English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  September 03/2025
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 18/09-14/:”Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector.I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 02-03/2025
Reflections on the 105th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Greater Lebanon/Elias Bejjani/September 02/2025
Who is Saint Simeon the Stylite, whose annual feast we commemorate today September 01?
Elias Bejjani/September 01/2025
Video link of a commentary by journalist Marwan Al-Amin,
Ortagus, CENTCOM chief to visit Lebanon this week for security talks
Reports: Berri to meet Aoun as army plan details emerge
Will Amal and Hezbollah ministers attend Friday's disarmament session?
Hezbollah reportedly warns against 'major clash' if timetable is set for its disarmament
State control of weapons under debate: Will the Lebanese Army's weapons plan split the government?
What we know about army's plan to monopolize arms
Abbas: We're determined to withdraw all Palestinian arms from Lebanon
Lebanon launches nationwide drainage cleaning drive ahead of winter rains
Warning to state: BDL moves to block dealings with Hezbollah's Qard al-Hassan
Kataeb Party: Dialogue welcome only after weapons under state control, full sovereignty enforced
UN says over 200,000 Syrian refugees return from Lebanon
Lebanon seizes 125 kg of cocaine after help from Saudi General Directorate of Narcotics Control

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 02-03/2025
Amnesty says Syria govt forces, allies behind 46 Druze 'executions'
France issues arrest warrant for Syria's Assad over 2012 journalist killings
Yemen's Houthis say they attacked ship in northern Red Sea
Pope Leo to host Israel’s Herzog at Vatican with invitation origin at issue
Israel launches new military surveillance satellite into space
Iran says open to US nuclear talks, rejects missile curbs
Iran says US missile demands block path to nuclear talks
Israel starts calling up reservists as it pushes into initial stages of Gaza City offensive
Israel begins ground operation in Gaza City, IDF says
Recognition of Palestinian state would spur sprint towards two-state solution, envoy says
Belgium moves toward recognizing a Palestinian state, drawing Israeli rebuke
UN watchdog finds uranium traces at suspected Syrian former nuclear site
Rift between Netanyahu and Israel’s military deepens over assault on Gaza City
Over 18,000 students killed, Palestinian education sector devastated by Israeli military offensive
Erdogan urges US not to bar Palestinian leaders from UN summit
Trump says ‘very disappointed’ in Putin
‘Axis of upheaval’: China’s Xi signals alternative order as India and Russia weigh US ties
China to build land-based 'Suez Canal' to connect Europe and Asia, bypassing shipping routes

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 02-03/2025
Uniquely Malevolent: Understanding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps/Jonathan Spyer/The Australian/Middle East Forum Online/September 02/2025
Hamas invested heavily in propaganda, will the death of Abu Obeida be decisive/SETH J. FRANTZMAN/Face Book/September 02/2025
Arabs Not Interested in Seeing Hamas Disarm/Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 02/2025
Now is not the time for a new nuclear deal with Iran/Tzvi Kahn/ The Macdonald-Laurier Institute/September 02/2025
What is driving the rise of the radical right in Europe?/Eyad Abu Shakra Asharq Al-Awsat/September 02, 2025
Slected X tweets For September 02/2025

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 02-03/2025
Reflections on the 105th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Greater Lebanon
Elias Bejjani/September 02/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/09/146914/
105 years ago, the declaration of the State of Greater Lebanon took place. The only historical era in which Lebanon truly enjoyed peace, prosperity, and stability lasted until the early 1970s. After that came disintegration, along with divisions, wars, and chaos triggered by the armed Palestinian invasion, the rise of local nationalist, Arabist, leftist, and jihadist movements, the Nasserist tide, and militant leftist activities.
The process of disintegration and collapse deepened with the Taif Agreement, which was imposed due to an imbalance of local and regional power. Today, Lebanon has reached the peak of its decline and loss of sovereignty under the Iranian occupation, enforced through its jihadist and terrorist military proxy that blasphemously and heretically carries the name “Hezbollah” (“God’s Party”).
From the Mutasarrifate to the State: Contexts of Greater Lebanon’s Birth
The proclamation of Greater Lebanon was a pivotal event in the modern history of the Levant, occurring against the backdrop of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse and the rise of competing national and regional projects. While some local and regional forces sought to realize the “Greater Syria” project under Emir Faisal I, supported by the Arab Revolt, an alternative vision backed by France emerged: the establishment of a distinct political entity in the coastal and mountainous regions of Bilad al-Sham. This paper offers a deep analytical reading of the 105th anniversary of Greater Lebanon’s proclamation, moving beyond traditional historical narratives to deconstruct the root causes, outcomes, and enduring implications of this event on Lebanon’s state structure and identity up to the present day.
The Proclamation of Greater Lebanon: Between Local Aspirations and Colonial Reality
The proclamation of Greater Lebanon was not a unilateral decision imposed by the French Mandate authority; it was the culmination of intersecting local, regional, and international interests. The entity was formally declared through an administrative decree issued by General Henri Gouraud, the French High Commissioner in Syria and Cilicia, on August 31, 1920, which took effect the following day, September 1, 1920.
The Local Role: Patriarch Elias al-Huwayek
Maronite Patriarch Elias Boutros al-Huwayek played a decisive role in the birth of Greater Lebanon, and is considered one of the four most important figures in this context. His vision went beyond creating a mere sectarian refuge for the Maronites; he was firmly convinced of the need for a viable economic entity.
After the famine that devastated Mount Lebanon during World War I, Patriarch al-Huwayek realized that the Mutasarrifate, with its narrow borders, was unable to feed its inhabitants and was plagued by poverty and mass emigration. In response, he led a delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, where he presented a detailed memorandum on October 24, 1919, demanding expanded borders for Lebanon.
His demands were based on historical and geographical arguments, claiming they coincided with the ancient borders of Phoenicia, as well as those of the Ma‘nid and Shihabid principalities, and with maps from an old French military mission. These claims extended Lebanon’s boundaries from Lake Homs in the north to Lake Huleh in the south, incorporating vital agricultural plains absent from the Mutasarrifate. Thus, Patriarch al-Huwayek was not advocating for a closed sectarian enclave, but for a pluralistic homeland capable of sustaining its people economically.
The French Role: Strategic Support
France had long viewed Lebanon as its foothold in the Middle East, casting itself as the “protector” of Eastern Christians since the 17th century. Supporting al-Huwayek’s demands was therefore not mere benevolence, but part of a strategic plan to cement French influence in the Levant against rising Arab nationalism. The proclamation of Greater Lebanon crowned this French role, with France presenting itself as the protector of minorities in constant tension with their Muslim surroundings. In his speech, General Gouraud praised Patriarch al-Huwayek as “the great Patriarch of Lebanon who descended from his mountain to attend this glorious day.” Thus, the proclamation resulted from the convergence of two wills: a local will for a viable entity and a colonial will for dominance. The economic crisis and famine of Mount Lebanon pressured the Maronite Patriarchate to demand territorial expansion, while France saw in those demands the perfect justification for its military and political presence under the guise of “protecting minorities.” The outcome was the creation of a new entity that satisfied part of the Lebanese population but clashed with the vision of another part.
A New Map and a Divided Identity: Voices of Opposition and Faisal’s Project
Despite local support, the proclamation was met with fierce rejection from most inhabitants of the newly annexed regions. This opposition reflected deep divisions in national visions — divisions that remain alive today.
Annexed Areas and Local Positions
Decree No. 318 defined the new entity’s borders to include the Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon plus the districts of Baalbek, the Beqaa, Rachaya, and Hasbaya, as well as the sanjaks of Beirut and Sidon. These regions, which had previously belonged to Ottoman provinces like Damascus and Beirut, suddenly found themselves part of a political entity with different orientations. The general stance of Muslims (both Sunni and Shia) was rejection, though expressed differently across regions:
Tripoli and Beirut: resistance took the form of strikes, civil disobedience, and political opposition led by Sunni notables.
Jabal ‘Amil (South Lebanon) and the Beqaa: resistance was armed, with guerrilla warfare waged against French forces. At the Wadi al-Hujayr Conference, Shia leaders openly pledged allegiance to King Faisal in Damascus.
The roots of this opposition lay in their shift from being part of a ruling majority under the Ottomans to becoming a minority within a Christian-led entity. Many preferred integration into a larger Arab state — “Greater Syria” (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan) — under Emir Faisal’s leadership.
The Faisal Era and the Collapse of the Arab National Project
Prince Faisal ibn al-Husayn was the preferred monarch for opponents of Greater Lebanon. On March 8, 1920, the Syrian General Congress declared Syria’s independence within its “natural borders” and crowned Faisal as king. This Arab nationalist project was the favored alternative for Muslims who rejected the French Mandate and Lebanon’s separation. Yet, the dream was short-lived. In July 1920, France issued Faisal an ultimatum to accept the Mandate; though he reluctantly agreed, French forces advanced on Damascus and defeated the Syrians at the Battle of Maysalun on July 24, 1920. Faisal’s withdrawal from Damascus removed the Arab nationalist alternative that opponents had hoped for. This collapse was not incidental but an essential precondition for the success of the Greater Lebanon project. With Faisal gone, opponents were left with no choice but reluctant acceptance of the new reality.
Ottoman Provinces and Their Reactions to Greater Lebanon
Region (annexed) Previous Ottoman Affiliation Reaction
Baalbek, Beqaa, Rachaya, Hasbaya Province of Damascus Armed resistance (guerrilla war)
Beirut & Sidon Sanjaks Province of Beirut / Province of Haifa Political resistance (strikes, civil disobedience)
Tripoli Province of Tripoli Strong political resistance (strikes, civil disobedience)
This early divergence between armed resistance in the South and Beqaa, and political resistance in coastal cities, reveals deeper fractures within Lebanese society — fractures that predated the state’s creation and continued to resurface thereafter.
The “Golden Age”: Superficial Prosperity, Deep Inequality
After full independence in 1943 and the establishment of the Lebanese Republic under its sectarian system, Lebanon experienced an unprecedented economic and social boom during the 1950s and 1960s. Beirut earned nicknames like “the Paris of the Middle East” and “the California of the Eastern Mediterranean.”
Signs of Prosperity and Modernization
This boom was built on services, particularly banking and tourism. Beirut became a regional financial and tourist hub, attracting visitors from across the world. Cultural and artistic life flourished, with thriving nightclubs, cafés, and theaters. Landmarks like the Phoenicia Hotel and Casino du Liban, which hosted international figures, symbolized the era. Infrastructure also improved, including trams and railways.
Roots of Economic and Social Crisis
But the boom was superficial, masking deep contradictions. The Lebanese economic model was unbalanced — a “dependent capitalism” relying heavily on foreign capital and remittances, centered on services at the expense of agriculture and industry. This produced severe income inequality: families in Beirut and Mount Lebanon disproportionately benefited from opportunities. By 1954, average annual income in Beirut was five times that of rural agricultural families. Just 4% of Lebanese controlled 33% of national income, while most suffered from poverty. These regional and class disparities — with sectarian dimensions — formed a ticking time bomb awaiting ignition.
From Fragile Balance to Civil War: Palestinian Presence and the National Movement
Lebanon’s “golden age” rested on a fragile internal balance, which soon collapsed under regional pressures.
The Rise of Armed Palestinian Presence
Initially, Palestinians in Lebanon lived quietly. But after the 1967 defeat, fedayeen activity escalated, leading to clashes with the Lebanese army in 1968–1969. The situation worsened after the PLO leadership relocated from Jordan to Lebanon in 1970 following Black September.
The Cairo Agreement: A State within a State
Signed on November 3, 1969, between the Lebanese army and the PLO under Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s mediation, the Cairo Agreement effectively granted the PLO semi-autonomous authority in the camps and the right to launch armed operations from Lebanon. This created a “state within a state,” undermining sovereignty and dividing Lebanese society between supporters and opponents.
The Lebanese National Movement
The Palestinians were not the sole cause of civil war; they were the spark that ignited pre-existing contradictions. Armed Palestinian presence found strong support from the Lebanese National Movement, a coalition of leftist, Arab nationalist, and Syrian parties led by Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt. The Movement’s goals went beyond supporting Palestinians: it called for abolishing political sectarianism, implementing social and economic reforms, and affirming Lebanon’s Arab identity. It included members from various sects — Muslims, Druze, and even some Christians — showing it was not merely sectarian, but a transformative force challenging Lebanon’s system. Thus, Lebanon’s war was not Lebanese vs. Palestinians, but an internal struggle over Lebanon’s identity and future. The Palestinian cause became a tool in domestic battles, leading to civil war on April 13, 1975.
Key Clauses of the 1969 Cairo Agreement and Consequences for Lebanese Sovereignty
Right to armed struggle from Lebanese territory → undermined sovereignty.
Increased Israeli retaliatory raids → weakened the army.
Creation of autonomous committees in camps → state within a state.
Camps turned into security zones beyond state control.
Facilitated fedayeen movement across borders → weakened border control.
Heightened tensions between army and Palestinian factions.
Failure of the Experience or National Necessity?
One hundred and five years after the proclamation of Greater Lebanon, a critical re-examination is necessary, away from founding myths.
Foundational Myths: Critical Deconstruction
Lebanon’s identity was built on narratives such as being a “refuge for minorities” or a “Mediterranean Phoenician entity.” Its identity remained contested between “Mediterranean” and “Arab”.
Conclusion: Can It Continue?
The Greater Lebanon experiment has not been a total failure, but as proclaimed, it has proven unsustainable. The liberal economic model was fragile, dependent on external wealth, and incapable of ensuring social justice. It deepened inequalities between rich and poor, center and periphery.
The sectarian system, designed as a political solution for power-sharing, was never applied in its spirit; sectarian elites exploited it for influence, obstructing state-building on the basis of citizenship and equality. The problem was not the idea of Lebanon itself, but the flawed foundations on which it was built, and the fact that parts of the Muslim community never truly embraced it, preferring an Arab-Islamic entity.
Centralized sectarianism was never a permanent solution — at best, a temporary fix. Once it became the problem itself, it opened the door to Palestinian, Syrian, and later Iranian penetration, leading to the state’s collapse. Lebanon now requires a “new national formula”, one that establishes a just civil entity based on federalism. But before moving to federalism, a precondition is the complete disarmament of all Lebanese, Iranian and Palestinian militias, and the dismantling of their educational, military, intelligence, and financial structures, so that all communities and regions stand equal. A federal system would guarantee each sectarian and ethnic community its rights, preserve its identity, history, and culture, and enable coexistence within a fair and viable state.

Who is Saint Simeon the Stylite, whose annual feast we commemorate today September 01?
Elias Bejjani/September 01/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/09/146902/
The hallowed monk, Saint Simeon the Stylite, is considered one of the most prominent hermits to practice a singular form of asceticism in the history of both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, which commemorate his annual feast on different dates.
The Orthodox Church, including the Eastern Catholic Churches such as the Maronite Church, celebrates his feast on the first of September each year. In contrast, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates his feast on the fifth of January each year.
Birthplace, Date of Birth, and Passing
Simeon the Stylite was born around the year 388 AD in the village of Sisan (or Sis), a dependency of the city of Antioch in northern Syria, a region now part of modern-day Turkey near the Syrian border. He was born into a humble family of shepherds. He departed from this world on the second day of September in the year 459 AD, after a lifetime of rigorous asceticism and devout worship.
The Dawn of His Monastic Journey
Simeon’s spiritual journey began at a tender age. At thirteen, he entered a monastery near his home. He was zealous in his spiritual disciplines, a fervor that troubled his fellow monks, as he would fast excessively and engage in prolonged prayers. Among the tales recounted from that period is one of him binding a rough rope of palm fiber around his body, which caused deep wounds. When the abbot discovered this, he asked Simeon to leave the monastery, believing his extreme practices were not suitable for the communal monastic life. Following his departure, Simeon turned to the solitary life of a hermit in the desert, spending a period in complete isolation. He then moved to a mountainous region where he bound himself with iron chains but abandoned this practice after a time at the request of a bishop.
Life Atop the Column
In the year 423 AD, Simeon made the decision for which he became profoundly famed: he resolved to live atop a column. He began with a short column and gradually had it built higher and higher. The final column he lived upon reached a height of approximately 15 meters. Life atop the column was an unfathomable physical and psychological trial. He was exposed to biting cold, scorching heat, wind, and rain, and he slept only for very brief periods. He rarely descended from the column, and when he did, he would return to it swiftly. Simeon remained on the column for nearly 37 years until his passing.
The Message of His Life Atop the Column
Simeon the Stylite’s life on the column was not merely an eccentric or irrational act. It was a message deeply rooted in the Christian faith. Through it, he sought to convey several profound truths:
Purification from Sin: He believed that living in such a state of harsh asceticism would help him cleanse himself of the sins of the flesh and attain a high level of spiritual purity.
Complete Devotion to Worship: Life on the column prevented any worldly distractions, allowing him to dedicate himself entirely to prayer and contemplation of his relationship with God. He saw himself as an "angel on earth."
A Living Testimony to the World: In an age when faith faced challenges, Simeon’s life was a living testament to the power of unwavering faith and devotion. People came from every corner to witness him and listen to him, and they were profoundly moved by his self-sacrifice.
His Most Significant Sayings and Deeds
Simeon was not known for leaving behind extensive writings, yet his sayings and deeds were echoed by his disciples and visitors. Among the most notable attributed to him are:
Perpetual Prayer: He emphasized the importance of prayer without ceasing, considering it the only way to commune with God.
Preaching and Teaching: Despite living atop the column, he would preach to visitors and teach them the principles of the Christian faith. People sought him for spiritual counsel, and he answered them with patience and wisdom.
Reconciling Disputes: His fame reached distant lands, and princes and kings would ask him to resolve disputes between them, which shows that his influence was not limited to spiritual matters alone. He was regarded as a just spiritual arbiter.
*Miraculous Works: Numerous works of wonder are attributed to Simeon the Stylite, such as healing the sick, prophesying future events, and casting out evil spirits.
Is Saint Simeon the Stylite Canonized by the Catholic Church?
Yes, Saint Simeon the Stylite is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. He is considered a common saint among the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches.
Canonization Status: Saint Simeon the Stylite is revered as a saint by the Catholic Church, and his sainthood is referred to as "pre-congregation." This means his holiness was recognized in the very early history of the Church, long before the establishment of the modern formal canonization process.
Influence: Historical records and artifacts in Europe, particularly in Rome, show that Saint Simeon was widely honored in the West as well, underscoring his status as a great figure of faith who transcended the later schisms between the Churches.
His Legacy and Commemoration
The life of Saint Simeon the Stylite was a beacon of inspiration for many. After his passing, a massive church was built around the column on which he lived, known as "the Church of Saint Simeon the Stylite," which is considered one of the most important Christian archaeological sites in the world.
Few followed his specific path of asceticism, yet his life remains a symbol of absolute dedication and sacrifice for the sake of the Faith. Saint Simeon the Stylite is a living example that faith can compel a person to transcend physical and psychological limits to achieve a higher spiritual goal. He is a saint unlike any other, and for this reason, the Church continues to commemorate him and honor him to this very day.

Video link of a commentary by journalist Marwan Al-Amin, in which he addresses the recent speech of Nabih Berri, who adopted all Stances of Iran and its terrorist party, blasphemously and heretically called Hezbollah.
 https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/09/146948/
September 02/2025
In this video, Marwan Al-Amin discusses the speech given by Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri. Al-Amin believes that Berri's speech was disappointing, as many had hoped for an initiative to save the country. However, the speech only offered calls for dialogue and stalling, which Al-Amin believes serve "Hezbollah's project to protect its weapons." He adds that Berri is linking the destiny of the Shi'ite community to the weapons while neglecting their interests in reconstruction projects, and that his speech is a copy of Hezbollah's discourse aimed at protecting Iranian weapons.

Ortagus, CENTCOM chief to visit Lebanon this week for security talks
Naharnet/September 02/2025
U.S. diplomat Morgan Ortagus is set to visit Lebanon at the end of the week with Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) for high-level security meetings, LBCI said in a report Tuesday. The meetings will focus on coordination and regional security concerns and will be held with Lebanese security officials, with no scheduled meetings with political leaders, LBCI said.

Reports: Berri to meet Aoun as army plan details emerge
Naharnet/September 02/2025
Speaker Nabih Berri is showing “major political leniency” to pass Friday’s key cabinet session in a smooth manner, the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal reported on Tuesday.“He will visit the Baabda Palace to meet with President Joseph Aoun over the next two days,” al-Anbaa said, adding that the two leaders will discuss “how to provide full protection for the army’s mission” of disarming Hezbollah and all armed groups in the country. Informed sources meanwhile told al-Binaa newspaper that in the wake of Berri’s annual speech on Sunday, several meetings were held between Berri and Aoun’s adviser Andre Rahal and other meetings were held with MP Mohammad Raad. The parties are seeking “a solution calling for devising the army’s weapons monopoly plan but without implementation deadlines pending Israel’s withdrawal from the South, the halt of violations and the implementation of the ceasefire agreement,” al-Binaa said. The sources added that the army’s plan will be phased and will begin from the South Litani area before moving to the area north of the Litani River. “It also involves the South, west, north and central Bekaa, the Syrian border, and Beirut and its southern suburbs. But the plan’s implementation will begin in South Litani and the condition for moving to North Litani is full Israeli withdrawal from the South and halting violations,” the sources said. Al-Binaa, however, added that “senior leaders are being pressed to approve the army plan with specifying an immediate implementation date and a timetable for completing it.”

Will Amal and Hezbollah ministers attend Friday's disarmament session?
Naharnet/September 02/2025
As political tensions boil over ahead of a Cabinet session that will discuss Friday a plan prepared by the army to implement the state's monopoly on arms, divisions are growing in the crisis and war-hit country, with no way out in sight. According to a report published Tuesday in pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper, Amal and Hezbollah's ministers might boycott the session Friday if its agenda is limited to discussing the disarmament plan. Diplomatic efforts are ongoing and whether the Shiite ministers would attend or not will greatly depend on the developments. President Joseph Aoun who discussed Monday the session with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had urged him to find a way out, al-Akhbar said. In a conflicting report, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted Monday a minister as saying that Amal and Hezbollah's ministers will attend the session and that they have no intention to boycott it or call for street protests. On Tuesday, the daily said that the plan requested by the government for monopolizing arms before the year’s end was finalized by the Lebanese Army’s command more than two weeks ago and that "it contains stages and timetables" for the implementation of each stage.

Hezbollah reportedly warns against 'major clash' if timetable is set for its disarmament
Naharnet/September 02/2025
Amal and Hezbollah's ministers will attend a cabinet session that will discuss Friday a plan prepared by the army to disarm Hezbollah, but the ministers will not discuss the plan, sources told Saudi news interactive channel al-Hadath. The sources said that a Hezbollah minister will voice a strong objection during the session and that Amal and Hezbollah have warned against a major clash if Cabinet decides to disarm the group within a timetable. Al-Hadath sources said that the army will present a preliminary plan Friday and that President Joseph Aoun will propose to continue the discussion of the plan in another cabinet session.

State control of weapons under debate: Will the Lebanese Army's weapons plan split the government?
LBCI/September 02/2025
Lebanon's cabinet is set to discuss on Friday a military plan presented by Army Commander General Rodolph Haykal to restrict weapons exclusively to state authorities. Ministers affiliated with Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have informed both the president and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam that they will withdraw from the session if the plan is put to a vote, though they will remain if the meeting is limited to presentation and discussion. Salam, backed by ministers from the Lebanese Forces party, is pushing for the plan’s approval, arguing it should be treated the same way the government adopted its policy papers earlier on August 5 and 7. Political sources close to both sides expect the plan to pass on Friday, with the army left to determine the mechanisms and timeline for its implementation. Still, uncertainty remains over whether the cabinet will settle for acknowledging the plan or proceed to a vote—a decision that could prompt Shiite ministers to walk out. Salam and LF insist on approval, while others appear open to a temporary compromise. President Joseph Aoun continues consultations with political leaders, including contacts with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, though no meeting has been scheduled between the two.
Amid the internal debate, U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus and the commander of U.S. Central Command are due in Beirut later this week for brief security talks with Lebanon's military and security chiefs, as well as a meeting with the international monitoring mechanism.

What we know about army's plan to monopolize arms
Naharnet/September 02/2025
The plan requested by the government for monopolizing arms before the year’s end was finalized by the Lebanese Army’s command more than two weeks ago, media reports said. “The plan contains stages and timetables for executing each stage,” Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported on Tuesday. “The plan supposes cooperation from Hezbollah and coordination with it to ensure a smooth implementation, as has been happening south of the Litani River, without that meaning that there will be submission to a certain situation, seeing as the plan was devised to be implemented, and accordingly it involves several scenarios that guarantee the success of its implementation,” the daily said. The plan is also “based on the idea that the enemy of Lebanon and the Lebanese is Israel,” the newspaper added. Noting that the plan’s implementation could be put on hold pending a positive Israeli step, Asharq al-Awsat said “Lebanese officials are still betting on a breakthrough that might be achieved by U.S. envoys Tom Barrack and Morgan Ortagus with the Israeli side, which would make it easier for them to convince Hezbollah to cooperate with the army’s weapons monopolization plan.”

Abbas: We're determined to withdraw all Palestinian arms from Lebanon
Naharnet/September 02/2025
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that he is “determined to withdraw all Palestinian arms from Lebanon,” after his Fatah Movement handed over weapons from several Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut’s southern suburbs and south Lebanon.
“The talk about disarming the camps in Lebanon started 15 years ago … The disarmament of Palestinian camps is a prelude to protecting Lebanon,” Abbas said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television. “The camps’ weapons served their objective in 1969 and have no role now,” Abbas added. Revealing that he has agreed with President Joseph Aoun on the removal of arms from all camps, Abbas added that he wants a “normal relation” with Lebanon and to preserve the country’s “unity and security.”“I will not be a reason for impeding the Lebanese state project … and the Lebanese state will be entrusted with storing the Palestinian arms,” Abbas said.

Lebanon launches nationwide drainage cleaning drive ahead of winter rains
LBCI/September 02/2025
Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny ordered the immediate maintenance and cleaning of Lebanon's rainwater and sewage drainage networks to reduce the risks of flooding and infrastructure damage caused by heavy rainfall and unpredictable weather conditions. In a wide-ranging meeting with technical teams and contractors, Rasamny emphasized the urgency of clearing open and closed drainage channels, removing debris and soil, and cleaning rain grates and culverts, which are designed to allow water to pass under roads. The minister said these steps are essential to ensure the country’s infrastructure is fully prepared for any emergencies during the rainy season. He also called for thorough inspections of water tunnels, flood channels, and underpasses to guarantee smooth water flow and to prevent blockages that could lead to flooding. The ministry said the cleaning campaign will cover key road networks across Lebanon, including the Khalde–Awali–Tyre–Naqoura highway and the old coastal road, Zahrani–Nabatieh–Marjayoun–Marj El Zhour, northern suburbs of Beirut to Casino du Liban, Chekka–Koura–Bsharri–Zgharta–Tripoli, Hazmieh–Chtoura–Masnaa, Masnaa–Rachaya–Marj El Zhour, as well as southern suburbs of Beirut and other regions. Israelis stage nationwide protests to demand end to Gaza war and release of hostages. Rasamny also announced a parallel public awareness campaign to discourage people from dumping garbage into waterways, warning that such practices exacerbate flooding risks and damage infrastructure.

Warning to state: BDL moves to block dealings with Hezbollah's Qard al-Hassan
LBCI/September 02/2025
The Banque du Liban (BDL) has once again placed the Hezbollah-affiliated financial institution Qard al-Hassan in the spotlight, renewing restrictions and warnings over dealings with unlicensed entities subject to international sanctions. In July, BDL issued Circular 170, banning all licensed financial institutions under its supervision from engaging with Qard al-Hassan or similar organizations. Weeks later, the bank reiterated the directive, this time sending what observers described as a veiled message to the Lebanese government. The statement underscored that any organization or entity under international sanctions and not licensed by the BDL falls under the full responsibility of the state and the ministries empowered to intervene. According to officials, the Interior Ministry is the primary authority responsible for granting legal recognition to associations and is therefore the body tasked with proposing the revocation of licenses when necessary. Israel signals readiness to scale back military presence if Lebanon moves to disarm Hezbollah. Banking sources told LBCI that the BDL is continuing its efforts to curb the activities of associations and institutions included on U.S. sanctions lists. The sources also stressed the importance of ensuring strict compliance by all banks with Circular 170 and warned against any negligence in implementing the directive.

Kataeb Party: Dialogue welcome only after weapons under state control, full sovereignty enforced
LBCI/September 02/2025
The Kataeb Party’s political bureau held its regular meeting under the chairmanship of party leader MP Samy Gemayel. The bureau stressed that “dialogue in Lebanon is welcome when its goal is to strengthen the concept of the nation and build the state. However, any discussion aimed at reconsidering or undermining the decision to keep weapons solely under state control and extend its authority across all Lebanese territory cannot be called dialogue. This is not a political option but a constitutional duty enshrined in laws and international agreements, and any attempt to treat it as a negotiation item is a clear departure from the foundations of the state.”The party emphasized that “the Kataeb, which was the first to call for a conference of honesty and reconciliation among Lebanese, welcomes any invitation to dialogue—but only after weapons are fully under state control, making it a natural step toward rebuilding the country and consolidating the state’s institutions and sovereignty.”State control of weapons under debate: Will the Lebanese Army's weapons plan split the government? The bureau also expressed “full confidence that the government’s path to consolidating state authority and enforcing the law across Lebanese territory will continue in the next Cabinet session with the approval of the operational plan presented by the Army Command in implementation of the Cabinet’s decision, representing a serious step toward restoring state sovereignty and institutional authority.” It welcomed “the start of the weapons handover from the camps, a long-awaited process that in the past led to significant tragedies, for which Lebanese citizens—especially the Kataeb—paid the highest price,” stressing that “there can be no real stability without exclusive state control over weapons across all Lebanese territory.” In parallel with asserting domestic sovereignty, the Kataeb called on “the international community to pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied Lebanese lands, release prisoners and detainees, and stop repeated attacks on Lebanese sovereignty, in line with international legitimacy resolutions.”

UN says over 200,000 Syrian refugees return from Lebanon
AFP/September 02, 2025
BEIRUT: More than 200,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their homeland from neighboring Lebanon this year following the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, a United Nations official told AFP. The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 with Assad’s brutal repression of anti-government protests, displaced half of the population internally or abroad. But the December 8 ouster of the former Syrian president at the hands of Islamist forces sparked hopes of return. Lebanese authorities recently introduced a plan offering $100 in aid and exemptions from fines for refugees leaving the country, provided they pledge not to return as asylum seekers. “Since the beginning of this year, we’re looking at about 200,000 Syrians that have gone back, most of them on their own,” said Kelly Clements, deputy high commissioner at the UN refugee agency (UNHCR). “That number is increasing very quickly,” she told AFP in an interview. While many Syrians are heading back to Hama, Homs and Aleppo, most refugees remain in Lebanon where humanitarian needs remain high amid shrinking aid budgets. Clements stressed the UNHCR was not encouraging returns, describing it as “an individual choice for each family to make.” Lebanese authorities estimate that the country hosts about 1.5 million Syrian refugees. The United Nations says it has registered more than 755,000. UNHCR support for returnees includes small-scale housing repairs, cash assistance and core relief items, though more intensive reconstruction is beyond the agency’s capacity.
About 80 percent of Syrian housing was damaged during the civil war, with one in three families needing housing support, according to Clement. The majority of Syrians who fled the 14-year civil war to Lebanon remain there, she noted, with needs remaining high as humanitarian aid decreases. “You see the Lebanon budget decreasing, you see the Syrian budget increasing,” she said, pointing out however that the UNHCR’s 2025 plan only reached a fifth of its needed funds. The agency is unable to determine whether Syria as a whole was safe to return to, she said, as parts of Syria were “safe and peaceful” while other parts were “less secure.” According to the UN, over two million Syrian refugees and internally displaced people returned to their areas of origin since the Islamist-led offensive toppled Assad. However, around 13.5 million Syrians remain displaced internally or abroad.
The new authorities are dealing with a devastated economy and destroyed infrastructure, with the majority of citizens living below the poverty line, according to the UN.

Lebanon seizes 125 kg of cocaine after help from Saudi General Directorate of Narcotics Control
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/September 02, 2025
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar announced on Tuesday that the country’s Anti-Narcotics Bureau had seized 125 kg of cocaine, one of the largest seizures of the drug in recent years. Hajjar explained that it had been smuggled onto a ship that had arrived at the port of Tripoli from Brazil after passing through Oman.  “They were hidden … and professionally camouflaged among 840 gallons containing oils and grease,” he said, adding that information had been received by the Anti-Narcotics Bureau from the General Directorate of Narcotics Control in Saudi Arabia, part of the country’s Ministry of Interior. Hajjar spoke of “detainees in the case, and there are other wanted persons being pursued.” He added that the investigations were still ongoing and that the seizure had taken place “in the past few weeks.”Hajjar expressed his gratitude to the Kingdom’s interior minister for his efforts, commending the long-standing contributions of both countries in combating drug smuggling. He said: “I met him (Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif) at the Arab Interior Ministers Conference, and we agreed to continue our efforts and coordination, and we are seeing one of the fruits of this coordination today.
“Of course, this is not the first time we have coordinated with the Kingdom and the anti-drug departments of other sister countries, as we previously uncovered a captagon-smuggling operation towards the sisterly state of Kuwait.”Hajjar added that Lebanese authorities had arrested six more individuals recently who had traveled from Latin American countries via Africa in possession of unspecified drugs. He emphasized that “all these matters are being addressed seriously because they are a fundamental pillar of our strategy.”Hajjar said that “efforts over the past months have yielded significant seizures and arrests, the most recent of which was today’s operation.” He added: “We will not accept that Lebanon be a transit point or a gateway for any prohibited items heading to Lebanon or to any sister or friendly country.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 02-03/2025
Amnesty says Syria govt forces, allies behind 46 Druze 'executions'
Agence France Presse/September 02, 2025
Amnesty International said Tuesday it had evidence of Syrian government personnel and affiliated fighters executing 46 members of the Druze minority during sectarian violence in July and demanded those responsible be held to account. The bloodshed erupted on July 13 with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin but rapidly escalated, drawing in government forces and tribal fighters from other parts of Syria. Syrian authorities have said their forces intervened to stop the clashes, but witnesses, Druze factions and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have accused them of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses against the Druze. The Observatory has put the overall death toll at more than 2,000, including 789 Druze civilians "summarily executed by defense and interior ministry personnel". Amnesty said it documented the "deliberate shooting and killing" of 46 Druze in Sweida city or on its outskirts on July 15 and 16. "These executions by government and government-affiliated forces occurred in a public square, residential homes, a school, a hospital and a ceremonial hall," it said. Amnesty said its evidence included "verified videos of armed men in security and military uniforms, some bearing official insignia, executing unarmed people". It also said it had verified photographs, conducted weapons analyses and collected witness testimonies.The human rights group said it had shared its preliminary findings with the interior and defense ministries but had not received a response.
'Fair proceedings'
Responding to the Amnesty report on Tuesday, interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said the government stood ready to "cooperate with any party that has documented proof" of transgressions in Sweida and urged them to share it with the official inquiry. Authorities in July formed an investigating committee into the Sweida violence that is to present its findings within three months. They also vowed accountability after the emergence of one of the videos verified by Amnesty, which showed the killing of an unarmed man in Sweida hospital. At least four of the armed men in the verified videos wore a black patch associated with the Islamic State group, Amnesty said, with three of them filmed working beside security forces personnel. IS has not claimed responsibility for attacks in Sweida. After government forces left Sweida, an AFP photographer saw bodies on the street in the city center. "When government security or military forces deliberately and unlawfully kill someone, or when affiliated forces do so with government complicity or acquiescence, that constitutes an extrajudicial execution," Amnesty's Syria researcher Diana Semaan said in the statement, noting it was "a crime under international law". She urged authorities to "promptly, independently, impartially and transparently investigate these executions and hold perpetrators accountable in fair proceedings". Amnesty noted it was also investigating "credible reports" of abductions carried out by Druze armed groups and Bedouin fighters. Residents in Sweida have decried the poor humanitarian situation in the province following the clashes, with the road to Damascus cut off for more than a month and only reopening last week.

France issues arrest warrant for Syria's Assad over 2012 journalist killings
Agence France Presse/September 2, 2025
French judicial authorities have issued arrest warrants for ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad an six other top former officials over the bombardment of a rebel-held city in 2012 that killed two journalists, lawyers said Tuesday. Marie Colvin, 56, an American working for The Sunday Times of Britain, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, were killed on February 22, 2012 by the explosion in the eastern city of Homs, which is being investigated by the French judiciary as a potential crime against humanity.

Yemen's Houthis say they attacked ship in northern Red Sea
Reuters/September 2, 2025
CAIRO (Reuters) -Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday that they had attacked a ship in the northern Red Sea with two drones and a missile because of its connection to Israel. The group did not say when the attack happened. There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from maritime sources. "The Yemeni armed forces carried out a joint military operation targeting the ship ... for violating the (Houthi) decision to ban entry to the ports of occupied Palestine," the group's spokesperson said. The Houthis on Sunday attacked the Israeli-owned tanker Scarlet Ray near Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port city of Yanbu in a rare attack off the Saudi coast. Israel last Thursday killed the prime minister of Yemen's Houthi-run government and several other ministers in a strike on the capital Sanaa, the first such attack to kill senior officials. The Houthis have launched numerous attacks on vessels in the Red Sea since 2023 that they deem to be linked with Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war on Gaza.

Pope Leo to host Israel’s Herzog at Vatican with invitation origin at issue
Reuters/02 September ,2025
Pope Leo and Israeli President Isaac Herzog have agreed to meet at the Vatican on Thursday but there was disagreement over whose idea the meeting was. The Israeli presidency issued a statement early on Tuesday saying Herzog would meet Leo on Thursday at the pope’s invitation. In an unusual statement, the Vatican said on Tuesday evening: “It is the Holy See’s practice to accede to requests for an audience with the pope made by Heads of State and Government; it is not its practice to extend invitations to them.”After the Vatican rebuff, a source in the Israeli president’s office said Herzog had been scheduled to meet the late Pope Francis on a visit to Italy when Francis became ill and later died. After Pope Leo’s inauguration, the new meeting was arranged in full coordination with the Vatican through diplomatic channels, the source said. The Israeli president’s office said in its statement they would discuss efforts to secure the return of hostages held in Gaza, the fight against global antisemitism, and the safeguarding of Christian communities in the Middle East. Leo has recently stepped up his calls for an end to the war in Gaza. Leo, the first U.S. pope, last week issued a “strong appeal” for an end to the nearly two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas, calling for a permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages held in Gaza and the provision of humanitarian aid. The Vatican, which strives to be seen as a neutral arbiter in world affairs, does not typically comment in advance on the pope’s meetings with world leaders. Its usual practice is to only issue brief statements after meetings with the pope have taken place. Leo has two announced meetings with world leaders this week: with Herzog on Thursday and with Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Friday. Leo was elected by the world’s cardinals in May to replace Francis, who had become a frequent critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Israel launches new military surveillance satellite into space
Reuters/September 02, 2025
JERUSALEM: Israel on Tuesday launched its latest spy satellite into space from an undisclosed site, the Defense Ministry said. The Ofek 19 satellite was built by state-run Israel Aerospace Industries. “Ofek 19 is a highly advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) observation satellite with enhanced capabilities. Upon entering Earth’s orbit, the satellite will undergo a series of designated tests to assess its integrity and performance,” the ministry said in a statement. Israel has launched Ofek observation satellites since 1988 for monitoring and intelligence gathering for the military.

Iran says open to US nuclear talks, rejects missile curbs
Arab News/September 02/2025
TEHRAN: Security chief Ali Larijani said on Tuesday that Iran was open to nuclear talks with the US but ruled out any restrictions on its missile program. “The path for negotiations with the US is not closed; yet these are the Americans who only pay lip service to talks and do not come to the table; and they wrongly blame Iran for it,” said Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. “By raising unrealizable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path which negates any talks,” Larijani wrote on X. The remarks came days after the US welcomed a move by European powers to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran but said it remained “available for direct engagement with Iran.” On Thursday, Britain, France and Germany triggered a “snapback” clause in the deal between Iran and major powers that allows for UN sanctions to be reimposed in the event of non-compliance with its provisions.

Iran says US missile demands block path to nuclear talks
Reuters/02 September/2025
The path to nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States is not closed but US demands for curbs on Iranian missiles are obstructing prospects for talks, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday. A sixth round of Iran-US talks was suspended after the start of a 12-day war in June, in which Israel and the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities and Iran retaliated with waves of ballistic missiles against Israel. “We indeed pursue rational negotiations. By raising unrealizable issues such as missile restrictions, they set a path that negates any talks,” the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said in a post on X. Western countries fear Iran’s uranium enrichment program could yield material for an atomic warhead and that it seeks to develop a ballistic missile to carry one.Iran says its nuclear program is only for electricity generation and other civilian uses and that it is enriching uranium as fuel for these purposes. It has denied seeking to create missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads and says its defense capabilities cannot be open to negotiation in any talks over its atomic program. Larijani’s comments follow last week’s launch by France, Germany and Britain of a “snapback mechanism” that could reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. The three countries, also known as the E3, have urged Iran to engage in nuclear negotiations with the US, among other conditions, in order to have the imposition of the snapback sanctions delayed for up to six months.

Israel starts calling up reservists as it pushes into initial stages of Gaza City offensive
Wafaa Shurafa, Sam Metz And Fatma Khaled/AP/September 2, 2025
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel began mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists and repeated evacuation warnings on Tuesday as part of its plan to widen its offensive in Gaza City, which has sparked opposition domestically and condemnation abroad. The call-up, which was announced last month, comes as ground and air forces press forward and pursue more targets in northern and central Gaza, striking parts of Zeitoun and Shijaiyah — two western Gaza City neighborhoods that Israeli forces have repeatedly invaded during the nearly two-year war against Hamas militants. Zeitoun, once Gaza City’s largest neighborhood with markets, schools and clinics, has been transformed over the past month, with streets being emptied and buildings reduced to rubble as it becomes what Israel's military last week called a “ dangerous combat zone.”
Israel says Gaza City is still a Hamas stronghold where the militants have a vast tunnel network, despite multiple incursions throughout the war. It's also one of the last refuges in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are sheltering, facing the twin threats of combat and famine. Some reservists are refusing to serve again, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political purposes instead of reaching a hostage deal with Hamas. Netanyahu has said that the war will continue until all the hostages are returned and Hamas surrenders. “We are facing the decisive stage,” Netanyahu said in a video statement addressed to the troops. "With God’s help, together we will win.”
Deadly strikes in Gaza City
Israel on Tuesday repeated earlier warnings to Palestinians who have remained in Gaza City, unconvinced that another displacement will keep them safe. Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned that combat operations would soon be expanding, and that services would be made available in Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp south of Gaza City. At least 47 people have been killed across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Tuesday, according to hospitals. A strike on a residential building in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood killed 15 people, including at least three children, according to Shifa Hospital. Rescue workers pulled a bloodied infant alive from beneath rubble, and then placed the dead under white sheets — a scene that captured the dangers facing Gaza City’s exhausted residents, uprooted time and again and uncertain if any place is secure.
“We were sleeping safe and sound in our home, and then we suddenly woke up to the sound of banging and rising smoke," Sana Drimli, a resident of the building, told The Associated Press. “We woke up to see what happened to us and check in on our children and discovered that everyone around us is dead," she said. Further south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said that they received 22 casualties killed by Israeli airstrikes and gunfire near distribution sites and in a corridor frequented by U.N. convoys. In recent months, more than 2,300 aid seekers have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The toll includes Palestinians who have sought aid in areas where U.N. convoys have been overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds, and where people have been fatally shot while heading to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, an Israeli-backed American contractor. Israel's military didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. GHF said that there were no such incidents linked to its sites or on dedicated routes leading to them.
Reservists protest in Tel Aviv
At least 60,000 reservists will be gradually called up, Israel's military said last month. It will also extend the service of an additional 20,000 reservists already serving.
In Israel, with a population of less than 10 million, most Jewish men complete compulsory military service and remain in the reserves for at least a decade. But criticism over the war in Gaza is growing. A number of movements are organizing to encourage reservists not to serve, though it's unclear how many will refuse the latest call-up. A recently formed group called Soldiers for the Hostages said that it includes more than 365 soldiers who served earlier in the war, but won't report for duty if called up again. “Netanyahu’s ongoing war of aggression needlessly puts our own hostages in danger and has wreaked havoc on the fabric of Israeli society, while at the same time killing, maiming and starving an entire population of Gazan civilians,” Max Kresch, a member of the group, told reporters. Refusing to show up for reserve duty is an offense that can merit prison time, though only a handful of reserve soldiers who have refused to serve have been put in military imprisonment over the course of the war.
Malnutrition and combat tolls grow
Since the world's leading authority on food crises declared last month that Gaza City was experiencing famine, malnutrition-related deaths have mounted. Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday that a total of 185 people died of malnutrition in August — marking the highest count in months. A total of 63,633 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the ministry, which says another 160,914 people have been wounded as of Tuesday. The ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half of the dead. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them, but hasn't provided its own toll. The war started when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people hostage. Forty-eight hostages are still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel begins ground operation in Gaza City, IDF says
NADINE EL-BAWAB and JORDANA MILLER/ABC News/September 2, 2025
Israel has begun its ground operation in Gaza City, Israel Defense Forces Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Tuesday. "We are going to increase and enhance the strikes of our operation, and that is why we called you," Zamir said in Hebrew, addressing reservists who have been called up to serve in recent weeks. "We have already begun the ground operation in Gaza [City]." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also released a message addressing IDF reservists Tuesday. "I want to strengthen and express my deep appreciation to you, IDF soldiers and reserve soldiers and your families," Netanyahu said in the video message in Hebrew. "Now we are facing the decisive stage. I believe in you, I trust you and the entire nation embraces you."Netanyahu approved the military's plans to seize Gaza City last month. Last month, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Gaza City could "turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun," areas that were destroyed by Israeli strikes, unless Hamas agreed to Israel's terms for a ceasefire. "Soon, the gates of hell will open on the heads of Hamas' murderers and rapists in Gaza -- until they agree to Israel's conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament. If they do not agree -- Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun. Exactly as I promised -- so it will be," Katz said in a post on X.
Israel's demands include the release of all hostages being held by Hamas, Hamas giving up control of governing the Gaza Strip and Hamas leaving the strip. In May, Israel accepted a U.S.-proposed 60-day truce that included the release of only some hostages, but Hamas rejected the proposal because it did not guarantee a permanent ceasefire, something Hamas has called for in several rounds of negotiations. Netanyahu has never agreed to fully withdraw Israeli troops from the strip, which has left negotiations stalled.
On Tuesday, a senior adviser to Netanyahu told ABC News the Israeli government has outlined five principles they would need to see to end the war: the dismantling of Hamas' military and political capabilities; the immediate release of all hostages; the demilitarization of Gaza; Israel having "overriding security control" in Gaza for the "foreseeable future"; and the imposition of a civil authority in Gaza, which excludes Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. At least 76 people were killed and 281 were injured in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health. Among those killed were 12 people trying to get humanitarian aid and another 90 were injured, according to the health ministry. Thirteen people, including three children, starved to death over the past 24 hours across Gaza, the ministry said Tuesday morning. Across Gaza, at least 361 people have died of malnutrition -- including 130 children -- since Oct. 7, 2023, the ministry said. During the month of August, there were a total of 185 malnutrition-related deaths among adults and children in Gaza, the health ministry said, calling it "the high
The world's leading authority on food crises -- the IPC -- determined there was a famine less than two weeks ago. The IPC itself does not declare a famine, but its famine determination can be used by states and bodies such as the United Nations to declare a famine.
Even before the famine determination was made, more than 100 aid groups described the dire food shortage in Gaza as "mass starvation," as the "Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza." The organizations warned that some aid workers are now joining food lines in Gaza, saying they are "risking being shot just to feed their families." Repeated deadly shootings around aid distribution centers have killed hundreds, according to the United Nations.

Recognition of Palestinian state would spur sprint towards two-state solution, envoy says
Kate Holton and Ben Makori/Reuters/September 2, 2025
LONDON (Reuters) -The recognition of a Palestinian state by leading Western nations will trigger a sprint towards a two-state solution, the head of the Palestinian mission in London said on Tuesday. Britain, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium have all said they will recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London could halt the process if Israel eased the humanitarian crisis in war-shattered Gaza and committed to a long-term peace process. The moves are designed to put pressure on Israel to end its assault on Gaza and curtail the building of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, but some question whether recognition is merely symbolic. "I think it will be the starting gun for what we hope to be a sprint, not even a march, towards implementing the two-state solution, and we are hoping for an active, effective, meaningful role by the United Kingdom," Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission in London, told Reuters. Israel, facing a global outcry over its conduct in the Gaza war, has reacted angrily to recognition gestures, saying they would reward Hamas. The Palestinian militant group's gunmen attacked southern Israeli communities near the border on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages into Gaza, according to Israeli figures. A two-state solution is the idea that the two sides could co-exist in peace alongside each other - a Palestinian state on territory Israel captured in a 1967 war, with the Gaza Strip and West Bank linked by a corridor through Israel. But the proposal has become less viable over time, as Israel has accelerated the building of Jewish settlements in occupied territory, while the two sides stick to uncompromising positions on core issues including borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees, and the status of Jerusalem. Zomlot said the move by Britain was significant due to its role in endorsing a "national home for the Jewish people in Palestine" in 1917. He said it was not too late to achieve a two-state solution, and that he hoped the momentum being built at the U.N. would lead Israel to dismantle its settlements. "Once we create sufficient pressure - meaningful pressure - I assure you, it is absolutely possible," he said. The United Nations' highest court said in 2024 Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and its settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible. Israel's right-wing government rules out a Palestinian state and says the territories where settlements have expanded are not occupied in legal terms because they are on disputed lands. It cites biblical and historical ties to those lands.

Belgium moves toward recognizing a Palestinian state, drawing Israeli rebuke
Associated Press/September 2, 2025
Belgium will move toward recognizing a Palestinian state, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday, joining a growing list of countries preparing to take the step as Israel steps up its offensive in Gaza. Maxime Prévot said Belgium's plans to recognize a Palestinian state will be announced at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 9. However, the acknowledgment is predicated on two conditions — the return of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the removal of Hamas from political power in the coastal exclave. The conditions make it unlikely the recognition will be formalized anytime soon. The announcement marks the latest sign of international support for a Palestinian state, and would add Belgium to a list of more than 140 countries to recognize Palestinian statehood, including more than a dozen in Europe. Prévot on Tuesday also announced plans to ban goods coming from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and designate Hamas leaders, violent settlers, and two far-right Israeli ministers as persona non grata. "This is not about sanctioning the Israeli people but about ensuring that their government respects international and humanitarian law and taking action to try to change the situation on the ground," Prévot said on social platform X. Prévot said the European Union should increase more pressure on Israel by suspending ties with the country, including its trade pact known as the Association Agreement. Israel's war in Gaza has stressed ties within the bloc's 27 nations, ignited protests across the continent, and frayed political coalitions including in Belgium and its neighbor the Netherlands. But despite growing political tension, Israel's deep ties with European military, business and academic institutions remain largely intact. Belgium's announcement sparked fury from Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who, along with finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, is a likely target of the new sanctions. "The self-righteous European countries that are being manipulated by Hamas — at the end they'll discover terrorism on their own flesh," Ben Gvir said in a statement to The Associated Press. France and the United Kingdom have both announced plans to recognize Palestine, putting added diplomatic pressure on Israel.
Australia, Canada and the European countries moving toward statehood recognition have predicated the step on the Palestinian Authority making reforms. But the body is deeply unpopular among Palestinians and is seen as corrupt and incapable of governing effectively. Israel has opposed granting it a larger role in postwar Gaza. The Palestinians seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and Gaza, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel's government and most of its political class have long opposed Palestinian statehood and now say it would reward militants after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.

UN watchdog finds uranium traces at suspected Syrian former nuclear site
Stephanie Liechtenstein And Abby Sewell/AP/September 2, 2025
VIENNA (AP) — The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that its inspectors found traces of uranium at a site in Syria believed to be part of a clandestine nuclear program by the former government. Syria under former President Bashar Assad is believed to have operated an extensive undeclared nuclear program, which included an undeclared nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir el-Zour province. The International Atomic Energy Agency's director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, previously told The Associated Press that some of Syria's activities "were, in the judgment of the agency, probably related to nuclear weapons."Last year, IAEA inspectors visited and took environmental samples at “three locations that were allegedly functionally related” to the Deir el-Zour site, and “analysis revealed a significant number of anthropogenic natural uranium particles in samples taken at one of the three locations,” IAEA spokesman Fredrik Dahl said in a statement. “Some of these uranium particles are consistent with the conversion of uranium ore concentrate to uranium oxide,” he said. This would be typical of a nuclear power reactor. Grossi reported these findings to the agency’s board of directors Monday in a report on developments in Syria. The Deir el-Zour site only became public knowledge after Israel - which is believed to be the Middle East’s only state with nuclear weapons, although it has not declared its own program - launched airstrikes in 2007 destroying the facility. Syria later leveled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA’s questions. An IAEA team in visited some sites of interest last year while Assad was still in power. After Assad’s fall, the new government led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa agreed to cooperate with the agency and again provided inspectors access to the site where the uranium particles had been found. They took more samples there and “will evaluate the results of all of the environmental samples taken at this location and the information acquired from the planned visit to the (Deir el-Zour) site, and may conduct follow-up activities, as necessary,” Dahl said. In an interview with the AP in June during a visit to Damascus, Grossi said al-Sharaa had expressed an interest in pursuing nuclear energy for Syria in the future. A number of other countries in the region are pursuing nuclear energy in some form. Grossi said Syria would most likely be looking into small modular reactors, which are cheaper and easier to deploy than traditional large ones. He also said that IAEA is prepared to help Syria rebuild the radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and oncology infrastructure in a health system severely weakened by nearly 14 years of civil war.

Rift between Netanyahu and Israel’s military deepens over assault on Gaza City
Tal Shalev and Dana Karni, CNN/September 2, 2025
Tensions between Israel’s military and political leadership have sharply escalated over the past week, with the military chief directly confronting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent meeting over plans to expand the Gaza war, two Israeli officials told CNN.
Tens of thousands of Israeli reservists have begun reporting for duty to prepare for the massive operation, despite the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir repeatedly voicing reservations about the decision to take over Gaza City after almost two years of fighting. According to two Israeli officials who were briefed on the exchange, in two recent security cabinet meetings about the Gaza City operation, Zamir challenged the decision to carry out the offensive, focusing on the potential risks to the 48 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza, and to soldiers on the battleground. He also raised objections to the displacement of up to one million Palestinians in the process and its potential humanitarian and strategic ramifications. In the most recent stormy security cabinet meeting on Sunday evening, Zamir once again urged the ministers to consider the latest ceasefire proposal put forward by Egyptian and Qatari mediators that has been accepted by Hamas, the officials told CNN. “There is a framework on the table, and we should take it,” he said, according to the Israeli officials briefed on the meeting.Netanyahu chose not to raise the proposal or to put it on the cabinet’s agenda, but Zamir nevertheless insisted on making his case. The officials said the IDF chief also warned that the decision to take over Gaza City will eventually lead to a full Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip, with Israel bearing complete responsibility for its entire population. “You need to understand that your decision to conquer Gaza City means that you are going to a full military administration – the only one who will bear responsibility for the local population will be the IDF,” he is said to have warned in comments that were leaked to a number of Israeli media outlets and confirmed by CNN. The IDF spokesperson refused to comment on the quotes attributed to Zamir. CNN has reached out to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office for comment.
‘Military coup reminiscent of banana republics’ Zamir’s reservations were dismissed by Netanyahu, who refused to discuss the partial ceasefire deal. The prime minister cited US President Donald Trump, saying, “Forget the partial deals… Go in with full force and finish this,” according to the sources. Netanyahu has instead insisted on a comprehensive deal that sees all the hostages released at once. Only a minority of ministers expressed support for Zamir’s position, including members of Netanyahu’s Likud party. The prime minister’s far-right political allies, on the other hand, have accused the chief of staff of leading a weak and defeatist approach that is preventing victory over Hamas, the officials said. The disagreements between Zamir and the government have deepened in recent weeks as reports of his opposition to the Gaza war expansion emerged.
In early August, Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, derided the IDF chief on social media, accusing him of leading a “rebellion and attempted military coup reminiscent of banana republics in the 1970s.” Netanyahu has not disavowed his son’s comments.
The latest clash reflects a broader pattern, with Netanyahu’s government having chronic tensions with the military echelon since the cabinet was sworn in in January 2023, often dismissing military advice. Netanyahu’s hardline, far-right allies frequently clash with the army over its policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. During nearly two years of war, tensions between government and military leaders have been frequent. Netanyahu has repeatedly attempted to deflect responsibility for the security lapses during the attacks of October 7, 2023, blaming security chiefs instead. Over the past nine months, the prime minister has replaced all key security figures that were in office on the day of the attacks, including the minister of defense, the military chief and the head of the domestic security agency Shin Bet. However, the current IDF chief of staff, unlike his predecessor, was appointed directly by Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz. Previously serving as the prime minister’s military secretary, Zamir’s appointment was initially embraced by the government. But he quickly became a target for far-right frustration over the war’s proceedings. Zamir’s opposition to the latest push to expand the war has escalated tensions further, prompting calls from some of Netanyahu’s allies for the military chief to resign, only half a year after his appointment.
Hundreds of IDF reservists vow to refuse orders
A growing group of Israeli reservists announced Tuesday they will refuse to report for duty if called up for Israel’s planned military operation to seize Gaza City, citing the safety of Israeli hostages and deep concerns over the humanitarian toll of the war.The reservists, who held a news conference in Tel Aviv, are part of a loosely organized movement calling itself “Soldiers for Hostages.” Yotam Vilk, the group’s spokesperson, told CNN on Tuesday, said the movement began in response to what members see as Netanyahu’s “sabotaging” of hostage negotiations, risking the lives of Israeli captives still held in Gaza. While the group’s primary focus is securing hostage releases, Vilk said its members also oppose the ongoing war in Gaza, arguing that its objectives have become unclear. “We have all served, and some of us will serve again, but we are against the ongoing war and the current campaign.”In a letter to the Military Advocate General, the group called on the IDF top legal authority to stop the planned Gaza City offensive. “It is clear that the order to conquer the city of Gaza exceeds all legal and moral standards. This order is blatantly illegal and must not be obeyed, and soldiers who comply with it may bear criminal and personal responsibility,” the letter reads. The group has not received a response, according to Vilk.

Over 18,000 students killed, Palestinian education sector devastated by Israeli military offensive
Arab News/September 02, 2025
RAMALLAH: Thousands of students and teachers have been killed or wounded in Gaza and the West Bank since the start of the Israeli military offensive in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, amid the widespread destruction of schools and universities.
Figures released on Tuesday by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education reveal the sheer scale of devastation to the education sector in the territories: 18,651 students have been killed and 29,114 injured, the vast majority of them in Gaza, where more than 18,508 died and 28,142 were wounded. In the West Bank, the death toll among students stands at 143, 972 have been injured, and 792 were detained. The ministry also recorded the deaths of 972 teachers and administrators, and injuries to 4,538. In addition, 199 were detained in the West Bank. The damage to infrastructure in Gaza has been severe, with 172 government schools and 63 university buildings completely destroyed, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. A further 118 government schools and more than 100 run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East have been bombed or vandalized, and 25 schools were removed entirely from the education registry. In the West Bank, 152 schools have been vandalized, and eight universities and colleges repeatedly raided. About 46,000 Palestinian refugee children returned to UNRWA schools in the West Bank this week, though about 800 pupils from schools in Jerusalem that remain closed had to transfer to alternative institutions, it was reported on Monday. UNRWA schools also welcomed 5,000 first-year pupils on Monday. Meanwhile, 10 UNRWA schools in the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps remain closed as a result of Israeli military operations, affecting more than 4,000 children who are now learning remotely or in temporary spaces, Wafa reported. The displacement of at least 30,000 people in the northern West Bank since January, a third of them children, has compounded the disruptions to education. UNRWA has warned of unprecedented challenges to the right of Palestinian children to education, citing in particular repeated raids, vandalism and the psychological toll of displacement and violence. The agency reaffirmed its commitment to the protection of access to schooling, stressing that all children, including those in East Jerusalem, have the right to continue their education in a safe and dignified environment.

Erdogan urges US not to bar Palestinian leaders from UN summit
AFP/September 02, 2025
ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday urged the United States to “revise” its decision to deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority to attend the UN General Assembly this month. A US official on Saturday said that Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas was among 80 officials from his authority who would be denied visas to attend the UN General Assembly, where France is leading a push to recognize a Palestinian state. The highly unusual decision further aligns President Donald Trump’s administration with Israel’s government, which is fighting a war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. Israel adamantly rejects calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and has sought to lump together the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority with its rival Hamas which rules Gaza. Speaking to Turkish journalists on the plane back from China after attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Erdogan said the US decision was “not in line with the raison d’etre” of the United Nations. “We believe that the decision should be revised as soon as possible,” he added. Erdogan, a vocal defender of the Palestinians, has often slammed Israel for its war on Gaza, accusing the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing “genocide” in the Palestinian territory.

Trump says ‘very disappointed’ in Putin
AFP/September 02, 2025
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was “very disappointed” by Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s failure to strike a Ukraine peace deal — but remained vague on any possible consequences for Moscow. Since meeting Putin in Alaska last month, Trump has pushed the Kremlin chief to hold bilateral talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but instead Russia has stepped up attacks on Kyiv. “I’m very disappointed in President Putin, I can say that,” Trump told the Scott Jennings radio show when asked if he felt betrayed by Putin’s response. “We had a great relationship, I’m very disappointed.”But Trump did not say what, if any, consequences Russia would face, despite recently setting a two-week deadline to reach a peace deal that is due to expire later this week. Trump has remained deliberately vague on the Ukraine talks since the Alaska summit, sometimes threatening sanctions against Moscow but at other times saying he may let the two sides fight it out. He said he would be “doing something to help people live” but did not elaborate. Asked later in the Oval Office if he had spoken to Putin recently, Trump replied: “I have learned things that will be very interesting, I think in the next few days you’ll find out.” He added that “there will be” consequences if Putin and Zelensky fail to meet to end the war started by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump added meanwhile that he was not worried by a potential axis between Russia and China, despite Putin meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday ahead of a huge military parade. Putin told Xi that their countries’ ties were at an “unprecedented level.” North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who has sent troops to fight with Russia in Ukraine, was also attending. “I’m not concerned at all, no,” Trump told the Scott Jennings show. “We have the strongest military in the world by far and they would never use their military on us, believe me that would be the worst thing they could ever do.”Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, asked by Fox News about potential sanctions on Russia, said on Monday that the administration would be examining options for a US response this week. Since their Alaska summit, and a lengthy phone call with Trump while Zelensky and European leaders were at the White House, Putin “has done the opposite of following through on what he indicated he wanted to do,” Bessent said. “As a matter of fact, he has, in a despicable, despicable manner, increased the bombing campaign. So I think with President Trump, all options are on the table, and I think we’ll be examining those very closely this week.”

‘Axis of upheaval’: China’s Xi signals alternative order as India and Russia weigh US ties
Darshan Dalal, Al Arabiya English/September 02/2025
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin this week was more than a regional meeting. It was a stage-managed display of what some analysts are calling an “axis of upheaval,” an alignment of non-Western powers determined to present alternatives to US leadership. Chinese President Xi Jinping stood at the center, flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The symbolism was deliberate: three leaders representing more than 2.8 billion people holding hands, laughing, and presenting themselves as partners in reshaping the rules of global governance. And behind the diplomacy was technology. Only weeks after Washington and its allies launched Stargate AI, a $500 billion project designed to entrench US dominance in frontier artificial intelligence, the SCO unveiled its own AI cooperation roadmap. The message was clear. If the US intends to monopolize tomorrow’s technologies, Beijing and its partners will contest that future.
Xi’s message: A ‘new phase of turbulence’
Xi opened the summit with a call for solidarity in uncertain times. The world, he said, has entered “a new phase of turbulence” with global governance at “a new crossroads.”The “shadows of Cold War mentality and bullying,” he warned, have yet to dissipate. Without naming the United States, the critique was unmistakable. For years, Beijing has framed tariffs, sanctions, and security alliances as instruments of containment. At Tianjin, Xi offered the SCO as a platform for “a more just and balanced international governance framework.” Xi, Putin and Modi: The troika and its symbolism. Perhaps the most widely circulated image from the summit was Xi, Putin, and Modi clasping hands and sharing a laugh.
It conveyed three overlapping messages:
For China, a thaw in relations with India after years of hostility.
For Russia, rejection of isolation following the Ukraine war.
For India, a demonstration of autonomy, willing to work with Beijing and Moscow even as it engages with the West. Speaking to Al Arabiya English’s Tom Burges Watson on Global News Today, Rakesh Sood, former Indian Ambassador and Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington weighed in on US-India relations amid tariffs fallout. “In a bipolar world, it used to go under the name of non-alignment for India. Today, it goes under the name of strategic autonomy,” he said.
Thawing India-China relations
Modi’s presence carried special resonance. His meeting with Xi was his first on Chinese soil in seven years, and his first since the deadly 2020 Galwan Valley border clashes, which left at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead. The two leaders pledged to “be partners, not rivals,” and discussed ways to defuse their border dispute. “What is perhaps now happening is the early steps to seeing if that relationship can improve,” Dr. Sajjan Gohel, International Security Director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation told Al Arabiya English’s Tom Burges Watson on Global News Today. “For China, they would naturally want India to move away from the Indo-Pacific pivot that the US has been wanting,” perhaps adding to America’s unease, he added.
Modi in Putin’s limousine
Equally notable was Modi’s meeting with Putin. After the summit proceedings, President Putin waited roughly ten minutes for Modi, and then the two rode together in Putin’s armored Aurus Senat limousine to their bilateral meeting venue. Inside that “fortress-on-wheels,” a luxury state limo emblematic of Russian power, they engaged in a private, one-on-one conversation lasting about 45 minutes. The optics of that shared ride, private dialogue in an armored car, spoke volumes. For Russia, it reinforced a narrative of familiarity and equal footing on the global stage. For India, it signaled that while New Delhi is balancing ties with Western powers, it remains anchored in longstanding partnerships with Moscow.
“India is sending a strong signal to the world and President Putin that its relationship with Russia is an important one and India remains committed to it,” Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar, Director of the Society for Policy Studies told Al Arabiya English’s flagship show W News from New Delhi.
Putin well and truly ‘back in global focus’
Tianjin was about optics as much as policy. Cast as a pariah in the West, Putin appeared as an equal partner on a multilateral stage. His prominence alongside Xi reinforced the narrative of Eurasian solidarity against “bullying” powers. Bhaskar also weighed in W News on Putin’s presence at the SCO summit. “At a time when the US and its allies have sought to ostracize him because of the war in Ukraine, Putin is now back in global focus,” he said. “This is a significant symbolism for President Putin,” he added. From security bloc to institutional powerhouse. The SCO began in 2001 as a security forum. Two decades later, Tianjin has revealed a broader ambition: to turn it into an institutional counterweight to Western-led systems.
Among the announcements:
A new SCO development bank, with $1.4 billion in Chinese loans pledged over three years. Access to China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system as an alternative to US GPS. An SCO energy platform to coordinate regional resilience strategies.
A joint roadmap for artificial intelligence cooperation, underscoring “equal rights of all countries to develop and use AI.”The AI initiative was especially pointed. By elevating collaboration and accountability, the SCO is positioning itself against the exclusivity of Stargate AI. Where Washington frames Stargate as a bulwark of Western leadership, Beijing seems to frame its AI agenda as inclusive and multipolar.
Looking ahead
The “axis of upheaval” is still more ambition than reality. India remains deeply engaged with the US and its allies. Russia’s economic weakness constrains its options. And China’s ability to turn declarations into functioning institutions is untested. Yet the trajectory is clear. From Stargate AI to the SCO bank, the contest is expanding into finance, technology, and governance frameworks. Modi’s return to Chinese soil after the bloodshed of Galwan illustrates how pragmatism is reasserting itself, even among rivals. And Xi’s bet is that by offering alternatives at moments of US unpredictability, China can position itself not only as a critic of the order, but as its shaper.

China to build land-based 'Suez Canal' to connect Europe and Asia, bypassing shipping routes
Euronews/September 2, 2025
The mountainous city of Chongqing in China has become a major hub for an overland trade route that some say could become the new Suez Canal. The route is served by rail, and is expected to become Asia's most important logistics hub. The South China Morning Post said the city has quickly emerged as a strategic fulcrum in China's trade network, and its model—if it continues to succeed—could inspire the government to go for similar investments in the west of the country. Every day, the city manages hundreds of shipments, connecting Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Singapore to Europe, including Germany and Poland, using high-speed freight trains.
Short shipping time
The delivery time over land is 10-20 days shorter than traditional sea routes, and considerably simplifies customs issues. The launch of the ASEAN bullet train in 2023 cut the shipping time between Hanoi and Chongqing to just five days, from which goods will reach Europe in less than two weeks. In addition to its strategic location, Chongqing is a major production powerhouse, responsible for manufacturing about a third of the world's laptops, a major base for the production of electric cars, and a major export centre for a quarter of China's cars.
Geopolitical dimensions
Some observers believe that China's motives for using this city do not only have logistical dimensions, but also have geopolitical dimensions. The trade war with the United States under President Donald Trump has shown the danger of relying on international sea lanes under Western influence such as the Suez Canal and the Straits of Hormuz and Malacca. The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the risks, exposing the fragility of maritime supply chains.
With the ongoing war in Ukraine and some Chinese shipments subject to seizure in 2023, passing through Russia has become more risky, even though bilateral trade between the two countries reached 240 billion euros in 2024. Therefore, Beijing is pushing for the development of a "Middle Corridor" through Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea to avoid Russia and the sea straits. However, Beijing faces many challenges in terms of customs delays, high costs, poor infrastructure, and financial sustainability. Many routes, especially within the Belt and Road Initiative, have relied on government subsidies to make them easier for exporters. NATO to strike back against Russian jamming after von der Leyen's plane loses GPS in Bulgaria
NATO is working to counter Russia's jamming of civilian flights, the alliance's chief said on Tuesday, two days after a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lost its ability to use GPS navigation mid-air in Bulgarian airspace.
The plane landed safely on Sunday, but Bulgarian authorities said they suspected Russia was behind the interference. The whole continent was under "direct threat from the Russians," Secretary General Mark Rutte said during a news conference in Luxembourg with the duchy's prime minister and defence minister. "We are all on the eastern flank now, whether you live in London or Tallinn." "It is taken very seriously," Rutte added, "I can assure you that we are working day and night to counter this, to prevent it, and to make sure that they will not do it again." Rutte said the jamming was part of a complex campaign by Russia of hybrid threats like cutting undersea power and communications cables in the Baltic Sea and a cyberattack on the UK's health service. "I have always hated the words hybrid because it sounds so cuddly, but hybrid is exactly this jamming of commercial airplanes, with potentially disastrous effects," Rutte said.
Tracking alleged Russian attacks
The GPS jamming attack on von der Leyen is the latest in a campaign of disruption across Europe blamed on Russia, which the head of Britain's foreign intelligence service has described as "staggeringly reckless". Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of hybrid warfare attacks, ranging from vandalism to arson and attempted assassination. The radio interference from Russia includes jamming — when a strong radio signal overwhelms communications — and spoofing, or misleading a receiver into thinking it is in a different location or time. "The threat from the Russians is increasing every day. Let's not be naïve about it: this might also involve one day Luxembourg, it might come to the Netherlands," Rutte said. "With the latest Russian missile technology for example, the difference now between Lithuania on the front line and Luxembourg, The Hague or Madrid is five to 10 minutes. That's the time it takes this missile to reach these parts of Europe."Bulgaria will not investigate the jamming of von der Leyen's plane because "such things happen every day," Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said on Tuesday. He said it was one of the side effects of Russia's war in Ukraine and had occurred across Europe. Neither the Kremlin nor von der Leyen have commented publicly on the incident.

The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources on September 02-03/2025
جونسون سباير: فهم الحرس الثوري الإسلامي التنظيم الشرير بفرادته، المكلف الحفاظ على نظام الملالي وتعزيز الأفكار الإسلامية الثورية والمستولي في ظلها على السلطة في إيران
جونسون سباير/نقلاً عن موقع ميديل ايست فوروم/02 أيلول/2025
Uniquely Malevolent: Understanding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Jonathan Spyer/The Australian/Middle East Forum Online/September 02/2025
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2025/09/146942/
Its Remit Is the Preservation of the Regime and the Advancement of the Revolutionary Islamist Ideas Under Which It Seized Power
The decision by the government of Australia to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, and to expel the Iranian regime’s ambassador to Canberra represents the latest, belated but welcome acknowledgement by a western government of the nature of this entity, and of the unique and dangerous role it plays in global affairs.
The decision by the government of Australia to designate the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, and to expel the Iranian regime’s ambassador to Canberra represents the latest, belated but welcome acknowledgement by a western government of the nature of this entity, and of the unique and dangerous role it plays in global affairs. The Albanese government’s decision came after evidence was discovered by the Australian security services linking the IRGC to two recent antisemitic arson attacks – against the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and the Lewis Continental Kitchen, a kosher restaurant in Bondi, Sydney. The attacks caused millions of dollars of damage.
The details that have emerged regarding the attacks, and indeed the nature of the targets themselves, will make familiar reading to any seasoned observer of the IRGC and its modus operandi. In both instances, the organisation appears to have made use of local elements to carry out the attacks. In the case of the restaurant in Bondi, a member of a local motorcycle gang has been arrested. Regarding the Adass Yisrael synagogue, two young Melbourne men, Younes Ali Younes and Giovanni Laulu, have been charged. This is in line with the known practice of the IRGC in comparable cases in the United States, Britain and Scandinavia.
They fit comfortably within the known practices of the IRGC, which has a long history of targeting Jewish communal institutions and Jewish individuals globally, as part of the broader ideological and religious project to which the Iranian regime is committed.
The nature of the targets is also of interest and tells us much about the unique nature of this organisation.
The notion of foreign intelligence or covert warfare agencies carrying out assassinations or acts of sabotage related to their states’ interests on foreign soil is a familiar one. The Russian SVR and GRU services, for example, have engaged in such practices in a variety of western countries. Foreign agencies seeking to infiltrate the political systems of target countries in order to acquire information or influence and to subvert political processes is also a familiar element of international affairs. But the Melbourne and Sydney fires don’t fit with either of these contexts. They were the kind of acts one might more readily associate with a local hate group or with a racist domestic terror organisation. These kind of acts, however, fit squarely within the particular modus operandi of the IRGC, and offer clues regarding the nature of this organisation.
So what exactly is this body, which seems to defy the usual categories? It is both an organisation engaged in practices usually associated with terror organisations, yet also an agency of a state. Such bodies exist in other contexts, perhaps, but this one seems to have a broader remit than other comparable agencies. Neither the Melbourne synagogue nor the Sydney restaurant were targets of any relevance whatsoever to the Iranian state interest, as it would commonly be understood. They do, however, fit comfortably within the known practices of the IRGC, which has a long history of targeting Jewish communal institutions and Jewish individuals globally, as part of the broader ideological and religious project to which the Iranian regime is committed.
A Unique Presence on the Global Stage
Most countries possess domestic and foreign intelligence and security services. The IRGC is something different. The Islamic Republic of Iran, incidentally, does maintain a conventional foreign intelligence structure, which operates parallel to the IRGC. This is the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), previously known as VEVAK, and usually referred to by Iranians as the ‘Etelaat.’
Like the IRGC, MOIS also has a global remit, and also engages in terror activity. Like the IRGC, its commanders report directly to the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. But the MOIS’ track record more closely resembles the kind of activities engaged in by other repressive regimes. An example of the type of attack carried out by the MOIS on foreign soil is the attempted bombing of an opposition rally in Paris in 2018. This act, involving a diplomat based at the Iranian embassy in Belgium who was also a MOIS operative, fits into a practice adopted by many dictatorships – namely the violent targeting of regime opponents overseas. The arson attacks in Australia, against targets of no political relevance but chosen purely because of their ethno-religious affiliation, bear by contrast the particular hallmarks of the IRGC, and resemble attacks it has carried out elsewhere.
The regime in Teheran is both a state entity, but also the self defined center of a global movement for Islamic revolution.
The German authorities, for example, consider the IRGC responsible for a string of attacks on Jewish communal buildings in Germany in the course of 2022. These included the firebombing of a synagogue in the town of Bochum, an attempted act of arson against a synagogue in Dortmund, and the firing of shots at a synagogue in Essen.
In 2016, an IRGC operative was arrested in Norway as he carried out surveillance around the home of a prominent, native Norwegian pro Israel advocate. Further back, IRGC operatives were involved in 1989 in the attempted assassination in Norway of William Nygaard, publisher of Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses.’ IRGC personnel, in cooperation with Lebanese Hezballah operatives, also carried out the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1994, with the loss of 85 lives.
So no regular state agency, and no ‘normal’ terror group. What then, exactly, is the IRGC? Established immediately following the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, it is a unique, and uniquely malignant presence both within Iran and on the global stage. Its remit is the preservation of the regime, and the advancement of the revolutionary Islamist ideas under which it seized power. Its activities, managed by its multiple commands, run the gamut from business activity, via conventional and irregular military capacities, to internal repression of dissent within Iran, and to subversive and violent acts abroad.
Its existence as a parallel structure is testimony to the dual role and dual self-perception of the Iranian regime itself. The regime in Teheran is both a state entity, but also the self defined center of a global movement for Islamic revolution. MOIS, broadly, relates to the former role. The IRGC represents the latter.
Multiple Roles
The IRGC plays a central role in Iranian power projection. Indeed, it was responsible for probably the most significant Iranian foreign policy achievement of recent years- namely, the successful seeding of proxy political-military organisations in countries neighbouring Iran, and the subsequent use of these entities as tools of state policy.
The IRGC’s Quds Force (QF), responsible for external activities, manages this process. The Lebanese Hezballah movement, the prototype of Iranian proxy groups, was established under the tutelage of the IRGC in 1982. Later, the IRGC applied the same model in Iraq, with its establishment of a variety of Shia militia groups in that country. The Badr Organisation, Ktaeb Hezballah and Asaib Ahl al Haq are the most prominent of these. In Lebanon and Iraq, respectively, these proxy groups are today the most powerful political and military players, present in the governing coalition, and embedded deeply within state agencies.
All this is testimony to the IRGC’s unique and effective methodology of irregular and political warfare. The Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Hamas among the Palestinians are examples of a slightly different element of the IRGC toolbox. Whereas Hezballah et al. are direct IRGC creations, these latter groups are authentic local players, who the IRGC identified and then allied with. The IRGC was responsible for probably the most significant Iranian foreign policy achievement of recent years- namely, the successful seeding of proxy political-military organisations in countries neighbouring Iran, and the subsequent use of these entities as tools of state policy.
The assassination of veteran Qods Force commander, Major General Qassem Soleimani, by the US in January 2020 struck a powerful blow against this Iranian regional strategy. Israel’s recent decimation of Hezballah and Hamas has further set it back. Yet the IRGC and its methods remain a powerful instrument for power projection across the Middle East, enabling the regime to bypass its conventional weaknesses. The Houthis’ successful near closure of a vital maritime trade route, the Gulf of Aden-Red Sea route is the latest testimony to the efficacy of these methods.
Regarding internal repression, the IRGC controls the Basij militia inside Iran. This is the main instrument used to suppress internal dissent, often in the most brutal of ways. It was largely responsible for the violent actions that crushed the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement in 2022. Credible evidence exists to suggest that on occasion, the IRGC has also made use of members of its Arab proxy groups to assist in crushing dissent within Iran.
The IRGC has its own conventional military units, including ground, air and naval forces. These number around 135,000 fighters in total. Their methods again make up for conventional inferiority by the use of sometimes innovative guerrilla tactics. The IRGC naval force, for example, has pioneered the use of small fast attack craft and asymmetric hit-and-run tactics.
The IRGC possesses a vast economic empire. This encompasses, according to a report by Iranian analyst Reza Parchizadeh, “trade, industry, energy, banking, transportation, mining, medicine, entertainment, sports, and import and export.” The IRGC’s construction and public works company, known as Khatam al-Anbia, is Iran’s largest engineering and development contractor. It is often awarded contracts by the state without any competitive tender, because of the central role of the IRGC in the state. As a result, the IRGC has managed many crucial infrastructural projects. The organisation, for example, built Terminal one of the Imam Khomeini International Airport. At the same time, in its security iteration, it is responsible for security management at the airport.
So that element of the Qods Force responsible for subversion abroad, and for the recruiting and directing of the kind of individuals who carry out attacks against Jewish-owned businesses and communal facilities, constitutes a single cog in a vast machine dedicated to the advancement of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its founding ideas. What this cog has in common with the other elements is the employment of methods indifferent to legality, the bypassing of international norms, and indeed the dismissal of anything resembling acknowledgement of the legitimate rights of individuals and countries outside of the circle of the regime itself and its allies.
What will the designation mean?
There is a growing awareness in western countries of the nature and methods of the IRGC, and of its aims. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain’s designated the organisation in 2018, the United States in 2019, Sweden in 2023, Canada in 2024 and Paraguay in 2025. Designation will allow the Australian authorities to act swiftly against anyone expressing support for the group, and enable the rapid freezing of funds maintained within Australian jurisdiction by any individual or body linked to or supportive of the IRGC. It will also allow for enhanced targeting of IRGC business activity, and of individuals or bodies engaging in economic activity with IRGC related businesses. In addition, it will make possible enhanced law enforcement activity against organisations expressing support for the IRGC, or seeking to spread its ideological messages.
In the west, including in Australia, the IRGC has engaged in the systematic targeting both of opponents of Iran’s regime, and of individuals entirely innocent of any connection to Iran, who happen to belong to ethnic or religious communities that the regime sees as its enemies.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has in recent years been responsible for the production of violence against innocents, and misery on an industrial scale, across the Middle East and beyond it. Its support and its methods have led to the rise or preservation of vastly repressive regimes across the region, from Gaza to Yemen, and to situations of ongoing instability, conflict and fragmentation.
In Iran itself, it has played a central role in the preservation of a repressive and unpopular regime which has mismanaged the nation’s resources and impoverished the population. In playing this role, the IRGC’s leaders have gained vast wealth for themselves. In the west, including in Australia, the IRGC has engaged in the systematic targeting both of opponents of Iran’s regime, and of individuals entirely innocent of any connection to Iran, who happen to belong to ethnic or religious communities that the regime sees as its enemies. The designation of the IRGC in Australia is hence both deserved, and long overdue. Hopefully, those countries which have yet to designate the organisation, notably in Western Europe, will now learn from and follow the Australian example.
https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/uniquely-malevolent-understanding-the-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps
**Published originally on August 29, 2025, under the title “Setting an Example in Fight Against Tehran’s Grip on Terror.”

Hamas invested heavily in propaganda, will the death of Abu Obeida be decisive
An estimate says that 200 Hamas operatives in the terror groups propaganda arm have been eliminated, however a 1,000 may remain
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN/Face Book/September 02/2025
Israel eliminated the Hamas propaganda chief Abu Obeida on Saturday, according to an IDF announcement Sunday. The elimination of this key Hamas figure could be a game changer. This is because a recent report by Doron Kadosh, the military correspondent for Amy Radio (Galei Tzahal), provides details on the extent of Hamas investment in the its military propaganda arm. However, there is one troubling problem. Many of the hundreds of Hamas propagandists are still active in the field in Gaza.
What Kadosh writes, in a long post on social media X, is that Hamas had a 1,000 operatives involved in spreading propaganda. It had rooms devoted to this throughout Gaza among its remaining units. It had devised a plan to stop Israel’s invasion of Gaza City. First of all it is now clear that Obeida was not just one of the last well known Hamas commanders, but he was incredibly important. Palestinian-American humanitarian activists and blogger Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib wrote on Facebook that it is the “end of an era” with his death. He notes that “I don’t think most Western audiences and policy commentators are aware of the blow that Hamas just experienced with the elimination of its most public figurehead.”
The IDF said on Sunday that the IDF and Shin Bet had “eliminated Hudahaifa Kahlout ‘Abu Obeida,’ who headed Hamas’ Military Wing propaganda apparatus and psychological terror operations, and was the spokesman of Hamas’ military wing.” The report says that “Obeida was one of the last remaining senior terrorists of Hamas’ Military Wing from before October 7th, 2023. Over the past decade, Kahlout was responsible for Hamas’ military wing propaganda apparatus. In this role, he oversaw spokesmanship across Hamas’ brigades and battalions, coordinated between the organization's political spokespeople and its military wing, and was a senior figure in determining propaganda policy.”
Combined with the Kadosh post about Obeida and it is becoming clear that this could be a major blow. Hamas has recovered from other blows in the past though, so it’s worth considering the ramifications. First of all, what does the Kadosh post reveal about the size of the Hamas propaganda arm. It consisted of around 1,500 operatives who were working to spread propaganda for Hamas. This was an increase from only 400 back in 2014. Clearly Hamas believed that it should invest more in this arm than in its foot soldiers.
Of the 1,500 people involved in the propaganda arm, around 1,000 were deployed to the field, attached to battalions and brigades. We know that the IDF has said throughout the 22 months of war that most Hamas company, battalion and brigade commanders have been eliminated. However, the apparent destruction of many of these units, has not led to the deaths of most of the propagandists attached to the units. “Every battalion and brigade in the military wing has a deputy commander for propaganda, a senior representative on behalf of Abu Obeida who manages efforts, and under him terrorists who are "operational documenters" trained in field filming,” Kadosh writes.
What’s interesting here is that he writes that the IDF has eliminated around 200 of the Hamas propaganda field operatives. However, more than 1,000 remain. What does this tell us about the state of the Hamas battalions. Hamas was assessed to have some 24 battalions at the beginning of the war. It may have had some 150 companies and five or six brigades. The Hamas brigade in Rafah was apparently destroyed in the summer of 2024, and then beaten again in April 2025. The northern Gaza Brigade was also destroyed several times. The Khan Younis Brigade is also believed to have been mostly destroyed. This leaves the Gaza City Brigade and Central Camps Brigade. The question is, if these brigades had some 25-30,000 fighters and around 1,000 of them were these propagandists, is it reasonable to conclude that the propaganda arm took less losses than the rest? What if the reality is that in many Hamas brigades the losses were also less, meaning Hamas hasn’t lost 20,000 fighters, but less?
It's not clear, but what is clear is that the propaganda arm apparently remains. Also, Hamas seems to have invested more in this arm. Hamas knows it can survive in Gaza with less gunmen, hiding in the background. However, it needs propaganda to continue the war. This also puts pressure on Israel abroad. Hamas produces videos in the field. It has access to multi-media and has sought to operationalize people who work with various media outlets. This mean coopting some local journalists or using them. Kadosh notes that Hamas films in the field and moves these videos back to a “war room.” This means even if the men in the field are killed, the propaganda survives. The IDF has attacked these operatives “war rooms many times during the war, but Hamas moves them from place to place - to schools and hospitals - and all that's needed is basically a laptop with internet communication,” Kadosh notes.
Hundreds of Hamas members sit in these war rooms ready to push out the propaganda. Obeida was personally involved in this, Kadosh notes. “No military move by Hamas in recent years - in Protective Edge, in the Return Marches at the fence, in Guardian of the Walls, and of course on October 7 - would have been carried out without being accompanied by a standard combat procedure and approval of propaganda plans by Abu Obeida.”
This has created an asymmetry within the asymmetry of this war. Not only is Israel fighting Hamas members who wear civilian clothes, it also has to fight the propaganda army. This kind of war within a war has long been a feature of modern conflicts. However, Hamas invested in this even more than others such as the Soviets or VietCong or other groups historically.
The Kadosh report says that Obeida was focused now on preventing Israel’s operations in Gaza City. “He dealt with the question of how to block the IDF tanks and APCs using consciousness and influence moves that would affect the Israeli government and cabinet. He planned to do this through psychological terror moves that would make use of the hostages.” The report adds that Hamas is seeking to replace their chief propagandist. He had deputies. “As far as is known, he didn't have a dominant deputy under him who is the natural replacement.” However, Hamas will try to put on a brave face and assert that it lost many commanders in the past and replaced them.

Arabs Not Interested in Seeing Hamas Disarm
Khaled Abu Toameh/Gatestone Institute/September 02/2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21885/arabs-not-interested-in-hamas-disarming
It was Qatar, in fact, during the entire Trump administration's supposed "mediation," that repeatedly instructed Hamas to keep attacking Israel and not to disarm.
Even after joining the Arab League's request for a ceasefire, Qatari government journalists are urging Hamas to kidnap more Israeli soldiers, to "[f]ight the Jews and kill them," and that "Jihad victory in Gaza will end Zionism." After the January 2025 ceasefire came into effect, Qatar's government media called the ceasefire a "crushing historic victory" for Hamas, a "significant defeat" for Israel, and like the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, "which the Prophet Muhammad signed with his enemies in the Quraysh tribe" for ten years, but "which he violated after approximately two years," and proceeded to conquer Mecca.
If 22 Arab and Muslim countries do not have the courage to speak out against Hamas, how can they be expected to play any role in ending the war in the Gaza Strip?
Qatar has so far failed to pressure the terror group [Hamas] to lay down its weapons and relinquish control over the Gaza Strip. Qatar's government journalists, as noted, are still actively encouraging Hamas to continue the war.
If the two countries [Egypt and Qatar] really wanted to pressure Hamas, they would at least threaten to deport the terror group's leaders and their families and seize their bank accounts. Not only has this not happened, but Hamas leaders continue to lead comfortable lives in Doha and are warmly received each time they fly to Egypt. Hamas leaders simply feel no pressure whatsoever from the Arabs to end the war in the Gaza Strip. That is most likely why Hamas leaders are determined to fight to the last Palestinian. From their safe homes and offices in Qatar and Turkey, Hamas leaders continue to glorify the Palestinian "resistance" and threaten Israel with more terrorism.
The fastest way to end the war is by demanding -- with consequences for dawdling -- that the Arab countries, especially Egypt and Qatar, take a truly tough stance against Hamas. The Trump administration is probably the only party that can pressure Egypt and Qatar to force Hamas to release the hostages and lay down its weapons. Like the rest of the Arab countries, Egypt and Qatar do not appear especially put out by Hamas's refusal to heed the call of the Arab League. Hamas leaders simply feel no pressure whatsoever from the Arabs to end the war in the Gaza Strip. That is most likely why Hamas leaders are determined to fight to the last Palestinian. In an unprecedented move, the Arab League, which represents 22 Arab countries, on July 30, called on the Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas to lay down its weapons and relinquish control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas rejected the call. How did the Arab countries respond to Hamas's rejecting their request? Instead of calling out Hamas for causing death and destruction in the Gaza Strip, they condemned Israel.
Earlier this year, a senior Arab League official, Hossam Zaki, was quoted as saying that it would be in the interests of the Palestinian people if Hamas ceded control of the Gaza Strip. As usual, Hamas rejected the call. Since then -- and before -- the Arab League has repeatedly denounced Israel for fighting against the terror group responsible for the October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, the worst crime against Jews since the 1940s. At least 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were murdered, thousands wounded, and 251 dragged as hostages to the Gaza Strip. Hamas is still holding 48 hostages; only 28 of whom are thought to be alive. The Arab League did not hold an emergency session to discuss Hamas's disrespectful response to its Arab brothers. By rejecting the call to disarm and relinquish control over the Gaza Strip, Hamas demonstrated that it has zero respect for the Arab and Muslim countries, which include Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and even Qatar. Hamas has no reason to do the bidding of the Arab and Muslim countries. Hamas is not even slightly afraid of them. They spend most of their time condemning Israel and exert no pressure on the terror group to end the war, release the hostages, lay down its weapons, or relinquish control over the Gaza Strip. Arab countries such as Qatar, in fact, still host most of the Hamas leadership, many of whom are billionaires who continue to orchestrate the devastation of Gaza from luxurious five-star hotels and villas in Doha. It was Qatar, in fact, during the entire Trump administration's supposed "mediation," that repeatedly instructed Hamas to keep attacking Israel and not to disarm (such as here, here and here).
Even after joining the Arab League's request for a ceasefire, Qatari government journalists are urging Hamas to kidnap more Israeli soldiers, to "[f]ight the Jews and kill them," and that "Jihad victory in Gaza will end Zionism." After the January 2025 ceasefire came into effect, Qatar's government media called the ceasefire a "crushing historic victory" for Hamas, a "significant defeat" for Israel, and like the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, "which the Prophet Muhammad signed with his enemies in the Quraysh tribe" for ten years, but "which he violated after approximately two years," and proceeded to conquer Mecca.
Iran funds Hamas with an estimated $100 million a year. The Arab heads of state, who are not coming out in public against Hamas, are apparently afraid that if they did, they would face a backlash from the Arab street, where Hamas and other Islamist groups remain as popular as ever. Some Arab leaders are already being dubbed traitors by Arabs because of their close relations with Israel and the US.
It is, unfortunately, safe to assume that most Arab leaders do not particularly care about the suffering of the Palestinian people, especially those living in the Gaza Strip. For the past few decades, most Arab countries have merely limited their support to the Palestinians to lip service and slogans.
In early August, the Arab League held an emergency session in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss Israeli plans to seize control of Gaza City as part of an effort to pressure Hamas to release the hostages and end its rule over the entire Gaza Strip. The Arab leaders, ignoring Hamas's rejection of their call to disarm and step down from power, instead branded Israel's plans "a blatant act of aggression" and demanded urgent international pressure to halt Israel's military activities against the terror group. One would expect the Arab leaders to be furious with Hamas for turning down their request. One would be wrong.
If 22 Arab and Muslim countries do not have the courage to speak out against Hamas, how can they be expected to play any role in ending the war in the Gaza Strip? Egypt and Qatar are the only two countries directly negotiating with Hamas for a potential ceasefire-hostage agreement with Israel. The other Arab countries have chosen not to get involved.
Hamas leaders regularly visit Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on the situation in the Gaza Strip. The Egyptians, however, do not seem to be putting any real pressure on Hamas. Similarly, Qatar, has so far failed to pressure the terror group to lay down its weapons and relinquish control over the Gaza Strip. Qatar's government journalists, as noted, are still actively encouraging Hamas to continue the war. Like the rest of the Arab countries, Egypt and Qatar do not appear especially put out by Hamas's refusal to heed the call of the Arab League. If the two countries really wanted to pressure Hamas, they would at least threaten to deport the terror group's leaders and their families and seize their bank accounts. Not only has this not happened, but Hamas leaders continue to lead comfortable lives in Doha and are warmly received each time they fly to Egypt. Hamas leaders simply feel no pressure whatsoever from the Arabs to end the war in the Gaza Strip. That is most likely why Hamas leaders are determined to fight to the last Palestinian. From their safe homes and offices in Qatar and Turkey, Hamas leaders continue to glorify the Palestinian "resistance" and threaten Israel with more terrorism.
The fastest way to end the war is by demanding -- with consequences for dawdling -- that the Arab countries, especially Egypt and Qatar, take a truly tough stance against Hamas. The Trump administration is probably the only party that can pressure Egypt and Qatar to force Hamas to release the hostages and lay down its weapons. Arab leaders, after all, have never exactly been known to be sympathetic toward anyone who dares to challenge or offend them.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
*Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
© 2025 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Now is not the time for a new nuclear deal with Iran
Tzvi Kahn/ The Macdonald-Laurier Institute/September 02/2025
The time is ripe not for an accord, but for increased global economic pressure that would deter the Islamic Republic from ever reconstituting its atomic program. Canada says it wants a new nuclear deal with Iran. Tehran says it wants one too. But their goals are not the same. Iran seeks only an agreement that would enable the regime to advance a nuclear weapons program – not an agreement that would end it. Ottawa must not be fooled. The time is ripe not for an accord, but for increased global economic pressure that would deter the Islamic Republic from ever reconstituting its atomic program — particularly its efforts to enrich uranium. In an August 20 statement, the Non-Proliferation Group of the G7, where Canada holds the presidency, asserted, “We re-iterate that Iran can never have or acquire a nuclear weapon.” This is a welcome declaration. But the group then goes on to undermine that goal by calling for “the resumption of negotiations aimed at achieving a comprehensive, verifiable, and durable agreement that addresses Iran’s nuclear program.” This objective fails to reckon with a key reality: Iran has already declared that it will never abandon its uranium enrichment, an indispensable step in the development of a nuclear bomb.Rather than grapple with Tehran’s contention, the statement vaguely proclaims that Canada and its partners aspire for a deal that merely “addresses” the nuclear program. Such nebulous language, which diverges from a stronger G7 statement on June 30 that also urged Iran “to refrain from reconstituting its unjustified enrichment activities,” tacitly reduces pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment. Consequently, the statement risks repeating the mistake that led to the fatally flawed 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. That accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), never required the dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear facilities, and allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium, thereby preserving Tehran’s ability to build a bomb at a future date. Still, the deal also granted Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief. These concessions marked a notable departure from previous international demands. Between 2006 and 2010, the UN Security Council passed multiple resolutions requiring Tehran to suspend enrichment indefinitely. At the time, the international community correctly understood that enrichment – notwithstanding Iran’s insistent claims that its nuclear program was exclusively peaceful – marked an undeniable indicator of the regime’s intent to develop the ultimate weapon.
During negotiations for the JCPOA, then-US Secretary of State John Kerry repeated the UN’s orders. “No, there is no right to enrich,” he said. “We do not recognize a right to enrich.” Then-chief US negotiator Wendy Sherman said that any nuclear deal must include “a lot of dismantling of their infrastructure.”
These imperatives went unfulfilled. Thus, in 2018, the first Trump administration prudently withdrew from the accord, noting, quite rightly, that it fails to prevent Iran from constructing a nuclear bomb. In its place, Washington imposed a campaign of maximum pressure, crippling Iran’s economy with devastating sanctions and articulating a credible military threat. Tehran proceeded to violate the JCPOA with fresh nuclear advances, but they were narrow and incremental, as the regime feared more punishment from Washington.
After the 2020 US assassination of the notorious Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who led the Islamic Republic’s campaign of terror and aggression throughout the Middle East, Tehran refrained from enriching uranium to high levels. The Trump administration had successfully deterred the regime from significantly advancing its nuclear program.
Upon taking office, however, the Biden administration suspended the maximum pressure campaign, hoping to revive the JCPOA. Billions of dollars once again flowed into the regime’s coffers. Tehran, recognizing that the United States no longer posed a meaningful threat, once again surged ahead with its nuclear activities, including robust uranium enrichment, placing it on the threshold of a nuclear weapons capability by the time Trump returned to office in January 2025.
Biden’s failure to sustain maximum pressure on Iran thus made the 12-Day War in June inevitable. To be sure, Trump did make a good-faith effort to resolve the crisis diplomatically, engaging in two months of negotiations with Iran prior to the conflict. But when Tehran refused to dismantle its nuclear program and terminate enrichment, the United States and Israel justifiably recognized that they no longer had time for peaceful options to end the threat.
Yet for the past decade, Ottawa has largely failed to grasp that Iran’s insistence on enriching uranium reflected its sustained commitment to developing a nuclear bomb. Instead, the federal government of Justin Trudeau supported the JCPOA, opposed Washington’s 2018 withdrawal, and backed Biden’s failed efforts to restore the accord. Prime Minister Mark Carney has yet to signal that he disagrees with his predecessor’s approach.
If the G7 pursues a new deal that resembles the JCPOA, the prospects of renewed conflict in Iran would dramatically intensify. Any Western compromise on enrichment would effectively legitimize and enable Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, likely leading the regime to start rebuilding its atomic facilities.
Trump’s maximum pressure campaign during his first term indicated that strong pressure, with sufficient longevity, can deter Iran from advancing its nuclear activities even in the absence of a deal. Today, Canada can pursue its primary objectives without an agreement as well. By supporting America’s maximum pressure campaign, Ottawa and its partners can help restrain Iran – and meaningfully “address” the threat of its nuclear program.
https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/now-is-not-the-time-for-a-new-nuclear-deal-with-iran-tzvi-kahn-for-inside-policy/
**Tzvi Kahn is a research fellow and senior editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on X @TzviKahn.

What is driving the rise of the radical right in Europe?
Eyad Abu Shakra Asharq Al-Awsat/September 02, 2025
I have been living in Britain since the late 1970s, but have never witnessed what I am seeing today. Some roundabouts in London have been painted with the red cross of St. George — England’s historic and religious emblem, which also features, alongside the cross of St. Andrew for Scotland and the cross of St. Patrick for Ireland, on the Union Flag — against a white background. This symbolism emphasizes an English identity over identification with Britain. We should note that, hard-line English isolationists see “Britishness” as a contrived identity born out of the Anglo-Saxon nationalist expansion that subdued, then subsumed, the Celtic minorities — the Scots, Irish, and Welsh — under the imperial crown. It is true that the evolution of the UK — the official name for Great Britain and Northern Ireland — weakened ethnolinguistic loyalties and nationalisms to a degree, but it has not eliminated them entirely. In many conservative rural regions of England, many continue to see the Labour Party as a representative of minorities and foreigners. This sentiment has long empowered the Conservative Party politically.
At the dawn of the 20th century, the Conservatives — the natural heirs of the old Tory Party — and the Liberals, who inherited the position of the Whigs, were the primary protagonists of British politics. With the French Revolution having released the ideals of liberalism, these soon spread to Britain’s North American colonies. However, the excesses of France’s post-revolutionary Reign of Terror gave rise to a pragmatic, conservative intellectual backlash seeking to curb the excesses of liberalism, restore the authority of state power, and safeguard the cohesion and interests of the British Empire.
Parties once relegated to the margins are now behind the wheel. The conflict between the liberal camp, which advocated emancipation and liberation, and the conservative camp, which championed the empire and stability, soon shaped both domestic and foreign policy. Over the ensuing decades, the Conservatives and Liberals produced some of the most prominent statesmen in Britain’s imperial history.
Things began to shift, however, with the rise of socialist ideas in Europe, and with the emergence of influential socialist thinkers in Germany, Britain, and elsewhere. Without delving too deeply into this intellectual history, several models for a “socialist alternative” took shape across the Continent, creating a spectrum that spanned communism, or “scientific socialism,” to social democracy. Britain was not insulated from socialist thought, neither intellectually nor in terms of its labor movement. Together, these forces gave rise to a new political force of the left: the Labour Party. Over time, Labour established itself as a central political player, becoming the primary rival of the Conservatives, which represented the institutional and pragmatic right.The two main parties, Conservatives and Labour, along with the Liberal Party, which became the Liberal Democrats after merging with the breakaway Social Democratic Party (1981–1988), remain fixtures in British politics. Despite their long history, these three parties have faced mounting challenges from two new political models. The first model includes parties and movements centered on ethnolinguistic identity. Often, these advocated separatism or autonomy: the Scottish National Party, the major parties of Northern Ireland (notably the Catholic Sinn Fein and the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party), and Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru. The second is radical parties, both on the far right and far left. The leading force of this politics is the Reform Party, an ultra-right-wing, anti-immigrant, anti-European movement. A less prominent movement has been formed by the radical left, notably the party being established by Jeremy Corbyn, a former left-wing Labour leader.Under the leadership of Nigel Farage, the Reform Party currently leads opinion polls, ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives. Notably, the more confident the party becomes about its popularity, the more acrid and overtly racist its rhetoric becomes, as we see with calls for sending “illegal immigrants” back to their countries. The Reform Party is hardly an isolated phenomenon, whether in Britain or Europe more broadly. Britain has known similar figures before: the most notable was Sir Oswald Mosley (1896–1980), the leader of the British Union of Fascists; and Enoch Powell (1912–1998), a hard-line Conservative who later left the party and returned to Parliament representing one of Northern Ireland’s right-wing parties.
Globalization has sharply increased migration to Western countries
Without underestimating the influence of far-right movements in the US under Donald Trump, or in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this right-wing surge can be placed within the context of a broader phenomenon in Europe.
Parties once relegated to the margins are now behind the wheel in countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, and Hungary, and are becoming increasingly powerful in France, Spain, Portugal, and Greece.
Several factors explain the rise of the radical, racist right and the simultaneous decline of the left. Among the most significant of these factors is globalization; over the past few decades, it has erased political and geographical boundaries between nations and sharply increased migration to Western countries, particularly from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.A second factor is the diminishing value of the individual in the face of rapid technological advances, including artificial intelligence, making stable employment seem far-fetched to billions of people. In turn, this precarity undercuts the capacity of labor unions and leftist parties to provide safety nets for their constituencies. A third factor is the demographic shift underway in “white Christian European societies,” whose population is either growing slowly or stagnant in Europe, North America, and Australia, while the population of “non-Christian, non-white migrant communities” rises at a far faster rate.I will conclude with an incidental, but telling, observation.
The “Trump phenomenon” in the US emerged only a few years after the country elected its first African American president. Likewise, in Britain, the Conservative Party’s popularity began declining in favor of the extremists of the Reform Party after the Conservatives elected two leaders of immigrant heritage, the first of Indian origin, and the second of African origin.

Slected X tweets For September 02/2025
Where is the rule of law?
Roger Bejjani
Hannibal Kadhafi, the son of Muammar Kadhafi has been unlawfully detained in Lebanon at the specific demand of Nabih Berri, for over a decade, with not a single charge.
Obviously Kadhafi senior has assassinated in 1978 the Imam Moussa El Sadr. Analytically, the reason being Sadr refusal to turn South Lebanon into a PLO attack base against Israel and/or for his opposition to Khomeini.
In 1978, the sons of Kadhafi were young and not even men. What do they have to do with the crimes of their father?
The signs of the absence of rule of law are clear:
Wafiq Safa not arrested yet
Slim Ayash not arrested yet
Naim Kassem not arrested yet
Unlawful detention of Hannibal Kadhafi
Unlawful detention of the BetArabia and Casino du Liban directors
Unlawful detention of Riad Salameh
The rule of law is nonexistent until further notice.

Amine Bar-Julius Iskandar
Arabism is only the hypocrite face of Islamism.
By imposing an Arab identity to the Christians of Lebanon, through the terror of the Syrian Assad regime, Taef succeeded in destroying their demography and their political presence.

Marc Zell
The bastard Houthis just launched another missile towards Israel. Hopefully it will meet the same fate as virtually all the others before it. After their entire government was eliminated, they keep launching rockets without any chance of success and without any justification for doing so. These animals are truly a cancer at the end of the Red Sea.

Natalia ܢܐܬܐܠܝ
@NataliaInMotion
1946 the Maronite Patriarchate and the Jewish Agency met in Jerusalem and signed an agreement. The Maronites recognized the historic and political ties of the Jewish people to Ares Yisraiel and the Jewish Agency recognized the sovereignty of Mount Lebanon.
Both sides pledged to support each other, share political and security information, and cooperate in trade, science, and agriculture.
The Patriarchate also pledged to use its influence in London, Paris, and Washington to support the Zionist cause while the Jewish Agency committed to assisting the Maronite community in Lebanon. This was the first step toward a natural alliance