English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 17/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
The Gospel Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins
Saint Matthew 25/01-13: “‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, “Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise replied, “No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.” And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 16-17/2025
The Nejmeh Square Theatrical Show: Directed by Abu Mustafa Berri, Starring 128 MP's Koumbars, and the Hypocrites of Sovereignty/Elias Bejjani/July 15/ 2025
Urgent Appeal for International Protection of the Druze in Syria’s Sweida Province/Elias Bejjani/July 14/2025
Youssef Salameh, Former Minister and Head of the Identity and Sovereignty Forum: What We Witnessed in the Syrian City of Sweida Is Alarming and Unacceptable — It Deepened Our Concern for the Future and Exposed Undeniable Facts
US reportedly urges timetable and official Hezbollah declaration on arms
Report: US response to Lebanon 'positive in form, strict in content'
Aoun and Salam condemn 'flagrant' Israeli strikes on Damascus
Jumblat: Israel not protecting Druze in Sweida but using some of the 'weak-minded'
Hezbollah calls Israel east Lebanon strike a 'major escalation'
Report: US military team to visit Beirut to discuss 'new roadmap'
Barrack says ban of dealings with Al-Qard al-Hasan a 'valued' step
Salam vows to continue working to extend state authority north and south of Litani
Parliament renews confidence in Salam's goverment
MPs discuss Hezbollah arms, Israeli violations, and US intervention in plenary session
Starvation among kids in Gaza reaches record levels, humanitarian chiefs tell UN Security Council
Hezbollah now a militia without a project/Nadim Koteich/Arab News/July 16, 2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 16-17/2025
Syrian government and Druze minority leaders announce a new ceasefire as Israel continues strikes
Israel bombs Syria army HQ and area near presidential palace in major escalation
US hopeful of quick ‘deescalation’ after Syria ‘misunderstanding’
Who are the Druze and why is Israel bombing Syria to protect them?
Clashes rage in Syrian city as Israel launches strike on Damascus
Crush at Gaza aid site kills at least 20, GHF blames armed agitators
Trump to meet Qatar’s PM as push for Gaza ceasefire deal continues
Jordan, Iraq and Egypt say Israeli strikes in Syria jeopardize regional stability
Starvation among kids in Gaza reaches record levels, humanitarian chiefs tell UN Security Council
US military says Yemeni force seized Iranian arms shipment bound for Houthis

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 16-17/2025
Trump Can Still Help Ukraine Declare Victory Over Russia/Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute./July 16, 2025
The Levant swings between dreams and deals/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-AwsatJuly 16, 2025
Travel restrictions highlight Palestinians’ conditional freedom/Daoud Kuttab/Arab News/July 16, 2025
Transactional diplomacy versus the international order/Dr. Zafiris Tzannatos/Arab News/July 16, 2025
Selected Tweets for 16 July/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 16-17/2025
The Nejmeh Square Theatrical Show: Directed by Abu Mustafa Berri, Starring 128 MP's Koumbars, and the Hypocrites of Sovereignty
Elias Bejjani/July 15/ 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145241/
What took place today in Nejmeh Square was not a parliamentary session. It was a farcical theatrical performance, produced and directed by the undisputed mastermind of the Lebanese system — Nabih Berri, nicknamed "the Esteez" and "Abu Mustafa" — who has effectively ruled Lebanon for four decades, manipulating its power structures, controlling its tempo as he pleases, invoking “dialogue” one day and “sectarian balance” the next, all under the banner of constitutional thuggery.
The current Lebanese Parliament is entirely illegitimate. It was born of an electoral law tailor-made by Hezbollah — imposed through force, fraud, intimidation, and political manipulation — to guarantee the party’s monopoly over Shiite representation and to tighten its grip on Lebanese decision-making.
This Frankenstein law meticulously distributed seats to the heads of political parties "commercial corporations," especially those fraudulently posing as "sovereign" and "independent." In truth, they are nothing more than Trojan dolls, stripped of dignity and free will.
These same actors are the ones who legitimized the absurd innovation of “six Diaspora MPs,” betraying the constitutional rights of the Lebanese Diaspora in pursuit of more seats, all while appeasing Hezbollah and aiding in the cosmetic polishing of the Iranian occupation’s image.
The chief among the “sovereign idols,” who received a hefty share of Christian MPs, disgracefully accepted Hezbollah’s condition of not supporting any free Shiite candidate. Until recently, he and his herd obediently repeated:
“Hezbollah liberated the South.”
“Our martyrs and Hezbollah’s martyrs are of equal status.”
“Hezbollah represents the honorable Shiite community.”
Meanwhile, his so-called pious advisor and media mouthpiece shamelessly begged Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. on television for an meeting with his master,
Another, younger and lesser “idol,” before “drinking the milk of lions,” dared criticize Hezbollah only after its Israeli defeat. For years, he and his secretary-general were regular guests in the southern suburbs, rejecting international resolutions and repeating that Hezbollah’s arms are “a local issue to be resolved internally.” They bartered their dignity through endless rounds of “dialogue” and “understandings” with Hezbollah — futile rituals that only served to re-legitimize the party of Satan and reinforce its stranglehold.
Then comes the dwarf idol, sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act for corruption, and his Trojan Father in-law — both of whom handed the country to Hezbollah in exchange for a phantom presidency. The General went so far as to belittle the Lebanese Army from inside the “Mleeta Hezbollah Museum” and to glorify Iran’s resistance and its Shiite proxy.
Let us not forget the parrot idol — blindly tethered to the “line” — who remains ignorant of Maronite history, clings to the Assad dynasty and Hezbollah, and continues to drown in the abyss of blind submission.
As for our ecclesiastical authorities... enough said. A pitiful mixture of ignorance, weakness, betrayal, and political Iscariotism — unbecoming of shepherds or apostles.
Amid all this moral decay, today’s theatrical show in Nejmeh Square unfolded under the supervision of Abu Mustafa — Esteez Berri — who directed and assigned roles to the 128 MP's Koumbars, all addicted to deception and submission.
Today’s parliamentary session was nothing more than another bland episode in a tired play, meant to rebrand the idols of political party companies, mislead public opinion, and distract the Lebanese — especially those fooled by hollow slogans of "sovereignty" and "independence."
But the bitter truth remains: Lebanon is still occupied, and this Parliament does not represent the will of the people — it represents the will of the Iranian occupier.
This Parliament, this political system, and these faces... do not represent the free people of Lebanon. They are their enemies.
The Lebanese people are hostages — subdued, betrayed — held captive by Hezbollah and the corrupt ruling class it protects and enables.
Yet our firm belief remains: the day will come when the masks fall, and the curtain rises on a new scene, one where governance truly serves the people — not the occupier and his servants.
To all free Lebanese,
To those who still believe that Lebanon deserves freedom, sovereignty, and dignity:
Enough illusions. Enough waiting for salvation from the same actors on the same broken stage.
There is no salvation except through the complete downfall of this regime — the regime of illegal arms, sectarian corruption, and shameful deals at the nation’s expense.
This confrontation is no longer a choice — it is a duty.
A duty for every free conscience.
A duty for everyone who refuses servitude to Hezbollah and its idols in party companies.
In the end, Lebanon is not represented by this parliament of extras.
It is represented by the martyrs, the heroes, the unknown guardians — and by every voice that dared to say “No” to the occupation, in public or in secret, in times of fear.
It is time for a genuine sovereign revolution, one that tears down the idols and rebuilds the national temple on the foundation of liberty — not submission — on the foundation of “Lebanon First,” not “Tehran First.”

Urgent Appeal for International Protection of the Druze in Syria’s Sweida Province
Elias Bejjani/July 14/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145187/
Alongside all those who believe in freedom and the fundamental rights of Middle Eastern peoples—particularly their right to live in peace and practice their religious beliefs freely without repression, terrorism, or extermination—we condemn, in the strongest terms and most resolute language, the systematic attacks and organized aggression being waged against the Druze community in the southern Syrian province of Sweida.
These attacks are being orchestrated by the so-called “Authority of Ahmad Al-Shara,” known as “Al-Jolani,” who stands at the head of an extremist religious regime no different in ideology or eliminationist practices from ISIS itself.
It is now evident that what Al-Shar’a’s regime presents in the media as a “local dispute” between the Druze of Sweida and neighboring Arab tribes is nothing more than a blatant cover for a bloody military campaign launched by the new Islamist regime to seize control of Jabal Al-Arab, disarm its people, crush their free will, and forcibly subject them to a takfiri rule that considers all who differ as “apostates” worthy of extermination.
The ongoing assaults on Sweida—using tanks, armed drones against civilians, road blockades, and mass killings—represent yet another chapter in a long series of bloody episodes. These include horrific massacres committed against Druze near Damascus just months ago, the bombing of Saint Elias Church in Damascus, the killing and wounding of dozens of worshipers, and a wave of systematic attacks on Alawites, Christians, and other religious minorities.
In essence, what is happening today in Sweida is a prelude to a major massacre, being carefully prepared under false “security” pretenses and with explicit foreign backing—primarily from Turkey, the foremost patron of the Muslim Brotherhood, and from Qatar, the principal financier of extremist takfiri ideologies.
Faced with this catastrophic reality, we must raise our voices loudly and urgently to demand the following:
*Immediate international protection for the Druze population in Sweida, through the deployment of international observers and the establishment of UN-supervised demilitarized zones to prevent any takfiri military intrusion into their territory.
*Official recognition that the “Shara regime” is a radical, extremist, takfiri Islamist authority, no less dangerous than the Taliban or ISIS. It adopts an ideology that targets all non-hardline Sunni communities—chief among them the Druze, whom it labels as apostates.
*Holding the international community—particularly the United States and the European Union—accountable for their suspicious silence and implicit support for this regime, under the pretext of “counterterrorism,” while the regime itself practices terrorism in its ugliest and most brutal forms against minorities.
*Issuing a moral and humanitarian appeal to the State of Israel, given its ethical and historical responsibility to protect Druze communities in the region and prevent genocide in Jabal Al-Arab. The Israeli Defense Forces have repeatedly shown that the security of Israel’s southern border includes the protection of threatened communities on the other side. Sweida must not be an exception.
*Calling on all moderate Arab nations—particularly Gulf states, which regrettably have supported the Shar’a regime—to intervene immediately, politically and humanely, to protect and save the Druze and other minorities from the jihadist killing machine now being driven by Al-Shar’a and his affiliates.
*It must be emphasized that the “Shara regime,” with all its local and foreign takfiri factions, bears full responsibility for the bloodshed inflicted upon Syrian Druze, Christian, and Alawite minorities since it took control of parts of Syria. For this reason, it must be internationally prosecuted as a terrorist authority committing religious cleansing and sectarian genocide.
We further stress that no matter how much cosmetic support or international and regional backing is given to the Shar’a regime, it does not—and will not—change the core truth of its takfiri, terrorist, and bloody nature.
In conclusion: There is an urgent need—both regionally and internationally—to protect the Druze of Sweida and to intervene through all available means to stop the massacre being carried out by the Shara regime. Silence in the face of this crime makes one a direct accomplice.

Youssef Salameh, Former Minister and Head of the Identity and Sovereignty Forum: What We Witnessed in the Syrian City of Sweida Is Alarming and Unacceptable — It Deepened Our Concern for the Future and Exposed Undeniable Facts
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145257/
July 16/2025
Former Minister Youssef Salameh, Head of the Identity and Sovereignty Forum, issued the following statement:
What we witnessed in the Syrian city of Sweida is both alarming and deeply condemnable. It has heightened our concern for the future and brought to light the following facts:
First: It has once again raised the issue of minorities in the Levant, who continue to fight an existential battle—both in times of war and peace—against all forms of extremism that reject the other and deny diversity.
Second: It evoked historical memory, particularly the suffering of the Armenian people, who were betrayed during the power struggles between global powers at the onset and aftermath of World War I.
Third: It marked the collapse of the concept of human rights—one of the United Nations’ most significant achievements—and with it, the post–World War II balance that granted independence to the so-called “Sykes-Picot” nations.
Fourth: It signaled the downfall of the doctrine of international guarantees and the emergence of a new world order defined by a unipolar system, which governs global affairs according to one principle only: “protecting the interest of the strongest.” This affirms a dangerous paradigm: that the criteria for resolving conflicts are measured by power and self-interest, not by truth or justice.
Fifth: It has ironically revived hope in secular dictatorships—when compared to religious terrorism. It has become clear that the terror inflicted by regimes and states, while oppressive, is often less devastating than that driven by fanatical ideologies. The game of nations is strange indeed. How right La Fontaine was when he wrote: “The reasoning of the strongest is always the best.”
Sixth: We call upon the United States, as the primary sponsor of global peace, to take decisive action to rein in religious extremism in all its forms. The U.S. itself was among the first to suffer the deadly consequences of such fanaticism.
In this context, we also warn against the policy of appeasement pursued by some influential powers, as such complicity will inevitably backfire—not only on them, but on all of humanity, everywhere and at all times.

US reportedly urges timetable and official Hezbollah declaration on arms
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
The U.S. response to the latest Lebanese paper requested some clarifications as to “timetables and the executive mechanisms” for resolving the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons, media reports said. Washington also asked for “a clear stance from Hezbollah that it agrees to this arms monopolization mechanism,” as it welcomed “a host of articles contained in the Lebanese response,” the reports said. Sources informed on the Lebanese response have told MTV that the Lebanese paper “included a comprehensive agreement that entire Lebanon will commit to, amid optimism that U.S. envoy Tom Barrack will carry a positive response from the Israeli side.”

Report: US response to Lebanon 'positive in form, strict in content'
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
The U.S. response to the Lebanese paper is “positive in form but strict in content” and the Americans want Lebanon to devise a timetable for removing illegal arms across the country, an official Lebanese source informed on the deliberations said.
“The deadline given to Lebanon expires at the end of the year at the latest, and Lebanon is supposed to complete to finalize the disarmament process and the extension of the Lebanese Army and security forces’ authority across Lebanon,” the source added, in remarks to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. “The U.S. side sympathizes with Lebanon’s sensitivities and the need for a domestic dialogue to resolve the crisis of Hezbollah’s arms, but it considers that the grace period given to the Lebanese government, which exceeds six months, is sufficient for accomplishing this mission,” the source said. Lebanon will meanwhile demand “clear U.S. guarantees” as to “compelling Israel to withdraw from the five points it occupied in south Lebanon during the latest war, the demarcation of the border with occupied Palestine, the release of the Lebanese captives, and devising a timetable for the reconstruction of destroyed areas,” the source added.Lebanon will also ask for “a halt to the territorial, naval and aerial attacks against Lebanon as well as the assassinations that target Lebanese citizens (Hezbollah fighters),” the source said.

Aoun and Salam condemn 'flagrant' Israeli strikes on Damascus
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
President Joseph Aoun on Wednesday strongly condemned the violent Israeli airstrikes on Damascus, calling them “a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of a brotherly Arab country, international law and the U.N. Charter.”“The continuation of these attacks subjects the region’s security and stability to further tensions and escalation,” Aoun warned, voicing Lebanon’s “full solidarity with the people and state of the Syrian Arab Republic.”He also urged the international community to “shoulders its responsibilities and press with all means and at all forums to halt the repeated attacks and respect the (Syrian) state’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” emphasizing “Lebanon’s keenness on Syria’s unity, civil peace, territorial integrity and all the components of its people.”Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also condemned the strikes on the Syrian capital, calling them a “flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and the simplest rules of international law.” “The approach of violation cannot be accepted, nor the approach of gunfire messages, and the international community must shoulder its responsibilities as to putting an end to these attacks,” Salam added.

Jumblat: Israel not protecting Druze in Sweida but using some of the 'weak-minded'
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
Lebanon’s Druze leader and former Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat told Syria’s state TV on Wednesday that “Israel is not protecting the Druze in (the unrest-hit Syrian city of Sweida), but is rather using some of the weak-minded to claim that it is protecting them.”“One of the reasons of the civil war in Lebanon that lasted 19 years was that Israel had claimed to be protecting some in Lebanon, and the issue led to the disasters of the war,” Jumblat added. Speaking to Al-Jadeed television later in the day, Jumblat said “the destruction of the Syrian defense ministry building” with six Israeli warplane missiles earlier on Wednesday “had nothing to do with protecting the Druze.”He also called on Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to organize an “inclusive national conference.”

Hezbollah calls Israel east Lebanon strike a 'major escalation'
Agence France Presse/July 17, 2025
Hezbollah condemned an Israeli air strike that killed 12 people in the Bekaa Valley on Tuesday, as a "major escalation". In a statement, the group said Israel's attack "constitutes a major escalation in the context of the ongoing aggression against Lebanon and its people". It called on Lebanese authorities to "take serious, immediate, and decisive action" to uphold a November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Report: US military team to visit Beirut to discuss 'new roadmap'
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
A U.S. military delegation will soon arrive in Beirut to meet with senior Lebanese Army officers and present “a new roadmap that is stricter in the implementation of Resolution 1701 and the ceasefire agreement south and north of the Litani,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday. The new roadmap will ask the army to “document all the stages of the dismantlement of military facilities and the handover of weapons, according to transparent standards that allow for inspection and international supervision,” the daily quoted informed sources as saying.
“Officers in the South Litani sector have refused a U.S.-Israeli request to blow up the resistance’s (Hezbollah’s) facilities and infrastructure instead of dismantling them and confiscating the weapons,” al-Akhbar added.

Barrack says ban of dealings with Al-Qard al-Hasan a 'valued' step
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has described the Lebanese Central Bank’s decision to bar banks and brokerages from dealing with the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Qard Al-Hasan financial institution as a “step in the right direct by the Lebanese government.”
“Transparency and alignment of all financial intermediaries in Lebanon under the supervision of the Central Bank is a valued and necessary accomplishment,” Barrack said in a post on the X platform. In a circular dated Monday, the Central Bank prohibited all licensed financial institutions in Lebanon from dealing directly or indirectly with unlicensed entities and listed Hezbollah's Al-Qard Al-Hassan as an example. The bank had issued similar circulars in the past but this is the first time that it mentions Al-Qard Al-Hassan by name. The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Al-Qard Al-Hasan in 2007, saying Hezbollah used it as a cover to manage "financial activities and gain access to the international financial system." Al-Qard Al-Hassan, founded in 1983, describes itself as a charitable organization that provides loans to people according to Islamic principles that forbid interest. Israel struck some of its branches during its war with Hezbollah last year. Operating as a not-for-profit organization under a licence granted by the Lebanese government, it has more than 30 branches, mostly in predominantly Shiite Muslim areas of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. A Lebanese official said the central bank move had been in the works for months, and reflected U.S. pressure on Lebanon to take action against Hezbollah's financial wing. Nassib Ghobril, chief economist at Byblos Bank, said Lebanese banks were already careful to avoid dealing with Al-Qard Al-Hasan because it is under U.S. sanctions.

Salam vows to continue working to extend state authority north and south of Litani
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
As lawmakers convened Wednesday for the second day in Parliament to debate the government's policies, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam vowed that the government will continue working on extending the state’s authority north and south of the Litani river."I have listened to the MPs' views and interventions, and I will take all criticisms seriously. We are determined to continue our work despite the difficulties and obstacles," Salam said, adding that the government is committed to pressure Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territories and stop its aggressions. Salam said the army has made significant progress in extending state sovereignty over territories south of the Litani River and that the government is determined to continue working to extend the state’s sovereignty over areas north of the Litani as well. During the plenary session Wednesday, Nawaf's government won a vote of confidence proposed by the Free Patriotic chief Jebran Bassil. 69 MPs gave a vote of confidence to the government, nine FPM MPs voted against it, and four MPs abstained.

Parliament renews confidence in Salam's goverment
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
The Lebanese government survived Wednesday a vote of confidence proposed by Free Patriotic chief Jebran Bassil during a plenary session in Parliament. Sixty-nine MPs gave a vote of confidence to the government, nine FPM MPs voted against it, and four MPs abstained. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam vowed during the session that the government will continue working to extend the state’s authority north and south of the Litani river and to pressure Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territories and stop its aggressions. The session was mainly focused on Hezbollah arms and Israeli violations. Many MPs on Tuesday and Wednesday called for Hezbollah's disarmament while Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi said "We all know that the army is not allowed to have defensive weapons to protect the country against the enemy."

MPs discuss Hezbollah arms, Israeli violations, and US intervention in plenary session
Naharnet/July 17, 2025
Lawmakers convened Wednesday for the second day in Parliament to debate the government's policies. During the session, MPs mainly discussed Hezbollah's arms and Israeli violations and renewed confidence in the Lebanese government. The no-confidence vote was proposed by Free Patriotic chief Jebran Bassil. Sixty-nine MPs gave a vote of confidence to the government, nine FPM MPs voted against it, and four MPs abstained. Many MPs on Tuesday and Wednesday called for Hezbollah's disarmament while Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi said "We all know that the army is not allowed to have defensive weapons to protect the country against the enemy."
Amal MP says gov. not doing enough to protect Lebanese -
Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan criticized the government for not doing enough to prevent the Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement reached in late November. "We haven't felt that the government is working responsibly and seriously to prevent the collapse of the ceasefire agreement," Khalil said, adding that "the open discussion about arms must continue, but responsibly" and that the government must also discuss the reconstruction of war-hit regions.
Khalil said in Hezbollah's defense that "the resistance was never an independent project but rather a reaction that emerged when the national defense system failed to protect sovereignty, especially in the south."
Hezbollah disarmament -
Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan criticized Tuesday the government's lack of progress in restoring the state's authority and disarming Hezbollah, while Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Jebran Bassil said he supports Hezbollah's disarmament but not by force. MP Fouad Makhzoumi called for Hezbollah's disarmament and proposed to discuss it in a cabinet session and independent MP Neemat Frem said Hezbollah's arms must not be destroyed or given to Israel, but handed over to the Lebanese army.
US intervention
Hajj Hassan for his part accused the U.S. of intervening in Lebanese affairs. He said that some Lebanese parties are serving the American and Israeli narratives and failing to see the Israeli threats. MP Oussama Saad also said the American mediators are biased to Israel and pressuring Lebanon. "We will not argue about the handover of weapons to the state," but "the Israeli occupation cannot be ignored."
On Tuesday, MP Jamil al-Sayyed criticized U.S. envoys Amos Hochstein, Morgan Ortagus, and Tom Barrack, who he said "threatened Lebanon with civil war". "It's as if we've become an experimental field for these envoys."
No foreign dictations -
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denied any foreign dictations and vowed to continue working on extending the state’s authority north and south of the Litani river and to pressure Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territories and stop its aggressions.

Starvation among kids in Gaza reaches record levels, humanitarian chiefs tell UN Security Council
Arab News/July 17, 2025
NEW YORK: Children in Gaza are suffering from the worst starvation rates since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, aid officials told the UN Security Council on Wednesday, in a devastating assessment of the conditions young Palestinians in the territory face as they try to survive.
“Starvation rates among children hit their highest levels in June, with over 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished,” said the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher. Israel imposed an 11-week blockade on humanitarian aid earlier this year, and has only allowed a trickle of relief supplies to enter the territory since the end of May. The effects on the health of children have been catastrophic, according to the details presented to members of the Security Council. Levels of acute malnutrition have nearly tripled since February, just before the total blockade on aid was imposed.
“Children in Gaza are enduring catastrophic living conditions, including severe food insecurity and malnutrition,” UNICEF’s executive director, Catherine Russell, told the council. “These severely malnourished children need consistent, supervised treatment, along with safe water and medical care, to survive.”
Yet youngsters in the territory are being killed and maimed as they queue for lifesaving food and medicine, she added. Last week, nine children were among 15 Palestinians killed by an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah while they waited in line for nutritional supplies from UNICEF. “Among the survivors was Donia, a mother seeking a lifeline for her family after months of desperation and hunger,” Russell said.
“Donia’s 1-year-old son, Mohammed, was killed in the attack after speaking his first words just hours earlier. When we spoke with Donia, she was lying critically injured in a hospital bed, clutching Mohammed’s tiny shoe.”
Russell painted a bleak picture of desperation for the 1 million Palestinian children in the territory, where more than 58,000 people have been killed during the 21 months of war. Among the dead are 17,000 children — an average of 28 each day, the equivalent of “a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years,” Russell said. Youngsters also struggle to find clean water supplies, she added, and are therefore forced to drink contaminated water, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks; waterborne diseases now represent 44 per cent of all healthcare consultations. “Thousands of children urgently need emergency medical support,” Russell said, and many of those suffering from traumatic injuries or severe preexisting medical conditions are at risk of death because medical care is unavailable. She repeated calls from other UN officials for Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza “at sufficient speed and scale to meet the urgent needs of children and families.” A new aid-distribution system, introduced and run by Israel and the US, has sidelined traditional UN delivery mechanisms and restricted the flow of humanitarian supplies to a fraction of what was previously available. Since the new system, run by the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, hundreds of people, including children, have been shot dead as they gathered to collect aid. Russell urged the Security Council to push for a return to UN aid-delivery systems so that essentials such as medicine, vaccines, water, food, and nutrition for babies can reach those in need. Fletcher, the humanitarian chief, told the council that the shattered healthcare system in Gaza meant that in some hospitals, five babies share a single incubator and pregnant women give birth without any medical care.
He said the International Court of Justice has demanded that Israel “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance,” and added: “Intentionally using the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare would, of course, be a war crime.”
During the meeting, Israel faced strong criticism from permanent Security Council members France and the UK. The British ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, described the shooting of Palestinians as they attempted to reach food-distribution sites as “abhorrent.”She called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and said the UK “strongly opposes” the expansion of Israeli military operations.
French envoy Jerome Bonnafont said Israel must end its blockade of humanitarian aid, and denounced the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation system as “unacceptable and incompatible” with the requirements of international law.
He said an international conference due to take place on July 28 and 29 at the UN headquarters in New York, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, would offer a “pathway toward the future” and identify tangible ways in which a two-state solution might be reached to end the wider conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Dorothy Shea, the ambassador to the UN from Israel’s main international ally, the US, said the blame for the situation in Gaza lay with Hamas, which continues to hold hostages taken during the attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the conflict in Gaza.

Hezbollah now a militia without a project
Nadim Koteich/Arab News/July 16, 2025
It must have been difficult for Hezbollah to watch the public ceremony last week in which PKK fighters burned their rifles with their own hands. The scene symbolized the termination of a long armed struggle in the region, quietly introducing a new era that compels reassessments of the goals and functions of armed nonstate actors. The group’s decision was neither the result of political coercion nor the culmination of a decisive military victory. Rather, it reflected a profound intellectual shift; the PKK has concluded that the age of militancy, whether nationalist or religious, is drawing to a close, demanding a shift in vision, ambition and stance. In Iraq, despite the fragility of its political equilibrium, the government managed to uphold and safeguard its neutrality during last month’s Iran-Israel clashes. More importantly, it reaffirmed that it will not allow nonstate actors to maintain arms, resisting both the pressures of the so-called axis of resistance and the allure of the moment. In Baghdad, the call to unify the country’s military forces is growing louder, mirroring a growing national conviction that the authority of the state must take precedence over the power of militias.
In Gaza, the war will end in a political and military defeat that effectively leaves no place for Hamas in the “day-after” deliberations on reconstruction and the Strip’s political future. The movement has lost control of large parts of the Gaza Strip and found itself exposed before its enemies and, more significantly, before its own people. The neutralization of its arms has become irreversible — a demand shared by all the key stakeholders. Against the backdrop of this regional transition to a post-chaos era, Hezbollah is sticking to an obsolete discourse. It watches on as organizations that had once resembled it collapse. It feels the ground shaking beneath its feet. Yet, it has failed to build a new narrative that legitimizes maintaining the terms to which it had grown accustomed. Against the backdrop of a regional transition to a post-chaos era, Hezbollah is sticking to an obsolete discourse
The party’s emphatic defeat in its 2024 war with Israel did not compel a strategic reassessment. Instead, Hezbollah hardened its resistance rhetoric and sacralization of its arms. Rather than a political dispute, the matter has been sanctified and presented as untouchable.
Hezbollah’s weapons are no longer framed as mere instruments of resistance. In the party’s discourse, they have been rendered an extension of a creed. They are justified by a divine mandate — a necessary component of a distinct identity. This discursive shift is deliberate: it seeks to create a bulwark against critique, oversight and political compromise by elevating the question into a metaphysical and existential matter. However, Hezbollah has not hardened its ideology from a position of confidence, but because of its apprehensions about the shifting regional landscape. Support for the party has diminished, Iran’s backing is increasingly constrained by shifting priorities and Syria is taking steps toward sweeping settlements, including with Israel — settlements that will probably engender arrangements that blindside Hezbollah and make militant ideological ventures untenable.
This change in rhetoric also coincides with credible reports of significant internal divisions within Hezbollah amid an ongoing internal reassessment of its role, function, operational capacity and the mounting costs of its entanglement in Iran’s military project. Meanwhile, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam continue to take crucial steps, though there is more to be done, to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Most notably, they have dismantled hundreds of Hezbollah positions south of the Litani River following the ceasefire that the party had been compelled to accept. The group’s dominance is increasingly intolerable regionally, internationally and even domestically
That is not to say that state sovereignty has been restored. However, it does signal a crucial development: Hezbollah’s exceptionalism is now exposed and its dominance is increasingly intolerable regionally, internationally and even domestically. Waning popular support in its own community and across Lebanese society, which has grown weary after two decades of bearing the social and economic costs of its wars, compounds its difficulties. Moreover, backed by the US and Europe, Israel is not deterred by Hezbollah. Rather, it is now seen as a legitimate target for preemptive strikes, as shown by Israel’s ongoing raids and assassinations.Where, then, is Hezbollah taking Lebanon? Can it continue to rely on a disintegrating regional axis to durably legitimize an arsenal that has no support, even among some of the party’s closest allies? Can a supernatural discourse mask its glaring decline? Does Hezbollah have the political maturity and autonomy needed to begin disentangling itself from a transnational revolutionary creed to build a national political project? There is no indication that the party has clear answers to these questions. What is certain, however, is that Lebanon cannot afford to wait.
More than ever, Hezbollah’s weapons now constitute an existential threat to the Lebanese state. This assessment was voiced by US envoy Tom Barrack and is now an almost visceral conclusion that the majority of Lebanese citizens share. More critical than the threat it poses to Lebanon as a political entity are the potential ramifications for Hezbollah’s own community. Maintaining arms outside the state’s control risks plunging the party’s constituency into a perpetual confrontation with the rest of the country, foreclosing any chance of a stable national partnership.
If the weapons are not addressed today, the costs may be greater than another war with Israel. Such failure could lead to domestic disintegration, which would rip the Shiite community apart before engulfing the rest of Lebanon.
*Nadim Koteich is the General Manager of Sky News Arabia. X: @NadimKoteich

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 16-17/2025
Syrian government and Druze minority leaders announce a new ceasefire as Israel continues strikes
ABDELRAHMAN SHAHEEN and KAREEM CHEHAYEB/AP/Wed, July 16, 2025
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel.
Convoys of government forces began withdrawing from the city of Sweida, but it was not immediately clear if the agreement, announced by Syria's Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader, would hold. A previous ceasefire announced Tuesday quickly fell apart, and a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, disavowed the new agreement.
Israeli strikes continued after the ceasefire announcement.
Rare Israeli airstrikes in the heart of Damascus
The announcement came after Israel launched rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, an escalation in a campaign that it said was intended to defend the Druze and push Islamic militants away from its border. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military. The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, but also in some cases attacked civilians.The violence appeared to be the most serious threat yet to efforts by Syria’s new rulers to consolidate control of the country after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted longtime despotic leader Bashar Assad in December, ending a nearly 14-year civil war. The new, primarily Sunni Muslim, authorities have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities, especially after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed. No official casualty figures have been released for the latest fighting since Monday, when the Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces.
Israel threatens further escalation
Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys heading into Sweida, and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters next to a busy square in Damascus that became a gathering point after Assad's fall. That strike killed three people and injured 34, Syrian officials said. Another Israeli strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the initial Damascus airstrike in a post on X that the “painful blows have begun.”Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders, saying it doesn’t want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Kats said in a statement that the Israeli army “will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area — and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood.”An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the army was preparing for a “multitude of scenarios" and that a brigade, normally comprising thousands of soldiers, was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights. Syria’s Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating the ceasefire agreement reached Tuesday. Druze fear for the lives of relatives in Sweida
Reports of attacks on civilians continued to surface, and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate amid communication blackouts. In Jaramana near the Syrian capital, Evelyn Azzam, 20, said she feared that her husband, Robert Kiwan, 23, was dead. The newlyweds live in the Damascus suburb, but Kiwan would commute to Sweida for work and got trapped there when the clashes erupted. Azzam said she was on the phone with Kiwan when security forces questioned him and a colleague about whether they were affiliated with Druze militias. When her husband's colleague raised his voice, she heard a gunshot. Kiwan was then shot while trying to appeal. “They shot my husband in the hip, from what I could gather,” she said, struggling to hold back tears. “The ambulance took him to the hospital. Since then, we have no idea what has happened.”
A Syrian Druze from Sweida living in the United Arab Emirates said her mother, father and sister were hiding in a basement in their home near the hospital, where they could hear the sound of shelling and bullets outside. She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her family might be targeted. She had struggled to reach them, but when she did, she said, “I heard them cry. I have never heard them this way before."Another Druze woman living in the UAE with family members in Sweida, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a cousin told her that a house where their relatives lived had been burned down with everyone inside it. It reminded her of when the Islamic State extremist group attacked Sweida in 2018, she said. Her uncle was among many civilians there who had taken up arms to fight back while Assad’s forces stood aside. He was killed in the fighting.
“It’s the same right now," she told The Associated Press. The Druze fighters, she said, are “just people who are protecting their province and their families.”The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas
Videos surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze sheikhs and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. Other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their bodies. AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses. The observatory said at least 27 people were killed in “field executions.”Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a statement Wednesday condemning the violations and vowing that perpetrators would be punished. “These criminal and illegal actions cannot be accepted under any circumstances, and completely contradicts the principles that the Syrian state is built on,” the statement read. Druze in the Golan gathered along the border fence to protest the violence against Druze in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington is “very concerned” about the Israel-Syria violence, which he attributed to a “misunderstanding,” and has been in touch with both sides in an effort to restore calm.

Israel bombs Syria army HQ and area near presidential palace in major escalation
Associated Press/July 16, 2025
The Israeli military launched Wednesday rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, hitting the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters as clashes in the southern Syrian city of Sweida continued to flare. Israel's attack came hours after a drone strike on the same building. Syrian state media reported at least one dead and 18 other people wounded. Another strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside of Damascus. As clashes have raged for days in the southern Syrian city of Sweida between government forces and Druze armed groups, Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys, which it says are in support of the religious minority group, and has vowed to escalate its involvement. The escalating violence appears to be the most serious threat yet to the ability of Syria's new rulers to consolidate control of the country after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted longtime despotic leader, Bashar Assad, in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the airstrike in a post on X that the "painful blows have begun." An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the army was preparing for a "multitude of scenarios" and that a brigade, normally comprising thousands of soldiers, was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights. Syria's Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire. It said they were "adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes."Meanwhile, reports of attacks on civilians continued to surface, and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate amid communication blackouts.The primarily Sunni Muslim leaders have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities, whose fears increased after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed.
- Druze fear for the lives of their relatives in Sweida -
In Jaramana near the Syrian capital, Evelyn Azzam, 20, said she fears that her husband, Robert Kiwan, 23, is dead. The newlyweds live in the Damascus suburb, but Kiwan would commute to Sweida for work each morning and got trapped there when the clashes erupted. Azzam said she was on the phone with Kiwan when security forces questioned him and a colleague about whether they were affiliated with Druze militias. When her husband's colleague raised his voice, she heard a gunshot. Kiwan was then shot while trying to appeal. "They shot my husband in the hip from what I could gather," she said, struggling to hold back tears. "The ambulance took him to the hospital. Since then, we have no idea what has happened." A Syrian Druze from Sweida living in the United Arab Emirates said her mother, father, and sister were hiding in a basement in their home near the hospital, where they could hear the sound of shelling and bullets from outside. She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her family might be targeted.
She had struggled to get hold of them, but when she reached them, she said, "I heard them cry. I have never heard them this way before."Another Druze woman living in the UAE with family members in Sweida, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a cousin told her that a house where their relatives lived had been burned down with everyone inside it. It reminded her of when the Islamic State extremist group attacked Sweida in 2018, she said. Her uncle was among many civilians there who took arms to fight back while Assad's forces stood aside. He was killed in the fighting.
"It's the same right now," she told The Associated Press. The Druze fighters, she said, are "just people who are protecting their province and their families."The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas
The latest escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province. Government forces that intervened to restore order then clashed with the Druze.Videos surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze sheikhs, and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. Other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their dead bodies. AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses. No official casualty figures have been released since Monday, when the Syrian Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 250 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces. The observatory said at least 21 people were killed in "field executions."Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a statement Wednesday condemning the violations. "These criminal and illegal actions cannot be accepted under any circumstances, and completely contradicts the principles that the Syrian state is built on," the statement read, vowing that perpetrators, "whether from individuals or organizations outside of the law, will be held accountable legally, and we will never allow this to happen without punishment."Druze in the Golan gathered along the border fence to protest the violence against Druze in Syria.
- Israel threatens to scale up its intervention -
In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the military. In Syria, the Druze have been divided over how to deal with the country's new leaders, with some advocating for integrating into the new system while others remained suspicious and pushed for an autonomous Druze region. On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the Israeli army "will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area — and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood."Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday night that Israel has "a commitment to preserve the southwestern region of Syria as a demilitarized area on Israel's border" and has "an obligation to safeguard the Druze locals."Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria's new leaders since Assad's fall, saying it doesn't want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.

US hopeful of quick ‘deescalation’ after Syria ‘misunderstanding’
AFP/July 16, 2025
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington hoped within hours to ease tensions in Syria, as he voiced concern over violence that has included Israeli strikes on its war-torn neighbor. “In the next few hours, we hope to see some real progress to end what you’ve been seeing over the last couple of hours,” Rubio told reporters in the Oval Office as President Donald Trump nodded. Rubio blamed “historic longtime rivalries” for the clashes in the majority-Druze city of Sweida, which Israel has cited for its latest military intervention.“It led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side,” Rubio said of the situation which has included Israel bombing the Syrian army’s headquarters in Damascus. “We’ve been engaged with them all morning long and all night long — with both sides — and we think we’re on our way toward a real deescalation and then hopefully get back on track and helping Syria build the country and arriving at a situation in the Middle East that is far more stable,” said Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said that the United States was asking Syrian government forces to pull out of the flashpoint area. “We are calling on the Syrian government to, in fact, withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate and find a path forward,” she told reporters, without specifying the exact area. She declined comment on whether the United States wanted Israel to stop its strikes. Rubio, asked by a reporter earlier in the day at the State Department what he thought of Israel’s bombing, said, “We’re very concerned about it. We want it to stop.”“We are very worried about the violence in southern Syria. It is a direct threat to efforts to help build a peaceful and stable Syria,” Rubio said in a statement. “We have been and remain in repeated and constant talks with the governments of Syria and Israel on this matter.”Trump has been prioritizing diplomacy with Syria’s new leadership.

Who are the Druze and why is Israel bombing Syria to protect them?
Mostafa Salem, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Hira Humayun, CNN/July 16, 2025
Syria has been wracked by a new wave of deadly sectarian violence that has placed the spotlight on the Druze minority at the center of rising tensions with Israel. Dozens of people were killed this week after clashes between government loyalists and Druze militias in the southern city of Suwayda, prompting Syrian forces to intervene. That, in turn, triggered renewed Israeli airstrikes, as Israel – citing a commitment to protect the Druze – expands its footprint in southern Syria.
Here’s what to know.
What happened this week?
Syria’s military entered Suwayda, a stronghold for the Druze community in the country’s south, on Tuesday after clashes broke out over the weekend between Druze forces and Bedouin tribes, reigniting fears of attacks against minorities. The clashes left at least 30 people dead and injured dozens more as of Tuesday. Islamist forces allied with the Syrian government joined the fight this week, heightening concern among the Druze and prompting a key community figure to call for international protection. Israel, which has vowed to protect the Druze in Syria, launched fresh strikes against Syrian government forces advancing towards Suwayda, and pledged to continue strikes to protect the group. The Syrian foreign ministry said several civilians and security force members were killed in the strikes, but did not provide specific figures. The ministry called the Israeli attacks “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic.” CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment regarding civilian deaths. Tom Barrack, the US envoy for Syria called the clashes “worrisome on all sides, and we are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian government and Israeli forces,.”Meanwhile, Axios reporter and CNN analyst Barak Ravid said on X that the Trump administration has asked Israel to stop its strikes on Syrian forces in the south of the country, citing a US official he didn’t identify. The official said Israel promised that it would cease the attacks on Tuesday evening, he said. But on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military will intensify its attacks on government forces in Suwayda if they do not withdraw from the area.“The Syrian regime must let the Druze in Suwayda go and withdraw its forces,” Katz said in a statement shared by his spokesperson. “The (Israel Defense Forces) will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area – and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood.”Later on Wednesday, Israel escalated its attacks, launching a wave of strikes targeting a Ministry of Defense building and an area near the presidential palace in Damascus.
Who are the Druze?
The Druze are an Arab sect of roughly one million people who primarily live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. In southern Syria, where the Druze form a majority in the Suwayda province, the community was at times caught between the forces of the former Assad regime and extremist groups during Syria’s ten-year civil war. Originating in Egypt in the 11th century, the group practices an offshoot of Islam which permits no converts – either to or from the religion – and no intermarriage. In Syria, the Druze community is concentrated around three main provinces close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in the south of the country.More than 20,000 Druze live in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967, before formally annexing it in 1981. Druze share the territory with around 25,000 Jewish settlers, spread across more than 30 settlements. Most of the Druze living in the Golan identify as Syrian and rejected an offer of Israeli citizenship when Israel seized the region. Those who refused were given Israeli residency cards but are not considered Israeli citizens. Hundreds of people from the Druze minority crossed over from the Golan Heights into Syria, the Israeli military said on Wednesday, apparently responding to pleas from Druze leaders to support their community.
Why are Syrian forces clashing with them?
After overthrowing longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa pledged inclusion and vowed to protect all of Syria’s diverse communities, but Sunni extremist forces loyal to him have continued to violently confront religious minorities. In March, hundreds of people were killed during a crackdown on the Alawite sect – to which Assad belonged – in the western city of Latakia, and in April, clashes between pro-government armed forces and Druze militias left at least 100 people dead. A key issue straining relations between Syria’s new government and the Druze is disarmament of Druze militias and integration. Al-Sharaa, seeking to consolidate armed factions under a unified military, has been unable to secure agreements with the Druze, who firmly insist on retaining their weapons and independent militias. The Druze, some of whom opposed the authoritarian rule of Bashar al-Assad, remain cautious of al-Sharaa, an Islamist leader with a jihadist history. They have expressed concerns over the exclusion of some of their leaders from al-Sharaa’s national dialogue processes and limited representation in the new government, which includes only one Druze minister. Later in the day, the Syrian government claimed a new ceasefire agreement was reached after a previous truce broke down within hours. They said that under the truce there will be a complete halt to military operations, a monitoring committee will be formed with the Druze leaders and members of the community will be leading security in the province. It remains to be seen if the new agreement will hold, or even come into force.A Druze spiritual leader representing one of the factions in Suwayda, Youssef Jarbou, confirmed an agreement was reached, but Hikmat Al Hijri – another prominent Druze figure – rejected the ceasefire, calling on his supporters to continue fighting.
Why did Israel intervene?
On Tuesday, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is “committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherly alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel, and their familial and historical ties to the Druze in Syria.”Some 130,000 Israeli Druze live in the Carmel and Galilee in Israel’s north. In contrast to other minority communities within Israel’s borders, Druze men over 18 have been conscripted to the Israeli military since 1957 and often rise to positions of high rank, while many build careers in the police and security forces. The Israeli government had also unilaterally declared a demilitarization zone in Syria that “prohibits the introduction of forces and weapons into southern Syria,” according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office. The Syrian government has rejected Israel’s declaration of a demilitarized zone and has, along with the international community, repeatedly called on Israel to cease military actions that violate its sovereignty. Earlier on Tuesday, Al-Hijri called for international protection from “all countries” to “confront the barbaric campaign” by government and allied forces “using all means possible.”
“We are facing a complete war of extermination,” Al-Hijri said in a video statement.
A statement issued by other Druze leaders however welcomed the Syrian government intervention in Suwayda and called on the state to assert its authority. It also called for armed groups in the city to hand over weapons to government forces and for a dialogue to begin with Damascus. Could Israel strike a deal with a country it keeps bombing? Since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Israel has both seized more territory in Syria and repeatedly launched strikes on the country, with the stated aim of preventing the reconstruction of military capabilities and rooting out militancy that could threaten its security.
The Israeli attacks have continued despite its closest ally, the United States, pushing for Israel to normalize relations with Syria now that it is under the control of a new government. The US has been trying to steer countries in the region towards a different path and envisions Syria signing onto the Abraham Accords – a series of agreements normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab countries. A senior administration official told CNN last month that it is “to Syria’s benefit to lean towards Israel.” In May, US President Donald Trump held a meeting with Sharaa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was the first high-level US-Syria meeting for decades.
Trump announced the lifting of US sanctions against Syria just before the meeting, a move celebrated in Syria and seen as a step towards reintegrating the country into the international community. Israel has indicated its inclination to expand those agreements. After its deadly conflict with Iran, Netanyahu said the Israeli “victory” paved a way for the “dramatic expansion of the peace agreements” adding that Israel is “working on this vigorously.”Israel has held direct and indirect talks with the new Syrian government, an indication of shifting dynamics between the former foes since the fall of the Assad regime. But Israel’s repeated attacks on Syrian territory and its expanded military presence in the country have the potential to complicate those ambitions. In May, al-Sharaa said the indirect talks with Israel were meant to bring an end to the attacks. But that hasn’t happened. Netanyahu has previously referred to the new Damascus government as an “extremist Islamic regime” and a threat to the state of Israel. In May, an Israeli official told CNN that the prime minister had asked Trump not to remove sanctions on Syria, saying he feared it would lead to a repeat of the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel.
Israel’s strikes on Syria also complicate al-Sharaa’s efforts to consolidate authority over the country and promote a potential normalization deal as a victory for Syria’s sovereignty and its people.

Clashes rage in Syrian city as Israel launches strike on Damascus
Associated Press Reporters/July 16, 2025
Clashes have raged in the Syrian city of Sweida after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed and as Israel threatened to escalate its involvement. The Israeli army said that it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defence in Damascus.
Israel has launched a series of air strikes on convoys of government forces in southern Syria since the clashes erupted and has beefed up forces on the border, saying that it is acting to protect the Druze religious minority. Syria’s Defence Ministry had earlier blamed militias in Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached on Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire and continue military operations in the Druze-majority province. “Military forces continue to respond to the source of fire inside the city of Sweida, while adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes,” the statement said.
Syria Clashes
A rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted Syria’s long-time despotic leader Bashar Assad in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. Since then, the country’s new rulers have struggled to consolidate control over the territory. The primarily Sunni Muslim leaders have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities. The fears of minorities increased after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiralled into sectarian revenge attacks in which hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed. The latest escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province. Government forces that intervened to restore order have also clashed with the Druze while reports have surfaced of members of the security forces carrying out extra-judicial killings, looting and burning civilian homes. No official casualty figures have been released since Monday, when the Syrian Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The UK-based war monitor, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than 250 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces. The observatory said at least 21 people were killed in “field executions”. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly one million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed in 1981.In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the military.In Syria, the Druze have been divided over how to deal with the country’s new leaders, with some advocating for integrating into the new system while others have remained suspicious of the authorities in Damascus and pushed for an autonomous Druze region. On Wednesday, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the Israeli army “will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area — and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood”.

Crush at Gaza aid site kills at least 20, GHF blames armed agitators
Nidal al-Mughrabi and Crispian Balmer/Reuters/July 16, 2025
CAIRO/JERUSALEM -At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in what the U.S.-backed group said was a crowd surge instigated by armed agitators. The GHF, which is supported by Israel, said 19 people were trampled and one fatally stabbed during the crush at one of its centres in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd – armed and affiliated with Hamas – deliberately fomented the unrest," GHF said in a statement. Hamas rejected the GHF allegation as "false and misleading", saying GHF guards and Israeli soldiers sprayed people with pepper gas and opened fire.
GHF said Hamas' account was "blatantly false".
"At no point was tear gas deployed, nor were shots fired into the crowd. Limited use of pepper spray was deployed, only to safeguard additional loss of life," GHF said in a written response to Reuters via e-mail. "Today’s incident is part of a larger pattern of Hamas trying to undermine and ultimately end GHF. It is no coincidence that this incident occurred during ceasefire negotiations, where Hamas continues to demand that GHF cease operations." Witnesses told Reuters that guards at the site sprayed pepper gas at them after they had locked the gates to the centre, trapping them between the gates and the outer wire-fence. “People kept gathering and pressuring each other; when people pushed each other...those who couldn’t stand fell under the people and were crushed," said eyewitness Mahmoud Fojo, 21, who was hurt in the stampede. "Some people started jumping over the netted fence and got wounded. We were injured, and God saved us. We were under the people and we said the Shahada (death prayers). We thought we were dying, finished," he added. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on Hamas and eyewitness accounts. Palestinian health officials told Reuters that 21 people had died of suffocation at the site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed. On Tuesday, the U.N. rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points. Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military. The military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed near aid distribution centres, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with "lessons learned". The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation. The U.N. has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards - an allegation GHF has denied. Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, accused the GHF on Wednesday of gross mismanagement."People who flock in their thousands (to GHF sites) are hungry and exhausted, and they get squeezed into narrow places, amid shortages of aid and the absence of organization and discipline by the GHF," he told Reuters. The war in Gaza, triggered in October 2023 by a deadly Hamas attack on Israel, has displaced almost all of the territory's population and led to widespread hunger and privation.
ISRAELI ARMY ROAD
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had finished paving a new road in southern Gaza separating several towns east of Khan Younis from the rest of the territory in an effort to disrupt Hamas operations. Palestinians see the road, which extends Israeli control, as a way to put pressure on Hamas in ongoing ceasefire talks, which started on July 6 and are being brokered by Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar with the backing of the United States. Palestinian sources close to the negotiations said a breakthrough had not yet been reached on any of the main issues.
Hamas said it rejected an Israeli demand to keep at least 40% of Gaza under its control as part of any deal. Hamas also demanded the dismantlement of the GHF and the reinstatement of a U.N.-led aid delivery mechanism.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas is disarmed and removed from Gaza. Gaza local health authorities said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 87 people across the enclave in the past 24 hours.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, by Israeli tallies.

Trump to meet Qatar’s PM as push for Gaza ceasefire deal continues
Reuters/July 16, 2025
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will meet with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Wednesday, the White House said, as Trump presses for progress on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal. Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since July 6, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza, and discussions on ending the conflict. Trump will host the Qatari leader for dinner at the White House on Wednesday evening, the White House said in a daily schedule for the president. Trump on Sunday said he hoped talks for a ceasefire deal would be “straightened out” this week. Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had said on Sunday he was “hopeful” about the ceasefire negotiations under way in Qatar, a key mediator between the two sides. US, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators have been working to secure an agreement; however, Israel and Hamas are divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel. Israel says Hamas killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed over 58,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population, and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations. A previous two-month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Trump this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN, and Palestinians as a proposal of “ethnic cleansing.”Trump and Sheikh Mohammed are also expected to discuss efforts to resume talks between the US and Iran to reach a new nuclear agreement.

Jordan, Iraq and Egypt say Israeli strikes in Syria jeopardize regional stability
Arab News/July 16, 2025
LONDON: Jordan, Iraq and Egypt condemned the Israeli strikes that targeted Syria this week, stating that these actions are a blatant violation of sovereignty and international law. Israel struck Syrian forces and military vehicles as they approached the southern city of Sweida on Tuesday to restore stability after deadly clashes erupted in the region between the Druze sect and Bedouin tribes this week. On Wednesday, Israel struck the Syrian government’s military headquarters in the capital, Damascus, as the Israeli prime minister and minister of defense said they were intervening to “protect” the Druze, who mainly live in Suweida. The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs condemned Israel’s airstrikes, saying that they represent a dangerous escalation that jeopardizes Syria’s stability and security. Foreign Ministry spokesman Sufyan Qudah urged an immediate halt to the Israeli attacks, stressing the necessity of upholding Syria’s sovereignty and saying that Syria’s security is vital for regional stability. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemns the repeated military interventions carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities, which represent a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty, and a threat to the stability of the region.”Egypt also condemned the Israeli strikes in Syria and Lebanon, stating that such violations will heighten tensions and contribute to instability in the region. On Tuesday, Israel conducted strikes in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon’s eastern region, resulting in the deaths of 12 people, according to Lebanese authorities. The Israeli military said that the attacks targeted the militant group Hezbollah.

Starvation among kids in Gaza reaches record levels, humanitarian chiefs tell UN Security Council
Arab News/July 17, 2025
NEW YORK: Children in Gaza are suffering from the worst starvation rates since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, aid officials told the UN Security Council on Wednesday, in a devastating assessment of the conditions young Palestinians in the territory face as they try to survive.
“Starvation rates among children hit their highest levels in June, with over 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished,” said the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher. Israel imposed an 11-week blockade on humanitarian aid earlier this year, and has only allowed a trickle of relief supplies to enter the territory since the end of May. The effects on the health of children have been catastrophic, according to the details presented to members of the Security Council. Levels of acute malnutrition have nearly tripled since February, just before the total blockade on aid was imposed. “Children in Gaza are enduring catastrophic living conditions, including severe food insecurity and malnutrition,” UNICEF’s executive director, Catherine Russell, told the council. “These severely malnourished children need consistent, supervised treatment, along with safe water and medical care, to survive.” Yet youngsters in the territory are being killed and maimed as they queue for lifesaving food and medicine, she added. Last week, nine children were among 15 Palestinians killed by an Israeli strike in Deir Al-Balah while they waited in line for nutritional supplies from UNICEF. “Among the survivors was Donia, a mother seeking a lifeline for her family after months of desperation and hunger,” Russell said.
“Donia’s 1-year-old son, Mohammed, was killed in the attack after speaking his first words just hours earlier. When we spoke with Donia, she was lying critically injured in a hospital bed, clutching Mohammed’s tiny shoe.”Russell painted a bleak picture of desperation for the 1 million Palestinian children in the territory, where more than 58,000 people have been killed during the 21 months of war. Among the dead are 17,000 children — an average of 28 each day, the equivalent of “a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years,” Russell said. Youngsters also struggle to find clean water supplies, she added, and are therefore forced to drink contaminated water, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks; waterborne diseases now represent 44 per cent of all healthcare consultations. “Thousands of children urgently need emergency medical support,” Russell said, and many of those suffering from traumatic injuries or severe preexisting medical conditions are at risk of death because medical care is unavailable. She repeated calls from other UN officials for Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza “at sufficient speed and scale to meet the urgent needs of children and families.”
A new aid-distribution system, introduced and run by Israel and the US, has sidelined traditional UN delivery mechanisms and restricted the flow of humanitarian supplies to a fraction of what was previously available. Since the new system, run by the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, hundreds of people, including children, have been shot dead as they gathered to collect aid. Russell urged the Security Council to push for a return to UN aid-delivery systems so that essentials such as medicine, vaccines, water, food, and nutrition for babies can reach those in need.
Fletcher, the humanitarian chief, told the council that the shattered healthcare system in Gaza meant that in some hospitals, five babies share a single incubator and pregnant women give birth without any medical care. He said the International Court of Justice has demanded that Israel “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance,” and added: “Intentionally using the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare would, of course, be a war crime.”During the meeting, Israel faced strong criticism from permanent Security Council members France and the UK. The British ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, described the shooting of Palestinians as they attempted to reach food-distribution sites as “abhorrent.”She called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and said the UK “strongly opposes” the expansion of Israeli military operations.
French envoy Jerome Bonnafont said Israel must end its blockade of humanitarian aid, and denounced the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation system as “unacceptable and incompatible” with the requirements of international law.
He said an international conference due to take place on July 28 and 29 at the UN headquarters in New York, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, would offer a “pathway toward the future” and identify tangible ways in which a two-state solution might be reached to end the wider conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Dorothy Shea, the ambassador to the UN from Israel’s main international ally, the US, said the blame for the situation in Gaza lay with Hamas, which continues to hold hostages taken during the attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the conflict in Gaza.

US military says Yemeni force seized Iranian arms shipment bound for Houthis
Reuters/July 16, 2025
DUBAI: The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a post on X on Wednesday that a military group known as the Yemeni National Resistance Forces (NRF) seized a ‘massive’ Iranian weapons shipment bound for Houthi militants.
The NRF is an anti-Houthi force in Yemen led by Tarek Saleh, nephew of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and is not formally part of the internationally recognized government. Yemeni forces “seized over 750 tons of munitions and hardware to include hundreds of advanced cruise, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles, warheads and seekers, components as well as hundreds of drone engines, air defense equipment, radar systems, and communications equipment,” it added. Since Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October 2023, the Iran-aligned Houthis have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 16-17/2025
Trump Can Still Help Ukraine Declare Victory Over Russia
Con Coughlin/Gatestone Institute./July 16, 2025
Trump's change of heart on Ukraine is not only welcome, it could prove vital to improving Ukraine's hopes of ultimately emerging victorious from the conflict, not least because Trump's recent decision to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities has demonstrated America's willingness to use its overwhelming military superiority when required. At the same time, the ease with which US and Israeli warplanes were able to penetrate Iran's Russian-made air defences has been a humiliating experience for the Kremlin and its claim to rival the US in terms of military capability.
At a time when Russia's weakness has been graphically exposed on the world stage, there is a golden opportunity for the Trump administration to drive home its advantage. It can do this by providing Ukraine with the sophisticated weaponry it needs to win the war in Ukraine, in the knowledge that Russian missiles and air defences are simply no match for America's superior military might.
It would seem advisable for the future of Europe and the Free World to ensure that even a charming Putin – nonetheless a KGB graduate and serial mass-murderer in Grozny, Syria, Ukraine, not to mention his invasions of Georgia and Crimea -- is not allowed to emerge from this conflict before being thoroughly defeated. US President Donald Trump's belated realisation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not interested in a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict could finally provide the breakthrough Kyiv desperately needs to win the war.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has persisted in his belief that, because of the strong personal relationship he enjoys with Putin, he could persuade the Russian despot to agree to a lasting ceasefire.
Back in February, Trump insisted that Putin was a man of honour who would abide by his undertaking to accept a ceasefire after the White House had published its own formula for ending the conflict, one that required Ukraine to accept Russia's illegal conquest of its territory.
Having forced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept humiliating ceasefire terms, Trump was confident he could get Putin to sign up too, not least because Trump's deal effectively met all the Russian leader's key demands, such as the acceptance of Russia's control over annexed Ukrainian territory in Crimea and eastern Ukraine and a commitment that Kyiv would not be allowed to join the NATO alliance. Trump's confidence that he could persuade Putin to accept these generous terms was so strong that it led the president to remark in February when meeting British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer that he would accept the deal.
"I think he'll keep his word," Trump said of Putin.
"I've known him for a long time now, and I think he will. I don't believe he's going to violate his word. I don't think he'll be back when we make a deal. I think the deal is going to hold now."Trump has persisted with the notion that Putin could eventually be persuaded to accept a ceasefire deal for several months, with the two leaders having several lengthy phone conversations on the details. At the same time the Trump administration has reduced supplies of advanced weaponry to Ukraine, severely impacting the Ukrainians' ability to defend themselves from Russia's summer offensive. Putin's failure, though, to agree to a ceasefire has led Trump to conclude that the Russian leader is simply "tapping me along" to buy more time to enable Russian forces to take advantage of the Ukrainians' weakness.
The final straw for Trump appears to have come after his most recent call with Putin, earlier this month, which led the American president to conclude that the Kremlin simply was not interested in ending hostilities.
"I'm not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now," Trump told a meeting of cabinet officials following his latest conversation with the Russian leader, noting that Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were dying in the thousands.
"We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin... He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless," Trump commented.
Trump said he was considering whether to support a bill in the Senate that would impose steep sanctions on Russia over the war.
Trump's frustration with Putin's constant procrastination has finally led him to conclude that the Russians have no genuine interest in a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict, and that it is in America's interests to provide Ukraine with the necessary military and economic support to confront Russian aggression.
As a first step to strengthening US support for Ukraine, Trump has reversed the Pentagon's recent decision to limit arms supplies -- including Patriot air defence systems -- to Kyiv. In addition, he announced on Tuesday that the US will send billions of dollars of military equipment, including long-range missiles that can hit targets on Russian territory, in a deal that will be paid for by other NATO countries.
Sitting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that he was disappointed in Putin, whom he suggested was "all talk" about ending the war. He said the weapons would be "top of the line", and warned that the US could impose 100 percent tariffs on Russia's main trading partners -- including China -- if the Russian leader did not sign a peace deal to end the war within the next 50 days. "We're going to be doing secondary tariffs. If we don't have a deal in 50 days, it's very simple, and they'll be at 100 per cent," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in a move designed to drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing.
Confirmation of the deepening cooperation between Kyiv and Washington, meanwhile, was clearly evident after Zelensky's latest meeting with US special envoy Keith Kellogg, which the Ukrainian leader described as a "productive conversation."
Posting on X after the meeting, Zelensky said the pair discussed what the US and Ukraine "can practically do" to bring peace to Ukraine closer:
"This includes strengthening Ukraine's air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe. And of course, sanctions against Russia and those who help it."
He added that Kyiv was hoping for US leadership, and "it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its unreasonable ambitions are curbed through strength."
Trump's change of heart on Ukraine is not only welcome, it could prove vital to improving Ukraine's hopes of ultimately emerging victorious from the conflict, not least because Trump's recent decision to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities has demonstrated America's willingness to use its overwhelming military superiority when required. Ever since Putin launched his so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022, both the Biden and Trump administrations have been wary of demonstrating America's military prowess for fear of escalating the conflict.
The Trump administration's intervention in Iran, though, where the US military dropped fourteen 30,000 lb bunker-buster bombs on Iran's underground enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow, demonstrated unequivocally Washington's superior firepower, a message that will not have been lost on the Kremlin.
At the same time, the ease with which US and Israeli warplanes were able to penetrate Iran's Russian-made air defences has been a humiliating experience for the Kremlin and its claim to rival the US in terms of military capability.
At a time when Russia's weakness has been graphically exposed on the world stage, there is a golden opportunity for the Trump administration to drive home its advantage. It can do this by providing Ukraine with the sophisticated weaponry it needs to win the war in Ukraine, in the knowledge that Russian missiles and air defences are simply no match for America's superior military might. It would seem advisable for the future of Europe and the Free World to ensure that even a charming Putin – nonetheless a KGB graduate and serial mass-murderer in Grozny, Syria, Ukraine, not to mention his invasions of Georgia and Crimea -- is not allowed to emerge from this conflict before being thoroughly defeated.
**Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
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The Levant swings between dreams and deals
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-AwsatJuly 16, 2025
The talk of a new Middle Eastern “deal” we have been hearing over the past few days is jarring. The agreement reportedly being cooked up sees Syria cede the Golan Heights to Israel in return for the Lebanese city of Tripoli.
The official reactions of Lebanese parties, of course, mixed outrage and condemnation. However, those who understand the intentions they hold behind the scenes and see the implications of Benjamin Netanyahu shaping Washington’s vision and approach to the Middle East will address this development with the seriousness it deserves.Moreover, this apparent deal was leaked as Israel tightened its control over Iran’s airspace and expanded its list of targets inside Iran. Not only that, but it also coincided with the tacit alignment of Washington, Tel Aviv and Ankara’s visions regarding all regional crises, from the Kurdish question to what remains of the Palestinian struggle.Some observers now believe that the Washington-Tel Aviv axis has new priorities with regard to the sectarian dynamics of the Levant, at least temporarily, following the transition from Barack Obama and Joe Biden to Donald Trump. The irony, however, is this same American (Republican) and Israeli (Likud) right had originally bet on “political Shiism” in the region during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq.
Back then, it was the American neoconservatives, working closely alongside the Israeli right, that steered George W. Bush’s presidency via his White House advisers and Pentagon officials.
Some observers now believe that the Washington-Tel Aviv axis has new priorities with regard to the sectarian dynamics of the Levant
At the time, the US was also trying to overcome a trauma, that of 9/11. The neoconservatives exploited this catastrophe to occupy Iraq, which was eventually handed over to Iran. The leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority that oversaw Iraq’s transition, Paul Bremer, even boasted that his administration had “ended a thousand years of Sunni rule” in Iraq.As the saying goes, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since 2003. To begin with, despite the Democrats’ sympathy for the so-called Arab Spring in several Arab countries, they and the Israeli leadership refrained from supporting the Syrian uprising against Bashar Assad’s regime. Later, they effectively turned a blind eye to Iran’s military intervention to rescue the Syrian regime.
Moreover, the Democratic leadership was keen on ensuring the success of the nuclear deal it had signed with Iran after the Muscat negotiations. As a result of this deal, and the policies pursued by the Obama and Biden administrations, Tehran felt empowered to move freely across the region. In contrast, Netanyahu and his Likud allies never forgot their apprehensions about Iran’s role in the Arab arena and continued to seek containment. However, it is clear that Israel has been the biggest beneficiary of Iran’s role in the region. It was happy to see Iran become a “bogeyman” that frightened Arab states and compelled them to rush toward normalization with Tel Aviv in pursuit of protection.Moreover, Israel has never truly been concerned by the bombastic rhetoric of the so-called resistance regimes and parties, so long as its borders remained secure … and the possibility of expanding them remained available.
Still, in one way or another, the events of Oct. 7, 2023 (the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched from the Gaza Strip), was a replay of 9/11.
That day undoubtedly marked a turning point for regional alliances, leading to a shift in priorities. Without minimizing the tragedy in Gaza, the most dangerous aspect of Israel’s political response was Netanyahu’s stated intention to “reshape the Middle East.” The Al-Aqsa Flood operation undoubtedly marked a turning point for regional alliances, leading to a shift in priorities
In Trump, Netanyahu found his long-sought prize. Trump is an ideal partner in drawing this map over the rubble of political entities that never meant anything to either of them, and at the expense of peoples who have never factored into their political calculations.
Indeed, the future of Palestine has rarely seemed as bleak and hopeless since 1948. As for Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, whose borders were drawn by the Sykes-Picot Agreement (which completed what the Balfour Declaration had begun), they may now need to brace for a world in which Turkiye is the region’s second power, behind Israel. Lebanon’s most sectarian non-Sunni hard-liners likely would not object, in my view, to ceding more than half of the Sunni population and giving up Tripoli (and Akkar and Dinniyeh), if Washington and Tel Aviv guaranteed “privileges” for the Christians and Shiites. In fact, many Lebanese Christians have lost hope in the very idea of “Greater Lebanon,” which was born in 1920 and saw Tripoli and other areas added to the country. And many Shiite extremists would be happy to secure a demographic majority by reducing the number of Sunnis in the country.
As for Syria, the Sunni majority seems well placed to strengthen its position and to address the fears of the Alawite, Christian, Druze and Kurdish minorities through a deal between the US and Turkiye.
Moreover, it is worth keeping an eye on the Syrian-Iraqi border amid the radical shifts and consequential negotiations underway in the Kurdish arena.
So, one wonders: will dreams align with the fine print of the deals? Or are we back to the mess of trial and error?
**Eyad Abu Shakra is managing editor of Asharq Al-Awsat, where this article was originally published. X: @eyad1949

Travel restrictions highlight Palestinians’ conditional freedom
Daoud Kuttab/Arab News/July 16, 2025
Restrictions on travel for Palestinians, inside their own country and on leaving and returning to their homes, have been a constant problem, with various degrees of excruciating trouble, humiliation and frustration. While Gazans, including those with medical emergencies, are not generally allowed to travel or return, the West Bank has seen an uptick in checkpoints, making travel between, say, Ramallah and Jenin or Hebron and Nablus a nightmare that sometimes ends with people being stuck for hours. As well as such internal restrictions, Palestinians, especially those with families, also face nightmares when they must travel outside of Palestine and then return. Many Palestinians working in the Gulf or other countries often use the summer break to return home and spend time with friends and family, as well as take some downtime in their homeland.
The only airport in Palestine is in Gaza. US President Bill Clinton landed there in December 2018, but Israel has since bombed the airport and ended the free passage between the West Bank and Gaza it agreed to in the Oslo Accords. For the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, the King Hussein Bridge to Jordan is the only way to leave and return. Jerusalem’s Palestinians are allowed to use the Lod (Ben Gurion) airport, but many choose to travel via Jordan.
Although travel on this only artery is supposed to be regulated by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian government, Tel Aviv has veto power, largely by deciding (i.e., restricting) its working hours. Whereas most border crossings worldwide are open 24/7, Israel applies much more restrictive hours, often insisting on closing it on Saturdays and keeping access limited despite the extreme heat in the Jordan Valley and the huge number of Palestinians using this sole crossing point.
Whereas most border crossings worldwide are open 24/7, Israel applies much more restrictive hours
Former US President Joe Biden pushed Israel hard to open the bridge 24/7 and, after a three-month trial in October 2022, Israel agreed to the round-the-clock opening. But this lasted less than a year. After the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks occurred, Israel returned to the much more limited opening hours. Its justification was that some staff had been called up for duty in Gaza. So, there is a limited number of staff, even though the Israelis collect a hefty 200 shekels ($59) fee per person, including children, for everyone leaving the bridge.
While many people had delayed traveling due to the war, this summer the number of people trying to cross the bridge has been much higher. Yet Israel has refused to extend the opening hours to accommodate the increase in travelers.
According to official sources, Israeli authorities are currently allowing only 2,500 passengers per day across the bridge — half the number that generally cross during the summer months and a fraction of the 13,000 to 18,000 that have been handled daily during Hajj and Umrah seasons in the past. Even though some people are willing to pay the high price of VIP transport ($121 per adult for a 3km ride), the numbers are restricted to 200 per day.
Desperate to manage the chaos, the authorities rolled out a digital reservation system. But the system quickly collapsed under its own poor design. Without requiring passport numbers at the time of purchase, the ticketing app became a goldmine for scalpers, who bought up passes under fake names and resold them at inflated prices. One traveler, unaware of the new system and desperate to get home, paid 50 Jordanian dinars ($70) for a ticket with a face value of 7 dinars. The story went viral, prompting both Palestinian and Jordanian authorities to belatedly crack down on the black market. The government of Jordan has since dealt with this problem by insisting on passport numbers being attached to the tickets; however, the overcrowding has not eased.
For Palestinians, their freedom of movement is continually denied in the most routine and dehumanizing ways
The core issues remain unresolved: the hours are too short, the processing too slow and the demand far outstrips the artificial caps imposed by Israel. Suggestions of adding more Israeli staff and expanding the operating hours have fallen on deaf ears.
Freedom of movement is a basic human right, enshrined in international law. And yet, for Palestinians, that right is continually denied in the most routine and dehumanizing ways. The bridge has become a chokepoint as a result of Israel’s occupation, meaning families miss weddings, students lose scholarships, patients forgo medical treatment and workers risk losing jobs — all because of arbitrary, politically motivated delays.
The current restrictions are not due to capacity, infrastructure or security. They are a political decision — an extension of a policy of control, meant to remind Palestinians that their freedom is conditional, fragile and subject to revocation at any moment.
Jordanian officials privately complain that the closures are meant to punish Amman for its outspoken opposition to the Gaza war and its pro-Palestinian stance. With no Jordanian ambassador in Tel Aviv and Israel’s ambassador still absent from Amman, the diplomatic channels needed to resolve the crisis remain paralyzed. King Hussein Bridge is more than just a road. It is a lifeline. Every day that access to it remains limited, it stands as a monument to how the world treats Palestinian lives — as expendable, as negotiable, as optional.
**Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is the author of “State of Palestine NOW: Practical and Logical Arguments for the Best Way to Bring Peace to the Middle East.” X: @daoudkuttab

Transactional diplomacy versus the international order
Dr. Zafiris Tzannatos/Arab News/July 16, 2025
Cross-border conflicts lead not only to deaths, injuries and other casualties, but can also have long-lasting economic impacts sparking domestic unrest. The key to preventing both outcomes is what type of diplomacy countries pursue and over what timeframe.
Transactional diplomacy prioritizes achieving “deals” over adherence to “rules-based” approaches grounded in international principles and humanitarian values. The term gained prominence during Donald Trump’s first presidential term and has continued into his current term. This form of diplomacy is gaining ground, including within the EU, contributing to the rise of populism, xenophobia and nationalism at the domestic level and increasing the prospect for regional and global conflicts.
Transactional diplomacy can be shortsighted. This can be seen by comparing the chaotic impact on global trade of the “reciprocal tariffs” announced by Trump in April with the gradual, yet consistent, progress made by the World Trade Organization since its inception in 1995, which has advanced globalization through multilateral negotiations.
The consequences of the increasingly fluid international order are especially evident in the Middle East and North Africa region. In addition to the effects of regional instability, the majority of Arab countries are facing economic stagnation and increasing poverty. According to a report published by the World Bank last month, the poverty rate in MENA has more than doubled to an estimated 9.4 percent this year, compared to only 4 percent in 2010. In the past year alone, an additional 11 million people have fallen below the poverty line.
The rise in poverty in MENA cannot be explained by global crises, such as the 2008 financial meltdown, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 war in Ukraine. These crises have also affected the rest of the world, but the current global poverty rate of 9.9 percent is less than half the 21 percent recorded in 2010. And the typically disruptive energy price fluctuations tend to have a neutral impact on the MENA region as a whole, which comprises both energy-exporting and energy-importing countries.
The consequences of the increasingly fluid international order are especially evident in the Middle East
An obvious culprit in the region is prolonged conflict and fragility. In this context, Arab nations may ask themselves what kind of diplomacy can halt and reverse their economic and humanitarian descent. Should they adopt a transactional approach or one grounded in principles, or some balance between the two?
The question is timely, following Israel’s airstrikes on Iran last month. The strikes, considered to be “preemptive” by Israel, are based on 30-year-old statements (also repeated at the UN more recently) by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then an MP, that Iran could fulfill its nuclear ambitions in “a matter of months, or even weeks” without an external intervention.
Yet, despite decades of warnings that Iran is on the brink of developing nuclear weapons, no credible evidence supports this claim. As recently as March, US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard testified before the Senate that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear bomb. The International Atomic Energy Agency backed this assessment in May, reporting no indication of an undeclared weapons program, a view later repeated by Director General Rafael Grossi.
Nevertheless, Israel’s strikes have been endorsed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who stated that Israel is doing “the dirty work for all of us” in Iran. His assessment was in line with those of the representatives of the G7 countries that met in Canada when the strikes started. Soon after, the US conducted additional strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran, though a ceasefire was reached two days later, with hopes that it will hold permanently.
Proxy wars may serve the interests of powerful nations, but the people caught in their crossfire pay the ultimate price. The Iran-Iraq War of 1980 to 1988 is a case in point. The war devastated both countries. Then Iraq fell out of favor and, in 2003, a US-led coalition, loudly seconded by the UK, invaded it, citing the presence of nonexistent nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Wars exert consequences beyond the warring parties and military targets, often impacting neighboring countries even if they are not involved. The economic effects of the war in Gaza illustrate this clearly. Though both Egypt (in 1979) and Jordan (in 1994) signed peace treaties with Israel, their economies have been adversely affected by lower tourism revenues, higher energy insecurity, increased transport costs and slower economic growth. Following the recent strikes in Iran, both Egypt and Jordan, among others, immediately experienced a surge in tourism cancellations, with increases in fiscal deficits, public debt and unemployment likely to pose significant risks to their macroeconomic stability and social conditions if uncertainty continues and conflict resumes.
These economic risks are not confined to MENA. A prolonged conflict could rattle global markets, spiking shipping costs, energy prices, inflation and interest rates, and unsettling financial systems. Stock volatility, investor flight and exchange rate pressures may follow, undermining global economic stability.
Wars exert consequences beyond the warring parties and military targets, often impacting neighboring countries
Yet some Western leaders still see war as an economic stimulus. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently told Parliament that increased defense spending would “restore growth,” citing NATO commitments to the Ukraine war. While defense industries may benefit under such transactional thinking, the toll of wars on human lives, livelihoods and long-term economic growth outweighs their short-term gains.
Israel’s diplomacy, exemplified by the normalization of relations through the Abraham Accords with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in 2020, can be characterized as transactional in nature. Yet, a lesson can be learned from the alignment of such diplomacy with Israel’s long-term objectives to consolidate control over and eventually annex the Occupied Territories.
Arab states might take a similar approach, not by abandoning principles but by strategically aligning short-term deals with the long-term goal of peace and prosperity in their countries. A transactional approach coupled with economic cooperation can de-escalate tensions as long as it adheres to principles. For example, Saudi Arabia has refrained from joining the Abraham Accords, maintaining that normalization with Israel must be contingent on a credible and irreversible path toward the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state along the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in line with the two-state solution. In conclusion, the Arab countries are once again at a crossroads. In addition to the loss of lives, renewed conflict risks deepening their economic woes. In its ongoing stabilization program in a Middle East country, the International Monetary Fund flagged “widespread domestic protests and violence” driven by poverty and unemployment as a “high risk” factor that could jeopardize the success of the program.Arab states should unite and develop a nuanced strategy that blends pragmatic deal-making with a principled vision for peace and sustainable prosperity. The stakes are not just regional. The world, too, may pay the price of inaction and miscalculation.
*Dr. Zafiris Tzannatos is an economist based in Jordan who has served as Professor and Chair of Economics at the American University of Beirut, in senior positions at international organizations, and as an on-site adviser to governments in the Middle East and the GCC.

Selected Tweets for 16 July/2025

Ambassador Tom Barrack
Strong statement. Actions must follow to end violence, ensure accountability, and protect all Syrians. x.com/sypresidency/s…

Ambassador Tom Barrack
We unequivocally condemn violence against civilians in Suwayda. Full stop. All parties must step back and engage in meaningful dialogue that leads to a lasting ceasefire. Perpetrators need to be held accountable.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
https://x.com/i/status/1945472361722978598
This is how being a Druze right now in south #Syria feels like. This young man whispers into the camera asking for help, says Islamist Syrian government's Military Police are currently firing on his house, causing fires. His family is suffocating and moving between rooms to breathe. Text at beginning is someone giving his address.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Current U.S. diplomacy in #Syria has a major problem: It's all carrots and not a single stick. Without #Israel muscle behind the Druze, Islamist Syrian government would have wiped them out and ethnically cleansed the south. America then would do what?

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
https://x.com/i/status/1945469575551766992
This #Syria government Islamist fighter says they're preparing to enter Suweida to purge it of the Druze spiritual leader Hajri and his followers. Note the ISIS badge on the fighter's chest.

Zeina Mansour
The Druze faith has its roots in a tradition that dates back over 1000 years. The commonly cited 1000year figure is not entirely accurate, with some attributing its perpetuation to the practice of Taqqiya, which has contributed to historical and religious misconceptions.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
https://x.com/i/status/1945531874891239805
Good points from former Druze MK @GadeerMreeh
Conflict in #Syria is not one of Druze vs Bedouins but is rather a reflection of the radical nature of the new Islamist regime in Damascus that, since December, has engaged in several massacres against Syrians, whether Alawites of the coast, Christians, or Druze in the south.
Since its independence, #Israel has correctly viewed south Syria as a strategic territory, cannot leave it to be ruled by threatening groups (like radical Islamists). And given the horrible humanitarian situation of the Druze, who are hiding and fleeing, Israeli intervention in Syria to defend the Druze is good policy since it upholds both Israeli national interests and humanitarian principals.

Dr. Reda Mansour
Our prayers for our #Druze brothers & sisters in #Syria who are being slaughtered by #HTS #ISIS only for being a #religious #minority Druze survived 1000 years of persecution We #hope that the int community intervene to stop these atrocities Syria can be built only by #diplomacy

Amine Bar-Julius Iskandar
This is unacceptable
This is heartbreaking
The people of the Levant must not suffer from barbarian invasions from the heart of Asia.
A new Levant must be implemented ASAP.
It is time our leaders find the guts and honesty to recognize this reality.

Israeli Druze -הדרוזים בישראל
Giulia
The Druze spiritual leader, His Eminence, Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif:
“The Druze will stay in their lands and fight until the last bullet”
https://x.com/i/status/1945184586918469921

Ahmad Sharief Al Amri
أحمد شريف العامري
@ahhmedshh
Suwayda is not a warzone, it is the site of a deliberate campaign to break one of Syria’s oldest and most steadfast communities. The Druze are not just “a minority”; they are a people who have defended their land and identity for centuries, standing firm against every empire and tyrant that tried to crush them.
Today, Islamist militias, armed with foreign money and Brotherhood ideology, are not fighting for freedom. They are enforcing humiliation: kidnapping civilians, degrading spiritual leaders, and desecrating sacred symbols. This isn’t conflict. It is targeted subjugation.
Meanwhile, the world remains eerily silent. No protests. No viral outrage. No trending slogans. Why? Because these victims do not serve a fashionable narrative.
The Druze have faced betrayal from every side: Assad’s regime, Iran’s proxies, jihadist militias, each using them as pawns or obstacles.
When Israel intervenes to shield them, it is condemned. Not because it is wrong, but because it disrupts comfortable talking points. Israel recognizes early signs of annihilation; history has taught it the cost of ignoring them.
This is not about politics or territory, it is about preventing the erasure of a people who have refused to bow for centuries.
If the words justice and sovereignty are to mean anything, every foreign-backed militia and ideological mercenary must be uprooted from Syria.
Silence in this moment is not neutrality. It is complicity. It is the quiet approval of the destruction of a proud, ancient community, and with it, another piece of Syria’s soul.