syria, including the lifting of sanctions and efforts to attract
outside investments and stabilize the economy. Moderated by the institute’s vice
president for policy, Kenneth Pollack, the participants included retired
ambassadors Robert Ford and Barbara Leaf, and Charles Lister, a resident fellow
at the institute.
The other discussion focused on the continuing economic hardships in Syria that
could fuel terrorism, including a resurgence of Daesh. Moderator Elizabeth
Hagedorn, of Washington-based Middle East news website Al-Monitor, was joined by
Mohammed Alaa Ghanem of the Syrian American Council, Celine Kasem of Syria Now,
and Jay Salkini from the US-Syria Business Council. “As we went into a
transitional era, US diplomacy took a back step for a while as the Trump
administration came into office,” Lister noted during the first panel
discussion. Everyone has been “super skeptical” of where the new government led
by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, a former commander with the Syrian opposition
forces, would lead the country, he said, but Trump had stepped up through
policies and support.
“Frankly, I think in January none of us expected that President Donald Trump
would be shaking hands with Ahmad Al-Sharaa” a few months later, he added.
“Despite the obvious challenges, this new (Syrian) government has to be
engaged.”
The US had maintained strong ties to the Syrian Democratic Forces, and with
Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, Lister said, in the decade leading up to the
collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime on Dec. 8, 2024.
“Of course, we’ve had 10 years of a superb partnership with the Syrian
Democratic Forces, but they were a non-state actor not a sovereign government,”
he continued.
“Now, we have a sovereign government that we could test, we can engage, and we
can see where that goes. And in working through a sovereign government, there is
no comparison that comes anywhere close to what we’ve seen on Syria.”
Lister praised Trump, saying: “I think a lot of that goes down to President
Trump’s own kind of gut instinct of the way to do things. “But there is a
deeper, deeper government bench that has worked on this through Treasury and
State and elsewhere. I think they all deserve credit for moving so rapidly and
so boldly to give Syria a chance, as President Trump says.”
Ford said a key aspect of the process as Syria moves forward will be the removal
of all sanctions imposed by the US against the Assad regime under the 2019
Caesar Act, an effort that is now underway in Congress. He said Trump recognizes
that the future of Syria and the wider Middle East lies in the hands of the Arab
people, and has pursued policies based on “shared interests” including a
“national security. strategy” to help the war-torn country shift away from
extremism and violence toward a productive economy and safer environment for its
people.
The Trump administration recognizes this reality, Ford added, and will “work on
a practical level towards shared interests.”However, he cautioned that “Syria is
not out of the woods, by any stretch of the imagination” in terms of ensuring
there is no resurgence of violence driven by desperate people burdened by the
harsh economic realities in the country. “If they can work with the Syrian
government, and with more and more important regional actors as the United
States retrenches — like Israel, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, Qatar and Egypt; it’s a long list — it will become more important,”
Ford said. “There is still a way for the Americans to work with all of them,
even if we don’t have big boots on the ground, or if we’re not providing
billions of dollars.”
Nonetheless, “America’s voice will still be heard,” he added, thanks to the
interest Trump is taking in Syria. Adopted by Congress six years ago, toward the
end of Trump’s first term as president, the Caesar Act imposed wide-ranging
sanctions on Syria, including measures that targeted Assad and his family in an
attempt to ensure his regime would be held accountable for war crimes committed
under its reign. The act was named after a photographer who leaked images of
torture taking place in Assad’s prisons. Lister noted that the removal of the US
sanctions has been progressing at “record-breaking speeds.”In pre-taped opening
remarks to the conference, which took place at the institute’s offices in
Washington, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of the US Central Command, said the
Trump administration’s priority in Syria is the “aggressive and relentless
pursuit” of Daesh, while working on the integration of the Syrian Democratic
Forces with the new Syrian government through American military coordination.
“Just to give an example, in the month of October, US forces advised, assisted
and enabled Syrian partners during more than 20 operations against (Daesh),
diminishing the terrorists’ attacks and export of violence around the world,” he
said. “We’re also degrading their ability to regenerate.”Cooper added that the
issue of displacement camps in northeastern Syria must also be addressed. He
said he has visited Al-Hawl camp four times since his first meeting with
Al-Sharaa, “which reinforced my view of the need to accelerate repatriations.”
He continued: “The impact on displaced persons devastated by years of war and
repression has been immense. As I mentioned in a late-September speech at the
UN, continuing to repatriate displaced persons and detainees in Syria is both a
humanitarian imperative and a strategic necessity.”The US is working with Syrian
forces to “supercharge” this effort, Cooper said, noting that the populations of
Al-Hawl and Al-Roj camps have fallen from 70,000 to about 26,000. The second
panel discussion painted a very bleak picture of the economic challenges the
Syrian people face, with the average income only $200-$300 a month, a level that
the experts warned could push desperate people to violence just to survive.
The US-Syria Business Council’s Salkini said many major companies and factories
that once operated in Syria had relocated to neighboring countries such as
Lebanon, Iraq and Turkiye. “We’re looking at about 50 percent-plus
unemployment,” he said. “Let me give you statistics on the wages: A factory
worker today, his salary is $100-$300 a month. A farmer makes $75-$200 a month
in salary. A manager (or) a private in the military makes $250 a month. “So you
can imagine how these people are living on these low wages, and still have to
buy their iPhone, their internet, pay for electricity.”Many displaced people are
unable to return to their former homes, the panelists said, because they were
destroyed during the war and there is no accessible construction industry to
rebuild them. The capital, Damascus, faces many challenges they added, and the
situation is even worse in the country.
Egypt, Israel in Advanced Talks to Approve Israeli $35 Billion Gas Agreement
Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Israel’s Ministry of Energy announced on Tuesday that negotiations over a
natural gas supply agreement with Egypt have reached an “advanced stage,” though
some issues remain unresolved. Israel signed its largest-ever export deal in
August to supply Egypt with up to $35 billion worth of natural gas from the
Leviathan field. After marathon discussions this week between the Leviathan
partners and Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, a final agreement
was reached that will allow the export of 130 BCM (billion cubic meters) to
Egypt for $35 billion, the largest export agreement in the country's history.
Israel's Energy Minister Eli Cohen has said he was holding up approval for the
gas deal to secure better commercial terms for the Israeli market, according to
Reuters. On Tuesday, he confirmed that talks were still ongoing.
As part of the agreement, the Leviathan Partners, NewMed Energy, Chevron and
Ratio Petroleum Energy, will commit to a guaranteed price for the domestic
economy, to give priority to the Israeli economy, so that if there are any
malfunctions in the Tanin, Karish or Tamar fields, it will transfer gas directly
to the local economy. One of the issues that senior Washington officials have
been dealing with is ensuring that US energy major Chevron, which owns 39.66% of
Leviathan, remains committed to the deal. The partners are expected to make an
investment decision to expand the Leviathan field infrastructure withing two
weeks, once the Israeli government announces its final approval.
‘Either Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu’
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/December 10/2025
Most of all in the Gaza Strip, but also in Lebanon and Syria, the options have
been narrowed down to two, both of which could be named after the two men behind
them, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. It is either the American “applying
pressure” or the Israeli “being pressured,” per the ubiquitous epithets of the
moment. This erosion of choices primarily concerns the
Islamist forces in Gaza that launched the attack of October 7, 2023, and their
allies who waged the “support war” from Lebanon. It seems that both, for
countless reasons, managed to drive their societies and their states - where
there is one - to the same destination: a place of diminishing and vanishing
options. On top of that, the emerging approach to
dealing with groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as measures
taken by Arab states, European countries, and even far away as Australia,
suggest that Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis have dragged radical political
Islam of all shades down with them; in all their wings and wherever they may be,
Islamists have fewer and fewer options.
There may indeed be considerable daylight between Trump and Netanyahu, as some
believe based on their dispute following Israel’s strike on Qatar and
anticipating another potential rift over Syria. Or, on the contrary, they could
be collaborating and coordinating closely, as others believe, pointing to the
two men’s stance on Lebanon and the setbacks of the process in Gaza.
Regardless of everything else, however, the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon, and
Syria find themselves faced with two choices: Trump the “imperialist” or
Netanyahu the “Zionist.” This binary was imposed by these countries’ total lack
of alternative options and effective leverage.
The Europeans, the Chinese, and the Russians are all, to considerably varying
degrees, not willing nor able to provide a third option, while the cards in the
hands of the Levant Arab countries continue to diminish amid their failure to
militarily and technologically compete with Israel. This chasm has precipitated,
and continues to precipitate, the expansion of occupied territories in the
Levant, to say nothing about the Jewish state's growing foothold within these
societies.
This state of affairs, which could be summed up in the binary of “Trump or
Netanyahu” - or rather “Trump, or else you’ll get Netanyahu” - is an extremely
bitter pill to swallow, especially for the radicals who had never imagined they
would ever reach the point of hashing out the tiny details in search of
incremental benefits. It is apparent that the current situation should lay the
foundations for judging the era of radical politics - defined by irresponsible
hubris in addressing the Palestinian cause, solutions for it, and the means for
achieving this solution - in its entirety.
A few decades ago, in an era when the radical camp’s ideological composition was
very different, the debate was polarized between the theory that Arab unity must
precede the liberation of Palestine and another which argued that the liberation
of Palestine must precede the establishment of Arab unity. This debate soon
opened the door to another: Should Palestine be liberated through conventional
warfare waged by regular Arab armies, a “long term people’s war,” or guerrilla
warfare? There was always someone there to move the “Hanoi of the Arabs” from
one city to another, establishing it in Amman before establishing it in
Beirut.And when questions regarding alliances with foreign powers were raised,
the Soviet Union would loom as the only actor that could be relied on, only for
it to disappear altogether soon after. There were also always those who pinned
their hopes on Maoist China, claiming that it alone would join us to the very
end.Those behind these lavish and self-assured slogans were extremely hostile to
any grounded and modest narrative premised on an accurate assessment of the
situation that suggests a course of action that reflects viable potential
objectives. The only explanation for such rhetoric or action was a desire to
grant treacherous concessions to Israeli Zionism and American imperialism.
Indeed, the radicals did not spare Gamal Abdel Nasser himself after he
had accepted Resolution 242 and, after that, the Rogers Plan. As for Anwar
al-Sadat, he was the target of vitriolic attacks that began when he expelled the
Soviet advisers from Egypt in the summer of 1972, culminated with the Camp David
Accords, and continue to this day. Amin Gemayel, for his part, has been on the
receiving end of similar insults since signing the May 17, 1983, Agreement.
Building on different ideological premises and utilizing different means, the
Islamists perpetuated, relying on Iran’s strength, revived unhinged radicalism
in what could be called a “corrective” vision better suited to deranged
behavior, more confident in the choices available to it and of the frailty of
Israel’s alliance with the US. Accordingly, they concluded that more of the same
- of what had brought defeat - was the remedy, and so they launched the October
7 attack and the “support war” that left them, and us, with the choice of either
Trump or Netanyahu.
Having fallen so far from perceived - or dreamed - heights, and with the Levant
becoming a floating object to which the laws of gravity do not apply, prudence
urges stringent reassessments of this radical discourse and the history of
radicalism in our region, especially if, in the end, the view that there is
absolutely no difference between Trump and Netanyahu is vindicated.
Selected Face Book & X tweets
for
/December 10,
2025
charles chartouni
The urgency of a new cabinet to conduct full negotiations with Israel, end the
state of hostility and create the dynamics of full normalization.
@followers
@highlight
@everyone