English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  October 24/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.
First Letter to the Corinthians 04/01-13/:”Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God. I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, brothers and sisters, so that you may learn through us the meaning of the saying, ‘Nothing beyond what is written’, so that none of you will be puffed up in favour of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 23-24/2025
Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025/ My X Account
lias Bejjani/Text and Video: The 42nd Anniversary of Hezbollah’s Crime – The 1983 Bombing of the U.S. and French Military Headquarters in Beirut
The Anniversary of the Aaichiye، Massacre and the Assassination of Dany Chamoun and His Family ...They loved Lebanon unto martyrdom and offered themselves as pure sacrifices upon its altar./Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025
Berri Introduces Sectarianism into the Election Law to Block the Government A Petroleum Session... The Border with Cyprus and Block 8
Video Link to an nterview from "Transparency" youtube platform with Engineer Alfred Madi, President of the Bachir Gemayel Academy & two of its graduates,Bassil Jawharji & Zahi Golam
Video link of a very important interview from " MTV " with three prominent Shites opposition figures: Activist Hanan Jawad, Ali Khalifa and a comedian, & satirist Kassem Jaber.
Saleh Machnouk: Hezbollah Is Losing Lebanon
Avichay Adraee: IDF attacked a Hezbollah weapons depot in South Lebanon
Avichay Adraee: IDF attacked a camp and a site for the production of precision missiles belonging to Hezbollah in the Bekaa and North Lebanon regions
2 killed as 16 Israeli strikes hit eastern Lebanon
Ministry of Health: Two Martyrs Killed by Israeli Raids on the Bekaa
Series of Intense Israeli Raids Target Several Areas in the Bekaa
The Harvest of a Year of Defeat... Will the Hezbollah Leadership Succeed in Retrenching and Resolving the Accumulated Issues?
Lebanon eyes ceasefire hope as US general meets top officials amid Israeli strikes
Turkey says it will help boost Lebanese army's capacity under mandate
Why a Lebanon-Israel deal is unlikely/Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/October 23, 2025
From Beirut to southern Lebanon, how Hezbollah is attempting to rebuild its forces in semi-secrecy./Georges Malbrunot, special correspondent in Beirut and southern Lebanon/Le Figaro/October 23/2025
Lessons from Gaza — and What Comes Next for Lebanon/Makram Rabah/Now Lebanon/October 23/2025
The May 17 Agreement/Jowelle Michel Howayeck/X platform/October 23/2025|

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 23-24/2025
US mulls Gaza aid plan that would replace controversial GHF aid operation
Trump warns Israel would lose ‘all US support’ if it annexes West Bank
Trump says Abbas ‘respected as a sage’ but Palestinians currently ‘have no leader’
EU leaders seek more active role in Gaza
Palestinian aid workers warn of ‘catastrophic’ Gaza conditions from Israeli aid blockade
Israeli excavations around Al-Aqsa threaten partial mosque collapse: Statement
Vote on West Bank annexation bills deliberate provocation by opposition: Israel PM office
Vance says Israeli vote on West Bank annexation was ‘insult,’ opposed by Trump
Rubio says Israel’s annexation of West Bank ‘threatening peace’
Palestine justice group seeks court summons for British citizen who fought for Israel
Saudi Arabia, others condemn Israel’s West Bank annexation bills: Joint statement
France issues third arrest warrant against Syria’s ex-leader Bashar Assad
US envoy calls on Iran to abandon regional ambitions, as UN presses for two-state solution
Putin says Russia will never bow to US pressure, warns on missiles
How the EU wants to use Russian assets to fund Ukraine

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 23-24/2025
Hamas Clearly Does Not Want To Lay Down Its Weapons/Khaled Abu Toameh/ Gatestone Institute/October 23/2025
The Middle East’s rapidly growing renewable energy shift/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/October 23, 2025
Iran...What Lies Beyond the Return to the Past?/Yousef Al-Dayni/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 23/2025
Sudanese Women… Victims of War’s Brutality/Osman Mirghani/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 23/2025
Selected English Tweets from X Platform For 23 October/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 23-24/2025
Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025/ My X Account
Please be informed that my account on the X platform has been suspended for reasons unknown to me. This is the fourth account in five years to be arbitrarily suspended.

Elias Bejjani/Text and Video: The 42nd Anniversary of Hezbollah’s Crime – The 1983 Bombing of the U.S. and French Military Headquarters in Beirut
Elias Bejjani/October 23, 2025
On this day, we remember with deep national pain and heartfelt prayers the 42nd anniversary of a horrific terrorist crime that targeted our American and French friends who came to Lebanon to help its people resist the combined terrorism of the Syrian, Iranian, and Palestinian forces — supported by the global left and both branches of political Islam, Sunni and Shiite.
On October 23, 1983, the jihadist and criminal regime of the Iranian mullahs in Tehran, through its terrorist proxy blasphemously named Hezbollah, bombed the U.S. and French military barracks in Beirut. The attack resulted in the martyrdom of 241 American Marines, 56 French soldiers, and a large number of innocent Lebanese civilians.
That massacre was neither spontaneous nor isolated. It was the founding declaration of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s terrorism beyond its borders, and the first public announcement of Tehran’s so-called “exporting the revolution” project— a campaign of ideological and military expansion carried out through extremist sectarian militias, whose mission was and remains to destroy peace and stability in the Middle East and impose Iranian hegemony over the Arab world.
All conclusive evidence proved that the Iranian regime ordered, planned, financed, trained, and executed that attack through its newly formed military proxy at the time — Hezbollah.
Since that day, nothing in Hezbollah's essence, behavior, or purpose has changed. It remains today the terrorist and occupying proxy of Iran, both inside Lebanon and across the free world.
The same Hezbollah that murdered American and French soldiers in 1983 is the same entity that now slowly kills the Lebanese people— through state capture, political paralysis, economic collapse, corruption, wars and isolation. After its humiliating defeat in its latest futile war against Israel, Hezbollah shamelessly returned to internal terror tactics: intimidation, assassination, hunger, and propaganda against every free Lebanese who refuses to kneel to the Wilayat al-Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist) regime in Tehran.
It must be said clearly and unequivocally: “Hezbollah has never been, and will never be, a resistance movement.”
It is not a Lebanese entity by any means, nor does it represent the honorable Shiite community. It has kidnapped and enslaved this community, sending its youth to die in Iran’s expansionist and jihadist wars. It imposes its so-called political and parliamentary representation through murder, fear, and terrorism, silencing dissenters from within before silencing others.
Hezbollah is an Iranian, terrorist, criminal, and jihadist mercenary gang— it has absolutely nothing to do with defending Lebanon or liberating its land. It was founded solely to serve the interests of the Iranian Mullahs regime and execute its security and military orders. True resistance defends its people and nation — it does not occupy, rob, or destroy them, nor does it act as a foreign army operating under foreign command.
Over four decades, reality has proven that Hezbollah has not liberated a single inch of Lebanese territory. On the contrary, it has occupied Lebanon, dragged it into senseless wars, devastated its economy, opened its borders to smuggling and chaos, and stripped its citizens of sovereignty and dignity.
Therefore, Hezbollah’s continued domination and armament mean that the 1983 crime is still ongoing — in new forms, every single day. Just as it once targeted international peacekeeping forces, today it targets the Lebanese state itself, preventing its recovery and holding its future hostage to Tehran’s decisions.
The international community must act now — not with words, but with deeds — to help Lebanon reclaim its sovereignty and dismantle this Iranian occupation structure. This requires:
*Full implementation of all international resolutions, especially UNSC Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias; Resolution 1701, which mandates that weapons be held exclusively by the Lebanese state; and Resolution 1680, alongside the Lebanese Constitution and the Armistice Agreement with Israel.
*Enforcement of the recent ceasefire agreement that Hezbollah signed following its defeat and surrender to Israel, ensuring that Lebanon’s southern border is no longer a hostage to Hezbollah’s weapons or terror.
*Strengthening the Lebanese Army and legitimate state institutions so that they alone hold authority and control over all Lebanese territory.
*Placing Lebanon under UN Chapter VII international protection if current leaders and rulers remain hesitant, complicit, or incapable of confronting Hezbollah and dismantling its military, security, and propaganda networks.
*Imposing severe international sanctions on Hezbollah and all those who fund or politically cover it, and prosecuting its leaders as war criminals and terrorists before Lebanese and international courts.
If the free world truly seeks peace in the Middle East, it must help Lebanon dismantle the Iranian occupation apparatus embodied by Hezbollah and allow the Lebanese people to rebuild their free, sovereign, and independent nation.
On this solemn anniversary, we offer prayers for the souls of the American and French soldiers, and for the innocent Lebanese who perished in that terrorist attack. We also pray for Lebanon’s liberation from the Iranian occupation and its criminal militias — so that our nation, Lebanon, may once again rise as a free, sovereign, and dignified homeland, worthy of peace and justice.

The Anniversary of the Aaichiye، Massacre and the Assassination of Dany Chamoun and His Family ...They loved Lebanon unto martyrdom and offered themselves as pure sacrifices upon its altar.
Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2024/10/68292/
The systematic brutality targeting Lebanon’s free and sovereign men and women — leaders, clergy, and intellectuals — has continued since the 1970s through various oppressive and terrorist means. Nothing has changed for the better since the Aaichiye, massacre and the assassination of martyr Dany Chamoun and his family. Lebanon remains occupied, and its rulers, politicians, and party leaders — the vast majority of them — are Trojan collaborators executing the occupier’s commands while trampling the nation’s interests.
First came the Palestinian occupation, followed by the Syrian one, and then the cancer of Hezbollah and its godless masters, the mullahs of Iran. Today, as we commemorate the Aaichiye massacre and the martyrdom of Dany Chamoun and his family, we must recognize, with national and spiritual awareness, that Hezbollah has destroyed Lebanon, displaced its people, dismantled its institutions, and dragged it — against the will of the majority — into a devastating war with Israel to serve Iran’s interests.
Despite all the destruction and loss, Hezbollah refuses to acknowledge defeat, surrender its weapons to the state, and abide by the ceasefire, the constitution, and international resolutions. History teaches us that nations not nourished by the generous sacrifices of their people collapse, their identity fades, and their dignity and heritage are erased.
Holy Lebanon — blessed with youth who fear neither death nor martyrdom for its sake, like Dany Chamoun and his family — will endure, for evil cannot overcome it. Martyrdom is born of faith and love: faith in a homeland and a cause, and love so pure and giving that it ascends to the level of offering one’s life for those we love.
The martyrs are the beacon that lights our path to freedom and the incentive to continue Lebanon’s sacred mission of dignity and spiritual greatness. As we remember the Aaichiye massacre and the assassination of Dany Chamoun and his family, we affirm that our faith in God, in Lebanon, and in our right to live freely and with dignity requires us to endure pain and hardship, for nations are built only on love, hope, and sacrifice — even unto martyrdom.
Many years have passed since those crimes, yet the horrors of the Aaichiye massacre and the assassination of Dany Chamoun and his family remain vivid in the hearts and minds of Lebanon’s free and sovereign people. These were heinous crimes committed by the Syrian occupier and his local mercenaries — godless agents and devils who accepted the role of tools and traitors.
Tragically, some of our own people submitted to the role of Trojans and Judases, betraying the blood of martyrs. They are the moral, national, and ethical cancer devouring our country. These very same figures still control Lebanon’s fate today, dragging it — through hatred, envy, and bitterness — toward ruin and destruction. The political class and political party mafias who side with the Iranian occupier, embodied by its local terrorist armed proxy, Hezbollah, have betrayed the martyrs’ blood in exchange for power and privilege. They traded sovereignty for seats and turned a blind eye to all international resolutions concerning Lebanon. The Aaichiye massacre and the assassination of Dany Chamoun and his family still fill our hearts with sorrow and our eyes with tears for those noble heroes who sacrificed their lives for Lebanon and its people.
We must never forget that Lebanon is a sacred land, its boundaries written in the Holy Scriptures. It is God’s own domain, mentioned more than seventy-seven times in the Old Testament:
“The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” (Psalm 92:12)
“His fragrance shall be like Lebanon.” (Hosea 14:6)
In Islam, Lebanon is held in reverence. The Prophet Muhammad said: “Three mountains are among the mountains of Paradise.” They asked: “O Messenger of God, which mountains?” He said: “Mount Uhud — it loves us and we love it — Mount Sinai, and Mount Lebanon.”
It is also said that among the seven mountains bearing the divine throne on Judgment Day, Lebanon will be one of them. (As cited by historian Antoine Khoury Harb in The Name of Lebanon Through the Ages.)
In conclusion, freedom is a divine gift granted to humanity so that we may be free in thought, word, and belief. So, our Heavenly Father, grant us steadfastness in truth and courage in bearing witness to it.
Martyr Dany Chamoun, the martyrs of Aaichiye, and all the martyrs of Lebanon’s sacred land are the leaven of faith that continuously gives life to our nation, planting within it love, generosity, and hope.

Berri Introduces Sectarianism into the Election Law to Block the Government A Petroleum Session... The Border with Cyprus and Block 8
Nidaa Al-Watan/October 24, 2025
While the political and security scene is held captive by the tense race between the expansion of Israeli military operations, the escalating movement of drones in Lebanese airspace, and repeated American warnings about the necessity of restricting weapons to the Lebanese state, the Council of Ministers, holding its session at Baabda Palace, approved the maritime border demarcation agreement with Cyprus and the agreement to grant exploration and production rights for gas in Block No. 8 in Lebanese territorial waters to the consortium of TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, and Italian ENI, despite the fierce media campaign waged by the "Axis of Resistance" media against the request to award the tender to the Total, QatarEnergy, and Eni consortium. It is clear that some are nostalgic for the days of selling maps on paper, while the Ministry of Energy is working to open the sea for drilling.
The Council of Ministers also approved amending the term of the Governor of the Banque du Liban, renewing it only once, appointed the Capital Markets Authority and the Board of Directors of the Tripoli Port, in addition to appointing the Lebanese Food Safety Authority, and also approved the issuance of a commemorative postage stamp on the occasion of Pope Leo XIV's visit to Lebanon, and a draft decree for the creation of the "Dawn of the Outskirts" Medal, which Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Youssef Raji strongly supported, and wished that we would soon reach the stage of requesting the creation of a "Monopoly of Arms" Medal, which was met with applause from a number of ministers.
Berri Introduces Sectarianism
On the election front, during the session, Foreign Minister Youssef Raji asked about including his proposal regarding the election law on the agenda. The response was that the Prime Minister is giving the Parliament a chance to make the necessary amendments, after which appropriate steps will be taken. In this context, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed that the parliamentary elections must be held on schedule, stating: "If Parliament does not address the loophole in the current election law, the government will move to address it by submitting a draft law." In response, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri responded to Salam via MTV, considering that re-introducing the election law aims to isolate a sect, and "this is what we will not allow," and that the government does not have the right to send a law to Parliament while a valid law is in effect. He affirmed that there will be no technical extension of the parliamentary elections, not even for three days. It is worth noting that President Berri called for a plenary session to be held at 11:00 AM on Tuesday, the 28th of this month, to follow up on the study of draft laws and legislative proposals that were on the agenda of the September 29, 2025 session. Concurrently, in the context of addressing the existing flaw in the current parliamentary election law, a delegation of MPs who signed the expatriate voting law proposal met with President Salam and stressed the government's need to quickly send an urgent draft law, referred by decree, to Parliament to correct this flaw.
The Bekaa is at the Forefront of Targeting
Security-wise, the Bekaa was rocked yesterday afternoon by a series of simultaneous Israeli raids that targeted the outskirts of the Eastern and Western Mountain Ranges, especially the vicinity of the towns of Shmastar and Janta and other areas, in the most violent escalation in months. According to a security source, the strikes likely hit tunnels and facilities used for storing and preparing missiles, indicating that the nature of the explosions heard showed that the target was underground, which aligns with the Israeli Army's announcement of striking infrastructure linked to the precision missile project. The raids resulted in two casualties and a state of panic among the residents, especially in the town of Shmastar, where shrapnel fell near the official school and some commercial stores, leading to cases of fainting among students, and residents rushed to evacuate their children amid scenes of chaos and fear. Residents fear that the Bekaa will be at the forefront of targeting in any upcoming war, being the human and logistical reservoir for the resistance, and a location that, according to Israeli assessments supported by talks from "Hezbollah" and its analysts about its military recovery, contains essential infrastructure for heavy missiles and support systems, which puts it in the eye of the storm should the war return to the field. In the South, Israeli warplanes raided a "Hezbollah" weapons depot in the Nabatieh area. Concurrently, the spokesperson for the Israeli Army, Avichay Adraee, announced that "during a nighttime operation the day before yesterday, Israeli forces arrested a number of suspects who attempted to smuggle combat means from Syrian territory into Lebanese territory in the area of Mount Hermon summit in Syria." Commenting on the continued arms smuggling, sources say that "Hezbollah's" weapon continues to play its destructive role, dragging the country from one war to another, opening the skies to Israeli aggression, and giving Tel Aviv the golden pretext to expand its aggression. The source adds, this weapon is no longer a resistance but a political and military cancer that is gnawing away at what remains of the state's body and its institutions and paralyzing its ability to negotiate. The source continues, the American warnings clearly state what President Nawaf Salam affirmed in a press interview: "There is no salvation for Lebanon except by restricting weapons to the legitimate authority, and there is no sovereignty that is shared with a militia."
Intensifying "Mechanism" Meetings
Meanwhile, while awaiting the anticipated meeting of the "Mechanism" committee mid-next week, which may be attended by US envoy Morgan Ortagus, the new head of the committee, American General Joseph Clearfield, toured Baabda, the Serail, and Ain el-Tineh and briefed the Presidents on the atmosphere of the committee's meeting. Nidaa Al-Watan learned that Clearfield informed President Aoun and the officials that the committee will intensify its meetings, at a rate of two meetings per month, to accelerate steps and take measures faster, while the committee's assistants will meet once a week to discuss all developments on the ground. The committee will also develop its work, with American officers to be present in both Lebanon and Israel as assistants to open rapid lines of communication and address any incident that occurs. President Joseph Aoun informed him of the necessity of activating its work to put an end to the Israeli aggressions and pointed out that "Lebanon is committed to implementing all the security measures taken by the Army Command and will continue its work." As for Speaker Nabih Berri, he raised with Clearfield the issue of Israel's continued daily aggressions and its continued occupation of vast Lebanese territories in a clear violation of the agreement and a disruption of the implementation of Resolution 1701. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed that Lebanon is committed to completing the process of restricting weapons south of the Litani River before the end of the year, as stated in the Lebanese Army's plan, asserting in return that Israel must fulfill its duties and commitments.

Video Link to an nterview from "Transparency" youtube platform with Engineer Alfred Madi, President of the Bachir Gemayel Academy & two of its graduates,Bassil Jawharji & Zahi Golam
October 23/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148479/
Alfred Madi, who was close to Bachir, explained in detail the goals and achievements of the Academy, and outlined the leadership qualities that distinguished the martyred President Bachir Gemayel, which today’s Lebanese leaders and politicians lack. He also offered an in-depth reading of the local, international, and regional circumstances and causes behind Bachir's assassination, as well as the conditions that accompanied the crime.
Madi affirmed his rejection of holding the Lebanese parliamentary elections under the presence of Hezbollah’s weapons, occupation, and corruption. He also, with conviction and for valid reasons, called for the internationalization of the Lebanese cause (declare Lebanon a failed country) and for placing Lebanon under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
Madi’s interview also included a set of sovereign and national stances required to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty, independence, and free decision.
The interview also featured Zahi Golam the first graduate of the Bachir Gemayel Academy, and Basil Jouharji, a student in the Academy’s eleventh session
**Note: Transcription, writing, summarization, and translation by Elias Bejjani, with full editorial freedom.

Video link of a very important interview from " MTV " with three prominent Shites opposition figures: Activist Hanan Jawad, Ali Khalifa and a comedian, & satirist Kassem Jaber.
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148487/
National, social, military, and sectarian exposure/uncovering of the heresies, dangers, terrorism, and Persianism of the Jihadist Hezbollah ... Confirmation that Hezbollah is a danger to the Shiites and that its schools raise generations not Lebanese in their thought and Mullah-like in the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih.
Summary of some discussion axes:
Confirmation that Hezbollah constitutes a danger to the Shiites sect and that its schools raise generations whose thought is non-Lebanese and Mullah-like with the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih.
The demand for the exclusivity of the weapon in the hand of the Lebanese State.
Criticism of Hezbollah's practices which are considered to give Israel the pretexts to expand its military operations.
The confirmation that Lebanon is paying the price of Hezbollah's adventures.
The warning that Hezbollah's weapons are a political and military "cancer" that gnaws at the State.
Support for the choice of the State and legitimacy in confronting the "Mini-State".
23 October/2025
**Note: Transcription, writing, summarization, and translation by Elias Bejjani, with full editorial freedom.

Saleh Machnouk: Hezbollah Is Losing Lebanon
ME24 – Middle East 24
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148463/
Lebanese journalist and political lecturer Saleh Machnouk says the writing is on the wall: Hezbollah’s support inside Lebanon has collapsed. Once seen as the country’s “resistance,” the group’s popularity has plummeted since Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 — and the latest war has finished the job. Outside the Shiite community, Hezbollah’s legitimacy is now almost nonexistent. Poll after poll shows that its support among Sunnis, Christians, Druze, and secular Lebanese has evaporated. Even within Shiite areas, loyalty is sustained largely through fear, dependency, and sectarian manipulation.Machnouk argues that Hezbollah’s remaining base is a product of repression, not devotion. Lebanon’s parliament is increasingly showing open defiance, with more MPs rejecting the group’s grip on the state.A once-dominant force now clings to power through intimidation, not respect.

Avichay Adraee: IDF attacked a Hezbollah weapons depot in South Lebanon
X Post/October 23, 2025
The IDF struck a Hezbollah weapons depot in the Nabatieh area that was used to advance terrorist schemes against the State of Israel. The IDF continues its attempts to reconstruct terrorist infrastructure throughout Lebanon, endangering the citizens of Lebanon and using them as human shields. The presence of this terrorist infrastructure constitutes a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and the IDF will continue to work to remove any threat to the State of Israel.

Avichay Adraee: IDF attacked a camp and a site for the production of precision missiles belonging to Hezbollah in the Bekaa and North Lebanon regions
X Post/October 23, 2025
Air Force planes struck several Hezbollah terrorist targets a short while ago in the Bekaa region, including a camp used to train Hezbollah operatives, where members of the organization were observed inside. Hezbollah used the camp to train and qualify its members and with the aim of planning and supervising the execution of terrorist schemes against IDF forces and the State of Israel. As part of the training and qualification, the terrorist operatives underwent live-fire exercises and the use of various types of combat means. The IDF also attacked military infrastructure inside a Hezbollah precision missile production site in Lebanon, in addition to terrorist infrastructure inside a Hezbollah military site in the Sherbin area in North Lebanon. The storage of combat means and the presence of this terrorist infrastructure, along with Hezbollah operatives conducting military training against the State of Israel, constitute a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and a threat to the State of Israel. The IDF will continue to work to remove any threat to the State of Israel.

2 killed as 16 Israeli strikes hit eastern Lebanon
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/October 23, 2025
BEIRUT: Israel intensified its aerial assault on Lebanon’s eastern regions on Thursday, striking what it claimed were Hezbollah military targets amid growing fears that cross-border hostilities could spiral into another full-scale war. The Israeli army said its warplanes targeted “a camp and a precision missile production site belonging to Hezbollah” in the Jurd Baalbek-Hermel region — a rugged, mountainous area near the Syrian border long believed to be the site of Hezbollah infrastructure. Lebanon’s Health Ministry confirmed that two people were killed and several others wounded in the wave of strikes, which hit the outskirts of the towns of Taraya, Shmustar, Bednayel, and Nabi Sheet, as well as rural areas in Janta, Al-Gharbieh, and Sherbin. The attacks caused panic at secondary schools in Shmustar and Taraya, where shattered glass injured students and teachers. Several pupils reportedly fainted amid the chaos. The latest escalation comes as Israel continues to strike deeper into Lebanese territory, while tensions mount over Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm — a longstanding demand by domestic and international actors seeking to bolster state sovereignty. Despite Lebanon’s efforts to enforce disarmament measures and assert control over southern regions, Hezbollah maintains a parallel military presence, defying UN Security Council Resolution 1701. In a statement, Minister of Education and Higher Education Rima Karami appealed to “the major and influential countries of the world to exert pressure to halt the ongoing aggression that targets schools and civilians.”Israeli media reported that five fighter jets carried out strikes on 16 targets in eastern Lebanon, while army spokesman Avichay Adraee said the air force raided “several Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa region, including a camp used to train Hezbollah members, where members of the party were seen inside.”Adraee claimed that “Hezbollah used the camp to train and prepare its members to plan and oversee the execution of operations against Israel.”He said that “the Israeli army targeted military infrastructure within a Hezbollah precision missile production site, as well as infrastructure located at a military site belonging to the party in Sherbin.”Adraee added that “the storage of weapons and the presence of this infrastructure, along with Hezbollah members conducting military training, constitute a blatant violation of agreements between Israel and Lebanon and a threat to Israel that must be eliminated.”
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described the Israeli attacks as “unjustified and unacceptable.”During a meeting at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday, former President Michel Aoun urged the newly appointed head of the Cessation of Hostilities Oversight Committee, US Gen. Joseph Clearfield, to intensify efforts to halt repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon and ensure compliance with the Nov. 2024 ceasefire agreement.
Aoun affirmed that “Lebanon, which has abided by the cessation of hostilities agreement since its inception, pins great hopes on the committee’s efforts to help restore stability in southern Lebanon and to put an end to unjustified and unacceptable Israeli attacks, particularly that they target civilians, as well as commercial and industrial facilities.”Aoun stressed that the Lebanese army was fulfilling its responsibilities south of the Litani River and continues to expand its deployment daily. He urged pressure on Israel to withdraw from the territories it occupies, thereby enabling the army to complete its deployment up to the southern international border. The Lebanese president highlighted the army’s efforts to date, noting its success in clearing areas of militant presence, dismantling armed groups, uncovering tunnels, and seizing a range of weapons and ammunition, despite the difficult terrain in the south. Aoun affirmed that Lebanon is committed to implementing all security measures adopted by the Army Command and will continue to deploy its efforts in this regard. “No one, especially the people of the south or the Lebanese in general, wants to return to a state of war.” According to the presidency’s media office, Gen. Clearfield told Aoun that the committee’s meetings will become regular with aims to consolidate the cessation of hostilities in the south. He shared a series of steps being prepared to achieve this goal. Clearfield also presented to Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri the five-member committee’s upcoming agenda, along with its operational actions. Berri’s media office reported that Clearfield “expressed hope for tangible progress regarding the ceasefire implementation and Israel’s withdrawal from the Lebanese territories it still occupies.”Berri, for his part, raised with Clearfield the issue of Israel’s “ongoing daily attacks targeting civilians and economic, industrial, and agricultural infrastructure in southern Lebanon and across the country, as well as large Lebanese border areas, which constitute a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement and hinders the implementation of Resolution 1701.”
During his meeting with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Clearfield affirmed the ongoing coordination with the Lebanese side. Salam reiterated Lebanon’s commitment to completing the disarmament process south of the Litani River before the end of the year, as outlined in the Lebanese army’s plan. He also urged Israel to fulfill its obligations by withdrawing from the occupied Lebanese territories and halting its ongoing aggression. Israeli drones continue to invade Lebanese airspace around the clock at low altitudes, particularly in the south and Beirut and its southern suburbs. Drones have been observed over the past two days flying over the Presidential Palace in Baabda and the Grand Serail in central Beirut. Meanwhile, the Israeli army has carried out military maneuvers along the Lebanese border simulating a ground war in Lebanese territory. On Thursday evening, the country’s health ministry stated that two others were killed in a separate strike in the south around Nabatieh, with the official National News Agency reporting an elderly woman was among the dead. The Israeli military, meanwhile, later announced having also struck “a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in the area of Nabatieh.”

Ministry of Health: Two Martyrs Killed by Israeli Raids on the Bekaa
Janoubia/October 23, 2025
The Health Emergency Operations Center, affiliated with the Ministry of Public Health, announced that "the raids launched by the Israeli enemy on the Eastern and Western Mountain Ranges led to two martyrs in an initial toll: one martyr in Janta, and one martyr in Shmastar." Hours earlier, Israeli warplanes launched a series of intense raids targeting the Eastern Lebanon Mountain Range in the Bekaa. The raids hit the outskirts of Janta on the Eastern Range, the heights of Ali al-Taweel in the outskirts of Hermel, and extended to include the outskirts of Shmastar on the Western Range. The raids reportedly caused minor injuries due to shattered glass at Shmastar High School and cases of fainting among students.

Series of Intense Israeli Raids Target Several Areas in the Bekaa
Janoubia/October 23, 2025
Israeli warplanes launched a series of intense raids targeting the Eastern Lebanon Mountain Range in the Bekaa. The raids hit the outskirts of Janta on the Eastern Range, the heights of Ali al-Taweel in the outskirts of Hermel, and extended to include the outskirts of Shmastar on the Western Range. The raids reportedly caused minor injuries due to shattered glass at Shmastar High School and cases of fainting among students. The Israeli Channel 12 reported that "the Air Force is currently launching raids in the Bekaa Plain targeting a strategic weapons production site." Israeli Channel 14, for its part, claimed that "Israeli aircraft are now carrying out a major attack against complexes belonging to the 'Radwan Force' deep inside Lebanon." The newspaper "Israel Hayom" said that the objective of the raids in the Bekaa area of Lebanon was to target a Hezbollah site for the production of precision-guided missiles. Al Hadath channel quoted an Israeli security official as saying that the goal of the recent maneuvers on the northern front is to implement defense and transition to offense. The spokesperson for the Israeli Army, Avichay Adraee, claimed that "Air Force planes struck several Hezbollah targets in the Bekaa region a short while ago, including a camp used to train Hezbollah operatives, where members of the party were observed inside." He alleged in a statement that "Hezbollah used the camp to train and qualify its members, and with the aim of planning and supervising the execution of schemes against the Army forces and Israel," noting that "as part of the training and qualification, the party's operatives underwent live-fire exercises and the use of various types of combat means." Adraee stated that "the Army also attacked military infrastructure inside a Hezbollah precision missile production site in Lebanon, in addition to infrastructure inside a Hezbollah military site in the Sherbin area." It is noted that today's Israeli aggressions follow the visit of the new head of the "Mechanism" committee to the President of the Republic, General Joseph Aoun, who indicated during the meeting that no one in Lebanon wants war. Aoun also pointed out that Lebanon places great hopes on the work of the committee to help restore stability to the South, prevent unacceptable Israeli aggressions, and pressure Israel to withdraw from the territories it occupies.

The Harvest of a Year of Defeat... Will the Hezbollah Leadership Succeed in Retrenching and Resolving the Accumulated Issues?
Janoubia/October 23, 2025
Nearly a year has passed since the assassination of Hezbollah's first-tier leadership, and in this time, the features of the new leadership look closer to a losing deal than a continuous inheritance: no compass, no option, except a gradual retreat under the weight of multiple pressures. First, military failure has become a prominent title. The party's withdrawal from the Southern areas, particularly from south of the Litani River, does not look like a calculated sacrifice, but rather an acknowledgment that the ability to withstand has shifted to a scene of warning withdrawal that expresses the weakening of the primary military role. The party's fighters withdrew from the area about 30 km from the border, and the dismantling of most of its military infrastructure there was recorded. The situation does not stop at abandoning positions, but has become more acute with the continued targeting of the party's leaders in the South and the increase in security breaches. Second, the issue of aid for the afflicted families in the South reveals the severity of the party's social failure, which was expected to be a support for the people. Accurate data on the volume of aid is not available, but the general observation is that "lack of support" has become rampant, and the displaced civilians who have returned suffer from the deterioration of infrastructure and services, while the party's leaders are preoccupied with administrative conflicts and maintaining influence. Third, the political map is mobilizing a conflict between the state and the resistance, but the exposure has become clear: while the state tries to restore its prestige, the party oscillates between negotiating evasion, threatening the street, and displaying force in the Dahiya [Beirut's southern suburbs], without presenting genuine documents to exit the crisis. In conclusion: the first year of the new Hezbollah leadership's rule ended with the harvest of its failure in three arenas: military, media/social, and societal. Withdrawal from the South and self-isolation, with families suffering from isolation. It seems the most important question is no longer: Can this leadership regain control? But: Has the ability to retreat become the only thing left for it?

Lebanon eyes ceasefire hope as US general meets top officials amid Israeli strikes
LBCI/October 23, 2025
“No one from the people of the South, or Lebanon, wants to return to a state of war,” President Joseph Aoun told the new head of the ceasefire monitoring committee, U.S. General Joseph Clearfield. Although the meeting was introductory, Clearfield—who toured the offices of Lebanon’s top three leaders—presented an overview of the committee’s agenda for the coming phase, expressing hope to make progress in consolidating the ceasefire and pressuring Israel to withdraw from the occupied Lebanese territories, according to a statement from Ain al-Tineh after Clearfield’s meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. According to LBCI, the committee will hold weekly meetings—one at the level of senior generals and another at a lower level—with the aim of strengthening and solidifying the ceasefire agreement. The next committee meeting is expected to take place next Wednesday, possibly in the presence of U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus, who may arrive in Lebanon next week and visit Israel before coming to Beirut, according to LBCI sources. Information also indicates that during Clearfield’s meetings with the three leaders, the expansion of the committee’s mandate to turn it into a negotiation platform on other files with the Israeli side was not raised, since such a move would require a political decision.On the Lebanese side, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam emphasized that Lebanon remains committed to completing the process of restricting weapons south of the Litani River before the end of the year, as outlined in the Lebanese army’s plan. Meanwhile, as Clearfield toured the three officials, Israel carried out airstrikes in the Bekaa region, killing two people in Janta and Chmistar. The Israeli army, as usual, claimed it had targeted a Hezbollah training camp and infrastructure used for precision missile production. In short, everyone is waiting to see how effective the committee will be in halting Israeli attacks on Lebanon—especially since it has previously failed to do so, given Israel’s insistence on disarming Hezbollah before withdrawing from Lebanon and stopping its assaults.

Turkey says it will help boost Lebanese army's capacity under mandate
LBCI/October 23, 2025
Turkish peacekeeping forces will continue to help boost the Lebanese army's capability under a renewed deployment mandate in Lebanon, Turkey's Defence Ministry said on Thursday. Turkey's parliament passed a bill on Tuesday to renew the military's deployment mandates in Syria and Iraq by three more years, and its deployment mandate under the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) by two years. "Efforts will continue to improve security conditions in the region, ensure stability and assist in the capacity building of the Lebanese armed forces, with the aim of establishing and maintaining peace in Lebanon," the ministry said in a statement. NATO member Turkey, which took part in mediation that led to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal in Gaza, condemned Israeli offensives in the Palestinian enclave and regional countries including Lebanon, saying that "genocidal" and "expansionist" Israeli policies remained the biggest threat to regional peace.

Why a Lebanon-Israel deal is unlikely
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib/Arab News/October 23, 2025
After last week’s Sharm El-Sheikh summit on the Gaza ceasefire deal, US Ambassador to Turkiye and Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, who is also handling Lebanon, said that the only pieces missing from the peace puzzle are now Lebanon and Syria. He hinted at a possible peace or normalization deal between Lebanon and Israel. However, such a deal is unlikely for many reasons. Despite the American hype over the Abraham Accords, the issue of normalization is controversial and creates internal division. An April poll conducted by An-Nahar, the leading Lebanese newspaper, and Information International found that 75 percent of Lebanese consider Israel to be the country’s primary enemy. However, despite this overwhelmingly negative view of Israel, views on normalization differ. Christians appear to be the community most open to the idea of normalization. Joe Eissa Khoury, the minister of industry who was named by the Lebanese Forces in the Nawaf Salam government, said that the region is heading toward peace. He was viewed as making an overture for normalization when he said that the Lebanese “should be ready.”
Similarly, Marcel Ghanem, a host on the MTV news channel, which reflects the right-wing Christian factions, alluded during one of his talk shows that it was time for Lebanon to jump on the normalization bandwagon. He said that talking about peace with Israel was a necessity and no longer a point of view. To start with, the Christian parties have less affinity with the Palestinians than other factions in Lebanon due to their bloody history with the Palestine Liberation Organization during the civil war.
Normalization is also viewed as a way to render Hezbollah redundant, as the group’s raison d’etre is resistance against Israel.
The Sunni faction, on the other hand, has a greater affinity with Palestine, especially given the ongoing genocide. They see normalization as treasonous to the cause of Palestine.
The group that is vehemently against normalization is the Shiite faction. It is still represented by Hezbollah and its partner Amal. The Shiites are the ones most affected by Israeli aggression. The strikes Israel is conducting on Hezbollah locations are viewed as an attack on the community. Normalization is viewed as a conspiracy to dispossess them. Israel has kept five outposts in the south of Lebanon and is not allowing civilians to go back to their homes. The Israeli outposts, especially the one in Mount Hermon, also offer strategic support for its presence in Syria. Hence, the Israeli presence in Lebanon is not only linked to the issue of disarming Hezbollah but also to Syria, which complicates the prospect of any withdrawal. Israel is actually increasing its footprint in Lebanon along with its aggression. Israel has recently been conducting violent raids in the south of the country. These have targeted civilian facilities and heavy machinery such as bulldozers. The message is clear: Israel does not want any reconstruction in southern Lebanon. It wants to keep it as no man’s land. Barrack has warned that if the Lebanese state does not disarm Hezbollah, Israel will act unilaterally, threatening a possible war. He added that this is an opportunity for Lebanon’s renewal. But the Lebanese state cannot conduct any serious effort to disarm Hezbollah, while it also does not have any leverage to push Israel to withdraw.
The Lebanese state is just trying to walk between landmines. It is trying to please the US and not upset Hezbollah. It fears that any clash with the latter would break the army, which was the cause of the civil war. Hence, Beirut is in a tough situation. It is weak domestically, as well as when facing Israel. It is taking a back seat while Israel is bombing suspected arms depots and conducting assassinations of Hezbollah operatives.
Unlike Syria, which is doing well internationally largely due to the support of Turkiye and Saudi Arabia, Lebanon does not look to be on any regional power’s priority list. The government is in a wait-and-see mode. It is waiting on the regional arrangements and trying to fit in. So far, it has no agency. Even the foreign minister said at a seminar that Lebanon has no leverage to give it diplomatic muscle — the most it can do is to go to the Americans and lament and cry. His statement highlights the Lebanese state’s weakness and impotence.
The Lebanese state is just trying to walk between landmines. It is trying to please the US and not upset Hezbollah.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun last week said that Lebanon and Israel need to conduct negotiations over the contentious issues between them. However, the government has no leverage if it wants to conduct such negotiations with Israel. It is unable to pressure Hezbollah to disarm. It is also unable to offer the group any guarantees that would entice it to disarm. It does not have any leverage or support to ask for guarantees from Israel. Any peace today would be nothing short of the total subjugation of Lebanon by Israel. Barrack claimed that Lebanon refused an American offer that included disarming Hezbollah due to the group’s influence inside the government. Supposedly, Hezbollah would become a purely political party as a result of this deal. Barrack did not specify what the guarantees offered to Lebanon were in this deal. That is probably because there were none.
Lebanon is all alone. It has no backers if it wants to negotiate with Israel. The Lebanese state is not in a position to disarm Hezbollah and the public is very divided on the issue of normalization. Hence, any talk of peace or normalization is a nonstarter.
**Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is co-founder of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

From Beirut to southern Lebanon, how Hezbollah is attempting to rebuild its forces in semi-secrecy.
Georges Malbrunot, special correspondent in Beirut and southern Lebanon/Le Figaro/October 23/2025
Wafic (first name changed) recounts the panic that followed Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27, 2024, in Beirut. "I was in Dahiyé (the stronghold of the Party of God in the Lebanese capital, editor's note). Senior military and security officials were sleeping in their cars, going to the homes of trusted individuals to shower and then leaving," recalls this member of the pro-Iranian Shiite militia, who agreed to speak to us on condition of anonymity. This is a rare testimony from an organization classified as terrorist by most Western countries and which cultivates secrecy.
With Nasrallah and his second-in-command, Hashem Safieddine, killed and the military leadership decapitated, no one was answering his calls. "For ten days, everyone was lost. We were like a body in a coma. Only the fighters in the south were waging war, following plans that stipulated that if their leadership disappeared, they would continue. Many of these young people held out for a few days before falling. They all died, about 1,200 of them.
They were the ones who resisted and saved the day," he says as he makes coffee in his kitchen. “After two weeks,” adds Wafic, "the Iranians arrived to take control of the situation. Esmail Qaani (the head of the al-Quds branch, the elite unit in charge of Iran's allies outside its borders) gathered people together. Iranian instructors reestablished most of the chain of command within ten days. But politically, there was still a vacuum. In Dahiyé, I didn't see anyone, and when I went outside, everyone had left and scattered."
Then came the time for criticism. “Strong internal criticism,” he says, but it remained under the radar so as not to weaken a decapitated organization. “How did we get here?” many ask, stunned. Some, like Wafic, question the conduct of the war that Hassan Nasrallah had decided on shortly after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. "What I blame him for is procrastinating. Either he wages war or he doesn't, but he doesn't take a middle ground. Since Hezbollah had not been informed by Hamas about October 7, it should not have entered the war. And especially not in this way, out of solidarity, that is, with restraint," Wafic continues.
A debate after October 7
For a month, the charismatic Shiite leader remained silent, before unveiling his plan on television, which was summarized a few weeks later by Mohamed Raad, the leader of Hezbollah's deputies: “Solidarity with Hamas but minimum service, our priority is the protection of Lebanon.” This was a tragic mistake, as the Shiite regions of the south were about to be destroyed and their inhabitants, Hezbollah's base, thrown onto the roads of exile.
The day after October 7, “a debate took place within Hezbollah and differences of opinion existed,” several other sources confirmed to us. It pitted two camps against each other: on one side, Hassan Nasrallah, who advocated caution; on the other, Hashem Safieddine, the number two, as well as military leaders, notably the leadership of the Radwan Force, which would be decimated a year later. The latter wanted to take advantage of the disorganization caused in Israel by the Hamas attack to penetrate the northern part of the Jewish state, bordering their stronghold in the south. This plan had been in the works for years and was revealed by Israel in 2018, showing several tunnels under the border leading into its territory.
Could Nasrallah have done otherwise, when his Iranian pnd Yemen to serve as its deterrent against Israel? “Hezbollah did not want to drag Iran into a war against the United States, which had deployed two warships opposite us,” explains another senior member of the “Party of God,” who requested anonymity.
In the fall of 2023, the head of the DGSE, Bernard Émié, a former French ambassador to Lebanon who had met Nasrallah in years gone by, came to see him secretly to tell him that after October 7, “it's a different story.” France, which maintains a political dialogue with Hezbollah, then regularly repeated the same warning.
On January 2, 2024, while Hezbollah maintained a limited level of strikes against Israel, a drone shot down a senior Hamas official in Beirut, Saleh al-Arouri, who was in charge of liaising with Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guards in Iran. The rebellion grew. "Shiites in the south, humiliated by Israel, told Hezbollah: 'Enough is enough, we must react! But the Iranians and Nasrallah said no," recalls Wafic.
“Nasrallah was deceived.”
Nicholas Blanford, a former journalist and author of a book on Hezbollah, confirms: "In February and March 2024, many were becoming nervous. It's a futile war, they said, the Israelis are blowing up our houses, killing commanders, we know there are collaborators, and what are we doing? Firing a few Katyushas? Let's fight a clean war! “ The complaints reached the leadership, which stepped up its attacks against the Jewish state. The trap began to close. ”Hassan Nasrallah made a big mistake in thinking that the Israelis would accept the level of violence he had decided on. Their response was crushing," observes Ghassan Salamé, Lebanon's Minister of Culture.
“What Nasrallah didn't realize,” adds Wafic, “was the extent of Israeli penetration of his communications system. Every two weeks, people checked the communications, but the work was poorly done. Probably also because he had been living in a bunker for twenty years, Nasrallah had ended up losing his bearings,” regrets this party loyalist.
“Nasrallah was not only the target of technological espionage,” corrects a technician close to Hezbollah. "He was also deceived, and he hadn't necessarily lost his bearings. But the bearings he used to make decisions were swallowed up by the Israelis, who carried out the largest counter-espionage operation in the modern world. Not, as the Soviets did, by torturing exposed agents to turn them into double agents, but by allowing them to operate within or on the fringes of Hezbollah.
One of their guys told me after October 7 that they were going to retake villas in Galilee in northern Israel. “Do you want one?” he asked me. Isolated and hidden underground, Nasrallah needed several circles of contacts or sources. “Some members of his networks were being worked on by agents in the pay of Israel, who fed them real information to gain their trust, but also disinformation,” the technician continues. This explains why, until the last minute, after agreeing to a ceasefire two days before his death, he was convinced that Israel would never strike him, even though they had begun to destroy his capabilities with the beeper episode." Ironically, many members of his information circles were eliminated by the Jewish state.
Others, such as Wafic Safa, who liaised with the Lebanese parties, are now marginalized. Still others, through negligence, were simply betrayed by those around them. Fouad Shouqr, a 62-year-old senior military officer who had a mistress that Israel was monitoring, did little to hide. He was killed two months before Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike.
Since then, within the “Party of God,” some have nicknamed him “Shahid al-zob” (“the martyr of sex”). “The old guard, like him, who had established Hezbollah's security apparatus in the 1980s, had become complacent, delegating some of their responsibilities to others who did not have the same experience,” explains Nicholas Blanford.
Others, finally, had been seduced by the hubris of their leaders, as a prominent figure from the south recalls. “One of their guys told me after October 7 that they were going to retake villas in Galilee in northern Israel. ‘Do you want one?’ he asked me. ‘We're ready, the Radwan Force plans are in place,’ he said, believing it wholeheartedly.”
A secret military branch
Wearing a jacket and white shirt, Ali Fayad, a Hezbollah deputy, arrives at the meeting in a quiet café in Beirut overlooking the sea, carrying a Hermès gift bag. “Mohammed Raad can't see you this time,” he tells Le Figaro's special correspondent. Fearing for his life, the man who holds the unofficial position of Hezbollah's number two travels as little as possible, seeing only the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, or Emmanuel Macron's emissary, Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“Hezbollah has paid a heavy price, but it has not been destroyed,” says Ali Fayad, who heads a think tank, lifting the veil on some post-war changes.
“We have a new military structure, which is secret because we are facing new circumstances. The positive aspect is that our new military leadership is quite young, more dynamic, and capable of keeping up with technological advances.”
“We no longer see them in the streets or cafes as we did before,” says Wafic. Under Iranian auspices, a new second or third generation has risen through the ranks. It has replaced a caste that was sometimes corrupt and felt protected and all-powerful because it was of the same generation as Nasrallah. “This transfer of power should have taken place naturally and not in wartime,” Ali Fayad regrets.
As when Hezbollah was created in the early 1980s, a return to clandestinity is the rule among its fighters. Responsibilities in the military apparatus have been redistributed and no one is to know who does what. “After the previous war against Israel in 2006 and Hezbollah's intervention in Syria from 2013 onwards, the resistance's ranks had swelled and it had become a hybrid formation, with some sectors that were not very visible and others that were almost like a regular army, which made things much easier for Israel,” notes the party official mentioned above.
Today, the military is, for the most part, separate from politics. It is more autonomous. In villages, commanders no longer need to refer to the central leadership in Beirut. “Decision-making loops are short, orders are given face-to-face, one person to another, and they no longer communicate via the communications network,” explains the expert. As for the secretary general, Naim Qassem, described as weak, he does not do everything his predecessor did.
At the same time, Hezbollah has limited and restricted its contacts with the outside world. Walid Jumblatt, the leader of the Druze community, had only one contact person. "It was Wafic Safa who gave me his phone number, and when it came to more sensitive issues, Nasrallah also sent me Hajj Hussein al-Khalil. Now I have no contacts. Wafic Safa has disappeared; he is in danger" after escaping death last year. The second is in hiding.
A new defensive posture
After arresting many collaborators—a process that is still ongoing—the Shiite group sent fighters, especially those who had not fought in the war, back to the Bekaa, its other stronghold in the east. Married men received two months' salary, single men only one. Hezbollah has also reportedly begun a recruitment phase, but training in some of its camps in the Bekaa has not yet begun, according to a witness.
“According to our information, Hezbollah has not finished restructuring its military wing,” says a senior Lebanese army officer who closely follows the militia's developments.
Militarily weakened, Hezbollah is adopting a new defensive posture, probably dictated by its Iranian sponsor, which has regained control over the Lebanese militia. “The Iranians continue to support us, but the situation is considerably different,” says Ali Fayad. "The resistance has shifted to a Lebanese defensive position. This means that if Iran is attacked tomorrow, Hezbollah will not intervene to support it. In the south, Israel still occupies the Shebaa Farms and six positions inside Lebanon, and the resistance is not intervening. There has been a very important development since the ceasefire agreement of November 27, 2024: we have encouraged the Lebanese state to move forward and take charge of managing the political and military situation on the ground. We have told the state and the army: we are in a position to support your action."
Under this agreement, the Lebanese army must deploy south of the Litani River. It is doing so gradually and timidly, as we have seen over the past two days near the Israeli border. No more than 2,000 soldiers, instead of the 10,000 planned. “For the moment, the army is keeping a low profile in the south. There's no point in provoking Hezbollah because the future is unclear," explains the senior Lebanese official.
Although there are no militiamen to be seen, “Hezbollah's political activities are still there,” says researcher Samir Zoughair. "It is a major political force. Who could believe that it would disappear?“ ”Hezbollah is a community with 27 members of parliament," adds Tom Barrack, Donald Trump's envoy for Lebanon and Syria, whom Le Figaro met at the peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. He could have added: with contacts maintained in the army's intelligence service (B2), the very same service that is supposed to disarm Hezbollah. In the main cities of the south, the B2 officer traditionally close to Hezbollah is still in place in the tripartite committee that manages security alongside a representative of the Party of God and one from Amal, the other Shiite political group.
At almost every meeting we had with the mayor of the villages we visited, he was accompanied by a Hezbollah representative. As soon as you leave Saida, the last major Sunni city south of Beirut, the highway to “Hezbollah land” is The street is lined with new yellow and green flags, put up three weeks ago to mark the first anniversary of Hassan Nasrallah's assassination. In villages and on small, steep roads on the slopes of wooded hills where Hezbollah hid its weapons in tunnels and bunkers, portraits of the “martyrs” of the war are displayed prominently. Everywhere, Israeli bombing, often targeted, has destroyed many houses. Some villages along the border with Israel are almost completely destroyed.
This is the case in Naqoura, where the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) is based, one kilometer from the border with Israel. “People are starting to come back, life is too expensive in Beirut,” laments Ali, one of the residents. “We are living in the back of our houses, without electricity, and winter is coming. How are we going to manage?” A month ago, Hezbollah weapons were found again, as well as a tunnel leading to the UNIFIL headquarters.
Driving up a winding road to the neighboring Christian village of Alma al-Chaab, the ruins of houses line the roadside, dotted with the occasional excavator clearing the rubble. During the war, Hezbollah fighters moved between the two towns using a tunnel that led into the forest. A woman rails against the militia whose men occupied her house in her absence, saying, “They took everything, even the furniture.”
Alma al-Chaab and other villages in the south had been emptied of their inhabitants. “The Israelis who occupied all the houses along the main road wrote on the walls in English: ‘You will not forget us,’” says Shaadi Saya, mayor of Alma al-Chaab, where 90 homes were destroyed and 200 damaged. “Why did they knock down the church bell tower? What do they want to do? Maybe create a buffer zone?” he wonders.
Harassment by Israeli drones
Because it occupies a strategic position one kilometer from Israel, Alma is the only Christian village in southern Lebanon to have suffered such extensive damage. “Israel doesn't need to reoccupy the region, a single word from the army spokesperson would be enough to get the residents to leave,” says Danny Ghafari, who has not yet returned to Alma.
Like so many others, he eagerly hopes that his house will be rebuilt. But he may have to wait a long time, as the wealthy Gulf monarchies—led by Saudi Arabia—are making the financing of reconstruction conditional on the complete disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese authorities. However, while the south is about 80% disarmed, according to army estimates, nothing is planned for the areas north of the Litani River and especially in the east of the country, where the militia stores its missiles.
“Hezbollah gave about $12,000 to the owner of each destroyed house,” explains the mayor, "but it seems they have less money. Look, I have a check for $18,000 issued by Qard al-Hassan, its financial company, but I can't cash it," he complains. Small consolation: the government has deployed about 50 soldiers to the Alma school in recent weeks.
There are hardly any to be seen on the road to the Crusader fortress of Tibnine, which it is advisable to take in order to avoid approaching the military positions that Israel has set up since the ceasefire. “The Israeli army is becoming increasingly aggressive,” says a Western military source. A month ago, one of their drones crashed for the first time in the UNIFIL camp in Naqoura. Last week, a peacekeeper was wounded by an Israeli grenade near his position in Kfar Kila, the third incident in a month.
And on Thursday, October 16, eight strikes again targeted “Hezbollah-related infrastructure,” according to Israel, between Mazraa and Sinai, near Nabatiyeh. While Israel says it wants to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding, the Lebanese government accuses it of violating the ceasefire more than 1,500 times in eleven months and killing nearly 300 people. Hezbollah has not reacted in any way.
In the south, “no one believes that the Israelis will leave their positions, which they are fortifying and sometimes expanding,” adds the military source. One of the 29 UNIFIL posts is sandwiched between an Israeli fort in Lebanon and another on the other side of the border in Israel. With its drones, the IDF is intimidating. “We can hear them almost day and night,” complains Hassan Jafar, mayor of the village of Yatir, not far from Tibnine. “We even had one that descended to 20 meters in front of the town hall. Faced with this occupation, it is Hezbollah's weapons that protect us; neither France nor the Arab regimes can give us any guarantees.”
Their buzzing also aims to prevent the Lebanese from returning home and reconstruction from beginning. The French contingent of UNIFIL remembers an unmanned aircraft flying just 25 meters from one of their armored vehicles last summer, causing panic to break out. “They are reloading their databases or recording faces,” comments the senior Lebanese officer. “Their intelligence is effective,” notes Nabil Fawaz, the mayor of Tibnine, who points to the summer residence of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, which has been completely destroyed. Seven bodies of Hezbollah fighters were found after the war in the rubble of a house used as a hideout.
The Shiites stand united
A few days before our visit, an Israeli drone killed a man near the hospital in Tibnine. He was a member of Hezbollah who was trying to discreetly purchase a house to turn into a health center. Three weeks earlier, and for the same reason, another man had suffered the same fate while fleeing in his car, which was left charred by the side of the road. “What's the point of opening a health center near the hospital?” ask skeptical neighbors.
A few miles away, a surprising sight greets the eye: a Beverly Hills setting amid the desolation. On the hills of the village of Harris, most of the mini-palaces belonging to wealthy Hezbollah financiers, Shiite businessmen from West Africa who made their fortunes there, are intact, with breathtaking views of the city of Tyre and the Mediterranean below. Hezbollah had not sent its men there.
Does the Shiite party still have a lot of money? According to Donald Trump's emissary, Tom Barrack, it has $60 million at its disposal every month. Other sources consider this estimate to be high. Flights between Tehran and Beirut have been canceled and airport controls are draconian. But “we have still caught men coming from Turkey with money in their suitcases,” says a Lebanese minister, adding that there is still some smuggling from Syria and trafficking at the port of Beirut, where scanners are due to arrive soon.
“Our social and educational institutions and our hospitals are functioning,” assures Representative Ali Fayad. However, it is unclear whether he can satisfy his 60,000 to 70,000 employees as he did ten years ago, during the era of prosperity. His representatives are frequently mocked in Parliament and in televised debates. “They have lost their prestige, and other parliamentarians are no longer afraid to insult them,” says one elected official, who does not want to be named, fearing, like others, their persistent ability to cause harm.
However, even though it has been weakened militarily and has lost Sunni and Christian allies, Hezbollah is becoming more aggressive politically, pushed by Iran, which has sent Ali Larijani, the new strongman of Tehran's security apparatus, to Beirut three times in recent months.
In December 2024, the fall of Assad's Syria, through which Hezbollah used to transport its weapons from Iran, was another blow. But since then, attacks on the Alawite and Druze minorities by the new regime in Damascus have reunited Hezbollah's Shiite base. “We see what is happening in Syria,” sums up Moufid Jaber, a thirty-something who aspires to a political role outside the Hezbollah-Amal duo. Like me, most Shiites believe that the Lebanese government is incapable of defending us. So between two evils, we choose the lesser: Hezbollah. We see it as a protector that must not be disarmed."
A diplomat who follows the situation on a daily basis sums up the new “logic” of the Party of God: "They have agreed to disarm in the south, but they are asking us not to touch the north of the Litani. Moreover, that is where Israel is hitting hardest, proof that they have done most of the work in the south. Hezbollah no longer poses a threat to Israel, but beyond that, has it retained enough capacity to influence the domestic scene in Lebanon?" wonders this observer.
At the top of the state, opinions differ. Pushed by Saudi Arabia and the United States, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is calling for the rapid disarmament of Hezbollah throughout the country. The President of the Republic, General Joseph Aoun, and the army, however, do not want to confront it, fearing a split in the troops, or even in the country. They fear a wounded beast that is still far from being defeated.

Lessons from Gaza — and What Comes Next for Lebanon
Makram Rabah/Now Lebanon/October 23/2025
The guns in Gaza have fallen silent—at least for now. But amid the rubble and rhetoric, the region is entering a new phase whose contours are being drawn not by ideology, but by exhaustion. The ceasefire, fragile as it is, signals that the age of permanent war is no longer sustainable, not for Palestinians, not for Israelis, and certainly not for their neighbors. For Lebanon, this moment must serve as both a warning and an opportunity. We have been here before—staring at the mirror of someone else’s war, mistaking their tragedy for our cause.
If Gaza has taught us anything, it is that the monopoly of arms is the foundation of sovereignty. Hamas fought “bravely” but governed abysmally, and the result was ruin. Resistance without responsibility is not liberation; it is paralysis. Lebanon should not need to learn this lesson twice.
A republic that cannot control its guns cannot control its borders, its diplomacy, or its destiny. When the state’s sovereignty is outsourced to a militia, the nation becomes collateral damage. The ceasefire in Gaza will eventually lead to a political framework—whether we like it or not. When that moment comes, Lebanon cannot afford to remain an observer trapped in its own contradictions. We either sit at the table as a state, or we watch our borders be redrawn by others.
Across the Arab world, the word “peace” has finally been stripped of its stigma. What was once taboo has become pragmatic policy. From Cairo to Riyadh, from Abu Dhabi to Rabat, the logic is no longer one of isolation, but of integration.
Lebanon, however, still treats peace as a moral scandal. Our leaders blush at the idea of negotiation while the country bleeds from every pore. There is, as I have said before, no shame in statehood. The only humiliation is to remain hostage to someone else’s agenda.
If indirect negotiations open a door, we should walk through it with clarity and confidence. Talk of “step-by-step” approaches is meaningless if the first step is fear. What Lebanon needs is not normalization for its own sake, but a durable settlement that secures its borders, returns its displaced, and restores its right to decide war and peace from Beirut—not from Tehran.
Gaza’s destruction is a grim reminder that rebuilding without reform is self-deception. Billions will flow once again in aid and pledges, and once again the world will ask: who will ensure the money reaches those who need it?
Lebanon must answer that question now. The 2006 experience was a tragedy of its own: international aid hijacked by the same actors who had provoked the war, reconstruction transformed into patronage. This cycle cannot repeat. If we are to rebuild the south—or the state itself—it must be under law, with transparency, audits, and civilian control. No country can keep paying for the same war twice.
A ceasefire abroad means little if lawlessness reigns at home. Every incident at an airport, every selective arrest, every arbitrary decision erodes the notion of a republic. Sovereignty is not just about borders—it is about the dignity of citizens before their own institutions.
When officers claim authority above the judiciary, or when travel bans appear and disappear by whim, Lebanon teaches its people that the law is a costume, not a principle. The state we need must begin by respecting its own citizens before asking the world to respect its sovereignty.
The temptation to delay elections in the name of “security” is as old as the republic itself. Yet democracies that postpone accountability rarely find it again. We elected presidents during the Lebanese civil war; we can hold parliamentary elections under pressure. The diaspora must vote as a right, not a courtesy.
No electoral law should be a tailor-made suit for whoever is in power. If Lebanon is to regain legitimacy, it must reform its electoral system to reflect representation, not domination. True reform does not begin with budgets or IMF plans—it begins with the ballot box.
Lebanon’s challenge is not to emulate Gaza’s heroism or Israel’s power; it is to reclaim its agency. The next phase of the regional order will reward those who act like states, not those who pretend to be eternal victims. Negotiation is not surrender. Peace is not betrayal. Sovereignty is not an illusion reserved for the strong—it is a discipline demanded of the weak.
If the coming years produce a new regional framework—from the Gulf to the Levant—Lebanon’s choice will be clear: remain a battlefield or become a nation again. The first step toward survival is honesty: we have tried everything except being a state.
There is no shame in peace when peace is made by a sovereign people. The only shame is to keep dying for the wars of others.
**Makram Rabah is the managing editor at Now Lebanon and an Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut, Department of History. His book Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory (Edinburgh University Press) covers collective identities and the Lebanese Civil War. He tweets at @makramrabah

The May 17 Agreement
Jowelle Michel Howayeck/X platform/October 23/2025| جوال ميشال الحويك
@JowelleHowayeck
In May 1983 Lebanon stood at the edge of a historic breakthrough. The May 17 Agreement, brokered with U.S. mediation, could have ended the war with Israel, restored Lebanese sovereignty in the south, and repositioned the country as a bridge between the Levant and the Mediterranean. Instead, regional intimidation and sectarian fear tore it apart, and four decades later Lebanon still pays the price economically, politically, and morally.
The May 17 Agreement was not surrender but coexistence. Israel would withdraw from Lebanese territory in exchange for security guarantees, while Lebanon would reaffirm its independence and borders. It mirrored Egypt’s Camp David accord that returned Sinai and brought billions in U.S. aid, transforming Egypt’s economy. Lebanon had the same chance. Full implementation would have allowed the Lebanese Army to re-enter the south, ended the militia era, and freed Beirut from both Syrian and Israeli control. For a service-based economy, stability was not luxury but survival.
Had the accord endured, Lebanon’s trajectory could have mirrored that of neighbors who chose peace. Tourism had collapsed to 150 million dollars in 1983, barely a tenth of its early-1970s level; peace could have restored receipts to more than 2 billion by the early 1990s, as happened in Egypt. Foreign investment would have followed. Even a fraction of the 60 billion dollars in Gulf capital that went to Dubai and Bahrain could have rebuilt Beirut’s port, housing, and financial sector. External assistance might have funded electricity, railways, and telecommunications, as Egypt’s annual 2 billion-dollar peace dividend once did. Trade routes through the south and the port of Haifa could have reopened, turning Lebanon into a corridor between the Mediterranean and the Gulf. The Lebanese pound, 3 to the dollar in 1983, might have remained stable; instead it collapsed to 520 by 1987 and beyond 90,000 by 2020.
By canceling the agreement under Syrian pressure in 1984, Lebanon lost not only peace but decades of growth. Agriculture and industry, once 30 percent of GDP, now make up less than 10 percent. More than 200 billion dollars in deposits have fled abroad since 1985. The country has endured four wars and tens of billions in reconstruction losses. Today one in three dollars entering Lebanon comes from expatriates, not production.
Those who rejected May 17 claimed they defended Arab unity and resistance. In truth, they defended Syria’s hegemony and opened the door to Iran’s influence. The collapse of the accord allowed Damascus to occupy Lebanon for fifteen years and paved the way for Hezbollah’s rise as a state within the state. What followed was slow economic suffocation. A nation that once hosted seventy banks, forty international schools, and the region’s most dynamic press now relies on remittances and humanitarian aid to survive.
While Egypt and Jordan enjoy peace treaties and functioning institutions, Lebanon remains on life support. GDP per capita has fallen by 90 percent since 2018, youth emigration is accelerating, and its borders are again battlefields. Peace is not capitulation; it is investment in the future. The May 17 Agreement offered Lebanon a secure border, a unified army, and integration into the global economy. Rejecting it meant rejecting all three. Forty-two years later, the lesson is unchanged. No country prospers when its choices are made by foreign patrons or its defense entrusted to private armies. The real betrayal was not signing peace; it was surrendering Lebanon’s destiny to everyone else.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 23-24/2025
US mulls Gaza aid plan that would replace controversial GHF aid operation
Reuters/23 October/2025
The United States is considering a proposal for humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza that would replace the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to a copy of the plan seen by Reuters. It is one of several concepts being explored, said a US official and a humanitarian official familiar with the plan, as Washington seeks to facilitate increased deliveries of assistance to the Palestinian enclave after two years of war. A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in place for 13 days. Under that deal some more aid is now entering Gaza, where a global hunger monitor warned in August that famine had taken hold. The “operational backbone” of the proposal seen by Reuters would be a so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Belt” – 12-16 humanitarian hubs positioned along the line to which Israeli forces have withdrawn within Gaza. Those hubs would serve people on both sides of the line. The hubs would also include “voluntary reconciliation facilities” for militants to give up their weapons and receive amnesty, and forward operating bases for future forces with the planned international stabilization force to help demilitarize Gaza. “The UN and NGOs in Gaza will be mandated to use the platform run by the CMCC and will provide the goods distributed from the hubs,” according to the proposal, which also says the aim would be for all aid in Gaza to be delivered via the hubs within 90 days. “CMCC will monitor and enforce security of convoys through drone monitoring, ensuring Hamas does not interdict trucks,” it says. Israel and the US have accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the militant group denies.
UN, aid groups likely to be wary of such a plan
The United Nations and international aid groups are likely to be wary of the plan that in part resembles the GHF method of using secure distribution hubs and armed escorts to transport aid. Before the ceasefire, Israel and the US wanted the UN to work through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, but the UN and aid groups refused, questioning the neutrality of the GHF and accusing the distribution model of militarizing aid and forcing displacement. “The ‘aid hubs’ they describe are very concerning as they resemble GHF sites in areas controlled by” Israeli forces, said a senior international aid official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The proposal reflected a conceptual approach being explored by the US, said a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity. But the official said it was not the only concept for an aid operation and declined to speculate about the likelihood it would be implemented. Asked for comment on the proposal, the US military’s Central Command referred Reuters to its statement from Tuesday on the opening of the Civil-Military Coordination Center, which is charged with facilitating the flow of security and humanitarian assistance into Gaza. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A humanitarian official familiar with the proposal, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they understood “the sharing of that document was premature,” and it does not currently reflect “actual decisions or policy.” Instead the proposal was “more like a white paper” – an informative document that proposes an option on a particular issue, the official said. If a formal plan reflecting the ideas in the proposal was approved, it would represent “a warmed-over version of what GHF tried to do,” said the humanitarian official. Under the proposal seen by Reuters, the hubs would be used for: secure aid depots to distribute food, water, medical supplies and other aid directly to civilians; logistics hubs and warehouses from which aid groups could distribute same-day rations and goods to civilians deep in Gaza using small pick-up trucks; infrastructure hubs to restore water, electricity and sanitation, medical facilities, and mass kitchens and bakeries.
The proposal says the GHF would be “absorbed/replaced” by the UAE/Morocco Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian aid organization. “Samaritan’s Purse has been approached about being involved in the US government’s plan to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. We do not know specifics, because those are still being developed,” said Stephen Sneed, spokesperson for Samaritan’s Purse. The long-term plan of the GHF is to continue to deliver aid as long as it is needed, said a GHF spokesperson when asked about the proposal. The GHF has said it currently has funding to continue operating until the end of November. The GHF has temporarily paused its operations, last distributing aid 13 days ago. It has dismantled one of its four distribution sites, but a GHF spokesperson said that site could reopen elsewhere in Gaza. A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said among the considerations was how GHF infrastructure, including its sites and aid in its possession could instead be used and distributed by other aid groups. Many European nations were opposed to GHF having any future role in Gaza, the diplomat said. UN agencies, international aid groups and donors took part in the first meeting convened by the US-led CMCC on Monday, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Wednesday. “We are still holding discussions, and our commitment to scale up aid delivery to reach all people in need in Gaza remains unwavering,” the OCHA spokesperson said.

Trump warns Israel would lose ‘all US support’ if it annexes West Bank
Al Arabiya English/ 23 October/2025
US President Donald Trump said he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, warning that Israel would lose US support if it does. “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries… Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened,” Trump told TIME magazine in an interview published on Thursday. Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of advancing two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank. Earlier on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that the government had not decided to bring the vote on annexation forward at this stage in order to ensure the success of Trump’s multi-stage Gaza plan. Settlement building has been expanding rapidly since 2022 when Netanyahu’s government - the most right-wing in Israeli history with ultra-nationalist coalition partners who seek annexation of both the West Bank and Gaza - came to power.
with agencies

Trump says Abbas ‘respected as a sage’ but Palestinians currently ‘have no leader’
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/23 October/2025
US President Donald Trump has recounted his conversation with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the Sharm el-Sheikh Gaza summit held earlier this month. “He’s a much different man in person than he is in public,” Trump said in an interview with TIME Magazine, adding that Abbas “is respected as a sage” by Palestinians. He also reportedly congratulated the US president on his efforts to end the Gaza war. “He said, ‘I’ve been through seven presidents… you’ve done things that no other president would have done,’” Trump said, adding that Abbas praised his actions in the region, telling him, “What you did is not even possible to do. I can’t believe that you did it, but I congratulate you.”
Palestinian leadership
Despite praising Abbas, Trump did say he isn’t the one to lead a post-war Gaza, adding that Palestinians lack a current leader. “I’ve always gotten along with him. I’ve always found him reasonable, but he’s probably not [the one],” Trump told TIME. “[Palestinians] don’t have a leader right now, at least a visible leader, and they don’t really want to, because every one of those leaders has been shot and killed. It’s not a hot job.”Trump added that Abbas “would like to be” involved in governing post-war Gaza but said any decision on the territory’s future leadership would come later.“It would be a little bit early to make an opinion, but at some point, I’ll have an opinion. I know he'd like to be [involved[,” Trump said. The president also addressed the case of imprisoned Palestinian figure Marwan Barghouti, who is seen as a potential future president. Barghouti, jailed by Israel since 2002 for his role in attacks during the Second Intifada, remains a symbol of resistance for many Palestinians. Asked whether Israel should release Barghouti, Trump said, “I am literally being confronted with that question about 15 minutes before you called… so I’ll be making a decision.”

EU leaders seek more active role in Gaza
AP/October 24, 2025
BRUSSELS: European Union leaders are seeking a more active role in Gaza and the occupied West Bank after being sidelined from the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. At a summit Thursday in Brussels largely focused on Ukraine and Russia, EU heads of state discussed the shaky ceasefire in Gaza and pledged EU support for stability in the war-torn coastal enclave. The EU has been the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians and is Israel’s top trading partner. “It is important that Europe not only watches but plays an active role,” said Luc Frieden, the prime minister of Luxembourg, as he headed into the meeting. “Gaza is not over; peace is not yet permanent,” he said. Outrage over the war in Gaza has riven the 27-nation bloc and pushed relations between Israel and the EU to a historic low. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in September plans to seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel, aimed to pressure it to reach a peace deal in Gaza. Momentum driving the measures seemed to falter with the ceasefire deal mediated by US President Donald Trump, with some European leaders calling for them to be scrapped. But leaders from Ireland to the Netherlands say that with violence continuing to flare up in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, keeping on the table sanctions of Israeli cabinet ministers and settlements and the partial suspension of a trade deal gives the EU leverage on Israel to curtail military action. In the run-up to the ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that “Europe has essentially become irrelevant and displayed enormous weakness.”The ceasefire deal came about with no visible input from the EU, and European leaders have since scrambled to join the diplomacy effort currently reshaping Gaza. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has said the EU should play a role in Gaza and not just pay to support stability and eventually reconstruction. The EU has provided key support for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank. At the summit’s conclusion, EU leaders issued a pledge to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, potentially via a maritime route from Cyprus. They also suggested that a West Bank police support program could be extended to Gaza to bolster the stabilization force called for in the current 20-point ceasefire plan.
The EU has sought membership in the plan’s “Board of Peace” transitional oversight body, Dubravka Šuica, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, said this week. At least two EU countries, Denmark and Germany, are participating in the new US-led stabilization effort overseeing and implementing the Gaza ceasefire. Flags of those two nations have been raised at the Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel. The European Border Assistance Mission in Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, began in 2005. In January, it deployed 20 security border police experts from Italy, Spain and France.
During the February-March ceasefire, the mission helped 4,176 individuals leave the Gaza Strip, including 1,683 medical patients. Those efforts were paused when fighting resumed. Outside of the EU, individual nations have acted to pressure Israel on their own as protests have rocked cities from Barcelona to Oslo. Many have recognized a Palestinian state. Spain has ratcheted up its opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the war a “genocide” when he announced in September plans to formalize an arms embargo and block Israel-bound fuel deliveries from passing through Spanish ports. In August, Slovenia issued an arms embargo in what it said was a first for a EU member country. Some national broadcasters have sought to exclude Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest. Member broadcasters will vote in November on whether Israel can participate in the musical extravaganza next year, as calls have mounted for the country to be excluded over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Palestinian aid workers warn of ‘catastrophic’ Gaza conditions from Israeli aid blockade
Jonathan Lessware/Arab News/October 23, 2025
LONDON: Palestinian aid workers have described conditions in Gaza as “catastrophic,” with Israel continuing to block most aid supplies two weeks after a ceasefire deal took effect in the territory. Only a fraction of the number of trucks Israel agreed to allow into the territory under the agreement have arrived and Palestinian families are struggling to find food to meet their basic nutritional needs, representatives of nongovernmental organizations said on Thursday. The sobering assessment coincided with a call from dozens of organizations operating in Gaza demanding that Israel allow humanitarian aid to flow freely into the decimated territory. They accused Israeli authorities of arbitrarily rejecting shipments among the $50 million of life-saving aid supplies stuck at border crossings, and imposing a new registration process on NGOs to delay their work. “We expected Gaza to be flooded with aid the moment the ceasefire began but that’s not what we’re seeing,” said Bushra Khalidi, the Palestinian territory policy lead at Oxfam. “If aid continues to be arbitrarily rejected, and if families are not able to access clean water or return to their homes, then this is not a ceasefire that protects civilians.”During the first 10 days of the truce, fewer than 1,000 trucks of humanitarian aid were allowed into the territory — a fraction of the 6,600 that should have entered under the terms of the agreement. Between Oct. 10 and 21, 99 requests to deliver aid into Gaza made by international NGOs, and six from UN agencies, were rejected. This meant shipments of tents, tarpaulins, blankets, food, health supplies and children’s clothing could not reach those in the territory who desperately need them. Speaking from Deir Al-Balah in Gaza, Bahaa Zaqout of the Palestinian nonprofit PARC said the commercial food supplies flowing into markets in Gaza are unaffordable and do not meet the “minimum nutritional values required for children, women and the most vulnerable groups.” More than 90 percent of homes in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, according to the UN, and so most people are living in temporary shelters. Zaqout said that the shelters are in poor condition but, with winter approaching, Israel is blocking deliveries of tents and tarpaulins. “The situation in the Gaza Strip remains catastrophic,” he said. “Even two weeks after the ceasefire began, Israel is banning the most critical items from entering Gaza.”Jamil Sawalmeh, the country director for ActionAid Palestine, said that despite the ceasefire agreement “the siege continues, and the obstruction of aid also contributes to losing more life in Gaza.”He called for the international community to put pressure on Israel to allow all humanitarian aid into the territory, along with heavy machinery to help clear the vast amounts of rubble blocking access to some areas. “How can it be that even with a ceasefire agreement, bringing in a few toothbrushes or cooking pots or coloring books continues to be an uphill battle for international NGOs that have been working in Palestine for decades?” he said. ActionAid were among 41 organizations that on Thursday called for Israeli authorities to uphold their commitments under the ceasefire deal, and international law, by allowing aid into to enter the territory. They accused Israel of “arbitrarily rejecting shipments of life-saving assistance into Gaza,” in many cases from international organizations that have worked in the territory for decades. “The restrictions are depriving Palestinians of lifesaving aid and undermining coordination of the response system in Gaza,” the organizations said. “Humanitarian access is a legal obligation under international law, not a concession of the ceasefire.”The World Health Organization also warned on Thursday that there had been little improvement in the amount of aid flowing into Gaza since the ceasefire agreement took effect. The deal, pushed through by US President Donald Trump, aimed to end a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians since it began in October 2023 after a deadly attack by Hamas on southern Israel. More than 100 people have been killed in Gaza since the truce was announced. Israel has been accused by a UN-appointed commission of inquiry of committing acts of genocide during the conflict, and sparking famine conditions by blocking aid.

Israeli excavations around Al-Aqsa threaten partial mosque collapse: Statement
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya English/23 October/2025
The Jerusalem Governorate warned that ongoing excavations by Israeli authorities around Al-Aqsa Mosque and in Jerusalem’s Old City could cause parts of the mosque to collapse, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported on Thursday. In an interview with the news agency, the advisor to the Jerusalem Governorate, Marouf al-Rifai, “warned against the continuation of old and new Israeli excavation works under Al-Aqsa Mosque, particularly the digging of tunnels linking several colonial sites.”“The excavations could cause the destruction of some Palestinian landmarks, such as historic homes and ancient schools, as well as affect the soil beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque, threatening the stability of its foundations,” al-Rifai was quoted as saying. “The excavations lack a scientific methodology and constitute a violation of the status quo, confirming that they are purely politically motivated.”The advisor also said Israeli forces raided the town’s entrance and distributed demolition orders targeting workshops and factories that produce metal and furniture. He said the move was part of a long-standing plan to build a new road, roundabout, and bridge linking the Anata junction to the Hizma checkpoint. Al-Rifai added that Israeli authorities are seeking to remove all Palestinian-owned structures along the planned route, citing repeated demolitions under various pretexts such as lack of permits or proximity to the separation wall. Continued violations Earlier Thursday, groups of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem under heavy army protection. Eyewitnesses said dozens entered the mosque compound in groups and carried out what were described as provocative tours. In recent weeks, Israel has tightened security measures at the gates and surroundings the Al-Aqsa compound, deploying additional police and military forces to secure settlers’ incursions.

Vote on West Bank annexation bills deliberate provocation by opposition: Israel PM office
Reuters/23 October/2025
The Israeli prime minister’s office on Thursday condemned a parliamentary vote to advance two bills on West Bank annexation, calling it a “deliberate political provocation” by the opposition during the visit of US President JD Vance to Israel. “The Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel,” the office of Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Earlier on Thursday, Vance said he viewed the move as an “insult” and described it as a “stupid political stunt.”

Vance says Israeli vote on West Bank annexation was ‘insult,’ opposed by Trump
Reuters/23 October/2025
US Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday President Donald Trump would oppose Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank and it would not happen, suggesting a move by Israeli lawmakers toward that end looked like a stupid “political stunt.”A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of a territory that Palestinians seek for part of a future independent state, won preliminary approval from Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday. Asked by reporters about the vote, Vance said: “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it.”
Vance spoke after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that steps toward annexing the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, could endanger Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, which has yielded a shaky ceasefire so far. “The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of President Trump is that the West Bank will not be annexed. This will always be our policy,” Vance said at the end of a two-day visit to Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told a press conference at his ministry in Jerusalem that the annexation vote was a preliminary reading and that the government had so far not decided to advance the measure.
Israel is committed to Trump’s Gaza plan, Saar added.
The US has long been Israel’s most powerful and staunch major power ally and the Trump administration is particularly close to Israel with considerable sway over its leadership. Senior White House officials and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have been visiting Israel seeking to keep alive the 10-day-old truce between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants after two years of ruinous war in Gaza that has upended the Middle East. Rubio is due to arrive in Israel later on Thursday.
Vance ‘feels pretty good’ about Gaza truce
Vance told reporters at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport that he “feels pretty good” about the Gaza ceasefire after having talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, other senior officials and the military. Repeated bouts of gunfire and explosions have shaken the deal and the two sides have traded blame for violations of its first phase, which has seen the return of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a handover of bodies of some deceased hostages, and a partial pullout of Israeli troops. Both sides have reiterated their commitment to the US-mediated ceasefire after two years of war triggered by the October 7, 2023 cross-border Hamas assault on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s air and ground war in response has killed over 68,000 people and reduced much of the tiny, heavily urbanised Gaza Strip to rubble, Gaza health authorities say. The US State Department said Rubio was visiting Israel to support the implementation of Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan and pave the way towards reconstruction, stable governance and possible steps towards Palestinian statehood. He was preceded by Vance, who was also due to meet Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Thursday before departing.
West Bank settlements
There are hundreds of thousands of people living in Jewish settlements across the West Bank. The United Nations and much of the international community consider the settlements illegal under international law. Israel’s government cites biblical and historical connections to the West Bank, territory that it regards as disputed, and opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state. The settlements are a highly volatile issue that has for decades loomed as a major obstacle to Middle East peace, as they fragment territory Palestinians want for a viable state. Wednesday’s vote was the first of four needed to pass the law and coincided with Vance’s visit to Israel - a month after Trump said he would not allow Israel to annex the territory. Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party did not support the vote, which was sponsored by an opposition lawmaker who is often closely aligned with Netanyahu, and backed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The reading passed by a vote of 25-24 out of 120 lawmakers.

Rubio says Israel’s annexation of West Bank ‘threatening peace’
West Bank/Reuters, Washington/23 October/2025
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the Israeli Knesset’s move towards the annexation of the West Bank would threaten President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza, which has produced a shaky ceasefire so far. “I mean, that’s a vote in the – yeah, that’s a vote in the Knesset, but obviously I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now, and we think it’s potentially threatening to the peace deal,” Rubio told reporters late on Wednesday before leaving for Israel. Rubio’s visit to Israel, announced by the State Department on Wednesday, is the latest by a senior US official seeking to keep alive a fragile truce between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel this week and met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. He is due to meet Defense Minister Israel Katz and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer on Thursday before departing. The State Department said Rubio was visiting Israel to support the implementation of Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza war. A bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of land that Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday. There are around 700,000 Israeli settlers living in settlements across the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The United Nations and much of the international community consider the settlements illegal under international law. Israel’s government, however, claims biblical and historical connections to the West Bank, territory that it alleges is disputed, and opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state. The settlements are an explosive issue that has for decades been seen as a major obstacle to Middle East peace. The vote was the first of four needed to pass the law and coincided with Vance’s visit to Israel, a month after President Donald Trump said that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Netanyahu’s Likud party did not support the legislation, which was put forward by lawmakers outside his ruling coalition and passed by a vote of 25 in favor and 24 against out of 120 lawmakers. A second bill by an opposition party proposing the annexation of the Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem passed by 31 votes to 9. Netanyahu’s government had been mulling annexation as a response to a string of its Western allies recognizing a Palestinian state in September, but appeared to scrap the move after Trump objected. Settlement building has been expanding rapidly since 2022 when Netanyahu’s government came to power. It is the most right-wing in Israel’s history, featuring several ultra-nationalist lawmakers. The UAE, the most prominent Arab country to establish ties with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office, last month warned that annexation in the West Bank was a red line for the Gulf state. Senior Emirati official Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, told the Reuters NEXT Gulf Summit in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday that he believed the Gulf state had averted annexation. The United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, discussed on Wednesday developments related to the ceasefire in Gaza and efforts to consolidate it with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Emirati state news agency WAM reported. The meeting in the Gulf country came after a visit by Witkoff and Kushner to Israel.

Palestine justice group seeks court summons for British citizen who fought for Israel
Arab News/October 23, 2025
LONDON: The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has launched a legal bid to initiate a private prosecution against British citizens who fought for Israel. The human rights group plans to argue in court that the Britons joined a foreign army engaged in a conflict with Palestine, a state with which the UK was not at war. An application for a summons against one named individual was submitted to a magistrates' court on Monday, The Guardian reported on Thursday. The newspaper described the attempt to mount a private prosecution of this kind as “highly unusual.”The ICJP argues that individuals who fought for Israeli forces in Palestine violated Section 4 of the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, which prohibits a person from accepting or agreeing to military service for foreign nations at war with a state that is at peace with the UK. Palestine, which the British government officially recognized as a state in September, has never engaged in any act of war against the UK. The region was a British colony for nearly 30 years until 1948. Though the legal papers only identify one individual for attempted prosecution, the ICJP reportedly has evidence on more than 10 British citizens. In the interests of securing a successful prosecution, and to avoid prejudicing the case, the organization has not publicly identified the individual named in the summons. The ICJP accuses the Israeli army of engaging in a war that not only targets Hamas militants in Gaza, but all Palestinians and the State of Palestine itself. The repeated military operations and acts of aggression also extend to Palestinians and civilian infrastructure in the West Bank, demonstrating that Israel has been at war with all of Palestine, it argues. The organization will need show that the defendant is a British citizen who accepted a commission in the Israeli armed forces, that Israel was at war with Palestine, and that Palestine is a foreign state that was not involved in a conflict with the UK. Israeli law does not require anyone outside its own territory, including Israelis who are British subjects, to serve in its military. Therefore, any British nationals who fought with Israeli forces would have done so voluntarily.

Saudi Arabia, others condemn Israel’s West Bank annexation bills: Joint statement
Al Arabiya English/23 October/2025
Saudi Arabia and several other Muslim and Arab states condemned on Thursday a pair of Israeli bills calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank, in a joint statement reported by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA). “Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Djibouti, Oman, The Gambia, Palestine, Qatar, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Egypt, Nigeria, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation strongly condemn the Israeli Knesset’s adoption of these draft laws,” read the statement, carried by SPA. The countries denounced the move as “a blatant violation of international law.”On Wednesday, the Knesset voted to consider two bills that would effectively annex parts of the West Bank – a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. The move coincided with visits by US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday. US officials say the proposed legislation risks undermining efforts to strengthen a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, following two years of devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas. In an interview with TIME magazine conducted on October 15 and published Thursday, US President Donald Trump warned that Israel would “lose all of its support from the United States” if it proceeded with annexing the West Bank.

France issues third arrest warrant against Syria’s ex-leader Bashar Assad
AFP/October 23, 2025
PARIS: French magistrates this summer issued a new arrest warrant against ousted Syrian president Bashar Assad over deadly chemical attacks in 2013, a judicial source said on Thursday. This means France has now put out three separate arrest warrants against the former dictator exiled in Russia, who ruled Syria from 2000 until he was toppled last year after more than 14 years of devastating civil war. French investigators have since 2021 been looking into suspected Syrian government chemical attacks on Adra and Douma outside Damascus on August 4-5, 2013, and in Eastern Ghouta on August 21. Around 450 people were hurt in the first attack, while American intelligence says over 1,000 were killed with sarin nerve gas in East Ghouta, a suburb of Syrian capital Damascus. Magistrates had in 2023 issued an arrest warrant in the chemical attacks case while Assad was still president, but the country’s highest court in July annulled it over it being ordered while his presidential immunity still applied. This new arrest warrant issued after his fall from power replaces the previous one. It accuses him of complicity in crimes against humanity and complicity in war crimes in the chemical attack case. Also in the same case, magistrates issued a warrant against Talal Makhlouf, the former commander of the Syrian Republican Guard’s 105th Brigade, the judicial source said. Assad and his family fled to Russia, according to Russian authorities, after Islamist-led fighters seized power on December 8. Two other French warrants are already out for Assad’s arrest. One was issued in January for suspected complicity in war crimes for a bombing in the Syrian city of Daraa in 2017 whose victims included a French-Syrian civilian. And another was issued in August over the bombardment of a press center in the rebel-held city in 2012 that killed two journalists.
Marie Colvin, 56, an American working for The Sunday Times of Britain, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed on February 22, 2012 by the explosion in the eastern city of Homs, which is being investigated by the French judiciary as a potential crime against humanity as well as a war crime. Ahead of Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa visiting Russia last week, a Syrian government official told AFP that the new president would ask President Vladimir Putin to hand over Assad. But after the meeting neither Sharaa nor Putin publicly mentioned extraditing Assad, who Russia says it is protecting on “humanitarian grounds.”Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed early last week that the ousted Syrian leader was still living in Moscow. The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 with Assad’s brutal repression of anti-government protests, killed over half a million people.

US envoy calls on Iran to abandon regional ambitions, as UN presses for two-state solution
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/October 23, 2025
NEW YORK CITY: The US permanent representative to the UN, Mike Waltz, on Thursday urged Iran to abandon what he described as the “false hope of revolution,” and its regional ambitions. It came as the UN vowed to intensify its efforts to achieve a two-state solution and end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. “The international community must urge the Iranian regime to give up on its false hope of revolution, and forego its ambitions on its neighbors,” Waltz told the UN Security Council during an open debate on the Middle East. He called on Tehran to “engage in direct, good-faith dialogue with the United States for the benefit of the Iranian people and the security of the region.”Waltz reiterated Washington’s support for the reimposition of UN “snap-back” sanctions on Iran, and framed President Donald Trump’s recent “20-Point Plan for Peace” between Israelis and Palestinians as part of a broader push to end regional conflict and reshape the Middle East. “With President Trump’s plan, we are closer than ever to realizing the Middle East that generations dreamt of — a region of peace, prosperity, harmony, opportunity, innovation, achievement,” he said. His remarks came as UN officials described a fragile calm in Gaza following the Oct. 10 ceasefire and hostage-release agreement brokered under Trump’s plan. The UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Ramiz Alakbarov, told the council the UN would continue to advocate for a two-state solution. “The United Nations will continue to support all efforts to end the occupation and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in line with international law and UN resolutions,” he said. “This means realizing a two-state solution; Israel and Palestine, of which Gaza is an integral part, living side by side in peace and security within secure and recognized borders on the basis of pre-1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.”Alakbarov praised the US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye for their mediation help in what he described as the “remarkable diplomatic effort” that brought an end to the bloodiest phase of the conflict in decades.But he warned that the situation remains “extremely fragile” and a return to violence “must be avoided at all costs.”He said aid deliveries to Gaza had increased by 46 percent during the first week of the ceasefire but described the humanitarian needs in the territory as “staggering,” citing the widespread displacement of the population and lack of access to basic services. The UN, he added, has launched a 60-day emergency response plan to accelerate relief efforts and restore essential services. Waltz said the peace would only hold if Hamas disarms and abides by the terms of the ceasefire agreement. “The job is not done,” he told the council. “Hamas must immediately return the bodies of the 13 remaining hostages, including the bodies of American citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra, as promised under the agreement. … Their families deserve dignity.”He added that Hamas “must likewise follow through on its commitment to disarm. Simply put: Hamas is finished in Gaza and does not have a future there.” Failure to comply, he warned, would have “severe consequences.”Waltz condemned what he described as “extremely disturbing and bloody executions” carried out in Gaza by Hamas in recent days. “This is further evidence that Hamas is unfit to rule the Gaza Strip and cannot be trusted with the safety of the people in Gaza for a moment longer,” he said. He also criticized the recent opinion from the International Court of Justice on Israel’s obligations in Gaza, calling it “a nakedly political — but fortunately non-binding — ‘advisory opinion,’ unfairly bashing Israel and giving UNRWA (the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees) a free pass for its deep entanglement with Hamas’ terrorism.” Alakbarov welcomed the finding of the court, which he said underscored the need for humanitarian access to Gaza. He announced that Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and the UN plan to co-host a Cairo Reconstruction Conference “to advance recovery and reconstruction for Gaza.”He added: “We are at a momentous but precarious juncture. Political will, financial resources and a genuine commitment to creating a better future for all are needed.”

Putin says Russia will never bow to US pressure, warns on missiles
Reuters/23 October/2025
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow would never bow to pressure from the United States or any other foreign power, and cautioned that it would deliver an “overwhelming” response to any military strikes deep inside Russia. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hit Russia’s two biggest oil companies with sanctions in a sharp policy shift on Moscow’s war in Ukraine, prompting global oil prices to rise by nearly 5 percent on Thursday and India to consider cutting Russian imports. Putin told reporters that US and Western sanctions were an “unfriendly” act and “will have certain consequences, but they will not significantly affect our economic well-being.”Russia’s energy sector feels confident, he said. “This is, of course, an attempt to put pressure on Russia,” Putin added. “But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure.” Putin, after joking with reporters about how sanctions might prevent the West importing Russian toilets, recalled that Trump during his first term imposed tough sanctions on Russia. He warned that disrupting exports from Russia - the world’s second largest oil exporter - would lead to a sharp rise in the price of oil, including at US gas stations. This could be politically uncomfortable for Washington, he said. While the extent of the financial hit on Russia may be limited in the short term, the new sanctions are a powerful signal of Trump’s intent to squeeze its finances and try to force the Kremlin toward a peace deal, though it is still unclear if India will actually cease buying Russian crude. Trump said during the US election campaign that he would swiftly end the Ukraine war which his administration has cast as a “proxy war” between Washington and Moscow. After leaning heavily on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he has recently expressed disappointment and frustration with Putin. Trump, who has described Russia as a “paper tiger,” said on Wednesday he had cancelled a planned summit with Putin. The US Treasury slapped sanctions on two of Russia’s biggest oil companies. Putin said that the summit and venue - Budapest - had been proposed by Trump. “What can I say? Dialogue is always better than some kind of confrontation, than some kind of dispute or, even more so, war,” Putin said. Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration has lifted a key restriction on Ukraine’s use of some long-range missiles provided by Western allies, and remarks by Zelenskyy about domestic missiles with a range of 3,000 km (1,900 miles), Putin said: “This is an attempt at escalation.”“But if such weapons are used to attack Russian territory, the response will be very serious, if not overwhelming. Let them think about it,” he said.

How the EU wants to use Russian assets to fund Ukraine
AFP/October 24, 2025
BRUSSELS, Belgium: EU leaders on Thursday took a cautious first step toward using Russian frozen assets to provide a mammoth new loan for Ukraine — though marathon talks in Brussels failed to produce a clear green light. The so-called “reparation loan” is seen as crucial to helping keep Kyiv in the fight against Moscow and making the Kremlin pay — but it is fraught with legal and political perils. To get around them, the European Commission has floated a complex scheme it says could hand 140 billion euros ($162 billion) to Kyiv over the next few years. Here’s what is at stake and how it could work:
What’s happened?
The EU froze some 200 billion euros of Russian central bank assets after Moscow’s tanks rolled into Ukraine in 2022. The vast majority are held in international deposit organization Euroclear, based in Belgium. G7 countries have already used the interest of the frozen assets to fund a $50-billion loan for Ukraine. But as Russia’s war drags on through a fourth year — and support dries up from Washington — Kyiv’s backers are now looking to go further to help plug its budget.
What’s the plan?
While more hawkish countries in the EU have called to just seize the Russian assets outright, that is a red line for many others. To get around that, the European Commission, the EU’s executive, has floated a financial switcheroo that it insists does not touch the Russian sovereign assets. Instead, under the proposal the EU would borrow funds from Euroclear that have matured into cash. That money would then in turn be loaned to Ukraine, on the understanding that Kyiv would only repay the loan if Russia coughs up for the damage it has wrought. The scheme would be “fully guaranteed” by the EU’s 27 member states — who would have to ensure repayment themselves to Euroclear if they eventually decided Russia could reclaim the assets without paying reparations.
Belgian demands?
Belgium has been the most vocal skeptic of a plan it fears could open up the country to costly legal challenges from Russia. Prime Minister Bart De Wever has insisted that to move ahead Belgium needs firm guarantees from all other EU states that they will share the liability if Moscow comes calling.He also wants other countries in the bloc to promise to start tapping Russian assets frozen in their territories. He warned at Thursday’s summit that unless those conditions were met, he would do all in his power “politically and legally, to stop this decision.”
What’s next?
Thursday’s summit conclusions — adopted by all member states with the exception of Hungary, seen as Russia’s closest ally in the 27-nation bloc — had to be watered down in light of objections from Belgium. The text did not mention the loan directly, instead inviting the commission to present “options for financial support” for Ukraine for 2026 and 2027 — to be presented to leaders at their next summit in December. There is certain to be lengthy wrangling over the small print of any proposal, with lawyers poised to go through it with a fine-tooth comb. One key sticking point could be the conditions for how the funds can eventually be spent by Kyiv. France is insisting that the bulk of the funds go to buying weapons from within Europe, as it seeks to bolster the EU’s defense industry. The commission has backed that argument for now but other member states insist the focus should be on allowing Kyiv to get what it needs to fight Moscow, wherever it comes from.
That could also help to keep US President Donald Trump on side by pumping some of the funds to buying American weaponry.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 23-24/2025
Hamas Clearly Does Not Want To Lay Down Its Weapons
Khaled Abu Toameh/ Gatestone Institute/October 23/2025
"If we achieve a sovereign and independent Palestinian state that preserves the rights of the Palestinian people, then these weapons will be transferred to the Palestinian state and its army." — Abdul Jabbar Saeed, member of Hamas's political bureau, arabi21.com, October 16, 2025.
Saeed dismissed the idea of deploying international forces in the Gaza Strip.... He also rejected the idea of excluding Hamas from playing a future role in the governance of the Gaza Strip. "Completely excluding Hamas from the scene is not possible," he stressed.
The involvement of Qatar and Turkey in the Gaza Strip is problematic because the two countries have always been supportive of Hamas. Both countries continue to provide shelter to several Hamas leaders and act as if they are its attorneys by constantly defending the terror group while condemning Israel.
The Saudis and Emiratis have reportedly notified the Trump administration that they would downgrade their level of engagement in the implementation of the Trump plan. Referring to Qatar, they warned that increasing the influence of "countries that destabilize the region" would derail the momentum of prosperity Trump has touted.
A Saudi source warned that Qatar was expected to help Hamas maintain its presence and return at an opportune moment.
Notably, in 2017 several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE decided to cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar over the Gulf state's support for Islamist terror groups, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.
Saudi Arabia said it made the decision to cut diplomatic ties due to Qatar's "embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region," including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State (ISIS), and groups supported by Iran in the kingdom's eastern province of Qatif.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking "an antagonistic approach" toward Egypt and said "all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed...." Instead of insisting that Hamas lay down its weapons in compliance with Trump's plan, they are now talking about the possibility that the terror group would "freeze" its weapons.... It is worth noting that the Trump plan does not talk about a "freeze" of Hamas's weapons.
Bahrain, for its part, blamed Qatar's "media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities, and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain" for its decision to cut diplomatic ties.
Anyone who believes that Hamas will voluntarily give up its weapons is living in a dream world. For the terror group, this would be tantamount to suicide. The terms "demilitarization" and "deradicalization" do not exist in Hamas's lexicon.
Worse, anyone who believes that Qatar and Turkey will force Hamas to dismantle its military infrastructure is also living in fantasy land.
Anyone who believes that Hamas will voluntarily give up its weapons is living in a dream world. For the terror group, this would be tantamount to suicide. The terms "demilitarization" and "deradicalization" do not exist in Hamas's lexicon.
According to US President Donald Trump's plan for ending the war in the Gaza Strip, "all military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. 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."
Since the announcement of the plan, however, Hamas officials have repeatedly emphasized that their Iran-backed terror group, which started the war by attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, has no intention of laying down its weapons. Hamas evidently wants to hold onto its weapons so that it can continue its Jihad (holy war) against Israel and ensure its own continued control of the Gaza Strip.
As far as Hamas is concerned, Trump's plan is apparently nothing but another temporary ceasefire with Israel that will allow it to rearm and regroup. Hamas does not believe in any peace process with Israel. Its primary goal is to kill as many Jews as possible and destroy Israel. On October 17, Hamas politburo member Mohammed Nazzal told Reuters that Hamas intends to maintain security control in the Gaza Strip during an interim period. Hamas, he said, was ready for a ceasefire of up to five years to rebuild the Gaza Strip, with guarantees for what happens afterwards, depending on Palestinians being given "horizons and hope" for statehood.
Asked if Hamas would give up its arms, Nazzal said:
"I can't answer with a yes or no. Frankly, it depends on the nature of the project. The disarmament project you're talking about, what does it mean? To whom will the weapons be handed over?" He added that issues to be discussed in the next phase of negotiations, including weapons, concerned not only Hamas but other armed Palestinian groups, and would require Palestinians more broadly to reach a position.
On October 16, another member of Hamas's political bureau, Abdul Jabbar Saeed, rejected the idea of disarming his group:
"Disarming the Palestinian resistance under the current circumstances without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and without a government to govern the Gaza Strip, will inevitably lead to total chaos and create a major and dangerous vacuum that will be difficult to confront." "If we achieve a sovereign and independent Palestinian state," Saeed added, "that preserves the rights of the Palestinian people, then these weapons will be transferred to the Palestinian state and its army."
Saeed dismissed the idea of deploying international forces in the Gaza Strip:
"Trump raised the idea of the presence of international forces, but this does not necessarily have to be the formula agreed upon by the Palestinians among themselves, or by the Palestinians and the Arabs. Hamas absoluletly does not accept a mandate, nor does it accept military rule by others. We will not replace the military rule of the Israeli occupation with another foreign rule; this formula is unacceptable to us. Any formula proposed for governing the Gaza Strip under so-called international trusteeship or a High Commissioner, similar to the old colonial model, is unacceptable to Hamas or all Palestinian resistance factions."
He also rejected the idea of excluding Hamas from playing a future role in the governance of the Gaza Strip. "Completely excluding Hamas from the scene is not possible," he stressed.
"We are a movement rooted in the Palestinian people. We have our presence, our strength, and our existence. We won democratic elections in 2006. In fact, we have a majority among the Palestinian people. Therefore, how can we be excluded from determining the fate of the Palestinian people and from making decisions regarding the future of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause, when we are an integral part of it, whether you like it or not? Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian people, whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or even in the diaspora outside the country. Its future is linked to the future of the Palestinian people. It cannot be separated from it, nor can it be excluded, eliminated, or excluded, given that it is an ideology linked to resistance and liberation. Therefore, the movement will continue to exist and contribute to the future of the Palestinian people, and no one will be able to exclude it from the scene, even if it accepts not to rule in the Gaza Strip during the next phase."
An unnamed Hamas official was quoted on October 11 as saying that "the issue of handing over weapons is out of the question and is not on the table."
On October 1, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper quoted a source close to Hamas as saying that the terror group was seeking to amend some provisions of Trump's plan, especially the disarmament clause and the withdrawal of its fighters from the Gaza Strip.
"Consultations are ongoing around the clock within the group's leadership in Palestine and abroad, and with mediators," the unnamed source said, adding that four meetings were held in Doha with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, in the presence of Turkish officials.
The involvement of Qatar and Turkey in the Gaza Strip is problematic because the two countries have always been supportive of Hamas. Both countries continue to provide shelter to several Hamas leaders and act as if they are its attorneys, by constantly defending the terror group while condemning Israel.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain seem to be unhappy with the Trump administration's increased reliance on Qatar and Turkey.
The Saudis and Emiratis have reportedly notified the Trump administration that they would downgrade their level of engagement in the implementation of the Trump plan. Referring to Qatar, they warned that increasing the influence of "countries that destabilize the region" would derail the momentum of prosperity Trump has touted.
A Saudi source warned that Qatar was expected to help Hamas maintain its presence and return at an opportune moment.
Notably, in 2017, several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE decided to cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar over the Gulf state's support for Islamist terror groups, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.
Saudi Arabia said it made the decision to cut diplomatic ties due to Qatar's "embrace of various terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at destabilizing the region," including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State (ISIS), and groups supported by Iran in the kingdom's eastern province of Qatif. Egypt's Foreign Ministry accused Qatar of taking "an antagonistic approach" toward Egypt and said "all attempts to stop it from supporting terrorist groups failed." Bahrain, for its part, blamed Qatar's "media incitement, support for armed terrorist activities, and funding linked to Iranian groups to carry out sabotage and spreading chaos in Bahrain" for its decision to cut diplomatic ties.
Egypt does not appear to take a firm stand on the issue of disarming Hamas. Instead of insisting that Hamas lay down its weapons in compliance with Trump's plan, they are now talking about the possibility that the terror group would "freeze" its weapons.
Diaa Rashwan, director of the Egyptian State Information Service, claimed that Hamas had agreed to a freeze on its weapons, not disarmament. He said that the Proposed arms freeze comes within the framework of the truce the movement had previously proposed with Israel, which ranges in duration from five to ten years. Rashwan pointed out that Hamas's weapons would not be handed over to Israel or any non-Arab party. It is worth noting that the Trump plan does not talk about a "freeze" of Hamas's weapons.
Palestinian columnist Dr. Ramzi Odeh pointed out that Hamas's recent actions, including the deployment of militiamen and the extrajudicial executions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, prove that the terror group has not the slightest intention of laying down its weapons.
"Hamas, particularly inside the Gaza Strip, is unwilling to disarm or hand over power to any other authority, especially the Palestinian Authority," Odeh wrote. "This is confirmed by the statements made by field commanders to the Gazan public, who emerged from their tunnels after a long period of bombardment. They are absolutely unwilling to hand over power, even if Hamas abroad wanted to. They are determined to obtain more wealth and more power. If Hamas field leaders insist on this behavior, it is unlikely that the Gaza Strip will move to advanced stages of reconstruction, development, and security."
Bassam Barhoum, another Palestinian columnist, warned against Hamas's "deceit." Hamas, he said, "continues its attempts to control the Palestinians. Like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas presents itself as a believer in democracy. Yet, it carried out a bloody and brutal military coup [against the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip in 2007], killing 800 Palestinians. All of Hamas's battles, under the pretext of resistance, have only benefited Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the regional powers allied with them (Iran and Qatar). By shedding Palestinian blood, Hamas sought to present itself once again as it did in 2007: as the entity capable of suppressing and brutalizing with an iron fist. Today, Hamas is prepared to drag the Palestinian people into a civil war if that serves its interests and those of the Muslim Brotherhood."
Anyone who believes that Hamas will voluntarily give up its weapons is living in a dream world. For the terror group, this would be tantamount to suicide. The terms "demilitarization" and "deradicalization" do not exist in Hamas's lexicon.
Worse, anyone who believes that Qatar and Turkey will force Hamas to dismantle its military infrastructure is also living in fantasy land.
**Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
**Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22004/disarming-hamas
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

The Middle East’s rapidly growing renewable energy shift
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/October 23, 2025
The Middle East is today the fastest-growing renewable energy market outside of China. This is a step in the right direction, as it points to a profound and strategic shift in the region’s energy policy. This shift did not occur overnight. The past decade has witnessed a great transformation, as several governments, companies, private sector actors and investors have recognized the multifaceted benefits of adopting renewable energy. This does not come from international climate pressures, it is a strategic move because it contributes to economic diversification and technological innovation, as well as long-term energy security, which is critical for regional stability. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Morocco and Jordan are at the forefront of this movement. They have been investing heavily in solar and wind projects, energy storage technologies and green hydrogen initiatives. The region’s mission should not only be to participate in the global energy transition but to shape it. Saudi Arabia is considered the most prominent example of leadership when it comes to the renewable energy sector in the Middle East. Thanks to its Vision 2030, the Kingdom has undertaken an ambitious reorientation in order to reduce its dependence on oil. One of the key goals is to generate about 50 percent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources. According to a recent report, Saudi Arabia will add 15 gigawatts of renewable and gas power by 2028. Some of its large-scale solar projects include the Sakaka plant in the Jouf region and the ambitious Neom solar initiative, which is designed to integrate green hydrogen production with solar power generation. Another example in the region is the UAE, which has positioned itself as a renewable energy hub through projects such as the Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai. That project’s goal is to achieve a production capacity of 5 GW by 2030, making it one of the largest solar power projects in the world. Oman, Morocco and Jordan have also made substantial investments in renewable infrastructure, including wind farms and solar parks. These developments show a wider regional recognition of the benefits that adopting clean energy can bring. These initiatives are supported by both public investment and private sector innovation.
The benefits can be seen in the economic, environmental, social and technological dimensions.
When it comes to the economy, the deployment of renewable infrastructure creates jobs because it requires construction, engineering, research and project management. In addition, the energy transition attracts foreign investment, provides opportunities for export-oriented industries and, most importantly, diversifies energy portfolios. This helps the Middle East reduce its vulnerability to fluctuations in global oil prices. Such a rapidly growing transition will not only strengthen domestic economies in the region, it will also help the region to compete and even lead in global energy markets.
When it comes to the environment, the shift toward renewable energy addresses climate concerns in the region, as many countries are facing extreme temperatures, water scarcity and increasing urbanization. This rapid transition means that the region is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, which will improve air quality and align with global climate commitments like the Paris Agreement. The region will also benefit from the technological advancement resulting from the transition to renewable energy. Investment is increasing in solar power technologies and other cutting-edge solutions. This will lead to innovations in energy sector storage. So, by investing in the deployment of renewable technologies, the region can become a knowledge hub capable of exporting technology and expertise across the world.
The region’s mission should not only be to participate in the global energy transition but to shape it. The Middle East’s potential to be a global leader in renewable energy is supported by the unique geographic, financial and strategic advantages it possesses. The region benefits from some of the highest solar irradiance levels on the planet, offering ideal conditions for large-scale solar power projects. In addition, coastal areas and desert plains offer significant potential for wind energy development. Furthermore, the financial reserves of many of the region’s countries provide the capital needed to fund transformative, large-scale renewable energy projects. And its strategic location gives it the potential to be a hub for energy distribution, such as by supplying renewable electricity to neighboring countries or even exporting it to Europe, Asia and Africa.
In a nutshell, the Middle East’s rapid growth in renewable energy production is one of the most significant transformations in the global energy sector. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman are leading this transition through ambitious projects, significant investments and technological innovation. The benefits of this shift include economic diversification, environmental sustainability and energy security. While some nations in the region are still in the early stages of adopting renewable energy, they can accelerate progress and hopefully help the Middle East become a global leader in renewable energy.
**Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian American political scientist. X: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Iran...What Lies Beyond the Return to the Past?
Yousef Al-Dayni/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 23/2025
Today, Tehran faces two dead ends: UN sanctions have been reinstated and its domestic legitimacy has been eroding. Instead of redefining its relationship with its citizens through genuine economic and political reform, the authorities have turned to symbolic gestures and discourse, digging deep into the distant past and invoking ancient figures and myths in an attempt to fuel nationalism as a substitute for modern citizenship founded on the enhancement of living conditions, justice, and inclusion.
Since last summer, when the statue of Arash the Archer was erected in central Tehran, the shift has been highly visible. The regime has turned to pre-Islamic history as it seeks to replace its theocratic revolutionary discourse with nationalist rhetoric and imagery that emphasizes the glory of ancient empires. In the media, an Achaemenid soldier is shown side by side with a soldier of the current army under the caption “For Iran.” The state once founded on the idea of an “Islamic nation” seemingly seeks to reinvent itself as an “Iranian nation.”
Yet this nationalist discourse conceals a deeper problem. Power and water cuts, currency collapse, and crumbling public services weigh on citizens as sanctions have gone from being a siege into a mirror reflecting domestic failures. The narrative of “victimhood” has fallen apart amid the inflation, jobs, and corruption crises.
While the regime raises the banner of nationalism to unify the domestic front, the slogans raised on the streets reflect growing divisions: “Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my soul is for Iran,” and “Water and life are our rights.” The focus on basic demands has been growing after decades of exploiting religious and national sentiments. Nationalism, which was supposed to serve as a unifying framework, has instead become a tool for monopolizing identity and excluding dissidents- the same function that revolutionary discourse had had in previous decades.
The old sanctions could be absorbed by boisterous rhetoric that redirected the anger. Today, however, these sanctions directly undermine the arteries of daily life. The battered economy, the falling currency, and crumbling infrastructure amplify every foreign step to pressure the regime. As the resources of the IRGC and its economic networks shrink, intra-elite tensions have been aggravating, and in anticipation of the post-Supreme Leader era, nationalism is used not as a unifying tool but as a weapon in the struggle for legitimacy.
Abroad, Iran’s position appears even more incoherent. Its attempt to sustain the nuclear program under the banner of “national dignity” now runs up against an international order that has reordered its priorities after the war in Ukraine. The resumption of sanctions is not merely a lever of economic pressure. It is an integrated framework for oversight capable of paralyzing any strategic pursuit. Delays in nuclear or missile projects drain the political capital of this regime, whose justifications for the country’s isolation are gradually becoming less convincing.
Iran is a model for the paradox of modern states that got everything they need to survive (wealth, geography, and human resources) but insist on defining its strength against what it opposes rather than through what it produces. It lives off the memory of ancient empires instead of pursuing a modern state project. While neighboring countries are using stability to reinforce their influence and develop productive economies, Tehran continues to recycle ancient symbols to conceal the failures of the present. As sanctions persist, this path will become a heavy burden on the regime itself; the siege narrative is failing to convince its population.
With this political landscape, Iran seems to stand at a historical crossroad: either it lays new foundations for legitimacy founded on citizenship and enhancing living conditions, or it continues to take refuge in myth until it fully drains its society. Nationalism may buy the regime some time, but it cannot build stability nor build the future. As living crises intensify, bigger questions will inevitably arise: whom is this state governed for? To what end is its present sacrificed every day?
On the opposite end of the Arab Gulf lies Iran’s greatest challenge: the rising Saudi model. While Tehran retreats into the past, Riyadh builds its national project on converting its rich heritage into fuel for the future. The Kingdom neither denies its roots nor remains hostage to them, investing in its deep history to power a modern developmental vision centered on human empowerment, education, and responsible openness to the world. It is a rational actor investing first in its people, and it is redefining power as the capacity to create opportunities, not enemies.
This model of blending identity, sovereignty, and development offers a lesson that the entire region can learn: legitimacy is built on the welfare of citizens, not mass mobilizations, and real heritage is not harnessed for nostalgia but as a foundation for the future. While Tehran digs through its ancient symbols to defend a crumbling discourse, Riyadh pushes forward with a balanced formula that weighs history and modernity. It demonstrates that in this century, strength is measured by a nation’s ability to transform its past into a developmental project, not by its capacity to flee its present.

Sudanese Women… Victims of War’s Brutality
Osman Mirghani/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 23/2025
The world is undeniably in a period of turmoil and apprehension. The upheaval can be felt everyday, and they can be seen in the expanding map of conflicts. According to a report released this week by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, there are currently more conflicts in the world than there had been at any point since 1946. This evidently has grave consequences for international peace and security, and for the lives of millions of people.
Since the report was issued to mark the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which obliges the international community to protect women and ensure their full participation in peace and security efforts, it focused on one horrific outcome of modern warfare: violence directed against women in conflict zones, as a deliberate and tragic feature of warfare.
The report indicates that around 676 million women and girls today reside within 50 kilometers of a conflict zone, the highest number since the 1990s. Civilian casualties among women and children have quadrupled over the past two years, and sexual violence in war has increased by 87 percent in just two years. This is a clear sign that rape and sexual violence are no longer mere byproducts of war but deliberately weaponized violations.
In 2023, documented cases of sexual violence in conflict areas rose by 50 percent compared to 2022, with 3,688 confirmed cases against women and young girls. The situation worsened further in 2024, with an additional 25 percent increase. These figures are not just statistics; they are muffled cries that speak to the collapse of moral and human values in a world where wars are waged upon women’s bodies.
Sudan’s name, of course, is not absent from this dark list. Over the course of the most violent and bloodiest war in its modern history, international and local reports have documented the widespread weaponization of sexual violence, accusing the Rapid Support Forces of committing mass rape and sexual slavery in several regions. Amnesty International points to systematic practices of individual and gang rape perpetrated by these forces, targeting women and even girls. UNICEF has documented 221 cases of child rape, among them 16 victims under the age of five, and four infants. What level of depravity could ever explain such sadism and barbarity?
All the reports highlight that documented cases represent only a small fraction of the catastrophe. Most cases are not spoken about due to fear of retaliation or social stigma, as well as a lack of access to specialized medical centers following the destruction of infrastructure and the spread of chaos. This forced silence deprives victims of justice and care, leaving perpetrators unpunished- a double crime against humanity.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s report is not only descriptive. It also highlights a painful paradox: conflicts are killing record numbers of women, but they remain excluded from peace negotiations. In 2024, for example, women were not included in 9 out of 10 peace processes around the world. Women made up only 7 percent of negotiators and 14 percent of mediators. And although studies confirm that women’s participation makes durable peace agreements twice as likely, political factions continue to insist on marginalizing half of society, even in efforts to end wars in which women pay the highest price.
The bleak picture presented by the report calls for urgent action on several fronts:
First – Humanitarian assistance must be increased. Access to medical and psychological care for survivors of violence must be broadened, and women must be provided safety when they are displaced.
Second – There must be accountability for every belligerent who has committed or ordered these crimes. National and international justice cannot allow for impunity, which allows such practices to be repeated without fear.
Third – It is time for women’s participation in peace processes to become the rule, not the exception. Processes that exclude women give rise to fragile and temporary peace. Women introduce a different dimension to these efforts, presenting a human perspective that is not shaped by the logic of violence and brute force.
Violence against women in war is not merely an individual tragedy. It is a crime against the human conscience and the very idea of peace. Sudan presents one of the starkest examples of this moral collapse. It also reminds us that complacency in confronting such crimes turns conflicts into ticking time bombs that could explode again at any moment, perhaps with even greater brutality.
When the body is violated in the name of war, the future of an entire nation is violated with it. Protecting women in times of war is therefore not merely a matter of “human rights,” but a measure of our humanity.

Selected English Tweets from X Platform For 23 October/2025
Pope Leo XIV
In a world where arrogance and violence seem to prevail over charity, we are called to bear witness that life triumphs over death, that love conquers hatred, that forgiveness overcomes revenge, and that mercy and grace overcome sin. We can do so by nourishing our hearts with the Sacraments, the Word of God, prayer, and spiritual formation.

Pope Leo XIV
The commandment of love sits at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus told us that His own face is hidden in the faces and injuries of the poor (Mt 25:34-40). It is beautiful to see that #PopularMovements are moved by the desire to love, in the face of all individualism and prejudice, even before the requirement of justice.

Kegham Balian
BREAKING: U.S. Vice President JD Vance visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, accompanied by the Armenian, Greek, and Latin Patriarchates—custodians of Christianity’s holiest sites. He paused to pray at the Stone of Anointment.

Raymond Arroyo
https://x.com/i/status/1981310269964820652
Watching this prayer service from the Vatican, in the shadow of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, it is hard to ignore that the split between these communions began with a British monarch who insisted he had a right to divorce and remarry. And here centuries later sits a divorced and remarried King of England, praying with a Roman Pontiff in the Vatican.

Vatican News
King Charles III and Queen Camilla met with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican this morning as part of their official state visit. They were welcomed into the San Damaso courtyard by Swiss Guard and the hymn "God save the King." Their meeting with the Holy Father marks a historic moment in Anglican-Catholic relations and is centered on two key themes: Christian unity and care for the environment.

Rep. Riley M. Moore
It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you... It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your life. Happy Feast of St John Paul II!

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
When they say “stop genocide,” they mean Israel shouldn’t respond to Palestinian massacre.
When they say “free Palestine,” they mean Palestinians should commit more massacres until Israel is annihilated and Palestine is free.
They’re not about justice. They want to win.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Yesterday he told Paris March that Hezbollah must become an exclusively political party and today he gives Iran’s channel an interview waxing poetry on Palestine.
No policy. No calculation of cost and effect. No Lebanon First. Just a hodgepodge of crap that neither disarms Hezbollah nor improves Palestinian lives.

Israel-Alma
@Israel_Alma_org
https://x.com/i/status/1981276314221883765
The Lebanese villages that are right by the border with Israel are empty. An overwhelming majority of their residents have not returned. There is no significant, permanent, and continuous return of #Hezbollah to them. The return of residents who would serve as human shields for Hezbollah's and enable its renewed presence on the border must not be allowed. We must prevent the rehabilitation and renewed construction of a large terror infrastructure strip adjacent to the border with #Israel as it was before the war.

ME24 - Middle East 24
Hezbollah Is Losing Lebanon
https://x.com/i/status/1980924603275804833
Lebanese journalist and political lecturer Saleh Machnouk says the writing is on the wall: Hezbollah’s support inside Lebanon has collapsed.
Once seen as the country’s “resistance,” the group’s popularity has plummeted since Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 — and the latest war has finished the job.
Outside the Shiite community, Hezbollah’s legitimacy is now almost nonexistent. Poll after poll shows that its support among Sunnis, Christians, Druze, and secular Lebanese has evaporated. Even within Shiite areas, loyalty is sustained largely through fear, dependency, and sectarian manipulation.
Machnouk argues that Hezbollah’s remaining base is a product of repression, not devotion. Lebanon’s parliament is increasingly showing open defiance, with more MPs rejecting the group’s grip on the state.
A once-dominant force now clings to power through intimidation, not respect.

Vatican News
Happy Feast Day of Pope St John Paul II!
O God, who are rich in mercy and who willed that the blessed John Paul the Second should preside as Pope over your universal Church, grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching, we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ, the sole Redeemer of mankind. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
St John Paul II, pray for us.