English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For February 24/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their
hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret
that will not become known.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke
12/01-05/:”Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered in thousands, so that they
trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, ‘Beware of
the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that
will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore
whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have
whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.‘I tell you,
my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing
more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has
authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February 23-24/2025
It Is the Duty of Respected Arab and Lebanese Media to Spare the Public
from the Nonsense of Faisal Abdul Sater and Qassem Kassir/Elias Bejjani/
February 24/2025
Despite Nasrallah's absence, the joy will not be complete until the day the
mullahs' regime is overthrown and their hellish axis is finally
eliminated./Elias Bejjani/February 23/2025
Text & Video: With Hassan Nasrallah's Burial, the Iranian Occupation Scheme in
Lebanon is Buried/Elias Bejjani/February 22, 2025
Masses of mourners attend the funeral of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, 5 months
after his killing
Tens of thousands mourn Hezbollah’s slain leader Nasrallah
Hezbollah chief vows ‘resistance’ as masses mourn Nasrallah
Lebanon not battleground for ‘wars of others,’ president tells Iran delegation
Israel army says 'world is a better place' on day of Nasrallah funeral
Israeli warplanes fly very low over Beirut and suburbs during Nasrallah funeral
Khamenei vows 'resistance' to Israel, as funeral underway for Nasrallah
Israel strikes South and Bekaa before and during Nasrallah funeral
Israel claims striking Hezbollah arms smuggling on Lebanon-Syria border
Lebanese Government Faces Daunting Task to Fill Vacant Positions
Hezbollah can rebuild and it will be disastrous for Lebanon/Dr. Dania Koleilat
Khatib/Arab News/February 23, 2025
Arduous Moments For Lebanon…and Maybe the Region/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/February
23/2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on February 23-24/2025
Pope Francis is Conscious and Receiving Supplemental Oxygen Following a
Respiratory crisis
White House backs Israel's decision to delay releasing Palestinian prisoners
Hamas refuses further talks unless Israel releases agreed prisoners
Syrian president invited to emergency Arab League summit in Egypt
Syrian national dialogue to begin on February 25
Israel demands ‘complete demilitarization’ of southern Syria
Israel won't allow HTS forces in southern Syria, Netanyahu says
Witkoff headed to Middle East this week to discuss Gaza peace deal
Israel says army to stay in evacuated West Bank camps for ‘coming year’
Hamas says Gaza truce gravely endangered after Israel's prisoner delay
Israeli tanks move into the occupied West Bank for the first time since 2002
amid growing crackdown
Father of freed Gaza hostage says fellow Arabs should be outraged by Hamas
Israel ready to resume Gaza war, PM warns after truce delay
Kuwaiti emir discusses ties with UAE national security adviser
Frankly Speaking: How did Saudis become mediators for global conflicts?
American Airlines flight lands in Rome after ‘security’ issue
Russia’s top diplomat to visit Turkiye Monday: sources
Zelensky offers to step down as president in exchange for peace
Titles For
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on February 23-24/2025
Trump Must Abandon the Disastrous Ceasefire Deal with Hamas/Con Coughlin/Gatestone
Institute/February 23, 2025
Khabur: Recalling a Hidden Assyrian Christian Hostage Crisis/Alberto M.
Fernandez/National Catholic/February 23, 2025
Pursuit of economic security is a double-edged sword/Arnab Neil Sengupta/Arab
News/February 23, 2025
Trump, Modi and the new partnership/Talmiz Ahmad/Arab News/February 23, 2025
How Middle East powers are reshaping the clean energy landscape/Adrian
Monck/Arab News/February 23, 2025
Lies/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/February 23/2025
In Berlin, Anxious Movies for Dark Times/The New York Times/Asharq Al Awsat/February
23/2025
When Germany Votes, It Will Be About the Economy/The New York Times/Asharq Al
Awsat/February 23/2025
The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February 23-24/2025
It Is the Duty of Respected Arab and Lebanese Media to Spare the Public
from the Nonsense of Faisal Abdul Sater and Qassem Kassir
Elias Bejjani/ February 24/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140530/
In the interest of truth, integrity,
and journalistic standards, it is the duty of every respected Arab and Lebanese
media outlet to refuse to host Faisal Abdul Sater and Qassem Kassir. This duo
serves as one of Hezbollah’s most deceitful and repugnant propaganda
tools—spreading lies, distortions, and outright hostility toward Lebanon and its
sovereignty. Their rhetoric is not only shameful but an insult to the
intelligence of any audience. No credible media platform should grant them space
to spew their fabrications and promote Hezbollah’s destructive agenda.
Despite Nasrallah's
absence, the joy will not be complete until the day the mullahs' regime is
overthrown and their hellish axis is finally eliminated.
Elias Bejjani/February 23/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140517/
It is our duty to thank Israel and America for ridding Lebanon of Nasrallah and
paving the way for the total elimination of his Iranian and devilish gang, the
so called Hezbollah. Indeed, the world has become a better place with the
absence of the terrorist Nasrallah. Next, we look forward to the fall of the
mullahs' regime and the liberation of the world from its hallucinations,
delusions, terrorism and absurd lies.
Elias
Bejjani/Text & Video: With Hassan Nasrallah's Burial, the Iranian Occupation
Scheme in Lebanon is Buried
Elias Bejjani/February 22, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/02/140491/
Tomorrow, Sunday, February 23, 2025, Beirut will witness the funeral of Hassan
Nasrallah, the criminal, terrorist, and notorious Iranian mercenary.
Hassan Nasrallah, throughout his life, was a mercenary soldier in the army of
the Iranian "Velayat-e Faqih," whose sole loyalty was to the rulers of Tehran
and who acted only under the orders of its mullahs. Hassan Nasrallah is the
greatest enemy of Lebanon and a traitor who sold out Lebanon, its people, as
well as its present and future in exchange for implementing the Iranian agenda
of destruction.
Nasrallah was never Lebanese, even if he held Lebanese citizenship. He polluted
the sacred land of the cedars, insulted the Lebanese identity, and drowned
Lebanon in the quagmire of subservience and dependency. He was the spearhead of
Iran's plan to occupy Lebanon and turn it into a terrorist base, from which
destruction would be launched across the entire region.
Lebanon has never known, throughout its history, a figure who held Lebanese
citizenship in a formal way, while betraying his people and working to destroy
them as Nasrallah did.
This butcher was the mastermind behind the assassination of many patriotic
Lebanon's leaders and politicians. He and his gang killed thousands of Lebanese
in general, including members of his Shiite community, whom he kidnapped and
took hostage in Lebanon The Shiites), Syria, Iraq, and Yemen in the mullahs'
satanic, savage and criminal wars.
He embarked on bloody adventures under direct orders from the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard. He sowed havoc, opened borders for weapons and drugs, and
turned Lebanon into a den for terrorist operations and money laundering until
the reputation of the homeland of the cedars became synonymous with militias and
international terrorism.
Below is a short list of the many crimes committed by Nasrallah and his gang,
blasphemously called Hezbollah:
*Hostility against the Gulf States: Destabilizing the
Gulf States, especially Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, carrying out
assassinations and terrorism operations there, and recruiting the Houthis and
other mercenaries to carry out these criminal missions.
*Assassinations: He was behind the assassinations of Lebanese figures opposed to
the policies of Hezbollah and Iran.
*Destabilizing political and economic stability: He worked to undermine the
political system and security in Lebanon and many countries in the region,
especially Syria.
*Intervention in Syria: Nasrallah led Hezbollah, under orders from Iran, to
intervene militarily in the Syrian civil war, where its members fought alongside
the criminal regime of Bashar al-Assad, leading to the killing of thousands of
Syrians and the displacement of millions, in addition to the deaths of more than
4,000 Lebanese Shiites whom he recruited into his army, along with the wounding
and disabling of 15,000 others.
*Supporting terrorism: Hezbollah, led by Nasrallah, has been classified as a
terrorist organization by many countries and international and Arab
organizations due to its involvement in terrorist operations around the world.
*Drug smuggling and manufacturing: Hezbollah was involved in manufacturing and
smuggling drugs, money laundering, and trading in all types of prohibited items,
including weapons, to finance its terrorist activities.
*Undermining Lebanon's sovereignty: Nasrallah and his criminal thugs worked to
undermine the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, establishing a state within a
state by force and terrorism, and possessing a huge arsenal of weapons used in
Lebanon and abroad in Iranian-mullah terrorist and criminal operations.
*Involvement in the Gaza war: He and the Iranian rulers dragged the Palestinians
into the devastating Gaza war and launched a war on Israel that resulted in the
killing of 11,000 Lebanese, most of whom were from his Shiite environment, and
led to the near-complete destruction of all Shiite residential areas.
With his death, part of the Iranian criminal and occupational plots in Lebanon
are buried with his body, but the danger is not over yet.
The funeral of this terrorist will not only be a farewell to him but also a
burial of Iran's terrorist schemes and its occupation of Lebanon, as well as a
test for those who still blindly bear loyalty to him and the mullahs' regime.
Hence, everyone who participates in his funeral tomorrow is participating in the
crime and declaring their partnership in all the blood that was shed because of
him and in service of the Iranian occupation, sectarianism, and expansionist
evil schemes.
In conclusion, Nasrallah does not deserve mercy, nor does he even deserve a
curse, as he is a black page in Lebanon's history and must be erased and folded
forever.
However, the battle with his mullah masters and his gang of mercenaries,
killers, and terrorists has not ended, and the Lebanese and Arabs still have a
major battle ahead of them to eradicate all remnants of his black legacy and the
mullahs' satanic legacy and to liberate Lebanon and all Arab countries from the
ambitions and plans of the devilish mullahs.
Masses of mourners attend
the funeral of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, 5 months after his killing
Bassem Mroue, Abby Sewell And Sally Abou Aljoud/The Associated Press/, February
23, 2025
Hundreds of thousands of people packed into a stadium in Beirut and nearby
streets on Sunday for the funeral of Hezbollah's former leader, Hassan Nasrallah,
nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Nasrallah died
after Israel’s air force dropped more than 80 bombs on the militant group’s main
operations room in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, dealing a major
blow to the Iran-backed group and political party that he had transformed into a
potent force in the Middle East. He was one of Hezbollah's founders and led it
for more than 30 years, enjoying wide influence among the so-called Iran-led
“axis of resistance” that also included Iraqi, Yemeni and Palestinian factions.
Nasrallah also became an icon in other parts of the Arab world after Hezbollah
fought Israel to a draw in a brutal monthlong war in 2006, but the group's image
suffered after it intervened on the side of former President Bashar Assad in
Syria's civil war. Hezbollah called on its supporters to attend the funeral in
large numbers in what appears to be a move to show that it remains powerful even
after suffering significant setbacks in a 14-month war with Israel that left
many of its senior political and military officials dead.
A Lebanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak to the media, estimated the crowd size at 450,000. “This
massive crowd confirms that Hezbollah is still the most popular party at the
Lebanese level, and as a result, all the talk that Hezbollah is weak or degraded
is out of place,” said Ali Fayyad, a lawmaker with the group's political wing,
who attended the funeral. Sahar al-Attar, a mourner who traveled from Lebanon’s
Bekaa Valley for the funeral said, “We would have come even under bullets” to
attend Nasrallah’s burial. Nasrallah shared the funeral with his cousin and
successor, Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut
suburb a few days later. Nasrallah will be laid to rest later Sunday in Beirut
while Safieddine will be buried in his hometown in southern Lebanon. Both had
temporarily been buried in secret locations. As the coffins were paraded before
the huge crowd, men riding on the platforms with them tossed flowers. Some in
the crowd threw clothing articles in the hope they would come in contact with
the coffins, believing it would bless them. Outside of the stadium, giant
screens were placed along the road leading to the airport, titling the funeral:
“We are committed to the covenant.”Hezbollah allies from around the world attend
the funeral. Senior Hezbollah official Ali Daamoush told reporters Saturday that
about 800 prominent figures from 65 countries would attend the funeral in
addition to thousands of individuals and activists from around the world.
Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas
Araghchi were among the officials who arrived at the Lebanese capital’s main
sports stadium. Lebanon's parliament speaker and representatives of the
president and prime minister were also in attendance. The funeral also drew
non-official participants from outside of Lebanon, including some from Western
countries. Irish activist Tara O’Grady waved the flag of her country and said
that she came to Beirut “to stand with the people of Lebanon and their
resistance against the Zionist regime who are brutally continuing to bomb the
south of Lebanon.” She likened Nasrallah to Irish early-20th century
revolutionary Michael Collins. As O’Grady spoke with The Associated Press, four
Israeli warplanes flew at low altitude over Beirut while Nasrallah’s coffin was
paraded into the stadium. The crowd chanted: “Death to Israel” and “At your
service, Nasrallah.”Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement
that the fighter jets flying over the funeral “send a clear message: Whoever
threatens to annihilate Israel and strike Israel — that will be his end.” Hours
before and during the funeral, the Israeli military also launched a series of
strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon. Also on Sunday, the Israeli military
released a video that said it shows the airstrike that killed Nasrallah and some
of the group’s top military officials on Sept. 27, 2024.
Hezbollah remains defiant
As part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended the war with Israel on Nov.
27, Hezbollah is not supposed to have an armed presence along the border with
Israel. The group was dealt another blow with the fall of the Assad family’s
five-decade rule in Syria in early December, which blocked a main route for the
flow of weapons and money from Iran. Its rivals have been calling on it to lay
down its weapons all over Lebanon and become a political faction. Nasrallah's
successor, Hezbollah’s current Secretary-General Naim Kassem, said in a
televised speech played at the funeral that “the resistance is still present and
strong in numbers and weapons, and the inevitable victory is coming." He was not
at the stadium. Kassem added that “Israel must withdraw from the areas it still
occupies" in southern Lebanon, referring to five strategic border points where
Israeli forces remain. “We won’t allow America to control our country,” he said.
"Israel will not take with politics what they did not take in the war.”Bassem
Mroue, Abby Sewell And Sally Abou Aljoud, The Associated Press
Tens of thousands mourn Hezbollah’s slain leader Nasrallah
Reuters/February 23, 2025
BEIRUT: Tens of thousands of people gathered on the outskirts of Beirut on
Sunday to pay their respects to Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah,
nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a stunning
blow to the Iran-backed group. The killing of Nasrallah, who led the Shiite
Muslim group through decades of conflict with Israel and oversaw its
transformation into a military force with regional sway, was one of the opening
salvos in an Israeli escalation that badly weakened Hezbollah. Carrying pictures
of Nasrallah and Hezbollah flags, supporters gathered early on Sunday for a mass
funeral for Nasrallah and other slain leaders of the group at a stadium in the
Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut. The 55,000-seat Camille Chamoun
Sports City stadium was nearly full hours before the ceremony was set to start.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, an Iraqi delegation including Shiite
politicians and militia commanders, and a delegation from Yemen’s Houthis were
expected to attend. The mass funeral is aimed at showing strength after
Hezbollah emerged battered from last year’s war with Israel, which killed most
of its leadership and thousands of fighters and wreaked destruction on south
Lebanon. The impact on Hezbollah was compounded by the ousting of its ally
Bashar Assad in Syria, severing a key supply route. “We may have lost a great
deal as a man, but we have not lost the value of the resistance because the
resistance is clinging on,” said Hassan Nasreddine, a Lebanese man headed to the
ceremony from the south. The funeral was also being held for Hashem Safieddine,
who led Hezbollah for a week after Nasrallah’s death. He was killed in an
Israeli strike before he had been publicly announced as Nasrallah’s successor.
After his death, Nasrallah was buried temporarily next to his son, Hadi, who
died fighting for Hezbollah in 1997. His official funeral was delayed to allow
time for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon under the terms of
a US-backed ceasefire which ended last year’s war. Though Israel has largely
withdrawn from the south, its troops continue to hold five hilltop positions in
the area, and Israel carried out airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Sunday,
saying it had identified Hezbollah activity. The conflict spiralled after
Hezbollah opened fire in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of
the Gaza war in October 2023.
Hezbollah chief vows ‘resistance’ as masses mourn Nasrallah
AFP/February 24, 2025
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Hezbollah’s leader said “resistance” was not over as hundreds
of thousands mourned slain chief Hassan Nasrallah Sunday at a Beirut funeral,
demonstrating continued support for the group after a devastating war with
Israel. During the funeral, women wailed as a truck carrying the coffins of
Nasrallah and his chosen successor Hashem Safieddine — both killed in Israeli
strikes — slowly moved through the crowd, topped with two black turbans and
draped in Hezbollah’s yellow flag. A procession headed toward Nasrallah’s burial
site near the airport, where a stampede erupted. A live broadcast by Al-Manar TV
showed Hezbollah members in military uniform pushing crowds away from the coffin
after it was unloaded from the truck before the burial. Safieddine will be
interred in his southern hometown of Deir Qanun Al-Nahr on Monday. The September
killing of the charismatic leader who led Hezbollah for more than three decades,
in a massive Israeli strike, dealt a heavy blow to the Iran-backed group.But
Hezbollah, which dominated Lebanon’s politics for decades, has long had a
support base in the country’s Shiite Muslim community. As the funeral began at
the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, Israeli warplanes flew at a low
altitude over Beirut in what Defense Minister Israel Katz said was a “clear
message” to anyone who threatens Israel. “You will specialize in funerals — and
we in victories,” Katz said. In a televised address at the ceremony, Nasrallah’s
successor Naim Qassem said Hezbollah would keep following his “path,” and
rejected any control by the “tyrant America” over Lebanon. “The resistance is
not over, the resistance is still present and ready” to face Israel, he said.
Nasrallah speeches were blasted as the mourners raised their fists in the air
and chanted: “We are at your service, Nasrallah.”
Two Hezbollah sources told AFP that the estimated number of participants is
“around 800,000” people. Men, women and children walked in the biting cold to
reach the site of the ceremony, which was delayed for months over security
concerns. “When I saw the coffin, reality dawned upon me,” said Lara, 26, adding
that she had a hard time coming to terms with his killing. “The pain is great...
words cannot describe how I feel,” she added. AFP correspondents said the
stadium, which can accommodate roughly 78,000 people according to organizers,
was fully packed.
As crowds gathered, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli
strikes in Lebanon’s south — including one that wounded a Syrian girl — and in
the east. Israel’s military said it had struck “sites containing rocket
launchers and weapons” in those areas. Israel has carried out multiple strikes
in Lebanon since a November 27 ceasefire deal with Hezbollah ended more than a
year of hostilities including two months of all-out war. The funeral comes days
after the deadline for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon’s south, with Israeli
troops pulling out from all but five locations. Both sides have accused each
other of violating the truce. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister
Nawaf Salam delegated officials to attend the ceremony on their behalf. Speaking
to Iran’s delegation ahead of the funeral, Aoun said: “Lebanon has grown tired
of the wars of others on its land.”
Hezbollah’s weakening in the war has contributed to the election of Aoun, seen
as a favorite among Western governments, after a two-year power vacuum. He named
Salam as his premier last month. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
vowed “resistance” against Israel as Hezbollah held the funeral.
He praised Nasrallah as “a great mujahid (fighter) and prominent leader” and
Safieddine as “a close confidant and an inseparable part of the
leadership.”Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign
Minister Abbas Araghchi were in attendance at the funeral. Sam Heller of the
Century Foundation think-tank said it was important for Hezbollah “to
demonstrate that it remains a major social and political force, despite some of
the setbacks it’s been dealt.”Since Saturday, roads into Beirut have been
clogged with carloads of supporters traveling in from Hezbollah’s other power
centers in south and east Lebanon. Khouloud Hamieh, 36, came from the east to
mourn the leader who she said was “dearest to our souls.”Hezbollah’s Al-Manar
television said the movement deployed 25,000 members for crowd control. A
security source said 4,000 troops and security personnel were on duty. Civil
aviation authorities said Beirut airport would close exceptionally for four
hours. A founding member of Hezbollah in 1982, Nasrallah won renown around the
Arab world in May 2000 when Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon
following relentless attacks by the group under his leadership. In the decades
since, Lebanese have been divided over Hezbollah, with many criticizing the
group for initiating more recent hostilities with Israel in support of
Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Lebanon not battleground for ‘wars of others,’ president
tells Iran delegation
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/February 23, 2025
BEIRUT: Lebanon “is tired of others’ wars on its soil,” its President Joseph
Aoun told an Iranian delegation in Beirut on Sunday. The delegation was in
Lebanon to attend the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and
Hashem Safieddine. They were killed around five months ago in devastating
Israeli airstrikes targeting the group. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of
supporters of Hezbollah and its allies, along with delegations from Iran, Iraq,
Yemen, and other countries, participated in the delayed funerals of Nasrallah
and Safieddine. The funeral ceremony took place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. It was
attended by Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign
Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with an Iranian delegation that arrived in Beirut
in the morning on a private Iranian aircraft. Before the funeral, the Iranian
delegation met with Aoun at the presidential palace. Aoun said at the meeting:
“I agree with you that countries should not interfere in the internal affairs of
other countries, and the best way to confront any loss or aggression is through
the unity of the Lebanese.”According to the presidency’s media office, Aoun
referenced the Iranian constitution, which stipulates in Article Nine that a
country’s freedom, independence, territorial integrity, and security are
inviolable. He said: “The constitution asserts that the government and all
citizens bear the responsibility to preserve them, and no individual, group, or
official has the right to inflict any harm on the political, cultural, economic,
or military independence of the country nor to undermine the territorial unity
of the nation under the pretext of exercising freedom.” Aoun called attention to
the outcomes of the recent Riyadh summit in which Iran participated, especially
the “affirmation of the two-state solution regarding the Palestinian issue, and
that the Palestinian Authority is the legitimate representative of the
Palestinians.”He said that “Lebanon paid a heavy price in defense of the
Palestinian issue,” expressing his hope for “a just solution to it.”
Ghalibaf affirmed the “unity of Lebanese territory, its integrity, and the
sovereignty of the state over it,” expressing his country’s “readiness to
collaborate with Arab and Islamic nations in the reconstruction of what has been
destroyed by Israeli aggression against Lebanon.”
He emphasized his nation’s “desire to see Lebanon as a stable, secure, and
prosperous country,” noting that Iran “supports any decision made by Lebanon
away from any external interference in its affairs.”The funeral ceremony took
place at the Sports City, near the southern entrance of Beirut. Nasrallah was
buried in a shrine constructed for him on a vast plot of land purchased by
Hezbollah on the old airport road, parallel to Beirut’s southern suburb. The
land had previously belonged to the American Life Insurance Co. before Lebanon’s
civil war in the 1970s. Safieddine will be buried Monday in his hometown in
southern Lebanon. After his death on Sept. 27, Nasrallah was temporarily buried
next to his son Hadi in a cemetery in Beirut’s southern suburb. Hadi was also
killed during a confrontation with the Israeli army in 1997. Violations of
Lebanese sovereignty accompanied the event on Sunday as Israeli warplanes
conducted multiple airstrikes in the south and Bekaa and flew twice at a very
low altitude over the mourners within the premises of the Sports City.
In the morning and during Nasrallah’s funeral, Israeli planes carried out a
series of airstrikes on the outskirts of Hermel and Bouday in northern Bekaa and
on southern villages in the Tyre district, injuring a Syrian girl. They also
targeted Jabal Al-Rayhan in Jezzine, with reconnaissance planes flying over
Beirut and its southern suburb throughout the day. The Israeli army claimed that
it targeted “military sites that contained rockets and weaponry in Baalbek and
southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah activities were detected.”It noted that
Hezbollah’s operations “are a violation of the ceasefire agreement and pose a
threat to Israel and its citizens. We will continue working to eliminate any
threats.” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that these warplanes’
flyovers “send a clear message: Whoever threatens and attacks Israel will seal
their fate.”Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem, who appeared
onscreen and did not attend the funeral in person, said: “Today we are facing an
occupation and aggression. Be assured that the resistance is present and strong
in numbers, resources, and popular support.
“We will not allow America to dominate our country. We have reorganized
ourselves, and our heroic fighters have stood firm along the borders.”Qassem
added: “We agreed to the ceasefire (with Israel) in light of a lack of political
field prospects.
“Today, we enter a new phase with different tools, methods and approaches. “We
will participate in building a strong and just state under the framework of the
Taif Agreement, under three pillars: swiftly implementing the rescue plan,
ensuring the state assumes responsibility for liberating the land, and following
up on the state’s moves to expel the occupation through diplomatic means, then
building on the results accordingly. “We are discussing the defense strategy, as
we believe in the army’s crucial role in defending Lebanon.”Qassem emphasized
the state’s role in securing “the release of prisoners and rebuilding what has
been destroyed.”He stated: “For us, Lebanon is a final homeland for all its
children, and we are its children. “Inside Lebanon, there is no winner or loser.
Let us compete for the benefit of our people.”From the early hours of dawn,
mourners flocked to the sports stadium amid freezing temperatures that dropped
to less than 7 degrees Celsius. They had already filled the stands by 6 a.m.,
even though the funeral was scheduled for 1 p.m. Despite the stadium’s
60,000-seat capacity, the crowd overflowed the sports stadium as men, women, and
children filled the surrounding squares, where an additional 50,000 chairs were
set up. The masses extended to the highways connecting Beirut’s southern suburb
to the city’s airport. At the event, Hezbollah reassured its supporters
regarding the strength of the party and its refusal to accept the occupation and
addressed national partners about the need to rebuild the state.
Israel army says 'world is
a better place' on day of Nasrallah funeral
Agence France Presse/February 23, 2025
Israel's army on Sunday said "the world is a better place" on the day of the
funeral for Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an
Israeli strike in September. "Today is Hassan Nasrallah's funeral. Today the
world is a better place," the army posted on X, as tens of thousands gathered in
the outskirts of Lebanon's capital for the funeral.
Israeli warplanes fly very low over Beirut and suburbs during Nasrallah funeral
Agence France Presse/February 23, 2025
Lebanese state media reported Sunday Israeli planes flying at a very low
altitude over Beirut, with AFP journalists hearing the rumbling noise while tens
of thousands attended Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's funeral near
the capital. "The hostile warplanes flew at low altitude over the skies of
Beirut and its suburbs," the National News Agency said. And as the warplanes
returned for a second round of mock raids over the capital, Israel's defense
minister Katz said they were sending a "clear message" to anyone threatening
Israel. "Israeli Air Force planes currently flying over Beirut during the
funeral of Hassan Nasrallah are sending a clear message: Anyone who threatens to
destroy Israel and attacks Israel –- this will be their end," Katz said in a
statement. Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of
Beirut in September.
Khamenei vows 'resistance'
to Israel, as funeral underway for Nasrallah
Agence France Presse/February 23, 2025
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed Sunday continued "resistance"
against Israel, as the funeral of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,
killed in an Israeli strike in September, was underway in Beirut. "The enemy
should know that resistance against usurpation, oppression, and arrogance is not
over and will continue until the desired goal is achieved," Khamenei said in a
statement published on his official website. Nasrallah was killed alongside
Iranian Revolutionary Guards general Abbas Nilforoushan in an Israeli strike on
south Beirut on September 27, during a war between Israel and Hezbollah that
ended in a November ceasefire. Tens of thousands of mourners gathered in the
Lebanese capital for the funeral of the longtime Hezbollah chief and his heir
apparent Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in a separate strike. Khamenei
praised Nasrallah as "a great mujahid (fighter) and prominent leader", and
Safieddine as "a close confidant and an inseparable part of the leadership".
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in Beirut for the funeral along with
parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and deputy Revolutionary Guards
commander Ali Fadavi, said the fight against "oppression and occupation" will
continue. Nasrallah's death was "not the end of the road", Araghchi said, but "a
new point in the ongoing struggle against oppression and occupation". Iranian
state television broadcast the funeral live, with an anchor reciting poems
hailing Hezbollah "resistance" fighters. It also aired images of gatherings in
the capital Tehran and other Iranian cities to mourn Nasrallah and Safieddine.
Hezbollah has long been part of the "axis of resistance", an alliance of
Iran-backed armed groups opposed to Israel and its ally the United States.
Israel strikes South and
Bekaa before and during Nasrallah funeral
Agence France Presse/February 23, 2025
Lebanese state media reported Israeli strikes Sunday about 10 kilometers from
the southern border as mourners converged in Beirut for the massive funeral of
the group's slain leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. "Hostile aircraft launched two
raids targeting the area between Qleileh and Sammaaiyah in the Tyre district,"
the official National News Agency said. The strikes wounded a Syrian girl and
damaged a number of homes, NNA added. Israel's military said it struck rocket
launchers which it said threatened Israeli civilians. "A short while ago, the
IDF (military) conducted a precise intelligence-based strike on a military site
containing rocket launchers and weapons in Lebanese territory, in which
Hezbollah activity was identified," a military statement said. "Additionally,
several rocket launchers that posed an imminent threat to Israeli civilians were
struck in southern Lebanon," it added. An Israeli airstrike later targeted the
Brisa area in Hermel's outskirts in the Bekaa. And as Nasrallah's funeral got
underway, new Israeli airstrikes targeted the outskirts of Bouday in the Bekaa
and the al-Ahmadiyeh area in south Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes were later
reported in the southern areas of Wadi al-Ezziyeh, Jabal al-Rihan, al-Aqbiyeh
and al-Bissariyeh. The Israeli army said it "attacked military sites containing
rockets and combat equipment in the Baalbek area and in several other areas in
southern Lebanon where Hezbollah activities were detected."
Israel claims striking
Hezbollah arms smuggling on Lebanon-Syria border
Agence France Presse/February 23, 2025
Israel struck the Lebanon-Syria border on Saturday to allegedly stop Hezbollah
from smuggling weapons, the Israeli military and a war monitor said, a day
before a mass funeral for the Lebanese group's slain leader. Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah was killed by Israel nearly five months ago in a huge strike on south
Beirut, at the start of an all-out war that ended with a ceasefire agreement in
late November. A military statement on Saturday said Israeli forces "conducted a
strike on border crossings on the Syria-Lebanon border through which the
Hezbollah terrorist organization has attempted to smuggle weapons into Lebanon."
"These smuggling attempts are a blatant violation of the understandings between
Israel and Lebanon," the statement said, referring to the November truce that
ended more than a year of hostilities including two months of war. The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported Israeli air strikes on
smuggling routes at the Lebanon-Syria border including "illegal crossings."
There were no immediate reports of casualties. Israel has carried out multiple
strikes in Lebanon since the ceasefire deal went into effect. Saturday's army
statement said Israeli forces "will operate to prevent any attempt by the
Hezbollah terrorist organization to rebuild its forces."Under the ceasefire
deal, Lebanon's military was to deploy in south Lebanon alongside U.N.
peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that was later
extended to February 18. Israel has since pulled out its troops from all but
five border locations. Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River,
about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle remaining military
infrastructure in the south. Both sides have accused the other of violating the
deal. Syria shares a 330-kilometer (205-mile) border with Lebanon, with no
official demarcation. Hezbollah lost a supply route when Islamist-led rebels in
December ousted ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where Israel has carried out
hundreds of strikes since war broke out in 2011. On Friday, Israel said it
struck crossings on the Lebanon-Syria border used by Hezbollah to smuggle
weapons, with the Observatory reporting an unspecified number of people wounded
in the attack.
Lebanese Government Faces
Daunting Task to Fill Vacant Positions
Beirut: Youssef Diab//February 23, 2025
The Lebanese government is facing a significant challenge in administrative
reform, particularly in filling high-level vacancies in ministries and public
institutions. Naming officials to category one positions requires broad
political consensus, as these appointments must be approved by two-thirds of the
government’s members. This means that upcoming cabinet meetings are expected to
witness intense political negotiations over the proposed candidates. Lebanese
citizens hope that Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government will adopt a
merit-based approach to appointments, moving away from sectarian quotas and
political favoritism. There is also a push to restore the role of the Civil
Service Board, which would review candidates’ qualifications and propose three
nominees for each vacant position, allowing the cabinet to select one and issue
an official decree. Mohammed Shamseddine, researcher at Beirut-based Information
International, said that there are currently 47 vacant category one positions,
with a significant number allocated to the Maronite community, including the
commander of the Lebanese Army, the governor of the Central Bank, and director
generals of key ministries such as Finance, Education, and Energy.
He added that Sunni-designated positions include the director general of the
Internal Security Forces, the president of the Judicial Inspection Authority,
and key roles in telecommunications, civil aviation, and tourism. The Shiite
community has seven vacant senior positions, including director general of
General Security and the Financial Prosecutor. The Druze, Greek Orthodox, and
Greek Catholic communities also have several unfilled roles, such as the
director general of the Ministry of Health, the government commissioner to the
Central Bank, and the chairman of the Lebanese state television, Tele Liban. The
Armenian Catholic community has one vacant senior post, the director general of
Central Statistics. According to Shamseddine, beyond Category One, the
government must also address a growing number of vacancies in Category Two and
Three positions, which are crucial for the daily operations of public
administration. There are currently around 270 vacant posts out of a total of
600 in these categories. Diplomatic and consular positions are also a priority,
with 69 Lebanese embassies lacking ambassadors, including those in major
capitals such as Washington, Paris, London, Moscow, and Beijing.
Judicial appointments are an equally pressing issue, given that Lebanon’s
judiciary has been nearly paralyzed due to vacancies in key positions. The
Supreme Judicial Council has been nonfunctional since September 2024, an
unprecedented situation in the country’s history. The appointment of a new
Financial Prosecutor, the president of the Judicial Inspection Authority, and
members of the Judicial Council is seen as essential to restoring the
judiciary’s effectiveness. Once the Supreme Judicial Council is reconstituted,
it is expected to implement long-delayed judicial appointments.
Hezbollah can rebuild and
it will be disastrous for Lebanon
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/February 23, 2025
As expected, Israel refused to fully withdraw from Lebanon on Feb. 18, leaving
its forces in five border areas. Maintaining the occupation in this way is
exactly the breath of life Hezbollah needs to revive itself. On Feb. 23,
Hezbollah held the funeral of its secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, who was
killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sept. 27 last year. The funeral was an
occasion for the group to show it still commanded strong support among the
Shiite community. Wafiq Safa, the official in charge of the group’s coordination
and liaison unit, said a few weeks ago that Hezbollah would emerge stronger than
it was before. He could be right. It was born out of the grievances caused by
the Israeli invasion in 1982. Now, Israel has created enough hatred and pain to
give the group exactly the boost it needs to rebuild itself. Prior to
withdrawing from the areas they did leave, Israeli forces made sure to burn the
houses they had not already destroyed. Towns close to the border, such as Kfar
Kela, were razed to the ground. Southern Lebanon is an agrarian society; the
people there make a living from the crops they farm. Israel bombed the south
with phosphorus bombs to ensure those people would no longer be able to
cultivate their land.
Israeli authorities are attempting to create an undeclared “no-man’s land,” a
buffer zone along the border with Lebanon. They hope that because of all the
destruction, people will be discouraged from returning home. Through this buffer
zone and control of five strategic points along the border, Israel thinks it can
guarantee the security of its settlements in Galilee.
In addition, the Israelis think that their presence within Lebanese borders
means they will be able to move freely there and target anyone they want. A few
days ago, for example, Israeli forces carried out a drone attack in Saida in
which they assassinated a Hamas operative. Their reconnaissance and surveillance
drones and planes can breach and roam Lebanese airspace as they please. From
time to time, they fly at low altitude and break the sound barrier, creating
fear and anxiety among the Lebanese people. Why would they not? Israeli
authorities see no restrictions on their actions. They can do whatever they
want. They broke all international laws in Gaza and faced no repercussions, so
why not in Lebanon? However, the Israelis underestimate the urge this is fueling
among the Lebanese to fight back, especially among Shiites, whose homes and land
have been devastated. This is something Hezbollah, weakened as it is, can use to
its advantage. To fully understand the group’s fall, one should understand its
rise. Hezbollah was created out of a need to fight an Israeli occupation. It
evolved from small, random groups into a formidable, well-organized guerrilla
force that could spread fear among the generals in Tel Aviv. Of course, its
creation came three years after the Iranian revolution, and directly after the
Israeli invasion of Beirut. The rise of Hezbollah was considered the first
export of Iran’s revolution to the Arab world and it was successful mainly
because of the indigenous need to fight the Israeli occupation.
For the sake of stability, Israel must withdraw and the Lebanese state must be
strengthened.
After Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah lost its
raison d’etre as a resistance organization. Following the withdrawal of Syrian
forces in 2005, the group entered politics. Its members felt they had to because
they had lost their Syrian sponsor. Political power represented a tool with
which to protect their arms; they did not want a government in place they could
not control, which might ask them to disarm in compliance with 2004’s UN
Security Council Resolution 1559 and the 1989 Taif Agreement that ended the
civil war in Lebanon.In 2008, Hezbollah tightened its grip on the government
through the Doha agreement, signed on May 21 that year, which was designed to
end an 18-month political crisis during which the weapons the group had been
pointing at the Israelis were turned on their fellow Lebanese. On May 7, 2008,
Hezbollah had taken Beirut by force. It became part of the country’s corrupt
political structure. The arms that had been protecting Lebanon from Israeli
aggression were now the main protectors of the political elite and their
corruption.
The more the group’s legitimacy was eroded, the more brutal it became,
domestically. It suppressed dissent, whether through assassinations or by
crushing the public protests that erupted in 2019, demanding the dismantling of
a corrupt political system. The group had morphed from a clean resistance
organization comprising a tight-knit group of dedicated people to a more
mafia-like structure. It became involved in drug production and trafficking
along with the Assad family. It started to become a conglomerate inside Lebanon.
It owned a bank and various businesses. Somehow it began to mimic the corrupt
Lebanese political system, and became its main patron. As it expanded in the
region, however, Hezbollah made too many enemies. While the group enjoyed some
degree of Arab acquiescence while fighting Israel, it lost whatever legitimacy
it had in the Arab world when it entered Syria and acted like a proxy of Iran as
part of the latter’s quest for regional domination. The Israeli attack on
Hezbollah last year using booby-trapped pagers and other communication devices,
and the wider recent war on Lebanon, were a wake-up call for the group and its
surviving leaders. They realized they had overstretched themselves by
interfering in other countries in the region. The only way for Hezbollah to
rebuild itself, then, is to return to its origins as an armed resistance to an
Israeli occupation. The grievances in southern Lebanon are strong enough to fuel
this project.
Wafiq Safa was not entirely wrong, therefore, when he predicted that Hezbollah
would eventually emerge stronger than it was before. However, this would be a
very dangerous development as it would lead to another war. The authorities in
Israel at present are unhinged, buttressed by a permissive administration in the
US. This means that if any resistance does arise, the response from the Israelis
will be extremely destructive to Lebanon.
The US should be wise enough to realize that the continuing presence of Israeli
forces in Lebanon, and their operations there with the aim of killing every
member of Hezbollah, will only strengthen the group in the long run.
For the sake of stability, Israel must withdraw and the Lebanese state must be
strengthened. If this is done, Hezbollah will eventually be decommissioned as an
armed movement.
• Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on
lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace
Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.
Arduous Moments For
Lebanon…and Maybe the Region
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/February 23/2025
Lebanon has rarely undergone such critical moments since February 2005. Even if
they are relatively peaceful, the period ahead will be uncertain and unsettling
for the Lebanese. The "chemistry" of the region is changing, and the assumptions
that could once be "taken for granted" are collapsing faster than we could have
anticipated before our eyes. The setbacks of Iran’s project in Gaza, Lebanon,
and Syria have been severe by every measure. Lebanon is taking center stage at
the moment... as both locals and foreigners gather to bid farewell to
Hezbollah’s former Secretaries-General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed
Hashem Safi al-Din, in a mass funeral that is likely to be the final chapter of
one historical phase and the beginning of another that is no less fraught with
challenges. The major source of contention, here, is that neither the party’s
leaders, its popular base, nor its regional sponsors are not showing any signs
that have acknowledged the irreconcilability between an armed militia, whatever
its banner, and the “state sovereignty” of countries that are supposed to be
independent like such as Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. In Lebanon specifically,
Israel’s war machine exploited the "war in support of Gaza," going much further
than it had in 2006, after Hezbollah had sparked a conflict (again) without
consulting the "state". Whether the party, its leadership, and its media admit
it or not, Hezbollah has been defeated both militarily and politically. Despite
this major setback, the vast majority of Lebanese have avoided gloating and
schadenfreude at the expense of Hezbollah or its base. However, the party has
not shown them the appreciation they deserve. Instead, media outlets affiliated
with the party and its self-proclaimed advocates continue to hurl accusations of
“treason,” “Zionism,” “dishonor,” and “attempts to humiliate the party” (through
Israel) at anyone who reiterates the call to build a state under Lebanon’s new
president and reformist government. Indeed, “internalized Zionism” has become
the go-to accusation of talking heads and mouthpieces who are unwilling to give
the country a chance to recover and embark on a constructive path. The path
envisioned does not exclude or erase no one, as shown by the process through
which the new Lebanese government was formed.
Going back to the current state of play today:
First, it is an extremely fanatical Israeli government rabidly hostile to any
genuine peace that could allow for viable coexistence that inflicted this severe
setback on Hezbollah, and behind it, Iran. Whether in Lebanon, the West Bank, or
Gaza, Israel has always bet on suppressing moderate patriotic voices and
undermining their attempts to build states while turning a blind eye to the rise
of more hardline alternatives, to ensure a pretext for evading its obligations
to ensure a just peace.
Second, the fanatics currently running Israel do not merely enjoy the unwavering
support of Republicans in Washington. We have also seen the Republican
leadership go to great lengths in encouraging Tel Aviv’s Likudists and settlers,
egging on their displacement projects, first in Gaza and now in the West Bank.
Third, as Israel continues to press forward, “executive orders” are gaining pace
in the US. The confusion in Europe and NATO, following Washington's recent
positions on Ukraine, Canada, and global trade, leave the international
community itself powerless as it tries to wrap its head around the ramifications
of these developments. Consequently, there is little hope for any mechanism
capable of curbing the destructive excesses that threaten moderation and
credibility, on every level, in the foreseeable future.
Fourth, the current regional and international climate has left the Arab world
in apprehensive anticipation of what the coming days could bring, amid several
influential players’ efforts to maintain as much of "the initiative" as possible
with regard to questions of collective security, Palestinian rights, and the
containment of extremism. Recent Arab initiatives may, in fact, present an
opportunity. Not only could they stop the backsliding, these efforts could also
lay common ground that leaves a lasting impact even after the current phase of
tension and uncertainty.
Moreover, Arab diplomatic efforts could help us take a step forward if they
adhere to a clear set of principles. It is well understood that no one takes the
deep-rooted Palestinian struggle - a conflict that has fueled the Arab-Israeli
wars for over 70 years- lightly. However, genuine resolutions to this conflict
now seem more marginal than ever before, especially if the principles of
international relations that had once been robust continue to erode. The spike
in racism, particularly hostility toward immigrants, Muslims, and Arabs, is
dangerous. It casts a heavy shadow over political life in Western democracies.
Meanwhile, the geopolitical boundaries of Europe, which were last redrawn at the
end of the Cold War- with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, the breakup of the
Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, and the reunification of Germany-
are no longer guaranteed.
Even the borders of North America, once considered an island of stability, are
now uncertain, and NATO is no longer a reliable security umbrella safeguarding
"Western security" from an adversary that has, quite suddenly, become a
preferred ally.
In East and South Asia, it remains unclear how the US and Russia- former
“adversaries” that have become “allies-” will approach the two "bickering" Asian
giants, India and China. Meanwhile, in Africa, where problems are piling up and
foreign interventions and risky ventures abound, considerations vary and
diverge, and interests often clash. In conclusion, if all these issues have
filled up the global agenda, then we Arabs must, at the very least, build the
bare minimum of genuine common ground needed to confront the looming regional
storms. Chief among these storms is the alarming exacerbation of Israel’s
ambitions, Iran’s expected retaliation to the setbacks it has endured over the
past two years, and the role that Türkiye could potentially play, especially
given everything Ankara has already achieved in Syria and the signals it has
sent regarding its intentions on the Palestinian front.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on February 23-24/2025
Pope Francis is Conscious and Receiving Supplemental Oxygen Following a
Respiratory crisis
Asharq Al Awsat//February 23,
2025
Pope Francis was conscious but still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen
Sunday following a respiratory crisis and blood transfusions, as he remains in
critical condition with a complex lung infection, the Vatican said. “The night
passed quietly, the pope rested,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in an
early statement. Further clinical tests were being performed on the 88-year-old
pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, and a more detailed
medical update was expected later Sunday. On Saturday, Francis suffered a
prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis that required “high flows” of oxygen to
help him breathe through a nasal tube. He also received blood transfusions after
tests showed low counts of platelets, which are needed for clotting, the Vatican
said, The AP reported. Doctors said Saturday his prognosis was
“reserved.”Doctors have said Francis’ condition is touch-and-go, given his age,
fragility and pre-existing lung disease. His condition has revived speculation
about what might happen if he becomes unconscious or otherwise incapacitated,
and whether he might resign. Prayers for pope at Vatican Francis was supposed to
have celebrated Mass on Sunday morning in St. Peter's Basilica and ordained
deacons as part of the Vatican's yearlong Holy Year commemoration.
The organizer of the Holy Year, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, celebrated the Mass
in his place and offered a special prayer for Francis from the altar before
delivering the homily the pope had prepared. “Even though he is in a hospital
bed, we feel Pope Francis close to us, we feel him present among us,” Fisichella
told the hundreds of white-robed deacons. A pre-written message that Francis had
prepared for his Sunday noon prayer but did not deliver said he was “confidently
continuing my hospitalization at the Gemelli Hospital, carrying on with the
necessary treatment; and rest is also part of the therapy!” The message noted
the upcoming anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, “a painful and
shameful occasion for the whole of humanity.”The main threat facing the pope is
sepsis Doctors have warned that the main threat facing Francis would be the
onset of sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a
complication of pneumonia. As of Friday, there was no evidence of any sepsis,
and Francis was responding to the various drugs he is taking, the pope’s medical
team said in their first in-depth update on the pope’s condition.
Saturday’s blood tests showed that he had developed a low platelet count, a
condition called platelopenia or thrombocytopenia. Platelets are cell-like
fragments that circulate in the blood that help form blood clots to stop
bleeding or help wounds heal. Low platelet counts can be caused by a number of
things, including side effects from medicines or infections, according to the
U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Francis, who has chronic lung disease and is prone to bronchitis in winter, was
admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 after a weeklong bout of bronchitis
worsened. Doctors first diagnosed the complex viral, bacterial and fungal
respiratory tract infection and then the onset of pneumonia in both lungs. They
prescribed “absolute rest” and a combination of cortisone and antibiotics, along
with supplemental oxygen when he needs it. Francis’ recent reforms suggest he
knew he was getting older and more fragile Francis has taken several recent
decisions that suggest he was well aware that he was getting old and frail. Last
year, he revised the funeral rites that will be used after he dies, simplifying
the rituals to emphasize his role as a mere bishop and allowing for burial
outside the Vatican in keeping with his wishes. But the core elements of the
rites remain, including the three key moments that must be observed between the
death of a pope and his funeral: In his home, in St. Peter’s Basilica and in the
place of burial. In December, Francis created 21 new cardinals. All but one were
under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave to elect his successor.
Their additions brought the overall number of voting-age cardinals to 140, well
over the 120 limit set by St. John Paul II. But several of the current electors
are turning 80 this year, bringing the number down. Earlier this month, once he
was already sick, Francis decided to extend the five-year term of the current
dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, rather than
make way for someone new. As depicted in the film “Conclave,” the dean of the
College of Cardinals plays an important role in the life of the Catholic
hierarchy, and is a crucial figure during the transition between one papacy and
the next. Francis also decided to extend the term of the vice-dean, Argentine
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 81.
White House backs Israel's decision to delay releasing
Palestinian prisoners
Reuters/February 24, 2025
WASHINGTON: The White House said on Sunday that it supports Israel’s decision to
delay releasing 600 Palestinian prisoners, citing the “barbaric treatment” of
Israeli hostages by Hamas. Delaying the prisoner release is an “appropriate
response” to the Palestinian militant group’s treatment of the hostages, a
statement from National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said. President
Donald Trump is prepared to support Israel in “whatever course of action it
chooses regarding Hamas,” he added.
Hamas refuses further talks unless Israel releases agreed
prisoners
Reuters/February 24, 2025
CAIRO: Hamas will not hold talks with Israel through mediators on any further
steps in the fragile, phased ceasefire agreement unless Palestinian prisoners
are released as agreed, group official Basem Naim told Reuters on Sunday. Israel
said on Sunday it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners
it had planned to free the day before until militant group Hamas met its
conditions.
Syrian president invited to emergency Arab League summit in Egypt
Arab News/February 23, 2025
DAMASCUS: The President of the Syrian Arab Republic Ahmed Al-Sharaa received an
invitation from Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to take part in an
emergency Arab League summit in Egypt on March 4, the Syrian presidency said in
a statement on Sunday. The upcoming Cairo meeting is set to focus primarily on
Arab efforts to counter US President Donald Trump’s plan to redevelop Gaza into
an international beach resort and his calls for Egypt and Jordan to resettle
displaced Gazans. Also on Sunday, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul
Gheit met Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi to prepare for next
month’s emergency Arab summit and discuss the latest developments in Gaza. The
talks focused on consolidating ceasefire efforts and ensuring sustainable
humanitarian aid delivery, the Jordan News Agency reported. Aboul Gheit and
Safadi reiterated their rejection of any forced displacement of Palestinians and
expressed support for Egypt’s reconstruction plan for Gaza, which would allow
residents to remain in their homes. They warned against escalating tensions in
the occupied West Bank and called for an end to illegal Israeli actions. They
also reaffirmed their belief that the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian
state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, remained
the only viable path to lasting regional peace. Safadi and Aboul Gheit also
discussed the situation in Syria and stressed the need to ensure stability and
the safety of its citizens.
Syrian national dialogue to begin on February 25
Reuters/February 23, 2025
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new authorities will hold a national dialogue conference
starting on February 25 to discuss a new path for the nation after the overthrow
of Bashar Assad in December, two members of its preparatory committee said on
Sunday. Foreign capitals will be closely watching the conference as part of a
political process in Syria that they say needs to be inclusive of its ethnically
diverse and multi-religious population as they consider suspending sanctions on
the country. Holding the conference has been a key pledge of former Al Qaeda
affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) which took control of Damascus on December
8 in a stunning offensive that prompted then-president Assad to flee to Russia,
ending more than 50 years of his family’s autocratic rule. The preparatory
committee’s seven members consulted with some 4,000 people across Syria over the
last week to gather views that would help shape a constitutional declaration, a
new economic framework and a plan for institutional reform, the committee told
reporters on Sunday. HTS-appointed President Ahmed Sharaa has said the
conference was part of an inclusive political process to draft a constitution,
which he said could take up to three years, and then hold elections, which he
said could take four years. The conference is scheduled for two days but could
be extended if necessary, committee member Hassan Dugheim said, and a new
government expected to be formed next month would also benefit from the
conference’s recommendations.
Israel demands ‘complete demilitarization’ of southern
Syria
AFP/February 23, 2025
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that
southern Syria must be demilitarized entirely, warning that Israel would not
accept the presence of the forces of the Damascus government near its territory.
“We will not allow forces from the HTS organization or the new Syrian army to
enter the area south of Damascus,” Netanyahu said, referring to Hayat Tahrir
Al-Sham, which spearheaded the offensive that toppled Bashar Assad in December.
“We demand the complete demilitarization of southern Syria, including the
Quneitra, Daraa, and Suwayda provinces,” Netanyahu declared at a military
ceremony. The same day Assad was ousted, Israel announced that its troops were
entering a UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces
on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974. Israel seized much of the Golan
Heights from the Syrian Arab Republic in a war in 1967, later annexing the area
in a move largely unrecognized by the international community. Netanyahu said
that Israeli forces would remain in the buffer zone “for an indefinite period to
protect our communities and thwart any threat.”Israel carried out hundreds of
strikes in Syria during its civil war, which broke out in 2011. After the
lightning offensive that ousted Syria’s longtime President, Assad, Israel
carried out hundreds more airstrikes on Syrian military assets in what it said
was a bid to prevent them from falling into hostile hands.
Israel won't allow HTS forces in southern Syria, Netanyahu
says
Reuters/February 23, 2025
Israel on Sunday said it will not tolerate presence of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)
in southern Syria, nor any other forces affiliated with the country's new
rulers, and demanded the territory be demilitarized. Former Al Qaeda affiliate
HTS took control of Damascus on December 8 in a stunning offensive, ending
then-president Bashar al-Assad's rule and prompting a wary Israel to move forces
into a U.N.-monitored demilitarized zone within Syria. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will keep its positions there as a defensive
measure and for as long as is necessary. "We will not allow forces of the HTS or
the new Syrian army to enter the territory south of Damascus. We demand full
demilitarization of southern Syria, in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and
Sweida," Netanyahu said at a military graduation ceremony. "And we will not
tolerate any threat to the Druze sect in southern Syria," he added. The Druze,
who practice an offshoot of Islam, are a minority group in Syria as well as
Israel. Syria has demanded Israel withdraw its forces from the country. The
United Nations says Israel's move into Syrian territory is a violation of
international agreements and has also called for the troops to be withdrawn.
Witkoff headed to Middle East this week to discuss Gaza
peace deal
AFP/February 23, 2025
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that
he was headed to the Middle East this week to discuss an extension to phase one
of the Israel-Hamas peace deal. “We have to get an extension of phase one, and
so I’ll be going into the region this week, probably Wednesday, to negotiate
that,” Witkoff told CNN. “And we’re hopeful that we have the proper time ... to
begin phase two, finish it off, and get more hostages released.”Hamas on Sunday
said Israel had gravely endangered the five-week-old Gaza truce by delaying the
release of Palestinian prisoners under the deal because of how Israeli hostages
had been freed. The first phase of the truce ends early in March, and details of
a planned subsequent phase have not been agreed. With tensions again hanging
over the deal, which halted more than 15 months of war, Israel on Sunday
announced an expansion of military operations in the occupied West Bank. Asked
if he believed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to extend the
ceasefire or resume fighting, Witkoff said he believed the former. “I believe
the prime minister is well motivated. He wants to see hostages released, that’s
for sure. He also wants to protect the state of Israel, and so he’s got a red
line,” he said. The “red line,” he said, was Hamas having a future role in the
governance of Gaza. “I would say at this point, for sure, they can’t be any part
of governance in Gaza,” said Witkoff. “And, you know, as to existing, I’d leave
that detail to the prime minister.” Netanyahu on Sunday said that Israel was
prepared to resume fighting in the Gaza Strip “at any moment” while vowing to
complete the war’s objectives “whether through negotiation or by other
means.”“We are prepared to resume intense fighting at any moment; our
operational plans are ready,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony for combat officers,
a day after Israel halted the release of Palestinian prisoners. “In Gaza, we
have eliminated most of Hamas’s organized forces, but let there be no doubt — we
will complete the war’s objectives entirely — whether through negotiation or by
other means,” he added.
Netanyahu said the prisoner release would be delayed until Hamas ends its
“humiliating ceremonies” while freeing Israeli hostages.
Israel says army to stay in evacuated West Bank camps for
‘coming year’
AFP/February 23, 2025
JENIN: Israel said on Sunday its forces would remain for many months in refugee
camps in the occupied West Bank, after tens of thousands of Palestinians living
there have been displaced by an intensifying military operation. The military
began a major raid against Palestinian militants in the West Bank’s north a
month ago, just after a truce went into effect in the Gaza Strip, a separate
Palestinian territory. The West Bank offensive has gradually expanded, spanning
multiple refugee camps near the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas. Three of
the camps, Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams, “are now empty of residents,” Defense
Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. He put the number of displaced
Palestinians at 40,000, the same figure provided by the United Nations which
said the offensive has so far killed at least 51 Palestinians including seven
children, and three Israeli soldiers. Katz said he had instructed troops “to
prepare for a prolonged presence in the cleared camps for the coming year and to
prevent the return of residents and the resurgence of terrorism.”Also on Sunday,
Israel’s military announced tank deployments in Jenin, where it was “expanding”
operations. This is the first time tanks have operated in the West Bank since
the end of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 2005. Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a military ceremony on Sunday, said the
deployment showed that “we are fighting terror with all means,
everywhere.”Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence at security and risk
management consultancy Le Beck International, told AFP there was “no real
military logic to using tanks in the West Bank at this stage.”“Unless it is to
send a message, and potentially to stay more permanently in areas that have been
targeted by Israeli raids,” he added. AFPTV footage showed Israeli tanks
advancing and bulldozers operating in the Jenin area on Sunday. “The
occupation’s army destroyed Palestinian shops and infrastructure,” said Jenin
resident Fayez Al-Sayyed. “This is a way to execute their policy of displacing
the Palestinian people from their land,” he told AFP. “We are here, and we will
not leave our country," he added. Analyst Horowitz said “the Israeli government
has been devoting a lot more attention to the West Bank” since a shaky ceasefire
deal with Hamas group took hold in Gaza on January 19. In both Tulkarem and
Jenin, the Israeli army has demolished dozens of homes with explosives, opening
up new access routes into the densely built camps. Armored bulldozers have
wreaked havoc, upturning tarmac, cutting water pipes, and tearing down roadside
facades. Violence in the West Bank has surged since the war in Gaza broke out in
October 2023. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 900 Palestinians,
including many militants, in the territory since the start of the Gaza war,
according to the Palestinian health ministry. At least 32 Israelis have been
killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the
territory over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Hamas says Gaza truce gravely endangered after Israel's
prisoner delay
Agence France Presse/February 23, 2025
Hamas on Sunday said Israel has gravely endangered a five-week-old Gaza truce by
delaying the release of Palestinian prisoners under the deal because of the
manner it has freed Israeli hostages. The first phase of the truce ends early in
March and details of a planned subsequent phase have not been agreed. With
tensions again hanging over the deal -- which halted more than 15 months of war
-- Israel on Sunday announced an expansion of military operations in the
occupied West Bank. The military said a tank division will be sent in to the
West Bank city of Jenin, the first such deployment to the territory in 20 years.
Since the Gaza ceasefire's first phase began on January 19, Hamas has released
25 living Israeli hostages in ceremonies before crowds at various locations in
Gaza. Armed masked fighters escort the captives onto stages adorned with
slogans. The hostages have spoken and waved in what Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu called "humiliating ceremonies". The Red Cross has previously
appealed to "all parties" for the swaps to be carried out in a "dignified and
private" manner. In the seventh such transfer, Hamas released six Israeli
captives on Saturday but Israel put off the planned release of more than 600
Palestinian prisoners in exchange. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said
postponing the release exposes "the entire agreement to grave danger". Naim said
the mediators, "especially the Americans", must pressure Israel's government "to
implement the agreement as it is and immediately release our prisoners."Both
sides have accused each other of violations during the ceasefire but it has so
far held.
Israeli tanks in Jenin
Early Sunday, Netanyahu's office said that, "In light of Hamas' repeated
violations -- including the disgraceful ceremonies that dishonour our hostages
and the cynical use of hostages for propaganda -- it has been decided to delay
the release of terrorists." Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its October 7,
2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war. The attack resulted in the deaths
of more than 1,200 people, and Israel's retaliation killed more than 48,000,
according to figures from both sides. The war drew in Iran-backed groups around
the region, including in Lebanon where Israel in November reached a separate
ceasefire with the Hezbollah group. Alongside the Gaza war -- which displaced
almost the entire population of 2.4 million -- violence has also soared in the
West Bank. On Sunday, Israel's military said "a tank division will operate in
Jenin" as part of "expanding" operations in the area, where the military began a
major raid against Palestinian militants just after the Gaza truce began. The
United Nations has said the military activities have led to "forced
displacement" of 40,000 Palestinians from Jenin and other refugee camps. Defense
Minister Israel Katz said he has told troops "to prepare for a prolonged
presence in the cleared camps for the coming year and to prevent the return of
residents and the resurgence of terrorism." In the West Bank as well as in Gaza,
families of Palestinian prisoners had waited with uncertainly into the night on
Saturday, hoping for their release. In the city of Khan Yunis, Umm Diya al-Agha,
80, said she had received word her son was among those scheduled to be freed,
after 33 years in prison. "If my heart were made of iron, it would have melted
and shattered. Every day, I have been waiting for this moment," she said.
'Parading of bodies'
The six Israelis released Saturday were the last group of living hostages set to
be freed under the truce's first phase. At a ceremony in Nuseirat, central Gaza,
hostages Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Israeli-Argentine Omer Wenkert,
23, waved from a stage, flanked by masked Hamas militants, before being
transferred to the Red Cross. "I saw the look on his face. He's calm, he knows
he's coming back home... He's a real hero," said Wenkert's friend Rory Grosz. In
Rafah, southern Gaza, militants handed over Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu,
38. A sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, 37, was later released in private and
taken back to Israeli territory, the military said. Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim, and
Mengistu, an Ethiopian Jew, had been held in Gaza for about a decade after they
entered the territory individually. Hamas said they freed Sayed in private to
"honor and respect" Palestinians inside Israel. On Thursday, the first transfer
of dead hostages under the truce sparked anger in Israel after analysis
concluded that captive Shiri Bibas' remains were not among the four bodies
returned. UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the "parading of bodies"
during a ceremony in which coffins, with pictures of the dead attached, were
displayed on a slogan-bedecked stage. Bibas and her two young sons became
symbols of Israel's hostage ordeal. Hamas admitted a possible "mix-up of
bodies", and late Friday handed over more human remains, which the Bibas family
said had been identified as the mother's.
Hamas has long maintained that an Israeli air strike killed Bibas and her sons.
Forensics expert Chen Kugel, however, said an autopsy of their remains found "no
evidence of injuries caused by a bombing".
Israeli tanks move into the occupied West Bank for the
first time since 2002 amid growing crackdown
Majdi Mohammed And Tia Goldenberg/JENIN, West Bank (AP)/February 23, 2025
Israeli tanks have moved into the occupied West Bank for the first time since
2002, shortly after the defense minister said troops will remain “for the coming
year” in parts of the territory and indicated that Palestinians who have fled
cannot return. Associated Press journalists saw a handful of tanks move Sunday
into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel. Israel is deepening
its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to
stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the
northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza
took hold — and expanded it to nearby areas. Palestinians view such raids as
part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million
Palestinians live under military rule. The deadly raids have caused destruction
in urban areas. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of
the activity to thwart terrorism" in all refugee camps in the West Bank. “We
will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to
return and grow,” he said. Earlier, Katz said he had instructed the military to
prepare for “an extended stay” in some of the West Bank's urban refugee camps,
from where he said about 40,000 Palestinians have fled, leaving the areas
“emptied of residents.” That figure was confirmed by the United Nations. The
camps are home to descendants of Palestinians who fled or were forced to flee
during wars with Israel decades ago. It was not clear how long Palestinians
would be prevented from returning. Netanyahu said Israeli forces will remain “as
long as needed."Tanks were last deployed in the territory in 2002, when Israel
fought a deadly Palestinian uprising. The Palestinian foreign ministry called
the Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank,”
and urged the international community in a statement to intervene in what it
termed Israel's illegal “aggression.”
Netanyahu under pressure to crack down
Under interim peace agreements from the early 1990s, Israel maintains control
over large parts of the West Bank, while the Palestinian Authority administers
other areas. Israel regularly sends troops into Palestinian zones but typically
withdraws them once missions are completed.
The U.N. says the current Israeli military operation is the longest since the
Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s. Violence has surged in the West Bank
throughout the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Israel has carried out raids, but with
fighting in Gaza and Lebanon on hold, Netanyahu has been under pressure from
far-right governing partners to crack down on militancy in the West Bank. More
than 800 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war in Gaza
erupted on Oct. 7, 2023 with a Hamas attack on southern Israel. Israel says most
were militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions as well as
people not involved in confrontations have also been killed. In the most recent
operation, a pregnant Palestinian woman was killed. Jewish settlers also have
carried out rampages in Palestinian areas in the territory. There has also been
a spike in Palestinian attacks emanating from the West Bank. On Thursday, blasts
rocked three empty buses in Israel in what police view as a suspected militant
attack. Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967
Mideast war. Palestinians want all three territories for their future
independent state. U.S. envoy to pursue ceasefire's second phase
The West Bank raids come at a sensitive time, as the truce between Israel and
Hamas in Gaza remains tenuous. With a week left in the ceasefire’s first phase,
Israel and Hamas do not appear to have begun negotiations on its second one. The
truce’s collapse could lead to renewed fighting in Gaza, where Netanyahu has
said 63 hostages remain, including the remains of a soldier captured in 2014.
The U.S. special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told CNN on Sunday he
expects the second phase to go forward, adding: “We have to get an extension of
phase one and so I’ll be going into the region this week, probably Wednesday, to
negotiate that.” He told CBS he will visit Qatar, Egypt, Israel, the United Arab
Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Israel said early Sunday it was delaying the latest
release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners until it gets assurances that Hamas
stops what Israel calls “humiliating” handovers of hostages. The 620 prisoners
should have been released shortly after six Israeli hostages in Gaza were freed
Saturday — five of them in staged ceremonies criticized by the U.S. and Red
Cross as cruel. Palestinian family members were distraught. “What have the
prisoners done? We don’t know what happened. They killed our joy,” said one
mother, Najah Zaqqot. Meanwhile, Netanyahu faced new criticism over the war
while speaking at a military graduation. As he held up a picture of Shiri Bibas
and her young boys, Ariel and Kfir, whose remains were returned from Gaza last
week, to demonstrate “what we are fighting against,” audience members called out
“Shame!” and “Why didn’t you save them?” The prime minister didn’t react.
Father of freed Gaza hostage says fellow Arabs should be outraged by Hamas
AFP/February 24, 2025
JERUSALEM: The father of Hisham Al-Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim returned to Israel
after nearly a decade in Gaza captivity, on Sunday urged “the Arab world” to
speak out against abuses by Hamas. Sayed, 37, was released by the Palestinian
militant group on Saturday under a fragile truce in its war with Israel. The
man, who is schizophrenic according to his family, had entered the Gaza Strip in
2015 and was held hostage there since. “At the start of his captivity, when
there were four hostages in Gaza, I thought that Hamas members would keep him
safe, because it was in their interest” to exchange him for Palestinians in
Israeli jails, said the father, Shaaban Al-Sayed. Speaking to journalists at a
hospital in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, he said that after Hamas’s
October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, “I began to
tremble with fear.”“I saw that Bedouins and Arabs were killed, working people
who weren’t soldiers or fighters,” said Sayed of some of the hundreds killed
during the attack. “The Arab world doesn’t react, doesn’t give any response to
that, doesn’t take any stance,” he said. “We want the Arab world, and
particularly Arab society in Israel, to voice their opinion: What do they think
about the fact that innocent people were kidnapped and murdered?“ Sayed accused
Hamas of violating the teachings of Islam by exploiting his son who “has mental
problems.” “When we got Hisham back, we were relieved to see him walking on his
legs,” the father added, “but as I held him in my arms, I realized I was hugging
a body... not a human being.” “He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t have a voice. He
can’t remember anything. It’s like he hadn’t been with other human beings”
during his years in captivity, he said. “This makes us angry,” added the father,
calling to intensify efforts to free all remaining hostages in Gaza.
Israel ready to resume Gaza war, PM warns after truce delay
AFP/February 23, 2025
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel was
prepared to resume fighting against Hamas after the Palestinian group accused it
of endangering a five-week-old Gaza truce by suspending prisoner release. The
first phase of the truce, which has largely halted more than 15 months of
devastating war in the Gaza Strip, is due to expire in early March, and details
of a planned subsequent phase have not been agreed. With tensions again surging
over the deal, Israel on Sunday announced an expansion of military operations
against Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank, where violence has
soared throughout the Gaza war. Netanyahu, speaking at a military ceremony a day
after Israel halted the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange
for six hostages freed from Gaza, vowed to achieve the war’s objectives in
negotiations “or by other means.”
“We are prepared to resume intense fighting at any moment,” he said. Since the
ceasefire began on January 19, Gaza militants have released 25 living Israeli
hostages in staged ceremonies, often flanked by masked gunmen and forced to
speak. After six were freed on Saturday, Israel put off the planned release of
more than 600 Palestinians, citing what Netanyahu called “humiliating
ceremonies” in Gaza.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the
hostage-prisoner exchanges, has previously appealed to “all parties” for the
swaps to be carried out in a “dignified and private” manner. Senior Hamas
official Bassem Naim said postponing the release exposes “the entire agreement
to grave danger.”Naim called on the truce mediators, “especially the Americans,”
to pressure Israel “to implement the agreement as it is and immediately release
our prisoners.”Both sides have accused each other of violations during the
ceasefire but it has so far held. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its
October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war.The attack resulted in
the deaths of more than 1,200 people, and Israel’s retaliation killed more than
48,000 in Gaza, according to figures from both sides. Netanyahu on Sunday said
that “we have eliminated most of Hamas’s organized forces, but let there be no
doubt — we will complete the war’s objectives entirely — whether through
negotiation or by other means.”Israel’s war objectives include defeating Hamas
and bringing back all hostages seized during the 2023 attack, 62 of whom remain
in Gaza including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.
US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said he was headed to the Middle
East this week to “get an extension of phase one” of the truce.
“We’re hopeful that we have the proper time... to begin phase two, and finish it
off and get more hostages released,” Witkoff told CNN.
Trump has floated the idea of a US takeover of war-ravaged Gaza under which its
Palestinian inhabitants would move elsewhere, triggering widespread criticism.
Alongside the Gaza war — which displaced almost the entire population of 2.4
million — Israel has intensified its military operations in the West Bank.
The military said a tank division will be sent into the northern West Bank city
of Jenin, the first such deployment to the territory in 20 years. It called it
part of “expanding” operations in the area, where the military began a major
raid against militants just after the Gaza truce began. The United Nations has
said the military operation has led to “forced displacement” of 40,000
Palestinians from Jenin and other refugee camps. Defense Minister Israel Katz
said he has told troops “to prepare for a prolonged presence in the cleared
camps for the coming year and to prevent the return of residents and the
resurgence of terrorism.”
Michael Horowitz, head of intelligence for Le Beck risk management consultancy,
said the deployment of tanks in the West Bank comes at a “very sensitive time
for the ceasefire.”He noted that Netanyahu, under domestic pressure over his
handling of the war, could face the choice of either returning to fighting or
his far-right coalition government potentially collapsing. In the West Bank as
well as in Gaza, families of Palestinian prisoners had waited with uncertainty
into the night on Saturday, hoping for their release. The six Israelis released
Saturday were the last group of living hostages set to be freed under the
truce’s first phase. They included Hisham Al-Sayed, 37, and Avera Mengistu, 38,
who had been held in Gaza for about a decade after they entered the territory
individually. The first transfer of dead hostages under the truce earlier this
week sparked anger in Israel when the remains of captive Shiri Bibas were not
initially returned, promoting Hamas to admit a possible “mix-up of bodies” and
finally hand over hers. UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the
“parading of bodies” during a ceremony in which coffins, with pictures of the
dead attached, were displayed on a slogan-bedecked stage.
Kuwaiti emir discusses ties with UAE national security
adviser
Arab News/February 24, 2025
LONDON: Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, discussed
his country's ties with the UAE during a meeting on Sunday with Sheikh Tahnoon
bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the deputy ruler of Abu Dhabi and National Security
Adviser. Sheikh Meshal welcomed Sheikh Tahnoon at Bayan Palace in Kuwait City,
along with his accompanying delegation, where they discussed relations between
Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, focusing on ways to enhance and develop them, the Emirates
News Agency (WAM) reported. Sheikh Tahnoon conveyed the greetings of UAE
President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan to the Kuwaiti emir, wishing
further progress and prosperity for the Kuwaiti people, WAM added. Sheikh
Tahnoon met separately with Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, the Crown
Prince of Kuwait, and Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Prime
Minister of Kuwait.
Frankly Speaking: How did Saudis become mediators for
global conflicts?
Arab News/February 23, 2025
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has emerged as a pivotal diplomatic hub, a fact underscored
by the recent high-level talks between the US and Russia held in Riyadh designed
to re-establish fractured relations between Washington and Moscow and plot a
course to ending the war in Ukraine.
Saudi Arabia brokered the talks on Feb. 18, signaling its emerging influence on
the world stage. It comes amid a growing recognition of the Kingdom’s potential
role as a mediator, positioning it as a crucial bridge between East and West.
Further talks are expected on Feb. 25. Appearing on the Arab News current
affairs program “Frankly Speaking,” Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, founder and chairman of
the Gulf Research Center, highlighted the significance of the US-Russia talks in
Riyadh, noting that Saudi Arabia’s neutral stance had positioned it as an ideal
convener. “Saudi Arabia has taken an important position that has led to this
meeting, which means Saudi Arabia originally refused to take a side — neither
with the Russians nor with the Ukrainians,” Sager said. Global media outlets
have highlighted Saudi Arabia’s unique positioning, noting that it has
maintained positive ties with both Russia and the West throughout the Ukraine
conflict, which began on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia launched what it called a
“special military operation.”
CNN said Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the high-stakes rapprochement meeting between
US and Russian officials “underlines the Kingdom’s aspirations to become a
global actor capable of successfully mediating international conflicts.”The US
broadcaster also speculated that “another likely aim” could be pursuing “added
leverage for Riyadh in future talks on the fate of postwar Gaza.”Radio Free
Europe likewise suggested the discussions represented an opportunity for Saudi
Arabia “to assert its political clout after it rejected US President Donald
Trump’s plan to relocate Gaza’s residents while resisting any normalization of
relations with Israel.”The fact that Riyadh “originally refused to take a side”
is not to say it has condoned Russia’s behavior, nor failed to play a role in
addressing the humanitarian consequences of the war, Sager said. He noted that
Saudi Arabia has consistently voted against the Russian invasion of Ukraine at
the UN, contributed aid and participated in prisoner exchanges. “In fact, they
took a position that they vote in the UN for the decision against the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. With the GCC countries, they have taken, also, a very firm
and clear position on that subject also,” Sager said. “They have contributed to
the humanitarian issue in Ukraine. They have participated in the release of some
of the prisoners also — Ukrainian prisoners from the Russian side. “And also,
they have insisted, and this was stated during the visit of the (Saudi) foreign
minister to Ukraine, confirming the position of Saudi Arabia on the unity of
Ukraine.”Sager added: “Yet, Saudi Arabia never wanted to be fully on the side of
either, or what the American and the European countries … (said, which was):
‘Either you are with us or against us.’“So, they have maintained relations with
Russia. They never wanted to cut relations diplomatically with Russia, because
Russia has been a very important and useful partner in OPEC+.”This balanced
approach, according to Sager, has allowed the Kingdom to maintain open lines of
communication with both sides, creating an environment for dialogue.
The Feb. 18 talks in Riyadh were attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio,
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and
on the Russian side by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, foreign policy adviser
Yuri Ushakov, and head of Moscow’s Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev. “It
was a very important meeting that took place in Riyadh, attended by both the US
secretary of state and the national security adviser. It brought the American
and Russians together after many years when they did not get together, and also
to discuss the current situation,” Sager told “Frankly Speaking” host Katie
Jensen. “And the result of that, of course, is to create a different committee
between both sides to go in depth and in detailed discussion of the whole
issue.”Saudi Arabia has emerged as a pivotal diplomatic hub, a fact underscored
by the recent high-level talks between the US and Russia held in Riyadh. (KSAMOFA)
While Ukraine was not directly involved in the Riyadh talks, Sager noted that
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was aware of the discussions. He also
pointed to subsequent meetings in Paris involving European foreign ministers,
where Ukraine was likely informed of the outcomes.
However, the absence of Ukraine from the initial talks has raised questions
about inclusivity and just how sustainable a resulting peace deal might be.
Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out accepting a peace deal negotiated without
Ukraine.
Last Monday, European leaders held a hastily arranged summit in Paris — a day
before the US-Russia talks in Riyadh — amid fears that Ukraine and Europe could
be excluded from peace negotiations, raising concerns about the continent’s
long-term security. However, Sager clarified the Riyadh discussions extended
beyond Ukraine, encompassing broader issues related to the US-Russia
relationship. These included the status of frozen Russian assets and sanctions,
with some reports suggesting the easing of restrictions on credit card usage for
Russians. Such measures could be seen as confidence-building steps aimed at
fostering a more constructive dialogue. Indeed, the Kingdom may soon play host
to a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Looking ahead to future talks, Sager said: “Definitely, Ukraine will
participate, and I think it was clearly stated by the US side (that) there will
be participation from the Ukrainian side and the Europeans.”Turning to the
situation in Gaza, Sager reiterated Saudi Arabia’s unwavering commitment to the
two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. He sharply criticized US
proposals that involve the deportation of Gazan people and the conversion of the
Palestinian territory into a real estate project. “The Saudi position never
changed,” he said. “The Saudi position is still insisting on the two-state
solution. If you have another solution, tell us.”He dismissed alternative
solutions as unacceptable, saying that such proposals are rejected by Arab
countries. This regional consensus, he said, underscores the importance of a
unified approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also
speculated that the US proposals could be aimed at achieving collective
recognition and normalization with Israel, which he believes is unlikely to
succeed. “I don’t think that will happen because Saudi Arabia is leading the
team, and if you remember, we had the Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh here, and
that summit did confirm with the 57 countries attending that a two-state
solution is the way forward that we will be accepting.”Sager highlighted the
widespread international support for a Palestinian state, with 149 UN member
countries already recognizing it. “The solution that President Trump presented
is unacceptable,” he said. “The deportation of the people of Gaza and converting
it to a real estate project — and then, there is no guarantee that they will
(go) back. I don’t think this is acceptable. “And by the way, not only Saudi
Arabia but also all GCC countries along with Egypt and Jordan reject such a
thing. I think he wanted to divert attention from the two-state solution, that
he will put the countries in the region here in a defensive position to defend
themselves from not really getting to the two-state solution that they’ve always
believed in.” Sager highlighted the importance of a unified Palestinian
position, urging Hamas and other factions to participate in a unified
Palestinian Authority. This call for unity reflects the belief that a cohesive
Palestinian voice is essential for achieving a lasting peace. “Definitely the
Arab countries and the Arab League will ask for a unified Palestinian position,
a unified Palestinian Authority,” he said.
He acknowledged the challenges posed by the designation of Hamas as a terrorist
organization by some countries but suggested that individuals close to Hamas
could be represented in the Palestinian Authority.
This nuanced approach recognizes the need to engage with all relevant
stakeholders, even those with differing ideologies. Sager also addressed the
issue of ceasefires and hostage exchanges in Gaza, noting that they were taking
place despite President Trump’s recent rhetoric. While acknowledging Trump’s
tendency to escalate demands, he suggested that these threats often serve as a
basis for compromise. Regarding international legal cases against Israeli
leaders, Sager affirmed the importance of pursuing justice and upholding
international law. He praised South Africa’s efforts in bringing a genocide case
against Israel at the International Court of Justice and emphasized the need to
hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable. “I think it’s worth pursuing
because in the end, we need to respect international law and we need to respect
the international court. And such an effort (that) has been put by South Africa
(is) highly appreciated,” said Sager. “And remember, the G7 meeting in 2025 will
take place in South Africa. So, that effort has been appreciated, and I think
that matter should continue because we should not give a chance for the genocide
and those (who) commit such a crime to get away with it without getting to the
court and getting to the legal side.”Looking ahead, Sager expressed cautious
optimism about the Middle East, citing successful ceasefires and hostage
exchanges in Gaza as positive developments. However, he acknowledged the ongoing
challenges and the need for sustained diplomatic efforts to achieve lasting
peace and stability in the region, particularly in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran.
“There are many cases still open,” he said. “We have almost seven countries in
an almost failed state. The situation in the Arab world, we have Yemen, Sudan,
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Gaza, of course, the Palestinian side, all of
those, there is a huge demand for reconstruction, which can cost
trillions.”Given the uneven recovery in different parts of the Middle East and
North Africa, is Sager more or less optimistic about the region’s future than he
was last year? “I’m always optimistic,” he said. “But also with optimism, with
cautious optimism, I see that there is a lot of hard work (that) needs to be
done to overcome a lot of those issues.”
American Airlines flight lands in Rome after ‘security’
issue
AFP/February 24, 2025
ROME: An American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi was diverted to
Rome on Sunday afternoon following an “alleged bomb scare,” an Italian airport
spokesman said. The US-based carrier gave no details on the nature of what it
called a “possible security concern” on the flight carrying 199 passengers plus
crew, which was escorted by two Italian fighter jets before landing. “The flight
landed safely at FCO (Rome), and law enforcement inspected and cleared the
aircraft to re-depart,” American Airlines said in a statement. Mahesh Kumar, an
IT consultant aboard the flight, said the pilot announced the diversion to Rome
due to “security reasons” about three hours before landing. “Everyone was
afraid. Everyone was staying quiet and obeying the orders,” the 55-year-old from
Texas told AFP. “They asked us to sit down and not to roam around while the
fighter jets were near us,” Kumar said, adding that Italian police escorted
passengers for a security screening in the airport when they landed.The flight
had taken off from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday
at around 8:11 p.m. local time (01:11 GMT Sunday), according to flight tracker
FlightAware. It turned around sharply while flying over the Caspian Sea, the
website showed. An American Airlines official said the aircraft landed in Rome
due to Indian protocol requirements. “The possible issue was determined to be
non-credible, but per DEL Airport protocol, an inspection was required before
landing at DEL,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The
flight will stay in FCO overnight to allow for required crew rest before
continuing to DEL as soon as possible tomorrow.”Rome airport operations were not
affected by the incident, an Italian airport spokesman said. The US Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the plane had landed safely “after the
crew reported a security issue.”American Airlines, one of the largest US air
carriers, is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. Its international operations
serve more than 60 countries, according to the airline’s website.
Russia’s top diplomat to visit Turkiye Monday: sources
AFP/February 23, 2025
ISTANBUL: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Turkiye on Monday,
which marks the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkish
diplomatic sources said Sunday. Lavrov will hold talks in Ankara with his
Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, the source said, adding that the men will
discuss the war in Ukraine, among other things. Turkiye, a member of NATO, wants
to play a leading role in bringing an end to hostilities, as it tried to do in
March 2022 by twice hosting direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
Receiving his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that his country would be an “ideal
host” for talks on Ukraine involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington. Moscow and
Washington have already begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks, against a
backdrop of rapprochement between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s
Vladimir Putin. Russian and American officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to
begin rebuilding their relations, a meeting denounced by Zelensky, who fears an
agreement on Ukraine reached without him at the table. Lavrov, who last visited
Turkiye in October, is also expected to visit Russian ally Iran.
Zelensky offers to step down as president in exchange for
peace
Kieran Kelly/The Telegraph/February 23, 2025
On Sunday, the Ukrainian president said: “I am ready to step down if it brings
peace. Or trade it for Nato.”Mr Zelensky added that he was focused on Ukraine’s
security now, not in 20 years’ time, saying that it is not his “dream” to remain
president for a decade. His comments came after Donald Trump branded him a
“dictator” for not holding elections, which are banned under martial law in
Ukraine. Reports emerged this week that Ukraine may be forced to hold elections
before any final peace deal is signed with Russia. Mr Trump said the demand for
a Ukrainian presidential election “came from me”. He then appeared to blame
Ukraine for starting the war and not reaching an agreement itself. “You’ve been
there for three years ... You should have never started it. You could have made
a deal,” he said. Mr Zelensky said there would be an “important meeting” of
leaders on Monday, the third anniversary of the war. The leaders will speak
about their strategy “not for the coming years, but for the coming week”, he
said. Russia has repeatedly stated that Ukraine must not be allowed to join Nato
as part of any peace agreement. Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, said
Nato membership for Ukraine was unlikely as part of negotiations during his
visit to Brussels last week. It came as Ukrainian officials said Russia launched
its single largest drone attack of the war so far on Sunday. were intercepted,
while 119 disappeared without causing damage after being jammed, he added.
Though many were intercepted, drone strikes caused destruction and fires across
Ukraine overnight. The strikes came on the eve of the third anniversary of the
war in Ukraine and as the White House said Donald Trump was confident that a
deal to stop the conflict could be achieved “this week”. ‘Aerial terror’ Mr
Zelensky said it was the largest drone attack against his country since Russia
started using Iranian drones. “Every day, our people stand against aerial
terror,” Mr Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine had been attacked by 1,150 drones
across the entire week. The Ukrainian president said it showed the need to bring
a “lasting and just peace”, which he said could only be achieved with the
“strength of all of Europe and America”.Tensions between Washington and Kyiv
have been heightened in recent days after Mr Zelensky reportedly refused to sign
an agreement that would hand over $500bn of critical minerals and rare earths to
the US. White House officials had said that a deal was close after the Ukrainian
president initially rejected a first draft last week. But the source said the
agreement was not yet ready to be signed as there were a number of problematic
issues in the current form of the draft. On Saturday night, Mr Trump said it was
“not fair” that the US was getting nothing in return for its military support of
Ukraine. “I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” the president said in a speech
at the Conservative Political Action Conference, adding: “We better be close to
one.”Karoline Leavitt, his press secretary, said the US president was “very
confident” that a deal to end the war could be struck “this week”.“The
president, his team are very much focused on continuing negotiations with both
sides of this war to end the conflict, and the president is very confident we
can get it done this week,” Ms Leavitt said following the Conservative Political
Action Conference. Mike Waltz, the White House’s national security adviser, was
“working around the clock” to get a deal and “end this conflict with Ukraine,”
she added.
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources
on February 23-24/2025
Trump Must Abandon the Disastrous Ceasefire Deal
with Hamas
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute/February 23, 2025
Ever since Hamas launched its murderous assault on Israel in October 2023, Hamas
leaders, together with their supporters in Qatar and Iran, have calculated that
any outcome from the Gaza conflict that enables Hamas to remain in control of
the enclave counts as a victory.
This agenda for its long-term-client, Hamas, explains why Qatar, which claimed
to be a neutral player during the ceasefire negotiations in Doha, has been so
keen to oversee a deal that favours Hamas at the expense of Israel's long-term
security. This is the same country, after all, that helped to facilitate the
deal with the first Trump administration that resulted in the return of the
Taliban to power in Afghanistan.
If Trump and Netanyahu are really serious about achieving lasting peace in Gaza,
they must abandon the disastrous ceasefire deal -- and especially the
well-intended but painfully out-of-his-depth U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle
East Steve Witkoff, who has mindlessly promoted it.
Regrettably, Witkoff is on his way to wrecking Trump's election triumph by
equally disastrous negotiations in Ukraine, where the US is punishing the
victim, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and rewarding the aggressor,
Russian President Vladimir Putin. If Trump succeeds in torpedoing his month-old
presidency, the blame goes to Witkoff.
If Trump and Netanyahu are really serious about achieving lasting peace in Gaza,
they must abandon the disastrous ceasefire deal -- and especially the
well-intended but painfully out-of-his-depth U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle
East Steve Witkoff, who has mindlessly promoted it. Pictured: Trump meets with
Netanyahu in the White House in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2025. (Photo by
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Nothing better illustrates the dire shortcomings of the flawed ceasefire deal
agreed between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas than the terrorist organisation's
despicable mistreatment of the Israeli hostages it has so far agreed to set
free.
By far the most grotesque exhibition of Hamas's contempt for the hostages was
their handling of the handover of four Israelis murdered as a result of the
October 7, 2023 attacks. Not only was the handover ceremony staged as a
propaganda rally for Hamas, it later transpired that one of the slain hostage
bodies was not that of Shiri Bibas, as had been agreed in the ceasefire deal. In
addition, the Israeli authorities revealed that Bibas's two sons, Ariel (four
years old at the time of his abduction) and Kfir (9 months old), whose bodies
were returned at the same time, had been murdered by Hamas, and not killed in
Israeli airstrikes as the terrorist group had claimed.
Hamas's shocking disrespect for the dead hostages prompted Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to declare that Hamas would "pay the price for this
cruel and wicked violation of the agreement."
Hamas's latest outrage is in keeping with their willingness to exploit the
ceasefire agreement ever since the first Israeli hostages were freed following
the implementation of the ceasefire deal last month. With every release,
shocking details have emerged of the terrorist group's unspeakable treatment of
the surviving hostages that were seized during the October 7 terrorist attack
against Israel, during which 1,200 Israelis were murdered and another 250 taken
hostage.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal originally negotiated by the Biden
administration, but implemented as then President-elect Donald Trump prepared to
commence his second term as president, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages
held in Gaza in return for Israel releasing hundreds of convicted Palestinian
prisoners, many who are imprisoned for committing acts of terrorism.
Fears that Hamas would simply use the ceasefire deal as a propaganda opportunity
have now been confirmed both by the terror group's callous handling of the
hostage releases, with many of the Israeli captives being forced to run the
gauntlet of a baying Palestinian mob, as well as the chilling details that have
emerged of their appalling treatment while in captivity.
In one of the more sickening episodes of Hamas's carefully-choreographed hostage
releases, four young Israeli female captives were paraded through the streets of
Gaza in late January before finally being released.
More Israelis were outraged by the gaunt appearance of three hostages released
earlier this month after it was clear they were suffering from severe
malnutrition and had suffered significant weight loss while in captivity.
A British family member of one of the released Israeli hostages remarked that
"It looks as though he's been to Belsen," Nazi Germany's infamous concentration
camp. Others denounced the "grotesque spectacle" of the hostage releases.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog posted on X shortly after the hostages' release:
"This is what a crime against humanity looks like!"
Details have also emerged since the release of the last batch of hostages last
week of how they were routinely tortured while in captivity, with one of the
released captives confirming that he was "tortured during interrogations" by
Hamas terrorists and had the scars on his body to show for it.
Hamas's cynical exploitation of the hostages' release for its own propaganda
purposes, which included presenting one of the hostages with an hourglass
menacingly depicting the fate of another hostage who still remains in captivity,
has already come close to ending the ceasefire, with Israeli officials accusing
Hamas of violating the agreement.
While Israel has reluctantly agreed -- for the moment -- to continue with the
ceasefire process, the prospects of it surviving beyond the first phase look
increasingly remote amid deepening Israeli anger both at Hamas's inhumane
treatment of the hostages and its deliberate attempt to exploit the hostages'
release for its own propaganda purposes.
With the first phase of the ceasefire, which began on January 19, due to come to
an end in two weeks' time, the probability of it moving to the next phase looks
increasingly unlikely the more the inherent flaws of the original agreement
become apparent.
Netanyahu's reservations about continuing with the ceasefire process have
increased after Hamas terrorists regained control of Gaza once the agreement
came into force.
Netanyahu has warned he is prepared to resume military operations against Hamas
if the terror group does not release all the remaining hostages, warning that
the "gates of hell" will be opened if they are not freed.
Netanyahu's reluctance to persist with the ceasefire will have been boosted,
moreover, by recent comments made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after
meeting with the Israeli premier. Rubio declared that Hamas cannot be allowed to
continue as either a military or political force in Gaza.
"As long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can
administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes
impossible," Rubio said after meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem. "It [Hamas]
must be eradicated."
Rubio's comments follow Trump's recently-announced plan for Gaza, in which he
called on neighbouring Arab states to allow Gaza's two million Palestinian
inhabitants to relocate to their territory.
Rubio's open disdain for Hamas, together with the terrorist organisation's
blatant disregard for the well-being of the Israeli hostages, must raise serious
questions about whether the ceasefire in its current form is fit for purpose.
Any agreement that allows Hamas to reclaim control over Gaza, while at the same
time being allowed to publicly humiliate the hostages when they are finally
released, is clearly fundamentally flawed, and should not be allowed to proceed
to the next stage.
A permanent ceasefire in Gaza would simply reward Hamas for carrying out the
worst terrorist attack in Israel's history.
Ever since Hamas launched its murderous assault on Israel in October 2023, Hamas
leaders, together with their supporters in Qatar and Iran, have calculated that
any outcome from the Gaza conflict that enables Hamas to remain in control of
the enclave counts as a victory.
This agenda for its long-term-client, Hamas, explains why Qatar, which claimed
to be a neutral player during the ceasefire negotiations in Doha, has been so
keen to oversee a deal that favours Hamas at the expense of Israel's long-term
security. This is the same country, after all, that helped to facilitate the
deal with the first Trump administration that resulted in the return of the
Taliban to power in Afghanistan.
In such circumstances, Rubio and the rest of the Trump administration must
accept that the ceasefire deal is deeply flawed and must not be allowed to
continue.
If Trump and Netanyahu are really serious about achieving lasting peace in Gaza,
they must abandon the disastrous ceasefire deal -- and especially the
well-intended but painfully out-of-his-depth U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle
East Steve Witkoff, who has mindlessly promoted it.
Regrettably, Witkoff is on his way to wrecking Trump's election triumph by
equally disastrous negotiations in Ukraine, where the US is punishing the
victim, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and rewarding the aggressor,
Russian President Vladimir Putin. If Trump succeeds in torpedoing his month-old
presidency, the blame goes to Witkoff.
Trump has graciously allowed Israel to achieve its stated objective to "open the
gates of hell" if Hamas does not return all its hostages. Only then can the job
of rebuilding Gaza really begin.
*Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a
Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 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.
Khabur: Recalling a Hidden Assyrian Christian Hostage
Crisis
Alberto M. Fernandez/National Catholic/February 23, 2025
COMMENTARY: War-torn Syria was the site 10 years ago of one of the saddest and
triumphant human rights crises in history.
They came before dawn, under the cover of darkness. Overpowering and killing
three village guards, they took hundreds of captives — men, women and children,
from the elderly to the very young. Then they looted homes and shops before
reducing the village churches to rubble with high explosives.
This was the start of one of history’s saddest, strangest, least-known hostage
crises, which began 10 years ago on Feb. 23, 2015. The setting was war-torn
northeast Syria. Within the territory controlled by Kurdish fighters was a
string of Assyrian Christian farming villages along the Khabur River. These
Assyrians had arrived in French Mandate Syria as refugees in the 1930s. Before
that, they had been driven from their Anatolian mountain homeland by the Ottoman
Turks during the First World War, found temporary refuge in Iran, moved to Iraq,
and then fled from massacres carried out by Iraqi nationalist troops.
These Christians were members of the Assyrian Church of the East, an ancient
Church that flourished under the Persian Empire and has a rich spiritual and
cultural history. The Assyrian Church has been in fruitful dialogue with the
Catholic Church for decades and in 1994 signed a common Christological
declaration. Members of the Assyrian Church can receive Holy Communion in the
Chaldean Catholic Church (in communion with Rome) and vice versa, if no other
options are available. Only last year, Pope Francis included the Assyrian mystic
and theologian St. Isaac of Nineveh in the Roman Martyrology.
The Khabur raid on the Assyrians was carried out by the Islamic State, the
Salafi-Jihadist terror group that had seized vast territories in Syria and Iraq.
It was a time of extreme violence inflicted on the region’s Christians by the
group.
Less than two weeks before the attack on the Assyrians, the Islamic State had
staged the grotesque slaughter of 21 Christians — the Coptic Martyrs of Libya —
on a beach at Sirte. Two months later, in April 2015, Islamic State
propagandists released another horrific video, this one featuring the massacre
of 30 Ethiopian Christians, also in Libya.
Johny Messo, president of the World Council of Arameans, recalled his reaction
to those days in an interview with Aleteia:
“I remember receiving the call in the evening. A contact from the Khabur region,
his voice trembling, told me that ISIS had just stormed the villages, taking
women, children and the elderly hostage. He didn’t know where they were taken.
Entire families had disappeared overnight while their homes and churches were
reduced to rubble. The fear in his voice haunted me for days.”
The Assyrian hostages, 226 of them, were taken to ISIS-controlled territory
nearby. They were harassed and repeatedly pressured to convert to Islam but were
otherwise relatively unharmed. It seems that, possibly, one of them converted.
Contact was made through local Arab tribes. The terrorist group, which over the
years had targeted and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Christians, offered
to release the hostages in exchange for ransom. Media reports cited demands of
$50,000 per person or a total of $11 million. What actually transpired remains
unknown and will likely never be fully revealed.
At the time, countries like France, Italy and Spain secured the release of
hostages from terror groups, including ISIS, that had demanded ransom payments.
All three countries denied that any payments were paid. The practice is illegal
in many countries and remains a contentious issue among terrorism experts.
Israel, in contrast, has negotiated hostage exchanges, at times releasing
convicted terrorists and killers for its captives, including women and children.
Whatever the details, the effort to secure the release of Assyrian hostages was
slow and arduous, led by the local Bishop Mar Afram Athneil. The Assyrian
diaspora — a relatively small, poor Church of working-class parishioners
scattered across the globe — mobilized to do what it could.
During the crisis, Australian-Assyrian academic Nicholas al-Jeloo gave a lecture
at a local church, appealing for contributions. More than 500 people donated
something that night. Two of the captives were his cousins. With such a small
community of Assyrian Christians remaining, everyone knew someone connected in
some way with the hostages — whether as relatives, friends or acquaintances of
extended families.
On March 1, 2015, 19 hostages were released. On March 3, four more were freed,
including a 6-year-old girl, Mariana Mirza. On May 26, two ladies in their 80s
were also released. Then, on Aug. 12, 22 more hostages — 14 of them women — were
set free.
Evidently dissatisfied with the pace of the exchanges, on Sept. 23, the
terrorist group executed three hostages — Dr. Abdelmassih Enwiya, Assur Rustam
Abraham and Bassam Issa Michael — and released a gruesome video of their murder
on the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, Eid al-Adha. A month later, 37 hostages,
most of them elderly, were freed. In December 2015, 50 more were released,
including 25 on Christmas Day.
On Feb. 22, 2016, one year after the kidnapping, most of the remaining hostages
were released. On March 28, 2016, the last captive, an Assyrian girl named
Miriam David Talya, was freed. The group had set aside some young women to be
forcibly married to ISIS fighters; one of them was taken away and never found
but all the others were eventually released.
The price was steep — not so much in whatever may have exchanged hands, but in
lives lost, the psychological trauma endured by the survivors, and the
destruction of entire communities. At the start of the Syrian Civil War, the
Khabur villages were home to 20,000 Assyrian Christians; today, only a few
hundred remain. The villages are now either abandoned or occupied by Kurdish
refugees displaced by fighting elsewhere in Syria.
Nearly all of these Assyrians have fled the country. Many have resettled in
Australia, Germany or Sweden, while others have found refuge in Norway, Austria,
Belgium, Russia, the United States, Canada and New Zealand.
A decade later, al-Jeloo asks, “What could I say about such a tragedy?”
Five hostages were lost — three of them murdered — but 221 were saved, plucked
from the raging fire. It remains both a profound tragedy and an agonizing
triumph.
**Alberto M. Fernandez Alberto M. Fernandez is a former U.S. diplomat and a
contributor at EWTN News.
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/khabur-hidden-assyrian-christian-hostage-crisis-10-years
Pursuit of economic security is a double-edged sword
Arnab Neil Sengupta/Arab News/February 23, 2025
Like all social media storms, the one over whether couples are wise to delay
having children for financial reasons is unlikely to throw up any practical
solution soon. But there are enough pros and cons in this debate to keep it
simmering for as long as platforms like X allow people across the world to
express their opinions freely. This discussion overlaps with a much bigger
question that confronts perhaps every generation: Should achieving economic
security take precedence over all pursuits and activities that involve a degree
of risk?
As is almost always the case, there are no easy answers. What can be said with
some confidence, though, is that achieving economic security is a goal that is
gaining in importance with every passing generation, especially in countries
that don’t have reliable social safety nets. This will most likely result in
young people in such countries becoming less enterprising and more risk averse,
both in personal and professional choices. Yet elaborate welfare services or
social security benefits do not guarantee the opposite.
Editions of the Arab Youth Survey since 2021 reveal a striking paradox: 71
percent of millennials admire entrepreneurs, yet 63 percent fear failure. This
tension between aspiration and anxiety highlights the Middle East and North
Africa region’s struggle to balance economic security with the risks necessary
for societal progress. Across the Middle East, young men and women face multiple
existential dilemmas — whether to chase stable salaries or launch business
ventures; delay marriage for financial readiness or build families early;
prioritize career continuity or reinvent themselves. These choices are not
merely personal; they shape the economic and social fabrics of nations.
While caution is understandable in uncertain or turbulent times, excessive risk
aversion is inimical to innovation, demographic vitality, and long-term societal
resilience. Fortunately, the Gulf Cooperation Council bloc’s free-market
economies, particularly Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, demonstrate that calculated
risk-taking — supported by policy infrastructure and mindset shifts — can
transform the quest for economic security from a negative influence into a
catalyst for growth.
While caution is understandable in uncertain or turbulent times, excessive risk
aversion is inimical to MENA innovation, demographic vitality, and long-term
societal resilience. The Arab world grapples with a 30 percent youth
unemployment rate, yet 78 percent of young Arabs prioritize stable salaries over
entrepreneurial ventures. This contradiction is nothing but a reflection of
systemic barriers: Studies show that entrepreneurs in Egypt and Tunisia are
typically older, less educated and male, contrasting sharply with the unemployed
youth demographic. However, exceptions in the form of successful startups in
Jordan show education and mentorship can bridge this gap. The UAE’s
entrepreneurship ecosystem further proves that calculated risks yield dividends
when supported by streamlined regulations and funding access. Recent surveys
suggest more than 58 percent of Gulf youth now find entrepreneurship “easy,”
compared with 73 percent in North Africa who describe it as arduous. The lesson
is clear — economic security and ambition are not mutually exclusive but
interdependent variables of modern life.
Rising living costs concern 56 percent of young Arabs, delaying marital plans.
In the Gulf, 43 percent of couples are believed to postpone marriage for
financial stability, wary of inheritance complexities and childcare expenses.
However, family networks remain a cultural safety net; 68 percent of youth still
value traditional family structures, even as they marry four years later than
their parents’ generation. Childcare subsidies that reduce daycare costs in some
Gulf states demonstrate how policy can alter risk perceptions, enabling people
to marry young without sacrificing quality of life.
To be sure, the financial challenge of parenthood worldwide is daunting, with
first-year childcare costs exceeding $12,500 in advanced economies. In the Arab
world, 61 percent of mothers return to work within six months postpartum, often
due to economic necessity. At the same time, sharp declines in fertility rates
in Gulf countries since 1980 have stoked fears of a demographic timebomb.
With a median age of 22 — eight years below the global average — delayed family
formation regionwide adds to strain on societies and labor markets. Egypt alone
needs 700,000 new jobs annually to absorb youth entrants, a demand that calls
for greater self-reliance and creativity. To compound the problem, 52 percent of
Arabs believe their economies are headed in the wrong direction, with 40 percent
blaming mismanagement. Lebanon’s currency collapse, which wiped out middle-class
savings, has forced people to protect what little they have as institutions grow
weaker.
Sixty-one percent of Arabs say they do not worry about personal safety, yet
economic anxiety dampens propensity for risk-taking. Guaranteed public sector
jobs provide stability to households but reduce incentives for private
enterprise and innovation. Physical security enables entrepreneurial
experimentation, but it must be supplemented with financial safeguards like
bankruptcy reforms and venture capital access. The truth is, risk-taking in any
form is not necessarily followed by rewards. Up to 90 percent of startups can
fail within five years even in Gulf states, and MENA entrepreneurs often earn
less than wage workers. Cultural stigma around failure is all too real: Surveys
show that 63 percent of Arab millennials fear entrepreneurial missteps. In
Egypt, youth view entrepreneurship as a late-career pursuit best explored after
accumulating capital and experience.
There are possible solutions, though. Integrating entrepreneurship education
into MENA curricula can make the nature of risk easier to understand. Saudi
Arabia’s Misk Foundation workshops and the UAE’s Hub71 incubators are models of
this approach, combining technical training with mentorship. Likewise, childcare
subsidies and funding for small and medium-scale enterprises have demonstrated
the benefits of targeted state interventions. Expanding bankruptcy protections
and reducing startup fees would make entrepreneurship less risky in the Arab
region. Thanks to such steps and a generational shift, 53 percent of Gulf youth
now pursue entrepreneurship. As things stand, micro-entrepreneurship via social
media may be the best way to overcome traditional barriers. Indeed, 15 percent
of Arab startups now focus on e-commerce, leveraging the popularity and reach of
platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Encouragement of bold
career switches and late-stage entrepreneurship can contribute to economic
vibrancy without hurting innovation. Some experts believe the path forward lies
in redefining economic security not as an absence of ambition but as the
capacity to withstand risk. Whatever the correct course, for MENA countries to
thrive and compete on the global stage, the goal of government policies should
be to empower — not stifle — the ventures, families and individuals, and
innovations that drive lasting progress and ensure demographic robustness.
• Arnab Neil Sengupta is a senior editor at Arab News. X: @arnabnsg
Trump, Modi and the new partnership
Talmiz Ahmad/Arab News/February 23, 2025
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington on Feb. 13-14 took
place against the background of Donald Trump’s threat to impose crippling duties
on imports from India, in response to the $45.7 billion trade deficit in India’s
favor. To improve the atmosphere, before Modi’s arrival, India announced steep
reductions on selected items imported from the US. However, the atmosphere was
seriously soured by US flights to India carrying Indian illegal immigrants in
shackles. At the outset, Modi sought to revive the bonhomie and warm personal
chemistry he had enjoyed with the president in his first term through a play on
words, recalling Trump’s slogan, MAGA, Modi said his own slogan was “MIGA,” Make
India Great Again, and pointed out that the merging of the two slogans led to
“MEGA — a mega opportunity for prosperity.”This play on words appears to have
shaped the content of the joint statement, which indicates that relations
between the two countries would be based on a series of acronyms that are
unbeatable for their verbosity. The full range of bilateral cooperation will now
take place within the rubric of the “US-India COMPACT for the 21st century,” the
acronym standing for “Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership,
Accelerated Commerce and Technology.” Defense industrial cooperation will be
shaped by “ASIA,” the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance, while technology
cooperation will occur through “TRUST,” which stands for Transforming the
Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology. Partnership in technological
innovation, unsurprisingly, needs another acronym, “INDUS Innovation,” which
itself is modelled on the earlier “INDUS-X” platform. Finally, trade will be
promoted by the “BTA,” the Bilateral Trade Agreement that the two countries will
finalize later this year.
The joint statement also sets out in minute detail every piece of military
equipment the US has supplied India and what it hopes India will buy in the near
future. It promises that Indo-US trade will, under Mission 500, go from $130
billion today to $500 billion by 2030. Energy cooperation will flourish so that
the US emerges as “a leading supplier of crude oil and petroleum products and
LNG (liquefied natural gas),” even as India obtains US-designed nuclear
reactors.
In the defense area, the militaries of the two countries will march together “in
multilateral settings to advance global peace and security,” with a particularly
“close partnership” in the Indo-Pacific and in the Middle East. In respect of
the latter, India and the US will convene partners from the India-Middle
East-Europe-Economic Corridor and I2U2 (India, Israel, the UAE and the US) “to
announce new initiatives in 2025.”
India’s engagements with the US may be expected to be transactional, with the
verbosity of the joint statement remaining delusional — full of sound and fury,
signifying very little.
Modi’s visit has thrown up several positives for India. The US interest in
expanding military sales to India has ensured that not only will India have
access to state-of-the-art military equipment and technologies, it will also
gain expertise through domestic production in selected areas. Similarly, the US
could emerge as a major partner for India in the diverse areas of technology as
well as the exploration, development and use of critical minerals. India will
also benefit by obtaining technology for light-water nuclear reactors that now
dominate the global nuclear scene.
However, trade is likely to remain a contentious issue between the two
countries; the target of $500 billion for bilateral trade by 2030 can be
achieved only if India, regardless of price, commits itself to buying American
military equipment, energy resources and technology, and denies itself access to
other competitive sources. This will impose an unacceptable burden on India and
will need a firm pushback. The visit also revealed some important areas of
concern for India. The language of the joint statement is generally one-sided
and appears to place India as a junior partner in support of US strategic
interests. This is reflected in references to US interests in the Indo-Pacific
and even the Indian Ocean that are obviously directed at confronting China in
these spaces. Given that India shares 3,200 km of undefined border with China,
it hardly suits Indian interests to be part of a US-led military coalition
directed at China.
Similarly, the joint statement refers to the Middle East in language that takes
no account of India’s commitment to strategic autonomy. Specifically, while
India has close ties with Israel, it continues to uphold the need for a
“two-state solution” to address Palestinian aspirations. Now, given the deep
divide in Arab and Israeli positions after Gaza, India can hardly associate
itself with the US in convening a meeting of the IMEEC partner states this year.
Above all, India is well aware of the frequent changes in US policy approaches,
and the influence of extraneous elements on its policymaking. To this we must
add Trump’s unpredictability, his propensity for grandstanding, and his lack of
interest in pursuing a longer-term vision — all of which make the US an
extremely unreliable partner. This is most recently in evidence with regard to
Ukraine and the exclusion of European countries from discussions relating to
their own security.
Thus, India’s engagements with the US may be expected to be transactional, with
the verbosity of the joint statement remaining delusional — full of sound and
fury, signifying very little.
*Talmiz Ahmad is a former Indian diplomat.
How Middle East powers are reshaping the clean energy
landscape
Adrian Monck/Arab News/February 23, 2025
The energy sector stands at a crossroads, with the Middle East well positioned
to reinvent its global influence through strategic control of the battery supply
chain.Just as petroleum shaped the geopolitical order of the 20th century,
lithium and other critical minerals are rapidly becoming the “white gold” of a
clean energy future, and Gulf states are orchestrating a remarkable pivot that
could redefine global power dynamics for decades to come. Saudi Arabia’s
approach reveals both ambition and foresight. Through Vision 2030, the Kingdom
has launched a comprehensive strategy that leverages its energy expertise while
transcending traditional resource extraction. The collaboration between Saudi
state mining firm Ma’aden and energy titan Aramco aims to commence commercial
lithium production by 2027, establishing an integrated innovation ecosystem.
This initiative seeks to meet the Kingdom’s growing demand for lithium, driven
by plans to produce 500,000 batteries for electric vehicles and generate 110
gigawatts of renewable energy. The partnership focuses on the extraction of
lithium from oilfield brine, utilizing advanced direct lithium extraction
technologies.
Meanwhile, with pragmatism and audacity, the UAE is also establishing itself in
the battery materials sector. Abu Dhabi’s International Resources Holding,
chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, has established a 60-person
trading unit focused on metals essential for the energy transition, including
lithium. This move aligns with the UAE’s broader strategy to diversify its
economy and capitalize on the growing demand for critical minerals.
Oman is positioning itself as a logistics hub for battery materials. Minerals
Development Oman is setting up a trading team to manage the nation’s exports of
minerals such as chromite and gypsum. This initiative aims to streamline mineral
exports and integrate the country more deeply into the global battery supply
chain. Qatar is also leveraging its financial resources to secure a foothold in
the critical minerals market. The Qatar Investment Authority has committed $180
million to TechMet, a mining-investment company backed by the US International
Development Finance Corporation. This aims to reduce global reliance on
Chinese-dominated supply chains for the minerals, such as lithium, essential for
electric vehicle batteries. However, significant challenges remain. The Gulf
states face steep learning curves in mineral processing technologies that are
dominated by established players. Environmental concerns about water usage in
lithium extraction — particularly relevant in the water-scarce Gulf region —
require innovative solutions. And market dynamics, including fluctuations in
global lithium prices and competition from established players, require
strategic planning and investment.
Yet the potential benefits extend far beyond regional economics. As the world
races to electrify transportation and build robust energy storage systems, the
Gulf’s emerging role offers a potential solution to the concentration risks that
currently plague battery supply chains. While China maintains dominance in
refining and manufacturing, the Middle East’s entry creates the possibility of
more balanced, diversified networks. Gulf nations are demonstrating that skills
honed through decades of energy leadership apply perfectly to the materials
powering our electric future. For international stakeholders across Europe, Asia
and the Americas, the Gulf’s battery pivot represents both reassurance and
opportunity. The reliability and diplomatic finesse that made Middle Eastern
energy partnerships indispensable might now strengthen clean energy supply lines
worldwide. With the region serving as a counterbalance to supply concentrated in
any single country, global manufacturers gain access to more resilient,
diversified material sources. Will this transition create an “OPEC for
Batteries,” with coordinated influence over critical material flows? Or will it
foster a more collaborative framework in which multiple stakeholders balance
supply stability against market access? The answer probably lies somewhere in a
system where Gulf expertise in managing strategic resources meets the
technological innovation of manufacturing powerhouses, creating balanced
interdependence rather than one-sided vulnerability.
What is increasingly clear is that this pivot represents not only economic
diversification but strategic reinvention. By applying their considerable
financial resources, technical capabilities and diplomatic experience to battery
minerals, Gulf nations are orchestrating a remarkable second act on the global
stage. They are demonstrating that skills honed through decades of energy
leadership — long-term planning, complex international partnerships and balanced
resource management — apply perfectly to the materials powering our electric
future.
For a world increasingly concerned about sustainable development, energy
security and technological advancement, the Middle East’s embrace of battery
minerals offers a compelling narrative — one in which traditional energy powers
become architects of the clean energy transition — that promises a future where
critical supply chains benefit from the region’s stabilizing influence,
diplomatic connections and infrastructure expertise.
What will success depend upon? The Gulf’s ability to build technical expertise
in unfamiliar domains. The willingness of global manufacturers to diversify
supply partnerships. And the development of governance frameworks that balance
commercial interests against broader stability.
Yet, given the remarkable talent for adaptability the region has shown
throughout its history, transforming from traditional societies into global
energy powers in a single generation, there is every reason to believe it will
master this transition as well.
The Gulf’s “battery moment” represents more than regional reinvention, it offers
a potential solution to one of the clean energy transition’s most “wicked”
problems. By creating diversified, reliable supply networks for critical
minerals, Middle Eastern nations could help ease the tension between rapid
decarbonization and resource security. And in doing so, they would once again
demonstrate a unique capacity to shape global energy systems through strategic
vision, careful diplomacy and long-term thinking, qualities that will prove just
as valuable in the battery age as they were during the oil era.
• Adrian Monck is a senior adviser at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of
Artificial Intelligence and authors the geopolitics newsletter, Seven Things.
Lies
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al Awsat/February 23/2025
Two notable developments unfolded last week. The first was Reuters admitting- an
entire week after the fact- that it had published a misleading report about
Jordan’s King Abdullah II’s statements during his meeting with President Donald
Trump at the White House. The report had sparked a baseless controversy, but
there was no real reaction. The second was the statement of Hamas official Osama
Hamdan. He said that the fall of Bashar al-Assad was among the setbacks endured
by the so-called "Resistance Axis” but that these losses could be compensated.
After Hamdan’s remarks got the criticism they deserved, especially from Syrians,
Hamas responded through its supporters. But how? Of course, neither Hamdan nor
Hamas issued an apology. Instead, a disinformation social media campaign quickly
emerged. Hamdan was merely reading from a paper, it was claimed, with
insinuations that he had been pressured to say what he did. Others falsely
claimed that his remarks had been taken out of context despite having been
recorded on video.
With regard to this Hamas episode, one need only ask its leaders (any of them)
or even its supporters what they think of Qasem Soleimani and Hassan Nasrallah.
This question is enough to understand that these shameful positions are a
feature, not a bug, and that anyone hoping to reform the movement is delusional.
But that’s not really the point. The real issue, here, is the need to address
the ongoing campaign of lies, or what I have been calling "news laundering"
since 2009. Much like money laundering or whitewashing, this is a widespread
practice, especially among those who claim to be part of the "resistance."
One particularly notable deception campaign launched following the losses
suffered by the "adventurist axis" and the Assad regime, is the claim that
Lebanon is now under the tutelage of the US. That is a lie. Lebanon was under
Iranian tutelage, and it is now merely seeking a back into the fold of the
international community, which follows a set of laws and regulations.
Being part of this system entails commitments to share intelligence, take
control of borders (including airports), curb money laundering and human
trafficking, and restrict the movement of terrorist groups and individuals,
among many other obligations.
Going back to Hamas, its claim to victory is among its most prominent lies. This
assertion is not merely delusional. Rather, it is a narrative designed to
justify Hamas’ continued rule in Gaza and to ensure that it receives the funds
that will be sent to rebuild the Strip. If you were to ask them how the victor
could possibly be in need of reconstruction aid, they would brand you a heretic,
a traitor, and vilify you in every possible way.
Another lie, an old but persistent claim, is that Iran has a strategic project,
whereas the Arab world does not. Has anyone noticed that the US and Russia
recently met to defuse the world’s most dangerous conflicts on Saudi soil? Here,
you will not get an answer; instead, you will be met with evasion and
misdirection. A third or perhaps fourth lie- count them as you wish- is the
claim that Syria has become a playground for the Israelis after Assad fled.
Where is Ahmad al-Sharaa, and why has he done nothing for the fight against
Israel? Ask those making such claims how many times Israel bombed Assad’s
regime, Iranian forces, and Hezbollah across Syria last year alone. How many
times was Damascus Airport shut down as a result? Better yet: Who drew Israel
deeper into the region if not Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s militias? Of course,
you won’t get an answer.
The ultimate irony, however, is that institutions funded to the tune of billions
of dollars- along with academics, intellectuals, journalists, actors, actresses,
and self-proclaimed religious figures- are the ones spreading and promoting
these lies in an attempt to mislead the public.
That is just the tip of the iceberg. The broader discourse includes claims so
absurd they could turn your hair grey.
In Berlin, Anxious Movies for Dark Times
The New York Times/Asharq Al Awsat/February 23/2025
The skies are typically gray and gloomy at the Berlin International Film
Festival, but this year’s edition, which runs through Sunday, began with snow
for days. The wintry weather gave the event — known as the Berlinale — a magical
glow at first, but it wasn’t enough to keep the demons at bay. Looming over the
festival were anxieties over the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as the
upcoming German elections. The films also radiated an air of shame, despair and
powerlessness, asking: How to trust ourselves to make the world better when
we’ve already screwed up so spectacularly?
Tom Tykwer’s visually dazzling, but comically misguided liberal drama, “The
Light,” opened the event last week, submitting festivalgoers to 162 minutes of
angst and attrition (and one too many “Bohemian Rhapsody” needle drops) about a
German family spiritually cleansed by their Syrian housekeeper.
For many of us on the ground, however, the first real epic-of-interest was the
“Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho’s science-fiction caper “Mickey 17” — a film
that induces nervous laughter about society’s abysmal moral standards. In this
high-concept action movie with a zany dark heart, labor exploitation hits a new
low when workers, or at least their physical forms, become literally disposable.
Robert Pattinson stars as one such “expendable,” a dopey spaceman whose
co-workers treat him like a lab-rat, knowing that his body can be reprinted.
Bong’s bids at timeliness are staler than usual. (Mark Ruffalo plays a
grandstanding demagogue whose followers wear red caps.) But the film’s dull
political edge doesn’t diminish the joy ride’s momentum, nor the flashes of
genuine weirdness that keep us guessing. If, god willing, superhero movies are
destined to go the way of the dodo, “Mickey 17” is a reminder that directors
like Bong keep the dream of the blockbuster alive.
President Trump’s ramped-up campaign of mass deportations infiltrated my viewing
of Michel Franco’s “Dreams,” a competition entry that filled me with much
ambivalence, but also moved and infuriated me. This intentionally provocative
psychodrama by one of Mexico’s most divisive directors sees Jessica Chastain as
a tightly wound philanthropist from San Francisco who has a tempestuous
relationship with an undocumented ballet dancer from Mexico — whom we first see,
like the survivor at the end of a brutal horror film, emerging from a van full
of smuggled migrants.
Unfolding with a tense, uncanny rhythm, the film knocks you over the head with
its cynical ideas about class, privilege and the hypocrisies of white guilt. As
a smaller portrait of intimacy, however, I found its depiction of vulnerability
— the kind found under stony displays of feminine strength — to be startlingly
honest. Chastain’s ticking-time-bomb-of-a-performance beautifully demonstrates
how passion can curdle into addiction and abuse.
Ice queens are also at the center of two other highlights from the competition,
whose winner will be announced on Sunday. Marion Cotillard seems to be carved
out of diamonds in Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s intriguingly lugubrious dark fairy
tale “The Ice Tower.” More an assembly of eerily seductive images and wordlessly
tense interactions than a straight narrative, the film follows an orphaned girl
who stumbles upon a film set and becomes obsessed with its cruel and beautiful
star.
Cotillard’s diva is well aware she’s deranged, but the conscience-stricken
heroine of “Kontinental 25” stews in her delusions. The last time the movie's
director, Radu Jude, was at the Berlinale, his tripartite dramedy “Bad Luck
Banging or Loony Porn,” (2021) won the festival’s top prize. “Kontinental 25” is
low-key compared to that film, and begins with the suicide of a homeless man,
whom a bailiff named Orsolyo (a squirrelly Eszter Tompa) forces to evacuate the
room he’s been squatting in. Orsolya is apparently wracked with feelings of
complicity, though the film, which is made up mainly of extended shots of her
conversations with other people, questions the sincerity of her self-reproach
against a backdrop of ethnic tension and neoliberal sprawl in Romania.
If Jude’s previous two fiction films were Molotov cocktails of indignation, his
latest secretes a kind of scentless poison that gets at the banality with which
social injustices are processed and rationalized. There’s something toxic in the
air in Ameer Fakher Eldin’s mesmerizing (if sometimes drearily symbolic) drama “Yunan,”
too, in which a depressed Syrian-German man suffering from suffocation-inducing
panic attacks retreats to an isolated island. Likewise, in Kateryna Gornostai’s
documentary “Timestamp,” increasingly unsettling (if not entirely hopeless)
vérité-style scenes of public school operations in wartime Ukraine show the
tension between the younger generation’s vigor and naïveté and the reality of
the country’s crumbling infrastructure and war recruitment effort.
Existential unease permeated the festival program, though the Forum — the
section dedicated to more experimental works — conjured this mood at the most
forceful, and visually transportive, register. Whirling camera movements and
frames with misty, blurred edges make up Christine Haroutounian’s “After
Dreaming,” a grim, elliptical drama from Armenia that mirrors the perturbed
psyches of characters dogged by memories of war.
In “Punku,” a chaotically ambitious mystery by the Peruvian director J.D.
Fernández Molero, the spirit of David Lynch lives on with bursts of body-horror
and gallows humor, and constant pivots to different camera formats and color
schemes; think “Twin Peaks,” and its ideas about male-on-female-violence,
transported to an Indigenous community in the jungles of Peru.
When Germany Votes, It Will Be About the Economy
The New York Times/Asharq Al Awsat/February 23/2025
When German voters go to the polls on Sunday, the fate of companies like SKW
Piesteritz will be at the top of their minds. The chemical factory halved its
annual Christmas bonus for workers last year, and it just shut down one of its
two ammonia plants. Hammered by high energy costs and what they call excessive
German regulation, executives say they might be forced to move production
abroad. That would jeopardize 10,000 jobs in and around the small community of
Lutherstadt Wittenberg in the country’s economically depressed eastern region,
which has already been hurt by pullbacks at the company.
“It is a catastrophe,” said Torsten Zugehör, the local mayor. The German
election has in part focused on hot-button issues like immigration and more
recently on the threat to the Atlantic alliance presented by President Trump.
But the overriding concern in daily German life, according to interviews and
polls, and the thing most likely to drive the choice of voters, is the nation’s
anemic economy. Business executives, workers and politicians alike agree that
the next German chancellor must move quickly to repair the country’s ailing
industrial sector, or risk economic and political disaster for years to come.
German competitiveness, long a source of national pride, “was never as bad as it
is today,” said Petr Cingr, chairman of the board of SKW, which makes products
such as fertilizers and an additive for diesel motors.
The German economy has not grown in five years. Its once-powerful industries are
suffering through what corporate and labor leaders call a crisis of
competitiveness. Structural problems, including crumbling public infrastructure,
from bridges and roads to schools; a lack of high-speed broadband networks; and
public services that still work with paper have dragged on growth. So have
regulations, tax rates and, in particular, high energy costs.
Energy prices spiked when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. They have fallen
slightly since, but remain nearly 20 percent higher than the European average,
according to Eurostat. Company leaders say measures from Berlin and Brussels
that are meant to reduce fossil fuel emissions and combat climate change have
exacerbated the problem. Increasing competition from China, which is able to
produce machinery and other industrial products more cheaply than German firms,
and the looming threat of tariffs from the United States have added to the
pressure on Germany’s industry.
BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, has already begun closing its
factories in Germany and shifting production to China and the United States.
SKW fears it could be next. “If this becomes a permanent loss-making operation,
then we can’t rule out the possibility that some of the production will be
relocated to France, to Austria,” said Carsten Franzke, the company’s head of
operations.
The leading candidates for chancellor have all promised changes to jolt growth.
Olaf Scholz, the incumbent chancellor from the Social Democrats, has pledged to
increase government spending in targeted industries. Posters across the country
cast him as the “Made in Germany” candidate.
The favorite to supplant Mr. Scholz, Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats,
has promised to slash regulation — including scaling back some climate goals —
reduce taxes and build new advanced nuclear fusion reactors in a bid to push
energy costs down. “Germany is stuck in stagnation,” Robert Habeck, the economic
minister and the chancellor candidate for the Green Party, said late last month.
Not all the economic news is grim. Even as Germany’s traditional industries,
such as auto manufacturing, are suffering, the country has seen its service
sector expand in recent years. The unemployment rate is low, at 3.2 percent, and
some economists point out that the country has experienced industrial ups and
downs before. “Germany has repeatedly experienced phases of
deindustrialization,” said Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute
for Economic Research. He pointed to the textile industry that disappeared in
the 1970s and the electronics industry a decade later. “For the companies and
employees affected, it was difficult, but Germany came back stronger in other
sectors,” he said. SKW operates in multiple European countries. But since its
founding in 1993, the company, which sits on the Elbe River, has focused on
tailoring its products to meet the needs of local farmers.
“We live and die with Germany and Europe,” Mr. Frantzke said. Lutherstadt
Wittenburg lives and dies, for now, with SKW. Aside from its tax bill, the
company has opened its on-site day care and medical center to the public. It has
donated money for playgrounds, sports teams and local events. Area firefighters
train with the factory fire brigade. The company sponsors the local high school
prom. It has stopped new donations this year, and its lack of profits means it
will not pay local business taxes. City officials say they will need to cut
spending on sports and culture to balance this year’s budget.
If SKW relocated operations, there is no other industry to replace it, said Mr.
Zugehör, the mayor. Many of the well-educated, highly skilled workers and their
families would leave, gutting a region that has spent the past three decades
working to create an attractive standard of living, he said.
“We would not be able to compensate for the loss,” he said.