English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For June 09/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 03/01-16/:"Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above." The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 08-09/2025
Aoun and Salam's Condemnations of Israeli Strikes Expose Their Failure, Blindness, and Submission to Hezbollah’s Delusional Logic/Elias Bejjani/June 07/2025
Israeli Drone Strike Kills One in Southern Lebanon
Lebanon may propose that US envoy mediate to halt Israeli escalation, resolve disputes
Israel Hayom cites sources: Israel, US reportedly agree to end UNIFIL mission in South Lebanon
Lebanese Army inspects site in Laylaki amid allegations of military activity
Lebanese Army re-inspects site in Mrayjeh at request of ceasefire mechanism—Video
Phone threat sparks panic in Saksakiyeh in Tyre, turns out to be a prank
Prison break in Ghazir: Inmates breach wall, flee under cover of night
Rai Urges Unity and Renewal Amid Lebanon’s Challenges
UNIFIL Affirms Freedom of Movement Amid Tensions in South Lebanon
Aoun Pays Tribute to Judges Killed in 1999 Saida Attack
Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture Presents the Report of Its First 100 Days
Will the Palestinians in Lebanon Disarm?/Tal Beeri/Alma/June 5, 2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 08-09/2025
Iran claims without evidence that it took Israeli nuclear files
Iran says no sanctions relief in US nuclear proposal
Iranian authorities expand ban on dog walking
Israeli military says it struck Hamas member in southern Syria
Palestinians say Israeli fire kills 5 near aid sites. Israel says it fired warning shots
Israel Says it Killed Head of Mujahideen Brigades in Gaza
Sensitive Israeli documents obtained by Iran should be unveiled soon, minister says
Israel military says identified body of Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar
Egyptian, Turkish FMs discuss Gaza ceasefire, mass graves in Libya
Russia continues to accuse Ukraine of delaying planned exchange of dead fighters

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on June 08-09/2025
Why Iran Will Never Give Up Its Nuclear Weapons/Amin Sharifi/Gatestone Institute/June 08/2025
How conflict, climate shocks and collapsing aid budgets are pushing millions to the brink of starvation/JUMANA KHAMIS/Arab News/June 08, 2025
The ocean is not just a carbon sink/Wavel Ramkalawan/Arab News/June 08, 2025
Americans deserve the truth about Biden’s decline/Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/June 08, 2025
Between the Promise of Democracy and Repeated Failures of Iraq’s Electoral System/Haider al-Musawi/The Washington Institute/June 08/2025
While Other Countries Push for a Palestinian State, Israel Is Increasing Its West Bank Presence/Neomi Neumann/The Washington Institute/June 08/2025
On the UN Peace Conference in New York/Dr. Nassif Hitti/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 08/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on June 08-09/2025
Aoun and Salam's Condemnations of Israeli Strikes Expose Their Failure, Blindness, and Submission to Hezbollah’s Delusional Logic
Elias Bejjani/June 07/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/06/144037/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aho_QczoPZQ&t=117s
It is with sadness and deep disappointment that we affirm the complete failure of Joseph Aoun’s presidential tenure. His role has been reduced to protocol receptions, hollow press releases devoid of constitutional substance, and ceremonial foreign visits. All the hopes that once accompanied his appointment (not election) have now collapsed. He remains hesitant and fearful, appeasing Hezbollah and flattering it at the expense of Lebanon, the Lebanese people, the constitution, and binding UN resolutions.
Facts on the ground now confirm that the Lebanese state, under its new leadership, remains a hostage of Hezbollah’s occupation. It continues to operate under the dictates of Nabih Berri, a symbol of corruption, sectarianism, and moral decay.
Regarding Israel’s daily military operations against the terrorist, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, multiple official American statements have affirmed that Israel is acting within its rights to implement the ceasefire and all related UN resolutions on Lebanon. The continued silence of the international security committee—chaired by an American general—and its refusal to condemn any Israeli operation further confirms Israel’s compliance with the Ceasefire Agreement and UNSCR 1701 Plus.
As for Presidents Aoun and Salam’s statements condemning Israeli strikes, they are nothing but bundles of confusion and ignorance. Without question, these statements were conceived, drafted, and issued by advisors affiliated with Hezbollah—individuals who are little more than slaves, mercenaries, and echo chambers for the Iranian occupation’s propaganda.
In short, Presidents Aoun and Salam remain, to this day, symbols of subservience, failure, hesitation, procrastination, and blind detachment from the sweeping international and regional shifts reshaping the future of Lebanon and the broader Middle East.

Israeli Drone Strike Kills One in Southern Lebanon
This is Beirut/June 08/2025
An Israeli drone strike targeted a motorcycle on the Chehabiyeh-Kfar Dunin highway in southern Lebanon on Sunday, killing one person and injuring several others, according to local sources. The attack involved two missiles and triggered an immediate response from local ambulance crews. The identity of the deceased has not yet been released, and the condition of the wounded remains unclear. Later on Sunday, Israeli artillery shelling was reported on the outskirts of the southern town of al-Dhaira, near a Lebanese Army post. In a separate development, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) reported finding an Israeli drone in the town of Dhayra, near Tyre. Authorities have not provided further details on the drone’s mission or whether it was downed or crash-landed. A United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol was intercepted on Sunday in Wadi al-Hujayr while conducting inspection activities without coordination or escort from the Lebanese Army. The situation led to a brief standoff, which was later defused after a Lebanese Army unit arrived on the scene and intervened to resolve the tensions. Meanwhile, tensions escalated further in the early hours of Sunday when residents of Saksakiyeh town in Saida district received a message from a foreign phone number urging them to evacuate a local housing project. Residents complied, fearing a potential attack. Although no strike followed, drone activity in the area remained intense. Eyewitnesses and local sources reported continuous Israeli drone flights over Saksakiyeh and its surrounding areas throughout the day. Low-altitude reconnaissance flights were also recorded over Sarafand, Adloun, Abu al-Aswad, al-Qasimia, Borgholiyeh and the Abbasiya junction in the Tyre district. In northern Beqaa, Israeli warplanes were observed flying at medium altitude over the city of Hermel, marking a rare extension of aerial activity into the Beqaa Valley region.

Israeli Media: US May Withhold Support for Renewing UNIFIL Mandate
This is Beirut/June 08/2025
According to Israeli media reports, Tel Aviv and Washington have allegedly reached an understanding not to renew the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which is set to expire at the end of August. UNIFIL’s mission has traditionally been renewed annually through a vote at the UN Security Council. On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post reported that “the US administration has decided not to renew the mandate, and Israel made no effort to persuade them otherwise.” The paper also noted that no officials from the United States, Israel or the UN have publicly commented on the matter. Another outlet, Israel Hayom, citing Israeli sources, said the decision stems from Tel Aviv’s belief that “coordination with the Lebanese Army is highly effective,” rendering UNIFIL’s presence “no longer necessary.”While UNIFIL’s mandate has been renewed almost automatically for years, the mission has come under increasing criticism from Washington in recent times. US officials have argued that the multinational force is not fully implementing its mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1701. This resolution was passed in the aftermath of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. It prohibits any Hezbollah military presence south of the Litani River and calls for the group's withdrawal from the area. It reaffirms the need for the Lebanese state to assert full authority over its territory. Despite this, the Iran-backed group has maintained a military presence in southern Lebanon and has repeatedly obstructed UNIFIL’s work, denying the mission access to key locations under its control. In August 2023, Lebanon — reportedly at Hezbollah’s urging — unsuccessfully attempted to amend Article 16 of the resolution governing UNIFIL’s operations. The proposed change sought to restrict the force’s ability to move freely and inspect suspect sites without prior coordination with the Lebanese Army.

Lebanon may propose that US envoy mediate to halt Israeli escalation, resolve disputes
Naharnet/June 08/2025
Officials close to President Joseph Aoun have floated the idea that a U.S. envoy carry out continuous negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to halt the Israeli escalation and try and find solutions for the disputed border points and the captives file, Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper has reported. “They are relying on the fact that U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, who is of Lebanese origins, can carry out this mission in light of his closeness to U.S. Presiden Donald Trump and his preliminary success in the Syrian file until now, and also because he greatly understands the Lebanese situation and the Lebanese thinking,” al-Anbaa said. “What’s important is for Tel Aviv to accept such a proposal, seeing as it is reiterating its stance on the need to disarm Hezbollah north of the Litani River … while accusing Hezbollah of rebuilding its military arsenal through manufacturing drones,” al-Anbaa added.

Israel Hayom cites sources: Israel, US reportedly agree to end UNIFIL mission in South Lebanon
LBCI/June 08/2025
According to sources cited by Israel Hayom, Israel believes that coordination with the Lebanese Army is so effective that it renders the presence of UNIFIL unnecessary. The same sources stated that the United States and Israel have decided to end the UNIFIL mission in South Lebanon.

Lebanese Army inspects site in Laylaki amid allegations of military activity
LBCI/June 08/2025
A military source told LBCI that the Lebanese Army is currently inspecting a site in the Laylaki area in Beirut's southern suburbs in coordination with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism following reports of alleged military activity. The inspection is part of ongoing efforts to verify claims and maintain stability in the area amid heightened tensions.

Lebanese Army re-inspects site in Mrayjeh at request of ceasefire mechanism—Video
LBCI/June 08/2025
The Lebanese Army is currently conducting a second inspection of a site in the Mrayjeh area in Beirut's southern suburbs, which it had already examined two days ago following a request from the ceasefire monitoring mechanism.

Phone threat sparks panic in Saksakiyeh in Tyre, turns out to be a prank
LBCI/June 08/2025
A tense security situation unfolded in the southern town of Saksakiyeh, in the Tyre district, after a local home received a mysterious phone call containing a vague threat. The incident quickly raised alarm among residents and prompted a swift response from security forces.
Authorities launched an investigation immediately after the report was filed. But what seemed to be a potentially serious threat took an unexpected turn: it was all a prank. According to preliminary findings, the call originated from someone attempting a misguided joke on a friend. Despite the absence of real danger, the incident caused considerable unease among residents, especially given the region's already heightened security climate. Local citizens expressed frustration over what they described as an "irresponsible act," urging authorities to enforce stricter monitoring and hold individuals accountable for creating unnecessary fear and anxiety. The National News Agency (NNA) reported growing calls within the community for legal measures to deter similar incidents, emphasizing the strain such false alarms place on both security services and the public.

Prison break in Ghazir: Inmates breach wall, flee under cover of night
LBCI/June 08/2025
Nineteen detainees escaped from a holding cell at the Ghazir police station after breaching a wall near an air vent just beneath a security camera, security sources confirmed. The breakout occurred shortly after midnight when the inmates created a distraction with loud noise from inside the cell to mask the sound of breaking through the wall. The breach allowed only those with smaller body frames to squeeze through the opening, leaving others who could not fit behind. After slipping through the wall, the escapees used bed sheets—still visibly hanging from the breach—to descend into a rear garden behind the police station and fled the area. The fugitives include 13 Syrians, five Lebanese nationals, and one Egyptian. All were being held for non-terrorism-related criminal offenses. Police in the nearby Jbeil district managed to apprehend one Lebanese escapee, but 18 others remained at large at the time of this report. Military sources attributed the successful escape to the limited personnel on duty. The station's detention facility was supervised by only one officer and a small number of guards despite housing around 80 detainees. According to Lebanese law, such holding cells are intended to detain individuals for a maximum of four days. Still, many inmates have remained there for extended periods due to legal and administrative backlogs. This is not the first prison break to occur in recent years. Similar escapes have occurred in Jounieh, Ehden, Amyoun, and Baabda, highlighting systemic issues within Lebanon's penal system. The economic crisis has exacerbated these problems, leading to severe overcrowding and a shortage of law enforcement personnel, as many officers leave the force or take on second jobs due to salary devaluation. Further complicating matters, past escapes have involved allegations of collusion. In one 2023 incident in Ghbaleh, two inmates reportedly escaped with the help of officers who had been letting them out at night to steal cars before they eventually vanished. One of those escapees was later implicated in the abduction and murder of Pascal Sleiman in the town of Haqel in Jbeil.

Rai Urges Unity and Renewal Amid Lebanon’s Challenges
This is Beirut/June 08/2025
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai offered on Sunday a message of hope and responsibility to a Lebanese nation grappling with deep political and economic turmoil. “Today, Lebanon is living through a time fraught with challenges, but it is also a time of new opportunities and renewed hope,” Rai said, addressing the faithful gathered at the patriarchal seat in Bkerke. Speaking against the backdrop of a country mired in institutional paralysis, widespread public disillusionment and enduring economic hardship, Rai urged the nation to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, a force he described as capable of reviving both individual and collective responsibility. Rai emphasized that spiritual renewal should translate into political transformation. He called for a shift away from “separatist rhetoric and destructive personal interests,” and toward a political language grounded in unity and service to the common good. “This divine force,” he said, “would renew the language and practices of the political world and reawaken a national conscience.” The Patriarch also reflected on the aspirations of the Lebanese people, highlighting their yearning for honest leadership and institutional stability. “Citizens aspire to honest leadership, stable institutions, sincere cooperation between the various components of the country and a spirit of renewal within public structures,” he concluded.

UNIFIL Affirms Freedom of Movement Amid Tensions in South Lebanon
Beirut: Nazeer Rida/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 08/2025
The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon (UNIFIL) has reaffirmed its authority to move freely and conduct patrols with or without Lebanese army presence, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The statement came after an incident in the town of Srifa, where local residents intercepted a UNIFIL patrol. A man climbed onto a UN vehicle and raised a Hezbollah flag in protest over the absence of a Lebanese army escort. The incident occurred against the backdrop of ongoing Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, which has been in place since November 2023.
Southern Lebanese villages, particularly those south of the Litani River, appeared nearly deserted during the Eid al-Adha holiday. In contrast to the crowds seen during Eid al-Fitr, most streets were empty, with only a few remaining residents visible. The destruction caused by Israeli attacks has prevented many from returning to their homes in border villages. Continuous drone surveillance and frequent airstrikes have further discouraged residents from even briefly visiting their damaged properties. Those who did visit on the first day of Eid described their trips as “urgent and brief,” citing the persistent threat of renewed attacks. Israeli forces have been accused of several violations in recent days. Local media reported the abduction of a Lebanese shepherd near the town of Shebaa, as well as the injury of a civilian after an Israeli drone dropped two stun grenades in the town of Houla. Heavy machine gun fire was also reported near the towns of Rmeish and Aita al-Shaab. UNIFIL confirmed the Srifa incident, with spokesperson Andrea Tenenti stating that a group of civilians stopped a scheduled patrol. “The peacekeepers were able to resume their duties after the Lebanese army intervened,” he said. Tenenti emphasized that Resolution 1701 grants UNIFIL full freedom of movement, adding: “While we coordinate closely with the Lebanese army, freedom of movement is essential to fulfill our mandate.”Incidents involving local opposition to UNIFIL patrols have become more frequent in recent weeks. With more than 400 patrols conducted daily in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army is unable to accompany all of them due to limited manpower. UNIFIL continues to view its presence as vital to regional stability, and discussions are underway to extend its mandate beyond August.

Aoun Pays Tribute to Judges Killed in 1999 Saida Attack
This is Beirut/June 08/2025
On the 26th anniversary of the assassination of four magistrates in Saida, President Joseph Aoun strongly condemned what he described as a “terrorist crime.”
In a statement released on Sunday, the president declared that “nothing can intimidate the Lebanese judiciary or prevent it from fulfilling its mission.”He paid tribute to the memory of judges Hassan Othman, Imad Shehab, Assem Abu Daher and Walid Harmoush, who were killed in 1999 and described them as “martyrs of justice.”“Justice is stronger than bullets, and the law will outlast injustice,” Aoun stated, pledging to continue the pursuit of truth and accountability. “The blood of these martyrs will not have been shed in vain,” he concluded, reaffirming his commitment to judicial independence and the rule of law.
In 1999, gunfire was directed at the judges from two windows of a courtroom on the ground floor of the Saida criminal court. The attackers then fled toward the nearby Palestinian camp of Ain el-Helweh, abandoning assault rifles and a rocket launcher at the scene. According to sources familiar with the case at the time, the attack was believed to be an act of revenge following the execution of three followers of Abou Mahjan, who had been convicted of assassinating Sheikh Nizar Halabi, the religious leader of the Islamic Charitable Projects Association (Ahbash). Prime Minister Nawaf Salam declared that “there will be no more impunity”. “We will continue to fight for impartial and independent justice, a justice that will always work for the consecration of justice and the fulfillment of the truth”, he stated on his X account. The Minister of Justice, Adel Nassar, echoed this sentiment, pledging to fight impunity and preserve the independence of the judiciary.

Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture Presents the Report of Its First 100 Days
This is Beirut/June 08/2025
The Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture published on Sunday a detailed report of its achievements during the first 100 days of Minister Nizar Hani’s mandate. The document highlights a strategic approach based on science, institutional cooperation and the restoration of confidence in the agricultural sector’s role within the national economy.
A Strategic Vision in Six Pillars
The ministry structured its work around six complementary strategic pillars aimed at deeply transforming the agricultural sector. The first pillar focuses on land rehabilitation, providing technical support and compensation to farmers, especially those in conflict-affected regions. The second pillar targets research, agricultural extension and food security through strengthening laboratories and implementing more rigorous quality control systems for products. The third pillar is centered on export, agricultural diplomacy and food security, with the goal of opening new markets, revising existing trade agreements, better regulating imports and protecting local production. The fourth pillar emphasizes sustainable agriculture by supporting plant, animal and maritime sectors while integrating climate change challenges and biodiversity preservation. The fifth pillar aims to protect natural resources through adopting legislation regulating forest, pasture and fisheries management, as well as combating environmental violations. Finally, the sixth pillar focuses on infrastructure and innovation by developing value chains, integrating agricultural technologies and improving rural living conditions.
External Financing and Investments
The ministry indicates it has mobilized more than $280 million in external funding; $80 million are direct grants for projects linked to the ministry (research, green project, cooperatives), and $200 million have been allocated as loans through the Gate program for agricultural development, presented as a vote of confidence by the international community in the ministry’s new direction.
Agricultural Extension and Awareness
Significant efforts have been made in agricultural support: 77 field sessions benefiting over 2,750 farmers, 15 regional visits to agricultural zones, as well as 12 televised episodes and 12 digital awareness videos. The educational content has been unified and modernized. A youth volunteer campaign led to the planting of 50,000 olive trees in the South. A partnership with the Ezraa platform also enabled the launch of a mobile app dedicated to agriculture.
Institutional Reforms
The ministry reactivated key bodies such as the board of directors of the research department and the implementation committee of the green project, and established the cannabis regulatory authority. It also created specialized committees to organize several sectors: agricultural inputs, beekeeping, wine and arak, laboratories, olive oil, poultry, dairy and solidarity funds.
Support for Production and Market Opening
The ministry promoted contract farming, strengthened the link between production and marketing, revived cooperation with neighboring countries and activated partnerships with municipalities and civil society. It also encouraged producers to register in the national agricultural registry to regulate the sector and ensure equitable distribution of aid.
Environmental Governance
Firm measures have been taken to protect the environment, including declaring a state of emergency in the forestry sector, a national campaign against stray dogs and rabies, security coordination to protect fisheries resources, and sanctions imposed for violations affecting national production, exceeding LBP 55 billion.
Agricultural Diplomacy and National Coordination
The ministry hosted several diplomatic delegations and international organizations, signed cooperation agreements and conducted joint field visits to set development priorities.
It also strengthened collaboration with other Lebanese ministries in a logic of policy integration and sustainable rural development.
National Events and Digital Transformation
A major agricultural congress was held under the patronage of the President of the Republic, in collaboration with the Economic and Social Council. The event laid the foundation for internal restructuring of the ministry focused on digital transformation and good governance. At the same time, the National Agriculture Days brought together the public and officials to promote local products.
Towards a Long-Term Strategy
The ministry is currently working on the national agricultural strategy for 2026-2035, as well as an investment memorandum to boost the sector’s attractiveness.

Will the Palestinians in Lebanon Disarm?
Tal Beeri/Alma/June 5, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/06/144068/
longside the dialogue in Lebanon regarding disarming Hezbollah, there’s an equally intense discourse concerning the disarming of Palestinian organizations in Lebanon.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians reside in Lebanon, with various estimates ranging from approximately 200,000 to over 400,000. Due to political circumstances and the perpetuation of the refugee narrative, Palestinians in Lebanon do not receive citizenship. The vast majority are concentrated in 12 refugee camps across Lebanon, which serve as the hub of activity for armed Palestinian organizations.
Seven main Palestinian organizations operate in Lebanon, with the largest being Fatah (affiliated with the PLO – the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas – Abu Mazen), Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Additionally, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (which split from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), Fatah-Intifada, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine also operate in Lebanon.
Furthermore, several extremist Salafi Islamic groups operate in the Palestinian refugee camps, such as Asbat al-Ansar, Jund al-Sham, Asbat al-Nour, Ansar Allah, Kataib Abdullah Azzam, and Asbat al-Islam.
All of these groups possess light to medium weaponry of various types, including an arsenal of rockets, anti-tank missiles, and the like. In addition, as we published in October 2021 in a special report regarding Hamas’s infrastructure and activity in Lebanon, Hamas also has an organized independent weapons manufacturing infrastructure in Lebanon, which includes the capability to produce rockets, UAVs, and even miniature explosive submarines.
The main and well-known Palestinian refugee camps are Rashidieh, Burj al-Shamali, and al-Bass in Tyre; Ain al-Hilweh and Mieh Mieh in Sidon; Shatila (currently also home to many Syrian refugees) and Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut; al-Baddawi and Nahr al-Bared in Tripoli; and the Jalil refugee camp in Beqaa – Baalbek.
The Fatah movement, considered the largest Palestinian organization in Lebanon, maintains a significant presence in the refugee camps in Tyre. Hamas holds a significant presence in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in Sidon.
Lebanese security forces do not physically enter the Palestinian refugee camps, which have, over the years, become Palestinian extra-territories within Lebanon. Lebanese security forces maintain checkpoints outside the camps, at their main entry roads. De facto, the Lebanese state has no sovereignty within the refugee camps.
During the recent war, in coordination with Hezbollah, Hamas and PIJ operatives emerged from refugee camps in southern Lebanon and carried out terrorist activities against Israel, including infiltration attempts into Israeli territory and rocket fire. Even during the ceasefire, which began on November 27, 2024, terrorist activity against Israel continued. The last rocket fire towards Israel, carried out by Hamas operatives, occurred in March 2025. Hamas and PIJ sustained over 25 fatalities during the war.
During their meeting in April 2025, on the sidelines of the Arab Summit in Saudi Arabia, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) discussed the disarmament of Palestinian factions in Lebanon. Abu Mazen expressed his support for this process and emphasized the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to helping Lebanon restore order and security.
On May 16, 2025, Abu Mazen made his first official visit to Lebanon in years. He met again with President Aoun and also with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who, among other things, stated that “Palestinian weapons in Lebanon have no value today” (May 26, 2025).
The meetings primarily focused on security issues related to illegal weapons in Palestinian refugee camps, the rights of Palestinians in Lebanon, and the need to improve relations between the Palestinian Authority and the Lebanese government.
Following his meetings, Abu Mazen declared that “the era of weapons in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon is over. The time has come for Lebanese sovereignty to apply to all areas of the state, including the Palestinian camps.” He emphasized that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority do not support the possession of illegal weapons on Lebanese soil, and that all weaponry should be solely in the hands of state institutions.
In the wake of the visit, a joint Lebanese-Palestinian coordination committee was established. Its purpose is to synchronize the process of regulating weapons in the refugee camps and to set up a mechanism for their collection and surrender. The Lebanese side of the committee includes representatives from the Lebanese Ministry of Interior, the General Security Directorate, and Lebanese Army Intelligence. The Palestinian side includes senior representatives from the PLO Executive Committee, led by Azzam al-Ahmad. Also participating in the discussions are the head of Palestinian General Intelligence, Majed Faraj, his deputy, and the “Palestine” ambassador to Lebanon, Ashraf Dabour. A key objective for the Palestinian representatives is to bridge disagreements within the Fatah organization on this issue and to reach understandings with other Palestinian organizations.
According to various publications, the committee has decided on a timeline for the start of the weapon collection process in several Palestinian camps. This process is planned to be carried out in two phases:
Phase One – June 16, 2025:
Shatila Camp – Beirut
Burj al-Barajneh Camp – Beirut
Mar Elias Camp – Beirut
Phase Two – July 1, 2025:
Jalil Camp – Baalbek
Rashidiyeh Camp – Tyre
Al-Beddawi Camp – Tripoli
Burj al-Shamali Camp – Tyre
Al-Bass Camp – Tyre
The plan is for the collection of weapons to be carried out by local Palestinian entities within the camps, in coordination with the Lebanese army, and with security guarantees provided. It has been stated that those who do not cooperate with the decision may face cancellation of their residency permits in Lebanon and even deportation from the country.
At this stage, there has been no mention of Ain al-Hilweh camp (a stronghold of Hamas and Salafi movements) or Nahr al-Bared camp (which was severely damaged in 2007 during fighting between Palestinian organizations and the Lebanese army). These two camps are known as focal points for friction and terrorism. It remains unclear if or when the disarmament process will extend to them in the future.
It should be noted that on April 24, 2025, a preparatory process began in the al-Baddawi camp in Tripoli for a weapon collection and disarmament campaign. As part of this process, the Lebanese army closed all side roads leading to the al-Baddawi camp, leaving entry and exit only through the main gate. This was done to facilitate security oversight and prepare the ground for weapon collection. The move received support from the Fatah movement, which controls most of the camp, and is considered a first step towards disarming other camps in Lebanon.
As of June 3, 2025, there appears to be some difficulty in establishing the weapon collection mechanism, given the Palestinian representatives’ request to the committee for more time to complete its formation.
Following all the declarations about the swift implementation of the Palestinian weapons collection and disarmament initiative, is the process now showing signs of delay—or even a complete halt? And even if it proceeds, will the Palestinian organizations in Lebanon genuinely disarm?
On April 7, a rally took place in the city of Sidon in solidarity with the residents of the Gaza Strip. Attendees included religious leaders, activists, and representatives from the Islamic Jihad movement, Hamas, and Hezbollah. Among the messages voiced by the speakers was a call to oppose the demands for disarming the resistance organizations.
As of this writing, it appears that while the disarmament process geographically targets eight refugee camps across Lebanon, only the Fatah organization, represented by Abu Mazen, has, in principle, expressed its general agreement to the process. Even after coordination and agreements, it remains unclear whether groups within Fatah, on the one hand, and other Palestinian organizations, on the other, will hand over their weapons.
Regarding the Fatah organization, consider for instance Munir al-Maqdah, who commands an independent military force and effectively controls the center of the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp through his operatives, wielding significant influence over activities there.
Munir al-Maqdah in Ain Al-Halwa (September 2023)
On March 25, 2024, Israeli security services, including the Shin Bet (ISA) and the IDF, successfully intercepted a shipment of advanced Iranian weapons being smuggled from Jordan. These weapons were intended for terror operatives in Judea and Samaria. Al-Maqdah was implicated in this smuggling operation, having assisted the Iranian forces behind it. (Unit 4000 – the special operations department of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, and Unit 18840 of the Quds Force’s special operations unit, which was then active in Syria, under Unit 840). Al-Maqdah has been known for years through his collaboration with Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Will al-Maqdah surrender his weapons? We are not at all sure.
Additionally, this issue becomes particularly acute given that it’s unclear whether other organizations, especially Hamas, will join the initiative at all.
Extradition and Arrest of Hamas Operatives Following March 2025 Rocket Fire
On May 4 and 5, Lebanese army intelligence forces arrested five Hamas operatives after they confessed to involvement in the rocket fire towards Israel on March 22 and 28, 2025, as well as planning another attack. The arrests were carried out in coordination with the Hamas leadership, which handed over the suspects to the army.
This is an unusual step, but it is possible that, from Hamas’s cost-benefit perspective, they thought it preferable to hand them over and thereby defuse the anti-military activity and anti-weapon sentiment against Palestinian organizations in Lebanon. However, the extradition, which took place outside the Ain al-Hilweh camp (since Lebanese security forces do not enter it), intensified the discussion in Lebanon about disarming Palestinian factions.
Hamas’s Expected Response
Hamas has reacted to the ongoing discussions by asserting that the recent rocket fire was a result of individual initiatives by angry youths expressing “rage over the fighting in Gaza,” rather than a directive from the organization’s leadership. Ahmed Abd al-Hadi, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, even claimed that “his movement seeks to maintain good relations with the army and does not possess weapons factories in Lebanon…”
As for the disarmament process decided upon by the coordination committee, Hamas has not received these arrangements well, to say the least. In a formal and public statement, Hamas highlighted the following key points:
The agreements were made behind Hamas’s back and without coordination with all Palestinian factions.
Disarmament is unacceptable to Hamas as long as the civil and social rights of the refugees are not guaranteed.
Hamas demands “inclusive dialogue, not a monologue from the Palestinian Authority (of Abu Mazen).”
As of this writing, it is unclear whether the Palestinian weapon collection and disarmament process in Lebanon will begin on the planned date (June 16), and it may not begin at all.
The discussions for the agreement and coordination of weapon collection and disarmament are currently taking place only with representatives of the Fatah movement, who do not represent all groups within Fatah. We assess that even if the process begins in some form, the Fatah movement in Lebanon will not surrender all of its weapons and may only hand over a symbolic portion. Certain groups within the Fatah movement will not allow themselves to disarm while other organizations do not.
Hamas opposes the agreement and the process and does not intend to surrender its weapons. Will Hamas enter into a direct confrontation with the Lebanese state? Does the Lebanese state intend to and want to escalate measures against Hamas following its refusal?
We also assess that the Salafi organizations, with their extremist ideology opposing the central government, will not surrender their weapons.
It remains unclear how the other Palestinian organizations will act.
What is Hezbollah’s possible stance on this issue?
Despite rhetorical unity regarding the defense of “Palestine” and “Al-Quds” (Jerusalem), there is an inherent tension between Hamas, which brands itself as the “defender of all Palestinians,” and Hezbollah, which brands itself as the “defender of all Lebanese.” This tension creates a conflict of interest, even in actions against Israel from Lebanese territory. For example, consider the two rocket fire incidents from southern Lebanon toward Israel in March 2025 by Hamas operatives. Was this action coordinated with Hezbollah? In our assessment, it was probably not. Hezbollah currently has no interest in provoking an escalation of Israeli responses. Hezbollah needs “rehabilitative quiet” as much as possible.
From Hezbollah’s perspective, the Palestinians are merely guests in the Lebanese arena. Based on the independent military buildup and operations that Hamas carries out and can carry out from Lebanon, it appears that Hamas does not view itself as “just a guest” in Lebanon.
The history of relations with the radical Shiite axis led by Iran in general, and with Hezbollah in particular, has been volatile.
We assess that Hamas operates in Lebanon according to its own interests, even if it harms Hezbollah. Hezbollah knows this. Therefore, we believe Hezbollah would prefer that there be no strong and independent Palestinian organizations with weapons. If Hezbollah could choose, it would decide who to disarm and who to leave armed, but only as a full proxy under Hezbollah’s complete control.
In Summary: Talk is Cheap. When it comes to disarming both Hezbollah and Palestinian factions, it seems to be a case of “talk is cheap.” Much like the ongoing rhetoric about “Hezbollah’s disarmament process,” the same can be said for the “Palestinian disarmament process.” Both Hezbollah and Hamas have laid down conditions for their cooperation, conditions that, to put it mildly, will be extremely difficult to fully implement. Uncertainty far outweighs certainty here. There’s a significant gap between the declared intentions and the reality on the ground. Even if we see some actions related to Palestinian disarmament, we believe it will be more of a symbolic gesture than a genuine, representative effort.
Hezbollah isn’t going to disarm. In our assessment, most of the Palestinian organizations and groups within the refugee camps won’t either.
https://israel-alma.org/will-the-palestinians-in-lebanon-disarm/

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on June 08-09/2025
Iran claims without evidence that it took Israeli nuclear files
Jon Gambrell/The Associated Press/June 8, 2025
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran's intelligence minister claimed without offering evidence Sunday that Tehran seized an “important treasury” of information regarding Israel's nuclear program, ahead of a week in which the Islamic Republic likely will face new diplomatic pressure over its own program. The remarks by Esmail Khatib follow Iranian state television claiming Saturday that Iranian intelligence officials seized documents, again without any evidence. Israel, whose undeclared atomic weapons program makes it the only country in the Mideast with nuclear bombs, has not acknowledged any such Iranian operation targeting it — though there have been arrests of Israelis allegedly spying for Tehran amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Iran, meanwhile, will likely face censure this week from the Board of Governors at the International Atomic Energy Agency over longstanding questions about its program. Iran has also signaled it will reject a proposal from the United States after five rounds of negotiations over its nuclear program — setting the stage for that long-running crisis to potentially spike as well. ‘Treasury’ of secrets claim comes without evidence. Responding to questions from an Iranian state TV reporter Sunday after a Cabinet meeting, Khatib said members of the Intelligence Ministry “achieved an important treasury of strategic, operational and scientific intelligence of the Zionist regime and it was transferred into the country with God's help.”He claimed thousands of pages of documents had been obtained and insisted they would be made public soon. Among them were documents related to the U.S., Europe and other countries, he claimed, obtained through “infiltration” and “access to the sources.”He did not elaborate on the methods used. However, Khatib, a Shiite cleric, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022 over directing “cyber espionage and ransomware attacks in support of Iran’s political goals.”For Iran, the claim may be designed to show the public that the theocracy was able to respond to a 2018 Israeli operation that spirited out what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “half ton” of documents related to Iran's program. That Israeli announcement came just before President Donald Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew America from Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which greatly limited its program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Announcement ahead of IAEA board vote, as US talks waver
This week, Western nations are expect to go before the IAEA's Board of Governors with a proposal to find Iran in noncompliance with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog. It could be the first time in decades — and likely would kick the issue to the U.N. Security Council. That could see one of the Western countries involved in the 2015 nuclear deal invoke the so-called “snapback” of U.N. sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The authority to reestablish those sanctions by the complaint of any member of the original 2015 nuclear deal expires in October — putting the West on a clock to exert pressure on Tehran over its program before losing that power. Iran now enriches uranium up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Tehran has enough highly enriched uranium to build multiple atomic bombs should it choose to do so. Without a deal with the U.S., Iran’s long-ailing economy could enter a freefall that could worsen the simmering unrest at home. Israel or the U.S. might carry out long-threatened airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. Experts fear Tehran in response could decide to fully end its cooperation with the IAEA and rush toward a bomb.

Iran says no sanctions relief in US nuclear proposal
AFP/08 June/2025
Iran’s parliament speaker said on Sunday that the latest US proposal for a nuclear deal does not include the lifting of sanctions, state media reported as negotiations appear to have hit a roadblock. The two foes have held five rounds of Omani-mediated talks since April, seeking to replace a landmark agreement between Tehran and world powers that set restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief, before US President Donald Trump abandoned the accord during his first term in 2018. In a video aired on Iranian state TV, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that “the US plan does not even mention the lifting of sanctions.”He called it a sign of dishonesty, accusing the Americans of seeking to impose a “unilateral” agreement that Tehran would not accept. “The delusional US president should know better and change his approach if he is really looking for a deal,” Ghalibaf said.
On May 31, after the fifth round of talks, Iran said it had received “elements” of a US proposal, with officials later taking issue with “ambiguities” in the draft text. The US and its Western allies have long accused the Islamic Republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a charge Iran has consistently denied, insisting that its atomic program was solely for peaceful purposes. Key issues in the negotiations have been the removal of biting economic sanctions and uranium enrichment. Tehran says it has the right to enrich uranium under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while the Trump administration has called any Iranian enrichment a “red line.”Trump, who has revived his “maximum pressure” campaign of sanction on Iran since taking office in January, has repeatedly said it will not be allowed any uranium enrichment under a potential deal. On Tuesday, Iran’s top negotiator, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, said the country “will not ask anyone for permission to continue enriching uranium.”According to the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state in the world that enriches uranium up to 60 percent – still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Wednesday rejected the latest US proposal and said enrichment was “key” to Iran’s nuclear program. The IAEA Board of Governors is scheduled to meet in Vienna later this month and discuss Iran’s nuclear activities.

Iranian authorities expand ban on dog walking
AFP/June 08, 2025
TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have expanded a ban on walking dogs in public to multiple cities nationwide, citing public health, social order and safety concerns, domestic media reported on Sunday. The ban —which echoes a 2019 police directive that barred walking dogs in Tehran — was expanded to Ilam city in the west on Sunday, according to reports. At least 17 other cities recently introduced similar bans, including Isfahan in the center and Kerman in the south. Owning and walking dogs has been a contentious topic since the 1979 revolution in Iran, though there is no law outrightly banning dog ownership.
Many religious scholars, however, consider petting dogs or coming into contact with their saliva as "najis" or ritually impure, while some officials view them as a symbol of Western cultural influence. Local authorities have periodically introduced bans on walking dogs in public spaces or carrying them in vehicles as part of a wider campaign to discourage their ownership. Enforcing the restrictions has been largely inconsistent, as many owners continue to walk their dogs in Tehran and elsewhere across Iran. On Sunday, the Etemad newspaper quoted an official from Ilam city as saying that "legal action will be taken against violators."On Saturday, a state newspaper said the latest measures are aimed at "maintaining public order, ensuring safety and protecting public health." "Dog walking is a threat to public health, peace and comfort," said Abbas Najafi, prosecutor of the western city of Hamedan, as quoted by Iran newspaper.
In 2021, some 75 lawmakers condemned pet ownership as a "destructive social problem," saying it could "gradually change the Iranian and Islamic way of life."In 2017, Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said that "keeping dogs for reasons other than herding, hunting, and guard dogs is considered reprehensible." "If this practice resembles that of non-Muslims, promotes their culture, or causes harm and disturbance to neighbours, it is deemed forbidden," he added.

Israeli military says it struck Hamas member in southern Syria
Reuters/June 8, 2025
CAIRO -The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Syria's Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month. Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike. Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country's new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable. Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party. A little known group named "Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades," an apparent reference to Hamas' military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim. Israel and Syria have recently engaged in direct talks to calm tensions, marking a significant development in ties between states that have been on opposite sides of conflict in the Middle East for decade.

Palestinians say Israeli fire kills 5 near aid sites. Israel says it fired warning shots
Wafaa Shurafa And Kareem Chehayeb/The Associated Press/June 8, 2025
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli fire killed at least five people and wounded others as they headed toward two aid distribution points in the Gaza Strip run by an Israeli and U.S.-backed group, Palestinian health officials and witnesses said Sunday. Israel's military said that it fired warning shots at people who approached its forces. The past two weeks have seen frequent shootings near the new hubs where thousands of Palestinians — desperate after 20 months of war — are being directed to collect food. Witnesses say nearby Israeli troops have opened fire, and more than 80 people have been killed, according to Gaza hospital officials. In all, at least 108 bodies were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the territory's Health Ministry said. Israel’s military said that it struck dozens of militant targets throughout Gaza over the past day. Four of the latest bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. Palestinian witnesses said that Israeli forces fired on people at a roundabout around a kilometer (half-mile) from a site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in nearby Rafah. Israel's military said that it fired warning shots at approaching “suspects” who ignored warnings to turn away. It said that the shooting happened in an area that is considered an active combat zone at night. Al-Awda Hospital said that it received the body of a man and 29 people who were wounded near another GHF aid distribution point in central Gaza. The military said that it fired warning shots in the area at around 6:40 a.m., but didn't see any casualties. A GHF official said that there was no violence in or around its distribution sites, all three of which delivered aid on Sunday. The group closed them temporarily last week to discuss safety measures with Israel's military and has warned people to stay on designated access routes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The new aid hubs are set up inside Israeli military zones where independent media have no access. The GHF also said that it was piloting direct delivery to a community north of Rafah.
Witnesses fear for their safety
Witnesses said that the shooting in southern Gaza took place at around 6 a.m., when they were told the site would open. Many headed toward it early, seeking desperately needed food before crowds arrived. Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians are almost completely reliant on international aid because nearly all food production capabilities have been destroyed. Adham Dahman, who was at Nasser Hospital with a bandage on his chin, said that a tank fired toward them. “We didn’t know how to escape," he said. "This is trap for us, not aid.”Zahed Ben Hassan said that someone next to him was shot in the head.
“They said it was a safe area from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. ... So why did they start shooting at us?” he said. “There was light out, and they have their cameras and can clearly see us.”The military announced on Friday that the sites would be open during those hours, and that the areas would be a closed military zone the rest of the time. The new aid hubs are run by GHF, a new group of mainly American contractors. Israel wants it to replace a system coordinated by the United Nations and international aid groups. Israel and the United States accuse the Hamas militant group of stealing aid. The U.N. denies there is systematic diversion. The U.N. says the new system is unable to meet mounting needs, allows Israel to use aid as a weapon by determining who can receive it and forces people to relocate to where aid sites are positioned. The U.N. system has struggled to deliver aid, even after Israel eased its blockade of Gaza last month. U.N. officials say their efforts are hindered by Israeli military restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting. Experts warned earlier this year that Gaza was at critical risk of famine, if Israel didn't lift its blockade and halt its military campaign. Both were renewed in March.Israeli officials have said the offensive will continue until all hostages are returned and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile. On Sunday, Israel's military invited journalists into Khan Younis to show a tunnel under the European Hospital, saying they found the body of Mohammed Sinwar, the head of Hamas' armed wing, there after he was killed last month. Israel has barred international journalists from entering Gaza independently since the war began. “(Israeli forces) would prefer not to hit or target hospitals,” army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said. Sinwar's body was found in a room under the hospital's emergency room, Defrin said. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Talks mediated by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been deadlocked for months. Hamas started the war with its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage. They still hold 55 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It says women and children make up most of the dead, but doesn't say how many civilians or combatants were killed. Israel says it has killed more than 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population.

Israel Says it Killed Head of Mujahideen Brigades in Gaza
Asharq Al Awsat/June 8, 2025
Israel’s military has said it killed the head of the Mujahideen Brigades, Asaad Abou Sharia, in Gaza City on Saturday. Abu Sharia was killed in a joint operation with Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, the army said. His death and that of his brother Ahmed Abu Sharia were confirmed by the militant group hours after Gaza’s Civil Defense reported that an Israeli airstrike had hit their family home in the Sabra area of Gaza City. At least 30 Palestinians were killed and scores wounded by airstrikes in Sabra, Palestinian media reported. More than one missile landed in the area. The target seemed to have been a multi-floor residential building, but the explosion damaged several other houses nearby, according to witnesses and media. The Mujahideen Brigades took part in the October 7 attacks on Israel alongside Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, the Israeli army said. It added that Sharia was among the militant leaders who stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz where many residents were killed or taken hostage during the assault that led to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Israel vows to prevent an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists from reaching Gaza
The Associated Press/June 8, 2025
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s government on Sunday vowed to prevent an aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg and other activists from reaching the Gaza Strip. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel wouldn't allow anyone to break its naval blockade of the Palestinian territory, which he said was aimed at preventing Hamas from importing arms. “To the antisemitic Greta and her fellow Hamas propagandists — I will say this clearly: You should turn back, because you will not make it to Gaza,” he said in a statement. Thunberg, a climate campaigner, is among 12 activists aboard the Madleen, which is operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. The vessel departed Sicily last Sunday on a mission that aims to break the sea blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid, while raising awareness over the growing humanitarian crisis 20 months into the Israel-Hamas war. The activists had said they planned to reach Gaza’s territorial waters as early as Sunday. Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist on board the boat, posted a video on social media Sunday afternoon saying someone appeared to be jamming their tracking and communication devices about 160 nautical miles from Gaza. Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent, is among the others onboard. She has been barred from entering Israel because of her opposition to Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. After a 2 1/2-month total blockade aimed at pressuring Hamas, Israel started allowing some basic aid into Gaza last month, but humanitarian workers have warned of famine unless the blockade is lifted and Israel ends its military offensive. An attempt last month by Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza by sea failed after another of the group’s vessels was attacked by two drones while sailing in international waters off Malta. The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship. Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Critics of the blockade say it amounts to collective punishment of Gaza's roughly 2 million Palestinians.
Israel sealed Gaza off from all aid in the early days of the war ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but later relented under U.S. pressure. In early March, shortly before Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas, the country again blocked all imports, including food, fuel and medicine. Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 hostages, more than half of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas is still holding 55 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead.
Israel's military campaign has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up most of the dead. It doesn't say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of the territory's population, leaving people there almost completely dependent on international aid.

Sensitive Israeli documents obtained by Iran should be unveiled soon, minister says
Reuters/08 June ,2025
Sensitive Israeli documents obtained by Tehran should be unveiled soon, Minister of Intelligence Esmail Khatib told state TV on Sunday, describing them as a “treasure trove” which will strengthen Iran’s offensive capabilities. Iranian state media reported on Saturday that Iranian intelligence agencies had obtained a large trove of sensitive Israeli documents. Khatib said these were related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and its relations with the United States, Europe and other countries, and to its defensive capabilities. There was no immediate official comment from Israel. It was not clear whether the information breach was linked to a reported hacking of an Israeli nuclear research center last year which Tehran is only disclosing now amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program. “The transfer of this treasure trove was time-consuming and required security measures. Naturally, the transfer methods will remain confidential but the documents should be unveiled soon,” Khatib said, adding that in terms of volume, “talking of thousands of documents would be an understatement.”In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli agents had seized a huge “archive” of Iranian documents that showed Tehran had done more nuclear work than previously known. US President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Iran if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. But Trump in April reportedly blocked a planned Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was “100 percent” against Iran’s interests, rejecting a central US demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Western powers say Iran is refining uranium to a high degree of fissile purity close to the level suitable for atomic bomb fuel. Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons.

Israel military says identified body of Hamas Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar
AFP/Published: 08 June ,2025
The Israeli military said Sunday that it had located and identified the body of Mohammed Sinwar, presumed leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, three weeks after he was said to have been killed in an airstrike. “In a targeted operation of the IDF (military) ... and following the completion of an identification process, it is now confirmed that the body of Mohammed Sinwar was located in the underground tunnel route beneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis,” the army said in a statement. The army said that Sinwar was “eliminated,” along with several other members of the militant group, on May 13.“During searches in the underground tunnel route, several items belonging to Sinwar ... were located, along with additional intelligence findings that were transferred for further investigation,” the military said. Army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told journalists who were escorted by Israeli forces to the site on Sunday that Sinwar’s body was found “underneath the hospital, right under the emergency room, a compound, a few rooms.”He added that they had confirmed with “DNA checks and other checks” that the body was indeed Mohammed Sinwar’s. On May 28, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the military had killed Sinwar, the brother of former Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who was also killed by Israeli forces during the Gaza war. “We drove the terrorists out of our territory, entered the Gaza Strip with force, eliminated tens of thousands of terrorists, eliminated ... Mohammed Sinwar,” Netanyahu said in an address in Israel’s parliament. Mohammed Sinwar’s older brother, Yahya Sinwar, accused by Israel of masterminding Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, was killed in October 2024. Experts say it is likely that Mohammed Sinwar took over as the head of the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, after its leader Mohammed Deif was also killed. After the deaths of several Hamas leaders since October 7, Mohammed Sinwar was thought to be at the heart of decisions on indirect negotiations with Israel, the issue of hostages and the management of Hamas’ armed wing. Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, among others.

Egyptian, Turkish FMs discuss Gaza ceasefire, mass graves in Libya
Arab News/June 08, 2025
LONDON: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty discussed developments in Gaza and Libya with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. The ministers, during a phone call on Sunday, highlighted the urgency of a ceasefire in Gaza and described the situation there as a “humanitarian disaster” amid Israeli attacks and military actions in the area. They discussed efforts to achieve a ceasefire, secure the release of Israeli hostages and ensure the delivery of humanitarian, medical and shelter aid to the enclave. Abdelatty and Fidan discussed recent developments in Libya, including the discovery of dozens of bodies in mass graves in the capital, Tripoli. The Egyptian minister highlighted Cairo’s support for Libya’s unity and integrity, ensuring that Libyans can hold presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously, without interference, as soon as possible, Kuwait News Agency reported. Abdelatty said that Cairo and Ankara continue to cooperate in the economic, investment and trade sectors, and exchange views on urgent regional matters.

Russia continues to accuse Ukraine of delaying planned exchange of dead fighters
The Associated Press/08 June/2025
Russian officials said Sunday that Moscow is still awaiting official confirmation from Kyiv that a planned exchange of 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action will take place, reiterating allegations that Ukraine had postponed the swap. Russian state media quoted Lt. Gen. Alexander Zorin, a representative of the Russian negotiating group, as saying that Russia delivered the first batch of 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers to the exchange site at the border and is waiting for confirmation from the Ukrainian side, but that there are “signals” that the process of transferring the bodies will be postponed until next week. Russia and Ukraine each accused the other on Saturday of endangering plans to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action, which was agreed upon during direct talks in Istanbul on Monday that otherwise made no progress toward ending the war. Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who led the Russian delegation, said that Kyiv called a last-minute halt to an imminent swap. In a Telegram post on Saturday, Medinsky said that refrigerated trucks carrying more than 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian troops from Russia had already reached the agreed exchange site at the border when the news came. In response, Ukraine said Russia was playing “dirty games” and manipulating facts. According to the main Ukrainian authority dealing with such swaps, no date had been set for repatriating the bodies. In a statement on Saturday, the agency also accused Russia of submitting lists of prisoners of war for repatriation that didn’t correspond to agreements reached on Monday. It wasn’t immediately possible to reconcile the conflicting claims. Later in the day Ukraine said that a planned exchange of captured soldiers would start “next week.” “The start of repatriation activities based on the results of the negotiations in Istanbul is scheduled for next week,” the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said on social media. In other developments, one person was killed and another seriously wounded in Russian aerial strikes on the eastern Ukrainian Kharkiv region. These strikes came after Russian attacks targeting the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, killed at least four people and wounded more than two dozen others on Saturday. Russia fired a total of 49 exploding drones and decoys and three missiles overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Forty drones were shot down or electronically jammed. Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry said that its forces shot down 61 Ukrainian drones overnight, including near the capital. Two people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at a chemical plant in the Tula region.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on June 08-09/2025
Why Iran Will Never Give Up Its Nuclear Weapons
Amin Sharifi/Gatestone Institute/June 08/2025
Iran's ruling elite, bluntly, believes that both its survival and its mission depend on acquiring nuclear weapons. They saw what happened to Libya and Ukraine when their leaders gave up their nuclear weapons, and understood that this was not the way to go.
The regime's goal is the bomb.
Iran's Supreme Leader is not just a political figure, but is considered divine, with a legitimacy given not by man but by Allah.
"And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged." — Qur'an 8:60 (Sahih International Translation).
This verse is used by the IRGC not just as a call for defense, but as a religious endorsement of nuclear armament. In this view, nuclear weapons are not only permitted, but also necessary. They are both a shield against the regime's many enemies and a divine tool for the end-times struggle they believe is coming.
Iran's leadership sees deception not as dishonorable, but as strategic. The Islamic doctrine of taqiyya, or religiously sanctioned deception, allows lying to infidels in the name of survival or victory.
The regime's lack of response to Soleimani's killing revealed something essential: the mullahs understand only strength.
Iran's nuclear program must be completely and permanently dismantled. Even if ideology were not part of the equation, Iran's corruption, mismanagement and incompetence would still make it unfit to operate any nuclear facility. Senior officials are appointed through favoritism, cronyism or family ties. Industry is collapsing. Accountability is nonexistent.
The day we wake up to hear that Iran is about to use its nuclear bomb will be the day the world changes forever.
Iran's nuclear program must be completely and permanently dismantled. Even if ideology were not part of the equation, Iran's corruption, mismanagement and incompetence would still make it unfit to operate any nuclear facility. Senior officials are appointed through favoritism, cronyism or family ties. Industry is collapsing. Accountability is nonexistent. Pictured: The Isfahan uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan, Iran. (Photo by Getty Images)
Iran's ruling elite, bluntly, believes that both its survival and its mission depend on acquiring nuclear weapons. They saw what happened to Libya and Ukraine when their leaders gave up their nuclear weapons, and understood that this was not the way to go. To Iran's rulers, their nuclear program is not just a policy objective to protect the continuation of their regime, but the centerpiece of Iran's ideology and propaganda.
Despite having some of the world's richest oil and gas reserves, the regime has accepted crushing sanctions and economic ruin, all under the excuse of pursuing nuclear power. The regime's goal is the bomb.
Many different groups were involved in the 1979 revolution that overthrew the monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, but Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini quickly eliminated his rivals and imposed an Islamist system unlike anything else in modern history: Velayat-e-Faqih, or "the rule of the Islamic jurist." In this vision, drawn from a radical interpretation of Twelver Shiism, political power belongs not to the people, but to Allah, and through Him to the clerical class acting as representatives of the Twelfth Iman, known as the "Hidden Imam." This belief forms the foundation of the Supreme Leader's authority. Iran's Supreme Leader is not just a political figure, but is considered divine, with a legitimacy given not by man but by Allah.
In Iran, the Supreme Leader is the only absolute ruler. He appoints the judiciary, controls the military, dictates foreign policy, and approves or rejects all applicants for election candidacy. Elections exist, but are meaningless ceremonies. Presidents and parliaments do not govern, they obey. What is absent from the Islamic Republic of Iran is a "republic."
The West still fails to grasp this regime's worldview. It is not just authoritarian, it is theological. It sees the world in binary terms: believers and infidels, Shiites and non-Shiites. It also believes that history is heading toward a final confrontation, in which Iran will be prepared militarily and spiritually to lead. That is why the Iranian nuclear program is not negotiable. It is holy, sacred.
Iran's private militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), embodies the most radical interpretation of the Quran. For example, Surah al-Anfal, verse 8:60, which commands Muslims:
"And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged." (Sahih International Translation)
This verse is used by the IRGC not just as a call for defense, but as a religious endorsement of nuclear armament. In this view, nuclear weapons are not only permitted, but also necessary. They are both a shield against the regime's many enemies and a divine tool for the end-times struggle they believe is coming.
Iran's leadership sees deception not as dishonorable, but as strategic. The Islamic doctrine of taqiyya, or religiously sanctioned deception, allows lying to infidels in the name of survival or victory. Combine this with their reading of Islamic sources such as the Islamic Prophet Mohammed's saying that "war is deceit", therefore, any agreement, verbal or written, is ultimately meaningless to a regime that views deception as doctrine.
Western diplomats still behave as if they're dealing with a conventional authoritarian state. They're not. They're dealing with an absolutist religious movement that uses treaties as cover and smiles as strategy. The Obama Administration's 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Iran never involved real concessions from the Islamic Republic. It was an Iranian delay tactic, a calibrated pause to outlast and outmaneuver naive Western governments.
The silence of then US President Barack Obama during Iran's 2009 Green Movement protests betrayed millions of Iranians fighting for freedom. Instead of supporting the people, he chose to preserve nuclear negotiations, a decision that allowed the regime to survive and rebuild.
By contrast, President Donald J. Trump's withdrawal from the JCPOA in 2018 and his killing of IRGC Quds Force commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani represented a break from this pattern of appeasement. The regime's lack of response to Soleimani's killing revealed something essential: the mullahs understand only strength.
The Biden administration revived the failed engagement policies, and Iran became bolder than ever. From backing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, to direct launching ballistic missiles and drones at Israel in 2024, the Iranian regime acted without fear. If these events did not convince the West of the consequences of compromise with Tehran, what will?
When Iran released a video simulating the assassination of Trump, it clearly never expected him to return to power. But now, Iran's goal is simple: survive the next four years by dragging out talks and buying time to acquire nuclear bombs and rebuild the air defenses that Israel destroyed.
While the West was playing this game of hide-and-seek bogus diplomacy, Iran managed to deploy more advanced centrifuges, enrich uranium to higher levels (weapons-grade), build and expand deeper underground facilities, and find more sophisticated ways to conceal its nuclear progress.
Here is the bitter truth: A new deal with Iran might look like a solution. In reality, a deal will only give Iran more time and more cover to evade whatever it agrees to. The regime will invent distractions to advance its program underground. Another war. Another proxy. Another crisis.
Iran's nuclear program must be completely and permanently dismantled. Even if ideology were not part of the equation, Iran's corruption, mismanagement and incompetence would still make it unfit to operate any nuclear facility. Senior officials are appointed through favoritism, cronyism or family ties. Industry is collapsing. Accountability is nonexistent.
Nobody wants to see a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster caused by Iranian incompetence or something even worse, caused by ideological intent.
Iran's regime cannot be reformed. Most especially, it cannot be trusted. It will never voluntarily give up its nuclear ambitions. Those ambitions are not just political. They are theological.
The day we wake up to hear that Iran is about to use its nuclear bomb will be the day the world changes forever.
*Amin Sharifi is an expert in international relations and the Middle East. He is presently based in Sweden.
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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21670/iran-give-up-nuclear-weapons

How conflict, climate shocks and collapsing aid budgets are pushing millions to the brink of starvation
JUMANA KHAMIS/Arab News/June 08, 2025
DUBAI: There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire global population, yet 733 million people still go hungry, including 38 million children under five years of age, according to the latest aid agency data. Global hunger has reached an unprecedented tipping point, with 343 million people across 74 countries deemed acutely food insecure, Stephen Anderson, a representative of the World Food Programme in the GCC, told Arab News. “This figure represents a 10 percent increase from the previous year and is just shy of the record number seen during the pandemic,” he said.
Infographic from the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises
Anderson said that WFP is supporting about 123 million of the most vulnerable — but nearly half of them (58 million) are at risk of losing food assistance due to funding shortages. The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises delivers a stark warning — that without urgent action, today’s crisis could spiral into a full-blown catastrophe across some of the world’s most fragile regions. UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Joyce Azzam said that hunger is no longer a problem of supply — it is a matter of justice.
Hunger today isn’t caused by a lack of food — it’s caused by a lack of fairness,” Azzam told Arab News. “We’re still treating it like a temporary emergency instead of the ongoing crisis that it is.”Azzam described hunger not as a side-effect, but as a symptom of broken systems, deep inequality and prolonged neglect. “Unless we confront those root causes — not just with aid, but with bold policy and deep empathy — this trend won’t just continue, it will accelerate.”
Infographic from the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises
The GRFC report, based on consensus among partner organizations, echoed recent WFP findings, revealing that 295.3 million people across 53 countries faced acute food insecurity in 2024. It shows an increase of 13.7 million people facing acute food security from 2023, marking the sixth consecutive year of rising hunger. “The year 2024 marked the worst year on record since GRFC tracking began in 2016,” Anderson said. Catastrophic hunger — known as “Phase 5,” which indicates “extreme lack of food, starvation, death, destruction and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels” under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — doubled to 1.9 million people, 95 percent of whom are in Gaza and Sudan.Famine was officially declared in Gaza in 2024. Conditions have now worsened as a result of an 11-week aid blockade imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2.
Since then, at least 29 children and elderly people have died from starvation-related causes, according to Palestinian health authorities. Aid agencies fear the real figure could be far higher. Azzam said that events in Gaza reflect a broader pattern in which hunger is being weaponized. “In these regions — hunger is being used as a weapon. It’s deliberate. And it’s devastating,” she said, recalling her own life growing up amid the Lebanese civil war. “Hunger during conflict is about so much more than food. It’s about dignity being stripped away, day by day.”
As of the latest assessment in March 2024, the IPC Famine Review Committee classified the entire population of Gaza as being in IPC Phase 3 or higher, meaning everyone is in crisis, emergency, or catastrophic food insecurity. More than 500,000 people — roughly one in every four Gazans — were assessed to be in IPC Phase 5.
Sudan faces a similarly dire scenario. Famine was officially declared in multiple regions of the country as a result of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Since the start of the war in April 2023, which has devastated infrastructure, disrupted agricultural production and severely limited humanitarian access, nearly 12 million people have been forced from their homes, leading to widespread displacement.The deteriorating situation has exacerbated food insecurity, leading to famine conditions in August 2024. In Yemen, the hunger crisis has also intensified in 2025, with the WFP warning that more than 17 million people — nearly half the population — are facing acute food insecurity. This figure is projected to rise to 19 million by the end of the year. “Protracted wars also inflate food prices and we see this in Yemen where staple costs rose 300 percent since 2015, paralyzing markets,” Anderson said. More than a decade of conflict has devastated the country’s economy, healthcare system and infrastructure, leaving more than half the population reliant on humanitarian aid.
However, soaring needs continue to outpace funding and resources.
“These funding gaps have forced WFP to cut rations for 40 percent of the people we served in 2023, as was the case in Yemen and Afghanistan,” Anderson said.
Malnutrition in Yemen is also surging, particularly among women and children.
WFP and UNICEF report that 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished — more than 537,000 of them severely so — while 1.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are also affected. In the western coastal region of Hodeidah, malnutrition rates have exceeded 33 percent, with dwindling aid and funding cuts forcing the WFP to scale back food distributions. Children and pregnant or breastfeeding women are among the hardest hit in food-insecure regions. According to the WFP, 60 percent of the people who are experiencing chronic hunger are women and girls — a number that reflects systemic inequalities. “When food becomes scarce, women and girls are the first to feel it — and the last to be prioritized,” Azzam said. “We cannot address hunger without addressing gender. Period.”She added: “That’s not just a statistic — it reflects deep, structural inequality. In many households, women skip meals so their children or husbands can eat. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are especially vulnerable, and often face severe malnutrition without access to basic healthcare.”
This is echoed in the GRFC report, which found that 10.9 million pregnant or breastfeeding women across 22 countries are acutely malnourished.Azzam also pointed out that hunger has particularly devastating effects on adolescent girls, who are often pulled out of school — not only because of poverty, but because they are expected to support their families, care for siblings, or earn an income. In some of the most desperate situations, families may even marry off their daughters to reduce the number of mouths to feed and gain short-term financial relief. “Hunger also increases the risk of gender-based violence,” Azzam said. “When resources are scarce and systems collapse, exploitation and abuse rise — especially for women and girls.” Other factors driving food insecurity include climate-related disasters, such as droughts and floods intensified by the El Nino effect, a natural climate phenomenon that occurs when surface ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become unusually warm.
In 2024, this phenomenon affected 96 million people across 18 countries, more specifically in southern Africa, southern Asia and the Horn of Africa, the GRFC report found.
In the Horn of Africa, successive droughts between 2020 and 2024 — followed by severe flooding — have devastated pastoral livelihoods, Anderson said. Somalia, for instance, saw its cereal output plummet by 50 percent in 2023. In the Sahel, erratic rainfall and advancing desertification have also taken a toll. “Niger’s millet production dropped 30 percent,” Anderson added.These environmental shocks are now colliding with conflict. “In Mali and Burkina Faso, climate and insecurity are trapping communities in hunger cycles,” he said. Azzam, who holds a PhD in environmental management, warned that the world is witnessing a “dangerous unraveling” of the systems that once sustained vulnerable communities. “When fragile communities are hit by climate shocks — floods, droughts, desertification — they don’t just lose crops. They lose soil, homes, water sources, entire ways of life,” she said. Azzam called for urgent investment in “climate-smart, locally-led solutions,” including regenerative agriculture and sustainable water systems. Economic shocks, including inflation and currency devaluation, have compounded the problem, pushing some 59.4 million people into hunger.
“Combined with economic instability, many are left with no choice but to migrate, abandon their land or depend entirely on aid — a cycle that leaves little room for recovery,” Azzam said. If current trends continue, “entire regions could become uninhabitable,” leading to mass displacement, overcrowded urban centers and increased conflict over dwindling resources, she said. “Most tragically, we’ll see children growing up malnourished, undereducated and cut off from opportunity — a lost generation shaped by crisis,” she added. To make matters worse, significant cuts to humanitarian spending by the world’s biggest state donors have led to the suspension of nutrition services for more than 14 million children in vulnerable regions, according to the GRFC report.
“The Global Report on Food Crises reflects a world dangerously off course,” said Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, responding to the findings. In light of these alarming trends, the GRFC called for a comprehensive humanitarian reset — urging ceasefires in conflict zones such as Gaza and Sudan, investment in resilient local food systems, debt relief, and scaled-up climate adaptation to protect the most vulnerable.
“Without urgent, committed action, the gap between those who need help and those who receive it will only grow,” Azzam said. “And in that gap, lives are lost — not because we couldn’t act, but because we didn’t.”

The ocean is not just a carbon sink
Wavel Ramkalawan/Arab News/June 08, 2025
Governments and civil society organizations from around the world are gathering in Nice, France, this week for the UN Ocean Conference. The third such meeting since 2017, it comes at a time when countries are also finalizing their updated nationally determined contributions (decarbonization plans) as required under the Paris climate agreement.
The timing is fitting because changes in our oceans have become a familiar barometer for the severity of the climate crisis. Vibrant, technicolor coral reefs, once bursting with life, are being bleached ghostly pale by warming, acidic waters. Island populations, such as the inhabitants of the largest of Panama’s Carti Islands, are being forced to abandon their homes in the face of rising sea levels. And many coastal communities, often some of the poorest in the world, are being ravaged by increasingly severe cyclones.
As the ones on the front line, small island developing states are also leading sources of climate innovation. We have become test beds for solutions that can guide action globally. From our perspective, the ocean is not just a symptom of a changing climate, but also a major part of the solution.
The High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (of which the Seychelles is a member) estimates that some 35 percent of the emissions reductions needed by 2050 could come from the ocean. Most of this potential lies in industrial sectors — from decarbonized shipping to marine-based renewable energy. But the protection and restoration of certain “blue carbon ecosystems” — mangroves, seagrasses, saltmarshes — can also measurably contribute to climate-change mitigation efforts.
In our own 2021 nationally determined contribution, the Seychelles committed to mapping and subsequently protecting all seagrasses across our exclusive economic zone — an area totaling 1.3 million sq. km — by 2030. Now, I am proud to say that we have already met that goal, protecting more than 99 percent of our seagrass meadows five years ahead of schedule. In doing so, we have set a benchmark for ocean climate leadership. Other countries across the Western Indian Ocean are now undertaking similar work and outlining their own ambitions for the 2025 nationally determined contributions updates.
From our perspective, the ocean is not just a symptom of a changing climate, but also a major part of the solution.
In addition to serving as a measurable source of carbon storage, these ecosystems are some of the most effective and cost-efficient forms of natural infrastructure available for stabilizing shorelines and buffering storms. They provide a vital first line of defense for islanders and coast dwellers, absorbing wave energy, filtering water and preventing erosion. And they also underpin the blue economy on which billions of livelihoods depend.
In fact, seagrasses alone provide valuable habitat to more than a fifth of the world’s 25 largest fisheries, including many species that are key to local food security and incomes. Healthy coastal ecosystems mean healthier economies, more resilient communities and greater long-term stability. With healthy mangroves and seagrasses, front-line communities are far more resilient and better able to adapt to climate change.
Our experience offers important lessons. While the ocean has long been described as the planet’s greatest carbon sink, that is a dated construct. The ocean has indeed absorbed most anthropogenic heat and carbon dioxide emissions since the start of industrialization. But its capacity to do so is not unlimited. There is no magic “plug hole” where heat and carbon simply disappear. Depicting the ocean this way risks obscuring the tangible, place-based role of marine ecosystems in supporting many communities’ cultures, diets, identities and survival. For Seychellois, seagrass meadows are far more important as a habitat for the rabbitfish that sustain artisanal fishers, or as a source of food and shelter for the turtles that attract so many tourists, than they are as carbon sinks.
Reducing the value of three-quarters of our planet to the singular role of carbon sink overlooks the ocean’s vast contributions to food security, cultural identity and economic resilience. This narrow framing reinforces the inequities baked into how we assess, govern and invest in planetary systems.
Ultimately, industrial marine sectors and natural ecosystems are underused tools in addressing climate change and other development needs. As world leaders gather in Nice and prepare for the UN’s COP30 climate change conference in Belem, Brazil, they can take inspiration from the Seychelles in championing ocean-based climate action.
We must not treat the ocean as an afterthought or a technical fix, but rather as a central pillar of the climate agenda. The ocean’s role as a carbon sink has bought us precious time, but at a huge cost in terms of its vibrancy and abundance. For the long-term health of people and the planet, preserving ocean health is essential.
**Wavel Ramkalawan is President of the Republic of Seychelles. ©Project Syndicate

Americans deserve the truth about Biden’s decline
Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/June 08, 2025
America is waking up to a truth many suspected, but few dared to say out loud. Former President Joe Biden, the leader of the free world, was not entirely in charge during some of the most critical years of his presidency. The recently released book “Original Sin,” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, lays out in painful detail a scandal that may well be the biggest of our era: a cover-up of the president’s decline, executed by those closest to him and enabled by an obedient political class and a complicit media. This was not just about an aging man who slowed down. According to the book, based on nearly 200 interviews with senior White House officials, Democratic strategists and other insiders, President Biden frequently forgot names, even those of his own national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and close allies like George Clooney. Staff privately discussed whether he needed a wheelchair. His schedule was carefully limited, his access to the press tightly managed and key decisions were increasingly made not by him but those around him.
Let us pause and think about that. Who was making those decisions? If the president was not capable, who was really running the country? Was it Chief of Staff Ron Klain or his successor, Jeff Zients? First Lady Jill Biden? Cabinet members? Or a shadow circle of advisers acting in his name? More importantly, who knew and chose to say nothing?
The answer is nearly everyone in power. Members of Congress, top donors, Democratic operatives and members of the press all knew something was wrong. Yet they continued to assure the public that Biden was “sharp,” “focused” and “fit to serve.” They brushed off any concern about his age as “right-wing smears” or “misinformation.” Hollywood elites, late-night television show hosts and social media influencers joined in, mocking anyone who dared ask real questions.
They were not just wrong. They were lying.
This was not a momentary lapse in judgment but a coordinated effort to mislead the American people. It was a calculated political gamble: keep Biden on the ticket, protect the brand and do whatever it takes to hold on to power. Truth was sacrificed for strategy. Integrity was buried for the sake of winning.
Even when signs of decline were impossible to ignore, his stumbling debate performances, long pauses mid-speech, lost trains of thought and confusion about global leaders led Democratic leaders to close ranks. When Tapper, who now admits that the media fell short, says this scandal “may be worse than Watergate,” we should listen.
Because unlike Watergate, which involved the abuse of power in a reelection campaign, this deception significantly shaped America’s national security, economy and global standing. For years, the US was led by someone who was increasingly not fully present, while those around him quietly managed the illusion.
We need to determine what decisions were made during this period and by whom. What was the real chain of command during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, when chaos erupted and American allies were left behind? Who shaped Washington’s response to rising tensions with Beijing, the war in Ukraine and the growing unrest at the southern border? This was not a momentary lapse in judgment but a coordinated effort to mislead the American people.
If Biden was unable to engage meaningfully, then these decisions were made by unelected staffers or advisers, people the American people never voted for.
This scandal goes beyond Biden. It reflects how far today’s Democratic Party is willing to go to protect its grip on power. Rather than face the truth and find a viable leader, they doubled down, attacked critics and told Americans to look the other way.
Even after Biden’s disastrous debate performance last June and his withdrawal from the 2024 election race the following month, the damage was done. Former Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in, but the voters had lost trust. The deception cost Democrats the White House and, more importantly, shattered public confidence.
This betrayal also sends a dangerous message: that image matters more than honesty, that loyalty to the party outweighs duty to the country and that political victory is worth more than democratic accountability.
Honesty should be a nonnegotiable principle, no matter who is in power. This scandal is not about defending a Republican or attacking a Democrat. It is about the responsibility that comes with leading the free world. It is about preserving dignity, transparency and the trust of the people. If the roles were reversed, if a Republican president showed signs of severe cognitive decline, Democrats would be on every network demanding transparency, invoking the 25th Amendment and calling for impeachment. But when it was one of their own, they chose silence. This is not just about Democrats versus Republicans. It is about truth versus power. And the American people deserve better than this kind of politics.
Those who stood by silently, including elected officials, Cabinet members, media figures and celebrities, owe the nation more than just a retrospective apology. They owe the country the truth, the whole truth. And they owe the people their resignation if they played a role in hiding this scandal. This moment should be a turning point not just for one party but for the entire country. Leaders should be held accountable not only for what they do but for what they hide. This is not just about one presidency, it is about a culture that allowed deception to masquerade as leadership. It is about the warning signs that were ignored, the voices that were silenced and the consequences that will echo for years.
The presidency is not a performance, it is a responsibility. And those who turned it into a cover story must be held to account. Truth should never have a side; it must stand alone. That is the foundation of American democracy.
**Dalia Al-Aqidi is executive director at the American Center for Counter Extremism.

Between the Promise of Democracy and Repeated Failures of Iraq’s Electoral System
Haider al-Musawi/The Washington Institute/June 08/2025
Twenty years on from the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq continues to suffer from a deep crisis in the practice of its democracy. Elections, designed as a peaceful means of renewing political legitimacy, building the state, and representing the will of voters, have been transformed in Iraq into a facade used to consolidate influence and exchange positions within a ruling system defined by corruption. Democracy is not just a technique for choosing leaders, it must also be accompanied by values—and institutions that protect those values—in order to be effective.
Iraq’s Electoral Failures
Iraq lacks the basic mechanisms for free and fair elections; chief among them is the state’s inability to prevent paramilitary use of force. The proliferation of arms in Iraq is a direct threat to voters, the electoral commission, and candidates; during election season, it is used as a tool of political pressure. In Iraq’s most recent parliamentary elections in 2021, the Sadrist bloc of popular Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr won a plurality of seats in parliament. However, it was unable to form a coalition government due to pressure from armed forces affiliated with the Iranian-backed Shia Coordination Framework (CF). The Sadrists, in an unprecedented move, attempted to form a government without the CF by pursuing a majoritarian coalition with Sunnis and Kurds rather than a consensus parliamentary coalition that included the CF. These efforts resulted in armed clashes between the CF and Sadrist parties inside the Green Zone in Baghdad, claiming the lives of dozens of young people.
Money injected into election campaigns plays a no less dangerous role in Iraq. In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled against any limits on contributions to financial campaigns. As such, politicians of all stripes use their financial resources to buy votes and link the economic prospects of their respective constituencies to their political success. Political discourse has become inundated with advertisements for grandiose populist programs that lack details or practical solutions to constituents’ real problems. That rhetoric simultaneously crowds out reformist political figures who seek to upend the political status quo.
The reformists are sidelined from Iraqi politics because they cannot compete with the clientelism that keeps larger parties afloat, and are therefore deprived of funding and support. This ultimately disincentivizes other reform-minded Iraqis from engaging in politics. The same parties that participate in patronage at the grassroots level also control ministries and government institutions, allowing them to exploit state resource flows. In the absence of effective oversight or real accountability, government money too easily finds its way into electoral propaganda or is earmarked to passpolitical agendas throughout the Iraqi political system. At the popular level, Iraqis have been unable to effect a peaceful transfer of power either through the ballot box or even when they were obliged to take to the streets en masse. The resignation of former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in 2019 was not the result of a constitutional mechanism or a response to the demands of the Tishreeni protests. Abdul-Mahdi left only when Iraq’s highest religious authority in Najaf, Shia cleric Ali al-Sistani, issued a rare political statement that "the parliament from which the current government emerged is called upon to reconsider its choices in this regard and to act as dictated by the interest of Iraq and the preservation of the blood of its children, and to avoid its slide into a spiral of violence, chaos and destruction.”
Meanwhile, the reformist parties that remained could have presented themselves as a convincing alternative by capitalizing on popular anger and the decline in street confidence regarding traditional parties. Yet the opposite happened; most of the new political parties that entered parliament after the Tishreeni protests failed to present a different model for politics in Iraq. Some of their deputies quickly became involved in alliances with the same parties they had been criticizing, undermining their lofty rhetoric. Even more failed to define their approach to the political system: did their platform represent a veritable departure from Iraq’s politics-as-usual, or did it intend to reproduce the status quo with mild adjustments? Without clarity on this key question, the new parties saw a marked decline in favorability, increased frustration, and a renewed popular conviction that there is no difference between the new and the old.
Crisis of Popular Participation
In light of these apparent failures of the Iraqi electoral system, Iraqis are demonstrating a lack of confidence in their country’s electoral process through declining participation rates. With each electoral cycle, the High Electoral Commission has recorded figures below 41 percent, with participation dropping below 30 percent in some governorates. Even this percentage only includes valid electoral cardholders—not the total population of potentially eligible voters. Participation rates of all potential Iraqi voters are thus much lower than the official estimates.
Declining voter participation suggests general popular frustration with electoral options in Iraq, given the widely understood role of armed state and non-state actors and unregulated money in politics. Citizens who repeatedly see that their vote makes no difference when the electoral outcomes favor those with weapons, money, and external support will lose interest in a meaningless gesture. What Iraqi politics needs are independent leaders who can present a viable alternative to the status quo. Without them, Iraqi citizens will remain cynical about their political system.
Democracy, in its essence, is not just about ballot boxes. It is essential that it be accompanied by the free exchange of ideas, an integrated system of laws, a peaceful transfer of power, and respect for the popular will. In Iraq, many of these elements are absent, making the electoral process a formal practice that does not reflect the essence of democracy. This is made even clearer by the many political decisions resolved outside the walls of parliament and outside of the country’s voting mechanisms. This renders the electoral process a rubber stamp to legalize what has already been agreed upon behind the scenes.
Reform from Within or Intervention from Without?
There is little doubt that democracy is the safest and most effective method for bringing about change and reform in a manner that guarantees the rights of all citizens. However, it is important to draw attention to the basis of this political system. The political class that has been running Iraq since 2003 established itself as a result of foreign interventions, and still derives part of its legitimacy and support from international and regional actors. Thus, attempts at radical reform from within the system have met stiff resistance because those external forces will work at all costs to preserve their position of influence.
The most prominent of those foreign powers is Iran, which now depends more deeply on its regional proxies in Iraq since Hezbollah, Hamas, and Assad’s Syria have all been either completely eliminated or severely weakened over the past year. Consequently, Tehran’s support for Iraqi militias is crucial to Iranian national security and strategic interests, especially in the context of renewed U.S.-Iranian nuclear negotiations. Because of the increased importance that Iraq’s militias now have in Tehran, some believe that the country will not be able to reform its political system with internal pressure alone. In this view, external intervention would be the only way to push the Iraqi political system towards reform, or at least force it to make concessions that pave the way for a real democratic transition.
Considering Iraq’s internal options, the future of democracy in Iraq lies in the country’s ability to reform the electoral process from its roots. To address the repeated failures in the electoral process in Iraq, radical reforms must be adopted. Controlling unrestrained weapons and ending the dominance of armed militias over political decisions is vital to ensuring a safe and neutral environment that encourages the participation of voters and candidates. Campaign financing must also be monitored, and strict legislation passed to hold accountable those involved in buying votes or illegally influencing voters. Lastly, safeguards should be established to guarantee that state resources are not siphoned for electoral purposes by influential parties. All of these efforts should be complemented with legislation to ensure the independence of the High Electoral Commission and provide it with the technical and professional support it needs to perform its role as established in the Iraqi Constitution.
Reformist parties should also be supported and given equal opportunities in media and funding, in parallel with spreading electoral awareness to promote a culture of participation among citizens, especially youth. Finally, there must be a commitment to the peaceful transfer of power, respect for election results, and an independent judiciary to interpret the constitution in accordance with the rule of law. These are difficult conditions to implement. Yet without them, elections will remain a perfunctory political ritual used to renew a false sense of legitimacy. Democracy is not just a means to power, but a social contract based on respect for the popular will of the people, equality before the law, and accountability. These vital aspects of democracy are, unfortunately, still absent in Iraq.​​​​​​​​​​​​

While Other Countries Push for a Palestinian State, Israel Is Increasing Its West Bank Presence
Neomi Neumann/The Washington Institute/June 08/2025
Dramatic changes have been taking place in the West Bank, driven mainly by Israeli actions that have reduced terrorism but are simultaneously striving to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
As international momentum for recognizing a Palestinian state grows—exemplified by the French- and Saudi-sponsored summit to be convened in New York on June 17—the existing order in the West Bank is eroding at an accelerating pace, and tensions that were already simmering before the Gaza war have been intensifying. This erosion has several causes, including political and ideological stagnation on the Palestinian side and declining governance and security efforts by the Palestinian Authority, particularly in confronting the sources of terrorism and lawlessness.
At the same time, the steps that Israel is taking to address real security needs are frequently being influenced by growing political pressures from the settler community and their most ardent supporters in the current government. Some of these pressures stem from settler concerns about the latest wave of Palestinian terrorism, while others are tied to a longer-term policy to reshape the West Bank strategic situation in accordance with a more openly declared political and ideological vision—that of preventing the creation of a Palestinian state and establishing more Israeli settlements.
“Iron Wall” Is Not Just “More of the Same”
Although the West Bank has lately been seen as a secondary front in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it has experienced high levels of terrorism and other violence since October 7, 2023. According to data from the Israel Security Agency (ISA), between the start of the war and the end of April 2025 there were 8,670 terrorist attacks in the West Bank, which killed 64 Israelis and injured 484. In addition, according to the PA Health Ministry and international organizations, between the outbreak of the war and the end of May 2025, 939 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank as a result of clashes with Israeli security forces or settlers.
Since January, Israel has been implementing a new West Bank security policy whose centerpiece is Operation Iron Wall, which seeks to restrict the freedom of action of terrorists, especially in refugee camps that had become launchpads for attacks and havens for armed groups organized in battalions. Iron Wall has focused on the northern West Bank refugee camps—primarily Jenin, Tulkarem, and the adjacent Nur Shams—which had remained largely untouched due to the PA’s reluctance to operate in them and Israel’s previous reliance on limited counterterrorism raids.
The operation has led to a significant improvement in security, with only 25 major attacks originating in the area between January and May 2025, compared to 135 in the same period last year. It has also led to the arrest of terrorists and the seizure of large quantities of vehicles, explosive devices, and cash.
Importantly, Iron Wall is not just “more of the same,” but has introduced numerous substantive innovations that suggest an intent to strategically reshape the arena. These include the operation’s duration—already five months—and the deployment of the Israel Defense Forces inside refugee camps in a way that appears to indicate that preparations are being made for a permanent presence. They also include widespread destruction of homes, roads, and infrastructure, as well as the (ostensibly temporary) displacement of tens of thousands of residents. The number of persons displaced during the operation already exceeds 40,000—the most extensive population displacement since 1967.
While these measures may be justified on operational grounds—such as the need to separate civilians from militants, uncover explosives and terrorist infrastructure, and allow armored vehicles to move within the camps—it is difficult to ignore their resemblance to Israeli tactics in Gaza, such as aerial targeted killings. This raises the distinct possibility that the operation is also serving political purposes, including the dismantling of refugee camps as part of Israel’s broader campaign against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
At this stage, it remains unclear what role, if any, Israel intends for the PA in the reorganization of the northern West Bank, especially the Jenin area, where Israeli activity is most intense. Palestinian observers believe Israel may be deliberately severing Jenin’s geographic and economic ties with other Palestinian cities. This seemingly includes plans to reestablish settlements that were evacuated as part of the 2005 Gaza disengagement plan, which included a few West Bank settlements as well. Efforts are also apparently underway to deepen Jenin’s economic and geographic connection with Arab Israelis, primarily by easing their access to Jenin via the Jalameh crossing. According to some estimates, Arab Israelis from the Galilee area do weekly shopping in Jenin worth around 17 million shekels (nearly $5 million)
Taken together, such actions may reflect a de facto implementation of the “canton plan” for the West Bank, which enjoys support among segments of the Israeli right. This plan proposes dividing Palestinian areas into disconnected enclaves with limited autonomy to prevent the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state. Israel would then apply sovereignty over the remaining territory, including major settlement blocs and strategic areas.
Planning New Settlements to Prevent a Palestinian State
Under the guidance of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli cabinet announced a decision late last month to establish twenty-two new West Bank settlements. The move first took shape roughly two weeks earlier following an attack that killed a pregnant Israeli woman near the settlement of Brukhin. Some of these settlements will be newly constructed, while others will be created by legalizing previously unauthorized outposts. Many of the sites are isolated from other Israeli communities, close to Palestinian population centers, and located in areas designated for a future Palestinian state under most diplomatic frameworks, including the 2020 Trump plan.
If implemented, this would be the most extensive settlement expansion since the Oslo Accords. It follows other cabinet decisions in recent months authorizing thousands of housing units in the West Bank and advancing land registration procedures in Area C, thereby facilitating private Israeli ownership claims while impeding recognition of parallel registration efforts led by the PA.
These measures are also taking place amid a spike in confrontations between Israeli settlers—some of whom enjoy increasing support from members of the government—and Palestinian residents. According to international organizations, 2,848 such incidents occurred from the start of the Gaza war through the end of May. These clashes often lead to the displacement of Palestinians from their homes after settler violence. And in many cases, ministers pressure the ISA and the police to reduce enforcement actions against the Israeli perpetrators. The political objective behind these initiatives—led by the Netanyahu government—is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state, a goal explicitly restated by Defense Minister Israel Katz after the twenty-two settlements were announced. Likewise, shortly after Donald Trump’s electoral victory last November, Smotrich declared that “2025 will be the year of sovereignty in the West Bank.”
Meanwhile, the growing international support for recognizing a Palestinian state is increasingly detached from a demand for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement or even bilateral negotiations. Some states place conditions on recognition, such as the release of hostages, disarmament of Hamas, or reform within the PA. Yet the overall trend is support for recognition without conditions. The June 17 summit was organized pursuant to a December UN resolution, and as the date approaches, diplomatic friction between Israel and the international community is intensifying, particularly with the main sponsors France and Saudi Arabia. Last weekend, Israel refused to allow a delegation of Arab foreign ministers led by Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan to visit PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Officials have also warned France that Israel will take steps in response to the New York summit, reportedly including the annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Conclusion
Changes taking place in the West Bank in recent months—driven largely by Israeli actions, including by settlers with government backing—could alter the longstanding stagnation there. Israeli policies have succeeded in reducing terrorism originating from the territory. Yet they have also intensified friction and facilitated dramatic administrative and settlement-related moves aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, laying the groundwork for annexation or the application of Israeli sovereignty to some or all of the territory.
It is difficult to assess when or to what extent Israeli government policy will trigger a new wave of Palestinian terrorism, if at all. However, it is clearly exacerbating Israel’s diplomatic isolation—particularly in Europe, its largest trading partner, which is increasingly demonstrating a willingness to downgrade diplomatic, economic, and scientific ties. Additionally, Israel’s policies are delaying normalization with Saudi Arabia, an outcome with far-reaching implications for relations with the broader Arab and Muslim worlds.
Israel’s current approach rests on a belief prevalent among the right that the Trump administration will offer unwavering support or, at the very least, show no interest in the Palestinian issue. Although it is hard to see how this trend could be reversed as long as Israel believes that this is Washington’s posture, such a U.S. shift may begin in areas where there are direct American interests, such as ending the war in Gaza, reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran, or concluding a multiyear U.S.-Israel security assistance deal.
**Neomi Neumann is a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute and former head of the research unit at the Israel Security Agency.

On the UN Peace Conference in New York
Dr. Nassif Hitti/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 08/2025
In the lead-up to the UN conference on a two-state solution — scheduled for June 17–20 and co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France — efforts to ensure its success have been intensifying. Ministerial meetings took place in Paris and Brussels late last month, alongside intensified efforts at the UN, with working groups set up and tasked with developing ideas and proposals that address all aspects of the conflict. These efforts have been met, however, with positions that hinder the conference, which is meant to “lay the course for real change,” not merely adopt positions whose impact never extends beyond the conference.
One such obstructive position is the United States’ decision to use its veto power against a resolution that had been supported by the rest of the Security Council and called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid. Vetoing the resolution effectively encourages Israel to maintain its position on the current negotiations, which remain open-ended and obstructed by Israel’s terms. These negotiations aim to achieve what Israel has failed to achieve militarily on the ground: displacement of Gaza’s population and Israel’s reassertion of control over the Strip.
This goal has been repeatedly stressed by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has called for using extreme violence to take control of the Strip. In the same vein, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz commented on the upcoming New York conference saying: “They will recognize a Palestinian state on paper, and we will establish the Jewish Israeli state in the West Bank.” Several Israel watchers have said that a ceasefire would mean the “collapse of the government.” The biggest loser would be Benjamin Netanyahu. Not only would he lose out politically, but he would also face legal prosecution regarding an array of domestic cases raised against him.
All of these factors pose major challenges to launching the peaceful settlement process that the New York conference seeks to achieve. Yet these challenges are neither new nor unexpected for the architects, sponsors, and supporters of the conference. The history of “conflict diplomacy” is rich with examples, lessons, and insights, even as circumstances evolve. What is primarily expected of the conference is to expand recognition of the State of Palestine, which already enjoys broad international recognition, particularly among European countries that still hesitate on the matter. Such recognition would lend greater credibility to the process that the conference aims to initiate and accompany.
Moreover, contrary to the claims of those who oppose it or call for its postponement, this conference also reinforces the credibility of a comprehensive negotiation framework through an “integrated solution package” that ties all elements together, even if the conflicting parties have divergent priorities. Legally and practically, this package amounts to the ultimate goal of the negotiation process, regardless of the difficulties, which the conference is at least seeking to address by launching the negotiation process.
A holistic rather than discretionary approach must be a pillar of the “roadmap” of the negotiations once they begin. It should be recalled, that there are many roadblocks along this path, particularly from the Israeli side. The conference must lay a “triangular foundation” for the process: a binding negotiation reference framework, a roadmap (despite the many challenges it faces), and a timeline that strengthens the credibility of the negotiation process.
Many observers believe that despite the American veto mentioned earlier, this “dynamic diplomacy” that approaches issues case-by-case rather than sticking to rigid alliances, which we have seen under the Trump administration, leaves a possibility for shifts in US positions. Even if its movement is limited, there is a possibility that Washington could become convinced such shifts truly serve its interests.
The New York conference is also expected to establish an open committee composed of active, influential, and committed parties working on achieving the conference’s goals. This committee would supervise, facilitate, and support this effort during the preparatory phase, which is expected to begin the morning after the conference concludes, and eventually during the negotiation phase when the time comes, which is not likely anytime soon.
One of the conference’s primary responsibilities is to ensure that decisions are not merely statements. It must ensure that they are translated into effective diplomatic action despite the many barriers. That should begin with reinvigorated efforts in the Security Council to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to prevent Israel’s annexation and Judaization efforts, which constitute blatant violations of Security Council Resolutions.
Of course, these goals will not be easy to attain, as many episodes from our recent and distant history show. Nonetheless, they are more than necessary for the credibility, and thus the success, of the conference. Despite the many challenges ahead, this track remains the only path that can lead to meaningful security and stability in the region.