English LCCC Newsbulletin For Le

English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For April 09/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 16/15-18:"‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.’

Titles For Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 08-09/2026
To President Joseph Aoun: Please Stop the Denunciations and Statements Defending the Terrorist Hezbollah/Elias Bejjani/April 08/2026
Opportunism and baseness are born within the rulers, the Official, the double-dealing partisan politicians so called political parties, and many of the Iscariot-like clerics... they all suckle subservience with their mother's milk./Elias Bejjani/April 06/2026
Trump says Lebanon not part of ceasefire agreement
US says Iran ceasefire doesn't apply to Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Vance says up to Iran if it wants truce to 'fall apart' over Lebanon
Iran claims Lebanon was part of ceasefire, US asserts it ‘never’ was
No versions published by the Iranian state news agency or regime-affiliated media included
Israel pounds Lebanon with heaviest airstrikes of the war as Hezbollah pauses attacks
100 targets in 10 minutes: Israel vows to continue striking Hezbollah
Multiple coordinated airstrikes hit Beirut and its suburbs
Series of Israeli strikes across Lebanon kills dozens, wounds hundreds
Hezbollah giving mediators opportunity to secure ceasefire
Iran president says Lebanon truce a key condition for ending war: media
Araghchi discusses Lebanon attacks with Pakistan, Iran threatens retalitation
Pakistan, France and Egypt say ceasefire 'includes Lebanon'
Salam calls on Lebanon's friends to help end Israeli attacks
Hezbollah MP warns of response if Israel does not adhere to ceasefire
Hezbollah tells displaced not to return home before ceasefire in Lebanon
At least 182 killed as Israel strikes central Beirut after saying Iran truce doesn't apply there
Iran says peace talks would be 'unreasonable' following Israeli strikes
Trump Says Ceasefire Doesn’t Include Lebanon—After Iran Says It Does, And Closes Strait Of Hormuz
Hezbollah says has right to respond after deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon
Israeli army destroys Beirut building in new strike, says targeted Hezbollah commander
Lebanon Army says shut vital southern bridge after Israeli threat
Lebanon says reopening main Syria border crossing closed over Israeli threat
Lebanon declares national day of mourning for victims of Israeli attacks
Greece says Israel attacks in Lebanon ‘completely counterproductive’/Mitsotakis says Israeli strikes give Hezbollah a “new lease on life”
The delivery man doctrine: Lebanon’s newest security fiction/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya English/08 April/2026
‘People are afraid’: Lebanese reeling after Israel’s devastating attacks/Justin Salhani/Al Jazeera/April 8, 2026
Italy summons Israeli ambassador after shots fired at UN in Lebanon
Hezbollah Emerged from Iran’s Revolution, Not “Resistance” to Israel/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/This Is Beirut/April 08/2026
Links to several important news websites

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 08-09/2026
Ceasefire plan published by Iran is not the one agreed to by Washington: US official
Vice President JD Vance to head US delegation at Iran peace talks in Pakistan
Iran threatens ships attempting Hormuz transit without permission, shipping sources say
Netanyahu says Israel ready to 'return to battle at any moment' against Iran
US says Trump will continue to discuss Lebanon with Netanyahu
Iran speaker says US ceasefire 'unreasonable' after 'repeated violations'
Iran speaker says US ceasefire 'unreasonable' after 'repeated violations'
Iran says 3 clauses of ceasefire proposal have been violated ahead of negotiations
Report: Iran ceasefire clouded by confusion, contradictions
UAE wants further clarification on US-Iran ceasefire deal
Saudi Crown Prince MBS welcomes UK PM Starmer
Bahrain reopens airspace after Mideast war closure
Democrats introduce impeachment articles against Trump and Hegseth as nearly 100 lawmakers call for 25th Amendment
Will shipping in the strait of Hormuz – and oil prices – return to normal?
UN: Over 1,000 aid workers have been killed in the past 3 years, nearly triple the previous 3 years
Links to several television channels and newspapers

on April 08-09/2026

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on April 08-09/2026
To President Joseph Aoun: Please Stop the Denunciations and Statements Defending the Terrorist Hezbollah
Elias Bejjani/April 08/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/04/153549/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV-vqBg7Jdg
Free advice, Mr. President Joseph Aoun—advice from an expatriate citizen whose only hope is to one day return and be buried in his beloved homeland..the holy and blessed Lebanon.
Mr. President, they used to say advice is worth a fortune, but I am giving this to you for free: Please stop issuing denunciations and empty statements defending the terrorist Hezbollah, that practically change nothing. Always remember that you are a President, a responsible official who took an oath on the Constitution. You are not an ordinary, struggling citizen who has been displaced, persecuted, and robbed of his savings like us.
We, the struggling citizens, are the ones who have the right to denounce, cry out, and scream to vent our frustrations. You, from your position as President, is constitutionally, morally, and even spiritually required to act, to find solutions, and to take the decisions dictated by your office. Leave the "denouncing" to us, the powerless citizens.
Another piece of free advice: you should sent your "landmine" advisors home yesterday, not today. It becomes clearer every day that they are traps set around you by Berri, Hezbollah, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the Arabists, and the failing leftist groups. They are a bunch of brokers and hypocrites meant to paralyze you and make you fail in your presidential duties—which, unfortunately, seems to be your current state.
On a related note, you said from Bkerke: "Anyone who criticizes the army has no dignity," and you asked critics: "What have you given to the army?" Yet, you didn't have the courage to call Hezbollah by its name, referring to this Iranian terrorist organization only as "some."
As a citizen, I pay the salaries of the army. Therefore, the army is required to protect me, fight terrorism, and uphold the law and independence—duties it is currently not performing. You know very well that the criticism coming from many people inside and outside Lebanon is not directed at the army itself, but at you and your "relative," the Army Commander. Your words were unbalanced, emotional, and irresponsible.
As for using the term "some," it is proof of your inability—for whatever reason—to face the Iranian-backed terrorism of Hezbollah, implement international resolutions, and restore Lebanon's independence and dignity.
Regarding "civil peace," here is more free advice: find a lawyer or a judge with a conscience and a sovereign soul to explain to you what civil peace actually means. Ask them who is destroying it, hijacking the state’s decisions, and tying Lebanon to the Iranian Mullahs?.
In short, you swore an oath to protect the Constitution and the Lebanese state and its citizens. If you are unable to do so for any reason, you should resign. Leave the way open for those who are capable, willing, and free, who believe in the sanctity of Lebanon—and there are many of them. Once again, I beg of you: stop the statements and denunciations. Leave that as the only outlet for us, the citizens.
Meanwhile, if you truly want to save Lebanon, pick up the phone and call Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Follow the path of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Do what he did: free yourself and your country from the lie of "resistance" and "liberation," make peace with the State of Israel, and enter history. In the end, you are the one who decides how history will remember you.

Opportunism and baseness are born within the rulers, the Official, the double-dealing partisan politicians so called political parties, and many of the Iscariot-like clerics... they all suckle subservience with their mother's milk.
Elias Bejjani/April 06/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/04/8899/
A dog’s tail stays crooked even if you put it in a mold for a hundred years; a pig, no matter how much it washes, returns to wallow in the mud; and a dog licks up its own vomit. Such is the state of the politicians, the merchant-owners of "so called political parties, and many of the "men of the cloth" and the lowly ones—those degraded in their morals, their infidelity, and their Trojan-horse nature. They cannot change because filth, decadence, the death of conscience, the killing of the grace of shame within them, and opportunism are nested in their blood—even though they have no "blood" (honor) in them.
In Lebanon, there is an evil political school for filth and meanness. It graduates a miserable breed of politicians with no feeling and no shame; when people spit on them, they say, "It’s raining." This breed of politicians and political paties owners, merchants are the ones who delivered Lebanon into the arms of Palestinian, Syrian, and Iranian occupations. They ruined the country, stole the people’s money, displaced them, and filled the world with trash. These ruffians preach virtue while they are drowning in obscenity, debauchery, collaboration, humiliation, and dirt.
Shame on every citizen, politician, political party owner, official, ruler, and cleric who has no dignity or honor—whose only concern is power, money, and influence at the expense of their people and homeland. Money, power, and sex expose the inner truth of every human, and these people are all cowering, kneeling slaves to these three maladies.
Even worse than these "great" leaders are the herds, the cheerleaders, and the henchmen among our own people who follow them... these idol-worshippers whose necks are tied with the ropes of dependency and humiliation.
We cannot forget today, with the Resurrection of Christ, those who falsely and deceitfully claim to be "sovereignists" against Hezbollah—its weapons, occupation, and crimes. These very people, before the defeats of the terrorist Hezbollah and the assassination of its leaders, used to boast that their "martyrs" were like Hezbollah’s, that Hezbollah was a "Resistance" that liberated the South, and that it is a "Lebanese demographic" whose problems should be solved "locally/domestically." They never dared to mention UN resolutions 1995. 1701, 1680. Today they play the hero, but their wretched essence hasn't changed and never will.
In short, all these politicians, these "trashy political party" owners, all the rulers, and many of the clerics are the children of the Devil. They suckled filth and opportunism with their milk; they live and die this way, and no matter how high they rise, they remain lowly.
In summary, Lebanon cannot rise with these people. For Lebanon to rise, The Lebanese people must cast out these "Trojan" crews, confiscate their wealth and property, and put them on trial.

Trump says Lebanon not part of ceasefire agreement
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon is not covered by a temporary ceasefire deal between Washington and Tehran, U.S. public broadcaster PBS quoted President Donald Trump as saying Wednesday. They were not included in the deal," Trump said, according to a social media post by PBS News Hour correspondent Liz Landers. He added that it was "because of Hezbollah," the Iran-backed group. That'll get taken care of too," he reportedly said, adding: "That's a separate skirmish."

US says Iran ceasefire doesn't apply to Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Naharnet/08 April/2026
The U.S.-Iran ceasefire does not apply to Israel's strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios, contradicting statements from Iran and the Pakistani mediators.Israel's renewed attacks in Lebanon posed an immediate challenge to the stability of the ceasefire.Stopping the Israeli strikes against Hezbollah, its ally in Lebanon, was one of Iran's key demands for the ceasefire.The Iranians are now threatening to resume the fighting and close the Strait of Hormuz if the fighting in Lebanon continues. Hezbollah launched missile strikes at Israel soon after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran five weeks ago, opening a new front in the war.Israel responded with airstrikes in Beirut and other parts of the country, and later with a ground invasion and occupation of large swaths of southern Lebanon. Thousands of Israeli soldiers are in positions as deep as six miles into Lebanese territory. The Israeli government says it will not pull out its troops and will not allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese civilians to return home until Hezbollah is disarmed. On Tuesday, when Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the ceasefire, he said it would apply "everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere."Shortly afterward, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement claiming the ceasefire did not include Lebanon.
The U.S. did not make its own position clear prior to Leavitt's statement to Axios. It's not clear whether the U.S. agreed at any point in the negotiations that the ceasefire would apply to Lebanon. A senior U.S. official said Netanyahu raised the issue of Lebanon in a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump shortly before the announcement of the ceasefire.Trump and Netanyahu agreed during the call that the fighting in Lebanon could continue, the U.S. official and an Israeli official said. The U.S. official said the White House is not currently concerned that the situation in Lebanon would cause the ceasefire with Iran to collapse. On Wednesday, the Israeli army conducted a massive wave of strikes against Hezbollah targets in Beirut and its suburbs, in the Bekaa Valley, in the Aley district and in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army said it was "the largest coordinated wave of strikes in Lebanon" since the start of the war in Iran. 50 Israeli Air Force fighter jets participated in the strikes and attacked 100 "Hezbollah command centers and military infrastructurex sites using approximately 160 munitions, the Israeli army said. According the the Lebanese Health Ministry, 112 people have been killed and over 700 wounded. Iran's Tasnim news agency quoted sources who said Iran would withdraw from the ceasefire agreement if the attacks on Lebanon continue. Fars news agency said oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz had been stopped on Wednesday after the massive Israeli strikes.Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire.The Lebanese presidency called the Israeli strikes "a new massacre."Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said in calls with several foreign ministers that the Israeli strikes in Lebanon were a breach of the ceasefire.Sharif wrote on X that ceasefire violations had "been reported at few places across the conflict zone which undermine the spirit of peace process. I earnestly and sincerely urge all parties to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire for two weeks, as agreed upon, so that diplomacy can take a lead role towards peaceful settlement of the conflict."

Vance says up to Iran if it wants truce to 'fall apart' over Lebanon
LBCI/08 April/2026
U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday urged Iran not to let the fragile ceasefire deal fall apart over Israel's attacks on Lebanon, days before he is due to lead talks with Tehran in Pakistan."If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart... over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them, and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that's ultimately their choice," Vance told reporters in Hungary. AFP

Iran claims Lebanon was part of ceasefire, US asserts it ‘never’ was
No versions published by the Iranian state news agency or regime-affiliated media included
Al Arabiya English/April 08/2026
US and Iranian officials traded barbs on Wednesday over whether Lebanon was part of the ceasefire announced earlier in the week. The fragile ceasefire was hanging in the balance as of Wednesday night, with Israel unleashing its biggest bombardment of Lebanon since the latest war broke out following Hezbollah firing rockets at Israel earlier in the year. Israeli attacks, which they claimed targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and officials, killed over 200 people and wounded over 1,000 more, according to the Lebanese civil defense service. Iran, including its foreign minister and its parliament speaker, claimed that Lebanon was included in the agreement brokered by Pakistan.Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the parliament speaker whom the US has courted as Iran’s next leader, posted a statement on X saying that a halt to attacks on Lebanon was the “first clause” of Iran’s 10-point proposal. No versions published by the Iranian state news agency or regime-affiliated media included Lebanon in the first clause. Pakistan’s prime minister on Tuesday night said Lebanon was, in fact, included. Israel’s prime minister said it was not before US President Donald Trump on Wednesday was the first to echo Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump told PBS that Lebanon was not included because of Hezbollah. “That’s a separate skirmish,” he said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Lebanon was never part of the truce, “and that has been relayed to all parties involved in the ceasefire.”Later in the day, Vice President JD Vance said Israel had offered to “check themselves a little bit in Lebanon,” but stressed that this was not related to Lebanon being part of the ceasefire, because the US “never once said” it included Lebanon. Vance suggested there may have been a “legitimate misunderstanding” with the Iranians, who thought the deal included Lebanon. “We never made that promise, we never indicated that was gonna be the case," Vance told reporters before returning to Washington on Wednesday night. “If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them, and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice. We think that would be dumb, but that’s their choice,” Vance said. He will be leading the US delegation this weekend during peace talks in Islamabad.

Israel pounds Lebanon with heaviest airstrikes of the war as Hezbollah pauses attacks
Reuters/08 April/2026
Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, even as the Iran-aligned group paused attacks on northern Israel and Israeli troops in Lebanon under a two-week US-Iran ceasefire. Consecutive explosions shook Beirut, sending smoke billowing across the capital, as Israel’s military said it had launched the largest coordinated strike of the war. More than 100 Hezbollah command centers and military sites were targeted in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, it said. A spokesperson for Lebanon’s health ministry told Reuters that Israel’s strikes across Lebanon on Wednesday had killed “89 martyrs and wounded 700 people.”The spokesperson said 12 medics were among the dead in southern Lebanon. In Beirut, bloodied and injured people abandoned cars in traffic and headed to the nearest hospital, Reuters witnesses said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said overnight that the ceasefire suspending the six-week-old US-Israeli war against Iran did not apply to Lebanon, and the Israeli military said operations against Hezbollah there would continue.“The battle in Lebanon continues, and the ceasefire does not include Lebanon,” Israel’s military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement. Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel had inflicted the biggest concentrated blow to Hezbollah since a September 2024 operation that caused thousands of the group’s pagers to explode. Israel’s position contradicted comments by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key intermediary in the US-Iran ceasefire talks, who had said the truce would include Lebanon. Earlier on Wednesday, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported continued Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon, including artillery shelling and a dawn airstrike on a building near a hospital that killed four people. An Israeli strike on the southern city of Sidon killed eight people and wounded 22 others, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Hezbollah stopped attacking Israeli targets early on Wednesday, three Lebanese sources close to the group told Reuters. The group’s last public statement on its military activity was posted at 1 a.m. (2200 GMT Tuesday), saying it had targeted Israeli troops inside Lebanon on Tuesday evening. The group is likely to issue a statement outlining its formal position on the ceasefire and on Netanyahu’s assertion that Lebanon is not included, the three Lebanese sources said. French President Emmanuel Macron said the situation in Lebanon, a former French protectorate, remained critical and called for Lebanon to be included in the deal.
‘Lebanon can’t take it anymore’
Israel has issued evacuation orders covering around 15 percent of Lebanese territory since March 2, mostly in the south and in suburbs south of Beirut. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced, the authorities say. “Hopefully a ceasefire will be reached,” said Ahmed Harm, a 54-year-old man displaced from Beirut’s southern suburbs. “Lebanon can’t take it anymore. The country is collapsing economically, and everything is collapsing.”Outside a school sheltering displaced people in Sidon, pillows and blankets were piled onto cars as some families held out hope of returning home soon. On an astroturf football field, one family had packed plastic bags with clothes, pots and pans, towels, sheets and blankets. “We’re just waiting for the official decision from the top, so we can go back,” said Samar al-Saibany, who was displaced from a village in the south. Local mayor Mustafa al-Zein said more than 28,000 people were sheltering in the area as of Tuesday night. He cautioned residents against trying to return before an official signal.“In the south, give someone a signal to return, and he’ll return,” Zein said.
Urgent warnings
Most of Wednesday’s strikes were in civilian populated areas, Israel’s military said. Hours before the strike, the military had issued warnings for some areas of southern Beirut and southern Lebanon. No such warning was given for central Beirut, which was also hit.
A senior Lebanese official told Reuters that Lebanon had received no guarantees or other information on its inclusion in the two-week ceasefire, and had not been involved in talks. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, welcoming the US-Iran ceasefire, said Beirut would continue its efforts to ensure that Lebanon was included in any lasting regional peace agreement. More than 1,500 people have been killed in Israel’s air and ground campaign across Lebanon, including more than 130 children and more than 100 women, since March 2 when Hezbollah started firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with Tehran.By late March, more than 400 Hezbollah fighters had been killed, sources told Reuters. Israel says 10 of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon in the same period. Israel has pledged to occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River as part of a “security zone” it says is intended to protect its northern residents.

100 targets in 10 minutes: Israel vows to continue striking Hezbollah
Associated Press/08 April/2026
The Israeli military chief of staff said on Wednesday that Israel will continue to "utilize every operational opportunity" to strike Hezbollah after the military said it struck more than 100 targets within 10 minutes across Lebanon, the largest wave of strikes since March 1.
Lt Gen. Eyal Zamir said Israel will continue striking Hezbollah to protect Israel’s northern residents, who have come under heavy fire from Hezbollah. The Israeli strikes caused panic during Lebanon’s afternoon rush hour as plumes of black smoke rose over several civilian neighborhoods across the capital.

Multiple coordinated airstrikes hit Beirut and its suburbs
Associated Press/08 April/2026
Israel launched a series of strikes on Beirut on Wednesday, hitting several parts of the capital as well as its southern suburbs. Loud booms could be heard throughout the city and smoke was rising from several points. Several of the strikes were in busy commercial and densely populated locations, without warning. The strikes came hours after a ceasefire was announced in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Israel has said the agreement does not extend to Lebanon, although mediator Pakistan said it does. The strikes targeted Barbour, Burj Abi-Haydar, Corniche al-Mazraa, Ein al-Mraysseh, al-Manara, Msaytbeh, Ain el-Tineh, al-Basta and Beer Hassan in Beirut. Other strikes targeted Burj al-Brajneh, Hay al-Sellom and Haret Hreik in Dahieh and other regions across Lebanon including Kayfoun, Bshamoun, Souq al-Ghareb, Aramoun, Chweifat and south and east Lebanon. The Israeli military said it struck around 100 sites across Lebanon in ten minutes, describing the operation as the "largest coordinated strike" since the war with Iran began.The health ministry issued an emergency call for people to clear roads in Beirut for ambulances after the series of strikes on the capital.In a statement, the ministry said it was "urgently calling on citizens to clear the way for ambulances so they can carry out their work". "The traffic congestion caused by the unprecedented wave of airstrikes launched by the Israeli enemy is hindering rescue efforts," it said. Before the wave of new strikes, a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that the group was giving a chance for mediators to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon, but "we have not announced our adherence to the ceasefire since the Israelis are not adhering to it." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. The Hezbollah official said the group will not accept a return to the pre-March 2 status quo, when Israel carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon despite a ceasefire being nominally in place since the last full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November 2024. "We will not accept for the Israelis to continue behaving as they did before this war with regards to attacks," he said. "We do not want this phase to continue."

Series of Israeli strikes across Lebanon kills dozens, wounds hundreds
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
The health ministry said in a preliminary toll that the series of Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Wednesday killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds. "In a very serious escalation, Israeli warplanes launched a wave of simultaneous airstrikes on several Lebanese areas, resulting in, in an initial count, dozens of martyrs and hundreds of wounded," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry reiterated its call for citizens to "reduce traffic congestion, especially in the neighborhoods of the capital, to allow priority for rescue and ambulance services".
Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had carried out a surprise attack targeting hundreds of Hezbollah members across Lebanon. "This is the largest concentrated blow Hezbollah has suffered since Operation Beepers," Katz said in a video statement, referring to a major 2024 operation against Hezbollah involving pager bombs.

Hezbollah giving mediators opportunity to secure ceasefire
Associated Press/08 April/2026
A Hezbollah official said the militant group backed by Iran is giving a chance for mediators to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon.In the meantime, the official said, "We have not announced our adherence to the ceasefire since the Israelis are not adhering to it."
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.Israel has said the agreement reached to halt the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran does not extend to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, although Pakistan, which mediated the agreement, said the two-week cessation of hostilities included Lebanon. The Hezbollah official said the group will not accept a return to the pre-March 2 status quo, when Israel carried out near-daily strikes in Lebanon despite a ceasefire being nominally in place since the last full-blown Israel-Hezbollah war ended in November 2024."We will not accept for the Israelis to continue behaving as they did before this war with regards to attacks," he said. "We do not want this phase to continue."

Iran president says Lebanon truce a key condition for ending war: media
LBCI/08 April/2026
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that a Lebanon ceasefire was one of the key conditions of the Islamic Republic's 10-point plan for securing an end to the Middle East war, the ISNA news agency reported Wednesday.Pezeshkian told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that Tehran's "acceptance of the ceasefire is a clear sign of Iran's responsibility and serious will to resolve conflicts through diplomacy", ISNA said. He added that "establishing a ceasefire in Lebanon has been one of the key conditions of Iran's 10-point plan".AFP

Araghchi discusses Lebanon attacks with Pakistan, Iran threatens retalitation
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi raised "ceasefire violations" by Israel with Pakistani mediators on Wednesday, an Iranian ministry statement said, as reports citing senior officials warned that Tehran could pull out of the truce over attacks on Lebanon.
Araghchi "discussed the Zionist regime's violations of the ceasefire in Iran and Lebanon", referring to Israel, in a call with the powerful Pakistani military leader Field Marshal Asim Munir, the statement said.Reports from Iranian media and Al Jazeera citing Iranian officials and well-informed sources said Tehran was prepared to withdraw from the ceasefire and retaliate over Israel's bombardments of Lebanon. "Iran will withdraw from the agreement if Israel continues to violate the ceasefire in its attack on Lebanon," Iran's Tasnim news agency reported, citing a well-informed source. Iran's Revolutionary Guards vowed on Telegram to "punish Israel for the atrocities it has committed in Lebanon and violating ceasefire conditions". The Al Jazeera telelvision channel also quoted an unnamed Iranian official saying "the ceasefire includes the region, and Israel is known for breaking promises and will only be deterred by bullets."Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the ceasefire applied "everywhere" including Lebanon, as he announced Islamabad would host delegations from the United States and Iran for talks later this week. However, Israel has insisted that Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire, and the Israeli military said it carried out its "largest coordinated strike across Lebanon" on Wednesday. Sharif said on Wednesday that ceasefire violations between the United States and Iran "have been reported" and he pressed countries to respect the truce.

Pakistan, France and Egypt say ceasefire 'includes Lebanon'
Associated Press/Naharnet/Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
French President Emmanuel Macron said the ceasefire agreement between the U.S., Israel and Iran "fully includes Lebanon," which is in opposition to the stance taken by Israel as it continues an offensive there. Macron said the inclusion of Lebanon in the deal is "a good and even essential thing.""What we are witnessing today, both from what we have seen with the strikes and the occupation of southern Lebanon, cannot be a long-term solution, we know that," Macron said. Macron unsuccessfully backed Beirut’s earlier efforts to de-escalate and push back against an Israeli ground invasion that has displaced more than 1 million people.Iran-backed Hezbollah joined the war after firing rockets toward Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Tehran. Hezbollah has not claimed any strikes on Israel since the ceasefire but told people displaced by war to refrain from returning to their homes before a ceasefire is announced in Lebanon, while claiming to be nearing a "historic victory".Israel has denied Lebanon’s inclusion in the agreement and said it will continue strikes against the small country. Pakistan, France and Egypt, which helped mediate the deal, all have confirmed Lebanon’s inclusion.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "the situation in Lebanon remains critical," called on Israel to immediately stop attacks on Lebanon. A regional official involved in negotiations said Lebanon is included in the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the pause applies to "all fronts including Lebanon."

Salam calls on Lebanon's friends to help end Israeli attacks
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday called on his country's friends to help put an end to Israeli attacks following a series of deadly strikes across the country. In a statement, Salam said that while Beirut "welcomed the agreement between Iran and the United States and intensified our efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, Israel continues to escalate its attacks"."All of Lebanon's friends are called upon to help us stop these attacks by all available means," he added, after Israeli strikes that Lebanon's health ministry said killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds more.

Hezbollah MP warns of response if Israel does not adhere to ceasefire
Associated Press/Naharnet/Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
Hezbollah legislator Ibrahim Al-Moussawi has warned of a response from Iran and its allies if Israel "does not adhere to a ceasefire."His comment to local television channel Al-Jadeed is the first from the militant group in Lebanon after the U.S. and Iran reached a ceasefire agreement mediated by Pakistan. Iran-backed Hezbollah joined the war after firing rockets toward Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Tehran. Hezbollah has not claimed any strikes on Israel since the ceasefire but told people displaced by war to refrain from returning to their homes before a ceasefire is announced in Lebanon, while claiming to be nearing a "historic victory".Israel has denied Lebanon’s inclusion in the agreement and said it will continue strikes against the small country. Pakistan, France and Egypt, which helped mediate the deal, all have confirmed Lebanon’s inclusion. "The agreement includes Lebanon, according to its terms, and Iran insisted on this inclusion," Al-Moussawi said. Iran’s allies elsewhere, notably the Iraqi umbrella group the Islamic Resistance, announced it would halt its attacks.

Hezbollah tells displaced not to return home before ceasefire in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
Hezbollah on Wednesday told people displaced by war with Israel to refrain from returning to their homes before a ceasefire is announced in Lebanon, while claiming to be nearing a "historic victory"."Today, we stand on the threshold of a great and historic victory," the Iran-backed group said in a statement, calling on people to "not head to the targeted villages, towns, and areas in the south, the Bekaa, and the southern suburbs of Beirut before the official and final ceasefire declaration in Lebanon is issued".Hezbollah did not share an official stance on the two-week Iran war truce, which Israel insists does not include Lebanon, but has not claimed attacks on Israel since 1am (Tuesday 2200 GMT). "This declaration of a cessation of military operations must be reflected in Israel immediately ceasing its repeated attacks on brotherly Lebanon," it said.Families displaced by the war scrambled to pack belongings in hopes of returning home after Pakistan said the Iran war ceasefire would include Lebanon.But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed his country’s military would press on in Lebanon. At a displacement camp along Beirut’s waterfront, families whiplashed by the conflicting statements expressed confusion and despair."We’re just stuck," said Fadi Zaydan, 35. "We can’t take this anymore, sleeping in a tent, not showering, the uncertainty."His family set out Wednesday for the coastal city of Sidon, where he said they would wait before venturing further south to their abandoned home in Nabatieh. Others said they expected Israel to escalate operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah even as guns fell silent elsewhere. "Israel isn’t going to give up," said Shadi Chehadeh, 47, who fled his southern village of Zefta to sleep in his car in Beirut. "They want our land."

At least 182 killed as Israel strikes central Beirut after saying Iran truce doesn't apply there
Kareem Chehayeb And Abby Sewell/April 8/2026
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli strikes hit busy commercial and residential areas in central Beirut without warning on Wednesday, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Lebanon said at least 182 people were killed and hundreds were wounded, making it the deadliest day in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. U.S. President Donald Trump told PBS News Hour that Lebanon was not included in the deal because of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. When asked about Israel’s latest strikes, he said, “That’s a separate skirmish.” Israel had said the agreement does not extend to its war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah, although Iran and mediator Pakistan said it does.The fleeting sense of relief among Lebanese after the ceasefire announcement turned into panic with what Israel’s military called its largest coordinated strike in the current war, saying it had hit more than 100 Hezbollah targets within 10 minutes in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley. Black smoke towered over several parts of the seaside capital, where a huge number of people displaced by war have taken shelter. Explosions interrupted the honking of traffic on what had been a bustling, blue-sky afternoon. Ambulances raced toward open flames. Apartment buildings were struck. Associated Press journalists saw charred bodies in vehicles and on the ground at one of Beirut’s busiest intersections in the central Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood, a mixed commercial and residential area. Using forklifts, rescue workers removed smoldering debris and sifted through ruins for survivors. There was no sign of Hezbollah launching strikes against Israel in the first couple of hours after the attacks. In response to the attacks on Lebanon, Iran later Wednesday said it was again halting the movement of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the country's state-run media reported.
A deadly midday barrage
Central Beirut has been targeted before, but not by so many strikes at once and in the middle of the day. Israel had rarely struck central Beirut since the outbreak of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war on March 2 but has regularly struck southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs. Lebanon's Minister of Social Affairs, Haneed Sayed, in an interview with The Associated Press condemned Israel’s wide range of strikes, calling it a “very dangerous turning point.”“These hits are now at the heart of Beirut … Half of the sheltered (internally displaced people) are in Beirut in this area,” she said, adding that she had just driven by areas hit. She said Lebanon's government is ready to enter into negotiations with Israel for an end to hostilities, an offer that the Lebanese president previously made. Israel has not responded. “There are calls and efforts being made as we speak," Sayed said.

Iran says peace talks would be 'unreasonable' following Israeli strikes
Parisa Hafezi, Alexander Cornwell, Maya Gebeily and Humeyra Pamuk/Reuters/April 8, 2026
Summary
Ceasefire fails to halt Israel-Hezbollah fighting, Israeli strikes kill 254 in Lebanon
US, Iran declare victory but core disputes unresolved, Strait of Hormuz remains restricted
Financial markets rally on truce, oil prices drop 14%, stock markets surge
US and Iran set for talks in Pakistan as the nations dispute nuclear terms
DUBAI/TEL AVIV/BEIRUT/BUDAPEST, April 8 (Reuters) - Israel pounded Lebanon with its heaviest strikes yet on Wednesday, killing hundreds of people and drawing a threat of retaliation from Iran, which suggested it would be "unreasonable" to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace ‌deal with the United States. The warning from Iran's lead negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammed Bager Qalibaf, laid bare the continued volatility in the region following Tuesday's ceasefire announcement by President Donald Trump. The two sides have laid out sharply contrasting agendas for peace talks set to start on Saturday, but it was unclear whether the two-week ceasefire would hold until then. The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war.
Qalibaf said Israel had already violated several conditions of that ceasefire by ramping up its parallel war against the Iran-aligned militia Hezbollah, while the United States had violated the agreement by insisting that Iran abandon its nuclear ambitions. "In such a situation, a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations were unreasonable," he said in a statement. Israel and the United States both said the two-week ceasefire did not cover Lebanon, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes would continue. "I think the Iranians thought that ⁠the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't," U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who will lead the U.S. delegation, told reporters in Budapest.
The two sides appeared to be far apart on Iran's nuclear program as well - one of the factors that Trump cited as the basis for war. Trump said Iran had agreed to stop enriching uranium, which can be turned into nuclear weapons, and the White House said Iran has indicated it would turn over its existing stocks. "The United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried ... Nuclear 'Dust," Trump said on social media.
Qalibaf, however, said it was allowed to continue enriching uranium under the terms of the ceasefire. Though both the United States and Iran declared victory in a five-week-old war that has killed thousands, their core disputes remained unresolved. Each side is sticking to competing demands for a deal that could shape the Middle East for generations.
Despite the uncertainty, world stock indexes surged while oil prices plunged 14% to settle near $95 per barrel , after falling as low as $90.40.
Benchmark Brent crude remains roughly $25 higher than before the joint U.S.-Israel attacks began. Tehran's newly demonstrated ability to cut off Gulf energy supplies through its grip on the strait, despite decades of massive U.S. military investment in the region, shows how the conflict has already altered power dynamics in the Gulf.
'FINGER ON THE TRIGGER'
Netanyahu said ‌Israel had its “finger ⁠on the trigger” and was prepared to return to fighting at “any moment.” Lebanon's civil defence service said 254 people had been killed in Israel's strikes across Lebanon on Wednesday. The highest toll was in the capital Beirut, where Israeli strikes killed 91 people, it said. Residents said some of the Israeli strikes had come without the usual warnings for civilians to evacuate. Iran also struck oil facilities in nearby Gulf countries, including a pipeline in Saudi Arabia that has been used to bypass the blockaded Strait of Hormuz, according to an oil industry source. Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE also reported missile and drone strikes. The Strait of Hormuz remained shut to vessels sailing without a permit and shippers said they needed more clarity before resuming transit. MarineTraffic data ⁠showed two Greek-owned and two Chinese-owned bulk carriers have passed through the strait since early Wednesday. In a flurry of online posts, Trump announced new tariffs of 50% on all goods from any country that supplies arms to Iran, though he lacks the authority to do so.
IRAN'S RULING ESTABLISHMENT SURVIVES
Crowds took to the streets of Iran overnight to celebrate, waving Iranian flags and burning those of the United States and Israel. But there was also wariness that a deal would not hold. "Israel will not allow diplomacy ⁠to work and Trump might change his view tomorrow. But at least we can sleep tonight without strikes," Alireza, 29, a government employee in Tehran, told Reuters by phone. The war was launched on February 28 by Trump and Netanyahu, who said they aimed to prevent Iran from projecting force beyond its borders, end its nuclear programme and create conditions for Iranians to topple their rulers. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said Washington had won ⁠a decisive military victory. But so far Iran retains both its stockpile of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium and its ability to hit its neighbours with missiles and drones. The clerical leadership, which faced mass protests months ago, has withstood the superpower onslaught with no sign of internal collapse. "The enemy, in its unjust, illegal and criminal war against the Iranian nation, has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat," Iran's Supreme National Security Council said.

Trump Says Ceasefire Doesn’t Include Lebanon—After Iran Says It Does, And Closes Strait Of Hormuz
Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff/Forbes/April 8, 2026
After Iran accused the U.S. on Wednesday of violating the ceasefire agreement and closed the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance both claimed Iran misunderstood the agreement—saying it didn’t include Israel’s bombing of Lebanon.
Key Facts
Speaker of Iran’s Parliament Mohammad Ghalibaf posted on X that Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, the entry of a drone in Iranian airspace and denial of Iran’s “right to enrichment” were all violations of the ceasefire. IRNA News reported that the strait was closed “in the wake of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon,” and various reports describe Israel’s attacks Wednesday as one of the deadliest in the war so far, leaving 112 dead and as many as 800 injured. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said reports the strait is closed are “a case of what they’re saying publicly is different privately—we have seen an uptick in traffic in the strait today,” she said, adding, “it has been relayed to [Trump] privately” that the strait remains open “and these reports publicly are false.”Trump told PBS on Wednesday Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon was a “separate skirmish” not included in the ceasefire, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Wednesday that Lebanon was not included, and Vice President JD Vance later said he believes the dispute over Lebanon “comes from a legitimate misunderstanding” with Iran believing the agreement included Lebanon, but the U.S. “never made that promise.”But Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who helped negotiate the terms, said when announcing the ceasefire that Lebanon was part of the agreement. Iran told ships anchored near the strait Wednesday morning they needed permission from Sepah, a special operations unit under the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, to pass, according to a radio transmission obtained by The Wall Street Journal that said any vessel that tries to transit without permission “will be destroyed.”
Chief Critic
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon which has nothing to do with them . . . we think that would be dumb, but that is their choice,” Vance said.
Crucial Quote
“The Iran-U.S. Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the U.S. must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement.
Tangent
President Donald Trump also told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl earlier on Wednesday he was open to a “joint venture” with Iran to charge tolls for ships passing through the strait, as Iran reportedly began seeking payment from vessels weeks ago. Leavitt told reporters that a joint venture to charge tolls is “an idea the president has floated, and it’s something that will continue to be discussed over the course of the next two weeks.” When asked who controls the strait, Leavitt didn’t directly answer the question, and said, “Wwe expect the strait will be opened immediately—as I said earlier, we have seen an uptick in traffic in the strait, and it’s something we are monitoring minute by minute, hour by hour as the days go on.”
Key Background
Trump announced Tuesday the U.S. had entered into a two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran, calling off his planned attacks on Iran’s infrastructure hours before they were set to take place. Both Iran and Trump said the agreement included reopening the Strait of Hormuz, though who would control the passage remained unclear. Iran said “safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations,” and Trump said the U.S. “will be helping with the traffic buildup.” The terms of the deal are murky—Iran released on Wednesday a 10-point plan it said the U.S. had agreed to that included Iran maintaining control of the Strait of Hormuz, ending attacks across the region, including in Lebanon, withdrawing U.S. combat forces from the region and accepting Iran’s right to nuclear enrichment. All of those stated terms contradicted descriptions of the deal from the Trump administration. Trump said on Truth Social Wednesday “there will be no enrichment of uranium.” Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth both said the U.S. would be “hanging around” the region to ensure Iran met the terms of the agreement. Trump said on Truth Social Wednesday “there is only one group of meaningful ‘POINTS’ that are acceptable to the United States, and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these negotiations,” c“These trends, alongside the collapse in funding for our lifesaving work, are a symptom of a lawless, bellicose, selfish and violent world,” Fletcher said.

Hezbollah says has right to respond after deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanon
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
Hezbollah said Wednesday it has a "right" to respond to Israel's deadly wave of strikes across Lebanon, which authorities said left at least 112 people dead and more than 800 wounded.
"We affirm that the blood of the martyrs and the wounded will not be shed in vain, and that today's massacres, like all acts of aggression and savage crimes, confirm our natural and legal right to resist the occupation and respond to its aggression," the Iran-backed movement said in a statement.

Israeli army destroys Beirut building in new strike, says targeted Hezbollah commander
Agence France Presse
The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah commander in Beirut on Wednesday, after Lebanese state media reported that Israel had targeted the Tallet al-Khayyat residential neighborhood in the capital."A short while ago, the IDF struck a Hezbollah commander in Beirut," the military said. he strike destroyed the multi-story building, located in a predominantly-Sunni area outside of Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

Lebanon Army says shut vital southern bridge after Israeli threat
Al Arabiya English/08 April/2026
The Lebanese Armed Forces announced on Wednesday that it was closing the vital Qasmiyeh bridge in southern Lebanon, after receiving an “Israeli threat to target it.”This is the last bridge linking the north and south of the Litani River in the Tyre area, where thousands of families remain despite Israeli evacuation warnings.Since the start of the war with Hezbollah on March 2, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed six bridges over the Litani, which divides southern Lebanon into two parts. Israel accuses Iran-backed group Hezbollah of using the bridges for transport.

Lebanon says reopening main Syria border crossing closed over Israeli threat
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
Lebanon announced the reopening of the Masnaa border crossing with Syria starting Wednesday evening, state media said, after it had been closed for several days due to an Israeli threat to target it. "The Masnaa crossing will be reopened as of 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) today, with strict measures in place to ensure the safety of passenger and cargo traffic, and equipped with the necessary tools to prevent any smuggling operations," the state-run National News Agency (NNA) said. An informed Lebanese government source had earlier told AFP that "intensive efforts were made by both Lebanon and Syria to spare the crossing from the Israeli strike".Israel threatened on Saturday to target the crossing, accusing Hezbollah of using it "for military purposes and smuggling of combat equipment", though it ultimately did not carry out the strike. The crossing was closed on both sides as a precaution after being evacuated.
The Masnaa crossing is the main gateway between Lebanon and Syria, making it a vital trade route for both countries and Lebanon's principal overland link to the rest of the region.
The decision to reopen the crossing comes as Israel pressed its strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday, despite announcing its support for a two-week truce between Iran and the United States.

Lebanon declares national day of mourning for victims of Israeli attacks
LBCI/08 April/2026
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced that Thursday, April 9, 2026, will be observed as a national day of mourning for the victims and injured of Israeli attacks that targeted hundreds of unarmed civilians.All public administrations, institutions, and municipalities will be closed, flags will be flown at half-mast, and regular programming on radio and television stations will be adjusted to reflect the nation’s grief, the Prime Minister said. Salam extended his condolences to the families of the victims and wished a swift recovery for the injured. He also emphasized that he continues to hold talks with Arab leaders and international officials to mobilize Lebanon’s political and diplomatic efforts to stop the Israeli attacks.

Greece says Israel attacks in Lebanon ‘completely counterproductive’/Mitsotakis says Israeli strikes give Hezbollah a “new lease on life”
Al Arabiya English/08 April ,2026
Greece’s prime minister on Wednesday criticized Israeli strikes across Lebanon, which it claimed targeted Hezbollah, calling the massive bombardment “completely counterproductive.”"It's very clear… that the Israeli offensive right now is completely counterproductive,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. Speaking to CNN, Mitsotakis said the Israeli strikes were giving Hezbollah a “new lease on life.”He said the Iran-backed group, which has dragged Lebanon into several devastating wars with Israel, has been “significantly weakened. The Greek premier hailed the Lebanese government but added that Israeli attacks, such as those on Wednesday that killed over 200 and wounded close to 1,000 more, were undermining Beirut. The US and Israel, contrary to Pakistan, which brokered the ceasefire with Iran, said the two-week truce did not include Lebanon. As for the US-Iran ceasefire, Mitsotakis said an international agreement, separate from any potential deal between Washington and Tehran, may be needed on the Strait of Hormuz. “Obviously, we have skin in the game,” he said. “I don't think that the international community would be ready to accept Iran setting up a toll booth for every ship that crosses the Strait. He added: “It seems to me to be completely unacceptable.”

The delivery man doctrine: Lebanon’s newest security fiction
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya English/08 April/2026
In Lebanon, we have long mastered the art of telling ourselves stories we know are not true. It is how we survive, or at least how we postpone confronting what we already understand. We rename crises, we dilute responsibility, and we dress up violence in the language of coincidence. But even by these standards, the latest statement issued by the Lebanese Army requires a level of suspension of disbelief that borders on the absurd.
An Israeli strike targets an apartment in Ain Saadeh, East of Beirut. A man is seen leaving the building on a motorcycle at the very moment of the attack. He disappears immediately afterward. In any country with a functioning sense of cause and effect, this sequence of events would raise obvious questions. In Lebanon, however, the answer arrives swiftly and with remarkable simplicity: the man, we are told, is a delivery worker who had been bringing medication to residents in the building over the past months. There is, we are reassured, no need for speculation. The matter, it seems, is both ordinary and closed.
But nothing about Lebanon is ordinary, and nothing about political violence in this country has ever been random. For decades, Lebanon has been a theater of targeted killings, car bombs, disappearances, and “unexplained” explosions, each followed by the same ritual: denial, obfuscation, and the quiet burial of truth. What makes this latest episode remarkable is not the strike itself, but the explanation offered afterward. It is not merely unconvincing; it is emblematic of a deeper crisis in which the state no longer even attempts to align its narrative with reality.
The idea that the central figure in a targeted strike is simply a delivery man might have been plausible in another context, in another country where institutions still command a minimum of credibility. But in Lebanon, where the architecture of violence has been both systematic and sustained, such explanations do not neutralize suspicion, they amplify it. They insult a public that has lived through too much to be so easily reassured. They demand that people unlearn what history has taught them.
And history in Lebanon is not subtle. It does not whisper; it repeats itself with brutal clarity. The country has witnessed the assassination of its leaders, its journalists, its thinkers, and its citizens, often in patterns that are too consistent to ignore. Rafik Hariri did not orchestrate his own assassination, no matter how many theories were floated to muddy the waters. Lokman Slim did not invite his killers, nor did George Hawi or Pierre Gemayel walk willingly into their deaths. The hundreds who were killed in the Beirut port explosion were not victims of coincidence or administrative error alone; they were casualties of a system that had long normalized impunity and outsourced sovereignty.
To suggest, then, that a man who appears at the precise moment of an Israeli strike and vanishes immediately afterward is merely a courier is not just implausible, it is revealing. It reveals a state that has grown accustomed to speaking in fictions, not because it believes them, but because it has lost the capacity to speak honestly. It reveals an official discourse that treats the public not as citizens, but as an audience expected to nod along, no matter how disconnected the script is from reality.
If anything, the image of the “delivery man” becomes unintentionally symbolic. For Lebanon has indeed been the recipient of countless deliveries over the years, though not the kind that arrive neatly packaged or benignly intended. There is a delivery service operating in this country, one that does not knock, does not announce itself, and does not deliver anything resembling relief. It delivers intimidation, elimination, and destruction, moving seamlessly across borders and institutions, embedding itself where the state has either failed or chosen not to act.
This is not a conspiracy theory; it is a pattern. It is a pattern that has been documented, experienced, and mourned repeatedly. It is a pattern that points to a single ecosystem of violence, one that transcends individual incidents and connects them into a coherent whole. To pretend otherwise is not caution, it is complicity.What is perhaps most troubling is not that such narratives are produced, but that they are still expected to function. That in 2026, after everything Lebanon has endured, there remains an assumption that the public can be pacified with explanations that collapse under the slightest scrutiny. This is no longer a matter of intelligence failure or security gaps; it is a collapse of credibility at the most fundamental level.
Because in Lebanon, death has never been anonymous. It has never been accidental in the way it is often portrayed. It has an infrastructure, a method, and a purpose. It is tied to networks that operate with a degree of confidence that only impunity can provide. And while these networks may change tactics, names, or fronts, their function remains the same. The tragedy, then, is not only that violence persists, but that it continues to be narrated as something incidental, something detached from the forces that produce it. The “delivery man” is not just a detail in a questionable account; he is the latest iteration of a much older myth, the myth that what happens in Lebanon happens without authors, without intention, and without consequence. But Lebanon knows better. It has always known better, death comes with a special delivery from the IRGC and the Lebanese state as it stands, is simply its accomplice.And no amount of carefully worded statements can change that.

‘People are afraid’: Lebanese reeling after Israel’s devastating attacks
Justin Salhani/Al Jazeera/April 8, 2026
Beirut, Lebanon – Em Walid was in the clothing shop she owns in central Beirut when the sound of explosions rang out. “Even the street cats outside started running,” she said, after Israel carried out its heaviest and deadliest air attacks on Lebanon in years. At least 254 people were killed and more than 1,160 were injured in dozens of attacks on Beirut, its suburbs, the south of the country and the eastern Bekaa Valley. There are fears the toll could rise as more victims are recovered from the rubble following the strikes – a sharp escalation since Israel ramped up its attacks on Lebanon early last month amid its joint war with the United States against Iran. The strikes came hours after a Pakistani-negotiated ceasefire between the US and Iran took effect. There was initial confusion about Lebanon’s place in the two-week truce, with Pakistan and Iran insisting it was part of the agreement.Israel and the US, however, argued otherwise. Speaking to US media, US President Donald Trump said Lebanon was a “separate skirmish”, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the ceasefire “does not include Lebanon”.“Netanyahu wants to take advantage of the fluid situation to maximise operational achievements in Lebanon,” Dania Arayssi, a senior analyst at New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, told Al Jazeera. “He must take into account that a US-Iran deal might include ceasing the war on Iranian proxies, which would greatly complicate the Israeli war effort against Hezbollah in Lebanon.”Israel intensified its war on Lebanon for the second time in less than two years in early March following a salvo of rockets launched by the Lebanese group Hezbollah. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah had ostensibly been in place since November 27, 2024, but Israel continued carrying out near-daily attacks that killed hundreds of Lebanese. The Iran-backed group claimed its March 2 attack – its first response to more than a year of Israeli ceasefire violations – was retaliation for the US and Israeli assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two days earlier, on the first day of the US-Israel war on Iran. Since then, relentless Israeli bombardment and a ground invasion have killed some 1,700 people in Lebanon and forced more than 1.2 million from their homes. In a statement, Hezbollah said it has a “right” to respond to the attacks, affirming “that the blood of the martyrs and the wounded will not be shed in vain, and that today’s massacres, like all acts of aggression and savage crimes, confirm our natural and legal right to resist the occupation and respond to its aggression”.
‘Just way too many of them’
The wave of attacks came as some of those displaced attempted to return to their homes in the south amid confusion over Lebanon’s inclusion in the ceasefire. Strikes happened across the country, including in parts of Beirut that had been spared over the past month and in 2024. The first round included dozens of attacks in fewer than 10 minutes. The Israeli military claimed it attacked more than 100 Hezbollah headquarters and military targets, though many strikes were in densely populated residential areas. Hospitals, frantically dealing with high casualty counts, started putting out calls for blood donations. At the American University of Beirut Medical Center, in the Hamra neighbourhood, dozens heeded the call. Among those cramming the third-floor reception was a 20-year-old American University of Beirut student, majoring in philosophy. His family had fled Dahiyeh, in southern Beirut, when the attacks started in early March. They had taken refuge near the Basta neighbourhood, in the centre of the capital.
He was at the university, near the hospital, when the first rounds of attack happened.
“I heard several explosions,” the student, who did not give his name, said. “There were just way too many of them.”The student recalled looking up and seeing smoke rising in the distance in multiple places around the city. Reports began coming in of attacks all over the nation. There was one near his aunt’s place in the Aley district, about a half-hour drive from Beirut, he said. She was fine – but a neighbour had been killed. In the Manara neighbourhood, near Beirut’s seafront, Najib Merhe smoked a cigarette and chatted with neighbours. An Israeli attack had destroyed an apartment a few floors above his restaurant, Hani’s, a long-standing, popular burger joint. He was not on site when the attack happened, but his son was. Luckily, he was unharmed.“People are afraid,” Merhe said. “This kind of situation no one can afford nor endure.”Across the street, the glass facade of his restaurant had been destroyed. Light fixtures hung from the ceilings. People swept glass on the street, and old men walking along the seafront gathered to look at the hole in the wall where the apartment had been just a couple of hours earlier. Security forces had cordoned off the area and directed passersby to beware of falling glass from the adjacent building. This was one of the smaller strikes. It was targeting a specific apartment. In other parts of town, Israel took down entire buildings. Further down the street in Manara, a sweat-drenched member of Beirut’s civil defence forces sat in the back of his emergency response vehicle. “I heard ‘woooooo’ and then strikes all over the place,” he said, adding that he’d never seen anything like this before. As the day continued, people feared Israel was not finished. In televised remarks, Netanyahu said that his military’s operations against Hezbollah, and thus Lebanon, would continue.

Italy summons Israeli ambassador after shots fired at UN in Lebanon
Angelo Amante/Reuters/April 8, 2026
ROME, April 8 (Reuters) - Italy summoned the Israeli ambassador on Wednesday to demand an explanation over shots fired at an ‌Italian convoy in a U.N. mission in Lebanon, the foreign minister said, ‌warning Israeli forces had "no authority to touch" Rome's troops.
The U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along a demarcation line with Israel - an area that has seen major clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters. "Israeli warning shots have damaged one of our vehicles; fortunately, no one was injured," ‌Antonio Tajani said in the ⁠lower house of parliament. He later wrote on X that he had ordered that the Israeli ambassador be summoned. "It is completely ⁠unacceptable that personnel operating under the U.N. flag should be put at risk by irresponsible actions such as today's, which are in clear violation of U.N. Resolution 1701," Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said separately. Meloni called for an end to the war ‌in Lebanon, building on the U.S.-Iran ceasefire. While condemning Hezbollah, she said, "Israel's continued attacks in Lebanon which have already resulted in too many deaths and an unacceptable number of displaced people, must cease immediately."A defence ministry statement said the Italian logistics convoy was travelling from Shama to Beirut on Wednesday when, about 2 ‌km after departure, the Israeli military fired warning shots. The convoy immediately stopped and returned to base, it said. The incident came as Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since ‌the conflict with militant group Hezbollah broke out early last month, saying a ceasefire suspending the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran did not apply to Lebanon. UNIFIL comprised about 7,500 peacekeepers as of March 30, according to the mission's website, ‌and Italy is one of the main contributors with more than 750 soldiers deployed.

Hezbollah Emerged from Iran’s Revolution, Not “Resistance” to Israel
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/This Is Beirut/April 08/2026
A false claim, now common in Western media and academia, portrays Hezbollah as having emerged in response to Israel’s 1982 invasion and subsequent occupation of Lebanon. In reality, Hezbollah arose in the wake of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as part of an effort to establish an Islamic state in a Lebanon fractured by warring militias. Since Hezbollah first captured Western attention with its secretive operations and spectacular attacks, the West has produced a vast body of literature describing the group and its rise—often portraying it sympathetically as the movement of the impoverished, the downtrodden, and the victims of Israeli wars and invasions of Lebanon. This narrative is false. From its beginnings, Hezbollah served as an extension of Iran’s revolution, a reality reflected in its early slogans such as “No East Beirut, No West Beirut—an Islamic Republic.” Broadcasting from the eastern Lebanon village of Nabi Sheet, Hezbollah’s radio station frequently aired anthems from the Iranian revolution, chants praising Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and reports on the Iran‑Iraq War.So focused was Hezbollah on Iran’s war against Iraq that most of its first dozen major attacks were aimed at forcing the West to distance itself from Saddam Hussein. Hezbollah even attempted to assassinate Kuwait’s emir in 1985, then one of Iraq’s main financial backers, and carried out attacks against the U.S. and French embassies in the Gulf state.
Hezbollah was largely absent from Lebanon’s “resistance” against Israel at the time. Only one of the group’s early attacks—a 1983 car bombing in Tyre—targeted Israeli forces. Instead, the Amal Movement, Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and Communist Party conducted most of the major suicide bombings against Israeli troops in Lebanon. The first retaliation to Hezbollah did not come from Israel, but from the U.S., which attempted a proxy assassination of Shia cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in 1985, striking his mosque in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah did not recognize Lebanon as a legitimate entity, let alone seek its “liberation from Israel” until 1992, a decade after its founding. At the time, the militia was engaged in a months-long debate over whether it should run candidates in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, which the civil war had suspended for nearly twenty years. When Hezbollah finally decided to participate, its platform revolved around the single issue of “resistance” against Israel. Syria, which held hegemony over Lebanon, ultimately reserved the right to such military activity exclusively for Hezbollah. By then, all other militias had surrendered their arms under the 1989 Taif Agreement, which brought an end to the civil war.
Hezbollah’s primary goal was not to defend Lebanon or liberate its land, but to preserve its own arms. After Taif, which Hezbollah opposed, “resistance” against Israel became the best pretext for doing so. This was not a Hezbollah innovation. The first Islamist to justify such a formula was Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. When Egyptian security forces raided his militia’s arms depot in 1949, he argued that the weapons were not meant for use against the government but to liberate Palestine.
Only when the Lebanese state began asserting its authority did Hezbollah begin to make concessions. In 1992, the militia handed over to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) its largest barracks atop Sheikh Abdullah Hill, which it had seized and controlled since 1982.
When Israel launched major military campaigns in Lebanon in 1993 and 1996, Hezbollah was so unprepared that it had to borrow Katyusha rocket operations from pro-Syrian Palestinian groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The group also rebranded itself from the “Islamic Revolution in Lebanon” to the “Islamic Resistance in Lebanon,” or more simply, the “Lebanese resistance.” Observers began claiming that the Iranian proxy was “Lebanonizing”—an assumption that would prove disastrously wrong.
Hezbollah also rewrote its own history to obscure its origins in Iran’s Islamic Revolution. As part of its effort to project a more indigenous image, it invented the myth that it had been formed in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion, a fairytale that Western media and academia have since repeated uncritically.
With post-civil war Lebanon stabilizing, Israel saw little reason to maintain a security zone in the south. It repeatedly offered Beirut a withdrawal in exchange for a simple Lebanese commitment that Hezbollah would not establish positions on the border within striking distance of Israeli towns. But with Damascus controlling Beirut, Lebanon turned down the offer. Ending the Israeli occupation would have removed the primary justification for both the Syrian presence in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s continued armament. In 2000, Israel withdrew unilaterally, and the UN certified that it had complied with Security Council Resolution 425. Needing occupied land to sustain its “resistance” narrative, Hezbollah manufactured the Shebaa Farms controversy—minor border dispute over a sliver of land that Israel had captured from Syria, not Lebanon, in 1967.In 2005, a nationwide protest movement forced the Syrian regime’s military and security apparatus out of Lebanon, ending nearly 30 years of occupation. Hezbollah confronted efforts by pro-Western parties to assert Lebanese state sovereignty, sending armed men to seize control of western Beirut in May 2008 and cementing its veto power within the government. Since then, the pro-Iranian militia has functioned as the de facto state, while Lebanon’s official institutions have remained largely powerless. Hezbollah has skillfully manipulated Western perception by granting friendly journalists and academics access that was denied to more objective local and foreign experts. Even as it has started wars on behalf of Tehran, the Iranian proxy has helped shape a narrative portraying it as an indigenous Lebanese movement rather than what it truly is. Yet this fabrication has somehow become unquestioned conventional wisdom.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, DC.
https://thisisbeirut.com.lb/articles/1333344/hezbollah-emerged-from-irans-revolution-not-resistance-to-israel
Read in This Is Beirut

Links to several important news websites
National News Agency (Lebanon)
https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar
Nidaa Al Watan
https://www.nidaalwatan.com/
MTV Lebanon
https://www.mtv.com.lb/
Voice of Lebanon
https://www.vdl.me/
Asas Media
https://asasmedia.com/
Naharnet
https://www.naharnet.com/
Al Markazia News Agency
https://almarkazia.com/ar
LBCI (English)
https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/en
LBCI (Arabic)
https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/ar
Janoubia Website
https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/ar
Kataeb Party Official Website
https://www.kataeb.org

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 08-09/2026
Ceasefire plan published by Iran is not the one agreed to by Washington: US official
AFP/08 April/2026
A US official said Wednesday that a 10-point ceasefire plan published by Iran is not the same set of conditions that were agreed to by the White House for pausing the war.
“The document being reported by media outlets is not the working framework,” the senior official said on condition of anonymity. The official gave no further comment, saying, “We’re not going to negotiate in public out of respect for the process.”The statement adds to concerns over the fragility of the truce declared late Tuesday – hours before a deadline set by President Donald Trump for Iran to meet US demands or face what he called an end to its “whole civilization.”Trump had said in his declaration of a two-week truce for further negotiations that “we received a 10-point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”Iranian state media then published a 10-point plan that notably included continued Iranian control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, an end to international sanctions on the country, and “acceptance” of uranium enrichment. These items would run contrary to Washington’s public statements about what it wants Iran to do. Later Wednesday, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to assail those who are releasing incorrect reports about agreements or letters that he said are not part of the actual deal. “In many cases, they are total Fraudsters, Charlatans, and WORSE,” he said. “There is only one group of meaningful ‘POINTS’ that are acceptable to the United States, and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these Negotiations,” Trump said, without providing details. “These are the POINTS that are the basis on which we agreed to a CEASEFIRE.”

Vice President JD Vance to head US delegation at Iran peace talks in Pakistan
Al Arabiya English/08 April/2026
US Vice President JD Vance will lead peace talks with Iran, the White House said on Wednesday, after President Donald Trump suggested that Vance might not go to Pakistan this weekend due to security concerns. Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner will go to Islamabad for the talks, the White House announced.“We’ll have Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, JD —maybe JD, I don’t know,” the US president said in an interview with the New York Post. “There’s a question of safety, security,” Trump added. Nevertheless, Trump said he expects the talks in Pakistan to take place “very soon.”This comes on the heels of Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that a two-week ceasefire was agreed after a request from Islamabad.
Lebanon not included
The fragile ceasefire, less than 24 hours in, seemed to teeter on the verge of collapse following a massive Israeli bombing against what it said were over 100 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
Beirut said there were hundreds of civilian casualties, and hospitals were being flooded and requesting urgent blood donations.Iran then said it would reblock the Strait of Hormuz due to the Israeli attacks, which Tehran said violated the ceasefire. Pakistan said Lebanon was included, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Lebanon was not.Trump echoed Netanyahu later on Wednesday, saying that it was not included due to Hezbollah. “That’s a separate skirmish,” he told PBS. “Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire and that has been relayed to all parties involved in the ceasefire,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later said.

Iran threatens ships attempting Hormuz transit without permission, shipping sources say
Al Arabiya English/08 April/2026
Iran has threatened to destroy ships attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz without permission, less than 24 hours into the ceasefire, signaling the vital waterway remains effectively closed, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing shipping sources. “Any vessel trying to travel into the sea... will be targeted and destroyed,” the message said. Iran’s state-affiliated Fars news agency said the movement of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz had been suspended, citing Israeli strikes on Lebanon. Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, even as the Iran-aligned group paused attacks on northern Israel and Israeli troops in Lebanon under a two-week US-Iran ceasefire. Iran is considering strikes against Israel “amid its violation of the temporary ceasefire in Lebanon,” Fars reported, citing an unnamed official. Tasnim, another Iranian state-linked news agency, also reported, citing an “informed source,” that Iran will withdraw from the ceasefire agreement if attacks on Lebanon continue. Pakistan’s prime minister called for “restraint” and to respect the ceasefire deal after the massive Israeli attacks inside Lebanon along with several drone attacks on Gulf countries. “Violations of ceasefire have been reported at few places across the conflict zone which undermine the spirit of peace process,” Shehbaz Sharif said in a post on X.“I earnestly and sincerely urge all parties to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire for two weeks, as agreed upon, so that diplomacy can take a lead role towards peaceful settlement of the conflict,” he added.

Netanyahu says Israel ready to 'return to battle at any moment' against Iran
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel remains prepared to confront Iran if necessary, despite a truce reached between the United States and Iran. "Let me be clear: We still have objectives to complete, and we will achieve them -- either through agreement or through renewed fighting," Netanyahu said in a televised statement. "We are prepared to return to combat at any moment required. Our finger remains on the trigger. This is not the end of the campaign, but a step along the way to achieving all our objectives.""Iran enters this pause battered, weaker than ever."
Netanyahu also hit back at opposition leaders who chastised him for agreeing to the truce before Israel achieved its objectives in the war. As you know, last night a temporary two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran came into effect, in full coordination with Israel," Netanyahu said in a televised statement."No, we were not surprised at the last moment," he said. Israel's main opposition figure Yair Lapid called the truce a "diplomatic disaster" for Israel, saying Netanyahu had failed to achieve the country's goals. etanyahu had set the elimination or at least severe degradation of Iran's nuclear programme as a central goal of the war, describing it as an "existential threat" to Israel.He had also called to degrade Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, weaken or potentially topple the Iranian regime and curb Tehran's regional influence by targeting its network of allied groups.
War's achievements
In his televised statement, Netanyahu listed the war's achievements. "We destroyed not only existing missiles, but also the factories that produce them. Iran is now firing what remains in its stockpile and that stockpile is steadily dwindling," he said. "We have severely damaged Iran's nuclear programme, destroying critical infrastructure and centrifuge facilities," he said, adding that Israel would ensure that the enriched uranium is removed from Iran. We have crippled the financial and weapons production networks of the Revolutionary Guards," he said, adding that the campaign had also hit Iran's steel plants, petrochemical complexes and transport infrastructure. "We have dealt a severe blow to the regime’s apparatus of repression. We have eliminated thousands of its operatives and demonstrated that we can reach them anywhere," the premier said. etanyahu also hailed Israel's cooperation with the United States in the war.
"Together, we launched a historic operation -- the largest the Middle East has ever seen," he said."Such a partnership between Israel and the United States against our greatest enemy is also unprecedented."Netanyahu, meanwhile, said the campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon would continue, saying he had insisted that the ceasefire with Iran would not include the Lebanese armed group. We continue to strike it with force," he said. "Today, we dealt Hezbollah its most severe blow since the pager attacks — striking one hundred targets in 10 minutes, in areas it believed were immune," he said, referring to a major 2024 operation against Hezbollah involving pager bombs. e have created security zones deep beyond our borders -- in Lebanon, in Syria, and in Gaza, where we now control more than half the strip and are choking Hamas from all sides."Late on Wednesday, the military said that it continues to pursue the goal of "disarming" Hezbollah.

US says Trump will continue to discuss Lebanon with Netanyahu
Agence France Presse/08 April/2026
U.S. President Donald Trump will continue to discuss with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the idea of including Lebanon in an Iran war ceasefire deal, his spokeswoman said Wednesday. "This will continue to be discussed, I am sure, between the president and Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu, the United States and Israel and all of the parties involved," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Iran speaker says US ceasefire 'unreasonable' after 'repeated violations'
Naharnet/08 April/2026
Iran's parliament speaker said Wednesday that a ceasefire and talks with the United States were "unreasonable" because of violations of Tehran's 10-point truce plan, including continued attacks in Lebanon, a drone entering Iranian airspace and a denial of the country's right to enrichment.
"The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments -- a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a statement posted on X, listing three violations of the Iranian proposal."Now, the very 'workable basis on which to negotiate' has been openly and clearly violated, even before the negotiations began. In such (a) situation, a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations is unreasonable."

Iran says 3 clauses of ceasefire proposal have been violated ahead of negotiations
Reuters/08 April/2026
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday that three key clauses of a 10-point proposal were violated before negotiations set to start on Friday in Pakistan, adding that in such a situation, a bilateral ceasefire or negotiations were unreasonable.
The breaches included the violation of a ceasefire in Lebanon, the entry of an “intruding drone” into Iranian airspace and the denial of Iran’s right to uranium enrichment, he said in a post on X. Pakistani sources said it would be Ghalibaf along with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi who will head to Islamabad for talks with the United States.

Report: Iran ceasefire clouded by confusion, contradictions
Naharnet/08 April/2026
The U.S., Israel and Iran agree that a ceasefire is now in effect, but they're contradicting each other and themselves in terms of what's actually been agreed and what happens now, U.S. news portal Axios reported on Wednesday. Those differences will have to be reconciled at the negotiating table, beginning on Friday in Islamabad. One thing everyone agrees on is that there is no guarantee this war is actually over. U.S. President Donald Trump's key condition for a ceasefire was the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but we still don't know just how "open" it will be or whether Iran will charge ships to pass through. Meanwhile, the Pakistani mediators announced that the ceasefire also applied in Lebanon. Israel says it doesn't, and has intensified its attacks. Attacks have also taken place on oil facilities in Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait in the first 12 hours since the ceasefire came into force. Pakistan's prime minister warned that they "undermine the spirit of peace process."Talks are expected in Islamabad on Friday, but the parties have offered contradictory statements about the basis on which they are negotiating. The fighting has reduced significantly, but not ended entirely. Iran claimed its missile and drone attacks on Israel and oil facilities in the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia after the ceasefire was announced were in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, including on an oil refinery. A U.S. defense official claimed the strike on the Iranian refinery wasn't conducted by the U.S. or Israel. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed at a press conference on Wednesday that the attacks continued because of poor command and control in Iran, with some commanders out of reach due to communications issues. It takes time for a ceasefire to take hold. We think it will," he said. oon after Trump declared on Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz would now be open, Iran's foreign minister issued a much more cautious statement: Ships that wanted to pass through would need to coordinate with Iran's military, and there would be limitations on the number. Iranian media cited officials as saying ships would need to pay a toll, a scenario that has been worrying officials around the world for weeks.Hegseth said that "what we agreed is that the strait is opened."rump added to the confusion, telling ABC's Jon Karl that the U.S. and Iran might jointly operate a toll system in the strait.
Trump surprised some of his hawkish allies by declaring in his statement accepting the ceasefire that Iran's list of 10 conditions for ending the war were a "workable basis on which to negotiate."
Those conditions included Iran controlling the strait, retaining the right to enrich uranium, having all sanctions lifted and receiving compensation for the war, according to a version published by Iran's security council. .S. Vice President JD Vance claimed Wednesday that some members of the Iranian regime "are lying" about what's been agreed. On Wednesday, Trump published a post on Truth Social that didn't refer to the Iranian ten points, but rather to the U.S. 15-point proposal for negotiations — which Iran previously rejected. He claimed there was agreement on many of them. Trump made clear the U.S. wouldn't accept Iran's right to enrich and won't allow Iran to have highly enriched uranium stockpile. There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried... Nuclear 'Dust,'" he wrote, referring to Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.Trump also said that the U.S. would discuss "Tariff and Sanctions relief" with Iran during the negotiations.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Republican hawks like Sen. Lindsey Graham are highly skeptical of the agreement and concerned about what concessions might be on the table.
Graham took to X to send a shot across the bow to U.S. negotiators ahead of the meeting on Friday. The supposed negotiating document, in my view, has some troubling aspects, but time will tell. I look forward to the architects of this proposal, the Vice President and others, coming forward to Congress and explaining how a negotiated deal meets our national security objectives in Iran," he wrote.Meanwhile, Netanyahu rejected the claims from Pakistan and Iran that the ceasefire also applied to Lebanon.
According the the Lebanese Red Cross, more than 80 people have been killed and 200 wounded. Iranian officials called that a violation and warned it could compromise the ceasefire and lead to the shutting down of the strait. oint Chiefs Chairman Gen. General Dan Caine defined the ceasefire in a press conference on Wednesday as "a pause" and stressed the U.S. military is ready to resume combat. We will be hanging around to make sure Iran complies... We are prepared to restart in a moment's notice," Hegseth said. he Iranians sent out the same message on Wednesday. "We are with our hand on the trigger, ready to respond to any attack with more force," the IRGC said in a statement. ttention will shift to Islamabad on Friday, with Vice President Vance likely to lead the U.S. negotiating team. he confusion over big picture agreements like opening the strait shows how challenging those negotiations will be.
The parties are far apart on core issues concerning money for Iran's rebuilding, eliminating its nuclear weapons program, and ending the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

UAE wants further clarification on US-Iran ceasefire deal
Al Arabiya English/08 April/2026
The UAE said on Wednesday that it was seeking further clarification on the US-Iran ceasefire deal, stressing the need for a “comprehensive and sustained approach” to address all of the Iranian threats.“The United Arab Emirates is closely following the announcement by US President Donald Trump regarding the two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran, and is seeking further clarification on the agreement’s provisions to ensure Iran’s full commitment to an immediate cessation of all hostilities in the region and the complete and unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz,” Director of Strategic Communications at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs Afra Al Hameli said. In a post on X citing a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Al Hameli said there was a need for Iran to be held accountable “and fully liable” for damages and reparations following its attacks over the last 40 days on infrastructure, energy facilities, and civilian sites across the Gulf. Against the UAE, she said Iran launched 2,819 ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones. For its part, Abu Dhabi wants to see a “comprehensive and sustained approach that addresses all Iranian threats, including the nuclear program, ballistic missile program, and its support for proxies and terror groups.
Al Hameli said the UAE wanted to ensure the deal ends threats to freedom of navigation and Iran’s economic warfare and piracy in the Strait of Hormuz. “The Ministry expressed hope for achieving sustainable peace for all countries in the region,” she added. Al Hameli also reaffirmed that the UAE is not a party to the ongoing war and had undertaken “intensive diplomatic efforts to prevent its outbreak, including through bilateral channels and initiatives within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).”

Saudi Crown Prince MBS welcomes UK PM Starmer
Al Arabiya English/09 April/2026
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the Kingdom on Wednesday night.The pair met in Jeddah, according to the Saudi Press Agency.Starmer has repeatedly condemned Iran’s attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent months. London said Starmer would discuss diplomatic efforts to “support and uphold the [US-Iran] ceasefire in order to bring about a lasting resolution to the conflict and protect the UK and global economy from further threats.”Starmer traveled to Saudi capital of Riyadh in December 2024, pledging to increase ties between the two nations and to increase British engagement in the Middle East.

Bahrain reopens airspace after Mideast war closure
Al Arabiya English/08 April/2026
Bahrain reopened its airspace on Wednesday, the country’s state news agency reported. The announcement came hours after a ceasefire announcement between the US and Iran.
The gulf nation had temporary closed its airspace after war broke out in the region as a result of joint US-Israel strikes on Iran. The civil aviation authority emphasized its commitment to ensuring smooth air traffic operation in accordance with safety standards, Bahrain News Agency reported.

Democrats introduce impeachment articles against Trump and Hegseth as nearly 100 lawmakers call for 25th Amendment
Alex Woodward/The Independent/April 8, 2026
Democratic members of Congress have filed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth while nearly 100 congressional Democrats are calling for the president’s removal from office over his threats to Iran.Rep. John Larson of Connecticut has filed 13 articles of impeachment against Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors, including the president’s “criminal lawlessness” that has “invited blowback against the United States and its citizens risking 9/11 2.0.” The congressman accuses Trump of a “serial usurpation of the congressional war power” and “commission of murder, war crimes and piracy” with attacks in Iran, Venezuela and in international waters against alleged drug-running boats and elsewhere.His proposal also accuses the president of illegally militarizing law enforcement and surging immigration officers into U.S. cities to unlawfully detain and deport “citizens or immigrants based significantly on race or ethnicity or political opposition.”“Donald Trump has blown past every requirement to be removed from office. And it’s getting worse,” Larson said in a statement. “His illegal war in Iran is not only driving up prices for American families — it has cost American lives,” he added. “He’s becoming more unstable by the day.”The congressman’s proposal was drafted by consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader and constitutional law scholar Bruce Fein, who called the war “flagrantly unconstitutional” in The American Conservative this week.
“Trump’s attack on Iran in partnership with Israel was not in self-defense. It is a criminal war of aggression, plain and simple, including a violation of the United Nations Charter,” wrote Fein as he urged Congress to “do its job” and swiftly block spending and troop deployment. White House spokesman Davis Ingle called Larson’s proposal “pathetic.”“Democrats have been talking about impeaching President Trump since before he was even sworn into office,” he told The Independent. “The Democrats in Congress are deranged, weak, and ineffective, which is why their approval ratings are at historic lows.”
Larson’s articles of impeachment follow similar legislation targeting Hegseth.
The proposal from Democratic Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, who is the daughter of Iranian immigrants and the first Democratic member of Congress of Iranian descent, accuses Hegseth of “repeatedly violating his oath of office and his duty to the Constitution.”
“Only Congress has the power to declare war, not a rogue president or his lackeys,” she said in a statement. “Hegseth’s reckless endangerment of U.S. servicemembers and repeated war crimes, including bombing a girls’ school in Minab, Iran and willfully targeting civilian infrastructure, are grounds for impeachment and removal from office.” On Tuesday, less than two hours before his self-imposed deadline to begin launching attacks that he said would destroy a “whole civilization,” the president announced a two-week pause in fighting while negotiations with Iran continue.
In an Easter message, Trump told Iran to “Open the F****’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said Monday.The next morning, he wrote: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”His threats drew a wave of demands from congressional Democrats for the Trump administration to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president from office.
Several influential right-wing personalities — including Alex Jones, Candace Owens and Marjorie Taylor Green — also called on the administration to invoke the 25th Amendment, while Tucker Carlson advised military officials to reject the president’s plans.
At least 87 Democratic members of Congress, including several senators, publicly demanded Trump’s removal, according to The Independent’s review of their statements. “Donald Trump's instability is more clear and dangerous than ever,” wrote former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “If the Cabinet is not willing to invoke the 25th Amendment and restore sanity, Republicans must reconvene the Congress to end this war.”The 25th Amendment, which provides for the line of presidential succession, allows for the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare the president unfit to serve.Rep. Jasmine Crocket wrote a letter to Vice President JD Vance, claiming that the president is “deranged, likely suffering from dementia, and has now brought the United States to the precipice of committing one of the largest war crimes in modern history.”“The United States now stands isolated as the world awaits whether America will brazenly commit genocide or whether the Vice President, the Cabinet, and the Congress will put an end to the chaos caused by a frail and likely demented American president,” she wrote. The proposals are unlikely to go anywhere under the current Republican-controlled Congress, and the president has built his cabinet around ironclad allegiance to him. Democratic leadership did not call on their Republican counterparts this week to bring lawmakers back to the Capitol to pass a war powers resolution to curb the president’s actions, and GOP leadership in the House and Senate are unlikely to do so when they return. But Trump, who was impeached twice in his first administration, has publicly mused about his potential impeachment if Republicans lose control of both chambers after midterm elections this fall.

Will shipping in the strait of Hormuz – and oil prices – return to normal?
Joanna Partridge and Jillian Ambrose/The Guardian/April 8, 2026
The deal is already looking shaky, with Iran arguing late on Wednesday that Israel’s attacks on Lebanon breach it and state media claiming that the key waterway had again been closed.
Even if the temporary detente between White House and Tehran manages to hold and hundreds of tankers stranded in the Gulf start to transit once more, analysts fear that will not be enough to return the flow of oil, gas, chemicals and other vital items to pre-crisis levels.
How many ships remain in the Gulf?
An estimated 2,000 vessels – with about 20,000 seafarers onboard – have been trapped in the Gulf since the outbreak of the conflict, according to the UN. They include oil and gas tankers, bulk carriers and cargo ships as well as six tourist cruise liners.
Unable to pass through the strait to continue their journeys, most have remained anchored for almost six weeks, in some cases with dwindling supplies of food and water for their crews.
When will ship transits through the strait of Hormuz resume? In the hours after the ceasefire announcement, there was not an immediate increase in the number of vessels passing through the strait. A trickle of traffic has passed through in recent weeks – on most days only single digits, a tiny percentage of the average of 140 ships each day before the war.
Interactive
Shipping analysts and owners have cautioned that even a temporary ceasefire does not provide a sufficient guarantee that it is safe to make the passage, particularly because Iran’s foreign minister has stated that transit will be under Iranian military management.
What needs to happen for more ships to start using the strait?Many questions remain for shipowners and their captains over whether it is safe. Iran has indicated it intends to continue operating the traffic control system it has put in place in the strait in recent weeks. This has included granting approval to “non-hostile vessels” – those determined as not having links to the US or Israel – and has required the sharing of large amounts of information on ownership, operator, cargo and previous voyages. As part of a clearance process described by analysts as “fairly unsophisticated”, Iranian officials standing on Larak Island in the north of the strait have used binoculars to check the names of passing ships and give approval to proceed. To allow for visual verification, Tehran has tried to reroute ships to a more northerly corridor close to its coastline and away from traditional shipping lanes. However, this new route places even more constraints on an already congested waterway and could make it difficult for high numbers of ships to pass. A successful ceasefire could allow Iran and Oman to charge fees of up to $2m (£1.5m) a ship to pass through the strait. The requirement has been labelled “Tehran’s tollbooth” by shipping analysts at Lloyd’s List. It would allow Iran to continue to exercise control but it is unclear whether all shipowners would be willing to pay. Fully loaded vessels are expected to be among the first to leave, rather than those that are empty and have not been able to reload. Shipping analysts predict operators will gain confidence once a ship owned by a large European company has safely made the crossing. However, they caution that it is a different matter for empty ships to decide to enter the strait to load up at the region’s ports, and it is unclear when this may start to happen.
What does this mean for global energy supplies?
Energy markets have fallen sharply on the hope that millions of barrels of crude oil and gas trapped in the Gulf could soon help to relieve a crisis that the International Energy Agency has said is more serious than the energy flashpoints in 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined.
But the disruption has been compounded by the forced shutdown of oil and gas production across the Gulf as storage facilities reached capacity. In addition, many key energy production sites have been damaged by drone attacks.
Experts have said it could take months or years to fully restore the Gulf’s energy production. Qatar has said the significant damage sustained at its main production hub for liquified natural gas (LNG) after an Iranian strike reduced its capacity by 17%. Officials predicted it could take between three and five years to repair. Wood Mackenzie, an international oil consultancy, assumes that if Qatar begins restarting its remaining LNG capacity next month, it would take until the end of August for its undamaged capacity to return to service. “It is unclear if QatarEnergy would consider doing this during a ceasefire, however,” said Tom Marzec-Manser, a gas analyst at the company. The Gulf refineries that provide more than half of Europe’s jet fuel have also been damaged, and could take months to return to normal. Willie Walsh, the director general of Iata, which represents the airline industry, told reporters in Singapore that even if the strait of Hormuz were to remain open, “it will still take a period of months to get back to where supply needs to be, given the disruption to the refining capacity in the Middle East”.
So can we expect energy market prices to fall? Only if the ceasefire holds, and even then not by much, and perhaps not for long. Oil and gas markets reacted with relief to initial reports of a ceasefire, with a sharp slump in global wholesale prices. But analysts have predicted prices could begin to drift higher again as the global energy supply squeeze intensifies in May and June. The international crude benchmark opened at just below $95 (£71) a barrel on Wednesday morning, down from about $110 a barrel the day before, while European gas prices opened almost 20% lower at under €43 (£37) per MWh. These prices are still well above pre-crisis levels, meaning higher costs in the global economy. There are particular concerns about jet fuel prices that normally move in tandem with oil prices, but which have more than doubled since the Iran conflict.
Interactive
Traders are also expected to price in a continuing “geopolitical risk premium” to reflect uncertainty over whether the ceasefire will hold. This will keep energy market prices significantly higher than before the conflict, according to Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil, part of the Icap group. “Consequently, a return to sub-$70 levels is highly improbable, at least over the next year or two,” he said. When will the Gulf’s oil and gas exports return to normal?
Maybe never. Even if the strait remains open and production and refining capacity is restored to normal, many countries will be rethinking their approach to energy because of the crisis. In Asia, in particular, the Gulf crisis has exposed many countries to the risk of relying too heavily on a single region for energy supplies, with many likely to diversify their sources in the future. For those relying on the Gulf for future energy supplies, there could be higher costs if Iran extracts transit fees from tankers over the long term, and a greater risk premium to pay tanker operators to use this route. This means Gulf imports may be reduced in favour of oil and gas producers in the Americas, for example. There is likely to be a greater interest in nuclear power and renewable energy sources too, which, combined with a shift to electrified transport and greener industry, could help countries to cut their reliance on fossil fuels entirely.
Shipping analysts caution that it can take a long time for maritime companies to regain the confidence to return to dangerous routes. Few commercial shipping operators had returned to the Red Sea by January, a year after Houthi rebels in Yemen said they had stopped targeting ships. They have preferred the longer and more expensive – but more predictable – route around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa.

UN: Over 1,000 aid workers have been killed in the past 3 years, nearly triple the previous 3 years
EDITH M. LEDERER/April 8, 2026
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — More than 1,000 humanitarian workers have been killed across the globe in the past three years, nearly triple the death count in the previous three years, the U.N. said Wednesday. “This is not an accidental escalation — it is the collapse of protection,” U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the U.N. Security Council. Of the more than 1,010 humanitarian workers killed from 2023 to 2025, he said, more than 560 were in Gaza and the West Bank, 130 in Sudan, 60 in South Sudan, 25 in Ukraine and 25 in Congo. That compares with 377 killed from 2020 to 2022. The surge in deaths occurred during the war between Israel and Hamas, which began in October 2023. A ceasefire has been in effect since October 2025, although shootings and airstrikes have persisted. Last year alone, Fletcher said, at least 326 aid workers were recorded as killed in 21 countries. In 2024, a record 383 were killed in global hotspots while distributing food, water, shelter and medicine.“They died in clearly marked convoys and on missions coordinated directly with authorities," the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said. The Security Council was meeting on a resolution it adopted in May 2024 that strongly condemned attacks on humanitarian workers and U.N. personnel and demanded that all combatants protect them in accordance with international law. Fletcher asked the 15 members of the U.N.’s most powerful body if the killings were because international law “is no longer convenient" or because “it is more important to protect those designing, selling, supplying and firing lethal weapons?”“Or is it because member states see these numbers as collateral damage, part of the fog of war? Or worse, are we now seen as legitimate targets?” he asked. “Perhaps the most chilling question: If these deaths were ‘preventable’, why then were they not prevented?”Fletcher said humanitarian staff are not only being killed but “restricted, penalized and delegitimized” — and told where they can't go and whom they can't help.In Yemen, as a prime example, 73 U.N. staff and dozens of others working for nongovernmental organizations are being arbitrarily detained by Houthi rebels, Fletcher said. In Afghanistan, female humanitarian staff are banned from doing their jobs, he said. In Gaza, Israel restricts the U.N. and other international organizations, and in Ukraine drone attacks have forced aid workers back from the front line.
“These trends, alongside the collapse in funding for our lifesaving work, are a symptom of a lawless, bellicose, selfish and violent world,” Fletcher said. He challenged the U.N.’s 193 member nations to uphold the 2024 resolution’s demands to protect humanitarian workers and ensure accountability for crimes against them.He challenged the U.N.’s 193 member nations to uphold the 2024 resolution’s demands to protect humanitarian workers and ensure accountability for crimes against them.laiming there were numerous reports of the terms that were false.

Links to several television channels and newspapers
Asharq Al-Awsat Newspaper
https://aawsat.com/
National News Agency
https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar
Al Arabiya/Arabic
https://www.alarabiya.net/
Sky News
https://www.youtube.com/@SkyNewsArabia
Nidaa Al Watan
https://www.nidaalwatan.com/
Al Markazia
https://www.nidaalwatan.com/
Al Hadath
https://www.youtube.com/@AlHadath
Independent Arabia
https://www.independentarabia.com/

The Latest LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on April 08-09/2026
Iran's Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf Is No Moderate ...Why Does the West Keep Misreading Islamic Power Structures?
Pierre Rehov/Gatestone Institute/April 08/2026
The rulers of the Middle East learned long ago -- from the United States falling for their Charlie Brown football routine every time -- how to outwit the West or outlast it.
With the Gaza Strip, US President Donald J. Trump sets up a "Board of Peace" ostensibly to oversee the permanent disarmament of Hamas, only to pack it with Islamists dedicated to waging war, who have no interest in seeing any kind of peace, and then turns his attention elsewhere while Hamas comfortably builds up its power base again.
Meanwhile, to the presumed delight of both Erdogan and Mohammed bin Salman, al-Sharaa has been using his "chance at greatness" to unobstructedly massacre Christians, Druze, Kurds and Alawites throughout Syria.
In Iran, it looks as if Trump might be about to repeat these catastrophes by allowing Mohammad Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran's Majlis (parliament) and a longtime hardline Islamist, to continue tormenting Iran's betrayed citizens. If "HELP IS ON ITS WAY," as Trump promised, this sure is not it.
Ghalibaf is not a moderate. Ghalibaf has never been a moderate.... His entire career path runs directly in the opposite direction of anyone diverging from the regime.
The illusion of his "pragmatism," as with Syria's al-Sharaa, has been carefully cultivated, both domestically and abroad.... He speaks of fighting corruption, modernization and administrative reform. For Western observers eager to identify "moderates" inside the Iranian system, these "assurances" are often sufficient. Yet this is precisely where the misunderstanding begins.
The familiar Western narrative of "moderates versus hardliners" within the regime reflects Western hopes, not Iranian reality.
The Islamic Republic of Iran does not produce moderates in the Western sense. It produces highly effective operatives. Ghalibaf is among its most accomplished. Mistaking expediency for moderation, however, is exactly the kind of Western error that regimes such as Iran's have learned to exploit with consistency – and the obliging complicity of the West.
Mohammad Ghalibaf is not a moderate. Ghalibaf has never been a moderate. He is a product of the Islamic Republic of Iran in its purest form — a man forged inside the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shaped by its doctrines, promoted through its networks, and sustained by its system of power.
Russia, China and the Middle East are theaters where Western strategic illusions tend to erode too slowly -- almost politely -- until reality forces its way through.
The rulers of the Middle East learned long ago -- from the United States falling for their Charlie Brown football routine every time -- how to outwit the West or outlast it.
With the Gaza Strip, US President Donald J. Trump sets up a "Board of Peace" ostensibly to oversee the permanent disarmament of Hamas, only to pack it with Islamists dedicated to waging war, who have no interest in seeing any kind of peace, and then turns his attention elsewhere while Hamas comfortably builds up its power base again.
In Syria, when Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman strongly suggested in May 2025 that Trump recognize Ahmed al-Sharaa -- an al-Qaeda terrorist leader with a US $10 million bounty on his head -- as president of Syria, Trump replied, with a gratifying flash of skepticism:
"[A]fter discussing the situation in Syria with the Crown Prince, your Crown Prince, and also with President Erdogan of Turkey who called me the other day and asked for a very similar thing... I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness. Oh, what I'd do for the Crown Prince."
Meanwhile, to the presumed delight of both Erdogan and Mohammed bin Salman, al-Sharaa has been using his "chance at greatness" to unobstructedly massacre Christians, Druze, Kurds and Alawites throughout Syria.
Turkish journalist Uzay Bulut recently noted:
"Following al-Sharaa's December 2024 seizure of power in Syria, persecution of religious minorities, including Christians, Druze and Alawites, has skyrocketed as the country undergoes a process of radical Islamization....
"U.S. President Donald J. Trump should never have allowed HTS and al-Sharaa – who justifiably had a $10 million bounty placed on his head by the U.S. State Department – to use Syria to entrench Sunni Islam by jihad (holy war). Al-Sharaa should be replaced at once."
In Iran, it looks as if Trump might be about to repeat these catastrophes by allowing Mohammad Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran's Majlis (parliament) and a longtime hardline Islamist, to continue tormenting Iran's betrayed citizens. If "HELP IS ON ITS WAY," as Trump promised, this sure is not it.
Iran rarely bothers with subtlety. It operates through interlocking religious, military and political layers, yet the coherence of its system remains absolute. Once again, Washington risks misreading that coherence by projecting onto the regime internal factional distinctions that simply do not exist.
The latest case is almost textbook: The recurring suggestion, echoed in some of Trump's pronouncements and in certain Western analyses, that Ghalibaf represents a form of "moderation" within Iran's regime is not merely inaccurate; it is wildly misleading. It reflects the West's persistent error of confusing tactical variations with genuine ideological divergence, and mistaking longtime regime insiders for potential reformers.
Ghalibaf is not a moderate. Ghalibaf has never been a moderate. He is a product of the Islamic Republic of Iran in its purest form — a man forged inside the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shaped by its doctrines, promoted through its networks, and sustained by its system of power. His entire career path runs directly in the opposite direction of anyone diverging from the regime. He is a military officer who entered politics as an extension of the regime's coercive apparatus.
Appointed by then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Ghalibaf commanded the IRGC's Aerospace Force from 1997 to 2000. He then served as chief of Iran's national police (Law Enforcement Command) from 2000 to 2005, a period that included the brutal suppression of the 1999 student protests. From 2005 to 2017 he was mayor of Tehran. He was elected to the Majlis in 2020 and chosen as speaker on May 28, 2020 — an office to which he has been repeatedly re-elected, most recently in May 2024.
Each of these positions represents not a departure from hard power, but a different expression of it. In Iran, there is no clean separation between military and political authority — only continuity. Ghalibaf embodies exactly that.
The illusion of his "pragmatism," as with Syria's al-Sharaa, has been carefully cultivated, both domestically and abroad. Compared to more overtly ideological figures, Ghalibaf sometimes adopts the language of efficiency, governance and economic management. He speaks of fighting corruption, modernization and administrative reform. For Western observers eager to identify "moderates" inside the Iranian system, these "assurances" are often sufficient. Yet this is precisely where the misunderstanding begins.
In the Iranian political lexicon, "pragmatism" does not mean moderation in the Western sense or any willingness to compromise on the regime's core principles. It means the operational skill to manage power effectively while keeping the ideological core intact. Ghalibaf is not softening the regime — he is optimizing its operations. His record does not leave much ambiguity.
As a senior IRGC figure, he belonged to the institution responsible for projecting Iranian power abroad through proxy militias and asymmetric warfare. As police chief, he oversaw security forces during periods of domestic unrest, contributing to the machinery that suppresses dissent with efficiency and, when necessary, force. Allegations of corruption have dogged him for years — not as isolated scandals, but as symptoms of how power circulates in the system through patronage, loyalty and control of economic networks linked to the security apparatus.
None of this places him in the margins. It places him at the center. His role as Majlis speaker since 2020 only reinforces this reality. In Western parliamentary systems, legislative leadership may signal pluralism and institutional independence. In Iran, the Majlis operates within strict boundaries set by the Supreme Leader and enforced by the Guardian Council, which vets candidates for the Majlis and reviews legislation for compatibility with Islamic law and the constitution. The speaker is not a counterweight to the system. He is one of its key instruments — tasked with managing the legislative expression of strategic priorities, maintaining internal cohesion, and preserving the façade of "elected" governance.
Amid the conflict with Israel and the United States, Ghalibaf has emerged as a central figure in shaping the regime's internal and external messaging. On March 23, 2026, he publicly rejected any notion of direct negotiations with Washington, dismissing reports of talks as "fake news" intended "to manipulate the financial and oil markets and to escape the quagmire in which America and Israel are trapped."
These statements were not signs of independence so much as exquisitely aligned with the regime's strategic posture: resistance, denial of vulnerability, and refusal to appear to negotiate under pressure. That is not the language of a moderate seeking de-escalation. It is the calibrated response of a system that understands the value of controlled confrontation.
Trump's foreign policy often focuses on identifying points of leverage — figures within adversarial systems who might respond to pressure, incentives or transactional deals. In some contexts, this approach can produce results. It requires, however, accurately identifying who actually holds autonomous decision-making power.
In Iran, that power does not reside in the parliament or its speaker. It resides with the Supreme Leader – currently the son of Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, who is reportedly badly wounded -- or his inner circle and the security apparatus that supports the system. Figures such as Ghalibaf are not alternative centers of authority. They are extensions of the same core.
Treating Ghalibaf as a potential interlocutor and possible future leader — or worse, as a supposedly moderating influence — risks engaging with the regime in ways it has mastered for decades: presenting the appearance of diversity while preserving absolute unity. Tehran has long perfected this duality — showing multiple faces to the outside world while ensuring that all meaningful decisions converge on the same ideological objectives. The familiar Western narrative of "moderates versus hardliners" within the regime reflects Western hopes, not Iranian reality.
Internal differences certainly exist within the regime, but they concern methods, timing and priorities — not ultimate goals. The preservation of the Islamic Republic, its influence across the Middle East, its confrontation with Israel, and its long-term challenge to American presence in the region remain constants. Ghalibaf operates entirely within this framework. He does not question it; he advances it.
Misreading figures like Ghalibaf can lead to policy miscalculations: overestimating prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough, underestimating the regime's cohesion, and misinterpreting the signals it sends. When Tehran speaks through Ghalibaf, it is not testing moderation. It is carefully reinforcing its position, probing reactions, and preserving its future. Every statement is deliberate.
Europe, which has repeatedly sought to engage perceived "moderates" in Iran, should recognize this pattern from years of negotiations followed by repeated breakdowns. Changes in tone have rarely produced changes in behavior. For Washington, any analysis of exploitable internal divisions needs to be grounded in reality, not in wishful thinking.
This tendency extends beyond Iran. Western strategic culture often searches for "reasonable" counterparts inside adversarial systems — hoping that behind the rhetoric lie actors who "think like us" and can be persuaded or transformed. Sometimes this approach works. In Iran's current power structure, it is misplaced.
Ghalibaf is not a bridge to the West. He is not a reformer-in-waiting. He is not a pragmatic counterweight to ideological hardliners. He is one of them — more disciplined in his language and polished in presentation, but fully aligned in substance. Labeling him a moderate is not only wrong. It unintentionally lends credibility to the regime's own narrative.
Trump is right to approach Iran from a position of strength and to reject illusions of easy compromise. But strength demands being able, with clarity, to identify the nature of the actors involved. Ghalibaf, unfortunately, does not represent an opening. He represents continuity of the same system, the same objectives, and the same willingness to wield power, internally and externally, to ensure his own and the regime's survival.
The Islamic Republic of Iran does not produce moderates in the Western sense. It produces highly effective operatives. Ghalibaf is among its most accomplished. Mistaking expediency for moderation, however, is exactly the kind of Western error that regimes such as Iran's have learned to exploit with consistency – and the obliging complicity of the West.
Pierre Rehov, who holds a law degree from Paris-Assas, is a French reporter, novelist and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of six novels, including "Beyond Red Lines", "The Third Testament" and "Red Eden", translated from French. His latest essay on the aftermath of the October 7 massacre " 7 octobre - La riposte " became a bestseller in France. As a filmmaker, he has produced and directed 17 documentaries, many photographed at high risk in Middle Eastern war zones, and focusing on terrorism, media bias, and the persecution of Christians. His latest documentary, "Pogrom(s)" highlights the context of ancient Jew hatred within Muslim civilization as the main force behind the October 7 massacre.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22410/ghalibaf-is-no-moderate
© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

Iraq Is at Another Crossroads with Iran-Backed Militias—and Washington
David Schenker/The Washington Institute/April 08/2026
Although U.S. officials should keep pushing Baghdad to move against these groups, the Iran war has demonstrated the need to seek other avenues of pressure and recalibrate the bilateral relationship.
On March 28, Iran-backed militias in Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces launched a drone attack on the home of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Nechirvan Barzani in Dohuk, one of hundreds of strikes targeting Iraqi Kurds since the start of the Iran war. These militias have also joined their Iranian patrons in launching dozens of missile and drone salvos at other targets in Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and Syria over the past month, including U.S military and diplomatic facilities, energy infrastructure, and government security installations. Amid the fighting, Kataib Hezbollah (KH)—a leading U.S.-designated terrorist group that receives Iraqi government funding as part of the PMF—issued an ultimatum on March 18 demanding that the United States withdraw its personnel and shutter the embassy in Baghdad within five days, later extending this deadline as the regional crisis continued to develop.
In response, Baghdad has condemned the attacks on its territory but taken few if any discernible steps to prevent further violence or confront the perpetrators, most of whom share KH’s profile as U.S.-designated terrorist groups backed by Iran. As with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Tehran is leveraging its PMF proxies to drag Iraq into the war.
For its part, the United States has been conducting a concerted air campaign targeting PMF personnel and assets, and these strikes will continue for the foreseeable future. After the Iran war concludes, however, Washington will need to recalibrate its relationship with Baghdad to reflect the fact that Iraqi officials have accepted and even supported continued domination of the state by terrorist militias.
New Attacks, Familiar Pattern
Established in 2014 after the Islamic State (IS) routed the Iraqi army and occupied nearly a third of the country, PMF militias—most of them Shia groups—played an important role in regaining that territory alongside the U.S.-led coalition campaign. Yet once Baghdad declared victory against IS in 2017, it did not demobilize the PMF. Today, the militias total more than 238,000 fighters and command an annual government budget of $3.6 billion, divided among seventy-plus factions that include the prominent U.S.-designated terrorist groups Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, and KH. Parties formed by these armed groups also sit in government with Iraq’s ruling Coordination Framework coalition.
Consistent with Iran’s position, the PMF has long opposed the U.S. military presence in Iraq, and in 2019—two years after American forces helped defeat IS—terrorist militias started attacking U.S. bases and diplomatic facilities. Washington repeatedly retaliated, hitting PMF bases and killing dozens of militiamen. Although U.S. strikes resulted in periods of quiet, the militias never fully abandoned their kinetic and political efforts to oust U.S. forces.
When Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, militias launched new flurries of strikes in solidarity with their fellow Iranian proxy in Gaza. Months later, the Biden administration reached an agreement with Baghdad to withdraw the residual U.S. military force originally deployed as part of the anti-IS coalition, with the aim of transitioning to a bilateral contingent by the end of 2026.
PMF attacks on U.S. interests largely abated between 2024 and 2026, but the Iran war precipitated around 300 such incidents, including kamikaze drone and rocket launches against the U.S. embassy, the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, and the U.S. consulate in Erbil. So far, U.S. forces have successfully parried many of these attacks with counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) systems and other assets.
The KRG has taken even heavier fire during the war, suffering more than 500 drone and missile attacks launched by Iran and its Iraqi proxies, some aimed at U.S. facilities, civilian areas, and Kurdish Peshmerga bases. Late last month, for example, an Iranian ballistic missile strike killed six Peshmerga soldiers. In all, attacks in the KRG have killed about ten civilians and wounded nearly five dozen others. Militias have also repeatedly hit the Lanaz oil refinery near Erbil and the Khor Mor natural gas field, interrupting production and causing power blackouts.
The rest of Iraq has not been spared either. On March 16, PMF factions launched explosive-laden drones at the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad, home to six diplomatic missions. Days later, a militia drone strike hit the Iraqi National Intelligence Service headquarters, killing one officer. A KH spokesman justified this attack on his own government by accusing agency officials of treason: “We have information that 100 percent of the Kurdish officers [at INSS]...are linked to [Israel’s] Mossad and the Americans.”
While America Strikes, Baghdad Defers
The Trump administration has answered the eruption of PMF attacks with airstrikes. U.S. operations have attrited key PMF personnel, including the KH military spokesman, the Anbar sector commander, and two Iranian advisors to the militias. American forces also reportedly targeted PMF chair Faleh al-Fayyad at his Mosul residence, though the strike was unsuccessful.
More than a month into the fighting, however, Baghdad has yet to take concrete steps to stem the aggression. On one hand, this inaction may seem understandable because PMF factions have a history of targeting Iraqi government leaders. When asked in a March 22 interview whether Baghdad could control these groups, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein answered, “I don’t believe so...If it becomes a matter of control leading to conflict, I don’t know who holds the balance of military power—the government or [the PMF].”
On the other hand, the caretaker administration led by Mohammad Shia al-Sudani is demonstrating inordinate deference to these groups amid the predictably protracted government formation process that has followed last November’s parliamentary election. After a U.S. strike on a joint PMF-Iraqi military base killed multiple militia personnel, the prime minister reportedly summoned embassy official Joshua Harris to express his dismay. During a subsequent meeting of the national security cabinet—chaired by Sudani and staffed by Shia officials affiliated with the PMF—the militias were authorized to defend themselves against U.S. attacks.
Policy Recommendations
Iraq faced enormous challenges well before the war, and things are worse now. In addition to the stalled government formation process, oil production has been suspended due to the Iran crisis—a major problem in a country where oil sales account for 90 percent of government revenues and 62 percent of the population is employed in the public sector. Previously, more than a year of relative quiet had resulted in some preliminary progress toward attracting foreign direct investment, but Iraq is now being dragged into a war that will likely stymie any further efforts on that front.
Last year, the Trump administration repeatedly pressed Baghdad to disarm Iran-backed militias, and this consistent focus helped normalize discussion of disarmament among Iraqi citizens and officials alike. Yet Sudani’s government did not budge. Ironically, Baghdad has long deferred action against these groups in part because it worries about sparking wider violence, yet the result has been growing militia violence against any Iraqis who oppose their agenda. Increasingly, Iraq resembles Lebanon; if Baghdad does not act soon, Iraq, too, will become a failed state.
While the latest demonstration of Tehran’s dominance over Iraq—and Baghdad’s complicity—might tempt the Trump administration to finally quit the country altogether, that would be ill advised. Instead, Washington should push even harder for Iraqi officials to move against these militias, while also seeking other avenues of pressure in the likely event that Baghdad keeps deferring the issue:
Target Baghdad’s direct funding for militias. By this point, the PMF is too large and too influential to fully disband, so the U.S. goal should be for Baghdad to excise the most problematic groups. The Trump administration can facilitate this effort by sanctioning all Iraqi government officials who approve or enable the funding of U.S.-designated terrorist organizations like Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, KH, and others.
End indirect funding for militias. In October, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Muhandis General Company, a major Iraqi commercial entity controlled by the PMF. Yet the Iraqi government is widely believed to still be subcontracting projects to this conglomerate’s alias groups, thereby channeling substantial funding to the PMF. If Baghdad is flaunting U.S. sanctions or just not performing due diligence, Washington should hold it accountable.
Reassess security assistance. The United States provides Iraq with significant security assistance, including more than $200 million in counterterrorism aid for 2026. Yet instead of using these funds to constrain Iran-backed terrorist organizations, Baghdad has given them exponentially more than this amount from Iraq’s own coffers and required national army units to share bases with them. The government has done much to fight Sunni terrorist groups like IS, but it must now step up against Shia terrorist groups as well—otherwise, U.S. security assistance should be curtailed or ended entirely.
Seek Arab assistance. Although Baghdad has sought better relations with Arab countries in recent years, PMF units have targeted at least three of them during this war, in some cases launching attacks from lands granted to certain militias by the government. Accordingly, Washington should press Arab states, particularly in the Gulf region, to withhold aid and foreign direct investment from Iraq until the government ends its support for these groups.
**David Schenker is the Taube Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of its Rubin Program on Arab Politics.

How the Iran War Will Upend the Global Economy ...The Risk Is Not Just an Energy Shock—but Also a Debt Crisis
Henry Tugendhat/Foreign Affairs/April 08/2026
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/how-iran-war-will-upend-global-economy
HENRY TUGENDHAT is Soref Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a Research Associate at the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He previously worked as an economist at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
In late March, both Israel and Iran attacked gas fields in the Persian Gulf, the most dramatic escalation yet in the Iran war. By striking upstream energy infrastructure, the belligerents have ensured that the war will have global ramifications lasting beyond the end of the conflict. Even if the recently announced cease-fire holds and the war ends soon, it could take up to five years to rebuild the infrastructure that was lost. And if the cease-fire fails and the war continues, so, too, does the risk of even further destruction. In a world of finite resources, it will be the wealthiest that can afford to pay premium prices for the energy that remains. And it will be the world’s poorest who suffer most.
Indeed, these strikes, along with the broader energy sector disruptions that have accompanied the U.S-Israeli war in Iran, have all but guaranteed an energy supply shock that will drive up inflation globally. Additional strikes on infrastructure that is critical to energy production and distribution would exacerbate such a crisis. This dynamic—excess demand for limited resources—is a classic driver of inflation. Almost immediately after the strikes, U.S. markets began betting that the U.S. Federal Reserve would increase interest rates, its most direct tool for fighting inflation. Amid an already challenging cost-of-living crisis, the American people will suffer consequences: rate hikes will affect borrowing costs on expenses such as car loans and mortgages, increased energy prices will drive up the price of gas and other fuels, and manufacturers of the myriad goods on which people rely will pass higher production costs on to consumers.
But inflation and decisions made by the Fed to fight it matter far beyond U.S. borders, as most countries’ outstanding debts are still denominated in U.S. dollars. This is equally true for those countries that have spent the past 20 years borrowing from China. Put simply, rising U.S. interest rates will determine the debt sustainability of numerous countries. Regardless of the outcome of this war, it’s already clear that many countries will have to pay more for the energy needed to fuel their industries, power their electric grids, and sustain their transportation networks. But states shouldering heavy debt loads, such as those categorized by the World Bank as low-income countries, will also see their financial burdens compound as inflation makes their debt more expensive to repay. This will be true whether they owe those dollars to financial institutions in Beijing, asset managers in London, or multilateral development banks in Washington.
This is a hidden cost of the war—and it will fall hardest on those least able to bear it. In fact, many low-income countries are already struggling with historic levels of sovereign debt; in recent years, the share of countries in debt distress has more than doubled, from 24 percent in 2013 to 54 percent in 2024. As the geopolitical climate becomes more fraught, massive defaults among developing countries could reverse gains in poverty eradication, global health, and industrialization, creating hardships that fall disproportionately on children and the elderly. Echoes of the major 1980s debt crisis are increasingly noticeable as this war proceeds, and thus the nature of every creditor country’s response is critical to avoiding the mistakes of the past, when resolutions came too late for many in the so-called global South.
BREAKING BANKS
Developing countries have been through this kind of debt crisis before. During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries banned the export of oil to countries that supported Israel. The resulting supply shock caused global energy prices to surge by 300 percent in six months, affecting manufacturing, transportation, and household costs across the world. Although the oil embargo was not the sole cause of the runaway inflation that hit many countries, particularly the United States, in that decade, it was a potent addition to the many other inflationary pressures that had been building up to that point. As the former Fed chairman Arthur Burns argued in 1979, the inflation of the 1970s could be traced to a number of factors: “the loose financing” of the war in Vietnam, the devaluations of the dollar in 1971 and 1973, the worldwide economic boom of 1972–73, the crop failures and resulting surge in global food prices in 1974–75, the “extraordinary” increases in oil prices, and the abrupt slowdown in productivity. In other words, the OPEC embargo struck during an already powerful economic storm, not unlike the “polycrisis” that some argue is evident today.
Although developing countries were generally not direct targets of the OPEC ban, those that were non-oil-producing suffered from the quadrupling of fuel prices. The World Bank estimated that trade losses reached around one-half of the average value of exports and imports in countries like Brazil and South Korea, and industrial activity in those countries was dampened. By the mid-1970s, developing countries without oil exports were trying to finance their growing balance-of-payments deficits by borrowing more money in commercial markets and from multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). A second oil crisis hit the global economy during the Iranian Revolution in 1979, further hiking prices. By this point, U.S. inflation exceeded one percent per month—a jolting increase from the Fed’s usual target of two percent per year—and was tackled only when Paul Volcker, who took over as Fed chairman in August 1979, raised interest rates to a staggering 20 percent. The fact that almost all the borrowing by low- and middle-income countries was being financed in U.S. dollars meant that debt servicing costs across the developing world increased dramatically.
Volcker’s rate hikes were particularly damaging because they hit developing countries with a one-two punch. First, they caused the U.S. dollar to rise in value relative to global South currencies, meaning it would cost a borrower country more of its local currency to make dollar-denominated repayments. Then, they caused the floating interest rates on such debt, which fluctuate periodically, to spike. This resulted in higher interest payments for the estimated two-thirds of developing countries with loans that were tied to floating rates. Borrowers in developing countries would not see interest rates as low as they had been in the early 1970s until the international financial boom of 2005 to 2008.
Inflation and decisions made by the Fed to fight it matter far beyond U.S. borders.
What began as a slow trickle of debt defaults in the mid-1970s in countries like Jamaica, Turkey, and Zaire was suddenly recognized as a systemic problem when Mexico, despite its notably large economy, declared in August 1982 that it was unable to repay its U.S. dollar–denominated debts. By the end of that year, roughly 40 countries were overdue on their interest payments, and by the following year 27 of them were negotiating to restructure their outstanding loans. When a country defaults, it often makes an already perilous financial situation worse. It can devalue the local currency, for instance, leading to further inflation that erodes the buying power of citizens. It can also eviscerate the country’s credit rating, making it harder to refinance and forcing its government to restructure debts in a way that brings painful compromises.
As this debt crisis unfolded, Western creditors called on the IMF to renegotiate debts on their behalf, but the intervention arguably made things worse for many countries: by prescribing how debtor countries should redirect spending toward debt repayments, the IMF, with backing from the World Bank, eviscerated many countries’ budgetary discretion. Nascent industries were kneecapped, and the vital provision of social services halted, as countries tried to honor restructured debt repayments. The diversion from productive investments also made it harder for countries to earn the money they needed to service their restructured debts. The result was deeper economic crises in the world’s poorest countries.
During this period, which is often referred to as the “lost decade,” some countries’ annual interest payments were equivalent to their economies’ entire annual GDP. In sub-Saharan Africa, it took over 20 years for GDP per capita and investment levels to recover to pre-crisis levels. The custodial financial institutions that had been established at the Bretton Woods conference during World War II lost a lot of credibility; developing countries viewed them as out of touch at best and punitive and exploitative at worst. These perceptions were not lost on China, a global South debtor at the time, which today continues to stress the lack of conditions on its own lending to developing countries.
The crisis was eventually resolved through debt forgiveness, the IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, and the innovative financial mechanism known as Brady bonds, which allowed developing countries to replace portions of their existing sovereign debt by issuing new securities backed by U.S. Treasury bonds. Western lenders, having learned their lesson, subsequently shied away from the infrastructure lending that had dominated their portfolios in the 1960s and 1970s. Many development institutions pivoted from loans to grants and prioritized programs that focused on health, education, and governance. But developing countries still needed money to build roads, ports, and other infrastructure required for economic growth. Private-sector and Chinese lending took off in the early 2000s to fill this gap.
GOING UP
At the turn of the century, many global South economies were growing again, buoyed by a commodity boom and relatively stable international trade. Crucially, debt resolution had also improved their credit ratings, allowing many countries to start borrowing again from commercial banks or to guarantee commercial bank loans taken out by favored domestic institutions. Even more significantly, many middle-income countries, such as Ecuador, Zambia, and Sri Lanka, started issuing bonds in Western financial markets for the first time. Private-sector lending to developing countries dipped around the time of the 2008 global financial crisis, but private creditors in wealthier countries quickly regained their footing in the 2010s as they sought out higher returns amid a low-interest-rate environment in Western markets. There was also great optimism about how many emerging economies appeared to weather the financial crisis better than wealthier countries. Between 1985 and 2024, although the share of private lending for middle-income countries remained roughly the same at just under 60 percent, the ratio of that lending from commercial banks fell from 74 percent to 21 percent, while bonds rose to 79 percent of private loans.
At the same time, China emerged as the largest bilateral lender for both low- and middle-income countries, and just as with private-sector lenders, most of that lending was in U.S. dollars. The early 2000s was a time when China’s recently industrialized economy was looking to boost exports around the world, and lending was a means of supporting the flow of Chinese goods and services to developing countries, primarily in construction sectors. Lending to global South partners also appeared to offer a virtuous cycle: offering money to global partners who really needed the support for infrastructure projects made Chinese banks look good, and those banks simultaneously got a return on investment that was higher than what they earned from U.S. Treasury bonds. Of the $475 billion in outstanding bilateral debts owed by low- and middle-income countries today, Chinese loans account for the largest portion, at just over $147.5 billion, or roughly 31 percent.
This new generation of lenders, however, failed to question the economic security of lending primarily in U.S. dollars. It was only when the COVID-19 pandemic triggered inflation in the United States that the Fed imposed serious interest rate hikes, the first since the 1970s. Borrowers in the global South felt the impacts immediately, and some countries, such as Ghana and Sri Lanka, quickly fell into default.
Partly as a result of these challenges, China recently joined the two most important multilateral debt relief initiatives: the Debt Service Suspension Initiative, launched by the G-20 during the COVID-19 pandemic to ease debt obligations on 73 low- and middle-income countries, and the Common Framework for Debt Treatments, which succeeded it. Progress, however, has been slow because of disagreements over burden sharing. The process of restructuring Zambia’s debts, for example, was delayed while Beijing argued that multilateral development banks should take greater losses themselves and not demand so much of Chinese banks. Meanwhile, China still lacks a mechanism to determine how banks apportion compensation and losses when debtors can no longer service Chinese banks’ international loans, which has led to time-consuming disagreements and negotiations across China’s interconnected financial institutions.
LOOMING DEBT DRAMA
For Chinese banks, the potential losses from borrowers’ defaults would be substantial but resolvable, given that the country still holds large surpluses of U.S. dollars. The greater risk for China is the longer it takes to assign responsibility for losses among the many Chinese financial institutions involved, the longer it will take them to restructure debts. Such delays risk jeopardizing the narrative of cooperation that China has sought to cultivate with its global South partners and leaving borrowers with the same perceptions they had of Western lenders during the prior debt crisis.
Indeed, today’s looming debt crisis risks becoming even more fraught, both for the borrowers and lenders, than it was in the 1980s precisely because it seems poised to drag on for much longer. Compared with the few dozen big commercial banks that held debts in the 1980s, there are far more debt holders today. Thus, in addition to the delays imposed by China’s unresolved internal financial disputes, developing countries may also have to negotiate with the hundreds of Western pension funds, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, and other institutions that now hold the various portfolios of bonds issued by state and private entities in the global South. The more complex a new debt crisis is to resolve, the harder it will be for newly industrializing countries such as Sri Lanka or Zambia to bounce back, meaning their suffering will continue.
Although debt sustainability has been a growing issue for at least five years, the war in Iran has introduced the kind of sudden global economic shock that makes it all but certain that a prolonged debt crisis is coming. The executive director of the International Energy Agency recently declared that the war in Iran is the greatest threat to global energy security in history and that politicians and markets underestimate the scale of the crisis. It will take years for some of the damaged oil and gas fields to resume operations, and although the cease-fire may ease shipping tensions in the short-term, there remains no permanent resolution to the U.S.-Iranian standoff over access to the Strait of Hormuz. In the meantime, inflation is likely to rise, increasing pressure on the Fed to raise interest rates. The poorest countries will then suffer most as their governments are forced to restructure budgets to meet interest obligations rather than invest in their own economic growth and their populations.
Although some lessons from the previous major debt crisis can be applied to the current one, the more complex nature of today’s debts is likely to extend the crisis and introduce new challenges, including the question of burden sharing across bondholders and Chinese banks. There are no obvious panaceas. The only certainty is that the sooner the war ends, the sooner the world can focus on easing this economic distress.

Analysis-As Trump claims victory, Iran emerges bruised but powerful with leverage over Hormuz
Samia Nakhoul/Reuters/April 08/2026
DUBAI, April 8 (Reuters) - Nearly six weeks of war in Iran have ended, for now, with President Donald Trump claiming victory, but the U.S.-Iran ceasefire locks in a harsh reality: an entrenched, radical government with control over the Strait of Hormuz and a powerful lever over global energy markets and Gulf rivals, analysts say.The shockwaves have rippled outward, contributing to global economic strains and bringing conflict to Gulf neighbours whose economies depend on stability.
"This war will be remembered as Trump's grave ‌strategic miscalculation. One whose consequences reshaped the region in unintended ways," Middle East scholar Fawaz Gerges told Reuters. Before the war, the Strait - a narrow passage carrying around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas - was formally treated as an international waterway. Iran monitored ‌it, harassed shipping and intermittently intercepted vessels, but it stopped short of asserting outright control.
In the new reality, Tehran has moved from shadowing tankers to effectively dictating terms. It currently functions as the de facto gatekeeper of the shipping route, selectively deciding on passage and on what terms. Iran wants to charge ships for safe passage.
Additionally, Iran has demonstrated resilience under sustained attack and retained the capacity to escalate further, projecting influence across multiple fronts and strategic choke points. Its reach extends through Lebanon and Iraq via Hezbollah and Shi’ite militias, and into the Bab el-Mandeb in the Red Sea, leveraging the sphere of influence of its Houthi allies.
At home, Iran's leadership remains firmly in control - even though the country's economy is in tatters and great swathes of infrastructure in ruins from American and Israeli bombs.
"What did the U.S.–Israeli war actually achieve?" asked Gerges. "Regime change in Tehran? No. The surrender of the Islamic Republic? No. Containment of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium? No. An end to Tehran’s support for its regional allies? No."
Iran has absorbed the blows while retaining - and in some cases strengthening - its core instruments of power, said four analysts and three Gulf government sources who spoke to Reuters for this story.
As well as Iran's control of Hormuz, the political picture now, they noted, is of a more brutal, empowered establishment, ‌unaccounted nuclear material, continued missile and drone production, and ongoing support for regional militias.
Echoing Trump, U.S. Defense ⁠Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said Washington had won a decisive military victory, and that Iran's missile programme had been functionally destroyed. Iran was still able to launch missiles prior to the ceasefire.
In response to requests for comment, the State Department and White House referred Reuters to a press briefing in which White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump's priority was reopening Hormuz without limitations, but she did not rule out a future in which Iran and the ⁠United States shared toll revenue. The United States, Israel and Iran on Tuesday agreed to the two-week ceasefire and U.S. and Iranian officials are expected to hold talks from Friday to discuss a long-term settlement. While the ceasefire may halt the fighting, the Gulf officials said its durability hinges on addressing the deeper conflicts shaping the region’s security and energy landscape. Any deal that falls short of a comprehensive settlement risks entrenching Iranian leverage rather than constraining it, they add. Ebtesam Al‑Ketbi, president of the Emirates Policy Center described the truce as a fragile pause - one likely to institutionalize new forms of instability unless it expands well beyond a narrow cessation of hostilities. “This ceasefire is not a solution; it is a test of intentions,” Ketbi told Reuters. "If it does not evolve into a broader agreement redefining the rules of engagement - in Hormuz and across proxy theatres - it will amount to little more than a tactical pause before a more dangerous and complex escalation."“If Trump reaches ‌a deal with Iran without addressing core issues - ballistic missiles, drones, proxies, nuclear concerns, and the rules governing Hormuz - then the conflict is effectively left unresolved and the region exposed,” said Ketbi.
HORMUZ IS RED LINE FOR GULF COUNTRIES
Iran, for its part, has put forward to Washington terms that include sanctions relief, recognition of enrichment rights, compensation for war damage and continued control over the Strait - underscoring just how far apart the sides remain.
Trump acknowledged receiving the Iranian plan and called it "a workable basis to negotiate".
For Gulf countries who rely on Hormuz to export their oil, the Strait remains a non-negotiable red line, added Saudi analyst Ali Shihabi. "Any outcome that leaves the waterway effectively in Iranian hands would be a defeat for President Trump", with the potential repercussions of high energy prices extending into the midterm elections, he said.
What the war may nonetheless open up for Tehran, Shihabi added, is the prospect of a negotiated settlement - potentially including sanctions relief.
From a Gulf perspective, the picture is deeply unsettling. Mistrust of Iran is running high following Tehran's strikes on energy facilities and commercial hubs across the region. More troubling still, the war has transformed Hormuz into an explicit instrument of leverage and coercion, analysts say. The economic ‌stakes are equally stark. Iran wants to charge fees for ships passing through the Hormuz shipping lanes as part of any permanent peace deal, a move that would reverberate far beyond the Gulf, hitting global energy markets and the economic lifelines of states along the opposite shore. “If Iran can extract millions per ship, the implications are enormous - not just for the Gulf, but for the global economy,” Ketbi said. “In that sense, the outcome is not just a regional setback, but a systemic shift with worldwide consequences.”More broadly, the analysts warned, it would signal a fundamental change in the regional order - from a strait governed by international norms to one effectively policed by a hostile state emboldened, not weakened, by war.
GULF DEMANDS
The ‌ceasefire, brokered by Pakistan, followed a war launched on February 28 by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said they aimed to curb Iran's regional power, dismantle its nuclear programme and create conditions for Iranians to topple their rulers.
Both sides declared victory. Trump called the ceasefire a “total and complete victory,” saying U.S. forces had achieved their objectives, while Iran's Supreme National Security Council claimed Trump had accepted its conditions. But the war has yet to deprive Iran of its stockpile of near‑weapons‑grade enriched uranium or its ability to strike neighbours with missiles and drones. The leadership, which faced a mass uprising months ago, withstood the superpower onslaught with no sign of collapse. A Gulf source said restoring trust with Tehran would require stringent, written commitments - not informal assurances - covering non‑interference, freedom of navigation, and the security of key maritime corridors, including ‌Hormuz, as well as the national security requirements of the Gulf states.Those conditions, the Gulf source said, were conveyed to Pakistani mediators to be included as part of a comprehensive settlement.
An Israeli official said senior Trump administration officials had assured Israel that they would insist on previous conditions, such as the removal of Iran's nuclear material, a halt to enrichment and the elimination of ballistic missiles. Pakistan's prime minister said Iranian and U.S. delegations were expected to meet in Islamabad on Friday for what would be the first official peace talks since the war began.

Tehran Is Repositioning Its Terror Proxies for a Domestic Crackdown
Bridget Toomey and Janatan Sayeh/FDD- Policy Brief/April 08/2026
After spending years exporting its influence, the ruling regime in Iran is now importing its regional proxies to assist with any crackdown against a revival of the mass protests that resulted in the deaths of around 40,000 demonstrators in January.
More than 1,000 armed fighters affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an Iraqi state security institution dominated by Iran-backed militias, have crossed the border into Iran under the guise of humanitarian aid convoys. Other regime-backed militias, including the Afghan Fatemiyoun Division and the Pakistani Zaynabiyoun Brigade, have paraded around Tehran to terrorize Iranians.
The regime is also setting up checkpoints, deploying repression patrols, and stationing heavy military equipment across major cities as it readies to confront the true existential threat it faces — not American or Israeli bombs but rather the Iranian people.
Regime Has Used Proxies To Crush Protests in the Past
During the January 2026 anti-regime uprising, the Islamic Republic deployed its regional terror network to support its own repression apparatus as it slaughtered unarmed protesters. Iraqi security sources reported that nearly 5,000 Iraqi militiamen, mostly members of U.S.-designated terror groups, entered Iran during the protest wave. Fearing defectionswithin its own ranks, Iran’s security apparatus has relied on these groups as a check on its own forces, entrusting them with its most brutal tasks.
The regime’s dependence on external support to kill Iranians traces back to the 2009 protest wave. The militias returned again in 2019 to ensure that protesters could not rise up against the regime. During the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, the regime once more imported its proxies to violently suppress demonstrators.
Attacks Against Iran’s Repression Apparatus Are Paving the Way for Renewed Protests
Israel and the United States are staying true to their promise of facilitating the conditions for Iranians to define their own destiny, reiterating that protesters will receive a “clear signal” when it is safe for them to mobilize. The degradation of Iran’s own repression apparatus creates an opening for protesters, something the importation of ruthless terror groups seeks to preempt.
The joint military campaign has degraded the repression infrastructure used to kill protesters, including bases belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij, and law enforcement forces. Strikes have also eliminated senior commanders, along with thousands of personnel, through hyperlocal targeting of checkpoints and forces staying in tents after airstrikes destroyed their bases.Alongside removing senior leadership, encouraging defections will be critical for meaningful change. Israel is reportedly reaching out to mid-level commanders, pressing them to be prepared to defect.
Washington Should Encourage Defections and Target Militias
Eliminating Iranian personnel while encouraging defections is crucial for supporting the people of Iran, but a parallel strategy needs to address the threat posed by Iraqi militias. Likely American airstrikes have been targeting Iran-backed militias across Iraq, including a PMF convoy entering Iran on April 4. The United States should continue operations against Iran’s militias in Iraq while communicating to the Iraqi government that such strikes will not cease until they take serious action to rein in Tehran’s proxies. Furthermore, the Trump administration must stick to its requirement that senior roles in the next Iraqi government cannot be filled by affiliates of U.S.-designated militias, all of whom are members of the PMF. Also, the Treasury Department should sanction the PMF, which provides funds to these U.S.-designated terror groups.
**Bridget Toomey is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where she focuses on Iranian proxies. Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at FDD, where he focuses on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. For more analysis from Bridget, Janatan, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Bridget on X @BridgetKToomey and Janatan @JanatanSayeh. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.

Iraq’s bake sale for the Islamic Republic
Ahmad Sharawi and Bridget Toomey/Washington Examiner/April 08/2026
Through informal financial channels and networks, currency-filled envelopes are moving across Iraq into Iran under the guise of humanitarian relief. In many cases, this is being facilitated by a network of Tehran-backed militias, many of which the United States has listed as terror groups.
A network of Shiite figures in Iraq, including religious institutions and media organizations, in addition to the militias, launched donation drives for their brothers and sisters in Iran and Lebanon. After nearly a month of conflict in Iran and prolonged fighting in Lebanon, many people in both countries have a legitimate need, but Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance has a history of gifting allegedly humanitarian funds to terrorist groups in this network. Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, a U.S.-designated Iranian proxy, launched a campaign with the innocent title “From Iraq, we will not abandon Lebanon — one hand resists … and one hand provides relief.”Past actions show a concentration on helping with the resistance rather than the “relief.”Not all the money is in cash, giving Washington a chance to scrutinize some financial transactions in this drive. In fact, at least one account that is being used for this kind of fundraising is at JPMorgan Chase in New York despite the bank’s compliance framework stating: “If you, your subsidiaries or affiliates plan to engage in Iran business, you must ensure that none of your transactions involving Iran are sent to, processed through, funded or otherwise facilitated by any part of JPMC.”In 2011, JPMC paid an $88 million settlement for apparent violations of sanctions programs, including an instance related to Iran. In a statement, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the preeminent Iraqi Shiite leader, requested that donations for Iranians and Lebanese be sent to an account at the bank in the name of the Holy Abbasid Shrine. Asaib Ahl al Haq, a U.S-designated Iranian-backed proxy in Iraq, launched a campaign built entirely around cash collection titled “Faithful to the Promise.” Donors are explicitly prohibited from providing non-cash contributions. Instead, they are instructed to deliver money directly to group representatives, whose phone numbers are circulated across 16 of Iraq’s 19 governorates. Funds are funneled through informal intermediaries, bypassing banks and licensed money transfer systems entirely on the way to their final destinations.
Not all the cash is going to weapons. Some is being spent on a public relations effort to build goodwill among people affected by the various groups’ actions. Footage from al Nujaba’s campaign in Lebanon shows aid shipments being unloaded alongside Hezbollah flags. On the ground, Alaa Hassan, the group’s representative in Lebanon, and Abbas Kanaan, an associate of a Hezbollah-affiliated network, appear to be overseeing the Lebanese side of the operation. Actors not officially labeled as terrorists by the U.S. government are also operating within this ecosystem. An appeal was circulated by Iraqi Member of Parliament Mahdi Taqi, a figure affiliated with the Badr Organization, an Iranian-backed group that remains undesignated as a terrorist group despite congressional efforts to do so.
The message is a donation drive, explicitly limited to financial contributions, to support “the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanon, who are fighting in the cause of Allah against the tyrants of this era.”Taqi provides multiple phone numbers to coordinate contributions and instructs donors to deliver cash in person to the MP’s office in eastern Iraq. The system relies on direct, in-person handoffs that are localized and entirely outside regulated financial pathways.
Beyond these groups, a wider and more opaque fundraising architecture is taking shape. The Iranian embassy in Baghdad has publicly called on Iraqis to donate directly to it. Notably, the appeal included no formal banking details, suggesting that contributions are expected to be made in cash, like the militia method. The ecosystem extends even further. The Iraq office representing the late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei has also begun soliciting financial contributions in support of the Islamic Republic.Cash handoffs are hard to identify and interdict. To close long-term loopholes in the financial isolation of the Islamic Republic, the U.S. needs to support Iraq in shifting away from a cash-based economy.
Washington can do so by continuing to partner with programs that work to expand digital payments in Iraq. The Treasury Department should also sanction individuals and entities that may be directing funds to sanctioned individuals or the Iranian regime.
Ahmad Sharawi is a senior research analyst at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Middle East affairs, specifically the Levant, Iraq, and Iranian intervention in Arab affairs, as well as US foreign policy toward the region. Bridget Toomey is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, focusing on Iranian proxies, specifically Iraqi militias and the Houthis.

X Platform & Facebook Selected twittes on April 08-09/2026
Ambassador Tom Barrack
The United States condemns in the strongest terms today’s attack on the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul. Attacks on diplomatic missions are attacks on the international order — and an assault on the principles that bind nations together. We commend Türkiye and Turkish security forces for their swift and decisive response.

Ronnie Chatah
Pierre Moawad was a former Lebanese Forces militiaman. He turned the page with disarmament & saluted Samir Geagea’s decision despite punishment under Syrian occupation. He believed in power-sharing & above all defended the state.
He set the example to follow. The exact opposite of Hezbollah.

Roger Bejjani
It has been established that:
1. The 3rd floor over Pierre’s appt. was frequented by men.
2. Someone escaped the crime scene on a motorcycle seconds after the explosion. He was followed by a neighbor. The fugitive was met at Dora by another motorcycle that drove into the pursuing neighbor’s motorcycle and picked up the fugitive and disappeared.
Very simple and easy investigation:
(1) Bring in the owner and his sister (or daughter) and ask them to identify the « users » of the 3rd floor as sanctuary.
(2) divulge the name(s) of the user(s)
with picture(s) on social media and main stream media.
(3) issue arrest warrants in the names of the user(s) of the appartement for endangering knowledgeably the lives of innocent people.

محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf
The Rafi-nia Synagogue in Tehran served as a house of worship for Iranian Jews for many decades. It was destroyed today in an attack carried out by the Israeli criminals.
Zionism –a supremacist ideology– seeks to eradicate authentic religiosity that opposes its genocidal agenda.

Shehbaz Sharif
With the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
I warmly welcome the sagacious gesture and extend deepest gratitude to the leadership of both the countries and invite their delegations to Islamabad on Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes.
Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability. We earnestly hope, that the ‘Islamabad Talks’ succeed in achieving sustainable peace and wish to share more good news in coming days!

Israel Defense Forces
“We will continue striking the Hezbollah terror organization and will utilize every operational opportunity. We will not compromise the security of the residents of northern Israel. We will continue to strike with determination.”
— IDF Chief of the General Staff LTG Eyal Zamir overseeing the wave of strikes against Hezbollah.

Israel Foreign Ministry
https://x.com/i/status/2041420663508873700
A senior Iranian regime official openly calls for slaughter and sends children into war:
“Kill! Kill!”“Massacres in Jerusalem.”“Send your children to the roadblocks.”
The Iranian mullah regime thrives on oppressing its own people and exporting terror across the world. @MEMRIReports

Israel Foreign Ministry
Lebanon’s president and prime minister have no shame in attacking Israel for doing what they should have done: striking Hezbollah.
After thousands of attacks on Israel from their territory, they offer no apology - and rather come with demands. They did not disarm Hezbollah. They did not and do not prevent it from firing on Israel. They lied when they claimed they had demilitarized the area up to the Litani.
Now we must do it instead of them. Hezbollah ministers still serve in the Lebanese government, and the Iranian ambassador remains in Beirut, openly defying their own decisions.It is time to start acting against Hezbollah. In deeds, not words. And if you are incapable of doing so - at least do not get in the way.

Babak Taghvaee - The Crisis Watch
BREAKING: My U.S. government sources confirm that Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and JD Vance are expected to meet in Islamabad, Pakistan tomorrow. Trump administration officials believe this could be a historic meeting, as the Islamic regime may potentially become a key Middle Eastern ally of the United States. They say Ghalibaf is someone they trust to work with and believe he could help position Iran as a key U.S. ally!