English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 21/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more
than this comes from the evil one.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew
05/27-37/:”‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.”
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members
than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes
you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of
your members than for your whole body to go into hell. ‘It was also said,
“Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” But I
say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of
unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman
commits adultery. ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient
times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the
Lord.”But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the
throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it
is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot
make one hair white or black. Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything
more than this comes from the evil one.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February 20-21/2025
Text & Video: Iranian Sympathizer's Theatrics at Beirut Airport: A
Hezbollah Production Aimed at Mobilizing Participation in Nasrallah's
Funeral/Elias Bejjani/February 20, 2025
Text & Video: Hassan Nasrallah's Funeral: An Insult to Lebanon and the Lebanese,
and a Promotion of Terrorism, and Participation in It Is a Grave Mistake/Elias
Bejjani / February 19, 2025
Text & Video: The Mullahs and Their Terrorist Proxy "Hezbollah" Are Planning to
Invade Lebanon with Thousands of Jihadists Under the Pretext of Participating in
Nasrallah's Funeral/Elias Bejjani/February 16/2025
Letter to President Trump Requesting Sanctions on those attending the Hezbollah
Funeral Event in Lebanon
A U.S. Congress delegation in Beirut tomorrow
Retrieval of the bodies and remains of 11 martyrs from Mais al-Jabal, Khiam,
Markaba and Deir Siryan
Pro-Hezbollah outburst at Beirut airport sparks tension
Yemeni Minister Calls for Arrest of Huthi Leaders Attending Nasrallah’s Funeral
Lebanese Army completes its deployment in southern border towns
Israel’s continued presence in Lebanon: Security concern or strategic move?
Hezbollah readies massive funeral for Nasrallah
Controversy at airport as videos of pro-Hezbollah woman spread
PSP calls for 'national moment' during Nasrallah's funeral
EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean travels to Lebanon
LF files judicial complaint against Soldiers of God, calls it a 'secret
association'
Judge Ghaza Aoun files charges against former and acting BDL governors
PM Salam orders independent audits for public institutions to enhance
transparency
Lebanese Defense Minister suspends gun carry permits from Feb. 22 to Feb. 25
UNHCR: 89,000 Arrivals from Syria in Baalbeck amid Ongoing Border Crossings
When Kostanian Admits Defeat and the End of Kulluna Irada’s Project!/Tony Abi
Najem/This is Beirut/February 20/2025
After the Withdrawal Limit Increase: What About BDL Reserves?/Christiane Tager/This
is Beirut/February 20/2025
ExplainerThe Necessity of Restructuring the Public Sector: A 'Political'
Solution/Maurice Matta/This is Beirut/February 20/2025
The U.S. Sent Over $3 Billion to Hezbollah's 'Army'/Daniel Greenfield/Gatestone
Institute./February 20, 2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on February 20-21/2025
Hamas Executed a Mother and Her Two Children in Cold Blood’: Bibas Family
Bodies Reportedly Included in Upcoming Hostage Release
Hamas returns bodies of 4 Israeli hostages said to include a mother and her 2
young children
Arab leaders meet to counter Trump's Gaza plan
Saudi crown prince invites leaders of GCC, Jordan, Egypt for informal meeting in
Riyadh
Israel military says it has received the bodies of dead Gaza hostages
G20 meeting of foreign ministers gets underway in South Africa amid tensions
with US
Saudi FM meets with counterparts on sidelines of G20 meeting in Johannesburg
Putin thanks Saudi crown prince for hosting US-Russia talks during phone call
Explosions on buses in Israel as authorities say no one was harmed
Israel's Netanyahu to hold security assessment meeting after blasts: PM office
UN calls for rapid economic recovery in Syria to reverse losses from 14 years of
conflict
New UN envoy to Libya vows to pursue ‘peace and stability’
US Senate confirms Trump loyalist Kash Patel to head FBI
Putin hails Russia’s huge number of ‘terror’ convictions
Mexico says won’t accept US ‘invasion’ in fight against cartels
Teenager kills two women in knife attack at Czech shop
UN envoy says creating an inclusive Syrian govt could help lift sanctions
Macron says Ukraine's Zelensky elected in a 'free system', unlike Putin
Trump warns Zelensky to quickly negotiate war's end or risk not having a nation
to lead
Titles For
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on February 20-21/2025
Tehran’s Trump Trap/Behnam Ben Taleblu/The National Interest/February
20/2025
UN calls for rapid economic recovery in Syria to reverse losses from 14 years of
conflict/Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/February 20, 2025
Russia-US meeting in Riyadh more than an icebreaker/Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab
News/February 20, 2025
Nations race for AI dominance as global power shifts/Mohammed A. Al-Qarni/Arab
News/February 20, 2025
Sudan’s deepening humanitarian emergency/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/February
20, 2025
The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February 20-21/2025
Text & Video: Iranian Sympathizer's
Theatrics at Beirut Airport: A Hezbollah Production Aimed at Mobilizing
Participation in Nasrallah's Funeral
Elias Bejjani/February 20, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140401/
Investigations by Lebanese media,
intelligence, and security sources, both Lebanese and Arab, have revealed that
the Lebanese woman, a Hezbollah sympathizer, who carried a picture of Hassan
Nasrallah in a Beirut Airport hall upon her arrival from Iran, performed a
pre-planned theatrical role. This production was written, produced, and directed
by what remains of Hezbollah's diminished media apparatus. Every word and
gesture of the boastful woman was scripted as part of this farcical play. The
performance aimed to manipulate the emotions of the Shia community because,
according to reliable sources, the number of people Wafiq Safa and his
associates managed to mobilize for Nasrallah's funeral was disappointingly
small. This theatrical stunt was therefore staged to compensate. The woman
declared loudly, provocatively, condescendingly, and theatrically that they were
the ones who had made sacrifices, and that anyone who takes orders from Israel
and the United States should emigrate, as the country belongs to them.
Text & Video: Hassan
Nasrallah's Funeral: An Insult to Lebanon and the Lebanese, and a Promotion of
Terrorism, and Participation in It Is a Grave Mistake
Elias Bejjani / February 19, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140359/
On the twenty-third of this month,
the southern suburb of Beirut, the stronghold of the Iranian, terrorist, and
sectarian Hezbollah, is preparing for a festival and a play of burying the body
of the terrorist Hezbollah's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah. This funeral,
to which the terrorist Hezbollah has invited political, religious, media, and
official figures from Lebanon and abroad, is a sad occasion not for mourning a
"leader," but for reminding the Lebanese of the magnitude of the national
tragedy left by this man, who was never in his life anything but an enemy of the
Lebanese people in general, and the Shiite community in particular.
Nasrallah's Criminal Legacy
Nasrallah's legacy is a criminal one by all standards. In the modern history of
Lebanon, the Lebanese have not known a criminal of Nasrallah's magnitude, nor a
leader who embroiled his environment, his country, and the Arab countries to
this extent of blood, tears, and blind subservience to the mullahs of Iran.
Since assuming the Secretary-Generalship of the terrorist Hezbollah, he has led
Lebanon into futile wars, assassinated his political opponents, destroyed the
nation's economy, and turned the Lebanese into hostages in a large prison run
from Tehran.
The Heavy Toll of Nasrallah's Legacy
The toll of Nasrallah's legacy is heavy, from the assassination of PM, Rafik
Hariri, through the July 2006 war, the invasion of Beirut and the Chouf
mountains, to the blatant intervention in the Syrian war, the terrorist attacks
on Egypt, Gaza, the West Bank, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the
Arab Gulf states, and hundreds of terrorist operations in many countries around
the world. All of these are bloody milestones that claimed thousands of victims
and drowned Lebanon in a quagmire of sectarian and regional conflicts. As for
the blind loyalty to Iran, Nasrallah declared it publicly, boasting shamelessly
and outrageously of his absolute subordination to the mullahs' Guardianship of
the Islamic Jurist, disregarding Lebanese sovereignty and identity.
Burying Nasrallah in Beirut
The Iranian Decision to Bury Nasrallah in Beirut is a provocation and
consolidation of Iranian Influence The decision to bury Nasrallah in Beirut
instead of his hometown in the south is not only a blatant provocation of the
Lebanese people's feelings, but also a consolidation of Iranian influence in the
heart of the Lebanese capital. Beirut, which was once a beacon of freedom and
culture, is being humiliated today by this vile display of the body of a man who
destroyed Lebanon and drained its human and economic resources... It is worth
mentioning here that most of the properties in the southern suburb of Beirut are
not owned by the terrorist Hezbollah, but were occupied and their lands
confiscated, and their original inhabitants forcibly displaced by the terrorist
Hezbollah.
Participation in the Funeral
Meanwhile it should be very clear to all those concerned that participation in
the funeral is a criminal act and betrayal. Therefore participation in
Nasrallah's funeral, under any pretext, is a criminal act in itself, and a
betrayal of the blood of innocent people who fell because of his dark policies
in Lebanon, Syria and all countries of the world. It is an implicit endorsement
of the mullahs' and the terrorist Hezbollah's project, which seeks to turn
Lebanon into a permanent arena of conflict, serving Tehran's agenda.
A Call for Boycott and Opposition
Therefore, we call on all honorable and sovereign patriots to boycott this
funeral, which is an insult to Lebanon, the Lebanese, and all human values, and
even to confront it morally and through the media. Silence at such historical
junctures is betrayal, and participation in this grim funeral scene is
complicity with terrorism and submission to it.
An Appeal to Rulers, Church Leaders, Sects, and Parties
Loudly, we direct a fervent appeal to the rulers in Lebanon, to the heads of
churches and sects, and to the so-called parties, which are in practice family
and commercial businesses and agencies for foreign powers and jihadists: Do not
participate in this insulting funeral. It is not a religious occasion, but a
dirty political show of an Iranian terrorist Hezbollah. Any participation in it
will constitute a cover-up for the terrorist Hezbollah's crimes, a polishing of
a murderer's image, and a furtherance of the criminal, expansionist, and
sectarian schemes of the mullahs of Iran.
In Conclusion: Nasrallah's Departure is an Opportunity for Accountability and
National Revival In conclusion, the departure of Hassan Nasrallah should be a
national occasion for self-reflection and a profound review of the course
imposed on Lebanon by the terrorist Hezbollah's weapons. It is time for the
Lebanese to rise up against this bitter reality, to reclaim their homeland from
the clutches of Iranian terrorism, and to build a free, sovereign, and
independent state whose loyalty is to Lebanon only, and not to any leader or
regime outside the country's borders.
*The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website: https://eliasbejjaninews.com
Text & Video: The Mullahs and Their Terrorist Proxy
"Hezbollah" Are Planning to Invade Lebanon with Thousands of Jihadists Under the
Pretext of Participating in Nasrallah's Funeral
Elias Bejjani/February 16/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140276/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj_JyWXCCNw&t=180s
Reports from Hezbollah in Lebanon indicate that thousands of its supporters are
coming from 70 countries to participate in the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah and
Safi Al-Din on the 23th of this month. Sources close to this Iranian gang state
that these trained fighters have been entering Lebanon daily in large numbers
for days.
In this terrifying and terrorist context, journalist Mariam Majdoline warned on
social media about this diabolical plot and wrote under the title "Attention and
Caution" the following:
"May God protect Lebanon from Khamenei’s tails and his criminal axis (supporters
and allies of the Popular Mobilization Forces, the Houthis, and others) who have
started entering Lebanon under the pretext of participating in Hassan
Nasrallah's funeral. What they did in Syria is a lesson for us all.
Attention, attention, attention. We cannot trust terrorists and mercenaries who
move with religious mandates."
In the same context, we draw attention to this satanic plot being executed by
the mullahs and their criminal, jihadist, and invasion-oriented Hezbollah aiming
to strike the new government in Lebanon, bring in Iranian funds through the
airport and via Algerian and Iraqi planes to reorganize the structure of their
organization and obstruct the implementation of the ceasefire agreement,
including international resolutions 1559, 1701, and 1680, along with the Taif
Agreement—all of which stipulate disarming all Lebanese and non-Lebanese
militias (primarily the defeated, broken, and surrendered Hezbollah) and
extending the state's legitimate authority across the entirety of Lebanese
territory.
What is frightening and confirms the seriousness of this Iranian jihadist
invasion plot under the guise of participating in Nasrallah and Safi Al-Din's
funeral is Hezbollah's violent and criminal actions along the airport road, in
Beirut, and in the south—acts of aggression, chaos, accusations of treason
against Presidents Aoun and Salam, attacks on the Lebanese army, assaults on
UNIFIL personnel, and threats of assassinations and civil war voiced by its paid
mouthpieces like Qassem Qasir. This is a clear and blatant coup attempt against
the government, a refusal to acknowledge defeat, and, more dangerously, a
rejection of implementing the ceasefire agreement, which unambiguously requires
Hezbollah to disarm and dismantle its military structures and weapons depots
across Lebanon.
In reality and actuality, Hezbollah poses an existential threat to the state,
its institutions, the peace, stability, and livelihood of all Lebanese
sects—foremost among them the honorable Shiite community, which it holds
hostage, exploits, and uses its youth to fight in all of Iran's wars.
The writer is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Writer's Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Website Link:
https://eliasbejjaninews.com
Letter to President Trump Requesting Sanctions on those
attending the Hezbollah Funeral Event in Lebanon
February 20/2025
Dear President Trump:
Americans have been exceedingly generous in their financial support of the
Lebanese Armed Forces over many years. The United States government has also
been patiently guiding them in building up their institutions of democratic
governance in the hope that the rule of law will one day reign supreme in
Lebanon. In spite of all of our generous support, the newly formed Lebanese
cabinet was formed with four members who are partial to Hezbollah and their
allies. To add insult to injury, all government officials have been invited to
mourn the death of arch terrorist, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed while hiding
like a rat in his bunker on September 27, 2024 by the Israeli Armed Forces
(IAF). We, as leaders of American Lebanese
organizations that value liberty, freedom, justice, the rule of law and an end
to terror groups and their sponsors find it grotesque for any Lebanese
government official to participate in this spectacle. Hezbollah has the blood of
countless innocent Americans, Lebanese and Syrians on their hands. Their
military capabilities have been crushed by the IAF but they remain unrepentant
and will reconstitute their arsenal if they are not finished off once and for
all. Now is the time to do exactly that.
The time for subtle diplomacy has passed. We admire your bold gestures in
creating the Abraham Accords in your first term and standing up strongly against
Hamas and for peace so far in the very beginning of your second term. Lebanon is
now at the pivot point in its quest to regain sovereignty and rejoin the nations
of the world that embrace the rule of law and progress and reject terror groups
such as Hezbollah and the nations that support them.
Therefore, its new government leaders, especially President Joseph Aoun and
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam must lead and no longer succumb to agents of terror.
They are free to choose to attend Nasrallah’s funeral on February 23rd but
should pay dearly if they do. They must also commit to disarming Hezbollah and
other Palestinian terror groups in short order. We
thank you for warning them of the consequences of their choices by withholding
funding to Lebanon until they make measurable achievements that reflect US
policy and the will of the vast majority of Lebanese.
Sincerely,
The American Mideast Coalition for Democracy
World Council for the Cedars Revolution
The Amer Foundation
A U.S. Congress delegation in Beirut tomorrow
Al Markaziya / February 20, 2025
A delegation from the US Congress, including Senator Daryl Issa and a number of
figures, will visit Beirut tomorrow to meet with senior officials and discuss
with them the latest military and security developments, the implementation of
Resolution 1701 and the strengthening of the truce agreement. He also discusses
with Presidents Joseph Aoun and Nawaf Salam and Foreign Minister Youssef Raji a
number of political and diplomatic issues.
Retrieval of the bodies and remains of 11 martyrs from Mais al-Jabal, Khiam,
Markaba and Deir Siryan
Hussein Saad / Janoubiya / February 20, 2025
The rescue teams in the General Directorate of Civil Defense, in full
coordination with the Lebanese Army, continue search and comprehensive field
survey operations in the areas that were previously subjected to Israeli
aggression, in accordance with the directives of the Director General of Civil
Defense, Brigadier General Nabil Farah. In this context, the specialized teams
were able, today, Wednesday, February 19, 2025, to retrieve the bodies of seven
martyrs from the town of Mais al-Jabal, the body of a martyr from the town of
Khiam, the body of a martyr from the town of Markaba, in addition to retrieving
the remains of two martyrs from the town of Deir Siryan.
The bodies and remains retrieved from the towns were transferred to
hospitals: Ragheb Harb, Salah Ghandour, and Marjayoun Governmental, and these
bodies and remains will undergo the necessary medical and legal examinations,
including DNA tests, under the supervision of the competent authorities to
determine the identities of the martyrs.The General Directorate of Civil Defense
affirms its determination to continue carrying out its humanitarian and national
duties despite the field challenges, in close cooperation with the Lebanese
Army, until the completion of the search for all the missing.
Pro-Hezbollah outburst at Beirut airport sparks tension
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/February 20, 2025
BEIRUT: A passenger’s display of support for Hezbollah after her arrival at
Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport caused tension and resentment among
other travelers. The woman, whose actions were recorded on video and shared on
social media, was criticized “inciting trouble in the airport.”
She claimed that a security officer at the airport prevented her from raising a
Hezbollah flag and pictures of former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on
airport premises. Her reaction led to an altercation among travelers and those
waiting at the airport. The woman claimed that a military intelligence officer
requested her not to display the pictures inside the airport, saying: “Raise
them outside.”Ensuing developments then caused tension among the passengers
arriving at the airport. As seen in video clips recorded by passengers at the
airport and circulated on social media, the woman held up a picture of
Nasrallah.She said: “This is Lebanon’s airport; this is the real Lebanon. We are
here in our airport, and you are not the one to stop us from raising or placing
the picture wherever we want.”She continued shouting, accusing those preventing
her from displaying the pictures of “taking orders from the Israelis.”
She added: “They should be the ones to leave, not us. If anyone does not like
it, they can leave Lebanon. This is our homeland.” Some returning passengers
supported her stance, chanting: “At your service, Nasrallah,” further escalating
tensions. This incident came just days after Hezbollah supporters staged
protests on the airport road after the authorities’ refusal to grant landing
permission to an Iranian civilian aircraft. The ban remains in effect due to
Israeli threats to target Iranian planes and the airport in Beirut. The protests
included roadblocks in Beirut and turned into riots as protesters burned car
tires and dumped rubbish in the streets, and even intercepted a UNIFIL convoy,
assaulting the UNIFIL deputy commander and his escort, who were both taken to
hospital. The demonstrations culminated in clashes with the Lebanese army,
leading to the arrest of dozens of rioters. Public Prosecutor Jamal Al-Hajjar is
expected to conclude preliminary investigations into the actions of detainees
suspected of attacking three UNIFIL military vehicles and setting one on fire.
He received initial reports from the military Intelligence Directorate
concerning 30 people held for questioning. A judicial source told Arab News that
10 detainees had been identified as participants in the attack. The case will be
forwarded to the Military Prosecutor's Office to file charges against those
involved in crimes that may include attempted murder, vandalism, destruction of
military vehicles, arson, and rioting. Also on Thursday, officials said there
had been an unusual influx of flights carrying passengers returning to Lebanon
at the airport, some arriving via Iraq to attend the funerals of Nasrallah and
his successor Hashem Safieddine. The two men were killed in September and
October during Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs. The war delayed
their funeral processions.
The funeral is scheduled for next Sunday at Camille Chamoun sports stadium at
the southern entrance to Beirut. Nasrallah will be buried on a plot of land
owned by Hezbollah on the old airport road, parallel to Beirut’s southern
suburbs, and Safieddine will be buried in his hometown in the south.
Beirut airport announced the suspension of flights during the funeral
processions, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, with all flights for that day
being rescheduled.
Hezbollah said that participants from 79 countries would attend the funeral,
including Iran, Iraq and Yemen. Hezbollah delegations continue to send
invitations to Lebanese officials and party leaders, including Hezbollah’s
opponents.
Yemeni Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani called on the Lebanese state to
arrest the Houthi leaders who will attend Nasrallah’s funeral and hand them over
to the Yemeni government. Al-Eryani said in a post on social media that “the
participation of the Houthi officials in the funeral affirms their unwavering
support for Iran, and their ongoing involvement in the Iranian project in the
region, while the Yemeni people suffer from war, hunger, poverty, and disease
due to their destructive policies.”The Yemeni official believes that “this is
not a mere participation in the funeral, but an attempt to gather all the
leaders of the Iranian axis and assess the situation after the blows they
received.”He emphasized the importance of “ensuring that Lebanon doesn’t become
a safe haven for the leaders of the armed group, in compliance with
international resolutions.”During a press conference, Nasser Akhdar, the head of
Hezbollah’s media committee for the funeral procession, confirmed that Hezbollah
will go ahead with the funeral regardless of the circumstances. “This includes
any security issues arising from the ongoing Israeli occupation in the south, as
well as any adverse weather conditions if the meteorologists’ predictions are
accurate,” he said.
“Preparations are ongoing, invitations are being distributed, and the funeral
will take place as scheduled.”
Yemeni Minister Calls for Arrest of Huthi Leaders
Attending Nasrallah’s Funeral
This is Beirut/February 20/2025
Yemeni Minister of Information Moammar al-Eryani has called for the arrest of
several Huthi leaders who, he claims, plan to attend the funeral of former
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. Nasrallah, who led
Hezbollah for more than 30 years, was killed on September 27. His funeral is
scheduled for February 23. In a statement on the
social media platform X, al-Eryani urged the Lebanese government to detain the
Huthi officials, accusing them of war crimes and human rights violations. He
also called for their extradition to Yemen’s internationally recognized
government. While the Huthis have not officially confirmed their attendance,
their affiliated news outlet Al-Masirah reported that a Yemeni delegation would
participate in the funeral. According to al-Eryani, the presence of these Huthi
leaders is not just a tribute to the late Hezbollah leader, but also an
opportunity for coordination within the Iran-backed alliance, particularly in
light of recent Israeli strikes. He referenced Israel’s recent attacks on
Iranian-backed groups, including Hezbollah and the Huthis. Since November 2023,
Huthi forces have launched multiple attacks on commercial vessels in the Red
Sea, disrupting global maritime trade.
Lebanese Army completes its deployment in southern border towns
Agence France Presse/February 20/2025
The Lebanese Army said Wednesday its units were "completing their deployment in
all southern border towns" where Israeli troops had withdrawn.
In a statement, it also said the Israeli army was "persisting in shirking
its commitments and in violating Lebanese sovereignty through ongoing attacks on
the security of Lebanon and its citizens."
Israel’s continued presence in Lebanon: Security concern or
strategic move?
LBCI/February 20/2025
It is well known that Israel's security is a top priority for the United States.
It is also no secret that Tel Aviv frequently raises alarms about perceived
threats, particularly regarding Hezbollah's presence in Lebanon.
Behind the scenes, Israel cannot maintain a presence in Lebanon without
U.S. approval. It seeks to justify this presence by claiming that Hezbollah's
military infrastructure, including its rocket arsenal, remains intact.
Additionally, Israeli reports—both public and classified, particularly those
meant for U.S. policymakers—suggest that Hezbollah is attempting to integrate
into the Lebanese Armed Forces and that its Radwan forces will return to their
hometowns once reconstruction efforts are completed. Meanwhile, Lebanon's newly
formed government is engaging in diplomatic efforts to persuade the United
States and other nations of the necessity of a complete Israeli withdrawal.
Under the administration of Donald Trump, and with the influence of the Israeli
lobby in Washington, U.S. policy is expected to align closely with Israel's
security concerns. In northern Israel, residents of settlements have expressed
fear. Given these factors, Israel appears likely to maintain its presence in
Lebanon until a more precise picture emerges regarding broader regional
developments—from Gaza to Syria and the West Bank—to what Israel views as the
most critical factor: Iran.
Hezbollah readies massive funeral for Nasrallah
Agence France Presse/February 20/2025
Hezbollah is preparing for a massive turnout for the funeral on Sunday of its
slain leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, an opportunity for a show of strength by
the group after a bruising war with Israel.
Nasrallah's death nearly five months ago in a huge Israeli strike on Beirut's
southern suburbs left Hezbollah supporters in disbelief and sent shockwaves
across Lebanon and the region. The country will stop for Sunday's funeral, to be
held at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) at the Camille Chamoun sports stadium on the
capital's outskirts. Hezbollah has announced strict
security measures and urged security forces to help manage crowds that are
expected to number in the tens of thousands, with people pouring in from
Hezbollah strongholds across the country, as well as from abroad.
Hassan Wehbe, 60, an electrician in Beirut's southern suburbs, said the
funeral would be "a historic day.""There will be huge participation. Israel will
see that we are not afraid," he said. Hezbollah has invited senior Lebanese
officials including the president. Its key foreign backer Iran has said it will
participate "at a high level", without specifying who will attend. Nicholas
Blanford, a Beirut-based Hezbollah expert and senior fellow at the Atlantic
Council, said it was important for Hezbollah "to be able to demonstrate that
they haven't been cowed -- that they are still a popular force" within the
Shiite community. The funeral "is going to be exactly the event for that," he
told AFP.
'Moral duty' -
The ceremony is expected to last around an hour, including a speech by current
leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, who has called for a huge turnout. A procession will
follow to Nasrallah's burial site near the airport road, now lined with yellow
Hezbollah flags and images of him and other slain Hezbollah figures. Civil
aviation authorities said Beirut airport will close exceptionally and flights
will be suspended from midday until 4:00 pm. The U.S. embassy has urged
Americans to avoid the area. Hezbollah was battered by more than a year of
hostilities with Israel that culminated in two months of full-blown war before a
ceasefire took effect on November 27. After Nasrallah was killed on September
27, the group delayed his funeral due to security concerns. The ceremony will
also be for Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, who was chosen to succeed Nasrallah before
being killed in a later Israeli strike. Safieddine will be buried on Monday in
his southern hometown of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr. The charismatic, bespectacled
Nasrallah has long enjoyed cult status among his supporters. For Ahmad Hallani,
35, taking part is "a religious and moral duty."Nasrallah is "our leader and the
leader of our victories. We will stay beside him, alive or dead," he said.
Cult status -
Iraqi Airways and Lebanon's Middle East Airlines have increased services between
Baghdad and Beirut ahead of the funeral. Representatives of Iraq's main pro-Iran
factions are to participate, while several Iraqi lawmakers are expected to
attend privately. One of Hezbollah's founders in 1982, Nasrallah was elected
secretary-general a decade later after Israel killed his predecessor. He won
renown in the Arab world after Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon
under relentless Hezbollah attacks in May 2000, ending 22 years of occupation of
the border strip. Nasrallah's years at the helm saw
the group expand from guerrilla faction into the most powerful political force
in Lebanon, only to be battered in the latest conflict.
Lebanon has said more than 4,000 people have been killed since
hostilities began in October 2023, most of them after Israel ramped up its
campaign in September, later sending in ground troops. Among the dead are
hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and a slew of senior commanders. Israel has
missed two deadlines to complete its withdrawal under the ceasefire agreement,
and still has troops deployed in five places on the Lebanese side of the border
after its latest pullback earlier this week.
Controversy at airport as videos of pro-Hezbollah woman spread
Naharnet/February 20/2025
Beirut’s airport witnessed controversy on Thursday during the arrival of
pro-Hezbollah passengers who were stranded in Iran for several days after
Lebanon banned the landing of two Iranian flights following reported Israeli
threats and U.S. warnings. The Nidaa al-Watan newspaper said the controversy
started after “a group of individuals tried to paste posters of Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah on walls and offices.”And as some reports said the controversy broke
out after a young woman who appeared in a video was asked not to wave a
Hezbollah flag and a Nasrallah poster inside the airport, Al-Jadeed TV said
tensions surged after some arriving passengers placed a flag of the U.S. and
another of Israel on the ground, prompting security forces to intervene to
remove them and triggering the woman’s reaction.
Airport officials also told Al-Jadeed that security forces have not banned the
carrying of “party flags or martyr posters” inside the facility. “We have not
paid in blood for you to tell us to get out! We’re the ones to stand here and
you should go outside. Anyone who takes dictates from the Israelis and Americans
should get out. This is not his homeland! He can emigrate, whoever doesn’t like
this can emigrate! This is our country and those who don’t like this can
emigrate!” the woman says in one of the videos, apparently addressing a security
official. “This airport is Lebanon’s airport and this is Lebanon,” she says in
another video, pointing to a Nasrallah poster she was carrying. “This is the
real Lebanon, not the Lebanon that has Israeli and U.S. dictates. If you please,
we are here in Beirut’s airport, our airport. We the Lebanese people who have
offered our souls and blood. This is our airport and it is not up to you
PSP calls for 'national moment' during Nasrallah's funeral
Naharnet/February 20/2025
The Progressive Socialist Party on Thursday said it salutes “the souls of the
martyrs who fell throughout the long history of the confrontation against the
Israeli enemy,” calling on all Lebanese to demonstrate a “national moment” on
Sunday, during the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and
Hashem Safieddine. “Their martyrdom represents the
culmination of their course in resistance, away from all differences,” the PSP
said in a statement. Lauding “the spirit of national solidarity that appeared
during the phases of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” the party said
“this new phase requires everyone’s solidarity and cooperation based on the
principles of partnership and understanding.”The PSP also called for Israel’s
full withdrawal from south Lebanon, urging the international sponsors to exert
the needed pressure on Israel.
EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean travels to Lebanon
Naharnet/February 20/2025
EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica will travel to Lebanon
Thursday on her first mission to the Middle East.
“The visit comes as a reaffirmation of the EU’s strong support to the new
political momentum in Lebanon; an occasion for all Lebanese to share the same
national future as part of a common, peaceful and prosperous Lebanese destiny.
The European Union continues to stand will Lebanon and the Lebanese people. The
mission of the Commissioner will also serve as an opportunity to advance the
wide consultations on the New Pact for the Mediterranean,” an EU Delegation
statement said. “Commissioner Šuica will meet with the
new political leadership, President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun; the Prime Minister
of Lebanon, Nawaf Salam; the Speaker of Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, as
well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Youssef Rajji,” the statement said. In
her meetings, Šuica will discuss the priorities for the implementation of the EU
support package. In particular, the Commissioner will exchange views with
Lebanese leaders on the EU’s support for the implementation of critical economic
and governance reforms, and the country’s recovery, the statement said. This
visit takes place in the context of a series of high-level and wide
consultations conducted by Šuica aiming to shape the New Pact for the
Mediterranean.
LF files judicial complaint against Soldiers of God, calls
it a 'secret association'
Naharnet/February 20/2025
The Lebanese Forces announced Thursday that it has filed a judicial complaint
against Soldiers of God -- a small, fundamentalist Christian group that is
accused of being financed by the banker Antoun Sehnaoui. Calling the group a
“secret association”, the LF accused the group and its members of “involvement
in a series of serious crimes that threaten security and civil peace.”The
complaint included accusations of establishing a secret association,
establishing a criminal association, inciting sectarian strife and sedition,
premeditated murder, rioting, intellectual property crimes, and possession of
weapons and ammunition without a license. "This group is hiding behind a
religious cover to achieve illegal goals," the complaint said, stressing "the
need for the judicial and security authorities to move quickly and decisively to
put a final end to its criminal activities and prevent it from continuing to
threaten civil peace and public order." The head of the LF’s dept. in
Ashrafieh’s Karm al-Zeitoun, Roland Murr, was killed in an armed clash with
Soldiers of God members in early December. Soldiers of
God is a small hardline Christian group that is mainly based in Ashrafieh and
comprises around 150 members. The group became known for its opposition to LGBT
people and its violent actions against gay and lesbian associations and bars, as
well as its opposition to Hezbollah. The members of the group are often
described as "muscular, tattooed, bearded, and often dressed in black," and are
known for their religious fundamentalism. They claim not to be affiliated with
any political party in Lebanon. The group follows what it considers to be
Christian law. In an interview with Radio Liban Libre, group leader Joseph
Mansour said: "We are the children of Jesus, and we only follow the word of the
Gospel.” They also claim to protect Christian land from Islamists.They first
emerged publicly on June 24, 2022, when group members went to Sassine Square in
Ashrafieh and destroyed a billboard of flowers with the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag,
which was set up by Beirut Pride. The same afternoon the group published a video
threatening the LGBTQ movement in Lebanon in which one member stated that, "We
do not accept the flag of homosexuals in our neighborhoods” and “families must
be careful with their children, they kidnap them.”Following Israel’s detonation
of booby-trapped pagers carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon in September,
Soldiers of God members donated blood to support the victims. A member said back
then that despite political differences with Hezbollah, "We are the children of
one country and family, and blood will never turn into water."
Judge Ghaza Aoun files charges against former and acting BDL governors
LBCI/February 20/2025
Mount Lebanon's Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghada Aoun, filed charges against
former Banque du Liban (BDL) governor Riad Salameh, acting governor Wassim
Mansouri, as well as Antoine Salameh and Raja Abou Asli. The charges include
violations of Articles 363, 371, 376, 377, and 671 of the Penal Code, in
conjunction with Paragraph 9 of Article 1 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law, as
well as Articles 3 and 9 of the same law, Article 14 of the Illicit Enrichment
Law, and Articles 7 and 8 of the Banking Secrecy Law. The case has been referred
to the First Investigative Judge of Mount Lebanon with a request for their
in-person arrest or, if necessary, absentia. These
legal actions stem from allegations of embezzlement related to the "Optimum"
company case.
PM Salam orders independent audits for public institutions
to enhance transparency
LBCI/February 20/2025
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam issued a circular instructing all public
institutions and state-run facilities to subject their accounts to an
independent internal audit by an accredited auditing firm. The move, in
accordance with Article 73 of the 2001 budget law, aims to enhance transparency,
combat corruption, hold perpetrators accountable, ensure the smooth functioning
of institutions, and prevent the waste of public funds.
Lebanese Defense Minister suspends gun carry permits from
Feb. 22 to Feb. 25
LBCI/February 20/2025
Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Mnassa issued a decision to suspend all firearm
carry permits across Lebanon from February 22, 2025, at midnight until February
25, 2025. The decision outlines specific exemptions, including permits for
diplomats, personal security details of current and former ministers and MPs,
heads of political parties, and religious leaders—only when accompanying the
protected individual—along with permits granted to embassy staff. The minister
warned that any violations of this decision would result in severe penalties.
The Lebanese Army has been tasked with strictly enforcing the ban and referring
offenders to the military judiciary.
UNHCR: 89,000 Arrivals from Syria in Baalbeck amid Ongoing
Border Crossings
This is Beirut/February 20/2025
Informal border crossings from Syria into Lebanon persist, with a total of
89,000 arrivals reported in Baalbeck as of February 12, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced in a statement on Wednesday. Among
them, only 20,000 are Lebanese returnees, the agency said.
While daily crossings at the Masnaa official border point are steady, averaging
1,300 movements per day, security concerns have halted passage through the Qaa
official crossing. The Arida border point in North Lebanon remains closed for
public works. UNHCR emphasized its ongoing
coordination with Lebanese authorities to enhance aid provision, particularly
for displaced families facing housing destruction, movement restrictions and
economic hardship. The agency’s latest survey also shows a growing number of
Syrian refugees considering a return home, with livelihood opportunities, secure
housing and safety among their primary concerns. To support voluntary
repatriation, UNHCR has launched an Operational Framework for Voluntary Return.
In January alone, the agency provided emergency cash assistance to 6,240
Syrian refugees and Lebanese to help mitigate eviction risks and homelessness.
Additionally, 2,670 displaced Lebanese received legal aid, while outreach
volunteers identified and assisted vulnerable individuals in need of shelter,
healthcare and basic necessities. Community centers
and social development programs continue to offer psychosocial support,
awareness sessions and protection services. “UNHCR continues to monitor
movements, engage with affected communities, and coordinate with authorities to
ensure humanitarian needs are met,” the statement concluded.
When Kostanian Admits Defeat and the End of Kulluna Irada’s
Project!
Tony Abi Najem/This is Beirut/February 20/2025
The article written by Albert Kostanian, published on al-Modon’s website and
titled “Announcing Defeat,” stood out. He begins with the statement: “After
nearly six years of media and technical battles, the time has come to announce
defeat.”In this article, where every sentence could be analyzed, it is important
to focus on several key points, the most notable being:
1. His acknowledgment that he fought a battle for six years “with a
handful of decent people,” as he describes them, against the “gang of banks.” In
the spirit of transparency that Kostanian claims, it would have been valuable
for him to disclose the tens of millions of dollars spent “with a handful of
decent people” from the Kulluna Irada organization on media outlets in Lebanon,
all aimed at swaying public opinion and mobilizing support for their dubious
plan to dismantle Lebanon’s banking system. This plan served two objectives:
erasing the state’s debt by dismantling the deposits of Lebanese citizens, and
collapsing the banking system to make way for Kulluna Irada’s gang through their
proposal for five alternative banks, which was part of the disastrous plan of
former Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government.
2. Kostanian takes pride in his history of opposing Hezbollah to refute the
claim that he has become an “objective supporter of Hezbollah.” However, he
conveniently ignores the fact that his strong defense of the government’s
failure to honor bond payments under Diab’s administration helped foster a
cash-based economy, which directly supported Hezbollah, its parallel economy and
its bank, al-Qard al-Hassan.
3. Kostanian defends the “advisors,” particularly his friend Henry Chaoul,
without directly naming him, as Chaoul is a key player in securing funding for
him and a handful of Kulluna Irada supporters in the written press, on certain
TV channels and on social media platforms.
Furthermore, he rejects the notion that the crisis is systemic, instead
insisting that the banks and their boards of directors failed to carry out their
duties with necessary professionalism. He conveniently overlooks, for instance,
the decision by the Council of State, which confirmed that successive
governments had seized $62 billion of depositors’ funds that banks were forced
to deposit at the Lebanese Central Bank. He also ignores the fact that the
default decision he defends resulted in the loss of more than $30 billion of
depositors’ funds.
Moreover, he either forgets or deliberately ignores the populist judicial
rulings he has long supported, which allowed about $45 billion in loans from
banks to the private sector to be repaid for less than $5 billion. This
repayment was made at the rate of 1,500 Lebanese pounds per dollar or through
checks in lollars, resulting in the loss of an additional $40 billion of
depositors’ money. Kostanian openly states in his article that these depositors
represent only 1% of the Lebanese population, thereby justifying the financial
destruction of their life savings. Yet, for Kostanian, none of this matters. The
goal is clear: to bring down the banking sector and incite depositors against
it.
4. The exceptional genius of Kostanian and his colleagues in the Kulluna Irada
organization – which he chaired as board chairman in Lebanon for a time, making
him inherently biased and thus unfit to moderate any political dialogue – lies
in converting the state's debts, incurred through corruption, mismanagement and
dubious deals, into “losses.” Banks must then absorb these losses instead of
holding the state accountable for repaying its debts to them, which would return
the funds to the depositors. The ultimate objective, of course, is to ensure the
state avoids accountability, as confirmed by judicial rulings like the Council
of State’s decision. This entire strategy is aimed at dismantling the banking
system to benefit a handful of financial opportunists within Kulluna Irada. As
for the attempt to downplay the size of the Lebanese market on the eve of the
anticipated peace in the region – for which preparations have been ongoing since
2019 – it is nothing more than a farce designed to conceal efforts by some to
introduce alternative banks for Kulluna Irada, potentially generating billions
of dollars from the Lebanese market.
Finally, the lack of accountability that Kostanian mentions at the end of his
article is truly unfortunate, especially considering that the person making this
claim is a member of a dubious organization that has consistently suppressed
transparency and used financial resources to manipulate the media and sway
public opinion. This was done, of course, without providing transparent budgets
to the Ministry of Interior, as required by the official recognition (ilm wa
khabar) that Kulluna Irada obtained to operate within the agricultural and
social sectors... This is certainly worth highlighting!
In short, I cannot think of a better description of the Kulluna Irada
organization than the title of an article by Abada al-Laddan, the
Editor-in-Chief of the economics section at al-Arabiya TV, who wrote, “Kulluna
Irada: Destroying Deposits and Bankrupting Banks.” We take great pride in
defeating this project and will soon announce its demise, with no possibility of
resurrection thereafter!
After the Withdrawal Limit Increase: What About BDL
Reserves?
Christiane Tager/This is Beirut/February 20/2025
In a highly anticipated move, Lebanon’s Central Bank (BDL) announced on
Wednesday an increase in the withdrawal limits for Circulars 158 and 166,
raising them to $500 and $250 per month, respectively, effective March 1. While
the decision was welcomed by depositors, it has sparked concerns over its cost
and potential impact on BDL’s reserves and the broader economy.
Economist Antoine Farah told Leb Economy that the estimated annual cost
of the circulars before this increase was approximately $1.3 billion. With the
new limits, this cost could rise to between $1.5 and $1.6 billion. Farah
explained that this amount is equally shared between commercial banks and BDL,
drawn from mandatory reserve funds. He also emphasized that while there are no
precise figures on the total cost of the circulars related to bank withdrawals
issued in recent years, it is clear that the amount has exceeded $2 billion. The
economist explained that last year, BDL financed the amounts associated with
these circulars from its “free” reserves, rather than its mandatory reserves, a
decision that could spark significant debate going forward. Indeed, if BDL were
to categorize these payments as originating from mandatory reserves, it would
lead to a reduction in the total reserves. This
situation underscores a key dispute: BDL maintains that mandatory reserves
should be set at $8 billion, with any surplus considered “free” reserves that it
has accumulated and, therefore, should count as part of mandatory reserves.
In contrast, the banks argue that the figure should be $14 billion, based on
total deposits estimated at around $90 billion. They justify this by advocating
for mandatory reserves to be set at 14% of that total.
When asked about the impact of the increased withdrawal limits on the economy,
the economist explained that it would primarily affect public consumption. As
government spending rises, it stimulates economic activity. Likewise, higher
private sector incomes, combined with increased spending, will drive economic
growth. Consequently, the increased purchasing power of certain groups,
currently benefiting from Circulars 158 and 166, will provide a much-needed
boost to the national economy, supporting the recovery of economic activity.
Regarding the impact on BDL’s reserves, Farah noted that the Central Bank
successfully increased its reserves last year. Although the circulars reduce
reserves, BDL has successfully reclaimed these dollars from the market, thanks
to enhanced stability and the early restoration of confidence. This is evident
in the increase in mandatory reserves, despite the expanded pool of
beneficiaries under Circular 166. He also confirmed that assurances have been
given regarding future increases in payments.
ExplainerThe Necessity of Restructuring the Public Sector:
A 'Political' Solution
Maurice Matta/This is Beirut/February 20/2025
Salaries and wages of public sector employees and workers: a pending issue whose
resolution is tied to the beginning of the new mandate… These employees have
already received promises that have not materialized, the latest being from the
previous government led by Najib Mikati, which promised a new salary scale—never
adopted—last June. Many economists fear that the government may approve a poorly
designed salary scale, similar to Law 46 of July 21, 2017, which provided for an
increase in the minimum wage and salaries, as well as a cost-of-living
adjustment for employees, contract workers and laborers in public
administrations, the Lebanese University, municipalities, municipal unions and
public institutions not subject to labor laws. This law had catastrophic
consequences for the state treasury.
Eight years have passed since the adoption of the salary scale, which later
became one of the causes of the financial collapse at the end of 2019. Today, a
new debate is emerging on drafting a new salary scale for the public sector,
necessitating precautions to prevent history from repeating itself. The Lebanese
Public Administration Employees' Association is demanding salary and
compensation improvements to keep up with rising living costs, along with the
adoption of a new salary scale to restore financial balance for employees. They
also call for a temporary adjustment of the weekly working hours to three days
only, until salaries are restored to their 2017 levels. Additionally, they
propose eliminating the “loyalty” allowance and incorporating it as a salary
increase, as well as integrating all various increments into the base salary to
cover all public sector workers. Public sector employees are also demanding that
these increments be included in the base salary to enhance end-of-service
compensation.
Although these demands are legitimate, simply mentioning a new salary scale
brings back memories of the 2017 disaster and its financial repercussions. In
this context, sources familiar with the matter confirm that discussions will
revolve around the possibility of granting an increase to public sector
employees outside the base salary—similar to what the government has done
repeatedly—rather than approving an unstudied salary scale. Most importantly, no
new salary scale should be adopted before implementing public sector reforms,
which include restructuring and accurately counting the number of employees. The
issue that arose in 2017 was that the salary scale was approved based on an
estimated cost of $800 million, but this figure quickly escalated to nearly $3
billion, highlighting the deterioration, waste and corruption in a sector
plagued by employment and contracting chaos. Lebanon has more than 10 different
employment classifications, including daily workers, laborers, contract workers,
invoice-based employees, hourly workers, permanent staff, service-based
employees and more. Thus, restoring order within the state, restructuring and
reforming the public sector remains a necessity.
Currently, the minimum wage is around $200, with discussions to raise it to
$300, accompanied by an automatic increase in incentives. However, any upcoming
increase depends on the Ministry of Finance’s ability to cover the additional
costs. In numbers, the Lebanese state pays 300,000 salaries monthly to public
sector employees, military personnel and retirees, amounting to $150 million per
month. Meanwhile, representatives of public sector workers and employees are
demanding salaries no less than twice their current earnings, setting a minimum
of $600, which would raise the Ministry of Finance’s monthly expenditure to $350
million. However, discussions about increasing salaries and wages remain futile
in the absence of a realistic budget. This highlights the urgent need for the
government to reclaim the 2025 budget proposal and revise its figures after the
war ends. The first step in restructuring is to determine the exact number of
employees. Indeed, in developed countries, public sector workers do not exceed
10% of the total workforce, whereas in Lebanon, this percentage exceeds 30%.
The new government faces numerous complex files, with public sector
restructuring being one of the most pressing, as it heavily burdens the state
treasury. Restructuring the sector is the first step before any real reform in
the public sector can take place, especially since this proposal is one of the
primary international conditions for achieving economic recovery. Addressing the
public sector issue requires a political approach first and foremost, given its
impact on the living conditions of a large segment of Lebanese society. This
issue remains one of the most complex due to the overlap between political and
economic aspects, closely tied to the country’s social situation.
The U.S. Sent Over $3 Billion to Hezbollah's 'Army'
Daniel Greenfield/Gatestone Institute./February 20, 2025
The State Department has spent nearly two decades selling the myth that
empowering the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] will weaken Hezbollah, but after $3
billion in spending, Hezbollah is more powerful than ever, while American
taxpayers are stuck with financing its auxiliary force in the hopes of defeating
it.
Hezbollah won't disarm, nor will the LAF disarm it or prevent it from attacking
Israel, because Lebanon's entire balance of power depends on aiming Hezbollah's
weapons at Israel.
The $3 billion dollars that America squandered on the LAF... didn't counter
Shiite Islamic rule, it enabled it.
Steube's PAGER Act would cut off further funds to the LAF until the "Lebanese
Armed Forces ceases coordination and support with Hezbollah" and the "Lebanese
Armed Forces cease coordination and support with Iran".
Lebanon's government is a Hezbollah puppet regime. The LAF is a puppet army.
Lebanon's government is a Hezbollah puppet regime. The Lebanese Armed Forces
(LAF) is a puppet army. The $3 billion that America squandered on the LAF, like
the even larger sums wasted on arming and training the Iraqi military, didn't
counter Shiite Islamic rule, it enabled it.
In 2006, after a Hezbollah invasion, Israel launched a military campaign against
the Islamic terrorist group. After a month of fighting, the Bush administration
forced a ceasefire under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that required the
disarmament of Hezbollah and its replacement by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)
and a United Nations "peacekeeping" force.
How can Hezbollah claim victory, President George W. Bush wondered, when they
were "going to be replaced by a Lebanese Army and an international force?"
The answer was quite obvious. The LAF and UNIFIL didn't replace Hezbollah, they
were co-opted by it. And nearly two decades later, Hezbollah had far more
firepower and attempted to launch its own version of Oct 7 until Israel neutered
it with its pager operation.
And then the Biden administration negotiated another "ceasefire," under which
Hezbollah is supposed to be replaced by the Lebanese Army and a UN peacekeeping
force. Just like Hezbollah, the LAF and UNIFIL were supposed to have done 18
years ago. But didn't.
To disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese Army would need permission from a cabinet that
includes Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is not likely to authorize a government it
controls to disarm it.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif responded by bragging that no one would be
"able to sever the connection between the army" and the terror group, which is
"strong and solid and will remain so." Sizable portions of the LAF are loyal to
Hezbollah including officers trained by Hezbollah or in Syria so that by funding
LAF, we're funding Hezbollah.
And the United States not only made the mistake of falling for the same failed
policy again, but since 2006, Americans have provided over $3 billion to the
LAF.
That money was not used to disarm or replace Hezbollah. It was not used to bring
peace to the region. Even the LAF and Hezbollah campaign against ISIS in 2017
ended with a ceasefire agreement between the Sunni and Shiite Islamic terror
groups, while the LAF looked away.
And the United States had to fight the ISIS terrorists because the LAF and
Hezbollah wouldn't.
During the same period in which the U.S. poured over $3 billion into the LAF,
Hezbollah's arsenal rose from 15,000 rockets to over 150,000. The Center for
Strategic and International Studies estimated that Hezbollah had "dramatically
improved its military since 2006" and while much of that assistance had come
from Iran, it is all too likely that American military training and weapons
provided to the LAF also ended up directly or indirectly benefiting Hezbollah.
Israel's 2023-2024 conflict with Hezbollah conclusively demonstrated that UN
Resolution 1701, the LAF and UNIFIL not only did not disarm the Islamic terror
group, but covered up for it. Despite that, the Biden administration turned
around and forced a nearly identical agreement on Israel.
What had not worked for the last 18 years was somehow going to work this time
around.
After over $3 billion which did nothing but prop up Hezbollah's front army, the
Biden administration pulled money from military aid to Israel and diverted it to
the LAF, reprogramming $95 million in security assistance from Egypt and $7.5
million in security aid to Israel to the LAF.
Last year, US Rep. Greg Steube introduced the PAGER Act (Preventing Armed Groups
from Engaging in Radicalism) to stop "sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to Lebanon
when they are complicit in empowering a terrorist organization whose primary
mission is to destroy America and Israel."
"For two years I filed an amendment to the annual State, Foreign Operations, and
Related Programs Appropriations bill to eliminate funding to the Lebanese Armed
Forces, as the money goes to Hezbollah. Republicans and Democrats continue to
vote it down," Rep. Steube complained.
The State Department has spent nearly two decades selling the myth that
empowering the LAF will weaken Hezbollah, but after $3 billion in spending,
Hezbollah is more powerful than ever, while American taxpayers are stuck with
financing its auxiliary force in the hopes of defeating it.
Hezbollah won't disarm, nor will the LAF disarm it or prevent it from attacking
Israel, because Lebanon's entire balance of power depends on aiming Hezbollah's
weapons at Israel.
Under the 1989 Taif Agreement, all of Lebanon's militias were supposed to disarm
and cede power to the LAF. That's the basis for UN Resolution 1701 and the
latest ceasefire deal. Hezbollah's basis for an exemption from the Taif
Agreement is its campaign against Israel. By waging war against Israel,
Hezbollah secures its legal right to run a separate army.
If Hezbollah really stopped attacking Israel or if the Lebanese government
secured the border, Hezbollah would lose its legal basis for having an army.
Then either the Lebanese government would have to disarm Hezbollah or admit that
the Taif Agreement was a charade that turned over Lebanon to Hezbollah, and to
its backers in Iran. And Hezbollah would have to admit that the real purpose of
its military is to dominate Lebanon's Christians for the Shiites.
Everyone in Lebanon knows all of these things are true, but no one can say them
out loud.
Allowing Hezbollah to control the border and attack Israel is the price for
keeping the Hezbollah puppet regime in power in Beirut. It allows the various
players in the government, including Hezbollah and its Christian dhimmi puppets,
to pretend that Hezbollah doesn't rule Lebanon.
Actually disarming Hezbollah would lead to another civil war. One that without
Israeli military intervention, the terrorist group would win, and that would
officially turn Lebanon into another Iran, Syria or Iraq: a nation ruled by
Shiite clerics and their terrorist militias. Eventually that day will come, but
maintaining the illusion that Hezbollah is an anti-Israel "resistance" movement
allows the other factions to delay the moment of truth for a few more years.
Regular wars with Israel are part of the price that they pay for this
arrangement.
The $3 billion that America squandered on the LAF, like the even larger sums
wasted on arming and training the Iraqi military, didn't counter Shiite Islamic
rule, it enabled it.
Steube's PAGER Act would cut off further funds to the LAF until the "Lebanese
Armed Forces ceases coordination and support with Hezbollah" and the "Lebanese
Armed Forces cease coordination and support with Iran".
If the LAF is really a counterweight to Hezbollah, then why oppose the bill?
The only reason for opposing the PAGER Act is because the politicians know quite
well that the LAF coordinates with Hezbollah, and are content to keep sending
money based on the promise that if we arm the Lebanese military enough, it will
one day be ready to take on Hezbollah.
That day has not come for 18 years. It will not come. Ever.
The LAF is perpetually short of money, renting out its helicopters for
sightseeing tours and delaying payments to soldiers, forcing us to step in and
write more checks, because it's a corrupt organization of toy soldiers who do
almost no actual fighting, and are there to shield the terrorists. Lebanon's
government is a Hezbollah puppet regime. The LAF is a puppet army.
It's time to take away the shield and the excuses, and stop sending more money
to terrorists.
*Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom
Center. Reprinted by kind permission of the Center's Front Page Magazine.
*Follow Daniel Greenfield on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21417/us-funding-hezbollah-army
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on February 20-21/2025
Hamas
Executed a Mother and Her Two Children in Cold Blood’: Bibas Family Bodies
Reportedly Included in Upcoming Hostage Release
FDD/February 20/2025
Latest Developments
Bibas Family Said to Be Among Hostage Remains: Hamas will release the bodies of
four slain Israeli hostages on February 20 and six living hostages two days
later, the Iran-backed terrorist group said on February 18. A spokesperson for
the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that the families of all those
scheduled for release had been notified. Israel has not yet named the four dead
hostages slated for release, although one of them – 83-year-old Shlomo Mantzur –
has already been declared dead, having been murdered during the Hamas mass
atrocities of October 7, 2023. Hamas said that the bodies of hostage Shiri
Bibas,33, and her two young children, five-year-old Ariel and two-year-old Kfir,
would also be released, three weeks after their father Yarden, 35, was freed by
the terrorist group. Israel has not yet confirmed that the remaining Bibas
family members – who became emblematic of the plight of the hostages in Hamas
captivity – are no longer alive. In a statement on X, the Republican majority on
the House Foreign Affairs Committee remarked, “Hamas executed a mother and her
two children in cold blood. This is barbarism. Israel has every right to finish
the job and eradicate these terrorists from the face of the earth.”
Six Living Hostages Include Two Languishing in Gaza for Over a Decade: Living
hostages scheduled for release on February 22 include Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem
Tov, Eliya Cohen, and Tal Shoham, all of whom were abducted during the Hamas
massacre, and Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, both of whom have languished
in Gaza for more than a decade. Under the terms of the ceasefire deal ending
hostilities in Gaza, three living hostages were scheduled for release on
February 22, but the number has been doubled following U.S. President Donald
Trump’s recent declaration that all hostages be released by February 15 – a
deadline that has already passed. “If the agreement in Cairo is carried out, it
will be an important achievement for Israel,” an unnamed Israeli official said.
Phase Two Ceasefire Discussions Understood to be Imminent: In exchange for the
hostages both living and dead, Israel is set to free 47 senior Hamas terrorists
who were originally released under a 2011 prisoner exchange deal but were then
rearrested by the Israeli authorities. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister
Gideon Sa’ar said that negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire-hostage
release agreement could begin “this week” following “discussions with our
American friends.”
FDD Expert Response
“Israelis are bracing for difficult days as the nation awaits the four dead
hostages to be returned by the Hamas terror organization. As the Jewish state
prepares to lay these four souls to rest, it is a stark reminder of who this
adversary is: a terror organization that ripped women and children from their
beds, raped, pillaged and murdered, and has been holding the bodies of innocent
civilians as leverage, knowing that Jerusalem would make major concessions in
order to retrieve their citizens and allow for a dignified burial.” — Enia
Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network
“If Israeli authorities confirm the murder of the remaining Bibas family
members, it will be a profound loss for Yarden Bibas, his family, and the Jewish
state. Hamas will doubtless attempt to deflect responsibility and blame Israel
for their murders. The Islamist group and its allies in Gaza will be working
overtime in the coming days to limit the damage to its image abroad if the news
about the Bibas family is true.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst and
Editor at FDD’s Long War Journal
FDD Background and Analysis
“Three Israeli Hostages Released After Nearly 500 Days in Hamas Captivity,” FDD
Flash Brief
“New Al Jazeera Program Reveals Coordinated Effort With Hamas to Reshape October
7 Narrative,” FDD Flash Brief
“‘We’ll See How Tough They Are’: Trump Piles Pressure on Hamas to Meet Deadline
for Release of Israeli Hostages,” FDD Flash Brief
Hamas returns bodies of 4 Israeli hostages said to include
a mother and her 2 young children
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Hamas on Thursday released the bodies of
four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who have
long been feared dead and had come to symbolize the nation's agony following the
Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The remains were presumed to include Shiri Bibas and her
two children, Ariel and Kfir — and the Israeli government confirmed that one of
the bodies returned was of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted. Kfir,
who was 9 months old when he was taken, was the youngest captive. Hamas has said
all four were killed along with their guards in Israeli airstrikes. The somber
mood across Israel on Thursday contrasted with the sense of joy and relief that
have accompanied the recent return of living hostages under the month-old
ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Hundreds of mourners carrying Israeli flags
and yellow solidarity flags lined Israeli highways to pay tribute as vehicles
carrying the remains drove by. In Tel Aviv, hundreds of people gathered at the
city's hostage square, weeping and standing in silence as they followed the
day's events and watched home videos on a large screen of the hostages when they
were alive. "Our hearts — the hearts of an entire nation — lie in tatters,"
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a statement. “On behalf of the State of
Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting
you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely.”Before
the handoff of the bodies, militants in the Gaza Strip displayed four black
coffins on a stage surrounded by banners, including a large one depicting Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire. Thousands of people, including large
numbers of masked and armed militants, looked on as the coffins were loaded onto
Red Cross vehicles before being driven to Israeli forces. The Israeli military
held a small funeral ceremony, at the request of the families, before
transferring the bodies to a laboratory for formal identification using DNA, a
process that could take up to two days. Lifshitz' family later said his remains
had been officially identified. “We had hoped and prayed so much for a different
outcome,” they said in a statement. “Now we can mourn the husband, father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather who has been missing from us since October
7.” Israelis have celebrated the return of 24 living hostages in recent weeks
under a tenuous ceasefire that paused over 15 months of war. But the handover on
Thursday was a grim reminder of those who died in captivity as the talks leading
up to the truce dragged on for over a year.The four bodies were the first of
eight hostages that Israel believes are dead set to be returned during the
current phase of the ceasefire. It could also provide impetus for negotiations
on the second stage of the ceasefire that have hardly begun. The first phase is
set to end at the beginning of March.
Infant was the youngest taken hostage
Kfir Bibas was just 9 months old, a red-headed infant with a toothless smile,
when militants stormed into the family’s home on Oct. 7, 2023. His brother Ariel
was 4. Video shot that day showed a terrified Shiri swaddling the two boys as
militants led them into Gaza.Her husband, Yarden Bibas, was taken separately and
released this month after 16 months in captivity. Relatives in Israel have clung
to hope, marking Kfir’s first and second birthdays and his brother's fifth. The
Bibas family said in a statement Wednesday that it would wait for
“identification procedures” before acknowledging that their loved ones were
dead. Supporters throughout Israel have worn orange in solidarity with the
family — a reference to two boys' red hair — and a popular children’s song was
written in their honor. Like the Bibas family, Oded Lifshitz was abducted from
Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his wife Yocheved, who was freed during a weeklong
ceasefire in November 2023. Oded was a journalist who campaigned for the
recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between Arabs and Jews.Hamas-led
militants abducted 251 hostages, including some 30 children, in the Oct. 7
attack, in which they also killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. More than
half the hostages, and most of the women and children, have been released in
ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight and have
recovered dozens of bodies of people killed in the initial attack or who died in
captivity.
It's not clear if the ceasefire will last
Hamas is set to free six living hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of
Palestinian prisoners, and says it will release four more bodies next week,
completing the ceasefire's first phase. That will leave the militants with some
60 hostages, all men, around half of whom are believed to be dead.
Hamas has said it won't release the remaining captives without a lasting
ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the
Trump administration, says he is committed to destroying Hamas' military and
governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as
mutually exclusive. Trump's proposal to remove some 2 million Palestinians from
Gaza so the U.S. can own and rebuild it, which has been welcomed by Netanyahu
but universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries, has thrown the
ceasefire into further doubt. Hamas could be reluctant to free more hostages if
it believes the war will resume with the goal of annihilating the group or
forcibly transferring Gaza's population. Israel's military offensive killed over
48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health
Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its
records. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing
evidence. The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire
neighborhoods to fields of rubble and bombed-out buildings. At its height, the
war displaced 90% of Gaza's population. Many have returned to their homes to
find nothing left and no way of rebuilding.
Arab leaders meet to
counter Trump's Gaza plan
Agence France Presse/February 20, 2025
Arab leaders will gather in Saudi Arabia on Friday to counter President Donald
Trump's plan for US control of Gaza and the expulsion of its inhabitants,
diplomatic and government sources said. The plan stirred rare unity among Arab
states which roundly rejected the idea, but they could still disagree over who
will govern the Palestinian territory and who will pay for reconstruction. Umer
Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy, told AFP the summit would be the "most
consequential" in decades in relation to the wider Arab world and the
Palestinian issue. Trump provoked international outrage when he announced that
the United States would "take over the Gaza Strip", moving 2.4 million Gazans
living there to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan. A source close to the Saudi
government told AFP Arab leaders would discuss "a reconstruction plan counter to
Trump's plan for Gaza".
Meeting with Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordan's King Abdullah II said
Egypt would present a plan for a way forward. The Saudi source said the talks
would discuss "a version of the Egyptian plan" the king mentioned. Friday's
summit was originally planned for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates,
Qatar and Jordan. However, it has been expanded to include the six Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Palestinian Authority. For
Palestinians, any attempt to force them from Gaza would have echoes of what the
Arab world calls the "Nakba" or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians fled in the fighting that accompanied Israel's creation in 1948.
Reconstruction
Reconstruction will be a critical issue at the summit after Trump highlighted
this as the key reason for moving its inhabitants out while Gaza's
infrastructure is rebuilt. Egypt has not yet announced its counter-initiative,
but Egyptian former diplomat Mohamed Hegazy described a plan "in three technical
phases over a period of three to five years". The first would be a six-month
"early recovery phase", said the member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign
Affairs, a think tank with strong ties to decision-making circles in Cairo.
"Heavy machinery will be brought in to remove debris, while designated safe
zones will be identified within Gaza to temporarily relocate residents," Hegazy
said. The second phase will require an international conference to provide
details of reconstruction and would focus on rebuilding utility infrastructure,
he said. "The final phase will oversee the urban
planning of Gaza, the construction of housing units, and the provision of
educational and healthcare services." A UN estimate on Tuesday put the cost of
rebuilding at more than $53 billion, including more than $20 billion over the
first three years. The last phase would include "launching a political track to
implement the two-state solution and so that there is... an incentive for a
sustainable truce". Umer Karim believes that adopting this plan would require "a
degree of Arab unity not seen before in decades".
Finance
One Arab diplomat familiar with the Gulf told AFP: "In the end, the biggest
challenge facing the Egyptian plan is how to finance it. "Some countries like
Kuwait will inject funds, perhaps for humanitarian reasons, but other Gulf
states will set specific conditions before any financial transfer."Karim said
the "Saudis and Emiratis won't spend any money if (the) Qataris and Egyptians
don't guarantee something on Hamas".Egypt's plan seeks to address the complex
issue of post-war oversight for Gaza, which Hamas has controlled since 2007,
with "a Palestinian administration that is not aligned with any faction". It
will comprise "experts" and will not be "factionally affiliated and is
politically and legally subordinate to the Palestinian Authority", Hegazy said.
The Cairo initiative also envisions a Palestinian Authority-affiliated police
force supplemented with security forces from Egypt, Arab states and other
countries. Differences remain, however. Hegazy said
that Hamas "will retreat from the political scene in the coming period", while
the Saudi source said Riyadh envisions a Gaza Strip controlled by the
Palestinian Authority. Qatar, a key mediator in the war, believes the
Palestinians themselves must decide Gaza's future. "I think all regional actors
understand that any alternative plan they propose cannot include Hamas in any
form as presence of Hamas will make it unpalatable for the US administration and
Israel," Karim said. "So overall some things within the Strip have to
fundamentally change in order for this plan to at least have a chance."
Saudi crown prince invites leaders of GCC, Jordan, Egypt
for informal meeting in Riyadh
Arab News/February 20, 2025
RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has invited the leaders of Gulf
Cooperation Council countries, Jordan, and Egypt for a meeting in Riyadh on
Friday, an official source stated on Thursday. The informal gathering follows
similar meetings that have been held periodically for many years between the
leaders of GCC countries, Jordan, and Egypt, enhancing cooperation and
coordination. “Joint Arab action and any relevant
decisions will be included in the agenda of the upcoming Extraordinary Arab
Summit, which will be held in Egypt” on March 4, the source added.
Israel military says it has received the bodies of dead Gaza hostages
Agencies/February 19, 2025
KHAN YOUNIS/JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it had received the bodies of
the deceased hostages handed over by Hamas, through the Red Cross, in Gaza on
Thursday. “The hostages’ bodies were handed over to IDF (military) and ISA
(security agency) representatives in Gaza,” a military spokesperson said. A
statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had
“received the caskets of four fallen hostages.”The Red Cross had received four
coffins during the handover earlier on Thursday of the bodies of Israeli
hostages, including Bibas family members, in the southern Gaza city of Khan
Yunis, an AFP journalist reported. Staff loaded the
caskets onto trucks after covering them in white shrouds as a crowd of hundreds
watched in the rain. The remains are of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel
and Kfir. Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day. Hamas has said all three
were killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. The militant group also
plans to release the body of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted.
“The heart of an entire nation breaks,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said Wednesday in anticipation of the bodies being returned to Israel.
Thousands of people, including large numbers of masked and armed fighters from
Hamas and other factions, gathered at the handover site on the outskirts of the
southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where large banners had been set up,
including one showing an image of coffins draped in Israeli flags.
There were no plans to broadcast the handover live in Hostage Square in Tel
Aviv, where Israelis have gathered to watch the release of living hostages. The
square was empty as it rained on and off in both locations, which are about 100
kilometers (60 miles) apart. Israelis have celebrated the return of 24 living
hostages in recent weeks under a tenuous ceasefire that paused over 15 months of
war. But the handover on Thursday will provide a grim reminder of those who died
in captivity as the talks leading up to the truce dragged on for over a year.
It could also provide impetus for negotiations on the second stage of the
ceasefire that have hardly begun. The first phase is set to end at the beginning
of March.
Infant was the youngest taken hostage
Kfir Bibas was just 9 months old, a red-headed infant with a toothless smile,
when militants stormed into the family’s home on Oct. 7, 2023. His brother Ariel
was 4. Video shot that day showed a terrified Shiri swaddling the two boys as
militants led them into Gaza. Her husband, Yarden Bibas, was taken separately
and released this month after 16 months in captivity. Relatives in Israel have
clung to hope, marking Kfir’s first and second birthdays and his brother’s
fifth. The Bibas family said in a statement Wednesday that it would wait for
“identification procedures” before acknowledging that their loved ones were
dead. Supporters throughout Israel have worn orange in
solidarity with the family — a reference to two boys’ red hair — and a popular
children’s song was written in their honor. Like the Bibas family, Oded Lifshitz
was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his wife Yocheved, who was freed
during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Oded was a journalist who
campaigned for the recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between Arabs and
Jews. Hamas-led militants abducted 251 hostages, including some 30 children, in
the Oct. 7 attack, in which they also killed some 1,200 people, mostly
civilians. More than half the hostages, and most of the women and children, have
been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have
rescued eight and have recovered dozens of bodies of people killed in the
initial attack or who died in captivity.
It’s not clear if the ceasefire will last
Hamas is set to free six living hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of
Palestinian prisoners, and says it will release four more bodies next week,
completing the ceasefire’s first phase. That will leave the militants with some
60 hostages, all men, around half of whom are believed to be dead. Hamas has
said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a
full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump
administration, says he is committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing
capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually
exclusive. Trump’s proposal to remove some 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so
the US can own and rebuild it, which has been embraced by Israel but universally
rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries, has thrown the ceasefire into
further doubt. Hamas could be reluctant to free more hostages if it believes the
war will resume with the goal of annihilating the group or forcibly transferring
Gaza’s population. Israel’s military offensive killed over 48,000 Palestinians,
mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not
distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records. Israel says it has
killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence. The offensive destroyed
vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighborhoods to fields of rubble and
bombed-out buildings. At its height, the war displaced 90 percent of Gaza’s
population. Many have returned to their homes to find nothing left and no way of
rebuilding.
G20 meeting of foreign ministers gets underway in South Africa amid tensions
with US
AP/February 20, 2025
JOHANNESBURG: A meeting of foreign ministers from G20 countries will get
underway in Johannesburg on Thursday, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will
not attend amid diplomatic tensions between South Africa and the US.
Diplomats including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi are expected to attend the gathering, while the US will
be represented by acting ambassador to South Africa Dana Brown.
The European Union, the United Nations and the African Union, which is
part of the G20, will also be in attendance. Rubio
snubbed the meeting after an executive order by US President Donald Trump
stopped foreign aid to the country over a law that the White House said amounts
to discrimination against the country’s white minority. The US is also
displeased with South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of
Justice. South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola
has said that Rubio’s decision was “not a complete boycott of South Africa’s
G20.” He said the US would be represented in Johannesburg this week “in one form
or shape or another.”US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent has also confirmed
his will not attend a meeting of G20 finance ministers scheduled to take place
in South Africa next week. Bessent said on the social
media platform X that he would not participate in the event because of
obligations in Washington. A senior Treasury official will attend in his place,
he said. Analysts say that Rubio and Bessent’s absence
signalled the US was pulling back from the G20 and demonstrated how strained
relations are. “I think if we want to really know what
message the US administration is trying to send, you have to know whether the
treasury secretary will come next week or not. And if he chooses not to come as
well, that’s a quite serious sign,” said political analyst Daniel Bradlow.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to officially open and address the
gathering under the theme “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability,” which Rubio
has described as a diversity, equality and inclusion framework — one that the
new Trump administration vocally opposes. South Africa will host over 130
working group meetings and 23 ministerial-level meetings this year as part of
their G20 presidency, which began in December last year. The US is expected to
take over the G20 presidency in 2026 after South Africa’s tenure.
Saudi FM meets with counterparts on sidelines of G20
meeting in Johannesburg
Arab News/February 20, 2025
RIYADH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with his
counterparts from the UK, China, Australia, and France separately in
Johannesburg on Thursday. On the sidelines of a
meeting of G20 foreign ministers held for the first time in Africa, Prince
Faisal discussed regional and international developments with British Foreign
Secretary David Lammy. With Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Prince Faisal
discussed intensifying coordination on issues of common interest. Ways to
enhance and develop joint relations were reviewed by Prince Faisal and his
Australian counterpart Penny Wong. Prince Faisal also discussed regional
developments and efforts made to achieve stability and peace in the region with
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot.
Putin thanks Saudi crown prince for hosting US-Russia talks
during phone call
Arab News/February 20, 2025
RIYADH: Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed on Thursday his appreciation
to the Kingdom and its crown prince for hosting US-Russian talks in Riyadh on
Tuesday. During a phone call between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Putin,
the president also praised the depth of relations between their countries and
his keenness to develop them in various fields.Prince Mohammed stressed the
Kingdom’s commitment to making every possible effort to enhance global peace and
security due to its belief that dialogue is the only way to resolve all
international crises.
Explosions on buses in Israel as authorities say no one was harmed
AP/February 20, 2025
JERUSALEM: Israeli police on Thursday reported a series of explosions on buses
in central Israel in what they said appeared to be a militant attack. No
injuries were reported. Police spokesman Asi Aharoni told Channel 13 TV that
explosives were found on two other buses. He called on the public to be alert
and report any suspicious objects to authorities. The explosions took place just
hours after Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza —
the first of eight hostages that Israel believes are dead and to be returned
during the current phase of the ceasefire. Police rushed forces to the scene in
Bat Yam, a Tel Aviv suburb, as they searched for suspects. Police spokesman Haim
Sargrof says drivers have scanned all buses and trains, and those scans are
complete. “We need to determine if a single suspect placed explosives on a
number of buses, or if there were multiple suspects,” he said. Tzvika Brot,
mayor of Bat Yam, said it was a miracle that no one was hurt. He said the buses
had finished their routes and were in a parking lot. He said one of the
unexploded bombs was being defused in the nearby town of Holon.
Sargrof said the explosives matched explosives used in the West Bank, but
he declined to elaborate. Israel has repeatedly carried out army raids on
suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. As
part of that crackdown, it has greatly restricted entry into Israel for
Palestinians from the occupied territory. Since the ceasefire in Gaza took
effect on Jan. 19, Israel has been conducting a broad military offensive against
Palestinian militants in the West Bank. In the past, militants have entered
Israel and carried out shootings and bombings in Israeli cities.
Israel's Netanyahu to hold
security assessment meeting after blasts: PM office
AFP/February 20, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a security meeting following
a series of blasts on public buses in central Israel, his office said in a
statement on Thursday. "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been receiving
ongoing updates from his military secretary on the IED incidents in the Dan
(central) area and will soon hold a security assessment," the statement said
after Israel police reported explosions on three buses and two additional
devices being defused.
UN calls for rapid economic recovery in Syria to reverse
losses from 14 years of conflict
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/February 20, 2025
NEW YORK CITY: A newly published report from the UN Development Programme warned
that at current growth rates, the Syrian economy will not recover to prewar
levels until 2080, leaving the country stuck in a state of prolonged hardship
and instability. It also underscored the urgent need for a rapid economic
recovery to help reverse the decades of progress that were lost as a result of
the 14-year civil war. The conflict shattered nearly four decades of economic,
social and human development, causing irreparable damage to the nation’s
infrastructure, economy and social fabric.
The report, titled “The Impact of the Conflict in Syria: A Devastated Economy,
Pervasive Poverty, and a Challenging Road Ahead to Social and Economic
Recovery,” offers a detailed analysis of the socioeconomic state of the country,
and outlines a road map for rebuilding its economy and infrastructure.
According to the UNDP’s preliminary socioeconomic impact assessment, gross
domestic product in Syria has halved since the war began in 2011, representing a
loss of $800 billion over the past 14 years. Poverty
has reached alarming levels, with the national poverty rate soaring from 33
percent before the war to 90 percent. Extreme poverty has also skyrocketed, with
66 percent of the population now affected, up from just 11 percent prior to the
conflict. Three out of four people in the country rely on humanitarian aid and
are in urgent need of support for critical aspects of life such as healthcare,
education, employment, food security and housing. The country also has one of
the highest unemployment rates in the world, with one in four Syrians jobless.
Achim Steiner, the administrator of UNDP, said that the requirements for Syria’s
recovery extend beyond the immediate need for humanitarian aid.
“Restoring productivity for jobs and poverty relief, revitalizing agriculture
for food security, and rebuilding infrastructure for essential services such as
healthcare, education and energy are key to a self-sustaining future, prosperity
and peace,” he said. The damage to Syria’s infrastructure, which has left many
essential services nonfunctional, is among the primary obstacles to recovery.
The report highlights a staggering array of damage: nearly 50 percent of schools
are closed, one-in-three housing units have been destroyed, and nearly half of
the nation’s water-treatment plants and sewage systems are no longer
operational. Energy production has plummeted by 80 percent, with power plants
and transmission lines heavily damaged. These failures in basic services
exacerbate poverty levels and block any meaningful path toward recovery. The
UNDP report also highlighted the devastating loss of life during the war, and
the decline in health infrastructure. Nearly 618,000 Syrians died during the
conflict, and 113,000 were forcibly disappeared, their whereabouts still
unknown. Meanwhile, the collapse of the healthcare system has exacerbated the
crisis; a third of all medical facilities have been damaged and almost half of
ambulance services are no longer operational. The education sector was also hit
hard, leaving 40-50 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 15 unable to
attend school. The widespread destruction of housing has left 5.7 million people
in need of shelter support.
Essential infrastructure, including water-treatment plants, sewer systems and
power plants, has been severely damaged, leaving millions without access to
clean water, sanitation or reliable energy supplies. Syria’s position on the
Human Development Index has plummeted to its lowest point since 1990, further
illustrating the catastrophic effects of the war on the nation’s development.
The economic outlook remains grim but hope can be found in the potential for
robust growth if the correct strategies are implemented, the UNDP said. Its
report calls for an ambitious approach to development, as growth rates will need
to increase sixfold if they are to recover within a decade. At the current rate
of annual growth, 1.3 percent, it would take more than 50 years to restore GDP
to prewar levels. To recover within 15 years, Syria would need to achieve a
growth rate of 5 percent, and a tenfold increase in growth would be required for
the country to reach the level of development it could have attained in the
absence of the war. Abdallah Al-Dardari, UNDP’s assistant administrator and
director of its regional bureau for Arab states, stressed the important need for
comprehensive reforms, and said: “Syria’s future hinges on a robust
development-recovery approach. “This demands a comprehensive strategy addressing
governance reform, economic stabilization, sector revitalization, infrastructure
rebuilding, and strengthened social services.”He told Arab News that this
strategy for recovery will rely on investments and on good management of those
investments, as he underscored the institutional requirements Syria will need to
meet to attract private investment in infrastructure.
“If you want to invest $100million or $200 million in (a) highway, you need to
first of all be sure that you can go to the court, and the court will treat you
equally if you have a litigation with your counterpart, which is the
government,” Al-Dardari said. “You need to make sure
that there are internationally recognized arbitration systems. You need to make
sure that your money can come in and leave the country. You need to make sure
that your banking system respects the highest standards of banking.
“I can give you a very long list of things that need to be done and are
not there yet. So this is an arduous journey. This is not an easy
journey.”Al-Dardari also told Arab News about the effects of international
sanctions, imposed on the Assad regime during the war, on the economy and the
ways in which they are hampering recovery progress. “I'll give you an example,”
he said. “Who is going to bring those investments of $36 billion while they are
not really sure that the banking sector is free to bring in money, to use the
SWIFT (banking system) to transfer funds and to invest? “How do you make sure
that your shipments into Syria of raw materials or semi-manufactured products
are protected? How do you make sure that your exports from Syria can arrive at
their destinations, and money will be paid for those exports? “So at every step
of the way in recovery, sanctions will play a role. The chilling effect of
sanctions, what we call the ‘overload lines,’ will accompany those sanctions. So
our core message (to countries) here is: Please understand the impact of
sanctions and act accordingly.”
New UN envoy to Libya vows to pursue ‘peace and stability’
AFP/February 20, 2025
TUNIS: The new United Nations envoy to Libya pledged on Thursday to “spare no
effort in achieving peace and stability” in the divided country, said the UN
Support Mission in Libya. Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, a Hungary-born Ghanaian former
parliamentarian and minister, said as she took up the role in Tripoli that her
task “will not be easy” and called for “working together,” UNSMIL said in a
statement. Libya has struggled to recover from the
chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime ruler
Muammar Qaddafi. It remains split between a
UN-recognized government in Tripoli and a rival authority in the east backed by
military strongman Khalifa Haftar. Tetteh was
appointed last month by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as his Special
Representative and head of UNSMIL, succeeding the Senegalese Abdoulaye Bathily,
who stepped down in April last year. She was previously appointed the UN Special
Representative for the Horn of Africa in 2022 and is the 10th official to hold
the Libya role since 2011. Tetteh pledged to “forge a path toward a Libyan-led
and Libyan-owned solution.”She said her mission would also “work with regional
and international actors... to preserve national unity, territorial integrity,
and sovereignty.”Presidential and parliamentary elections in the oil-rich North
African country had been scheduled for December 2021 but were indefinitely
postponed due to disputes between rival factions. “UNSMIL will continue to work
tirelessly to support and enable Libyan institutions to hold inclusive national
elections and forge a collective national vision to address Libya’s
long-standing challenges,” said the statement.
US Senate confirms Trump loyalist Kash Patel to head FBI
AFP/February 20, 2025
WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled US Senate on Thursday confirmed Kash
Patel, a staunch loyalist of President Donald Trump, to be director of the FBI,
the country’s top law enforcement agency. Patel, 44, whose nomination sparked
fierce but ultimately futile opposition from Democrats, was approved by a 51-49
vote. The vote was split along party lines with the exception of two Republican
senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted not to
confirm Patel to head the 38,000-strong Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Patel drew fire from Democrats for his promotion of conspiracy theories, his
defense of pro-Trump rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and
his vow to root out members of a supposed “deep state” plotting to oppose the
Republican president. The Senate has approved all of Trump’s cabinet picks so
far, underscoring his iron grip on the Republican Party. Among them is Tulsi
Gabbard, confirmed as the nation’s spy chief despite past support for
adversarial nations including Russia and Syria, and vaccine skeptic Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. to be health secretary.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, in a last-ditch bid to derail Patel’s
nomination, held a press conference outside FBI headquarters in downtown
Washington on Thursday and warned that he would be “a political and national
security disaster” as FBI chief.
Speaking later on the Senate floor, Durbin said Patel is “dangerously,
politically extreme.”“He has repeatedly expressed his intention to use our
nation’s most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his
political enemies,” he said.
Patel, who holds a law degree from Pace University and worked as a federal
prosecutor, replaces Christopher Wray, who was named FBI director by Trump
during his first term in office. Relations between Wray and Trump became
strained, however, and though he had three more years remaining in his 10-year
tenure, Wray resigned after Trump won November’s presidential election.
A son of Indian immigrants, the New York-born Patel served in several
high-level posts during Trump’s first administration, including as senior
director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council and as chief of
staff to the acting defense secretary. There were
fiery exchanges at Patel’s confirmation hearing last month as Democrats brought
up a list of 60 supposed “deep state” actors — all critics of Trump — he
included in a 2022 book, whom he said should be investigated or “otherwise
reviled.”
Patel has denied that he has an “enemies list” and told the Senate Judiciary
Committee he was merely interested in bringing lawbreakers to book.
“All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution,” he said.
The FBI has been in turmoil since Trump took office and a number of
agents have been fired or demoted including some involved in the prosecutions of
Trump for seeking to overturn the 2020 election results and mishandling
classified documents. Nine FBI agents have sued the
Justice Department, seeking to block efforts to collect information on agents
who were involved in investigating Trump and the attack on the Capitol by his
supporters. In their complaint, the FBI agents said the effort to collect
information on employees who participated in the investigations was part of a
“purge” orchestrated by Trump as “politically motivated retribution.”Trump, on
his first day in the White House, pardoned more than 1,500 of his supporters who
stormed Congress in a bid to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s
election victory.
Putin hails Russia’s huge number of ‘terror’ convictions
AFP/February 20, 2025
MOSCOW: Russian military courts sentenced more than 1,000 people on terrorist
charges last year, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, referring to a
massive wave of prosecutions during the Ukraine offensive.
Russia’s secretive military courts prosecute captured Ukrainian soldiers,
Russians accused of working with Kyiv or sabotaging Moscow’s army, domestic
opponents of the Kremlin, and alleged radicals and terrorist groups. “Military
courts have a key role in deciding on criminal cases with a terrorist
direction,” Putin said in a speech to Russia’s top judges. “Last year, around
950 such cases were looked at, 1,075 people were sentenced.”Russia regularly
sentences people over opposition to the Ukraine offensive, while convicting
captured Ukrainian soldiers on treason and terrorist charges. The Geneva
Conventions prohibit the prosecution of prisoners of war (POW) for taking part
in armed hostilities. Moscow has also intensified its
targeting of alleged jihadist cells since the March 2024 massacre at a Moscow
concert hall that killed 145 people — an attack claimed by the Islamic State.
The crackdown at home is of a scale not seen since the Soviet era.
The OVD-Info rights group says 1,184 people have been prosecuted in
Russia for their opposition to the Ukraine conflict — including 258 for
justifying “terrorism” and 58 for “acts of terrorism.”The Memorial rights group
says Russia has 868 political prisoners, though its co-founder Oleg Orlov told
AFP last year there were “a lot more” that campaigners did not know about.
Jailed for “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces, he was then released in a
prisoner exchange with the United States. Putin on
Thursday praised Russia’s judges for their “dedication” in overseeing the
ballooning case load. He said Russia had created 100 courts and appointed 570
judges in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has jailed an unknown
number of Ukrainians for opposing Moscow’s military offensive.
“They are completely integrated in the united Russian judicial system,”
Russia’s Supreme Court chief Irina Podnosova told Putin.
She said military courts had seen a steep rise in overall cases during
the Ukraine campaign. “In 2024, they looked at 18,000 criminal (cases), 13,000
administrative (cases) and 9,000 civilian (cases),” she added. Little is known
of the fate of Ukrainians sentenced by Russian-installed courts in the four
Ukrainian regions Russia annexed in 2022 — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and
Zaporizhzhia. Russian courts are known for their low acquittal rates.
Mexico says won’t accept US ‘invasion’ in fight against
cartels
AFP/February 20, 2025
MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s president warned the United States on Thursday her country
would never tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty and vowed fresh
legal action against US gunmakers after Washington designated cartels as
terrorist organizations. The remarks were the latest in a series hitting back at
the administration of President Donald Trump, which has ramped up pressure on
its southern neighbor to curb illegal flows of drugs and migrants. Mexico is
trying to avoid the sweeping 25-percent tariffs threatened by Trump by
increasing cooperation in the fight against narcotics trafficked by the cartels
in his sights. The eight Latin American drug trafficking groups designated as
terrorist organizations include Mexican gangs such as the Jalisco New Generation
and Sinaloa cartels — two of the country’s most powerful and violent criminal
organizations. But the designation “cannot be an opportunity for the US to
invade our sovereignty,” President Claudia Sheinbaum told a news conference.
“They can call them (the cartels) whatever they want, but with Mexico, it is
collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even
less invasion.”Sheinbaum said Mexico would expand its legal action against US
gun manufacturers, which her government accuses of negligence in the sale of
weapons that end up in the hands of drug traffickers.
The lawsuit could lead to a new charge of alleged “complicity” with terrorist
groups, she said. Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in the
White House last month saying that the cartels “constitute a national-security
threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the designations “provide
law enforcement additional tools to stop these groups.”“Terrorist designations
play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective way to
curtail support for terrorist activities,” he said in a statement.
While he did not mention it, the move has raised speculation about possible
military action against the cartels. Tech billionaire
Elon Musk, who has been given a prominent role in the Trump administration,
suggested the designation “means they’re eligible for drone strikes.”On
Wednesday, Sheinbaum confirmed that the United States had been operating drones
spying on Mexican cartels as part of a collaboration that has existed for
years.According to The New York Times, Washington has stepped up secret drone
flights over Mexico in search of fentanyl labs as part of Trump’s campaign
against drug cartels.Military threats from the United States always generate
resentment in Mexico, which lost half of its territory to the United States in
the 19th century. Sheinbaum said that she would
present to Congress a constitutional reform to protect “the integrity,
independence and sovereignty of the nation” including against the violation of
its territory by land, air or sea. Mexico says that
between 200,000 and 750,000 weapons manufactured by US gunmakers are smuggled
across the border from the United States every year, often being used in crime.
The Latin American country tightly controls firearm sales, making them
practically impossible to obtain legally. Even so, drug-related violence has
seen around 480,000 people killed in Mexico since the government deployed the
army to combat trafficking in 2006, according to official figures.
While she has ruled out declaring “war” on drug cartels, Sheinbaum has
quietly dropped her predecessor’s “hugs not bullets” strategy, which prioritized
tackling the root causes of criminal violence over security operations.
Her government has announced a series of major drug seizures and deployed
more troops to the border with the United States in return for Trump pausing
tariffs for one month. Mexican authorities also announced the arrest this week
of two prominent members of the Sinaloa Cartel, including the head of security
for one of its warring factions.
Teenager kills two women in knife attack at Czech shop
AFP/February 20, 2025
HRADEE KRALOVE, Czech Republic: A 16-year-old boy killed two women in a knife
attack at a discount shop in the Czech Republic on Thursday, police said, adding
the motive remained unclear. Police arrested the teenager, a Czech national,
minutes after the attack at an Action branch on the outskirts of Hradec Kralove,
around 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Prague. “Both
of those attacked suffered injuries which were so serious that they could not be
saved despite all efforts of the rescuers,” police said on X.
Police spokeswoman Iva Kormosova said the teenager attacked a shop
assistant at the counter and another worker in a service area of the store.
The attacker’s motive was unclear but that there was nothing to indicate
a terror attack, police said. “The information we have for now seems to suggest
he chose the victims randomly,” they added. Rescuers received the first call
about 0730 GMT, half an hour after the shop had opened.“When we arrived, we
found two people stabbed,” Anatolij Truhlar, head doctor of the local air rescue
service, told the private CNN Prima News TV channel. “Unfortunately, despite 40
minutes of resuscitation efforts, both persons died,” he added. Police were
deployed outside the Action discount store where a lone candle flickered, and a
part of an adjacent car park was closed with police tape until Thursday
afternoon. “I think you’re not safe anywhere, given what’s going on around us,”
passer-by Adela Ptackova told AFP. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed
condolences to the families of the victims, calling the murders “an
incomprehensible, horrendous act.” Terror attacks are rare in the Czech
Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people, but in 2023 a student
killed 14 people and wounded 25 in a shooting rampage at a Prague university.
The Czech Republic’s southern neighbor Austria is reeling from the murder of a
teenager in a knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker in the city of Villach at
the weekend.
UN envoy says creating an
inclusive Syrian govt could help lift sanctions
AP/February 20, 2025
DAMASCUS: Creating an inclusive government in the Syrian Arab Republic in the
coming weeks will help determine whether Western sanctions are lifted as the
country rebuilds after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad, the UN
special envoy to Syria said on Thursday. “What I’m hoping is that with a truly
new inclusive government in place on the 1st of March, this will help us in
lifting sanctions” imposed on Syria by Western countries during Assad’s rule,
Geir Pedersen said in an interview during a visit to Damascus. After Assad was
toppled in a lightning rebel offensive in December, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or
HTS, the group now in control of Syria, set up an interim administration
comprising mainly members of its “salvation government” that had ruled in
northwestern Syria. At the time, the country’s de
facto authorities said that a new government would be formed through an
inclusive process by March.
In January, former HTS leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa was named Syria’s president after
a meeting of most of the country’s former militant factions.
In recent weeks, a committee has been holding meetings in different parts
of Syria in preparation for a national dialogue conference to chart the
country’s political future, the date of which has not yet been announced.
Pedersen said that in his first meeting with Al-Sharaa in December, Al-Sharaa
had insisted that the interim government would rule for only three months.
However, Pedersen warned him the timeline was tight. “I think the important
thing is not whether it is three months or not, but it is whether they will
deliver on what they have said all along, that this is going to be an inclusive
process where all Syrians will be included,” Pedersen said.
The US and European countries have not lifted sanctions that were imposed on the
Syrian government under Assad’s rule, which the new authorities have said is
handicapping their ability to rebuild the country after nearly 14 years of civil
war and restore essential services like state electricity.
Officials from some Western countries have said they want to see if the interim
rulers will follow through on their promises of inclusive governance and
protecting minorities.Organizers of the national dialogue have said the
conference will include all segments of Syrian society except for Assad
loyalists and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led force in the northeast
that has so far refused to dissolve and be absorbed into the new national army.
The SDF is currently negotiating with the central government, and Pedersen said
he hopes to see a “political solution” to the impasse.
Pedersen said he is also concerned about a security vacuum following the
country’s new rulers’ disbanding of the former national army and security
services. “It’s very important that the new structures
of the state are coming in place quickly and that there is an offer to those who
are no longer in service of the army or the security services, that there are
other job opportunities, and that people do not feel that they are excluded from
the future of Syria,” he said. The UN envoy said he
also remains concerned about Israel’s incursions into Syrian territory since the
fall of Assad. The Israeli army has seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the
Golan Heights established by a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria and has also
made forays beyond the buffer zone. The UN has said that Israel is violating the
agreement. Israeli officials have said they took the action to protect Israel’s
security and that their presence would be temporary.
Pedersen said the security concerns are being addressed, and “there is really,
in my opinion, no argument for why the Israelis should be staying.” “The
solution is very simple. The Israelis need to withdraw,” he said.
Macron says Ukraine's
Zelensky elected in a 'free system', unlike Putin
AFP/February 20/2025
French President Emmanuel Macron threw his weight behind the embattled leader of
war-torn Ukraine on Thursday, saying he was elected in a "free system", after
Donald Trump branded Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator." "He is a president elected
in a free system," Macron said in a question-and-answer on social media,
referring to the Ukrainian president. "This is not the case for Vladimir Putin,
who has been killing his opponents and manipulating his elections for a long
time."
Trump warns Zelensky to
quickly negotiate war's end or risk not having a nation to lead
Associated Press/February 20/2025
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
that he "better move fast" to negotiate an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine
or risk not having a nation to lead. The rhetoric from Trump toward Ukraine
comes amid an escalating back-and-forth between the two presidents and rising
tensions between Washington and much of Europe over Trump's approach to settling
the biggest conflict on the continent since World War II. Trump's harsh words
for Zelenskyy drew criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans in the
United States, where Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression has had
bipartisan support. Zelenskyy said Trump was falling into a Russian
disinformation trap — and was quickly admonished by Vice President JD Vance
about the perils of publicly criticizing the new president. Trump, who is trying
to bring the fighting to a close on terms that Kyiv says are too favorable to
Moscow, used an extended social media post on his Truth Social platform to lash
out at Zelenskyy and call the Ukrainian a "dictator without elections." "Think
of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United
States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that
couldn't be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S.
and 'TRUMP,' will never be able to settle," Trump said of Zelenskyy, who was a
popular television star in Ukraine before running for office.
The U.S. has obligated about $183 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine in
February 2022, according to the U.S. special inspector general, conducting
oversight of American assistance to Ukraine. Trump accused Zelenskyy of being "A
Dictator without Elections!!" Due to the war, Ukraine did delay elections that
were scheduled for April 2024. He later repeated many of the criticisms of
Zelenskyy, who he said has done a "terrible job," during an address before a
meeting in Miami of business executives hosted by Saudi Arabia's sovereign
wealth fund.
Trump also contended that Zelenskyy was misusing American aid intended for the
war effort and had taken advantage of Democrat Joe Biden's administration.
The Republican president was riled by Zelenskyy's charge that Trump "lives in
this disinformation space" fostered by Moscow. "We have seen this
disinformation. We understand that it is coming from Russia," Zelenskyy said.
Vance told the Daily Mail that Zelenskyy's criticism of Trump was not
helping his cause. "The idea that Zelenskyy is going to change the president's
mind by bad mouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the president will
tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration," Vance said.
Ukrainian officials, however, continue to raise their concerns about Trump's
approach.
"Why should dominance be handed over to a country that is an aggressor, a
violator of international law, and the author of aggression against Ukraine?"
said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy. "We still do not understand
this strategy."U.S. and Russian officials meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday
agreed to negotiate a settlement to an end to the war. Ukrainian and European
officials were not included. Trump said Zelenskyy
should have worked out a deal earlier. "Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not
going to have a Country left," Trump said. "In the
meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia,
something all admit only 'TRUMP,' and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden
never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to
keep the 'gravy train' going," Trump wrote. The rhetoric from Trump went even
further than the false charges he made Tuesday against the Ukrainians when he
suggested Kyiv was responsible for starting the war. Russia invaded its smaller
neighbor.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York was appalled that Trump was
blaming Ukraine for Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion.
"It's disgusting to see an American president turn against one of our friends
and openly side with a thug like Vladimir Putin," Schumer said. Sen. John
Kennedy, R-La., said he disagreed with Trump's suggestion that Ukraine was
responsible. "I think Vladimir Putin started the war,"
Kennedy said. "I also believe, from bitter experience, that Vladimir Putin is a
gangster. He's a gangster with a black heart" who has Soviet dictator Josef
Stalin's "taste for blood." Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.,
said Trump's words were insulting to the thousands of Ukrainians who have died
in the war and he accused the president of parroting Putin. "I would call on
President Trump to apologize to the people of Ukraine, but it would be a waste
of breath," Durbin said. "Donald Trump is a pushover for Putin."Senate Majority
Leader John Thune of South Dakota is among the Republican lawmakers who have
supported Ukraine over the course of the war. He said the Trump administration
needed space as it seeks a resolution. "The president speaks for himself," Thune
said about Trump's sharpening rhetoric toward Zelenskyy. "What I want to see is
a peaceful result, a peaceful outcome."The administration has also shown
frustration with Zelenskyy for directing his ministers last week not to sign off
on a proposed agreement to give the United States access to Ukraine's rare earth
minerals. The Ukrainians said the document was too focused on U.S. interests.
The proposal, a key part of Zelenskyy's talks with Vance on the sidelines
of the Munich Security Conference, did not offer any specific security
guarantees in return. Trump during his speech in Miami fumed about the
Ukrainians walking away from an agreement. "They broke that deal," Trump
charged. Trump, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One after his speech
Wednesday evening, said the U.S. believed it had a deal on accessing Ukraine's
critical minerals when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent travelled to Kyiv last
week. Trump added the Ukrainians "agreed to it more or less and then Scott
Bessent went there and was treated rather rudely because essentially they told
him no."Ukrainian officials met Wednesday in Kyiv with retired U.S. Lt. Gen.
Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia.
"It's an egregious war in the sense of the length of time and casualties
there and he understands the human suffering," Kellogg said of Trump's thinking.
"He understands the damage that we can see and we want to see an end to it."
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on February 20-21/2025
Tehran’s Trump Trap
Behnam Ben Taleblu/The National Interest/February 20/2025
Iran is seeking to gain leverage while hoping that Washington will misread its
own weakness and fear as goodwill and restraint.
Tehran is setting a trap for the Trump administration.
Recent comments by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have poured cold water on
the idea of negotiations with the United States—or so it seems. Following
President Trump’s inauguration, Khamenei issued a green light for talks and did
not oppose the full-court press from his officials promoting negotiations.
So what gives?
Khamenei’s backtracking and balancing has deep roots and was on full display
amid nuclear negotiations during the Obama and Biden years. Khamenei covets
power without accountability, often deflecting or caveating big policy decisions
like deal-making with the United States. While his latest comments will severely
limit political room for maneuver in Tehran, they do not mean that the Islamic
Republic won’t talk. Keen to take advantage of Trump’s
oft-repeated desire for a deal, Khamenei is actually upping the asking price
while his officials coyly dangle diplomacy. Negotiations here are not a means of
peacefully resolving the Iranian nuclear question but a tool to blunt the
restoration of maximum-pressure sanctions while decreasing the chances of an
Israeli or American strike.
After all, the Islamic Republic can ill afford to face four years of escalating
economic sanctions or the prospect of a direct military conflict.
In the Middle East, Iran’s sole state ally, the Assad regime in Syria, has
collapsed. Its terror proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, have been dealt “several
serious blows,” according to the regime’s foreign minister.
At home, Iran’s Russian-provided long-range strategic air defenses are crippled,
thanks to a successful Israeli military operation. To make matters worse, an
escalating domestic energy and currency crisis risks pushing an already
frustrated and anti-regime population back out onto the street in protest.
To compensate, Iran is pushing its strategic partner China to buy more
sanctioned oil while also stepping up its own inventory of enriched uranium—the
fissile material needed to develop a nuclear weapon. It is also reportedly
exploring faster pathways to developing a nuclear weapon. While these moves are
how Tehran seeks to build leverage, it is hoping that Washington will misread
its own weakness and fear as goodwill and restraint.
Elsewhere, Iranian proxies in Iraq have not struck U.S. positions in Iraq or
Syria since November 2024, the month Trump was re-elected to the presidency. The
Houthi rebels in Yemen, whom Tehran—and reportedly even China—have armed,
recently released the crew of a tanker they had taken hostage well over a year
ago.
Tehran has also released an elderly German-Iranian woman it held hostage for
four years, cashed in on another round of “hostage diplomacy” with the Italians,
and returned the body of another dual-national hostage it executed.
And here’s the ultimate role reversal.
To sweeten the prospects for negotiations with Trump personally, Iran’s
president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has even tried to walk back Tehran’s plot to kill
him, claiming, “We have never attempted this to begin with, and we never will.”
This is in spite of FBI reports exposing an Iran-backed plot against Trump in
2024 and Iranian military officials re-upping a death threat against him in
2023.
The seeming about-face on all things Trump is the clearest indication of Iran’s
sense of desperation. The Islamic Republic’s enmity with Trump is deep-seated,
perhaps more so than with any other president in U.S. history. The reason is
threefold.
First, Trump is the Western leader who broke the taboo of supporting the Iranian
people each time they poured out into the street to protest against their
clerical overlords. Trump’s strident comments and tweets from 2017 to 2020
contrast sharply with President Obama’s tepid response to protests in 2009,
which forced demonstrators to chant, “Obama, Obama, are you with us or them?”
Prior to Trump, Western support, even if only rhetorical, was long believed to
be a “kiss of death.” Following Trump, dissident leaders have much more
forcefully embraced the bully pulpit and even sanctions.
Second, Trump’s maximum pressure policy in his first term was extremely
effective, with Iranian officials calling it more economically devasting than
the regime’s eight-year war with Iraq (1980–1988). Trump did record
macro-economic damage to the Islamic Republic’s economy and oil exports in
record time and unilaterally. This torpedoed the conventional wisdom that
sanctions would have to be multilateral and phased to have a real effect.
And third, Trump is the U.S. president who pulled the trigger against Iran’s
chief terrorist, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds-Force chief Qassem
Soleimani. “Soleimani’s shoe has more honor than the head of his assassin,”
previously declared Khamenei. The move, which even the Bush administration
allegedly shied away from, was both a strategical and psychological setback for
Tehran, rendering it off balance in ways that were made clear against Israel in
the post-October 7 Middle East.
For all these reasons, Iran’s mixed messages and entreaties are bait to bail out
a faltering regime rather than indications of a genuine change in behavior.
Instead of hyping a deal and losing leverage, Trump can enhance his bargaining
position by exploiting the Islamic Republic’s current sense of weakness. This
can be done by intensifying sanctions, particularly on oil sales to China, while
heightening Tehran’s fears over U.S. and Israeli military action, all while
publicly downplaying the idea of talks. In other words, make the regime sweat
and let maximum pressure commence.
*Behnam Ben Taleblu is the senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation
for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
UN calls for rapid economic recovery in Syria to reverse losses from 14 years of
conflict
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/February 20, 2025
NEW YORK CITY: A newly published report from the UN Development Programme warned
that at current growth rates, the Syrian economy will not recover to prewar
levels until 2080, leaving the country stuck in a state of prolonged hardship
and instability. It also underscored the urgent need for a rapid economic
recovery to help reverse the decades of progress that were lost as a result of
the 14-year civil war. The conflict shattered nearly four decades of economic,
social and human development, causing irreparable damage to the nation’s
infrastructure, economy and social fabric.
The report, titled “The Impact of the Conflict in Syria: A Devastated Economy,
Pervasive Poverty, and a Challenging Road Ahead to Social and Economic
Recovery,” offers a detailed analysis of the socioeconomic state of the country,
and outlines a road map for rebuilding its economy and infrastructure.
According to the UNDP’s preliminary socioeconomic impact assessment, gross
domestic product in Syria has halved since the war began in 2011, representing a
loss of $800 billion over the past 14 years.
Poverty has reached alarming levels, with the national poverty rate soaring from
33 percent before the war to 90 percent. Extreme poverty has also skyrocketed,
with 66 percent of the population now affected, up from just 11 percent prior to
the conflict. Three out of four people in the country rely on humanitarian aid
and are in urgent need of support for critical aspects of life such as
healthcare, education, employment, food security and housing. The country also
has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, with one in four Syrians
jobless.
Achim Steiner, the administrator of UNDP, said that the requirements for Syria’s
recovery extend beyond the immediate need for humanitarian aid.
“Restoring productivity for jobs and poverty relief, revitalizing
agriculture for food security, and rebuilding infrastructure for essential
services such as healthcare, education and energy are key to a self-sustaining
future, prosperity and peace,” he said. The damage to Syria’s infrastructure,
which has left many essential services nonfunctional, is among the primary
obstacles to recovery. The report highlights a staggering array of damage:
nearly 50 percent of schools are closed, one-in-three housing units have been
destroyed, and nearly half of the nation’s water-treatment plants and sewage
systems are no longer operational. Energy production has plummeted by 80
percent, with power plants and transmission lines heavily damaged. These
failures in basic services exacerbate poverty levels and block any meaningful
path toward recovery. The UNDP report also highlighted the devastating loss of
life during the war, and the decline in health infrastructure. Nearly 618,000
Syrians died during the conflict, and 113,000 were forcibly disappeared, their
whereabouts still unknown. Meanwhile, the collapse of the healthcare system has
exacerbated the crisis; a third of all medical facilities have been damaged and
almost half of ambulance services are no longer operational.
The education sector was also hit hard, leaving 40-50 percent of children
between the ages of 6 and 15 unable to attend school. The widespread destruction
of housing has left 5.7 million people in need of shelter support.
Essential infrastructure, including water-treatment plants, sewer systems and
power plants, has been severely damaged, leaving millions without access to
clean water, sanitation or reliable energy supplies.
Syria’s position on the Human Development Index has plummeted to its lowest
point since 1990, further illustrating the catastrophic effects of the war on
the nation’s development. The economic outlook remains grim but hope can be
found in the potential for robust growth if the correct strategies are
implemented, the UNDP said. Its report calls for an ambitious approach to
development, as growth rates will need to increase sixfold if they are to
recover within a decade.
At the current rate of annual growth, 1.3 percent, it would take more than 50
years to restore GDP to prewar levels. To recover within 15 years, Syria would
need to achieve a growth rate of 5 percent, and a tenfold increase in growth
would be required for the country to reach the level of development it could
have attained in the absence of the war.
Abdallah Al-Dardari, UNDP’s assistant administrator and director of its regional
bureau for Arab states, stressed the important need for comprehensive reforms,
and said: “Syria’s future hinges on a robust development-recovery approach.
“This demands a comprehensive strategy addressing governance reform, economic
stabilization, sector revitalization, infrastructure rebuilding, and
strengthened social services.”He told Arab News that this strategy for recovery
will rely on investments and on good management of those investments, as he
underscored the institutional requirements Syria will need to meet to attract
private investment in infrastructure.
“If you want to invest $100million or $200 million in (a) highway, you need to
first of all be sure that you can go to the court, and the court will treat you
equally if you have a litigation with your counterpart, which is the
government,” Al-Dardari said.
“You need to make sure that there are internationally recognized arbitration
systems. You need to make sure that your money can come in and leave the
country. You need to make sure that your banking system respects the highest
standards of banking.
“I can give you a very long list of things that need to be done and are not
there yet. So this is an arduous journey. This is not an easy
journey.”Al-Dardari also told Arab News about the effects of international
sanctions, imposed on the Assad regime during the war, on the economy and the
ways in which they are hampering recovery progress. “I'll give you an example,”
he said. “Who is going to bring those investments of $36 billion while they are
not really sure that the banking sector is free to bring in money, to use the
SWIFT (banking system) to transfer funds and to invest? “How do you make sure
that your shipments into Syria of raw materials or semi-manufactured products
are protected? How do you make sure that your exports from Syria can arrive at
their destinations, and money will be paid for those exports? “So at every step
of the way in recovery, sanctions will play a role. The chilling effect of
sanctions, what we call the ‘overload lines,’ will accompany those sanctions. So
our core message (to countries) here is: Please understand the impact of
sanctions and act accordingly.”
Russia-US meeting in Riyadh more than an icebreaker
Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg/Arab News/February 20, 2025
The meeting held in Riyadh on Tuesday has turned out to be more than an
icebreaker.
It was already significant as the first high-level meeting between Russia and
the US since January 2022, when former Secretary of State Antony Blinken and
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Geneva, a few weeks before the
war broke out, but they failed to avert it.
By contrast the outcomes of the Riyadh meeting went beyond expectations. It took
place in the offices of Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry and lasted more than
four hours. The fact that it was held in the Kingdom showcases the country’s
diplomatic credentials and its efforts to achieve peace between Russia and
Ukraine. In a statement issued earlier this month,
Saudi Arabia recalled that those efforts began at the start of the Ukraine
crisis. This was when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called both President
Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 3, 2022, to offer the
Kingdom’s good offices to reach a political solution.
After the Riyadh meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Kingdom was
playing an “indispensable role” by bringing the parties together, expressing
hope that it would continue this effort.
At the Tuesday meeting, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan
facilitated the talks together with National Security Advisor Dr. Musaad
Al-Aiban, the seasoned minister who is described as the man for difficult
missions.
On the US side there was also a high-powered team led by Rubio, a former
senator, on his first trip to Saudi Arabia. National Security Adviser Mike
Waltz, who is also a former lawmaker from Florida, was on the team. Probably the
closest to President Donald Trump was his Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve
Witkoff, a real estate magnate known for successful dealmaking.
The fact that it was held in the Kingdom showcases the country’s
diplomatic credentials and its efforts to achieve peace between Russia and
Ukraine
Outside of family, there is no one more trusted by Trump as Witkoff, CNN has
reported. He was instrumental in getting the Israel-Hamas deal done even before
Trump took office and his remit has now expanded to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Lavrov, the veteran diplomat since the days of the USSR, led the Russian side,
together with Kirill Dmitriev, who was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, studied at Harvard
Business School, and began his career with stints at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey
& Company. He has managed large private equity funds and completed a series of
landmark transactions for Russia. He now heads the Russian Direct Investment
Fund and is a confidante of Putin.
Following the meeting, Rubio said they agreed on four points. Firstly, to
re-establish the “functionality of our respective missions in Washington and in
Moscow,” to facilitate progress. Secondly, the appointment of a high-level team
to help negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine “in a way that’s enduring
and acceptable to all the parties engaged.”
Thirdly, to begin to discuss both the geopolitical and economic cooperation that
could result from an end to the conflict in Ukraine. Fourthly, they agreed to
remain engaged at the same high level to “make sure that it’s moving along in a
productive way,” Rubio said.
Waltz stressed the need for a permanent and quick end to the war, which has
“turned into a meat grinder of people on both sides,” revealing that as a
“practical reality,” there was going to be some discussion of territory, not
ruling out possible concessions. Rubio indicated there would be sanctions
relief.
Witkoff described the talks as “positive, upbeat, constructive …
solution-based.” He added: “We couldn’t have imagined a better result after this
session. It was very, very solid.”The Riyadh meeting came just a week after
Trump spoke to Putin telephonically. And Lavrov said after the talks the sides
agreed to fast-track the appointment of new ambassadors and “lifting artificial
barriers to the work of the US and Russian embassies and other missions.”
The two sides agreed to set up high-level working groups to begin exploring a
negotiated end to the conflict. It was not immediately clear when these teams
would first meet, but both said it would be soon.
For the main objective of this effort — ending the war — a high-level team from
the two countries will begin to engage with the Russian side on “parameters of
what an end to this conflict would look like.”
On the idea of a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, Lavrov said Moscow would not
accept any troops from NATO members, stressing that Ukraine’s bid to join the
alliance was a major security issue.
Lavrov said: “We explained that the deployment of troops from the countries that
are NATO members, even if they are deployed under the EU or national flags, will
not change anything and will certainly be unacceptable for us.” But he seemed to
imply the possibility of a UN force.
The presence of Witkoff and Dmitriev at the Riyadh talks is indicative of the
two sides’ ambition to move from the current crisis to a close economic
relationship. Dmitriev told reporters that Russia and the US should develop
joint energy and other ventures, including in the Arctic and other regions.
And Rubio said that once the Ukraine conflict was brought to an end, it could
open “incredible opportunities” to partner with Russia “on issues that hopefully
will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term.”
Realistically, there could be difficult hurdles before these ambitious ideas
materialize. First, the US needs to persuade Zelensky and its NATO and EU allies
of the value of its diplomatic approach to the crisis. Aware of this need, Rubio
said: “There’s going to be engagement and consultation with Ukraine, with our
partners in Europe, and others. He did not specify dates but remarked that Trump
was “not patient in terms of getting action. “He drives. He drives hard. He
wants to get things done. He’s been wanting to do this, and he’s moving very
quickly.”
**- Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC assistant secretary-general for political
affairs and negotiation. The views expressed here are personal and do not
necessarily represent those of the GCC. X: @abuhamad1
Nations race for AI dominance as global power shifts
Mohammed A. Al-Qarni/Arab News/February 20, 2025
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a technological breakthrough; it is
quickly becoming a linchpin of global power. While countries once focused on
military alliances, industrial capacity, or energy resources, many now see AI as
a crucial part of their national security and economic strategy.
This notion of “AI sovereignty” recognizes that whoever masters key components
of the AI stack — ranging from high-performance computing to regulatory policy —
will profoundly influence the world stage. Far from an abstract concern,
governments across the globe are already putting billions of dollars into AI
labs, ordering top-tier chips, and positioning themselves to attract or develop
frontier technologies.
In the next few years, national leaders face a fundamental choice about how they
will obtain the compute, data, energy, and regulatory frameworks that power
advanced AI models. Some may opt to “build,” pouring resources into domestic
research labs, data centers, and homegrown talent. Others may decide to “buy,”
forming alliances with hypercenter nations or corporations that can supply
cutting-edge hardware and knowledge.
This “build vs. buy” decision is not new in the history of technology. Countries
grappled with similar questions when electricity, railroads, and
telecommunication networks first arose. However, AI’s speed of evolution and its
capacity to encode cultural values and worldviews in digital form make today’s
decisions especially urgent. One way to evaluate a nation’s AI potential is
through four interlocking pillars: compute, data, energy, and policy.
Compute refers to access to high-performance hardware capable of training and
running large AI models, often requiring specialized chips like graphics
processing units. Data encompasses the quantity and quality of datasets that
train AI systems necessary for advanced model capabilities.
Energy is the cost and availability of electricity — an increasingly critical
factor because running large-scale AI workloads consumes enormous power.
Finally, policy determines how governments regulate AI development, protect
intellectual property, and set ethical boundaries on model usage.
Countries that have excelled in any of these pillars have a head start. The US
has long been a leader in compute, hosting major chip manufacturers and cloud
infrastructure giants. China is similarly advanced, although unique legal
frameworks allow it to mobilize private-sector resources at scale.
Nations in the Middle East hold a comparative advantage in energy — ample
reserves and low-cost power that could transform their economies into AI
super-hubs if strategically paired with strong data-center construction and top
research talent.
Meanwhile, regions like Europe are pushing forward on policy, trying to
articulate a coherent approach to regulating AI models while safeguarding
innovation.
For most nations, it is impractical to dominate all four pillars single
handedly. At least in the near term, sovereignty does not require building
everything in-house. Instead, the goal is to avoid dependence on unreliable or
misaligned partners for any critical element of AI infrastructure.
Where a country lacks robust data center facilities, it might ally with a
corporate cloud provider or a friendly state that can host compute capacity.
Where local energy costs are high, a government might incentivize green power
initiatives or forge international agreements to secure long-term energy
contracts, thus creating an environment to attract AI labs and startups. The
critical question is whether a nation can trust these alliances to remain stable
and beneficial over time, particularly if geopolitical winds shift. AI truly is
a new dimension of geopolitics; therefore, each country can align its strengths
toward building a robust AI ecosystem.
Leaders making these calculations should pay attention to several key
indicators. First, watch where high-end computing hardware is flowing. Early
chip orders and multi-year contracts for GPUs, tensor processing units, or
specialized accelerators often signal a commitment to becoming an AI
“hypercenter.”
Second, look for data-center investments and energy infrastructure expansions;
both strong predictors of a nation’s ambition to host large-scale AI projects.
Third, monitor research ecosystems: Are universities expanding AI curricula, are
local tech firms partnering with global AI players, and is there a surge in AI
talent visas or exchange programs? Finally, observe the regulatory front. A
patchwork of conflicting rules deters AI innovators and pushes them elsewhere,
so any coherent federal-level framework is a sign a government wants to compete
effectively.
Practically, policymakers can prepare in a few ways. They can provide clarity on
data usage, ensuring local researchers have access to large, high-quality
datasets while respecting privacy and ethical considerations.
They can incentivize the private sector to build and operate advanced data
centers domestically, particularly if cheap energy is abundant. They might form
strategic alliances, bilateral or regional treaties to pool resources and share
the burden of significant infrastructure costs. And crucially, they can invest
heavily in AI education and training, cultivating a workforce capable of
building and maintaining sophisticated systems. These efforts foster
self-sufficiency and signal to international partners that a nation is a
credible, capable ally in collaborative ventures.
Those who underestimate AI’s geopolitical significance may be left scrambling
for relevance as alliances solidify around the countries and corporations that
control the fundamentals. For instance, missing the chance to secure a pipeline
of GPUs can mean lagging years behind in frontier AI research.
Failing to craft a coherent data policy could deter innovators, while moral and
cultural values are shaped elsewhere. And overlooking the crucial role of energy
means watching from the sidelines as other regions with the right mix of power,
computing, and policy surge ahead.
This may sound daunting, but it also represents an unprecedented opportunity. AI
truly is a new dimension of geopolitics; therefore, each country can align its
strengths — abundant energy, a tradition of technical expertise, or a highly
skilled workforce — toward building a robust AI ecosystem.
The path need not be isolationist; international partnerships and private-sector
collaboration can fill gaps in a nation’s strategy, provided mutual trust and a
well-defined division of responsibilities exist.
What matters is that leaders recognize the shift now, weigh their options, and
act before the global map of AI power becomes locked in place. In the near term,
sovereignty is about ensuring you have choices rather than being at the mercy of
those who took the AI revolution seriously first.
• Mohammed A. Al-Qarni is an academic and consultant on AI for business.
Sudan’s deepening humanitarian emergency
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/February 20, 2025
As Sudan’s civil war drags on, the country faces an escalating refugee crisis
that has become one of the most pressing humanitarian emergencies in the world.
The conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and
the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has plunged the nation into chaos,
leaving millions displaced and severely impacting neighboring nations.
The relentless violence has created an unparalleled human tragedy, with refugees
facing hunger, disease and violence both within Sudan and in bordering
countries. Without urgent international intervention, the crisis threatens to
spiral further, exacerbating instability across the region.
The scale of displacement caused by the war is staggering. Since the conflict
began nearly two years ago, more than 6.1 million people have been internally
displaced, while another 1.5 million have fled the country in search of safety.
These numbers continue to rise as fighting intensifies. Witnesses report that
humanitarian convoys have been attacked, intercepting food and medical aid and
leaving refugees in an increasingly desperate situation. Many Sudanese fleeing
the conflict find themselves trapped in a brutal cycle of displacement, as they
are forced to move repeatedly due to shifting front lines and unpredictable
violence. For the millions of Sudanese displaced by
war, survival is a daily struggle. Internally displaced persons often live in
makeshift shelters or overcrowded camps where access to basic necessities like
food, clean water and medical care is severely limited.
Without urgent international intervention, the crisis threatens to spiral
further, exacerbating instability across the region
Many also suffer from malnutrition due to food shortages, while outbreaks of
cholera and other diseases are common due to unsanitary conditions and a lack of
medical supplies. The humanitarian situation is further exacerbated by
reportedly deliberate efforts to block aid. This strategy of using starvation as
a weapon of war has left millions teetering on the brink of death, with children
among the most vulnerable victims. For those who manage to escape Sudan, the
challenges do not end at the border. Refugees arriving in neighboring countries
often find themselves in overcrowded camps where resources are stretched thin.
Food rations are frequently insufficient, leaving many on the brink of
starvation, while access to healthcare is minimal. Opportunities for education
and employment are scarce, leaving refugees with little hope for a stable
future.
Chad, Sudan’s western neighbor, has borne the brunt of the refugee crisis. It is
now hosting more than 600,000 Sudanese. However, before the war broke out, Chad
was already a fragile state facing its own economic and security challenges. The
arrival of such a large number of refugees has put immense pressure on the
country’s limited resources, straining local infrastructure and leading to
rising tensions between displaced Sudanese and host communities.
Funding remains critically short and the ability of aid organizations to operate
is often hampered by insecurity and logistical challenges
In Ethiopia, political tensions and economic struggles have made it difficult to
absorb large numbers of refugees. Across all host nations, the burden of the
crisis is growing, threatening to destabilize already-fragile regions.
Despite the growing severity of the Sudanese refugee crisis, international aid
has been insufficient. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, alongside 33
international and national partners, has launched the 2025 Sudan Country Refugee
Response Plan, appealing for $633.7 million to assist nearly 900,000 refugees
and asylum seekers. However, funding remains critically short and the ability of
aid organizations to operate is often hampered by insecurity and logistical
challenges. The inability of major world powers to provide sustained aid
threatens to deepen the suffering of refugees and further destabilize the
region.
Addressing Sudan’s refugee crisis requires urgent and coordinated action. The
following steps are essential to mitigate the suffering of displaced Sudanese
and prevent further regional instability.
First of all, a sustainable resolution to the conflict is the only way to end
the cycle of displacement. Efforts must be made to revive peace talks between
the warring parties, building on previous negotiations such as the Jeddah
Declaration of 2023, which aimed to protect civilians and facilitate
humanitarian aid but ultimately failed due to ongoing violations.
Secondly, the international community must increase funding for emergency
relief efforts, ensuring that food, medical supplies and shelter reach those in
need. Donor nations and organizations must work to overcome bureaucratic hurdles
that hinder aid delivery and negotiate safe access for humanitarian groups
operating in conflict zones.
Thirdly, nations hosting Sudanese refugees require greater financial and
logistical support to manage the crisis. This includes more funding for local
infrastructure, education and healthcare to alleviate the strain on host
communities and foster social cohesion between refugees and local populations.
Fourthly, enhancing regional and international cooperation is critical. A
coordinated diplomatic effort involving the African Union, the UN and
neighboring governments is crucial in addressing the crisis. Sanctions and arms
embargoes should be enforced against those responsible for perpetuating the
violence, while political and economic incentives should be provided to
encourage peace negotiations and inclusive governance in Sudan.
In a nutshell, the Sudanese refugee crisis is one of the most severe
humanitarian emergencies of our time, with millions at risk of starvation,
disease and violence. As the war continues with no end in sight, the suffering
of displaced Sudanese grows, threatening not only their lives but also the
stability of the broader region. Without immediate and sustained international
intervention, the situation will deteriorate further, with dire consequences for
Sudan and its neighbors. Resolving the crisis demands immediate, large-scale
humanitarian aid, decisive and sustained global support and a concrete strategy
to achieve lasting peace in Sudan.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian
American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh