English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 12/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 20/20-28/:”Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’ They said to him, ‘We are able.’He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 11-12/2025
Theoretically, Nawaf Salam’s Interview Was Encouraging… But Doubt and Fear Remain Regarding Implementation/Elias Bejjani/February 11/ 2025
It Is Astonishing to See a Rational Lebanese Praises Michel Aoun & Fails To See Him For What He Truly Is/Elias Bejjani/February 11, 2025
The Maronites Commemorate Their Patron and Church Founder/Elias Bejjani/February 09/ 2022
Etienne Sakr - Abu Arz: Hezbollah Is a Passing Ailment/February 11/2025
PM, Nawaf Salam: “We Want to Regain The Trust of The Citizens!”
Loyalty must be to the state alone, Aoun tells Lebanon ministers
Political Shiism Remains Useful Despite Its Defeat
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/February 11/2025
Among the Most Wretched Forms of Lebanese Consciousness./Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/February 11/2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 11-12/2025
After meeting with Trump, Jordan's king says his country opposes displacing Palestinians in Gaza
Trump stands by his Gaza plan in meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah
At Least $53 Billion Needed to Rebuild Gaza, UN Estimates
Netanyahu threatens to resume fighting in Gaza if hostages aren't released Saturday
Israel releases two Palestinians after raiding their bookshop in East Jerusalem
UN experts warn Trump Gaza plan would return world to ‘dark days of colonial conquest’
Trump, hosting Jordan’s king, renews insistence US can control and redevelop Gaza
Netanyahu threatens to resume fighting in Gaza if hostages aren’t released Saturday
Egyptians furious over Trump’s Gaza plan, downplay aid threat
Houthis ready to launch attacks on Israel if war on Gaza resumes, leader say
Jordan to take sick Gaza kids as Trump pushes takeover plan
UN experts warn Trump Gaza plan would return world to ‘dark days of colonial conquest’
BBC announces new West Bank documentary with journalist Louis Theroux
Ukraine prepared to offer territory swap with Russia: Zelensky
Kuwait sends 22nd relief plane to Syria
State media in Iran say Khamenei pardons journalists who reported woman's death, sparking protests
Saudi FM heads Kingdom’s delegation at Paris AI Summit
Turkmenistan reaches deal with Turkiye to ship natural gas via Iran
UK’s Princess Catherine visits women’s prison
16 Pakistanis killed in shipwreck off Libya: Islamabad
Pope rebukes Trump administration over migrant deportations, and appears to take direct aim at Vance

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on February 11-12/2025
Iran's Dangerous Push To Become An AI Superpower/Steven Stalinsky, Ph.D./ MEMRI Daily Brief No. 715/February 11, 2025
The major opportunity Trump is giving Israel? Not what you think/Eyal Hulata/Israel Hayom/February 11/2025
Trump is Right to Prioritize Homeland Missile Defense/Bradley Bowman & Mark Montgomery/The Cipher Brief/February 11/2025
Qatar is Hamas, and Hamas is Qatar/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/February 11, 2025
Afghanistan needs a national awakening/Dr. Ajmal Shams/Arab News/February 11, 2025
Grassroots peacebuilding the bedrock of a lasting peace/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/February 11, 2025
Power, wealth and governance in the modern world/Dr. Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed/Arab News/February 11, 2025
Iranian Regime Continues To Lie About The Alleged Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons/MEMRI/February 11, 2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on February 11-12/2025
Theoretically, Nawaf Salam’s Interview Was Encouraging… But Doubt and Fear Remain Regarding Implementation
Elias Bejjani/February 11/ 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140093/
For years, I have never trusted the Nasserist Arab nationalist Nawaf Salam. Today, despite his verbal constitutional and legal approaches in his interview with TL , he has neither reassured me nor dispelled my doubts and fears. The real judgment on his mission as as the PM will be based on actions, not words.

It Is Astonishing to See a Rational Lebanese Praises Michel Aoun & Fails To See Him For What He Truly Is
Elias Bejjani/February 11, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140059/
Michel Aoun, by undeniable facts and evidence, is corrupt, a Judas, and an enemy to his homeland. He abandoned his slogans, betrayed his people, and traded Lebanon’s sovereignty for a presidential chair on which he was nothing more than a ghost for six years. He built his popularity on opposing the Syrian occupation and attacking it, only to later whitewash it as an “experience marred by some mistakes.” Then, he signed a pact with Hezbollah—the party of Satan—dedicated to erasing Lebanon, its identity, and its history.
We, as Maronites, have never known a leader or politician who has harmed us, humiliated our history, and distorted our national conscience more than he has. It is truly baffling that any sovereign-minded Lebanese, or any rational person—could see Aoun, his son-in-law, or anyone of the opportunists who remained with him after his disgraceful pact with Nasrallah, as anything other than a Lasiffors of destruction, perhaps even more catastrophic than him by light-years.

The Maronites Commemorate Their Patron and Church Founder
Elias Bejjani/February 09/ 2022
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140004/
Today, Maronites in Lebanon and across the diaspora celebrate the feast of Saint Maroun, the father and founder of our Church and our revered patron. This sacred and joyous occasion embodies the essence of over 1,600 years of faith, perseverance, and sacrifice—an unbroken legacy of devotion to truth and righteousness that defines our nation, people, and Syriac Eastern Church. On this day, we humbly offer our prayers, seeking to fortify the faith, resilience, and steadfastness of our people and clergy. Through the intercession of our father Maroun and Our Lady of Lebanon, the Virgin Mary, we beseech God to safeguard Lebanon, the Land of the Holy Cedars, from wars, conflicts, and unrest. May our homeland remain a beacon of love, tolerance, coexistence, freedom, democracy, equality, and fraternity.
Saint Maroun: A Legacy of Faith and Asceticism
Saint Maroun, the fourth-century ascetic who lived in the mountains of Cyrrhus, north of Antioch, remains deeply ingrained in our hearts, minds, and collective consciousness as his Maronite children. Today, we honor his memory not only in Lebanon—our spiritual and national center—but also across the world, wherever Maronite communities have flourished. Saint Maroun’s life was a testament to asceticism. He embraced simplicity, rejecting worldly indulgences in food, drink, and possessions. His journey was one of piety, humility, and self-sacrifice, walking the arduous path of all the righteous and saints. His devotion revolved around prayer, worship, contemplation, and ascetic discipline. Isolated from the material world, he lived under a simple hair-cloth tent, enduring both summer’s heat and winter’s chill. Pilgrims sought his prayers and blessings, yet he redirected their focus away from himself and toward God, the fountain of all goodness. This is the way of the righteous—they do not seek personal recognition but rather guide others to divine truth.
The Saint’s Enduring Influence
Saint Maroun’s piety and holiness spread far and wide, drawing admiration from figures such as Saint John Chrysostom, who, from exile, wrote to him: “The bonds of love and affection that connect me to you make me see you as if you were before me. Love transcends distance, and the passing years do not weaken it. I wish I could write to you more often, but the vast distances and scarcity of travelers make it difficult. Know that I never cease to remember you, for you hold a special place in my heart. Please write to me, as news of your well-being brings me immense joy, despite the hardships I endure. It comforts me in my exile and solitude and fills my soul with great happiness to know that you are in good health. Above all, my dearest request is that you pray for me.”A Church Rooted in Mission and Identity. Saint Maroun’s spirituality shaped our Maronite Church, which carries his name and flourished like wheat from a single grain. Ours is a church of faith, a cause, and a mission. For over 1,600 years, it has embraced its people, preserving the spirituality of its founder while upholding the unity and tradition of Antioch. Open to dialogue, it remains firmly anchored in its rich Syriac Eastern heritage and distinct identity.
A Call for Renewal and Unity
In these turbulent times, we Maronites must renew our commitment to faith, unity, and solidarity. We must cast aside hatred, selfishness, and personal ambition. Both clergy and laity must embody the example of Saint Maroun—not living for ourselves alone, but extending a helping hand to those in need.
How many among us today have been crushed by hardship, unable to rise again? They need the support of their brethren to regain their footing. A nation cannot thrive unless its people work together to rebuild it. Now is the time for every Maronite and every Lebanese to reject selfish ambition and narrow personal gains. No one can save themselves alone. The harsh reality is undeniable: as Lebanese—Maronites and non-Maronites alike—we are all sailing in the same battered ship, weakened by lack of faith, selfishness, and moral decay.Our fate is one: if the ship sinks, we all perish; if it survives, we are all saved. But
salvation requires true fear of God—not merely in words, but in deeds, regardless of the sacrifices required.
Betrayal of Maronite Principles
As we reflect on Saint Maroun’s life, virtues, and sacrifices, we must ask: How could some Maronite leaders betray the very principles upon which our Church and heritage stand? Can they truly claim to be followers of Saint Maroun while they glorify weapons of occupation, align with foreign forces, and trample Lebanon’s sovereignty for the sake of personal gain, hatred, and revenge? Indeed, we live in dark times. These so-called leaders epitomize the words of the Prophet Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
A Prayer for Lebanon’s Redemption
We ask the Lord to grant us wisdom to understand and embody the teachings of our father Maroun. May we unite our ranks, strengthen our bonds with our fellow Lebanese at home and abroad, and work together with sincerity and devotion to restore Lebanon to its former glory—a land of prosperity, stability, and lasting peace. Through Saint Maroun’s intercession, we pray for our clergy, leaders, and people, that they may remain steadfast in faith and hope, unmoved by hardship or temptation. May no allure of power or wealth lead them astray. On this holy occasion, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to our Maronite brethren and all Lebanese. Together, we pray that the Lord may grant us the grace to follow in the footsteps of Saint Maroun—living with reverence for God, detachment from worldly vanities, love for humanity, humility, and self-sacrifice.
A Final Plea for Repentance
In particular, we pray for the repentance of corrupt and treacherous Maronite leaders who, despite experiencing exile and humiliation, failed to learn from their past. Lebanon was liberated through the sacrifices of its sons, yet these leaders returned to power with striking arrogance, focused solely on personal gain, authority, and wealth. For these Maronite Judases, we pray that they may repent and return to the path of righteousness. Otherwise, their reckoning on Judgment Day is inevitable—where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We conclude with the words of Saint Paul (Romans 12:15-18): “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

Etienne Sakr - Abu Arz: Hezbollah Is a Passing Ailment
(Free translation from Arabic by Elias Bejjani)
February 09/ 2022
A few days ago, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran appointed Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, as his official representative in Lebanon. This announcement left the Lebanese people wondering:
What does this appointment signify when Iran already has a permanent ambassador in Lebanon?
Does the Iranian regime truly believe that Lebanon has become an Iranian province under its control?
Does it still assume that its armed proxy, Hezbollah, dominates the Lebanese state and dictates its decisions?
Or has it chosen to ignore the undeniable reality that Hezbollah’s last war against Israel shattered its power, leaving it crippled in just 11 days?
A Delusion That Will Not Stand
If Tehran believes this move signals a path to reasserting its occupation of Lebanon, our answer is simple: dream on. The hands of the clock will not turn back.
If its goal is to restore Hezbollah’s influence and revive the so-called "Axis of Resistance," we say: the Iranian era in Lebanon and the wider Middle East is over. A new phase is emerging, and its consequences will soon become evident.
If, however, this appointment is a desperate attempt to rally Lebanon’s Shiites under its banner, Iran must wake up to two realities:
After its humiliating defeat in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, the Iranian regime has lost all credibility—not only among the Shiite community but across all Lebanese sects.
Lebanon’s Shiites are Lebanese, first and foremost. Their roots run deep in this land, their history is woven into its fabric, and they will never be reduced to pawns of the Iranian Mullahs.
The End of Iran’s Expansionist Dream
Hezbollah is nothing more than a passing ailment—an abnormality that will soon be eradicated. Iran’s expansionist ambitions in the region have reached their dead end, and its myth of so-called "divine victories" has crumbled.
Tehran must withdraw from Lebanon voluntarily—before it is expelled by force.
At your service, Lebanon.

PM, Nawaf Salam: “We Want to Regain The Trust of The Citizens!”
This is Beirut/February 11, 2025
Like a leitmotif brandished at every turn of phrase, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam kept repeating, during an interview broadcasted Tuesday evening on several local TV channels, “We want to regain the trust of citizens!”
Acknowledging the extent of the suffering endured by the Lebanese as a result of the financial and economic crisis, the explosion in the port of Beirut, and the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Salam also highlighted other causes of disappointment, even despair, for the Lebanese, namely the decrepitude of public administration and the discrediting of the judiciary. These are all reasons that have prompted over 75% of young people to emigrate, according to statistics that Salam used to underline the intensity of the people's malaise and the seriousness of the situation.
Salam reviewed a number of practices that had cost Lebanon “opportunities” to realize its “turnaround” sooner. He referred in particular to the selective application of the Taef agreement, the failure to deploy the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon, and the failure to capitalize on the Syrian withdrawal.
In response to questions about the criteria for forming his government, the Prime Minister defended his commitment to the standards he had set himself, which took into account above all the criteria of competence and mastery of public policies, as well as the principle of the separation of legislative and executive powers. “We were not forming a miniature parliament,” he declared. Continuing in this vein, Salam asserted, “This is a founding government charged with setting the country on the path that leads to the consecration of the State.” He also “corrected” the concept of classifying ministerial portfolios into “sovereignist” and “non-sovereignist” categories, denying the veracity of the adage that “the Ministry of Finance is the responsibility of the Shiite community”.With regard to the ministerial declaration, the Prime Minister affirmed that the text would respond to the challenges facing the country, these being the occupation of its territory by Israel and reconstruction, as well as fiscal, economic, and political reform. Salam insisted, “The Israeli withdrawal must take place on schedule, if not before.” “State authority must extend, by its own means, over the whole territory.” “We are committed to rebuilding what has been destroyed, especially in southern Lebanon.” “No cancellation of bank deposits, but the cancellation of the idea of cancelling these deposits.” ‘Politicians must be prevented from interfering in the judicial system’ ... So many assertions were expressed to underline the new government's firm intention to accomplish the reforms that would, according to the Prime Minister, guarantee the influx of investments that would contribute to the country's reconstruction, but also to a renewed confidence in the State. While stressing the importance of restoring Lebanon's relations with Arab countries —which would eventually contribute to the reconstruction process costing an estimated $11 billion— Salam nevertheless called on the Lebanese to “bet on each other” before anything else, alluding to the nINtereed to free themselves from all allegiances to outside powers.

Loyalty must be to the state alone, Aoun tells Lebanon ministers
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/February 11, 2025
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has told ministers in the country’s new government that their “loyalty and allegiance must be to the state alone, not to any other entity.”Speaking after the official group photo in the presidential palace courtyard, Aoun also told the 24 ministers in Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government that they “are here to serve the people, not the other way around.” “The key issue is not just the formation of the government but proving credibility by initiating anti-corruption efforts and carrying out administrative, judicial, and security appointments,” he said.
Aoun urged ministers to focus on urgent issues, primarily the state budget, municipal and local elections, and the Israeli withdrawal on Feb. 18. During the first government session, Aoun said that ministers should “refrain from directing any criticism toward friendly and brotherly nations,” adding that Lebanon should not be used as a “platform for such criticisms.”Salam’s government, the first under Aoun’s presidency, does not include direct party members but rather specialists nominated by political parties. Aoun said “the country is not bankrupt, but the administration is,” highlighting the need to revive the nation through reforms that ministers and the government will work to implement. “Our focus will be on reforming and developing the ministries in light of the significant international support we have received. The opportunities are available to seize this support, provided we carry out the necessary reforms,” he said.‏ In turn, Salam called on the ministers “to ensure a complete separation between public and private work.” He added: “To avoid any confusion, ministers must fully dedicate themselves to their governmental duties and step down from any leadership or board positions in commercial companies or banks.”
However, Salam added that “this does not apply to memberships in educational or social organizations that serve the public good.”Following the meeting, Minister of Information Paul Morcos confirmed that a ministerial committee had been set up to draft a constitutional statement that is expected to be completed within days. Morcos said that “the prime minister assured the ministers that this is not a time for political bickering, and that there won’t be any obstructions.”He said that “many ideas are being discussed, and solutions will ultimately be reached.”A political source said the ministerial statement will “emphasize the need to dismantle the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories and implement Resolution 1701,” as outlined in the president’s oath speech. Joe Al-Khoury, the newly appointed industry minister, described the session as “an excellent start.”Tarek Mitri, deputy prime minister, said that the first meeting of the ministerial committee tasked with drafting the ministerial statement “will be held in the afternoon.” Salam received a congratulatory phone call from Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, UAE foreign minister, on the formation of the new government. While the handover process continues between outgoing and incoming ministers, the government must secure the confidence of parliament after presenting the ministerial statement before it can officially begin its work. In a notable development, the Cassation Public Prosecutor Jamal Hajjar, received for the first time a memorandum of formal defenses from Judge Tarek Bitar, investigative judge in the Beirut port explosion case, submitted by one of the defendants. This step has been regarded as a “restoration of the investigation sessions regarding the port to the proper legal procedures, after the former Cassation Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat refrained from accepting any documents from Judge Bitar.”Bitar resumed his examination of the case last Friday after a hiatus that lasted over three years. The Lebanese National News Agency reported that Bitar questioned several defendants, including current and former employees and officers of the customs department, at the beginning of the week. On Aug. 4, 2020, a catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut devastated the city’s waterfront, killing more than 230 people and injuring thousands. However, the investigation into the blast, which included charges against a former prime minister, ministers, and high-ranking officials for administrative negligence, has been suspended since the end of 2021 due to lawsuits filed against Bitar. Hezbollah and the Amal Movement also attempted to intimidate Bitar through warnings from the Beirut Palace of Justice, as well as armed protests demanding his resignation, which escalated into violent clashes known as the Tayouneh Incident.

Political Shiism Remains Useful Despite Its Defeat
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/February 11/2025
Everyone following the formation of the new Lebanese government before it came into being on Saturday was eagerly awaiting the fate of the "political Shiism’s" Lebanese branch. Indeed, the status quo was upended by Israel's recent war on Hezbollah and the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, which had been a linchpin offering strategic depth and a bridge to Iran. The outcome was a limited but deliberate attempt to appease it. On Friday, the Lebanese heard a new tone from the US. Its diplomat gave a statement that sharply diverged from those that they had grown accustomed to. The blunt remarks that the newly appointed deputy envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus, made in Beirut are a stark contrast to the smiles and refinement of her predecessor, the Democrat Amos Hochstein, especially during his meetings with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the leader of the Amal Movement and the face of the "Shiite duo" that the US approves of. However, in principle, there is no difference. Yesterday, today, and certainly tomorrow, Washington provides unwavering support for everything the Netanyahu government and its allies do.
Naive Arab and Muslim voters have woken up to this fact far too late. Driven by their outrage with the previous Democratic administration that supported the massacres and displacement in Gaza following the Al-Aqsa Flood, they cast votes for the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. Worse still, they had somehow convinced themselves - for reasons I cannot comprehend - that Trump genuinely believed in peace and would take steps in that direction.
The reality is that there is no fundamental difference between Ortagus and Hochstein, just as there are no fundamental differences between Trump and Biden when it comes to Israel’s interests, first and foremost, and secondly, with regard to the broader US agenda in the Middle East. The only real distinction lies in their style and rhetoric. That is to say that Hochstein was fully aware that Hezbollah had suffered a painful defeat in the recent war: losing its top brass, much of its capabilities, and its strongholds. Yet, in his meeting with Berri, Hochstein sought to reap the "fruits" of Israel’s achievements without appealing to the large segment of Lebanese society that has long opposed the hegemony of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement’s "political Shiism." He also rejected the triumphalism of Likud hardliners and the jubilation of extremist settler ideologues.
The kind of "soft" diplomacy we saw from Hochstein has been a hallmark of Washington’s Democratic administrations in recent years. However, this approach is seen as a sign of weakness by the Republican hawks. That has been the case since the days of Ronald Reagan and his evangelical "Moral Majority." They enthusiastically supported Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982; later, under George W. Bush, neoconservatives planned and executed the invasion of Iraq, only for Barack Obama to later hand Iraq over to Iran. Today, this trajectory continues under Trump and his MAGA movement.
As we well remember, Trump’s Republicans and the MAGA movement overturned many of the conciliatory policies pursued by Obama, and, after then by his successor and political shadow, Biden. Instead of betting on a "two-state solution," Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem. Rather than pursuing initiatives that explore regional peace, he undermined the foundations of these efforts by recognizing Syria’s Golan Heights as Israeli territory. Even with regard to Iran, the Trump administration’s assassination of Qassem Soleimani was not part of a coherent and well-thought-out political strategy to put an end to Tehran’s blackmail across the Arab Levant. In fact, it emboldened the Iranian leadership to escalate, expanding its network of proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
Logically, the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation would not have occurred without two key factors:
First, Tehran’s increased support for Hamas’s most radical faction, alongside the Islamic Jihad, in retaliation to Soleimani’s assassination.
Second, the Democrats’ "weakness" and "cowardice" in the face of Benjamin Netanyahu’s hubris and his policy of thwarting every opportunity for peace, despite several Arab regimes moving toward normalization.
Today, in his second term, Trump is committing one of the gravest mistakes a major power responsible for global security and peace could make. His heedless arrogance undermines international trust in the US, its respect for treaties, and its commitment to political norms and international law. This is especially true as it continues to push for the displacement of Gaza’s population and for opening the Strip up for investment!
This precedent does not merely violate Palestinians’ rights. He is waging an assault on all principles of civilized conduct and the global order. This is starkly evident from the economic blackmail and pressure campaigns Washington is currently waging against Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Colombia and others.
Amid this "nightmare," the world cannot be assured that there is a rational actor who can prevent humanity from sliding into disaster.
Returning to the smaller Lebanese context. If the average Lebanese citizen hesitates to openly express their relief at the removal of illegitimate sectarian armed hegemony - because it was achieved by an "Israeli cure" just as lethal as the "Iranian disease" - then every rational person in the world must ask whether the notion of protecting the weak and restraining the powerful maintains any political and moral legitimacy. Hezbollah’s leaders know that their party has lost its war with Israel. However, they continue to deny their defeat for fear that their own community could hold them accountable for recklessly endangering their youths, livelihoods and future. Other Lebanese are also aware of this fact. However, they do not want to appear to have benefited from the catastrophe that their enemy had brought upon their homeland as a whole. As for Washington, whose envoy Ortagus openly expressed her satisfaction with what happened, it might ("for its own reasons") hesitate to fully capitalize on the defeat of "political Shiism" in Lebanon and Syria. Of course, we understand that the Trump administration, alongside its ally Netanyahu, has other regional considerations. Indeed, they are equally hostile toward "political Sunnism" in the region, especially since Arab countries would not have normalized relations with Israel without the looming threat and blackmail of the "Iranian bogeyman."

Among the Most Wretched Forms of Lebanese Consciousness...
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al Awsat/February 11/2025
"Since we were defeated in a war, which we had caused, that led to humanitarian and material disasters, as well as the occupation of our land and the displacement of its residents, And since we are not trusted by the Arab and Western powers who have the capacity to provide economic support to Lebanon, including the help we need to ensure the reconstruction of the South, And since Israel’s withdrawal from our land would be made more difficult, and even could be scrapped, if we were to take on a prominent role in public life, And since Syria, which borders our country to the north and east, has expelled our friend Bashar al-Assad, giving rise to a new order that we do not reassure and that does not reassure us,
And since our Iranian patron faces fatal risks, And since the majority of the Lebanese people do not want to see us occupying a leading position in this new phase...
For all those reasons, we should be rewarded with the Ministry of Finance and the third signature that comes with it, as well as the right to appoint all our sect’s representatives in government."
No one actually made the arguments above. Nonetheless, this passage essentially sums up the actual but unspoken “rationale” of Nabih Berri and Hezbollah’s position. It is a “rationale” rooted in the powerful nihilistic disposition at the heart of our political culture: the more a faction loses and the more devastating the damage it inflicts upon itself and others, the more it deserves to be rewarded. Through this consciousness, the implicit “rationale” is elevated into a norm, compelling us to see things the same way as the proponents of this “rationale:” to call defeat a victory, loss a gain, and weakness strength. However, there is another dimension to this issue: Berri and Hezbollah maintain their monopoly over the representation of their sect, as every single Shiite deputy in Lebanon’s parliament, without exception, is beholden to them. This means- and this will continue to be the case until there is an opportunity for weighty opposition to emerge from within the sect itself- that a faction’s interest has diverged with the national interest in a way we have never seen before. Moreover, this is not merely a question of irreconcilable abstractions or political programs; rather, it is a sharp broader struggle between rationally pursuing the collective good and impulsive sectarian nihilism. The serious dilemma that emerges as a result goes beyond politics in the conventional sense to reach our social contract, and it goes beyond questions about the composition of the government to expose the fragility of our “national unity” as such. While we are awaiting an alignment of events that solves this dilemma, the demand that we see things this way- aside from its irrationality, absurdity, and negative implication for the public good- remains deeply factional and irreconcilable with any national vision or interest.
Similar toxic winds, albeit less damaging and dangerous, are blowing from the Christian position. As part of the torrent of slander directed at Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam and two of the ministers who are expected to be named as part of his government, Tarek Mitri and Ghassan Salameh, we see a slur resurface every now and then: they were once “leftists.” Often- and this is the case now- those behind this “critique” dig up statements made fifty or sixty years ago to prove that there is a “fifth column” in our midst. Many may have serious reservations about the way the government is being formed, or about the figures being targeted or others, but this particular objection says far more about those making it than its targets.
There is no need for me to prove that I am not a leftist. However, the only real implication of this- by definition McCarthyist- “criticism” is that the person being criticized is problematic because he is not “like us.” To be us, to be “pure” and “thoroughbred” (terms associated with horse breeding), one has to be born that way, proceeding along his divine blessed path without thinking, experimenting, suffering, striving, or changing. His consciousness must be automatic, inherited from his father and grandfather, much like pre-Islamic poets inherited their tribe, raiding when it raids and behaving rationally when it does.
This exclusionary politics blocks off any intellectual or cultural breeze from blowing in the direction of our small world, its large insults, with its singular focus on sectarian polarization. This narrow parochialism deprives the faithful of any personal experience that could enrich their community and its self-sufficient identity and culture- and mind you, perpetual self-sufficiency often leaves the self-sufficient decaying. On top of that, this ready-made comprehensive sectarian consciousness announces its frustration with the pluralism that, in other instances, it claims to uphold. For the thousandth time, what we accept is for others to be exactly like us, not only in the ideas they have inherited but also in personal histories that reflect no deviation whatsoever from this inherited legacy and its effects.
This mindset, besides its factionalism that seeks to mold others in its own image and on its ideals, ultimately backfires and brings ruin. One only needs to recall past civil wars- recent and distant- and the role that imposing a single, uniform identity on all played in these conflicts.
Regrettably, this is where we find one of the worst forms of Lebanese consciousness. Also regrettably, it remains among the strongest common denominators of the country’s warring sects.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on February 11-12/2025
After meeting with Trump, Jordan's king says his country opposes displacing Palestinians in Gaza
Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian And Will Weissert/WASHINGTON (AP)/February 11, 2025
President Donald Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and renewed his insistence that Gaza could somehow be emptied of all residents, controlled by the U.S. and redeveloped as a tourist area.
It's an audacious, but highly unlikely, scheme to dramatically remake the Middle East and would require Jordan and other Arab nations to accept more refugees from Gaza — something Abdullah reiterated after their meeting that he opposes.
The pair met in the Oval Office with Secretary of State Marco Rubio also on-hand. The president suggested he wouldn't withhold U.S. aid to Jordan or Egypt if they don't agree to dramatically increase the number of people from Gaza they take in. “I don’t have to threaten that. I do believe we’re above that," Trump said. That contradicted the Republican president previously suggesting that holding back aid from Washington was a possibility. Abdullah was asked repeatedly about Trump's plan to clear out Gaza and overhaul it as a resort on the Mediterranean Sea — but didn't make substantive comments on it while also not committing to the idea that his country could accept large numbers of new refugees from Gaza. He did say, however, that Jordan would be willing “right away” to take as many as 2,000 children in Gaza who are suffering from cancer or otherwise ill. “I finally see somebody that can take us across the finish line to bring stability, peace and prosperity to all of us in the region,” the king said of Trump in his statement at the top of the meeting. Abdullah left the White House after about two hours and was headed to Capitol Hill to meet with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. He posted on X that during his meeting with Trump, “I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.” “This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” Abdullah wrote. That was despite Trump using his appearance with Abdullah to repeat suggestions that the U.S. could come to control Gaza. Trump also said Tuesday that it wouldn't require committing American funds but that the U.S. overseeing the war-torn region would be possible, “Under the U.S. authority,” without elaborating what that actually was. “We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it," Trump said of U.S. control in Gaza. He suggested that the redeveloped area could have new hotels, office buildings and houses, "and we’ll make it exciting.”“I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love with it,” Trump, who built a New York real estate empire that catapulted him to fame, said of Gaza's residents, while also insisting that he personally would not be involved in development. Trump has previously suggested that Gaza’s residents could be displaced temporarily or permanently, an idea that leaders around the Arab world have sharply rebuked. Additionally, Trump renewed his suggestions that a tenuous ceasefire between Hamas and Israel could be canceled if Hamas doesn't release all of the remaining hostages it is holding by midday on Saturday. Trump first made that suggestion on Monday, though he insisted then that the ultimate decision lies with Israel.
“I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally," Trump said Tuesday of Hamas. "They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”The king's visit came at a perilous moment for the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas is accusing Israel of violating the truce and says it will delay future releases of hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack. In a statement, Hamas called Trump's Tuesday comments “racist” and “a call for ethnic cleansing.” It also accused the president of seeking to “liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people.” Trump has repeatedly proposed the U.S. take control of Gaza and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East,” with Palestinians in the war-torn territory pushed into neighboring nations with no right of return. Trump's Tuesday comments contradicted his Monday suggestions that, if necessary, he would withhold U.S. funding from Jordan and Egypt — longtime U.S. allies and among the top recipients of its foreign aid — as a means of persuading them to accept additional Palestinians from Gaza. Jordan is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said last week that his country’s opposition to Trump’s idea about displacing Gaza's residents was “firm and unwavering.”Besides concerns about jeopardizing the long-held goals of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Egypt and Jordan have privately raised security concerns about welcoming large numbers of additional refugees into their countries even temporarily. Trump announced his ideas for resettling Palestinians from Gaza and taking ownership of the territory for the U.S. during a press conference last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The president initially didn’t rule out deploying U.S. troops to help secure Gaza but at the same time insisted no U.S. funds would go to pay for the reconstruction of the territory, raising fundamental questions about the nature of his plan. After Trump’s initial comments, Rubio and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that Trump only wanted Palestinians relocated from Gaza “temporarily” and sought an “interim” period to allow for debris removal, the disposal of unexploded ordnance and reconstruction. But asked in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that aired Monday if Palestinians in Gaza would have a right to return to the territory under his plan, he replied, “No, they wouldn’t.”

Trump stands by his Gaza plan in meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah
Kevin Liptak, CNN/February 11, 2025
President Donald Trump made no attempt Tuesday to soften his proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza and redevelop the land into premium housing, even as his guest in the Oval Office, King Abdullah II of Jordan, suggested the Arab world was opposed.
Trump repeated his view that Palestinians should be moved out of the devastated strip to “parcels” in third countries, including Jordan, despite the objections of those countries’ leaders. And the president brushed aside questions about what authority the US might wield to take control of the Palestinian enclave. “It’s not a complex thing to do. And with the United States being in control of that piece of land, a fairly large piece of land, you’re going to have stability in the Middle East for the first time,” Trump said in the Oval Office.Abdullah, seated next to Trump, did not outright reject the president’s idea. But his discomfort with the plan was obvious as he indicated alternate proposals for Gaza would be forthcoming. “I think we have to keep in mind, there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries,” Abdullah said. “I think the point is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody?” He later advised, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”In a statement after their meeting, Abdullah was more direct. “I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” he wrote on X. But Trump’s comments made obvious he’s serious about moving forward with the plan he revealed one week ago. “We’re going to have it, we’re going to keep it, and we’re going to make sure that there’s going to be peace and there’s not going to be any problem, and nobody’s going to question it, and we’re going to run it very properly,” Trump said. “We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it. We’re going to cherish it,” Trump said of Gaza. His plans to “own” the Strip have injected yet more uncertainty into the shaky ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Sitting next to Abdullah, the president held to his comments, made the day before in the Oval Office, that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release all hostages from Gaza by noon on Saturday. “And you know, I have a Saturday deadline, and I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline personally,” Trump said. He added that “all bets are off” in regard to the ceasefire deal if Hamas does not release the hostages by then.
Looking for a deal
A week after proposing his brazen new plan to redevelop Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” Trump appears intent on negotiating his far-fetched plan into reality. In this case, the deal he’s envisioning would apparently involve Jordan and Egypt accepting millions of new Palestinian refugees — over their consistent objections — so Trump can clear the rubble from the demolished Gaza Strip, construct new glass towers with Mediterranean views and invite “the world’s people” to move in. “We’re going to be able to work something, and I know we’ll be able to work something also with, I believe, not, not 100%, but 99% we’re going to work out something with Egypt,” Trump said on Tuesday. As leverage, Trump is wielding the billions of dollars in American assistance provided to Jordan and Egypt every year, without which those countries could face dire financial problems. “Yeah, maybe, sure why not?” Trump responded in the Oval Office on Monday evening when asked if he would hold back American aid to Jordan and Egypt. “If they don’t, I would conceivably withhold aid, yes.”
A day later, he seemed less sure that cutting aid was the best path.
“No, I think we’ll do something. I don’t have to threaten with money,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I think we’re above that.” Cairo and Amman are not without leverage of their own: Both closely align their security policies with Washington, and both have played a role in protecting Israel in the past — including last year, when Jordan helped shoot down a barrage of Iranian missiles fired toward Israel. Even some US officials worry forcing Egypt and Jordan to accept new Palestinian refugees, if that’s even possible, could seriously destabilize two reliable security partners. “I do think he’ll take, and I think other countries will take also,” Trump said a day ahead of his meeting with Abdullah. “They have good hearts.”The question for Abdullah, along with Egyptian officials visiting Washington this week, is whether Trump’s maximalist proposal for the troubled enclave is serious, or whether it is merely a starting point for some alternative plan to bring peace and stability to the area. Some Trump officials have suggested the latter, even if they are careful to insist the president isn’t bluffing when discussing his audacious idea. “Come to the table with your plan if you don’t like his plan,” Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, suggesting the White House has received “all kinds of outreach” since Trump’s comments. At its root, US officials said, Trump’s suggestion was intended in part to spur action on an issue he has viewed as moribund, with no other nations offering reasonable solutions for how to rebuild an area that has been obliterated by Israeli bombardment following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
Still, it is debatable whether, in Trump’s mind, there exists a distinction between serious proposal and negotiating tactic. Nothing he has said about the Gaza plan in the week since he first uttered it aloud, at a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suggests it is anything but an earnest strategy, even if statements by some of his top officials suggested otherwise. In fact, in the days before Abdullah’s arrival, Trump did nothing to soften what has for many in the region been the most troubling aspect of his proposal: that Palestinians who leave Gaza under his plan would not be permitted to return. “No, they wouldn’t,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News when asked whether the Palestinians would have a right to return to Gaza. “Because they will have much better housing. Much better – in other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.”
Trump leaning on Jordan and Egypt
So far, Trump seems set on finding that “permanent place” in Jordan and Egypt, even though leaders in both those countries swiftly rejected the plan last week. Egypt, which is concerned about an influx of Palestinians destabilizing its Sinai region, said on Sunday that it will convene an “emergency” Arab League summit on February 28 in Cairo to discuss “new and dangerous developments” in the Palestinian issue. In Jordan, where a large proportion of the population is of Palestinian descent, the issue holds particular resonance. The country absorbed successive waves of Palestinian refugees, starting in 1948 during the war that led to Israel’s creation. In 1970, armed Palestinian factions tried to seize control of the country from King Abdullah’s father Hussein, a brief but violent conflict known as “Black September.” Memories of the incident haven’t faded more than 50 years later, not least from the country’s current king, as the country grapples with a delicate demographic balance between its Palestinian and native Jordanian populations. At a moment when popular dissatisfaction with the king is growing, the question of how to proceed could become an existential one, both for Abdullah and for his US-focused geopolitics. A destabilized Jordan would prove deeply problematic both for the United States and Israel. Already, some opposition figures in Jordan have called for the kingdom to turn its attention away from the US and toward China, Russia or wealthy Arab states. All that complicates Trump’s plan to move more than a million Palestinian refugees there. Yet so far, he hasn’t acknowledged those difficulties, confident instead that he will be able to negotiate some workable solution.
“I have a feeling that despite them saying no, I have a feeling that the king in Jordan and that the general — president — but that the general in Egypt will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done,” Trump said last week, referring in the latter instance to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a former military officer. Tuesday’s meeting was not the first conversation between Trump and Abdullah about accepting more Palestinian refugees. “I said to him, ‘I’d love for you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess,’” Trump told reporters after he spoke by phone to the Jordanian leader late last month. At the time, Trump had not revealed publicly his new plan to take “long-term ownership” of the strip. Trump officials did not circulate his plan with Jordanian or Egyptian officials before the president announced it from the East Room. And while Trump had been discussing his idea with aides for several days, it was not written down before it appeared in his prepared remarks alongside Netanyahu last Tuesday. An Arab government official who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter told CNN that it’s still unclear if the US has fully worked through the details of Trump’s plan. The official said that Arab officials will discuss the matter with the Trump administration and propose ideas for Gaza’s future that would not involve expelling its Palestinian residents. How that can be reconciled with Trump’s own idea isn’t clear.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

At Least $53 Billion Needed to Rebuild Gaza, UN Estimates
Asharq Al Awsat/February 11/2025
More than $53 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza and end the "humanitarian catastrophe" that has gripped the war-ravaged territory, including $20 billion in the first three years, according to a United Nations estimate released Tuesday. "While it has not been possible in the current environment to fully assess the totality of needs that will be required in Gaza, the interim assessment offers an early indication of the enormous scale of recovery and reconstruction needs in the Gaza Strip," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report. The Gaza war has been paused since mid-January under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last 16 months, the Gaza health ministry says, and nearly all of Gaza's population has been internally displaced by the conflict, which has caused a hunger crisis.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities and about 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages, Israeli tallies show.

Netanyahu threatens to resume fighting in Gaza if hostages aren't released Saturday
Josef Federman And Sam Metz/JERUSALEM (AP) /February 11, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire in Gaza and directed troops to prepare to resume fighting Hamas if the militant group does not r elease more hostages on Saturday. Hamas said Monday — and reiterated Tuesday — that it planned to delay the release of three more hostages after accusing Israel of failing to meet the terms of the ceasefire, including by not allowing an agreed-upon number of tents and other aid into Gaza. Amid the mounting tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump emboldened Israel to call for the release of even more remaining hostages on Saturday.
Trump questions ceasefire's durability
After meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, Trump predicted Hamas would not release all the remaining hostages as he had demanded. “I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” the president said of Hamas. “They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”Since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas has released 21 hostages in a series of five exchanges for more than 730 Palestinian prisoners. A second phase calls for the return of all remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce. However, Trump’s statements about both the pending releases and plans for post-war Gaza have destabilized its fragile architecture. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Netanyahu’s threat referred to the three hostages scheduled for release on Saturday or all the remaining hostages, which would be a departure from the terms of the ceasefire. Netanyahu’s office said it “welcomed President Trump’s demand.”As Trump spoke to reporters in Washington and reasserted his demands, an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting, said Israel was “sticking to Trump’s announcement regarding the release of the hostages. Namely, that they will all be released on Saturday.” Netanyahu’s office also said it ordered the military to mobilize troops on and around the Gaza Strip in preparation for scenarios that could arise. Trump has said Israel should cancel the entire ceasefire if all of the roughly 70 hostages aren’t freed by Saturday. Hamas brushed off his threat Tuesday, doubling down on its claim that Israel has violated the ceasefire and warned that it would only continue releasing hostages if all parties adhered to the ceasefire. “Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties. This is the only way to bring back prisoners,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Tuesday. “The language of threats has no value; it only complicates matters.”The group later condemned Trump's White House remarks, saying they amounted to a “call for ethnic cleansing” and accusing Trump of seeking to “liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people.” It said in a statement it remained committed to the ceasefire, yet did not address its plans to suspend the hostages releases outlined in the first phase of the agreement.
Jordan — a U.S. ally — faces new pressures
Trump hosted King Abdullah II in Washington as he escalates pressure on Jordan to take in refugees from Gaza, perhaps permanently, as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East. “We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of U.S. control of Gaza as the Jordanian king stood by. Abdullah II was asked repeatedly by reporters about Trump’s plan to remake the Middle East, but didn’t make substantive comments. He also did not comment on the idea that a large number of refugees from Gaza could be welcomed in Jordan, where millions of Palestinian refugees already reside. The king said, however, that Jordan would be willing “right away” to take as many as 2,000 children in Gaza who have cancer or are otherwise ill. Last week, the top World Health Organization official for Gaza said between 12,000 and 14,000 patients still need medical evacuation from the territory — including 5,000 children. Palestinians and the international community have seethed over Trump's recent comments that any Palestinians potentially expelled from Gaza would not have a right to return. During the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, Hamas committed to freeing 33 hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, while Israel said it would release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The sides have carried out five swaps since Jan. 19. The war could resume in early March if no agreement is reached on the more complicated second phase of the ceasefire. But if it does, Israel will face a drastically different battlefield. After forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza in the early stages of the war, Israel allowed many of those displaced people to return to what is left of their homes, posing a new challenge to its ability to move ground troops through the territory.

Israel releases two Palestinians after raiding their bookshop in East Jerusalem
Arab News/February 11, 2025
LONDON: Israeli authorities released the owners of a well-established Palestinian bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday after detaining them and confiscating their books on Sunday. Saqi Books, the publisher of writer and bookseller Mahmoud Muna, confirmed that Mahmoud and his cousin Ahmed Muna were released after being detained for selling books related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which Israeli authorities considered “inciting violence.”The Munas owns The Educational Bookshop, which is 38 years old and has two branches, one of which features a cafe and a small conference room located on the busy Salah Al-Din Street. Mahmoud, who edited the “Daybreak in Gaza” collection with British filmmaker Matthew Teller last year, also runs the Bookshop at the American Colony Hotel. His family’s two bookshops have become essential stops for foreign journalists, diplomats, intellectuals and peace activists visiting East Jerusalem. In 2011, they won the Best Library award in Palestine and were recognized as the third-best library in the Middle East by the Lonely Planet Foundation, the Wafa news agency reported. After his release, Ahmed Muna described his arrest as "brutal and unjust." He said that Israeli authorities had placed both him and Mahmoud under house arrest for five days and prohibited them from entering the bookshop for 20 days. Mahmoud and Ahmed appeared before an Israeli court on Monday afternoon, attended by EU representatives, including those from France and the UK.
The French Consulate in Jerusalem, which operates the French Cultural Center directly adjacent to the raided bookshop on Salah Al-Din Street, said on Monday afternoon that the Israeli “raid is an attack against freedom of expression. Those pressures should stop now.” The Jerusalem-based writer Dima Al-Samman told Wafa that Israeli authorities “aim to erase anything related to Palestinian national culture and any manifestation of patriotism” in Jerusalem. Jameel As-Salhut, another writer based in Jerusalem, wondered: “Why is ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’ afraid of books and culture?” He added that despite the Israeli escalation in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, “it is impossible for the Israeli military to succeed in suppressing Palestinian culture in Jerusalem.”The Educational Bookshop is the third Palestinian bookstore to be raided and closed by Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem. Another recent raid occurred at a bookshop inside the Old City of Jerusalem’s Khan Al-Zeit bazaar, and the owner, Hisham Al-Ekramawi, was arrested during the incident.

UN experts warn Trump Gaza plan would return world to ‘dark days of colonial conquest’
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/February 11, 2025
NEW YORK: A group of more than 30 independent UN experts on Tuesday denounced threats by US President Donald Trump to “take over” and “own” Gaza, warning that such a move would usher in a new era of “predatory lawlessness.” Referring to Trump’s suggestion that Gaza’s Palestinian population could be relocated through the use of military force if required, the experts said: “Such blatant violations by a major power would break the global taboo on military aggression and embolden other predatory countries to seize foreign territories, with devastating consequences for peace and human rights globally.”They added that implementing the US proposal would “shatter the most fundamental rules of the international order and the United Nations Charter since 1945, which the US was instrumental in creating to restore peace after the catastrophic Second World War and Holocaust. “It would return the world to the dark days of colonial conquest.”The experts underscored that it was clearly unlawful to invade and seize foreign land by force; to forcibly expel inhabitants; and to deny the Palestinian people their fundamental right to self-determination, which includes keeping Gaza as part of a sovereign Palestinian state. “Such violations would replace the international rule of law and the stability it brings with the lawless ‘rule of the strongest’.”The experts include Ben Saul, the special rapporteur on the promotion of human rights while countering terrorism; Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian territories, and George Katrougalos, an independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order. They said that just as more than 50 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine had failed to bring peace or security to either Israel or Palestine, a US occupation would have the same disastrous outcome, driving endless war, death, and destruction. The mass deportation of civilians from occupied territories was classified as a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Conventions following the Second World War to prevent the repetition of actions such as Nazi Germany’s forced expulsion of populations from European nations. “The US proposal would accelerate forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands, which began in the 1947-48 Nakba, and has since included home demolitions, evictions, destruction and theft of natural resources and the criminal building of illegal Israeli colonial settlements,” the experts warned.During his previous term, Trump unlawfully acknowledged Israel’s illegal annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, actions that have been condemned by the International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly, the Security Council, and a vast majority of countries. “If the US president is genuinely concerned for the welfare of Palestinians, the US should broker a lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, compensate Palestinians for damage resulting from US weapons and munitions supplied to Israel despite the serious risk of violations of humanitarian law, and end arms transfers. It should also pressure Israel to fund reconstruction and provide reparation for violations, pursue accountability for perpetrators of international crimes, and meaningfully support Palestinian statehood,” they said. The experts said that if the US president truly cares about the well-being of Palestinians, the US should facilitate a lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, compensate Palestinians for the damage caused by US weapons and munitions provided to Israel despite the significant risk of humanitarian law violations, and halt arms transfers. They added that the US should also urge Israel to finance reconstruction, offer reparations for violations, seek accountability for those responsible for international crimes, and genuinely support Palestinian statehood. Israeli military action in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of over 48,100 Palestinians and left 110,000 injured, mostly women and children. The attacks have rendered 85 percent of the population, roughly 1.9 million people, homeless, and without access to sufficient food, water, and other basic needs. They have also severely damaged or destroyed most homes, agricultural land, public infrastructure, and caused extensive environmental harm.

Trump, hosting Jordan’s king, renews insistence US can control and redevelop Gaza
AP/February 11, 2025
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday and renewed his suggestions that Gaza could be emptied of residents, controlled by the US and redeveloped as a tourist area — a plan that could likely only work if the Arab nation agrees to accept more refugees. The pair met in the Oval Office, where Trump suggested he wouldn’t withhold US aid to Jordan or countries like Egypt, other Arab nations, if they don’t agree to dramatically increase the number of people from Gaza they take in. “I don’t have to threaten that. I do believe we’re above that,” Trump said. That contradicted the Republican president previously suggesting that holding back aid was a possibility. Abdullah was asked repeatedly about Trump’s audacious plan to remake the Middle East, but didn’t make substantive comments on it nor the idea that his country could accept large numbers of new refugees from Gaza. Trump also repeated suggestions that the US could come to control Gaza, but he said that it wouldn’t require committing funds and would come to fruition. He also said that would be possible, “Under the US authority,” without elaborating what that actually was. “We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of US control in Gaza. He suggested that the redeveloped area could have new hotels, office buildings and houses and “and we’ll make it exciting.” “I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love with it,” Trump, who built a New York real estate empire that catapulted him to fame, said of Gaza’s residents, while also insisting that he personally would not be involved in development. Additionally, Trump used the meeting to renew his suggestions that a tenuous ceasefire between Hamas and Israel could be canceled if Hamas doesn’t release all of the remaining hostages it is holding by midday on Saturday. “I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline, personally,” Trump said of Hamas. “They want to play tough guy. We’ll see how tough they are.”

Netanyahu threatens to resume fighting in Gaza if hostages aren’t released Saturday
AP/February 11, 2025
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and resume its fight against Hamas if the militant group does not go ahead with the next scheduled release of hostages on Saturday. Hamas said Monday — and reiterated Tuesday — that it planned to delay the release of three more hostages after accusing Israel of failing to meet the terms of the ceasefire, including by not allowing enough tents and other aid into Gaza. US President Donald Trump has emboldened Israel to call for the release of even more remaining hostages on Saturday, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether Netanyahu’s threat referred to the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza, or just the three scheduled for release on Saturday. Earlier Tuesday, an Israeli official said Netanyahu ordered the army to add more troops in and around the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu also ordered officials “to prepare for every scenario if Hamas doesn’t release our hostages this Saturday,” according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. Israel had signaled Monday it planned to reinforce defenses along the Gaza border. The all-scenario plan was announced during a four-hour meeting between Netanyahu and his Security Cabinet that focused on Hamas’ threat, which risks jeopardizing the three-week-old ceasefire. So far, Hamas has released 21 hostages in a series of exchanges for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. President Donald Trump has said Israel should cancel the entire ceasefire if all of the roughly 70 hostages aren’t freed by Saturday. Hamas brushed off his threat on Tuesday, doubling down on its claim that Israel has violated the ceasefire and warned that it would only continue releasing hostages if all parties adhered to the ceasefire.
Trump is hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday as he escalates pressure on the Arab nation to take in refugees from Gaza — perhaps permanently — as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East. Palestinians and the international community have seethed over Trump’s recent comments that any Palestinians potentially expelled from Gaza would not have a right to return. During the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, Hamas committed to freeing 33 hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, while Israel said it would release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The sides have carried out five swaps since Jan. 19. The war could resume in early March if no agreement is reached on the more complicated second phase of the ceasefire, which calls for the return of all remaining hostages and an indefinite extension of the truce. But if Israel resumes the war, it will face a drastically different battlefield. After forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza in the early stages of the war, Israel allowed many of those displaced people to return to what is left of their homes, posing a new challenge to its ability to move ground troops through the territory.

Egyptians furious over Trump’s Gaza plan, downplay aid threat
AFP/February 11, 2025
CAIRO: Egyptians reacted with fury on Tuesday to US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, while downplaying his threat to cut aid to both countries if they refuse. The state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper ran a front-page headline declaring “Egypt urges the world to end historical injustice against the Palestinian people,” while the private daily Al-Masry Al-Youm wrote, “Palestinian anger: Gaza is not for sale.”On X, the hashtag “on the shoe” — a common Egyptian phrase meaning “we could not care less” — began to trend in response to what many saw as an attempt at intimidation. The phrase can be traced back to a historic speech by late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who dismissed US aid threats during Egypt’s wars with Israel. On Monday, a strongly worded statement from Egypt’s foreign ministry rejected “any compromise” that could infringe on Palestinians’ rights, including to remain on their land. The statement followed a meeting in Washington between Egypt’s foreign minister Badr Abdelatty and his US counterpart Marco Rubio. During a phone call with the Danish prime minister on Tuesday, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said that the establishment of a Palestinian state is “the only guarantee for achieving lasting peace” in the region. The Egyptian leader also called for the reconstruction of Gaza “without displacing” its residents, according to a statement from his office. Trump, speaking on Monday, said the United States could “conceivably” halt assistance to Egypt and Jordan unless they agree to take in Palestinians from Gaza — a proposal Cairo and Amman have repeatedly rejected. The US provides its regional ally Egypt with around $1.3 billion in military aid annually, making it one of the country’s largest foreign donors.
According to US government data, Egypt received roughly $1.5 billion in both military and economic assistance from the United States last year. Hussein Haridi, a former diplomat and assistant foreign minister, downplayed the significance of US aid, arguing that it would not sway Egypt’s position on Gaza.
“This small amount (about $200 million) in economic aid will not affect the Egyptian economy,” Haridi told AFP. “Regardless of its impact, we will not bow to Trump’s threats,” he said. Haridi also said that Trump had little understanding of “the true character of Egyptians” and the country’s historical role in defending Arab interests and in particular the Palestinian cause. “We do not care about Trump’s threats. Egypt is fully prepared to confront them and these threats will backfire on US interests in the region.”“This is not just El-Sisi’s stance or the Egyptian government’s stance — it is the stance of the Egyptian people,” he added. Gamal Bayoumi, a former diplomat and assistant foreign minister, meanwhile, told AFP that Egypt has made its stance clear: any attempt to force Palestinians out of Gaza “will be considered an act of war.”Bayoumi added that Egypt was well prepared for any measures Washington might take, including a potential halt to financial assistance. Among ordinary Egyptians, the Trump plan provoked outrage. “After bombing and killing them, they now want to displace them?” said Samir Gomaa, a 71-year-old garage owner in Cairo. “This is Palestinian land. Who in their right mind sells land that isn’t theirs and turns it into a tourist project?,” Gomaa told AFP. Despite Egypt’s economic struggles, including soaring inflation and mounting debt, many citizens expressed support for El-Sisi’s stance. “Our president is a hero for saying no, even though we’re struggling with inflation,” said Mohamed Abdel Tawab, 53, a paper trader. “The Arab world will rebuild Gaza and Egypt will stand firm,” he said. Since early in the Gaza war, which began in October 2023 with Hamas’s attack on Israel, officials and lawmakers in Egypt have repeatedly warned against any attempts to alter the region’s demographics, seeing it as a national security threat.

Houthis ready to launch attacks on Israel if war on Gaza resumes, leader says
Reuters/February 11, 2025
DUBAI: The Houthis are ready to mount attacks on Israel if it resumes its assault on Gaza and does not commit to the ceasefire deal, the group’s leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said on Tuesday. The Houthis had attacked Israeli and other vessels in the Red Sea, disturbing global shipping lanes, in what they said were acts of solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians during Israel’s war with Hamas. “Our hands are on the trigger and we are ready to immediately escalate against the Israeli enemy if it returns to escalation in the Gaza Strip,” Al-Houthi said in a televised speech. The Gaza ceasefire deal appears fragile after Hamas said it would stop releasing Israeli hostages over what the Palestinian militant group called Israeli violations of the agreement. In response, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the military to be at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and for domestic defense. The Houthis, part of Iran’s anti-Israel and anti-Western regional alliance known as the Axis of Resistance, have also launched missiles and drones toward Israel, hundreds of kilometers to the north.

Jordan to take sick Gaza kids as Trump pushes takeover plan
AFP/February 11, 2025
WASHINGTON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday told Donald Trump that his country would take in some 2,000 sick children from war-torn Gaza, as the US president pushed his plan to take over the territory and push out Palestinians. Speaking at the White House, King Abdullah added that Egypt would present a proposal on how countries in the region could “work” with Trump on the plan, despite Arab nations and the Palestinians having rejected it outright. “I think one of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children, cancer children who are in a very ill state, that is possible,” King Abdullah said as Trump welcomed him and Crown Prince Hussein in the Oval Office. Trump called it a “beautiful gesture” and said he didn’t know about it before the Jordanian monarch’s arrival at the White House. The US president meanwhile backed down on a suggestion that he could withhold aid for Jordan and Egypt if they refused to take in more than two million Palestinians from Gaza. “I think we’ll do something. I don’t have to threaten that, I do believe we’re above that,” Trump said. Trump stunned the world when he announced a proposal last week for the United States to “take over” Gaza, envisioning rebuilding the devastated territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East” — but only after resettling Palestinians elsewhere, with no plan for them ever to return. Jordan’s King Abdullah was repeatedly pressed by reporters on whether he supported the plan, but said only that Egypt was coming up with a response and that Arab nations would then discuss it at talks in Riyadh. “The president is looking at Egypt coming to present that plan... (then) we will be in Saudi Arabia to discuss how we should work with the president and with the United States,” King Abdullah said. “The point is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody," he added.

UN experts warn Trump Gaza plan would return world to ‘dark days of colonial conquest’
Ephrem Kossaify/February 11, 2025
NEW YORK: A group of more than 30 independent UN experts on Tuesday denounced threats by US President Donald Trump to “take over” and “own” Gaza, warning that such a move would usher in a new era of “predatory lawlessness.”Referring to Trump’s suggestion that Gaza’s Palestinian population could be relocated through the use of military force if required, the experts said: “Such blatant violations by a major power would break the global taboo on military aggression and embolden other predatory countries to seize foreign territories, with devastating consequences for peace and human rights globally.”They added that implementing the US proposal would “shatter the most fundamental rules of the international order and the United Nations Charter since 1945, which the US was instrumental in creating to restore peace after the catastrophic Second World War and Holocaust.
“It would return the world to the dark days of colonial conquest.”The experts underscored that it was clearly unlawful to invade and seize foreign land by force; to forcibly expel inhabitants; and to deny the Palestinian people their fundamental right to self-determination, which includes keeping Gaza as part of a sovereign Palestinian state. “Such violations would replace the international rule of law and the stability it brings with the lawless ‘rule of the strongest’.”The experts include Ben Saul, the special rapporteur on the promotion of human rights while countering terrorism; Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian territories, and George Katrougalos, an independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.
They said that just as more than 50 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine had failed to bring peace or security to either Israel or Palestine, a US occupation would have the same disastrous outcome, driving endless war, death, and destruction. The mass deportation of civilians from occupied territories was classified as a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Conventions following the Second World War to prevent the repetition of actions such as Nazi Germany’s forced expulsion of populations from European nations. “The US proposal would accelerate forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands, which began in the 1947-48 Nakba, and has since included home demolitions, evictions, destruction and theft of natural resources and the criminal building of illegal Israeli colonial settlements,” the experts warned. During his previous term, Trump unlawfully acknowledged Israel’s illegal annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, actions that have been condemned by the International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly, the Security Council, and a vast majority of countries. “If the US president is genuinely concerned for the welfare of Palestinians, the US should broker a lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, compensate Palestinians for damage resulting from US weapons and munitions supplied to Israel despite the serious risk of violations of humanitarian law, and end arms transfers. It should also pressure Israel to fund reconstruction and provide reparation for violations, pursue accountability for perpetrators of international crimes, and meaningfully support Palestinian statehood,” they said. The experts said that if the US president truly cares about the well-being of Palestinians, the US should facilitate a lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, compensate Palestinians for the damage caused by US weapons and munitions provided to Israel despite the significant risk of humanitarian law violations, and halt arms transfers. They added that the US should also urge Israel to finance reconstruction, offer reparations for violations, seek accountability for those responsible for international crimes, and genuinely support Palestinian statehood. Israeli military action in Gaza has resulted in the deaths of over 48,100 Palestinians and left 110,000 injured, mostly women and children. The attacks have rendered 85 percent of the population, roughly 1.9 million people, homeless, and without access to sufficient food, water, and other basic needs. They have also severely damaged or destroyed most homes, agricultural land, public infrastructure, and caused extensive environmental harm.

BBC announces new West Bank documentary with journalist Louis Theroux
Arab News/February 10, 2025
LONDON: The BBC announced on Monday that journalist Louis Theroux is to produce a new documentary examining Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The investigative journalist is to travel to the region to meet members of the growing ultra-nationalist settler community. Theroux previously covered the topic in his 2010 documentary “Ultra Zionists,” which explored life in the contested territory. His new documentary, “Louis Theroux: The Settlers,” will revisit the issue in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Theroux said: “(Since 2010) those same extreme settlers are even more emboldened. “I’m interested in ideologues and fundamentalists of all stripes. In going back to the West Bank I wanted to see settler expansionism up close, and the human cost it entails.”The BBC said Theroux will “embed himself in the West Bank,” meeting prominent settlers and traveling through the territory in his signature style. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, yet have long been protected by the Israeli security forces. Since the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and about 250 taken hostage, settler violence against Palestinian communities has escalated, with reports of forced expulsions and land seizures. US President Donald Trump recently revoked an executive order issued by his predecessor, Joe Biden, that sanctioned far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of violence against Palestinians. Experts warn that the move could embolden settler aggression and further undermine prospects for Palestinian statehood. Theroux said: “It’s a story specific to a time and a place and a region, but it’s also a universal insight into tribalism and the ways in which we can blind ourselves to the humanity of those around us.”

Ukraine prepared to offer territory swap with Russia: Zelensky
AFP/February 11, 2025
LONDON: Ukraine will offer to swap territory with Russia in any potential peace negotiations, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published Tuesday, adding that Europe alone would not be able to shoulder Kyiv’s war effort. Zelensky will meet US Vice President JD Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, the Ukrainian leader’s spokesman told AFP, as Washington pushes for an end to the nearly three-year war with Russia. Vance has been a frequent critic of US support that has been vital to Ukraine’s war effort. “There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,” Zelensky told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published on the UK newspaper’s website on Tuesday. “Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he said. Trump is keen for both sides to reach a deal, the terms of which are a source of concern in Ukraine. Zelensky told the Guardian he would offer Russian President Vladimir Putin territory that Ukraine seized in Russia’s Kursk region six months ago. “We will swap one territory for another,” he said, adding that he did not know which territories he would ask for in return. “I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority,” he said. Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine — Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 — though it does not have full control over them.
Trump confirmed Monday that he would soon dispatch his special envoy Keith Kellogg, who is tasked with drawing up a proposal to halt the fighting, to Ukraine. The US president is pressing for a swift end to the conflict, while Zelensky is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal.
Kyiv fears that any settlement that does not include hard military commitments, such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping troops, will allow the Kremlin time to regroup and rearm for a fresh attack. Zelensky has said he would offer US companies lucrative reconstruction contracts in a bid to win over Trump. “Those who are helping us to save Ukraine will renovate it, with their businesses together with Ukrainian businesses. All these things we are ready to speak about in detail,” he told the Guardian. Ukraine has some of the biggest mineral reserves in Europe and it is “not in the interests of the United States” for those to fall into Russian hands, he said. “Valuable natural resources where we can offer our partners possibilities that didn’t exist before to invest in them. For us it will create jobs, for American companies it will create profits,” he added. The Munich meeting comes with Russia advancing across Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where over the past year it has captured several settlements, most completely flattened by months of Russian bombardments.

Kuwait sends 22nd relief plane to Syria
Arab News/February 11, 2025
LONDON: The 22nd Kuwaiti relief plane arrived at Damascus International Airport, delivering essential aid to Syria as part of Kuwaiti efforts to alleviate the Syrian crisis. An air force plane delivered 10 tons of food aid, which was organized by the Kuwait Red Crescent Society in cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, the Kuwait News Agency reported late on Monday. The Kuwait Red Crescent is working with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver food and shelter materials as part of an air bridge planned to operate between Kuwait and Syria beyond the month of Ramadan, which starts in March. Kuwaiti aid provided to Syria through the air bridge has reached 591 tons of various relief supplies, the KUNA added

State media in Iran say Khamenei pardons journalists who reported woman's death, sparking protests
Associated Press/February 11, 2025
Iran’s supreme leader has pardoned two female journalists who reported the death of a woman in police custody in 2022, state media reported. A report by Mizanonline, affiliated with the country’s judiciary, said Niloufar Hamedi, who broke the news of Mahsa Amini’s death, and Elaheh Mohammadi, who wrote about Amini’s funeral, were on the list of hundreds of people pardoned by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week. Khamenei in the past has issued pardons on the February anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In 2023, a court that deals with security cases sentenced the journalists to seven and six years in prison on charges including collaborating with the U.S. government and propaganda against the system. They had been out on bail since January 2024. Amini's death in police custody sparked months of protests in dozens of cities across Iran, posing one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic in the past two decades. Hamedi’s and Mohammadi’s reporting was crucial for spreading the word in the days after Amini’s death, and their detentions sparked international criticism. Nearly 100 journalists were arrested during the demonstrations. Iran for months did not offer overall casualty figures from the demonstrations, while acknowledging tens of thousands were detained. Human rights activists said at least 529 people were killed by security forces.

Saudi FM heads Kingdom’s delegation at Paris AI Summit
Arab News/February 11, 2025
RIYADH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan is heading the Kingdom’s delegation to the AI Action Summit being held in Paris, Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday. Prince Faisal is attending the global summit on behalf of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, SPA added. The summit is bringing together almost a hundred countries and more than one thousand private sector and civil society representatives from across the world, invited on an inclusive basis in recognition of their commitment to the action promoted by the summit and their desire to contribute actively to debate.
India will host the next international summit on artificial intelligence after co-hosting with France in Paris on Monday and Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron’s office said.

Turkmenistan reaches deal with Turkiye to ship natural gas via Iran
AP/February 11, 2025
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: Turkmenistan has struck a deal to ship natural gas to Turkiye via Iran, a government daily reported Tuesday. The official daily Neutral Tyrkmenistan said that Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the chairman of the country’s People’s Council, welcomed the deal in a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Berdymukhamedov said it was a major development in the regional energy cooperation. Gas supplies under the contract that was signed between the state-run Turkmengas company and Turkiye’s state-owned BOTAS will begin on March 1.
“With this agreement, which we have been working on for many years, we will strengthen the natural gas supply security of our country and our region, while furthering the strategic cooperation between the two countries,” Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in a statement. Turkiye imports gas via pipelines from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. Last year, Turkmenistan signed a contract with Iran for 10 billion cubic meters (353 billion cubic feet) of natural gas to be shipped on to Iraq. The ex-Soviet Central Asian country relies heavily on the export of its vast natural gas reserves. China is the nation’s main customer for gas and Turkmenistan also is working on a pipeline to supply gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

UK’s Princess Catherine visits women’s prison
AFP/February 11, 2025
LONDON: Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, on Tuesday visited a women’s prison to meet ex-offenders and those still serving, as she continues her return to public duties having completed her cancer treatment. Catherine visited HMP Styal in northwest England to meet offenders who had used the services of a charity-run mother and baby unit. “It is great that you are looking at the mother’s wellbeing as well. The best thing for baby is to have a mother whose emotional needs and wellbeing is met as well,” she told staff at the unit. Former inmate Sam told the princess that parental support was better in jail than outside. “I only left six weeks ago and I am just getting rolling with everything again. I have said so many times that I just wish I could take this (prison) nursery and put it in my hometown,” she said. Catherine, 43, who is mother to Prince George 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and six-year-old Prince Louis, has only recently begun a gradual return to royal duties after a shock cancer diagnosis last year.It was the princess’s fifth public engagement in just over two weeks.

16 Pakistanis killed in shipwreck off Libya: Islamabad
AFP/February 11, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Emergency workers have recovered the bodies of 16 Pakistanis after a boat capsized off the coast of Libya, with 10 others believed to be missing, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Tuesday. Thirty-seven people survived the accident, according to authorities. The ministry first reported the accident on Monday. It said 63 Pakistanis had been onboard the vessel and 10 are still missing, according to unconfirmed reports. “So far 16 dead bodies have been recovered and their Pakistani nationalities established on the basis of their passports,” a spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “There are 37 survivors including 1 in hospital and 33 in police custody.” A team from Pakistan’s embassy in Tripoli visited the coastal city of Zawiya to meet with local officials and those from Zawiya hospital. “The Embassy in Tripoli is in the process of gathering further information and maintaining contact with the local authorities,” the statement added. Each year thousands of Pakistanis pay large sums to traffickers to launch risky and illegal journeys to Europe, where they hope to find work and send funds to support families back home. Pakistanis are frequently among those drowned on crammed boats which sink on the Mediterranean Sea separating North Africa from Europe — the world’s deadliest migrant route. An official from the Federal Investigation Agency, speaking anonymously to AFP in 2023, estimated Pakistanis attempt 40,000 illegal trips every year. In June that year the Mediterranean witnessed one of its worst migrant shipwrecks when a rusty and overloaded trawler sank overnight. It was carrying more than 750 people — up to 350 of them Pakistanis according to Islamabad — but only 82 bodies were ever recovered.

Pope rebukes Trump administration over migrant deportations, and appears to take direct aim at Vance
Nicole Winfield/The Associated Press/February 11, 2025
Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations of migrants, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.”Francis took the remarkable step of addressing the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter to U.S. bishops in which he appeared to take direct aim at Vice President JD Vance's defense of the deportation program on theological grounds. U.S. border czar Tom Homan immediately pushed back, noting that the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by walls and that Francis should leave border enforcement to his office. History's first Latin American pope has long made caring for migrants a priority of his pontificate, citing the biblical command to “welcome the stranger” in demanding that countries welcome, protect, promote and integrate those fleeing conflicts, poverty and climate disasters. Francis has also said governments are expected to do so to the limits of their capacity. The Argentine Jesuit and President Donald Trump have long sparred over migration, including before Trump's first administration when Francis in 2016 famously said anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants was “not a Christian.”In the letter, Francis said nations have the right to defend themselves and keep their communities safe from criminals.
“That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he wrote. Citing the Book of Exodus and Jesus Christ’s own experience, Francis affirmed the right of people to seek shelter and safety in other lands and described the deportation plan as a “major crisis” unfolding in the U.S. Anyone schooled in Christianity “cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” he said. “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly,” he warned. The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, responded with a letter of thanks to the pope.
“With you, we pray that the U.S. government keep its prior commitments to help those in desperate need,” Broglio wrote. “Boldly I ask for your continued prayers so that we may find the courage as a nation to build a more humane system of immigration, one that protects our communities while safeguarding the dignity of all.”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that more than 8,000 people had been arrested in immigration enforcement actions since Trump took office Jan. 20. Some have been deported, others are being held in federal prisons and still others are being held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.Vance, a Catholic convert, has defended the administration's America-first crackdown by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as “ordo amoris.” He has said the concept delineates a hierarchy of care — to family first, followed by neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those elsewhere.
In his letter, Francis appeared to correct Vance's understanding of the concept.
“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” he wrote. "The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."David Gibson, director of the center for religion and culture at Fordham University, said in a social media post that Francis' letter “takes aim at every single absurd theological claim by JD Vance and his allies in conservative Catholicism (and the Catholic electorate)."Vance’s reference to the ordo amoris had won support from many on the Catholic right in the U.S., including the Catholic League, which said he was right about the hierarchy of Christian love. Writing in Crisis Magazine, editor Eric Sammons said Vance was merely drawing on the wisdom of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and the broader teaching of the Church to insist on loving things in an order.
“For Augustine, every love, even the love of neighbor, must be ordered beneath the love of God,” he wrote. “This hierarchy extends to our human relationships where love for family, community, and nation should precede our love for the world at large, not in intensity but in priority of duty and responsibility.”
Homan, a Catholic, said Francis should fix the Catholic Church and leave U.S. border protection to his department. “He wants to attack us for securing our border. He's got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?" Homan told reporters in a video from The Hill posted on X. "So he's got a wall around that protects his people and himself, but we can't have a wall around the United States." The Vatican, a walled-in, 44-hectare (108-acre) city state inside Rome, recently increased sanctions for anyone who illegally enters the territory. The December law calls for a prison term of up to four years and a fine of up to 25,000 euros ($25,873) for anyone who enters with “violence, threat or deception," such as by evading security checkpoints. The U.S. bishops conference had already put out an unusually critical statement after Trump’s initial executive orders. It said those "focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us.”It was a strong rebuke from the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, which considers abortion to be the “preeminent priority” for Catholic voters and had cheered the 2022 Supreme Court decision to end constitutional protections for abortion that was made possible by Trump-appointed justices. Trump won 54% of Catholic voters in the 2024 election, a wider margin than the 50% in the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden, a Catholic. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, a strong ally of Francis, cheered Francis' letter and, in comments to Vatican Media, said it showed that the pope considered "the protection and advocacy for the dignity of migrants as the preeminent urgency at this moment.”It’s not unusual for a pope to address a country’s bishops or faithful to deliver a specific message. But it’s rare for a pope to weigh in on a specific political program of a government with such a letter, although migration is certainly an issue that the U.S. Catholic Church has long had on its agenda.
But migration is not the only area of conflict in U.S.-Vatican relations. On Monday, the Vatican's main charity Caritas International warned that millions of people could die as a result of the “ruthless” U.S. decision to “recklessly” stop USAID funding. Caritas asked governments to urgently call on the Trump administration to reverse course.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on February 11-12/2025
Iran's Dangerous Push To Become An AI Superpower
Steven Stalinsky, Ph.D./ MEMRI Daily Brief No. 715/February 11, 2025
Heads of state, top government officials, leaders of international organizations, tech CEOs, and academics from over 90 countries are meeting this week in Paris for the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit. In his speech at the summit, Vice President JD Vance, who led the U.S. delegation, stated: "We will safeguard American AI and chip technologies from theft and misuse, work with our allies and partners to strengthen and extend these protections and close pathways to adversaries attaining AI capabilities that threaten all of our people."
One such adversary not invited, for good reason, was Iran. In its approach to AI, Iran is following its successful development of drone technology, which began with the reverse engineering of a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone it downed in 2012 by using its technology to produce its Shaheed drones. As it now develops its AI expertise via theft, copying open-source software, and collaborating with Russia and China, the Iranian government – which recently acknowledged its failure to reverse-engineer a Tesla electric vehicle – is quietly pursuing AI advances for military, cyber, and defense purposes.
The world has already witnessed the dangers of Iran's drone program, and Iran's development and destructive capabilities have surprised Western military and intelligence agencies. If proper attention is not given to another nascent Iranian threat now emerging: a clandestine yet intensifying rush for mastery of AI – this too will become another national security threat.
Iran's investments into its AI engineers seem to be paying off. So far in 2025, Iran has announced the following: it is allocating $115 million to AI research, it has added an "advanced data-processing" warship equipped with AI to its naval fleet and 1,000 new combat drones, some with AI navigation, to its army; and it has boosted the precision of its missiles using AI, and many of these new weapons will be stationed as part of electronic warfare units in the strategic port of Jask on the Gulf of Oman. It also announced it is testing 'smart' combat robots.
According to findings released by Google on January 29, 2025, Iranian groups are using the company's Gemini AI chatbot for researching defense organizations to target with hacking attempts, to generate content in English, Hebrew, and Farsi to be used in phishing campaigns, and other purposes.
For Iran, AI is an inexpensive path to power. It is already using it for cyberattacks and influence operations abroad, and to upgrade its drones and ballistic missiles, deploy swarms of unmanned watercraft, surveil and repress its citizens, and control its borders. Alarmingly, it could now be exploring AI's potential nuclear applications. The U.S. government's October 2024 landmark national security memorandum on AI reflects awareness of such threats, and details how the U.S. "must develop safeguards for its use of AI tools, and take an active role in steering global AI norms and institutions." The memorandum sets out guidelines for the Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and national security organizations to add "guardrails" to prevent AI from being hijacked by hostile governments such as Iran, to develop nuclear weapons or "generate or exacerbate deliberate chemical and biological threats." It also calls on intelligence agencies to begin protecting work, and the chips used to power it, as national treasures. The Iranian government has already conducted successful campaigns using AI. The Iranian covert influence operation known as Storm-2035 used ChatGPT to disseminate disinformation and generate false news reports on a variety of topics, including the U.S. presidential election. On numerous occasions, the Iranian leadership has declared its intent to make the country an AI superpower. By November 2021, it completed an official "study of the national artificial intelligence development roadmap," and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has since then publicly discussed Iran's strategy to master AI. He said that "one of Iran's goals is to be among the top 10 countries in the area of artificial intelligence," and asked Iranian scientists to focus on this goal.
Less than two months after Iran's launch of its national AI center, Khamenei stressed, in August this year, that Iran must act fast to "master all layers of AI." He went on to warn of "attempts by the world's opportunists and those seeking power to target Iran by "establish[ing] an IAEA-like body [to regulate] AI" and "prevent countries' progress in this field."
Based on their ongoing public cooperation, it should be deduced that Russia and China have already provided AI technology and knowledge to Iran. In 2020, the Iran-Russia Cooperation Group on Communications and Information Technology began working together on AI, and this year, the two countries signed an official agreement on AI cooperation. Iranian Army deputy chief of staff Brig.-Gen. Mehdi Rabbani attended a Beijing forum on topics including AI back in 2019. By January 2022, the vice chancellor of a top Iranian university was pointing at the 3,000 Iranian students already in China and stressing that the 25-year Iran-China agreement of March 2021 offered a "golden opportunity" to boost the two countries' AI cooperation.
The most dangerous potential of Iranian mastery of AI is for military uses and nuclear weapons technology. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said in January 2021 that the organization was striving to use the quantum technology it had been developing since 2016 for AI.
The IRGC and Iran Army added to their arsenals in July 2023 an Iranian-made missile that, Iran claimed, "has artificial intelligence and stealth capabilities." IRGC commander Gen. Hossein Salami said in February 2024 that Iranian missiles and vessels were "equipped with highly accurate AI technologies," adding that "today, we can move from [the Iranian nuclear facility at] Bushehr to the American coasts." IRGC Aerospace Force commander Brig.-Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh boasted, in January 2021, about "the use of artificial intelligence technology" in Iran's surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. Just yesterday, on February 10, IRGC Naval Commander Ali Reza Tangsiri announced the unveiling of supersonic cruise missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers, saying: "All these missiles are sophisticated – designed and manufactured on the basis of artificial intelligence – and will be unveiled next year."
The October 2024 U.S. security memorandum gives the U.S.'s new AI Safety Institute (AISI) the power to help inspect AI tools prior to release to make sure that they cannot be used by terrorists and bad actors to build weapons of mass destruction or help hostile nations improve missile accuracy, as Iran admits doing. Amid reports in 2023 that the IRGC navy had developed AI-enhanced unmanned military vessels, that could be used for mass attacks, commander Tangsiri said that the navy had developed AI-equipped long-range strategic cruise missiles. In August, IRGC naval exercises featured AI-enhanced unmanned vessels. Tangsiri explained that the IRGC had fitted drones with AI for improved range, precision, and radar evasion, and that the IRGC was implementing AI in the drone, missile, vessel and submarine industries.
As AI development is moving at the speed of light in Iran, Khamenei is right to worry about international efforts to stop Iran from using it for advancing its military aims. But these efforts, like efforts to slow Iran's nuclear program, will be difficult to bring to fruition. They will need to include the usual measures, such as leveling sanctions any time the country is caught trying to obtain technology by illegal means. The new Trump administration will need to act fast to strengthen guardrails to ensure that America's enemies such as Iran are not able to access its technology. The severity of the threat was reflected in statements by the head of the Pentagon's newly created Artificial Intelligence Office, who acknowledged in December that "AI adoption by adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea is accelerating and poses significant national security risks." This week China surprised the world with its DeepSeek AI, action should be taken to make sure Iran doesn't have the same opportunity with its own AI model.
*Steven Stalinsky, Ph.D., is Executive Director of The Middle East Media Research Institute.

The major opportunity Trump is giving Israel? Not what you think
Eyal Hulata/Israel Hayom/February 11/2025
It is no coincidence that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz clarified that the US does not intend to use military force in Gaza and does not support the forced removal of the Gazan population. The meeting between former President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was, undoubtedly, one of the warmest encounters we have seen in many years. As a former National Security Adviser for Israel, I participated in two meetings between Israeli prime ministers and President Joe Biden. The meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Biden in the Oval Office was characterized by a declaration of commitment to Israel’s security and preventing a nuclear Iran. Similarly, during Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s meeting with Biden in Jerusalem, the “Jerusalem Declaration” was signed, consolidating all US presidential commitments to Israel in a single document.
Despite the importance of those meetings, Trump is a different kind of president, and these are different times. His meeting with Netanyahu was significantly unique. The numerous executive orders Trump has approved in recent weeks and his firm declarations of support for Israel, have likely exceeded even Netanyahu’s expectations. The Iranian issue was notably absent from Trump’s public statements, though it should have been a key topic. Hopefully, in their private discussions, Netanyahu received clear commitments from Trump regarding heavy pressure on Iran, avoiding a hasty and harmful nuclear agreement, and supporting Israel in preparing for military action if necessary. However, in this article, I want to focus on Trump’s statement regarding his desire for a complete evacuation of Gaza and transforming it into a global Riviera. Netanyahu appeared surprised by Trump’s remarks, and much has been written about how neither he nor his team were aware of such a plan in advance. Israeli supporters of population transfer were the first to seize on the statement, celebrating it as though Trump had endorsed and would personally implement their extreme policies.
But that is not the case. It is no coincidence that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz immediately clarified that the US does not intend to use military force in Gaza and does not support the forced removal of the Gazan population. At most, the US envisions a temporary evacuation to facilitate reconstruction, with residents returning to newly built homes. While too many in Israel are eager to believe that the Americans will solve the Gaza problem for us, and that we will wake up one morning to find the Strip empty of its residents, it is crucial to face reality. For too many years, Israel has waited for the Gaza problem to resolve itself in one way or another, but in truth, it is Hamas that has continued to grow stronger.
Even this week, as the Washington press conference took place, Hamas continued to solidify its control over Gaza, its grip on humanitarian aid and its dominance over the streets. The images of the hostage release last Saturday only illustrates how swiftly Hamas reasserts control.
The Palestinian population in Gaza will not simply disappear. While some may wish to leave if given the opportunity, the majority will remain and cling to what little they have left. I believe that aside from a fringe minority in Israel, most Israelis understand that the forced evacuation of such a large civilian population is neither feasible nor acceptable. Instead, Rubio and Waltz’s statements suggest that the real opportunity Trump is offering Israel lies in making it unequivocally clear to regional actors that the time has come for them to take their role seriously in transforming Gaza into a safe, Hamas-free zone. Recent American media reports detail contacts made by Netanyahu’s representatives in the final months of the Biden administration with Gulf states regarding their involvement in the “day after” scenario, assisting in civil governance and maintaining public order. These reports indicate that Netanyahu himself saw such an approach as viable. Rather than continuing this momentum and working to establish a civil governance alternative in Gaza, supported by the Gulf states and pushing Hamas out of power, Netanyahu now appears to be embracing a fantasy of completely emptying the Strip. He is doing so despite knowing that this is not what the Trump administration means and that such a scenario is impossible without the unacceptable forced removal of all Gazans. The prime minister would be far better off focusing on fully securing the release of the remaining hostages and ensuring their safe return home. At the same time, he should leverage the significant diplomatic opportunity Trump has presented to upgrade and solidify the plan Israel has been developing in recent months. With Trump’s backing, the Gulf states’ commitment to expelling Hamas from Gaza could be significantly stronger, and their financial resources for rebuilding, replacing Hamas’ radical education system, and maintaining public order to prevent Hamas’ resurgence would be considerably greater. This is the major opportunity Israel has been given by the Trump administration, and it must not be squandered.
*Dr. Eyal Hulata is Israel’s former National Security Adviser and Head of the Israeli National Security Council. He is currently a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C.

Trump is Right to Prioritize Homeland Missile Defense
Bradley Bowman & Mark Montgomery/The Cipher Brief/February 11/2025
President Trump issued an executive order, “The Iron Dome for America,” on January 27, jumpstarting a major effort to deploy and maintain a “next generation” missile shield to better defend the U.S. homeland. The Missile Defense Agency has already issued a request for information from industry, with submissions due by February 28. While the “Iron Dome” name is unfortunate, creating unrealistic expectations and easy opportunities for critics, Trump’s order represents a necessary and long overdue shift in thinking and policy to begin to better address the dangerous and growing vulnerability of our homeland to ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile attacks. While American attention was elsewhere, the missile threat against the U.S. homeland has grown in the past four decades, as adversaries have increased the size and sophistication of their missile arsenals. These destabilizing actions have eroded the margin of safety for Americans and increased the risk that adversaries will undertake aggression abroad based on a belief that the ability to strike the U.S. homeland would make Washington think twice before intervening to protect its interests in the Pacific, Europe, or elsewhere.
What have our adversaries been up to?
According to the Pentagon’s annual report on Chinese military power, Beijing continues to expand its ICBM arsenal as well as its conventional ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missile capabilities. Meanwhile, Russia is specifically pursuing nuclear delivery systems designed to bypass current U.S. defenses while modernizing and expanding their strategic and nonstrategic missile capabilities, according to the U.S. Intelligence Community’s 2024 Worldwide Threat Assessment.
Russia and China are both sprinting to build long-range cruise and hypersonic missiles that can strike anywhere in the U.S. mainland with conventional warheads, and the United States is ill-prepared to respond.
The junior members of the “Axis of Aggressors” have not been idle either. From ICBMs to hypersonic weapons, North Korea is prioritizing the improvement of its missile capabilities. Iran, for its part, has continued to advance its space launch vehicle program, which could help the regime field an ICBM that could strike the United States.
The gaps in homeland defense
Many in Washington talk about the growing threats from China and Russia, but the United States has consistently failed to invest sufficiently in strengthening modest existing homeland ballistic missile defenses focused on the rogue nation threat, much less build a homeland missile defense architecture to detect, track, and engage inbound cruise or hypersonic missile threats. Today, the entire country is vulnerable to adversary hypersonic missiles, and only the airspace around the Nation Capital Region is defended from cruise missile threats. For our homeland, the American reliance on deterrence by punishment is increasingly insufficient. Deterrence by denial must be bolstered, and the Trump administration’s effort can help.
The elements of an ‘Iron Dome’ defense
In his first term as president, Donald Trump approved a National Security Strategy that stated his first responsibility was “to protect the American people, the homeland, and the American way of life.” After taking office again eight years later, the new executive order suggests the Trump team takes that commitment seriously. The executive order directs the secretary of defense to submit within 60 days “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan” to defend against “ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries.” The order directs the secretary to “develop and deploy capabilities at the necessary speed,” work with the Office of Management and Budget to submit a plan to fund the effort, and coordinate with U.S. Strategic Command and Northern Command to provide the president an update on the missile threat to the homeland and a prioritized list of locations to defend. More specifically, the order lays out key components for any future national missile defense system, including the accelerated deployments of hypersonic and ballistic tracking sensors, space-based interceptors, and terminal-phase intercept capabilities. Additionally, the order calls on the Pentagon to develop and deploy new missile defense capabilities, such as non-kinetic capabilities to complement kinetic interceptors and the ability to “defeat missile attacks prior to launch and in the boost phase.”
In addition to homeland defense, the executive order also calls for an allied and theater defense review to identify ways in which the Department of Defense (DoD) can better coordinate and cooperate with allies to defend forward-stationed American forces and allies. The benefits of such investments were best displayed during the U.S. and Israeli militaries’ impressive coordination in successfully defending against Iran’s missile and drone attacks last April and October. For a robust missile defense of the homeland, the DoD will need to design a global sensing network that mixes satellites, airborne sensors (including balloons), and long-range ground-based radars to detect and track threats. The task of designing this architecture — against all threats — should be led by the Missile Defense Agency, the only agency equipped with the engineering know-how and experience to take on a task this comprehensive. The Pentagon then needs to integrate this network of sensors with a range of ground-based, ship-based, and space-based engagement systems to shoot down incoming missiles. The cost of this homeland missile defense mission will be significant, but it can be mitigated with innovative solutions such as developing unmanned sensors that operate at high altitudes. Additionally, especially when it comes to countering cruise missiles, the effort should leverage the use of dirigibles, to include airships and aerostats, to conduct extended-range detection, characterization, tracking, and engagement of current and emerging threats, at significant savings and readiness over manned aircraft. Innovative dirigibles and associated sensor developments by U.S. military services, partners such as Israel, and U.S. industry over the past three decades can give this new effort a running start.
Americans confront a daunting variety of security challenges, but few are more serious than the missile threats to the homeland. To deal with these threats, we will have to make investments in missile defense that America has postponed for far too long. The Trump administration’s effort will be expensive, difficult, and time-consuming, but it is necessary to better protect our citizens at home and to deter adversary aggression abroad. *Bradley Bowman serves as senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he focuses on U.S. defense strategy and policy. He has served as a national security advisor to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, as well as an active duty U.S. Army officer, Black Hawk pilot, and assistant professor at West Point. Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery is a senior director at the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He directs CSC 2.0, which works to implement the recommendations of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Montgomery is a principal member of the Cyber Initiatives Group.

Qatar is Hamas, and Hamas is Qatar
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/February 11, 2025
The Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other Palestinians on October 7, 2023 could have been released a long time ago had the Biden administration exerted pressure on Qatar to use its good relations with the Islamist group to force it to do so.
All Qatar had to do was to summon the Hamas leaders in Doha and give them an ultimatum to release all the hostages immediately or face deportation from the Gulf state. It is hard to see how the Hamas leaders would have been able to say no to their major political and financial patrons and backers.... The Qataris were never under the slightest pressure. "For years, Qatar supported the Taliban, and last year [2021] it helped it in its coup against the democratically elected Afghan government, and 13 American service members were killed in the violence. Today, Qatar is doing everything it can to give the Taliban international legitimacy and aid." — Yigal Carmon, President and founder of the MEMRI, who served as counterterrorism advisor to two Israeli prime ministers, Haaretz, May 10, 2022. "Any Arab who hears American officials say that Qatar is America's ally would burst into laughter.... Ask Egypt, not just the rulers, but the people and journalists. Ask the Emirates, the government and people. Ask Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan. They all know that for decades Qatar has been promoting Islamist and terrorist organizations. There are lawsuits against Qatar in the U.S. and Europe in connection with its support for terrorism." — Yigal Carmon, MEMRI, November 1, 2023. The Trump administration needs to understand what Arabs have known for years: that Qatar's support for Hamas and other extremist Islamist groups is the main reason thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have died over the past few years.
Qatar is Hamas's most important financial backer and foreign ally. Then Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was the first state leader to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in 2012. Qatar, in addition, has reportedly transferred $1.8 billion to Hamas over the past two decades.
US President Donald Trump's recent statements regarding Qatar's role in reaching the Israel-Hamas ceasefire-hostage deal surprised many, especially those who are familiar with the Gulf state's longtime support for radical Islamist groups.
"Qatar is absolutely trying to help," Trump told reporters in Washington. "I know them well, and they're doing everything they can. Very tough situation, but they're absolutely trying to help."
Many other people also know Qatar very well. They know, for example, that Qatar is Hamas's most important financial backer and foreign ally. Then Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was the first state leader to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in 2012. Qatar, in addition, has reportedly transferred $1.8 billion to Hamas over the past two decades.
For many years, Qatar hosted several leaders of Hamas, including Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh. They lived in hotels and villas in Doha and were treated as heads of state.
After the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, resulting in the murder of 1,200 Israelis, the wounding of thousands others and the kidnapping of more than 250, Qatar's foreign ministry released a statement holding "Israel alone responsible" for the massacre.
Qatar also uses its television empire, Al-Jazeera, to promote Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and other terror groups. For years, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood cleric who endorsed suicide bombings against Israelis, hosted a program on Al-Jazeera. After the October 7 massacre, the network broadcast Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif's call to arms. It also aired incendiary statements from Haniyeh and his deputy, Saleh al-Arouri. Haniyeh appeared on Al-Jazeera praising Hamas's "great triumph" and calling on "the sons of the entire nation, in their various locations, to join this battle in any way they can."Al-Jazeera's support for Hamas not only prompted Israel to ban the network from operating in the country; even the Palestinian Authority (PA) also banned it from operating in the West Bank. The PA accused the network of broadcasting "inciteful content, spreading misinformation, and interfering in internal Palestinian affairs, which stirred division and instability." Last month, the PA detained two Al-Jazeera correspondents – Givara Budeiri and Mohammed al-Atrash, for allegedly violating the ban.
According to an investigative report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI):
"Al-Jazeera's role in providing a platform for promoting extremist Islamist ideologies goes back decades. The case of promoting Al-Qaeda is of particular interest. Two months before 9/11, Al-Jazeera gave an Al-Qaeda spokesman, Suliman Abu Ghaith, free rein to speak uninterrupted for 10 minutes, and to call for 12,000 mujahideen [jihad warriors] to join Al-Qaeda.
"Al-Jazeera employed a correspondent, Tayseer Allouni, who was sentenced in Spain to seven years in prison for transferring funds to Al-Qaeda...
"As for ISIS, Al-Jazeera allowed a pledge of allegiance to its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi live on air. In the middle of a TV debate on Al-Jazeera, an Islamic scholar pledged allegiance to the leader of ISIS....
"The Qatari-owned network also allowed terrorist Anis Al-Naqqash to call for terror attacks against American oil installations, also in a live broadcast."
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has disclosed that intelligence information and numerous documents found in the Gaza Strip confirm the military affiliation of six Al-Jazeera journalists with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They are: Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Saraj, Ismail Abu Omar and Talal Aruki.
The Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other Palestinians on October 7, 2023 could have been released a long time ago had the Biden administration exerted pressure on Qatar to use its good relations with the Islamist group to force it to do so.
All Qatar had to do was to summon the Hamas leaders in Doha and give them an ultimatum to release all the hostages immediately or face deportation from the Gulf state. It is hard to see how the Hamas leaders would have been able to say no to their major political and financial patrons and backers.
There was a lot the Biden administration could have done to pressure Qatar. It could, for example, have threatened to withdraw US forces from Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Base. The presence of the U.S. Air Force Central Command headquarters there is vital for Qatar's national security and stability: it deters its enemies from attacking the Gulf state. American forces stationed at that base, in other words, preserve Qatar's regime.
The Biden administration could also have threatened to impose economic sanctions on Qatar, or designate it as a "state sponsored of terrorism" if it did not put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages.
The Biden administration, however, chose to ignore Qatar's role in supporting Islamist terrorism. The Qataris were never under the slightest pressure.
In 2017, a number of Arab states – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates – cut diplomatic relations with Qatar due to its support for the all the extremist Islamic terror organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Although these countries later restored their ties with Qatar, the Gulf state and its Al-Jazeera television network continue to this day to support Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
"For years, Qatar supported the Taliban, and last year [2021] it helped it in its coup against the democratically elected Afghan government," notes Yigal Carmon, President and founder of MEMRI, who served as counterterrorism advisor to two Israeli prime ministers, "and 13 American service members were killed in the violence. Today, Qatar is doing everything it can to give the Taliban international legitimacy and aid." "Any Arab who hears American officials say that Qatar is America's ally would burst into laughter," states Carmon.
"Ask Egypt, not just the rulers, but the people and journalists. Ask the Emirates, the government and people. Ask Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan. They all know that for decades Qatar has been promoting Islamist and terrorist organizations. There are lawsuits against Qatar in the U.S. and Europe in connection with its support for terrorism."It is time for the new US administration to understand that Qatar is the problem, not the solution. That Qatar is permitted to serve as a mediator between Israel and Hamas is ridiculous since, in actuality, "Qatar is Hamas and Hamas is Qatar; Qatar Launched a War Against Israel By Means of Hamas; The Declaration of War Was Aired on Al-Jazeera TV." The Trump administration needs to understand what Arabs have known for years: that Qatar's support for Hamas and other extremist Islamist groups is the main reason thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have died over the past few years.
It is time for the US administration to revise its policy towards Qatar and hold it accountable for backing Islamist murderers and rapists whose goal is to murder Jews and destroy Israel. Qatar's leaders might claim to condemn terrorism, but they fund terrorists. In their eyes, there is no difference between Israel and the US.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
*Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21386/qatar-is-hamas

Afghanistan needs a national awakening
Dr. Ajmal Shams/Arab News/February 11, 2025
It has been almost three and a half years since the fall of the republic in Afghanistan. A lot has changed since then both in the country and in the global political landscape. What remains unchanged, though, is the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan. The doors of schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions are permanently closed for them, as if they are being punished for some heinous crime. The same goes for places of work for women.
When questioned, Taliban officials argue that the development of relevant procedures, revised curricula and a framework for Afghan girls and women’s education is underway. These efforts are supposedly to align the education system with Islamic Sharia. It is a dilemma that the Taliban are arbitrarily recreating Islamic principles and redefining the foundations of Afghan values for which they have neither the political legitimacy nor the religious credibility. While on the face of it they might be justifying this based on their own narrow and ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, in reality it is aimed at serving their political interests. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have left the county for neighboring Pakistan, Iran and the countries of Central Asia. Thousands more have emigrated to the West, mainly the US, Canada and Western Europe, and the trend continues, albeit at a much slower pace. Leaving Afghanistan and settling abroad has been nothing less than an ordeal. Thousands of Afghans who worked alongside the US and other NATO countries during their operations in Afghanistan remain stranded in the country while their resettlement applications are processed. The Trump administration’s recent executive orders have come as a great shock for these Afghans, whose fate has now been put in limbo.
Ever since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the de facto rulers have been striving hard to get international recognition. Yet, no government has formally recognized their regime, although they have been able to send their diplomatic missions to several countries, where they are being represented on a de facto basis. It is also noteworthy that most of the Afghan embassies and diplomatic missions from the previous government have remained intact. It is a kind of diplomatic conundrum. Embassies in foreign countries are, in principle, not independent entities. They represent their respective governments overseas. With the collapse of the Afghan republic back in August 2021, one has to seek a good rationale for these diplomatic missions to keep operating. It is irresponsible for some of the Afghan ambassadors and other senior diplomats from the former government to formally engage in matters of politics and economics with others. It might potentially create liabilities with serious consequences for a future legitimate Afghan government. The main concern is that these diplomats from the former government are not accountable to any authority. This situation can lead to potential unchecked corrupt practices by Afghan diplomatic missions abroad. The only justification for these foreign Afghan missions could be the continuation of consular services for Afghans and foreign citizens, as well as helping to facilitate humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan. With the collapse of the Afghan government in 2021, the country’s aid-dependent economy suffered serious setbacks, as foreign aid dwindled from several billion dollars to just a few hundred million dollars channeled to the UN and some nongovernmental organizations. Most private businesses and enterprises have ceased to exist due to the uncertain political and economic circumstances.
Although measures by the interim Taliban administration have maintained the value of the Afghan currency and prices of commodities have remained in reasonable ranges, the overall economic outlook has been dismal, since the purchasing power of the majority of the population has significantly declined. A consistent lack of trust in the incumbent regime could derail the fragile so-called positive economic indicators at any time.
To make matters worse, Afghanistan is already experiencing the economic repercussions of the Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the US Agency for International Development and its global aid programs. The US government has been the primary donor to Afghan relief efforts since the government collapsed. Internal divisions and a power struggle within the Taliban were noticeable from Day 1, as multiple groups tried to assert greater control over the government machinery. These differences are now increasingly evident, as rivalry intensifies between the Kandahar-based extremely radical group and the Kabul-based Taliban leaders who seem to be keen to open up and engage, including their more favorable views on women’s rights to education and work. With the collapse of the Afghan government in 2021, the country’s aid-dependent economy suffered serious setbacks.
The Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Stanekzai, who was instrumental in negotiating the Doha peace agreement with the US, has been critical of the Taliban’s hard-line policies. There are reports that Stanekzai might have been forced to leave the country in view of a possible order of arrest by the Taliban’s radical supreme leader. There is a need for such voices to synergize and be leveraged for a positive change.
Afghanistan, once again, stands at a crossroads. Regional and global political dynamics could turn the country into a battleground, with ordinary Afghans the main victims. Also, the country could become a hotbed of global terrorism, threatening the region and beyond if things spiral out of control. It is the national duty of every Afghan, especially those with a sense of love and commitment to the country, to join forces and build a peaceful movement for change: a bottom-up, people-oriented change based on the use of soft power, dialogue and political discourse.
It is time the Afghans came forward to begin a national movement for change without foreign influence and coercion, although the positive role of the international community to facilitate and arbitrate should always be welcome.
*Dr. Ajmal Shams is Vice-President of the Afghanistan Social Democratic Party. He served as a Deputy Minister in the former Government of Afghanistan. X: @ajmshams

Grassroots peacebuilding the bedrock of a lasting peace
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/February 11, 2025
For now, the prospect of reaching a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a remote possibility. However, while many feel sheer despair, the present moment is also an opportunity to revisit what has gone badly wrong over more than 30 years of attempts to reach a lasting peace between the two sides. There is little doubt in my mind that, while the architects of the 1993 Oslo Accords on both sides were committed to the necessary compromises required to reach a final status agreement, they failed to achieve this because they believed in an “elite peace.” In their focus on pushing forward the peace process, they neglected the need to build a critical mass of support for this long and hazardous journey through closely collaborating with a civil society that could spread the message of peace far and wide.
It was Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, very much associated with the realist school of thought, who once remarked that “no foreign policy — no matter how ingenious — has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.”
This warning was not heeded by those who were negotiating peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, partly due to the sheer energy, time and mental strain consumed by their intense endeavors in the process. But it was also due to underestimating the fact that it was the people, with their support, who could have carried the negotiators — and this complex gamechanger in the relationship between the two peoples — to the finishing line. Instead, it was the detractors of peace, coexistence and reconciliation who mobilized enough support to drive a wedge between the governments on both sides and the people who wanted peace, instilling in them a fear of the consequences of peace for themselves and their security and safety.
The longer wars persist, the more both sides dehumanize and demonize the character of the entire group that they face
This is not to say that there was no thriving civil society in support of the Oslo Accords. And following the signing, there emerged people-to-people peacebuilding organizations and initiatives mushroomed. Nevertheless, it was the lack of understanding by governments of how the work of such organizations was crucial in breaking down the barriers between individuals and groups by rehumanizing the other and building trust that was a missing piece in the peacemaking jigsaw puzzle.
The longer wars persist and inflict mutual pain and suffering, the more both sides dehumanize and demonize the character of the entire group that they face and, at least rhetorically, set an objective of causing maximum damage and suffering to each other. Hence, any peacemaking must restore empathy between all involved in the conflict, as well as the ability to actively listen to each other’s narrative and grievances and internalize these on the path to building trust.
Governments are just not geared to that, while grassroots organizations are designed to do exactly that. They also have the passion to create the safe spaces that foster these important traits of empathy, compassion, mutual respect and a sense of justice in order to see the human and humane side of those who we have regarded as our enemies and to learn to trust them.
Ironically, it was before the peace process started and prior to the escalation of hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians during the two intifadas that ordinary Israelis and Palestinians used to daily engage in day-to-day activities in normal settings. However, as a result of the flareup in violence, this unfortunately came to an abrupt halt. Moreover, checkpoints and the separation wall were erected and that is where bad fences and checkpoints created bad neighborly relations.
Peacemaking is still very much the domain of politicians and diplomats, often including the active involvement of generals
Palestinians see mainly occupying soldiers and settlers, while Israelis perceive Palestinians as a potential threat — neither sees the other’s humanity. This makes the need for grassroots peacebuilding initiatives even more crucial to create bridges between communities that have stopped talking to each other, to preserve the flame of hope for peace through civilized and frank engagement, and to build friendships and trust. Most frustrating is that, while grassroots participation in peace processes is internationally recognized as a vehicle to achieving a more inclusive and sustainable peace, peacemaking is still very much preserved as the domain of politicians and diplomats, often including the active involvement of generals. Such groups might be crucial to dealing with issues such as security and the demarcation of borders, but they are typically less competent in handling the psychological-emotional side of a conflict, which is equally or even more important.
There is sometimes an unsubstantiated belief that those who are active in people-to-people peacebuilding are naive — some would even argue simplistic — and fail to understand the complexities of a conflict. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is actually in the difficult, albeit honest, conversations that take place when people are ready to face each other, instead of avoiding one another or shielding themselves behind biases and prejudices to justify the building of physical and mental walls, that the complexities of a conflict are revealed and constructively resolved.
It is these safe spaces that enable those eureka moments, those epiphanies when we realize that what brings us together as human beings is greater, more important and stronger than what divides us as members of national, ethnic or religious groups and enables us instead to stand together united by our humanity.
Take, for instance, the powerful message sent by the more than 600 bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families of the Parents Circle-Families Forum organization when they join forces and work together for peace. They even hold an annual Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day to commemorate those who have paid the ultimate price in this conflict, in recognition that one’s own pain in losing a loved one is no worse than that of the other. And there is the 30-plus years of dedicated work by Seeds of Peace, which has brought together thousands of young people from conflict zones, many of them from Israel and Palestine, to interact with one another away from home and in a safe space. This allows them to develop trust, respect and empathy, and, most importantly, become lifelong friends and messengers of peace in their communities upon their return.
There are many such organizations, big and small, that cater to different age groups or to those with a particular background or interest. They all have in common the aim of bringing people from all sides of the divide together.
Such encounters, as precious as they are, are never easy or straightforward. On many occasions, they result in a cathartic experience that involves a lot of pain. However, they can be life-changing experiences. Many of those who went through these grassroots peacebuilding activities are in key positions in different walks of life, which enables them to spread the message of peace and reconciliation. But the missing piece of the puzzle is to organize all this stored-up energy and unleash it to dispel the fear, distrust and cynicism that are the enemies of peace.
**Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House.
X: @YMekelberg

Power, wealth and governance in the modern world
Dr. Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed/Arab News/February 11, 2025
In contemporary society, the phrase “follow the money” serves as an illuminating principle for unraveling the intricate connections among various societal issues, particularly those intertwined with governance. This concept emphasizes the critical need to investigate the motivations that fuel decisions made at the highest echelons of power. By analyzing the actions and policies of influential leaders through the lens of financial interests and control, one can uncover a profoundly tangled web that links power, wealth and governance.
The recent political discourse surrounding US President Donald Trump and members of his administration has prompted substantial debate over their approach to leadership. Critics argue that Trump’s methods reflect a troubling trend that diminishes the lines between nationalism and detrimental practices. Rather than upholding the foundational values of conservatism, some view these actions as a form of vandalism — an indiscriminate assault on long-standing institutions, alliances and cultural norms.
One notable point of contention is Trump’s aggressive trade policies, which some claim are less about fostering coherent economic strategy and more about asserting dominance. The imposition of tariffs and confrontational negotiations with countries like Canada and Mexico suggest an intent to showcase authority, even at the expense of destabilizing smaller, more vulnerable economies. This quest for control propagates an atmosphere of fear and compliance, affecting relationships with both allies and adversaries. As Trump amplified his influence and unpredictability, he built alliances with some of America’s wealthiest individuals. The ongoing situation in Gaza exemplifies the potential for authoritarianism, as Trump’s controversial statements regarding the future of the Strip have drawn widespread condemnation. His suggestion that Gaza could transform into the “Riviera of the Middle East” has been met with an intense backlash from Arab nations, which consider proposals displacing Palestinians tantamount to ethnic cleansing. In response, Saudi Arabia has reaffirmed its steadfast support for a Palestinian state, asserting that normalization with Israel is contingent upon the recognition of Palestinian rights.
As Trump amplified his influence and unpredictability, he built alliances with some of America’s wealthiest individuals; his administration includes 14 billionaires, reflecting his strategy of consolidating power through ties to the financial elite. This intricate dance between political power and wealth raises concerns about the integrity of governance, as the intertwining of financial ambition with political decision-making enhances the risk of the interests of a privileged few being prioritized at the expense of democratic values.
While it may seem that Trump’s actions primarily serve his personal interests and those of his close allies, the consequences for American society are profound. The ongoing trade war, rather than uplifting working-class Americans, often appears to further elevate Trump’s financial stakes, presenting an ironic contrast to the mounting struggles faced by many citizens attempting to meet their basic needs.
As the challenges facing the global landscape intensify, the urgency of the need to reassess how wealth is distributed has never been clearer. The historical predilection for wealth accumulation benefiting a select few cannot sustain itself indefinitely. Echoing the sentiments of Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, we find ourselves in a moment of crisis, a transitional state where outdated systems disintegrate yet new frameworks remain undeveloped. This era is defined by distressing signs demanding immediate and collaborative intervention.
Acknowledging this reality necessitates a collective awakening and robust political resolve. Society must prioritize human needs by creating an environment that is not merely prosperous, but also equitable and just. By adopting this principle, we can enhance living standards for all and collaboratively address the multifaceted challenges that lie ahead, forging a path toward a brighter and more sustainable future.
The pivotal question persists: Can the American legal framework effectively curtail distractions from Trump and his administration, which ostensibly benefits only a wealthy few? As Trump forges deeper connections with elite individuals, including billionaires like Elon Musk, the implications necessitate scrutiny. The convergence of wealth and political power culminates in pressing ethical concerns that must be confronted to preserve democratic integrity. Trump’s approach to Gaza can be viewed through the lens of distraction, arguably influenced by former adviser Steve Bannon’s tactic of shooting at a rapid rate to inundate the media. This methodology often serves to shift focus from crucial developments happening within US governance, particularly the dismantling of key federal institutions. While it may indeed facilitate the administration’s ability to move forward with radical policies with minimal oversight, such tactics have the potential to trigger both public backlash and discontent.
By adhering to the principle of following the money, we can illuminate the motivations influencing societal issues
As Trump strengthens his alignment with America’s wealthiest, the impact on broader society escalates. The reliance on a concentrated elite to address national issues could alienate significant portions of the populace, particularly those who feel marginalized and disenfranchised by exclusive affiliations.
Ultimately, it is imperative to comprehend the intersectionality of wealth and political power to truly grasp the nuances of contemporary governance. By adhering to the principle of following the money, we can illuminate the motivations influencing societal issues and demystify the political mechanisms driving them. To counter these imbalances, we must expose individuals benefiting from such arrangements and demand accountability.
For the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia, sustainable development is crucial for a future where financial and moral returns benefit all stakeholders. A sustainable path cannot materialize without addressing the plight of the Palestinian people. Temporary fixes to the decades-long occupation will fall short of their intended purpose, underlining the necessity of an enduring, just resolution. The Israeli actions against Palestinians must be critically examined. Amnesty International has characterized this oppression as a system of apartheid, demanding accountability for the Israeli authorities for their systematic domination over Palestinian rights.
Addressing this critical issue is essential to fostering lasting peace. The notion that an independent Palestinian state is paramount cannot be overstated; it is a fundamental prerequisite for stability in the region, allowing for legitimate dialogue and collaboration among Israel, Palestine and Jordan. The proposal for a Palestinian-Israeli-Jordanian confederation, coupled with the right of return for Palestinian refugees, aligns with international law and can serve as a constructive framework for coexistence.
As we navigate this complex landscape of power, wealth and governance, a commitment to sustainable development emerges as a pivotal pathway for progress in the Arab world. It entails not just economic rebuilding but also ensuring that the moral underpinnings of governance emphasize justice and equity. The reckless strategies of the past have continually failed to yield desired outcomes, emphasizing the need for a paradigm shift in how the US engages with the Middle East.
History serves as a reminder that continual reliance on the failed methods of military intervention and support for oppressive regimes will only breed more instability and suffering. Instead, fostering an environment where all individuals can realize their potential, particularly through the recognition of Palestinian rights, may hold the key to long-term peace and prosperity.
The omnipresent intertwining of power and wealth urges us to cultivate a vigilant citizenry that remains informed, engaged and proactive. As residents of a global society, it falls upon us to champion justice, equity and accountability, ensuring these principles remain at the forefront of our collective consciousness. Ultimately, navigating the nexus of power, wealth and governance requires a diligent critique of current systems, advocacy for ethical leadership and a fundamental commitment to uplifting human dignity across all societies.In conclusion, the complex interplay of power, wealth and governance underscores myriad challenges existing within contemporary society. By thoughtfully navigating these issues, insisting upon accountability and prioritizing the well-being of all individuals, we can work toward a more equitable future, not just for the US but for the world at large.
A renewed focus on sustainable development, coupled with a concerted effort to resolve the Palestinian issue, emerges as both a moral obligation and a practical necessity in building a future grounded in cooperation and mutual respect.
*Dr. Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed is an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in the Department of Biosystems Engineering. He is the author of “Agricultural Development Strategies: The Saudi Experience.” X: @TurkiFRasheed

Iranian Regime Continues To Lie About The Alleged Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons
MEMRI/February 11, 2025
With the possibility of Iranian nuclear negotiations with President Trump's second administration, Trump, on February 4, 2025, reiterated his position that Iran must not have nuclear weapons.[1] In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif, the former foreign minister and leader of the nuclear talks with the Obama administration, banded together to again bring up the lie about Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's nonexistent fatwa that allegedly guarantees that Iran cannot produce or obtain nuclear weapons.
The Iranian Regime Continues To Lie About The Existence Of The Fatwa
Foreign Minister Araghchi stressed, in his February 5 response to President Trump, that "if the central issue is that Iran will not acquire nuclear weapons, this is achievable. This isn't a problem... Iran's positions regarding nuclear weapons is very clear. There is also a fatwa by the Supreme Leader that clarifies the mission to all of us."[2]
Several days later, on February 9, Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a media interview: "The use of missiles was made possible for us according to the rules of war and our religious approach, and this has shown that we can do this. The issue of nuclear weapons is completely different from the [issue of] missiles, and the Leader [Khamenei's] fatwa has closed this discussion permanently."[3]
Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif (Source: Asr-e Iran, Iran, February 9, 2025)
The Nonexistent Nuclear Fatwa – A Purported Religious Guarantee That Iran Will Not Develop Nuclear Weapons
The Iranian regime is doubling down on its lies about the existence of a fatwa banning nuclear weapons, supposedly issued by Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei. Over the years, no such fatwa has ever appeared on either of Khamenei's two fatwa websites, and while the fatwa has been said to have been issued on several different dates and in a range of different versions, no one has ever actually seen it (see below MEMRI reports over the years on this nonexistent fatwa).
During the 2002-2006 Iran-EU3 (UK, France, and Germany) nuclear negotiations, Iran presented its position that a fatwa by Khamenei bans nuclear weapons, and that this fatwa ban is more legally binding than any constitutional ban or parliamentary legislation, as in other countries, could possibly be. Iran also said that it is far more binding than the regimen of inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities carried out by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the EU3 was demanding.
In a May 2012 interview, Hassan Rohani, who would soon be Iran's president and who had headed the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, said that he was the one who proposed claiming that Khamenei had published this fatwa in a Friday sermon in November 2004 (see for example Inquiry and Analysis No. 1022, The Official Iranian Version Regarding Khamenei's Alleged Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa Is A Lie, October 3, 2013). Again, that this alleged fatwa has never been found on Khamenei's fatwa webpages, not in November 2004 nor at any other time. Rohani's proposal, as he attested, was to present this alleged fatwa to the Europeans as a guarantee that Iran would not strive to produce nuclear weapons.
This Iranian position was not accepted by the EU3 in the negotiations, however, after its demand to be given the alleged fatwa in the original was rejected. All Iran would provide was a report by an Iranian news agency purportedly about the fatwa (see MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 825, Renewed Iran-West Nuclear Talks – Part II: Tehran Attempts to Deceive U.S. President Obama, Sec'y of State Clinton With Nonexistent Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa By Supreme Leader Khamenei, April 19, 2012).
The Obama administration, which took over from the EU3 in conducting the nuclear negotiations with Iran, accepted Iran's position that this fatwa actually existed and that it did indeed serve as an alternative to invasive IAEA oversight. The administration promoted the fatwa as binding, even though it never saw it.[4] (See Inquiry and Analysis 1080, U.S. Secretary Of State Kerry In New And Unprecedented Statement: 'President Obama And I Are Both Extremely Welcoming And Grateful For The Fact That [Iranian] Supreme Leader [Khamenei] Has Issued A [Nonexistent] Fatwa' Banning Nuclear Weapons', March 31, 2014, and Special Dispatch No. 5461, President Obama Endorses The Lie About Khamenei's 'Fatwa' Against Nuclear Arms, September 29, 2013, as well as the other MEMRI reports on the nonexistent fatwa listed below.)
MEMRI Reports On Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's Nonexistent Fatwa
Below are MEMRI reports on the nonexistent fatwa published over the years:
Renewed Iran-West Nuclear Talks – Part II: Tehran Attempts to Deceive U.S. President Obama, Sec'y of State Clinton With Nonexistent Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa By Supreme Leader Khamenei, April 19, 2012
Release Of Compilation Of Newest Fatwas By Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei – Without Alleged Fatwa About Nuclear Bomb, August 13, 2013
President Obama Endorses The Lie About Khamenei's 'Fatwa' Against Nuclear Weapons, September 29, 2013
The Official Iranian Version Regarding Khamenei's Alleged Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa Is A Lie, October 3, 2013.
Iranian President Hassan Rohani In Article In Saudi Daily: While Avoiding Confrontation And Hostility, We Shall Be Diligent In Pursuing Our Supreme Interests, December 23, 2013
U.S. Secretary Of State Kerry In New And Unprecedented Statement: 'President Obama And I Are Both Extremely Welcoming And Grateful For The Fact That [Iranian] Supreme Leader [Khamenei] Has Issued A [Nonexistent] Fatwa' Banning Nuclear Weapons,' March 31, 2014
Tehran Again Offers Khamenei's Nonexistent Fatwa In Negotiations As A Guarantee That It Is Not Developing Nuclear Weapons –
Iranian Regime Continues Its Lies And Fabrications About Supreme Leader Khamenei's Nonexistent Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons, April 6, 2015
Insights Following Exposure Of Iran's Military Nuclear Program – Part I: The Leadership Of Iran's Religious Regime Lies About Essential Islamic Matters, Manipulates Religion To Justify Its Grip On Power, Regional Expansion, May 6, 2018
Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif Reiterates Iran's Lie, Promoted By Obama Administration, That Supreme Leader Khamenei Issued Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons; No Such Fatwa Ever Existed, May 31, 2019
Iran Uses 'Maximum Pressure' On Biden Administration – Part II: Supreme Leader Khamenei: 'If The Islamic Republic [Of Iran] Decided To Obtain Nuclear Weapons, Neither You [The Zionist Clown] Nor Those Greater Than You [The U.S.] Would Be Able To Stop It', February 23, 2021
Shift In Iranian Regime Statements On Nuclear Weapons: Regime Spokesmen Talk Openly About Them, Aiming For Western Acquiescence To Iran As A Nuclear Threshold State, August 2, 2022
Khamenei's 'Nuclear Fatwa,' Once Again MEMRI Daily Brief
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: 'If It Were Not An Islamic Principle, And If We Had The Will To Build Nuclear Weapons, We Would Do So – Even The Enemies Know That They Cannot Stop Us'; MEMRI: The Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons That Is Attributed To Khamenei Does Not Exist, June 26, 2023.
Inquiry & Analysis Series No. 1784 - In Advance Of Revival Of U.S.-Iran Nuclear Talks, Iranian Calls For Iran To Possess Nuclear Weapons Are Again Heard, September 5, 2024.
[1] Whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-restores-maximum-pressure-on-iran, February 4, 2025.
[2] ISNA (Iran), February 5, 2025.
[3] Asr-e Iran (Iran), February 9, 2025.
[4] It should be noted that in 2012 U.S. media reported that the Obama administration was using this nonexistent fatwa as justification for reviving the nuclear negotiations with Iran. For example, on May 11, 2012 in The Washington Post, David Ignatius wrote that President Obama had sent a message to Khamenei, delivered in March 2012 by then-Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, stating that his, Khamenei's, "fatwa banning nuclear weapons would be a good starting point for negotiations." See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1458, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif Reiterates Iran's Lie, Promoted By Obama Administration, That Supreme Leader Khamenei Issued Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons; No Such Fatwa Ever Existed, May 31, 2019.