English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  December 15/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
We suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.
Letter to the Romans 08/12-18/:"We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 14-15/2025
The Necessity of Severing Diplomatic Relations Between Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Iran and Expelling the Iranian Ambassador/Elias Bejjani/December 13/2024
Israel army says struck three Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon
Iran will ‘resolutely support’ Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Khamenei advisor says
Israeli army says it killed three Hezbollah members in south Lebanon
Israeli army 'temporarily suspends' strike on south Lebanon home
Lebanese President condemns Sydney attack
Lebanese Army says inspection averted Israeli threat to strike southern town of Yanouh
Security calculations: Australia incident pushes Lebanon and Syria down Israel's agenda
Army Denies Presence of Weapons in a House in Yanouh
Clashes Between the Lebanese Army and Syrian General Security Between Hermel and Qaa

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 14-15/2025
Gunmen kill 16 at Jewish festival on Australia’s Bondi beach
Ahmed al-Ahmed hailed as ‘hero’ after tackling gunman at Sydney Jewish event
Saudi Arabia condemns terrorist attack on Jewish festival on Australia’s Bondi Beach
Pakistan expresses solidarity with Australia as gunmen kill at least 12 in Bondi Beach shooting
Top Australian Muslim organization condemns ‘horrific’ Bondi shootings
German authorities arrest five men suspected of planning Christmas market attack
Police search Brown University after shooter kills 2 and wounds 9 on campus
Syria arrests five suspects over shooting of US, Syrian troops in Palmyra
Syria ministry says gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’
Trump pledges retaliation after 3 Americans are killed in Syria attack that the US blames on IS
Syria strongly condemns terrorist attack near Palmyra
Jordan condemns Palmyra attack, expresses solidarity with Syria and US
German authorities arrest five men suspected of planning Christmas market attack
Hamas chief negotiator says Israel’s killing of senior commander threatens ceasefire
Hamas Gaza chief confirms killing of senior commander in Israeli strike
Pakistan urges Afghan rulers to ‘rid their soil of terrorists’ at regional meeting in Tehran
Zelenskyy, US envoys to push on with Ukraine talks in Berlin on Monday

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 14-15/2025
Selling F-35s to Turkey Guarantees a New War against Israel/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute./December 14/2025
The Temptations of Christ and the Christmas Tree Bomb (Kuwait's Policies on Christmas and 'Religious Symbols')/Ahmad Al-Sarraf/Mon Liban/December 14/ 2025
Possible Reasons Why ISIS Has Not Taken Responsibility for Killing U.S. Soldiers in Syria/Antonio Graceffo December/Gateway Pundit/14, 2025
Assad’s Leaks: Hezbollah’s Final Nail in their Coffin/Makram Rabah/Now Lebanon/December 14/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on December 14-15/2025
The Necessity of Severing Diplomatic Relations Between Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Iran and Expelling the Iranian Ambassador
Elias Bejjani/December 13/2024
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/12/150192/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eKHFG0jauY&t=4s
What is known as the “Islamic Republic of Iran” is not the name of a normal state seeking balanced relations with its surroundings, but rather a mullah-led, expansionist, sectarian, and terrorist regime that, since its establishment in 1979, has been built on exporting Shiism, chaos, violence, sectarianism, and fanaticism under the slogan of “exporting the revolution.” This regime has never recognized the borders or sovereignty of states, but instead has treated the countries of the region as open arenas of influence. Lebanon has been—and continues to be—one of its most prominent victims.
Thus, Lebanon does not suffer from Iran’s criminality and terrorism as a geographically distant regime, but rather suffers from it as a regime effectively residing within its territory, imposing its decisions, paralyzing the state, confiscating the future, security, and coexistence of its people, and assassinating sovereignists and free individuals through its military, sectarian, terrorist arm, falsely and deceitfully called Hezbollah.
It is necessary to recall that Lebanon and the Lebanese people—particularly the Shiite community—did not choose the Iranian regime, nor were they behind the emergence of the Iranian terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. Iranian hegemony over Lebanon never came with the consent of the Lebanese people, nor even with the consent of the Shiite community itself, which has been abducted, confiscated, and turned into a hostage in the hands of Hezbollah, along with the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people.
Hezbollah was born under the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, with the direct sponsorship of the Hafez al-Assad regime, which facilitated and sponsored the violation of Lebanese land, institutions, and security agencies by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. At that stage, Hezbollah was not merely a resistance organization, but a closed ideological project whose goal was first to fully control the Shiite community, then to use that control to dominate the Lebanese state and transform Lebanon into an arena and base for Iran’s expansionist wars.
Under the false slogan of “resistance,” pluralism within the Shiite community was abolished, the community was politically, militarily, and financially subjugated, and turned into a human reservoir for an Iranian project that has nothing to do with its people, Lebanon, or Lebanese interests.
In 2005, the Syrian occupation army was forced to withdraw from Lebanon under the pressure of the Independence Intifada and international resolutions. However, the Lebanese did not regain their sovereignty, because the occupation did not end—it merely changed its form and tools. Instead of the state returning to its people, guardianship was transferred from Damascus to Tehran.
At that pivotal moment, Hezbollah replaced the Syrian army—not merely as a military force, but as a direct instrument of Iranian occupation. It gradually transformed from an armed militia into a state within the state, then a state above the state, and finally the state itself.
Since then, Hezbollah—composed of Lebanese mercenaries—has decided war and peace, paralyzed the parliamentary system in all its forms, imposed or toppled governments, dominated security and military decision-making, paralyzed the judiciary, and used state institutions as a superficial façade for its external project. Thus, Lebanon is no longer a partially hijacked state, but a fully confiscated one.
More dangerous than the occupation itself is the arrogance of Iranian rhetoric. Senior Iranian officials, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have never attempted to conceal their interference in Lebanese affairs. On the contrary, they have openly boasted that Lebanon is part of their “axis,” that its decision is not independent, and that Hezbollah’s weapons are a red line decided in Tehran, not Beirut. These are not verbal slips, but a systematic official policy reflecting a condescending view of Lebanon, its people, constitution, and institutions, as if the Lebanese are incapable of governing their own country and in need of a “Supreme Jurist” to rule them from abroad.
Today, after Hezbollah’s military and political defeat, and after the issuance of clear international resolutions aimed at ending the state of illegal weapons and restoring Lebanese sovereignty, Iran insists on rejecting the new reality. Iran is not defending Lebanon, nor the Shiite community, but rather its last foothold on the Mediterranean coast. Therefore, it refuses to hand over Hezbollah’s weapons—which are, in reality, its own—refuses to return decision-making to the state, refuses to abide by international resolutions, and insists on keeping Lebanon, through Hezbollah, hostage to its regional project, even at the cost of what remains of the country.
Accordingly, there is no meaning or legitimacy for any diplomatic relations between Lebanon and a state that occupies its political decision, possesses an armed militia on its territory, openly interferes in its internal affairs, and treats its institutions with contempt.
Since diplomatic relations between states are based on parity and mutual respect—not on a relationship between a sovereign state, a regional master, and an affiliated militia—severing Lebanese–Iranian relations and immediately expelling the Iranian ambassador becomes an obvious sovereign step, not provocation or hostility, but a national rescue duty. There can be no liberation of the state while the embassy of an occupying power remains, and no sovereignty with a militia obeying foreign orders.
Lebanon will not be a state as long as Hezbollah is the state. It will not be independent as long as decisions of war and peace are made in Tehran. It will not rise as long as it remains occupied by weapons, terrorism, and Iran’s sectarian ideology. Therefore, cutting relations with Iran is not the end of the problem, but its correct beginning.
What is required, clearly and without hesitation, is: to prosecute Hezbollah’s leaders as war criminals and traitors, to completely disarm this Iranian terrorist proxy, to dismantle all its security, social, cultural, intelligence, and financial institutions, to officially designate it as a terrorist organization, as it is classified in dozens of countries around the world, and most importantly to prevent any ideologically indoctrinated Hezbollah member from entering state institutions, especially security and military ones.
Without this, Lebanon remains merely a name on a map, not a truly sovereign, free, and independent state.

Israel army says struck three Hezbollah members in southern Lebanon
AFP/December 14/2025
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it targeted three members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in southern Lebanon on Sunday. “Since this morning (Sunday), the IDF (military) has struck three Hezbollah terrorists in several areas in southern Lebanon. The terrorists took part in attempts to reestablish Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure,” the military said in a statement. “Their activities constituted a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” it added, referring to a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end over a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. A November 2024 ceasefire sought to end over a year of fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, which broke out after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. But Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure to stop the group from rearming. The Israeli military issued a warning earlier on Saturday announcing an imminent strike and warning people in the Yanuh area of south Lebanon to evacuate immediately. But later Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said “the strike was temporarily suspended,” adding that the military “continues to monitor the target.”The suspension came after the Lebanese army “requested access again to the specified site... and to address the breach of the agreement,” he said on X. Adraee added that the military would “not allow” Hezbollah to “redeploy or rearm.”The year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism includes the United Nations, the United States and France. A Lebanese security source said the army had previously tried to search the building that the Israeli military wanted to target but could not because of objections from residents. But the source told AFP that the Lebanese army was able to enter and search the building after returning a second time, because residents “felt threatened,” adding that they were evacuated over fears of a strike.

Iran will ‘resolutely support’ Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Khamenei advisor says
AFP/December 14/2025
A senior advisor to Iran’s supreme leader said Sunday that the country would “resolutely support” Hezbollah, its ally in Lebanon, in the group’s efforts to confront Tehran’s regional foe Israel. The remarks by Ali Akbar Velayati came as Lebanon faces pressure from the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah, which engaged in more than a year of hostilities with Israel following the outbreak of the Gaza war.“Hezbollah, as one of the most important pillars of the resistance front, plays a fundamental role in confronting Zionism,” state news agency IRNA quoted Velayati as saying to Hezbollah’s representative in Tehran. “The Islamic Republic of Iran, under the leadership and orders of the (supreme) leader, will continue to resolutely support this valuable and selfless group on the front lines of the resistance,” he added. Iran has for years supported what it calls the axis of resistance, a network of anti-Israel armed groups that includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthi militia in Yemen. Hezbollah was weakened by its recent war with Israel, and by the overthrow of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who had provided the group an overland link with Iran. Lebanon has committed to disarming the group, starting with the country’s south, where it has historically held sway. Velayati recently drew sharp criticism from Beirut after he said in late November that the “existence of Hezbollah is more essential for Lebanon than the daily bread.” Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi responded on X that “what is more important to us than water and bread is our sovereignty, our freedom, and the independence of our internal decision-making.”Following the exchange, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi officially invited his Lebanese counterpart to visit Tehran for negotiations. Raggi declined the offer, and days later, he described Iran’s role in the region as “extremely negative” and one of “the sources of instability,” especially in Lebanon. In a post on X, he also blamed Iran for Hezbollah not having been disarmed. “Hezbollah cannot hand over its weapons without an Iranian decision, and its concern today is to buy time and preserve itself internally in order to rebuild its power,” Raggi said of the group.

Israeli army says it killed three Hezbollah members in south Lebanon
AFP/December 14/2025
The Israeli military said it killed three Hezbollah members in strikes Sunday on southern Lebanon, where it has carried out repeated attacks despite an ongoing ceasefire with the Iran-backed group. The Lebanese health ministry said three people were killed in strikes in the Yater, Safad al-Battikh and Jwaya areas of the south. The Israeli army said on Sunday evening that it had “struck and eliminated Zakaria Yahya al-Hajj, a senior” Hezbollah figure in the Jwaya area. “As part of his role, he activated (Hezbollah) agents within Lebanon’s security” services, the military said. In an earlier statement, the army said it had “struck and eliminated two Hezbollah” members in the Yater and Bint Jbeil areas “within less than an hour.”Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five southern areas it deems strategic.Israel says the strikes target Hezbollah members and infrastructure, and aim to stop the group from rearming. The only diplomatic contact between Israel and Lebanon is through a ceasefire monitoring mechanism, which includes the United States, France and the United Nations. The mechanism’s next round of talks will be on December 19. On Saturday, the Israeli army said it had “temporarily” suspended a planned strike on a building in Yanuh that it described as Hezbollah infrastructure. According to the ceasefire, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Israel, and have its military infrastructure in the vacated area dismantled. Under a government-approved plan, Lebanon’s army is to conduct the dismantling south of the Litani by the end of the year, before tackling Hezbollah’s weapons in the rest of the country. In a televised speech Saturday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem, who has repeatedly rejected attempts to disarm the group, said “disarmament will not achieve Israel’s goal” of ending resistance, “even if the whole world unites against Lebanon.”

Israeli army 'temporarily suspends' strike on south Lebanon home
Agence France Presse/December 14/2025
The Israeli military said it would "temporarily" suspend a strike planned for Saturday that was intended to target what it described as Hezbollah military infrastructure in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military issued a warning earlier on Saturday announcing an imminent strike and warning people in the Yanouh area of south Lebanon to evacuate immediately. But later Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said "the strike was temporarily suspended," adding that the military "continues to monitor the target."The suspension came after the Lebanese Army "requested access again to the specified site... and to address the breach of the agreement," he said on X.Adraee added that the military would "not allow" Hezbollah to "redeploy or rearm."A Lebanese security source said the army had previously tried to search the building that the Israeli military wanted to target but could not because of objections from residents. But the source told AFP that the Lebanese Army was able to enter and search the building after returning a second time, because residents "felt threatened," adding that they were evacuated over fears of a strike. Lebanese media reports said Lebanese troops found no arms in the building and were still deployed there on Sunday morning.

Lebanese President condemns Sydney attack
LBCI/December 14/2025
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun strongly condemned an attack that took place in the Australian city of Sydney, stressing that the right to life is a universal human value that cannot be subject to selective interpretation or double standards.
In a statement, Aoun said that condemning violence must be consistent everywhere, noting that just as Lebanon denounces attacks against innocent civilians in Gaza, South Lebanon, or anywhere else in the world, it also condemns in principle and duty the attack in Sydney. The president said responsibility for such tragedies lies with systems that promote hatred, extremism, rejection of others, and the use of violence to impose religious, ethnic, or political forms of absolutism. He added that these dynamics are further fueled by injustice, oppression, and the absence of justice in today’s world. Aoun called on the international community to examine the root causes and broader dimensions of such attacks and to work toward combating terrorism through a comprehensive approach that targets not only perpetrators but also the ideas, mindsets, and justifications behind extremist violence. He said Lebanon has been, and will remain, at the forefront of efforts to combat extremism, describing the country as a persistent opponent of radicalism and a homeland for moderation, justice, and peaceful coexistence among all people.

Lebanese Army says inspection averted Israeli threat to strike southern town of Yanouh
LBCI/December 14/2025
The Lebanese Army said it carried out two inspections of a residential building in the southern town of Yanouh on December 13, 2025, finding no weapons or ammunition and helping avert an Israeli threat to strike the site. In a statement, the army said the inspection was conducted with the owner’s consent and in coordination with the committee overseeing the ceasefire agreement mechanism and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The search found no weapons or munitions inside the building. The army said that after its forces left the area, a threat was issued to target the same house amid ongoing Israeli attacks. An army patrol immediately returned, re-inspected the building without finding any weapons, and remained deployed in the area to prevent it from being targeted. The statement praised residents for their trust in and cooperation with the army, and thanked the ceasefire oversight committee for contacts made in coordination with the army leadership that helped halt the threat. The army said its troops continue to deploy around the house, stressing that their efforts and sacrifices under harsh conditions helped cancel the threat for now and ensured the safety of civilians. The incident, the army added, underscores that preserving stability depends on national solidarity with the military and on adherence to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and the ceasefire agreement, in coordination with the mechanism and UNIFIL, at a critical time that demands heightened responsibility and awareness.

Security calculations: Australia incident pushes Lebanon and Syria down Israel's agenda
LBCI/December 14/2025
An attack on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration in Australia has reshuffled the priorities of Israel's political and security leadership, pushing the Lebanon and Syria files into the background as attention shifted to the implications of the assault. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who requested that a court session in his ongoing trial be postponed on Monday due to anticipated talks with U.S. envoy Tom Barrack covering Lebanon and Syria, said every Jew is now a victim of the spread of antisemitism. Meanwhile, Israeli security and military officials sought to link the attack in Sydney's Bondi area to Iran or Hezbollah, portraying it as possible retaliation for the killing of senior Hezbollah figure Haytham Tabtabai. Before the attack in Australia, Israeli security services had assessed that an earlier incident in Yanouh was a diversion, while the political leadership, which had already decided against carrying out a military strike, chose to avoid friction with Washington. The United States has been pressing Tel Aviv to exercise restraint on the Lebanese front. According to an Israeli report, intelligence agencies claimed to have obtained indications of coordination between the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah. Despite this, Israel decided to give the Lebanese Army time to address the issue of Hezbollah's weapons, while conveying to Beirut through Washington its rejection of any continued cooperation between the army and the group. At the same time, Israeli security officials have expressed concern over what they describe as growing flexibility within the U.S. administration, which is seeking to advance negotiations on the demarcation of the land border with Lebanon. That flexibility, they fear, could lead to a settlement that replaces the demand for Hezbollah’s disarmament with a commitment not to use its weapons, along with the establishment of a demilitarized zone between the Litani River and the Israeli border.

Army Denies Presence of Weapons in a House in Yanouh
This is Beirut/December 14/2025
The Lebanese army said on Sunday that it had carried out two successive inspections of a building in the town of Yanouh, in southern Lebanon, without finding any weapons or ammunition, following an Israeli threat to strike the property. In a statement posted on X, the army said the first search was conducted on Saturday with the consent of the owner, as part of coordination between the army, the committee overseeing the cessation-of-hostilities agreement (the “mechanism”), and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). After the troops withdrew, and despite continued Israeli attacks, a new threat targeting the same house was received. An army patrol immediately redeployed to the site and carried out a second inspection, which also found no weapons. The army said its units remained deployed around the building to prevent it from being targeted, praising the cooperation of local residents and the role of the oversight committee, whose intervention helped avert the execution of the threat.
According to the army command, the incident underscores the importance of coordination with UNIFIL, adherence to Resolution 1701, and national solidarity around the army “at a delicate stage requiring the highest levels of awareness and responsibility.”

Clashes Between the Lebanese Army and Syrian General Security Between Hermel and Qaa
This is Beirut/December 14/2025
According to information reported by LBCI, clashes broke out between the Lebanese army and members of Syria’s General Security, lasting around 20 minutes in the Machrafa area between Hermel and Qaa on Sunday, as the army was attempting to cut off one of the smuggling routes in the region. Al-Jadeed also reported that the Lebanese army returned fire after shots were fired from the Syrian side. According to available information, the situation later calmed down. The Lebanese army remains deployed in the area and is taking the necessary measures to maintain security.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 14-15/2025
Gunmen kill 16 at Jewish festival on Australia’s Bondi beach
Agencies/December 14/2025
Two gunmen shot and killed 16 people and wounded many others Sunday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in what police labeled a terrorist attack on a gathering for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Australian police said on Monday that the alleged offenders behind the attack at Sydney’s Bondi beach were a father and son duo, and that they were not looking for a third offender. Emergency responders rushed at least 29 people to local hospitals from the beach, one of the biggest tourist draws in Australia’s largest city, said New South Wales police. “This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith – an act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian,” he added, hailing ordinary citizens who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen as “heroes.”Police declared the shooting a “terrorist incident” and said they had found suspected “improvised explosive devices” in a vehicle near the beach that was linked to the deceased suspect. One of the alleged shooters was killed, and the second was in a critical condition, they added. The shooting took place during an annual “Hanukkah by the Sea” event at Bondi Beach which police said was attended by over 1,000 people. Among the fatalities was London-born rabbi Eli Schlanger, a 41-year-old father of five who served as assistant rabbi at the Chabad of Bondi Jewish cultural center, his first cousin told Jewish News. “How can a joyful rabbi who went to a beach to spread happiness and light, to make the world a better place, have his life ended in this way?” Brighton-based Rabbi Zalman Lewis told the British outlet. World leaders and governments expressed revulsion and condemnation of the shooting, including in the United States and in Europe, where EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said “Europe stands with Australia and Jewish communities everywhere.”Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the tragedy as a “cruel attack on Jews” and urged the Australian authorities to step up the fight against antisemitism. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Australia’s government of having fueled anti-Jewish sentiment in the period leading up to the shooting. As gunfire erupted, crowds fled in fear from the beach in eastern Sydney, which draws huge numbers of surfers, swimmers and tourists, especially at weekends. “We heard the shots. It was shocking, it felt like 10 minutes of just bang, bang, bang. It seemed like a powerful weapon,” Camilo Diaz, a 25-year-old student from Chile, told AFP at the scene. Emergency services first responded to reports of shots being fired at 6:47 pm (0747 GMT). One witness who declined to be named said he saw six dead or wounded people lying on the beach.
The grassy hill overlooking Bondi Beach was strewn with discarded items from people fleeing, including an abandoned children’s stroller, an AFP journalist at the scene said. Paramedics tended to wounded people lying on the grass. A weapon that appeared to be a pump-action shotgun was lying by a tree by the beach. A British tourist, Timothy Brant-Coles, told AFP he saw “two shooters in black with semi-automatic rifles” and multiple people wounded. The foreign ministry in Iran, which has supported the Palestinian militant group Hamas for years, denounced Sunday’s “violent attack in Sydney.” A string of antisemitic attacks has spread fear among Jewish communities in Australia following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. The Australian government has accused Iran of being behind two of the attacks, and expelled Tehran’s ambassador nearly four months ago. Tehran directed the torching of a kosher cafe in Sydney’s Bondi suburb in October 2024, and a major arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024, the prime minister said in August, citing intelligence findings.
No injuries were reported in the two attacks. The head of the Australian Jewish Association said the Bondi Beach shooting was a “tragedy but entirely foreseeable.” “The Albanese government was warned so many times but failed to take adequate actions to protect the Jewish community,” Robert Gregory told AFP. A leading Australian Muslim organization condemned the shooting as “horrific.”“Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and all those who witnessed or were affected by this deeply traumatic attack,” the Australian National Imams Council said. In April 2024, a knife-wielding assailant killed six people at a shopping center not far from Bondi Beach. The killer was found to have been suffering from schizophrenia but had stopped taking his medication, and no clear motive was identified. In 2019, Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant killed 51 people when he attacked a mosque and Islamic center in New Zealand’s Christchurch, livestreaming the assault that was linked to white nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment.

Ahmed al-Ahmed hailed as ‘hero’ after tackling gunman at Sydney Jewish event
Al Arabiya English/December 14/2025
A bystander who was filmed tackling and disarming an armed man during a deadly attack at a Jewish holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach has been identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed, according to Australian media. Eleven people were shot dead in the attack on Sunday. Al-Ahmed has since been hailed as a hero, with many saying his actions saved more lives. Australian news website news.com.au reported that al-Ahmed is a 43-year-old Sydney local who owns a fruit shop. A relative told Australian outlet 7News that the father of two was shot twice during the incident. UPDATE: The hero of Bondi has been named. He is Ahmed el Ahmed, a 43 year old fruit shop owner who grabbed the gun off one of the terrorists, he was subsequently shot in the leg and shoulder by another terrorist. Praying that his surgery goes well. He is currently in hospital. Footage circulating on social media shows al-Ahmed in a car park wearing a white shirt as he runs toward a man in a dark shirt holding a rifle. He is seen tackling the suspect from behind, wrenching the weapon from his hands and briefly pointing it back at him. The video then shows the armed man stumbling backward toward a bridge where another shooter was located, while al-Ahmed places the rifle on the ground. The footage spread rapidly online, drawing widespread praise for al-Ahmed’s bravery, with many saying his intervention likely prevented further bloodshed.

Saudi Arabia condemns terrorist attack on Jewish festival on Australia’s Bondi Beach
Arab News/December 14, 2025
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned a terrorist attack on a gathering at Sydney’s Bondi Beach for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Two gunmen shot and killed 11 people and wounded many others in the attack on Sunday. One of the alleged shooters was killed, and the second was in a critical condition. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said: “The Kingdom affirms its stance against all forms of violence, terrorism, and extremism, expressing its sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Australia. It wishes the injured a speedy recovery.”

Pakistan expresses solidarity with Australia as gunmen kill at least 12 in Bondi Beach shooting
Shahjahan Khurram/Arab News/December 14, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari expressed solidarity with Australia on Sunday as gunmen killed at least 12 people and wounded a dozen others in the Bondi Beach shooting that targeted the Jewish community in the country.  New South Wales (NSW) police said two people had been taken into custody, and the Australian Broadcasting Corp. said one of at least two gunmen was among those killed. Around a dozen people were taken to local hospitals after the shooting, an NSW ambulance spokesperson said. The attackers targeted a large group gathered at the northern end of Sydney’s Bondi Beach, near or at Bondi Park playground, as per news reports, when the attack happened. Gunmen attacked people who were there to celebrate an event related to the Jewish festival of Hannukah. “President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed sorrow over the tragic shooting in Sydney, conveyed condolences to the victims’ families & wished the injured a speedy recovery,” the president of Pakistan’s official account on X wrote. “Pakistan itself a victim of terrorism, stands in solidarity with & condemns violence against innocent civilians.”Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also condemned the Sydney attack, expressing condolences with victims of the incident. “Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” he wrote on X. Videos circulating on X appeared to show people on the beach and nearby park scattering as multiple gunshots and police sirens could be heard. One video showed a man dressed in a black shirt firing a large weapon before being tackled by a man in a white T-shirt who wrestled his weapon off him. A different man was seen firing a weapon from a pedestrian bridge. Another video showed two men pressed onto the ground by uniformed police on a small pedestrian bridge. Officers could be seen trying to resuscitate one of the men. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage. The attack came almost exactly 11 years after a lone gunman took 18 people hostage at the Lindt Cafe in Sydney. Two hostages and the gunman were killed after a 16-hour standoff.

Top Australian Muslim organization condemns ‘horrific’ Bondi shootings
AFP/December 14/2025
A major Australian Muslim organization condemned a “horrific” shooting on Sunday that killed ten people on Sydney's Bondi Beach. “Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and all those who witnessed or were affected by this deeply traumatic attack,” the Australian National Imams Council said in a statement. “This is a moment for all Australians, including the Australian Muslim community, to stand together in unity, compassion, and solidarity,” they added.

German authorities arrest five men suspected of planning Christmas market attack
Reuters/December 14, 2025
BERLIN: German authorities have arrested five men suspected of being terrorist militants planning an attack on a Christmas market in southern Bavaria, police and prosecutors said in a joint statement. There has been a series of vehicle ramming attacks in Germany since a militant rammed a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in central Berlin in 2016. Last December several people were killed by an attack in Magdeburg. Three Moroccan nationals aged 22, 28 and 30, an Egyptian national aged 56 and a 37-year-old Syrian were detained on Friday at the Suben border crossing between Germany and Austria, according to the joint statement late on Saturday. Investigators believed that the men intended to drive a vehicle into a crowded market in the Dingolfing-Landau area with the aim of killing or injuring as many people as possible, the statement said, adding that authorities suspected a militant motive.

Police search Brown University after shooter kills 2 and wounds 9 on campus
AP/December 14, 2025
PROVIDENCE, R.I.: A shooter dressed in black killed at least two people and wounded nine others at Brown University on Saturday during final exams on the Ivy League campus, authorities said, and police were searching for the suspect. University President Christina Paxson said she was told that 10 people who were shot were students. Another person was injured by fragments from the shooting, but it was not clear if that victim was a student, she said. Officers scattered across the campus and into an affluent neighborhood filled with historic and stately brick homes, searching academic buildings, backyards and porches late into the night after the shooting erupted in the afternoon. The suspect was a man in dark clothing who was last seen leaving the engineering building where the attack happened, said Timothy O’Hara, deputy chief of Providence police.Security footage showed the suspect walking away from the building, but his face was not visible. Some witnesses reported that the man, who could be in his 30s, may have been wearing a camouflage mask, O’Hara said. Investigators were not yet sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom where he opened fire. Outer doors of the building were unlocked, but rooms being used for final exams required badge access, Providence’s mayor said.
Hunt for suspect quiets city streets
Authorities believe the shooter used a handgun, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. “The unthinkable has happened,” said Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee, who vowed that all resources were being deployed to catch the suspect. Mayor Brett Smiley said a shelter-in-place remained in effect and encouraged people living near the campus to stay inside or not return home until it is lifted. Streets that normally bustle with activity on weekends were eerily quiet. “The Brown community’s heart is breaking, and Providence’s heart is breaking along with it,” Smiley said. Emma Ferraro, a chemical engineering student, was in the building’s lobby working on a final project when she heard loud pops coming from the east side. Once she realized they were gunshots, she darted for the door and ran to a nearby building where she sheltered for several hours. Nine people with gunshot wounds were taken to Rhode Island Hospital, where one was in critical condition, said Kelly Brennan, a spokesperson for the hospital. Six required intensive care but were not getting worse, and two were stable, she said.
Police evacuated buildings
University officials initially told students and staff that a suspect was in custody, but later said that was not the case. The mayor said a person preliminarily thought to be involved was detained but was later determined to have no involvement. Nearly five hours after the shooting, officers in tactical gear led students out of some campus buildings and into a fitness center. The shooting occurred in the Barus & Holley building, a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. According to the university’s website, the building includes more than 100 laboratories, dozens of classrooms and offices. Engineering design exams were underway there when the shooting occurred. Former ‘Survivor’ contestant had just left the building. Eva Erickson, a doctoral candidate who was a finalist earlier this year on the CBS reality competition show “Survivor,” said she left her lab in the engineering building 15 minutes before shots rang out. The engineering and thermal science student shared candid moments on “Survivor” as the show’s first openly autistic contestant. She was locked down in the campus gym following the shooting and shared on social media that the only other member of her lab who was present was safely evacuated. Biochemistry student Alex Bruce was working on a final research project in his dorm directly across the street from the building when he heard sirens and received a text about an active shooter shortly after 4 p.m.
“I’m just in here shaking,” he said, watching through the window as a half-dozen armed officers in tactical gear surrounded his dorm.
Students hid under desks and inside stores
Students in a nearby lab hid under desks and turned off the lights after receiving an alert about the shooting, said Chiangheng Chien, a doctoral student in engineering who was about a block away from the scene. Mari Camara, a junior from New York City, was coming out of the library and rushed inside a taqueria to seek shelter. She spent more than three hours there, texting friends while police searched the campus. “Everyone is the same as me, shocked and terrified that something like this happened,” she said. Brown, the seventh oldest higher education institution in the U.S., is one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. Tuition, housing and other fees run to nearly $100,000 per year, according to the university. President Donald Trump told reporters that he had been briefed and “all we can do right now is pray for the victims.”Rhode Island has some of the strictest gun laws in the U.S. Last spring the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed an assault weapon ban that will prohibit the sale and manufacturing of certain high-powered firearms, but not their possession, starting next July.

Syria arrests five suspects over shooting of US, Syrian troops in Palmyra
Al Arabiya English/December 14/2025
Syria has arrested five people suspected of having links to the shooting of US and Syrian troops in the central Syrian town of Palmyra on Saturday, the interior ministry said on Sunday. Two US Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead. The Syrian interior ministry has described the attacker as a member of the Syrian security forces suspected of sympathizing with ISIS. Syria has been cooperating with a US-led coalition against ISIS, reaching an agreement last month when President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House. Syria’s interior ministry said its units in Palmyra carried out an operation in coordination with “international coalition forces” that resulted in the arrest of five suspects “who were immediately referred for questioning.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the attack by phone with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Sunday. Al-Shaibani “offered condolences and reiterated the commitment of the Syrian government to degrade and destroy the shared threat of ISIS,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said. Syria’s interior ministry said it had assessed the assailant just days before the attack, and concluded he might have extremist views. A decision about his future had been pending. The US-led coalition has carried out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria targeting ISIS suspects in recent months, often with the involvement of Syria’s security forces. Syria last month also carried out a nationwide campaign arresting more than 70 people accused of links to the group. The United States has troops stationed in northeastern Syria as part of a decade-long effort to fight ISIS, which held swathes of Syria and Iraq from 2014-2019. Syria’s government is now led by former opposition forces who toppled leader Bashar al-Assad last year after a 13-year civil war, including members of Syria’s former al-Qaeda branch who broke with the group and clashed with ISIS. With Reuters

Syria ministry says gunman who killed Americans was to be fired from security forces for ‘extremism’
AFP/December 14, 2025
DAMASCUS: Syria’s interior ministry said on Sunday that the gunman who killed three Americans in the central Palmyra region the previous day was a member of the security forces who was to have been fired for extremism. Two US troops and a civilian interpreter died in the attack on Saturday, which the US Central Command said had been carried out by an alleged Daesh group (IS) militant who was then killed. The Syrian authorities “had decided to fire him” from the security forces before the attack for holding “extremist Islamist ideas” and had planned to do so on Sunday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba told state television. A Syrian security official told AFP on Sunday that “11 members of the general security forces were arrested and brought in for questioning after the attack.”The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the gunman had belonged to the security forces “for more than 10 months and was posted to several cities before being transferred to Palmyra.”Palmyra, home to UNESCO-listed ancient ruins, was once controlled by Daesh during the height of its territorial expansion in Syria. The incident is the first of its kind reported since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and rekindled the country’s ties with the United States. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement” in support of counter-terrorism operations when the attack occurred, while US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said the ambush targeted “a joint US-Syrian government patrol.”US President Donald Trump called the incident “a Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” using another term for the group.
He said the three other US troops injured in the attack were “doing well.”

Trump pledges retaliation after 3 Americans are killed in Syria attack that the US blames on IS
AP/December 14, 2025
DAMASCUS: President Donald Trump said Saturday that “there will be very serious retaliation” after two US service members and one American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blames on the Daesh group. “This was an Daesh attack against the US, and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” he said in a social media post. The American president told reporters at the White House that Syria’s president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, was “devastated by what happened” and stressed that Syria was fighting alongside US troops. Trump, in his post, said Al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said the soldiers were members of the Iowa National Guard — where she, too, once served. “Our Iowa National Guard family is hurting as we mourn the loss of two of our own and pray for the recovery of the three soldiers wounded,” she said. US Central Command said three service members were also wounded in the ambush Saturday by a lone IS member in central Syria. Trump said the three “seem to be doing pretty well.” The US military said the gunman was killed in the attack. Syrian officials said the attack wounded members of Syria’s security forces as well. The attack on US troops in Syria was the first with fatalities since the fall of President Bashar Assad a year ago.
“There will be very serious retaliation,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, said the civilian killed was a US interpreter. Parnell said the attack targeted soldiers involved in the ongoing counter-terrorism operations in the region and is under active investigation.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement that the names of the deceased soldiers are being withheld until 24 hours after next-of-kin notifications are complete. “Our hearts are heavy today, and our prayers and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of our soldiers killed in action,” she said.
The shooting took place near historic Palmyra, according to the state-run SANA news agency, which earlier said two members of Syria’s security force and several US service members had been wounded. The casualties were taken by helicopter to the Al-Tanf garrison near the border with Iraq and Jordan.
Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesman Nour Al-Din Al-Baba said a gunman linked to IS opened fire at the gate of a military post. He added that Syrian authorities are looking into whether the gunman was an IS member or only carried its extreme ideology.
Later Al-Baba said that the attacker was a member of the Internal Security force in the desert adding that he “did not have any command post” within the forces nor was he a bodyguard for the force commander.
Al-Baba added in an interview with state TV that some 5,000 members have joined Internal Security forces in the desert and they get evaluated on weekly basis. He added that three days ago, an evaluation was made for the attacker that concluded he might have extreme ideology and a decision was expected to be issued regarding his case on Sunday but “the attack occurred on a Saturday which is a day off for state institutions.”US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X: “Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.”
US officials made no reference in their statements to the gunman being a member of the Syrian security forces. When asked about the matter, a Pentagon official did not directly respond to the question but said, “This attack took place in an area where the Syrian President does not have control.”
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military issues.
The US has hundreds of troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting IS. The US had no diplomatic relations with Syria under Assad, but ties have warmed since the fall of the five-decade Assad family rule. Al-Sharaa, made a historic visit to Washington last month where he held talks with Trump. It was the first White House visit by a Syrian head of state since the Middle Eastern country gained independence from France in 1946 and came after the US lifted sanctions imposed on Syria during the Assads’ rule. Al-Sharaa led the rebel forces that toppled Bashar Assad in December 2024 and was named the country’s interim leader in January. Al-Sharaa once had ties to Al-Qaeda and had a $10 million US bounty on his head.
Last month, Syria joined the international coalition fighting against the IS as Damascus improves its relations with Western countries following the ouster of Assad when insurgents captured his seat of power in Damascus.
IS was defeated on the battlefield in Syria in 2019 but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in the country. The United Nations says the group still has between 5,000 and 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
US troops have maintained a presence in different parts of Syria — including Al-Tanf garrison in the southeast — to train other forces as part of a broad campaign against IS, and have been targeted in the past. One of the deadliest attacks occurred in 2019 in the northern town of Manbij when a blast killed two US service members and two American civilians as well as others from Syria while conducting a patrol.

Syria strongly condemns terrorist attack near Palmyra
Arab News/December 14, 2025
DAMASCUS: Syria strongly condemned the terrorist attack that targeted a joint patrol of Syrian security forces and US forces near the city of Palmyra on Saturday, extending its condolences to the families of the victims as well as to the US government and people, the Syrian News Agency reported. Earlier, Palmyra in the Homs countryside witnessed an armed attack targeting a joint patrol of Syrian security forces and US forces during a field tour in the area. A gunman opened fire on the patrol, resulting in the deaths of two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter, in addition to injuring three US soldiers and two Syrian security personnel. “Syria strongly condemns the terrorist attack that targeted a joint Syrian-US counterterrorism patrol near Palmyra. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims and to the US government and people, and we wish the injured a speedy recovery,” Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani said in a post on platform X.

Jordan condemns Palmyra attack, expresses solidarity with Syria and US
Arab News/December 14, 2025
AMMAN: Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs on Saturday strongly condemned a terrorist attack targeting Syrian security forces and US personnel near the city of Palmyra, which resulted in a number of casualties and injuries. Ministry spokesperson Fouad Al-Majali said Jordan rejects all forms of violence and terrorism that seek to undermine security and stability, expressing the Kingdom’s full solidarity with both Syria and the US, the Jordan News Agency reported. Al-Majali reaffirmed Jordan’s support for Syria’s reconstruction efforts on foundations that preserve the country’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, security and stability, while continuing efforts to combat terrorism and protect the rights of all Syrians. He also conveyed Jordan’s sincere condolences to the governments and peoples of Syria and the United States, as well as to the families of the victims, and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

German authorities arrest five men suspected of planning Christmas market attack
Reuters/December 14, 2025
BERLIN: German authorities have arrested five men suspected of being terrorist militants planning an attack on a Christmas market in southern Bavaria, police and prosecutors said in a joint statement. There has been a series of vehicle ramming attacks in Germany since a militant rammed a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in central Berlin in 2016. Last December several people were killed by an attack in Magdeburg. Three Moroccan nationals aged 22, 28 and 30, an Egyptian national aged 56 and a 37-year-old Syrian were detained on Friday at the Suben border crossing between Germany and Austria, according to the joint statement late on Saturday. Investigators believed that the men intended to drive a vehicle into a crowded market in the Dingolfing-Landau area with the aim of killing or injuring as many people as possible, the statement said, adding that authorities suspected a militant motive.

Hamas chief negotiator says Israel’s killing of senior commander threatens ceasefire
Reuters/December 14/2025
Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said on Sunday that a targeted assassination by Israel on Saturday of one of the group’s senior commanders threatens the “viability of the truce” in the enclave. In a televised address, al-Hayya, who is also exile Gaza Hamas chief, confirmed the killing of the group’s senior commander Raed Saed in an Israeli strike a day earlier. It was the highest-profile assassination of a senior Hamas figure since a US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal came into effect in October. “The continued Israeli violations to the ceasefire agreement...and latest assassinations that targeted Saed and others threaten the viability of the agreement,” he said in an address. “We call on mediators, and especially the main guarantor, the US administration and President Donald Trump to work on obliging Israel to respect the ceasefire and commit to it.”Hamas sources have described Saed as the second-in-command of the group’s armed wing, after Izz eldeen al-Hadad. Israel says Saed was one of the key architects of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war. Al-Hayya also spoke about the proposed UN-authorized International Stabilization Force (ISF). “The role of the international forces should be limited to maintaining the ceasefire and separating the two sides along Gaza borders...without any role inside the strip or intervention in its domestic affairs,” he said. Deployment of the force is a key part of the next phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan. Under the first phase, a fragile ceasefire in the two-year-old war began on October 10 with Hamas releasing hostages and Israel has freeing detained Palestinians. The US Central Command will host a conference in Doha on December 16 with partner nations to plan the International Stabilization Force for Gaza, US officials told Reuters.

Hamas Gaza chief confirms killing of senior commander in Israeli strike
Reuters/AFP/December 14, 2025
CAIRO: Palestinian militant group Hamas’ Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya confirmed on Sunday the killing of the group’s senior commander Raed Saed in an Israeli strike a day earlier. It was the highest-profile assassination of a senior Hamas figure since a Gaza ceasefire deal came into effect in October. Al-Hayya also said on Sunday that the militant group had a “legitimate right” to hold weapons and that any proposal for the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire must uphold that right. “Resistance and its weapons are a legitimate right guaranteed by international law and are linked to the establishment of a Palestinian state,” said Al-Hayya in a televised address on the militant group’s Al-Aqsa TV. “We are open to studying any proposals that preserve this right while guaranteeing the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Pakistan urges Afghan rulers to ‘rid their soil of terrorists’ at regional meeting in Tehran
Hasaan Ali Khan/Arab News/December 14, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s special envoy on Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq urged rulers in Kabul on Sunday to rid their soil of “terrorists,” saying the move would inspire confidence in its neighbors to engage with the country. Sadiq, who is Pakistan’s special representative to Afghanistan, was part of a high-level meeting hosted by Iran in Tehran to discuss issues related to Afghanistan. The meeting featured Afghan affairs representatives from Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, China and Russia, Iranian state news agency IRNA said. Pakistan blames a surge in attacks on its soil on militants it says are based in Afghanistan, a charge Kabul denies. The allegations have caused tensions between the neighbors to rise, resulting in deadly border clashes in October that saw dozens of soldiers killed on both sides. “It is imperative that the current de facto rulers [in Afghanistan] take steps to ameliorate their suffering,” Sadiq wrote on social media platform X. “And the foremost step in this regard would be to rid their soil indiscriminately of all types of terrorists.”Sadiq said he agreed with other participating countries during the meeting that the “threat of terrorism” originating from Afghanistan’s soil is a “big challenge” for the region. “Also made this point that only an Afghanistan that does not harbor terrorists will inspire confidence in the neighboring and regional countries to meaningfully engage with Afghanistan, helping to realize the country’s immense economic and connectivity potential,” he concluded. Officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan engaged in three rounds of peace talks in Türkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia since the October clashes but were unable to reach an agreement. While Pakistan has vowed it would go after militants in Afghanistan that threaten it, Kabul has said it would retaliate to any act of aggression from Islamabad.

Zelenskyy, US envoys to push on with Ukraine talks in berlin on Monday
AFP/December 14/2025
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to push on with talks in Berlin on Monday with US President Donald Trump’s envoys on how to end the grinding war with Russia. As the conflict raged on, Zelenskyy’s delegation huddled for over five hours on Sunday with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Witkoff said afterwards on X that “a lot of progress was made, and they will meet again tomorrow morning.”Their meeting was held under tight security in the chancellery in Berlin, where Germany’s leader Friedrich Merz was Monday due to host a dinner with Zelenskyy, a group of European leaders and the NATO and EU chiefs. An AFP photographer saw the Ukrainian leader leave the chancellery shortly before 9:00 pm (2000 GMT). Trump has pushed for an end to the almost four-year-old war, but Kyiv and its allies in Europe are at pains to prevent any settlement that would strongly favor Russia. Key questions remain on Ukrainian territorial concessions, future security guarantees for Kyiv, and whether Moscow would agree to any proposal hammered out by the Europeans and Americans. “We want a lasting peace in Ukraine,” Merz wrote on X. “Difficult questions lie ahead of us, but we are determined to move forward. “Ukrainian interests are also European interests.”Zelenskyy, as he headed to Germany, said he was ready for “dialogue” on ending the war that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. He said he hoped Washington would back the idea of freezing the front line where it is, rather than Ukraine ceding the entire Donbas region as Moscow demands. “The fairest possible option is to ‘stay where we are’,” Zelenskyy told reporters on his way to Berlin. “This is true because it is a ceasefire... I know that Russia does not view this positively, and I would like the Americans to support us on this issue.”
‘Very strong objections’
Trump has been stepping up pressure on Ukraine to reach an agreement since revealing a plan last month to end the war that was criticized as echoing Moscow’s demands.Kyiv officials later said they had sent Washington a revised version. Witkoff said “in-depth discussions” were held on Sunday about that plan, “economic agendas, and more.”Zelenskyy said on Sunday: “The most important thing is that the plan should be as fair as possible, first and foremost for Ukraine, because Russia started the war.”In Russia, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov cast strong doubt on the latest round of diplomacy. “I think the contribution of both Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive, that’s the problem,” he said in a video message. Ushakov said Moscow had not seen the latest documents but added that “if there are any relevant amendments, we will have very strong objections, since we have very clearly stated our position, which, it seems, was quite clear to the Americans.”Europeans and Ukrainians have asked the United States to provide them with “security guarantees” before Ukraine negotiates any territorial concessions, France said Friday. Under the latest US plan, Ukraine would be able join the EU as early as January 2027, a senior official familiar with the matter told AFP Friday on condition of anonymity. The latest push in the efforts to put an end to the war came as Kyiv reported new aerial strikes on its territory. According to its air force, Russia launched 138 drones and a ballistic missile overnight. A Russian drone has hit “one of the hospitals in Kherson,” wounding two people, including a nurse, the regional administration said on Telegram. At least 11 people were wounded in strikes on the Zaporizhzhia region, governor Ivan Fedorov said.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 14-15/2025
Selling F-35s to Turkey Guarantees a New War against Israel
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute./December 14/2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22123/selling-f-35s-to-turkey
US President Donald Trump may believe that selling F-35 stealth warplanes to Turkey will help the country forge closer ties with the US at the expense of Russia. The reality, though, is that by providing such sophisticated fighter jets to a country that supports Hamas terrorists -- and whose president recently said that "Israel will have no choice but to kneel in front of Turkey" -- Trump is merely stoking the flames of a future war aimed at destroying Israel. [Trump] is under the impression that Turkey played a key role in helping to persuade Hamas to agree to Washington's 20-point peace plan for ending the war in Gaza, and possibly his hope that Turkey might join his Abraham Accords. Ambassador [Tom] Barrack, however, has been called out for "misrepresent[ing] President Erdogan's hostile and war-threatening statements against Israel." The prospect of Turkey, together with other Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, being equipped with the F-35 stealth aircraft has prompted grave concerns in Israel that the jets -- which have also been deployed to great effect by the Israel Air Force -- could be used against the Jewish state in a future conflict once Trump's term in office has ended. The Israelis are particularly concerned about Turkey receiving the warplanes so long as Erdogan remains in power. Israeli security officials are warning that Turkey is quietly working on a plan to encircle Israel, extending its influence in countries such as Syria, in anticipation of a future conflict. Acquiring F-35 stealth fighters would significantly increase its war-fighting capabilities in the event of Ankara becoming involved in direct hostilities with Israel after Trump leaves office. There are also reports that Turkey and Qatar, which is also one of Hamas's staunchest supporters, are now attempting to thwart attempts to force the terrorist organisation to surrender its weapons -- one of the key requirements stipulated by Trump's peace plan.The United Arab Emirates, which has strong ties with the Trump administration, has expressed "concern" over Turkey's and Qatar's disruptive policies in Gaza in support of Hamas. The UAE recently decided not to participate in the proposed International Stabilization Force for the Gaza Strip.
In such circumstances, it would be extreme folly for the Trump administration to press ahead with its plan to sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey, a country that actively supports Hamas terrorists. To do so would place Israel in the very real danger of becoming involved in yet another war with a country that is supposed to be a U.S. ally.
US President Donald Trump may believe that selling F-35 stealth warplanes to Turkey will help the country forge closer ties with the US at the expense of Russia. The reality, though, is that by providing such sophisticated fighter jets to a country that supports Hamas terrorists, Trump is merely stoking the flames of a future war aimed at destroying Israel. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said "It is time for Israel to turn to dust," and "Israel will have no choice but to kneel in front of Turkey. This is the only way for it to live. Otherwise, in the second quarter of the 21st century, there will be no Israel." Pictured: Erdogan speaks at a campaign rally on March 29, 2024 in Istanbul. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump may believe that selling F-35 stealth warplanes to Turkey will help the country forge closer ties with the US at the expense of Russia. The reality, though, is that by providing such sophisticated fighter jets to a country that supports Hamas terrorists -- and whose president recently said that "Israel will have no choice but to kneel in front of Turkey" -- Trump is merely stoking the flames of a future war aimed at destroying Israel.
Trump's problematic relationship with Ankara dates back to his first term in the White House, when he removed Turkey from participation in the multinational F-35 programme after it purchased Russia's supposed state-of-the-art S-400 air-defence system, which was designed with the express purpose of shooting down F-35 warplanes. In recent months, though, Trump appears to have revised his previous decision, not least because he is under the impression that Turkey played a key role in helping to persuade Hamas to agree to Washington's 20-point peace plan for ending the war in Gaza, and possibly his hope that Turkey might join his Abraham Accords.
Trump was gushing in his praise for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's role in securing the ceasefire. "President Erdogan was fantastic. He really helped a lot, because he's very respected," Trump declared after Hamas finally agreed to sign up to the ceasefire. Since then, Erdogan has worked hard to capitalise on his good standing in Washington, seeking to promote himself as a close ally of the US who can use his strong ties with Hamas to the Trump administration's benefit.
Apart from being a staunch supporter of Hamas's terrorist leadership, Erdogan is also on the record as stating that a future war between Turkey and Israel is a distinct possibility. In early December, Turkey's leadership hosted a conference, "Pledge to Jerusalem," attended by "a number of Arab and Islamic organizations." According to Quds Press: "The conference will... further issue a scholarly fatwa establishing the religious duty to defend Jerusalem, resist normalization, and oppose alignment [between Israel and the Arab and Islamic countries]."
Only a few weeks earlier, Erdogan, his senior officials and state-controlled media were talking about attacking Israel. On September 29, 2025, Erdogan stated:
"It is time for Israel to turn to dust... A region that could fit in the palm of your hand could turn to dust in three days... Chase them out of your cities. The time has come for hundreds of thousands of people to accumulate on the borders of Israel and enter the cities in waves."
On October 6, 2025, he said :
"No one can save it [Israel] now.... It must be disciplined with war... War and power should make Israel kneel... However 'extreme' it looks, a Turkey-Israel war will absolutely happen... Israel will have no choice but to kneel in front of Turkey. This is the only way for it to live. Otherwise, in the second quarter of the 21st century, there will be no Israel."
A similar conference, hosted by Turkey in August, recommended:
"A total rejection of any call to disarm the resistance and a firm emphasis on the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to wage resistance of every kind -- including armed resistance – against the Zionist occupation and [a call to] mobilize the Islamic nation to wage jihad for the sake of Allah, in all its forms."
Its closing statement noted:
"This statement is the beginning of the end of the Zionist occupation project..."
Erdogan's blatant power-play, nevertheless, has clearly made a strong impression on Trump, who is now reported to be giving serious consideration to relaxing the ban he imposed during his first term in the White House on Ankara's participation in the F-35 programme.
US officials have given strong indications that Trump is prepared to sell F-35s to Turkey in return for Ankara getting rid of its Russian-made S-400 air-defence missile systems. Turkey's willingness to ditch the S-400 will have increased following the dismal performance of Russian air-defence systems during the recent military conflict between Israel and Iran, when Israeli warplanes easily destroyed Iran's Russian-made air-defence systems, enabling them to attack Iranian targets at will.
Tom Barrack, US Ambassador to Turkey and a close aide to Trump, stated earlier this month that he believed Turkey was closer to removing the Russian S-400 system that has created tensions with NATO allies and has become a hurdle to Turkey's quest to obtain the American fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, according to Bloomberg. In response to a question about whether Turkey is going to dump the S-400, asked at a conference in Abu Dhabi on December 5, Barrack said, "My belief is that those issues will be resolved in the next upcoming four to six months."
Barrack, however, has been called out for "misrepresent[ing] President Erdogan's hostile and war-threatening statements against Israel."
The prospect of Turkey, together with other Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, being equipped with the F-35 stealth aircraft has prompted grave concerns in Israel that the jets -- which have also been deployed to great effect by the Israel Air Force -- could be used against the Jewish state in a future conflict once Trump's term in office has ended. The Israelis are particularly concerned about Turkey receiving the warplanes so long as Erdogan remains in power. Israeli security officials are warning that Turkey is quietly working on a plan to encircle Israel, extending its influence in countries such as Syria, in anticipation of a future conflict. Acquiring F-35 stealth fighters would significantly increase its war-fighting capabilities in the event of Ankara becoming involved in direct hostilities with Israel after Trump leaves office. At the height of the Gaza war, Erdogan, who led condemnations of Israel's military operations against Hamas, raised the possibility of Turkish forces invading Israel, while more recently he has warned of "serious consequences" if Israel continues its attacks against Hamas terrorists. Erdogan's strong backing for Hamas is the main reason that Turkey is not being seriously considered as a participant in Trump's plan to create an International Stabilization Force in Gaza when the next phase of the ceasefire takes hold. There are also reports that Turkey and Qatar, which is also one of Hamas's staunchest supporters, are now attempting to thwart attempts to force the terrorist organisation to surrender its weapons -- one of the key requirements stipulated by Trump's peace plan. Hamas continues to refuse to disarm in accordance with the agreement, insisting that any decisions about the terrorist group's weapons should be resolved through "internal Palestinian dialogue."
At the same time, Israeli security officials and a senior Arab intelligence official told the New York Times last week that Hamas has moved quickly to reassert control in Gaza since Israeli forces withdrew from parts of the territory in October under the ceasefire agreement and has succeeded in rebuilding much of its operational strength. Making sure Hamas fulfils its obligation to disarm under the terms of Trump's peace deal is likely to be a key priority when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with the US president in Florida at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, in early December, the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency exposed what they describe as a secret Hamas money-exchange network operating in central Turkey "under Iran's direction," according to documents and statements released last week.
According to the intelligence released by the IDF and ISA, exiled Gazans based in Turkey have used the country's financial infrastructure to move large sums of money for Hamas, with transfers totalling hundreds of millions of dollars.
Israeli documents revealed that:
"As the [December] conference was underway, Israeli authorities revealed documents that show that Hamas is operating a system of Gazan moneychangers who live in Turkey and exploit the country's financial infrastructure to secretly finance terrorism. The network, according to the Israeli authorities, works in full cooperation with the Iranian regime and has transferred millions of dollars directly to Hamas and its senior leaders."The United Arab Emirates, which has strong ties with the Trump administration, has expressed "concern" over Turkey's and Qatar's disruptive policies in Gaza in support of Hamas. The UAE recently decided not to participate in the proposed International Stabilization Force for the Gaza Strip. In general, the UAE views Qatar and Turkey as "Hamas enablers." A source familiar with the UAE's stance told The Jerusalem Post: "These states will make it possible for the terrorist organization to continue existing.... There are interested parties affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood who are currently embedding themselves in key positions in the Gaza reconstruction plan."
In such circumstances, it would be extreme folly for the Trump administration to press ahead with its plan to sell F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey, a country that actively supports Hamas terrorists. To do so would place Israel in the very real danger of becoming involved in yet another war with a country that is supposed to be a U.S. ally.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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The Temptations of Christ and the Christmas Tree Bomb (Kuwait's Policies on Christmas and 'Religious Symbols')
Ahmad Al-Sarraf/Mon Liban/December 14/ 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/12/150220/
Everything that is said about openness, allowing "everyone" into the country, creating alternative resources to oil, and spreading tolerance among the nation's components means very little as long as the government has not defined the state's identity: Is it religious or civil? Statements and some decisions suggest it is open and civil, but under the surface, the fundamentalist mindset remains dominant.
In 1988, Hollywood produced the film The Last Temptation of Christ. Because it contained elements deemed insulting to Jesus Christ's image, protest demonstrations took place in several cities. However, the film continued to screen and subsequently failed, especially after the Archbishop of Canterbury stated that Christianity was not worth following if a third-rate film could affect it.
A religion followed by 1.5 billion Muslims should not have followers who fear a shop or hotel placing a plastic tree that symbolizes the birth of Christ. This is a sign of weakness. How can a religion that has endured for 1,400 years and defeated thousands of invaders become alarmed by a plastic tree?
I personally witnessed this foolish panic over a global religion since the 1960s. At that time, the head of a religious party asked dozens of tenants of clothing stores in his buildings to remove the plastic heads of the mannequins from the display windows. The owners of other shops followed suit, and this became a long-standing custom. The mannequin heads completely disappeared over the years, coinciding with a global change in how clothing is displayed.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Information used to ban playing the piano in hotel lounges without a written license, renewable monthly. This license would expire at the end of November, and a new one would be issued in December for only 23 days. This was out of spite—a deliberate attempt to prevent hotels from playing music during the Christmas and New Year's periods! Strangely, this decision remained in effect for over half a century before being finally canceled only recently.
The Ministry of Information also used to, and perhaps still does, send its "observers" to every party to ensure that no "morally objectionable" matters are committed. Additionally, the municipality inspectors, who are naturally more extreme and "clever," still inspect shops and central markets and confiscate or destroy any religious symbols, such as a Christmas tree and its accompanying decorations and symbols. Perhaps they believe these items pose a severe threat to state security and religion! It should be noted that the Ministry of Commerce—in the same government—had previously allowed these merchants to import these materials, only for "heroes" from another agency to come and destroy them, serving the "violator" a warning of closure.
It is pleasant to see all the signs of openness, with officials declaring that we are heading toward a tourism boom, that visas will be granted to anyone without security restrictions, that everyone can visit Kuwait, that trade is free, and that we want everyone to enjoy their time. Yet, the power of the religious parties and the security restrictions remain influential!
Government bodies—including the Ministries of Interior and Information, and the Municipality—have the right to act as they deem appropriate. However, we hope they avoid exaggerating their declarations of an "immense" forthcoming openness. It was painful to read the text of a message sent by the Hotels Owners Union to hotel managers, "announcing" the "issuance of orders" to place a Christmas tree in the hotel lobby, only for a municipal inspector to subsequently issue a violation ticket to one of the hotels and threaten its closure unless the plastic tree was removed... immediately.
The situation is saddening, and the government must define the identity of the state. We are truly tired of this ambiguity.
*Ahmad Al-Sarraf is a Kuwaiti writer and author of several books, the latest being "The Secret of Lebanon Through Kuwaiti Eyes," published by Dar Sair Al Mashreq.

Possible Reasons Why ISIS Has Not Taken Responsibility for Killing U.S. Soldiers in Syria
Antonio Graceffo December/Gateway Pundit/14, 2025
Former al-Qaeda member al-Sharaa claims to be a U.S. ally in the war against Islamic extremism, but ISIS-linked attacks involving members of Syria’s security forces have raised questions about his reliability as an anti-terrorism partner.
After two U.S. soldiers from the Iowa National Guard and a civilian U.S. interpreter were killed on December 13, 2025, during an attack at a Syrian Internal Security Forces facility near Palmyra, President Trump and the Syrian government claimed the attack was carried out by ISIS. As the story developed, however, it became clear that the perpetrator was a member of the Syrian security forces who had been radicalized in support of ISIS. So far, ISIS has not taken responsibility for the attack, but this may be for strategic reasons.
ISIS rarely misses opportunities to quickly claim attacks through channels such as Amaq News Agency, as demonstrated by more than 150 attacks carried out in Syria’s Badia desert this year alone. Its silence in this case, as of December 14, appears deliberate.
By not claiming responsibility, ISIS shifts suspicion onto al-Sharaa’s government by framing the attack as an insider incident. Reuters reported that the gunman was a defense forces member operating in a government-controlled area. This framing raises questions about regime complicity or incompetence and undermines trust between the United States and Syria at a critical moment in their partnership. It also weakens al-Sharaa by reinforcing perceptions that his government is infiltrated and unable to control its own security forces.
The narrative is easily exploited by internal Syrian opposition, which can point to the incident as evidence that the HTS-led government is merely “terrorists in suits.” International legitimacy also suffers. If Syria cannot secure joint operations or prevent insider attacks, the rationale for political, military, or economic partnership is called into question.
Historical precedent supports this strategy. In 2017 and 2018, ISIS sleeper cells in Iraq avoided claiming certain green-on-blue attacks in which insiders targeted coalition forces. U.S. Central Command assessed this tactic as a way to sow paranoia about infiltration within Shia-led governments. A similar dynamic appears to be at play here.
Silence keeps the focus on the attack’s insider profile, fueling speculation over whether al-Sharaa, whose HTS background includes Salafist-jihadist roots, is unable or unwilling to purge extremist elements. This risks eroding his already fragile post-Assad legitimacy. ISIS benefits by allowing doubt to fester without exposing itself to immediate U.S. retaliation.
ISIS’s rivalry with al-Sharaa and HTS further explains the calculus. Despite shared ideological origins, ISIS views HTS as apostate nationalists for cooperating with the West. ISIS has directly targeted al-Sharaa’s government, including a May 18, 2025, car bomb in Mayadin that killed five people in regime-held territory.
Reports of foiled ISIS assassination plots during al-Sharaa’s public engagements underscore its intent to weaken or eliminate him. Not claiming the Palmyra attack allows ISIS to inflict indirect political damage without triggering immediate U.S. strikes on its camps.
This approach aligns with ISIS’s broader destabilization objective. The group thrives on chaos and exploits power vacuums during political transitions, particularly amid U.S. drawdowns and the rapid integration of Syrian forces. Silence magnifies uncertainty, with public debate split between ISIS culpability and regime infiltration, reinforcing doubts about al-Sharaa’s control over extremist threats.
Pro-opposition voices on X have accused al-Sharaa of cover-ups, with early Interior Ministry denials fueling narratives of HTS–ISIS overlap. Arabic and English-language posts emphasize alleged ignored warnings to U.S. forces, implying regime negligence or worse. While President Trump blamed ISIS outright, al-Sharaa’s statements have not quelled doubts. Reporting by various media notes ongoing investigations into the attacker’s ISIS ideological ties, keeping questions of complicity alive.
A claim could still emerge if ISIS decides there is propaganda value in taking credit for killing U.S. personnel, consistent with its past behavior. Alternatively, the attack may ultimately prove to be the act of a lone actor. For now, ISIS benefits by letting suspicion persist, undermining trust between Washington and Damascus, complicating future cooperation, and weakening al-Sharaa at a critical moment.
Antonio Graceffo
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/12/possible-reasons-why-isis-has-not-taken-responsibility/
*Dr. Antonio Graceffo, PhD, China MBA, is an economist and national security analyst with a focus on China and Russia. He is a graduate of American Military University. You can email Antonio Graceffo here, and read more of Antonio Graceffo's articles here.

Assad’s Leaks: Hezbollah’s Final Nail in their Coffin
Makram Rabah/Now Lebanon/December 14/2025
One year after Bashar al-Assad’s fall, a series of leaked recordings surfaced — not as mere scandal fodder or delayed archival curiosities, but as full political and moral indictments. They expose, with chilling clarity, the true character of the man who ruled Syria by fire and fear. More importantly for Lebanon, they unveil the real nature of the “axis” that sustained him — and the deception at its core.
The most striking revelation is not Assad’s contempt for his own people, army, or country — Syrians and Lebanese have long known that disdain. What is newly revealed, and far more damning, is his unfiltered mockery of his closest ally: Hezbollah. The man who claimed to lead an “axis of resistance” is heard deriding that very axis with the same sneer he reserved for his victims. His adviser, Luna al-Shibl, openly ridicules Hezbollah’s supposed “street fighters,” noting with dry sarcasm that “their voices have disappeared.” Assad does not object or offer even token praise. Instead, he joins the contempt, confirming what many suspected all along: this was never a partnership of equals but a utilitarian arrangement fated to end in neglect and disregard.
This is not casual personal derision. In the recordings, Hezbollah appears precisely as Assad viewed it — a disposable instrument. The thousands of fighters who crossed into Syria under banners of “protecting holy shrines” or “defending the resistance” become fleeting figures in bitter jokes, expendable noise that faded once their use expired. To Assad, they were not ideological “martyrs,” but cheap fuel for the war that kept him in power.
If Assad mocked Hezbollah behind closed doors, Hassan Nasrallah mirrored that mockery in public — masked in soaring rhetoric. He perfected the art of speeches that narcotize rather than awaken, glorifying death without accounting for it. While he boasted of “victories,” he sent young men from the South, the Bekaa, and the suburbs of Beirut into a war that had nothing to do with Lebanon’s security or national interest. Promised paradise, they were buried instead in Syrian soil for the sake of a dictator whose only skill is survival amid ruins. Their bodies became statistics in party records, while their leader tallied metaphors rather than the dead, selling illusion in the name of a “resistance” that now resists nothing except the truth.
Here lies Lebanon’s real tragedy. Hezbollah did not fight in Syria to defend Lebanon, protect religious sites, or confront Israel. It fought to prove loyalty to a brutal regime and to serve a regional patron in Tehran that treated Assad as a puppet worth preserving. The cost was staggering: hundreds of field commanders killed, thousands of fighters returned home in coffins draped in yellow flags, and a community trapped in rituals of glorification that concealed a reality now documented in the ally’s own voice.
That community is today called to confront an unbearable truth: their sons did not die for a national cause. They were sacrificed to an alliance built on calculation and contempt, not honor or loyalty. Assad never regarded the “axis” as anything more than a pool of tools to be burned and replaced. Anyone who wagered on it was wagering — knowingly or not — on a project that discards its partners the moment their usefulness expires.
On the anniversary of Assad’s fall, there is no need to recount his crimes or catalogue the mass graves. The recordings suffice. They capture the voice of a man mocking the country he destroyed, the people he slaughtered, and the allies he exploited before coldly discarding them. This is the “axis of resistance” exposed from within: an axis of political squalor driven by moral rot, wrapped in hollow slogans that conceal a single, brutal truth — everyone is used, and everyone is disposable once the need is gone.
*This article originally appeared in Elaf
*Makram Rabah is the managing editor at Now Lebanon and an Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut, Department of History. His book Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory (Edinburgh University Press) covers collective identities and the Lebanese Civil War. He tweets at @makramrabah

MBS in Washington: A new era of strategic tech-alliance
Yousef Algoos/Al Arabiya English/December 14/2025
The historic 1945 Quincy meeting between Saudi King Abdulaziz and US President Roosevelt marked the beginning of the global oil era, establishing the US-Saudi alliance that shaped world energy. Today, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump carries a similar weight, but for a new age altogether. Since the 1945 Quincy meeting launched the century of energy, this visit signals the dawn of a century shaped by microchips, computation, and artificial intelligence. The shift toward a technology-driven era was felt immediately. At the first joint press appearance with the Crown Prince and US President Donald Trump, the opening question raised by journalists was not about security, geopolitics, or regional affairs; it was about microchips. That a semiconductor question took precedence over all other issues underscores a simple reality: microchips have become the quiet force behind national power, economic strength, and technological sovereignty.
Microchips: The new oil of the 21st century
Microchips now form the foundation of nearly every aspect of modern life. They power our smartphones, vehicles, aircraft, hospitals, banks, satellites, and factories; they are the beating heart of artificial intelligence (AI). No contemporary device operates without them.
The global economy learned this critical dependence on microchips the hard way during the pandemic. A shortage of a few semiconductor components, each worth only a few dollars, shut down entire automotive factories across continents. Modern cars depend on 1,000 to 3,000 microchips each, depending on the model. Without them, even the most advanced industrial lines grind to a halt. Yet despite their immense importance, these microchips are astonishingly small, approaching atomic scales. Apple’s latest A19 processor, no larger than a fingernail, contains 25 to 30 billion transistors built using TSMC’s advanced three nm technology.
The centrality of microchips today has reshaped the global economy. Semiconductor companies such as Nvidia, TSMC, and Broadcom now rank among the 10 valuable corporations in the world – and Nvidia, whose worth lies entirely in microchip design, has been the world’s most valuable company since the second quarter of 2025. This elevated position of the semiconductor industry is no coincidence. Microchips have become the oil of the twenty-first century. Nations that design, control, or possess high-end computing capabilities hold the keys to economic strength and global leadership. From the AI microchips boom to the energy edge: A new era of strategic alliance. The rapid acceleration of generative AI capabilities has triggered an unprecedented surge in demand for advanced microchips – GPUs, ASICs, and high-performance processors. These microchips have become strategic national assets, shaping everything from economic competitiveness to technological sovereignty. Across the world, governments are racing to secure supply chains, localize production, and protect sensitive semiconductor technologies. However, in this new phase of competition, microchip performance is only half of the equation. The other true constraint is energy – specifically, the electricity and cooling required to operate AI data centers. This is where Saudi Arabia holds a competitive advantage.
Just as raw silicon becomes invaluable once it is transformed into a microchip, Saudi Arabian crude oil gains new strategic value when it is used to generate the energy that powers AI data centers. By converting its oil into affordable and reliable electricity for advanced computing, the country multiplies the economic impact of its natural resources and positions itself at the heart of the digital economy. In this way, Saudi Arabia is not only exporting energy, it is exporting the computational power that fuels the technologies of the future.
The scale of AI’s energy appetite is striking. Recent studies have shown that generating a 500-word AI response can require energy comparable to a full smartphone charge, underscoring the enormous power demands of modern AI systems. As AI workloads grow, the fundamental question shaping today’s economy is shifting from “What does a barrel of oil cost?” to “What is the cost of computing one AI token?”
Today, microchips have become the heartbeat of AI, and energy has become, quite literally, the oxygen of microchips. Thus, in this AI-microchip-energy equation, Saudi Arabia stands in a uniquely powerful position as one of the world's largest energy producers.
Access to advanced semiconductor technologies (e.g., AI microchips) is tightly regulated by the US government. Only trusted partners with strong strategic alignment and stable regulatory environments receive such approvals. Saudi Arabia has emerged as one of those trusted partners as a long-term US ally. The recent Saudi Arabia’s technological partnerships with leading American firms did not materialize by chance. They were made possible because Saudi Arabia offers a rare combination: a long-standing strategic alliance with the US; the economic weight of a G20 nation with significant investment capacity; and one of the lowest energy costs globally, up to 30 percent to 40 percent lower than in the US.
For American companies, Saudi Arabia is far more than a mere partner; it serves as a strategic extension of their technological capabilities. For the US, partnering with a strategic ally like Saudi Arabia ensures that sensitive and advanced technologies stay within trusted ecosystems that share aligned interests and security standards. For Saudi Arabia, the partnership provides a pathway to accelerate technology transfer, develop local supply chains, and expand high-value job creation aligned with the stated objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.
These factors explain why major American companies are expanding into Saudi Arabia. Qualcomm is establishing a Saudi Arabian chip-design center; HPE and AMD, with the Saudi Alfanar Co., are producing Saudi Arabian made data-center servers; AWS is building advanced cloud and AI centers inside the country; Intel, Supermicro, Groq, and Nvidia are partnering with Saudi companies like Humain, Aramco Digital, and DataVolt to build AI data centers. Together, these developments signal a new era of strategic alliance – one where the AI microchip boom meets the energy needed for AI computing, and where Saudi Arabia and the US co-author the next chapter of technological leadership.
A win-win strategic tech-alliance: Why the US and Saudi Arabia need each other
Despite major funding through the CHIPS Act, launched in 2022 by the US government, the American semiconductor industry still faces significant structural challenges, such as high domestic costs, limited energy supply with high costs, and intense global competition. These challenges are amplified by growing demand across advanced technologies that depend on advanced microchips, such as AI, which depends heavily on a reliable supply of high-performance microchips and large-scale energy capacity. To stay competitive, American semiconductor companies must look to partners that offer stability, scale, aligned strategic interests, and reliable access to low-cost energy. In this context, Saudi Arabia offers the investment depth and operating scale needed to support the expansion of semiconductor-related capabilities, from design and manufacturing to AI deployment, beyond US borders, while remaining aligned with US strategic and security interests.
The Crown Prince’s visit came at the perfect moment, a moment when the American semiconductor ecosystem needs reliable and aligned international partnerships to maintain its global lead. The visit delivered landmark outcomes: a new Saudi Arabian-US strategic AI partnership; US approval to export 35,000 advanced GPUs to Saudi Arabia comes alongside a Saudi investment of 50 billion USD in semiconductors, set to scale to hundreds of billions; and major US semiconductor and AI companies expanding into Saudi Arabia.
The scale of these agreements represents more than incremental progress; it signals a significant technological shift that positions Saudi Arabia as one of the world’s emerging digital powerhouses.
For Saudi Arabia, the strategic partnership is transformative. Saudi Arabia now has the opportunity to localize key parts of the semiconductor value chain, develop local human capital in deep tech, host some of the world’s largest AI supercomputing centers, attract global innovators, and advance the goals of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 of technological leadership and economic diversification. This push is not about catching up – it is about leapfrogging to the forefront of the world’s technology economies.
This visit delivered more than agreements. The scale of the agreements indicates a major shift rather than incremental progress. It redefined the direction of a decades-long partnership, moving from an alliance built on oil to an alliance built on technology, computation, and the economies of the future. Just as the oil relationship shaped the last century, the chip-and-compute partnership will shape the next. Saudi Arabia and the United States are stepping into a new era, not as energy partners alone, but as co-builders of the technological foundation that will define global leadership for decades to come.

Selected Face Book & X tweets for /December 14, 2025