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

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2025/english.october30.25.htm

News Bulletin Achieves Since 2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006 

Click On The Below Link To Join Elias Bejjaninews whatsapp group
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FPF0N7lE5S484LNaSm0MjW
اضغط على الرابط في أعلى للإنضمام لكروب Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group

Elias Bejjani/Click on the below link to subscribe to my youtube channel
الياس بجاني/اضغط على الرابط في أسفل للإشتراك في موقعي ع اليوتيوب
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOOSioLh1GE3C1hp63Camw

Bible Quotations For today
The Weed & Good Wheat Seed Parable/The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field
Matthew 13/24-30: “Jesus put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?”But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 29-30/2025
Elias Bejjani/October 21/2025/ My X Account
The Annual Feast Day of the Apostles: Saints Simon and Jude/Elias Bejjani/October 28, 2025
A Word of Thanks on the 14th Anniversary of Priesthood/(October 29, 2011 – October 29, 2025)/Father Tony Bou Assaf/October 29, 2025
Expatriates Law in a Session of Contradictions
Hezbollah Rebuilding Capabilities/"The New York Times": "The Party" is Working to Rebuild its Capabilities
US Diplomatic Pressure and Warnings/Ortagus Conveyed Unease, Not a Threat
Tom Barrack Postpones Beirut Visit: Pressure Policy Will Continue
Last US Chance for Lebanon... Disarmament or Inevitable Confrontation
US Proposal to Extend the "Mechanism's" Work to Include all of Lebanon's Borders
Lebanese president holds talks with Ortagus, seeks to curb Israeli attacks with US help
Aoun reportedly agrees to adding 'civilians' to indirect talks with Israel
Ortagus in Mechanism meeting: LAF must now fully implement its plan
What did Ortagus and Rashad discuss with Lebanese leaders?
Arab League chief rules out Israeli war on Lebanon
Berri says 'there will be no war' amid fears of flare-up
Govt. tasks ministerial panel with submitting report on electoral law
Berri: Legislative session boycott 'not an achievement'
A young man’s killing at Shatila checkpoint exposes Lebanon’s deadly normal/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya English/29 October/2025
Armament or When Nothing Is Gained and Everything Is Lost/Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 29/2025
A Roadmap for Israel-Lebanon Peace/By Hanin Ghaddar, Robert Satloff, Ehud Yaari/ The Washinton Institute
"Big Brother" of the Project to Isolate the Shiites/Marwan Al-Amin/Nidaa Al-Watan/October 30, 2025
The Last American Chance for Lebanon... Disarmament or Inevitable Confrontation
Behind the Scenes of a Meeting between Ortagus and a Lebanese Minister... Here are the Details
The Palestinians Must Apologize to the Lebanese/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/This Is Beirut/October 29/2025

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 29-30/2025
Israel says Gaza ceasefire renewed after 100 killed in series of strikes
Precarious ceasefire in Gaza shaken by Israeli strikes, Trump confident it will hold
Nothing is going to jeopardise” the ceasefire, Trump said.
Mediator Qatar expects Gaza ceasefire to last despite 'violation'
UN says deaths in fresh strikes on Gaza 'appalling'
Germany urges Israel to show 'restraint' in Gaza
Israel bans ICRC visits to detained Palestinian combatants
Iraq counters rumours amid cautious engagement with Damascus
Two men sentenced to 25 years each over Iran-backed plot to kill US-based dissident
Grossi says Iran not actively enriching uranium but movement detected near stockpile
Iran accuses Israeli ship owner of financing terrorism in Gulf seizure case
Iran proposes regional currency to boost trade, ease impact of sanctions
Al-Sharaa says Saudi Arabia is ‘the key,’ invites world to invest in Syria
Putin defies Trump with second nuclear weapons test in days

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 29-30/2025
Nigeria's Genocide Against Christians 'Spreading Like a Cancer'/Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/October 29/2025
A war without end? New sanctions deepen/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya English/29 October/2025
Trump and Asia: Between Confrontation and Negotiation/Emile Ameen/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 29/2025
Who Will Follow Canada’s ‘Reciprocity’ With Trump?/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 29/2025
The Rot Creeping Into Our Minds/The New York Times/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 29/2025
Selected English Tweets from X Platform For 29 October/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on October 29-30/2025
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.

The Annual Feast Day of the Apostles: Saints Simon and Jude
Elias Bejjani/October 28, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148612/
Today, the Catholic Church joyfully celebrates the Feast of the Apostles Saints Simon and Jude — two steadfast pillars upon whom the foundation of Christ’s Mystical Body was laid. Their names, forever linked in the Canon of the Mass, symbolize an apostolic pairing united in mission, martyrdom, and eternal legacy. Though historical details outside the New Testament remain scarce, their fervent dedication to proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the known world continues to inspire the faithful across generations.
Who They Were and Their Early Lives
St. Jude, often referred to as “Judas, son of James,” or “Thaddeus” in the Gospels to distinguish him from the traitor Judas Iscariot, was one of the close “brethren” or kinsmen of Jesus. Through his father Cleophas (or Alphaeus), the brother of St. Joseph, Jude was a first cousin of the Lord. Tradition holds that he was born in Galilee around 10 AD.
St. Simon, uniquely identified as “the Zealot” (or “the Cananaean”), earned this title either for his affiliation with the Jewish nationalist movement known as the Zealots or for his passionate zeal for the Law. This distinction underscores Christ’s unifying power, which brought together men of vastly different backgrounds — such as Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector — into His circle of Apostles. Tradition suggests that Simon was also born in Galilee, perhaps in Cana, around 5 AD.
The Apostolic Mission in Beirut and the East
After the Ascension of Jesus, the Apostles dispersed from Jerusalem to avoid persecution and to fulfill their divine mandate: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” According to a strong tradition upheld in the Eastern Churches — particularly the Syriac Orthodox and Maronite traditions — Saints Peter, Simon, and Jude journeyed to Beirut (in present-day Lebanon).
There, Simon and Jude were said to have played a crucial role in establishing the early Church, spending several years in Beirut. They are traditionally credited with building the very first Christian church in the city. Local tradition also holds that St. Peter was with them, organizing the first ecclesiastical hierarchy — Patriarchs, Bishops, and Priests — and establishing the early structure of the Holy Mass.
In this formative period, five major Patriarchal Sees were envisioned: Rome (Vatican), Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria.
Antioch, located in the Syrian region, was founded first, with St. Peter as its initial Patriarch around 42 AD. He later moved to Rome around 54 AD. These developments highlight the Levant — including Lebanon — as a vital center for the early Church’s missionary and administrative life. Following their ministry in Lebanon, Saints Simon and Jude continued eastward, spreading the Gospel in Mesopotamia and Persia (modern-day Iraq and Iran), where they accomplished their most celebrated missionary work.
Their Miracles and Enduring Patronage
The apostolic mission of Simon and Jude was accompanied by remarkable miracles.
A prominent tradition recounts St. Jude’s journey to King Abgar of Edessa, who suffered from leprosy. At the king’s request, Jude brought him an image of Christ — the Mandylion or Image of Edessa — through which the king was miraculously healed. This act of mercy and intercession established St. Jude as the Patron Saint of Desperate and Impossible Causes, a devotion that remains widespread to this day.
In Persia, the two Apostles performed many wonders, casting out demons, healing the sick, and converting multitudes to the faith. Their success, however, provoked the anger of local pagan priests, ultimately leading to their martyrdom.
Martyrdom, Relics, and the Legacy of Antioch
According to the most widely accepted account, Saints Simon and Jude suffered martyrdom together in Persia around 65 AD. Yet, another ancient tradition — deeply rooted in Lebanese Christianity — maintains that they were martyred in Beirut, where they had first preached the Gospel.
The Beirut Tradition:
This account affirms that the two Apostles were buried beneath the altar of the first church they founded in Beirut.
The Roman Relocation:
After the legalization of Christianity by Emperor Constantine, their relics were transferred to Rome in the 4th century (c. 325 AD). Today, their remains rest beneath the Altar of St. Joseph in the left transept of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, sharing the sacred space with the Prince of the Apostles himself.
The Apostles Simon and Jude left an indelible mark on the foundation of the universal Church. Through them, the Sacraments and the authentic teachings of Christ were transmitted to the early Christian communities of the East.
The Patriarchal See of Antioch, first established by St. Peter and deeply connected to their legacy, endured centuries of persecution. In 676 AD, St. John Maron, the first Maronite Patriarch, relocated the See to the Monastery of St. John Maroun in Kfarhay, Lebanon — the heart of Maronite Christianity. The continuity of that apostolic line endures today in Bkerke, Lebanon, the current seat of the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East.
Through their missionary zeal, miraculous works, and ultimate martyrdom, Saints Simon and Jude stand as eternal witnesses to Christ’s truth. Their faith — steadfast even to the shedding of their blood — laid the groundwork for Christianity in the East and remains a luminous example of courage, unity, and perseverance in the service of God.
*The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website: https://eliasbejjaninews.com

A Word of Thanks on the 14th Anniversary of Priesthood/(October 29, 2011 – October 29, 2025)
Father Tony Bou Assaf/October 29, 2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148669/
(Free Translation from Arabic by: Elias Bejjani)
Blessed is this day, on which I lift my heart in thanksgiving and praise to the Lord God, who looked upon my weakness and touched my clay with His hand, transforming it into a vessel for His grace, a voice for His word, and a shepherd for His people on the paths of life.
Fourteen years of priesthood have been a journey of love, the cross, and hope, marked by the toil of service and the joy of the altar, with many tears and much more abundant grace. With every new day, I have touched the face of Christ in the faces of my beloved ones, and in every Divine Liturgy, I have reclaimed the meaning of the first calling, which neither ages nor grows faint.
I thank the Mother Church that embraced my vocation and nurtured me in obedience to the Gospel and service to the Altar. I thank my dear people, the parishioners, friends, and loved ones who have been a family, a pillar of strength, and a firm ground that planted faith and hope within me.
Nor can I forget to bow with love and gratitude before my small family:
My parents, who planted the roots of faith in me.
My siblings, who were my support and company on the journey.
My wife, who has borne the cross of the calling with me with joy, patience, and beautiful silence.
My daughters, whose smiles light up my life, restoring to me the meaning of the mission every day.
You are my enduring grace, the compassionate face of God in my days.
On this blessed day of October 29, 2025, I say from the depth of my heart: Glory to you, O Lord, for you called me. Glory to you, for you sustained me. And glory to you, for you still do with me as you will.
May the coming years be a time of new grace, a priesthood more closely resembling Christ the Shepherd, and a service filled with greater love for humanity, the homeland, and the Church.
Father Tony Bou Assaf/Theology of Existence

Expatriates Law in a Session of Contradictions
Nidaa Al-Watan/October 30, 2025   (Translated from Arabic)
In a political scene that summarizes the magnitude of the complications Lebanon is experiencing on all levels, a heated Cabinet session was held yesterday at Baabda Palace, chaired by President of the Republic General Joseph Aoun. The session nearly ended after the Lebanese Forces ministers threatened to withdraw from it. The session was marked by a sharp debate over the issue of expatriate voting, as the majority of ministers demanded that expatriate voting should include all 128 MPs. This bloc consisted of the ministers of the Lebanese Forces, Minister Adel Nassar, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) ministers, alongside Ministers Charles Hajj and Paul Marqus, and Ministers of Tourism Laura Lahoud and Youth and Sports Nora Bayrakdarian. In contrast, the complete silence of the ministers affiliated with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam was noted, which was understood to be at his direction, as he preferred not to escalate and to postpone the decision on the matter until a later session. He was the one who proposed the idea of forming a committee to study it. The government will consider the report to be submitted by the committee in charge of the election law—to which the Deputy Prime Minister was added to chair it—in its next session, to be done within a maximum period of one week. (Details at this link)
Aoun: No One Should Boycott
What was striking was what Minister of Information Paul Marqus quoted from the President of the Republic, which included: "Regarding the lack of a quorum in the Parliament, despite the fact that the matter is a democratic action in form, the interest of the country is above all consideration and requires activating the work of state institutions, including the constitutional and legal ones. No one should boycott, but everyone should sit at the table and discuss, just as we discuss in the Council of Ministers to reach the appropriate decision. Unfortunately, what is happening is obstructing decision-making, even though we have the Election Law, the Budget Law, the $250 million loan, in addition to essential and vital measures for Lebanon. Moreover, the matter does not give a good image of Lebanon. It is not permissible to cite the issue of authorities stipulated in the Constitution, as they are not for obstruction but for operating and facilitating work in the public sector." President Aoun wished all authorities, whether the Council of Ministers or the Parliament, to activate their work for the sake of achieving the public interest of the country, "which can no longer withstand any shocks, and we do not have the luxury of time."
Cautious Optimism after Ortagus's Visit
In parallel with the internal disputes, cautious optimism prevailed in official circles after the visit of US Envoy Morgan Ortagus. Official sources indicated to Nidaa Al-Watan that Lebanon confirmed its intent to proceed with indirect negotiations, while Israel's opinion is not yet known. All of this depends on Israeli intentions and the level of American pressure on Tel Aviv to commit to the truce and the ceasefire. The sources did not deny the existence of American pressure on Lebanon as well to expedite the surrender of illegal weapons, which may raise the level of tension on the Lebanese scene amid "Hezbollah's" lack of responsiveness to this demand.
The Mechanism Meeting
The day after Ortagus's tour of Lebanese officials, the US Embassy issued a statement quoting her affirmation of continued monitoring of developments in Lebanon, while welcoming the government's decision to place all weapons under state control by the end of the year. It added: "The Lebanese Army must now fully implement its plan."Regarding the Mechanism Committee meeting, the US Embassy indicated in its statement that "Senior leaders held the twelfth meeting of the committee in Naqoura to review the progress made by the Lebanese Army in maintaining the Cessation of Hostilities arrangements, and enhancing disarmament efforts in Lebanon." The session, hosted by UNIFIL, included the committee's chairman, General Clearfield, Counselor Morgan Ortagus, in addition to senior representatives from all delegations. All members affirmed their shared commitment to supporting stability in Lebanon, and agreed to organize meetings more systematically, announcing that the committee's next 13th to 16th meetings will be held before the end of the year. During the committee meeting, the Lebanese Army provided a detailed operational update, highlighting a recent operation to clear an underground facility near Wadi Al-Azeeya, where the operation resulted in a comprehensive survey of the area, with planning for a follow-up visit. The committee chairman praised the professionalism and discipline of the Lebanese Army. The committee also discussed opportunities for the continuous mitigation of violations of the Cessation of Hostilities arrangements.
Israeli Soldiers Intercept a Lebanese Army Vehicle
On the ground, five Israeli soldiers reportedly attempted to intercept a Lebanese Army vehicle as it passed at the English Cemetery locality between Bustra and Majidiya, and they opened fire towards it after penetrating Lebanese territory. No statement has been issued yet by the Lebanese Army regarding the incident.
Arrests in Shatila Incident
In another security matter, the Directorate of Intelligence took custody of six members of the Palestinian National Security apparatus, following the shooting at the car of citizen Elio Abu Hanna and his killing inside the Shatila camp on October 26, 2025. The Army also took custody of one Lebanese citizen and four Syrians from the same apparatus in connection with the murder of a girl in the camp, whose body was found on October 28, 2025. Investigations have commenced with them, and follow-up is underway to take custody of the remaining individuals involved.
Lebanese-Syrian Security Coordination
On the Lebanese-Syrian security level, a Lebanese-Syrian security meeting was held in Beirut, as a continuation of the Saudi meetings. Coordination for the benefit of both countries was confirmed. Director-General of General Security Major General Hassan Shqair affirmed that there will be a working paper for cooperation between the two states at the institutional level, and Major General Abdul Qader Tahan, Assistant Syrian Interior Minister, affirmed work on addressing issues and achieving the best possible coordination.

Hezbollah Rebuilding Capabilities/"The New York Times": "The Party" is Working to Rebuild its Capabilities
Nidaa Al-Watan/October 29, 2025 & Junubia/October 29, 2025  (Translated from Arabic)
The New York Times, citing US and Israeli officials, reported that Hezbollah is working to rebuild its capabilities. Israeli security officials told The New York Times that Hezbollah's rebuilding efforts constitute a breach of the ceasefire, which is why they are intensifying their attacks. In this context, US Envoy Morgan Ortagus urged Lebanese officials to expedite the disarmament of Hezbollah and strengthen border security to prevent potential weapons smuggling. Israeli Military Action/Israeli Army: We Killed Hezbollah's Logistics Officer in Qana Sector (Sawt Lebanon/October 29, 2025)
The Israeli Army announced that it killed Hussein Ali Tohme, the logistics officer for Hezbollah's Qana sector. IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee stated on his X (formerly Twitter) account that the IDF targeted and killed Tohme on October 14, 2025. Adraee added that during the war, Tohme worked to transport weapons to rebuild Hezbollah's military capabilities in the area, a move that constituted a breach of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The spokesperson affirmed that the IDF "will continue to operate to remove any threat to the State of Israel."

US Diplomatic Pressure and Warnings/Ortagus Conveyed Unease, Not a Threat
Al-Joumhouria/October 29, 2025  (Translated from Arabic)
Official sources clarified to Al-Joumhouria newspaper that Ortagus did not convey any new or direct Israeli threats to Lebanon. However, she informed them that a window of opportunity exists now—given US President Donald Trump's interest in achieving peace breakthroughs—and that they should not lose it. She noted that the Israelis are uneasy with the developments and are concerned that Hezbollah is rebuilding itself, which necessitates a rapid solution, and the US is present to help in this regard.

Tom Barrack Postpones Beirut Visit: Pressure Policy Will Continue
MTV/October 29, 2025  (Translated from Arabic)
MTV sources revealed that US Envoy Tom Barrack cancelled his visit to Beirut.
Informed sources indicated that he does not see a justification for the visit at this stage, but the policy of pressure will continue.

Last US Chance for Lebanon... Disarmament or Inevitable Confrontation
Junubia/October 29, 2025  (Translated from Arabic)
Sky News Arabia, citing Lebanese sources, reported that US Envoy Tom Barrack's anticipated visit to Beirut would be his last, where he would inform officials that they have a final opportunity to implement the disarmament plan or else "Lebanon will be left to its fate."
Security information cited by the channel suggests Hezbollah was able to smuggle hundreds of short-range missiles from Syria to Lebanon in recent months. Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, stated the "American message is clear and strict: either the State of Lebanon deals with Hezbollah, or Israel will do so." He added that Israel will continue its "maintenance strikes" to prevent Hezbollah from reorganizing, warning that the possibility of escalation is present at any moment.

US Proposal to Extend the "Mechanism's" Work to Include all of Lebanon's Borders
Sky News Arabia/October 29, 2025  (Translated from Arabic)
US Envoy Morgan Ortagus proposed the possibility of extending the mandate of the Ceasefire Monitoring Committee ("the Mechanism") to cover all Lebanese borders, not just the south, according to informed sources.This proposal comes in light of previous Israeli reports indicating that Hezbollah has managed to smuggle arms shipments across the border with Syria.ى Ortagus also reportedly discussed the possibility of expanding the committee's membership to include civilians, with her personally representing the US civilian side.
The "Mechanism," headed by a US General and including France, Lebanon, Israel, and UNIFIL, oversees the implementation of the ceasefire agreement that began on November 27 of last year.

Lebanese president holds talks with Ortagus, seeks to curb Israeli attacks with US help
The Arab Weekly/October 29/2025
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for an end to Israeli strikes on his country during his meeting with US envoy Morgan Ortagus on Tuesday, amid intensified Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah, usually saying it is targeting members of the group. In October alone, Israeli strikes killed 23 people in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry. A statement released by the presidency said Aoun had asserted in his meeting with the US envoy “the need to activate the work of the Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Committee … particularly with regard to halting the ongoing Israeli violations”. The Lebanese are said to worry about a potential military escalation against their country in the near future. But a number of analysts believes Israel has no interest at this stage in entering Lebanon’s fray as the government struggles with an unrelenting but weakened Hezbollah while dealing with a severe economic crisis. A five-member committee, which includes the United States and France, is in charge of overseeing the implementation of the truce. Ortagus is expected to attend the committee’s meeting this week. Aoun also emphasised “the need to enable southern citizens to return to their homes and repair damaged ones, especially with winter approaching”. Israeli attacks in recent weeks have targeted excavators and bulldozers. Lebanese officials believe these strikes aim to prevent any reconstruction work in the war-ravaged south. The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that it had verified the killing of 111 civilians by Israeli forces since the ceasefire in Lebanon. As part of last year’s ceasefire deal, Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon and Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle any military infrastructure in the south. According to the agreement, only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers are to be deployed in the south of the country. Under US pressure and fearing an escalation of Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government has moved to begin disarming Hezbollah, a plan the movement and its allies oppose. Despite the terms of the truce, Israel has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.

Aoun reportedly agrees to adding 'civilians' to indirect talks with Israel
Naharnet/29 October/2025
U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus has proposed in her meetings with Lebanese leaders to involve civilians in indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel through the ceasefire monitoring committee, media reports said. President Joseph Aoun welcomed the idea, a report published Wednesday in Nidaa al-Watan newspaper claimed. The civilians would be high-level officials such as ministers or diplomatic representatives of Lebanon and Israel. Ortagus also promised to do everything in her power to prevent an Israeli war on Lebanon, the report said. Yet, she warned of a possible escalation that could be avoided through negotiations.

Ortagus in Mechanism meeting: LAF must now fully implement its plan
Naharnet/29 October/2025
The U.S.-led ceasefire monitoring committee, known as the Mechanism, met Wednesday in Naqoura to “review the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) progress on maintaining the cessation of hostilities arrangements, and the advancing of disarmament efforts in Lebanon,” the U.S. embassy said. “The session, hosted by UNIFIL, included Lt. Gen. Joseph Clearfield, chairman of the Mechanism, Counselor Morgan Ortagus, and senior representatives from each of the delegations. All members reaffirmed their shared commitment to stability in Lebanon and agreed to a more structured meeting occurrence, announcing that the 13th through 16th iterations of the Pentalateral will occur prior to the end of the year,” the embassy said in a statement. “Formalizing the meeting schedule ensures that all participants are aligned, informed, and ready to present transparent updates to the international community,” said Clearfield. “This predictability supports operational efficiency and builds the shared confidence and trust necessary to advance lasting peace in Lebanon,” he added. During the Pentalateral, the Lebanese Army provided a detailed operational update, highlighting a recent operation to clear an underground facility (UGF) near Wadi Al-Aziyeh. The operation resulted in a reconnaissance of the area to be re-visited again at a later time. Clearfield commended the Lebanese Armed Forces’ professionalism and discipline. “The LAF’s professionalism, and commitment is notable,” Clearfield said. “I have observed them conduct a wide range of operations, from providing escorts for olive harvesting to carrying out complex operations to locate, dismantle, and neutralize an underground facility believed to be used by malign actors. Their performance reflects the strength of Lebanon’s Armed Forces and their resolve to secure their nation’s future.” The group also discussed ongoing mitigation opportunities for violations of the cessation of hostilities arrangements. Participants agreed that this issue will remain a standing agenda item in all future sessions as part of the collective effort to preserve peace and accountability under the cessation framework. “We continue to monitor developments in Lebanon and welcome the government’s decision to bring all weapons under state control by the end of the year,” Ortagus said. “The LAF must now fully implement its plan,” she added. “The Mechanism continues to play a central role in monitoring, verifying, and assisting in the enforcement of commitments made by both Israel and Lebanon,” the statement said.

What did Ortagus and Rashad discuss with Lebanese leaders?
Naharnet/29 October/2025
U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad did not relay “direct threats” to Lebanese officials but rather “advices and veiled diplomatic warnings,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday. Rashad, who played a key role in reaching the Gaza truce, explained to President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and PM Nawaf Salam the efforts that have been exerted regarding Gaza, expressing Egyptian readiness to play an essential role in the Lebanese crisis, informed sources told the daily. Rashad emphasized that “Egypt can help due to its regional and international relations and that Lebanon must cooperate because that is the only solution to avoid a worse situation,” the sources said. Baabda sources also confirmed that Rashad did not carry any threatening message but rather advices. As for Ortagus, informed sources told al-Akhbar that her meeting with Aoun was not negative or tense although she “frankly spoke about the need for the army to double its efforts to continue implementing the plan that was approved by the government.”Echoing Rashad’s remarks that the Gaza agreement has created a positive atmosphere in the region, Ortagus reportedly said that there is a chance to consolidate calm in Lebanon should the coordination mechanisms be improved. “In this regard, she proposed activating the work of the Mechanism committee and expanding its jurisdiction to involve the whole of the Lebanese border, not only the South, in addition to involving diplomats in its membership,” the sources said. The meeting with Berri was meanwhile calm and did not witness any intimidation or threats of war, al-Akhbar said. “Ortagus tackled the issue of arms smuggling from Syria in it, stressing the need to control the border,” the daily said, adding that the U.S. envoy also told Salam that “Hezbollah is rebuilding its strength” and that “the United States and Israel have information that confirm that.” “This requires the government not to be slow in the implementation of its plan,” Ortagus reportedly added. She also underscored the need to negotiate with Israel in light of the situation in the region.

Arab League chief rules out Israeli war on Lebanon
Naharnet/29 October/2025
Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit has held talks in Baabda with President Joseph Aoun.
“The meeting with the president involved an analysis of the regional, international and Lebanese situations and I sensed that President Aoun is confident that things in Lebanon are going in the right direction. He also has confidence in the country’s future,” Abul Gheit said.
“The return of the war is possible, but in my opinion, this is something very unlikely, especially amid the dialogue with the U.S., which is pushing for Israel’s withdrawal from the five points and its non-interference in Lebanese territory, and in general and in my personal opinion, there is no direct danger,” the Arab official added.

Berri says 'there will be no war' amid fears of flare-up
Naharnet/29 October/2025
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is confident that "there will be no war" on Lebanon. He told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Wednesday, that he is not worried about the possibility of an Israeli all-out war against Lebanon. "There won't be a war, the atmosphere is positive, and I'm reassured at this stage," he said. The Israeli army still occupies five border positions in southern Lebanon, and despite the ceasefire, continues to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory, claiming to target Hezbollah. It has intensified strikes in recent weeks, with several deadly attacks launched over the past few days. Berri had discussed on Tuesday with U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus the daily Israeli violations and attacks on Lebanon and the work of the five-party technical ceasefire monitoring committee, his office said. Media reports claimed that Ortagus proposed to Berri direct talks with Israel or indirect negotiations (through the ceasefire committee) that might involve civilians.

Govt. tasks ministerial panel with submitting report on electoral law
Naharnet/29 October/2025
Cabinet on Wednesday tasked a specialized ministerial committee with submitting, within a week, a report about the electoral law amendments that have been suggested by the foreign and interior ministries. The aforementioned compromise convinced the Lebanese Forces’ ministers not to walk out of the session, Al-Jadeed TV said. The TV network reported that Information Minister Paul Morcos, Justice Minister Adel Nassar and the LF ministers exerted efforts with the various ministerial blocs in order to reach a mechanism that would preserve expats’ rights and enjoy ministerial consensus.
Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji of the LF had submitted an urgent bill to cabinet that would allow expats to vote abroad in the 2026 parliamentary elections, after Speaker Nabih Berri refused to put a similar bill on parliament’s agenda.
If approved, the draft law would allow expats to choose their representatives in the 128-seat parliament according to their registered electoral districts, instead of limiting their votes to six newly-introduced seats. The Foreign Ministry said its move came after it received a number of petitions and letters from a large number of Lebanese expats based in Berlin, Stockholm, Ottawa, Montreal, Washington, New York, Abuja, Madrid, London, Melbourne and Paris, who demanded the abolition of the two articles. Sixty-five MPs from the parliamentary majority had tried to discuss the amendment of the electoral law in parliament but Berri blocked the attempt. Expats had voted heavily in favor of the Lebanese Forces and its allies during the 2018 and 2022 parliamentary elections. Hezbollah and the Amal Movement argue that they do not enjoy the same campaigning freedom that the other parties enjoy abroad and have thus deemed the six newly-introduced seats as the lesser of two evils. Morcos said Wednesday that it is impossible to implement the six-seat system for technical reasons. The Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and some Change and independent MPs are meanwhile calling for allowing expats to vote for the current 128 seats as happened in the 2018 and 2022 elections. The law had been amended back then to allow for the postponement of the introduction of the six new seats until 2026.

Berri: Legislative session boycott 'not an achievement'
Naharnet/29 October/2025
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri considered that the boycott of a legislative session on Tuesday was not an achievement but an "illusion of victory" as the laws that were to be discussed in the session were not "for his personal interest" but for the public benefit.
"If they don't want to pass the laws, then so much the worse for them," the Speaker told local al-Joumhouria newspaper.. The session on Tuesday was adjourned due to lack of quorum, after the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and their allies boycotted it in rejection of Berri’s refusal to put on the agenda a bill allowing expats to vote for all 128 seas in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The LF had said that participation in the session would be a “submission" to "Berri’s hegemony over parliament" and a "crime against hundreds of thousands of Lebanese expat."The current electoral law only allows expats to vote for six newly-introduced seats in parliament. Sixty-five MPs are demanding to amend the law in order to allow expats to vote for all 128 seats. Hezbollah and Amal argue that they do not enjoy the same campaigning freedom that other parties enjoy abroad and are objecting against the possible amendment.

A young man’s killing at Shatila checkpoint exposes Lebanon’s deadly normal
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya English/29 October/2025
A young Lebanese man named Elio Abou Hanna left his home one evening and never returned. He made a wrong turn near the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, was confronted by armed men manning an illegal checkpoint, and was shot dead. The most tragic part of this crime is not only the murder itself, but how unsurprising it has become in a country where the state has surrendered its sovereignty and where ordinary citizens are forced to negotiate daily with militias. Lebanon’s political class has tried for years to divide weapons into “legitimate resistance arms” and “illegitimate camp arms,” pretending that some militias are more acceptable than others. This moral and constitutional absurdity has produced a reality in which Hezbollah holds a full military arsenal under the slogan of resistance, while Palestinian factions remain armed inside camps that have become islands of insecurity and criminality. The result is a perpetual gray zone where no one is accountable and where the law only applies selectively.
Elio Abou Hanna paid the ultimate price for that lie.
Some have insisted on treating this case as an unfortunate clash or a misunderstanding. It is not. It is a crime rooted in decades of state failure. The Palestinian camps, including Shatila, host communities that are themselves victims of history, deprived of rights and trapped in poverty. Yet they remain outside state authority because successive Lebanese governments preferred political expediency over justice. Armed groups inside these camps often engage in smuggling and drug trafficking, using their weapons as protection. Lebanese citizens and Palestinian refugees alike have suffered the consequences.
Elio’s father asked two heartbreaking questions: Are the Lebanese forbidden from entering their own neighborhoods? Have the “guests” turned into rulers of the hosts? His pain is real, but the blame does not lie with a community or with refugees. It lies with Lebanon’s ruling establishment, which granted militias exceptional status and allowed weapons to spread unchecked. When the president of Lebanon shields one armed group for sectarian calculations, he cannot credibly demand that other armed actors disarm. Sovereignty cannot be selective.
Lebanon has lived this tragedy before. In 2008, Hezbollah turned its weapons inward and occupied the capital. When Lebanese Army pilot Samer Hanna was shot down by Hezbollah in 2008, the state looked the other way. After the Beirut Port explosion killed more than 220 people and destroyed half the city in 2020, no one has been held accountable. Investigations are buried, witnesses threatened, and suspects protected. From political assassinations to everyday criminality, the state has made a habit of abandoning justice.
This is the real danger: injustice becomes normal. Lawlessness becomes the system. Citizens lose faith in institutions and resort to survival instincts. When people believe the courts will never protect them, they cling to their sect, their party, or their gun.
Foreign officials visiting Beirut this week, from the United States Special Envoy Morgan Ortagus and Egypt Head of Intelligence, are pushing to prevent escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli border. Their efforts are necessary, but incomplete. There can be no lasting stability on the frontier when the interior is collapsing. Lebanon does not need more external mediation. It needs leaders willing to dismantle the internal war, economy of militias, smuggling networks, and political protection that keeps the country hostage.
Hezbollah claims its arms protect Lebanon. Yet it is Lebanese civilians who end up protecting Hezbollah’s weapons with their lives, their economy, and their sovereignty. Every decision about peace or war on this land is made outside official institutions. Hezbollah’s arsenal is the backbone of a system that encourages others to arm themselves. As long as one militia dictates national security, others will demand the same privilege.
Lebanon’s tragedy is not only that militias exist. It is that the state has stopped trying to exist.
Elio’s death should be treated as a turning point. Not because he is the first innocent victim. He is one among many. But his story exposes a truth that the Lebanese have tried to ignore. There is only one category of weapons in Lebanon: the illegal kind that competes with the state. The bullet that killed Elio is the same political logic that prevents justice for the Beirut port blast, the same armed impunity that silenced voices like Lokman Slim, the same coercive force that keeps the Lebanese presidency, economy, and future under hostage.
The Lebanese people deserve a country where security forces wear the uniform of the Republic and where justice is not a negotiation. The Palestinian refugees deserve a life with dignity under the law, not trapped between poverty and armed factions. The region deserves a stable Lebanon that finally believes in its own sovereignty. Elio Abou Hanna will never come home again. If his killing becomes just another footnote in Lebanon’s long list of tragedies, then every citizen in this country loses a bit more of their freedom. The least we can do is insist that his blood is not dismissed as a routine incident. His name must remind us that no nation can survive if it refuses to protect its people from those who carry guns without the consent of the state.
Lebanon must make a choice. Either the Republic is sovereign, or nothing is.

Armament or When Nothing Is Gained and Everything Is Lost
Hazem Saghieh/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 29/2025
The question of arms and disarmament has, in the cases of Hamas and Hezbollah, taken a trajectory that does not align with the population’s suffering, nor the ethical obligations dictated by the population’s living conditions and the need to end that suffering. From the very beginning, the possession of these arms was never bound to measures that reflect concern for the population, such as building shelters for them or digging militants’ tunnels far from their homes, let alone a sociopolitical vision for how to improve people’s lives and living conditions after the promised victory is attained.
However, the armament question is also taking a track that diverges from politics and viable objectives. That is, harming Israel with the use of these weapons - to say nothing of defeating it militarily - has, as our lived experiences show, become entirely beside the point. As for future horizons, they are riddled with signs of Israel carrying on and of completing its victory, with not a single sign of a war against Israel. Such things are not said to “generate despair” or “push a narrative of defeat.” Indeed, the despair and defeat are more than glaring enough as it is. And, contrary to the ludicrous propaganda pushed by those who want us to blindly go along with and repeat the lies and blatant hyperboles promoted by their armed forces, these things are certainly not said out of love or sympathy for Israel either.
There is no prudent position - no position which builds a pertinent assessment of the situation and the paths to change - that does not entail disarmament and stopping this defeat in its tracks after it had already gone very far, as well as preventing the Jewish state from killing more civilians, starving them, expanding its occupation and territorial encroachments, and obstructing reconstruction efforts.
The fact is that, because of the sharp severance between arms and their celebrated nominal functions, and because these arms have become a cause for greater suffering and more death, myths have come to play an increasingly prominent role in defending armament and the hopes built on arms. Accordingly, we have recently come across people who tell us that these arms will only be handed over to the Mahdi once he returns, or that Hezbollah’s leadership is contemplating the liberation of the Galilee in northern Israel...
Implicitly, appealing to superstition finds a lot of outside material to work with. We know that since the end of World War II, arms have become the basis of claims to legitimacy that rivals the legitimacy of elected institutions. In 1945, for example, Ahmad Sukarno became the president of Indonesia, and maintained his position until 1967, not because he was elected but because he had “fought” Dutch colonialism and driven the Dutch out. Other “national liberation movements” subsequently followed in Sukarno’s footsteps, with some taking shade under Mao Zedong’s famous maxim that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” That is how, after Bolshevism and fascism created ruptures with the notion of legitimacy that colonialism took to the colonies, anti-colonial movements achieved a third rupture, and that was before Khomeini integrated the divine into this substitution process.
Nonetheless, one does not need extraordinary mental capacities to notice that the primary reason for clinging to these arms is their domestic function. It is no secret that broad swathes of the population, in Lebanon but also in Gaza, oppose these weapons and mock the supposed protection they offer. It is likely that the fighters’ tensions with the local population and both militias’ apprehensions about how the people would react to their disarmament only reinforce their determination to keep their arms.
Here, we find ourselves before a dazzling case of exploiting grand causes - like justice, liberation, and the correct ideological stance - and turning them into a pretext for carrying arms. In previous eras, we repeatedly saw weapons and “causes” work hand in hand to support one so-called “national liberation movement” in its battle against another force that had also been recognized as a “liberation movement.”
That is how, for example, Ahmed Ben Bella and Houari Boumediene managed to defeat the “provisional government” of Benyoucef Benkhedda in Algeria. In South Yemen, Qahtan al-Shaabi and later Salim Rubaya Ali were overthrown by Abdel Fattah Ismail and his comrades in the same manner, and the “Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola” also succeeded in crushing two rival movements through this approach. The difference between those cases and the experiences of Hamas and Hezbollah, however, is that the former contributed to the success of their countries’ struggle for independence - the goal that they had presented as their raison d’etre. Neither Hezbollah nor Hamas, on the other hand, has achieved any victory that could justify their continued existence. On top of that, the weapons they are clinging to cannot become a path to the kind of political power that the victors had attained in Algeria, Yemen, Angola, or anywhere else. Hezbollah and Hamas are distinguished by their intention to do the opposite, to cling to defeated weapons amid a continuous and escalating defeat. This unique stance sets them apart from even the Iraqi model known as the “Popular Mobilization Forces;” the Iraqi army’s collapse before ISIS was an implicit condition for their emergence and their image as the alternative savior that would accelerate the course of the disguised civil war. In general, we are facing an inherent essence with these two, whereby society is a single, inseparable whole composed of interconnected organs that cannot be understood in isolation from the others. As for arms, they alone explain everything else rather than everything else explaining them. What explains everything else, in the case at hand, also destroys everything and is now moving forward with the destruction of everything.

حنين غدار، روبرت ساتلوف، إيهود يعاري/ معهد واشنطن: خارطة طريق للسلام بين إسرائيل ولبنان
A Roadmap for Israel-Lebanon Peace
By Hanin Ghaddar, Robert Satloff, Ehud Yaari/ The Washinton Institute
October 29/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/10/148653/
Pursuing even incremental steps will be difficult in a country long dominated by Iran’s chief regional proxy, but the two countries’ leaders have cracked the door open for future diplomacy. While global attention is focused on the potential for ending the Gaza war, a refreshingly positive discussion has also emerged about the possibility of peace on Israel’s northern front with Lebanon. A long road separates hopeful talk from actual diplomatic moves, but for the first time in decades, peace itself is no longer taboo in Lebanon, triggering a serious national conversation about a topic once only mentioned in whispers.
Talking Peace
Since the November 2024 Lebanon ceasefire with Israel, the idea of peace has featured in public discourse in Lebanon, appearing in television debates, newspaper articles, and interviews with officials. Two factors are at play. First, Hezbollah’s military defeat undermined the appeal of the long-dominant “resistance” rhetoric and convinced a broad swath of Lebanese that only peace could end the wars that have pummeled the country for the past four decades. Second, the Trump administration’s heavy emphasis on regional peacemaking, evidenced by the president’s personal commitment to expanding the Abraham Accords, made the possibility of peace with Israel real and tangible. These trends were reflected in unusual statements by leaders of the two long-warring countries. In his otherwise bellicose UN General Assembly speech on September 26, 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu extended an olive branch to Lebanon, commending its government for committing to disarm Hezbollah and suggesting that peace between the two nations “is possible.” While making clear that Beirut needs to take “genuine and sustained action to disarm Hezbollah,” Netanyahu outlined a future of Israel-Lebanon peace under the umbrella of an expanded Abraham Accords.
Earlier that same week, on September 23, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun included a reference to peace in the very first sentence of his General Assembly speech: “I stand before you today talking about peace.” This followed his speech a few days earlier at an Arab-Islamic summit in Doha in which he affirmed Lebanon’s willingness to reach peace with Israel based on the two-decade-old Arab Peace Initiative, a consensus position in Arab politics but not one Lebanese leaders often emphasized when Hezbollah was ascendant. In mid-October, after President Trump’s triumphant visit to Jerusalem and Sharm al-Sheikh, the Lebanese leader said his country and Israel need to negotiate because their differences have not been settled by war. Shortly thereafter, he urged indirect talks with Israel, noting that his country “cannot be outside the current path in the region, which is the path of crisis resolution.” Even Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, whose political origins are leftist and pro-Palestinian, has publicly entertained the idea of peace with Israel in the context of the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Such statements from the two leaders cannot be delinked from the Trump administration’s own peacemaking ambitions. As President Trump said in his Jerusalem Knesset speech, “My administration is actively supporting the new president of Lebanon and his mission to permanently disarm Hezbollah’s terror brigades. He’s doing very well. And build a thriving state at peace with its neighbors, and you’re [Israel is] very much in favor of that, I know…Good things are happening there, really good things.” This follows such statements as those by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who in a March 2025 interview expressed optimism about a future Israel-Lebanon peace deal and suggested peace could offer Lebanon a path toward political and economic stability. “Imagine if Lebanon normalizes, Syria normalizes, and the Saudis sign a normalization treaty with Israel because there’s a peace in Gaza…It would be epic,” Witkoff continued.
Challenges and Opportunities
The main obstacle preventing the leap from rhetoric to peacemaking is Hezbollah and its allies in the Amal movement. Even in its weakened state, Hezbollah remains armed and dangerous, able to cow other political forces in the country and finance the rebuilding of its arsenal. In this regard, disarming Hezbollah is the main prerequisite for peace.
Despite this necessity, Lebanon’s political and military leaders have signaled their reluctance to use the full power of the state and army to implement Hezbollah’s disarmament, which should extend as well to twelve Palestinian refugee camps within its territory. This hesitancy will likely be especially apparent after January 1, 2026, when according to the Lebanese government’s disarmament plan, the focus should turn to Hezbollah’s weapons facilities north of the Litany River. If, at that time, disarmament remains stalled, the prospect of Israel launching an operation to complete the mission itself will become substantially more likely, as U.S. envoy Tom Barrack recently warned (see figures 1 and 2 for Israel’s anti-Hezbollah attacks since November 2024). Hamas has also refused to disarm in Lebanon’s refugee camps, posing a separate difficulty.
In light of these challenges, one way to avert a catastrophic resumption of war would be for Lebanon and Israel to begin their own direct, if incremental, peace process. Movement between the two countries would not substitute for disarmament, but if pursued as an alternative to Israeli military action against Hezbollah, the fact of the talks would undermine Hezbollah’s effort to claw back its political influence and demonstrate for the Lebanese people the potential benefits of peacemaking.
At the moment, while Lebanese leaders may be open to discussing the idea of peace, in practice they appear to be linking their own willingness to engage in diplomacy to Saudi Arabia’s posture, which requires an end of the Gaza war and a pathway to Palestinian statehood. And, of course, there remains the issue of Israel’s continued control of several positions inside Lebanese territory. But the imminence of another round of disastrous warfare may be enough for Aoun and Salam to reconsider, put Lebanese national interests first, and choose what is currently unpalatable—diplomacy with Israel. Open imageMap indicating Israel Defense Forces airstrikes on Hezbollah targets by Lebanese region, Nov 27, 2024-Oct 4, 2025.Open imageChart of Hezbollah operatives killed between November 27, 2024, and August 31, 2025--totaling 147.
Alternative Models?
Some in Lebanon appreciate that building a relationship with Israel is preferable to another war, but they are looking for alternatives short of full peace. In this regard, two episodes from Lebanon’s history are now frequently cited in public debate—although both are flawed models:
The 1949 armistice. This agreement committed Lebanon to prevent its territory from being used for attacks on Israel and defined both a boundary between the countries, often called the Blue Line, and a demilitarized zone in disputed areas, particularly around villages straddling the border. The armistice failed because Lebanon remained formally at war with Israel and could not control nonstate actors on its soil; successive wars—first with the Palestine Liberation Organization and then with Hezbollah—rendered it moot. The example shows that unless an agreement binds Lebanon to an enforceable peace, it will not survive a weak state, armed militias, and a country divided by sectarian politics.
The May 1983 agreement. This U.S.-brokered accord—produced by the only official direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel—aimed to end the state of war between the two countries following the Israeli invasion in 1982. Although not a full-fledged peace treaty, it did provide a framework for establishing normal relations, including liaison offices, trade, and movement of people. Closely associated with the Phalangist-dominated government at the time, the agreement was annulled just a year after its signing under pressure from Syria’s Assad regime and its Lebanese allies.
Other voices in Lebanon suggest that instead of looking to the past, the country should recognize in the Abraham Accords a path to securing the country’s political, security, and economic interests. Unlike the 1949 armistice or the May 1983 accord, this path would require a commitment to full peace—substantial concession in exchange for substantial benefit.
Overcoming the Anti-Normalization Law
The idea of launching peace talks to signal Lebanon’s peaceful intent and avoid renewed war with Israel faces a uniquely Lebanese impediment—the current speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri. A longtime Hezbollah ally, the eighty-seven-year-oldBerri is well known for shifting his stances with the political winds, whether local or regional. From his perch, Berri could prevent the government from pursuing peace talks, potentially until the outcome of the next legislative election, which is scheduled for May 2026.
Even until then, Lebanon has other significant ways to signal its peaceful intent. One would be to address the country’s draconian laws banning any communication between Lebanese and Israelis, whether direct (person-to-person) or electronic (via telephone or online), anywhere in the world. Because the legal language is so broad and imprecise, judges have wide discretion to classify virtually any contact with an Israeli as espionage or treason and to impose penalties as severe as lengthy prison sentences or even capital punishment.
Abolishing these laws—or at least severely restricting them to legitimate national security cases—would send a powerful message about Lebanon’s openness to people-to-people communication on which a peace movement could be built. It would also have the effect of protecting civil activists committed to pushing back against Hezbollah’s forever-war “resistance” narrative. While the current Berri-controlled parliament is unlikely to abolish or amend the laws, the Lebanese government does have the power to control their enforcement, which it could use to send the appropriate signal.
Incremental Steps on the Road to Peace
Even in advance of an agreement, Lebanon and Israel could cooperate in numerous areas, thus building confidence and improving prospects for eventual diplomacy:
Completion of a land border demarcation, for which most points are quite simple to resolve, including B1, separating Ras Naqoura (Lebanon) and Rosh Hanikra (Israel),where the United States has already proposed a compromise formula (see figure 3).
Opening of the Ras Naqoura/Rosh Hanikra crossing to foreign tourist traffic.
On Shebaa Farms and the Alawite village of Ghajar, admission by Lebanon that these areas were indeed parts of Syria when taken by Israel in the 1967 war, thus eliminating the pretext used for decades to foment tension with Israel.
Provision by Israel of natural gas to Lebanon via the Arab Gas Pipeline, through an extension from Syria, helping relieve Lebanon’s acute energy shortage (see figure 4).
Joint water management for the Hasbani River and its tributaries, and coordination on sewage treatment in the basin to prevent pollution.
Opening of Israeli and Lebanese airspace to civilian aviation, which would principally benefit Lebanon by shortening the flight time from Beirut to Saudi Arabia.
Permission for supervised pilgrimage to holy places in the two countries. This could include, for example, making the tomb of Saint Charbel (in Annaya) and Khalwat al-Bayada (near Hasbaya) available to Israeli Christians and Druze, in return for making Jerusalem, Nazareth, and—depending on political and security circumstances—Bethlehem as well as Jethro’s tomb (west of Tiberias) available to Lebanese Christians and Druze.
Open imageMap of Lebanon's thirteen disputed points along the Blue Line border demarcation with Israel.Open imageMap of Arab Gas Pipeline, which travels from Syria southward through Lebanon, Jordan, and into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Recommendations
Peace between Israel and Lebanon may still appear distant, but both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Aoun have cracked the door open. For the first time in years, leaders on both sides are articulating the possibility of ending the state of war. This shift in public discourse provides an opportunity to build a dynamic that normalizes the idea of peace.
For the Trump administration, which envisions Lebanon as a future signatory of an expanded Abraham Accords, the moment is ripe to embrace the peace agenda and encourage Lebanese to view it as a way to avoid further war and salvage the country’s broken economy. Operationally, such a course would involve disconnecting peace diplomacy from implementation of the ceasefire—or, to be more precise, circumventing both the Hezbollah obstacle to disarmament and the potential of a renewed Israeli military operation by convincing the Lebanese government to begin its own peace process with Israel.
Specifically, pieces of this approach would include:
Efforts by U.S. officials to enlist major regional allies—including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar—to sign off on a Lebanese government decision to begin its own peace process with Israel. This would be untethered from progress on the Palestinian front.
A stick-and-carrot U.S. policy to incentivize easing of Lebanon’s anti-normalization laws. On the one hand, this could include U.S. Department of State and Treasury sanctions on Lebanese judicial and law enforcement officials involved in enforcing these laws; on the other hand, it could include certain economic benefits that would come with easing of these laws.
A larger package, including the benefits noted above, designed to address Lebanon’s desperate economy—which has shrunk by nearly 40 percent since 2019. This could encompass a plan to unlock international reconstruction aid, revive tourism, and restore investor confidence linked to incremental peacemaking steps with Israel, such as convening peace talks, demarcating borders, and establishing liaison offices.
Contextual framing through a major communications and information effort that outlines the benefits of peace. This would include explaining how Lebanon would benefit from a free trade zone covering southern Lebanon and northern Israel, from tourists crossing the Israel-Lebanon border, and from the substantial investment that would flow into Lebanon in an era of peace.
At the same time, reminding Lebanon that choosing neither to disarm Hezbollah north of the Litani nor to pursue peace diplomacy with Israel will come at a cost—losing U.S. aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces, losing U.S. backing of international support to Lebanon’s economy, and losing any U.S. effort to restrain Israel from completing Hezbollah’s disarmament “the hard way.” That stick should get the attention of Lebanon’s leaders.
To be sure, pursuing even incremental steps toward peace will be an uphill climb in a country long dominated by Iran’s chief regional proxy. But if Hezbollah is occupied with parrying the government’s disarmament efforts and if the Aoun-Salam governing duo can advance this project, an opening may exist to project to ordinary Lebanese the potential benefits that could come with taking the diplomatic path with Israel. In this regard, the U.S. role will be critical—to inject this initiative with drive and enthusiasm, to shield it from attack, and to reward local advocates with a protective and supportive embrace.
https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/roadmap-israel-lebanon-peace

"Big Brother" of the Project to Isolate the Shiites
Marwan Al-Amin/Nidaa Al-Watan/October 30, 2025  (Translated from Arabic)
It has been recently observed that the statements of Speaker Nabih Berri are taking a clear direction of sectarian incitement, whether in his speech during the commemoration of the disappearance of Imam Musa Sadr, or in his statement where he considered that granting expatriates the right to vote according to their place of registration constitutes an attempt to isolate the Shiite community. However, the question that imposes itself here is: Is there really anyone who wants to isolate the Shiite community, as Berri claims? The facts do not suggest this; there are no indicators to show that any Lebanese or foreign party is working on it. The Shiite positions in state institutions remain as they are, and none of the community's rights or shares in state institutions and administrations have been touched. Moreover, the "Shiite Duo" (Hezbollah and Amal Movement) acquired all the military, security, judicial, and administrative appointments specific to Shiites, after having obtained all their demands in the government formation process. But in reality, yes, the Shiite community is facing an isolation far more dangerous than the one Speaker Berri is trying to fabricate.
He who led the Shiite community to the Iranian project is the one who isolated it from its national history and heritage, and estranged it from the thought of many of its scholars who formed the pillars of moderation and openness, foremost among them Imam Sayyed Musa Sadr and Allama Sheikh Mohammad Mehdi Shamseddine. Perhaps the paradox is that the Amal Movement, founded by Imam Sadr and carrying his thought and approach, was the first victim of this project, before later succumbing to it and aligning with its directions.
He who monopolized the decision of war under the slogan of "unity of the fronts" is the one who isolated the Shiites from the Lebanese interest and from the rest of the Lebanese people, tying their fate to conflicts that transcend Lebanon's borders, causing them an unprecedented massacre in their modern history.
In contrast, all Lebanese people embraced the sons of the Shiite community, opening their hearts before their homes, villages, and cities, and sharing their livelihoods with them. Those who embraced the Shiites in their moments of weakness cannot seek to isolate them.
However, the "Shiite Duo," after a solitary word of thanks by Speaker Nabih Berri to the Lebanese for embracing the Shiite community, quickly returned to the language of incitement, betrayal, and bullying, and to reproducing the discourse of division, the latest headline of which is "isolation."
This approach, which has not learned from the devastating experiences it has caused the Shiite community, is the very one that is pushing it today towards further isolation and deepening the chasm between it and the rest of the Lebanese people. It is a path that leads the community from one tragedy to another, and from one massacre to a more lethal one, without any regard for its present or future.
Who isolated the Shiite community from its Arab surroundings and the international community? Is it those countries that were at the forefront of standing by the Shiites, and contributed to the reconstruction of their villages and towns a first, second, and third time, in support of their steadfastness in their land? Or is it "Hezbollah" who confronted Arab countries by targeting them politically and through the media, and by threatening their security and stability, using the language of treason and insults? It went so far as to say that its battle with the Arab countries is "the greatest thing it has done, rather it takes precedence over its confrontations with Israel." The real isolation of the Shiite community, and the threat to its stability and future, are not the product of "targeting by others," but a result of political choices that made it captive to the project of the "Guardian of the Jurist" (Wilayat al-Faqih) which does not resemble its history or heritage. Today, Speaker Nabih Berri plays the role of the "Big Brother" of this project.

The Last American Chance for Lebanon... Disarmament or Inevitable Confrontation
Janoubia/October 29, 2025  (Translated from Arabic)
Sky News Arabia, citing Lebanese sources, reported that the anticipated visit of US Envoy Tom Barrack to Beirut will be his last, during which he will inform officials that they have a final opportunity to implement the disarmament plan, or else "Lebanon will be left to its fate."
According to security information cited by the channel, Hezbollah has managed to smuggle hundreds of short-range missiles from Syria into Lebanon in recent months, while the Lebanese Army is currently content with merely closing the sites instead of destroying them, pending the arrival of additional American military support. Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, was quoted as saying that "the American message is clear and strict: either the State of Lebanon deals with Hezbollah, or Israel will do so." Abdul-Hussain added that Israel will continue what he described as "maintenance strikes to prevent Hezbollah from reorganizing itself," pointing out that the possibilities of escalation are present at any moment, whether in the form of limited confrontations or a broad war. However, he noted that "Israel's interest lies in keeping the situation as it is, as it is not in a demographic or economic crisis, while Lebanon is the biggest loser, with most southern villages still destroyed, the economy exhausted, and investments limited." Regarding the American role, Abdul-Hussain affirmed that "Washington does not offer any guarantees to Lebanon," indicating that American support continues in the form of financial and military aid, but that "does not compensate for the absence of a Lebanese political will to deal with Hezbollah's weapons." He said: "The support is there, but for Lebanon to say it is helpless, this is what is causing frustration in Washington, and it might push it to distance itself from the Lebanese file unless the crisis escalates."Abdul-Hussain pointed out that the visit of Ortagus and Barrack is not mere diplomatic protocol, but "reflects that the atmosphere in Lebanon is not positive, and that the previous agreement to cease hostilities with Israel has not been fully implemented." He added: "If the atmosphere were positive, there would have been no need for any visit. Every American visit is an indication that the situation on the ground is unhealthy and that Lebanon has not taken the steps required of it." Abdul-Hussain addressed the internal challenges, explaining that the continuation of the current situation leads to the perpetuation of the semi-war state in Lebanon, while "Israel achieves a degree of stability and reconstruction," confirming that "Lebanon's interest lies in escaping the spiral of war and non-war, but the Lebanese leaders are engaging in verbal maneuvers instead of taking practical steps."The researcher also indicated that "the Lebanese Army's plan to disarm in the area south of the Litani is approaching its implementation date at the beginning of December, but it is likely to remain incomplete, which raises concern in Washington and Tel Aviv." He clarified that the continuation of the situation in this manner increases the pace of Israeli military operations and hinders Lebanon's return to normal life and economic growth. The Lebanese arena is witnessing an unprecedented American diplomatic escalation after US Envoy Morgan Ortagus arrived in Beirut to pressure the Lebanese authorities to disarm Hezbollah, delivering a message that entails either engaging in direct or indirect negotiations with Israel, or facing the potential for a military escalation that could lead to an all-out war. Yesterday, Ortagus met with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and presented Lebanese officials with two options: either enter direct negotiations with Tel Aviv under Washington's auspices, or indirect negotiations through the "Mechanism" committee.

Behind the Scenes of a Meeting between Ortagus and a Lebanese Minister... Here are the Details
Al Arabiya/October 29, 2025   (Translated from Arabic)
Amid a noticeable Israeli escalation and intensified targeting of Hezbollah elements between South Lebanon and the Bekaa, US Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus landed in Beirut, arriving from Tel Aviv. She met with the three Presidents (President of the Republic, Prime Minister, and Speaker of Parliament) yesterday, Tuesday, before participating in the meetings of the Ceasefire Monitoring Committee ("the Mechanism") in Naqoura, South Lebanon. Although she dedicated separate meetings to the Presidents, the Prime Minister, and the Speaker of Parliament—unlike her last two visits, which were limited only to attending the "Mechanism" meetings—the notable item on her agenda in Beirut was her meeting with the Minister of Social Affairs, Hanin Al Sayyed. Her visit coincided with information from several sources suggesting that Lebanon entering negotiations with Israel is essential to stop the escalation and proceed with implementing the army's plan to confine weapons to the state. In this context, Minister of Social Affairs Hanin Al Sayyed told Al Arabiya.net/Al Hadath.net that "Ortagus dedicated a visit to the Ministry of Social Affairs because, in her opinion, the social security of the people in the South runs parallel to military security, and that extending the state's authority on the social front, such as securing jobs and establishing social infrastructure, is essential in the South." She also noted that "Ortagus conveyed Washington's support for the Ministry's work regarding the people of the South affected by the war."
Furthermore, the Minister clarified that "the reconstruction of the South is fundamentally linked to stability and establishing a permanent and sustainable ceasefire." She said, "The priority for us as a ministry is the reconstruction of the human element in the South and strengthening their relationship with the state." She added that "the stability of the South is part of the stability of the country as a whole, and enabling the affected people to rebuild their lives in the South is essential for the stabilization process." She stressed that "the financing of reconstruction is linked to establishing stability there, and the necessity of stopping hostile actions from the Israeli side."Al Sayyed conveyed Ortagus' "confirmation of Washington's continued support for the army to carry out its role in establishing stability."
In contrast, Ortagus, according to the Minister of Social Affairs, spoke about the Israeli concern regarding the issue of Hezbollah rebuilding its military capabilities. However, she affirmed that the Lebanon file receives the full attention of the American administration, just like the Gaza file, and that Washington has a vital role in stabilizing Lebanon. It is worth mentioning that the American envoy's visit came yesterday, following days of intensified Israeli airstrikes on South and East Lebanon. Meanwhile, many Lebanese officials and politicians fear that the Israeli bombing may be a prelude to a wider Israeli aerial campaign against the country, despite the ceasefire reached last year, especially after US Envoy Tom Barrack warned last week that Hezbollah might find itself in a new confrontation with Israel if the Lebanese authorities do not move quickly to fully disarm it—a demand Hezbollah rejects thus far.

The Palestinians Must Apologize to the Lebanese
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/This Is Beirut/October 29/2025
A Palestinian apology could pave the way for reconciliation by confronting the historical injustices inflicted on Lebanon.
On October 26, Palestinian gunmen manning a checkpoint at Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp killed Elio Abu Hanna when he inadvertently drove into the camp. The young Lebanese man reportedly panicked at the checkpoint and did not stop his car, prompting the militiamen to open fire with dozens of rounds. The Palestinians must apologize, not only for this crime, but for decades of offenses against the Lebanese people. The Palestinian leadership and intelligentsia must acknowledge the extensive harm their actions have caused Lebanon, from sparking civil war in 1975 to inviting destruction through their militias’ activities.
The roots of the Palestinian problem in Lebanon trace back to the 1960s, when rivalries between regional powers birthed Palestinian nationalism. In 1964, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser was embroiled in a military quagmire in Yemen, supporting putschists to join his United Arab Republic (UAR) against the reigning monarchy backed by his regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Seeking to get the better of his enemies, Nasser steered the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which aimed to establish a Palestinian state out of Egypt’s Gaza and Jordan’s West Bank. Riyadh opposed the recognition of a Palestinian state, fearing it would join Nasser’s UAR. Instead, Saudi Arabia promoted Yasser Arafat and his Fatah Movement as a rival to the PLO, run by Ahmad al-Shuqairi, a former Saudi diplomat supported by Nasser.
In 1968, Arafat capitalized on a failed Israeli military raid against his troops in Jordan and introduced a novel concept, Palestinian nationalism. Palestine was reimagined from a British-created Mandate territory for Arabs and Jews into an eternal Arab and Muslim nation, erasing its binational history. Arafat ousted Shuqairi, took the reins of the PLO, and began building militias in countries neighboring Israel. In Lebanon, Arafat’s forces—operating out of Palestinian refugee camps—waged war against the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Under pressure from Nasser, Lebanon in November 1969 signed the Cairo Accord, handing over control of refugee camps to the PLO while permitting Palestinian militants to stage operations against Israel.
With Lebanon ceding its sovereignty, Arafat began transforming the country into a launchpad for attacks on Israel, provoking devastating Israeli reprisals. The situation worsened for Lebanon after Jordan expelled Arafat and the PLO in 1970, following their attempts to destabilize the kingdom. The PLO leader and his militiamen moved their bases to Lebanon, which they effectively came to rule. In 1975, Lebanese resistance to this domination sparked a civil war, reducing the “Switzerland of the Middle East” to ruins. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon, expelling Arafat to Tunisia. Remnant Palestinian militias remained, including those responsible for the October 26 murder of Elio Abu Hanna.
For 77 years, Palestinians have demanded unwavering loyalty to their cause, often at the expense of other Arabs, including the Lebanese, who have been hosting them since 1948. Today approximately 195,000 “Palestinians from Lebanon,” as they are called by UNRWA, remain in Lebanon. UNRWA, originally established to resettle Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war—as evidenced by its founding documents and early correspondence—shifted its mission. Instead of resettlement, it became a de facto government for Palestinians, managing their affairs while awaiting their “return” to the lands in Israel that their ancestors left 77 years ago. Lebanon has borne more than its share in hosting Palestinians and their “cause.” It is high time that the UN take responsibility for resettling them elsewhere.
Decades later, Palestinians have neither apologized nor sought forgiveness from the Lebanese for the chaos they wrought. Even prominent Palestinian intellectuals, such as Edward Said, expressed regret not for the harm caused but for losing control over Lebanon, revealing little remorse for their occupation of the country. A formal apology is overdue. If the Palestinians express genuine regret, the Lebanese might consider forgiveness, potentially foregoing the hundreds of billions of dollars owed in reparations for devastation. An apology could pave the way for reconciliation by recognizing shared suffering while confronting the historical injustices inflicted on Lebanon.
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 29-30/2025
Israel says Gaza ceasefire renewed after 100 killed in series of strikes
Agence France Presse/October 29/2025
The Israeli military said Wednesday it had reinstated the Gaza ceasefire after carrying out a series of strikes on "dozens of militant targets" since the previous day. "Following a series of strikes, in which dozens of terror targets and terrorists were struck, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire in response to Hamas' violations," the military said. "As part of the strikes, the IDF and ISA struck 30 terrorists holding command positions within the terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip," it added.
Over 100 killed
Gaza's civil defence agency and hospitals said Wednesday that a series of Israeli strikes killed more than 100 people across the Palestinian territory. "At least 101 fatalities were brought to hospitals, including 35 children and a number of women and elderly, as a result of Israeli air strikes in less than 12 hours," said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority. The toll was confirmed by an AFP tally of reports from medical officials at five Gaza hospitals that received the dead and wounded. Israeli army says soldier killed in Gaza. The Israeli army had said that one of its soldiers was killed in Gaza during a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Yona Efraim Feldbaum, 37, "fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip" on Tuesday, the army said in a statement, after it carried out air strikes on the Palestinian territory accusing Hamas of violating the truce. Trump says 'nothing's going to jeopardize' Gaza ceasefire. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said "nothing" would jeopardize ceasefire in Gaza, but added Israel "should hit back" if its soldiers were killed. "They killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis hit back. And they should hit back," Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

Precarious ceasefire in Gaza shaken by Israeli strikes, Trump confident it will hold
“Nothing is going to jeopardise” the ceasefire, Trump said.
The Arab Weekly/October 29/2025
Developments in Gaza on Tuesday showed the ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump earlier this month to be precariously holding but hostilities can erupt at any moment. Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israel carried out air strikes Tuesday despite the ongoing ceasefire, after the Israeli military accused Hamas of attacking its troops and violating the US-brokered truce. The Israeli military said Wednesday it had reinstated the Gaza ceasefire after carrying out a series of strikes on dozens of militant targets since the previous day. “Following a series of strikes, in which dozens of terror targets and terrorists were struck, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire in response to Hamas’ violations,” the military said. “As part of the strikes, the IDF and ISA struck 30 terrorists holding command positions within the terrorist organisations operating in the Gaza Strip,” it added.
Gaza’s civil defence agency and hospitals said Wednesday that a series of Israeli strikes killed more than 100 people across the Palestinian territory. “At least 101 fatalities were brought to hospitals, including 35 children and a number of women and elderly, as a result of Israeli air strikes in less than 12 hours,” said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority. But US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US-backed ceasefire in Gaza was not at risk after the Israeli strikes. “As I understand it, they took out an Israeli soldier,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. When that happens, they should hit back,” he added. “Nothing is going to jeopardise” the ceasefire, Trump said. “You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave.”
“If they (Hamas) are good, they are going to be happy and if they are not good, they are going to be terminated, their lives will be terminated,” Trump added. The US-backed ceasefire agreement went into effect on October 10, halting two years of war triggered by deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. Both sides have accused each other of ceasefire violations. Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli media reported an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The attacks by Israeli planes continued into early Wednesday across the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza as Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza. “Hamas’ attack today on IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers in Gaza is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the IDF will respond with great force,” Katz said in a statement. While Katz did not say where the troops were attacked, Hamas said its fighters had “no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah”. In comments broadcast on Fox News and posted on social media by the White House, Vance said the ceasefire was holding.
“That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes,” said the vice president, one of several top US officials to rush to Israel last week to shore up the fragile ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump. “We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an IDF soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold,” he added.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least three strikes were carried out, while the territory’s main Al-Shifa hospital said one hit its backyard. Five people were killed when their vehicle was hit by an air strike, the agency reported. Hamas had announced it would hand over the body of another hostage on Tuesday as demanded by Israel under the ceasefire deal. During the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, Hamas militants took 251 people hostage. A row over the last remaining bodies of deceased hostages has threatened to derail the ceasefire. Israel accuses Hamas of reneging by not returning them, but the Palestinian Islamist group says it will take time to locate the remains amid Gaza’s war-ravaged ruins. Hamas later said it would delay Tuesday’s handover, adding that Israeli “escalation will hinder the search, excavation and recovery of the bodies”. In a further statement on Telegram, Hamas’ armed wing said it had found the bodies of two hostages on Tuesday. It did not say when it would hand them over. Hamas had come under mounting pressure after it returned on Monday partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israel said was a breach of the truce. The militant group said the remains were the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10. But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu’s office. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel’s bombardment during the two-year war had left locations unrecognisable. “The movement is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located,” he said. Hamas has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.

Mediator Qatar expects Gaza ceasefire to last despite 'violation'
Agence France Press/October 29/2025
Mediator Qatar said Wednesday it expected a US-backed ceasefire to hold in Gaza despite a "violation" as Israel carried out strikes in response to Palestinian fire. "Fortunately I think the main parties -- both of them -- are acknowledging that the ceasefire should hold and they should stick to the agreement," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Council on Foreign Relations on a visit to New York.

UN says deaths in fresh strikes on Gaza 'appalling'
Agence France Presse/October 29/2025
The United Nations on Wednesday called the deaths in Israel's new military strikes on Gaza "appalling", as it urged all sides not to let peace "slip from our grasp". "Reports that over 100 Palestinians were killed overnight in a wave of Israeli airstrikes mainly on residential buildings, IDP tents and schools across the Gaza Strip, following the death of an Israeli soldier, are appalling," U.N. rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Germany urges Israel to show 'restraint' in Gaza
Agence France Presse/October 29/2025
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Wednesday expressed "deep concern" after the deadliest night of bombing in Gaza since a U.S.-brokered truce went into effect earlier this month. Gaza's civil defense agency said the strikes had killed more than 100 people, including at least 35 children, a toll confirmed by an AFP tally of medical sources at five hospitals in Gaza. "We appeal to Israel to exercise military restraint in order to prevent further suffering," Wadephul said in a ministry statement released ahead of a planned trip to the region. Israel carried out strikes on dozens of Hamas targets overnight to Wednesday following the death of a soldier. After the strikes, the Israeli military said it had begun "renewed enforcement of the ceasefire", though explosions could still be seen on an AFP live video feed of the Gaza skyline after the statement was issued. U.S. President Donald Trump, who helped to broker the nearly three-week-old truce, had earlier said that nothing would be allowed to jeopardize it. But he also endorsed Israel's right to "hit back" if attacked. Wadephul also called on Hamas to "fulfill its part of the agreement... to lay down its arms and finally hand over all the remains of the deceased hostages. "Following the agreement between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire, there is hope for lasting peace, which we must continue to work towards," he added. Wadephul will first visit Jordan before heading to Lebanon and Bahrain, according to his ministry. "During my trip to the Middle East, I intend to discuss with our partners where and how Germany can specifically accompany and support the next steps," he said.

Israel bans ICRC visits to detained Palestinian combatants
Agence France Presse/October 29/2025
Israel has banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for visiting Palestinian prisoners detained under a law targeting "illegal combatants", Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday. "The opinions presented to me leave no doubt that Red Cross visits to terrorists in prisons would seriously harm the state's security. The safety of the state and our citizens comes first," Katz said, according to a statement from his office.

Iraq counters rumours amid cautious engagement with Damascus
The Arab Weekly/October 29/2025
The surge of rumours circulating in Iraq about Syria, its citizens and the policies of its new government does not appear to be merely a by-product of abundant media channels and unrestricted social media. Rather, it seems a deliberate, organised campaign by local actors deeply unsettled by the major political shift in the neighbouring country: the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, aligned with Iran, and the emergence of a government distanced from Tehran and closer to a regional counter-axis led by Turkey. The discontent stems largely from Shia parties and armed factions opposed to Iraq’s cautious outreach to the new Syrian authorities, particularly in security cooperation. Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani’s government has insisted on establishing normal relations with Syria, engaging with officials under President Ahmad al-Sharaa. In this context, rumours have become a tool to disrupt these emerging ties and shape negative public opinion. Claims circulating in Iraq range from allegations that Damascus is complicit in Islamic State (ISIS) fighters entering Iraq or turning a blind eye to the cross-border flow of drugs, including hallucinogenic pills, to accusations against Syrian residents in Iraq for taking jobs from locals, underpaying employees or engaging in unethical behaviour. A recent rumour targeted the Syrian president himself, falsely claiming that Iraq had issued a death sentence against a Syrian citizen who praised him. Iraqi judicial authorities categorically denied this. The Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq stated in a press release on Tuesday: “These reports are incorrect. The ruling issued concerns an individual who glorified the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and encouraged the killing of Iraqi army personnel and Popular Mobilisation Forces members in the Tarmiyah area, posting related videos on social media.”The council noted that the accused “also solicited others to join ISIS and posted videos burning an image of Imam Ali to incite chaos and division within society.” It confirmed that “the judgment is not final and will be reviewed by the Federal Court of Cassation once case documents are submitted, as the ruling is subject to automatic appeal.”Despite these misinformation campaigns, Iraqi-Syrian engagement progresses slowly but steadily, grounded in the pragmatic policy pursued by Sudani’s government, which contrasts with the approach of Iran-aligned Shia actors. Iraq’s strategy aims to minimise problems and engage with regional states to build mutually-beneficial relations based on shared interests. Currently, Iraq’s primary interest in Syria lies in security: countering terrorism, controlling ISIS movements across the border and curbing the thriving drug trade in border areas. These imperatives drive the rapprochement with Syria in the post-Assad context, initially seen as difficult given that the new Syrian government emerged from the ruins of a regime aligned with Iraq’s main Shia political forces. Baghdad has demonstrated pragmatic engagement with Damascus, particularly in security coordination, led by Iraq’s intelligence chief Hamid al-Shattri. Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has emphasised the shared security needs between the two countries and the necessity of joint efforts to address ISIS elements near the border. Hussein said: “Regarding Syria, ISIS elements remain present in areas close to the Iraqi border, posing a direct threat to us.” He added that Iraq monitors developments in neighbouring countries without direct intervention, recognising that their stability positively affects Iraq, while instability has adverse effects. On Syria’s internal politics, Hussein explained: “Our view is that Syria requires an inclusive political process involving all components to create genuine societal peace through partnership and mutual trust. All parties, from north to south, including the Druze community, must be engaged before regional forces exploit the vacuum.”Syria has taken steps to consolidate its new government but has yet to achieve full political and security stability, a concern for Iraq, which previously suffered heavily when ISIS used Syrian territory as a launchpad for extensive incursions in 2014.

Two men sentenced to 25 years each over Iran-backed plot to kill US-based dissident
Reuters/30 October/2025
Two men convicted of murder-for-hire charges were each sentenced in New York on Wednesday to 25 years in prison over what prosecutors called a failed Tehran-backed plot to kill an Iranian dissident living in the US. Rafat Amirov, 46, and Polad Omarov, 41, appeared in prison garb before US District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan. A jury found them guilty in March of five charges – including attempted murder, money laundering and conspiracy – for their roles in a 2022 plot to assassinate Masih Alinejad, a US-Iranian and an outspoken critic of Tehran and its treatment of women. “This was a terrible, terrible crime that has had terrible, terrible repercussions on some very fine people,” McMahon said. Alinejad addressed the court with a crowd of supporters seated behind her, saying Amirov and Omarov had turned her life upside down but failed to break her. “I crossed an ocean to come to America and have a normal life, and I don’t have a normal life,” Alinejad said, drawing applause as she left the podium. The sentences came in below the 55 years for each man sought by prosecutors and above the 10 to 13 years recommended by the defense. Lawyers for Amirov and Omarov urged for leniency, seeking to downplay their clients’ ties to Tehran and roles in the plot. They did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on Wednesday. Prosecutors said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) paid Amirov and Omarov $500,000 for the botched hit on Alinejad, who fled Iran in 2009. Iran has dismissed as baseless allegations that its intelligence officers sought to kidnap or kill Alinejad. The case was part of a crackdown by the Justice Department on what it calls transnational repression: the targeting by authoritarian governments of political opponents on foreign soil. Alinejad is a longtime critic of Iran’s head-covering laws who has promoted videos of women violating those laws to her millions of social media followers. She was living in Brooklyn at the time of the alleged plot on her life. A third man, Khalid Mehdiyev, was charged alongside Amirov and Omarov and pleaded guilty to attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm. The self-proclaimed Russian mob associate testified against Amirov and Omarov at their trial and told jurors he tried to kill Alinejad in coordination with the two men. Mehdiyev was arrested in 2022 after staking out Alinejad’s home with an AK-47 and a ski mask in his car. He is awaiting sentencing.

Grossi says Iran not actively enriching uranium but movement detected near stockpile
The Associated Press/29 October/2025
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Iran does not appear to be actively enriching uranium but that the agency has recently detected renewed movement at the country’s nuclear sites. Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that despite being unable to access Iranian nuclear sites, inspectors have not seen any activity via satellite to indicate that the Islamic Republic has accelerated its production of uranium enriched beyond what it had compiled before the 12-day war with Israel in June. “However, the nuclear material enriched at 60 percent is still in Iran. And this is one of the points we are discussing because we need to go back there and to confirm that the material is there and it’s not being diverted to any other use,” Grossi said in an interview at the United Nations headquarters in New York. “This is very, very important.”Grossi said, however, that inspectors have seen movement around the sites where the stockpiles are stored. Without additional access, the IAEA has had to rely on satellite imagery, which can only show so much, he said. That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, Grossi warned. Iran long has insisted its program is peaceful, but the IAEA and Western nations say Tehran had an organized atomic bomb program until 2003. Iran and the IAEA signed an agreement last month in Cairo to pave the way for resuming cooperation, including on ways of relaunching inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, that has yet to be implemented. The agreement came after Iranian officials suspended all cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog following the war with Israel in which the US struck several Iranian nuclear sites. Since that agreement, a series of UN sanctions have been reimposed on Iran over what European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal have deemed Iran’s lack of compliance with the IAEA and the breakdown of peace negotiations with the US That has complicated the tenuous relationship between the IAEA and Iran, but Grossi said that inspectors are inside the country as of Wednesday. The Iranian mission to the UN did not immediately return a request for comment.

Iran accuses Israeli ship owner of financing terrorism in Gulf seizure case
The Arab Weekly/October 29/2025
Iran has demanded a $170 million fine from the owner of a cargo ship that it seized in Gulf waters last year and accused of having ties to Israel, a judicial official said on Tuesday. The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran’s military, intercepted the MSC Aries in April of 2024 and detained its 25 international crew members. At the time, the official IRNA news agency said the Portuguese-flagged vessel was “managed by Zodiac, which belongs to the Zionist capitalist Eyal Ofer.” On Tuesday, Iranian judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said charges had been filed and the case was before the courts, though no date had been set for a trial. “A fine of $170 million has been demanded against its owner, of Israeli origin, accused of financing terrorism,” Jahangir said. MSC representatives underlined that Zodiac is a British company headquartered in London and the vessel was “chartered by MSC,” they said in a statement at the time of the seizure. The United States denounced the seizure of the ship, at the time, as an act of piracy and called for its crew to be released. Israel’s foreign minister called on the European Union to designate the Revolutionary Guards a “terrorist organisation” in response. At least some of the crew were later freed. Jahangir said the ship, excluding its cargo, was valued at $170 million and claimed that Ofer, an Israeli billionaire and shipping magnate, was an “influential figure” within the Israeli government. The ship’s seizure came months into the war in Gaza, where Israel was fighting Iran-backed Palestinian militants Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel sparked the conflict.

Iran proposes regional currency to boost trade, ease impact of sanctions
The Arab Weekly/October 29/2025
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday proposed that Iran and its regional trading partners establish a shared currency to boost commerce and ease the impact of crippling Western sanctions on his country’s economy. Years of international sanctions, largely imposed by the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme, have severely weakened Iran’s economy. The latest measures were re-imposed by the United Nations in September, after months of stalled nuclear diplomacy. Speaking on the sidelines of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) summit in Tehran, Pezeshkian said religious and cultural ties in the region could create conditions for closer communication and cooperation. “Even a common currency could be adopted in the region to help promote economic development,” he told a meeting with Tajik Interior Minister Ramazan Rahimzada, according to the presidency’s website. Founded in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, the ECO now has ten members, including five Central Asian countries, and aims to strengthen regional trade. Sitting at the core of the Middle East and with a population of more than 91 million according to the World Bank, Iran regards its geographical location as a bridge between Asia and Europe. Tehran is pursuing economic opportunities despite sanctions over its nuclear programme. Western countries, led by the US and supported by Israel, accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a claim Tehran denies. Pezeshkian said that if regional countries unite economically and culturally, they can overcome “obstacles imposed by external powers”.

Al-Sharaa says Saudi Arabia is ‘the key,’ invites world to invest in Syria
Al Arabiya English/October 29/2025
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday praised Saudi Arabia as “the key,” as he invited the world to invest in his country after years of isolation under the al-Assad regime. “When we visited Saudi Arabia on our first (foreign) trip, we knew the key was there,” al-Sharaa said at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh during a session attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Asked to elaborate, the Syrian leader said: “Saudi Arabia is a country heading towards prosperity, stability, and extensive development, and this experience has become unique in the region. I have been following the vision put forward by His Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a long time, and I have seen that it is not limited to the borders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but rather encompasses the entire region. We understood this message, and when we arrived in Damascus, we rushed to be part of this arrangement.” Al-Sharaa said that since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, “investments amounting to approximately 28 billion dollars have entered” Syria. He added that Syria has amended its investment laws to allow foreign investors to transfer funds out of the country. Invoking an Arabic proverb when asked about his country’s investment outlook, al-Sharaa said: “Teach me how to hunt; don’t feed me every day.”“The opportunity in Syria is enormous, and there’s room for everyone,” he added. “I believe that today the world will benefit greatly from Syria. It will be an important commercial hub for transporting goods,” said the president. Al-Sharaa addressed a high-profile audience that included Prince Mohammed, Donald Trump Jr., Saudi and international officials, and hundreds of global investors. Syria has begun the mammoth task of trying to rebuild its shattered economy, after over a decade of war saw tens of thousands killed, millions displaced and cities flattened. Earlier this month, the World Bank put a “conservative best estimate” of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216 billion. In May, the Saudi Crown Prince convinced US President Donald Trump to lift sanction on Syria. The Crown Prince also arranged a landmark meeting between Trump and al-Sharaa in Riyadh. In April, Saudi Arabia vowed alongside Qatar to settle $15 million in Syrian debt to the World Bank. And in July, the Kingdom signed investment and partnership deals with Syria valued at $6.4 billion to help with post-war reconstruction.
For its part, Syria signed agreements in August worth more than $14 billion, including investments in Damascus airport and other transport and real estate projects, state media reported. In May, Syria signed a $7 billion energy deal with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and US companies as it seeks to revive its crippled power sector. The Syrian president predicted that Syria would rank among the world’s leading economies within the next few years, citing its diverse natural and human resources in sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and energy. He said the country had chosen the path of investment, not aid, in its reconstruction phase, adding that “major Saudi and Qatari companies have begun investing in Syria,” with ongoing talks involving Gulf states, Jordan, and Turkey to expand economic cooperation. Al-Sharaa also said that major American companies had expressed interest in investment opportunities in Syria. Al-Sharaa added that his government was working to end the refugee crisis and facilitate the return of Syrians abroad, stressing that Syria would not be a “burden” on anyone but an active partner in the stability and development of the region. More than one million Syrian refugees have already returned from abroad and nearly double that number have returned to their places of origin after being displaced inside the country, UN figures show.

Putin defies Trump with second nuclear weapons test in days
AFP/29 October/2025
Russia has successfully tested a nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered underwater drone, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, defying US President Donald Trump’s warnings with Moscow’s second test of a new nuclear weapons system in just a few days. Putin on Sunday oversaw a test of another advanced nuclear-capable weapon -- the Burevestnik cruise missile, which he said had an “unlimited range.” Trump called that exercise not “appropriate.”“Yesterday, another test was conducted for another prospective system -- the unmanned underwater device ‘Poseidon,’ also equipped with a nuclear power unit,” Putin said in televised remarks while visiting a military hospital treating Russian soldiers wounded in Ukraine. The Russian leader said there was “no way to intercept” the drone torpedo, which, according to Putin, can travel at a speed higher than conventional submarines and reach any continent in the world. Putin said no country could match Poseidon’s speed and diving depth, adding, “it is unlikely that anything similar will appear in the near future.”The device can operate at a depth of more than one kilometer (0.6 mile) and travel at speeds of up to 70 knots while remaining undetectable, according to a source in the Russian military-industrial complex quoted by state news agency TASS. First tested in 2018, it is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead of up to two megatons, the source told TASS. After Sunday’s cruise missile test, Trump urged Putin to focus instead on ending the war in Ukraine. “He ought to get the war (in Ukraine) ended. A war that should have taken one week is now soon in its fourth year. That’s what he ought to do instead of testing missiles,” Trump said. The US president last week scrapped a planned summit with Putin in Budapest over what he cast as the Russian leader’s unwillingness to compromise to end the conflict. Trump has been trying to secure a deal since he returned to the White House in January, but talks have yielded no progress and he has shown increasing frustration with Putin, who has rejected multiple calls for a ceasefire. Washington last week slapped sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, complaining that his talks with Putin to end the Ukraine war “don’t go anywhere.”Putin first announced Russia had developed the Burevestnik and the Poseidon during a fiery anti-Western speech in 2018.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on October 29-30/2025
Nigeria's Genocide Against Christians 'Spreading Like a Cancer'
Uzay Bulut/Gatestone Institute/October 29/2025
Since 2011, Islamic violence against Nigerian Christians has escalated.
"Our reporters have documented that mass kidnappings of women in Kaduna state in 2023 were in fact aimed at capturing scores of women in Southern Kaduna and selling them as sex slaves in the Fulani bandit community." — Douglas Burton, managing editor of "Truth Nigeria," interview with Gatestone Institute, October 2025.
"The chief reason there is so little media attention is that the Nigerian media themselves have deliberately failed to give a clear picture of who is doing the violence and why.... Most media appear to be controlled by cash payments from government spokesmen or others offering 'courtesy gifts.' When the army holds a presser, every reporter who shows up gets a cash envelope, the more influential his paper, the bigger the reward -- still the practice in many countries, I believe. TV reporters get better incentives, and TV executives are said to receive parcels of real estate in Kaduna State. TruthNigeria reporters tell me that in previous years they used to take those 'courtesy gifts,' too. Our reporters find it very hard to get Nigerian public affairs officers to answer their calls...." — Douglas Burton, October 2025.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025. "Nigerian Christians are being targeted and executed for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups, and are being forced to submit to sharia law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities, and my Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act uses new and existing tools to do exactly that. I urge my colleagues to advance this critical legislation expeditiously." — Senator Ted Cruz, September 11, 2025.
Many in the U.S. are urgently expecting the Senate to follow Cruz's lead.
Tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria have been murdered in recent years by Islamic terrorists, in an ongoing genocide. Other than the massacres, there are also thousands of church burnings, abductions and forced conversions of Christian children and women to Islam.
As the genocide against Christians in Nigeria crashes on, a news outlet, TruthNigeria.com, continues to courageously shed light on the atrocities committed by jihadists against Nigerians of all religions. "Truth Nigeria," according to its website, "had to be launched to slice through the fog of war and the cloud of false narrative that bedevils mainstream media reporting of what many call a 'Christian genocide' in Nigeria that has been spreading like a cancer."
Award-winning journalist Douglas Burton, a former U.S. State Department official who says, "I serve as managing editor for about 12 freelancers who risk their lives to lift the veil on the world's most shameful and still barely reported Christian genocide," was interviewed by Gatestone:
"TruthNigeria.com is a project of Equipping the Persecuted, a humanitarian-aid nonprofit, chartered in Sioux City, Iowa since 2019. In Nigeria, our reporters live in or near the war zones of Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and Adamawa states, and they all have had dramatic introductions to the conflict. All have lost friends or relatives to Boko Haram or to attacks by Fulani ethnic militia. Others were citizen journalists reporting about violence on social media who had a passion to expose the genocide.
"Some of our reporters have been jailed for months at a time for trumped up charges simply for telling embarrassing truths about oligarchs.
"The team usually see photos and videos on messaging services such as WhatsApp, or by cell phone text from friends. Sometimes the terrorists themselves make bragworthy videos of themselves in the bush celebrating by shooting off scores of bullets; sometimes they send heartbreaking videos of torturing kidnap victims to the victims' families. But places and locations, and dates are sometimes figured out. Local hunters and volunteer guards are useful witnesses, and, with just a small 'courtesy gift,' they often open up."
Since 2011, Islamic violence against Nigerian Christians has escalated.
"In 2010, Nigeria was widely viewed as a rising regional power. It was often said to be the only nation where radical Islam was actively being pushed back. While occasional attacks occurred, they were infrequent and met with national outrage. Importantly, there were effectively zero recognized internally displaced persons (IDPs). That changed dramatically after 2011. There were bloody riots in several cities and small towns then due to the election victory of Goodluck Jonathan, an Igbo and a Christian. At the time, the Boko Haram ('Western learning is forbidden') insurgency was in its second year and growing. A deadly new phase opened on August 26, 2011, when a terrorist car bombing at the United Nations House in Abuja claimed the lives of 23 UN employees and civilians and left over 60 people injured.
"It is rarely mentioned, and even some Nigerians do not seem to comprehend, that the 28 million Christians living the Middle Belt states are squeezed between two ethnicities rooted in Islamic identity and vying with each other for supremacy: the Fulani tribe that came into Nigeria with the Usman Dan Fodio invasion in 1804 vs. the historic Caliphate linked to the Kanuri tribe in Lake Chad.
"The Kanuri's number approximately 8.28 million today, whereas there are possibly 20 million Fulani, and 30 to 40 million Hausa people. The Fulani Muslim armies that swept over Northern Nigeria in the first decade of the 19th Century tried and failed to subjugate the Caliphate of Bornu in Lake Chad. The British defeated the Fulani emirs in 1895 and ended the slave trade. But the Fulani Sultan of Sokoto allowed the British colonials to rule indirectly until independence in 1960. No similar trade-off was made with the Muslim Caliph of Bornu. Today there are, by some estimates, 50 million residents of the Middle Belt states, of which 65% are Christian, 10% Muslim. Yet most of these states are ruled by Muslims, who gain office by election, though these are notoriously rigged and tainted by violence.
"Since independence from Britain in 1960, there was already a divided nation, with the northern states overwhelmingly Muslim and the southern states majority Christian. The departing British colonials had used the northern Muslim elites as top officers in the Nigerian army, navy and police forces, and key positions of power in the executive branch were held by Muslims. There is rivalry and bad blood between the Hausa-Fulani tribes in the north and the Christian Igbo tribes in the southeastern states. The bloody coup of July 6, 1967, precipitated the civil war of 1967 and the ensuing genocidal suppression of the breakaway nation of Biafra."
There are, notes Burton, wildly varying estimates of death counts, including of Muslims, in Nigeria since the emergence of Boko Haram's violent phase in 2009.
"TruthNigeria considers the most accurate report that of the Belgium-based Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA). The quadrennial ORFA study issued in 2024 reported that, between 2019 and 2023, 55,000 citizens were killed by the range of civil conflict the government calls 'Insecurity'. Of these, ORFA reports that 19,000 were civilians. This means that 26,000 of the fatalities were counted either as security personnel or criminals or insurgents. On average 5,000 plus citizens every year are killed either by bandits, jihadists or Fulani ethnic militia. That is a big undercount: many killings and kidnappings go unreported. TruthNigeria investigators this year did a 9-part series on mass hostage camps maintained by Fulani bandits in forests south of Kaduna where many thousands of kidnapped people have been held for months at a time. We believe virtually none of these people were noted as kidnapping statistics by government officials, nor were many of the persons murdered in these camps registered as fatalities by ORFA.
"ORFA reports show that for every Muslim fatality there are five Christian or non-Muslims killed. However, much larger numbers have been cited by the UN, which reported in 2021 that more than 300,000 children had been killed by conflict, disease and starvation caused by the Boko Haram insurgency."
Other than the massacres, there are also thousands of church burnings, abductions and forced conversions of Christian children and women to Islam.
"The NGO called Intersociety claims that 12,000 churches have been destroyed by terrorists, but we cannot confirm that. TruthNigeria has documented forced conversion and forced marriages of Christian teen girls to Muslim men in northern states. Our reporters have documented that mass kidnappings of women in Kaduna state in 2023 were in fact aimed at capturing scores of women in Southern Kaduna and selling them as sex slaves in the Fulani bandit community.
"Mass rape of Muslim women belonging to "noncooperative" clans is a terrorist weapon deployed in bandit gangs in several Western states, including Sokoto, Zamfara and Niger states. Sexual violence against women taken by kidnappers is very common but rarely reported. There is clear evidence of sectarian selection. The Fulani bandit gangs in the Northwestern states usually attack mosques that are aligned with Imams who are not aligned with the Wahabbist forms of theology advocated by the Izala Islamic center in Jos."
"The chief reason there is so little media attention is that the Nigerian media themselves have deliberately failed to give a clear picture of who is doing the violence and why. When I started reporting in 2019, no Nigerian newspaper identified the ethnicity of the gangs' burning villages in Kaduna State and murdering scores of people in the middle of the night. The criminals would be called 'unknown gunmen,' or 'herdsmen,' or 'hooligans.' It appears that obvious obfuscation was in obeisance to Nigerian officials looking over the shoulders of their bosses. The official ruse has somewhat worn off in the last year since we have made a point of showcasing Nigerian mainstream media's dishonesty. Tens of thousands of Nigerian Christians have been murdered and tortured to death for years by Fulani tribe ethnic Militia. We broke the taboo from its first appearance in 2023. Now some are following our lead.
"Besides TruthNigeria and Sahara Reporters, and a couple of investigative nonprofits, most media appear to be controlled by cash payments from government spokesmen or others offering 'courtesy gifts.' When the army holds a presser, every reporter who shows up gets a cash envelope, the more influential his paper, the bigger the reward -- still the practice in many countries, I believe. TV reporters get better incentives, and TV executives are said to receive parcels of real estate in Kaduna State. TruthNigeria reporters tell me that in previous years they used to take those "courtesy gifts," too. Our reporters find it very hard to get Nigerian public affairs officers to answer their calls, so they must use other ways to get official statements from office holders. TruthNigeria called our hardworking Nigerian scribes out for it on October 22: 'Nigerian Media in Lockstep with Government No-Genocide Narrative.'"
Meanwhile, Burton said, U.S. Senator. Ted Cruz has introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025.
"Government control of the narrative is on flagrant display since Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and four of his colleagues announced their bill in November to demand that the U.S. State Department shame Nigeria as a 'Country of Particular Concern' and sanction Nigerian officials for enforcing legal punishments for Blasphemy."
"Nigerian Christians," Cruz said, "are being targeted and executed for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups, and are being forced to submit to sharia law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities, and my Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act uses new and existing tools to do exactly that. I urge my colleagues to advance this critical legislation expeditiously."
Many in the U.S. are urgently expecting the Senate to follow Cruz's lead.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22019/nigeria-genocide-against-christians
**Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

A war without end? New sanctions deepen
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya English/29 October/2025
The latest attempt to end the war between Russia and Ukraine has failed, marking yet another deadlock in a conflict that has stretched into years with devastating human and economic costs. In response, the United States, backed by the European Union, has imposed a fresh wave of sanctions against Russia.
This new round of restrictions targets some of Russia’s most vital economic sectors, including energy, finance, and transportation, signaling a renewed Western effort to pressure Moscow into changing course. The measures represent a deepening of Western involvement - an attempt not only to weaken Russia’s capacity to fund its military campaign but also to send a message that the international community is not retreating from its commitment to Ukraine. The sanctions include broad measures aimed at cutting off Russia’s access to critical resources and markets. The United States has expanded its restrictions on Russian oil companies, particularly Rosneft and Lukoil, making it harder for them to trade internationally and access US banking systems. The European Union, for its part, announced its 19th sanctions package, which for the first time includes a gradual ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports, along with tighter controls on oil shipping networks that have been helping Moscow evade earlier restrictions. Together, these measures are designed to limit Russia’s capacity to generate revenue from its energy exports—the very lifeline that finances much of its war effort.
Yet the central question remains: will these sanctions actually work? Sanctions are a blunt instrument - effective in signaling condemnation and raising costs, but often limited in forcing immediate political change. In theory, restricting Russia’s ability to trade, access Western technology, and use global financial systems should weaken its economy over time. However, Russia has shown considerable resilience since the war began, reorienting its trade toward non-Western partners such as China, India, and several countries in the Global South. Its ability to adapt has blunted much of the intended economic pain. The new sanctions may hurt, but the Kremlin has spent years insulating its economy, stockpiling reserves, and developing parallel trade routes to reduce dependence on Western systems.
At the same time, the sanctions carry costs for Western nations as well. Europe remains partly dependent on global energy flows that Russia influences, and tighter restrictions could mean higher prices and supply disruptions - pressures that could test political unity within the EU.
For the United States, sanctions are a symbolic reaffirmation of its leadership role in defending Ukraine, but Washington must also balance this stance with concerns over inflation, energy prices, and growing domestic fatigue over foreign commitments. Thus, while sanctions demonstrate solidarity and determination, their ultimate effectiveness in ending the war is far from certain. They are more likely to create gradual economic strain than deliver an immediate breakthrough. Publicly, Russia has responded with characteristic defiance. The Kremlin dismissed the sanctions as politically motivated and vowed that they would not cripple its economy. President Vladimir Putin portrayed the measures as yet another example of Western hostility and insisted that Russia’s economy remains strong and self-sufficient. Moscow has emphasized its ability to withstand external pressure, claiming that sanctions only make Russia more united and determined. This public posture is part of a long-standing narrative meant to assure the Russian population that the country remains in control and that Western efforts to “strangle” it economically will fail.
Privately, however, there are signs that these measures may be adding pressure behind the scenes. Russia’s financial system, though functioning, is increasingly isolated, and the country faces mounting difficulties importing advanced technologies and military components. Its war expenditures are consuming a growing share of the national budget, while its labor market suffers from mobilization and emigration.
These pressures are not enough to break Russia’s resolve immediately, but they do limit its long-term options. The more Russia spends to maintain its war effort, the less room it has for domestic stability and modernization - something that may eventually push its leadership to consider negotiations, even if reluctantly. Both Russia and Ukraine, after years of fighting, are undoubtedly exhausted - politically, financially, and militarily. The toll on both societies has been staggering. For Ukraine, the destruction of infrastructure, loss of lives, and disruption of daily life have been immense. Yet despite this, Ukraine retains a critical advantage: sustained Western backing. The United States and the European Union continue to provide billions in financial aid, weapons, and diplomatic support. This external assistance gives Ukraine the capacity to continue resisting and prevents its economy from collapsing entirely. For Kyiv, the belief that Western support will persist strengthens its resolve and gives it leverage at the negotiation table - though it also makes the leadership less inclined to accept any deal that would compromise territorial integrity or sovereignty.
For Russia, by contrast, sustaining a prolonged conflict comes with rising internal costs. The combination of sanctions, military losses, and international isolation is weighing heavily on the Kremlin. While Russia still controls significant resources and retains domestic support through tight political control and propaganda, the ongoing strain could erode its capacity to maintain both the war and internal stability indefinitely. In this sense, the West’s strategy may be less about defeating Russia outright and more about gradually wearing it down - making the continuation of war increasingly unsustainable.
However, even if both sides are growing weary, the likelihood of an immediate peace remains low because the gap between their demands is still vast. Ukraine insists on the complete withdrawal of Russian forces from its territory, the restoration of its internationally recognized borders, and guarantees for its long-term security. Kyiv also seeks reparations for war damage and international accountability for Russian actions. Russia, on the other hand, demands recognition of the territories it has annexed, assurances that Ukraine will not join NATO, and a lifting of sanctions that have crippled parts of its economy. These positions are fundamentally irreconcilable at the moment. Neither side wants to appear weak, and both believe that time may eventually improve their negotiating position. In the end, the new US and EU sanctions may deepen the pressure on Moscow and reinforce the West’s commitment to Ukraine, but they are unlikely to bring about an immediate end to the conflict. The war has evolved into a test of endurance, where economic measures, political will, and military persistence all play defining roles. As long as the core demands of both sides remain incompatible, diplomacy will struggle to gain traction. For now, the conflict appears set to continue - until one side either capitulates, recalibrates its goals, or runs out of the capacity to sustain the fight.

Trump and Asia: Between Confrontation and Negotiation
Emile Ameen/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 29/2025
US President Donald Trump has kicked off a long and crucial trip to Asia, the first of its kind in his second term. He has headed to Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea, and will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.
The summit’s theme, “Building A Sustainable Tomorrow,” rests on three main pillars: enhancing regional integration, bridging the digital divide and promoting sustainable growth. However, a chasm separates the gap between the summit’s optimistic rhetoric and the geopolitical realities on the ground.
One cannot help but wonder: Does Trump want to ease tensions in the Eastern Hemisphere as he hears the drums of war beating in South America? The US Navy is deploying fleets in Latin American waters, seemingly ahead of new military adventures in the continent. It will likely begin with Venezuela and then pivot to Colombia, potentially reaching Mexico, where the “great fentanyl battle” with China is intensifying. Trump is making his extended tour amid sweeping political, economic, military, and social shifts across much of the continent that have taken both heavyweight powers like Russia and China, and medium powers like the two Koreas and a newly resurgent Japan - where nationalist ideas are once again on the rise - by storm. To Trump, this trip seems to have a single objective: to lay a new roadmap for US-China relations, either through negotiation or confrontation. Indeed, Chinese President Xi Jinping has shifted from defense to offense: in the run-up to their anticipated summit, after spending most of the previous year responding to US policy, Beijing announced new export controls on rare earth minerals on October 9. Was China’s move a predictable reaction or a provocative preemptive strike? The answer matters less than the fact that Trump approaches summits as opportunities to strike deals, while “deals” do not seem to fit into Xi Jinping’s thinking. Today, US-China relations revolve around three key questions and one overarching strategic axis: the fentanyl crisis- Chinese-made narcotics flowing through Mexico and how to stop them; ending China’s boycott of American soybeans; and lifting China’s restrictions on rare earth mineral exports to the United States.
The strategic axis, however, is the delicate balance in Chinese-Russian relations: compelling Beijing to pressure Moscow into ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Most American observers believe that Trump should seek new arrangements with Xi that weaken Russia’s capacity to sustain its war. It is no secret that since 2022, China has provided critical support to Russian President Vladimir Putin: supplying the latter with large quantities of industrial equipment and components for finished goods, including weapons used in battles against Ukraine, and China has also continued to purchase Russian oil and gas.
Their bilateral partnership has helped prevent Russia’s economy from collapsing and allowed Russian forces to maintain supply lines using domestically produced weapons with the help of Chinese-made machinery and parts.
Meanwhile, Washington’s Indo-Pacific allies are watching Trump’s visit closely, looking for signs of a shift in relations between Washington and Beijing. Will pragmatic trade-offs be agreed to, with the US softening its stance with regard to Taiwan in return for China taking steps to ease Russian pressure on Ukraine, thereby freeing Washington’s hand in the Western Hemisphere and allowing it to revive the Monroe Doctrine? So far, neither leader has proposed a constructive project for the Asia-Pacific region. Both remain locked in a draining cycle of tariffs, export bans, and retaliatory restrictions that have turned economic interdependence into a weapon. Middle-powers in Asia have found themselves stuck between the two sides: they want to maintain trade deals with Washington and contain their economic exposure to Beijing. Across the region, governments are hedging rather than leading, with the climate becoming increasingly transactional. Trump’s stop in Tokyo deserves to be unpacked separately. Japan now has a new prime minister as nationalist sentiments rise. Some have been echoing the slogan “Japan First,” mirroring Trump’s “America First.” This surge of chauvinism raises existential questions about US forces’ presence in Japan since the end of World War II. Will Trump’s visit precipitate deep shifts in Southeast Asia? Only time will tell.

Who Will Follow Canada’s ‘Reciprocity’ With Trump?
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 29/2025
Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has spoken candidly about the crisis of his country’s relationship with its “great neighbor,” the United States. US President Donald Trump, an ardent enthusiast of “tariff wars,” waging them against all kinds of major global economic powers, decided to end trade negotiations between his country and Canada. He explained his decision as a response to “fake” content released by the government of Ontario, which contrasted his view of tariffs with those of former US President Ronald Reagan. In reality, “protectionist” measures have been imposed on all major global economies, be they US allies or competitors, under the pretext of addressing the deep structural crises of the American economy. The underlying aim is to use  America’s “political muscle” to compensate for its economic defects.
World leaders have all come to this realization.
They have collectively formed an accurate image of Trump’s personality. Most of them are now doing their best to deal with realities they cannot change, however much they might want to. Indeed, the power to make such changes ultimately lies with American citizens: they elect, punish, and reward the authorities.
Accordingly, world leaders currently believe that the best way to deal with Trump is to take a calm approach and minimize friction to the greatest extent possible. Trump’s policies in the “European theater,” for example, have worried many Western countries. His view of the Russian leadership, particularly with regard to Ukraine, and his stance on the “transatlantic relationship,” are particularly worrying. Latin America is also worried. Washington is threatening Venezuela and Colombia, even as it allocates $40 billion to rescue the right-wing Argentine president Javier Milei’s experiment amid the continuing US government shutdown. In East Asia, tensions are similarly high. The Trump administration has no clear policy for engaging with China. Some point out, however, that confrontation between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan does not appear imminent, as the two giants remain busy competing over technological and cyber dominance, as well as influence in all corners of the globe.
Why forget the continent’s south and west? Cross-border military clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan reminded us that there is “fire beneath the ashes”? What about the ticking nuclear timebomb between India and Pakistan, and the role of the powerful far-right forces within the two rival nuclear states since 1947, including India’s billionaire oligarchs who support Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Moreover, what repercussions will Trump’s erratic trade policies and tariffs have for the Indo-Chinese race to access Western markets?
As for us, the people of West Asia, I would argue that Washington’s caprice has gone far too far. The regional picture is obscure, with the US blurring the line between strategic vision (even in the absence of principle or lessons from history) and the tactical agreements President Trump enjoys calling “deals.”
Today, no genuine strategic vision for the future of our region (from Iran to Libya and Sudan) can be seen on the horizon. There seems to be no serious deterrence obstructing the ambitions of Israel’s messianic far right, even as the wounds of fragile Arab countries are being “stitched up” prematurely, before healing or even receiving proper treatment.
Iraq’s elections will not hold promise so long as US-Iranian relations remain in a state of “neither war nor peace.”Syria has yet to catch its breath or retrieve its self-awareness, its sense of identity or its regional role. Lebanon, too, is in no condition to yield to the dictates of Washington’s envoys without war- or several, ruinous civil wars. And last but not least, in Palestine (both in Gaza and the West Bank) there are serious doubts as to whether Washington has any real desire to rebuild. The vast destruction, it is said, was “intentional,” even “planned” before October 7, 2023.
This is the world as it is today.As he began his Asian tour that includes attendance at two summits, Prime Minister Carney told reporters that the “special relationship” between his country and the United States has gone from being an alliance into a burden. He candidly added that Canada is ready to resume trade negotiations with Washington but only when the latter “is ready and willing.”He added that Canada cannot control its trade policy with its mighty neighbor while the latter imposes tariffs on everyone. He then (strongly) hinted at alternative options, stressing that Canada can manage new partnerships and opportunities, including with the “economic giants of Asia.” Moreover, Carney had said in March, when the outlines of Washington’s economic policy became apparent, that the traditional relationship of deep economic integration between Canada and the US “has ended” and that his country must radically reshape its economic model. Finally, we should remember that Carney is no “Third Worldist” hostile to Washington, nor a revolutionary radical. He is technocrat, professional businessman, and banker: a white Christian of Irish descent, educated at Harvard (B.A.) and Oxford (M.A. and Ph.D.) and a former governor of the Bank of England.

The Rot Creeping Into Our Minds
The New York Times/Asharq Al-Awsat/October 29/2025
In 2020, Democrats won a convincing election victory. They proceeded to do what all victorious parties do. They passed legislation in accord with their priorities, including raising health insurance subsidies to families making above 400 percent of the poverty line. They wrote the law so that the subsidies would expire in 2025. In 2024, the Republicans won a convincing election victory. They proceeded to do what all victorious parties do. They passed legislation in accord with their priorities, including letting the Democrats’ insurance subsidies expire as planned.
If the Democrats were a normal party that believed in democratic principles, they would have planned to go to the voters in the next elections and said: These Republican policies are terrible! You should vote for us! But of course that’s not what the Democrats decided to do. Instead, they shut down the government. Why did they do that? Because we don’t live in a healthy democracy. We live in a country in which the norms, beliefs and practices that hold up a democracy are dying even in the minds of many of the people who profess to oppose Donald Trump.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan once wrote an essay called “Defining Deviancy Down.” His core point was that when the amount of deviant behavior rises, people begin to redefine deviant behavior as normal. This is a column about that. In a functioning democracy, a politician’s first instinct is to go to the voters and let the voters decide. In a diseased democracy a politician’s first instinct is to amass power by any means necessary. In a healthy democracy politicians abide by a series of formal and informal restraints because those restraints are good for the nation as a whole. In a diseased democracy like ours, all the decent rules and arrangements are destroyed. Anything goes.
Trump is destroying democratic norms. Democrats have decided to follow him into the basement. When both parties cooperate to degrade public morality, then nobody even notices as it’s happening. Government shutdowns became a thing during the Carter administration. The first few shutdowns during the Reagan administration lasted a day or two. Leaders in both parties did not want to face the wrath of voters who would be offended by this level of gridlock and incompetence. Now we’re in our 20th shutdown (depending on how you count them) and nobody cares. Neither political party is paying much of a price because the public has been rendered utterly cynical about government. Nothing is shocking anymore because there are no moral norms left standing.
Let me try to illustrate how deeply this cynicism has penetrated the American mind. When Democrats did decide to shut down the government, they could have done it to protest Trump’s historically unprecedented assault on democracy. But instead the Democrats decided to organize their messaging around the expiring health insurance subsidies. Why did they do that? Because they calculated that the American public doesn’t care about democracy’s degradation. It’s been going on so long voters are simply inured to it. So better to talk about Obamacare.
And in fact there are good reasons to think that Americans simply don’t care about their democratic rights. For example, several states are redrawing congressional district maps to come as close as possible to eliminating competitive races. If you live in Texas or California, then you probably will not have to vote in November 2026. The district maps will have been redrawn in a way that makes House elections largely predetermined. By then you will probably have been effectively disenfranchised. I don’t think I appreciated how much a democracy depends upon regular people standing up to defend their rights and their powers against the elites who try to usurp them. These days people are happy to give up their rights and power if they can find some strongman or strongwoman willing to take it. This is a much larger part of human nature than I thought.
For example, when I first started covering Congress, in the 1990s, backbench members could pass legislation if they had a good idea and some entrepreneurial mojo. Back then, congressional committees and their chairmen were still powerful. Power was dispersed, in true democratic fashion. But for at least 30 years members of Congress have been content to give away their power. First, they gave the power to leadership, so that today four people basically run the legislative branch. Then they gave power to executive branch agencies, letting more and more key decisions get made by the unelected civil service.
The blunt truth is that a lot of Americans don’t find our founding ideals sacred, so they don’t get upset when the Constitution is trampled, so long as it is their side doing the trampling. Let me try to describe something that may seem trivial but which I believe is at the core of our rot. It is politicians’ tendency to use the word “fight” in their campaign rhetoric. I noticed this trope when Hillary Clinton ran for president. She was continually promising to “fight” for middle-class Americans. It didn’t bother me then. She was a woman running for an office that had been held entirely by men, so she had to prove she was tough.
This is no longer just a metaphor. It’s a mind-set. We now have a lot of people in this country who do not believe that democracy is about trying to persuade people, it’s about fighting, crushing and destroying people.

Selected English Tweets from X Platform For 29 October/2025
Pope Leo XIV
Drawing new maps of hope. Today is the 60th anniversary of the conciliar Declaration "Gravissimum Educationis", on the extreme importance and relevance of education to human life. With that text, the Second Vatican Council reminded the Church that education is not an accessory, but is itself the real work of evangelisation: it is the concrete way that the Gospel becomes education, relation, culture. #ApostolicLetter

Pope Leo XIV
In the power of prayer, with hands raised to heaven and open to others, we must ensure that this period of history, marked by war and the arrogance of power, soon comes to an end, giving rise to a new era. We cannot allow this period to continue. Enough! This is the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. Enough! Lord, hear our cry!

henri..@realhzakaria
https://x.com/i/status/1983164514200891397
Maryane Faddoul, the mother of Elio Abu Xanna who was killed by Balestinian occupation gunfire, said, may son didn’t know politics or camps. My son chose not to leave Lebanon.

Dr Walid Phares
Jihadi massacre of Druse on a civilian bus on the #Damascus #Souaida highway. Two bus passengers killed and 11 wounded. The terror attack demonstrate that Jihadist forces are threatening the Druse population in south Syria. Calls by Druse spiritual leader Sheikh al Hijri for self determination make more sense after this bloodshed against civilians.
#Souaida governorate must be protected by international forces and a land bridge to either Israel or Jordan. https://x.com/visegrad24/sta

Rania Hamzeh
Aya Sallam dreamed of graduating today she was killed on the Suwayda-Damascus road, the same road she once feared. Her words became her fate.
https://x.com/i/status/1983366005771366567

MEMRI
https://x.com/i/status/1983126345682199039
Lebanese Journalist Tony Boulos: Peace with Israel Is Inevitable – The Palestinian Cause Has Brought Chaos to the Region; Rhetoric about Throwing Israelis into the Sea Is Obsolete and Must Be Erased from Lebanon’s Vocabulary

Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
Islamist terrorists opened fire on a passenger bus carrying Druze passengers on the Damascus–Sweida road motorway this morning. Several civilians were killed & wounded.
Islamist attacks like this one is why the Israeli Air Force intervened to protect the Druze a few months ago

CNN
https://x.com/i/status/1983149434797002957
CNN's Clarissa Ward traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to track down the man who held missing US journalist Austin Tice captive. Tice, who went missing in 2012, was imprisoned by Bassam al-Hassan, a former Syrian general and top adviser to deposed President Bashar al-Assad.
Stream the full story at http://cnn.com/allaccess

Zéna Mansour
Christian Lebanon is also a project for the independence of every Christian village in Lebanon. Whether Maronite, Orthodox, or Greek Catholic, each village should live its Christian heritage as it has for thousands of years.

henri/@realhzakaria
Let me introduce you to Christian Lebanon.
It is the movement I have the honor of helping to found.
Our mission is for Mount Lebanon to once again stand as the stronghold of the Christians of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Our movement is peaceful.
We work for the good of the Lord first, the family second, and the homeland third.
The Christian family is the foundation of the nation.
It is a small image of a greater homeland that reflects its light wherever it goes.
Christian Lebanon is also a project for the independence of every Christian village in Lebanon. Whether Maronite, Orthodox, or Greek Catholic, each village should live its Christian heritage as it has for thousands of years.
Our movement also focuses on economic and technological development.
We see technology as essential for our time, but never at the cost of our Christian values.
Losing those values led us to lose both family and homeland.
My dear brothers and sisters, you can press the link below to join our community, learn more about our mission, and take part in it.
Mount Lebanon will rise again through our cooperation. #MountLebanon #ChristianLebanon

Mario Nawfal
U.S. AMBASSADOR BARRACK WARNS LEBANON: LAST CHANCE TO DISARM HEZBOLLAH PEACEFULLY
"This will be my last visit to Lebanon. I will inform the President, the Prime Minister, and the Speaker of Parliament that they have one last chance. Either they learn their lesson and decide to enter into direct negotiations with Israel under US auspices, to establish a timetable and mechanism for disarming Hezbollah. Or Lebanon will be left to its fate, and will remain so for a long time, with no one to care about it, neither in America nor in the region.
And no one will be able to pressure Israel to prevent it from doing whatever it deems appropriate to undertake disarmament by force."
Source: @ME_Observer_
, @USAMBTurkiye

Youssef Raggi
Received today a delegation representing the families of Beirut Port explosion vicitms, who briefed me on the latest developments in their case, now entering its sixth year. They sought assistance in arranging a meeting with the Ambassador of Bulgaria to Lebanon, to convey their request that the Bulgarian authorities respond to Lebanon’s demand for the extradition of Rhosus ship operator Igor Grechushkin, currently detained in Sofia, given the significance of his testimony in identifying those responsible for the nitrate shipment.
I told them that no words can truly reflect the depth of their pain, and that their struggle is shared by the entire Lebanese people. I stressed that while the port explosion was a heinous crime, the greater crime lies in silence, in obstructing justice and preventing accountability. I assured them that their request would be conveyed to the Bulgarian Embassy, and reaffirmed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to pursue all necessary measures in coordination with the Ministry of Justice, as it is presently doing.