English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For July 30/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you
Luke 11/09-13: “‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 29-30/2025
A French Disgrace and a Lebanese Scandal: The Release of Terrorist Georges Abdallah and His Reception as a Hero/Elias Bejjani/July 27/2025
Video Link for an Interview with Colonel Charbel Barakat on Suroyo TV
Lebanon sentences six in killing of UN peacekeeper, main defendant gets death penalty
US pressures Lebanon to issue cabinet decision to disarm Hezbollah before talks continue
US reportedly dissatisfied with Lebanon's response to Barrack paper
Israeli official says Hezbollah 'military commanders' to be targeted across Lebanon
Diplomatic circles 'dissatisfied' with 'slow' progress in Hezbollah disarmament, report says
Geagea warns of 'bad summer' if Hezbollah disarmament delayed
Report: Salam seeks prior agreement from Shiite Duo on cabinet session tackling Hezbollah arms
UNIFIL welcomes conviction and sentencing of man who killed Irish peacekeeper
First group of Syrian refugees returns home from Lebanon under new UN plan
Lebanese Army says it has busted 'terrorist cell'
Israeli drone strike on Bint Jbeil kills 1, injures 4
Banking reform law reaches Lebanese Parliament: What it means for depositors
Sources to LBCI: Cabinet to discuss exclusive arms possession in next session
First group of Syrian refugees returns home from Lebanon under new UN plan
Israeli operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah: July 21–27, 2025/David Daoud/FDD's Long War Journal/July 29, 2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 29-30/2025
Trump says he did not discuss UK plan to recognize Palestinian state with Starmer
Saudi Arabia, France issue joint UN declaration calling for 2-state solution, end to Gaza war
How Syrian attackers killed: One hand on the gun, another on the camera
UK plans to recognise Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes action
The Latest: Gaza death toll passes 60,000 as Israel and Trump feel pressure over famine alert
Iraq's prime minister seeks closer US ties while keeping armed groups at bay
France to air drop aid into famine-stricken Gaza in coming days
'Worst-case scenario of famine' is happening in Gaza, food crisis experts warn
Israeli settler kills Palestinian activist who worked on Oscar-winning film
Over 60,000 Palestinians killed in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry says
Houthis Threaten to Target All Ships Belonging to Companies Conducting Commerce With Israel
Israel military intercepts Houthi missile fired from Yemen

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 29-30/2025
Inside the harrowing attack on Syria’s Druze — and why the US’ first step in the right direction is vital/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/New York Post/July 29/2025
Trump Shouldn’t Fall for Russia’s Nuclear Bluster/Mark Montgomery & Ivana Stradner/National Review/July 29/2025
Syrian Druze are not entitled to self-determination, and Kurds cannot yet pursue secession/David Daoud/ FDD's Long War Journal/July 29/2025
How Syrian attackers killed: One hand on the gun, another on the camera/Deniz Uyar, Monica Naime and Pola Grzanka/July 29, 2025
Marco Rubio Fights Lawfare with Sanctions — and Wins/Enia Krivine/Algemeiner/July 29/2025
Syria’s Parliamentary “Elections” Are a Charade/Ahmad Sharawi/FDD/July 29, 2025
What Netanyahu fears most in Gaza/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 29, 2025
Saudi Arabia’s Syria investment a strategic bet on stability/Hassan Al-Mustafa/Arab News/July 29, 2025
America's New 'Great White Fleet': A Force for Good/Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/July 29/2025
The Muslim Brotherhood: A Terrorist Organization That the US Must Designate as One/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 29/2025
Another Genocide, Another Jihadist, Another U.S. Ally—Same Old Story/Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/July 29, 2025
Selected Tweets for 29 July/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on July 29-30/2025
A French Disgrace and a Lebanese Scandal: The Release of Terrorist Georges Abdallah and His Reception as a Hero
Elias Bejjani/July 27/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145708/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRXrzhqyisk&t=3s
In an appalling breach of justice and international responsibility, the French state has committed a legal and moral offense by releasing convicted terrorist and murderer Georges Ibrahim Abdallah after 41 years in prison. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in deadly terror attacks on French soil. As if that wasn’t enough, the Lebanese state—hijacked by Hezbollah and Iran’s militias—welcomed him with official honors at Beirut International Airport, treating him not as a criminal, but as a hero.
1. Who Is Georges Ibrahim Abdallah?
Georges Abdallah is not a “freedom fighter” or “resistance icon.” He is a convicted terrorist and cold-blooded killer. Born in 1951 in the town of Qoubaiyat in northern Lebanon, he joined radical leftist movements and became a senior member of the so-called Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF), a terror group closely linked to Palestinian, Syrian, and Iranian networks. He emerged during a chaotic period in Lebanese history when Palestinian factions, communist militias, Arab nationalist groups, and Islamic organizations dominated the Lebanese political and security landscape under the deceptive slogans of “resistance,” “liberation,” and “throwing Jews into the sea.” In reality, these groups were nothing more than tools of chaos and mercenaries for regional totalitarian regimes.
2. Abdallah’s Crimes – A Bloody Record on French Soil
In 1984, Georges Abdallah was arrested in Lyon, France, while carrying forged passports. Investigations quickly uncovered his involvement in a series of meticulously planned political assassinations carried out on French territory.
The crimes he was convicted for:
Assassination of Charles R. Ray, Deputy U.S. Military Attaché at the American Embassy in Paris – shot and killed on January 18, 1982 outside his residence.
Assassination of Yacov Barsimantov, Second Secretary at the Israeli Embassy in Paris – gunned down in broad daylight on April 3, 1982.
Attempted assassination of French military attaché Colonel Guy Le Moine de Marchand, known as Guy Le Chérah – severely wounded in 1982 and later died from his injuries. This added a third murder charge to Abdallah’s name, this time targeting a French officer on French soil.
Attempted assassination of the U.S. Consul in Strasbourg in March 1984 – a failed attack that nonetheless left serious injuries.
These attacks were carried out by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions with full knowledge and planning from Abdallah. The French judiciary sentenced him in 1987 to life in prison, noting his total lack of remorse and continued glorification of violence and terrorism throughout his trial and imprisonment.
3. An Illegitimate Release – Political Capitulation or Judicial Betrayal?
The decision to release Georges Abdallah after 43 years behind bars—despite a final and irrevocable life sentence—constitutes a betrayal on two levels:
A betrayal of the victims—American, French, and Israeli diplomats who were murdered in cold blood.
And a betrayal of the French public, who expect their justice system to uphold the law without yielding to political pressure.
Abdallah never expressed regret, never cooperated with French authorities, and repeatedly praised Hezbollah, Iran, and violent armed struggle. All legal conditions for parole were absent, yet France caved to internal lobbying from far-left groups and external pressure from the Tehran–Beirut–Damascus axis.
This was not a judicial act. It was a political surrender.
4. The Lebanese Disgrace – Official Honors for a Convicted Killer
As if France’s failure wasn’t shameful enough, Lebanon—now little more than a vassal state for Iran—turned Abdallah’s return into a celebration of terror.
He arrived in Beirut on a French aircraft, escorted with official protocol, and was received in the VIP lounge at Beirut International Airport.
Welcoming him were two sitting Members of Parliament:
One from Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, the armed Iranian proxy designated as a terrorist group by much of the world.
Another from Amal Movement, led by Nabih Berri, Speaker of Parliament for over three decades and political ally of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime.
This disgraceful reception sends a chilling message: terrorism is not condemned in Lebanon—it is rewarded.
While ordinary Lebanese citizens are humiliated in airports and treated with suspicion abroad, an internationally convicted killer is welcomed with applause and state honors.
This scene exposes Lebanon’s harsh reality: a failed state controlled by a militia, with institutions used to serve foreign occupiers rather than its own people.
5. The Lebanese Media – Complicit in Whitewashing Terror
The shame didn’t end at the tarmac. A large portion of the Lebanese media joined the farce, describing Georges Abdallah as a “freedom fighter,” “national hero,” and “resistance symbol.”
TV anchors and columnists praised his “steadfastness,” glorified his past, and completely whitewashed the fact that he is a murderer.
Even supposedly “neutral” or opposition outlets either joined the praise or remained shamefully silent.
This is not journalism. This is moral collapse, a betrayal of the media’s role as a guardian of truth and justice. It reveals the degree to which parts of the Lebanese media have become mouthpieces for Hezbollah and Iran, sanctifying murderers while ignoring the suffering of innocent people and the destruction of the state.
Conclusion: No Honor in Glorifying Murder – No Dignity in Embracing Terror
The release of Georges Abdallah is not a victory for freedom—it is a triumph for political terrorism and moral hypocrisy.
France made a grave mistake by letting him go free. But Lebanon’s reception turned that mistake into a national disgrace.
Georges Abdallah is a terrorist, not a hero. Those who glorify him, welcome him, or remain silent about his crimes are accomplices in the betrayal of justice.
There is no “resistance” in celebrating assassins.
There is no “sovereignty” in bowing to Hezbollah.
And there is no “honor” in a state that salutes a convicted killer in its VIP lounge while its people rot in poverty and humiliation.
Enough with the glorification of terrorists. Enough with the moral chaos. Enough with the lies.

Video Link for an Interview with Colonel Charbel Barakat on Suroyo TV
A discussion covering the disastrous cancellation of the May 17 Agreement, the tragedy of South Lebanon, the Cairo Agreement, unpublished details about the Ain Al-Rummaneh bus incident, and the background of the Lebanese war.
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145776/
July 29, 2025
Key Highlights from Colonel Charbel Barakat’s Interview on Suroyo TV
*The causes, events, stages, and phases of the war that was imposed on Lebanon and falsely labeled a civil war
*The truth about the Ain Al-Rummaneh bus incident
*The Palestinian refugee influx into Lebanon
*The Cairo Agreement and the tragedies it brought upon Lebanon, especially the South
*The May 17 Agreement and the fatal mistake and sin of its cancellation
*The background of the formation of the Arab Lebanese Army led by Ahmad Al-Khatib and its destructive and criminal role
*The 1958 War, Nasser’s role in it, and its objective to cripple the Port of Beirut
*The Egyptian-Syrian union and its underlying motives to undermine Lebanon’s role
*The U.S. Sixth Fleet and the American landing in Lebanon, and their true reasons
*The background of Israel’s entry into South Lebanon
*The causes and circumstances surrounding the creation of the South Lebanon Army
*The Fatima Gate on the Lebanese-Israeli border: how it was created, its reasons, and the rest of the border gates… the Good Fence
*The Palestinian military role and Arafat’s army entering Lebanon
*Israel’s 1982 invasion reaching Beirut

Lebanon sentences six in killing of UN peacekeeper, main defendant gets death penalty
Abby Sewell/The Associated Press/July 29, 2025
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s military court convicted six people accused of killing a U.N. peacekeeper, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Tuesday. Lebanese officials said the chief defendant was sentenced to death. “UNIFIL welcomes the conclusion of the trial process and the Government of Lebanon’s commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice,” it said in a statement. UNIFIL did not give further details, but three Lebanese judicial officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the court had issued a death sentence in absentia Monday against Mohammad Ayyad, the main defendant in the case.
The ruling
Ayyad had been arrested in December 2022 in connection with the killing of Pvt. Seán Rooney, 24, an Irish peacekeeper. He was released on bail in November 2023 after his lawyer provided medical documents showing he had cancer. Monday’s court ruling, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, handed down a fine of 100 million Lebanese pounds (about $1,117) to Ayyad in addition to the death sentence. Three others — Hussein Suleiman, Mustafa Suleiman and Ali Hakim — received only fines, while defendants Ali Khalifeh and Ali Suleiman were sentenced to one and three months in prison, respectively. A sixth defendant, Mohammad Mezher, was acquitted. Ayyad was not present for the session, with his attorney saying he was ill and hospitalized, while the other defendants appeared in court, the Lebanese officials said.
The night of the attack
On the fatal night, Rooney and several other Irish soldiers from UNIFIL were on their way from their base in southern Lebanon to the Beirut airport. Two U.N. vehicles apparently took a detour through the town of Al-Aqbiya, which is not part of the area under the peacekeepers’ mandate, when a mob opened fire at them. Initial reports said angry residents confronted the peacekeepers, but the indictment concluded that the shooting was a targeted attack and alleged that the defendants were linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The Lebanese officials said the defendants who appeared in court Monday had testified that some of them were watching a sports match and noticed a vehicle passing suspiciously several times on a narrow residential street, leading a crowd to gather. They claimed that they were unaware the vehicle belonged to UNIFIL. Hezbollah officials did not respond to requests for comment. UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The U.N. expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to deploy along the Israeli border to help the Lebanese military extend its authority into the country’s south for the first time in decades. Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon frequently accuse the U.N. mission of collusion with Israel, while Israel has accused the peacekeepers of turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s military activities in southern Lebanon. The peacekeeping force’s mandate is up for renewal in August for the first time since last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a U.S.-mediated ceasefire in November.

US pressures Lebanon to issue cabinet decision to disarm Hezbollah before talks continue
Maya Gebeily and Laila Bassam/Reuters/July 29, 2025
BEIRUT (Reuters) -Washington is ramping up pressure on Beirut to swiftly issue a formal cabinet decision committing to disarm Hezbollah before talks can resume on a halt to Israel's military operations in Lebanon, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Without a public commitment from Lebanese ministers, the U.S. will no longer dispatch U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack to Beirut for negotiations with Lebanese officials, or pressure Israel either to stop airstrikes or pull its troops from south Lebanon, according to the sources, who include two Lebanese officials, two diplomats and a Lebanese source familiar with the matter.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Washington and Beirut have been in talks for nearly six weeks on a U.S. roadmap to fully disarm the militant Lebanese Hezbollah party in exchange for Israel to end its strikes and withdraw its troops from five points in southern Lebanon. The original proposal included a condition that Lebanon's government pass a cabinet decision pledging to disarm Hezbollah. Hezbollah has publicly refused to hand over its arsenal in full, but the group has privately weighed scaling it back. The group, designated a terrorist organisation by the U.S. and much of the West, has also told Lebanese officials that Israel must take the first step by withdrawing its troops and stopping drone strikes on Hezbollah fighters and arms depots. Hezbollah's main ally, Lebanese speaker of parliament Nabih Berri, asked the U.S. to ensure that Israel halt its strikes as a first step, in order to fully implement the ceasefire agreed last year that ended months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, according to four of the sources. Israel rejected Berri's proposal late last week, the four sources said. There was no immediate response from the Israeli prime minister's office to questions from Reuters on the issue. The U.S. then began insisting that a cabinet vote take place imminently, all the sources said. "The U.S. is saying there's no more Barrack, no more papers back and forth - the council of ministers should take a decision and then we can keep discussing. They cannot wait any longer," the Lebanese source said. The source and the Lebanese officials said Prime Minister Nawaf Salam would seek to hold a session in the coming days. Barrack met Salam in Beirut last week and said Washington cannot "compel" Israel to do anything. In a post on X after his visit, Barrack said that "as long as Hezbollah retains arms, words will not suffice. The government and Hizballah need to fully commit and act now in order to not consign the Lebanese people to the stumbling status quo."All the sources said that Lebanon's rulers fear that a failure to issue a clear commitment to disarm Hezbollah could trigger escalated Israeli strikes, including on Beirut.

US reportedly dissatisfied with Lebanon's response to Barrack paper
Naharnet/July 29, 2025
Cabinet will hold a session next Tuesday to discuss the state's monopoly on arms, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's office said.The ministers will also discuss the November ceasefire and Israel's violations, Salam's office said. Local al-Jadeed TV channel said that the session will be held after efforts led by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and ministers of the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party and that the session will only discuss the state's monopoly on arms based on the ministerial statement but no executive decisions will be taken.
The TV network said it had learned from a prominent diplomatic source that Salam has contacted the U.S. to prevent a negative riposte to the Lebanese response to U.S. envoy Tom Barrack's paper. The source revealed to al-Jadeed that Salam had received unofficial signals from the U.S., explicitly stated in Barrack's tweets, indicating that the recent Lebanese response was not commensurate with the American demands. According to al-Jadeed, the American stance came after a meeting between Barrack and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer last Thursday in Paris. Barrack received a negative Israeli response that was transmitted to Lebanon through indirect channels. Arab diplomatic sources meanwhile told al-Jadeed that there will be no future investments in Lebanon unless it commits to implementing international demands.

Israeli official says Hezbollah 'military commanders' to be targeted across Lebanon
Naharnet/July 29, 2025
Israel’s “battle” against Hezbollah will continue as long as the group “violates the ceasefire agreement,” Al-Arabiya TV quoted an Israeli security source as saying.“The assassinations are limited to Hezbollah’s military rather than political targets and Hezbollah’s military commanders will be targeted across Lebanon,” the source added. “The assassinations will continue in the future amid close monitoring of the emergence of any new Hezbollah commander,” the source said, adding that Israeli has “detected attempts by Hezbollah to rebuild its structures.”The source however noted that “the rebuilding of Hezbollah’s structures will take years due to the major damage” they have sustained.“We will not hesitate to strike any Hezbollah leadership level if it becomes a threat,” the source said. Separately, the source said “there is no confirmation of direct cooperation between Hezbollah and Palestinian factions in Lebanon,” warning that Israel “will thwart” any such attempt.

Diplomatic circles 'dissatisfied' with 'slow' progress in Hezbollah disarmament, report says
Naharnet/July 29, 2025
U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack and Saudi envoy to Lebanon Yazid bin Farhan have agreed on the need for arms monopoly in Lebanon, diplomatic sources told local al-Jadeed TV channel. The sources said several diplomatic circles are dissatisfied with the Lebanese authorities "slow" and lenient approach in implementing international demands, including reforms and Hezbollah's disarmament. On Sunday, Barrack warned that "the credibility of Lebanon’s government rests on its ability to match principle with practice." He said in a post on X that it is critical that "the state has a monopoly on arms", attaching to his post an English-language news story from the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in which the daily quoted President Joseph Aoun as saying that "things are moving at a slow pace" with Hezbollah.

Geagea warns of 'bad summer' if Hezbollah disarmament delayed
Naharnet/July 29, 2025
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea warned, in an interview published Tuesday in Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, of more delays regarding Hezbollah's disarmament. "We'll definitely have a bad summer, if things go on like this," he said, accusing Hezbollah of only bringing harm and destruction to the country, and urging cabinet to immediately convene and take a strict decision concerning the group's arms. Geagea said all armed groups must be disbanded within a period of one to four months, criticizing the president and prime minister's leniency.
"There are at least $10 billion worth of Arab investments in Syria now while we are here waiting for (Speaker Nabih) Berri and for (U.S. special envoy Thomas) Barrack's visits," he said, urging President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to take action instead of going to Berri, a Hezbollah ally and key mediator, and wait for his feedback after the latter consults with Hezbollah. Geagea said Lebanon must focus on its relations with Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and Western countries, led by the United States. "These friends are telling us clearly, both publicly and in closed-door meetings, that the situation cannot continue as it is.""We are at risk of our friends turning their backs on us," he warned, explaining that only Lebanon's good relations with the Gulf, the U.S. and Europe can protect Lebanon from Israel, and not Hezbollah's arms.

Report: Salam seeks prior agreement from Shiite Duo on cabinet session tackling Hezbollah arms
Naharnet/July 29, 2025
French President Emmanuel Macron advised PM Nawaf Salam in their latest meeting to hold a cabinet session to issue a resolution on monopolizing arms in the hands of the state, political sources said. “Delaying the decision on arms monopoly will subject the country to further threats through the expansion of Israel’s violations and attacks, although official sides deny that the government has received international warnings about Israel’s intention to wage a new war,” the sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. “This prompted Salam, after consulting with President Joseph Aoun, to carry out a broad series of contacts to explore the government parties’ readiness to secure political rather than numerical quorum for holding a cabinet session dedicated to taking a decision on arms monopoly,” the sources added. “Salam and (Speaker Nabih) Berri will hold further discussions to create the right circumstances for holding a cabinet session that has consensus on arms monopoly on its agenda,” the sources said. “Salam is avoiding to convene cabinet before he obtains prior agreement from the Shiite Duo on backing arms monopoly, because he does not want to implicate the government in a rift with Shiites,” the sources added.

UNIFIL welcomes conviction and sentencing of man who killed Irish peacekeeper
Naharnet/July 29, 2025
UNIFIL said Tuesday that it welcomes the conclusion of the trial process and the Government of Lebanon’s commitment to bring the perpetrators to justice, after Lebanon’s Permanent Military Court found guilty six of the individuals charged in the killing of Irish peacekeeper Private Seán Rooney in Al-Aqbieh in December 2022. "Since the attack, UNIFIL has extended its full support to both Lebanese and Irish authorities with their respective judicial proceedings," the statement said. "Once again, we offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Private Rooney and the Government of Ireland."

First group of Syrian refugees returns home from Lebanon under new UN plan
Associated Press/July 29, 2025
The first group of Syrian refugees returned home from Lebanon on Tuesday under a new plan the United Nations developed with the Lebanese government following the downfall of Bashar Assad's rule in December. Syria's uprising-turned-conflict displaced half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million over the last 14 years. Lebanon hosted an estimated 1.5 million refugees, at one point making up roughly a quarter of its six million people, with many having been smuggled across the border and unregistered with the U.N.
The new plan has the U.N. refugee agency offering $100 in cash to each repatriated Syrian refugee and the Lebanese authorities waiving any fees or fines they owe. The UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration will provide them with buses for their return journey.
The UNHCR also says it will help returning Syrians with "cash grants, legal assistance for civil documents, psychosocial support, livelihood opportunities, and other protection services."
Lebanese authorities have repeatedly requested the repatriation of Syrian refugees over the years, a call that grew louder with the widespread poverty in the Mediterranean country and shrinking funding for aid agencies. But Syria under Assad was not yet safe for their return, according to major rights organizations. Many Syrians had also previously said the war, forced conscription under Syria's former government, and unpaid residency fines in Lebanon have held them back from returning. But Syria now has a new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the surprise offensive that ousted Assad, and the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's government hopes Syrians will sign up for the joint repatriation plan. The UNHCR estimates that over 205,000 Syrians have crossed back into the country from Lebanon since December, of which at least 126,000 were confirmed to be full returns, said Abou Khaled. UNHCR Lebanon spokesperson Lisa Abou Khaled says about 17,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon have already signed up to go back to their home country, though the vast majority have opted not to take the buses.
Tuesday's repatriation was a "test run," she said, with only 72 people, mostly going to Syria's third-largest city of Homs and rural Damascus. Syrian border authorities greeted the returning refugees with roses and water bottles, as they filled out forms after exiting the bus. Some took pictures in front of Syria's new green flag. Among them was Rasha, who told The Associated Press she was elated to return for the first time in 14 years. "We're going home with nothing, but it's easier than having to keep paying rent," she said, using only her first name. She and her husband are heading to Homs. Before, she wouldn't leave because her sons were at the age of conscription, which she described as "sending your son to his death." They also couldn't afford to pay all the fines for overstaying in Lebanon for 14 years. Raghad fled to Lebanon when she was 10 years old after her father was killed in Homs, and is returning for the first time to her family home with her siblings and their children. "We're hoping to fix it so we can live there for a bit," she said. "I can't imagine myself living there without Dad."
Despite Washington lifting decades-long sanctions, Syria is still reeling from an economic crisis that has pulled the vast majority of its population into poverty. It's still also trying to rebuild hundreds of billions of dollars in battered infrastructure after the conflict. Abou Khaled, the UNHCR Lebanon spokesperson, warns that this might hinder long-term returns if not resolved soon. "We must acknowledge that there is a real humanitarian crisis in Syria that remains very significant," she explained. "Millions of people will need urgent help to be able to return in a sustainable way."

Lebanese Army says it has busted 'terrorist cell'
Naharnet/July 29, 2025
The Lebanese Army announced that it has dismantled a terrorist cell consisting of Lebanese, Syrian and Iraqi citizens.“The Intelligence Directorate is continuing the monitoring operations and security pursuit of terrorist organizations, and in this regard it arrested two Lebanese citizens, a Syrian citizen and an Iraqi citizen for forming a terrorist cell,” the army said in a statement.“After interrogation, the detainees were referred to the relevant judicial authorities,” the army added. It did not specify where the detainees were captured.

Israeli drone strike on Bint Jbeil kills 1, injures 4
Naharnet/July 29, 2025
One person has been killed and four others wounded in an Israeli drone strike Wednesday on the southern town of Bint Jbeil.Israel has kept up its strikes on Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war. It has warned it will continue to strike until the Iran-backed militant group has been disarmed. Under the truce, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese Army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region. Israel was to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic.

Banking reform law reaches Lebanese Parliament: What it means for depositors
LBCI/July 29, 2025
After years of delays, Lebanon's long-awaited banking reform law has finally reached the Parliament for approval in a general session. The latest draft introduces key amendments that directly impact depositors, particularly those with multiple accounts in different banks.
One of the most significant changes guarantees account independence. Under the revised version, if a depositor holds three separate accounts at three different banks, each with $100,000 or more, they would be entitled to reclaim up to $300,000 in total.
This marks a sharp departure from the government's original proposal, which would have capped compensation at $100,000 per individual, regardless of the number of accounts held or the banks involved. Another major shift prioritizes individual depositors over public institutions.
While the government's previous version gave full repayment priority to public sector deposits, the new draft restores precedence to private depositors seeking to recover their savings. Passing the law is seen as a positive step, but observers note it remains incomplete. The law's actual implementation hinges on the adoption of a separate piece of legislation: the Financial Regularization and Deposit Recovery Law. That law will determine how financial losses are apportioned between the state, the Banque du Liban (BDL), commercial banks, and depositors. This is where the process gets more complex. Finance Minister Yassine Jaber has pledged to submit the financial regularization bill to the Parliament within six months. However, skepticism remains high. Nearly six years have passed since Lebanon's financial collapse began, with successive governments failing to push through a deposit recovery mechanism. Meanwhile, citizens' deposits remain effectively frozen, widely seen as a violation of their rights. For many, unless the upcoming legislation offers a genuine solution to the banking crisis, current efforts may be viewed as little more than political maneuvering ahead of the next parliamentary elections.

Sources to LBCI: Cabinet to discuss exclusive arms possession in next session
LBCI/July 29, 2025
Government sources informed LBCI that a Cabinet meeting is expected on Tuesday at 3 p.m., with the contentious issue of exclusive arms possession set to be one of the central topics on the agenda.

First group of Syrian refugees returns home from Lebanon under new UN plan
Associated Press/July 29, 2025
The first group of Syrian refugees returned home from Lebanon on Tuesday under a new plan the United Nations developed with the Lebanese government following the downfall of Bashar Assad's rule in December. Syria's uprising-turned-conflict displaced half of the country's pre-war population of 23 million over the last 14 years. Lebanon hosted an estimated 1.5 million refugees, at one point making up roughly a quarter of its six million people, with many having been smuggled across the border and unregistered with the U.N.
The new plan has the U.N. refugee agency offering $100 in cash to each repatriated Syrian refugee and the Lebanese authorities waiving any fees or fines they owe. The UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration will provide them with buses for their return journey.
The UNHCR also says it will help returning Syrians with "cash grants, legal assistance for civil documents, psychosocial support, livelihood opportunities, and other protection services."
Lebanese authorities have repeatedly requested the repatriation of Syrian refugees over the years, a call that grew louder with the widespread poverty in the Mediterranean country and shrinking funding for aid agencies. But Syria under Assad was not yet safe for their return, according to major rights organizations. Many Syrians had also previously said the war, forced conscription under Syria's former government, and unpaid residency fines in Lebanon have held them back from returning. But Syria now has a new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the surprise offensive that ousted Assad, and the Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's government hopes Syrians will sign up for the joint repatriation plan.
The UNHCR estimates that over 205,000 Syrians have crossed back into the country from Lebanon since December, of which at least 126,000 were confirmed to be full returns, said Abou Khaled. UNHCR Lebanon spokesperson Lisa Abou Khaled says about 17,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon have already signed up to go back to their home country, though the vast majority have opted not to take the buses.
Tuesday's repatriation was a "test run," she said, with only 72 people, mostly going to Syria's third-largest city of Homs and rural Damascus. Syrian border authorities greeted the returning refugees with roses and water bottles, as they filled out forms after exiting the bus. Some took pictures in front of Syria's new green flag. Among them was Rasha, who told The Associated Press she was elated to return for the first time in 14 years. "We're going home with nothing, but it's easier than having to keep paying rent," she said, using only her first name. She and her husband are heading to Homs. Before, she wouldn't leave because her sons were at the age of conscription, which she described as "sending your son to his death." They also couldn't afford to pay all the fines for overstaying in Lebanon for 14 years.
Raghad fled to Lebanon when she was 10 years old after her father was killed in Homs, and is returning for the first time to her family home with her siblings and their children. "We're hoping to fix it so we can live there for a bit," she said. "I can't imagine myself living there without Dad."
Despite Washington lifting decades-long sanctions, Syria is still reeling from an economic crisis that has pulled the vast majority of its population into poverty. It's still also trying to rebuild hundreds of billions of dollars in battered infrastructure after the conflict. Abou Khaled, the UNHCR Lebanon spokesperson, warns that this might hinder long-term returns if not resolved soon. "We must acknowledge that there is a real humanitarian crisis in Syria that remains very significant," she explained. "Millions of people will need urgent help to be able to return in a sustainable way."

Israeli operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah: July 21–27, 2025
David Daoud/FDD's Long War Journal/July 29, 2025
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/07/29/israeli-operations-in-lebanon-against-hezbollah-july-21-27-2025/
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted numerous operations throughout Lebanon against Hezbollah between July 21 and July 27, 2025. The IDF’s activities this week were concentrated in south Lebanon, both north and south of the Litani River. They included now-routine assassinations of Hezbollah operatives involved in the group’s regeneration efforts and strikes on Hezbollah military assets.
The IDF conducted operations in 26 Lebanese locales during the week, with some locations targeted more than once. The IDF carried out 18 airstrikes or other aerial activity, eight ground activities, and two artillery strikes, and fired flares over one area.
Map instructions: Click the top-left icon or an icon on the map to open the Map Key, and adjust the map’s zoom as desired. Click the top-right icon to open a larger version of the map.
Nabatieh Governorate
Bint Jbeil District: Ayta Ash Shaab, Aitaroun, Beit Lif, Braasheet, Tayri, Tebnine, and Yater
Hasbaya District: Abbassiyeh
Marjayoun District: Aamra-Wazzani, Ain Arab, Houla, Meiss Al Jabal, and Wazzani
Nabatieh District: Berghoz and Deir Al Zahrani.
South Lebanon Governorate
Jezzine District: Jabbour, Jarmaq, Mahmoudiyeh, Rihan, Sriri-Maydoun, and Sujod
Sidon: Ansar-Zrariyeh
Tyre District: Dhayra, Hamoul, Naqoura, and Twayri
Casualties
Israeli operations in Lebanon killed six people, all Hezbollah members, and wounded one unidentified individual.
July 21, 2025: One Hezbollah operative was killed.
July 22, 2025: No casualties were reported.
July 23, 2025: No casualties were reported.
July 24, 2025: One Hezbollah operative was killed.
July 25, 2025: One Hezbollah commander was killed, and one person was wounded.
July 26, 2025: One Hezbollah commander and two Hezbollah operatives were killed.
July 27, 2025: No casualties were reported.
Chronology of Israeli Operations against Hezbollah, July 21-July 27, 2025
July 21
At 6:25 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted a motorbike in Tayri in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District. The strike killed one person. Hezbollah-affiliated social media accounts soon announced the death of Hezbollah operative Mohammad Fadi Shaito, whose nom de guerre was Muntazar, from Tayri.
At 11:52 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that two Israeli vehicles positioned themselves at the outskirts of Aitaroun in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District. One of the vehicles withdrew while the other remained in place.
July 22
At 12:00 am, an Israeli infantry force accompanied by three vehicles, including a D9 bulldozer, reached the outskirts of Aitaroun in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District. There, the Israeli force conducted excavations for an hour and a half before withdrawing.
At 8:44 am, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli troops conducted a detonation on the outskirts of Ayta Ash Shaab in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District.
At 6:54 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle parked near the Tebnine Governmental Hospital in Tebnine in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District.
July 23
At 8:33 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli force comprised of 20 soldiers entered the outskirts of the border town of Abbassiyeh in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Hasbaya District. They reportedly searched both inhabited and uninhabited homes, interrogating several Lebanese locals and Syrian workers. The Israeli troops soon left the town, taking two Syrian workers with them, but released them near the Blue Line.
July 24
At 4 am, an Israeli infantry force entered Houla, in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District, demolishing a livestock pen opposite an IDF post inside Israel.
At 2:11 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone fired two missiles—half an hour apart—at the forested area on the outskirts of Beit Lif in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District, igniting a massive fire in the area.
At 2:41 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli troops positioned in Tel al Hamames fired warning shots near shepherds between Aamra and Wazzani in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
At 4:08 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli artillery targeted Ain Arab and Wazzani in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District, while an Israeli drone targeted a pick-up truck in Ayta Ash Shaab in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District. The drone strike killed one person. At 7:47 pm, the IDF released a statement saying it had killed a Hezbollah terrorist. At 8:34 pm, Hezbollah-affiliated social media announced the death of Hezbollah operative Mustafa Mohammad Harees, whose nom de guerre was Abu Ali, from Ayta Ash Shaab.
At 7:52 pm, NNA Lebanon reported Israeli airstrikes targeting Rihan, Sujod, Jarmaq, Jabbbour, and Mahmoudiyeh in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Jezzine District and Deir Al Zahrani and Berghoz in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Nabatieh District. Israeli airstrikes also targeted the area between Ansar and Zrariyeh in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Sidon District. The IDF, in a statement, said it had targeted several Hezbollah military posts in south Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and a rocket launcher.
At 8:04 pm, NNA Lebanon reported an Israeli airstrike between Maydoun in the Beqaa Governorate’s West Beqaa District and Sriri in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Jezzine District.
July 25
At 9:47 am, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli troops directed gunfire toward a Lebanese national in Dhayra in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District, severely wounding him. The man was later identified as Bassam Sweid, a municipal council member.
At 10:56 am, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped a stun explosive in the Dabakeh neighborhood of Meiss Al Jabal in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District.
At 12:49 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle on the outskirts of Braasheet in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District. The strike killed one person and wounded another. At 3:06 pm, Hezbollah-affiliated social media announced the death of Ali Mohammad Hassan Qousan, whose nom de guerre was Sadeq, from Aitaroun. At 5:15 pm, the IDF released a statement with video claiming it had assassinated Hezbollah operative Ali Mohammad Hassan Qousan, who was “responsible for manpower in the Bint Jbeil Sector in the terror organization Hezbollah.” The statement said that Qousan had been active in the organization’s regeneration efforts near Bint Jbeil and “acted to recruit terrorists during the war.”
July 26
At 12:15 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle in Twayri in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District. The strike killed one person. At 4:44 pm, the IDF released a statement claiming it had targeted and killed Hezbollah operative Ali Abdelqader Ismail, “a commander in the Hezbollah terrorist organization’s Bint Jbeil Staff.” The statement alleged that “Ismail was active in the organization’s regeneration efforts in the area of Bint Jbeil” in “flagrant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon.” The next day, Hezbollah-affiliated social media announced the death of another Hezbollah operative, Ali Abdelqader Ismail, whose nom de guerre was Kayan, from Braasheet.
The death announcement for Ali Abdelqader Ismail. (Balagh Media Telegram
At 6:23 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a home in Debaal in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District. The strike killed two people. Hezbollah-affiliated social media later announced the deaths of two Hezbollah operatives: Ali Mohammad Al Ali, whose nom de guerre was Abu Gharib, and Mohammad Haidar Abboud, whose nom de guerre was Fallah, both from Debaal.
At 11:14 pm, NNA Lebanon reported Israeli forces fired flares over Naqoura, in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District.
July 27
At 12:00 am, an Israeli infantry force entered Kfar Kela in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District and conducted a detonation in one of its eastern neighborhoods.
At 2:00 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped an incendiary explosive in Hamoul in the South Lebanon Governorate’s Tyre District, sparking fires.
At 6:24 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli quadcopter dropped an incendiary explosive in Wadi Mrimin on the outskirts of Yater in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Bint Jbeil District, sparking fires that detonated explosives left over from the war.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 29-30/2025
Trump says he did not discuss UK plan to recognize Palestinian state with Starmer
Reuters/July 29, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not discuss London's plan to recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel takes a number of steps to improve life for Palestinians.
Starmer said on Tuesday that Britain was prepared to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly in response to growing public anger over the images of starving children in Gaza. "We never did discuss it," Trump told reporters on board Air Force One while traveling back to the U.S. after meeting Starmer in Scotland.Trump said recognizing a Palestinian state would reward Palestinian militant group Hamas."You're rewarding Hamas if you do that. I don't think they should be rewarded," he said. Trump said the U.S. had sent money for food aid for Palestinians in Gaza, and that he wanted to make sure it's properly spent. "I want to make sure the money is spent wisely and is spent judiciously, and that food is distributed in a proper manner," he said.

Saudi Arabia, France issue joint UN declaration calling for 2-state solution, end to Gaza war
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/July 29, 2025
NEW YORK CITY: France and Saudi Arabia issued a joint declaration at the UN on Tuesday calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, and setting out a detailed international road map for the implementation of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Released at the close of a high-level international conference in New York, which the two countries co-chaired, and seen by Arab News, the “New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine” outlined a time-bound process for establishing an independent, sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel, with security guarantees for both sides. The declaration was endorsed by a broad group of international partners that had chaired working groups during the conference, including Brazil, Egypt, Japan, Ireland and the EU, in what organizers described as an “unprecedented global consensus” on the urgent need to resolve the long-standing conflict. “The war in Gaza must end now,” the declaration stated. It condemned the attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israeli military operations in Gaza that have resulted in large-scale civilian casualties and the destruction of infrastructure. It warned that a continuing conflict, absent a credible path to peace, “poses grave threats to regional and international stability,” and called for the immediate implementation of a phased ceasefire agreement, brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US, to end hostilities, secure the release of hostages, and ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The declaration additionally called for the reunification of Gaza and the West Bank under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and for Hamas to relinquish power in Gaza and surrender its weapons. A transitional administrative committee, backed by international partners, would be established under the authority of the PA, supported by a temporary, UN-led stabilization mission to protect civilians and assist with the security and governance transitions. “Only a political solution can deliver peace or security,” the declaration stated, as it reaffirmed international backing for a two-state solution based on 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. The declaration also pledged broad international support for the reconstruction of Gaza, endorsing an Arab-Organization of Islamic Cooperation recovery plan, and announced a forthcoming Gaza Reconstruction Conference to take place in Cairo. It committed to the creation of a dedicated international trust fund, reaffirmed the role of UN Relief and Works Agency, and backed the Palestinian Authority’s agenda for reforms. Recent commitments made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold elections and pursue peaceful statehood, alongside plans for democratic reforms and enhanced governance, were welcomed. The signatories also called on Israeli authorities to halt settlement activity, end settler violence, and give a clear public commitment to a two-state solution. “Unilateral measures threaten to destroy the last remaining path to peace,” the declaration warned. It linked Palestinian statehood to broader normalization and integration efforts in the Middle East. It proposed exploration of a regional security framework, modeled on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and floated the idea of a future “Peace Day” to mark the formal conclusion of the conflict and the launch of regional cooperation in trade, energy and infrastructure. The co-chairs of the conference pledged to present a progress report on efforts to implement the declaration during the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in September, and tasked the chairs of the working groups with establishing a follow-up mechanism under the umbrella of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. “This is a historic opportunity,” the declaration stated. “The time for decisive, collective action is now — to end the war, realize Palestinian statehood, and secure peace and dignity for both peoples.”

How Syrian attackers killed: One hand on the gun, another on the camera
Deniz Uyar, Monica Naime and Pola Grzanka/Reuters/July 29, 2025
July 29 (Reuters) - The fighters in military-style uniforms pointed their rifles at the three unarmed men and ordered them out onto a sunny balcony, before barking at them to pause. "One minute. You want to film them?" one of the attackers asked his comrade. The unfolding horror, which was already being filmed by one gunman on his cellphone, was delayed for a few moments to allow a second fighter to start capturing the events. "Let's go! Throw yourself over," the gunmen yelled at their victims, members of Syria's minority Druze faith. Two of the attackers shot the men one by one as they clambered over the black railing before their bodies tumbled to the street below, according to the footage circulating on social media which was reviewed by Reuters. The victims were Moaz Arnous, his brother Baraa Arnous and their cousin, Osama Arnous, according to a family friend and another cousin who both told Reuters the video showed the three being killed at their home in the southern city of Sweida on July 16. The deaths were among 12 execution-style killings of unarmed Druze civilians carried out at three sites in and around Sweida this month by gunmen wearing military fatigues, according to the footage of the attacks, which was filmed by the killers themselves or people accompanying them and verified by Reuters. Another video shows Mounir al-Rajma, a 60-year-old guard at a communal water well, being gunned down by two young fighters after telling them he is Druze, his son Wiam told Reuters. Other footage shows a group of fighters forcing eight civilians to kneel in the dust of a roundabout before shooting them dead, according to a friend and a relative of some of those victims. The videos provide some of the most detailed depictions yet of the bloodshed that erupted in Sweida province in mid-July, initially between local Druze militia and Bedouin tribal fighters and subsequently government forces sent to restore order. The violence killed hundreds of mostly Druze people, according to Reuters reporting and two monitoring groups.
Reuters was able to use visible landmarks in each video to geo-locate the incidents. The events depicted and their dates were verified through interviews with seven relatives and friends of the victims. All said they believed Syrian government forces killed their loved ones.
The news agency could not identify the attackers in the videos, which were not time-stamped, or determine who first posted them online. The pieces of footage began appearing online after July 18, a review of social media posts found. The media offices of the Syrian defence and interior ministries didn't respond to questions from Reuters on the filmed attacks. Syria's defense ministry said on July 22 that it was aware of reports that an "unknown group" wearing military fatigues committed "shocking and gross violations" in Sweida. It didn’t mention execution-style killings targeting Druze people.The ministry vowed to investigate the abuses, identify those responsible and impose "maximum penalties" on perpetrators, "even if they are affiliated with the ministry of defense." On the same day, the interior ministry condemned "in the strongest terms the circulating videos showing field executions carried out by unidentified individuals in the city of Sweida".
RIGHTS GROUP: AT LEAST 1,000 DEAD
Syria has been plagued by bouts of sectarian strife since the sudden fall of President Bashar al-Assad and his police state in December last year after 14 years of war. The new government, led by a former Sunni Islamist group that has its roots in global jihad, dissolved Assad's army and sought to integrate dozens of former rebel factions into a national army, but those forces have struggled to fill the security vacuum. Sweida province is predominantly populated by the Druze community, a distant offshoot of Islam that comprises about 3% of Syria's pre-war population of 24 million. The atrocities there came four months after a spree of killings against the Alawite minority, with armed factions affiliated to the new government killing hundreds of people in coastal settlements. The Sweida unrest began on July 13 when longstanding local tensions over land and resources in the province escalated into clashes between local Druze militia and Bedouin tribal fighters, who like government forces largely adhere to the country's majority Sunni faith. The violence worsened significantly after the Syrian military was deployed to the province on July 14 to quell the clashes and entered Sweida city itself on July 15, according to residents, two war monitors and reporters on the ground. The Syrian Network for Human Rights said 1,013 people have been killed in the bloodshed since July 13, including 47 women, 26 children and six medical personnel. The group said victims were mainly Druze, adding that it wasn't clear how many were fighters or civilians. The network said the vast majority died after the army's arrival led to a sharp increase in fighting. The organization's head, Fadel Abdulghany, told Reuters it had documented execution-style killings by Syrian troops, Bedouin fighters and Druze groups. A forensic pathologist in the city of Sweida, who requested anonymity to speak about sensitive matters, told Reuters he had examined 502 bodies that had been brought to the Sweida National Hospital during this month's violence. One was decapitated and two, including a teenage girl, had their throats slit. Most of the others suffered from gunshot wounds inflicted at close range, he said. Reuters could not independently verify the numbers or specific atrocities recounted by the Syrian network and the pathologist.
'ARE YOU MUSLIM OR DRUZE?'
The son of Rajma, the 60-year-old water well guard, identified his father in a video verified by Reuters as having been filmed on July 15 outside the Muhammad Salih Nasr School in the town of Thaalah, less than a mile from their home. Rajma is seen sitting on the steps of the school's entrance as at least three young rifle-toting men in military fatigues are heard repeatedly screaming at him, "Are you Muslim or Druze?" The exchange is filmed by someone standing directly next to the fighters and it is unclear if the person is also armed.
When the older man answers, "I'm Syrian", one fighter responds: "What does Syrian mean? Muslim or Druze?"
Rajma says: "My brother, I'm Druze."
Three of the fighters immediately open fire.
"This is the fate of every dog among you, you pigs," one of them says.
In another video verified by Reuters, a group of seven fighters in military fatigues carrying rifles are seen guiding eight men in civilian clothes down a sidewalk. Based on the shop signs and road layout, Reuters identified the street as lying just west of Tishreen Square in the heart of Sweida city. The only visible insignia on the fatigues is a small black patch on the right arm of one of the fighters bearing the Islamic declaration of faith in a design popularized by the Islamic State group. Reuters reporters have also seen some soldiers at checkpoints in government areas wearing them. Syria's defense and interior ministries didn't respond to questions on whether their forces wear the patches. The Islamic State did not mention Sweida in any of their posts on their social media propaganda channels, including in the period after July 13. Reuters couldn't reach a representative for the group. A few seconds into the video, the fighter filming turns his phone camera around to his own face: He's a bearded man dressed in military fatigues, with a red bandana wrapped around his head and the butt of a rifle visible across his chest. The eight victims walk in single file, each resting his hands on the shoulders of the man in front. The last man in line, wearing a tan shirt and sandals, was identified by a friend who watched the video as Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian-American citizen. The friend said the older man directly in front of him in line was Hosam's father, and the next man was Hosam's brother Kareem. Most of the others were from the same extended family, the friend added. Dima Saraya, the wife of Ali Saraya - another of the men in line - told Reuters that armed men in military fatigues had surrounded the apartment building where the extended Saraya family lived west of Tishreen Square on July 16 and demanded that the men inside surrender themselves, promising to question them for a few hours and return them home safely. U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma confirmed that Hosam, who had lived in Oklahoma, "was tragically executed alongside other members of his family in Syria." He didn't give further details. A separate video shows the same eight unarmed men kneeling in the dirt of a roundabout in Tishreen Square. Reuters was able to verify the video's location from the statue in the roundabout and a tower block visible directly behind it. The same friend identified Hosam, his brother and his father among the kneeling men in the second video. At least two fighters fire their rifles directly at the kneeling group, from close proximity and for at least seven seconds.
The kneeling men crumple into the dirt and lie motionless as the armed men yell, "God is great."
(Reporting by Deniz Uyar, Monica Naime and Pola Grzanka; Editing by Pravin Char)

UK plans to recognise Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes action
Andrew Macaskill and William James/Reuters/July 29, 2025
LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday Britain was prepared to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly unless Israel takes a number of steps to improve life for Palestinians. Britain, if it acts, would become the second Western power on the U.N. Security Council to do so after France last week, reflecting Israel's deepening isolation over its conduct in its war against Hamas in Gaza, where a humanitarian disaster has set in and the Palestinian death toll has risen above 60,000. Starmer said Britain would make the move unless Israel took substantive steps to allow more aid to enter Gaza, made clear there will be no annexation of the West Bank and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a "two-state solution" - a Palestinian state co-existing in peace alongside Israel. "The Palestinian people have endured terrible suffering," Starmer told reporters. "Now, in Gaza, because of a catastrophic failure of aid, we see starving babies, children too weak to stand, images that will stay with us for a lifetime. The suffering must end." Starmer said his government would make an assessment in September on "how far the parties have met these steps", but that no one would have a veto over the decision. He took the decision after recalling his cabinet during the summer holidays on Tuesday to discuss a new proposed peace plan being worked on with other European leaders and how to deliver more humanitarian aid for Gaza's 2.2 million people.
Successive British governments have said they will formally recognise a Palestinian state when the time is right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions. With warnings from international aid agencies that people in Gaza are facing starvation, a growing number of lawmakers in Starmer's Labour Party have been asking him to recognise a Palestinian state to raise pressure on Israel. The issue came to the fore after President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France would recognise Palestine as a state in territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel and staunch supporter the United States blasted France's move, branding it a reward for Palestinian Hamas militants who ran Gaza and whose attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 triggered the current war. At the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, when Starmer was the opposition leader, he fully backed Israel's right to defend itself. But his stance has shifted over the years to a tougher approach to Israel, especially since his election as prime minister just over a year ago. His government dropped the previous government’s challenge over arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has suspended some weapon sales to Israel. Last month, Britain sanctioned two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians.

The Latest: Gaza death toll passes 60,000 as Israel and Trump feel pressure over famine alert
The Associated Press/July 29, 2025
The Palestinian death toll in Gaza passed 60,000 on Tuesday. The world's leading authority on food crises said the “ worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” in the territory of over 2 million people as starvation deaths rise. And the United Nations said far too little food and other aid was entering the enclave, while most of Tuesday's dead were gunned down seeking aid. Pressure grew on Israel's closest ally, the United States, to act as Americans' support for Israeli military action declines sharply. And the British prime minister says the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire. Britain’s foreign secretary has been applauded at a U.N. conference after announcing that the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza and takes steps to long-term peace. David Lammy spoke at a ministerial meeting on the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. He was immediately interrupted with loud and sustained applause in the U.N. General Assembly hall. Lammy also said the rejection by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of a two-state solution “is wrong morally and it’s wrong strategically,” stressing that it harms the
France has welcomed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement that the U.K will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza and takes steps to long-term peace. Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron made a surprise diplomatic gamble by announcing that France will recognize Palestine in September. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot posted on social media that “Together, through this momentous decision and our joint efforts, we are ending the infinite cycle of violence and re-opening the prospect of peace in the region.”
Scores of Palestinians in the Gaza town of Zawaida swam into the sea to retrieve what they could from airdrops of aid. Kamel Qoraan returned to shore with a soaked bag of tea powder, saying that airdropping aid is “humiliating” and calling for the opening of border crossings for trucks. The United Nations and partners say trucks deliver far more aid. Associated Press reporters in Gaza said much of the airdropped aid has fallen in so-called red zones that Israel has ordered people to evacuate from. Some people seemed relieved to get anything. One boy smiled as he clutched a small sack of flour. One man had a can of beans. Momen Abu Etayya said his son urged him to chase the airdrops, and dashed into the sea. “I was only able to bring him three biscuits,” he said.
U.K. to recognize Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to ceasefire
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza and takes steps toward long-term peace.
Starmer told ministers at a rare summertime Cabinet meeting that Britain will recognize a state of Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly, “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, reaches a ceasefire, makes clear there will be no annexation in the West Bank and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a two state solution.”
EU humanitarian team not allowed into Gaza, official says
A team from the European Union’s humanitarian aid agency was “not authorized” by Israel to join a convoy heading into Gaza, according to a senior European Commission official. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to EU policy.
The EU “didn’t receive any convincing explanation” from Israel’s military or foreign service, the official said. There was no immediate Israeli comment. The EU has sought to monitor delivery of food and fuel in Gaza under a new aid agreement with Israel. It says at least 160 trucks should enter Gaza daily along with 200,000 liters of fuel, and more border crossings should open. But the EU does not have adequate evidence Israel has fulfilled its end of the bargain, the official said. The U.N. World Food Program says only about half of the aid it has requested to enter Gaza is reaching the territory after Israel eased restrictions on entry over the weekend. WFP wants 100 trucks per day entering the territory of over 2 million people as deaths from starvation increase. Ross Smith, the U.N. agency’s director of emergencies, says they lack “follow-through on the ground” such as faster clearance and approval for aid trucks. He says that “we need sustained effort at scale for weeks at a time.” Draft says ministers to make 'unwavering commitment’ to two-state solution
A draft document for a U.N. conference says foreign ministers will make an “unwavering commitment” to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The document obtained by The Associated Press would stress “the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”It also will invite all countries that have not recognized the state of Palestine to do so, and “urge countries who have not done so yet to establish normal relations with Israel." The draft was circulated for comment by conference co-chair France ahead of the conference’s final day on Tuesday. United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres says the new alert on Gaza from the world's leading international authority on food crises “confirms what we have feared: Gaza is on the brink of famine.”“The facts are in — and they are undeniable,” Guterres said in a statement. “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes.” He again called for the free and unimpeded flow of food, water, medicine and fuel into the strip, saying that the “trickle of aid must become an ocean.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says two of his country’s military aircraft are on their way to Jordan to join the airdrops of aid to Gaza. Merz said after meeting Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday that the two Airbus A400M planes can join airdrops by the weekend, possibly as early as Wednesday. Abdullah acknowledged that airdrops are “a drop in the ocean,” though “it does send a signal and pressure on Israel that we are trying the best that we can.” He insisted that “truck traffic needs to be started as quickly as possible."
France to join airdrops for Gaza
A French diplomatic official says France will carry out airdrops of humanitarian aid to Gaza in the coming days. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
The official stressed that the airdrops are not intended to replace larger-scale relief efforts. France is also working to establish overland deliveries, which it described as “by far the most effective solution for delivering massive, unimpeded humanitarian relief.”

Iraq's prime minister seeks closer US ties while keeping armed groups at bay
Abby Sewell And Qassim Abdul-zahra/The Associated Press/July 29, 2025
BAGHDAD (AP) — The prime minister of Iraq has kept his country on the sidelines as military conflicts raged nearby for almost two years. This required balancing Iraq's relations with two countries vital to his power and enemies with each other: the U.S. and Iran. The feat became especially difficult last month when war broke out between Israel, a U.S. ally, and Iran — and the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites. Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said he used a mix of political and military pressure to stop armed groups aligned with Iran from entering the fray.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Al-Sudani discussed those efforts along with his intentions of keeping those groups in check going forward and — as he seeks a second term — why he wants to get closer to the Trump administration, even as he maintains strong ties to Iran-backed political parties that helped propel him to power in 2022. After Israel launched airstrikes on Iran and it responded by firing missiles at Tel Aviv, armed groups in Iraq attempted to launch missiles and drones, al-Sudani said. But they were thwarted 29 times by Iraqi government “security operations” that he did not detail. He did not specify the intended target of the missiles and drones, but in the past, factions in Iraq have fired toward Israel and at bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops. “We know that the (Israeli) government had a policy — and still does — of expanding the war in the region,” al-Sudani said. “Therefore, we made sure not to give any justification to any party to target Iraq."Al-Sudani said his government also reached out to leaders in Iran "to urge them toward calm and to make room for dialogue and a return to negotiations."
The U.S. and Iraq last year announced an agreement to wrap up the mission of an American-led coalition in Iraq fighting the Islamic State — and in March al-Sudani announced that the head of IS in Iraq and Syria had been killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation. The first phase of the coalition's drawdown was supposed to be completed by September 2025, but there has been little sign of it happening. Al-Sudani said the U.S. and Iraq will meet by the end of the year to “arrange the bilateral security relationship” between the two countries. He also hopes to secure U.S. economic investment — in oil and gas, and also artificial intelligence — which he said would contribute to regional security and make ”the two countries great together."A variety of militias sprung up in Iraq in the years after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled former autocratic leader Saddam Hussein. And since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, sparking regionwide conflicts, an array of pro-Iran armed factions have periodically launched strikes on bases housing U.S. troops. Al-Sudani said the presence of the coalition forces had provided a “justification” for Iraqi groups to arm themselves, but that once the coalition withdrawal is complete, “there will be no need or no justification for any group to carry weapons outside the scope of the state."One of the most complicated issues for al-Sudani is how to handle the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shiite, Iran-backed militias that formed to fight IS. This coalition was formally placed under the control of the Iraqi military in 2016, although in practice it still operates with significant autonomy. The Iraqi parliament is discussing legislation that would solidify the relationship between the military and the PMF, drawing objections from Washington. The State Department said in a statement last week that the legislation “would institutionalize Iranian influence and armed terrorist groups undermining Iraq’s sovereignty.”Al-Sudani defended the proposed legislation, saying it's part of an effort to ensure that arms are controlled by the state. “Security agencies must operate under laws and be subject to them and be held accountable," he said.
Indications of weak state authority
In recent weeks, a series of drone attacks have targeted oil facilities in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region. Kurdish regional authorities accused groups in the PMF of carrying out the attacks. Authorities in Baghdad disputed this, but haven't assigned blame. Al-Sudani called the attacks a “terrorist act” and said his government is working with Kurdish authorities and coalition forces to identify those responsible and hold them accountable. Just as the drone attacks have called into question Baghdad's control over armed groups, so has the case of Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who went missing in Iraq in 2023.Her family believes she is being held by the Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah, and there have reportedly been U.S.-mediated negotiations to negotiate her release. Al-Sudani did not name the group responsible for Tsurkov’s kidnapping, but he pushed back against the idea that his government has not made serious efforts to free her. He said his government has a team dedicated to finding her. “We do not negotiate with gangs and kidnappers,” he said, but the team has been in discussions with political factions that might be able to help locate her.
Relations between Iraq and the new government in Syria have been tenuous since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in December, after a lightning offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgents. Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa was formerly known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani. He once joined the ranks of al-Qaida insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Al-Sharaa still faces a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges in Iraq. Al-Sharaa has since broken with al-Qaida and has fought against the Islamic State. Al-Sudani said his government is coordinating with the new Syrian government, particularly on security matters. “We and the administration in Syria certainly have a common enemy, ISIS, which is clearly and openly present inside Syria,” he said. Al-Sudani said his government has warned the Syrians against the mistakes that occurred in Iraq after Saddam's fall, when the ensuing security vacuum spawned years of sectarian violence and the rise of armed extremist groups. In recent weeks, sectarian violence in Syria has shaken the country's fragile postwar recovery. Al-Sudani called for Syria’s current leadership to pursue a “comprehensive political process that includes all components and communities.”“We do not want Syria to be divided," he said. "This is unacceptable and we certainly do not want any foreign presence on Syrian soil,” apparently alluding to Israel's incursions into southern Syria.

France to air drop aid into famine-stricken Gaza in coming days
RFI/July 29, 2025
France will air-drop aid into Gaza in coming days, a diplomatic source quoted by French news agency AFP said on Tuesday. The move comes as UN-backed experts warned the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory is slipping into famine. Concern has escalated in the past week about hunger in Gaza after more than 21 months of war. "France will carry out air drops in the coming days to meet the most essential and urgent needs of the civilian population in Gaza," a diplomatic source said, adding the "greatest care" would be taken to protect Gazans during the operations. But the airborne operations were not intended as substitutes for more efficient deliveries by road, the source added, urging "the immediate opening by Israel of land crossing points"."France is also working on deliveries by land, by far the most effective solution to enable the massive and unhindered delivery of humanitarian goods that the population desperately needs," the source said. Aid groups have warned that "mass starvation" is spreading among the territory's more than two million residents. More than 110 aid and human rights groups denounce Gaza 'mass starvation' Israel has in recent days allowed more aid trucks into Gaza but aid agencies say Israeli authorities could still do more to speed security checks and open more border posts. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Germany would work with Jordan to airlift humanitarian aid to Gaza, coordinating this "very closely with France and the United Kingdom".(with AFP)

'Worst-case scenario of famine' is happening in Gaza, food crisis experts warn
Sam Mednick And Cara Anna/The Associated Press/July 29, 2025
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” the leading international authority on food crises said in a new alert Tuesday, predicting “widespread death” without immediate action. The alert, still short of a formal famine declaration, follows an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths after nearly 22 months of war. International pressure led Israel over the weekend to announce measures, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops. The U.N. and Palestinians on the ground say little has changed, and desperate crowds continue to overwhelm delivery trucks before they reach their destinations. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years, but recent developments have “dramatically worsened” the situation, including “increasingly stringent blockades” by Israel. A formal famine declaration, which is rare, requires the kind of data that the lack of access to Gaza, and mobility within, has largely denied. The IPC has only declared famine a few times — in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region last year. But independent experts say they don’t need a formal declaration to know what they’re seeing in Gaza. “Just as a family physician can often diagnose a patient she’s familiar with based on visible symptoms without having to send samples to the lab and wait for results, so too we can interpret Gaza’s symptoms. This is famine,” Alex de Waal, author of “Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine” and executive director of the World Peace Foundation, told The Associated Press.
What it takes to declare famine
An area is classified as in famine when all three of the following conditions are confirmed:
At least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. At least 30% of children six months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height. And at least two people or four children under 5 per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease. The report is based on available information through July 25 and says the crisis has reached “an alarming and deadly turning point.” It says data indicate that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza — at its lowest level since the war began — and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. The report says nearly 17 out of every 100 children under the age of 5 in Gaza City are acutely malnourished. Mounting evidence shows “widespread starvation.” Essential health and other services have collapsed. One in three people in Gaza is going without food for days at a time, according to the World Food Program. Hospitals report a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths in children under 5. Gaza’s population of over 2 million has been squeezed into increasingly tiny areas of the devastated territory. “This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,” U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement on the new report, adding that the “trickle of aid must become an ocean.”
More deaths to come
The IPC alert calls for immediate and large-scale action and warns: “Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the strip.”
Humanitarian workers agreed.
“If we don’t have the conditions to react to this mass starvation, we will see this exponential rise," said Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save the Children International, based in Gaza. "So we will see thousands and potentially tens of thousands of people die in Gaza. That is preventable.” She described children digging through trash piles outside their office, looking for food. Anything less than a ceasefire and a return to the U.N.-led aid system in place before Israel's blockade in early March “is policymakers condemning tens of thousands of people in Gaza to death, starvation and disease,” said Rob Williams, CEO for War Child Alliance. “All of the children who are currently malnourished will die. That is, unless there’s an absolutely rapid and consistent reversal of what is happening," said Dr. Tarek Loubani, medical director for Glia, based in Gaza.
'Open every border crossing'
Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine, to pressure Hamas to free hostages. Israel eased those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead with a new U.S.-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. The traditional, U.N.-led aid providers say deliveries have been hampered by Israeli military restrictions and incidents of looting, while criminals and hungry crowds swarm entering convoys. While Israel says there’s no limit on how many aid trucks can enter Gaza, U.N. agencies and aid groups say even the latest humanitarian measures are not enough to counter the worsening starvation. “The fastest and most effective way to save lives right now is to open every border crossing,” Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, head of Mercy Corps. the international relief agency, said in a statement Tuesday. Aid groups call the airdrops ineffective and dangerous, saying they deliver less aid than trucks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said no one is starving in Gaza and that Israel has supplied enough aid throughout the war, “otherwise, there would be no Gazans.”Israel’s closest ally now appears to disagree. “Those children look very hungry,” President Donald Trump said Monday.

Israeli settler kills Palestinian activist who worked on Oscar-winning film
Abeer Salman, Christian Edwards, Eyad Kourdi, Dana Karni, CNN/July 29, 2025
A prominent Palestinian activist who had worked on an Oscar-winning documentary died on Monday after being shot by a Jewish settler in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to local journalists and officials. Odeh Hathalin, who was a consultant on “No Other Land,” a film that documents Israeli settler and military attacks on the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta, was shot in the village of Umm al-Khair, in that same community. Israeli police said its forces arrived at the scene and detained an Israeli civilian, who was later arrested for questioning. Police did not identify the man they arrested. The Israeli military claimed that “terrorists hurled rocks toward Israeli civilians near Carmel,” an Israeli settlement near Umm al-Khair. Hathalin’s shooting was first reported by Yuval Abraham, the Israeli investigative journalist who co-directed “No Other Land.” Abraham said Hathalin was “shot in the upper body” and was in critical condition. Later, the Palestinian health ministry said he had died of his injuries. Many settlers are armed, and violence in the West Bank has surged since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. At least 964 Palestinians have been killed since then by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations. Settlers have a strong influence on Israeli politics, and in the rare cases where they are arrested for violent attacks against Palestinians, they are often released without charge. Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are illegal under international law. Ofer Cassif, a left-wing member of Israel’s parliament, has demanded that authorities launch an investigation into Hathalin’s death. “The incident occurred in broad daylight, in front of cameras, with no fear of legal consequences – testament to the paralysis of law enforcement and the complete sense of immunity enjoyed by violent settlers,” Cassif wrote in a letter to Israel’s Attorney General. Basel Adra, a Palestinian journalist and a co-director of “No Other Land,” shared testimony to his “dear friend” Hathalin. “He was standing in front of the community settler in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life. This is how Israel erases us – one life at a time,” Adra wrote in a post on Instagram. Last month, Hathalin was detained at San Francisco International Airport upon arrival and deported after immigration officials revoked his visa, local media reported. He had been invited to visit a California synagogue as part of an interfaith speaking tour. CNN reported in March that settlers had also targeted Hamdan Ballal, another co-director of “No Other Land,” outside his home in the village of Susya, also in Masser Yatta. Ballal, who had recently returned from Los Angeles to accept an Oscar for the film, told CNN he thought the group of settlers would kill him. He was detained by Israeli soldiers, handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten. The film “No Other Land,” which tracked the destruction of the Masser Yatta community between 2019 and 2023, won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 2024 Oscars. Its final scene shows Adra’s cousin, Zakara al-Adra, being shot by an Israeli settler in October 2023.

Over 60,000 Palestinians killed in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry says
AP/July 29, 2025
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday. Israeli strikes overnight killed more than two dozen people, mostly women and children, according to health officials. Israel’s offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90 percent of the population and fueled a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Experts warned Tuesday that the territory of some 2 million Palestinians is on the brink of famine after Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of security have made it nearly impossible to safely deliver aid. The Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said the death toll has climbed to 60,034, with 145,870 others wounded since the war started. The victims include 18,592 children and 9,782 women. Together, they make up nearly half the dead.The ministry is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures but has not provided its own account of casualties.
Dozens killed, most while seeking aid
Airstrikes on tents housing displaced people in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp late Monday killed 30 people, including 12 children and 14 women, according to Al-Awda Hospital. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying the militants operate in populated areas. The military said it targeted Hamas military infrastructure over the past day, including rocket launchers, weapons storage facilities and tunnels. Hospital officials meanwhile said they received the bodies of an additional 33 people who were killed by gunfire around an aid convoy in southern Gaza on Monday, bringing the toll to 58. Witnesses said Israeli forces fired toward the crowd. Another 14 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday near a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor, in central Gaza, according to local hospitals. GHF said there were no violent incidents near its sites on Tuesday. The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment on either shooting. Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid since May, according to witnesses, health officials and the UN human rights office. Israel, which controls large areas of Gaza where aid is distributed, says it has only fired warning shots at those who approach its forces.
Hunger crisis has ‘dramatically’ worsened
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, the foremost international authority on food crises, said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years. But it said recent developments, including strict Israeli restrictions, have “dramatically worsened” the situation.
“The facts are in — and they are undeniable,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions… The trickle of aid must become an ocean.”Under mounting international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to increase the flow of aid, including expanded humanitarian corridors and international aid drops. UN officials say there has so far been little change on the ground and far more is needed. Air force cargo planes from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have dropped aid over Gaza in recent days, and France and Germany have announced plans to join that effort. But Associated Press reporters in Gaza said much of the aid has so far fallen in so-called red zones that Israel has ordered people to evacuate from, and that some landed in the Mediterranean Sea. UN agencies and aid groups have long expressed skepticism about airdrops over Gaza, saying they are far costlier and deliver much less aid than land shipments. Parcels can land on desperate crowds, causing injuries or deaths, and can also spark deadly stampedes as thousands try to reach them. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar denied Israel was deliberately starving Gaza and said the focus on hunger was part of a “distorted campaign of international pressure.”“This pressure is directly sabotaging the chances for a ceasefire and hostage deal. It is only pushing toward military escalation by hardening Hamas’s stance,” he said Tuesday.
The US and Israel have both recalled their negotiating teams over the past week as long-running negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release seem to have stalled.
Hunger-related deaths
The World Health Organization says more than 60 people have died this month from malnutrition-related causes, including 24 children under five. Overall, 88 children died of causes related to malnutrition since the start of the war, while 58 adults died this month from malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. During hunger crises, people can die from malnutrition or from common illnesses or injuries that the body is not strong enough to fight. The ministry doesn’t include hunger-related deaths in its overall toll. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the attack that sparked the war, and abducted another 251. They are still holding 50 captives, around 20 believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. The war took a major turn in early March when Israel imposed a complete 2 ½ month blockade, barring the entry of all food, medicine, fuel and other goods. Weeks later, Israel ended a ceasefire with a surprise bombardment and began seizing large areas of Gaza, measures it said were aimed at pressuring Hamas to release more hostages. At least 8,867 Palestinians have been killed since then. Israel eased the blockade in May, but UN agencies say it hasn’t allowed nearly enough aid to enter and that they have struggled to deliver it because of Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order. An alternative Israeli-backed system run by GHF has been marred by violence and controversy.

Houthis Threaten to Target All Ships Belonging to Companies Conducting Commerce With Israel
FDD//July 29/2025
Houthis Threaten Renewed Red Sea Escalation: Houthi rebels in Yemen have threatened to escalate attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea in the latest phase of the group’s effort to impose a naval blockade on Israel. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree warned that the Iran-backed group will begin targeting “all ships belonging to any company that deals with the ports of the Israeli enemy,” regardless of the company’s nationality or the vessel’s final destination. At previous points during the war in Gaza, which the Houthis joined in solidarity with their Hamas allies, the Yemen-based Iranian proxy claimed that only Israeli-owned ships or ships docking at Israeli ports were being targeted despite regularly attacking ships owned and operated by other countries as well. U.S. Vessels Possible Targets Despite Ceasefire: The announcement appeared to make no exception for American vessels despite the United States and the Houthis agreeing to a mutual ceasefire deal in May. Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted more than 100 vessels using missiles and drones. In early July, the group attacked two Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged bulk carriers, Magic Seas and the Eternity C, killing four crew members and seizing 11 hostages from the latter vessel. Houthi Strikes on Israel Continue: The Houthis’ agreement with the Trump administration did not prevent them from continuing attacks against Israel. Since the IDF resumed military operations in Gaza on March 18, the Houthis have launched 65 ballistic missiles and at least 17 drones at Israel, most of which were intercepted or fell short. Israel has conducted multiple airstrikes against the Houthis, including twice in July, mostly targeting the Houthi-controlled ports through which the group imports weapons from Iran.
“Israeli strikes on Houthi infrastructure have not deterred the Houthis from their illegal actions in the Red Sea. Instead, the United States needs to strike the ports, ships, and warehouses of Iran — the supplier and benefactor supporting the Houthis’ maritime strikes.” — RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, Senior
“Americans enjoy extraordinary prosperity for many reasons, including our ability to rely on unfettered maritime trade and freedom of navigation. And our unrivaled network of allies and partners helps facilitate the extraordinary security we enjoy. So, when a terrorist group backed by Iran is conducting the worst assault on commercial shipping in decades and attacking our best friend in the Middle East, Americans would be wise to realize this terrorist maritime assault is not someone else’s problem.” — Bradley Bowman, Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power
“While the U.S.-Houthi ceasefire in early May was intended to improve stability in the Red Sea, it is obvious that the Houthis only feel beholden to their commitments while it serves their interests and the interests of Tehran. Furthermore, the group feels emboldened after facing minimal consequences for their recent attacks on the Magic Seas and the Eternity C, which had tenuous connections to Israel. To restore security in the Red Sea, the Trump administration — along with America’s Western and Arab partners — will need to punish both the terrorists in Sanaa and the regime in Tehran.”

Israel military intercepts Houthi missile fired from Yemen
AFP/July 29, 2025
JERUSALEM: Sirens sounded in several Israeli cities, including Jerusalem, on Tuesday as the military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, with Houthi militants later claiming the attack.“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the Israeli air force,” the military said in a statement. The Houthis later claimed the attack, saying they had fired a missile at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi fighters have launched repeated missile and drone attacks against Israel since their Palestinian ally Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war. The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza that ended in March, but renewed them after Israel resumed major operations. Israel has carried out several retaliatory strikes in Yemen, targeting Houthi-held ports and the airport in the rebel-held capital Sanaa.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on July 29-30/2025
Inside the harrowing attack on Syria’s Druze — and why the US’ first step in the right direction is vital
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/New York Post/July 29/2025
I woke to voice notes from Mazen, his Suwayda Druze dialect thick with tears.
“Jolani’s ISIS are massacring us,” he said, referring to the forces of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Jolani from his Al-Qaeda days. “Please talk to anyone you know in Washington to help us,” he pleaded.
Over the next five days, I exchanged information with Mazen, Muhannad, Makram, Gadeer, Shadi and other Druze in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, piecing together the unfolding horror. I was the only non-Druze in the group.
To us, it was clear: Damascus had ordered a massacre against the Druze in southern Syria.
As a Lebanese civil war survivor, I’ve faced near-death experiences and reported on assassinations. Despite losing close friends to violence in Lebanon and Iraq, I’ve trained myself to detach, keeping emotions separate from my work.
But no one grows numb to massacres. Once you connect with victims, helplessness sets in.
On normal days, I make noise about Middle Eastern issues, but as Druze fell to Islamist bullets, I felt powerless. How do you stop death? How do you make the world hear?
The Druze in Israel worked tirelessly, lobbying for the Jewish state to intervene and deter Sharaa. Israel eventually acted, destroying Islamist convoys heading south and striking a building in Damascus to warn Sharaa.
Suddenly, the narrative shifted to international law — not condemning Syria for killing its citizens, but criticizing Israel for violating Syrian sovereignty. This same Israeli action had previously weakened Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, paving Sharaa’s path to power.
Yet now, Syrian sovereignty was the focus.
After Israel’s warning, Sharaa paused but didn’t stop. Cunningly, he continued the violence through proxies. “He ordered his forces to swap military uniforms for tribal outfits, calling them clans,” Mazen said. “Our guys in Suwayda captured several ‘clansmen’ who still carried military IDs.” Mazen, Muhannad and others eventually outlined the attacking force.
Three of Sharaa’s top lieutenants — Hussain al-Salama (Chief of Intelligence), Youssef Al-Hajr (HTS Political Chief) and Muhammad al-Jassim (Abu Amsheh, a Turkish-backed commander) — orchestrated the tribal attack.
Salama and Al-Hajr, from the Aqidat clan, and Al-Jassim, from the Nuaym clan, both based in northeastern Syria, used state-supervised mosque networks to rally 15,000 fighters whom they bused over 350 miles to attack the Druze in the south. No ties linked the northern and southern clans. The “revenge” narrative was bogus. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Druze suffered heavy losses over three days. Sharaa’s Islamists entered homes, massacring families including Evangelical pastor Khalid Mezher and 20 of his relatives. An American citizen, Hosam Saraya, visiting Suwayda, was dragged in the street and executed with his family.
A captured government fighter confessed that Sharaa’s forces were instructed to wear civilian clothes and use civilian vehicles to evade Israeli airstrikes. They were ordered to kill any Druze they encountered, either by shooting or beheading. Of the 3,500 fighters transported in 800 vehicles, 200 were foreign Islamists from Chechnya and Central Asia, including suicide bombers tasked with targeting Druze gatherings. As clashes continued, Mazen’s updates grew grim: “This is where my retired uncle was killed in his house,” or “That’s where my maternal cousins were gunned down.”
We wanted to console him, but there was no time for emotions — not for Mazen, Muhannad, or any of us. US Envoy Tom Barrack claimed the perpetrators were Islamists posing as government forces. We were certain he was wrong, likely unaware of US intelligence and echoing Damascus’s talking points. Sharaa denied his government’s role in the onslaught, yet water, electricity and internet were cut off in Suwayda. Government checkpoints blocked food and medicine. Our sources went silent. Mazen explained that batteries were dying, and those with satellite phones were busy searching for missing loved ones or burying the dead. The Druze were drowning in blood and grief, unable to update us, their window to the world.
Washington announced a ceasefire on Friday, but it didn’t take hold until Sunday. When the shooting stopped, the scale of the disaster emerged. The tally stands so far at 3,300 dead Druze out of Syria’s 700,000 Druze population — the equivalent of America’s September 11 and Israel’s October 7.
With electricity and internet restored, videos surfaced: hundreds of summary executions, an unarmed Druze man shot by Sharaa’s forces without question, another pleading for his life before being killed for being Druze. Government forces looted shops and homes, desecrated houses of worship and left graffiti vowing to exterminate the Druze and establish an Islamist state. President Trump met Sharaa in May and announced the removal of sanctions on Syria. But the Suwayda massacre prompted the House Financial Services Committee to reconsider. Instead of fully repealing the 2019 Caesar sanctions, they voted to amend them, allowing removal only if Syria stops killing civilians, including minorities.
Congress has taken a step in the right direction. Past experiments — lifting sanctions on Iran or funneling Qatari billions to Hamas — showed that Islamists don’t moderate with money. There’s no reason to believe Sharaa will be different. “Trust but verify” must be America’s policy on Syria. Washington isn’t even demanding accountability.
https://nypost.com/2025/07/27/opinion/inside-the-harrowing-attack-on-syrias-druze/
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a Foundation for Defense of Democracies research fellow.

Trump Shouldn’t Fall for Russia’s Nuclear Bluster
Mark Montgomery & Ivana Stradner/National Review/July 29/2025
It is time for Washington to stop giving these threats undue weight and instead expose their hollowness.
Two days after President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. and NATO allies would supply advanced weapons to Ukraine, the Kremlin responded with nuclear threats. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, reminded Washington that “Russia’s nuclear doctrine remains in effect, and thus, all its provisions continue to apply.”
While Peskov’s comments may spark concern among U.S. officials, they represent nothing more than an example of an age-old Kremlin psychological operation to deter Washington. The Trump administration should not fall for Putin’s saber-rattling.
For Russia’s military, nukes are cognitive weapons. During the Cold War, Russia developed “reflexive control” techniques that use information operations to influence its adversary’s decision-making to alter the perception of the nuclear balance and thereby influence American politics.
In this vein, last year, Russia reportedly changed its nuclear doctrine, which allows Russia to view any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack.
Today, Russia is again exploiting the United States’ fear of nuclear retaliation for Western military actions as a form of cognitive manipulation, hoping threats are sufficient to deter the United States from helping Ukraine against Russian aggression. The full Kremlin narrative paints the United States as a warmongering giant whose actions could lead to a war in which Russia would need to use nuclear weapons in its own defense.
Russia has repeatedly declared red lines with explicit nuclear threats attached. In June, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lamented the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear arsenal, warning President Donald Trump that “a number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.” Following the strikes, Sergei Lavrov echoed these sentiments, warning that “World War III could be very close.”
While these threats of World War III are concerning, they are nothing new; the Kremlin has used the threat of nuclear war against the West since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Despite the threats and the continued U.S. involvement in Ukraine’s defense, no nuclear actions have occurred.
Despite Russia’s never following through on its threats, the United States under President Biden was constantly cowed by Russia’s claims. In 2022, when Biden was deliberating sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, Putin warned that such action would result in nuclear escalation, and again in September 2022, Putin warned the West to take his threats of nuclear war seriously. President Joe Biden certainly did. In explaining his decision to limit the Ukrainian use of U.S. weapons, Biden warned the American people that they faced the threat of “Armageddon” over Ukraine.
The Trump administration, too, had previously been a victim of Putin’s mind games and leftover Soviet policies. The threats have been so effective that Trump has also warned that because of the Ukraine war, the United States could be drawn into World War III, which he contended is “looming.”
The correct response to this nuclear posturing is to push back and call the Russians out. Recently, President Trump did just that, criticizing Medvedev’s recent comments about countries supplying Iran with their own nuclear weapons as absurd, and upbraiding Medvedev for throwing around “the N word (Nuclear!)” so “casually.” Medvedev responded by backing down, stating that Russia has “no intention” to supply Iran with nuclear weapons.
Supporting America’s Allies Puts America First
Going forward, this is exactly how U.S. officials should deal with Russia’s nuclear threats. By confronting them, the Russians will expose their emptiness. In addition to calling Russia’s bluff, President Trump should remind Russia of the size and strength of America’s own nuclear arsenal and the terrible consequences any nuclear attack would elicit.
The current round of Russian nuclear brinkmanship has lasted three years, with Moscow threatening to cross a line that hasn’t been crossed since 1945. It is time for Washington to stop giving these threats undue weight and instead expose their hollowness.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/07/trump-shouldnt-fall-for-russias-nuclear-bluster/
**Ivana Stradner is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mark Montgomery is a retired Navy surface warfare officer who commanded a destroyer, a destroyer squadron, and a carrier strike group. He is currently a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Syrian Druze are not entitled to self-determination, and Kurds cannot yet pursue secession
David Daoud/ FDD's Long War Journal/July 29/2025
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2025/07/analysis-syrian-druze-are-not-entitled-to-self-determination-and-kurds-cannot-yet-pursue-secession.php
Syria is a patchwork of identities, par for the course in a region where novel nationalities vie with tribe and religion for the citizenry’s loyalty. For most of the country’s history, the Assad family wielded dictatorial power to enforce a Syrian identity synonymous with Assadist Baathism—an identity that fractured during the Syrian Civil War. This fragmentation has continued, recently erupting into violence between Sunni Bedouins and Druze in southern Syria’s Suwayda province.
What began on July 11 as tit-for-tat attacks between the two sides metastasized into all-out fighting and mutual atrocities. Government forces intervened but either failed to quell the violence or themselves committed abuses against the Druze. By the time the fighting largely subsided, 814 people were killed and 903 were injured on all sides, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 1,386 killed on all sides, including 386 civilians.
These ongoing tensions and clashes, along with previous fighting, have raised the question of whether Syria’s new rulers are able or willing to protect minorities, including Druze and Kurds, and whether such a failure entitles those minorities to sovereignty. This proposition, however, reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of self-determination—an international law principle—and its misapplication in the Syrian context.
The principle of self-determination
Self-determination gained prominence as a legal principle with US President Woodrow Wilson’s insistence that world powers must treat former imperial territories not as possessions, but as trusts on behalf of their designated peoples—resulting in the creation of the League of Nations’ Mandatory System. Self-determination would later become enshrined in international law after the adoption of the United Nations Charter in 1945, initially as an aspirational goal rather than an operative principle. The concept remains controversial and is in the process of being defined at its outer edges.
However, as self-government, the right applies exclusively to peoples, rather than to any group of individuals desiring political independence or self-governance. At the UN Charter’s adoption, “peoples” was understood narrowly, accruing to entire populations of states rather than also devolving upon minorities, ethno-cultural groups, or colonized peoples. As its application broadened to colonized peoples and those perceived to be under foreign or alien occupation, ambiguity attached to the outer limits of the term “peoples.” Nevertheless, groups entitled to self-determination can be identified with reasonable precision.
Scholarship and case law frequently reference a “shared identity” within a group that fundamentally distinguishes its members from their compatriots. Objectively, this assesses whether and to what extent a group possesses a combination of a common racial or ethnic background, language, history, and cultural heritage that is sufficiently distinct from surrounding populations, and the degree of the integrity of their claimed territory. The group’s members must also consciously perceive themselves, collectively, as a distinct people and be able to constitute a viable entity.
The Druze—Syrian or otherwise—are not a ‘people’
The right of self-determination as self-government does not accrue to purely religious groups like the Druze—collectives solely distinguished by religious beliefs, customs, and practices.
Notwithstanding internal Druze traditions regarding their sect’s primordial origins, the Druze religion originated in the 11th century as an offshoot of Ismaili Shiite Islam. The Druze relationship to Islam, as a breakaway religion or Islamic sect, has therefore always been complex. The position of Sunni and Shiite Muslims and Druze on this question is complicated and has fluctuated over time, often with political interests and currents.
Suffice it to say, however, that the unique characteristics Druze derive from their religion and their relative insularity are not so comprehensive as to render them a distinct “people.” In Arab countries, their identity is as distinct from that of Sunni Arabs as any other purely religious minority like Shiites. In fact, Druze in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan are politically classified as Muslims and are part of those countries’ Muslim social fabric.
Their ethno-cultural belonging is much clearer: Druze are ethnically, linguistically, and culturally Arab and have always been so. They originated in Arab-dominated Egypt and would, afterwards, coalesce in modern-day Lebanon’s Wadi al Taym, which became the de facto birthplace and distribution center for the Druze as a group, to areas that would centuries later become Syria, Israel, and Jordan.
As such, they lack an ethnic origin or language distinct from their Arab compatriots, or an ethnographic history predating the Arab conquest of the Levant. Like any self-contained religious group, they possess certain collective idiosyncrasies. Still, these are ultimately too minor to render them non-Arab or a people apart, resulting in Pan-Arabist movements taking the Arab identity of Druze for granted.
Admittedly, Pan-Arabism used an overly expansive definition of “Arabs” to include non-Arab groups, deliberately “flattening” and effectively erasing their particular identities and languages for political purposes. But the Druze perceive of themselves as ethnic Arabs, with a strong sense of belonging to their countries of citizenship. Arab affiliation, in fact, is central to Druze identity. The uncompromisingly endogamous and closed community prides itself on its ancient Arabian pedigree and possessing the “purest Arab blood,” unmixed through intermarriage with other ethnic groups through their prohibition on conversion. Therefore, no separate Druze ethnicity exists, and to the extent the Druze can be considered an “ethno-religious” group, their ethnicity is Arab.
The Druze, then, are and perceive themselves as a distinct religion, not a people. Lacking any of the objective indicia of peoplehood save for their unique religion, they are not entitled to sovereignty or self-government separate from Syrian Arabs, and certainly not secession. In Syria, as Syrian Arabs, Druze self-determination has been secured through Syrian independence. In fact, their renowned fierce patriotism led the Druze in Syria to play an instrumental role in pursuing and securing Syrian independence from the French, rather than seeking a state of their own. Today, as a purely religious minority, they are entitled to fair and equal treatment from their government and to control their religious affairs without outside interference.
Syrian Kurds have no right to pursue independence
The right of Syrian Kurds to self-determination is at once more straightforward and more complex. Kurds, after all, possess all indicia of peoplehood: a unique shared history, culture, language, and ethnic origins that are sufficiently distinct from those of Syrian Arabs. However, the status of being a people alone does not entitle a group to independence. Self-determination is a spectrum rather than a binary that grants or denies peoples the right to establish particularistic sovereign entities. Secession is only one manifestation—the most extreme and legally dubious—of self-determination.
That is because international law, a Western-created legal system, favors order and predictability. Therefore, even as the scope of “peoples” entitled to self-determination progressively broadened, exercising the right to self-determination nevertheless remained subordinate to preserving the territorial integrity of states, the main units of the international order.
Former International Court of Justice (ICJ) President Rosalyn Higgins writes that in the interest of preventing “the international order [from] be[ing] reduced to fragmented chaos,” self-determination must, as a default, be reserved as “the right of the majority within a generally acceptable political unit to exercise power.” In Syria, this right would then accrue to Arabs, who constitute 80–85 percent of the population and most provinces, except for Hasakah—where Kurds may form a majority, though this is disputed. Arabs also almost certainly form a majority in the Kurdish-controlled Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which expanded into Arab-majority regions such as Manbij, Deir Ezzor, and Raqqa.
Self-determination accrues to Arabs over the established boundaries of Syria. Admittedly, the country’s borders—like almost all borders—are messy, drawn up by France to delineate a mandatory holding granted them by the League of Nations. However, upon its independence, Syria succeeded the French mandatory entity and, by law, inherited those boundaries under the principle of uti possidetis juris—which provides for the maintenance of pre-existing internal and international boundaries when a new state emerges.
The principle seeks to maintain the predictability of frontiers and, according to the ICJ, “prevent the independence and stability of new States being endangered by fratricidal struggles provoked by the challenging of frontiers following the withdrawal of the administering powers.” In other words, it seeks to prevent forceful struggles over seemingly unclaimed territories emerging with the extinction of colonial or mandatory entities.
This does not mean Kurds do not have a right to self-determination, including within Syria. The issue, as addressed by the 1998 Supreme Court of Canada in the Reference re Secession of Quebec case, is its form. In the Quebec case, the court concluded that generally, “peoples are expected to achieve self-determination within the framework of their existing state” if it “represents the whole of the people or peoples resident within its territory on the basis of equality and without discrimination, and respects the principles of self-determination in its internal arrangements,” by granting minorities that qualify as peoples “meaningful access to government to pursue their political, economic, cultural and social development.”
The Canadian Supreme Court, in this case, was describing internal self-determination, which can be satisfied by granting legal equality to the individual members of the people in question to pursue their aforementioned rights, or autonomy if necessary. Only “as a last resort” is a people denied self-determination internally entitled “to exercise it by secession.” However, the court conceded that “it remains unclear whether this […] actually reflects an established international law standard.”
Nevertheless, a Syrian Kurdish right to territorial autonomy is legally dubious because the areas these groups control lack territorial integrity. As noted, these regions are far from ethnically homogenous and are non-contiguous. Nor would a Syrian Kurdish entity be viable, economically or otherwise: most of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters are Arabs, weakening the ability of Syrian Kurds to hold a territory intended for Kurdish self-determination. The territory is landlocked, beset to the north by Turkey, which would view an autonomous Syrian Kurdistan as a direct threat because of its historical links to the terrorist Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK). To the east, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) would also oppose an autonomous Syrian Kurdistan due to the groups’ competing ideologies, which may lead to clashes.
Therefore, as a matter of law, Syrian Kurds would be required to pursue their self-determination as equal members of the Syrian state, in its current internal and external boundaries.
**David Daoud is Senior Fellow at at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs. He holds a JD with a focus on public international law and the Laws of Armed Conflict.

How Syrian attackers killed: One hand on the gun, another on the camera
Deniz Uyar, Monica Naime and Pola Grzanka/July 29, 2025
https://www.reuters.com/world/how-syrian-attackers-killed-one-hand-gun-another-camera-2025-07-29/
Reuters verified three videos in which gunmen wearing military fatigues carried out the execution-style killings of 12 unarmed Druze civilians in southern Syria earlier this month. The footage was filmed by the killers themselves or people accompanying them.
The fighters in military-style uniforms pointed their rifles at the three unarmed men and ordered them out onto a sunny balcony, before barking at them to pause. “One minute. You want to film them?” one of the attackers asked his comrade.
The unfolding horror, which was already being filmed by one gunman on his cellphone, was delayed for a few moments to allow a second fighter to start capturing the events.
“Let’s go! Throw yourself over,” the gunmen yelled at their victims, members of Syria’s minority Druze faith.
Two of the attackers shot the men one by one as they clambered over the black railing before their bodies tumbled to the street below, according to the footage circulating on social media which was reviewed by Reuters.
The victims were Moaz Arnous, his brother Baraa Arnous and their cousin, Osama Arnous, according to a family friend and another cousin who both told Reuters the video showed the three being killed at their home in the southern city of Sweida on July 16.
The deaths were among 12 execution-style killings of unarmed Druze civilians carried out at three sites in and around Sweida this month by gunmen wearing military fatigues, according to the footage of the attacks, which was filmed by the killers themselves or people accompanying them and verified by Reuters.
Another video shows Mounir al-Rajma, a 60-year-old guard at a communal water well, being gunned down by two young fighters after telling them he is Druze, his son Wiam told Reuters. Other footage shows a group of fighters forcing eight civilians to kneel in the dust of a roundabout before shooting them dead, according to a friend and a relative of some of those victims.
The videos provide some of the most detailed depictions yet of the bloodshed that erupted in Sweida province in mid-July, initially between local Druze militia and Bedouin tribal fighters and subsequently government forces sent to restore order. The violence killed hundreds of mostly Druze people, according to Reuters reporting and two monitoring groups.
Reuters was able to use visible landmarks in each video to geo-locate the incidents. The events depicted and their dates were verified through interviews with seven relatives and friends of the victims. All said they believed Syrian government forces killed their loved ones.
The news agency could not identify the attackers in the videos, which were not time-stamped, or determine who first posted them online. The pieces of footage began appearing online after July 18, a review of social media posts found.
The media offices of the Syrian defence and interior ministries didn’t respond to questions from Reuters on the filmed attacks.
Syria’s defense ministry said on July 22 that it was aware of reports that an “unknown group” wearing military fatigues committed “shocking and gross violations” in Sweida. It didn’t mention execution-style killings targeting Druze people.
The ministry vowed to investigate the abuses, identify those responsible and impose “maximum penalties” on perpetrators, “even if they are affiliated with the ministry of defense.”
On the same day, the interior ministry condemned “in the strongest terms the circulating videos showing field executions carried out by unidentified individuals in the city of Sweida”.
RIGHTS GROUP: AT LEAST 1,000 DEAD
Syria has been plagued by bouts of sectarian strife since the sudden fall of President Bashar al-Assad and his police state in December last year after 14 years of war. The new government, led by a former Sunni Islamist group that has its roots in global jihad, dissolved Assad’s army and sought to integrate dozens of former rebel factions into a national army, but those forces have struggled to fill the security vacuum.
Sweida province is predominantly populated by the Druze community, a distant offshoot of Islam that comprises about 3% of Syria’s pre-war population of 24 million. The atrocities there came four months after a spree of killings against the Alawite minority, with armed factions affiliated to the new government killing hundreds of people in coastal settlements.
The Sweida unrest began on July 13 when longstanding local tensions over land and resources in the province escalated into clashes between local Druze militia and Bedouin tribal fighters, who like government forces largely adhere to the country’s majority Sunni faith.
The violence worsened significantly after the Syrian military was deployed to the province on July 14 to quell the clashes and entered Sweida city itself on July 15, according to residents, two war monitors and reporters on the ground.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said 1,013 people have been killed in the bloodshed since July 13, including 47 women, 26 children and six medical personnel. The group said victims were mainly Druze, adding that it wasn’t clear how many were fighters or civilians. The network said the vast majority died after the army’s arrival led to a sharp increase in fighting.
The organization’s head, Fadel Abdulghany, told Reuters it had documented execution-style killings by Syrian troops, Bedouin fighters and Druze groups.
A forensic pathologist in the city of Sweida, who requested anonymity to speak about sensitive matters, told Reuters he had examined 502 bodies that had been brought to the Sweida National Hospital during this month’s violence.
One was decapitated and two, including a teenage girl, had their throats slit. Most of the others suffered from gunshot wounds inflicted at close range, he said.
Reuters could not independently verify the numbers or specific atrocities recounted by the Syrian network and the pathologist.
‘ARE YOU MUSLIM OR DRUZE?’
The son of Rajma, the 60-year-old water well guard, identified his father in a video verified by Reuters as having been filmed on July 15 outside the Muhammad Salih Nasr School in the town of Thaalah, less than a mile from their home.
Rajma is seen sitting on the steps of the school’s entrance as at least three young rifle-toting men in military fatigues are heard repeatedly screaming at him, “Are you Muslim or Druze?” The exchange is filmed by someone standing directly next to the fighters and it is unclear if the person is also armed.
When the older man answers, “I’m Syrian”, one fighter responds: “What does Syrian mean? Muslim or Druze?”
Rajma says: “My brother, I’m Druze.”
Three of the fighters immediately open fire.
“This is the fate of every dog among you, you pigs,” one of them says.
In another video verified by Reuters, a group of seven fighters in military fatigues carrying rifles are seen guiding eight men in civilian clothes down a sidewalk. Based on the shop signs and road layout, Reuters identified the street as lying just west of Tishreen Square in the heart of Sweida city.
The only visible insignia on the fatigues is a small black patch on the right arm of one of the fighters bearing the Islamic declaration of faith in a design popularized by the Islamic State group. Reuters reporters have also seen some soldiers at checkpoints in government areas wearing them.
This is the fate of every dog among you, you pigs.
Syrian attacker
Syria’s defense and interior ministries didn’t respond to questions on whether their forces wear the patches.
The Islamic State did not mention Sweida in any of their posts on their social media propaganda channels, including in the period after July 13. Reuters couldn’t reach a representative for the group.
A few seconds into the video, the fighter filming turns his phone camera around to his own face: He’s a bearded man dressed in military fatigues, with a red bandana wrapped around his head and the butt of a rifle visible across his chest.
The eight victims walk in single file, each resting his hands on the shoulders of the man in front. The last man in line, wearing a tan shirt and sandals, was identified by a friend who watched the video as Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian-American citizen. The friend said the older man directly in front of him in line was Hosam’s father, and the next man was Hosam’s brother Kareem. Most of the others were from the same extended family, the friend added.
Dima Saraya, the wife of Ali Saraya – another of the men in line – told Reuters that armed men in military fatigues had surrounded the apartment building where the extended Saraya family lived west of Tishreen Square on July 16 and demanded that the men inside surrender themselves, promising to question them for a few hours and return them home safely.
U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma confirmed that Hosam, who had lived in Oklahoma, “was tragically executed alongside other members of his family in Syria.” He didn’t give further details.
A separate video shows the same eight unarmed men kneeling in the dirt of a roundabout in Tishreen Square. Reuters was able to verify the video’s location from the statue in the roundabout and a tower block visible directly behind it.
The same friend identified Hosam, his brother and his father among the kneeling men in the second video. At least two fighters fire their rifles directly at the kneeling group, from close proximity and for at least seven seconds.
The kneeling men crumple into the dirt and lie motionless as the armed men yell, “God is great.”
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*Video verification by Deniz Uyar, Monica Naime and Pola Grzanka. Video editing by Holly Murtha, Francesca Lynagh and Emma Jehle. Photo editing by Simon Newman. Design by Catherine Tai and John Emerson. Edited by Pravin Char.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Marco Rubio Fights Lawfare with Sanctions — and Wins
Enia Krivine/Algemeiner/July 29/2025
A UN official is getting her due for persecuting Israel and the United States using a bogus international court system — and she won’t be the last.
On July 9, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed sanctions on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. Albanese has used her platform at the United Nations to relentlessly attack Israel and wage economic warfare against US companies. The sanctions sent reverberations through other UN bodies that have been weaponizing international law to fuel illegitimate investigations focusing on the United States and Israel.
Days after the State Department’s announcement, all three commissioners of the UN’s Commission of Inquiry — another UN mechanism established for attacking Israel at Turtle Bay — resigned their posts.
The Trump administration has sanctioned officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the past in response to attacks on the United States and Israel. However, this is the first time that Washington has acted not just against the overreaching court itself, but against those, such as Albanese, that directly engage in the ICC’s efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel.
On July 3, Albanese submitted a report to the UN that called on member states to boycott and sanction the Jewish State. The special rapporteur also urged UN member states and the ICC to investigate and prosecute corporations and their executives — including those of American companies — who have done business with Israel. The ICC was established in 2002 with the lofty goal of prosecuting individuals for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. The court was supposed to intervene only when countries were unwilling or unable to genuinely investigate or prosecute such crimes themselves, and the US government has long argued that the ICC has jurisdiction only over countries that are party to the Rome Statute.
When the court was established, both the US and Israel — two democracies that have robust judicial systems and internal review processes — declined to join the court, fearing it would become yet another venue for lawfare – i.e. the weaponization of law to pursue a political agenda. Unfortunately, the American and Israeli fears were justified; the ICC has become one of the world’s premier venues for lawfare against both the US and Israel.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to combat the ICC began during his first term. In 2020, the court’s then-chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, opened an investigation that put the US military and the entire defense establishment at risk of arrest when traveling abroad. They could then be imprisoned until trial at The Hague. Washington opposed the investigation, arguing that not only did the court lack jurisdiction, but the court was superfluous, as the United States was capable of handling such investigations. The Trump administration attempted to block the investigation, publishing an executive order that threatened visa bans and sanctions on ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members.
Despite the explicit warning from Washington, Bensouda pursued the investigation. And in September 2020, Washington sanctioned the chief prosecutor and one member of her staff, freezing their assets in the United States and listing them as “specially designated nationals,” a title usually reserved for terrorists and international drug traffickers.
The Biden administration foolishly reversed Trump’s order, arguing that engagement is the best way to make progress with those that wish to harm the United States and our allies.
Likely emboldened by the Biden administration’s decision, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in the last months of Biden’s term.
Trump remedied the Biden administration’s wrong-footed policy in February, publishing Executive Order 14203, designating the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. Three months later the State Department added sanctions on four ICC judges. The Executive Order broadened the administration’s authorities to tackle the ICC, authorizing sanctions on those directly engaged with the international court. Albanese would have been wise to heed the administration’s warning and think twice before producing the report that urged the prosecution of more than a dozen US companies and their executives.
A July 18 preliminary injunction issued by a US district court judge in Maine has been characterized as blocking enforcement of the order. However, the injunction only bars the government from enforcing the executive order against two US citizens, and only in response to their “provision of speech-based services to the ICC.” All of the foreign persons sanctioned under the order thus far – Karim Khan, four ICC judges, and Francesca Albanese — remain sanctioned.
The lawfare industry is robust and presents dozens of additional targets for sanctions under Trump’s executive order. Going forward, the Trump administration should sanction the Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF). The group exists to pursue legal action, in both international and national courts, against individuals they deem responsible for alleged Israeli war crimes against Palestinians. The HRF is endangering more than 1,000 IDF soldiers by urging they be arrested if they leave Israel so that they can be tried for war crimes. By directly engaging with the ICC in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israelis , the Hind Rajab Foundation is clearly deserving of legal consequences, just as special rapporteur Albanese is.
**Enia Krivine is the senior director of the Israel Program and the National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow her on X @EKrivine.

Syria’s Parliamentary “Elections” Are a Charade
Ahmad Sharawi/FDD/July 29, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/07/145790/
Parliamentary elections in Syria will take place in September, Damascus announced on July 27 — but the people will not vote and presidential appointees will choose the winners. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa put this power in his own hands via Syria’s interim constitution, known as its constitutional declaration, which his appointees drafted, and Sharaa adopted in March. According to the constitutional declaration, Sharaa will directly appoint one-third of a legislature to be known as the People’s Assembly, while committees he establishes will appoint the other two-thirds.
There will be neither a direct vote by the Syrian people nor an indirect process where elected representatives choose lawmakers. Sharaa will exercise control of the legislative branch, even as he argued in December 2024 that Syria deserves a system in which no “single ruler makes arbitrary decisions.”
Sharaa’s Interim Constitution Gives Him the Power To Appoint Lawmakers
The constitutional declaration gives Sharaa extensive powers to shape Syria’s political trajectory over the next five years. In addition to the power to choose one-third of the parliament, Article 24 states the president will form a “higher committee” to supervise the formation of “electoral sub-committees” to select the remaining two-thirds. Sharaa formed the higher committee in June and appointed as its leader Muhammad al-Ahmad, a former member of the Syrian Salvation Government, which administered the enclave Sharaa controlled prior to ousting Bashar al-Assad. The higher committee will form subcommittees in each of Syria’s 14 governorates.
Each of the 14 subcommittees will form an electoral body of 30-50 individuals in their respective governorates. This electoral body will then vote for registered candidates. This is the only form of voting that will take place.
Syrian media have claimed that, due to the large-scale displacement caused by the civil war and the absence of the political infrastructure to hold direct elections, indirect elections are the best option. But it is hardly an indirect election if voters choose none of the participants in the process.
The Elections Are the Latest Example of Syria’s Exclusionary Politics
Holding faux elections is no departure for Shaara. He pledged to build an inclusive system, yet in practice, like-minded Islamists and loyalists have dominated the institutions he has created. In January, Sharaa convened a “victory conference” during which 18 militia leaders — all of whom are Sunni — appointed him interim president. He did not consult Syria’s other communities.
The following month, Sharaa held a national dialogue conference that explicitly excluded any group that refused to integrate into the state’s armed forces, effectively barring the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Moreover, because the conference’s organization was rushed, many key figures outside Syria were unable to attend.
The same exclusionary politics emerged during the constitutional drafting process. Kurdish and Druze demands for equal participation and respect for their local concerns were absent from the constitutional declaration. Now, despite holding consultations with delegations from various governorates regarding the parliamentary elections, the higher committee has moved forward without engaging key actors, such as the SDF and the Druze armed factions. As a result, these factions will likely be excluded from the subcommittees responsible for forming the local electoral college.
Damascus failed to consult these factions because they continue to resist integrating into the state. However, this is mainly due to their distrust of Sharaa and his exclusionary record.
U.S. Policy Should Uphold Commitment To Help Protect Syrian Minorities
The United States has a strong interest in an inclusive transition process that results in a representative government with adequate protections for minority rights and civil liberties. At the same time, Washington is determined to allow Sharaa to centralize his rule over Syria and reverse the fragmentation of the civil war years. Yet the Trump administration should consistently make clear to Sharaa that sustainable centralization depends on adequate protection and representation for Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities.
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/07/29/syrias-parliamentary-elections-are-a-charade/
**Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from Ahmad and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Ahmad on X @AhmadA_Sharawi. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

What Netanyahu fears most in Gaza
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/July 29, 2025
The war in Gaza, with all its horrors, is approaching the end of its second year, making it the longest and deadliest confrontation in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Why has the Gaza war lasted this long?
Some believe that Israel fears for the remaining hostages. Others think it wants to avoid further losses among its troops. And some see it as incapable of eliminating what remains of Hamas.
In my opinion, Israel does not want to end the war except on its own terms — by preventing the return of the Palestinian Authority to rule the Gaza Strip. To prolong the crisis, it will use whatever weapons it has left, from starvation to displacement. In short, what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fears most is the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Washington has a practical solution to stop the war: Hamas leaves Gaza and Israel halts its military campaign. But neither Hamas nor Israel is willing to accept this.
Israel, in particular, as the stronger party, refuses to eliminate Hamas if the price is the return of the PA. Netanyahu and his team are convinced that the PA poses a greater threat to Israel than Hamas. Hamas has no international legitimacy and represents everything that terrifies most of the world — even the Arab world. It is a militant, ideological extremist group.
Meanwhile, the PA is recognized by the UN as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. If it regains control of Gaza, it would mark the path toward a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu and his team are convinced that the Palestinian Authority poses a greater threat to Israel than Hamas.
Despite all that Hamas has done — including the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, — it remains, in Israel’s eyes, merely a “terrorist group” that can be dealt with just as other countries deal with similar groups.
Netanyahu believes it would be foolish to destroy Hamas only to reward the PA with control of Gaza, allowing it to emerge as the victor of these wars and create a de facto Palestinian state. Netanyahu has personally worked to prevent this scenario, fostering a symbiotic relationship with Hamas since the early days of his rule by empowering the group to govern Gaza.
Netanyahu is corrupt and opportunistic, but not a fool. He understands that handing over the keys to Gaza to Ramallah would automatically mean the countdown to the creation of a Palestinian state had begun.
After his swift and dazzling victories over Hezbollah, Bashar Assad and Iran, Netanyahu now faces a reckoning similar to the post-Gulf War moment in 1991. Back then, the US-Gulf coalition defeated Saddam Hussein, liberated Kuwait and eliminated a major threat to Israel. It then demanded a price: a solution to the Palestinian issue.
In that same year, the Madrid Conference was held despite Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s reluctance. He ultimately accepted, paving the way for the later Oslo Accords, which for the first time allowed the Palestinians to return from exile.
Netanyahu knows this history and fears his own victories could similarly “deviate” toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In practice, Israel — having destroyed Hezbollah and tracked its leader Hassan Nasrallah underground — could do the same to Hamas. As we have seen, Israel is not deterred by casualties among its soldiers, its hostages are not a top priority and, certainly, the scale of Palestinian deaths is of no concern. Of the 251 original hostages, only about 23 remain alive in captivity. Today, the American envoy’s negotiations have reached an advanced stage to end the tragedy in Gaza, secure the release of the remaining hostages — around 50, dead or alive — and disarm Hamas. Yet Netanyahu’s main concern remains the return of the PA to govern Gaza.
Even without a deal from the envoy, Netanyahu could end the war by eliminating the remaining Hamas forces. He has proven willing to accept further casualties, as he has in parallel wars. He risked his people’s safety by opening fronts with Hezbollah, Iran and the Houthis, and he is prepared to take risks and accept losses in a final showdown with Hamas.
So why does Netanyahu not end the war?
As the conflict nears a possible resolution in the coming two months, I believe his dilemma lies in finding an arrangement that prevents the emergence of a Palestinian state. What is stopping him from ending the Gaza war is not concern over additional Israeli casualties or even losing his role as prime minister, especially since Donald Trump is openly working to shield him from accountability and helping him stay in power.
From a strategic perspective, the issue goes beyond current events: Israel does not want the PA to return to Gaza and unite it with Ramallah — even if that means reinstating Hamas or handing Gaza to Ibrahim Al-Arjani to run it.
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is a Saudi journalist and intellectual. He is the former general manager of Al-Arabiya news channel and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, where this article was originally published. X: @aalrashed

Saudi Arabia’s Syria investment a strategic bet on stability
Hassan Al-Mustafa/Arab News/July 29, 2025
When Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih led a delegation of more than 130 businessmen and investors into Damascus on July 23, the timing could hardly have been more precarious. The visit, authorized by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, came as sectarian violence raged in Sweida province, claiming innocent civilian lives, and Israeli strikes targeted Syria’s Defense Ministry and security forces stationed in Sweida. Yet this $6 billion investment push represents something far more than a fleeting diplomatic or economic gesture. It embodies the Kingdom’s enduring political doctrine, grounded in understanding and cooperation rather than confrontation and estrangement.
Despite daunting security and economic obstacles, Saudi Arabia’s unwavering political commitment signals a potential turning point for Syrian stability and reconstruction. The Kingdom views Damascus not as a distant investment opportunity but as a critical buffer against regional chaos. Riyadh’s strategic imperative is clear: prevent Syria’s fragmentation into warring fiefdoms or its evolution into a sanctuary for extremist groups that could destabilize the entire neighborhood.
Through active diplomacy, Saudi Arabia has convinced the American administration to lift economic sanctions on Syria and pushed for the new Damascus regime’s integration within its Arab sphere. This positions Riyadh ideally to lead this gradual transformation in Damascus — not only for Syria’s benefit but also to reshape the entire regional order on solid foundations: security, development and sovereignty.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy strategy seeks to shield Syria from becoming a battleground for broader regional rivalries while working to reestablish stability. This approach aligns with the Kingdom’s broader vision of promoting security and development across the region.
One of the primary avenues for reducing conflict in Syria involves improving citizens’ living conditions and establishing infrastructure that provides access to essential daily services: healthcare, education, transport, communication and others. Additionally, the government must be capable of curbing inflation, high prices and unemployment, while maintaining the ability to pay state employees’ salaries.
The investment package, encompassing 47 agreements and memorandums of understanding with a total value of between $6 billion and $6.4 billion, dwarfs the $2.8 billion in Saudi investments Syria attracted before 2011. Infrastructure and real estate projects account for $2.93 billion of this amount, while the telecommunications and information technology sectors represent approximately $1.07 billion in commitments.
The signed agreements encompass housing, tourism, healthcare, recreation and basic facility projects, including the construction of three new cement factories and the launch of the country’s first white cement factory with an investment of about $20 million. The agreements also include a massive real estate project in Damascus, known as Al-Jawhara Tower and valued at $100 million.The implementation of these projects will follow a designated timeline and is expected to generate about 50,000 direct employment opportunities and 150,000 indirect jobs within Syria’s economy. The initiatives are also anticipated to attract investment from other nations into the Syrian market, as Saudi Arabia’s involvement is expected to catalyze additional future investment efforts rather than remain an isolated action.
Saudi Arabia’s Syria strategy exemplifies what analysts call “positive containment” — ensuring Syria is not left exposed to security and political instability, while preventing regional imbalances that might drive regional powers into destructive roles, similar to Israel’s current military interference in Syria’s internal affairs.This approach requires a delicate balancing act. Riyadh must work with Syria’s new leadership without alienating Iran and Russia, Bashar Assad’s former backers, while avoiding confrontation with Turkiye and Israel, both of which maintain significant interests in Syrian territory. This approach also aligns with Saudi Arabia’s new foreign policy, which is based on stability, partnership and de-escalation.
Syria’s reconstruction stands as the primary objective for the upcoming period. Establishing a politically and security-stable environment under equitable legal governance, where the state maintains exclusive control over weapons and the government operates without sectarian or ethnic quota systems, will build investor confidence in the Syrian market and motivate their participation. This represents the direction Saudi Arabia is currently pursuing in its approach toward Syria.
Nevertheless, the Syrian government holds primary responsibility for dismantling armed militias, resolving sectarian and ethnic tensions, establishing modern state institutions and pursuing transparent, constructive dialogue that fosters a unified national identity in which all Syrians feel included and represented.
The Kingdom views Damascus not as a distant investment opportunity but as a critical buffer against regional chaos.
Despite the optimistic projections, significant obstacles remain. Syria’s security situation remains fragile, particularly in the south and areas populated by Druze, Kurds and Alawites. Furthermore, the new political landscape poses challenges, as the current government is perceived as catering to transitional interests and may encounter claims that it reinforces particular sectarian influence or religious-based economic policies, stemming from distrust among Syria’s diverse population and recent transgressions by various armed groups.
Institutional weakness poses another challenge. Years of conflict have decimated Syria’s legal and regulatory framework. Building a strong judicial and legal system will encourage companies and investors to enter Syria with greater momentum.
Saudi Arabia has maintained and continues to fulfill important constructive roles supporting Syria, its security, stability and the success of its new transitional period. The ultimate success of Saudi investment in Syria depends on factors beyond Riyadh’s control. The Syrian government must demonstrate genuine commitment to establishing internal stability, ensuring a transparent operational environment and incorporating Syrian civil society into oversight and implementation processes, so that local investors and citizens can participate in the reform initiative and civil state development.
**Hassan Al-Mustafa is a Saudi writer and researcher interested in Islamic movements, the development of religious discourse and the relationship between the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Iran. X: @Halmustafa

America's New 'Great White Fleet': A Force for Good
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute/July 29/2025
In 1907, when the United States wanted to send a global message regarding its emerging power, President Theodore Roosevelt sent the "Great White Fleet," into waters that had never seen the American flag. Today's leaders of Communist China apparently read part of Roosevelt's manual for projecting power. They have just neglected to read the part about being a force for good. Pictured: The battleship USS Connecticut leads the "Great White Fleet" out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, in December 1907.
In response to the Chinese Communist Party increasing its presence in the western Pacific Ocean, the Trump administration recently responded brilliantly, in the manner of President Theodore Roosevelt, by increasing its presence in the Indo-Pacific.
In 1907, when the United States wanted to send a global message regarding its emerging power, Roosevelt sent a naval flotilla into waters that had never seen the American flag.
Popularly called the "Great White Fleet," the exercise was understood by friend and foe alike that the United States had arrived on the world stage and needed to be taken seriously.
Today's leaders of Communist China apparently read part of Roosevelt's manual for projecting power. They have just neglected to read the part about being a force for good.
Media reports reveal that China is extending its military reach ever deeper into the Pacific, using its powerful naval fleet to remind nations throughout that region that this is the communist giant of the 21st century. Of particular note is the fact that these ships include aircraft carriers, which are challenging to build and operate. Mastering naval aviation is a sign of a competent, professional and well-armed navy.
China is also using harsh rhetoric to augment its naval strategy. When Trump administration officials expressed concerns over the aggressive actions of China's navy, China's former Ambassador to the Philippines, Liu Jianchao, who is a senior member of the regime, told a forum in Beijing this month that Washington is inciting "confrontation and conflict." In other words, call me out for my aggressive actions and I will accuse you of being the aggressor. Unlike Roosevelt's strategy of "speak softly and carry a big stick," China views its navy as a means of openly intimidating freedom-loving nations throughout the Pacific. The US response is called deterrence -- sending the signal to potential adversaries that if they are even thinking of military aggression against the US or the West, the cost to them will be far greater than any disaster they can think up. It is just this deterrence by the US that has been missing for a while, apparently due to fears of "escalation."A fear of escalation is a message that one is too afraid of being attacked to defend oneself – seen as an implicit surrender. It is usually interpreted by adversaries an open invitation to move in and help themselves, cost-free. As Roosevelt wisely noted, "A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace."We owe President Donald J. Trump a thanks for reestablishing the United States as a nation not to be bullied and that is a force for good. In his first term, he initiated the Abraham Accords, which no one at the time thought would succeed, but which established peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Kosovo and Morocco. In his term, he has already acted to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons; made peace between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, persuaded Thailand and Cambodia to agree to peace talks, and has (finally) put Russian President Vladimir Putin on notice that Ukraine is not his for the taking. In 1906, Roosevelt became the first US president awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for having successfully negotiated the settlement between Russia and Japan in the Russo-Japanese war. Surely Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, too.
*Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

The Muslim Brotherhood: A Terrorist Organization That the US Must Designate as One
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/July 29/2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21791/designate-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-organization
Recently, Jordan joined the list of countries that have banned the Muslim Brotherhood: Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Austria. The move came after Jordanian authorities announced that they had arrested 16 people suspected of planning attacks aimed at "targeting national security, sowing chaos and sabotage."
The Muslim Brotherhood, in addition, has served as an inspiration for Islamist terror groups Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda. According to the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit international policy organization working to combat the growing threat exposed by extremist ideologies: "Before ascending to the highest positions of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Osama bin Laden, and Ayman Zawahiri belonged to a common ideological precursor, the Muslim Brotherhood."
The Muslim Brotherhood has been able to fool many Westerners by pretending that most of its work is based on charity and humanitarian aid. The Muslim Brotherhood's Mujama al-Islami (Islamic Center) in the Gaza Strip started as a charity and was even licensed by Israel.
"Since the 1970s, the Muslim Brotherhood has been aggressively whitewashing its image. By doing charitable work, the Brotherhood pretends to be a humanitarian agency. The charitable work, however, is camouflage for the Brotherhood's real mission — undermining Western society, promoting Sharia law, and pursuing global domination.... The Brotherhood will use any tactic, including subversion and violence, to dismantle Western societies." — Pastor Michael Youssef, Daily Wire, June 24, 2025.
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would give US law enforcement and intelligence agencies the legal tools they need to protect Americans. It would allow them to:
• Freeze financial assets used to fund radical networks;
• Block the travel of known Brotherhood operatives;
• Investigate and prosecute U.S.-based affiliates;
• Expose front groups that serve as recruitment pipelines;
• And cut off the flow of resources from foreign governments and donors.
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization is vital not only for the national security of the United States, but also for combating Islamist terrorism around the world. If America's Arab allies have reached the conclusion that the Muslim Brotherhood is a dangerous Islamist terror organization, there is no reason why the US and other Western countries should continue to pretend that it is all about charitable and humanitarian work.
The Muslim Brotherhood, has served as an inspiration for Islamist terror groups Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda. According to the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit international policy organization working to combat the growing threat exposed by extremist ideologies: "Before ascending to the highest positions of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Osama bin Laden, and Ayman Zawahiri belonged to a common ideological precursor, the Muslim Brotherhood."
On July 24, Egyptian-born Michael Youssef, senior pastor of Church of The Apostles in Atlanta and author of more than 50 books, including The Third Jihad, wrote that while visiting a Middle Eastern nation, he met with a highly placed Muslim official.
"He leaned toward me and said, 'Doctor Youssef, can you tell me why the Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed as a terrorist organization in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt – but is allowed to flourish in America?' I said, 'I can think of no answer except foolishness and ignorance.'"
Recently, Jordan joined the list of countries that have banned the Muslim Brotherhood: Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Austria.
The move came after Jordanian authorities announced that they had arrested 16 people suspected of planning attacks aimed at "targeting national security, sowing chaos and sabotage."
Jordanian Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told a press conference that the authorities found explosives and automatic weapons in the possession of the suspects. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood "operate in the shadows and engage in activities that could undermine security and stability," Faraya said.
Youssef, who supports efforts in the US to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization, noted that the logo of the organization, established in Egypt in 1928, depicts two crossed swords and the command (in Arabic script) Wa-aiidu! (Get Ready!) from Quran 8:60 -- a call to prepare for jihad (holy war) against the unbelievers.
The efforts are led by US Senator Ted Cruz, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy. Cruz has introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025. Cruz said on July 16:
"The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization, and it provides support to Muslim Brotherhood branches that are terrorist organizations. One of those branches is Hamas, which on October 7 committed the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, which included the murder and kidnapping of at least 53 Americans. They are committed to the overthrow and destruction of America and other non-Islamist governments across the world, and pose an acute threat to American national security interests. American allies in the Middle East and Europe have already labeled the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and the United States should do the same, and do so expeditiously"
Pastor Youssef agreed:
"In 2001,the Muslim Brotherhood's London publication Risalat al-Ikhwan (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity) featured the slogan "Our Mission: World Domination."
In 2004, Youssef added, the former Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Mahdi Othman Aker, declared:
"I have complete faith that Islam will invade Europe and America, because Islam has logic and a mission."
Cruz is right about Hamas being one of the branches of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas, which has repeatedly pledged to destroy Israel, emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood, although it 2017, it tried to disown its close affiliation after the Muslim Brotherhood was banned by Egypt. The original ban came in 1954, after the organization tried to assassinate Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was legalized in 2011, and banned again in 2013, after the catastrophic one-year reign of President Mohammad Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member. The Egyptian government also designated it as a terrorist group in 2013.
Article Two of the Hamas Covenant openly states:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas] is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. Muslim Brotherhood is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It is characterized by its deep understanding, accurate comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts of all sects of life, culture, creed, politics, economic, education, society, justice and judgement, the spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of the occult and conversion to Islam."
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip. Before the establishment of Hamas in 1987, Yassin had formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islami (Islamic Center), a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated charity.
Yassin's successor and Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz Rantisi was also one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip.
Ismail Haniyeh, another Hamas leader, was also an active member of the Islamist Bloc, a university student group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood, in addition, has served as an inspiration for Islamist terror groups Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda. According to the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit international policy organization working to combat the growing threat exposed by extremist ideologies:
"Before ascending to the highest positions of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Osama bin Laden, and Ayman Zawahiri belonged to a common ideological precursor, the Muslim Brotherhood....
"As the progenitor of the modern Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood... has had a profound influence on the belief system that fuels al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite their disagreements, these groups share ideological underpinnings based on the writings of the late Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb...
"The Brotherhood has also served as a bridge for young Islamists – including bin Laden, Baghdadi, and Zawahiri – to more violent jihadist groups. Although their execution strategies may differ, at their core, all three groups maintain a shared Islamist vision of establishing a global caliphate."
Qutb, an Egyptian scholar who served as the Muslim Brotherhood's head of propaganda, is believed to have been the key figure in providing the ideological template of contemporary militant Islam and its philosophy of terror. He was so extreme and dangerous that the Egyptians executed him for treason in 1966. according to a report by the Australian Army Research Center:
"The term jihad, meaning 'struggle' or 'striving' (in the way of God), was central to Qutb's radical form of Islam. Jihad was necessary in order to make the Islamic way dominant in the world and was commanded by the Qur'an...
"Qutb's rationale for using armed violence was associated with the notion of justified conflict against one's enemy. The reasons for jihad are 'to establish God's authority on the earth; to arrange human affairs according to the true guidance provided by God; to abolish all the Satanic forces and Satanic systems in life; to end the lordship of one man over others.'"
This is precisely why Al-Qaeda's bin Laden and Zawahiri identified with Qutb's Islamist ideology.
In Montasser al-Zayyat's critical biography of Zawahiri, the author describes the extensiveness of Qutb's influence on [the Al-Qaeda] leader's ideology and principles:
"In Zawahiri's eyes, Sayyid Qutb's words struck young Muslims more deeply than those of his contemporaries because his words eventually led to his execution. Thus, those words both provided the blueprint for his long and glorious lifetime, and eventually led to his end."
As a student at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden was tutored by Qutb's brother, Mohammed, and close friend Abdullah Azzam. The Australian Army Research Center noted:
"[Azzam] was bin Laden's Islamic Law professor and later went on to found Afghan–Arab terrorist training camps in Peshawar, Pakistan. Of Palestinian origin, Azzam chiefly instructed his students with the works of Islamist ideologues such as Qutb...
"Militarily, the al-Qa'ida leadership has adopted Qutb's understanding of jihad and embraced his overall objective—that is, the destruction of jahiliyya ["ignorance" - reference to the period before the revelation of the Quran to Islam's prophet Mohammed] for the creation of 'freedom' defined in an Islamist sense. This view is reflected in al-Qa'ida's rhetorical emphasis on an overall international strategy. By appropriating Qutb's interpretation of the justification for jihad, al-Qa'ida has been able to rationalise war against the United States."
While jahiliyya refers to a specific historical period, the concept can also be applied to any situation or individual lacking the guidance of Islam. The US, Israel, and all non-Muslim countries fall into this category.
Another Muslim Brotherhood figure was Egyptian Islamic scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who had issued a fatwa (Islamic ruling) supporting suicide bombings against Israel. Suicide bombings are, in Qaradwai's words, "[O]ne of the greatest types of jihad ...valid heroic martyrdom operations and very different from suicide." The suicide bomber, he added, "has sold his soul to Allah and placed his heart on gaining martyrdom and purchasing Paradise." Qaradawi had also expressed support for targeting American forces and civilians in Iraq.
In 2004, Qaradawi published a fatwa allowing the abduction and murder of American citizens in Iraq to put pressure on the US military to withdraw its forces:
"All the Americans in Iraq are fighters, there is no difference between a civilian and soldier, and they should be fought because the American citizen came to Iraq to serve the occupation. The abduction and killing of Americans in Iraq is a [religious] duty in order to make them get out of [Iraq] and leave immediately."
The Muslim Brotherhood has been able to fool many Westerners by pretending that most of its work is based on charity and humanitarian aid. The Muslim Brotherhood's Mujama al-Islami (Islamic Center) in the Gaza Strip started as a charity and was even licensed by Israel. Several years later, the Israelis discovered that they had been duped. Hamas was born out of the Mujama al-Islami.
Pastor Youssef adds:
"Since the 1970s, the Muslim Brotherhood has been aggressively whitewashing its image. By doing charitable work, the Brotherhood pretends to be a humanitarian agency. The charitable work, however, is camouflage for the Brotherhood's real mission — undermining Western society, promoting Sharia law, and pursuing global domination....
"The Brotherhood will use any tactic, including subversion and violence, to dismantle Western societies."
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would give US law enforcement and intelligence agencies the legal tools they need to protect Americans. It would allow them to:
Freeze financial assets used to fund radical networks;
Block the travel of known Brotherhood operatives;
Investigate and prosecute U.S.-based affiliates;
Expose front groups that serve as recruitment pipelines;
And cut off the flow of resources from foreign governments and donors.
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization is vital not only for the national security of the United States, but also for combating Islamist terrorism around the world. If America's Arab allies have reached the conclusion that the Muslim Brotherhood is a dangerous Islamist terror organization, there is no reason why the US and other Western countries should continue to pretend that it is all about charitable and humanitarian work.
**Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
**Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)

Another Genocide, Another Jihadist, Another U.S. Ally—Same Old Story
Raymond Ibrahim/The Stream/July 29, 2025
One of the seemingly strangest things about me is that when what appears to be “breaking news” in my field emerges, I usually have very little to say.
Why? Because it’s not news—at least not to me. It’s the same old story I explained two decades ago, and have since repeated countless times.
And yet, absolutely nothing changes.
Take what’s happening in Syria.
In recent days, Syria’s Druze minority has been subjected to a wave of jihadist-inspired terror that has left over a thousand people dead, entire villages emptied, and many Druze wondering if they are witnessing the final extermination of their people.
The violence began in earnest when Sunni Bedouin tribes—fully backed by units of the Syrian military—stormed multiple Druze villages in Sweida province. What followed were atrocities that mirrored the barbarism of ISIS. In al-Mazraa, armed men shouting “Allahu Akbar!” set fire to homes with families still inside. In Sahwat al-Khudr, several Druze were beheaded, their corpses mutilated and displayed in the town square. Video footage circulated on pro-regime Telegram channels shows the attackers chanting Koranic verses justifying the slaughter of non-Sunnis.
More than 262 civilians, including women and children, were butchered—some by gunfire, others burned alive or summarily executed. In Suwara al-Kubra, several Druze girls were abducted, raped, and dumped—one with her tongue cut out and a Koran verse scrawled in blood across her chest.
Local witnesses say regime troops either stood by or more often actively assisted in the raids, providing air surveillance and ammunition.
Syria’s so-called “reformist” president, Ahmad al-Sharaa—himself a “former” jihadist and member of al-Qaeda in Syria (al-Nusra)—blamed the Druze for “inciting unrest,” echoing the same jihadist logic used by ISIS and al-Qaeda when killing their victims.
Over 79,000 Druze have fled, many now hiding in forests, caves, or makeshift camps. Local cleric Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri condemned the regime’s actions as a “jihadist war of extermination,” declaring: “They [the new Syrian ‘government’] come with tanks and prayer rugs. They kill us in the name of their god, and the world applauds them as moderates.”
If you're wondering where all the hate comes from, look no further than to the “Sheikh of Islam” himself: Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328), one of Sunni Islam’s foremost theologians, whose works are still widely disseminated throughout Islamic schools and mosques. The following is my translation of a fatwa he wrote specifically targeting the Druze. Not only does it call explicitly for their slaughter, but note the chilling final decree: any Muslim ruler who fails to inflict the wrath of Allah on them is no Muslim at all. (Hence why Syria’s new “president” al-Sharaa—formerly of al-Qaeda—is fully on board.)
All Muslims are agreed that they [Druze] are infidels [kuffār]. Indeed, whoever doubts that they are infidels becomes an infidel like them. They are not on the level of the People of the Book, nor the polytheists [mushrikīn]; rather, they are more misguided than both. It is impermissible even to eat their food. Enslave their women, seize their wealth, for they are hypocrites and apostates, and no repentance is accepted from them. Kill them wherever they are found, and let them be cursed as described. Especially target their leaders and teachers, lest they lead others astray. It is forbidden to sleep in their homes, befriend them in any way, or even walk beside them—not even in their funerals. And any Muslim ruler who does not persecute them as Allah commands is a sinner.
Keep in mind, what you just read is a foundational text from one of Islam’s most cited authorities, whose works are taught all throughout the Muslim world.
The message is clear: under the banner of post-Assad “reform,” the Syrian regime is carrying out a jihadist purge of one of the last independent religious minorities in the region. And they are doing it to cries of “Allahu Akbar” and in the name of “national unity.”
Nor have Christians been spared—with at least one family being slaughtered and one church set ablaze by the Sunnis and their governmental accomplices (to say nothing of the suicide bombing of a Damascus church on June 22).
Even so, where’s the news (a word which means new)? Where’s the shock? This is exactly what must happen when all the usual ingredients are mixed together.
And what are those ingredients? Simple: place Muslim fundamentalists in the same bowl with a vulnerable group of “infidels”—just make sure the former (in this case, the Syrian “president” and his jihadist regime) are the dominant flavor—and voilà: jihad and genocide.
After all, hasn’t this happened time and time again? Remember the grotesque and genocidal atrocities committed by ISIS against the Yazidis exactly a decade ago? The same is happening now under the latest incarnation of “radical Islam”—that is, the new Syrian government. Neither the Yazidis nor the Druze are considered “people of the book,” so there is no tolerance, no second-class dhimmi status for them. They must convert or face extermination. No jizya. No submission. Just slavery, rape, murder—in a word, annihilation.
Muammar al-Sharaa, cousin of Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa, has even posted on his Facebook account that “It is permissible to enslave their [Druze] women.”
So here we are again. Nothing learned. No progress made. Just the same cycle—wash, rinse, repeat—ad nauseam.
But I wish the redundancy of all this was limited to Muslim fundamentalists behaving like Muslim fundamentalists. The rot runs much deeper—and much closer to home.
American leadership—whether Republican or Democrat, from Reagan and the Bushes, to Clinton and Obama—has consistently aligned itself with jihadists, even while claiming to champion religious freedom and human rights around the world.
This was especially blatant under Obama, and I wrote extensively about it (see here, here, here). In Donald Trump’s own words, Obama was “the founder of ISIS.”
And yet, Trump himself was among the first to ease sanctions, shake hands with, and even praise the new Syrian leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa—the latest face of ISIS-style terror, and the man ultimately responsible for the ongoing massacre of the Druze.
“He’s a young, attractive guy,” Trump said of this terrorist in a suit. “Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter. He’s got a real shot at holding it together.”
Yes, that is how the U.S. president gushed about a man whose ideology is openly identical to ISIS; a man who “was” a member of al-Qaeda—remember them, murderers of 3,000 Americans?—and a man who is currently carrying out a religious genocide.
Contrast this with the treatment of former Syrian president Bashar Assad—a secularist who, for all his faults, never persecuted his people on religious grounds. And yet, every U.S. president condemned and imposed wave after wave of sanctions on him.
On the other hand, Trump thinks that the new terror leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, is finally going to give Syria “a chance at greatness.”
So, if Obama was “the founder of ISIS,” as Trump said—what does that make Trump?
Is all of this just coincidence? Is U.S. leadership—Republican or Democrat—forever naïve? Is it something much darker?
I’m much more inclined to the latter interpretation, but, at this point, does it even matter? The result is always the same: wherever the United States meddles in the Muslim world, terrorists who hate “infidels” come to power, and the religious minorities beneath them are butchered. And in time, they turn around and bite the hand that feeds them (e.g., by attacking the U.S. via 9/11).
That’s why none of this is “news” to me. From top to bottom, it’s business as usual.
To be clear, I’m not saying what’s happening in Syria shouldn’t be reported—I'm glad it is. But I don’t see the need for yet more “analysis,” when the reality is both painfully obvious and depressingly unchanging. In fact, the way these stories are consumed has taken on a disturbingly voyeuristic quality: atrocities are committed, people feign shock, social media lights up with hashtags and slogans—until the news cycle shifts to the next outrage we’re meant to emote over. And the victims? They're left to their fate. Forgotten.
Pathetic.
So you’ll understand why I increasingly choose not to participate in these grotesque charades.
And that’s also why I’ve turned more and more to writing about history. Though it concerns the past, it often feels fresher and more revealing than today’s forever headlines—because it uncovers things people were never taught, and were never meant to know.
Why? because the history I deal with revolves around a time when men actually acted in the face of evil—not merely tweeted and hand-wrung about all the “bad news,” until the next distraction came along.

Selected Tweets for 29 July/2025
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Many Arabs falsely believe Israel is desperate to normalize ties with Arab governments. Israel has thrived for 77 years despite boycotts, criticism, and funded attacks. It will likely thrive for another 77 years without normalization. Failing Arab states like Lebanon and Syria have more economic interest in normalizing with Israel than Israel has with them.
Successful nations are the ones who recognize their realities. Israel is brutally realistic about its national interests. While many Arab governments feared Iran's regime and hunkered down, Israel crushed Iranian militias, nukes, and missiles. Israel is currently more stable and secure with a brighter future projected than most Arab states that dangle normalization, thinking Israel is desperate. Israel isn't, and it will remain a net winner. I'll let boycotting Arab nations decide whether they think are winning or losing.

Zéna Mansour
2 brothers from Sweida were shot in a religious attack in Barzeh Damascus. The victims who were recently married, owned a store in the area where the incident occurred. Authorities are investigating.

Mike Pompeo
Yesterday, the Iranian government ​executed two pro-democracy activists — freedom fighters who endured years of torture at the hands of this evil regime. This barbaric act shows just how much Khamenei and ​his cronies fear their own people. The world must stand against this brutality.

Mike Pompeo
Don’t forget - the Israelis are providing humanitarian aid to their adversaries amidst an ongoing war. That is extraordinary. Unlike the UN, which funneled food to Hamas to steal or sell on the black market, Israel is trying to implement a system that actually delivers aid to the people who need it.

Walid Abu Haya
The UN agencies cry out about “starvation” and “Humanitarian crisis” in Gaza - a stronghold of the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas - despite hundreds of aid trucks entering Gaza daily. Yet not a single word is said about the siege imposed by the terrorist Islamic regime of Al Joulani in Syria on the Druze region of the country, aiming to starve and suppress them! Not to mention the UN silence on the brutal massacres committed on Sweida recently.

Darya Safai MP
Today, the Belgian police and security services contacted me regarding an alarming situation concerning my safety. They had received worrying information indicating that the Islamic regime in Iran wants to kidnap me and take me to Tehran. They plan to do this via Turkey. I have therefore been strongly advised not to travel to Turkey. This news comes just after my resolution to place the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the European terrorist list, was approved in the Belgian House of Representatives. The regime is now planning to kidnap, torture, and execute a member of parliament from a European country. Or to use it as a bargaining chip in their hostage diplomacy.

Tristan Azbej
Islamist terrorists attacked a Catholic church in Komanda, DR Congo killing at least 40. Hungary stands with the persecuted Christians & sends emergency aid to the DRC via
@HungaryHelps. We condemn global Christian persecution & Western denial. Praying for the victims.

FAISAL M. NSOULI
To believe that Hezbollah will relinquish its weapons and transform into a political party through dialogue is as fanciful as expecting a donkey to perform a piano concerto. Amusing as the notion may seem, its consequences for the nation of Lebanon are nothing short of disastrous.
@USAMBTurkiye

Joe Wilson
I was grateful on Friday to speak to my dear friend the Foreign Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq. Iranian militias launch more drones today against our appreciated friends in the KRG. Sadly taxpayer dollars fund Baghdad which fund terrorist militias which attack the KRG, as well as U.S. troops, and work with the head of the snake Iran to destabilize Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. This cannot be tolerated anymore and I will work toward PROHIBITION on funding to Iraq while it funds these terrorist militias & to require their rightful designation as TERRORIST organizations.

Ali Hamade
The new U.S. ambassador in Lebanon, Michael Issa, during the Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing: The full disarmament of Hezbollah is not an option but a necessity, and the right time to act is now