English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 06/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 10/01-07/:”Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 05-06/2025
Bassil,s,Berri’s & Hezbollah's Conspiracy Against Lebanese Expatriates—Especially Christians/Article 122: A Calculated Plot to Silence and Marginalize the Christian Diaspora/Elias Bejjani/July 06/ 2025
I Call On Joseph Aoun To recruit Randala Jabour and May Khreish To His Advisors' Brigade/Elias Bejani/July 03, 2025
Video link of an interview with former Minister Youssef Salameh:
Security forces raid Beirut neighborhood after Hezbollah-affiliated gunmen join Ashura rally
Lebanon says one killed, six wounded in Israeli strikes
Syrian president, Lebanon’s grand mufti hold ‘frank’ talks in Damascus
Sources to LBCI: Lebanese Mufti, Syrian President dismiss Israeli claims over land swap deal
Reports: Aoun and Berri warn Hezbollah over US paper as Arabs talk to Iran
Barrack urges Lebanon to seize 'opportunity' and 'historic moment'
Salam orders arrest of gunmen who paraded at Ashoura rally in Beirut
Lebanon's President tells UK Foreign Secretary Israeli occupation hinders state authority
US Envoy Tom Barrack hails 'historic moment' for Lebanon, urges unity and reform
US envoy Tom Barrack’s message to Lebanon: One country, one people, one army
LACC Calls for Diaspora Voting, Institutional Reform, and Implementation of Lebanon’s Obligations

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 05-06/2025
Trump says Hamas response ‘good’, signals possible Gaza deal next week
Israeli military says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
Gaza civil defense says 32 killed in Israeli operation
Hamas says ready to start Gaza ceasefire talks 'immediately'
Israel to send delegation to Qatar for Gaza ceasefire talks
Israel, Hamas near agreement: Could a prisoner deal be the first step toward ending Gaza war?
Erdogan says asked Trump to intervene over shootings at Gaza aid centers
Hamas says ready to start talks ‘immediately’ on Gaza ceasefire
Two US aid workers wounded in Gaza ‘attack’: GHF
Israel will send ceasefire negotiating team to Qatar a day before Trump and Netanyahu meet
UK resets ties with Syria as foreign minister visits Damascus
UK reestablishes diplomatic ties with Syria in first ministerial visit since Assad’s fall
Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party
Trump says he didn’t know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic
Ukraine’s Zelensky says latest phone call with Trump his most productive yet

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 05-06/2025
What new research reveals about Gaza’s real death toll — and why it’s far higher than official figures/Jonathan Gornall/Arab News/July 05, 2025
Rabbi behind the Abraham Accords: Trump key to Israel-Syria peace/IBRAHIM HAMIDI/Al-Majalla/July 05/2025
On the brink: Is Libya headed for partition?/Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/July 05/2025
Diplomatic spotlight falls on Global South ahead of G20 meeting/Andrew Hammond/Arab News/July 05/2025
UK Labour’s first year in power/Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/July 05/2025
Ensuring water security through robust regulation/Mads Helge/Arab News/July 05/2025
Selected Twitters For Today on July 05/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 05-06/2025
Bassil,s,Berri’s & Hezbollah's Conspiracy Against Lebanese Expatriates—Especially Christians/Article 122: A Calculated Plot to Silence and Marginalize the Christian Diaspora
Elias Bejjani/July 06/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/144900/
In Lebanon’s modern history, few examples illustrate the fusion of legal manipulation and political malice as clearly as Article 122 of the 2017 electoral law. This article denies non-resident Lebanese citizens their natural and constitutional right to vote in their original districts inside Lebanon—just like their fellow resident citizens. Instead, it isolates expatriates into a separate voting category and allocates them six parliamentary seats—one per continent—divided equally between Muslims and Christians, based on an unworkable and deeply flawed legal premise.
This was no coincidence. Article 122 is part of a long-term, premeditated scheme that began with the Taif Agreement—a turning point that significantly weakened Christian political influence, particularly the powers of the Maronite presidency. It abolished true Muslim-Christian parity in most state institutions, reducing it to a mere formality in top-level positions. Article 122 is a direct continuation of this exclusionary agenda, further marginalizing the Lebanese diaspora—most of whom are Christians—and stripping them of their rightful role in shaping national policy.
This malicious project is not new. It dates back to the era of Syrian-appointed President Emile Lahoud. At the time, the Foreign Ministry's expatriats Affairs, under Shiite political operative Haitham Jomaa—a loyalist of Nabih Berri—attempted to promote this plan among expatriates. Maronite MP Naamatallah Abi Nasr led a failed campaign to market it, facing overwhelming expatriots' rejection. Many diaspora activists, including the author of this piece, stood at the forefront of the resistance and exposed its hidden agenda. The plan was ultimately shelved—only to be revived in 2017.
Shockingly, it was revived through the very Christian parties that were supposed to defend expatriate rights. In a moment of short-sightedness—or perhaps calculated betrayal—both the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the Lebanese Forces (LF) supported Article 122. In exchange for a handful of additional seats, they legitimized a monstrous law designed to weaken the voice of the Christian diaspora. Whether through ignorance or political cowardice, they gave cover to a measure whose long-term damage far outweighs any short-term gains.
Today, it is no surprise that Nabih Berri and Hezbollah oppose empowering Christian expatriates. Berri’s sectarianism is well known, and Hezbollah—an Iranian-backed, jihadist terrorist proxy—has always aimed to silence any opposing or sovereign Lebanese voice. Yet the real disaster—the Iscariot betrayal—comes from Gebran Bassil himself. As head of the FPM and a Maronite, Bassil still defends Article 122, betraying the very Christians he claims to represent. Already sanctioned under the U.S. Magnitsky Act for corruption, Bassil walks in the footsteps of  his Father-in-law, Michel Aoun, who traded national sovereignty for power and submitted to Hezbollah’s humiliating domination. This toxic and treacherous Micheal Aoun has left Lebanon in ruins—economically, institutionally, and morally.
What fully exposes Bassil is the bold and patriotic statement recently issued by Maronite bishops in the diaspora. In clear and courageous language, they rejected Article 122 and demanded its cancellation, affirming that Lebanese expatriates must be allowed to vote in their original districts as full citizens—not be reduced to second-class voters or “continental MPs” with no land, no community, and no real political identity.
What Article 122 Says
Six parliamentary seats are reserved for expatriates—one per continent:
Africa
North America
South America
Europe
Australia
Asia
These are divided equally among the following sects:
Maronites
Greek Orthodox
Catholics
Sunnis
Shiites
Druze
A future Cabinet decree—based on proposals from the Ministers of Interior and Foreign Affairs—will define the specific districts and voting mechanisms. In the following election cycle, six seats will be deducted from the original 128 members of Parliament, drawn from the same sects to which the expatriate seats were assigned.
But in reality, Article 122 has no democratic value. It is a veiled tool of exclusion and disenfranchisement. It neither provides fair representation for local voters nor protects the political rights of Lebanese abroad. It is not reform—it is deception.
In conclusion, upholding Article 122 amounts to a blatant betrayal of the constitution, the National Pact, and the Lebanese diaspora—especially its Christian community. Every honorable political force and every free Lebanese—at home and abroad—must raise their voices and demand the abolition of this shameful, disgraceful article.
Let Article 122 be repealed.
Let the dignity of the diaspora be restored.
Let every Lebanese expatriate vote fully—as a citizen, not a mere financial provider.

I Call On Joseph Aoun To recruit Randala Jabour and May Khreish To His Advisors' Brigade.
Elias Bejani/July 03, 2025
The popular proverb states, "Tell me what you read, and I'll tell you who you are." We can coin a similar adage: "Tell me who your advisors are, and I'll tell you who you are."
Building on this principle, which connects advisors to individuals and, more critically, to public officials, I personally urge President Joseph Aoun to recruit May Khreish, a prominent Southern resistance and defiant lawyer still mourning Sayyed Nasrallah's assassination. Additionally, Randala Jabour, a Syrian nationalist journalist known for her ideological devotion to Antoine Saad's Greater Syria, her commitment to Hezbollah's resistance, and her unwavering hostility towards Zionists and their "usurping" state, would be a valuable addition.
It's crucial to acknowledge that these two figures were aligned with Gebran Bassil and his father-in-law, giving them invaluable experience in all forms of opportunism, expediency, and political adaptability.
Adding Khreish and Jabour to the Baabda Advisors' brigade is now essential, as the Lebanese proverb wisely states, "To complete the carried load with hawthorn."
Historically, sound advice came at a price. However, given the culture of the "resistance merchants" and their cronies—steeped in illusions, daydreams, and psychological denial, justification, and projection—our counsel is freely offered. This advice aims to support the President in his approach to "negotiating with Hezbollah in a bid to hand over its weaponry to the state." These negotiations, however, contradict UN resolutions, the ceasefire agreement, and the agenda of all regional and international powers who brought both President Aoun and Nawaf Salam into power. Their mandate is to supervise the implementation of UN resolutions, not to negotiate with proxies of the Iranian occupation to entrench their presence and legitimize their weapons through cunning rhetoric and manipulative tactics.
Undoubtedly, Khreish and Jabour are the ideal advisors for the path Joseph Aoun has pursued thus far. As for the rest of the President's advisor brigade, there's no need to elaborate more.

Video link of an interview with former Minister Youssef Salameh: Lebanon will return as the Switzerland of the East with Western will/the current failed system and the weapons protecting it will this year/The government is required to resign because it has failed in the issues of arms and corruption.
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/144880/
Video link of an interview from “Al-Siyassah” Youtube Platform with former Minister Youssef Salameh/A scientific, historical, and geostrategic reading of the current international and regional reality controlling the Lebanese ruling decision, the return of American era control to the Levant, the fate of all leaders who refused to comply with international decisions such as Bachir Gemayel and Kamal Jumblatt, the background of Hariri’s assassination, exposing the ignorance, failure, and populism of rulers, our rulers’ fear of Hezbollah, the mere corpse, the inevitability of Lebanon returning as the Switzerland of the East with Western will, the necessity of the government’s resignation due to its failure in the issues of arms and corruption, shortcomings and the audacity to admit defeats, the protection of corruption and the corrupt by arms, and exposing the ignorance and populism of rulers.

Security forces raid Beirut neighborhood after Hezbollah-affiliated gunmen join Ashura rally
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/July 05, 2025
BEIRUT: Military and security forces carried out raids in the Zuqaq al-Blat area of Beirut on Saturday morning in search of armed men who had joined a rally on Friday commemorating Ashura, a military source reported. The raid was “in search of armed individuals, with the aim of identifying them and taking appropriate measures,” the source said. Video footage of the event showing young masked men dressed in black, holding machine guns and chanting religious and partisan slogans as they marched through a Beirut street, has drawn nationwide condemnation. The images emerged amid mounting international pressure on Hezbollah to disarm in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and UN Resolution 1701, and ahead of US envoy Thomas Barrack’s visit to Beirut on Monday to receive Lebanon’s response to Washington’s disarmament proposal. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam swiftly denounced what he described as “the armed shows that took place in Beirut,” and called them “unacceptable in any way and under any pretext.”Salam asked Minister of Interior Ahmad al-Hajjar and Minister of Justice Adel Nassar to “take all necessary measures to enforce applicable laws and to arrest the perpetrators and refer them for investigation.”Al-Hajjar responded by forwarding video footage of the incident to the heads of General Security and the Internal Security Forces, requesting that those involved be identified and appropriate action taken in coordination with the judiciary. Meanwhile, Nassar said he had contacted Public Prosecutor Judge Jamal Hajjar requesting that he take immediate legal action against all those who participated in the armed parade.
According to Nassar’s office, Hajjar later notified him that he had begun issuing summonses in connection with the case.
The incident raised concerns over public safety and the state’s ability to enforce its authority, as Lebanon works to implement a lasting ceasefire in its ongoing conflict with Israel. No such armed parades have been seen in the Lebanese capital since the violent clashes between Hezbollah and sovereign political forces on May 7, 2008. Beirut MP Ibrahim Mneimneh condemned the incident as “unjustified behavior” and called such parades “a weapon for bullying and intimidating people, keeping the city captive to the proliferation of weapons, which we will not accept under any pretext.”
He added: “If the goal is to emphasize a commitment to armed presence, it regrettably reflects a failure to grasp the political reality and holds no significance in the streets of Beirut. More than ever, Beirut is in urgent need of security and the withdrawal of illegal weapons.”His fellow MP Fouad Makhzoumi echoed his words, saying: “The proliferation of weapons and holding them in the streets of Beirut is categorically unacceptable. The time of intimidation through force has passed. The security and dignity of the people of Beirut is a red line that cannot be violated.”MP Ashraf Rifi called the display of weapons in Beirut “an act of arrogance toward the state, Beirut residents, and all Lebanese,” and called on officials to take action because the state’s “prestige is at stake.”
MP Sami Gemayel also denounced the act.
“If heavy weapons threaten Lebanon’s political and regional security, then light weapons pose an even greater danger to the nation’s state-building efforts,” he said. “We envision a Lebanon free of weapons across every region. Only the army and legitimate security forces have the right to bear arms.”
The joint committee that comprises representatives from the offices of the presidency, the government and the parliament — formed to draft a response to the US proposal concerning the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, specifically the disarmament of Hezbollah forces north and south of the Litani River — is currently awaiting Hezbollah’s response on that matter ahead of the US envoy’s arrival on Monday. In a statement on social media on Saturday, Barrack — who is expected to meet with several Lebanese officials during his time in Beirut — said: “Lebanon’s hope awakens! The opportunity is now. This is a historic moment to supersede the strained confessionalism of the past and finally fulfill Lebanon’s true promise of the hope of ‘One country, one people, one army.’ Citing US President Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again,” Barrack added: “Lebanon is a great place, with great people. Let’s ‘Make Lebanon Great Again.’”Reports on Hezbollah’s position regarding disarmament have varied. Some sources claim that the party has confirmed to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri its commitment to fully implementing the ceasefire agreement and said there is no need for a new agreement.
“Hezbollah calls on Israel to fully implement the resolution, and it is ready to discuss the issue of its weapons within the framework of a defense strategy or through internal dialogue,” sources said. However, Berri’s office said meetings are “still ongoing, and no final position has been reached yet.”Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem reaffirmed the party’s commitment to retaining its weapons in a speech on Friday night. “We are resisting the Israeli occupation, and it must be resisted. Since when does defense require permission? Only when alternative defense strategies are presented will we engage in detailed discussions with those claiming they can defend the country. We are close, not far, from dialogue,” he said. “No one is asking us to stop resisting, but rather for the occupation to end. It is not the people who must surrender,” he added. “If some believe they can assert dominance over Lebanese citizens, they are mistaken. The people of the resistance do not fear their enemies.”Meanwhile, Israel continued to violate the ceasefire agreement, targeting Hezbollah sites and supporters in Lebanon.
On Saturday morning, an Israeli drone targeted a car in the town of Shakra in Bint Jbeil. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the strike “seriously injured two individuals, who were later admitted to intensive care.” An Israeli drone also targeted a vehicle in nearby Saf al-Hawa, killing one person and injuring two others, while another strike hit an unoccupied house in the border town of Shebaa, wounding a civilian identified as Mohammed Bassam Dalla.

Lebanon says one killed, six wounded in Israeli strikes
AFP, Beirut/05 July/2025
Lebanon said one person was killed and six wounded on Saturday in a series of Israeli strikes in the south despite a ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah. An “Israeli enemy drone strike on a vehicle” in the town of Bint Jbeil “killed one person and wounded two,” Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement carried by the official National News Agency (NNA). The ministry later reported one person wounded in a drone strike on another car in the same town, and two others seriously wounded in a similar raid on a vehicle in nearby Shaqra. Earlier Saturday, the ministry reported that a separate Israeli drone strike wounded one person in Shebaa, elsewhere in the south, with NNA reporting that a house was targeted. Israel has kept up its bombardment of Lebanon since a November 27 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of all-out war that left the Iran-backed group severely weakened. On Thursday, an Israeli strike on a vehicle at the southern entrance of Beirut killed a man and wounded three other people, Lebanon said, as the Israeli army said it hit a “terrorist” working for Iran. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region. Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five places it deems strategic. Israel has warned that it will keep striking Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed.

Syrian president, Lebanon’s grand mufti hold ‘frank’ talks in Damascus
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/July 05, 2025
BEIRUT: Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian had an hour-long meeting at the People’s Palace in Damascus on Saturday. Derian’s visit was the first by a Lebanese Sunni religious leader to Syria in more than 20 years, signaling a thaw in relations between the two nations that had been strained since the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the start of the Syrian war in 2011. Described as “frank,” the meeting addressed past estrangements and shared aspirations for renewal. Derian, accompanied by a delegation of religious leaders, including Sheikh Mohammed Assaf, head of the Sunni Shariah courts, emphasized the importance of reconciliation and cooperation. “After a long absence we come to reform the present and build a prosperous future,” he said, acknowledging the suffering of millions of Syrians and praising their resilience in the face of extremism and displacement. He lauded the Syrian Arab Republic’s path toward free elections under Al-Sharaa — the first for more than 60 years — and expressed hope for its revival as a pillar of the Arab world and ability to overcome challenges like the recent Damascus church bombing, which he cited as evidence of ongoing conspiracies. “Syrians will not be defeated by terrorism,” he said, praising Al-Sharaa’s navigation of a “difficult and arduous” road. Derian underscored a renewed Lebanese-Syrian partnership founded on mutual support and Arab unity, and highlighted the promise of Lebanon’s own trajectory under a new government committed to the Taif Agreement. “The hopes of the Lebanese are pinned on what was contained in the ministerial statement and the presidential oath, which are the beginning of the road to rebuilding a strong and just state, striving to serve all the Lebanese,” he said. “Lebanon’s rise can only be achieved through the efforts of its best and loyal sons, both residents and expatriates, and the support of his Arab brothers and friends.”He said there could be no salvation for Lebanon except through “sincere and constructive cooperation” with other Arab nations, which he described as the “guarantee of Lebanon’s security, stability, sovereignty, national unity and civilized Arabism which believes in the commitment to the Taif Agreement document … sponsored by Saudi Arabia.”As a symbol of the strong ties between Lebanon and Syria, Derian presented Al-Sharaa with the Dar Al-Fatwa Gold Medal.
“We will stand with you in every calamity and joy,” he said. The visit, coordinated with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, began with prayers at the Umayyad Mosque and a stop at Mount Qasioun. In a separate meeting with Syrian Minister of Endowments Mohammed Abu Al-Khair, Derian emphasized Dar Al-Fatwa’s role in promoting moderate Islam, citizenship and coexistence amid regional challenges. A Lebanese political observer framed the visit as a pivotal shift, not just religious but political, signaling Lebanese Sunnis’ readiness to forge a “new and normal” relationship with Syria’s emerging leadership. The visit underscores Lebanon’s reaffirmation of its Arab identity and commitment to moderation, moving beyond decades of tension marked by assassinations and conflict. Hezbollah, through its activists on social media, reacted cautiously to Derian’s visit to Damascus and his meeting with Al-Sharaa, with some accusing him of “stabbing the party in the back.”

Sources to LBCI: Lebanese Mufti, Syrian President dismiss Israeli claims over land swap deal
LBCI/July 05, 2025
Sources informed LBCI that the meeting between Lebanese Grand Mufti Abdul Latif Derian and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus was described as "frank." However, no credibility was given to the alleged Israeli proposal suggesting Syria abandon its claim to the occupied Golan Heights in exchange for control over Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli and parts of the Bekaa Valley. Sources familiar with the discussions told LBCI that the controversial proposal, circulated by Israeli media outlets, was not even considered during the talks.

Reports: Aoun and Berri warn Hezbollah over US paper as Arabs talk to Iran
Naharnet/05 July/2025
The ongoing Arab contacts for finalizing Lebanon's response to the U.S. paper intensified over the past hours and involved Iran, a diplomatic source told Al-Jadeed TV on Saturday. Al-Arabiya's Al-Hadath channel earlier reported that the Lebanese Presidency "sent a warning to Hezbollah in the morning on the need to send a response to (U.S. envoy Tom) Barrack's ideas."Speaker Nabih Berri for his part told Hezbollah that if it did not respond, Lebanese leaders, including him, would answer the U.S. without Hezbollah's input on the matter, Al-Hadath added. Aoun, Berri and PM Nawaf Salam "agree that the era of arms outside the state is over," the TV network quoted sources as saying. The three leaders "agreed not to allow any side to drag Lebanon into destruction," the sources added. Al-Jadeed later reported that Aoun, Berri and Salam would meet at the Baabda Palace later Saturday to "put the final touches on the response to Barrack's proposal."

Barrack urges Lebanon to seize 'opportunity' and 'historic moment'
Naharnet/05 July/2025
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack on Saturday called on Lebanese leaders to seize what he called a "historic moment" to achieve reforms and the disarmament of armed groups, days before his second visit to the country to receive Lebanon's response to a U.S.-proposed paper.
"Lebanon’s hope awakens!!! The opportunity is now. This is a historic moment to supersede the strained confessionalism of the past and finally fulfill Lebanon’s true promise of the hope of 'One country, one people, one army,'" Barrack said in a post on the X platform. "As @POTUS (U.S. President Donald Trump) has consistently shared with the world, 'Lebanon is a great place, with great people. Let's make Lebanon Great again,'" Barrack, who is of Lebanese origins, added.

Salam orders arrest of gunmen who paraded at Ashoura rally in Beirut
Naharnet/05 July/2025
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Saturday ordered authorities to arrest several gunmen who had paraded Friday with their rifles at a Ashoura rally in Beirut's Zokak al-Blat area.
In a post on the X platform, Salam said armed parades in Beirut are "unacceptable in any way and under any justification." He added that he contacted the interior and justice ministers and asked them to "take all the necessary measures to enforce the applicable laws, arrest the perpetrators and refer them to investigation."MTV meanwhile reported that Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar had on Friday sent the circulated videos of the parade to the chiefs of General Security and the Internal Security Forces, asking them to identify the gunmen in the videos and take the necessary measures against them in coordination with the judiciary.

Lebanon's President tells UK Foreign Secretary Israeli occupation hinders state authority
LBCI/05 July/2025
President Joseph Aoun met with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Saturday, where they discussed the latest developments in Lebanon and the broader region. Aoun stressed that the continued Israeli occupation of the "five hills," along with repeated Israeli aggressions and the ongoing detention of Lebanese prisoners, complicates the state's ability to assert full authority and implement its decisions, particularly regarding the state control of arms by legitimate security institutions. The Lebanese president emphasized that stabilizing the situation in the south requires the full application of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, including the presence of U.N. peacekeepers from UNIFIL. He announced that the Lebanese Army’s deployment in the south would soon reach 10,000 troops, reiterating that no armed forces other than state security agencies and UNIFIL would be permitted to operate there. For his part, Secretary Lammy reaffirmed the United Kingdom's continued support for the Lebanese Army across various sectors and confirmed Britain's close monitoring of the situation in Lebanon.

US Envoy Tom Barrack hails 'historic moment' for Lebanon, urges unity and reform
LBCI/05 July/2025
U.S. Envoy Tom Barrack expressed optimism for Lebanon’s future in a post on X, calling the current moment a “historic” opportunity for national unity. “Lebanon’s hope awakens!!! The opportunity is now,” Barrack wrote. “This is a historic moment to supersede the strained confessionalism of the past and finally fulfill Lebanon’s true promise of the hope of ‘One country, one people, one army.’”Quoting U.S. President Donald Trump, Barrack added: “Lebanon is a great place, with great people. Let's make Lebanon Great again.”

US envoy Tom Barrack’s message to Lebanon: One country, one people, one army
LBCI/05 July/2025
U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack declared on X that Lebanon stands at a historic crossroads, saying, "The opportunity is in our hands now" as he prepares for crucial talks with Lebanese officials on Monday. Barrack described the coming days as a defining moment in Lebanon's history—a chance to break free from the burdens of sectarian division and move toward the "real promise of a united nation: One country, one people, one army." His remarks came as Lebanese officials finalized their response to the U.S. proposal Barrack presented last month, which focuses on the exclusive control of weapons by the Lebanese state, a core demand from Washington. The statement is widely seen as a calculated effort by the U.S. to pressure Lebanon into advancing negotiations on the American proposal. Israel also exerted its own pressure Friday, launching airstrikes on South Lebanon that killed and wounded several people. Meanwhile, Saudi envoy Yazid bin Farhan departed Lebanon early Saturday, according to LBCI, following several days of meetings with Lebanese officials, including a second round of talks with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. Their discussions focused on Lebanon's response to Barrack's proposal.
Sources say Bin Farhan emphasized the importance of Lebanon fulfilling its commitments as outlined in the presidential oath and ministerial statement, particularly regarding arms control and the urgent need to implement long-delayed reforms.

LACC Calls for Diaspora Voting, Institutional Reform, and Implementation of Lebanon’s Obligations
Washington, D.C., July 3, 2025 – The Lebanese American Coordinating Committee (LACC) strongly condemns the actions of Speaker Nabih Berri in obstructing a majority-backed amendment to restore full voting rights to Lebanese expatriates. By refusing to place on the plenary agenda an urgent proposal signed by over half of Lebanon’s parliament, Berri has once again demonstrated his undemocratic behavior and willingness to undermine legislative norms in order to preserve Hezbollah’s undue influence over the Lebanese state.
This maneuver to suppress the diaspora’s voice exemplifies the broader pattern of foreign interference, corruption, and institutional decay that have driven Lebanon to collapse. Limiting expatriate voting to six ambiguous “continental” seats effectively silences hundreds of thousands of Lebanese abroad – communities that have consistently stood for reform, sovereignty, and against Hezbollah’s agenda.
The LACC underscores the U.S. administration’s clear and consistent position: any American assistance to Lebanon must be contingent on concrete political and institutional reforms and the full restoration of Lebanese sovereignty.
These include:
The disarmament of Hezbollah and all other non-state armed groups and the reassertion of state sovereignty, in line with UN Security Council Resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701.
Curbing corruption and strengthening governance, through transparency, accountability, and the rebuilding of public trust.
Full implementation of Lebanon’s international obligations, including the Taif Agreement and all relevant UN resolutions.
We call on Lebanese authorities to implement all of these essential reforms without delay. More specifically, we call on Speaker Berri to immediately allow the urgent amendment to repeal Article 112 to come to a vote in Parliament, in accordance with the will of the majority and the rules of procedure. Speaker Berri must facilitate the work of Parliament, not obstruct it.
Lebanon’s path to recovery, sovereignty, and partnership with the international community runs through these reforms. The Lebanese people, at home and abroad, deserve nothing less.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 05-06/2025
Trump says Hamas response ‘good’, signals possible Gaza deal next week
Al Arabiya English/05 July/2025
President Donald Trump said on Friday it was good that Hamas said it had responded in “a positive spirit” to a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire proposal.He told reporters aboard Air Force One there could be a deal on a Gaza ceasefire by next week, but that he had not been briefed on the current state of negotiations. “We have to do something about Gaza — we’re sending a lot of money and a lot of aid,” Trump told reporters, as Hamas said it was ready to start negotiations “immediately” on a US-backed truce proposal.
The announcement comes ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington on Monday. The conflict in Gaza began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and bringing home all the hostages seized by the group. Two previous ceasefires brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States resulted in temporary halts in fighting, coupled with the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu earlier on Friday vowed to bring home all the hostages held in Gaza after coming under intense domestic pressure over their fate.With agencies

Israeli military says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
Reuters/July 06, 2025
SANAA: The Israeli military said on Sunday that it has intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel. Sirens were activated across several areas in Israel in accordance with protocol, it said. Israel threatened Yemen’s Houthi movement with a naval and air blockade if it the Iran-aligned group persists with attacks on Israel, in what it says is solidarity with Gaza. Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade. Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.

Gaza civil defense says 32 killed in Israeli operation
AFP/ 05 July/2025
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli military operations killed 32 people across the war-battered territory on Saturday, the latest deaths in nearly 21 months of war. Israel has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, where the war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the Palestinian territory’s population of more than two million. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Saturday’s dead included eight people killed in two strikes on schools in Gaza City. Many Gazans have sought shelter in schools and other public buildings since the war began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel. Bassal also reported that eight people were killed by Israeli fire near an aid distribution center in southern Gaza. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific attacks without precise coordinates. The latest strikes came hours after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire. An Israeli official told AFP that “no decision has been made yet” when asked about Hamas’s positive response to the latest ceasefire proposal. It came ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s departure for talks on Monday in Washington, where US President Donald Trump has intensified calls for an end to the war. Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 57,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

Hamas says ready to start Gaza ceasefire talks 'immediately'
Agence France Presse/05 July/2025
Hamas has said it is ready to start talks "immediately" on a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the civil defense agency said Israel's ongoing offensive killed more than 50 people. The announcement came after it held consultations with other Palestinian factions and before a visit on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, where President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to the war, now in its 21st month. "The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place" the terms of a draft U.S.-backed truce proposal received from mediators, the militant group said in a statement. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it supported ceasefire talks, but demanded "guarantees" that Israel "will not resume its aggression" once hostages held in Gaza are freed. Trump, when asked about Hamas' response aboard Air Force One on Friday, said: "That's good. They haven't briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza."The conflict in Gaza began with Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and bringing home all the hostages seized by militants.Two previous ceasefires brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have seen temporary halts in fighting, coupled with the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu earlier on Friday vowed to bring home all the hostages held in Gaza, after coming under massive domestic pressure over their fate."I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our abductees, all of them," he said.
Trump said on Thursday he wanted "safety for the people of Gaza". "They've gone through hell," he said. - 60-day truce proposal -
A Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations told AFP earlier this week that the latest proposals included "a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip" -- thought to number 22 -- "in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees".Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations. The military said in a statement it had been striking suspected Hamas targets across the territory, including around Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south.
Civil defense says aid-seekers killed -
Gaza civil defense official Mohammad al-Mughayyir said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 52 people on Friday. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports, except for a handful of incidents for which it requested coordinates and timeframes. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency. In a separate statement, the Israeli military said a 19-year-old sergeant "fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip".Mughayyir said the Palestinians killed included five shot while waiting for aid near a U.S.-run site near Rafah in southern Gaza and several who were waiting for aid near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the center of the territory. They were the latest in a spate of deaths near aid distribution centers in the devastated territory, which U.N. agencies have warned is on the brink of famine.
The U.S.- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distanced itself from reports of deadly incidents near its sites.
Displaced civilians -
Mughayyir told AFP that eight people, including a child, were killed in an Israeli air strike on the tents of displaced civilians near Khan Yunis on Thursday.The civil defense official said eight more people were killed in two other strikes on camps on the coast, including one that killed two children early Friday. The Israeli military said it was operating throughout Gaza "to dismantle Hamas military capabilities". The Hamas attack of October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,268 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.

Israel to send delegation to Qatar for Gaza ceasefire talks
Reuters/July 05/2025
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war. Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a "positive spirit", a few days after U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed "to the necessary conditions to finalize" a 60-day truce.The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.

Israel, Hamas near agreement: Could a prisoner deal be the first step toward ending Gaza war?
LBCI/July 05/2025
Could next week mark the beginning of the end of the nearly two-year war between Israel and Hamas? Optimism is cautiously growing as Israeli officials received Hamas' latest amendments to the Egyptian-Qatari ceasefire proposal, despite lingering points of disagreement still under negotiation.
The most sensitive issue remains Hamas' demand for a formal, final commitment from Washington to end the war entirely. Current proposals, backed by the U.S. and mediators, guarantee a full ceasefire during the initial 60-day phase of the prisoner exchange deal but stop short of committing to a permanent end to hostilities. Israeli officials familiar with Hamas' response anticipate gaps in positions over three main points: the future deployment of Israeli forces in Gaza, the delivery and management of humanitarian aid, and the specifics of Washington's security guarantees regarding a lasting ceasefire. Humanitarian assistance is expected to begin on day one of the agreement, but Hamas insists on safeguards to prevent shortages in food supplies, particularly for bakeries and hospitals. The group is pushing for aid to be channeled through established international organizations like the United Nations and the Red Crescent, rather than through the American company recently involved in aid deliveries. The introduction of engineering and construction equipment for Gaza's devastated hospitals, homes, and infrastructure remains among the most contentious demands raised by Hamas. Despite these hurdles, negotiators report no major deadlock over the proposed Israeli military redeployment in Gaza. Hamas has shown flexibility, contingent on continued negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire both during and after the 60-day phase. The agreement framework involves a phased release of live hostages followed by the return of bodies, alongside Israel's staged release of Palestinian prisoners. Simultaneously, Israeli forces would begin withdrawing from northern Gaza, particularly the Netzarim corridor, and progressively toward the south. The deal outlines strict conditions for the prisoner release days, including a halt to offensive military operations and a 10 to 12-hour suspension of aerial surveillance and intelligence flights. All eyes are now on Washington, where a decisive meeting is scheduled for Monday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump. Ahead of that, Israel's security cabinet will convene late Saturday to review Hamas' response and finalize the Israeli position for the high-stakes talks in the U.S. capital.

Erdogan says asked Trump to intervene over shootings at Gaza aid centers
AFP/05 July/2025
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he asked US President Donald Trump to intervene to stop shootings at Gaza aid centers, which the UN says have killed more than 500 people. Erdogan said when he met Trump at a NATO summit in late June, he asked him to step in and halt the bloodshed. “I asked him to intervene in the Gaza process telling him, ‘You are the one who will best manage this process with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.’ There are people who are being killed in food queues in particular. “You need to intervene here so that these people are not killed’,” he said, his remarks reported Saturday by Anadolu state news agency. Israel blocked supplies going into Gaza in early March, deepening a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory, but on May 26, a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the US, started delivering supplies.
However its operations have since been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations from its distribution sites in Gaza, where the Israeli military says it is seeking to destroy Hamas militants. The UN Human Rights Office said Friday more than 500 people had been killed in the vicinity of the GHF sites. Israel’s army has blamed Hamas for the incidents and this week, GHF’s chairman Johnnie Moore denied any Palestinians have been killed in or near its four distribution sites. Erdogan said ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war had created a new opportunity to end the fighting in Gaza. “The ceasefire between Iran and Israel has also opened a door for Gaza. Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its good will in this regard,” he said just days after his spy chief and foreign minister met separately with senior Hamas officials. US pressure on Israel would be “decisive” in securing the success of the latest proposal for a 60-day truce in Gaza, he remarked, saying the issue of guarantees was “especially important.”“In the event of a ceasefire, the international community needs to invest rapidly in reconstruction projects. If a permanent ceasefire can be achieved, a path to permanent peace in the region can be opened.”

Hamas says ready to start talks ‘immediately’ on Gaza ceasefire
AFP/July 05, 2025
JERUSALEM/GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, where the civil defense agency said Israel’s ongoing offensive killed 20 people on Saturday. The announcement came after it held consultations with other Palestinian factions and before a visit on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, where President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to the war, now in its 21st month. “The movement is ready to engage immediately and seriously in a cycle of negotiations on the mechanism to put in place” the terms of a draft US-backed truce proposal received from mediators, the militant group said in a statement. Israel meanwhile said Saturday it was still mulling its response to a positive reaction from Hamas to the latest US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.
“No decision has been made yet on that issue,” a government official said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Israel’s security cabinet was due to meet later on Saturday, after the end of the Jewish sabbath at sundown, Israeli media reported. Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said it supported ceasefire talks, but demanded “guarantees” that Israel “will not resume its aggression” once hostages held in Gaza are freed. Trump, when asked about Hamas’s response aboard Air Force One on Friday, said: “That’s good. They haven’t briefed me on it. We have to get it over with. We have to do something about Gaza.”The conflict in Gaza began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack, which sparked a massive Israeli offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and bringing home all the hostages seized by Palestinian militants. On Friday, Netanyahu again pledged to bring home the hostages, after coming under massive domestic pressure over their fate.Two previous ceasefires mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have seen temporary halts in fighting, coupled with the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Efforts to broker a new truce have repeatedly failed, with the primary point of contention being Israel’s rejection of Hamas’s demand for guarantees that any new ceasefire will be lasting. A previous round of talks broke down in May with Hamas and Israel trading blame for its failure. The Palestinian militant group said it had given a “positive response” to a truce proposal from US special envoy Steve Witkoff, but its request for a guarantee that hostilities would not resume had been rejected by Israel. A Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations told AFP earlier this week that the latest proposal included “a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip” — thought to number 22 — “in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.”Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Nearly 21 months of war have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Israeli military operations killed 20 people across the war-battered territory on Saturday. Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency.Bassal said five of the dead were killed in a strike on a school in Gaza City. A second strike near another school in the city where displaced civilians had found shelter killed three people and wounded around 10, including children, he said. Many Gazans have sought shelter in schools and other public buildings since the war began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific strikes without precise coordinates. The civil defense agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 52 people on Friday. The Hamas attack of October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,268 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.

Two US aid workers wounded in Gaza ‘attack’: GHF
AFP/05 July/2025
The US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said two American staff were wounded Saturday in an “attack” on one of its aid centers in southern Gaza. “This morning, two American aid workers were injured in a targeted terrorist attack during food distribution activities at SDS-3 in Khan Younis,” the organization said, adding that reports indicated it was carried out by “two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans.”“The attack - which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans - occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food,” it added.An officially private effort, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking famine warnings.
GHF operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations. More than 500 people have been killed while waiting to access rations from its distribution sites, the UN Human Rights Office said Friday. The Israeli military has blamed Hamas for the incidents. “GHF has repeatedly warned of credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers and the civilians who rely on our sites for food. Today's attack tragically affirms those warnings,” the foundation said.

Israel will send ceasefire negotiating team to Qatar a day before Trump and Netanyahu meet
AP/July 05, 2025
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: US-led ceasefire efforts in Gaza appeared to gain momentum Saturday after nearly 21 months of war, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s office said Israel on Sunday will send a negotiating team to talks in Qatar. The statement also asserted that Hamas was seeking “unacceptable” changes to the proposal. US President Donald Trump has pushed for an agreement and will host Netanyahu at the White House on Monday to discuss a deal. Inside Gaza, Israeli airstrikes killed 14 Palestinians and another 10 were killed while seeking food aid, hospital officials in the embattled enclave told The Associated Press. And two American aid workers with the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were injured in an attack at a food distribution site, which the organization blamed on Hamas, without providing evidence. Weary Palestinians expressed cautious hope after Hamas gave a “positive” response late Friday to the latest US proposal for a 60-day truce but said further talks were needed on implementation. “We are tired. Enough starvation, enough closure of crossing points. We want to sleep in calm where we don’t hear warplanes or drones or shelling,” said Jamalat Wadi, one of Gaza’s hundreds of thousands of displaced people, speaking in Deir Al-Balah. She squinted in the sun during a summer heat wave of over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Hamas has sought guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war’s end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the militant group’s destruction. “Send a delegation with a full mandate to bring a comprehensive agreement to end the war and bring everyone back. No one must be left behind,” Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, told the weekly rally by relatives and supporters in Tel Aviv.
A Palestinian doctor and his 3 children killed
Israeli airstrikes struck tents in the crowded Muwasi area on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, killing seven people including a Palestinian doctor and his three children, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. Four others were killed in the town of Bani Suheila in southern Gaza. Three people were killed in three strikes in Khan Younis. Israel’s army did not immediately comment. Separately, eight Palestinians were killed near a GHF aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, the hospital said. One Palestinian was killed near another GHF point in Rafah. It was not clear how far the Palestinians were from the sites. GHF denied the killings happened near their sites. The organization has said no one has been shot at its sites, which are guarded by private contractors and can be accessed only by passing Israeli military positions hundreds of meters away.
The army had no immediate comment but has said it fires warning shots as a crowd-control measure and only aims at people when its troops are threatened. Another Palestinian was killed waiting in crowds for aid trucks in eastern Khan Younis, officials at Nasser Hospital said. The United Nations and other international organizations have been bringing in their own supplies of aid since the war began. The incident did not appear to be connected to GHF operations. Much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million now relies on international aid after the war has largely devastated agriculture and other food sources and left many people near famine. Crowds of Palestinians often wait for trucks and unload or loot their contents before they reach their destinations. The trucks must pass through areas under Israeli military control. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.
American aid workers injured
The GHF said the two American aid workers were injured on Saturday morning when assailants threw grenades at a distribution site in Khan Younis. The foundation said the injuries were not life-threatening. Israel’s military said it evacuated the workers for medical treatment. The GHF — a US- and Israeli-backed initiative meant to bypass the UN — distributes aid from four sites that are surrounded by Israeli troops. Three sites are in Gaza’s far south. The UN and other humanitarian groups have rejected the GHF system, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and is not effective. Israel says Hamas has siphoned off aid delivered by the UN, a claim the UN denies. Hamas has urged Palestinians not to cooperate with the GHF. GHF, registered in Delaware, began distributing food in May to Palestinians, who say Israeli troops open fire almost every day toward crowds on roads heading to the distribution points. Several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses. The UN human rights office says it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid, most of them while trying to reach GHF sites. The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children. according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is led by medical professionals employed by the Hamas government. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

UK resets ties with Syria as foreign minister visits Damascus
Reuters/05 July/2025
Britain said on Saturday it was reestablishing diplomatic relations with Syria after the country’s years-long civil war, as foreign minister David Lammy visited its capital Damascus, pledging 94.5 million pounds ($129 million) in support. “There is renewed hope for the Syrian people,” Lammy said in a statement. “It is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians.”Lammy’s visit, the first by a British minister in 14 years, comes days after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order terminating a US sanctions program on Syria, ending its isolation from the international financial system and helping it rebuild after the war. Britain also eased its sanctions in April, unfreezing the assets of Syria’s central bank and 23 other entities, including banks and oil companies to encourage investments, though it kept in place those targeting members of the former regime. The financial support package announced on Saturday will provide urgent humanitarian aid to Syria and support the country’s longer-term recovery through developing areas such as education, the government statement said. A stable Syria will reduce the risk of “irregular migration,” ensure chemical weapons are destroyed, and tackle the threat of terrorism, Lammy said, after he met with his Syrian counterpart Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani and President Ahmed al-Sharaa. In those meetings, Lammy reiterated the importance of an “inclusive and representative political transition” in Syria and offered Britain’s continued support, the statement said.

UK reestablishes diplomatic ties with Syria in first ministerial visit since Assad’s fall
Arab News/July 05, 2025
LONDON: The UK has formally reestablished diplomatic relations with Syria following Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s visit to Damascus on Saturday, the first such trip by a British minister in 14 years. The visit marks a major shift in UK foreign policy, eight months after the collapse of Bashar Assad’s regime. Lammy met President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani to offer support for the Syrian Arab Republic’s political transition and pledge renewed UK engagement in rebuilding efforts, a British government statement said. A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria’s interim foreign minister Asaad Al-Shaibani (R)meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy (L) in the Syrian capital Damascus on July 5, 2025. (AFP via SANA) “As the first UK minister to visit Syria since the fall of Assad’s brutal regime, I’ve seen firsthand the remarkable progress Syrians have made in rebuilding their lives and their country,” Lammy said. “After over a decade of conflict there is renewed hope for the Syrian people. The UK is reestablishing diplomatic relations because it is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians.”Lammy said a stable Syria would reduce the risk of irregular migration, prevent the resurgence of Daesh and enhance regional security — all key priorities under the government’s so-called Plan for Change. During his visit, the minister announced a £2 million ($2.7 million) contribution to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to help eliminate Assad-era chemical weapons stockpiles. Since Assad’s fall, the UK has provided more than £837,000 to support the OPCW’s work in Syria. Lammy also met Syrian Civil Defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, and women-led businesses benefiting from UK-funded economic recovery programs. The UK has supported the White Helmets with more than £5 million in the past two years. An additional £94.5 million UK aid package was also unveiled to provide urgent humanitarian assistance, support education and livelihoods, and help neighboring countries hosting Syrian refugees.The UK has contributed £4.5 billion to Syria and the region since 2011. Following his Damascus visit, the foreign secretary will travel to Kuwait for talks focused on regional security and trade.

Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party
AFP/July 05, 2025
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk, an ex-ally of US President Donald Trump, said Saturday he had launched a new political party in the United States to challenge what the tech billionaire described as the country’s “one-party system.”The world’s richest person — and Trump’s biggest political donor in the 2024 election — had a bitter falling out with the president after leading the Republican’s effort to slash spending and cut federal jobs as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has clashed with Trump over the president’s massive domestic spending plan, saying it would explode the US debt, and vowed to do everything in his power to defeat lawmakers who voted for it. Now he has created the so-called America Party, his own political framework, through which to try and achieve that. “When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” the Space X and Tesla boss posted on X, the social media platform that he owns. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.” Musk cited a poll — uploaded on Friday, US Independence Day — in which he asked whether respondents “want independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system” that has dominated US politics for some two centuries. The yes-or-no survey earned more than 1.2 million responses. “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he posted on Saturday. Musk also shared a meme depicting a two-headed snake and the caption “End the Uniparty.”It is not clear how much impact the new party would have on the 2026 mid-term elections, or on the presidential vote two years after that. The Trump-Musk feud reignited in dramatic fashion late last month as Trump pushed Republicans in Congress to ram through his massive domestic agenda in the form of the One Big Beautiful Bill. Musk expressed fierce opposition to the legislation, and ruthlessly attacked its Republican backers for supporting “debt slavery.”He vowed to launch a new political party to challenge lawmakers who campaigned on reduced federal spending only to vote for the bill, which experts say will pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the US deficit.“They will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Musk said earlier this week. After Musk heavily criticized the flagship spending bill — which eventually passed Congress and was signed into law — Trump threatened to deport the tech tycoon and strip federal funds from his businesses. “We’ll have to take a look,” the president told reporters when asked if he would consider deporting Musk, who was born in South Africa and has held US citizenship since 2002.
On Friday after posting the poll, Musk laid out a possible political battle plan to pick off vulnerable House and Senate seats and become “the deciding vote” on key legislation.“One way to execute on this would be to laser-focus on just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” Musk posted on X.
All 435 US House seats are up for grabs every two years, while about one third of the Senate’s 100 members, who serve six-year terms, are elected every two years. Some observers were quick to point out how third-party campaigns have historically split the vote — as businessman Ross Perot’s independent presidential run in 1992 did when it helped doom George H.W. Bush’s re-election bid resulting in Democrat Bill Clinton’s victory. “You are pulling a Ross Perot, and I don’t like it,” one X user wrote to Musk.

Trump says he didn’t know an offensive term he used in a speech is considered antisemitic
AP/July 06, 2025
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump says he didn’t know the term “shylock” is considered antisemitic when he used it in a speech to describe unscrupulous moneylenders. Trump told reporters early Friday after returning from an event in Iowa that he had “never heard it that way” and “never heard that” the term was considered an offensive stereotype about Jews. Shylock refers to the villainous Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” who demands a pound of flesh from a debtor. The Anti-Defamation League, which works to combat antisemitism, said in a statement that the term “evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jews and greed that is extremely offensive and dangerous. President Trump’s use of the term is very troubling and irresponsible.”Democrat Joe Biden, while vice president, said in 2014 that he had made a “poor choice” of words a day after he used the term in remarks to a legal aid group. Trump’s administration has made cracking down on antisemitism a priority. His administration said it is screening for antisemitic activity when granting immigration benefits and its fight with Harvard University has centered on allegations from the White House that the school has tolerated antisemitism. But the Republican president has also had a history of playing on stereotypes about Jewish people. He told the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2015 that “you want to control your politicians” and suggested the audience used money to exert control.
Before he kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump drew widespread criticism for dining at his Florida club with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist. Last year, Trump made repeated comments accusing Jewish Americans who identify as Democrats of disloyalty because of the Democratic leaders’ criticisms of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Critics said it perpetuated an antisemitic trope about Jews having divided loyalties and there being only one right way to be Jewish.On Thursday night in his speech in Iowa, Trump used the term while talking about his signature legislation that was passed by Congress earlier in the day. “No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing some from, in some cases, a fine banker and in some cases shylocks and bad people,” he said. When a reporter later asked about the word’s antisemitic association and his intent, Trump said; “No, I’ve never heard it that way. To me, a shylock is somebody that’s a money lender at high rates. I’ve never heard it that way. You view it differently than me. I’ve never heard that.”The Anti-Defamation League said Trump’s use of the word “underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country. Words from our leaders matter and we expect more from the President of the United States.”

Ukraine’s Zelensky says latest phone call with Trump his most productive yet
AFP/Reuters/July 05, 2025
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that his latest conversation with US President Donald Trump this week was the best and “most productive” he has had to date. “Regarding the conversation with the president of the United States, which took place a day earlier, it was probably the best conversation we have had during this whole time, the most productive,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “We discussed air defense issues and I’m grateful for the willingness to help. The Patriot system is precisely the key to protection against ballistic threats.”
Zelensky said the two leaders had discussed “several other important matters” that officials from the two sides would be considering in forthcoming meetings. Trump told reporters on Friday that he had a good call with Zelensky and restated his disappointment at a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin over what he said was Moscow’s lack of willingness to work toward a ceasefire. Asked whether the United States would agree to supply more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, as requested by Zelensky, Trump said: “They’re going to need them for defense... They’re going to need something because they’re being hit pretty hard.” Russia has intensified air attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks. Moscow’s forces launched the largest drone attack of the 40-month-old war on the Ukrainian capital hours after Trump’s conversation with Putin on Thursday.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 05-06/2025
What new research reveals about Gaza’s real death toll — and why it’s far higher than official figures
Jonathan Gornall/Arab News/July 05, 2025
LONDON: Since October 2023, Israel has been waging two parallel wars in Gaza: One, to destroy Hamas and rescue its hostages; the other, a propaganda campaign designed to discredit the tally of civilian fatalities issued by the Gaza Ministry of Health. However, as new independent research suggests, far from exaggerating the number of deaths since Israel began its retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, the Gaza Ministry of Health appears to have been significantly underestimating them. According to the latest tally from the Ministry of Health, the total number of Palestinians killed since the war began is now approaching 55,000, with a further 126,000 injured. A paper published by a team of researchers in the US, UK, Norway and Belgium, working in collaboration with the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Gaza, shows the death toll is likely far higher.
As of January 5 this year, it found the total number of violent deaths over the course of the conflict had already reached 75,200. This figure, derived independently of the Ministry of Health, is based on an exhaustive household survey, which revealed another disturbing statistic about the war in Gaza.
In addition to the 75,200 violent deaths, the survey highlighted a further 8,540 non-violent deaths caused by indirect factors, including disease, hunger, and loss of access to medical treatment and medication. That brings the total number of deaths resulting from the war in Gaza since October 2023 to 83,740.
“Our estimate for the number of violent deaths far exceeds the figures from the Ministry of Health,” said Michael Spagat, a professor of economics at Royal Holloway College, University of London, the lead author of the study and chairman of the board of trustees of the UK charity Every Casualty Counts.
“The implication of this is that the ministry has not been exaggerating the number of violent deaths.”
IN NUMBERS
• 75,200 Violent deaths resulting from the war in Gaza.
• 8,540 Non-violent deaths caused by indirect factors.
• 83,740 Total number of deaths since October 2023.
(Source: Gaza Mortality Survey)
The ministry has also been accused of falsifying the number of children killed in Israeli attacks. But “the demographics of the ministry’s figures seem to be about right,” said Spagat. “The proportion of women, elderly, and children among the dead in its figures is consistent with what we found.” The new research estimates that 56 percent of those killed between October 2023 and January this year — 42,200 of the total 75,200 victims — were either women, children, or those aged over 65. More than half of these (22,800) were children under the age of 18, meaning that almost one in three of those killed in Gaza up to January this year was a child. The Gaza Mortality Survey, which in line with standard academic procedure received ethical pre-approval from the University of London and obtained informed consent from each respondent, was conducted between Dec. 30, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2025.
Ten two-person teams from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, tracked by GPS and real-time monitoring, conducted face-to-face questionnaire-based interviews, which were recorded on tablets and phones, and uploaded data instantly to a secure central server.
The survey teams visited a sample of 2,000 households, representative of prewar Gaza, and collected information about the “vital status” of 9,729 household members and their newborn children ­­— including whether they were alive or dead and, if dead, how they had died. The survey, said Spagat, “would have been impossible without the support of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
“First of all, we would not have been let into Gaza, but our partner was already there. They have experienced survey researchers in Gaza, and they were the ones who conducted the interviews. “Also crucial was that this organization has been tracking population movements since the war began. If we were doing a survey in Gaza under stable conditions, we would have a list of where people are, based on the last census. But there has been so much displacement the census-based list was of limited value.”Instead, because it has been tracking population movements throughout the war, the PCPSR was able to identify 200 sample sites sheltering internally displaced people which reflected the distribution of pre-2023 populations, including in the now inaccessible areas of northern Gaza, Gaza City, and Rafah. As with all such research, all the numbers come with a cautionary “confidence interval” — a margin of error that shows the possible range of figures, allowing for under- and overestimation. For the total number of violent deaths estimated by the survey, this gives a range of between 63,600 and 86,800.
“Even the lowest figure is a big number, and about 16,000 above the comparable Ministry of Health figure at the time of the survey,” said Spagat.
“We have tried to draw conclusions that we are quite confident won’t get overturned by further research, and one of our conclusions is that the Ministry of Health is not capturing all of the deaths in Gaza and that there is a substantial degree of undercount there.”
He added: “Our estimate for the number of children killed (22,800) is shockingly high, and well above the Ministry of Health figure.”
Taking into account the survey’s confidence interval, the number of child deaths could range from a low of 16,700 to as many as 28,800. And at either end of that scale, said Spagat, “that is an awful lot of children.”
It is, he said, “possible that the true number of total violent deaths is even below the bottom of our confidence interval, but it’s extremely unlikely to be so far below it that it would overturn our conclusion that the Ministry of Health is not capturing all of the deaths.”He is anxious that the survey’s conclusions should in no way be seen as a criticism of the Ministry of Health, “which has had a lot on its plate.”
In fact, although the ministry’s tally is not fully comprehensive — it has, for instance, yet to compile or release figures for non-violent war-related deaths, which this survey has revealed for the first time — Spagat said its work should be highly commended.
Despite the constant criticism by Israel and its supporters, the work it is doing, under extreme conditions, “is exceptionally transparent,” he said.
“For each person they’re saying is dead, they’re listing a name and they’re listing a national ID number, a sex, and age.”The first list of the dead was released by the ministry in October last year, in response to accusations that it was making up the numbers killed by Israel. One factor that has been widely overlooked by critics of the ministry’s figures is the significance of the ID numbers. “It’s the Israelis who maintain the population register for the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, so at a minimum, they can take that list and they can check to verify that everyone listed on it is a real person,” said Spagat. “They must have done some checking like this, and I’ve got to believe that if the Ministry of Health was just making up names Israel would have made that known.” Ultimately, Spagat believes, the lists being compiled by Gaza’s Ministry of Health “will serve as a memorial for the people who are killed in a way that just recording a number can’t. By listing people individually, you are recording some semblance of who they were as human beings.”The model for this, he said, was the Kosovo Memory Book, an exhaustive record of all those killed, missing, or disappeared in the fighting between 1998 and 2000, compiled by the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo. This record, say its authors, “calls everyone to pause in front of it, to read each name and find out who these people were and how they died. It urges people to remember people.”In time, it adds, “when the data on the fate of those who are still missing are finally obtained … the Kosovo Memory Book will have become the most reliable witness to our recent past.” When peace finally comes to Gaza, said Spagat, “I hope there will be funding for research on this scale (based) on the really good foundations being laid by the Ministry of Health.”

Rabbi behind the Abraham Accords: Trump key to Israel-Syria peace
IBRAHIM HAMIDI/Al-Majalla/July 05/2025
NEW YORK: A septuagenarian grand-grandfather from New York, Rabbi Abraham Cooper is known for breaking ground internationally. A director of the Jewish human rights organisation Simon Wiesenthal Centre, he helped smooth the way for Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations with Israel back in 2020, laying the groundwork years earlier.
Long before then, in the 1980s, he opened the first Jewish cultural centre in Moscow after visiting the Soviet Refuseniks in the 1970s. In 1995, he flew to Cairo to ask Sheikh Tantawi, the then Grand Mufti of Egypt, to meet Israel’s Chief Rabbi Lau (a Holocaust survivor) to improve Jewish-Muslim relations (they eventually met four years later). In 2004, he travelled to Khartoum to become the first Jewish leader to meet Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir. In short, he opens doors, some for the first time.
Back in 2017, during US President Donald Trump’s first term, Cooper hosted the King of Bahrain, helping to pave the way for normalised relations between his country and Israel that became known as the Abraham Accords. It was therefore of interest that, along with American Christian leader and religious freedom campaigner Pastor Johnnie Moore, Cooper visited Damascus in June, meeting Syria’s President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, having met Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in April.
Al Majalla spoke to Rabbi Cooper afterwards about the Damascus talks, his role, his perceptions of Syria’s future, and relations between Damascus and Tel Aviv. He clearly sees Trump as key to rapid progress, and left the Syrian capital impressed with Al-Sharaa, who he said “holds a vision for Syria that accommodates all its citizens”. Cooper said the Syrian leader, a former Islamist, “looks at things with a strategic and practical mindset”. This is the conversation:
Do you think the war between Iran and Israel will have any effect on your efforts in Syria?
The total defeat of the Ayatollahs’ tyranny will be great for the people of Iran, for the people of Israel, for Syria’s future, for greater stability, and for the future of our grandchildren. Great things are possible. For Syria, it can give an injection of hope that life will improve and the brain drain will end. Let’s start with people of different faiths working together towards a real peace.
How was your trip to Damascus?
Full of surprises and too short! Each meeting was invigorating, as was walking through the Christian Quarter, seeing people out again in the street. The most important time of all was the two hours we spent with the president (Al-Sharaa), an Islamist who also has a vision for an inclusive new Syria for all its citizens. He looks at things with a strategic and practical mindset, with a view to removing Syria from countries’ lists of enemies, with the hope of building on peace.
He went into more depth than our meeting with the foreign minister a few weeks ago at the United Nations. I happened to be in New York that day. We have come a very long way in a very short period. We also had a lengthy meeting with 15-20 Christian leaders from across Syria, plus some who work in Lebanon. They wanted to know what would happen to the Christians, just as we asked, what would happen to the Jews. The hope is that there will be a unified Syria, with one army, and everyone in equal citizenship.
I’m particularly sensitive to that topic. I chaired the US Commission on International Religious Freedom last year and have been an activist for half a century. As a Jewish American, I look at human rights through the lens of religious freedom, as a kind of litmus test for the health of a society. I hope you (Syria) can combine the leader’s vision with the more practical concerns over the quality of life for Syrian citizens. It would be arrogant for someone who spent maybe 35 hours in Syria to start giving all sorts of ideas, but I think there is hope.
What is the main message you have for the Syrian president?
I represent no government, I’m no spy, I’m just a Jewish guy with an American passport, but my approach is very simple: try to help by communicating with government officials on a practical basis, and supporting sustainable humanitarian projects, the kinds of projects that involve people from different countries and cultures. I raised two at the meeting.
As a Jewish American, I try to look at human rights through the lens of religious freedom, as a kind of litmus test for the health of a society.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper
One is to help Syrians close the circle of grief by using DNA to match families with human remains. This would let them give their loved ones a proper burial and learn the truth about where they perished. I spoke to Fr. Patrick Desbois, who is based in Paris. He is an expert in the excavation of mass graves and is committed to helping. He did it in Ukraine, in Central America, in Iraq, and for Jewish people from the Holocaust. It's not an overnight project, but it could benefit all Syrians, whatever their religious or ethnic background is.
The second project is more generic. Flying into Damascus, you see: there's so much desert. There is expertise on water and agriculture next door (in Israel). The idea is to facilitate the movement of areas (on water and agriculture between Syria and Israel). It may be a bit early for government-to-government, but we used NGO's (international non-governmental organisations) in Bahrain in the years leading up to the Abraham Accords, also a bit in the UAE.
Just the drive from the airport to Damascus shows how huge the challenge is, including on infrastructure. It's a huge list and we can't do everything—I'm old enough not to over-promise! But the idea is: diplomats sign treaties, people make peace.
You mean to encourage people-to-people diplomacy? To provide water from Israel to the suburbs of Damascus?
I mean you share the expertise over water that you have. I've already had meetings with the foreign minister and various Israelis, one of whom has a great NGO in Africa that's reclaiming water; she's done great work, taking used water and making it drinkable again. You've got that (knowledge) with people right next door. All they need is a phone call.
What kind of response did you get?
I would say, not in a direct way. I got no response about the DNA. That could either be very good or not very good, we'll find out in the coming weeks, because I'm going to continue to pursue it. The response I got to the other issue (water) was a bit 'chicken and egg,' you know, first we've got to do X, then we can talk about Y…' I understand. But I'm an old man; I don't have time to wait.
There are two ways to do this. First, with an NGO, like we did with Bahrain two years before the Abraham Accords, we invited religious leaders to be our guests in Jerusalem. It was great. It was a multiplier. Here, we want to talk about water, not ideology. We can bring five or six (Israeli) experts to Damascus, then spend a couple of days out in the field where it's safe. It goes from there. Give me a list of five or six experts in Syria who need the help. They don't need me at a meeting; they just need to sit with their opposite numbers from Israel.
Let them start. It doesn't need to be public. I don't think you can ever do anything in Israel that's secret, but it's practical, it will involve human connection, and if it happens, it'll be good for Syria, and will create maybe a more positive direction.
In Bahrain and the UAE, you played a key role in preparing the ground for them to join the Abraham Accords. Do you think Syria, with its new leadership, is on that path?
I don't think you can be an expert after three meetings, but the meetings were with people who make a difference. The priority now for Syria is to remove countries from their enemy lists. So, first of all, let's not be enemies. This is not such a bad approach.
On the Abraham Accords itself, honestly, there is one man who can speed up this process, and one man only: Donald Trump. I saw that Netanyahu, the other day, made a public request that President Trump get involved. I'm no expert. I've known Netanyahu for many years, but I don't report to him.
When I discussed American sanctions on Syria with American diplomats, some laughed at me. They didn't want to drop the sanctions. They said: 'Look what happened in Afghanistan. They promised everything, we removed the sanctions, and three weeks later, girls couldn't attend school.' But President Trump ignored them (and decided to remove sanctions on Syria). Only Donald Trump has brought us to this place. For the Presidents of Syria and Israel to have a meeting in his office is the best way to fast-track this. Without that, both sides will need confidence-building measures.
Did you brief Trump or his team about your meeting with Al-Sharaa, and is the trilateral meeting 'on the table'?
Check with Pastor Moore. He runs the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. He has the closest, informal contacts, but I know that when he's back in Washington, he'll pursue it. There are obviously some contacts between the two countries (Syria and Israel), but for different reasons, they need a boost. He's a big guy, Trump. A collective hug from him for these two guys (Netanyahu and al-Sharaa), that's the fast track to the Abraham Accords, like taking the express train from London to Paris. Otherwise, it's like taking the local trains, which take forever. But it's up to President Trump.
We bring 5-6 Israeli water experts to Damascus, they spend a couple of days out in the field where it's safe, and it goes from there.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper
When you raised this with Al-Sharaa, what was his reaction?
He took a tremendous amount of time to outline where Syria is right now and how they view Israeli activity right now. It may be a bit overwhelming for him right now to consider humanitarian projects, given everything else Syria needs.
We know that the needs are great. Don't worry, businessmen are coming from all over the world with great ideas, and also US Congressmen. I said to the president (Al-Sharaa), one of the benefits of such projects (like DNA or water) is that you create ambassadors from both countries, from both societies, for peace. It's just a byproduct of doing it. But I do also have a sense for the crushing list of priorities.
I don't know that he (Al-Sharaa) yet has connected those dots. For Syria, the top priority is security, followed by reconstruction and business. There has already been contact with Israel, the UAE and Azerbaijan. They're talking about moving on from conflict, the cessation of hostilities, and about security guarantees to revive the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement. I think that was reflected in the president's statements. I'll be in Azerbaijan, taking Muslim, Christian, and Jewish religious leaders to Auschwitz next week. I will probably have an opportunity to meet some of the leadership.
The goal here is normalcy. There are immediate benefits to launching sustainable humanitarian projects that involve people, like building a hospital, maybe on the border, so that Jordanians would be involved, Lebanese, Israelis... It's something that would benefit all citizens.
There's another reason to try to have another meeting with President Trump, if possible. The US, in many ways, is disengaging overseas. If Syria is to succeed, it will need continued American engagement and involvement. Pastor Moore and I will continue cheerleading to move in that direction!
It's a tough neighbourhood. You've got all the international big boys looking on from the sidelines: Russians, Turks, Chinese and so on. The kinds of things that have to happen towards peace are going to outlast the 3.5 years of one president.
You mentioned in another interview with Reuters that Al-Sharaa is a "unicorn"?
Yes, because he's an Islamist with a vision for peace regionally, an Islamist whose vision for the very diverse population of Syria is one of inclusion. I presented two books of Psalms as a gift, one to the president and one for his wife, because he includes his wife in meetings and walks in public holding hands with her. This guy is a unicorn.
Do you think Al-Sharaa can make peace with Israel?
I think he has the tools and the skills to do so, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done on both sides to achieve that in a step-by-step process, but if it helps move on from conflict in Syria's relations with Israel, that obviously is a huge priority, also for Israel. Many people in the Arab world, including in Syria, underestimate what October 7 2023, did to Israelis. They don't get (understand) it. So much suffering.
For me, more contact (between Israelis and Syrians) will help reduce conflict. Of course, there are questions. Pastor Moore asked the foreign minister: 'How much of Syria do you control? The things that you say you want to do, can you deliver?' There are always question marks about leadership. I hope the people (Al-Sharaa) selected around him can match his commitment and carry forward his vision and policies.
Do you think Syria will be part of the Abraham Accords, or could they do a different kind of deal? I think at this point, the first thing is moving away from conflict. When they do, a lot of good can happen. We don't need the same kind of peace (such as a peace treaty with Israel) that was agreed with Egypt and Jordan.
You want warm peace?
We want a warm peace. It doesn't have to be part of the Abraham Accords. The bottom line is that if President Trump calls them in, gives them a collective hug and says 'we're with you all the way', there could be an Abraham Accord. Without it, based on the realities of the region and the enormous challenges of the Syrian people, it's up in the air. There are a lot of actors both inside and outside of the country that can still make it even more challenging.
Many people in the Arab world, including in Syria, underestimate what October 7 2023, did to Israelis. They don't get it. So much suffering.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Either way, we'll keep coming back. You know, there's an old Yiddish word: 'noodge'. A noodge is like when you have a mosquito that keeps coming back. We'll be noodges, because you know, the desert still beckons, and families are still mourning, not knowing.
(At the meeting with Al-Sharaa) I brought up Eli Cohen (an Egyptian-born Israeli spy executed by the Assad regime, whose possessions were recently sent back to Israel by the new Sharaa-led Damascus government). I thanked the president for the return. We're praying for the return of the remains of one Jew, so I know how it feels to us. I grew up with Syrian Jews in Brooklyn, people who fled al-Assad senior.
Is the next step to move away from conflict between Israel and Syria to implement the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement between them?
That is my understanding from what I heard in the two meetings. I'm not a diplomat, but it's clear right now that this is where Syria is at.
In terms of timeframes, there are two options, as you said: step-by-step, or an express process with Trump bringing the two leaders to the White House. Based on your experience with Bahrain and the UAE, what timeframe do you think we are on? Nobody predicted that we were heading to the Abraham Accords when we tried all of these efforts (in Bahrain and the UAE), but we did succeed in quickly breaking down barriers, preconceived notions, and stereotypes. The then US Secretary of State (Mike Pompeo) thanked us for helping with the building blocks towards peace. I do not take credit for the Abraham Accords, but that is sort of where we see ourselves.
The current Secretary of State (Marco Rubio) is an important player. He has broad experience in foreign policy and is now in charge of USAID. He will be a major player in all of this. But the person who can make the kind of revolutionary change he made with sanctions relief is Donald Trump. Do you think that in any peace deal between Syria and Israel, the future of the Golan Heights should be part of the deal?
No. I'm no diplomat, but it's not going to happen. Times change, leaderships change, sometimes systems change, but the topography of the area doesn't change. At the end of the day, the State of Israel, even with the Golan Heights, is one twentieth the size of California. Maybe there can be joint projects on the Golan Heights. It's a great place for horseback riding, and maybe for summer camps!
For skiing, maybe…
Yes, for skiing, and we didn't even talk about archaeology, but the psychological, historic and practical barriers don't just melt away automatically. Hopefully in future years, whoever's in your seat and whoever's doing my kind of work can muse on things that seem a bit more practical by then. There are many ways to reimagine it, for instance, having a different kind of purpose, like a place where disabled children from both countries and other countries can come together to spend the summer, maybe. Right now, I think we're past the baby steps, hopefully walking, maybe Trump will speed things up, but if you want to talk about the Golan Heights being under different control? No.
What about the other areas annexed by Israel after 8 December 2024?
You've got to ask the diplomats. It's outside my control. The main goal here is to move away from conflict, to get some sense of trust. Look, the UAE has already had 700,000 Jewish tourists, 500,000 of them Israelis. Do you have any idea how many Jewish tourists would like to come to see Syria? Those kinds of things only happen when there's warm peace. Unfortunately, it didn't happen in Egypt, and it's very unpleasant going across the border to Jordan today, especially if you're a religious Jew. These things happen organically. But when it comes to dealing with maps and topography, luckily, that's outside the realm of my expertise. I'm old enough to know what I don't know!

On the brink: Is Libya headed for partition?
Hafed Al-Ghwell/Arab News/July 05/2025
The sobering reality facing Libya far surpasses mere political stalemate; it embodies the active calcification of a partitioned state. Two distinct centers of power now operate with parallel bureaucracies, military structures, and international recognition circuits, each solidifying its control over significant territory and resources. This is no theoretical fragmentation typically subject of erudite observations by scholars, but an operational division measured in concrete terms.
One administration commands the capital and its international legitimacy, while the other dominates about 60 percent of the nation’s landmass, including the lion’s share of proven oil reserves — Libya’s primary economic lifeline, responsible for over 90 percent of state revenue. Each entity fields its own armed forces, estimated in the tens of thousands collectively, backed by rival foreign patrons whose military footprints are expanding.
The division even extends beyond security; separate legislative bodies pass laws for their respective zones, while reconstruction efforts have devolved into competing, regionally siloed projects. An entrenched reality has settled, where daily governance functions independently on either side of a virtual iron curtain, reflecting a partition actively constructed and resourced, rendering the notion of a unified Libyan state increasingly unlikely. Tripoli’s authority, nominally the UN-recognized Government of National Unity, is visibly fraying under the weight of its own internal power struggles and widespread popular rejection. Its attempt to violently purge rival militias in May, triggering intense urban warfare and displacing civilians, culminated in the resignation of influential ministers. Ultimately, Tripoli’s “fausse paix” was shuttered by urban combat spanning 72 hours and 11 districts, including the affluent Dhat El-Imad towers and seafront — zones historically insulated from conflict.
The clashes also displaced 2,500 civilians, halted operations at Mitiga International Airport for 48 hours, and stranded foreign nationals. Critically, the resignations of finance and economy ministers, architects of a state budget dependent on $20 billion in annual oil revenue, exposed the government’s evaporating fiscal control. The spectacle of rival militias, some state-funded while others operate extortion rackets, engaging in pitched battles across the capital also cast a glaring spotlight on the fragility of Tripoli’s control of its affiliated militias.
Now, the GNU’s sovereignty has become a facade maintained by force, not legitimacy, with its institutions hollowed out via state capture and endemic corruption, with multibillion-dollar state companies becoming battlegrounds for rival kleptocratic networks. Militias now treat state parastatal coffers as mere plunder, with one faction having seized control of Libya’s Post, Telecommunications & Information Technology Company, a $3 billion state entity, in a firefight that killed eight civilians and left 58 bodies abandoned in a militia-controlled hospital. On the other hand, parallel security structures are a further mockery of governance: 27 officially funded militias operate in Tripoli alone, yet the state cannot mobilize 500 coherent troops without triggering inter-militia warfare. Worse yet, foreign backers compound the chaos. This duality, where “state” forces assassinate rivals in extrajudicial executions while citizens burn tires in protest, frames partition as simple arithmetic, as Tripoli’s authority dwindles, reaching no further than its allied militias’ checkpoints.
Each faction now monopolizes force within its domain.
On the other side of the divide, Benghazi has meticulously constructed a de facto state apparatus in the east, seemingly achieving some level of internal cohesion and international normalization unimaginable just a few years ago. Exploiting Tripoli’s chaos and legitimacy deficits, the rival administration has leveraged relative stability and a unified military command structure under its Libyan Arab Armed Forces to attract wary international partners. The ensuing diplomatic shift is palpable: Over the past year alone, Benghazi hosted delegations from the US military, the Italian Interior Ministry and intelligence chief, Turkish generals, Philippine diplomats, the Vatican ambassador, French NGOs, and British trade missions.
It has not escaped notice that a dedicated “foreign ministry” in the east has since chronicled over 100 diplomatic engagements across 12 months via more than 200 official social media posts, averaging one every four days. Such expanding engagement signals institutional permanence, not temporary rebellion, and since then, military normalization has only accelerated with the participation of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces in the US-led African Lion 2025 joint exercises, while hosting Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunusbek Yevkurov five times since August 2023.
Clearly, dual approaches, where 31 countries now treat eastern institutions as viable partners, proves partition transcends rhetoric. When foreign embassies relocate staff to Benghazi citing “prosperity and security,” and reconstruction contracts bypass Tripoli’s hollowed ministries, the de facto statehood of the east becomes irreversible arithmetic, and idyllic aspirations for Libya’s reunification remain just that — ideals.
Given the prevailing dynamics, it is possible to draw a fairly unambiguous picture of international actors no longer being mere observers of Libya’s debilitating bifurcation. They are now actively enabling and profiting from it. Previous models of exclusive recognition for Tripoli’s revolving door interim authorities have ceased to exist. This “dual-track” engagement, replicated by Rome, Paris (hosting the eastern leader at the Elysee), and even Washington, reveals a cynical international consensus. Stability, narrowly defined as the absence of all-out war and the preservation of self-interested aims (migration “control,” construction contracts, oil and gas, Sahel access, and transnational networks), is prioritized over the messy pursuit of genuine national unification, democratic legitimacy, or the removal of foreign mercenaries.
What remains is an accelerating drift toward a redrawing of Libya’s map rather than a temporarily frozen conflict. Each faction now monopolizes force within its domain, while foreign fighters answerable to external powers bolster both sides, further eroding national sovereignty. What constitutional processes and fleeting hopes for elections that still remain are indefinitely postponed — deemed too destabilizing by elites and their international backers who benefit from the current rent-seeking arrangements.
However, average Libyans, suffering in a state on the brink of total collapse, see their demands for unity and accountable governance ignored by domestic warlords and foreign powers alike. Their protests, while newsworthy, lack unified leadership or international backing to overcome an entrenched militarized duopoly. Now, the global community’s comfort with this enforced status quo, prioritizing manageable instability over risky democratic restoration, is the most powerful engine of partition.
Without a fundamental shift from this external calculus of short-termism and economic opportunism toward a concerted, impartial push for inclusive elections, disarmament of militias, and the removal of foreign forces, Libya’s map risks being definitively redrawn — not by the will of its people, but by the interests of its fractured elites and their global enablers.
**Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. X: @HafedAlGhwell

Diplomatic spotlight falls on Global South ahead of G20 meeting
Andrew Hammond/Arab News/July 05/2025
BRICS summit on Sunday and Monday in Brazil. However, his mind may well be some 5,000 miles away in his home nation, which is facing the growing challenges of hosting another major global diplomatic event — the G20 meeting.
South Africa’s hosting of this year’s G20 should be a victory lap for Ramaphosa and his country. It is the first time the African continent has chaired the global forum, yet the process has been beset with problems, largely emanating from the US.
A few weeks ago, Ramaphosa visited the White House to try to course correct relations with the Trump team. However, the meeting proved tense, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly accusing South Africa of “white genocide,” and it is still not clear whether the US president will attend November’s leadership summit, despite the fact that Washington takes over as the next G20 host.
Before his meeting with Ramaphosa, Trump declared that “South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people very badly. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of the situation has been completed.”
Moreover, Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 7 which claimed that an expropriation law, passed in December, enables “the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation. This act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.” Washington donated about $440 million in aid to South Africa in 2023, most of which was for healthcare programs.
It is not just Trump who has berated Ramaphosa. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who declined an invitation to attend a G20 foreign ministers meeting earlier this year, has declared that “South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote solidarity, equality, & sustainability. In other words: DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”
South Africa’s hosting of this year’s G20 should be a victory lap for President Cyril Ramaphosa and his country.
What Trump and Rubio refer to in their denunciation is the 2024 South Africa Expropriation Act, which aims to resolve ownership inequality issues created by the pre-1994 apartheid system of white minority rule. The controversial law has drawn criticism for potentially disregarding private property rights, particularly those of the white minority, as it potentially permits state land seizures without compensation. To date, no land has been expropriated.
The hostility of the Trump team to South Africa is making it much harder for Ramaphosa to host the G20, yet this is only the latest example of growing geopolitical divisions affecting the club in recent years. Tensions have long been high, too, between China and the West, and recent summits have seen significant disagreements over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which have caused diplomatic fireworks. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, G20 ministers frequently clashed diplomatically, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov walking out of some meetings. Moreover, the customary group pictures of the so-called “G20 family” have become rarer. In this context, there are significant challenges to constructive discussion taking place at the G20 this year — this despite the strong support that South Africa has received from other powers, including the EU. For instance, European Council President Antonio Costa has highlighted with Ramaphosa “the EU’s commitment to deepen ties with South Africa, as a reliable and predictable partner.” He added that the EU offers “full support to South Africa’s leadership of G20 and its ambition to strengthen multilateral cooperation and the Pact for the Future to address the most pressing global issues.”
The backing of Brussels for Pretoria reflects not just its partnership with the country and the wider continent, but also the concern that Washington’s absence from the G20 will only benefit Moscow and China.
Yet, even if some governments, like the Trump team, have disagreements with parts of Ramaphosa’s G20 agenda to address climate change and fairer finance for poorer nations, there are other items for constructive engagement. Take the example of the future of the energy agenda in Africa in which US firms have a huge stake. The danger if the US does not engage on these agendas is that it will lose a critical mass of its economic foothold in South Africa and much of the rest of the continent.
All of this highlights why 2025 will be perhaps the most unpredictable G20 year ever. Amid the uncertainty, however, what is at stake is more than the future of the multilateral forum. At play are much wider questions about US international leadership in the new era.
**Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.

UK Labour’s first year in power
Yossi Mekelberg/Arab News/July 05/2025
This time last year Britain’s Labour Party was celebrating one of the most memorable general election victories, a win that swept new Prime Minister Keir Starmer into 10 Downing Street with a decisive working majority of 172 seats. Admittedly, it was as much the unpopularity of the Conservative Party — after 14 years of austerity, division, and sheer incompetence — as it was the hope that Labour would usher in a new dawn for British politics and society that contributed to Labour’s stunning success.
Starmer and his government should have assumed power with a spring in their step, with confidence, and an inner belief befitting a party that had just received a mandate from the British people for a radical change of direction. Instead, the approach has been one of trepidation, risk aversion, and more focusing on the difficult legacy left by the previous government in order to justify a lack of any overarching vision or plan to achieve it. There is much truth in the claim that the Conservatives left the UK in a sorry state, but this does not exonerate the current government and its leader from a slow, stuttering, and uninspiring first year. A year on, it has become apparent that there are no quick fixes for the ills of Britain’s economy and society, and that this is a government that is more comfortable with incremental change and continuity — when, in fact, there has been a need for some far-reaching changes to instill hope, a sense that a departure from the past is possible, and that “we are all in it together.” There have been flickers of all that, but in a most disjointed manner, and Starmer has shown more leadership on the international stage than on the domestic one.
Symbolically, on the week of its first anniversary, the government whips had to contain a rebellion by dozens of backbenchers and others in the party who opposed planned benefit cuts, and only some significant last-minute concessions saved it from losing a vote in the House of Commons. There are mitigating circumstances for the government’s inability to set a reformist social-democratic agenda, among them an extremely costly Brexit; the Conservatives’ neglect of public services, their general listless approach to social equality, opportunities for all and social justice in general; and even the necessity to divert resources to defense as a result of the immediate need to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. Nevertheless, a year into this government, British people do not see or feel that enough has improved on the issues that really matter to them, from reviving the National Health Service to progress on economic growth, education, infrastructure, and affordable housing.
To be sure, we should cut Labour some slack. The public coffers were, indeed, rather empty when they came to power, and finding a balance between raising funds, mainly through taxation, while not sending the economy into stagnation is never easy. The UK economy is suffering from decades of structural vulnerabilities, and while there are pockets of economic buoyancy, at the same time there is also weak productivity, low business investment, persistent long-term unemployment, a constant decline in manufacturing, growing social inequalities, and a lack of competition in the utilities market. A year on, there is little evidence that these issues have been dealt with convincingly since Labour returned to power. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has shown more leadership on the international stage than on the domestic one.
At the same time there is hardly any reason for doom and gloom, and unlike many previous administrations, Labour under Starmer is responsive when things go wrong. This may be down to either a genuine attentiveness to concerns raised by the public or dissenting voices within the party, or sheer pragmatism, but in any case the result is a government that is not averse to changing course, or at least to adjusting when it faces resistance. Frequent U-turns project both weakness and bad policy-making processes, and hence should not become habitual, especially if this compromises core principles or throws the government’s agenda off course. Yet, there is something refreshing about it as a corrective mechanism. Previous administrations have adhered to policies even when it became obvious to everyone, even themselves, that this was damaging for the party and the country. One could argue that depriving millions of pensioners of winter fuel payments, not agreeing immediately to hold a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs, and most recently cutting benefits for some of those most in need was hardly what you would expect from a Labour government, but the British prime minister deserves some credit for reversing most of those decisions, even if not for political foresight or astuteness. Moreover, making mistakes early in the electoral cycle, especially with the safety net of a huge majority, enables not only a learning from mistakes, but also the opportunity for a mini-opposition to emerge within the ruling party to serve as the government’s conscience and compass, as long as it is aimed at keeping the party in touch with its roots and support base. While Starmer is hardly seen as an inspirational leader at home, his record on the world stage is mixed. On Ukraine and on the need to rebuild the UK and European military capabilities to stop the Russian threat, he has been bold and determined to lead from the front. On the issue of a ceasefire in Gaza and recognizing Palestinian statehood, he has been too slow to recognize that giving Israel a blank cheque will only end in further disaster, and he always has one eye on what Washington says. He is still more respected abroad than at home. There is no escape from the fact that voters are already disillusioned with the Labour government, as they express it time and again in opinion polls. With the Conservatives incapable of picking themselves from the canvas after last year’s election knockout, the big winner is the populist-nationalist party Reform, which in its opportunism is devoid of any constructive policies, only specializing in exploiting societal malaise, and people’s resentments and fears. It is for Starmer to start his second year in power by diving deeper to address the fundamental sources of disquiet in British society and to resurrect the welfare society by enabling hard working people to have a decent life and for young people to see the prospect of enjoying the kind of life that the post-war generations enjoyed. This will require more than just tweaking with the current state of affairs.
**Yossi Mekelberg is a professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. X: @YMekelberg

Ensuring water security through robust regulation
Mads Helge/Arab News/July 05/2025
Saudi Arabia is rapidly advancing its water infrastructure in alignment with Vision 2030, taking bold steps to ensure the long-term sustainability, resilience, and efficiency of its water distribution networks.
With water scarcity looming as a global crisis, the Kingdom is making water security a national priority — modernizing networks, investing in smart infrastructure, and tightening regulatory frameworks to set a new standard for sustainable water management.
In recent years, these regulations have become more stringent, reinforcing the need for standardized, high-quality solutions that reduce inefficiencies and enhance system resilience. Yet, despite the progress, challenges persist. Aging infrastructure, high rates of non-revenue water, and inconsistent implementation of standards continue to undermine these efforts. Bridging the gap between regulation and real-world execution requires more than meeting minimum requirements. Industry players must take a proactive stance — going beyond compliance to integrate best practices and durable components that protect the integrity of Saudi Arabia’s water networks for decades to come. Unified standards ensure that water network components — such as valves, hydrants, and pipeline fittings — are designed to withstand the Kingdom’s demanding conditions, from high temperatures to corrosive soil environments.
Adherence to internationally recognized standards, like International Organization for Standardization and American Water Works Association, guarantees that these components are built for performance, even under pressure.
Material compliance is especially critical. Poor material choices can lead to corrosion, leaks, and premature failure — issues that significantly increase long-term maintenance costs. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Global Risks Report, failure of critical infrastructure — including water systems — is one of the top risks facing governments in the coming decade due to inadequate investment and poor resilience strategies.
By strengthening material specifications and standardizing design requirements across the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia can reinforce the backbone of its water infrastructure and reduce lifecycle costs over time. Globally, utilities lose an average of 25-30 percent of their water as non-revenue water — lost through leakage, theft, or metering inaccuracies. In some developing regions, that figure can exceed 40 percent. Non-compliant or substandard components are a major contributor to non-revenue water. When pipes, valves, and fittings are not installed or maintained properly — or are made from inferior materials — leakages occur more frequently, reducing pressure and disrupting supply. Enforcing compliance with best practices, particularly pressure management and valve quality can significantly reduce these losses.
According to a 2022 study by the International Water Association, utilities that adopted pressure regulation and high-quality components saw non-revenue water reductions of up to 15 percent within the first year of implementation.
Additionally, digital monitoring systems paired with compliant infrastructure can detect leaks in real time, allowing operators to respond proactively rather than reactively conserving water, energy, and money.
Regulation isn’t a burden — it’s a catalyst. It presents an opportunity to raise the bar for what’s possible in water sustainability.
Saudi Arabia is undertaking large-scale water infrastructure projects as part of its Vision 2030 agenda, including smart water grids, desalination plant expansions, and wastewater reuse networks. The Saline Water Conversion Corporation, for instance, has become the largest producer of desalinated water globally, with plans to increase daily capacity to 8.5 million cubic meters by 2030.As these investments scale, ensuring all components align with international and local standards will be crucial.
Certified, regulation-compliant components not only reduce the risk of future disruptions but also deliver long-term operational savings.
For example, ductile iron valves designed to ISO 2531 standards — such as those manufactured by AVK — can have a lifespan of over 50 years when correctly installed and maintained.
However, quality doesn’t end at certification. It’s critical to consider the total cost of ownership, including durability, maintenance needs, and warranty coverage. Short-term savings often result in higher long-term costs if components degrade quickly or require frequent replacement.
Not all suppliers offer extended warranties, and municipalities should prioritise those that provide long-term guarantees such as 10-year warranties as a marker of component reliability and supplier accountability.
These standards help future-proof infrastructure, ensuring it can adapt to changing demand, pressure conditions, and sustainability requirements over the coming decades.
Even the highest-quality components can underperform if installed incorrectly. Across the region, unskilled contracting, inconsistent commissioning, and lack of oversight continue to impact water network reliability.
A 2023 McKinsey report on global water infrastructure identified poor installation and weak inspection protocols as key causes of early-stage failures and maintenance backlogs.
To address this, regulatory bodies in the Kingdom should enforce mandatory training and certification programs for contractors. In countries like Denmark and the Netherlands, technician accreditation is mandatory for working on municipal water systems — ensuring consistent installation quality and safety standards.Third-party audits should also be a regulatory requirement. Independent inspections ensure accountability, catch flaws early, and verify that installation matches design intent. With improved oversight and qualified personnel on the ground, Saudi Arabia can maximize its return on infrastructure investments and extend the lifespan of critical assets. Water security is not just about increasing supply — it’s about protecting what’s already in circulation. Saudi Arabia’s regulatory frameworks have laid the foundation for resilient, future-ready infrastructure. But their true impact depends on execution.
By prioritizing best practices, embracing international standards, and enforcing robust compliance across every link in the value chain — from manufacturing to installation — the Kingdom can drastically reduce inefficiencies, cut down on water loss, and build networks that serve its growing population for decades to come. Regulation isn’t a burden — it’s a catalyst. It presents an opportunity to raise the bar for what’s possible in water sustainability. At its core, this is not just about cost-efficiency or ticking boxes. It’s about protecting the very foundation of life — for the Kingdom today and for generations to come.
• Mads Helge is general manager at AVK Saudi Valves Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Selected Twitters For Today on July 05/2025
Ambassador Tom Barrack
Lebanon’s hope awakens!!! The opportunity is now. This is a historic moment to supersede the strained confessionalism of the past and finally fulfill 🇱🇧’s true promise of the hope of “One country, one people, one army.” As @POTUS has consistently shared with the world, "Lebanon is a great place, with great people. Let's make Lebanon Great again.”

Nabil El Halabi
Your Excellency,
It seems that Hezbollah, the terrorist organization, has issued its response to your message through an armed show of force carried out by its militants in the heart of the Lebanese capital, Beirut — just steps away from the Grand Serail — in a blatant provocation to the peaceful people of #Beirut The Lebanese authorities remain powerless in the face of this militia and its unchecked weaponry, unable to protect the residents of Beirut or the Lebanese people as a whole. Thank you, sincerely and wholeheartedly, for standing with the people of #Lebanon

Amine Bar-Julius Iskandar
While passing through Tripoli, Saint Peter encountered a christian man named Maroun, who received him in his house near the sea. He ordained him first archbishop of Phoenicia.
That was in the first century.
(Apocryphal Gospel of Saint Peter)

wassim Godfrey
**Chief you are a politician a party representative in the parliament , the responsibility is on you as free patriotic to lead an initiative in order to change the status quo with other party to gain lebanon sovereignty no other solution but to call for federalism or partitioning
**As many free patriotic lebanese christians minds , we need a rebirth of a new descent,visionary,leader another king kamil chamoun or president bachir ,another Patriarch too like Arida another savior another party or movement enough living in the past ,christians are melting

Maronite ♰ ☧
Christianity in #Lebanon didn’t arrive from outside, it was born from within.
In the 1st century, the earliest Christians were the very people of this land: Jews from Galilee and #Phoenicians who worshipped Baal, Astarte, Zeus…
They encountered the Gospel, witnessed miracles, and believed. They were baptized, not into a foreign faith, but into the fulfillment of God’s promise, right here in Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and the mountains.Long before Mar Maroun or Mar John Maron, there was already a living Church in Lebanon, rooted in the apostles, growing through persecution, and preaching the Risen Christ.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
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Hezbollah's conditions to surrender its arms:
1- Israel's withdrawal from five hill tops
2- Israel ceasing elimination of its militants
3- Israel's release of Hezbollah POWs
All three Hezbollah demands would not have existed had it not launched its aggression on Israel on October 8, 2023. Hezbollah did not listen to advice, got it wrong back then. Hezbollah is still not listening to advice, getting Lebanon in trouble now. Hezbollah can do Lebanon a huge service if it surrenders its arms and retires.