English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For March 18/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 23/01-12/:"Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practise what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted."

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 17-18/2025
Text & Video: To the Salam Government and the President, The international community installed you to disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its MiniState in favor of Lebanon’s sovereignty—resign if you are incapable or unwilling/Elias Bejjani/March 17/2025
The Passing of the Distinguished Lebanese Actor Antoine Kerbaj/Elias Bejjani/March 16/2025
UN Envoy Calls for Urgent Diplomacy as ‘Cautious Optimism’ Surrounds Lebanon’s Stability
Lebanon and Syria agree on ceasefire after deadly cross-border clashes
Clashes on Lebanese-Syrian border prompt military intervention
Israel Says Two Hezbollah Members Hit in South Lebanon Airstrike
One killed in Israeli drone strike in Yohmor al-Shaqif
Lebanon Says It Will Retaliate for Gunfire from Syria after Deadly Cross-Border Fighting
Government to Announce Administrative Appointment Mechanism on Thursday
The Public Appointment Mechanism: An Overview
Toufic Sultan: Kamal Jumblatt Was not Impressed by Assad or his Likes
Hezbollah MP asks politicians to expose US-Israeli 'blackmail' against Lebanon
Jaber: Government will not write off deposits
Doctor at Brown University deported to Lebanon despite US judge’s order
Israeli war spending in Gaza, Lebanon tops $30 billion in 2024 -Finance Ministry
Israel carries out airstrikes in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, killing at least 10 people
Doctor Deported to Lebanon Had Photos ‘Sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on Phone, US Says
Bassil: Abolition of political sectarianism is an elimination of Lebanon's Christians
Jumblatt Ends Annual Commemoration of His Father’s Assassination after ‘Historic Justice Takes Course’
Questionable transition/Dr. Charles Elias Chartouni/This Is Beirut/March 17/2025
Opponents Of Hizbullah In The Arab World: The Funeral Of Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah Spelled The Death Of The Organization; Lebanon Must Disarm It/March 17, 2025/MEMRI

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 17-18/2025
Daraa: Two killed and wounded in Israeli raids targeting the city's environs
Israel strikes southern Syria: state media, monitor
EU vows 2.5 bn euros to help Syrians after Assad ouster
King of Jordan discusses Gaza, regional development with Italian president, PM
Jordan’s FM says Syria’s reconstruction must preserve security, unity
Israel breaking international law over Gaza aid blockade, UK government says for first time
Israel Strikes Kill Five People in Gaza, Local Medics Say
Pentagon: We Targeted Houthi Leaders Linked to Drone Program
Houthi Media: US Airstrikes Target Sanaa and Hodeidah
Iran to respond to Trump letter after scrutiny
Trump Warns Iran It Will Face ‘Consequences’ of Further Attacks from Yemen’s Houthis
Syria Joins a Donor Conference for the First Time in a Crucial Phase for Its New Leaders
Children in Gaza Defy Trauma to Return to School
Iran Opposition Leader Karroubi to be Freed from House Arrest, His Son Says
Netanyahu’s Move to Fire Security Agency Chief Threatens New Crisis in Israel
US Piles Pressure on Yemen's Houthis with New Airstrikes
Experts to Asharq Al-Awsat: Trump Confronts Houthis with New Reality, Strikes Not Enough to Defeat them
Canada's PM Carney in Europe to Work with 'Reliable Allies'
Carney meets with King Charles on first international trip as prime minister
Trump administration says South African ambassador has to leave the US by Friday
UN tells Afghan rulers: no peace and prosperity until they reverse bans on women and girls
US Vows ‘Unrelenting’ Strikes on Houthis Over Ship Attacks
Houthis claim second attack on US ships in retaliation for strikes
Navy warship once used to fight the Houthis is now heading to the U.S. southern border
Pentagon deploys Navy destroyer for border protection

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on March 17-18/2025
Do Not Count on the Arabs to Rebuild Gaza or Help Palestinians/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/March 17, 2025
The overlooked threat: America’s northern border/Kristin Tate, opinion contributor/The Hill/March 17, 2025
‘On the Tightrope’: Britain Tries to Bridge a Widening Trans-Atlantic Gap/The New York Times/March 17/2025
Iran, the ‘Painful Scenes’ and Decisive Moment/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/March 17, 2025
Emerging economies must get rich before they get old/Anu Madgavkar and Marc Canal Noguer/Arab News/March 17, 2025
Engaging Iran: Does Trump have a real plan?/Imran Khalid, opinion contributor/The Hill/March 17, 2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on March 17-18/2025
Text & Video: To the Salam Government and the President, The international community installed you to disarm Hezbollah and dismantle its MiniState in favor of Lebanon’s sovereignty—resign if you are incapable or unwilling.
Elias Bejjani/March 17/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/03/141300/
It has become clear that Lebanon cannot continue under a government and presidency marked by hesitation and inaction in implementing international resolutions, which are key to restoring its sovereignty and stability. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and President Joseph Aoun were brought to power through an international and regional consensus, represented by the Quintet Committee, with the primary objective—(despite Hezbollah, Nabih Berri, and the majority of MPs opposing it)—of enforcing the ceasefire agreement by implementing the relevant international resolutions, including the Armistice Agreement, Resolution 1559, Resolution 1701, and Resolution 1680. These resolutions unequivocally demand the disarmament of Hezbollah and all other Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias, not merely the partial surrender of weapons or negotiations to maintain them under any pretext.
Therefore, the government and the president must establish a strict timeline, not exceeding a few months, to accomplish this mission instead of engaging in evasion, delays, and appeasement of Nabih Berri and what remains of Hezbollah’s leadership. Any procrastination will only bring more destruction and economic and political decline. The international community and Arab states will not provide Lebanon with any financial support if its government continues to play the role of a hesitant bystander in the face of the country’s greatest challenge: Berri’s maneuvers and Hezbollah’s weapons and stranglehold on political decision-making.
In this context, Nabih Berri, the Speaker of Parliament, bears direct responsibility. He signed the ceasefire agreement on behalf of Lebanon and, effectively, on behalf of Hezbollah and its patron, Iran. He must cease playing word games and engaging in political deception. He must either explicitly declare Hezbollah and Iran’s acceptance of disarmament or face the consequences—including his resignation and potential prosecution. Lebanon cannot remain a hostage to an Iranian terrorist armed militia that falsely claims to be a “resistance” while dragging the country into economic devastation, political instability, and international isolation.
The government’s continued vague and ambiguous stances on Hezbollah's stances and weapons, under the flimsy excuse of “Israeli occupation,” are unacceptable. The current situation allows no room for such linguistic maneuvering. The demand is clear: Hezbollah must be disarmed, not only south of the Litani River but throughout all of Lebanon. The illegal militia Ministate operating under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps must be brought to an end.
If the government and president fail to carry out this critical mission, it simply means they are unfit for leadership. They must immediately admit their failure and resign, making way for those capable of confronting this national challenge. The international community and the majority of the Lebanese people will not tolerate any scenario aimed at appeasing Hezbollah or postponing the dismantling of its armed Iranian ministate. The choice is clear: either disarm Hezbollah, reassert state sovereignty through Lebanon’s own forces with UNIFIL’s support, or step aside and allow a government with the will and capability to assume this responsibility.
Continuing the current state of weakness and indecision will have catastrophic consequences—not just for Hezbollah and the areas under its control, but for all of Lebanon. Israel will inevitably be compelled, with full American support, to launch another military campaign against Hezbollah, which will not be limited to the militia alone but will engulf the entire country. This will only deepen the suffering of the Lebanese people and obliterate any remaining hope for reconstruction and international aid. Therefore, a decisive course of action is necessary: the president and the government must either implement international resolutions or resign, making way for leadership that can restore Lebanon’s sovereignty and reclaim it as a strong, independent state.

The Passing of the Distinguished Lebanese Actor Antoine Kerbaj
Elias Bejjani/March 16/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/03/141290/
Today, death claimed the distinguished and esteemed actor Antoine Kerbaj, a pillar of Lebanon’s golden artistic era. The late actor was a true icon, renowned for his immense talent and unwavering contribution to the Lebanese theater and film industry.
Kerbaj was a cornerstone of Lebanon’s artistic renaissance, standing alongside the Rahbani Brothers, as well as legendary musicians, directors, and singers such as Wadih El Safi, Zaki Nassif, Fairuz, Elie Shour, William Haswani, Philemon Wehbe, Nasri Shamseddine, and many others. His presence and performances helped shape a generation, leaving an indelible mark on the world of Lebanese drama. We pray for the repose of his soul and extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

UN Envoy Calls for Urgent Diplomacy as ‘Cautious Optimism’ Surrounds Lebanon’s Stability
This is Beirut/March 17, 2025
The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, expressed “cautious optimism” regarding Lebanon’s political and security situation during her briefing to the UN Security Council on Monday. Hennis-Plasschaert welcomed the formation of Lebanon’s new government and its ministerial program. She also acknowledged the challenges ahead, emphasizing that the prolonged governmental vacuum left the administration with just over a year to tackle pressing issues. Speaking alongside Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Hennis-Plasschaert assessed the security situation, noting that while the cessation of hostilities remains intact, military activities on Lebanese territory persist. She warned that the continued presence of Israeli forces and ongoing shelling could have “serious repercussions” along the Blue Line.“We urgently need diplomatic and political discussions that pave the way for the full implementation of Resolution 1701,” she urged, cautioning that conflicting interpretations of the November Understanding and the resolution itself, along with selective application of its provisions, could lead to renewed escalation. However, she highlighted a “glimmer of hope” in ongoing diplomatic discussions. Furthermore, the Special Coordinator praised the Lebanese Army (LAF) for its deployment across southern towns and villages, as well as Israel’s recent decision to lift restrictions along its northern border. Despite these developments, she acknowledged that fear remains prevalent on both sides of the Blue Line. Hennis-Plasschaert stressed that the Lebanese government is walking a “fine line” in navigating the post-conflict phase, urging patience and international support. She also pointed to significant gaps in international funding for Lebanon’s recovery, warning that “failure to jump-start the reconstruction process will be costly.”“People must feel and see the fruits of stability for themselves before they can truly believe in it,” she concluded.

Lebanon and Syria agree on ceasefire after deadly cross-border clashes
Reuters/March 17, 2025
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Defence Minister Michel Menassa and his Syrian counterpart Murhaf Abu Qasra agreed on a ceasefire, the Lebanese and Syrian defence ministries said in statements on Monday, as cross-border clashes in the last two days left 10 dead.Three soldiers in Syria's new army and seven Lebanese were killed in border clashes during the past two days, the Syrian defence ministry and Lebanese health ministry said. On the Lebanese side, 52 people were wounded, the health ministry said. The Lebanese and Syrian defence ministers also agreed on continuing contacts between the army intelligence directorates to prevent more deterioration on the border. The mountainous frontier has been a flashpoint in the three months since Islamist rebels toppled Syria's Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Tehran and Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, and installed their own institutions and army. Meanwhile, Lebanon's Foreign Affairs Minister Youssef Raji met his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shibani in Brussels to discuss the cross-border developments and agreed to maintain contacts, the Lebanese state news agency NNA reported. Late on Sunday, Syria's defence ministry accused Hezbollah of crossing into Syrian territory and kidnapping and killing the three members of Syria's new army. Hezbollah denied any involvement. A Lebanese security source told Reuters the three Syrian soldiers had crossed into Lebanese territory first and were killed by armed members of a tribe in northeastern Lebanon who feared their town was under attack. Syrian troops responded by shelling Lebanese border towns overnight, according to the Syrian defence ministry and the Lebanese army. Residents of the town of Al-Qasr, less than 1 kilometre (0.6 mile) from the border, told Reuters they fled further inland to escape the bombardment. Lebanon's army said in a statement on Monday that it had handed over the bodies of the three killed Syrians to Syrian authorities, and that it had responded to fire from Syrian territory and sent reinforcements to the border area. Syria's army sent a convoy of troops and several tanks to the frontier on Monday, according to a Reuters reporter along the border. Syrian troops fired into the air as they moved through towns on the way to the border. "Large military reinforcements were brought in to reinforce positions along the Syrian-Lebanese border and prevent any breaches in the coming days," said Maher Ziwani, the head of a Syrian army division deploying to the border.

Clashes on Lebanese-Syrian border prompt military intervention
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/March 17, 2025
BEIRUT: Security along the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Hermel area deteriorated on Monday following violent clashes between Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah-affiliated fighters. The violence began on Sunday, with the Lebanese Army Command announcing the same day that military units implemented “exceptional security measures following the killing of two Syrians and the serious injury of another, who later succumbed to his wounds at the Lebanese-Syrian border near Al-Qasr-Hermel area.”
According to the SANA news agency, the media office of the Syrian Defense Ministry said a group affiliated with Hezbollah abducted three Syrian soldiers near the border close to the Seta dam, west of Homs.
They were taken to Lebanese territory and subsequently executed, the ministry statement added. Lebanese authorities confirmed three bodies had been transferred to Syria via the Lebanese Red Cross.
Yassin Shams, from Hermel, told Arab News that the incident began as a dispute among smugglers. “The area where these events take place is geographically intertwined between Lebanon and Syria, with each clan controlling a crossing point for smuggling activities,” he said. “The crossings consist of sheets of metal placed over the streams to facilitate passage from Lebanese territory to Syrian territory and vice versa.” Shams said that the situation escalated following the discovery of the three Syrians. Initially believed to have gotten lost, it was later claimed that a Lebanese man from the Medlej family had killed them. The Lebanese Armed Forces subsequently arrested the suspect. On Monday morning, Hermel awoke to the news that two brothers from the Medlej family had been found dead after being detained by Syrian security forces.
Their bodies were discovered in their home in Fadiliya Sad Matraba, near the Lebanese-Syrian border. Later on Monday, the area witnessed shelling and gunfire. The Lebanese Army Command said several Lebanese villages and towns were subjected to shelling from Syrian territory, and that the Lebanese Armed Forces retaliated, and took steps to maintain security in the area. SANA, meanwhile, reported that “a cameraman and a journalist were injured on the Syrian-Lebanese border near Zita Dam after being targeted by a Hezbollah-guided missile.”The injured reporter, during a live broadcast, claimed that a Kornet missile targeted the TV team’s location. The Syrian Ministry of Information condemned “the direct targeting of a group of journalists and reporters while they were covering the events near the Lebanese-Syrian border with guided missiles launched by Hezbollah, following the kidnapping and killing of three Syrian soldiers the day before.“The attack represents a clear violation of international laws and norms that protect journalists on duty. We urge the Lebanese state to take responsibility and hold the perpetrators accountable,” the ministry added.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese security report indicated that the shelling of Lebanese territory resulted in the death of a Lebanese girl after two shells landed in Al-Qasr, a town north of Hermel. The shells originated from the Qusayr countryside in Syria, the report said.
Syrian media outlets reported that the clashes led to the death of a Syrian soldier and injuries to others after a guided missile struck their military base. Two more Syrian soldiers were killed in a similar attack near Seta. The Syrian military has brought reinforcements to the border while reconnaissance aircraft continue to conduct intensive surveillance of the area. The Lebanese Armed Forces said communications with relevant counterparts in Syria remain ongoing in order to ensure stability in the border region. The Syrian Defense Ministry said it will implement all necessary measures following the violence. “Hezbollah has violated our borders, and we will respond to any incursions,” Al-Arabiya quoted the Syrian Army operations commander on the Lebanese border as saying. “Border points have been secured, and we are coordinating with the Lebanese Army to control the border.”In response, Hezbollah issued a statement denying any involvement in the ongoing clashes, asserting that it has no connection to any developments on Syrian territory. Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi commented on the developments, expressing regret over the escalation and emphasizing the need for cooperation. Elsewhere on Monday, an Israeli airstrike targeted a van in the town of Yahmar Al-Shaqif in the Nabatieh district, with the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health saying that “the strike resulted in one death and three injuries.” The Israeli military said it targeted two Hezbollah members who were acting as observers and directing terrorist activities. On Monday night an Israeli motorized force carried out an incursion into the town of Aita Al-Shaab and the areas surrounding Khallet Wardeh and Hadab Aita. Meanwhile, in his directives upon his assumption of command, the new Lebanese Army commander, Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, emphasized that “the Army’s responsibility at this critical period is of utmost importance.”He said the Army “works to implement UN Resolution 1701 in cooperation with the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon, in addition to fortifying our internal front against the threat of terrorism.”

Israel Says Two Hezbollah Members Hit in South Lebanon Airstrike
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
The Israeli military said it carried out an airstrike in southern Lebanon on Monday targeting two Hezbollah members, with Lebanese health authorities reporting one person killed and three wounded.
It was the latest in a series of deadly strikes in the area despite a ceasefire agreement that took effect in November after more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. "A short while ago, two Hezbollah terrorists who served as observation operatives and directed terrorist activities were struck by the (military) in the area of Yohmor in southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement. The Lebanese health ministry's emergency unit said the "Israeli airstrike on a van in the village of Yohmor... led to one death", according to the official National News Agency (NNA), adding that three other people were wounded.
The agency reported that an Israeli drone had targeted a motorcycle with two riders, but a passing van was also hit by shrapnel, and "fires erupted in it" and a nearby shop. The attack came a day after NNA and the health ministry reported four deaths in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that the military had targeted the south Lebanon town of Ainata after "a stray bullet from a Hezbollah operative's funeral" hit the windshield of a vehicle in the northern Israeli community of Avivim. "We will not allow shooting from Lebanese territory toward northern communities -- we will respond strongly to any violation of the ceasefire," Katz said. Israel's military also said "a gunshot hit a parked vehicle in the area of Avivim. No injuries were reported. The shot most likely originated from Lebanese territory." NNA cited the health ministry as saying that the strike on Ainata "led to the death of two people", after reporting earlier fatalities in Israeli strikes on Mais al-Jabal and Bint Jbeil, also in south Lebanon. The November 27 truce largely halted the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, which included two months of open war in which Israel sent in ground troops. But Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect. Under the agreement, Israel had been expected to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems "strategic". The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

One killed in Israeli drone strike in Yohmor al-Shaqif
Naharnet/March 17/2025
An Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded three others Monday in the southern town of Yohmor al-Shaqif in the Nabatieh governorate, the Health Ministry and the National News Agency said. “An Israeli drone fired a guided missile at a motorbike carrying two people on the Hay al-Baydar road in the town of Yohmor al-Shaqif, hitting the motorbike directly, while a van that was passing in the area was hit by shrapnel from the missile before going up in flames. A blaze also erupted in a supermarket after being damaged by the airstrike,” NNA said. The Israeli army later said that it attacked two Hezbollah members who were "serving as observation operatives and directing terrorist operations" in the Yohmor al-Shaqif area. An airstrike had targeted the outskirts of the southern town of Ainata overnight, killing two people, as an Israeli Apache helicopter bombed three prefabricated houses in the southern border town of Kfarkela. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military targeted Ainata after "a stray bullet from a Hezbollah operative's funeral" hit the windshield of a vehicle in the northern Israeli community of Avivim. "We will not allow shooting from Lebanese territory toward northern communities -- we will respond strongly to any violation of the ceasefire," Katz said. The Israeli army later said that it attacked a headquarters of the Radwan force and Hezbollah buildings in south Lebanon, as a helicopter attacked Yaroun's outskirts for a second time. A November 27 truce largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war in which Israel sent in ground troops. Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect. Israel had been due to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but has kept troops at five locations it deems "strategic".The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

Lebanon Says It Will Retaliate for Gunfire from Syria after Deadly Cross-Border Fighting
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
Lebanon's president on Monday ordered troops to retaliate for gunfire from the Syrian side of the border after more deadly fighting erupted overnight along the tense frontier. The fighting occurred after Syria's interim government accused militants from Lebanon's Hezbollah group of crossing into Syria on Saturday, abducting three soldiers and killing them on Lebanese soil. It was the most serious cross-border fighting since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December. Syrian News Channel, citing an unnamed Defense Ministry official, said the Syrian army shelled "Hezbollah gatherings that killed Syrian soldiers" along the border. Hezbollah denied involvement in a statement on Sunday. Information Minister Paul Morkos said Lebanon's defense minister told a Cabinet meeting that the three killed were smugglers. He added that one child was killed and six people were wounded on the Lebanese side.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said five Syrian soldiers were killed during Monday’s clashes. Footage circulated online and in local media showed families toward the Lebanese town of Hermel. Lebanon's state news agency reported that fighting intensified Monday evening near Hermel. "What is happening along the eastern and northeastern border cannot continue and we will not accept that it continues," Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said on X. "I have given my orders to the Lebanese army to retaliate against the source of fire."Aoun added that he asked Lebanon's foreign minister, who is currently in Brussels for a donors conference on Syria, to contact Syrian officials to resolve the problem "and prevent further escalation." Violence recently spiked in the area between the Syrian military and armed Lebanese Shiite clans closely allied with the former government of Assad, based in Lebanon's Al-Qasr border village. Lebanese media and the observatory say clans were involved in the abductions that sparked the latest clashes. The Lebanese and Syrian armies said they have opened channels of communication to ease tensions. Lebanon's military also said it returned the bodies of the three killed Syrians. Large numbers of Lebanese troops have been deployed in the area. Lebanese media reported low-level fighting at dawn after an attack on a Syrian military vehicle. The number of casualties was unclear. Early Monday, four Syrian journalists embedded with the Syrian army were lightly wounded after an artillery shell fired from the Lebanese side of the border hit their position. They accused Hezbollah of the attack. Meanwhile, senior Hezbollah legislator Hussein Haj Hassan in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Jadeed television accused fighters from the Syrian side of crossing into Lebanese territory and attacking border villages. His constituency is the northeastern Baalbek-Hermel province, which has borne the brunt of the clashes. Lebanon has been seeking international support to boost funding for its military as it gradually deploys troops along its porous northern and eastern borders with Syria as well as its southern border with Israel.

Government to Announce Administrative Appointment Mechanism on Thursday
This is Beirut/March 17/2025
The Lebanese Council of Ministers convened for a marathon session on Monday to finalize the mechanism for administrative appointments, particularly for high-ranking positions. The meeting, which began at 11 AM at the Grand Serail and lasted over five hours, resulted in the approval of the mechanism in principle. However, its official announcement is scheduled for Thursday during a government session at the presidential palace in Baabda. Minister of Information Paul Morcos stated that the government would “put the finishing touches” on the mechanism that day, with the key agenda item being the appointment of a new Central Bank Governor. Additionally, Morcos revealed that moving forward, the Council of Ministers would hold weekly meetings in Baabda every Thursday.

The Public Appointment Mechanism: An Overview
This is Beirut/March 17/2025
This is Beirut has reviewed a copy of the document outlining the mechanism set by the Council of Ministers for public appointments. According to Minister of Information Paul Morcos, this document is a preliminary draft that is expected to be finalized and approved by the Cabinet on Thursday. Here are the main points. The process is primarily designed to ensure equal opportunity, transparency and merit, with particular emphasis on gender parity and the inclusion of persons with disabilities. According to the document, this mechanism does not apply to the appointments in the leadership of the Central Bank (BDL), the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) or regulatory bodies, nor to the appointment of the Director General of the Presidency and the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers. These appointments are also expected to be made based on criteria of competence, integrity and experience. Appointments to First-Category Positions in the Public Administration. Vacant positions in the top category of the public administration are first offered to second-category civil servants who meet the necessary qualifications. The President of the Civil Service Council, in collaboration with other supervisory bodies such as the Central Inspection and the Court of Auditors, compiles the list of eligible candidates. Before candidates are shortlisted, their backgrounds are thoroughly checked to identify any disciplinary sanctions or judicial rulings that could affect their eligibility.
Once this initial selection is completed, a committee composed of the relevant minister, the Minister of State for Administrative Development and the President of the Civil Service Council is tasked with evaluating the candidates' qualifications, experience and suitability for the position. The shortlisted candidates are then called for an evaluation interview to further assess their skills and their suitability for the responsibilities of the role. Finally, a detailed report is submitted to the Prime Minister, who then presents it to the Council of Ministers for the final decision. If no suitable candidate within the cadre is identified, a similar procedure is initiated to recruit candidates from outside. Appointment of General Directors, Members and Presidents of the Boards of Public Institutions. This process follows a similar approach to that of first-category positions, with adjustments made to account for the specific needs of each institution. The minister overseeing the institution plays a central role, managing the selection process with the support of two field experts. After a comprehensive review of the candidates' files, a committee assesses the candidates through interviews before making its recommendation, which is then submitted to the Council of Ministers for the final decision.
Electronic Applications and Shortlisting
An electronic system has been established to receive and filter applications based on predefined criteria. The review of applications is then facilitated by a software that enables an objective preselection, ensuring an initial sorting process based on clear and measurable parameters. Once this automated selection is completed, the process moves forward with a manual evaluation of the shortlisted applications, followed by interviews conducted by the relevant committee to refine the assessment of candidates and identify those best suited for the available positions. This electronic system does not apply to first-category positions within the public administration. In these cases, the process is focused on internal promotions, based on lists prepared by the Civil Service Council in coordination with other supervisory bodies.

Toufic Sultan: Kamal Jumblatt Was not Impressed by Assad or his Likes
Beirut: Ghassan Charbel/Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
After the 1973 war, former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad realized that reclaiming the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights through military means was impossible. His frustration grew when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took a different approach, negotiating to regain the Sinai Peninsula. As a leader from a minority sect, Assad feared a similar path would leave his successor inheriting an Israeli flag in Damascus. With limited options, he turned to Lebanon, a country he had never forgotten was once part of Greater Syria. Lebanon became Assad’s strategic battleground, defensive shield, and political bargaining chip. His regime never tolerated any attempt to “steal Lebanon” from its grasp, whether the perceived threat came from Kamal Jumblatt, Bachir Gemayel, René Moawad, or Rafik Hariri. Jumblatt’s defiance was particularly intolerable—he was a close ally of Yasser Arafat and resisted Assad’s efforts to dominate Palestinian decision-making. Toufic Sultan, a key political figure and close associate of Kamal Jumblatt, witnessed these events firsthand. As Jumblatt’s deputy in both the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and the Lebanese National Movement (a coalition supporting Palestinian and leftist causes), Sultan recalls: “I attended multiple meetings between President Assad, Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, and Kamal Jumblatt. Jumblatt, always polite yet direct, spoke candidly. In 1976, he established a structured relationship with Assad, who insisted that meetings occur regularly. He frequently told Hikmat Shihabi (Syrian Army Chief of Staff) that these discussions should be ongoing—and they were.”
Jumblatt Refused to Praise Assad
During one visit to Damascus, Jumblatt met with Baath Party leaders, including Abdullah al-Ahmar and Palestinian official Zuheir Mohsen. The meeting, like many in Syria, was likely monitored. At one point, a Syrian Baathist asked Jumblatt why he wouldn’t align with them. Jumblatt dismissed the idea, saying, “Because I don’t form alliances with parties that take orders from external powers.”
Later that day, at a lunch hosted by Assad at the Rawda Palace, a joint statement was released. Sultan recalls:
“I saw Jumblatt take out a pen and start crossing out lines. He had completely removed a passage praising Assad’s so-called ‘Corrective Movement.’ He turned to me and said, ‘We never said this. Why should we?’ He did this in front of Assad, who then instructed his aides to remove the phrase. On the way back to Beirut, Jumblatt had the car radio tuned in to check if Syrian media had inserted any false statements. I asked him, ‘Would it have hurt to flatter Assad with a couple of words, given our daily dealings with him?’ He firmly replied, ‘I don’t flatter anyone.’ That was the moment I realized I could no longer sustain this relationship. He had erased just two words of praise, but that was enough to collapse everything.”
Jumblatt’s Final Meeting with Assad
Tensions escalated as Jumblatt refused to accept Syrian military intervention in Lebanon. Sultan recalls: “Hikmat Shihabi called me, urging me to bring Jumblatt to Damascus, even if just to talk about philosophy or agriculture—anything to maintain dialogue. But Jumblatt was firm: it was either full agreement or total opposition. He personally oversaw the placement of mines in Bhamdoun to resist Syrian troops. Even President Anwar Sadat advised him to step back, but he refused.”
Jumblatt repeatedly warned Assad:
“If you enter Lebanon militarily, you’ll give Israel an excuse to intervene. Our conflicts with other Lebanese factions can be settled—win, lose, or compromise—but with Israel, there is no such option.” Assad ignored the warning. Eleven years later, during a meeting with Lebanese warlord-turned-politician Elie Hobeika, Assad lamented, “Pierre Gemayel lied to me.” A Lebanese minister pointed at Hobeika and said, “He’s Gemayel’s disciple.” Hobeika quickly responded, “I had nothing to do with it.”
The Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt
Sultan did not accompany Jumblatt to his last meeting with Assad, despite his insistence. Yasser Arafat urged Jumblatt to go, but Sultan knew there was no hope of reconciliation. When Jumblatt was delayed in returning, Sultan called Hikmat Shihabi, who responded, “How can it be? The atmosphere was terrible.”The next morning, newspapers carried optimistic headlines about the meeting. When Sultan visited Jumblatt, he dismissed them: “None of it is true. We couldn’t reach an understanding.”
On March 16, 1977, Kamal Jumblatt was assassinated.
The Druze community was shaken. The Progressive Socialist Party and the Lebanese National Movement were thrown into uncertainty. Jumblatt had been not just a Druze leader but also a national and leftist figure. Forty days later, his son Walid Jumblatt visited Hafez Assad, accompanied by some of his father’s closest aides, including Toufic Sultan. Years later, Walid would recall his mother’s advice: “A Chinese proverb says, ‘Sit by the riverbank and wait for your enemy’s corpse to float by.’”Decades later, news came of Bashar al-Assad’s flight from Syria and the arrest of General Ibrahim Huweija, accused of orchestrating Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination.
The Story of the Two Assads and Hariri
Hafez al-Assad controlled Lebanon through local proxies, ensuring no political leader could challenge Syrian influence. When Rafik Hariri became prime minister in 1992, Assad initially viewed him as just another politician. However, Hariri was different—he had vast financial resources and international connections that no Lebanese leader before him possessed. When Hafez al-Assad died, his son Bashar inherited not only power but also the same anxiety about Hariri. He feared Hariri was gradually pulling Lebanon out of Syria’s orbit with international support. On February 14, 2005, Rafik Hariri was assassinated. Though suspicion immediately fell on the Syrian regime, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon later convicted members of Hezbollah in absentia.
Sultan recalls Hariri’s initial dealings with Hafez al-Assad:
“Hariri built a relationship with Assad, who invited him to Damascus. Hariri and his wife, Nazik, arrived from Paris with gifts. Assad hosted them for dinner and even prepared a place for them to stay overnight. However, Hariri surprised him by saying, ‘I will return tonight.’ Assad asked, ‘How?’ Hariri replied, ‘My plane is like a house; it has a bedroom.’”Hariri had allies within the Syrian regime, including Abdel Halim Khaddam and Hikmat Shihabi. However, Bashar Assad’s inner circle—especially his sister Bushra—strongly opposed him. “There was an anti-Hariri faction in Syria that had a significant influence on Lebanese politics. But Hariri always found ways to overcome obstacles. Even Rustum Ghazaleh, Syria’s intelligence chief in Lebanon, received financial incentives.”
Warnings of Assassination
Sultan recalls that Hariri was warned multiple times about threats to his life. “On the Friday before his assassination, a prominent Lebanese figure told me, ‘Hariri and Walid Jumblatt are on a kill list.’ When I relayed this to Hariri, he dismissed it, saying he had guarantees. But as events proved, those guarantees were meaningless.”
Sultan also describes a tense encounter between Hariri and Bashar Assad:
“You, Walid [Jumblatt], and your man Chirac want to bring in a president? I will crush the country over your heads!” Hariri believed that US assurances would protect him. His assassination proved otherwise.
Bashar Assad: “Weak and Lacking Judgment”
Sultan criticizes Bashar Assad’s leadership:
“It is well known that Bashar is politically weak. Had he been more strategic, he would have realized that UN Resolution 1559 was serious. Instead, he acted recklessly. Syria feared Hariri because he could unite Lebanon’s most powerful factions. They thought eliminating him would solve the problem within 48 hours. Instead, they ignited a crisis that changed Lebanon forever.”Sultan expressed his regret that the Lebanese had squandered many opportunities, often choosing to concede to external forces rather than compromise with their fellow countrymen. He stated that had an understanding been reached between Kamal Jumblatt and Bashir Gemayel, the Lebanese could have spared themselves much suffering. They missed opportunities at other critical junctures as well. Sultan voiced his hope that the state-building project would see a serious revival with the election of General Joseph Aoun as President and the formation of a government led by Nawaf Salam. He speaks with the wisdom of those who have witnessed the weaknesses and sensitivities of Lebanon’s political structure. His words carry a sense of nostalgia for the days when Beirut was a key meeting point for Lebanese, Arabs, and the international community. As he approaches his nineties, Sultan still holds on to some hope that the Lebanese have learned from their experiences and will work together to build a state governed by the rule of law, where dialogue is driven by reason rather than power struggles.

Hezbollah MP asks politicians to expose US-Israeli 'blackmail' against Lebanon
Naharnet/March 17, 2025
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said Monday that the people will again defend their land if the state fails to shoulder its responsibilities against the Israeli occupation and violations. "When the state abandons this (southern) region, the people will take the responsibility and will not accept the occupation," Fadlallah said, adding that the cause of south Lebanon should not be solely the cause of the Shiites and the southerners but a "national cause."Fadlallah said the U.S. and Israel are pressuring Lebanon to take political decisions "that are not in line with its interests, history, or the sacrifices of its people," urging the Lebanese officials to be transparent with the public about the Israeli and American "blackmail".Israel "will neither have a political nor a military foothold" in Lebanon, Fadlallah warned. Pro-Hezbollah media had previously reported that the U.S. is "dragging Lebanon into peace negotiations" with Israel. Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri confirmed that Israel is trying to drag Lebanon into "direct negotiations" but stressed that normalization has not been discussed officially with the Lebanese state and that Lebanon would not normalize with Israel.

Jaber: Government will not write off deposits
Naharnet/March 17, 2025
The government will not resort to writing off deposits but will rather adopt an organized mechanism for returning them gradually, Finance Minister Yassine Jaber has said. As for the file of Hezbollah’s arms, Jaber told Independent Arabia that “they will not be bargained for international support.”“U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 has witnessed a progress, seeing as weapons have been removed from the Lebanese south and U.N. forces have deployed to guarantee stability, whereas weapons in Lebanese regions north of the Litani River will not be removed within weeks,” Jaber added.

Doctor at Brown University deported to Lebanon despite US judge’s order
Reuters/March 17, 2025
BOSTON: A Rhode Island doctor who is an assistant professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported to Lebanon even though a judge had issued an order blocking the US visa holder’s immediate removal from the country, according to court papers.
The expulsion of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is set to be the focus of a hearing on Monday before a federal judge in Boston, who on Sunday demanded information on whether US Customs and Border Protection had “willfully” disobeyed his order.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said he had received a “detailed and specific” timeline of the events from an attorney working on Alawieh’s behalf that raised “serious allegations” about whether his order was violated.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Rasha Alawieh was removed after arriving at Boston airport
• Judge questions if Customs and Border Protection disobeyed his order
• Court hearing set for Monday
The agency has not said why she was removed. But her expulsion came as Republican US President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to sharply restrict border crossing and ramp up immigration arrests. A CBP spokesperson, Hilton Beckham, in a statement said migrants bear the burden of establishing admissibility and that the agency’s officers “adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats.”Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen who lives in Providence, was detained on Thursday after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston after traveling to Lebanon to see relatives, according to a lawsuit filed by her cousin, Yara Chehab. She had held a visa to be in the United States since 2018, when she first came to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University before then completing a fellowship at the University of Washington and then moving to the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which she completed in June. While in Lebanon, the US consulate issued Alawieh an H-1B visa authorizing her entry into the United States to work at Brown University, the lawsuit said. Such visas are reserved for people from other countries who are employed in specialty occupations.
Despite that visa, CBP detained her at the airport for reasons her family members have still not been provided, according to the lawsuit, which argued her rights were being violated. In response to the lawsuit, Sorokin on Friday evening issued orders barring Alawieh’s removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice to the court and requiring her to be brought to a court hearing on Monday. Yet according to the cousin’s attorneys, after that order was issued, Alawieh was flown to Paris, where she was then set to board a flight for Lebanon that had been scheduled for Sunday. Sorokin on Sunday directed the government to provide a legal and factual response by Monday morning ahead of the previously scheduled hearing and to preserve all emails, text messages and other documents concerning Alawieh’s arrival and removal. Concerns have also been raised in other cases about whether the Trump administration is complying with court rulings blocking parts of its agenda. The Trump administration on Sunday said it has deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador under seldom-used wartime powers, despite a federal judge’s order temporarily barring such deportations.

Israeli war spending in Gaza, Lebanon tops $30 billion in 2024 -Finance Ministry
Steven Scheer/JERUSALEM (Reuters)/March 17, 2025
Israel spent 112 billion shekels ($31 billion) on its military conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon in 2024, the Finance Ministry said in a report on Monday. Between October 7, 2023 - when Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel to trigger the war in Gaza and subsequent missile fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon - and the end of 2024 spending reached 141.6 billion shekels. Israel has since forged ceasefire deals with Hamas and Hezbollah. Total spending on defence in 2024 was 168.5 billion shekels, or 8.4% of gross domestic product, up from 98.1 billion in 2023, when defence costs were 5.2% of GDP, the report showed. The increase in war spending pushed the budget deficit to 6.8% of GDP in 2024, a revision from a preliminary estimate of 6.9%. Israel's economy grew 0.9% in 2024. Prior to war, in May 2023, Israeli lawmakers approved a 2024 budget of 513.7 billion shekels but the fighting required three additional budgets in 2024 that raised state spending by 21% to 620.6 billion shekels. Revenue last year was 484.9 billion shekels. The deficit, which had topped 8% of GDP during 2024, has since eased and stood at 5.3% in February. Due to political infighting, Israel has yet to approve a budget for 2025 and the country is using a prorated version of the base 2024 budget. Failure for lawmakers to pass a budget by the end of March would trigger new elections. The budget draft of tax hikes and steep spending cuts will be approved on time, said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The budget, he said, "reflects a responsible budget that will ensure stability and the continued proper functioning of the government while addressing Israel’s security needs during this period."Accountant General Yali Rothenberg added: "It is crucial to reduce the deficit below 5% of GDP to stabilize government expenditures and the debt-to-GDP ratio."($1 = 3.6576 shekels)

Israel carries out airstrikes in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, killing at least 10 people
Wafaa Shurafa/DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)/March 17, 2025
Israel carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon and southern Syria on Monday, killing at least 10 people, including a child, according to local authorities. The Israeli military said it was targeting militants plotting attacks. The airstrikes were the latest in what have been frequent and often deadly attacks by Israeli forces during the fragile ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel has blocked all food, medicine, fuel and other supplies from entering Gaza the past two weeks, demanding Hamas accept changes in the two sides’ ceasefire deal.
In Syria, Israel seized a zone in the south after the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad in December. Israel says it is a preemptive security measure against the former Islamist insurgents who now run Syria, though their transitional government has not expressed threats against Israel. The strikes hit a residential area in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, killing three people and wounding 19 others, including four children, a woman and three civil defense volunteers, the Syrian civil defense agency said. It said two ambulances were damaged. Other strikes hit military positions near the city.
The Israeli military said it was targeting military command centers and sites in southern Syria that contained weapons and vehicles belonging to Assad’s forces. It said the materials’ presence posed a threat to Israel.
In central Gaza, two strikes hit around the urban refugee camp of Bureij. One struck a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians, killing a 52-year-old man and his 16-year-old nephew, according to officials at nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. The Israeli military said it struck militants planting explosives. An earlier strike killed three men in Bureij. The Israeli military said the men were trying to plant an explosive device in the ground near Israeli troops. Gaza’s Hamas-led government said the men were collecting firewood.
In Lebanon, Israel said it struck two members of the Hezbollah militant group in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, who it said were “observation operatives.” Lebanon’s state news agency reported two people killed in the strike and two wounded. The military later said it carried out further strikes on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, without specifying where. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect in late November ending the 14-month war between the two sides, and each side has repeatedly accused the other of violating the deal.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza began in mid-January, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military says approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas.
Still, the deal has tenuously held without an outbreak of wide violence. The ceasefire’s first phase saw an exchange of some hostages held by Hamas in return for the freeing of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate the next steps in the ceasefire.
Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to follow the ceasefire deal reached by the two sides, which calls for negotiations to begin on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.

Doctor Deported to Lebanon Had Photos ‘Sympathetic’ to Hezbollah on Phone, US Says
Asharq Al Awsat/March 17, 2025
US authorities on Monday said they deported a Rhode Island doctor to Lebanon last week after discovering "sympathetic photos and videos" of the former longtime leader of Hezbollah and its fighters in her cell phone's deleted items folder. Alawieh had also told agents that while in Lebanon she attended the funeral last month of Hezbollah's slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, whom she supported from a "religious perspective" as a Shiite. The US Department of Justice provided those details as it sought to assure a federal judge in Boston that US Customs and Border Protection did not willfully disobey an order he issued on Friday that should have halted Dr. Rasha Alawieh's immediate removal. The 34-year-old Lebanese citizen, who held an H-1B visa, was detained on Thursday at Logan International Airport in Boston after returning from a trip to Lebanon to see family. Her cousin then filed a lawsuit seeking to halt her deportation. In its first public explanation for her removal, the Justice Department said Alawieh, a kidney specialist and assistant professor at Brown University, was denied re-entry to the United States based on what CBP found on her phone and statements she made during an airport interview. "It's a purely religious thing," she said about the funeral, according to a transcript of that interview reviewed by Reuters. "He's a very big figure in our community. For me it's not political."Western governments including the United States designate Hezbollah a terrorist group. The Lebanese armed group is part of the "Axis of Resistance", an alliance of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East that also includes the Palestinian movement Hamas, which sparked the Gaza war by attacking Israel almost a year ago on Oct. 7. Based on those statements and the discovery of photos on her phone of Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, the Justice Department said CBP concluded "her true intentions in the United States could not be determined." Alawieh and a lawyer for her cousin did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In Monday's filing, the Justice Department also defended CBP officials against claims by the cousin's legal team that Alawieh was flown out of the country on Friday evening in violation of an order issued by US District Judge Leo Sorokin that day. The judge had issued an order barring Alawieh's removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours' notice. Yet she was put onto a flight to France that night and is now back in Lebanon. The judge on Sunday had directed the government to address "serious allegations" that his order was willfully violated ahead of a hearing that had been scheduled for Monday. That hearing was canceled on Monday at the request of the cousin's lone remaining attorney, after lawyers at the law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer representing her pro bono withdrew, citing "further diligence" about the quickly-moving case. A lawyer with that firm said she had gone to the airport on Friday and shown a CBP officer a copy of Sorokin's order on her laptop before Alawieh's Air France flight departed, and another CBP official in a declaration on Monday said he was made aware that occurred before taking Alawieh to the boarding area. But the Justice Department said the notification needed to be received through standard channels and be received by the agency's legal counsel for their review and guidance, which did not happen. "CBP takes court orders seriously and strives to always abide by a court order," Justice Department attorneys wrote. The Justice Department's filing was later sealed by Sorokin at the request of a lawyer for the cousin. Reuters reviewed it from a public terminal in the courthouse before access was further restricted.

Bassil: Abolition of political sectarianism is an elimination of Lebanon's Christians
Naharnet/March 17, 2025
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that the FPM supports the abolition of sectarianism, “but not political sectarianism alone.”“We are seculars, so come to comprehensive secularism! As for your selectivity in abolishing sectarianism in politics and leaving it in all other aspects of life, we will reject that,” Bassil added, in a speech at the FPM’s annual convention. “This is not an abolition of political sectarianism, but rather an elimination of the Christian community in Lebanon, and we will confront it, the same as we confront any attempt to eliminate any other component in the country,” Bassil went on to say.
Warning against “tampering with the components, constitution, National Pact and raison d'être of this country,” Bassil warned that the FPM is willing to stage a “revolution” to prevent such an attempt. “Harming balanced representation in the country and in the electoral law is not acceptable, and the attempt to approve two preferential votes (in the electoral law) to favor a numerical majority over a numerical minority is rejected,” the FPM chief warned. As for the thorny issue of Hezbollah’s arms, Bassil called for addressing the matter in a “sovereign and responsible manner,” saying the state “should benefit from these arms so that it be able to defend Lebanon and protect it through a decision of war and peace that it possesses.”“We oppose removing weapons through a civil war instead of an agreement, even if it is imposed, and we oppose an imposed normalization (with Israel) without rights, instead of it being a just peace with rights,” Bassil added.

Jumblatt Ends Annual Commemoration of His Father’s Assassination after ‘Historic Justice Takes Course’
Asharq Al Awsat/March 17, 2025
Former head of Lebanon Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt announced on Sunday he was ending the annual commemoration of the assassination of his father, Kamal, “after historic justice has taken its course.”Jumblatt had been holding the commemoration annually since his father was assassinated by the now ousted Syrian regime on March 16, 1977. Earlier this month, the new authorities in Syria announced the arrest of former chief of intelligence Ibrahim Huweija, who is accused of “hundreds of assassinations” under the Assad regime. He had overseen Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination.
Politicians, Druze figures and supporters across Lebanon had gathered at Mokhtara on Sunday for the 48th anniversary of the assassination. Addressing the crowd, Jumblatt declared: “For 48 years, we had gathered on March 16 to read the Fatiha and place a red rose on Kamal Jumblatt’s grave and the grave of his companions Hafez al-Ghosseini and Fawzi Chedid. This was an occasion to forge ahead in defiance and confrontation.”“During the worst of times, it was an occasion to remember and persevere, derive strength to continue living,” he added. “Now, freedom shines in Syria at long last. The regime of oppression and injustice has collapsed after some 54 years. The Syrian people are free and the new authorities led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa have arrested the man behind Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination,” he added. “On behalf of my family and the PSP, I declare an end to the tradition of holding the commemoration given that historic justice has taken its course albeit after some time,” he stressed. Jumblatt said: “Mokhtara is looking forward to a new chapter in struggle and defiance in new areas, not limited to, more humanitarian socialism as advocated by Kamal Jumblatt.”He underlined the historic reconciliation in Lebanon on August 3, 2001, that was sponsored by late Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir. The agreement lays the foundation for intra-Lebanese relations that rise above political divisions. He also underscored the importance of “clinging on to Lebanon’s Arab identity as promoted by major thinkers, writers, politicians and nationalists. This identity has been tarnished by regimes of oppression.”Jumblatt also stressed the need to liberate southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation, the demarcation of the border to protect Lebanese sovereignty, implementation of international resolutions, and the reconstruction of areas destroyed by the Israeli war on Hezbollah last year. Moreover, he called for “rebuilding Lebanese-Syrian relations on new foundations away from past experiences.”Turning to the Druze community, he urged them to “maintain their Arab identity and protect their history of joint struggle with Arab and Syrian nationalists against colonization. Maintain your position in confronting the occupation of Arab territories in the Syrian Golan Heights.”Commenting on the visit by Syrian Druze clerics to Israel last week, he said: “Religious visits do not negate the occupation of Palestine and the Golan.”He called on the Druze to “preserve their Islamic heritage,” warning them against being influenced by Zionism. He also warned them against being manipulated “to divide Syria and the rest of the region under the pretext of the alliance of minorities that was opposed by Kamal Jumblatt – a stance for which he paid for with his life.”At the end of his speech, Jumblatt declared: “We were patient, persevered and were victorious.”

Questionable transition
Dr. Charles Elias Chartouni/This Is Beirut/March 17/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/03/141311/
Lebanon is still dealing with the imponderables and equivocations of a very tentative peace process. The drama lies at the very heart of the transition process and the absence of a consensual approach to the problems besetting it. Initially, the ongoing actors have failed to acknowledge the nature of the transformative process and its strategic subtexts. They have been dealing with the political events that have succeeded the destruction of Hezbollah as if they were induced by unknown factors, and as if the Israeli counteroffensive was not correlated to the problems of a dysfunctional polity.
For over six decades, Lebanon has been dealing with endemic crises of national legitimacy, curtailed sovereignty and pliability to regional power politics, which hobbled its institutional life and eroded its normative consensuses. Political conflicts were expressive of major political culture differences and the inability to unite around fundamental civic and political values, and their impact on political life.
The actual political dynamic owes to the radical geostrategic transformations introduced by the Israeli counteroffensive and its incidence on the regional and domestic political dynamics. The defeat of Hezbollah and the unraveling of the operational platforms of the Iranian imperial strategy epitomized by the motto of the “integrated military platforms” usher in a new political era and question the predicates of the regional political order. The failure to acknowledge the basic military and political facts, the sturdy ideological blindfolders and the residual strategic ballasts accounts for the inability to engage the new dynamics and cope with their challenges.
Aside from the fact that Hezbollah's political soteriology is a major hurdle to the normalization of political life and the likelihood of a negotiated conflict resolution, political actors are still hobbled by ideological prejudices, imperial shackles and the zero-sum game approximation of conflicts. Therefore, diplomacy has no role to play, and political mediations are relegated to the periphery of conflict management.
The irredentism of Hezbollah is due to a perduring state of denial, incapacity to deal with the realities of military defeat and the outright rejection of diplomacy at a time when it can hardly afford the costs of destructive obstructionism. Otherwise, Lebanon is still instrumentalized by the Iranian regime as a platform for future subversion and sabotaging politics. As long as the Shiite political scene is still wired to the illusions of a victorious Iranian imperialism, the delusions of a military recovery and adamant about retrieving its unraveling political domination, one can hardly wager on the normalization of the political scene and mood within the Shiite community and at the Lebanese level.
Ideological ravings are hardly tractable and are made worse when they are wedded to defeated political whims and lost political, financial, economic and social privileges. As long as the Shiites fail to forswear their deliriums, adjust to reality and set in order their behavior, Lebanon will have a hard time putting to rights its political priorities and dealing with its intricacies.
The late presidential election came on the heels of the renewed military and political dynamics, and so did the formation of the new government after three years of debilitating stalemate and brazen instrumentation of state institutions by Shiite power politics that shattered the very notion of constitutional statehood, territorial sovereignty and basic civility. Unfortunately, the new executive failed to come to terms with the mandates of the new context, forsake the ideological lenses and prepare itself for substantial political and strategic realignments.
The conventional political rifts that featured in Lebanese contemporary history resurfaced, and the issues of national sovereignty and compromised political autonomy came once again to the forefront. The executive power is cleaved ideologically and politically; President Joseph Aoun is self-inhibiting, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's calculations are based on sectarian power politics calculations (Sunnite and Sunnite-Shiite), ideological biases and a skewed ground plan premised on the repudiation of reality and the marginalization of the Christian political platform.
These facts are far from promoting the politics of democratic accommodation and helping Lebanon overcome its lack of gravity. The purported neutrality of the government is hardly defensible since the ideological and political proclivities are ostensible while aligning with Hezbollah and validating its political and military extraterritoriality and the military sanctuarization of the Palestinian camps. To boot, the refusal to consider the issues of constitutional reengineering, and the question of federalism, the fairness of electoral laws and the role of the central authority in furthering the oligarchic drifts of power exercised in Lebanon. The clashing mandates of a mongrelized cabinet are unlikely to be sustained over time. A new era cannot overlook the imperatives of peacemaking with Israel and consensual political, economic and social reforms. The well-entrenched oligarchies and the actual cabinet are overtly undermining the chances of a negotiated peace treaty with Israel and the enactment of financial reforms, for they all have a stake in the monumental robbery and the enduring state of instability.
We should add to the internal picture the overall reverberations of a destabilized Syria, the hazards of colliding regional power politics and their incidence on the very formation of Lebanese political dynamics. The enforcement of the international security mandates is essential if the country is to overcome the pitfalls of colliding power politics, regional instability and the issues of culture war and dysfunctional consociational democracy.

Opponents Of Hizbullah In The Arab World: The Funeral Of Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah Spelled The Death Of The Organization; Lebanon Must Disarm It
March 17, 2025/MEMRI-Lebanon | Special Dispatch No. 11877/March 17/2025
معارضو حزب الله في العالم العربي: جنازة الأمين العام لحزب الله، حسن نصر الله، كانت نذير نهاية للمنظمة؛ على لبنان نزع سلاحها
17 مارس/آذار 2025/معهد ميمري - لبنان | النشرة الخاصة رقم 11877/17 مارس/آذار
On February 23, 2025, Hizbullah held a mass funeral for slain Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September2024, and for Hashem Safi Al-Din, who died the same way just days after he was appointed as Nasrallah's successor. Both Hizbullah and its opponents viewed the funeral as a way of gauging the organization's standing and the level of support for it in Lebanon and beyond, and as a kind of informal referendum on its path and its ideology, following its bitter war against Israel. In advance of the funeral, Hizbullah and its supporters made significant efforts to ensure maximum participation in it, of both political leaders and the general public from the country and abroad. Representatives of the organization met personally with senior Lebanese officials and invited them to attend, and Hizbullah leaders, headed by Secretary-General Na'im Qassem, repeatedly urged the public to participate as well. In a speech he delivered a week before the funeral, Qassem stressed the importance and symbolic significance of the event: "We want this funeral to be a show of support and affirmation of our course and path… I call on as many of our supporters as possible to attend, so people will see that Hizbullah and the Islamic resistance are strong and present on the ground and that whoever thinks of exerting pressure on them or hatching plots against them will not succeed…"[1]
In the speech Qassem delivered at the funeral itself – which was transmitted by video since he did not attend, apparently for security reasons – he reiterated that the mass participation in the funeral was "an expression of loyalty" for Hizbullah the likes of which has rarely been seen in the history of Lebanon.[2] Hizbullah's Al-Manar television channel called the day of the funeral "The Day of Loyalty," and declared that "the human flood [that attended the funeral] renewed the covenant with the martyred Nasrallah and Safi Al-Din."[3] Two days after the funeral, the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar wrote that the event had been more than a funeral and that people had voted with their feet, adding that the tremendous participation and the exemplary organization proved that Hizbullah had managed to recover despite the heavy losses it sustained in the war.[4]
Despite the vast attendance, estimated at 700,000 to 900,000 people,[5] it appears that Hizbullah failed in its attempt to imbue the funeral with a national air. Many of the Lebanese leaders who had been personally invited by Hizbullah representatives chose not to attend. These included Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and the country's Prime Minister Nawwaf Salam, both of whom sent representatives in their stead, respectively Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Amal Movement and is close to Hizbullah, and Labor Minister Mohamad Haider, who is Hizbullah's representative in the government. Even some senior officials who are considered Hizbullah allies failed to attend, such as former president Michel Aoun; former prime minister Najib Mikati; Faisal Karami, head of the Al-Karama Movement, and Tony Frangieh, an MP for the Marada Movement. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt did not attend either, nor did former prime ministers Sa'ad Hariri and Fouad Siniora, who are considered opponents of Hizbullah but were nevertheless invited.[6]
According to opponents of Hizbullah, the funeral of these two leaders spelled the death of the organization and of the path imposed by its patron, Iran. Seeing the absence of Lebanon's leaders as a sign that the new regime and many others in Lebanon wish to distance themselves from Hizbullah, they expressed hope that this would mark the start of a new era for Lebanon that would "reflect the hopes and aspirations of the Lebanese people."[7] Several of these figures called on Lebanon to take advantage of the weakness of Hizbullah and its Iranian patron to disarm the organization and combat its extremist ideology, so as to prevent it from regaining its strength. Others urged the state to prosecute Hizbullah operatives who have been involved in crimes against Lebanon but who have so far enjoyed immunity due to the organization's ability to impose its will on the country.
The following are some of the responses from Hizbullah's opponents to the funeral held for Nasrallah and Safi Al-Din.
Funeral of Hizbullah secretary-generals Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safi Al-Din, who were killed in Israeli airstrikes (Image: Al-Akhbar, Lebanon, February 25, 2025)
Nasrallah's Funeral Was The Burial Of The Entire Resistance Axis And The Birth Of A Sovereign Lebanon
As mentioned, Hizbullah opponents stated, with more than a little schadenfreude, that Nasrallah's burial spelled the death of Hizbullah and of the entire resistance axis, which sustained heavy blows in the war against Israel, and heralded the birth of Lebanon as a sovereign state. On the day of the funeral, Lebanese journalist Tony Boulos posted on his X account: "Today, a black era in the history of the homeland was buried, an era in which the state was overthrown and dozens of brave patriots were assassinated. A new Lebanon has been born and a new east is dawning."[8] Boulos also addressed this issue in the Saudi daily Independent Arabia, writing: "Nasrallah has been buried, along with the slogans of the conflict with Israel and the amassing of weapons, as well as the double-state [concept] that Hizbullah imposed for decades. All the theories Hizbullah used to justify its weapons, such as the theory about deterrence, the balance of terror and the elimination of Israel, have been refuted and have no place in the present stage. This change spells the end of the era of illegal arms and the start of a new age: the age of Lebanese sovereignty based on a single country that is not ruled by a militia…"[9]
An X account called "No to Iranian Occupation" posted: "The era of lies, deceit and insulting people's intelligence is over. Nasrallah is dead and the resistance died with him. Hizbullah is done for. The age of the [Hizbullah] mini-state is over and the age of the [Lebanese] state has begun."[10] Jean Feghali, news editor at the Lebanese LBCI channel, wrote: "[Nasrallah] is dead, and with him died the Iranian plan, [which has been consigned to] the dustbin of history."[11]
Despite The Mass Attendance, The Funeral Reflects Hizbullah's Weakness
Hizbullah's opponents played down the significance of the vast attendance at the funeral, estimated at 700,000 to 900,000 people. They argued that the numbers do not reflect the state of the organization or the scope of support for it in Lebanon, because most of the participants were from Hizbullah's support base and many senior leaders were absent, including Hizbullah allies.
Shi'ite Lebanese journalist Nadim Koteich wrote on the Asasmedia.com website that "Hizbullah wanted the sendoff for Nasrallah, its historic leader, to be more than a funeral: it wanted it to be a imposed referendum on its legitimacy and on the entire perception of the resistance, in complete disregard of the war, which ended in a painful military and political defeat." However, Koteich said, Hizbullah itself knows that the mass attendance makes no difference to the essence of the crisis it is experiencing. Citing the examples of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which collapsed despite their ability to gain the support of the masses, he added: "Hizbullah is naturally entitled to deny the scope of the damage sustained by its political and military infrastructure and to refrain from seeing the funeral on Sunday as a funeral for its plan. [But] the Lebanese people are entitled to believe that [the funeral] was not a declaration of Hizbullah's rebirth, but [just] a fleeting moment of denial and an attempt to put off dealing with the reality: that the age of wars is over and will never return…"[12]
Journalist Ali Hamada wrote that the vast attendance at the funeral "was natural, given [Nasrallah's] importance and the role he played in the past three decades, in [both] Lebanon and the region," but noted that only one sector of Lebanese society attended the funeral, namely Shi'ite Hizbullah supporters, while the other sectors – Christians, Druze and Sunnis – "boycotted" it. He stated that their absence expressed "the isolation of [Hizbullah's] path and plan" and "a breach between the vast majority of the Lebanese people… and everything Nasrallah and his organization represent in Lebanon."[13]
Some maintained that Hizbullah's weakness is also evident from the circumstances in which the funeral was held: five months after the assassination, during which Israel established its freedom of movement in Lebanon by continuing its attacks in various parts of the country and by making flyovers, even during the funeral itself. Syrian journalist Ibrahim Hamidi, executive editor of the Saudi magazine Al-Majalla, wrote: "Hizbullah and its patron Iran managed to organize a funeral for the organization's official [Nasrallah] and for the entire axis, and to move [Nasrallah] from 'the secret temporary location' to a permanent and public [burial] place, five months after the assassination, and [only] after brokered negotiations and understandings with Israel [allowed the funeral to take place]. True, tens of thousands came to the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in the Hizbullah stronghold of the southern Dahiyeh carrying pictures of Nasrallah and yellow flags. But [during the ceremony] the Israeli planes did not leave the Beirut skies, reminding [everyone] of the understandings [reached regarding the] funeral and the new Lebanese reality. It is therefore clear why Hizbullah's current secretary-general, Na'im Qassem, did not manage to attend the funeral… but addressed the crowd via video from an unknown location."
Dismissing Qassem's warning that Hizbullah's "restraint" in the face of the continued Israeli attacks must not be viewed as weakness, Hamidi wrote that the organization's weakness is evident from its inability to impose its candidates for president and prime minister, and from the fact that it agreed to the ceasefire. He added, "There is no doubt that the aim of Iran and Hizbullah in organizing a popular funeral for Nasrallah was to demonstrate how much strength they still maintain after Hizbullah emerged weak from last year's war with Israel, in which most of its commanders and thousands of its fighters were killed… But the fact is that the funeral [only] revealed the diseases that afflict the Iranian axis…"[14]
Hizbullah's Weakness Should Be Used To Disarm It And Cement The Rule Of The State
Several of Hizbullah's opponents warned that, despite the heavy losses and damage suffered by the organization and the entire resistance axis, they still refuse to acknowledge their defeat and the failure of their path and are working in various ways to restore their standing. They therefore urged the Lebanese leaders to prevent Hizbullah from recovering and to reestablish the sovereignty of the state, inter alia by disarming the organization, preventing it from disseminating its extremist ideology, and even by making the reconstruction of South Lebanon contingent upon the surrender of its weapons.
Former Lebanese president Michel Suleiman said after the funeral: "…The time has come to close the book on [Hizbullah's] mini-state within the [Lebanese] state and on the decision to [wage] wars in every direction and in every arena. It's time for the state, and the state alone, to be responsible for sovereignty and for foreign policy, and for weapons to be [only] in the hands of the Lebanese army. It is therefore necessary to disarm the militias that exist outside the legitimate frameworks…"[15]
Fadi Karam, an MP for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, said: "The funeral was an Iranian message to Lebanon and [elements] outside the country, and the Iranian regime is now playing for time… Hizbullah still refuses to hand its affairs over to the Lebanese state and is trying to survive this difficult period with minimum damage…" Noting that the state is responsible for extending its sovereignty over all its territory, and is solely entitled to negotiate, hold weapons, defend its borders and liberate land, he warned Hizbullah: "If [Hizbullah Secretary-General] Sheikh Na'im Qassem continues to be stubborn and refuse to disarm [his organization] south of the Litani river, he can forget about rebuilding…"[16]
Lebanese journalist Tony Boulos called on Lebanon to take advantage of Hizbullah's present weakness to combat its extremist ideology and its indoctrination of children. He wrote on X: "…Lebanon is on the cusp of a new era. We must not leave the children in the grip of this monstrous extremist ideology that leads them to perdition and death and fills them with hate for the other, [causing] a rift in society. It's time to liberate minds from extremism and build a homeland dominated by awareness, openness and peace." Boulos added a cartoon showing a hand emerging from Hizbullah's grave and grabbing a child by means of the organization's "program for the young jihad fighter."[17]
Hizbullah Activists Must Be Prosecuted For Their Crimes
In addition to the demand to disarm Hizbullah, some also called on the organization to apologize for its crimes against the Lebanese people, and called on the authorities to stop overlooking these crimes and put Hizbullah activists on trial. Lebanese journalist Maryam Sayf Al-Din wrote that Hizbullah has kept the state from doing this and that, in every police station in the country there are Hizbullah representatives who prevent its operatives from being investigated. "It's impossible," she added, "to speak about extending the state's sovereignty over all its territory as long as this continues and there is no persistent effort to free the security forces from Hizbullah's control. It is impossible to enact the sovereignty of the state without ending the immunity granted to Hizbullah's operatives… Everybody must be subject to the law, as President Joseph Aoun said. Lifting this immunity will remove a barrier that has been placed between the state and a large sector of Lebanese citizens who refrained from turning to the state for judicial services [because] they were under Hizbullah's control."[18]
Lebanese journalist Mustafa Al-Awik urged Hizbullah "to announce directly and officially that it accepts the authority of the Lebanese state and its constitution, hand its illegitimate weapons over to the Lebanese army and surrender all its members who were involved in crimes inside Lebanon, so they can be put on trial. Hizbullah," he added, "must reexamine its conduct against Lebanon, understand where it erred and caused damage, and apologize to all the Lebanese for its actions against them, otherwise there will be no coexistence with it and we will repeat the mistakes made after the civil war… [With Nasrallah's funeral], Hizbullah buried a major part of its history, in which it was master [of Lebanon], and entered a new era, in which it is equal to all [other] Lebanese and engages in party politics without the force of weapons and without [all sorts of] enticing plans, imaginary legends, fictitious programs and cover-ups of corruption…"[19]
[1] Alahednews.com.lb, February 16, 2025.
[2] Almanar.com.lb, February 23, 2025.
[3] Almanar.com.lb, February 23, 2025.
[4] Al-Akhbar (Lebanon), February 25, 2025.
[5] This estimate was provided by Information International, a Beirut-based research and consultancy firm (Monthlymagazine, February 24, 2025).
[6] Janoubia.com, February 24, 2025.
[7] Al-Liwaa (Lebanon), February 26, 2025.
[8] X.com/TonyBouloss, February 23, 2025.
[9] Independentarabia.com, February 25, 2025.
[10] X.com/LalihtilalallR, February 23, 2025.
[11] X.com/Jean_Feghali_1, February 23, 2025.
[12] Asasmedia.com, February 24, 2025.
[13] Al-Nahar (Lebanon), February 24, 2025.
[14] Almajalla.com, February 24, 2025.
[15] Al-Liwaa (Lebanon), February 24, 2025.
[16] Nidaa Al-Watan (Lebanon), February 25, 2025.
[17] X.com/TonyBouloss, February 28, 2025.
[18] Nidaa Al-Watan (Lebanon), February 22, 2025.
[19] Nidaa Al-Watan (Lebanon), February 23, 2025.
https://www.memri.org/reports/opponents-hizbullah-arab-world-funeral-hizbullah-secretary-general-hassan-nasrallah-spelled

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on March 16-17/2025
Daraa: Two killed and wounded in Israeli raids targeting the city's environs
Al-Modon/March 17, 2025
Two civilians were killed and 19 others wounded on Monday as a result of Israeli raids targeting sites around Daraa city, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
Sources monitoring the situation told Al-Modon that an Israeli airstrike targeted military sites in the Dahiyeh area of ​​Daraa city, followed by violent explosions resulting from the detonation of ammunition and weapons at the targeted site, amid intense overflights by Israeli reconnaissance aircraft. Israeli aircraft returned and targeted the 175th Brigade and other military assets in two waves, including a school housing tanks in the military housing in the city of Izraa in the eastern Daraa countryside. The sources indicated that at least one civilian was killed and others were wounded as a result of the Israeli raids, while mosques called through loudspeakers for blood donations for those wounded in the shelling that targeted Daraa city. Continuous Raids Daraa Governorate has been witnessing repeated airstrikes by Israeli aircraft, primarily targeting heavy weapons and armored vehicles belonging to the Syrian army, within a range of more than 60 kilometers from the occupied Golan Heights border and extending to the Damascus-Suwayda road. Through these raids, Tel Aviv aims to destroy any weapons the Syrian army attempts to deploy within this range, according to previous Hebrew media reports.
Last week, Israeli aircraft launched dozens of airstrikes, targeting heavy weapons and vehicles in several military sites in the Daraa and Quneitra countrysides, and the southwestern Damascus countryside. Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said that Israeli Air Force warplanes struck dozens of targets, including radars and surveillance equipment used to compile an aerial intelligence picture, command headquarters, and military sites containing combat equipment and military vehicles belonging to the former Syrian regime in southern Syria. He added that the raids involved 22 warplanes, which dropped 60 types of munitions. He also published video clips of the targeting operations inside Syrian territory. Sources monitoring the situation told Al-Modon that approximately 40 airstrikes targeted Syrian Ministry of Defense tanks and artillery, destroying them and the military infrastructure within the units. They also noted that these sites had previously been subjected to violent airstrikes, which resulted in the destruction of a large portion of heavy and sophisticated weapons, the most recent of which occurred about two weeks ago.

Israel strikes southern Syria: state media, monitor
AFP/March 17, 2025
DAMASCUS: Israel struck the area of Syria’s southern city of Daraa, the state news agency SANA reported, with a war monitor saying the latest Israeli attack targeted a military site. “Israeli occupation jets launch air strikes targeting the surroundings of Daraa city,” said Damascus’s official news agency SANA, without immediately providing further details. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Israel targeted a military site once belonging to ousted president Bashar Assad’s army but now used by the forces of Syria’s new authorities. The Britain-based Observatory reported that a fire broke out, with ambulances rushing to the scene amid reports of casualties. Since Assad’s overthrow in December, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the strategic Golan Heights. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the air force conducted a strike on Damascus on Thursday, with the military saying it had hit a “command center” of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. The Observatory reported one fatality in that strike, with SANA saying it targeted a building in the capital. The Israeli military said the “command center was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad” against Israel. A source in Islamic Jihad said a building belonging to the group had been hit by Israeli jets, adding there were “martyrs and wounded” in the strike. Ismail Sindawi, Islamic Jihad’s representative in Syria, told AFP the targeted building had been “closed for five years and nobody from the movement frequented it.” Israel was just sending a message, Sindawi said. Even before Assad’s fall, during the Syrian civil war that broke out in 2011, Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.

EU vows 2.5 bn euros to help Syrians after Assad ouster
AFP/March 17, 2025
BRUSSELS: The EU led the way on pledging aid for Syria on Monday at a donor drive in Brussels — but the call for funding to help the war-torn country after Bashar Assad’s ouster risked falling short of last year as US support dries up. Western and regional powers are desperate to steer Syria onto the road to stability after 14 years of civil war that have sent millions of refugees over its borders. For the first time, the Syrian authorities were represented at the annual conference in Brussels — with interim foreign minister Assaad Al-Shibani attending. But an outbreak of deadly violence this month — the worst since Assad was toppled in December — has rocked confidence in the new authorities. European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels was stepping up its commitment for this year and next to almost 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) to help those in Syria and neighboring countries. “Syrians need greater support, whether they are still abroad, or they decide to go home,” she told the Brussels conference. The vow from Brussels came on top of significant contributions from individual countries, including some $330 million from Germany and $210 million from Britain. Last year’s donor drive raised 7.5 billion euros in grants and loans to help the people of Syria. The overall total for this year will be announced later Monday. Efforts to top that level this time around look set to be hit by US President Donald Trump’s axing of Washington’s foreign aid budget.
Up until now, the United States has been the single biggest individual donor to fund humanitarian efforts in Syria, according to the United Nations.
Syria’s new rulers have been clamouring for assistance to help the country’s recovery.The EU has eased sanctions on key sectors of the economy, but along with other powers it insists the authorities must make good on promises for an inclusive transition. “We do appreciate the major measures taken by the European Union, such as the lifting or suspending of the sanctions,” Shibani said. “However, these measures did not live up so far to our expectations. We want further measures in order to help us secure our recovery.”There have been positive moves from Damascus, including Sharaa signing a constitutional declaration laying out a five-year transitional period, and rights for women and freedom of expression. But hopes were shaken by the violence on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, which a war monitor said saw security forces kill nearly 1,500 civilians, most of them members of the Alawite minority to which the Assad family belongs. Shibani insisted that the new authorities would bring to justice “anyone who perpetrated any crime, whose hands are stained with blood.”“We believe in the true sense of citizenship, the citizenship of every single citizen of Syria, regardless of their ethnicity or religion,” he said.
The EU has held its annual donor drive for Syria for the past eight years but it mainly focused on supporting refugees in neighboring countries and avoided any contacts with the Assad regime. Syria’s needs are massive as swathes of the country lie in ruins and the economy has been ravaged by years of international isolation after Assad’s 2011 crackdown on opposition sparked the civil war. The country still faces a dire humanitarian situation, with an estimated 16.7 million people in need of assistance. “It would be a mistake to disinvest from Syria now,” said Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. “Humanitarian aid remains a lifeline that millions of Syrians depend on. Severing it now would only deepen their suffering and prolong the country’s recovery,” she said. The United Nations says that, at current growth rates, Syria would need more than 50 years to get back to its economic level before the outbreak of the war.

King of Jordan discusses Gaza, regional development with Italian president, PM
Arab News/March 17, 2025
LONDON: King Abdullah II of Jordan met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome on Monday to discuss regional developments. King Abdullah stressed the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and highlighted Italy’s vital role in humanitarian assistance and airlift efforts carried out by Jordan, Petra reported. He affirmed that Jordan supports the reconstruction of Gaza without the displacement of its residents and warned about the escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank and violations of holy sites in Jerusalem. During the meeting attended by Qais Abu Daieh, the Jordanian ambassador to Rome, and Alaa Batayneh, the director of King Abdullah’s office, Mattarella and the Jordanian monarch reviewed their countries’ friendly relations. The king also met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday, during which he stressed that a two-state solution was essential for regional stability. Discussions with Meloni covered Jordan-Italy cooperation, Syria’s stability, and Lebanon’s security. Meloni reaffirmed Italy’s support for Jordan’s role in promoting peace in the Middle East. The meeting was also attended by Batayneh.

Jordan’s FM says Syria’s reconstruction must preserve security, unity
Arab News/March 17, 2025
LONDON: Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Al-Shaibani, in Brussels on Monday on the sidelines of an international conference to support Syria’s political transformation. Ties between the neighboring countries have improved since the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December. Interim president of the Syrian Arab Republic, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, visited Amman in late February. In Brussels, the ministers discussed the most recent developments in Syria. Safadi said that Jordan supports Syria’s reconstruction on the basis of preserving its security and unity while protecting the rights of Syrians, the Petra agency reported. On Monday, the EU hosted the ninth international conference to support Syria. Representatives from the new interim government were invited to attend for the first time, including Al-Shaibani. The event aims to bolster international support for Syria’s transition and recovery following more than 13 years of civil war.

Israel breaking international law over Gaza aid blockade, UK government says for first time
Sky News/March 17, 2025
Israel is breaking international law by stopping aid into Gaza, the UK government has said for the first time. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that while Israel "quite rightly must defend its own security", the ongoing blockade of goods and supplies to the strip was a "breach of international law". Appearing in the Commons, Mr Lammy was repeatedly asked about Israel's decision at the beginning of the month, which came about following disagreements with Hamas over ceasefire terms set out in January following 15 months of war sparked by the 7 October attack against Israel. Asked by Labour MP Rupa Huq what the "consequences" would be for Israel's "provocative action" during the holy month of Ramadan, the foreign secretary said for the first time that Israel was in breach of international law. "Well, my honourable friend is right," he said. "This is a breach of international law. "Israel quite rightly must defend its own security but we find the lack of aid - it's now been 15 days since aid got into Gaza - unacceptable, hugely alarming and very worrying. "We would urge Israel to get back to the amount of trucks that we were seeing going in, way beyond 600, so that Palestinians can get the necessary humanitarian support they need at this time."Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the decision to stop aid going into Gaza after Hamas rejected an Israeli request to extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire. The militant group said it would only release the remaining Israeli hostages under the terms of the already agreed-upon phased deal, and not as per the plan put forward by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which would see the first phase of the ceasefire deal continue through Ramadan and Passover, or until 20 April. The war between Israel and Hamas has left most of Gaza's population of over 2 million dependent on international aid. Approximately 600 aid trucks had been entering the strip every day since the ceasefire began in January. Israel claims that Hamas hijacks the trucks and "turns aid into weapons".The Israel foreign ministry has claimed there is "no shortage of essential products in the strip whatsoever". "The only humanitarian suffering in Gaza is that of the Israeli hostages, who are being chained, starved, and held in Hamas tunnels."The UK government has previously stopped short of accusing Israel of breaking international law, saying only in a joint statement with French and German foreign ministers at the beginning of the month that the most recent aid blockade "would risk violating international humanitarian law".
"Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool," they added. "We reiterate that the civilians of Gaza who have suffered so much must be allowed to return to their homes and rebuild their lives."Last September the UK suspended arms sales to Israel on the grounds that, following a review of export licences for UK arms, there was a "clear risk" they might be used to commit "a serious violation of international humanitarian law". The suspension covered components that go into military aircraft that have been used in Gaza, including helicopters and drones, as well as items which facilitate ground targeting. But it did not include parts for multinational F-35 fighter jets - something that has concerned opposition MPs and human rights charities. The move prompted a critical response from Mr Netanyahu, who said it was "shameful" and "will not change Israel's determination to defeat Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that savagely murdered 1200 people on October 7, including 14 British citizens". The war in Gaza began after Hamas militants carried out a cross-border raid into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials. Israel responded by launching an air and ground offensive in Gaza which has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, say Gaza health officials. The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but said more than half of the fatalities were women and children.

Israel Strikes Kill Five People in Gaza, Local Medics Say
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
An Israeli air strike killed three Palestinian men in Gaza on Monday as they tried to gather firewood, medics said, with no sign of progress from renewed talks on sustaining a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. In the latest bloodshed to underline the fragility of the Gaza war's three-stage truce, the three, all from the same family, had left their homes in central Gaza to collect the wood for cooking. That has become a daily task for many Gazans as Israel has continued to ban fuel, food, and medical goods from entering Gaza for over two weeks, residents said.
The Israeli military said in a statement it struck "terrorists" operating near their forces and attempting to plant a bomb, Reuters reported. At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza's Deir Al-Balah, relatives rushed to pay farewell to the three white-shrouded bodies.
"They were targeted - and when their cousins and others in the area came to rescue them, the drone targeted them with bombs," said Jabr Abou Hajeer, the father of one of the victims. Later on Monday, medics said an Israeli air strike killed a father and his son inside a school sheltering displaced families in Bureij camp, near the site of the earlier strikes, raising the day's death toll to five. There was no immediate Israeli comment. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Israel's "violations" could "undermine all efforts for de-escalation".
He put the number of Palestinians killed since the January ceasefire at 150. Israel's military says it has repeatedly thwarted attempts by Palestinians to plant bombs or otherwise threaten their forces. Israel's suspension of goods entering Gaza for 16 days has increased pressure on Gaza's 2.3 million people, most of whom have been made homeless by the war. The suspension, which Israel said was aimed at pressuring Hamas in ceasefire talks, applies to food, medicine, and fuel imports.

Iran to respond to Trump letter after scrutiny
Reuters/March 17, 2025
Iran will respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's invitation to talks after proper scrutiny, the foreign ministry said on Monday, accusing Washington of not matching actions with words. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian have rejected Trump's letter and public exhortations for nuclear talks as deceptive and bullying. But Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said a diplomatic response was in the works. "So far, we have no reason to publicise (Trump's) letter... Our response to this letter will be done through appropriate channels after full scrutiny," Baghaei said. The Iranian spokesperson noted contradictory signals from Washington which was voicing readiness for talks while also applying new sanctions on Tehran's economy. "Diplomatic negotiations have etiquette in that each side must recognise the other's interests and, more importantly, believe in fulfilling their commitments," Baghaei added during a televised press conference. "The U.S. does not respect that and uses the possibility of negotiations as a propaganda and political tool." In his first term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and major powers that had placed strict limits on its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. After Trump pulled out in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran breached and far surpassed those limits in the development of its nuclear programme. Western powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons by enriching uranium up to 60% purity, above what they deem is justifiable for a civilian programme.Tehran says the development of its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes and that it respects its commitments under international law.

Pentagon: We Targeted Houthi Leaders Linked to Drone Program
Washington/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 17, 2025
The Pentagon said on Monday that the Trump administration's campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen differs from that carried out by the previous administration under Joe Biden, noting that it includes a broader range of targets. Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the first wave of strikes in Yemen targeted more than 30 sites, including training sites and senior Houthi drone experts. US strikes targeting the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and other Houthi-controlled areas killed dozens over the weekend. In retaliation, the Houthis claimed responsibility for two separate attacks on the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea on Sunday and Monday, using ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones. The United States has not confirmed these attacks.

Houthi Media: US Airstrikes Target Sanaa and Hodeidah
Sana'a/Asharq Al-Awsat/March 17, 2025
Media affiliated with the Houthi group in Yemen reported that US airstrikes targeted the capital, Sanaa, on Monday. The channel reported that the US airstrikes targeted the Jabal Sarf area in the Bani Hashish district and another area in the Al-Thawra district of Sanaa. The same media reported earlier today that US airstrikes targeted the Al-Arj area in the Bajil district of Hodeidah, in the west of the country. The United States began launching strikes targeting the Houthi group on Saturday after the Iran-aligned group announced it would again target Israeli ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. The Houthis claimed that the US attacks killed 53 people. US officials said the strikes would continue for days and possibly weeks if Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea are not halted.

Trump Warns Iran It Will Face ‘Consequences’ of Further Attacks from Yemen’s Houthis
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
US President Donald Trump on Monday explicitly linked the actions of Yemen's Houthi militias to their main benefactor, Iran, warning Tehran would “suffer the consequences” for further attacks by the militants. The comments by Trump on his Truth Social website escalate his administration's new campaign of airstrikes targeting the militias, which killed at least 53 people this weekend alone and appear poised to continue. Meanwhile, Iran continues to weigh how to respond to a letter Trump sent them last week trying to jump-start negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. Houthi supporters themselves rallied in several cities Monday after the strikes, vowing revenge against America and Israel over blocking aid to the Gaza Strip after its war on Hamas there. “The Yemeni position is an irreversible position (regarding Gaza), so do whatever you (Americans) want, for we are men who fear no one but God," said Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a Houthi leader who spoke to the demonstration in Yemen's Houthi-held capital, Sanaa. Describing the Houthis as “sinister mobsters and thugs,” Trump warned any attack by the militias would be met with “great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there.”“Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control,” Trump alleged in his post. “They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, 'Intelligence.'”It's unclear what sparked Trump's post. However, the head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sought to separate the Houthis' actions from those of Tehran this weekend. The Houthis also launched drones and missiles targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, though none reached the ship as it continues flight operations in the region.
Iran did not immediately comment on the post.
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump added. The Houthis attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January this year when a ceasefire began in Gaza. The Houthis claimed there had been additional US airstrikes overnight, though American officials did not immediately acknowledge them. World Food Program warehouse raided by Houthis
In Saada province, the Houthis' stronghold, the militias raided a warehouse run by the World Food Program. A member of Yemen's legitimate government first reported the Houthis had been taking supplies from the facility without the WFP's permission in the aftermath of the US airstrikes. The United Nations agency later acknowledged the Houthis' actions to The Associated Press. “WFP regrets the de facto authorities' decision to seize some of the commodities,” it said. “These commodities were intended for the most vulnerable food-insecure families. Only WFP and its partners have the authority to distribute them and ensure they reach the intended recipients.” Yemen, at war since the Houthis seized Sanaa back in 2014, has been on the precipice of famine for years. But the UN in February suspended its operations in Saada over security concerns following the detentions by the Houthis of dozens of UN workers and others in recent months. A day later, the WFP announced one of its staffers died while imprisoned by the Houthis.

Syria Joins a Donor Conference for the First Time in a Crucial Phase for Its New Leaders
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
International donors gathered on Monday in a show of support for Syria, hoping to encourage the new leaders of the conflict-ravaged country toward a peaceful political transition following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in December. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani attended the conference — the ninth of its kind — in a first for a top official from Damascus. But the United States, one of Syria’s top donors, wasn’t expected to offer assistance as the Trump administration is reviewing all foreign aid. It contributed almost $1.2 billion to Syria and the region last year. Ministers and representatives from Western partners, Syria’s regional neighbors, other Arab countries and UN agencies also attended the one-day meeting in Brussels, organized in haste by the European Union amid change sweeping the country. Opening the meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU was increasing its pledge to Syrians in the country and the region to almost 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) for 2025 and 2026. “We call on all of you who are here today to do the same, if possible, because at this critical time, the people of Syria need us more than ever,” von der Leyen said. Syria's new leaders are trying to consolidate control over territory that was divided into de facto mini-states during nearly 14 years of civil war, and to rebuild the economy and infrastructure. The United Nations has estimated that it would cost at least $250 billion to rebuild Syria, while experts say that could reach at least $400 billion. At the same time, Western governments are cutting back on aid spending, in part to use in defense budgets. “We will give more, but we cannot fill the gap left by the US,” EU Crisis Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib told reporters. "We will need to share the burden.”
Security concerns are also making donors hesitate. Earlier this month, an ambush on a Syrian security patrol by gunmen loyal to Assad triggered clashes. Some factions allied with the new government launched sectarian revenge attacks — primarily targeting Assad’s Alawite minority sect — that monitoring groups say killed hundreds of civilians over several days. The EU said that it will only support “a peaceful and inclusive transition, away from malign foreign interference, which guarantees the rights of all Syrians without distinction of any kind.” The 27-nation bloc has begun to ease energy, transport and financial sector sanctions to encourage the new authorities, but many other Western sanctions remain in place. The EU can reintroduce sanctions if things don’t go to the liking of Western backers. Syria's foreign minister said that lifting the measures is no longer just a government demand but "a humanitarian and moral necessity.” "We cannot talk about economic recovery and humanitarian development in Syria while restrictions continue to prevent even the arrival of medical equipment and spare parts to repair damaged hospitals and essential service facilities,” he said.
Syria's economy, infrastructure and institutions are in tatters. As a failed state, it could become another haven for extremists. Amy Pope, director-general of the International Organization for Migration, urged donors to seize this opportunity to encourage the interim government to move in the right direction. “It’s critical that countries take advantage of the moment we’re in,” Pope told The Associated Press.
“Of course, we all want to see an inclusive Syria,” she said. “We want to make sure there’s accountability for human rights violations. But the answer is to engage more, not to engage less.”Syrians have only a few hours of electricity each day. Water supplies are unreliable and often unsafe. Unemployment runs to 80% or 90%. Destruction is widespread. Many government employees and experts needed to rebuild fled after the 2011 peaceful anti-regime protests were violently quelled by Assad, leading to the conflict. The UN refugee agency said that last year around 7 million people were displaced in Syria. More than 4.7 million refugees are registered in neighboring countries, most in Türkiye, Lebanon and Jordan. The German government said that it would pledge around 300 million euros ($326 million) to help deal with the fallout from Syria’s civil war. More than half will be used to help people in Syria, with other funding supporting Syrians and communities elsewhere. Monday's conference was also focused on meeting Syria’s economic needs. Infrastructure, health and education must be scaled up. Jobs and cash for work programs are needed so that Syrians can start to make a living.

Children in Gaza Defy Trauma to Return to School
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
Children have returned to school in Gaza, taking classes in tents or in the rubble of schools where families sheltered during the war, but trauma, aid blockades and the threat of more fighting could derail their drive to learn. At least 14,500 children were killed in the war and thousands wounded, according to UNICEF. More than 400 teachers were also killed, the UN says, and now most of Gaza's children need mental health support for trauma, aid agencies say. Children are not necessarily just picking up from where they left off when the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, "because of all the learning loss and the deep psychological impact of the war," said Kate McLennan, Middle East regional advisor on education at rights group War Child. "There is also trauma attached to schools, which are generally understood as places of learning and safety and where you go to play with your friends (but have) been used as shelters," she said, Reuters reported. "So, there is that alternative use of a school which has a psychological impact on children."A fragile truce was declared between Hamas and Israel in January and as of March 3, more than 150,000 students had enrolled in 165 government schools, with over 7,000 teachers mobilised, the UN said, citing the Education Ministry in Gaza.
But the challenges are huge.
More than 658,000 school-aged children do not have access to formal education and almost 95% of school buildings have been damaged by Israeli strikes and fighting with 88% of them needing major reconstruction, said a report by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster, which includes UN agencies and other international aid groups. Desks and chairs have been pulverised and teaching materials destroyed while reconstruction has been delayed by aid blockades by Israel. The blockades have impeded efforts to establish more learning spaces and rebuild damaged schools, said Alun McDonald, head of media and external relations at Islamic Relief, a British-based charity. "Hundreds of large tents that were meant to be used for temporary learning spaces have been blocked from entering (Gaza), even during the ceasefire period," McDonald said. The head of the Palestinian relief agency (UNRWA) has warned there could be another hunger crisis if the blockades continue. Israel says the blockades are designed to pressure Hamas in ceasefire talks. "Children can't learn when they are being starved and bombed," McDonald said. "Getting children back into school is an urgent priority, but the challenges are absolutely massive." This month Israel stopped deliveries of food, medicine and fuel into Gaza and cut electricity supply in a bid to pressure Hamas. Aid agencies said the power cut could threaten clean water supplies. Around 32,000 students have registered to take their final high school exams, according to the UN, but there is a lack of tablets, internet access and charging stations to facilitate the process. There is also a shortage of large tents and recreational and psycho-social kits to help students learn because of restrictions on aid, including the blocking of 10 pre-approved trucks carrying basic education supplies in February, UN agencies said. But it is not just the physical damage and shortages that are holding children back. "One of the things that we know from our work in all conflict and post-conflict and development contexts is that the psychological trauma and the psychosocial support needs of children are so high that it's related to brain development as well," said McLennan. "The academic content is not going to stick if the conditions of the brain are not ready to ... deal with that," she said. A study by academics and UNRWA last year said the war could set the education of children in Gaza back by up to five years. "The lost education will affect an entire generation of children in Gaza for the rest of their lives," McDonald said.

Iran Opposition Leader Karroubi to be Freed from House Arrest, His Son Says
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi will be released from house arrest on Monday, state media reported, 14 years after he was detained for calling for a rally in support of protests that swept the Arab world in 2011. "My father was told by security agents that his house arrest will end today," his son Hossein Karroubi told state news agency IRNA, adding that security agents would remain at the premises until April 8 due to security concerns. The 87-year-old, ailing mid-level cleric has remained defiant, questioning the legitimacy of the clerical establishment in statements published by pro-reform websites. After calling for a rally in solidarity with pro-democracy uprisings, Karroubi - along with ex-prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard, a prominent academic - were put under house arrest in February 2011. They have not been put on trial or publicly charged, Reuters reported.
Former parliament speaker Karroubi and Mousavi ran for election in 2009 and became figureheads for Iranians who staged eight months of mass protests after a vote they believed was rigged to bring back hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Karroubi's son Hossein told pro-reform Jamaran news website that his father demanded the release of Mousavi. "They told my father that the same process ... would be carried out for Mousavi within the next few months and Mousavi too would be released," the Jamaran website quoted him as saying. Iran's judiciary made no comment. Karroubi, like Mousavi and Rahnavard, had been under round-the-clock surveillance by security guards initially living in his home. But conditions improved in past years for Karroubi, with some family and politicians allowed to visit him. Suffering from various medical complications, Karroubi has been taken to hospital several times for heart surgery and treatment. During his election campaign, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian promised to make an effort for their release.

Netanyahu’s Move to Fire Security Agency Chief Threatens New Crisis in Israel
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bid to dismiss a top security official has threatened to plunge Israel back into deep political crisis, with opponents on Monday organizing protests and a former court president warning against the "dangerous" move. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an "ongoing lack of trust" as the reason for moving to sack Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, following a similar bid by the government to oust the attorney general. Bar, who has been engaged in a public spat with Netanyahu in recent weeks over reforms to the agency, suggested there were political motives behind the premier's decision to ask the government to dismiss him. Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara -- the executive's top legal adviser who has often taken positions that clashed with those of Netanyahu's government -- said the move was "unprecedented" and its legality needed to be assessed. Bar said it stemmed from his own refusal to meet Netanyahu's demands for "personal loyalty". The agency led by Bar has been accused of failing to prevent the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered war in the Gaza Strip. Several opposition parties have already announced they will jointly petition the High Court against Bar's dismissal, and the attorney general said in a letter to Netanyahu that he could not initiate the process "until the factual and legal foundation of your decision is fully clarified". Baharav Miara is herself under threat of a no-confidence motion submitted by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who has spearheaded efforts to reform the judiciary and curb the court's powers -- a plan that sparked major protests before coming to an abrupt halt with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack. Levin has accused Baharav Miara, a fierce defendant of the judiciary's independence, of "inappropriate conduct" and cited "significant and prolonged disagreements between the government and the attorney general".The proceeding against the two figures promise to be lengthy, risking a repeat of the 2023 protest movement that was one of the most significant in Israel's history and had deeply fractured the country.
'Blow to national security'  The Kaplan Force, a liberal umbrella organization which led the fight against the judicial reform, on Monday announced rallies in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv this week to protest the dismissal of the Shin Bet head. The move to sack Bar, who has been involved in negotiations over the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, comes at a crucial time for the talks. The truce has largely held since January 19 despite an impasse in efforts to extend it. Since the Gaza war began, Netanyahu has dismissed his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, while several senior military officials have resigned including army chief Herzi Halevi. Benny Gantz, an opposition figure who once served as defense minister under Netanyahu, said on X that "the dismissal of the head of the Shin Bet is a direct blow to national security and a dismantling of unity within Israeli society, driven by political and personal considerations."Former Supreme Court president Dorit Beinisch told Kan public radio that Netanyahu was leading "processes that are dangerous for society"."We need to wake up, and to wake up in time," she said.
'Power-grab'
For Netanyahu's allies, the move against Bar falls within the normal rights of the head of government. "In what normal country is a special reason even needed to remove the head of an intelligence organization who is personally responsible for a massive intelligence failure that led to the greatest disaster in the history of Israel?" far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on Telegram. Nahum Barnea, columnist for the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, warned of the dangers stemming from the clash between Netanyahu and Bar. "A prime minister who has lost his brakes will rule as he sees fit, and his failed government will follow in his wake," he wrote. "It is gradually inching us closer to a form of civil war... in which there is no trust and a refusal to obey in security organizations". For Amir Tibon, writing for the left-wing daily Haaretz, "Israeli democracy is now in grave danger". "It's up to Israelis to decide if they'll accept Netanyahu's hostile power-grab -- and how far they will go to stop it".

US Piles Pressure on Yemen's Houthis with New Airstrikes
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
The United States carried out new airstrikes on Yemen on Monday, the Houthis' Al Masirah TV said, expanding the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. Responding to the Iran-aligned Houthi militias' threats to international shipping, the US launched a new wave of airstrikes on Saturday. On Monday, the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and Al-Jawf governorate north of the capital Sanaa were targeted, Al Masirah said. At least 53 people have been killed in the attacks, Anees Alsbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, said on Sunday. Five children and two women were among the victims and 98 have been hurt, Alsbahi added on X. The Houthis, which launched a coup against the legitimate government a decade ago, have launched scores of attacks on ships off its coast since November 2023, disrupting global commerce. The US campaign to intercept missiles and drones has burned through stocks of US air defenses. The strikes, which one US official told Reuters might continue for weeks, come as Washington ramps up sanctions pressure on Iran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear program. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Sunday the militants would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues attacks on Yemen. "If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation," he said in a televised speech. The Houthi political bureau described the US attacks as a "war crime." Moscow urged Washington to stop them. The Houthis' military spokesman, without providing evidence, said in a televised statement early on Monday that the militias had launched a second attack against the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea. Israel has weakened a large part of Iran's "Axis of Resistance" against US influence in the Middle East - including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas since being attacked by Hamas gunmen in October 2023. Top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have been assassinated and fall of another Iranian ally, Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in December also dealt a blow to Tehran. But the Houthis are still standing, along with pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.
US WARNING
The Houthis said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza. They had launched scores of attacks on shipping after Israel's war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza's Palestinians. Trump warned Iran, the Houthis' main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. If Iran threatened the US, he said, "America will hold you fully accountable and, we won't be nice about it!" In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis made their own decisions. "We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats," he told state media. US warplanes shot down 11 Houthi drones on Sunday, none of which came close to the Truman, a US official told Reuters. US forces also tracked a missile that splashed down off the coast of Yemen, the official said. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures": "The minute the Houthis say we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones. This campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting." He said reopening freedom of navigation was a core national interest for the US and that Iran had been "enabling the Houthis for far too long." "They better back off," he said. The Houthis suspended their campaign when Israel and Hamas agreed on a Gaza ceasefire in January. But on March 12 they said their threat to attack Israeli ships would stay in effect until Israel reapproved the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.

Experts to Asharq Al-Awsat: Trump Confronts Houthis with New Reality, Strikes Not Enough to Defeat them
London: Badr Al-Qahtani/Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
Experts said US President Donald Trump has confronted the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen with a new reality in wake of the airstrikes Washington has launched against them over the weekend. Trump launched the strikes on Saturday to deter the Houthis from attacking military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight US strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including the northern province of Saada, the Houthi stronghold. The White House announced on Sunday the killing of major Houthi leaderships in the attacks. The Houthis have yet to comment. The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally. The attacks stopped when a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January — a day before Trump took office — but last week the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month. There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then. The Houthis on Sunday claimed to have targeted the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group with missiles and a drone. Washington and the Houthis have vowed escalation. In the first official remarks by the government since the US strikes, deputy Foreign Minister Mustafa Numan said the militias believed their own delusions that they could confront the entire world. “Instead, they have brought catastrophe to our country and innocent people,” he lamented to Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that the Houthis cannot wage this “reckless” war. He recalled the concessions his government had made to end the war and move forward towards peace. The Houthis, however, dismissed all of these efforts, “stalled and rejected Saudi attempts to end the war.”“The Houthis have crossed all red lines and brazenly defied the international community by promoting attractive slogans that are in effect useless,” Numan said. Senior Fellow at the Washington Center for Yemeni Studies Sadeq Al-Wesabi criticized the Biden administration for lacking the will to understand the nature of the Houthis and how they operate. “Trump has now come along to address the Houthis the only way they know well: force,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
President of surprises
Trump took the world by surprise when the announced the launch of the attacks on Saturday. Trump, in a post on social media, promised to “use overwhelming lethal force” and ordered Iran to “immediately” cut its support. “Your time is up, and your attacks must stop, starting today. If they don’t, hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before,” he said in a statement on Truth Social, his social media site. “I have ordered the US military today to launch a decisive and powerful military operation against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen,” he said, adding that Washington “will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective”. Co-founder of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies Maged al-Madhaji said the strikes will push the Houthis towards two options, either seek calm and make a weak gesture after the attacks, or resort to major escalation in the Red Sea. In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said the US strikes marked a major shift in position towards Yemen. He noted that the strikes were preceded by Washington re-designating the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, in a sign that it wanted to inflict damage on the militias, not just contain them.
Motives and messages
The balances of power in the region have been upended since Hamas launched its deadly attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. Iran’s proxies in the region, namely Hezbollah and Hamas, have been severely weakened by Israel and Iran itself was targeted twice by Israeli attacks. Tehran is being confronted with Trump who is again applying his “maximum pressure campaign.” It is now in an unprecedented and weaker position should it return to negotiations over its nuclear program. President of Girton College at the University of Cambridge Dr. Elisabeth Kendall said the US strikes are driven by three factors: protecting international shipping, preempting any Houthi attack and intensifying the pressure on Iran. The Biden administration had frequently said that it wanted to target Houthi capabilities, not its members. But Trump is making it clear that he is targeting both, in a direct message to Iran. Kendall told Asharq Al-Awsat that the strikes may be a precursor to a direct attack on Iran. With Hamas and Hezbollah weakened and the ouster of Iran-ally Bashar al-Assad from Syria, the Houthis are Tehran’s only remaining powerful group. A weakening of the Houthis’ military capabilities will limit Iran’s retaliation options should the US and Israel carry out direct strikes against it to prevent it from pursuing its nuclear ambitions, Kendall explained. Al-Madhaji noted that the Houthis have limited options in which to respond. They can no longer rely on Hezbollah for backup. The Houthis are effectively the last remaining Iranian proxy that can spark any escalation in the region. Former Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Mark Kimmitt predicted that the Houthis will retaliate to the strikes by targeting more ships in the Red Sea. The conflict in Yemen will not end until the Houthis realize that their war has not achieved its goals and that they have run out of ammunition, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Houthi narrative
It has taken the US and western powers ten years to realize that the Houthis do not want peace, said a Yemeni source who chose to remain anonymous. In 2018, Asharq Al-Awsat reported on how the Saudi-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen had waged an unprecedented battle in the southern Red Sea to protect global shipping from the Houthis. The militias responded by sending messages to the world that they do not harbor hostile intentions, all the while the Coalition was neutralizing booby-trapped Houthi vessels and escorting vessels in the vital waterway. The coalition had repeatedly warned that the Houthis must not be allowed to acquire sophisticated weapons from Iran. The world ignored the warnings and is now grappling with the Houthi threat to international marine navigation. The West had long believed the Houthis were a local Yemeni problem and that their influence will remain confined to the country. It believed that the militias were not closely tied to Iran and that they actually wanted to take part in resolving the Yemeni conflict through political means. This was the narrative that the Houthis and Iran and its “Resistance Axis” sought to promote to the world, said a senior Yemeni official on condition of anonymity. This narrative was dashed as the Houthis escalated their attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and threatened international trade and western interests.
Will strikes succeed?
The question remains: Will the US strikes have any impact on the Houthis who have withstood western strikes before? In a post on the X platform, Hannah Porter, a senior research officer at ARK Group, said: “I don't know how many times this needs to be repeated, but if airstrikes were enough to stop the Houthis, the group would have been defeated many, many times over the past decade.”She told Asharq Al-Awsat that there was a very real chance that the Houthis – who thrive in times of war – may not be defeated by military force. The Trump administration is hoping that its attacks and terrorist designation will lead to the defeat of the Houthis, but the militias have demonstrated over the years their ability to withstand a lot of pressure, she added. She expected that the Houthis will almost certainly respond to the strikes with escalation, either by attacking ships or American interests or the interests of its allies.
Al-Wesabi stressed that the current US strikes are more intense and accurate than the limited ones launched by the Biden administration. Their success, however, hinges on whether they take out the top Houthi leaders which would be a blow to the militants’ morale and pave the way for the legitimate government forces, which are on alert, to act. Failure to take out these leaders will only prolong the conflict, he warned.

Canada's PM Carney in Europe to Work with 'Reliable Allies'
Asharq AlAwsat/March 17/2025
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said that it was important for Canada to strengthen ties with "reliable allies" in Europe, as he met French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday for his first overseas visit amid tensions with the United States. Carney's decision to visit Paris instead of Washington, as is usual for Canadian leaders, comes after US President Donald Trump escalated trade tensions with both Canada and Europe, and floated threats of annexing Canada. "(It) is more important than ever for Canada to strengthen its ties with reliable allies like France," Carney said, ahead of a working lunch with Macron at the Elysee Palace, noting that Canada was "the most European of non-European countries."Carney visits London later on Monday, Reuters reported. In a veiled reference to Trump, Macron said Canada was a good example of a country that defends its national interests while being collaborative on the global scene. "I think we both believe that fair trade that respects international rules is good for everyone's prosperity, and is certainly more effective than tariffs," Macron said. As the two men were leaving, a Canadian reporter in the room asked whether they wanted to tell Trump to "back off", but neither Carney nor Macron took questions from media. Trump has shocked Western allies by imposing tariffs on their imports, questioning traditional alliances, and even floating threats of annexation for Canada or the Danish territory of Greenland since he came to office in January. It is unclear how long Trump's tariffs will last, or what is driving his aspirations for Canada to become the 51st US state.

Carney meets with King Charles on first international trip as prime minister
CBC/Mon, March 17, 2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney landed in England on Monday where he had a private audience with King Charles. Carney was presented to the King inside Buckingham Palace, and explained to Canada's monarch that he did not have his Order of Canada pin because it fell off and broke on the tarmac upon his arrival. Charles jokingly offered Carney his pin, but the prime minister refused, saying he is "not of that rank." This is Carney's first official foreign trip since he was sworn in on March 14, which includes visits to France and the U.K. He will meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London before stopping in Iqaluit on his way back to Ottawa. The trip to London is a bit of a homecoming, as Carney became the first non-British governor in the Bank of England's 319-year history when he took over the top job on July 1, 2013. He served until March 15, 2020. Carney began the day in Paris with a visit to the rebuilt Notre-Dame Cathedral before sitting down for a private lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palais de l'Élysée. "It is more important than ever for Canada to strengthen its ties with its reliable allies, such as France," Carney said in French before lunch with Macron. Describing Canada as the "most European of non-European countries," Carney told Macron he is "determined, like you, to maintain the most positive possible relations with the United States. "We must strengthen our diplomatic ties to address a world that is increasingly unstable and dangerous," he said. "Canada is a reliable, trustworthy and strong partner of France, which shares our values and lives them through action, during this age of economic and geopolitical crisis."Macron said the diplomatic relationship with Canada supports the values both countries hold dear, such as the "development for fair trade and protection of the planet" and the defence of democracy. "We are receiving you and welcoming you as a friend with great joy and forming of a lot of ambition and many projects together," he said. Since U.S. President Donald Trump came back into office, he has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods including steel and aluminum and made numerous remarks about his desire to turn Canada into the 51st state. He is threatening to impose tariffs on all Canadian products on April 2. Macron did not mention Trump by name but he did condemn the imposition of tariffs on U.S. allies. "We believe that fair trade that respects international rules is a good thing for everyone's prosperity," Macron said. "It's far more effective than tariffs that simply create inflation and destroy the integration of our economies and our supply chains."

Trump administration says South African ambassador has to leave the US by Friday
Matthew Lee/WASHINGTON (AP)/Mon, March 17, 2025
— The State Department says South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, who was declared “persona non grata” last week, has until Friday to leave the country. After Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was no longer welcome in the U.S. and posted his decision Friday on social media, South African embassy staff were summoned to the State Department and given a formal diplomatic note explaining the decision, the department said. “We made the embassy aware that Ambassador Rasool has been found unacceptable by the United States to be a representative of his country,” the State Department said. It said Rasool’s diplomatic privileges and immunities expired Monday and that he would be required to leave the United States by Friday. South African Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said in a television interview on Monday that Rasool was still in the U.S. but would be leaving as soon as possible. Rubio announced his decision in a post on X as he was flying back to the United States from a Group of 7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada. In it, he accused Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates President Donald Trump.
His post linked to a story by the conservative Breitbart news site about a talk Rasool gave earlier Friday in Johannesburg as part of a South African think tank’s webinar. Rasool, speaking by videoconference, talked about actions taken by the Trump administration in the context of a United States where white people soon would no longer be in the majority. It is highly unusual for the U.S. to expel a foreign ambassador, although lower-ranking diplomats are more frequently targeted with persona non grata status. Rubio's decision was the latest Trump administration move targeting South Africa. Trump signed an executive order last month halting funding to the country. It criticized the Black-led South African government on multiple fronts, saying it is pursuing anti-white policies at home and supporting “bad actors” in the world like the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters on Monday that Rasool would give him a report when he returned home. Ramaphosa said his government has “noted the displeasure that has been expressed by the United States,” and particularly about Rasool's remarks, but stressed that he believed South Africa was in the process of rebuilding its relationship with the U.S. “This is a hiccup, a hiccup we are working on straightening out," he said. “We will engage with the United States of America in a formal way," Ramaphosa said. "We will do so with deep respect for them and for President Trump as well. Our relationship with the United States is going to be put on an even keel, so I would like the people of South Africa not to have sleepless nights.”The Foreign Ministry spokesman, however, said South Africa intended to raise questions with the U.S. over Rubio seemingly announcing on social media that Rasool was no longer welcome in the U.S. before informing him of the decision.. Phiri said South Africa believed such matters should first be discussed through diplomatic channels. “But this is the reality that we also have to contend with with this administration. That it does seem as though Twitter (X) is the preferred mode of communication,” the spokesman said in an interview on the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation.

UN tells Afghan rulers: no peace and prosperity until they reverse bans on women and girls
Edith M. Lederer/The Associated Press/March 17, 2025
The U.N. Security Council told Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers Monday that peace and prosperity are “unattainable” until they reverse their bans on women and girls getting an education, being employed and speaking in public. The U.N.’s most powerful body also condemned ongoing terrorist activity in Afghanistan “in the strongest terms” and called for strengthened efforts to address the country’s dire economic and humanitarian situation. The council resolution, adopted unanimously by its 15 members, extended the U.N.’s political mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA, until March 17, 2026.
The Taliban seized power in 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew following two decades of war. No country officially recognizes them as Afghanistan’s government because of their crackdown on women. Not only are women barred from working, from many public spaces, and being educated beyond the sixth grade, but they must be fully veiled and their voices cannot be heard in public. The Security Council called for the Taliban “to swiftly reverse these policies and practices.”U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva, the head of UNAMA, told the Security Council last week that it’s up to the Taliban to indicate whether they want Afghanistan to be reintegrated into the international system — “and, if so, whether they are willing to take the necessary steps.”The Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, posted a statement on his official X account this month saying the dignity, honor and legal rights of women were a priority for the country, in accordance with Islamic law and Afghan culture and traditions. Islamic countries and religious scholars have said that denying women education and work is not part of Islamic law. Otunbayeva said Afghans “increasingly resent the intrusions on their private lives” by Taliban officials and fear the country’s further isolation from the rest of the world. “They have indeed welcomed an absence of conflict, and greater stability and freedom of movement, at least for the male population,” she said. “But this is not a peace in which they can live in dignity with their human rights respected and with confidence in a stable future.”More than half of Afghanistan’s population — some 23 million people — need humanitarian assistance, a humanitarian crisis caused by decades of conflict, entrenched poverty, climate shocks and large population growth, Otunbayeva said. She said a downturn in funding is having a significant impact. In the past month, the U.N. envoy said, more than 200 health facilities have been forced to close, affecting some 1.8 million people, including malnourished children. On another major issue, the Security Council called on the Taliban to strengthen efforts to combat terrorism, condemning all terrorist activity in Afghanistan and demanding that the country not be used to threaten or attack any other country.Relations between Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have become strained since the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is allied with the Afghan Taliban, have increased attacks on security forces in Pakistan. At the same time, militants from the Afghan chapter of the Islamic State group, which opposes the Taliban, have carried out bombings across Afghanistan.

US Vows ‘Unrelenting’ Strikes on Houthis Over Ship Attacks
Iain Marlow/Bloomberg/March 17, 2025
US military strikes on the Yemen-based Houthi militants will be “unrelenting” until the group stops shooting at civilian and military vessels in the Red Sea, the Pentagon chief said. “This campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence,” Pete Hegseth said in an interview on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, speaking a day after the first strikes on the Houthis since President Donald Trump returned to power. “The minute the Houthis say, ‘We’ll stop shooting at your ships, we’ll stop shooting at your drones,’ this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting.”
Oil prices rose slightly in early trading on Monday, partly because of the strikes, with Brent crude up 0.7% to just over $71 a barrel. “Although the US has been striking at Houthi target for over a year, the scope and scale of this new campaign, including the targeting of senior Houthi figures, marks a significant escalation in the conflict,” Eurasia analysts Firas Maksad and Gregory Brew said in a note to clients. On Saturday, Trump said he ordered “decisive and powerful” action against the Iran-backed Houthis. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said they had “choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt.”The Houthi health ministry said 53 people, including five children and two women, were killed and 98 injured in strikes on the capital, Sana’a, and other provinces, according to Saba. On Sunday, the Yemeni Armed Forces said it retaliated by launching missile and drone attacks against the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier twice in 24 hours. The statement couldn’t be immediately verified.
Trump said attacks on American vessels “will not be tolerated.”
The Yemeni statement followed a promise by the Houthis’ ruling political council to counter US “aggression,” saying its operations would continue until Israel ended a ban on aid entering Gaza. Israel stopped aid supplies entering the Palestinian territory around a week ago, saying the move was necessary to pressure Hamas and get it to release more hostages. The Houthis began their maritime attacks in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in late 2023, ostensibly in support of the Palestinians after the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza. The attacks rattled shipping markets and pushed up freight rates for vessels traveling between Asia and Europe. Hamas is also backed by Iran and, like the Houthis, designated a terrorist organization by the US. Hegseth said the latest US strikes were also a warning to Iran. “Iran has been enabling the Houthis for far too long. They better back off,” he said. White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said the attacks over the weekend were successful. “We hit the Houthi leadership, killing several of their key leaders last night — their infrastructure, the missiles,” Waltz said to Fox News on Sunday. “We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough.”Speaking in a separate appearance on ABC, Waltz said Iranian targets in and around Yemen — including ships near the coast that provide intelligence and trainers — “will be on the table, too.”
Regional Escalation
The Eurasia analysts said it was possible the Houthis would opt to target oil-rich Gulf countries again in response to the US attacks. Until a truce in Yemen’s civil war in 2022, the Houthis were regularly firing missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, the United Arab Emirates. Those helped push up crude prices. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Houthis had attacked US naval vessels in the area 174 times over the last 18 months, in addition to disrupting global shipping. Asked if there were any plans for US ground operations in Yemen, Rubio said that looked unlikely. “Those are military decisions to be made, but I’ve heard no talk of ground raids,” Rubio said to CBS. “I don’t think there’s a necessity for it right now.”The US, UK and Israel have regularly struck Houthi targets in Yemen, including radar stations and fuel- and missile-storage sites, over the past year. While those have weakened the group and the intensity of its attacks have slowed, it’s still able to carry out assaults. The Houthis have repeatedly said their missile and drone strikes in the Red Sea area, and directly against Israel, will stop once the war in Gaza is over. Hamas, which triggered the conflict by attacking Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel began a ceasefire in mid-January. That truce officially ended early this month, without an agreement on how it should be extended and leaving the conflict in limbo, with Hamas still holding hostages. While Israel hasn’t restarted a full-on conflict with Hamas, it says it could be forced to do so if the group doesn’t lay down its arm and release all the remaining captives.

Houthis claim second attack on US ships in retaliation for strikes
Agence France Presse/March 17, 2025
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility on Monday for a second attack on an American aircraft carrier group in 24 hours, calling it retaliation for U.S. strikes. A spokesperson for the group said "for the second time in 24 hours" Houthi fighters launched missiles and drones at the USS Harry S. Truman and several of its warships in the northern Red Sea.

Navy warship once used to fight the Houthis is now heading to the U.S. southern border
Michelle Del Rey/The Independent/March 17, 2025
A Navy warship that had been used to fight Houthi rebels in the Middle East is being deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border to provide added security. The USS Gravely, which was used in combat in the Middle East last year, will now be heading to the Mexico border, Defense Department officials announced over the weekend, the same day the vessel departed the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown in Virginia. The department said the ship will contribute to military efforts in response to President Donald Trump’s immigration executive orders to “restore integrity at the U.S. southern border,” the statement read. “Gravely reinforces the nation’s commitment to border security by enhancing maritime efforts and supporting interagency collaboration.”The effort is part of an interagency response to combating maritime-related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction and illegal seaborne immigration. “Gravely’s sea-going capacity improves our ability to protect the United States’ territorial integrity, sovereignty, and security,” said General Gregory Guillot, Commander, U.S. Northern Command. Deploying the vessel is unusual because the waters in the area - which Trump has renamed the Gulf of America from the Gulf of Mexico - are usually protected by the U.S. Coast Guard. A U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment will be placed on the ship, signaling that it could be utilized against migrants found in the ocean. The U.S. Coast Guard is the country’s primary maritime law enforcement agency.
The Independent has contacted the Pentagon for additional information. Officials did not release additional details about the vessel’s potential missions. The USS Gravely is a missile destroyer. It was named after Vice Admiral Samuel Gravely Jr., the first Black man to become an admiral and commander of a warship and fleet. He served from 1944 until his retirement in 1980. The vessel spans 510 feet in length and was first deployed in 1991.More than 320 crew members operate the ship and its weapons, including missiles, torpedoes and guns. There are also helicopters on board the ship equipped with torpedoes and missiles. The ship had previously been used in a nine-month deployment and played a pivotal role in providing air defense for a strike group conducting missions against Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and escorting shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, officials said in July.

Pentagon deploys Navy destroyer for border protection
Elizabeth Crisp/The Hill/March 17, 2025
A Navy warship is joining the effort to secure the U.S. southern border — an unusual move announced by the Pentagon over the weekend. The USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer most recently deployed to the Middle East, departed Virginia on Saturday on its new mission to operate in U.S. and international waters, according to the Pentagon. A specialized Coast Guard maritime policing team, known as a Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET), will be aboard the ship. “Gravely’s sea-going capacity improves our ability to protect the United States’ territorial integrity, sovereignty and security,” Northern Command leader Gen. Gregory Guillot said in a statement.President Trump declared a national emergency on the border and signed multiple executive orders shortly after taking office in January to bolster security efforts there. “As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do,” Trump said in his inaugural address. Thousands of active-duty troops have been deployed, but the use of a guided missile-destroying ship is new. Adm. Daryl Caudle of the Naval Forces Northern Command said the deployment “marks a vital enhancement to our nation’s border security framework.” “In collaboration with our interagency partners, Gravely strengthens our maritime presence and exemplifies the Navy’s commitment to national security and safeguarding our territorial integrity with professionalism and resolve,” he said in a statement. The 509-foot Gravely is larger than the Coast Guard’s vessels and is equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles. It returned to the U.S. in July after a nine-month deployment defending against Houthi attacks on shipping activity in the Red Sea. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth traveled with White House border czar Tom Homan in early February to Texas to survey the border and stress the military’s role in combating illegal immigration. “Any assets necessary at the Defense Department to support the expulsion and detention of those in the country illegally are on the table,” he told reporters during the trip.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on March 17-18/2025
Do Not Count on the Arabs to Rebuild Gaza or Help Palestinians
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/March 17, 2025
The truth, however, is that most of the Arab countries have always refused to receive Palestinians. Most Arabs view the Palestinians as ungrateful.
Qatar has funded every Islamist extremist group from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Taliban to Al Qaeda, both with donations and through its broadcasting empire Al Jazeera. Qatar was the only Arab country that provided direct financial aid to the Hamas-rulers of the Gaza Strip over the past two decades. The Qataris did not do so out of love for the Palestinians, but to ensure that Hamas remains in power, in order to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. October 7, 2023 was the result. Now Qatar is negotiating to preserve its client, Hamas.
The Arab plan, notably, also does not call on Hamas to lay down its weapons. Do the Arab leaders really believe that Western donors would rush to invest tens of billions of dollars in the Gaza Strip while terrorists belonging to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups continue to roam the streets?
The latest Arab plan does not even include a commitment from the Arab regimes to contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Instead, it states that the sources of funding would come from the United Nations, international financial institutions, and donor countries, as well as foreign direct investments and private sector contributions.
For Hamas, holding onto its weapons is far more important than rebuilding the Gaza Strip.
For the Arab countries, the new plan just another attempt to avoid responsibility towards their Palestinian brothers and shift the blame onto Israel.
"The reality is that the Arab emergency summit was also about demonizing Israel and throwing the Gaza hot potato into its court. A closer look at the summit's final statement reveals its true purpose: attacking Israel rather than addressing Gaza's future... Until Hamas is removed, every so-called 'peace plan' will be nothing more than another chapter in an endless cycle of destruction." — Dalia Ziada, Egyptian political analyst, March 12, 2025.
The latest Arab plan does not even include a commitment from the Arab regimes to contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. The plan, notably, also does not call on Hamas to lay down its weapons. Do the Arab leaders really believe that Western donors would rush to invest tens of billions of dollars in the Gaza Strip while terrorists belonging to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups continue to roam the streets?
The Arab countries have finally come up with a plan for the Gaza Strip that aims to address the humanitarian crisis, restore essential services and rebuild. The $53 billion plan, announced in early March after an extraordinary meeting of the Arab League in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, did not come out of a genuine desire to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but as a counterproposal to US President Donald Trump's vision of relocating the residents of Gaza and turning it into the Rivera of the Middle East.
If the Arab leaders really wanted to assist the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, they would have held a meeting immediately after the Hamas-Israel war, which erupted on October 7, 2023, when the Iran-backed Islamist group and thousands of ordinary Palestinians invaded Israel, slaughtering 1,200 Israelis and wounding thousands. Another 251 Israelis were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip, where 59 – alive and dead – are still being held as hostages.
It took the leaders of Arab states 18 months to hold a summit to discuss a plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. The only reason they met was because of Trump's plan, according to which Egypt, Jordan and other Arab countries would absorb Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The Arab leaders have rejected the idea of receiving Palestinians in their countries on the clear pretext that such a move would be seen as helping in their permanent displacement.
The truth, however, is that most of the Arab countries have always refused to receive Palestinians. Most Arabs view the Palestinians as ungrateful. The turning point in Arab-Palestinian relations occurred in 1990, when Palestinians supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait – a country that had provided residency and employment to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. When Kuwait was liberated a year later by the US-led coalition, the Kuwaitis and other Gulf states responded by deporting most of them.
Since then, the Palestinians have been almost entirely dependent on financial aid from the US and the European Union. All they have seen from their Arab brothers, apart from Qatar, are empty promises of financial aid and rhetorical support.
Qatar has funded every Islamist extremist group from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Taliban to Al Qaeda, both with donations and through its broadcasting empire Al Jazeera. Qatar was the only Arab country that provided direct financial aid to the Hamas-rulers of the Gaza Strip over the past two decades. The Qataris did not do so out of love for the Palestinians, but to ensure that Hamas remains in power, in order to eliminate Israel and replace it with an Islamic state. October 7, 2023 was the result. Now Qatar is negotiating to preserve its client, Hamas.
The latest Arab plan does not even include a commitment from the Arab regimes to contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Instead, it states that the sources of funding would come from the United Nations, international financial institutions, and donor countries, as well as foreign direct investments and private sector contributions.
The Arab plan, notably, also does not call on Hamas to lay down its weapons. Do the Arab leaders really believe that Western donors would rush to invest tens of billions of dollars in the Gaza Strip while terrorists belonging to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups continue to roam the streets? Allowing Hamas to maintain its military capabilities means that it is only a matter of time before the terrorist group launches more massacres against Israelis, as its own leaders have vowed.
MEMRI reported on November 1, 2023:
"Ghazi Hamad of the Hamas political bureau said in an October 24, 2023 show on LBC TV (Lebanon) that Hamas is prepared to repeat the October 7 'Al-Aqsa Flood' Operation [October 7 attack,] time and again until Israel is annihilated."
Hamad stated:
"Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country... The Al-Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth... "
Hussein Abdul Hussein, a research fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote on March 4, 2024:
"The Arab plan for Gaza is dead on arrival. It does not demand the disarmament of Hamas, the biggest hurdle to any post-war plan, and puts disarmament of Palestinian terrorist groups after the sought-after creation of a Palestinian state — which is contrary to how the two-state solution was conceived decades ago."
The Arab plan also invites the Palestinian Authority (PA) to return to the Gaza Strip to govern it instead of Hamas. The Arab leaders seem to have forgotten that between 1994 and 2007, the PA had already governed the Gaza Strip, before they were violently overthrown by Hamas. When they were in control of Gaza, PA security forces did nothing to crack down on Hamas or prevent it from manufacturing and smuggling weapons. The assumption that the PA would be able to rein in the terrorists without the prior disarmament of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other armed groups, is false.
Hamas, in the meantime, has repeatedly emphasized that it has no intention of laying down its weapons. Recently, Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri warned that disarming is out of the question for his group and other Palestinian terrorist factions. "Any talk about the resistance's weapons is nonsense," he said. "The resistance's weapons are a red line for Hamas and all resistance factions."
For Hamas, holding onto its weapons is far more important than rebuilding the Gaza Strip.
For the Arab countries, the new plan just another attempt to avoid responsibility towards their Palestinian brothers and shift the blame onto Israel.
The Arab leaders did not even bother to condemn Hamas's October 7 massacre of Israelis or hold the terrorist group fully responsible for initiating a war that has brought death and destruction on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Arab leaders, as pointed out by Dalia Ziada, an Egyptian political analyst, chose to vilify Israel rather than develop a practical roadmap for Gaza's future:
"The Arab League's emergency summit on Gaza on March 4, 2025, was never about the future of Gaza, but about the Arabs' Gaza dilemma and the interplay between Arabs, the United States, and Europe. The emergency summit, organized by Egypt in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza-Riviera statements, was a carefully staged political maneuver designed to whitewash the hands of Arab leaders from their responsibility to shelter Gazans and gaslight the international community into believing that a viable solution is possible for the chronic Gaza crisis, which is the most aching core of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, without addressing the crux of the problem – Hamas....
"The reality is that the Arab emergency summit was also about demonizing Israel and throwing the Gaza hot potato into its court. A closer look at the summit's final statement reveals its true purpose: attacking Israel rather than addressing Gaza's future. For example, Article 18 of the summit's Cairo Declaration proposes forming a legal committee to classify Israel's military actions, and the U.S. calls for 'displacement of Gazans' as acts of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
"Playing the 'genocide' card once again was a cynical attempt by Arabs to weaponize international law against Israel and, this time, against the United States too. They purposefully ignored the fact that Hamas deliberately embedded its military infrastructure within civilian areas and purposefully used the people of Gaza as human shields....
This focus on vilifying Israel rather than developing a practical roadmap for Gaza's future is precisely why the Arab League summit failed. Rather than offering real solutions, Arab leaders reverted to their old strategy of using Gaza as a diplomatic tool against Israel and the West. This approach does nothing to help the Palestinian people and only ensures that the conflict continues indefinitely....
"Until Hamas is removed, every so-called 'peace plan' will be nothing more than another chapter in an endless cycle of destruction."
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
**Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

The overlooked threat: America’s northern border
Kristin Tate, opinion contributor/The Hill/March 17, 2025
Illegal crossings at our nation’s southern border have nearly come to a halt since President Trump was sworn in for his second term. But while attention and resources are spent securing the U.S.-Mexico border, our northern border with Canada remains largely overlooked. Human smugglers are already taking extreme advantage of this.
The vast span of undefended land could easily become the next hotspot for illegal immigration into the U.S. The Trump administration must devise and implement a plan now to secure the U.S.-Canada border.
Border patrol agents encountered about 8,000 illegal immigrants crossing the southern border in February, which was the lowest figure in at least 25 years. For reference, during the Biden administration, border agents would often encounter more than 8,000 illegal immigrants in a single day. But as illegal crossings plummet at the southern border, they may be poised to skyrocket at the northern border.
The U.S.-Canada frontier is the largest land border in the world. Much of this border is remote, and unguarded, and the sectors in the east are a relatively short drive from several major airports in Canada. Those looking to travel to the U.S. illegally and human smugglers appear to have caught on.
Last year in Canada’s Swanton Sector — an enormous 24,000 square mile terrain that incorporates the borders of eastern New York and the entirety of Vermont and New Hampshire — 19,000 illegal crossers were apprehended by U.S. border agents, more than the last 17 years combined. For reference, in 2021, agents only apprehended 365 illegal crossers in the sector. Border officials, who seized nearly 50 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border in 2024, warn that some smugglers carry dangerous weapons. At the same time, human smuggling runs rampant. In New York’s Northern District federal courts, 55 percent of cases over the last two years were immigration-related. This includes 1,300 active immigrant smuggling cases.
People flew to Canada from 85 countries last year — including from Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq and Syria — then made the drive south to enter the U.S. illegally in the Swanton Sector. That same year, 358 known or suspected terrorists were caught trying to enter the U.S. from Canada. And far from the media’s conjured images of women and children, many of crossers at the northern border are men. In Maine, which has also seen a significant increase of illegal crossers at its more than 600-mile border with Canada, more than 97 percent of illegal crossers encountered in 2024 were single adult males.
For human smugglers, business has been booming. Many Canadian “coyotes” brazenly use TikTok to advertise their smuggling services for as much as $5,000. The posts typically urge would-be migrants to send them a direct message for more details. Most of the smugglers leave from Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver on the West Coast. To the Swanton Sector New York border, the trip includes a mere two-hour car ride and 25-minute walk through the woods.
Some of the smugglers’ TikTok accounts even include customer reviews, as though smuggling were a legitimate business. And as quickly as the border-crossing accounts are removed from the social media platform, new ones pop up.
The explosion of illegal drug and human smuggling along the northern border is already wreaking havoc on communities. Some residents in rural New England who live near the border recount experiences similar, albeit on a smaller scale, to those living on the Texas-Mexico border. Some described illegal migrants from Canada trespassing in their backyards “at all hours of the day” last year. Residents find trash, clothing and tire ruts all over their property. Border patrol told locals not to interfere because the smugglers or migrants may have weapons.
Meanwhile, some impacts of the crisis are being felt far from the border. Americans continue to die at records numbers from fentanyl overdoses as drugs pour in from the north. And increased illegal immigration puts a strain on hospitals, schools and housing markets in America’s northern cities.
There are several reasons for the surge at the northern border. In 2019, Canada waived visa requirements for many countries, including Mexico. The change made it easier for people from around the world to get into the U.S. illegally via Canada, but it still doesn’t fully explain the uptick. In February 2024, Canada reinstated some of its visa requirements and the illegal crossings continued to escalate anyway.
Perhaps the most significant reason for the increase is simply that potential illegal migrants around the world increasingly realize that if they can fly into Canada, the trip to the U.S. is shorter and easier than it would be over the southern border. Rather than walk for days through blazing heat, and finding a (likely treacherous) way to cross the Rio Grande, migrants crossing the northern border can simply book a comfy flight to the Montreal-Trudeau International Airport then take a short drive south into the U.S. Plus, there are significantly fewer agents working the northern sectors, so the chances of getting caught are lower. Since Trump’s inauguration, brutal winter temperatures have swept the northern U.S., especially near the East Coast. The frigid weather has likely suppressed northern illegal crossing numbers for now. But spring is around the corner, and with warm weather on its way the Trump administration must immediately roll out a robust plan to prevent the catastrophe at the southern border from being recreated to the north.The security of our country, and the success of Trump’s second term, may depend on it.
**Kristin Tate is a political writer based in Boston and the author of three books, the most recent of which is titled “The Liberal Invasion of Red State America.” She is an on-air contributor for Sky News and a columnist for The Boston Herald.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

‘On the Tightrope’: Britain Tries to Bridge a Widening Trans-Atlantic Gap
The New York Times/March 17/2025
Five years after it left the European Union, Britain may have finally found a new role on the global stage — a gig that looks curiously like its old one. In the frantic few weeks since President Trump upended the trans-Atlantic alliance with his overtures to Russia and rift with Ukraine, Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has tried to act as a bridge between Europe and the United States. Mr. Starmer and his top aides counseled President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in phone calls and face-to-face meetings about how to mend fences with Mr. Trump after their rancorous White House meeting. The prime minister has energetically lobbied the American president for security guarantees to deter President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia from future aggression. In his high-wire diplomacy, Mr. Starmer is reviving a role Britain routinely played before Brexit. He bears comparison to Tony Blair, a previous Labour prime minister, who tried to mediate between President George W. Bush and European leaders in the fraught lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003. Mr. Blair’s bridge-building didn’t end well, of course: France and Germany refused to join Mr. Bush’s “coalition of the willing” against Iraq, and Britain’s lock-step alignment with the United States frayed its relations with its European neighbors.Now, as Mr. Starmer puts together a new “coalition of the willing” to protect Ukraine, he faces a similarly tricky balancing act. He is sticking close to the United States while trying to marshal a European military deterrent formidable enough to persuade Mr. Trump to provide American air cover and intelligence support to peacekeeping troops.
On Saturday, Mr. Starmer is convening a virtual summit meeting of as many as 25 leaders, from Europe, NATO, Canada, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand, to muster support for his coalition, which Britain is cosponsoring with France. He is expected to announce additional countries that will supply troops or logistical support to the coalition, which is designed to be a shield against Russia after a peace settlement with Ukraine. After talking to the leaders by videoconference, Mr. Starmer is likely to continue his lobbying campaign with Mr. Trump for security guarantees — an effort that he shares with President Emmanuel Macron of France. Whether Mr. Starmer and Mr. Macron will succeed is anybody’s guess, given that Mr. Trump has veered between bitter denouncements of Ukraine and threats to impose sanctions on a recalcitrant Russia. Mr. Putin reacted warily to an offer of a 30-day truce made by Ukraine and the United States this week, while rejecting all talk of a European peacekeeping force. “Of course there’s a risk,” said Peter Ricketts, a British diplomat who served as national security adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron. “But I think Starmer sees a greater risk of an avoidable catastrophe.”
Mr. Blair, he said, failed as a bridge because the divisions between European nations over Iraq were insurmountable. Mr. Starmer’s challenge is an erratic American president, who seems determined to reset relations with Russia and is openly hostile toward the European Union. “Starmer’s going to do his very best not to have to choose between Europe and the US,” Mr. Ricketts said. Dealing with Mr. Trump, he added, “makes him vulnerable to sudden lurches, but so far, he’s managed to stay on the tightrope.”Mr. Starmer, he said, has been helped by his seasoned and widely respected national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, who traveled to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to help lay the groundwork for Mr. Zelensky’s rapprochement with the White House, and to Washington this week to consult with Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz. A onetime chief of staff to Mr. Blair, Mr. Powell served as Britain’s chief negotiator for the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. He was also on hand for Mr. Blair’s fruitless effort to bring France and Germany along in the military campaign against Iraq.
Even before the crisis over Ukraine erupted, Mr. Starmer’s government was seeking closer ties with the continent, not just on defense and security but also on trade and economic policy.

Iran, the ‘Painful Scenes’ and Decisive Moment
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper/March 17, 2025
The veteran politician said the latest American strikes against Houthi positions may be the last from the Donald Trump administration to Iran before the decisive moment arrives for its nuclear program. He said the region may be headed towards a major crisis should the Iranian supreme leader fail in taking a big and painful decision that would “dismantle the nuclear program and abandon the regional proxies, especially after the blows they were dealt.”Trump’s message to the Iranian leadership reminded me of what took place in the early 2000s between the US and Libya. At the time, Moammar al-Gaddafi requested that Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham convince his friend, Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika to intervene with George W. Bush to improve relations between Washington and Tripoli. Bouteflika agreed and came back to Shalgham with the following message: “You either remove the weapons of mass destruction or he (Bush) will destroy everything without discussion.” Shalgham relayed the message to Gaddafi, who told him: “You are afraid and a coward.”
After considering his options, Gaddafi ultimately went with the one that would save his regime instead of kick off a confrontation with America. Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi contacted British intelligence with a message: “I am Seif al-Islam, Moammar al-Gaddafi's son. I want to talk to you about the weapons of mass destruction.” When a meeting was set up, he said he wanted an improvement in relations in return for cooperating. After that, Libya dismantled its centrifuges and handed them over to the Americans. Libya also severed ties with organizations and parties that were viewed as its proxies. Iran is nothing like Libya, not in its regime or the way it takes decisions. It is a major regional power that boasts human, military and economic means. But it is approaching the moment of truth now that Trump has returned to the White House. It has for decades avoided sliding into a direct confrontation with the American military machine, preferring instead to undermine American influence in the region by mobilizing its proxies. But what if it finds itself in the same situation faced by Libya: Having to choose between the safety of its regime or waging a confrontation with a foregone conclusion? Politicians and analysts say that Iran is now facing the most difficult challenge since the victory of Khomeini’s revolution or at least since the end of the long war with Saddam Hussein’s regime. Ever since his return to the White House, Trump has been taking decisions that impact the whole world. He is running the world through tweets and short posts. He is breaking rules that were previously viewed as unbreakable, from launching trade wars, imposing tariffs and sanctions, and threatening to change maps and balances of power.
The veteran politician spoke of painful images that Iran must pause at. Hamas launched its Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, and the residents of Gaza paid unimaginable sacrifices, but the enclave is completely destroyed and the issue of Hamas’ weapons is on the table. If the disarmament of Hamas is not possible at the moment, then the international community will demand its removal from the military conflict with Israel for several years to ensure that the Gaza reconstruction start on the right path. It is evident that Hamas has agreed to a reduced role in Gaza after the hostage and prisoner exchange phase is complete.
The politician noted that Iran has been generous in supporting Hamas, but it is incapable of saving it. He also noted that Hezbollah launched its “support front”, but could not change the course of the war in Gaza and lost its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah – a loss that it is seemingly incapable of replacing. Moreover, the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons is on the table, not just at the international community’s demand, but the majority of the Lebanese people. Iran could not save Hezbollah and its military presence in Syria. It could not prevent the collapse of the regime of its ally Bashar al-Assad and Russia did not volunteer to even help. The politician then highlighted two “painful images” facing Tehran. The first is its inability to continue to trade direct blows with Israel. The war on Gaza and Lebanon demonstrated Israel’s military and technological superiority. It can run rampart across the skies of countries near and far. The second is the vow by the man, who ordered the killing of Qassem Soleimani, to use all means necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring an insurance policy for its regime: a nuclear bomb.
The politician noticed that a new balance of power has emerged in the region and that Iran appears incapable of changing developments in its favor, not in Syria, Lebanon or Gaza. He noted that Iran’s diminished role in Syria was coupled by Türkiye's rising influence there, which only makes things more complicated for Tehran.
Trump has also reimposed his “maximum pressure” policy on Iran. The outcomes of wars in the region all favor this policy. The latest American raids against the Houthis are like a demand on Iran to quickly reach realistic conclusions from the painful scenes it is witnessing.
Soleimani had at one point drawn up his country’s line of defense in the region. He was able to breach Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The uprooting of the Syrian link from the “Resistance Axis” has severed the line of defense.
Developments are unfolding rapidly in the region. New balances of power and roles are emerging. America’s Trump is playing a decisive role in the region. Russia is focused on reaping a greater reward in Ukraine. The supreme leader is confronted with a difficult choice to receive a certificate of good behavior when it comes to its nuclear file and refraining from rebuilding its “Resistance Axis” and mobilizing its proxies. The decisive moment is approaching.

Emerging economies must get rich before they get old
Anu Madgavkar and Marc Canal Noguer/Arab News/March 17, 2025
The effects of falling birth rates and rising life expectancy are increasingly evident in advanced economies like Germany, Italy and Japan. Labor markets are tightening, worker shortages are worsening and families are struggling to find care for aging parents. In some areas, declining student numbers are forcing schools to shut down. South Korea offers a stark example. In 2023, as the country’s total fertility rate plummeted to just 0.7 children per woman of childbearing age over a lifetime, sales of dog strollers surpassed those of baby strollers.
But population aging is not limited to advanced economies. Within a generation or two, many emerging economies will likely face the same demographic problems plaguing their developed country counterparts — without the financial resources needed to cushion the blow.
In a new McKinsey Global Institute report, these demographic shifts are divided into three distinct waves. The first wave has already swept advanced economies, as well as Eastern Europe and China, where working-age populations peaked around 2010, followed by steady declines. As a result, per capita gross domestic product growth in those economies is projected to slow by 0.4 percentage points annually on average, or as much as 0.8 percentage points in some countries, by 2050. While about 30 percent of labor income is currently used to fund pensioners’ consumption, this figure could increase to close to 50 percent by mid-century.
The second demographic wave will hit emerging economies over the next decade, as working-age populations peak everywhere except sub-Saharan Africa, where it is projected to peak when the third wave arrives in the second half of the century. These economies have a narrowing window of opportunity before their demographic dividend diminishes and the financial burden of supporting an aging population rises sharply.
In nearly half of the 89 emerging economies outside sub-Saharan Africa, fertility rates have already fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman, leading to a rapid decline in the ratio of working-age individuals (typically defined as 15 to 64 years) to those who are 65 or older. China, an emerging economy with the demographic profile of a developed one, currently has 4.8 working-age people per retiree — not far from the US’ ratio of 3.6. By 2050, China’s ratio of working-age people to pensioners is projected to fall to 1.9, below France (2.0) and the US (2.6).
These economies have a narrowing window of opportunity before their demographic dividend diminishes.
Demographic transitions are unfolding at a slightly slower pace in other emerging economies. Whereas Thailand’s ratio of workers to pensioners is projected to fall to 3.9 — the current average in first-wave countries — within five years, Brazil will reach that level in 16 years and India in 33. In all three cases, however, GDP per capita remains significantly lower than that of high-income countries. In purchasing power parity terms, Thailand’s GDP per capita is just 37 percent of the average in advanced economies, Brazil’s is 34 percent and India’s is 16 percent.
These shifts present emerging economies with a daunting challenge: they must get rich before they get old. Over the past 25 years, favorable demographic trends have led to an average annual increase of 0.7 percentage points in India’s per capita GDP and 0.5 percentage points in Latin America’s. But India’s demographic dividend is now projected to drop to 0.2 percentage points of annual GDP growth over the next quarter-century, while Latin America’s is expected to vanish.
So, what can emerging economies do? For starters, they must boost productivity. GDP per capita is determined mainly by the size of the workforce relative to the total population and the productivity of individual workers. Productivity in emerging economies lags far behind that of wealthier counterparts, averaging $13 per hour worked — or $18 when excluding sub-Saharan Africa — compared to $60 per hour in high-income countries.
Given the right investments, emerging economies have an opportunity to create a flywheel effect, whereby investment fuels productivity gains. This, in turn, would attract more investment, create meaningful employment opportunities, boost purchasing power and enable companies to increase productivity even further. Beyond productivity gains, emerging economies can mitigate the impact of demographic shifts by increasing labor force participation, particularly among women. In the median emerging economy, the labor force participation rate of women aged 20-49 hovers around 60 percent, compared to 80 percent in advanced economies. To navigate demographic shifts effectively, governments and businesses in emerging economies must learn from the experiences and strategies of developed countries. Two key lessons stand out.
First, emerging economies must ensure that young people are positioned to compete globally. In addition to improving their education systems, they must boost other investments in human capital and skill development.
Beyond productivity gains, emerging economies can mitigate the impact of demographic shifts by increasing labor force participation.
The private sector could play a crucial role in this effort. With global consumption and talent increasingly shifting toward the developing world, emerging economies have an opportunity to cultivate the next generation of superstar companies. As McKinsey Global Institute research has shown, developing economies that outperform their peers often have large, competitive firms to thank for it. But building such businesses requires a supportive ecosystem, including strong institutions, reliable physical and digital infrastructure, robust intellectual property protections and access to investment and partnerships.
The second lesson for emerging economies is to develop effective and sustainable social support systems. In many emerging economies, old-age support systems are still largely informal and family-based. As these countries’ populations age, the growing share of elderly people will strain such traditional structures.
Developed countries, currently grappling with mounting public debt associated with the costs of eldercare, should serve as a cautionary tale. By improving financial inclusion and creating incentives for private savings and wealth accumulation, emerging markets could build systems that support aging populations without undermining economic resilience. Emerging economies can also avoid some of the fiscal challenges facing their developed country counterparts by investing in the health and well-being of their young and middle-aged populations. To ensure that workers remain active and productive well into old age, policymakers should seek to promote routine exercise, expand access to healthy food and provide high-quality healthcare, especially preventive care.
Most importantly, policymakers must keep in mind that demographic change does not hit like a tsunami; it happens gradually, like a tide. While its predictability is an advantage, its slow pace makes it easy to overlook until the consequences become unavoidable. Emerging economies still have time, but the water is already around their ankles.
**Anu Madgavkar is a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute in Newark.
Marc Canal Noguer is a senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute in Barcelona.
Copyright: Project Syndicate

Engaging Iran: Does Trump have a real plan?
Imran Khalid, opinion contributor/The Hill/March 17, 2025
For obvious reasons, in the ever-turbulent saga of U.S.-Iran relations, President Trump’s claim to have sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the latest twist in a long-running drama. Trump’s announcement, made during a Fox Business interview, was characteristically brash.
“I wrote them a letter saying, I hope you are going to negotiate,” he said, adding that Iran could either “handle” the U.S. militarily or “make a deal.”
The president’s remarks were accompanied by his trademark mix of threats and vague promises, leaving observers to wonder whether this was a genuine diplomatic overture or merely another piece of political theater. Trump stated, “I wrote them a letter saying, I hope you are going to negotiate,” before veering into an awkward gaffe — referring to “Khomeini” instead of Khamenei, mistakenly invoking the name of Iran’s long-deceased revolutionary founder.
Media reports claim that the letter had been “written” but not sent, while Iran’s government officials flatly denied having received any such correspondence. This episode underscores the performative nature of Trump’s diplomacy, where grand gestures often precede — or outright replace — substantive engagement.
This is not the first time a U.S. president has attempted direct outreach to Iran’s supreme leader. Barack Obama, in a more serious effort at diplomacy, sent two letters to Khamenei. Even Trump previously relied on intermediaries, such as former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who in 2019 delivered a message to Tehran only to have Khamenei reject it outright.
The leader’s refusal reflected a deep-seated distrust that has only grown since Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018 — dismantling years of multilateral negotiations and reimposing crippling sanctions on Iran. The timing of Trump’s claim about the letter is notable. Trump’s approach also suffers from a fundamental contradiction. On the same day he spoke about his desire for negotiations, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, promised even harsher economic restrictions on Iran.
Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, Bessent vowed that a second Trump administration would “shut down Iran’s oil sector and drone manufacturing capabilities” and further sever the country’s access to the international financial system.
This contradiction — the offer of dialogue alongside threats of escalated economic warfare — only further reinforces Iran’s skepticism toward any overtures from Washington. The Iranians have been very clear that they will not negotiate while being pressured. Khamenei has often called the talks with the U.S. “unwise, unintelligent and dishonorable” and this is in concordance with the cultural disposition of the Iranians who have been brought up to suspect the West.
From the 1953 CIA-sponsored coup that restored the Shah to the imposition of sanctions, Tehran has never seen Washington as anything but a country that wants only to take and has no intention of giving in return.
Trump has always had a combination of threat and compromise with respect to Iran. Although he claims to have a primary interest in preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, his actions suggest something different. After throwing away the nuclear deal — an agreement that put the most stringent nuclear material oversight program on Iran — Trump effectively pulled away the very mechanism of ensuring Iranian compliance. Instead, his administration adopted a policy of maximum pressure to induce Iran to give up its missile program and cut ties with regional powers such as Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Publicizing a letter before it reaches its intended recipient is an unusual diplomatic move, one that analysts suggest is more about optics than genuine diplomacy. If Trump were serious about negotiations, he would not simultaneously be threatening military action or boasting about crippling sanctions. Iran, having weathered years of economic isolation, is unlikely to be swayed by media theatrics.
Moreover, there is no clear evidence that Trump’s military threats carry much weight. A full-scale U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be quite challenging due to the fact that the country has spread out its nuclear facilities. Any such action would inevitably lead to a severe Iranian counter-response and further escalate the conflict in the region and beyond. The risks are much higher than the potential gains, and yet Trump continues to wield the threat of force as a rhetorical tool.
The broader context of U.S.-Iran relations suggests that Trump’s latest maneuver is unlikely to yield results. Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal not only alienated Iran but also fractured Western unity on the issue. While European signatories initially attempted to salvage the deal, they eventually began imposing their own restrictions on Tehran, contributing to its slow demise.
In response, Iran started rolling back its own commitments in 2020, having concluded that the West had already abandoned its obligations. Iranian leaders, meanwhile, remain defiant. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqhchi dismissed reports of Trump’s letter, stating unequivocally that no such communication had been received. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf reinforced this stance, emphasizing that Tehran will not rely on U.S. engagement to resolve its economic challenges. Instead, he argued that Iran should focus on strengthening its domestic economy and fostering ties with non-Western powers.
Trump, for all his self-styled deal-making prowess, has yet to demonstrate a coherent strategy for dealing with Iran. His approach oscillates between threats and vague promises of negotiation, all while deepening Iran’s economic and military resolve. If his goal is to prevent Iran from advancing its nuclear program, his policies have thus far achieved the opposite. By dismantling the Iran nuclear deal, he removed constraints on Iran’s uranium enrichment.
By imposing harsher sanctions, he strengthened hardliners in Tehran who argue that engagement with Washington is futile. Iran’s response to Trump’s letter — whether real or imagined — reflects a broader trend in its foreign policy. The Islamic Republic has long viewed negotiations with the U.S. as a trap, a means for Washington to extract concessions without offering meaningful guarantees. This perception has only hardened in the Trump era, with officials across Iran’s political spectrum voicing deep skepticism toward any overtures from Washington.
As Trump continues to flirt with the idea of renewed talks, the reality remains unchanged: meaningful diplomacy requires trust, consistency, and a willingness to compromise — qualities that have been in short supply these days.
*Imran Khalid is a physician and has a master’s degree in international relations.
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