English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For November 26/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying
heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Saint Matthew 11/25-30: ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent
and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom
the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are
carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’”
Titles For The
Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on
November 25-26/2025
The Road to Jerusalem That Hezbollah Has Never
Known/Elias Bejjani – November 24, 2024
Beirut on Alert as Talks Aim to Halt Escalation after Tabtabai’s Killing
Lebanon’s Situation No Longer Allows for Adventures and Costly Mistakes!
Adwan criticizes Salam, Berri over expat draft law procrastination
Egypt FM to visit Beirut to discuss mechanism for defusing tensions with Israel
UN seeks 'impartial' probe into Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Salam: We're in a state of war and the govt. has taken the necessary precautions
Berri says Dahieh strike 'extremely dangerous escalation'
Hezbollah mourns top commander killed in Israel strike
Will Hezbollah respond to Tabatabai's assasination?
Local and external contacts ongoing to prevent escalation
Israeli source says Hezbollah 'weakening round' must occur before year end
Iran Guards urge 'revenge' after Israel kills Hezbollah chief
Damush says Israel 'should be worried' about Hezbollah's response
At Saint Charbel's tomb, faithful await the pope
Pope Leo XIV's visit rekindles hope in war- and crisis-battered Lebanon
A look at Christianity in Lebanon ahead of pope's visit
Pope Leo to Take Peace Message to Türkiye, Lebanon on First Overseas Trip
Israel Killed Top Commander Because Lebanon Isn’t Disarming Hezbollah/David
Daoud/FDD/November 25/ 2025
Iran: The Financial Engine Behind the Muslim Brotherhood-Hezbollah–Hamas
Axis/Pierre A. Maroun/Face Book/November 25/2025
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published
on
November 25-26/2025
Pope Francis’ Popemobile Transformed into Mobile
Clinic for Gaza Children
Israel Says It Has Received Another Set of Human Remains from Gaza
Gaza Truce Mediators in Cairo to Discuss Second Phase
‘Everything Is Soaked’: Winter Rains in Gaza Bring New Misery for Palestinians
Saudi Arabia Renews Commitment to Working with Partners to Achieve Aspirations
of Palestinians
Iran to Raise Fuel Prices Under Limited Conditions
Russian attacks kill at least 6 in Ukraine amid US push to end war
US, Russia hold talks on Ukraine in Abu Dhabi
Ukraine Backs 'Essence' of Peace Deal with Russia but Sensitive Issues Linger
Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Hamas Weighs Proposal to Transform into Political
Party
Sudan’s Warring Factions Have Not Yet Accepted Peace Plan, Trump Advisor Says
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources on
November 25-26/2025
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a
terrorist organization is in the interest of Muslims./Mamdouh Al-Muhaini/Asharq
Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
No Nation Globally Has Expressed Readiness to Have Its Forces Directly Engage
Hamas Fighters'/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./November 25, 2025
Next Stop in America's Race with China for Global Preeminence: The Moon/Lawrence
Kadish/Gatestone Institute./November 25/2025
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is in the
interest of Muslims./Mamdouh Al-Muhaini/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Washington Finally Takes on the Muslim Brotherhood/Mark Dubowitz & Mariam
Wahba/Insight/November 25/2025
Iran’s Water Bankruptcy/Mehdi Ketabchy & Saeed Ghasseminejad/Real Clear
World/November 25/2025
The paradox of Iranian wealth: Why high exports are failing the people/Saeed
Ghasseminejad/The Jerusalem Post/November 25/2025
Iran Drops the Façade of Tolerance Toward Persian Jews/Janatan Sayeh/National
Review/November 25/2025
Hamas is failing Trump’s cease-fire plan — and ‘the future’ of the Middle East
is paying the price/Jonathan Schanzer/New York Post/November 25/2025
No Nation Globally Has Expressed Readiness to Have Its Forces Directly Engage
Hamas Fighters'/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./November 25, 2025
Next Stop in America's Race with China for Global Preeminence: The Moon/Lawrence
Kadish/Gatestone Institute./November 25/2025
The Latest
English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on
November 25-26/2025
The Road to Jerusalem That Hezbollah Has Never Known
Elias Bejjani – November 24, 2024
In reality, and despite all the empty bravado of Iran’s terrorist armed proxy in
Lebanon, Israel has effectively turned it into a funeral-home company
specializing in delusional obituaries about a “road to Jerusalem” it has never
known.
Beirut on Alert as Talks Aim to Halt Escalation after Tabtabai’s Killing
Beirut: Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Concern of further Israeli escalation has grown, following the assassination of
Hezbollah’s chief of staff, Haitham al-Tabtabai, in Beirut’s southern suburbs on
Sunday. Lebanese officials view the Israeli strike
that killed al-Tabtabai as a political and security message, particularly as it
comes on the heels of a new initiative launched by Lebanese President Joseph
Aoun. The proposal, like earlier attempts, was met not with dialogue but with
fire. The French Embassy in Beirut on Monday expressed its “deep concern over
the Israeli strike that targeted Beirut on Sunday, increasing the risk of
escalation in an already highly tense context,” according to a short statement
published on its X account. Diplomatic efforts are expected to continue this
week, with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty scheduled to arrive in
Beirut on Tuesday to meet Lebanese officials. His visit follows earlier
mediation by Egyptian intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad, aimed at
curbing confrontation and preventing an escalation.
“Weeks ago, when President Aoun proposed a negotiation framework, Israel
responded with heavy bombardment of the Bekaa and the South,” ministerial
sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. “Two days after he unveiled a new initiative for a
sustainable solution and stability, the response came again - this time striking
Beirut’s southern suburbs.”The sources added that the presidency is seeking to
garner support for the proposal and is holding both local and international
discussions “to calm tensions and avoid escalation.”
They argue that Israel is signaling that “efforts - whether through initiatives
or negotiations - are futile, because Israel will do what it decides to do,”
pointing to “a series of increasingly hostile statements from officials in Tel
Aviv.”Yet Hezbollah signaled a hardening stance. During the funeral of
al-Tabtabai on Monday, the head of its Executive Council, Ali Daamoush,
declared: “We are not concerned with any proposal or initiative as long as
(Israeli) aggression and violations continue. He
called on Israel to commit to the ceasefire obligations before discussion on any
initiative. Ministerial sources reiterated Aoun’s call for the international
community to assume its responsibilities. “Israel refuses every initiative, and
we see no clear international action. We are doing our part; let the world do
its part,” they remarked. Israel has meanwhile
announced that it has significantly reinforced its northern air-defense
readiness and vowed to intensify strikes aimed at weakening Hezbollah and
preventing it from rebuilding its capabilities. Parliamentary sources from the
Development and Liberation Bloc, led by Speaker Nabih Berri, said the strike
carries “multiple political and security messages,” delivered not only to
Hezbollah but also to the Lebanese presidency and its diplomatic efforts. They
warned that the attack, carried out in a densely populated residential district,
marks “a dangerous indicator of the escalating strategy Israel has pursued since
the November 2024 ceasefire agreement.”MP Antoine Habchi of the Lebanese Forces
bloc argued that Hezbollah’s leadership “still hides among civilians,” claiming
this shows the presence of collaborators within the organization.
He called on the state to intervene and “identify where the breach lies."
Lebanon’s Situation No Longer Allows for Adventures and Costly Mistakes!
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Excessive burdens being placed on the shoulders of Lebanon - its people, its
army, and its authorities – are too great for the country withstand. It is not
fair to put the region’s afflictions on a fragile entity like Lebanon, which had
itself been born of historical settlements that begin with the “Eastern
Question” and do not end with the Israeli “peace by dominance” effort sweeping
across the Middle region. It is extremely unjust to
oblige Lebanon to bear the sins of the region’s politicians, the mutual
hostilities of its components, and the repercussions of the struggle between its
occupiers and external powers seeking control, especially as it has only
recently emerged from a civil war in which foreign influences played a profound
role. A few days ago, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun
condemned what he described as Lebanese actors giving “mendacious tip offs”
about their own government foreign capitals. It did not take long for the
outcome of these “tip offs” to become manifest with the cancellation of Army
Commander Rodolphe Haykal’s visit to the United States. However, the issue goes
further back than this particular incident, Senator Lindsey Graham’s discontent
with Haykal’s use of the term “the Israeli enemy,” or the “discomfort” of envoy
Morgan Ortagus at any assertion in Lebanon that could hurt the feelings of the
Likud government in Israel. In fact, “tipping off” and
other activities of Lebanese sectarian figures in Europe and later in the United
States have been well documented by historians and researchers, with records of
such actions dating back to the 19th century. Here I
recall an interview I had conducted with a seasoned diplomat and intellectual
who had completed a doctoral dissertation in France on Lebanon’s strife and
civil wars. A Beirut magazine asked him why he had omitted important events that
other researchers later addressed. He replied that publishing all the documents
he possessed “would light the fuse of sectarian strife,” adding that the
Lebanese “have neither learned nor changed.”
Another conversation also comes to mind. A few decades ago, I spoke to an
elderly member of my family who had lived in the United States in the early 20th
century. We spoke about the divisions among Lebanese emigrants there. My
relative explained that during the “Great Syrian Revolt” of 1925, impulsive
figures in the “Lebanese community” decided to gather volunteers in the US and
send them to fight alongside the French Mandate forces. When news of this effort
spread in southern Ohio, where my relative lived along with an enthusiastic
young man hoping to fight alongside the French, supporters of the revolt
gathered and visited their local priest in Cincinnati to inform him of what was
happening. In the priest’s presence, one of them proposed “abandoning the idea
of long-distance travel and its hardships and instead showing support for the
French Mandate by fighting the supporters of the revolt here in Ohio!”
Of course, many of us still clearly remember the “activities” of certain
“Lebanese–American lobbies” and their role in influencing the policies of
President Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1982. At the time, these lobbies
were not merely supportive of direct American military intervention but also
took a favorable view to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Later, with the Reagan
administration fully adopting Menachem Begin’s conception of the Palestinian
dimension of the Lebanese war, ignoring its intra-Lebanese dimension, the
seasoned diplomat Philip Habib (of Lebanese origin) was appointed to “solve the
crisis” and rid Lebanon of “Palestinian occupation.”However, this “solution”
never materialized: president-elect Bachir Gemayel was assassinated in September
1982, and Washington failed, during the term of his brother Amine Gemayel, to
prevent the consolidation of the opposition forces supported by Syria and Iran.
Then, following two major turning points - the Taif Agreement, which
restructured Lebanon’s political formulas, and the emergence of Hezbollah as a
significant military force in Lebanese reality - the Lebanese landscape changed
both politically and demographically. Even during the “2023 war,” in which
Hezbollah’s involvement led the Israeli right, under Benjamin Netanyahu, to
change the “rules of the game,” Tehran remained a key player on the Lebanese
stage. In truth, when Washington’s “Likudists” of all
backgrounds pressure Lebanon’s government today, they are, in effect, showing
indifference to their country’s security, sovereignty, or coexistence; their
priorities lie elsewhere. In 1982, everyone knew that
there was no “Iranian occupation” in Lebanon. There was a “Palestinian
resistance,” which had been born of the international community’s failure to
find a humane and moral solution to the occupation of Palestine.
Today, as the Likud government threatens an “occupation war” in Lebanon, and as
Washington’s extremists escalate against what remains of the country’s “state
institutions,” these lobbies’ goal is to dismantle Lebanon’s state structures,
thereby paving the way for their conspiracy to partition and seize the country
after destroying the logistical infrastructure that had supported an Iranian
proxy. The prudent citizens of Lebanon understand
this. They must all reach a minimum common ground to safeguard against strife
and save the country’s future. Without doubt,
Hezbollah’s arms, which have long been a point of contention, have now lost
their capacity to “deter” Likudist bullying. On the contrary, they are now a
compelling pretext for them to many inside and outside Lebanon. Yet, in
parallel, the Lebanese and their Arab brethren have a duty to agree on a shared
discourse that alerts Washington to the gravity of allowing the “Likudists” to
impose their terms on the Middle East. The simmering unease with the excesses of
the Likud hardliners in the US, even within the ranks of the Republican
Christian right itself, has become patently obvious. It has truly reached, in
some cases, the point of mutiny. And it would be wise for Washington to learn
from the mistakes of the past... so as not to repeat them and pay their heavy
price in the future.
Adwan criticizes Salam, Berri over expat draft law
procrastination
Naharnet/November 25/2025
Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan criticized Tuesday Prime Minister Nawaf Salam
for taking ten days to sign an urgent draft law -- that allows a large Lebanese
diaspora to vote for the 128 seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections --
and ten other days to send it to parliament. Earlier this month, cabinet
approved to send the draft law demanding the amendment to Parliament, after
Speaker Nabih Berri refused to discuss it in a legislative session, prompting
the LF and Kataeb MPs to boycott it. In an interview published Tuesday in
al-Joumhouria, Berri said "the elections will be held according to the current
law."The current electoral law only allows expats to vote for six
newly-introduced seats in parliament. Sixty-five MPs, including those of the LF
and constituting a parliamentary majority, demanded to amend the law in order to
allow expats to vote for all 128 seats. Berri refused to discuss the draft law
in parliament. Hezbollah and Amal argue that they do not enjoy the same
campaigning freedom that other parties enjoy abroad and are objecting against
the possible amendment. Berri told al-Joumhouria that the electoral law is a
constitution law and cannot be "urgently" amended. It needs a long debate and
should be submitted to a parliamentary committee or joint committees, he said.
Adwan demanded Berri to discuss the law in a plenary session, and said Berri is
now responsible of any delay or obstruction of the elections, due in May 2026.
LF leader Samir Geagea said last week that Berri is scared of democracy and
that's why he is refusing to discuss the law in parliament. "I am very
scared..," Berri sarcastically responded.
Egypt FM to visit Beirut to discuss mechanism for defusing tensions with Israel
Naharnet/November 25/2025
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty will visit Beirut on Tuesday to discuss
“a mechanism for defusing an impending Israeli escalation against Lebanon,”
al-Liwaa newspaper said. Abdelatty’s visit comes after consultations with his
Saudi and French counterparts on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg
as well as a phone call with his Qatari counterpart, the daily added. It quoted
an Arab diplomatic source as saying that the Egyptian minister will come to
Lebanon in the name of the five-nation support group for Lebanon, which
comprises the U.S., Saudi Arabia, France, Egypt and Qatar. Al-Liwaa said the
mechanism carried by Abdelatty involves “Israel’s withdrawal from one of the
five points in return for Hezbollah’s handover of its weapons, preventing Israel
from carrying out new attacks against Lebanese citizens, and defusing tensions
in any possible way.” Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad had recently
visited Lebanon carrying a similar initiative.
UN seeks 'impartial' probe into Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/November 25/2025
The United Nations called Tuesday for swift and impartial investigations into
Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including a deadly attack on a Palestinian refugee
camp last week. "There must be prompt and impartial
investigations into the Ein El-Hilweh strike, as well as all other incidents
involving possible violations of international humanitarian law by all parties,
both before and after the ceasefire. Those responsible must be brought to
justice," U.N. rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in
Geneva.
Salam: We're in a state of war and the govt. has taken the
necessary precautions
Naharnet/November 25/2025
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Tuesday voiced concern over the security
situation, noting that Lebanon is going through a “state of war.”“Today we are
in a state of war, even if it is some sort of war of attrition -- a one-sided
war that is escalating,” Salam said during an inspection visit to the Port of
Beirut. “The state is continuing to rally international support to press
Israel,” Salam added. “The Lebanese Army is carrying on with the arms
monopolization plan as decided and the government has taken all the necessary
precautions to tackle any possible escalation by the Israeli occupation and its
repercussions,” the premier said.
Berri says Dahieh strike 'extremely dangerous escalation'
Naharnet/November 25/2025
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri considered the strike that killed Sunday
Hezbollah's top military chief in Haret Hreik "an extremely dangerous
escalation."In an interview published Tuesday in al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri
said that Beirut and its southern suburb are back to the circle of Israeli
targeting, adding that the strike shows that there are no real guarantees for
protecting the capital and its suburb and that Israel can do whatever it wants,
without any accountability. Israel on Sunday struck Beirut's southern suburbs
for the first time since June, saying it killed Hezbollah’s chief of staff
Haytham Tabatabai. The strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed five people
and wounded 25 others. Berri predicted an Israeli escalation in the coming days
and accused the ceasefire monitoring committee of failing to seriously intervene
to prevent the escalation as it is "preoccupied with monitoring the Lebanese
Army" instead.
Berri's words come after a U.S. campaign against the army leadership, and
Israel's accusations that the army is not doing its job in disarming Hezbollah.
The U.S.-chaired committee -- in which Lebanon, Israel, France and the U.N. are
members -- has reportedly pressured the army to search homes in south Lebanon
for Hezbollah weapons or tunnels under houses. "The committee is turning a blind
eye to the occupation army's violations of the ceasefire agreement," Berri said,
adding that some in Lebanon and abroad are mad at the army because it took the
right decision and refused to be dragged into a confrontation with "its people".
"Because of this national choice, some are inciting against the military and its
leader."Berri called on the Lebanese to unite, warning that Israel is benefiting
from the divisions and the fragile situation in Lebanon. "We are in dire need to
be united, because our unity is the most important and strongest weapon in
confronting the Israeli danger," he said. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea
had said Sunday after the strike on Dahieh that Lebanon must disarm Hezbollah
and ask "its friends, the United States and Saudi Arabia, for help" to pressure
Israel to halt its aggressions and withdraw from Lebanon.
Hezbollah mourns top commander killed in Israel strike
Agence France Presse/November 25/2025
Hezbollah held a funeral on Monday for its top military chief and other members
of the militant group a day after a deadly Israeli strike on south Beirut, while
Iran's Revolutionary Guards urged revenge. Haytham Ali Tabatabai is the most
senior commander from the Iran-backed group to be killed by Israel since a
November 2024 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of hostilities between
the two sides. Sunday's raid came with Israel escalating its attacks on Lebanon
and Washington increasing pressure on the government to disarm the group and cut
off its sources of funding. Tehran slammed Tabatabai's killing as "cowardly"
while Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said "the right of the Axis of
Resistance and Lebanese Hezbollah to avenge the blood of the brave fighters of
Islam is unquestionable" -- referring to Iran-backed armed groups hostile to
Israel. Hundreds of supporters joined Monday's funeral procession in Beirut's
densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, for Tabatabai
and two of his companions, whose coffins were draped in the group's yellow
flags, an AFP correspondent said. The crowd yelled slogans against Israel and
America, while supporters carried portraits of the group's leaders and Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.France's foreign ministry and U.N. chief
Antonio Guterres's spokesman expressed concern at the strike and urged
restraint, with the U.N.'s Stephane Dujarric reminding parties that "civilians
and civilian areas must not be targeted".
'Civilian areas'
Israel's military had said it "eliminated the terrorist Haytham Ali Tabatabai,
Hezbollah's chief of general staff".The group announced the deaths of Tabatabai
and four other members in the attack. Hezbollah said Tabatabai assumed the role
of military leader after the latest war with Israel, which saw the group heavily
weakened and senior commanders killed including its longtime chief Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah. Israel has carried out near-daily strikes on Lebanon despite the
ceasefire, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure,
and accusing the group of rearming. According to the truce, Hezbollah was to
withdraw north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers from the Israeli border,
and to have its military infrastructure there dismantled. Under a
government-approved plan, Lebanon's army is to finish disarming Hezbollah in the
area by year's end, before tackling the rest of the country.
Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.
After Tabatabai's killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he
would "not allow Hezbollah to rebuild its power" and urged Lebanon's government
to "fulfil its commitment to disarm Hezbollah". Lebanon's army says it is
implementing its plan to disarm Hezbollah, but the United States and Israel have
accused Lebanon's authorities of stalling. Condemning the attack, Prime Minister
Nawaf Salam said Sunday that "the only way to consolidate stability" was through
"extending the authority of the state over all its territory". Last December,
Hezbollah also lost a key supply route through Syria with the fall of longtime
ruler and ally Bashar al-Assad.
Will Hezbollah respond to Tabatabai's assasination?
Agence France Presse/November 25/2025
A source close to Hezbollah has said there were "two opinions within the group
-- those who wish to respond to the assassination of Hezbollah's top military
chief in an Israeli strike on south Beirut and those who want to refrain from
doing so. The source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the leadership
tends to adopt "the utmost forms of diplomacy at the present stage".Haytham Ali
Tabatabai is the most senior commander from the Iran-backed group to be killed
by Israel since a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end more than a year of
hostilities between the two sides. He was killed Sunday in a raid on Haret Hreit
in Beirut's southern suburb. The raid came as Israel escalated its attacks on
Lebanon and Washington increased pressure on the government to disarm the group
and cut off its sources of funding.
Israel 'should be worried'
Senior Hezbollah official Ali Damush said Monday during Tabatabai's funeral that
his killing aimed to push Hezbollah into "surrendering and submitting, but this
goal will never be achieved".Israel was "worried about Hezbollah's possible
response -- and should remain worried", he said, urging Lebanese authorities to
"confront the aggression by all means... and reject the pressures that seek to
push Lebanon to comply with American dictates and Israeli conditions".
'Very limited' options -
Atlantic Council researcher Nicholas Blanford told AFP that "Hezbollah's options
are very limited". "Its support base is clamoring for revenge but if Hezbollah
responds directly... Israel will strike back very hard and no one in Lebanon
will thank Hezbollah for that," he said. Sunday's strike was the biggest blow to
Hezbollah since the ceasefire "because of (Tabatabai's) seniority... it
demonstrates the Israelis can still locate and target senior officials despite
whatever protective measures Hezbollah is undertaking" since the war, Blanford
added.
Iran Guards urge 'revenge' -
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called Monday for "revenge" for the
killing of Tabatabai. "The right of the Axis of Resistance and Lebanese
Hezbollah to avenge the blood of the brave fighters of Islam is unquestionable,"
the IRGC, Hezbollah's main military and financial backer, said in a statement.
Local and external contacts ongoing to prevent escalation
Naharnet/November 25/2025
Contacts are underway on two levels to prevent further military escalation in
Lebanon in the wake of Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s military chief,
informed political sources said. “There are domestic contacts to contain the
situation and prevent responses (against Israel) and external contacts to follow
up on the situation and press Israel not to carry on with its attacks,” the
sources told al-Liwaa newspaper.
Israeli source says Hezbollah 'weakening round' must occur before year end
Naharnet/November 25/2025
The “Hezbollah weakening round” must take place “before the end of the year,” an
Israeli security source has said. “Lebanon’s government will not carry out this
mission and we will not wait,” the source said. “If we don’t weaken Hezbollah
before the year’s end, it will surprise us in timing,” the source warned. “Only
days of combat can dramatically weaken Hezbollah for long years,” the source
added.
Iran Guards urge 'revenge' after Israel kills Hezbollah chief
Agence France Presse/November 25/2025
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called Monday for "revenge" for the
killing in an Israeli air strike on Beirut the previous day of Hezbollah's top
military commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai. "The right of the Axis of Resistance
and Lebanese Hezbollah to avenge the blood of the brave fighters of Islam is
unquestionable," the IRGC, Hezbollah's main military and financial backer, said
in a statement. The Iranian foreign ministry had earlier on Monday slammed
Israel over its killing of Tabatabai. "The Iranian foreign ministry strongly
condemns the cowardly assassination of the great commander of the Lebanese
Islamic Resistance, the martyr Haytham Ali Tabatabai," the foreign ministry said
in a statement. Tabatabai is the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by
Israel since the start of a ceasefire in November 2024 that sought to end more
than a year of hostilities. The killing "constitutes a flagrant violation of the
November 2024 ceasefire and a brutal breach of Lebanon’s national sovereignty",
the Iranian foreign ministry said. Hezbollah earlier confirmed the killing of
"the great commander" Tabatabai. Largely unknown to
the Lebanese public, Tabatabai was among the new commanders chosen to lead the
group after the war. Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon since the truce,
mostly claiming to be targeting Hezbollah members and infrastructure. Tehran is
Hezbollah's key backer, but the group has been severely weakened by its most
recent hostilities with Israel and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria who
provided an overland link towards Iran. That has come as a blow to Iran itself,
which was also hit by Israeli and U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities during
a 12-day war with Israel this year.
Damush says Israel 'should be worried' about Hezbollah's response
Naharnet/November 25/2025
Senior Hezbollah official Ali Damush said Monday during the funeral of
Hezbollah's top military chief Haytham Ali Tabatabai that his killing aimed to
push Hezbollah into "surrendering and submitting, but this goal will never be
achieved". Israel was "worried about Hezbollah's possible response -- and should
remain worried", he said, urging Lebanese authorities to "confront the
aggression by all means... and reject the pressures that seek to push Lebanon to
comply with American dictates and Israeli conditions". Damush said that all the
government's concessions, from monopolizing weapons to accepting the U.S.
proposal and negotiations with Israel, have been ineffective. "They must
pressure the Israeli enemy to halt its aggression," he added. "Kill and destroy
as much as you like, we will not accept any proposal or initiative before the
halt of hostilities and violations, and before the Israeli enemy commits to the
ceasefire."
At Saint Charbel's tomb, faithful await the pope
Agence France Presse/November 25/2025
Charbel Matar says a Lebanese saint saved his life when he was a child. Now, he
is among pilgrims of all faiths who visit Saint Charbel's tomb, soon to be
graced by Pope Leo XIV."My family and I have great faith in Saint Charbel and
always visit him," said Matar, 69, at the Saint Maron Monastery in Annaya in the
mountains of north Lebanon. "I almost died when I was
five. He performed a miracle and saved me from death, and kept me alive for 64
more years," said Matar, whose parents changed his name from Roger to Charbel to
honor the saint. In Pope Leo's first trip abroad since becoming head of the
Catholic Church, the U.S.-born pontiff will travel to Turkey and Lebanon,
arriving in Beirut on November 30 and visiting the Annaya monastery the
following day. Saint Charbel has broad popular appeal in Lebanon even beyond the
Christian community, with many seeing him not only as a miracle worker but also
as a national symbol. Depictions of the saint with a white beard, his eyes
lowered in prayer and wearing black garb, can be found in homes, vehicles and
workplaces. Randa Saliba, 60, called Saint Charbel "a message of love... and the
face of Lebanon". The pope's trip to his tomb was a must, she said during a
visit to the monastery with her family. The Catholic Church "can't deny the
miracles he performs and the people whose souls he transforms. He's keeping the
Christian message alive," she added.
'Not just Christians' -
Charbel was born Youssef Makhlouf in north Lebanon in 1828 and entered the
Lebanese Maronite Order aged 23, later joining Annaya's Saint Maron Monastery,
where he became a hermit, leading an ascetic life. He
was declared a saint in 1977. Workers have been busy
resurfacing the road to the quiet monastery in preparation for the arrival of
the pope while visitors, including women wearing the Muslim hijab head covering,
toured the site, lit candles or prayed faithfully to their saint. Vice rector
Tannous Nehme, excitedly awaiting the pope's visit, estimated that the monastery
drew around three million visitors annually. "It's not just Christians -- a lot
of Muslims come to visit, a lot of non-religious people come to visit. They come
from everywhere -- Africa, Europe, Russia," Nehme said. As incense lingered in
the air, the stone monastery's tranquility was interrupted only by the sound of
restoration work on Saint Charbel's tomb. When it was
opened in 1950 in the presence of clergy, officials and doctors, they found his
body well-preserved, more than half a century after his death in 1898.
Black-and-white footage of the event is still occasionally shown on
Lebanese television. The monastery has recorded tens
of thousands of people who have been cured by Saint Charbel, with thousands of
others believed to have been healed outside Lebanon.
One of the saint's most famous miracles is that of Nohad al-Shami from Lebanon's
Byblos region who was struck by an incurable illness in 1993. Shami said Saint
Charbel came to her in a dream and healed her. She died this year, aged 75.
'Optimism' for Lebanon -
Pope Leo's visit to Lebanon follows those of Benedict XVI in 2012 and John Paul
II in 1997. His trip includes meetings with senior officials in the crisis-hit
country including President Joseph Aoun, the Arab world's only Christian head of
state. Lebanon's Maronite church is in full communion
with Rome. "The pope's visit is very important for Lebanon. It brings goodness
and blessings... and optimism for the Lebanese people," said Claude Issa, 56, a
mother of three. Lebanon has been no stranger to calamity in recent years. A
ceasefire in November 2024 was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities
between Israel and Hezbollah in which some 4,000 people were killed in Lebanon.
But Israel has kept up deadly strikes despite the truce, and many fear a return
to expanded Israeli raids. Before the war, Lebanon was reeling from an economic
collapse that began in 2019, and a catastrophic explosion at Beirut's port the
following year that killed more than 220 people and injured some 6,500.
The pope will hold a silent prayer at the site of the explosion, for
which nobody has yet been held accountable."The pope's visit will revitalize
people and make them feel there is still hope in Lebanon," Issa said.
Pope Leo XIV's visit rekindles hope in war- and
crisis-battered Lebanon
Associated Press/November 25/2025
Mireille Khoury lit a candle next to a portrait of her late son, Elias,
surrounded by images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, just as she does every
evening when she returns to her Beirut apartment after work. Elias was only 15
when he died in the August 2020 explosion at the Beirut port that blasted
through surrounding neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital. Since then Khoury has
been among the families who have convened monthly protests calling for justice
for the 218 people killed when hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium
nitrate detonated. Their numbers have dwindled as the investigation has stalled
and hopes of accountability have faded. But the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV
to Lebanon has rekindled a glimmer of hope for Khoury and many others in the
small, crisis-battered country. "We need a lot of prayers, and we need a miracle
for this country to continue," said Khoury, who is set to join the pontiff in a
silent prayer at the site of the port explosion on the last day of his visit to
Lebanon. The visit set to begin on Sunday comes as part of Pope Leo's first
official foreign trip and as the fulfillment of a promise made by his
predecessor, Pope Francis, to visit Lebanon, a Muslim-majority country where
about a third of the population is Christian. Leo will also visit Turkey.The
fourth visit of a pope to Lebanon, it sends a powerful message of support at a
time when regional instability and deepening internal crises have left the
country in a precarious situation. Since 2019, Lebanon has been battered by
political unrest, the collapse of its currency and banking system, the port
explosion and, most recently, a war with Israel. The war decimated large swaths
of southern and eastern Lebanon, leaving more than 4,000 dead, including
hundreds of civilians, and causing an estimated $11 billion worth of
destruction. To many Lebanese, it feels like divine intervention is the only
solution for their country.
No visit to war-battered south
In the village of Dardghaya, a mixed community of Christians and Shiite Muslims
in southern Lebanon, about a dozen worshippers gathered for Mass on a recent
Sunday in a small basement room. Images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. George
— the church's namesake — stared down from freshly painted white walls as a
small girl swung an incense burner. Above them, the town's century-old Greek
Melkite church was still in ruins after being hit by an Israeli strike during
last year's war. Despite a U.S. brokered ceasefire that took effect in November
2024, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in southern Lebanon —
and, occasionally, in the suburbs of the capital — that it says aim to stop
Hezbollah from rebuilding. The precarious situation has dissuaded many former
congregants from returning to Dardghaya. The church's priest, Father Maurice el
Khoury, said he feels "a great hope" that Pope Leo's visit "will bring about a
radical change in Lebanon's trajectory." "We don't want to say that the pope's
visit is only for the Christians," el Khoury said. "The pope's visit is a
blessing and salvation for all of Lebanon." Still, many in southern Lebanon were
disappointed that the pontiff's itinerary did not include a visit to their
war-battered areas, similar to Pope Francis' trip to the devastated city of
Mosul when he visited Iraq in 2021. Georges Elia, a member of the Dardghaya
congregation, said he will attend a meeting between the pontiff and youth groups
at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerki, in northern Lebanon. But he is still
holding out hope for a surprise papal visit to the south, a "sacred land, where
Jesus Christ once walked," he said. "The south is bleeding, and it's in need of
(the pope) to help us return and stand firm on our land."
Strong Vatican ties through a turbulent history
The first visit of a pope to the modern Lebanese state in 1964 came during a
prosperous time that today many look back on nostalgically as the country's
golden era. It came in a lull between the country's first civil war in 1958 and
the 15 years of internal fighting that began in 1975. Later papal visits came as
the country was rebuilding in the aftermath of that violence, in the late 1990s;
and in 2012, during the height of the Syrian conflict and refugee crisis that
spilled into Lebanon. Lebanon from its founding was envisioned as a haven for
Christians. It has had strong ties with the Vatican since its independence from
French rule in 1943, and for centuries prior to the establishment of the tiny
Mediterranean state. Historically, the Catholic Church helped establish many
institutions in Lebanon, including schools, hospitals, and research centers,
creating a unique relationship not just with Lebanon's Christians, but its
Muslim and other non-Christian populations. Historian Charles Hayek said Lebanon
has always understood the importance of having strong ties with the Vatican.
"All the Lebanese of all communities understood that for a small country to be
heard, you need to lobby," said Hayek. Because of that, prime ministers, who by
convention in Lebanon are always Sunni Muslim, have joined Maronite Christian
presidents in pushing for papal visits, he said.
On Pope Leo XIV's schedule is an interfaith dialogue with the heads of the
country's handful of Christian and Muslim denominations in the heart of the
Lebanese capital, where anti-establishment protests took place in 2019, and in
an area that suffered some of the worst damage in the port blast.
Continuing Pope Francis' legacy of support
Mireille Khoury said Pope Leo's predecessor, Pope Francis, continued to support
the families of the port blast victims even when global pressure on the Lebanese
state for accountability died down. Francis even invited family members of the
victims, including Khoury, to the Vatican. But she couldn't go. "The last
vacation that I had with my son was in Rome, and it was very difficult for me to
go back. I felt I'm unable to do it emotionally," Khoury said. Still, she was
reassured and felt "spiritual peace" after hearing the pope's words of support
for the families. Khoury hopes that she will be able to meet the new pope, even
briefly, to ask him to continue speaking about the port explosion so that the
investigation is not forgotten. "I will beg him and appeal to him to continue
pushing so that this case doesn't go like any other case in Lebanon," she said.
She said she expects the pope's visit to help strengthen a faith that is often
the only thing that keeps her going. "I live by the hope," she said, "that I
will be meeting my son one day."
A look at Christianity in Lebanon ahead of pope's visit
Associated Press/November 25/2025
Lebanon is a country where crosses rise from mountaintops, rooftops and street
corners, and Christian symbols are woven into everyday life. The upcoming visit
of Pope Leo XIV highlights the depth of Christianity's roots in this small
Mediterranean nation, dating to the earliest days of the faith. From Mount
Lebanon's peaks to the coastal plain, ancient sites sit beside modern life,
reflecting a landscape shaped by centuries of Christian presence. Lebanon's
mosaic of 18 sects — including 12 Christian ones — makes it one of the region's
most diverse societies, with a Maronite Christian traditionally serving as
president. Christianity reached Lebanon in the first century, with the New
Testament recounting Jesus' visits to Sidon and Tyre. In the north, the Qadisha
Valley sheltered some of the earliest monastic communities, carved into cliffs
that still overlook the gorge. Pilgrims today continue to visit major sites such
as the shrine of St. Charbel in Annaya and the hilltop shrine of Our Lady of
Lebanon in Harissa, which draws both Christians and Muslims seeking blessing and
comfort. Lebanese Christians, like the rest of the population, have endured
years of economic collapse, political paralysis and conflict — most recently
last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah. While many see the pope's visit as
a rare moment of hope, Christians in the south are disappointed he won't visit
their region. Southern Lebanon is home to important Christian sites, including
Qana, where tradition holds that Jesus performed his first miracle, and the
sanctuary of Our Lady of Waiting in Maghdousheh, believed to be where Mary
waited while Jesus traveled nearby. For many Lebanese Christians, these places
reflect a long struggle to preserve identity through crisis and war. As Lebanon
prepares to welcome the pope, many hope his visit brings a sense of unity,
recognition and solace to a weary nation.
Pope Leo to Take Peace Message to Türkiye, Lebanon on First Overseas Trip
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Pope Leo will embark on his first trip outside Italy as the leader of the
Catholic Church on Thursday, travelling to Türkiye and Lebanon, where he is
expected to make appeals for peace in the region and urge unity among
long-divided Christian churches. Leo, the first US pope, will give his first
speeches to foreign governments and visit some sensitive cultural sites as part
of a crowded itinerary during the November 27 to December 2 trip, Reuters
reported. His predecessor Pope Francis had planned to visit both countries but
was unable to because of his worsening health. Francis died on April 21 and Leo,
originally from Chicago, was elected pope on May 8 by the world's cardinals.
"A pope's first foreign trip is an opportunity to capture and hold the
world's attention," said John Thavis, a retired Vatican correspondent who
covered three papacies. "What's at stake for Pope Leo
is his ability to connect with a wider audience, in a region where war and
peace, humanitarian needs and interfaith dialogue are crucial issues," said
Thavis.
PAPAL VISITS DRAW WORLD ATTENTION
Leo goes first to Türkiye, from November 27 to 30, where he has several joint
events with Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's 260 million
Orthodox Christians, who is based in Istanbul. Peace is expected to be a key
theme of Leo's visit to Lebanon, which has the largest percentage of Christians
in the Middle East. On Sunday, Israel killed the
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah's top military official in an airstrike on
a southern suburb of Beirut, despite a US-brokered truce a year ago.
Leaders in Lebanon, which is also host to one million Syrian and
Palestinian refugees and is struggling to recover after years of economic
crisis, hope the papal visit might bring global attention to the country. An
off-the-cuff moment in October raised possible security concerns about Leo's
visit in Lebanon. Queen Rania of Jordan, visiting Leo at the Vatican, asked the
pope if he thought it was safe to go to the country. "Well, we're going," Leo
responded. Travelling abroad has become a major part of the modern papacy, with
popes attracting international attention as they lead events with crowds
sometimes in the millions, give foreign policy speeches and conduct
international diplomacy. Francis, who made 47 foreign visits over his 12-year
tenure, often grabbed headlines during his trips with surprise comments. The
late pope was also known for giving unusually frank answers during traditional
in-flight press conferences with his travelling press corps, one of the few
times the leader of the Church interacts at length with journalists. Leo has a
more reserved style and tends to speak from prepared texts. He has only given
one exclusive interview in his six months as pope. "What we've seen so far is a
pope who's very careful when he speaks," Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and
commentator, said. "But every trip is a risk. There can always be mistakes or
fumbles."In Türkiye, Leo and Bartholomew will celebrate the 1,700th anniversary
of a major early Church council, which took place in Nicaea, now Iznik, and
created a creed that most of the world's 2.6 billion Christians still pray
today. Orthodox and Catholic Christians split in the East-West Schism of 1054,
but have generally strengthened their ties in recent decades. Rev. John
Chryssavgis, an adviser to Bartholomew, said the event is "especially meaningful
as a sign and pledge of unity in an otherwise fragmented and conflicted world".
Several other Orthodox Christian leaders are expected to attend the anniversary,
but the Vatican has not said which. The Moscow Patriarchate, an Orthodox
community closely allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin that severed ties
with Bartholomew in 2018, is not expected to take part.
POPE TO COMMEMORATE BEIRUT PORT EXPLOSION
Leo will also visit Istanbul's Blue Mosque, his first visit as pope to a Muslim
place of worship, and will celebrate a Catholic Mass at Istanbul's Volkswagen
Arena.
Rev. Nicola Masedu, pastor of Istanbul's Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit,
said interest in the new pope's visit led organizers to move the Mass from the
cathedral to the arena, which can hold around 5,000 people. Leo's schedule in
Lebanon includes a prayer at the site of the 2020 chemical explosion at the
Beirut port that killed 200 people and caused billions of dollars' worth of
damage. The pope will also host an inter-religious meeting and lead an outdoor
Mass on the Beirut waterfront. But Leo, visiting five towns and cities in the
country, will not travel to the south, the target of Israeli strikes.
Rev. Michel Abboud, who leads the Catholic Church's charity network in Lebanon,
told the Vatican's media outlet the pope's visit was one of "solidarity." "The
people will know that, despite all the difficult situations they have gone
through, they must not feel abandoned," he said.
Israel Killed Top Commander Because Lebanon Isn’t
Disarming Hezbollah
David Daoud/FDD/November 25/ 2025
Hezbollah’s active and ongoing regeneration is leading Israel to take
increasingly drastic measures to hinder the group’s rearmament. On November 23,
an Israeli airstrike targeted a residential building in Haret Hreik, in Beirut’s
southern suburbs, killing four Hezbollah operatives and the group’s de facto
military chief of staff, Haitham Ali Tabatabai, one of Hezbollah’s two top-level
commanders.
This is the most significant and escalatory of Israel’s ongoing operations
targeting Hezbollah since the November 2024 ceasefire. It underscores both
Beirut’s inaction against the group during that period and signals that Israel
believes its regeneration may have reached a tipping point.
Who Was Tabatabai and What Did He Do?
Tabatabai, born November 5, 1968, was a “first generation” Hezbollah veteran,
joining the group’s military ranks in the mid-1980s. In the intervening decades,
he occupied several significant posts, including founding and commanding the
group’s Radwan Force commando unit and overseeing Hezbollah’s operations against
Sunni militant groups on Lebanon’s border with Syria. According to the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF), Tabatabai also oversaw Hezbollah’s operations and
entrenchment inside Syria.
During the October 7 War, Tabatabai assumed command of Hezbollah’s military
operations against Israel. Since then, per Hezbollah’s eulogy, he “assumed
responsibility for the Islamic Resistance’s military leadership,” operating as
its chief of staff.
As chief, the IDF said, Tabatabai’s duties included “leading the organization’s
regeneration … command[ing] most of Hezbollah’s units and work[ing] extensively
to restore their readiness for war with Israel.” IDF Army Radio, Galei
Tzahal,reported that, over the past year, Tabatabai worked toward this goal with
Mohammad Haydar, with whom he shared the organization’s military command.
Hezbollah: Strike ‘Crossed a New Red Line’
Mahmoud Qmati, the deputy chairman of Hezbollah’s Politburo, said the strike
“crossed a new red line” underscoring “the need for resistance.” Qmati said “all
options are available” and the group’s leadership would “study the matter and
undertake the necessary response.” But he stopped short of threatening
retaliation. Instead, he said Hezbollah would continue coordinating with the
Lebanese state, calling upon Beirut to muster diplomatic pressure to halt
Israel’s operations.
Notwithstanding Qmati’s relatively measured statement, Tabatabai’s high rank and
the strike’s location — Beirut, rarely targeted over the past year — made
Sunday’s attack Israel’s riskiest operation against Hezbollah since the November
2024 ceasefire. Retaliation by Hezbollah could spiral into either a renewed war
of attrition or even full conflict. This, in turn, could create friction with
the United States, as Washington is demanding regional quiet, seeking
partnership with Lebanon, and has actively restrained Israel from escalation.
However, in the year since the ceasefire, Lebanon has demonstrated continued and
consistent unwillingness to disarm or meaningfully restrain Hezbollah. After the
country’s cabinet declined on September 5 to unambiguously make the Lebanese
Armed Forces’ (LAF) disarmament plan — the contents and progress of which remain
secret — official policy, President Joseph Aoun stressed Lebanon would not
forcibly disarm the group. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam signaled that Beirut had
shifted to passively winnowing Hezbollah’s arsenal, rather than seizing and
destroying it.
This has allowed Hezbollah’s regeneration to outpace ongoing Israeli operations,
leading Jerusalem to repeatedly widen the scope and intensity of its actions
against the group over the past month.
Next Steps To Prevent Further Escalation
Obstructing Hezbollah’s rearmament is the only way to prevent a renewed war.
Washington should therefore back Israel’s escalation, while leveraging U.S.
assistance to the LAF to pressure Lebanon to proactively disarm Hezbollah and
seal its borders to funds and weapons for the group. The United States should
simultaneously work with international partners to squeeze the group —
pressuring France, for example, to end its artificial distinction between
Hezbollah’s political and military wings as a precursor to European Union-wide
sanctions against the group and its fundraising. Washington should also induce
Syria to increase its interdictions of weapons transfers to Hezbollah through
its territory, pressure Turkey and Iraq to prevent flights from carrying money
to the group, and convince Persian Gulf partners to avoid reengaging with
Lebanon until it curbs Hezbollah and enacts significant political and economic
reforms.
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/11/24/israel-killed-top-commander-because-lebanon-isnt-disarming-hezbollah/
**David Daoud is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
(FDD), where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs. For more
analysis from
David and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow David on X @DavidADaoud. Follow FDD
on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute
focusing on national security and foreign policy.
Iran: The Financial Engine Behind the Muslim
Brotherhood-Hezbollah–Hamas Axis
Pierre A. Maroun/Face Book/November 25/2025
Iran’s Islamic Republic has become the financial engine powering a
cross-sectarian militant alliance linking the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Hamas,
Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Houthis. What once seemed an
ideological contradiction, Sunni Islamists cooperating with Shi’a militants, has
hardened into a single, well-funded, well-coordinated, and well-controlled,
network built on Tehran’s money, weapons, and political direction.
Recognizing this, President Donald Trump issued a November 24, 2025 executive
order directing the State and Treasury Departments to evaluate Muslim
Brotherhood chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt for designation as Foreign
Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT.)
The order reflects a major shift US policy. Washington now views MB branches not
as political movements, but as financial and logistical partners in Iran’s
regional proxy architecture.
Iran’s Financing Model Rewards Escalation
Iran’s funding to Hamas and Hezbollah has surged since the October 7, 2023
attacks. Tehran’s goal is not stability, it is controlled escalation.
• Hamas receives roughly $350 million annually, with Iran covering up to 90% of
its budget.
• Hezbollah receives $700 million to $1 billion a year, supporting an arsenal of
more than 150,000 rockets.
• MB-inspired groups such as PIJ and Lebanon’s Jamaa al-Islamiya receive tens of
millions more.
Iran’s investment transforms ideology into capability. Trump’s directive is
designed to strike at the financial arteries that sustain this system.
The Secret to Iran’s Success
Sanctions have failed to break Iran’s network because Tehran built a parallel
financial ecosystem operating outside the state banking system.
Key components include:
• Cryptocurrency: Iran and its proxies raised over $130 million (2021–2023)
through crypto wallets.
• Criminal enterprises: Hezbollah’s global smuggling routes, from West Africa to
Venezuela to Europe, generate hundreds of millions. There are strong allegations
that Turkey is helping Iran to smuggle funds to LH through syria.
• Charitable fronts: MB-style NGOs and real-estate endowments in Gaza, Lebanon,
Turkey, and Europe disguise Iranian transfers as “humanitarian aid.”
Approximately, 2.2-ton cocaine seizure in Ireland revealed how Iranian and
Hezbollah operatives launder profits through Latin America and Europe to fund
operations in Lebanon and Gaza. Hence, the US war on Venezuelan drug smugglers
in the Caribbean.
Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon: States on the Front Line
Egypt declared the MB a terrorist organization in 2013 and dismantled much of
its infrastructure, arguing that MB political structures and Hamas’s militant
wing are inseparable, a view now echoed in U.S. policy.
Jordan dissolved its Brotherhood chapter in 2020 and, in April 2025, banned all
MB activities and seized assets. Jordanian intelligence has documented MB–Hamas
coordination in the West Bank financed in part by Iran.
Lebanon remains the operational hub. Hezbollah functions as Tehran’s
headquarters for weapons transfers, training, and joint planning. Hamas’s
October 7 attack was reportedly greenlit in Beirut meetings involving IRGC,
Hezbollah, and Hamas commanders. Lebanon’s MB branch, al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, has
moved closer to Hezbollah, coordinating militarily in the south.
It remains uncertain how Turkey, a NATO member, and Qatar, a close U.S. ally,
will respond to President Trump’s November 2025 directive targeting the Muslim
Brotherhood. Both Ankara and Doha have historically provided financial,
political, and media support to Al‑Ikhwan (MB) across multiple arenas,
sustaining its influence well beyond national borders. Turkey has offered the
Brotherhood safe haven and platforms for its leadership, while Qatar has
bankrolled Hamas and Brotherhood‑linked charities under the guise of
humanitarian aid. This dual patronage complicates Washington’s effort to isolate
MB chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt, as any U.S. designation will
inevitably test relations with two states that remain strategically important to
American defense and energy policy. The question is whether Turkey and Qatar
will recalibrate their support in light of Trump’s directive, or double down,
risking deeper friction with Washington and its regional partners.
Conclusion
Iran’s financing has transformed disparate militant groups into a unified threat
network. October 7 was not an isolated event but the opening salvo of an
Iranian-designed escalation spanning Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and beyond.
Trump’s 2025 directive marks a turning point: the Muslim Brotherhood is now
treated as part of this axis, not a separate political actor. Regional partners
like Egypt and Jordan reinforce this view, underscoring that the Brotherhood’s
role is inseparable from Iran’s proxy strategy.
To prevent the next October 7, and to preserve the Ibraham Accord in the Middle
East, Washington and its allies must choke off Iran’s financial pipelines-oil
revenues, crypto flows, and charitable fronts. Failure to act decisively will
leave the region exposed to further escalation, with consequences that will
reverberate globally.
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Pope Francis’ Popemobile Transformed into Mobile Clinic for Gaza Children
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
A vehicle used by the late Pope Francis during a visit to Bethlehem more than a
decade ago has been transformed into a mobile health clinic that Christian
leaders hope will soon be used to provide care to Palestinian children in Gaza.
The initiative was blessed by Francis before he died in April and was entrusted
to the Catholic organization Caritas, which oversaw the project to convert the
vehicle unveiled on Tuesday. "We're pleased that we have here a serious
contribution towards the healthcare of children in Gaza," Caritas
Secretary-General Alistair Dutton told a press conference in Bethlehem. Francis
had used the vehicle, a converted Mitsubishi pick-up that was donated by
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, during his visit to Bethlehem in
2014.
NOT CLEAR WHEN MOBILE CLINIC CAN ENTER GAZA
The open platform at the back of the vehicle, where the pope once stood as he
travelled through Bethlehem, has now been enclosed and converted into the
children's treatment area. "This vehicle stands as a testimony that the world
has not forgotten the children of Gaza," said Cardinal Anders Arborelius of
Stockholm, who had approached Francis before his death about Caritas' idea of
converting the former popemobile into a mobile paediatric clinic. Caritas Sweden
Secretary-General Peter Brune said that the mobile clinic was capable of
treating around 200 children a day.But it was unclear when the vehicle would
enter Gaza, where a ceasefire still formally holds despite frequent Israeli
airstrikes on the territory battered by two years of war. "As soon as we
possibly can," Dutton said, declining to comment further. COGAT, the Israeli
government agency responsible for coordinating the entry of aid into the
enclave, declined to comment when asked about the request. Father Ibrahim Faltas
said he hoped the vehicle would be moved to Gaza in the "near future", telling
Reuters the popemobile-turned-clinic was ready to help children in Gaza.
AT LEAST 67 CHILDREN KILLED SINCE CEASEFIRE
The United Nations children's agency UNICEF said on Friday that at least 67
children have been killed in what it called conflict-related incidents since the
ceasefire went into effect. The Israeli military has said that it was targeting
fighters who have posed a threat to its soldiers occupying half of Gaza. Francis
frequently spoke out about the war in Gaza and in January called the
humanitarian situation there "shameful". He also called for the release of the
hostages taken captive by Palestinian gunmen, met their relatives and condemned
the Hamas attack on Israel that ignited the war. He was also known to speak by
phone with Gaza's small Christian community every evening during the war.
"We know how much Pope Francis loved the people of the Holy Land, the
people of Bethlehem and especially the people of Gaza," said Father Faltas,
representative of the Franciscan Friars to the State of Palestine.
Israel Says It Has Received Another Set of Human Remains
from Gaza
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Israel on Tuesday said it received human remains that Palestinian fighters
handed over to the Red Cross, but it was not immediately clear if they were one
of three hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip. The office of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said the remains will be taken for forensics testing and
identification. The handover is the latest under last month's fragile ceasefire
that has held despite mutual accusations of violations. The
Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it found the remains earlier this week in
Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza. Palestinian fighters have returned 25
bodies of hostages under the ceasefire deal that went into effect on Oct. 10. In
return, Israel has released the bodies of 330 Palestinians to Gaza. Most remain
unidentified. Under Israeli pressure to hurry, Hamas says it has not been able
to reach all remains of hostages because they are buried under rubble from
Israel’s two-year offensive. Israel has accused the fighters of dragging their
feet and threatened to resume military operations or withhold humanitarian aid
if all remains are not returned. Netanyahu’s office asserted that the delay in
returning remains amounted to a ceasefire violation. The remaining hostages have
been two Israelis and a man from Thailand.
Lack of DNA kits in Gaza
Palestinian officials have struggled to identify bodies returned by Israel
without access to DNA kits. Only 95 have been identified, according to the Gaza
Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government. Meanwhile, families in Gaza
confronted the aftermath of heavy winter rains that underscore the dire
humanitarian conditions for many of the 2 million people displaced by the war.
Aid has slowly entered Gaza, but organizations like the United Nation
humanitarian office have warned that shortages of crucial goods like food and
winter supplies persist, and have called on Israel to ease aid restrictions. The
war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that
killed some 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages. Almost all of the hostages
or their remains have been returned in ceasefires or other deals. Gaza’s Health
Ministry says 69,775 Palestinians have been killed and 170,863 injured in
Israel’s retaliatory offensive. It does not distinguish between civilians and
combatants in its figures but has said women and children make up a majority of
those killed. The ministry is staffed by medical professionals and maintains
detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.
A rising death toll in Gaza
While daily fighting has stopped in Gaza, the death toll has continued to go up
as Israel strikes parts of the territory in response to what it says are
ceasefire violations by Hamas. Gaza's health ministry on Tuesday said Israeli
forces killed three people east of Khan Younis in the south. The ministry said
the bodies were brought to hospitals along with 14 others recovered from under
the rubble over the past 24 hours. On Monday, Palestinian officials said at
least four people in Gaza were killed by Israeli fire. Those brought the death
toll to 345 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect, the ministry said. Two
men were killed when Israeli forces opened fire in the Tufah neighborhood in
eastern Gaza City, according to Shifa Hospital. Two more were killed in Beni
Suaila town east of Khan Younis, officials at Nasser Hospital said. Israel's
military said it killed “three terrorists” it said had crossed the so-called
yellow line separating areas controlled by Hamas from those held by Israeli
forces. The military didn’t account for the fourth fatality Palestinian
officials reported.
Planning for Gaza stabilization force
Planning was underway for an international stabilization force mandated by the
UN last week while approving Washington's 20-point blueprint to secure and
govern Gaza. Indonesia said Tuesday it was preparing troops. Officials said the
final deployment would await an official order from Indonesian President Prabowo
Subianto, who has said his country was ready to deploy 20,000 peacekeepers to
Gaza at any time. Gen. Agus Subianto, chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces, told
reporters the contingent would be a brigade consisting of health, engineering
and mechanized support battalions, and that the military was preparing other
support including three hospital warships, a C-130 Hercules military transport
aircraft and a helicopter. The US plan also includes a transitional authority to
be overseen by President Donald Trump and envisions a possible future path to an
independent Palestinian state.
Gaza Truce Mediators in Cairo to Discuss Second Phase
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Delegations from Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye, mediators along with the United
States of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, met on Tuesday in Cairo to discuss the
second phase of the deal, Egyptian state-linked media reported. Al-Qahera News,
which has ties to Egyptian intelligence, said the meeting included the Egyptian
and Turkish intelligence chiefs alongside the prime minister of Qatar. The
delegates discussed working with the US "to ensure the successful implementation
of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement" between Israel and Hamas, the
channel reported. Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye and the US act as both mediators and
guarantors for the Gaza deal, which came into effect on October 10 after two
years of war. Their meeting in Cairo came two days after a senior Hamas
delegation met with Egyptian spy chief Hassan Rashad to discuss the second phase
of the truce. That phase concerns disarming Hamas, establishing a transitional
authority and deploying an international stabilization force of foreign troops
to the Gaza Strip. According to Al-Qahera News, Tuesday's meeting addressed
"overcoming obstacles and limiting violations to ensure the ceasefire
holds".Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of violating the
truce. According to the Gaza health ministry, Israeli fire has killed more than
300 Palestinians since the truce took hold. The mediators on Tuesday also
"agreed to continue strengthening coordination and cooperation with the
Civil-Military Coordination Centre" -- the truce monitoring center set up by the
US and its allies in southern Israel.
‘Everything Is Soaked’: Winter Rains in Gaza Bring New
Misery for Palestinians
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Children and families in Gaza scooped muddy water from their tents on Tuesday,
trying to protect the few belongings that remain after two years of war.
Winter's heavy rains have left displaced Palestinians splashing in water
that reaches their ankles, and blaming both Israel and Hamas for the misery that
remains despite a ceasefire. "All tents were destroyed," said Assmaa Fayad in
Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, whose shelter was damaged in Tuesday’s latest
downpour. "Where is Hamas? Where are the people to see this rain and how our
children are drowning?"A Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, lashed out in a
message on Telegram: "All the world’s efforts to alleviate the disaster have
failed because of the Israeli siege."Aid organizations worry that the rainy
winter months will make the stark situation worse, with ongoing shortages of
humanitarian supplies. They are scrambling to mitigate the flooding and restore
infrastructure devastated by the fighting. Nearly all of Gaza’s over 2 million
people were forced from their homes during the war. Most have been living in
tents or shelters, some of them built over destroyed homes, with no proper
sewage facilities. For toilets, they depend on cesspits dug near tents that
overflow in heavy rainfall.
Rain-soaked mattresses
Reham al-Hilu was among those assessing the damage in Deir al-Balah, one of the
areas hardest hit by the rains. Her wood and metal shelter collapsed overnight,
and she said her head was injured. "Rainwater flooded the mattresses," she said.
"As you can see, everything is soaked — the clothes, everything — and my
children are all soaked." The United Nations
humanitarian office last week said the downpours have damaged at least 13,000
tents like al-Hilu's, and "destroyed what little shelter and belongings
thousands of Palestinians in Gaza had left."The office said aid organizations
had begun preparing for winter in October, when the ceasefire between Israel and
Hamas took effect, transporting materials like winterized tents into Gaza. Aid
groups were able to distribute over 3,600 tents, 129,000 tarpaulins and 87,000
blankets earlier this month, the UN office said. But the office said efforts
have been hampered by the slow entry of aid. It said deliveries into the
territory continue to be "severely constrained by Israeli authorities’
restrictions on the entry of shelter supplies.""Lifesaving humanitarian aid must
enter Gaza without obstruction and at scale," UN Secretary General António
Guterres said on Tuesday. The Israeli defense body responsible for the entry of
aid, COGAT, said it worked on "a dedicated response to the winter.""The effort
is ongoing - additional winter-related requests by international organizations
have already been approved, and entry will take place in the coming days," the
agency wrote Tuesday on X.
Roads become rivers. Roadways in Deir al-Balah turned
into shallow rivers of murky water. One man waded across carrying a young
daughter in each arm. Some families knelt on the ground, trying to soak up the
water with pieces of cloth. While daily fighting has stopped in Gaza, Israel
continues to strike parts of the territory in response to what it says are
violations by Hamas. Both sides have accused each other of violating ceasefire
conditions. And many displaced Palestinians remain crowded into the rough half
of Gaza's territory that Israeli forces don’t control.
Saudi Arabia Renews Commitment to Working with Partners to Achieve Aspirations
of Palestinians
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
The Saudi government reiterated on Tuesday the Kingdom’s commitment to working
with all partners to achieve the aspirations of the Palestinian people,
including the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the
1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The government also stressed
the need for the Israeli army to withdraw all of its forces from Gaza and for
the reconstruction of the enclave to begin. Prince
Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime
Minister, chaired the cabinet meeting that was held in Riyadh.
He briefed the ministers on the outcomes of his visit to the United States last
week, including his talks with President Donald Trump and their underscoring of
the historic friendship between Riyadh and Washington that has extended for more
than nine decades. They underlined their strategic partnership and support for
joint cooperation that would achieve the aspirations of their countries and
peoples. The leaders exchanged views on regional and international developments.
The cabinet hailed the outcomes of the Saudi-US summit that stressed keenness on
bolstering relations and elevating them to broader horizons in various fields.
The cabinet noted Saudi Arabia and the United States’ signing of a strategic
defense agreement and several others that underscore the Kingdom’s trust in the
American economy. The cabinet highlighted the talks in
Washington that stressed the importance of establishing peace, security and
stability in the region. Crown Prince Mohammed expressed his gratitude to Trump
for his efforts in ending the war on Gaza, underlining the importance of
implementing the two-state solution so that the Palestinian people can enjoy
their legitimate rights. The cabinet highlighted Trump’s receptiveness to Crown
Prince Mohammed’s advice to resolve the war in Sudan and maintaining the
country’s unity and ending the suffering of its people. The cabinet tackled the
outcomes of the G20 summit that was hosted by Johannesburg. At the summit, Saudi
Arabia expressed its support for efforts to reform the global trade system and
bolster a fair multilateral trade system that allows countries to effectively be
part of the global economy. The cabinet reviewed the various global events that
were hosted by the Kingdom in the past week, hailing the Cityscape Global
conference that was held in Riyadh. The cabinet said the meeting will boost the
real estate sector and its contributions to the national economy.
Iran to Raise Fuel Prices Under Limited Conditions
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Iran will raise the price of its heavily subsidised fuel under certain limited
circumstances, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday, as the
OPEC member seeks to control increasing fuel demand without triggering public
anger. "With the government's decision, starting in December, refuelling
vehicles with emergency fuel cards will be charged at a rate of 50,000 Iranian
rials per litre ($0.44 per the free market rate)," Tasnim reported, adding that
the new rate represented 10% of what it costs the state to buy one litre of fuel
from refineries, Reuters reported. Emergency cards can be used at fuel stations
if the driver is not in possession of their smart card, introduced in 2007,
which allows them to purchase up to 60 litres of fuel at 15,000 rials per litre
($0.14) and up to 100 litres at 30,000 rials per litre ($0.27). According to
Tasnim, domestic fuel production of around 110 million litres per day is
surpassed by rising demand which can go up to 140 million litres per day due to
several factors such as inefficient cars, smuggling and summer heat. Government
officials have warned that subsidized fuel prices in Iran are "not rational",
impose a heavy burden on state finances, and incentivise suboptimal consumption
as well as force fuel imports. The introduction of a third pricing rate for fuel
in Iran differs from the sudden decision in 2019 to raise fuel prices for all
smart cards, which led to widespread protests that were crushed by the state.
Tasnim shared the cabinet decision's document, which also mentions that private
drivers owning several cars will only be able to use smart card quotas for one
of their cars, while government-owned vehicles, newly-produced cars and foreign
imported cars will have to pay the more expensive rate. According to the
document, further changes such as lower gas quotas for CNG-powered cars, which
represent an important share of taxis, are expected in February.
Russian attacks kill at least 6 in Ukraine amid US push
to end war
Associated Press/November 25/2025
Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least six
people in overnight strikes that hit city buildings and energy infrastructure,
while a Ukrainian attack in southern Russia killed three people and damaged
homes, authorities said.
The large-scale attacks come during a renewed U.S. push to end the war that has
raged for nearly four years and talks about a U.S.-brokered peace plan. Army
Secretary Dan Driscoll met with Russian officials for several hours in Abu Dhabi
on Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press. Driscoll, who
became part of the U.S. negotiating team less than two weeks ago, is heading up
the latest phase of talks involving the terms of a possible peace plan with
Russia. The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
sensitive negotiations, would not offer details on how long the negotiations
were expected to last or what topics were being discussed, but noted the
Ukrainians were aware of the meeting and all sides have indicated they wanted to
reach a deal to halt the fighting as quickly as possible. Russia fired 22
missiles of various types and over 460 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, noting that four drones flew
into Romania and Moldova. "What's crucial now is for
all partners to move toward diplomacy together, through joint efforts. Pressure
on Russia must inevitably work," Zelenskyy wrote.
Kyiv targeted in latest attack
The Russian strikes knocked out water, electricity and heat in parts of
Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Video footage posted to Telegram showed a large fire
spreading in a nine-story residential building in Kyiv's eastern Dniprovskyi
district. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said two people were killed and five injured
in Dniprovskyi and another residential building in the central Pecherskyi
district was badly damaged. Liubov Petrivna, a 90-year-old resident of a damaged
building in the Dniprovskyi district, told the AP "absolutely everything" in her
apartment was shattered by the strike and "glass rained down" on her.
Petrivna said she didn't believe in the peace plan now under discussion: "No one
will ever do anything about it. Putin won't stop until he finishes us off."In a
subsequent attack wave, four people were killed and three were injured in a
strike on a nonresidential building in Kyiv's western Sviatoshynyi district,
according to the head of Kyiv city administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
Strikes hit energy infrastructure
Ukraine's energy ministry also said energy infrastructure had been hit, without
describing the extent of the damage. Ukraine's emergency services said six
people, including two children, were injured in a Russian attack on energy and
port infrastructure in Odesa region. Three people were killed and eight more
were wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's southern Rostov region
overnight. The casualties occurred in the city of Taganrog not far from the
border in Ukraine, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said in an online statement Tuesday. The
attack damaged private houses and multistory residential blocks, unspecified
social facilities, a warehouse and a paint shop, Slyusar said.
Russian air defenses destroyed 249 Ukrainian drones overnight above
various Russian regions and the occupied Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry
said Tuesday, noting that 116 of the drones were shot down over the Black Sea.
Peace efforts going in 'right direction'
The attacks followed talks between U.S. and Ukraine representatives in Geneva on
Sunday about a U.S.-Russia brokered peace plan. Oleksandr Bevz, a delegate from
the Ukrainian side, told The Associated Press the talks had been "very
constructive" and the two sides were able to discuss most points. Kremlin
spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Tuesday morning that Moscow has not received
the updated peace plan. French President Emmanuel
Macron said Tuesday that a U.S.-brokered peace plan for Ukraine "goes in the
right direction" but also cautioned it must not be "a capitulation" enabling
Russia to later renew hostilities. The French head of state said any peace deal
with Moscow must include robust security guarantees for Ukraine and, more
widely, for Europe and he insisted the size of Ukraine's armed forces shouldn't
be restricted so it can defend the country in peacetime. Macron was speaking to
broadcaster RTL before a video conference meeting later Tuesday of countries,
led by France and the UK, that could help police any ceasefire with Russia. "We
want peace but we don't want a peace is that is, in fact, a capitulation. That
is to say it puts Ukraine in an impossible position, that in the end gives
Russia the freedom to keep going, to go further," Macron said.
Peace proposals that Ukraine has been discussing with Trump
administration envoys and European allies "goes in the right direction: peace"
but parts of it need to be improved, he said. "No one can replace the Ukrainians
in saying which territorial concessions they are prepared to make," said the
French leader, who sounded skeptical about the plan's chances of success.
"There's only one person who doesn't want peace: it's Russia."
US, Russia hold talks on Ukraine in Abu Dhabi
Agence France Presse/November 25/2025
U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was meeting with a Russian delegation in Abu
Dhabi, U.S. and British media reported Tuesday, days after talks with Ukraine in
Geneva aimed at ending the conflict. Driscoll met the Russian delegation on
Monday with talks due to continue on Tuesday, ABC News and the Financial Times
reported, citing a U.S. official. The latest talks
were previously undisclosed, and follow meetings held in Geneva between U.S. and
Ukrainian officials aimed at resolving the war with Russia.
The Financial Times said the head of Ukrainian military intelligence
Kyrylo Budanov would be present at the talks, without detailing the Russian
officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news reporters: "I have
nothing to tell you. We are following the media reports."
Ukraine wants Zelensky-Trump meeting this week -
Meanwhile, a top Ukrainian negotiator said that Ukraine wants President
Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. counterpart Donald Trump to meet this week for
further talks on ending the war. "We look forward to organizing a visit by the
President of Ukraine to the United States at the earliest possible date in
November," Ukrainian security council secretary Rustem Umerov said on Telegram.
Ukraine Backs 'Essence' of Peace Deal with Russia but Sensitive Issues Linger
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Ukraine on Tuesday signalled support for the framework of a peace deal with
Russia but stressed that sensitive issues needed to be fixed at a meeting
between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and US President Donald Trump. Kyiv's
message hinted that an intense diplomatic push by the Trump administration could
be yielding some fruit but any optimism could be short-lived, especially as
Russia stressed it would not let any deal stray too far from its own objectives.
US and Ukrainian negotiators held talks on the latest US-backed peace plan in
Geneva on Sunday. US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll then met on Monday and Tuesday
with Russian officials, a spokesperson for Driscoll said. US and Ukrainian
officials have been trying to narrow the gaps between them over the plan to end
Europe's deadliest and most devastating conflict since World War Two, with
Ukraine wary of being strong-armed into accepting a deal largely on the
Kremlin's terms, including territorial concessions. "Ukraine - after Geneva -
supports the framework's essence, and some of the most sensitive issues remain
as points for the discussion between presidents," a Ukrainian official said.
Zelenskiy could visit the United States in the next few days to finalize a deal
with Trump, Kyiv's national security chief Rustem Umerov said, though no such
trip was confirmed from the US side. White House press secretary Karoline
Leavitt said on X that over the past week the US had made "tremendous progress
towards a peace deal by bringing both Ukraine and Russia to the table". She
added: "There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be
sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the
United States."
Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Hamas Weighs Proposal to Transform
into Political Party
Gaza/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
Sources within the Hamas movement said leaders from inside and outside the Gaza
Strip have opened an internal debate on the group’s political future under the
new reality created by Israel’s two-year war that followed the October 7, 2023
attack. According to Hamas sources who spoke to Asharq
Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity, a paper submitted by several of the group’s
leaders included a proposal to “establish a political party similar to existing
political groups that continue to represent a national Islamic political
approach, presenting itself as a body capable of taking part in political,
economic, social and general public life.”
Participation in the Palestine Liberation Organization
The sources said the paper also calls for “a comprehensive Palestinian
reconciliation that secures this project, including participation in the
Palestine Liberation Organization while working to reorganize and restructure it
through a broad national agreement that allows for the inclusion of all parties,
and restores the Palestinian political system’s relevance.”“It also urges
greater openness to Arab and Islamic states and the international community by
opening political channels with all these parties, and transforming into an
important political actor that ensures the movement’s survival away from its
weapons.”
The sources said the proposal has already been submitted to the political
bureau, the Shura Council, the supreme leadership council that runs the
movement, and other bodies inside Hamas. They added that the ideas form part of
a broader review launched after the war, covering Hamas’s political positions
and its assessment of its internal and external realities following the
assassinations of its leaders and the obligations imposed by the Sharm el-Sheikh
ceasefire agreement reached in October.
Balancing weapons and politics
Responding to a question from Asharq Al-Awsat about whether the initiative
reflects acceptance of or concern over disarmament, one of the proposal’s
sponsors, a senior Hamas figure based abroad, said it came “after a relatively
stable political period inside the movement following the ceasefire
agreement.”The official said the proposal “is not essentially about the weapons
of the resistance. It is more about the need to adapt to the political shifts in
the region in a way that prevents the elimination of Hamas as a Palestinian
movement that has waged many struggles, especially after Israel’s military
machine failed to achieve that goal.” Discussing how Hamas could form a
political party while keeping its weapons, the senior source said the movement
“is open to discussing the issue of its weapons. This has been under discussion
from the beginning of the ceasefire until now with Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye, and
even indirectly with the United States. It may be raised again in expected
meetings with United States officials in the coming period.”But the source
stressed that any arrangement “must be through a Palestinian national agreement
on the weapons of the resistance, with no Israeli role and no permission for the
international force mentioned in the United Nations Security Council resolution
to impose itself by force to disarm or apply other steps.”“That could lead to an
undesirable and dangerous state of chaos that the movement does not want. Hamas
seeks consensus on the next steps under the ceasefire agreement, whether at the
national level or with the mediators, the United States and the international
community.”
Gradual shift to political work
According to the sources, the proposal by several Hamas leaders aims for a
gradual shift toward political activity “to ensure that Palestinians maintain
their principles under the changes imposed by the new reality taking shape in
the region after the Gaza war.”The sources noted that some voices inside Hamas
argued during the leadership-level debate that the movement “must think outside
the box, and that weapons alone, including rockets and tunnels, cannot guarantee
the movement’s future.”They pointed out that the war cost Hamas much of its
popular and social support, and that “there must be a balanced vision that
preserves the movement while maintaining its general principles, and affirms
that resistance, whether armed or popular, is a right for Palestinians.”The
sources said advocates of the new ideas stressed the need for “a political
approach more open to the transformations in the region, which now link peace
with development and reconstruction, a principle included in the ceasefire
agreement.” “They warned that the recent United States
draft resolution submitted to the Security Council and adopted by a majority
poses risks to the entire Palestinian cause by attempting to impose dangerous
realities such as separating Gaza from the West Bank and occupied
Jerusalem.”Hamas has faced pressure since the latest ceasefire talks, including
from some of its backers, to accept disarmament, surrender governance in Gaza
and end the state of open conflict with Israel. Palestinian sources told Asharq
Al-Awsat this could pave the way for a comprehensive political agreement in the
region that would lay the foundation for a Palestinian state on the 1967
borders.According to the sources, “the Hamas leadership and Palestinian factions
aligned with it do not favor prolonged, open conflict, but say all this was
imposed on them by continuing Israeli military actions even after the ceasefire.
The factions want to reach a long-term truce, which they hope to achieve through
the current agreement, although they were aiming for a better deal.”
Sudan’s Warring Factions Have Not Yet Accepted Peace Plan,
Trump Advisor Says
Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
The United States presented the warring Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid
Support Forces (RSF) with a strong text for a peace plan but neither side has
accepted it, senior US envoy Massad Boulos said on Tuesday. Trump said last week
he would intervene to stop the devastating conflict, which broke out in April
2023 and has spread famine and ethnic killings across the country and threatened
a split, the second in its history. Previous efforts
led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates have
failed to bear fruit. The group, known as the Quad, submitted a proposal to the
two forces in early November. Boulos, US President Donald Trump's advisor for
African and Arab affairs, said both Sudan's warring factions had welcomed the US
plan but neither had formally accepted the text. On Sunday however, army chief
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan described the US's latest proposal as the worst he'd
seen, saying it sidelined the army and granted the RSF legitimacy. Boulos,
speaking at a press conference in Abu Dhabi, said the army had come back with
"preconditions", but the US wanted the plan accepted in its original form.
Meanwhile, on Monday, RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said his forces would
enter into a unilateral ceasefire immediately. It was unclear on Tuesday whether
that ceasefire held. Boulos said he welcomed the RSF's declaration and hoped it
would be upheld, and said Burhan's criticisms were based on the wrong facts.
The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources on
November 25-26/2025
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a
terrorist organization is in the interest of Muslims.
Mamdouh Al-Muhaini/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
(Translated freely from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani)
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/11/149550/
The Trump administration's intent to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a
terrorist group is a step that was delayed due to the legal complexity of the
matter. Nonetheless, it will be an important step, and despite all the internal
American justifications for this designation, the beneficiaries of this move are
Muslims before anyone else. First: The designation will weaken their grip on
Muslim communities in America and Europe, and it will grant Muslims an
opportunity to practice their religion without the high political dosage
injected into the faith by the Brotherhood. The centers and associations in
America and the West generally promote political Islam in their majority, not
true Islam. They seek to create cadres, not good Muslims. They establish
intellectual fences between Muslims and the American and European societies they
live in, forcing them into isolation that prevents them from interacting with
their surroundings. We have witnessed extremist figures emerging from these
communities and joining "Jihadi" groups. How did this happen? Simply because the
Brotherhood and other activist groups shaped the extremist religious
imagination. Weakening their grip will open the door for ideas of tolerance and
religious moderation to flourish and spread, promoting greater immersion and
integration.
Second: Designating the Brotherhood is in the interest of Muslims because it
will reduce the spread of the destructive idea of hatred. We know that the
movements of violence originate from the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology. Every
terrorist is a former extremist. You cannot fight extremism while being lenient
with the extremists. This is what Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, which
designated the Brotherhood long ago, realized. Their influence is bad for minds,
and they impede any progress under religious pretexts, which are, in fact,
driven by authoritarian motives. What happened is that these extremists migrated
from the East to the West and carried their ideas with them. They poisoned the
atmosphere there, broadcast their inflammatory propaganda, and spread hatred in
every direction. They used religion and allied with every faction to incite
against the countries that fought them. Third: Designating the Brotherhood is in
the interest of Muslims. I agree with those who say that the Islamic religion
has been hijacked. Bin Laden, Al-Baghdadi, Soleimani, and Al-Zarqawi have their
hands stained with the blood of innocents (most of whom are Muslims... we must
not forget that the majority of terrorism victims are Muslims, both killers and
killed), yet they cite noble verses and Hadiths to justify the atrocities they
committed. None of this has anything to do with Islam. Islam is a great
religion, and like the great religions throughout history, it calls for the
values of moderation and balance, and it does not conflict with modern
civilization if interpreted in a rational and scientific way. The Brotherhood
hijacked this Islam and drove us out of it, but they created a distorted version
of it, and the world believed this was Islam. Weakening the Brotherhood will
serve Islam and free it from its hijackers and those who distort it.
No Nation Globally Has Expressed Readiness to Have Its
Forces Directly Engage Hamas Fighters'
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./November 25, 2025
The Palestinian terror groups clearly want to hold on to their weapons: they
evidently see that having weapons is the only way for them to control, directly
and indirectly, any new government established in the Gaza Strip.
They also evidently see that whoever is in charge of security in the Gaza Strip
will control all the humanitarian aid....
For now, it seems that the Arab and Islamic countries are not enthusiastic about
joining an international force in the Gaza Strip. Some of these countries, such
as Qatar and Turkey, support Hamas and doubtless want it to stay in power, while
others are afraid of being branded "collaborators" with Israel against the
Palestinian "resistance."
Most Arabs and Muslims do not see Hamas as a threat to their national security;
they therefore see no need to engage the terror group.
This leaves Israel as the only country that has an urgent interest in disarming
Hamas to prevent the terror group and its allies in the Gaza Strip from carrying
out more atrocities against Israel.
If the proposed international force does not want to, or is incapable of,
undertaking such a task, the Trump administration and the rest of the
international community should give Israel a green light to finish the job and
rid the Gaza Strip of Hamas and all the terror groups.
Unfortunately, total disarmament appears the only way to ensure Trump's vision
that "Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat
to its neighbors."
More importantly, the Trump administration needs to make sure that members of
these terror groups, including Hamas, are not incorporated into any new
Palestinian police force that is established in the Gaza Strip. Recruiting
Islamist jihadis and terrorists to such a police force would allow them to
pursue their Jihad (holy war) against Israel with new uniforms and guns supplied
by the international community.
Regrettably, if radicals and jihadists are expected to transform themselves into
legitimate law-enforcers, the deradicalization of the Gaza Strip will never take
place.
Since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has allowed various
other terror groups to operate so long as they did not pose a threat to its
rule. In 2018, Hamas established the Joint Room for Palestinian Resistance
Factions with the other groups to form a single front and command institution
against Israel.
Hamas was not the only terror group that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Several other Palestinian armed groups also took part in the assault, which
resulted in the murder of 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, the wounding of
thousands, and the kidnapping of 251 people to the Gaza Strip.
Some Middle East experts and political analysts tend to forget that Hamas is not
the only terror group operating inside the Gaza Strip. Among the other groups:
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP), Popular Resistance Committees, Democratic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (DFLP), Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (affiliated with the Fatah faction
headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas), Palestinian Mujahideen
Movement, and Palestinian Freedom Movement. Some of these groups were also
involved in kidnapping and holding many of the Israeli and foreign hostages in
the Gaza Strip.
In December 2023, senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk confirmed that some of
the hostages were being detained by "different factions" that had participated
in the October 7 attack.
Members of these groups also participated in fighting Israel during the Gaza
war, which began immediately after the massacres of October 7.
According to The New Arab media outlet:
"To support Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and despite any ideological or
political differences, thousands of fighters from four other Palestinian
factions have been fighting against the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza since
October 7, 2023. These armed faction fighters are actively participating in
attacks on invading Israeli ground troops, launching rockets at the Israeli
towns and even holding some of the Israelis that were captured."
Since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has allowed all
these terror groups to operate so long as they did not pose a threat to its
rule.
In 2018, Hamas established the Joint Room for Palestinian Resistance Factions
with the other groups to form a single front and command institution against
Israel.
Ayman Nofal, a member of the General Military Council of the Izz a-Din Qassam
Brigades, Hamas's military terrorist wing, told Qatar's Al-Jazeera television
network on June 12, 2023 that the joint operations room was part of the "unity
of the fronts and arenas" strategy, spearheaded by the Gaza Strip and its
"resistance." He claimed that these groups believed their "struggle" for "the
liberation of Palestine" and the removal of the "occupation" were necessitating
resources and a united front. According to Nofal, at the heart of the
"resistance axis and arenas" were Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque, the central
objective and motivation for their activities.
The continued presence of these terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip underscores
the challenges facing the implementation of US President Donald J. Trump's
20-point plan for ending the Israel-Hamas war. The first phase of the plan calls
for the release of all the hostages, alive and dead, and the suspension of
Israeli military activities, within 72 hours. Hamas has yet to return the
remains of three hostages: two Israelis and a Thai national.
The remaining phases of Trump's plan propose establishing a temporary
transitional committee of technocrats and apolitical figures to govern the Gaza
Strip with oversight, supervised by a new international transitional body called
the Board of Peace.
The plan states:
" Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza,
directly, indirectly, or in any form.... There will be a process of
demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which
will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of
decommissioning..."
Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups have repeatedly emphasized that
they will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established.
Moreover, they have expressed strong opposition to the deployment of
international forces inside the Gaza Strip under the pretext that it would be an
attempt to "impose an international trusteeship" on the Palestinians.
The Palestinian terror groups clearly want to hold on to their weapons: they
evidently concluded that having weapons is the only way for them to control,
directly and indirectly, any new government established in the Gaza Strip.
They also evidently concluded that whoever is in charge of security in the Gaza
Strip will control all the humanitarian aid entering the coastal enclave. The
terror groups apparently want to lay their hands on the aid so they can collect
taxes and sell various goods to the residents at exorbitant prices to fund their
military activities and infrastructure.
On October 31, the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center observed suspected
Hamas operatives looting an aid truck traveling as part of a humanitarian convoy
delivering needed assistance from international partners to Gazans in northern
Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. The coordination center was alerted through video
surveillance from a US MQ-9 aerial drone flying overhead to monitor
implementation of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
For now, it seems that the Arab and Islamic countries are not enthusiastic about
joining an international force in the Gaza Strip. Some of these countries, such
as Qatar and Turkey, support Hamas and doubtless want it to stay in power, while
others are afraid of being branded "collaborators" with Israel against the
Palestinian "resistance."
"No nation globally has expressed readiness to have its forces directly engage
Hamas fighters," according to a report in the Israel Hayom newspaper. The report
revealed that Azerbaijan – an ally of Israel that considered joining the force
several weeks ago – conveyed in recent days the message that it will not agree
to endanger the lives of its soldiers in Gaza. "In Baku, as in other countries,
officials are currently discussing participation in the International
Stabilization Force as part of reconstruction processes and maintaining calm,
but not at the stage currently required of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing
the Strip," the newspaper reported.
Most Arabs and Muslims do not see Hamas as a threat to their national security;
they therefore see no need to engage the terror group.
This leaves Israel as the only country that has an urgent interest in disarming
Hamas to prevent the terror group and its allies in the Gaza Strip from carrying
out more atrocities against Israel.
It is imperative that the Trump administration insist on the disarmament of all
the terror groups operating in the Gaza Strip, not only Hamas. If the proposed
international force does not want to, or is incapable of undertaking such a
task, the Trump administration and the rest of the international community
should give Israel a green light to finish the job and rid the Gaza Strip of
Hamas and all the terror groups.
Unfortunately, total disarmament appears the only way to ensure Trump's vision
that "Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat
to its neighbors."More importantly, the Trump administration needs to make sure
that members of these terror groups, including Hamas, are not incorporated into
any new Palestinian police force that is established in the Gaza Strip.
Recruiting Islamist jihadis and terrorists to such a police force would allow
them to pursue their Jihad (holy war) against Israel with new uniforms and guns
supplied by the international community.
Regrettably, if radicals and jihadists are expected to transform themselves into
legitimate law-enforcers, the deradicalization of the Gaza Strip will never take
place.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
*Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22078/gaza-hamas-disarmament
© 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.
Next Stop in America's Race with China for Global Preeminence: The Moon
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./November 25/2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22077/moon-race-us-china
In announcing the Apollo lunar landing mission nearly 65 years ago, President
John F. Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the Moon... not because it's easy but
because it is hard."Our ability to safely land Americans on the Moon and return
them to Earth defined our nation, our leadership, global prominence, and the
ability of democracy to accomplish great things.
It is time for Act Two.
The 21st-century race to return earthlings to the Moon makes the Kennedy era
appear quaint: the stakes today extend far beyond national pride. The United
States must prioritize returning to the Moon before China, to secure strategic
advantages here on Earth for generations to come.
As it did during the days of the first space race, lunar leadership translates
directly into technological and economic dominance on our home planet. In
addition, the nation that establishes the first sustainable lunar presence will
set the standards for access to space resources, communications and
interplanetary sovereignty. Lunar leadership also creates a strategic advantage
in mining rare earth elements that have become essential for 21st-century
technology. No small surprise that the Chinese have used access to their own
rare earth resources as a key bargaining chip with the White House. Scientists
believe there are far more on the Moon. We need to
recognize that allowing China to claim lunar primacy would also represent a
profound shift in global power dynamics. China's space program is tied to its
broader ambitions for global dominance. A Chinese Moon could mean claims that
would exclude other nations from access to the Moon or to lunar resources. This
scenario would replicate China's earthbound policies and create conflict rather
than cooperation.
Equally crucial, American leadership on the Moon reinforces the values of an
open society, collaboration, and scientific leadership.
No surprise then that the Trump Administration has just reopened the contract to
build the spacecraft designed to land Americans on the Moon. Unhappy with the
pace of the current award to SpaceX, NASA's Acting Administrator Sean Duffy told
media, "Whatever one can get us there first to the Moon, we're going to take....
I feel pretty confident that with this competition we are going to beat the
Chinese."
John F. Kennedy would have approved. Yes, going to the Moon is hard. Let us
prove once again that American leadership will conquer that challenge.
**Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. 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.
Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist
organization is in the interest of Muslims.
Mamdouh Al-Muhaini/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 25/2025
(Translated freely from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani)
The Trump administration's intent to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a
terrorist group is a step that was delayed due to the legal complexity of the
matter. Nonetheless, it will be an important step, and despite all the internal
American justifications for this designation, the beneficiaries of this move are
Muslims before anyone else.
First: The designation will weaken their grip on Muslim communities in America
and Europe, and it will grant Muslims an opportunity to practice their religion
without the high political dosage injected into the faith by the Brotherhood.
The centers and associations in America and the West generally promote political
Islam in their majority, not true Islam. They seek to create cadres, not good
Muslims. They establish intellectual fences between Muslims and the American and
European societies they live in, forcing them into isolation that prevents them
from interacting with their surroundings. We have witnessed extremist figures
emerging from these communities and joining "Jihadi" groups. How did this
happen? Simply because the Brotherhood and other activist groups shaped the
extremist religious imagination. Weakening their grip will open the door for
ideas of tolerance and religious moderation to flourish and spread, promoting
greater immersion and integration.
Second: Designating the Brotherhood is in the interest of Muslims because it
will reduce the spread of the destructive idea of hatred. We know that the
movements of violence originate from the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology. Every
terrorist is a former extremist. You cannot fight extremism while being lenient
with the extremists. This is what Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, which
designated the Brotherhood long ago, realized. Their influence is bad for minds,
and they impede any progress under religious pretexts, which are, in fact,
driven by authoritarian motives. What happened is that these extremists migrated
from the East to the West and carried their ideas with them. They poisoned the
atmosphere there, broadcast their inflammatory propaganda, and spread hatred in
every direction. They used religion and allied with every faction to incite
against the countries that fought them.Third: Designating the Brotherhood is in
the interest of Muslims. I agree with those who say that the Islamic religion
has been hijacked. Bin Laden, Al-Baghdadi, Soleimani, and Al-Zarqawi have their
hands stained with the blood of innocents (most of whom are Muslims... we must
not forget that the majority of terrorism victims are Muslims, both killers and
killed), yet they cite noble verses and Hadiths to justify the atrocities they
committed. None of this has anything to do with Islam. Islam is a great
religion, and like the great religions throughout history, it calls for the
values of moderation and balance, and it does not conflict with modern
civilization if interpreted in a rational and scientific way. The Brotherhood
hijacked this Islam and drove us out of it, but they created a distorted version
of it, and the world believed this was Islam. Weakening the Brotherhood will
serve Islam and free it from its hijackers and those who distort it.
Washington Finally Takes on the Muslim Brotherhood
Mark Dubowitz & Mariam Wahba/Insight/November 25/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/11/149555/
After weeks of hinting that a major policy shift was imminent, President Donald
Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) on November 24 directing the State and
Treasury Departments to begin the process of designating components of the
Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially
Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). In doing so, the
Trump administration has settled a long debate about how to best tackle the
ever-growing Islamist movement, avoiding the structural mistakes that derailed
previous U.S. efforts to target the Brotherhood. For
years, Washington has been divided over how to confront it. One side has pushed
for a sweeping, movement-wide designation, treating the organization as a
single, monolithic entity. The other has argued for a targeted, branch-based
strategy, blacklisting individual arms of the Brotherhood that cross the line
from extremism into terrorism. The EO embraces the latter strategy, focusing on
a designation framework that can withstand judicial scrutiny and streamline
enforcement.
For decades, the Brotherhood has portrayed itself as a unified global movement.
That narrative has always overstated the degree of central authority, but it is
particularly outdated today. The modern Brotherhood is a sprawling network of
national branches, ideological allies, and autonomous affiliates that share a
historical lineage but not a unified chain of command. Some branches engage in
domestic politics, others maintain armed wings, and many operate in the gray
zone between activism and militancy. This
fragmentation is neither incidental nor recent. It is a defining feature of the
Brotherhood, and grasping it is essential for U.S. policymakers seeking to
confront the threats the movement poses. Under U.S.
law, an FTO designation requires meeting three clear standards: the organization
must be foreign; it must engage in or retain the capability and intent to engage
in terrorism; and its activities must threaten U.S. nationals or the national
security of the United States. These statutory criteria, set out in Section 219
of the Immigration and Nationality Act, are intentionally rigorous. They exist
to ensure that designations target actual threats rather than broad, loosely
affiliated ideological networks. This legal and
organizational reality explains why previous attempts to designate the
Brotherhood failed. Washington could not point to a central headquarters, a
single leadership structure, or an unbroken chain of operational control.
Attempts in 2015 and during the first Trump administration stalled for exactly
these reasons.
The case of Hamas, the Brotherhood’s Gaza branch, illustrates the logic of a
branch-based strategy. The United States designated Hamas in 1997 following a
sustained campaign of terrorist attacks. That designation focused on the branch
that met the legal threshold while leaving other parts of the network to be
assessed individually. The new EO establishes a permanent interagency process to
extend this framework to additional Brotherhood branches that independently meet
the criteria for FTO or SDGT status.
This framework offers several advantages. First, it enables immediate action
against the most dangerous Brotherhood branches, including those directly
engaged in terrorism or armed conflict and the media and financial ecosystems
that enable them. Second, it allows for disciplined sequencing. Designations
would build outward from the clearest cases, insulating the process from the
evidentiary vulnerabilities that have undermined past attempts. Third, it
preserves the integrity of U.S. counterterrorism authorities by ensuring that
FTO and SDGT tools are applied to organizations that genuinely meet the legal
standard rather than to an amorphous ideological movement. Fourth, it avoids
sweeping in political actors whose activities, while objectionable or illiberal,
do not rise to the level of terrorism and the designation of which would not
withstand judicial review. Finally, it facilitates coordination with allies,
many of whom have already designated specific Brotherhood-linked groups but have
avoided movement-wide bans for the same legal reasons that constrain the United
States.
While the EO formally identifies the first three branches targeted — those in
Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon — other branches of the Brotherhood could also meet
the criteria for future review. Yemen’s Al-Islah Party, long presented as a
political organization, includes senior figures with deep ties to al-Qaeda and
maintains armed elements accused of collaborating with a U.S.-designated FTO,
the Houthis. In addition to these, other Brotherhood-linked entities, like its
many media outlets, may also warrant attention as evidence accumulates. By
starting with the three named chapters, the administration establishes a
framework that can expand methodically to include additional branches and
affiliates that independently satisfy the statutory thresholds for FTO or SDGT
designation. These examples underscore why the United
States must abandon the fiction of a unified Muslim Brotherhood and adopt a
structure that reflects operational reality. A movement-wide designation would
collapse dozens of disparate actors into a single entity that does not exist in
practice and cannot be demonstrated in court. A branch-based approach allows
Washington to apply pressure methodically, build cases sequentially, and pursue
a long-term counterterrorism campaign focused on enforcement.
The central task is now execution. State and Treasury must compile evidentiary
records, pursue designations sequentially, and maintain the discipline that has
eluded previous efforts. A sustainable U.S. strategy requires recognizing that
the Brotherhood is not one organization but a network of branches, some of which
unquestionably meet the statutory thresholds for FTO or SDGT status. The
challenge is to target those branches directly and systematically, without
collapsing the entire ecosystem into an unworkable abstraction.
That is the strategy the administration has now embraced, and it is the
strategy that can succeed where earlier efforts failed.
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/11/24/washington-finally-takes-on-the-muslim-brotherhood/
**Mark Dubowitz is the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies (FDD), where Mariam Wahba is a research analyst. Follow Mark on X
@mdubowitz and Mariam on X @themariamwahba.
Iran’s Water Bankruptcy
Mehdi Ketabchy & Saeed Ghasseminejad/Real Clear World/November 25/2025
Iran is running out of water, and the alarms are no longer abstract. Masoud
Pezeshkian, the president of the Islamic Republic, openly discusses the need for
massive internal migration due to water shortages. Intensified by chronic
mismanagement and a succession of scorching, rain-starved years, reservoirs have
plunged to historic lows, many farm lands have withered into dust bowls, and an
emblematic inland sea – Lake Urmia – has largely vanished. This is not a far-off
climate parable or a future scenario for environmental modelers; it is a
present-tense emergency with humanitarian, economic, and security consequences
that are already beginning to spill beyond Iran’s borders. The international
community must pay close attention: Iran’s trajectory, aggressive resource
overuse and rigid governance colliding with climate anomalies, is a grim preview
of the instability awaiting arid regions worldwide.
The crisis is most visible and volatile in Tehran, a sprawling metropolis of
over 10 million people. The capital relies on a delicate network of five large
dams that have fallen to critical levels. Officials have acknowledged that at
least one reservoir is effectively empty, while the Amir Kabir dam, a primary
artery for the city’s hydration, holds only a tiny fraction of its capacity.
These numbers translate into weeks, not months, of safety margins. Tehran is now
racing toward its own “Day Zero,” a concept once associated with Cape Town,
implying the moment when taps run dry and water distribution becomes a
militarized operation. The city faces the specter of severe rationing, pressure
reductions that cut off upper floors of high-rises, and the terrified
imagination of neighborhood-scale evacuations should storage slip beneath
operable intakes.
Head east to Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, and the situation becomes even
more precarious. As a major pilgrimage center hosting millions of visitors
annually, Mashhad’s water consumption is immense, yet the dams feeding the city
have dipped to single-digit capacity percentages. The city is now forced to lean
heavily on aquifers that are already irreversibly stressed. The choices facing
local officials are stark: deepen the drawdown of groundwater, accelerating land
subsidence that is already cracking infrastructure, or impose immediate,
crippling rationing on households and the jagged network of small businesses
that support the pilgrimage economy.
Then there is Lake Urmia. Once among the world’s largest saline lakes, it serves
today as a cautionary salt flat ringed by toxic dust. Over recent decades, the
lake has lost the vast majority of its surface area. This was not an accident of
nature, but a man-made disaster. Dozens of dams on feeder rivers and diversions
for thirsty crops upstream strangled the lake, while a hotter, drier climate
evaporated what little inflow remained. The result is ecological collapse with a
massive human toll: salt and dust storms that scorch crops and damage lungs,
forcing communities to abandon their ancestral lands.
This agricultural policy is at the heart of the water bankruptcy. Roughly 90
percent of all water withdrawn in Iran flows to farms, often via outdated flood
irrigation methods. The state provided cheap electricity to pump groundwater and
subsidized water rates to buy rural loyalty. But the bill has finally come due.
As rivers dry and wells shrink, crop yields are falling, and rural incomes are
collapsing. The social impacts are profound: hundreds of villages have been
abandoned in the past two decades, driving a wave of internal migration to the
margins of cities that are themselves running out of water.
Technically, the solutions are clear: a national sprint to modernize irrigation,
a hard stop on illegal well-drilling, and a shift to treating water as a scarce
economic good. However, there is a fatal flaw in this prescription: meaningful
water reform is impossible under the current Islamic Republic.
The regime is structurally incapable of solving this crisis because it is the
primary architect of it. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), through
its construction conglomerate Khatam al-Anbiya, dominates the country’s water
infrastructure. This “water mafia” profits immensely from the endless
construction of dams and transfer tunnels, regardless of their ecological
devastation. To implement conservation, which requires dismantling the current
policy of “building dams, drilling wells”, would need the regime to dismantle
its own patronage network and cut off a key revenue stream for its security
apparatus.
Furthermore, the regime’s economic survival strategy relies on the ideological
pillar of “food self-sufficiency” to resist international sanctions; although
Iran is a semi-arid country, surprisingly, the destructive policy of
self-sufficiency is rooted in the constitution of the Islamic Republic.
Abandoning water-intensive wheat production for sustainable imports would
require admitting that the “resistance economy” has failed, a political suicide
the leadership cannot afford. Instead of empowering environmental experts, the
state imprisons them. Instead of transparency, it treats water data as a state
secret. The political system is built to extract, not to steward.
Why should the world care? Because this water bankruptcy will not respect
political boundaries. The hollowing out of Iran’s rural interior is creating a
class of climate refugees who will not stay put. Internal displacement can
easily metastasize into external migration, straining the borders of Turkey and
causing friction with neighbors like Iraq and Afghanistan over shared
watersheds. Furthermore, dust and salt storms from dried wetlands cross
provinces and borders, degrading air quality and health across the Middle East.
The clock is running, and water, once taken for granted, is now the only
headline that matters. But as long as the current political order remains, the
taps will continue to run dry.
*Mehdi Ketabchy is a water resources consultant in the private sector. He holds
degrees in water resources engineering from Virginia Tech and Sharif University
of Technology and is currently conducting research at the University of
Maryland. Saeed Ghasseminejad is an economist and senior advisor at the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2025/11/22/irans_water_bankruptcy_a_national_emergency_with_global_shockwaves_1149090.html
Read in Real Clear World
The paradox of Iranian wealth: Why high exports are failing the people
Saeed Ghasseminejad/The Jerusalem Post/November 25/2025
The Iranian economy is entering a dangerous phase of stagnation and inflation,
despite securing revenue streams, signaling the nation's lack of wealth.
Home » Iran » Iran Politics and Economy.If you look strictly at the
ledgers of Iran’s export terminals, the Islamic Republic appears to be defying
the odds. The International Monetary Fund projects that Iran will export
approximately $114 billion in goods and services in 2025, maintaining a trade
surplus with oil and non-oil exports hovering near pre-sanctions levels.
Yet the experiences of people in Tehran, Tabriz, Ahvaz, and Isfahan portray a
starkly different reality. Despite the export windfall, the Iranian economy is
not just stalling; it is entering a dangerous phase of stagflation and free
fall. The regime has managed to secure its revenue streams, but it has utterly
failed to secure the livelihoods of its people. This divergence, between a
wealthy regime and an impoverished nation, exposes the fundamental rot at the
heart of Iran’s economic governance.
The macroeconomic indicators paint a grim picture that export data alone cannot
hide. After a few years of positive growth, Iran’s GDP growth turned negative in
the spring of this year, with expectations that it will remain flat or contract
further. Investment has dried up, with gross fixed capital formation, a key
indicator of future economic health, now in negative territory.
The most visceral indicator of this failure is the currency. When Ruhollah
Khomeini swept to power in 1979, one US dollar traded for 70 rials. Today, that
same dollar commands a staggering 1,130,000 rials, more than 16,000-fold its
price in 1979. In the last year alone, the rial has lost 50 percent of its
value. This isn’t just a monetary statistic; it is the erasure of the Iranian
middle class’s savings and dignity. In a country with
abundant fossil fuel resources, Iranians face electricity and natural gas
shortages, which make both hot and cold seasons unbearable. To add insult to
injury, decades of mismanagement and corruption have eroded the country’s water
supplies, and Iranians across the country are now struggling with drinking water
shortages.
For the average Iranian, these macroeconomic failures translate into a daily
struggle for survival. Official government figures peg annual inflation at
around 40 percent, with point-to-point inflation nearing 50 percent. However,
these sanitized numbers likely mask a far uglier reality.
The most crushing blow is the price of food. In October, the 12-month inflation
rate for food items hit a crushing 64 percent. To put this in perspective,
American consumers are frustrated by 3 percent inflation. This high-inflationary
pressure on essentials is happening in a country that ranks among the top five
oil-rich nations and holds the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves.
How does a country so rich in resources, currently exporting at near-record
levels, face shortages of water, electricity, and natural gas? The answer lies
in the regime’s ideological asset allocation.
Tehran has made a deliberate choice to prioritize external militancy over
internal stability. The billions of dollars flowing in from oil exports are not
being reinvested into the crumbling power grid or water management systems.
Instead, resources are siphoned off to fund the “Axis of Resistance.” The regime
continues to bankroll terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and sustain its
missile program, even as its own citizens face blackouts and water scarcity.
Internal corruption and mismanagement further compound the crisis. The lack of
legitimacy has created a brain drain and capital flight, leaving the economy
managed by loyalists rather than technocrats.
Looking ahead, Iran’s economic future will likely follow one of three
trajectories.
The Deal Scenario: A new diplomatic agreement could lift sanctions and boost the
economy in the short term. However, the regime’s ideological preferences and
decision-making and history suggest the regime would use this windfall not for
domestic development, but to supercharge its regional aggression, domestic
oppression, and military programs, much like the aftermath of the JCPOA.
Iran will fund its proxies and missile program, while its economy
slowly rots
The Status Quo: If sanctions enforcement remains lax, Tehran will continue to
muddle through. The economy will stagnate and slowly rot, but the regime will
retain just enough resources to fund its proxies and missile program and inch
closer to a nuclear weapon.
Real Enforcement of Maximum Pressure: A return to serious, rigorous sanctions
enforcement would force the economy into deep stagflation. This would severely
constrain the funds available for proxies and regional aggression and raise the
probability of domestic uprising. If a military conflict takes place, Iran’s
economy is likely to deteriorate further. If, during a military conflict, the
country’s key economic infrastructure—such as the Kharg Island oil terminal, the
South Pars gas field, and major refineries—gets targeted, the economy could
suffer a sudden, catastrophic shock.
The tragedy of Iran under the Islamic Republic is not a lack of wealth, but a
surplus of ideology. As long as the Islamic regime exists and Tehran views its
economy as a logistical engine for spreading terrorism and Islamist ideology
rather than a mechanism for national prosperity, the suffering of the Iranian
people will continue in an ancient land blessed by abundant natural resources.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-874985
**Saeed Ghasseminejad is a senior adviser for Iran and financial economics at
FDD, specializing in Iran’s economy, financial markets, sanctions, and illicit
finance.
Iran Drops the Façade of Tolerance Toward Persian Jews
Janatan Sayeh/National Review/November 25/2025
Without consequences or outside pressure, the regime could revert to the same
violent persecution that marked the early years of the Islamic Revolution.
Tehran’s clerical regime claims it is hostile to Zionists, not Jews, but
its renewed abuse of Persian Jews exposes that as a lie. The early years of the
Islamic Republic were marked by systematic persecution of a Jewish community
that has been resident in Iran for centuries. Later, the regime put on a more
tolerant façade. That has winked out of existence in the aftermath of this
summer’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Israel.
For years, the regime showcased the country’s small Jewish population as a
propaganda tool to deflect accusations of antisemitism and to whitewash its
attacks on Israelis and Jewish sites abroad.
The regime’s treatment of Iranian Jews was always a calculated balancing act,
meant to appease its antisemitic base while trying to avoid greater
international scrutiny. But after the Twelve Day War in June, and repeated
failures to strike Jewish targets in Europe, Tehran has redirected its hostility
toward its own Jewish citizens. In just its latest act of cruelty, the New York
Times reported on November 6 that the Islamic Revolutionary Court has sentenced
a 70-year-old Iranian-American Jew, who has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison
since July, to two years in prison for the crime of visiting Israel 13 years ago
to attend his son’s bar mitzvah. Without consequences
or outside pressure to stop it, the regime could revert to the same violent
persecution and executions of Persian Jews that marked the early years of the
Islamic Revolution. Before the regime took power in
1979, Iran’s Jewish community numbered as many as 120,000 people. The Islamist
revolutionaries quickly executed prominent Jews after seizing power, and the
purge drove most of the rest into exile, leaving fewer than 8,000 today. The
persecution never stopped, and by 2000, 17 Jews had been executed on fabricated
espionage charges.
The regime later sought to project tolerance. In 2003, the so-called “reformist”
President Mohammad Khatami visited Tehran’s Yousef Abad Synagogue. That year,
the Expediency Council amended Article 297 of the 1991 Islamic Punishments Act
to grant equal blood money — the compensation an offender’s family must pay to a
victim’s family — to Muslims and non-Muslims, including Jews.
Since then, the regime has used the Jewish community as a diplomatic
shield for its antisemitic policies. Iran’s Jews have been coerced into
attending pro-regime rallies and forced to condemn Israeli strikes against the
regime’s terrorist proxies and the Islamic Republic’s military and nuclear
sites. State media amplified this propaganda to back its claim that the regime
differentiates between Jews and Zionists.
At the same time, the regime’s antisemitic messaging continued unabated, with
state outlets promoting Holocaust denial and quoting Adolf Hitler’s thoughts on
Jews. At Friday prayer, imams appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have
repeatedly called for the annihilation of the Jewish people and labeled Jews
“enemies of Islam” and “enemies of humanity.”Despite these campaigns, ordinary
Iranians reject the regime’s antisemitic and anti-Israel stance. In 2018,
protesters chanted anti-Palestinian slogans such as “Death to Palestine,” a
sentiment echoed after October 7 when soccer fans in Tehran repeated similar
chants. Students pressured to say “Death to Israel” reversed it to “Death to
Palestine,” and Tehran University students refused to walk over Israeli flags.
Polls by Ipsos (2022) and GAMAAN (2025) show that most Iranians support better
relations with Israel and oppose the Islamic Republic’s “Death to Israel”
slogan. Although sporadic persecution of Jews
persisted, such as when authorities executed a Jewish-Iranian man convicted of
murder despite evidence that he had acted in self-defense under laws biased
against him, a systematic crackdown on Persian Jews had not occurred since
before 2000. That changed in June as Israel overwhelmed the Islamic Republic’s
air defenses, damaged its nuclear infrastructure, and killed senior Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders without losing a single fighter jet. It was
a major humiliation.
The regime’s frustration had been building for years before the Twelve Day War
as Israel repeatedly foiled Tehran’s plots to attack Jewish targets in Germany,
France, Sweden, Cyprus, and elsewhere. Khamenei even increased funding for
anti-Israel operations, but to no avail.
Unable to retaliate abroad, security forces arrested more than 30 Jewish
community members on false espionage charges and summoned or interrogated
several rabbis and cantors in Tehran and Shiraz shortly after the war. Security
agencies coerced the Jewish Association of Iran into sending threatening
messages to members warning that any contact with people abroad was “forbidden”
and that they would be held responsible for online activity related to the
Twelve Day War. Another message ordered them to attend a rally “in support of
Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, and the armed forces
of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”The crackdown on Iran’s Jewish community is not
over and should serve as a warning to Western governments and Jewish
organizations. The regime’s antisemitism is not rhetorical but operational,
embedded in its security institutions. The Islamic Republic’s return to the
tactics of its early years, fusing plots against Jews abroad with renewed
persecution at home, should prompt new sanctions and international monitoring.
Iran’s Jewish community should not be left to face this campaign in silence.
Janatan Sayeh is the Iran research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies focused on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s
regional malign influence. Born and raised in Tehran’s Jewish community, he
studied Hebrew and Arabic at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received his
B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/11/iran-drops-the-facade-of-tolerance-toward-persian-jews/
Read in National Review
Hamas is failing Trump’s cease-fire plan — and ‘the future’ of the Middle East
is paying the price
Jonathan Schanzer/New York Post/November 25/2025
EZZAT al-Reshq, a spokesman for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, denied
reports Saturday that his group was walking away from the Gaza cease-fire
brokered by President Trump. Al-Reshq’s statement came amidst a flurry of news
out of Gaza.
It began when a Hamas fighter crossed the “yellow line” that marks the frontier
between Hamas-controlled territory and the parts of Gaza that Israel controls.
The Hamasnik was neutralized. Consistent with past Hamas violations of
cease-fires, the Israelis then struck five senior Hamas officials across the
Gaza Strip. Whether or not Hamas officially exits the
20-point Trump plan, enshrined as UN Security Council Resolution 2803 last week,
the deal is holding on by a thread. The terrorist
group was required to hand over every remaining hostage within 72 hours. More
than six weeks later, three slain hostages remain in Hamas captivity.
Unfulfilled terms
Furthermore, Hamas was supposed to disarm. That has not occurred. And the group
has no intention of doing so anytime soon. Until the
group lays down its weapons, the Trump plan is in limbo. It’s hard to imagine
Arab or Muslim states volunteering their forces or financial resources to stand
up the transitional authority that Trump envisions, so long as Hamas remains a
threat. In the end, two nominal American allies hold
the key to the success or failure for the Trump plan: Qatar and Turkey. Both
countries are key patrons of Hamas. Never mind that
American allies should not sponsor terrorists. Somehow, Republicans and
Democrats have ignored this problem for decades. That needs to change. But for
now, Trump needs to hold these two duplicitous allies to their word.
Back in October, they promised the president they would deliver Hamas and
end the war. In exchange, the president promised Qatar a security agreement with
America. And he told the Turks he could bail them out
of legal trouble in America or sell them weapons — maybe both. The president
must threaten to blow it all up, should these two frenemies fail to dismantle
their terror client Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Trump has big ideas for the Middle East. Ending the Gaza war is just part of the
picture. The president wants to close out the seven
fronts that erupted across the Middle East after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7,
2023. He wants to end the Iranian regime’s campaign of terror across the Middle
East. He wants to broker new normalization agreements between Israel and several
Muslim states, including Saudi Arabia. None of this
can happen if the Gaza war is still raging.Should Hamas hold to the Trump plan,
this would be welcome news. But agreeing in word but not deed is insufficient.
Hamas must hand over the last three hostages and then surrender.
It’s time for phase two of the Trump plan. The future of the Middle East
hangs in the balance.Jonathan Schanzer is executive director of The Foundation
for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, DC.
https://nypost.com/2025/11/22/opinion/hamas-is-failing-trumps-cease-fire-plan-and-the-future-of-the-middle-east-is-paying-the-price/
Read in New York Post
No Nation Globally Has Expressed Readiness to Have Its Forces Directly Engage
Hamas Fighters'
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute./November 25, 2025
The Palestinian terror groups clearly want to hold on to their weapons: they
evidently see that having weapons is the only way for them to control, directly
and indirectly, any new government established in the Gaza Strip.
They also evidently see that whoever is in charge of security in the Gaza
Strip will control all the humanitarian aid.... For
now, it seems that the Arab and Islamic countries are not enthusiastic about
joining an international force in the Gaza Strip. Some of these countries, such
as Qatar and Turkey, support Hamas and doubtless want it to stay in power, while
others are afraid of being branded "collaborators" with Israel against the
Palestinian "resistance."Most Arabs and Muslims do not see Hamas as a threat to
their national security; they therefore see no need to engage the terror group.
This leaves Israel as the only country that has an urgent interest in
disarming Hamas to prevent the terror group and its allies in the Gaza Strip
from carrying out more atrocities against Israel. If
the proposed international force does not want to, or is incapable of,
undertaking such a task, the Trump administration and the rest of the
international community should give Israel a green light to finish the job and
rid the Gaza Strip of Hamas and all the terror groups.
Unfortunately, total disarmament appears the only way to ensure Trump's vision
that "Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat
to its neighbors."More importantly, the Trump administration needs to make sure
that members of these terror groups, including Hamas, are not incorporated into
any new Palestinian police force that is established in the Gaza Strip.
Recruiting Islamist jihadis and terrorists to such a police force would allow
them to pursue their Jihad (holy war) against Israel with new uniforms and guns
supplied by the international community.
Regrettably, if radicals and jihadists are expected to transform themselves into
legitimate law-enforcers, the deradicalization of the Gaza Strip will never take
place. Since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in
2007, Hamas has allowed various other terror groups to operate so long as they
did not pose a threat to its rule. In 2018, Hamas established the Joint Room for
Palestinian Resistance Factions with the other groups to form a single front and
command institution against Israel. Hamas was not the only terror group that
attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Several other Palestinian armed groups also
took part in the assault, which resulted in the murder of 1,200 Israelis and
foreign nationals, the wounding of thousands, and the kidnapping of 251 people
to the Gaza Strip. Some Middle East experts and
political analysts tend to forget that Hamas is not the only terror group
operating inside the Gaza Strip. Among the other groups: Palestinian Islamic
Jihad (PIJ), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Popular
Resistance Committees, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP),
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (affiliated with the Fatah faction headed by
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas), Palestinian Mujahideen Movement,
and Palestinian Freedom Movement. Some of these groups were also involved in
kidnapping and holding many of the Israeli and foreign hostages in the Gaza
Strip.
In December 2023, senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk confirmed that some of
the hostages were being detained by "different factions" that had participated
in the October 7 attack.
Members of these groups also participated in fighting Israel during the Gaza
war, which began immediately after the massacres of October 7.
According to The New Arab media outlet:
"To support Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and despite any ideological or
political differences, thousands of fighters from four other Palestinian
factions have been fighting against the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza since
October 7, 2023. These armed faction fighters are actively participating in
attacks on invading Israeli ground troops, launching rockets at the Israeli
towns and even holding some of the Israelis that were captured."
Since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has allowed all
these terror groups to operate so long as they did not pose a threat to its
rule. In 2018, Hamas established the Joint Room for
Palestinian Resistance Factions with the other groups to form a single front and
command institution against Israel. Ayman Nofal, a
member of the General Military Council of the Izz a-Din Qassam Brigades, Hamas's
military terrorist wing, told Qatar's Al-Jazeera television network on June 12,
2023 that the joint operations room was part of the "unity of the fronts and
arenas" strategy, spearheaded by the Gaza Strip and its "resistance." He claimed
that these groups believed their "struggle" for "the liberation of Palestine"
and the removal of the "occupation" were necessitating resources and a united
front. According to Nofal, at the heart of the "resistance axis and arenas" were
Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque, the central objective and motivation for their
activities. The continued presence of these terrorist
groups in the Gaza Strip underscores the challenges facing the implementation of
US President Donald J. Trump's 20-point plan for ending the Israel-Hamas war.
The first phase of the plan calls for the release of all the hostages, alive and
dead, and the suspension of Israeli military activities, within 72 hours. Hamas
has yet to return the remains of three hostages: two Israelis and a Thai
national. The remaining phases of Trump's plan propose
establishing a temporary transitional committee of technocrats and apolitical
figures to govern the Gaza Strip with oversight, supervised by a new
international transitional body called the Board of Peace.
The plan states:
" Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza,
directly, indirectly, or in any form.... There will be a process of
demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which
will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of
decommissioning..."Hamas and the other Palestinian terror groups have repeatedly
emphasized that they will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is
established. Moreover, they have expressed strong
opposition to the deployment of international forces inside the Gaza Strip under
the pretext that it would be an attempt to "impose an international trusteeship"
on the Palestinians. The Palestinian terror groups
clearly want to hold on to their weapons: they evidently concluded that having
weapons is the only way for them to control, directly and indirectly, any new
government established in the Gaza Strip.
They also evidently concluded that whoever is in charge of security in the Gaza
Strip will control all the humanitarian aid entering the coastal enclave. The
terror groups apparently want to lay their hands on the aid so they can collect
taxes and sell various goods to the residents at exorbitant prices to fund their
military activities and infrastructure. On October 31,
the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center observed suspected Hamas
operatives looting an aid truck traveling as part of a humanitarian convoy
delivering needed assistance from international partners to Gazans in northern
Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. The coordination center was alerted through video
surveillance from a US MQ-9 aerial drone flying overhead to monitor
implementation of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
For now, it seems that the Arab and Islamic countries are not enthusiastic about
joining an international force in the Gaza Strip. Some of these countries, such
as Qatar and Turkey, support Hamas and doubtless want it to stay in power, while
others are afraid of being branded "collaborators" with Israel against the
Palestinian "resistance."
"No nation globally has expressed readiness to have its forces directly engage
Hamas fighters," according to a report in the Israel Hayom newspaper. The report
revealed that Azerbaijan – an ally of Israel that considered joining the force
several weeks ago – conveyed in recent days the message that it will not agree
to endanger the lives of its soldiers in Gaza. "In Baku, as in other countries,
officials are currently discussing participation in the International
Stabilization Force as part of reconstruction processes and maintaining calm,
but not at the stage currently required of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing
the Strip," the newspaper reported.
Most Arabs and Muslims do not see Hamas as a threat to their national security;
they therefore see no need to engage the terror group.
This leaves Israel as the only country that has an urgent interest in disarming
Hamas to prevent the terror group and its allies in the Gaza Strip from carrying
out more atrocities against Israel. It is imperative
that the Trump administration insist on the disarmament of all the terror groups
operating in the Gaza Strip, not only Hamas. If the proposed international force
does not want to, or is incapable of undertaking such a task, the Trump
administration and the rest of the international community should give Israel a
green light to finish the job and rid the Gaza Strip of Hamas and all the terror
groups. Unfortunately, total disarmament appears the
only way to ensure Trump's vision that "Gaza will be a deradicalized terror-free
zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors."More importantly, the Trump
administration needs to make sure that members of these terror groups, including
Hamas, are not incorporated into any new Palestinian police force that is
established in the Gaza Strip. Recruiting Islamist jihadis and terrorists to
such a police force would allow them to pursue their Jihad (holy war) against
Israel with new uniforms and guns supplied by the international community.
Regrettably, if radicals and jihadists are expected to transform
themselves into legitimate law-enforcers, the deradicalization of the Gaza Strip
will never take place.
*Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
*Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22078/gaza-hamas-disarmament
© 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.
Next Stop in America's Race with China for Global
Preeminence: The Moon
Lawrence Kadish/Gatestone Institute./November 25/2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22077/moon-race-us-china
In announcing the Apollo lunar landing mission nearly 65 years ago, President
John F. Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the Moon... not because it's easy but
because it is hard."Our ability to safely land Americans on the Moon and return
them to Earth defined our nation, our leadership, global prominence, and the
ability of democracy to accomplish great things.
It is time for Act Two.
The 21st-century race to return earthlings to the Moon makes the Kennedy era
appear quaint: the stakes today extend far beyond national pride. The United
States must prioritize returning to the Moon before China, to secure strategic
advantages here on Earth for generations to come.
As it did during the days of the first space race, lunar leadership translates
directly into technological and economic dominance on our home planet. In
addition, the nation that establishes the first sustainable lunar presence will
set the standards for access to space resources, communications and
interplanetary sovereignty. Lunar leadership also creates a strategic advantage
in mining rare earth elements that have become essential for 21st-century
technology. No small surprise that the Chinese have used access to their own
rare earth resources as a key bargaining chip with the White House. Scientists
believe there are far more on the Moon. We need to
recognize that allowing China to claim lunar primacy would also represent a
profound shift in global power dynamics. China's space program is tied to its
broader ambitions for global dominance. A Chinese Moon could mean claims that
would exclude other nations from access to the Moon or to lunar resources. This
scenario would replicate China's earthbound policies and create conflict rather
than cooperation. Equally crucial, American leadership
on the Moon reinforces the values of an open society, collaboration, and
scientific leadership.
No surprise then that the Trump Administration has just reopened the contract to
build the spacecraft designed to land Americans on the Moon. Unhappy with the
pace of the current award to SpaceX, NASA's Acting Administrator Sean Duffy told
media, "Whatever one can get us there first to the Moon, we're going to take....
I feel pretty confident that with this competition we are going to beat the
Chinese." John F. Kennedy would have approved. Yes,
going to the Moon is hard. Let us prove once again that American leadership will
conquer that challenge.
**Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. 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.
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