English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News &
Editorials
For August 12/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2026/english.August
12.26.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
The Fruitless Fig Tree Parable, so it deserved to be cut
Luke 13/06-09: "Then Jesus told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree
planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So
he said to the gardener, "See here! For three years I have come looking for
fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be
wasting the soil?" He replied, "Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig
round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year,
Titles For Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related
News & Editorials published on August 11-12/2026
The only treatment for the cancerous Hezbollah is strictly Israeli./Elias
Bejjani/ِAugust11/2026
A jihadist alliance built on hatred, enmity, and contradictions: its fate is
certain failure/Elias Bejjani/ِAugust 09/2026
Inside Every Human Being There Is a Beast …The true struggle within every human
being is between the image of God within them and the distortion of that
image/Elias Bejjani/ِAugust 08/202
Link to a critically important interview video with Father Tony Khadra,
President of the Labora Foundation
US Ambassador from Balamand: Lebanese-Israeli Negotiations Progressing, Trump
Interested in Achieving Peace in Lebanon
Violent Explosions in Haddatha, Qantara, and Bani Hayyan; Citizen Killed in
Nabatieh
UNIFIL: Resolution 1701 Remains Our Reference and Compass for Peace in the South
European Union: Abolition of the Death Penalty a Significant Achievement,
Lebanon an Example for the Region
Karam threatens to resign… Aoun asks him to stay and rescue negotiations from
“deadly routine”
Israeli strike wounds two, damages ambulance in Nabatiyeh
Issa says Trump 'committed to achieving peace in Lebanon'
US feels good about Lebanon-Israel talks, says next round early September
Aoun: Negotiations making progress; we won't allow Israel to remain on a single
inch
Salam and Menassa clash in parliament over amnesty law
Lebanese Parliament abolishes death penalty in landmark vote
EU hails Lebanon’s death penalty abolition as 'significant step forward'
Family of former Palestinian ambassador urge Lebanon to not extradite him
Iranian foreign ministry voices 'full solidarity' with Lebanon
Colonel Charbel Barakat/Maps and Occupations… Clarifying what has been
circulating regarding fabricated maps that allegedly depict Israel’s ambitions
in Lebanon
Lebanon and its Underworld/Sam Menassa/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 11/2026
Lebanon-Israel Talks Head for Stalemate/Beirut: Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al Awsat/August
11/2026
Lebanon’s Ali al-Taher Back at Center of Escalation
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on August 11-12/2026
Trump says Iran must pay reparations for
'damages and death' in Lebanon
Trump pivots back to sanctions for Iran as other strategies to end war fizzle
Trump says Iran options are let Tehran fail economically or ‘hit them really
hard’
Iran says Hormuz to stay closed unless US meets Tehran’s conditions
Netanyahu masters balancing act as he rejects Trump's Gaza plan
Drone strike sparks massive blaze at Libya's Zawiya refinery
Yemen targets Houthi positions in response to attacks
Houthis hit targets in central Yemen and Red Sea port city
Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia
Colombia Recognizes Israeli Claim Over Syria's Golan Heights
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials
from miscellaneous sources published
on August 11-12/2026
The Manufacture of Fear, the State of Exception, and Human Life Laid Bare
in Lebanon/Dr. Mona Fayad/Levant time Time/10/2026
The Dictatorship of Virtue/Pierre Rehov/Gatestone Institute/August 11/2026
Makkah Defense Agreement: Stability of Balances of Power/Yousef Al-Dayni/Asharq
Al-Awsat/August 11/2026
Makkah Defense Agreement: Symbolism and Activation/Amal Abdulaziz al-Hazzani/Asharq
Al-Awsat/August 11/2026
A Haven of Stability in a Turbulent Sea/Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/August
11/2026
Selected Face Book & X tweets on August 11/2026
Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published on August 11-12/2026
The only treatment for the cancerous
Hezbollah is strictly Israeli.
Elias Bejjani/ِAugust11/2026
The only treatment for cancerous, terrorist, Iran-jihadist Hezbollah is strictly
Israeli. The solution is letting Israel uproot and eliminate it as soon as
possible; everything else is a waste of time and a consolidation of Iran’s
occupation and its barbaric jihadism.
A jihadist alliance built on hatred, enmity, and contradictions: its fate is
certain failure.
Elias Bejjani/ِAugust 09/2026
Peace between Israel and Lebanon and Saudi Arabia's accession to the Abraham
Accords are the first casualties of this failed sectarian
Turkish-Saudi-Pakistani alliance.
Inside Every Human Being There Is a Beast
…The true struggle within every human being is between the image of God within
them and the distortion of that image
Elias Bejjani/ِAugust 08/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/08/151757/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwwRjeSflwc
Christian faith teaches us a fundamental truth: the human being was created in
the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) and was called to live in communion
with Him, in love and holiness. Yet, because of the Fall, every person carries
within himself a wounded nature. In this wounded nature lies what can be
described, in spiritual terms, as an inner “beast”—a force of uncontrolled
instincts and desires that emerges when the human person separates himself from
God’s grace.
This beast is not an independent power. It is not stronger than the human person
by nature. It remains dormant as long as the person lives in humility,
generosity, and love, and remains faithful to the gifts and responsibilities
entrusted to him by his Heavenly Father.
The beast sleeps when the human being lives according to love, because love is
not merely a moral value; love is God Himself:
“God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”
(1 John 4:16).
As long as a person is conscious of his holiness, of his identity as a child of
God by grace, and remains faithful to God’s commandments, the inner beast
remains restrained. The awareness of standing one day before God’s judgment is
essential to Christian life, for Scripture tells us:
“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10).
On the last day, when God reclaims from the human being the gift of life, the
soul will stand alone before Him. At that moment, wealth, power, and earthly
achievements lose all value. They remain behind, because:
“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing
out” (1 Timothy 6:7).
The only thing a person carries with him is his spiritual provision—his faith
expressed through works of love. As Christ says:
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one
according to his work” (Revelation 22:12).
According to what this spiritual provision contains, the Lord will either say:
“Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew
25:21), or the soul will face separation from God if it is empty of love, mercy,
and good works, and filled only with greed, pride, and unrepented sin, where:
“Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).
The inner beast awakens when faith weakens, hope fades, and the human being
falls into temptation. At that point, the person returns to the “old self” and
abandons the new life given through baptism by water and the Holy Spirit,
forgetting the words of Scripture:
“Put off the old man… and put on the new man, which was created according to
God” (Ephesians 4:22–24).
When a person distances himself from God, disobeys His commandments, and lives
as if God does not exist, the beast within rises and dominates. Sin then becomes
not an isolated act, but a way of life, because:
“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
In this light, Jesus presents to us the parable of the rich fool (Luke
12:16–21). This man was not condemned for being rich, but for believing that his
life depended on his possessions. He spoke only to himself and not to God. He
trusted his barns, not his Creator. Therefore God said to him:
“Fool! This night your soul will be required of you.”
This parable reveals a deep spiritual truth: the true beast within the human
person is the illusion of self-sufficiency and independence from God. When God
is removed from the center of life, the human being becomes a slave to money,
power, and pleasure. As Jesus teaches:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).
This truth applies not only to individuals, but also to societies and political
systems. The crisis of our world—and of Lebanon in particular—is not only
political or economic, but spiritual. It is the crisis of humanity that has
forgotten God. Therefore Christ’s warning remains timeless:
“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
(Mark 8:36).
In conclusion, the true struggle within every human being is between the image
of God and its distortion. Salvation does not come by suppressing the beast
through human effort alone, but by returning to God through repentance, grace,
and a life rooted in faith and love. For in God alone there is true life:
“But now having been set free from sin… you have your fruit to holiness, and the
end, everlasting life” (Romans 6:22).
The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website:
https://eliasbejjaninews.com
Link to a critically important interview video with
Father Tony Khadra, President of the Labora Foundation/A "striptease" exposure
with facts, figures, and evidence of the crime of expelling and removing
Christians from state jobs under the shadow of dhimmitude and treason of the
President of the Republic, ministers, MP's political party company owners, and
the majority of Christian clergy/A time of attrition, misery and castrated
Christian leaderships.
Interview conducted by journalist Patricia Samaha from the Transparency News
website on YouTube/August 11, 2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/08/156589
The Silence of Leaders and Sectarian Assignment: Who is
Behind Removing Christians from the Administration? | Father Tony Khadra
August 11, 2026
In this episode of the program "Politics and People" on the Transparency News
platform, journalist Patricia Samaha opens a dangerous file that threatens the
formula of national partnership and sectarian balance in Lebanon.
The program hosts the President of the "Labora" Foundation, Father Tony Khadra,
to reveal, with detailed figures and data, the latest report documenting the
decline of the Christian presence in the public service and the Lebanese
administration, and the usurpation of essential positions in favor of other
sects through surprising decisions regarding temporary assignments and permanent
appointments.
The dialogue addresses the backgrounds of appointments at the airport, the
Conservatory, Ogero, and sovereign ministries, amidst suspicious silence from
Christian political references and leaders. Is what is happening a systematic
plan to remove an entire category from the state, or is it the result of the
leaderships' negligence in protecting the parity [co-existence] and the
constitution?
00:00 Introduction and sounding the alarm regarding the Christian presence
01:39 Father Tony Khadra challenges: Are the numbers in the report wrong?
03:42 Manipulation of promotions between grades and the abolition of positions
05:10 Behind-the-scenes of the appointment agenda before its issuance
07:18 The release of the third and most powerful report: Employee testimonies
explode what was hidden
09:48 Revealing abuses in Ogero, the airport, and state ministries
12:10 The battle of the Director General of the Ministry of Public Works and the
truth of the interventions
15:12 Sharing powers and positions in the Ministry of Finance
18:23 Where are the Christian parties and leaders regarding the theft of these
rights?
22:00 Exclusion of scientific competencies at Beirut Airport
25:30 The scandal of appointments and the existing injustice in the Municipality
of Beirut
29:08 Breaking laws and legal age limits at the Ministry of Agriculture
32:00 The silence of the references and the role of the judiciary, which is
absent in appeals
35:36 Flagrant abuses in the General Directorate of Civil Aviation
38:38 Real estate abuses in Mount Lebanon and the Ministry of Tourism
42:30 Draining of competencies and the rising emigration of employees
US Ambassador from Balamand: Lebanese-Israeli
Negotiations Progressing, Trump Interested in Achieving Peace in Lebanon
Al-Markazia/August 11, 2026 (Google translation from Arabic)
US Ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, visited the Patriarchal See in Balamand,
where he met with Patriarch John X Yazigi of Antioch and All the East for the
Greek Orthodox, in the presence of the President of the University of Balamand,
Dr. Elias Warrak, the Abbot of the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand,
Archimandrite George Yaacoub, and a number of priests. After the meeting, Issa
expressed his "pleasure at visiting the University of Balamand, which is
considered one of the most important universities in Lebanon and a model of
coexistence." He continued, emphasizing that "Lebanese-Israeli negotiations are
taking place every two or three weeks and are progressing significantly,
offering a new solution in each round." He added, "I am optimistic that they
will help resolve matters in Lebanon and the region." He concluded by affirming
that "US President Donald Trump loves Lebanon and is interested in achieving
peace in Lebanon."
US State Department: Lebanon-Israel Negotiations to Resume
in Rome in Early September
Al-Markazia/August 11, 2026 (Google translation from Arabic)
A US State Department official revealed details of the progress made during
negotiations between Lebanon, Israel, and the United States in Rome, announcing
that the military delegations finalized operational parameters and joint maps,
and agreed on a roadmap that would allow for future expansion to new pilot
areas. The official stated that the talks addressed a third-party verification
mechanism for the Lebanese army's evacuation operations, noting that the
identity of the verification entity still needs to be determined. He clarified
that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will not undertake
this task. He added that Lebanon will submit detailed roadmaps for securing new
areas, in parallel with the progress of implementing procedures in the current
pilot areas, after the Lebanese, Israeli, and US military delegations finalized
the operational parameters, joint maps, and roadmap for the next phase. In a
parallel development, the US side held separate bilateral talks with the
Lebanese delegation, focusing on ways to provide timely support for the
reconstruction process. As for the political track, it is scheduled to resume in
Rome at the beginning of September, with talks continuing in Beirut, Jerusalem,
and Washington in the interim. The American official also indicated that direct
civilian discussions are currently underway between Lebanon and Israel on a
number of issues. The official affirmed that neither side is "dragging its feet"
in implementing what has been agreed upon, but acknowledged the difficulty of
the process, saying, "We are not naive about the difficulties," and accusing
Hezbollah of attempting to obstruct the process, at a time when both Lebanon and
Israel are facing internal political pressures.
Violent Explosions in Haddatha, Qantara, and Bani Hayyan; Citizen Killed in
Nabatieh
Al-Markaziya/August 11, 2026 (Google translation from Arabic)
The Israeli army carried out very violent explosions this evening in the town of
Haddatha and the surrounding areas of Qantara and Bani Hayyan, the sound of
which reverberated throughout large parts of southern Lebanon. Simultaneously,
the Doha Kafr Rumman area of Kfar Rumman was subjected to intermittent
artillery shelling this afternoon, amidst continued tension in the region. In a
related development, Ali Sabah, a resident of Nabatieh, died at the Al-Najda Al-Sha'abiya
Hospital in Nabatieh, succumbing to injuries sustained in an Israeli drone
strike that targeted his car this afternoon on the Doha Kafr Rumman road. Three
explosions rocked southern Lebanon: one in Bani Hayyan and two in Qantara.
Israeli artillery shelling targeted the vicinity of the Dabsha site in Nabatieh
this morning, amid escalating bombardment in the area. This resulted in a fire
on the outskirts of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, below the Dabsha hill, and explosions
were heard. Civil Defense vehicles rushed to the scene and successfully
extinguished the blaze. The Israeli army also carried out a bombing operation in
the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya, setting fire to several fields and orchards in
the Sarda and Wazzani areas. The fires spread to the Wata al-Khiyam area,
sending plumes of smoke into the air. An Israeli drone targeted ambulance teams
from the Islamic Health Authority, the Student House, and the Islamic Message
Scouts as they were transporting a casualty from a drone strike on a vehicle in
the University District of Nabatieh, damaging the ambulances. The Ministry of
Public Health’s Emergency Health Operations Center issued a statement announcing
that “the targeting carried out by the Israeli enemy with a march in the city of
Nabatieh resulted in the injury of two citizens, noting that the targeting was
repeated in two waves and the second time it targeted an ambulance team from the
Al-Risala Association that came to rescue the two wounded, which resulted in
damage to the ambulance.” The Ministry reiterated its condemnation of the
enemy's insistence on targeting ambulance teams, which constitutes an
unacceptable violation of international humanitarian law and all international
norms. The town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya was also subjected to intermittent
artillery shelling, accompanied by machine gun fire from Israeli forces
targeting neighborhoods within the town. Additionally, an Israeli drone dropped
explosive and incendiary materials in the vicinity of the university district on
the outskirts of Kfar Rumman. Furthermore, an Israeli drone dropped a stun
grenade on a group of Syrian workers on the outskirts of Kfar Haris, but there
were no injuries.
UNIFIL: Resolution 1701 Remains Our Reference and Compass
for Peace in the South
Al-Markaziya/August 11, 2026 (Google translation from Arabic)
UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Diodato Abagnara
affirmed that the principles of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 remain the
cornerstone of efforts to maintain stability in southern Lebanon and support
peace in the region, 20 years after its adoption. He made these remarks during a
speech at a commemorative ceremony held at UNIFIL headquarters. Speaking to
UNIFIL in Naqoura, Abaniara stressed that in a changing and increasingly complex
regional environment, "the principles of Resolution 1701 are more important than
ever." He said, "Resolution 1701 is more than just the legal basis for our
mandate; it is the framework that guides every patrol, every liaison meeting,
every activity coordinated with the Lebanese Armed Forces, and every interaction
with local communities." He added, "For our mission, Resolution 1701 remains our
compass, guiding our actions, our decisions, and our commitment to peace every
day."
European Union: Abolition of the Death Penalty a
Significant Achievement, Lebanon an Example for the Region
Central News Agency/August 11, 2026 (Google translation from Arabic)
The European Union congratulates Lebanon on the adoption of the law abolishing
the death penalty, announced during the Ninth World Congress Against the Death
Penalty, held in Paris on June 30. This landmark legislation represents a
significant step forward for human rights in the country. The abolition of the
death penalty for all crimes, including retroactive application, is a
significant achievement, building on the de facto moratorium on executions that
Lebanon has maintained since 2004 and reaffirming Lebanon’s commitment to
respecting, protecting, and fulfilling the right to life. As the first country
in the region to abolish the death penalty, Lebanon sets a powerful example for
other countries in the Middle East and beyond, reinforcing the strong global
trend toward abolition and the growing international support for ending the
death penalty worldwide. The European Union calls on all countries that still
apply the death penalty to abolish it, and to maintain or enact a moratorium on
executions pending abolition, as a first step. The EU urges countries
considering reinstating the death penalty to refrain from taking this regressive
step. The EU looks forward to continuing its close cooperation with Lebanon in
promoting and protecting human rights, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of
law, and reiterates its strong support for the reform agenda adopted by the
Lebanese authorities and their commitment to strengthening the state and
protecting its citizens.
Karam threatens to resign… Aoun asks him to stay and rescue negotiations from
“deadly routine”
South Lebanon/August 11, 2026 (Google translation from Arabic)
Lebanese-Israeli negotiations have entered a new phase of complexity, with a
clear divergence emerging regarding mechanisms to advance the negotiation
process and break the deadlock. In this context, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper
revealed that the head of the Lebanese negotiating delegation, former ambassador
Simon Karam, was inclined to resign in protest against the Israeli side's lack
of response to his attempts to break the "deadly routine" that threatens to
render the negotiations meaningless. According to the newspaper, Karam expressed
his desire to resign, but President Joseph Aoun asked him to continue his
mission as head of the delegation, a move that, according to a ministerial
source, carried significant political implications.
The ministerial source considered that Aoun's refusal to endorse the resignation
option, while insisting on Karam remaining, constituted a message to Washington,
the primary sponsor of the negotiations, indicating that the process now
requires direct American intervention to activate it and rescue it from its
stagnation. According to the source, the Lebanese side is fulfilling its
obligations, primarily adhering to the principle of the state's monopoly on
weapons and continuing to pressure Hezbollah to disarm, while Israel continues
its actions on the ground, from bulldozing towns and destroying homes to flying
its drones at low altitudes in Lebanese airspace. In this context, the
disagreement over the interpretation of ceasefire obligations is particularly
prominent, given Lebanon's accusations that Israel has failed to uphold the
cessation of hostilities and continues to obstruct the expansion of the
"experimental zones," which are supposed to be a cornerstone of the next phase.
Since assuming responsibility for the negotiations, Aoun has maintained constant
communication with the US administration, demanding that the pledge made by US
President Donald Trump at the Washington summit be translated into concrete
steps that pressure Israel and prevent it from obstructing the implementation of
the framework agreement. Keeping Karam at the head of the Lebanese delegation
appears to carry an additional message: Beirut does not want to withdraw from
the negotiations, but it desires productive negotiations, not a path open to
procrastination while Israeli pressure on the ground continues.
Israeli strike wounds two, damages ambulance in
Nabatiyeh
Naharnet/ِAugust11/2026
An Israeli drone struck Tuesday a vehicle in the southern city of Nabatiyeh,
wounding two people, the health ministry said. A double-tap strike targeted
first responders who rushed to the scene, damaging an ambulance.Drones dropped
explosive and incendiary munitions, causing wildfires on the outskirts of
Nabatiyeh and Kfar Remman while artillery shelled Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh.
Firefighters were targeted as they tried to extinguish a fire, but no injuries
were reported.Israeli forces meanwhile advanced from Haddatha towards Aita al-Jabal.
Artillery and detonations were reported overnight in Ali al-Taher, al-Taybeh,
al-Mansouri and Deir Seryan.
Issa says Trump 'committed to achieving peace in Lebanon'
Naharnet/ِAugust11/2026
U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa announced Tuesday that "the
Lebanese-Israeli negotiations are taking place every two or three weeks and are
making significant progress and offering a new solution in each round.""I am
optimistic that they will help resolve the issues in Lebanon and the region,"
Issa added, while emphasizing that U.S. President Donald Trump “loves Lebanon
and is committed to achieving peace in Lebanon."
US feels good about Lebanon-Israel talks, says next round early September
Naharnet/ِAugust11/2026
Washington feels good about where talks between Lebanon and Israel are heading,
a U.S. State Department official told Al Arabiya English. The official’s remarks
come despite the fact that the latest session of talks between the two sides was
cut short because of Lebanese frustration with continued Israeli bombings and
Israeli accusations that the Lebanese side was leaking contents of the meeting.
According to the State Department official, the sides discussed third-party
verification of the Lebanese Army’s clearance operations, “and had separate
bilateral discussions with the Lebanese delegation on delivering timely support
for reconstruction.”An Israeli official told CNN that there was no date for the
next round of talks. However, the State Department official, who was speaking to
Al Arabiya English on condition of anonymity, said that the delegations will
reconvene in Rome in early September, “and conversations will continue in
Beirut, Jerusalem, and Washington in the interim.”“We feel good about the
trajectory… and the working groups have aligned their language, maps, and
procedures,” the official added. “We are not naive about the difficulties,” the
State Department official said. “Hezbollah is trying to sabotage the process,
and both Israel and Lebanon are democracies under domestic political stress,”
the official charged. Iran-backed Hezbollah has repeatedly criticized the direct
talks and called on the Lebanese government to abandon the negotiations
altogether. “But the fact that the teams sat together, communicated directly,
and generated options is itself a structural change,” the State Department
official said.
Aoun: Negotiations making progress; we won't allow Israel to remain on a single
inch
Naharnet/ِAugust11/2026
President Joseph Aoun announced Tuesday that the negotiations with Israel are
“making progress,” adding that “in any case” the talks “are better than the
devastating results of war.”“The scale of Israeli attacks on our country has
decreased since the signing of the framework agreement, which has positively
impacted the return of Lebanese citizens to spend the summer in their homeland,”
Aoun added. He stressed that there is no disagreement among the Lebanese
regarding the objectives: “Israeli withdrawal, the return of prisoners, and the
reconstruction of what was destroyed.”“Ultimately, we will not allow Israel to
remain on even an inch of our land, nor will we allow a single one of its
soldiers to remain on our soil,” Aoun emphasized. He added: “We constantly hear
slogans saying that what was taken by force will only be regained by force, but
the realities on the ground have proven this to be false.”
“It is time for the people of the South to rest and settle in their land,
instead of continuing the wars waged in their name for non-Lebanese objectives,”
Aoun said. “My goal today is to rebuild the state, whatever the cost, despite
the opposition of those seeking to dismantle its foundations and prevent its
reconstruction,” he added.
Salam and Menassa clash in parliament over amnesty law
Naharnet/ِAugust11/2026
A heated argument and shouting match were reported Tuesday between Prime
Minister Nawaf Salam and Defense Minister Michel Menassa, after the premier
reportedly insisted on preventing the minister from delivering a speech in
parliament regarding the general amnesty bill. The disagreement prompted Menassa
to leave the session. MTV reported that the spat stemmed from Menassa’s desire
to deliver a speech expressing “the Lebanese Army's position,” while Salam
maintained that the Prime Minister is the one who should express the
government's stance.Sources from the Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon
bloc meanwhile confirmed to LBCI TV that the bloc completely rejects preventing
Menassa from expressing his opinion, emphasizing that "we will not accept such a
precedent, and therefore we will take an escalatory stance if the insistence on
this 'ban' persists.”“We will not allow such an attack on a minister, especially
since he represents the Lebanese Army's position," the sources added. Deputy
Speaker Elias Bou Saab meanwhile told LBCI that the session was adjourned to
“resolve the dispute between the Prime Minister and Defense Minister Michel
Menassa,” noting that Speaker Nabih Berri was meeting with Salam to follow up on
this matter. MP Jamil al-Sayyed meanwhile revealed in a press conference in
parliament that there was a majority in favor of voting on the proposed general
amnesty law, while warning that Salam “took a step that could affect this.”He
noted that Menassa had expressed an opinion on the matter, but Salam removed him
from the session and told him he was not allowed to enter. "Salam told Menassa
that if the law wasn't passed, he was putting the Lebanese army in confrontation
with the Sunni community," al-Sayyed said. He added that Menassa was deeply
affected by the Prime Minister's tone to the extent of “actual crying.”"I served
in the Lebanese Army for 40 years; I don't distinguish between Muslims and
Christians. You're accusing me of something that won't affect the vote if I
express a particular opinion," Menassa said, according to al-Sayyed.NBN TV
meanwhile reported that Berri was communicating with Menassa to calm the
atmosphere before the legislative session resumes at 6:00 pm.
Lebanese Parliament abolishes death penalty in landmark
vote
Associated Press/ِAugust11/2026
Lebanon's parliament Tuesday abolished the death penalty, making it the first
country in the Arab world to replace the sentencing with life imprisonment with
aggravated hard labor. The tiny Mediterranean country has committed to an
unofficial moratorium on executions since January 2004. However, dozens of death
sentences since then have been issued, but later suspended or commuted. A
majority of Lebanon's 128-member parliament voted in favor of ending the death
penalty, with the exception of the parliamentary bloc of Hezbollah. Justice
Minister Adel Nassar, who was in Parliament, called it a "historic step" for the
country. Rights groups that have called for formalizing the moratorium or ending
the death penalty altogether have also celebrated the vote. Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon
Researcher at Human Rights Watch, says Lebanon is "marking a final break from a
cruel sentence that should never be imposed.""Capital punishment is unique in
its cruelty and finality and is plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and
error," he said. It's unclear how aggravated hard labor would be enforced, as
some legislators said the terms of the new punishment are not yet clear. Lebanon
does have the punishment of hard labor written into law and court decisions, but
even those have been rarely enforced in recent years due to cash-strapped
Lebanon's lack of resources and capacity within its overcrowded prisons.
Lebanon's abolition of the death penalty comes as parliament is debating a
controversial general amnesty law, the largest since the end of its 15-year
civil war in 1990, that could reduce sentences or even release convicted
militants and drug dealers, with some exceptions. Family members of Lebanese
soldiers and servicemen killed or attacked by Islamist militant groups have
repeatedly protested against the law, some saying they had hoped to see the
perpetrators who killed their family members executed rather than be issued
reduced prison sentences. Hezbollah did not immediately issue a comment about
the landmark vote. Neither did Lebanon's diverse religious institutions, where
the death penalty is considered legal in some their respective court systems.
EU hails Lebanon’s death penalty abolition as 'significant
step forward'
Naharnet/ِAugust11/2026
The European Union on Tuesday congratulated Lebanon on the adoption of the law
abolishing the death penalty, saying it marks a “significant step forward for
human rights in the country.”“The abolition of the death penalty for all crimes,
including through its retroactive application is an important achievement, which
builds upon the de facto moratorium on executions that has been maintained in
Lebanon since 2004 and testifies Lebanon’s commitment to respect, protect and
fulfill the right to life,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy Kaja Kallas said in a statement. “As the first country in the
region to abolish the death penalty, Lebanon is setting a powerful example for
other countries in the Middle East and beyond, reinforcing the strong global
trend towards abolition and the growing international support for ending the
death penalty worldwide,” Kallas added. She said the European Union calls on all
countries that still apply the death penalty to abolish it and, pending
abolition, to maintain or introduce a moratorium on executions as a first step.
“The European Union urges those considering its reintroduction to refrain from
such a regressive step,” Kallas added.She also said that the European Union
looks forward to “continuing its close cooperation with Lebanon in promoting and
protecting human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law” and
reiterates its “strong support for the Lebanese authorities’ reform agenda and
their engagement in consolidating the state and protecting its citizens.”
Family of former Palestinian ambassador urge Lebanon to not
extradite him
Agence France Presse/ِAugust11/2026
The family of former Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour urged
Lebanese authorities to not extradite him after authorities in Ramallah
requested his transfer over corruption allegations. Lebanon's public prosecutor
ordered the arrest of Dabbour, ambassador from 2012 to 2025, last week after
questioning him based on a warrant from the Palestinian Authority over
corruption and embezzlement during his tenure, a judicial official told AFP at
the time. The judiciary then recommended in a letter to the justice ministry
that Dabbour be extradited as his case involves "Palestinian funds", another
official said on Monday, on condition of anonymity. The request must be signed
by the justice minister, president and prime minister before security forces can
hand him over. "We are not asking for his protection from the judiciary, nor are
we asking for charges to be dropped," Dabbour's daughter Israa said Monday in a
press conference in Beirut. "Why should our father be moved from the country
where he lived, and from the place where the alleged crimes took place, in order
to be tried somewhere else?" she said, calling on the Lebanese judiciary to look
into the case instead of sending him to Ramallah. Dabbour has a "critical health
condition and is in intensive care", according to his daughter, who appealed to
Lebanon to "provide him with the necessary care".In April, Lebanese authorities
detained Dabbour over the same case before releasing him with a travel ban. He
has repeatedly denied the accusations on social media, accusing Yasser Abbas,
son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, of leading a campaign against him.
Israa Dabbour said "the file includes political accusations seeking to settle
personal scores" without elaborating. Lebanon's National Human Rights Commission
asked the cabinet last week to "refrain from approving the extradition" due to
"reliable information that raises serious reasons to believe that (Dabbour) is
at risk of being subjected to torture, ill-treatment or arbitrary detention".The
organization also pointed to legal loopholes that could prevent the handover due
to the lack of "an effective treaty between Lebanon and the State of Palestine
that regulates extradition".
Iranian foreign ministry voices 'full solidarity' with
Lebanon
Naharnet/August 11/2026
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei on Tuesday strongly condemned
"the brutal attacks launched by the Zionist regime in recent days on areas in
southern Lebanon," according to the Iranian news agency IRNA. In a statement, he
pointed to "the continued attacks by the occupying regime and its violation of
Lebanon's territorial integrity and national sovereignty," adding that "the
silence and indifference of international institutions, particularly the U.N.
Security Council, encourage the Zionist regime to further escalate its
aggression and crimes."Baqaei asserted that "the ruling administration in the
United States, due to its comprehensive support for the occupying regime, is
complicit and a partner in all the Zionist regime's crimes in Lebanon, occupied
Palestine, and the entire region."The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman also
praised "the resistance and courageous steadfastness of the Lebanese people in
the face of the Zionist regime's aggression and occupation," stressing "the
Islamic Republic of Iran's full solidarity with Lebanon in its path to defend
its sovereignty, dignity and independence in the face of the Zionist regime's
attacks."
Colonel Charbel Barakat/Maps and Occupations… Clarifying
what has been circulating regarding fabricated maps that allegedly depict
Israel’s ambitions in Lebanon
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/08/156582/
Some hobbyists circulated a photo of a map they claimed illustrates Israel’s
ambitions in southern Lebanon, alleging that it was cropped, even though no
cropping was apparent to us due to the lack of clarity in the published image,
which reportedly obscures parts of Lebanese territory.
The Israeli "enemy"—as Lebanese like to call it—already "occupies" Lebanese
lands that citizens see every day in the media and experience on the ground. The
Lebanese are trying to reach an understanding that might lead to the withdrawal
of this "brutal enemy" through repeated promises that have not materialized even
after four wars, so that the Lebanese state can assume responsibility for
governing its territory and prevent it from being used as a launching pad for
attacks on its surroundings. In return, the Lebanese government is trying to
resort to the mediation of certain countries that do not openly display
hostility toward it, and even contribute to funding some of its agencies,
without having demonstrated the ability so far to influence or curb its actions.
On the other hand, media leaks, press reports, and conversations among people in
every neighborhood and street indicate that Lebanon is almost entirely
occupied—above ground and below it—by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) and its militias. The Lebanese government exercises no control over
any part of the country, nor even over itself or the Parliament. The actual
authority inside the Ministry of Defense, for instance—which is supposed to
protect the country and safeguard its people—belongs to Iran's groups. Some
officers receive salaries and allowances from the IRGC and form a pivotal part
of its network that controls the country and prevents any intervention to reduce
its influence and occupation. They also have ministers and members of
parliament, led by a speaker who plays the role of the "Big Brother" and has
continuously held the country's legislative branch for over thirty years
uncontested. He shared the country with the military apparatus of the Iranian
occupation and executes what is required of him with meticulous
precision—starting from breaching institutions and stifling democracy, all the
way to destroying the economy and blocking solutions, allowing the actual
occupation to seize the levers of the state and control all its regions.
Nevertheless, Lebanon has not been fully occupied yet, as there are still free
people maintaining areas outside of this authority's control.
The actual occupation is the one that prevents Lebanon from exercising its right
to end its status as an "open arena," which previously began with Arafat and his
group funded by "sisterly" Arab states and armed by the Soviet Union and its
allies, leading up to Iran's group, which completed the occupation of an entire
community and imposed its laws, systems, and aspirations upon it, until that
community became loyal to it and accepted the destruction of its homes and the
killing of its sons for the sake of the "Supreme Leader" (Wilayat al-Faqih),
perhaps awaiting reward, reconstruction, and compensation payments. Is the
Iranian occupation considered any better than others?
The Israelis consider themselves neighbors with no ambitions in Lebanon other
than achieving peace and stability on both sides of the border. Their utmost
ambition is economic, commercial, and tourism cooperation, as well as open
borders so that their children can grow up and enjoy
future prospects in safety, without the need for war, hostility, and feeding
hatreds. They hope that good neighborliness and cooperation among the region's
components become the prevailing motto, and that the mission of states remains
preserving calm and lasting prosperity. Will a day come when we feel reassured
regarding the south, so that it no longer poses a burden on the country, but
rather a source of support in all fields? And will we be able to cooperate with
all neighbors, including distant ones such as Turkey, Iran, and all the Arab
Gulf states, without superiority or condescension, neither begging for aid nor
soliciting donations, nor aspiring to be a hired gun for one party or another
under any slogan or ideology?
A lasting peace among all countries in the region is the only guarantee for
achieving stability and building a prosperous future. Neither totalitarian
theories, nor ideological propositions, nor religious concepts are capable of
solving the problems among the people of these lands; rather, it requires
accepting the other and cooperating for the good of all, while stripping dreams
of dominance from the minds of both leaders and the public. Anyone asking
Lebanon to settle merely for a return to the Armistice Agreement does not want
to learn from the lessons of history; instead, they are attempting to reproduce
it and treat wounds with "red medicine" (mercurochrome)—as the local saying
goes—rather than ending conflicts and their causes, accepting the other, and
establishing calm, long-term relations for a promising future.
Lebanon and its Underworld
Sam Menassa/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 11/2026
If it is true that identifying those responsible for the assassination of former
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, for the sustained campaign of killings that
targeted “March 14” leaders over the years, for the Beirut port explosion, and
for the loss of bank deposits threatens civil peace - then what of the
consequences of the crime of building an "underworld" in southern Lebanon,
exposed by Israel, no less appalling than what preceded it, and whose
perpetrator is known? We do not know when this crime began, nor the true scale
of it and its expansion. But identifying who carried it out requires no
international tribunal, no investigations, no interrogations: it is whoever
violated Lebanese territory and public and private property, endangering
citizens' lives, and turned it into military barracks over long years. Since the
war broke out in October 2023, the Israeli army has carried out dozens of
demolition operations to destroy Hezbollah's tunnel network in southern Lebanon.
Although no official tally exists, the available data point to at least 50
detonations for this purpose, the latest of them the destruction of a tunnel in
Majdal Zoun in June 2026, 200 meters long and containing hundreds of weapons and
launchers.
This was followed in July by the demolition of an extensive tunnel network and a
command center near Beaufort Castle, using some 700 tons of explosives, in one
of the largest such operations since the start of the war.
This issue is not confined to the brutality of the Israeli demolitions, their
environmental and geological hazards, and what they have revealed about the
scale of the military capabilities Hezbollah accumulated. It extends to the
structure of the state itself: how was the party able to construct this vast
network of tunnels over years without being held to account or confronted by
Lebanon's state institutions, its political forces, or UNIFIL despite Israel's
repeated declarations that it possessed intelligence on the network, and despite
Lebanese territory being under the surveillance of multiple local, regional, and
international intelligence services? Whether Hezbollah began building this
network in the 1980s or expanded it after the 2006 war, it was not created in a
matter of months or a few years, but over the course of at least two decades.
During that period, four presidents of the republic and six prime ministers held
office in Lebanon, alongside successive army and security service commanders.
Nor should we forget the earlier period of Syrian tutelage and those it
installed in positions of authority. Reducing the matter to Hezbollah's
capabilities alone therefore overlooks a fundamental question about the
responsibility and effectiveness of state institutions that are supposed to
protect sovereignty and exercise oversight over the whole of Lebanese territory.
Here a pressing question arises: is it conceivable that everyone who
successively ran the Lebanese state, together with the security and military
leadership and the effective political forces, was unaware of a project on this
scale? Or does the matter reflect varying degrees of knowledge and complicity -
or of looking away, of incapacity to confront, and of acquiescence in a fait
accompli imposed by the imbalance of power within the state?
There is no need to belabor the responsibility of Hezbollah and its allies for
building these fortifications, particularly since what was constructed goes
beyond the concept of military defense requirements and comes closer to the
creation of a parallel infrastructure extending underground, mirroring the
influence the party built above it. And concern is no longer confined to the
people of the south. It has spread to the residents of other Lebanese regions,
from the Bekaa to Jbeil and the eastern mountain range, where many have begun to
wonder whether such fortifications lie beneath their own towns and homes.
The Lebanese have long known that their state was politically booby-trapped
above ground; today they are discovering that their country is, in the literal
sense, booby-trapped beneath it.
In light of these facts, does this underworld not constitute a sustained breach
of the ceasefire? These tunnels and fortifications reveal an integrated military
environment underground, matched above it by a closed ideological and political
environment that has moved beyond the narrative of resistance and the defense of
Lebanon to serving the Iranian project in all its dimensions. This picture
weakens the Lebanese position in any coming negotiations, while Hezbollah's
military structure remains in place north of the Litani. The problem is no
longer confined to a military deployment within the area covered by Resolution
1701, but lies in the existence of an armed system that cuts across regions,
outside the authority of the state, and that leaves any border settlement liable
to collapse. What was built underground constitutes a new political and
institutional scandal, added to a series of files that have gone without genuine
accountability - from the string of assassinations to the Beirut port explosion
to illegitimate weapons.Each time, the truth was deferred and accountability
postponed under the banner of preserving civil peace or avoiding sectarian
strife, while the deep causes of the crisis went untreated. The result is that
the policy of containing Hezbollah, rather than holding it to account, still
governs Lebanese political life - and the Lebanese themselves, who by their
silence are accomplices more than victims.
Lebanon-Israel Talks Head for Stalemate
Beirut: Caroline Akoum/Asharq Al Awsat/August 11/2026
Lebanese-Israeli negotiations appear headed for a period of drift, with no
serious signs that political and technical discussions will translate into
practical steps.The seventh round, held in Rome last week, ended without
tangible results. The next round will be held next month, a State Department
official announced Tuesday. "The political track will reconvene in Rome in early
September, and conversations will continue in Beirut, Jerusalem, and Washington
in the interim," the official said on condition of anonymity. Lebanese
ministerial sources following the negotiations said the deadlock was driven
mainly by Israeli and US political calculations, making a meaningful
breakthrough unlikely in the near term. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu does not appear ready to make concessions or take major steps before
Israel’s elections in October, the sources told Asharq Al-Awsat. With the
outcome uncertain, they said, Netanyahu would be reluctant to approve a
withdrawal from areas in southern Lebanon that could carry domestic political
costs or be used against him during the campaign.
Limited US pressure
The sources said Washington was also unlikely to put heavy pressure on Netanyahu
at this stage, despite continuing to sponsor the negotiations. They linked that
caution to US domestic politics ahead of the midterm elections and the
administration’s desire to maintain strong ties with Israel and segments of the
Jewish American electorate. That leaves Washington with limited room to push the
Israeli government, the sources said. The United States appears keen to keep the
talks alive and prevent their collapse, but not to press Israel into major steps
before the Israeli political picture becomes clearer.
Talks, but no implementation
The seventh round underscored the limits of the current process, the sources
said. “If there had been a serious desire to make progress, it would at least
have been possible to agree on the pilot areas and identify them by name as a
prelude to implementation,” they said.Instead, discussions shifted to border
issues, working mechanisms and technical arrangements. No practical steps were
agreed, including Lebanon’s demand for an end to the war and destruction, the
sources said. The problem, they added, is that the talks are increasingly
focused on mechanisms and details while the political decisions needed to begin
implementation remain absent.That risks turning the negotiations into an
open-ended process with no tangible outcome.
Prisoners and remains
The sources said bringing the issue of Israeli remains into the talks and
linking it to the prisoners’ file was also pulling attention away from the core
issues. If there were a serious and positive effort to address the prisoners’
issue, they said, the International Committee of the Red Cross should at least
be allowed to meet them, something Israel continues to refuse.Raising such
issues without taking clear steps only prolongs the negotiations, the sources
said, rather than moving toward the issues Lebanon wants addressed. Against that
backdrop, Beirut is using its channels with US officials to press Israel, at
least to halt the continuing bulldozing and destruction in the south. Lebanon is
stressing to Washington that ongoing destruction, alongside negotiations, makes
it difficult to portray the process as serious or capable of producing a
settlement, the sources said.Beirut hopes for some progress on that front in the
near term.
Could Lebanon walk away?
On whether Lebanon might suspend its participation, the sources pointed to an
episode during the seventh round in Rome. Lebanese delegation head Ambassador
Simon Karam wanted to withdraw after Israel threatened to strike the town of
Mansouri and called for its evacuation, they said.The Lebanese presidency,
however, favored continuing the talks.Its view was that any suspension should
come from the other side, not Lebanon, so Beirut would not be blamed for
derailing the negotiations.
Iran remains a factor
The US-Iranian negotiations are also feeding into the Lebanese-Israeli track,
alongside Israel’s elections, the sources said. Any progress between Washington
and Tehran could affect the situation in Lebanon. The main impact, they said,
would be on efforts to disarm Hezbollah, ease tensions and push the group toward
a more positive approach to Lebanon’s negotiating track.
Lebanon’s Ali al-Taher Back at Center of Escalation
Asharq Al Awsat/August 11/2026
Intensified Israeli operations have thrust the Ali al-Taher Heights back to the
forefront of tensions in southern Lebanon, days after the town of Mansouri came
under Israeli attack. Repeated artillery fire and strikes have targeted the
heights and surrounding areas amid Israeli claims of underground military
facilities in the area. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced
Sunday that his army was carrying out a “highly important operation” in Lebanon,
specifically citing the targeting of operatives at Ali al-Taher.Some assessments
link the intensity of Israeli operations to the area’s strategic importance and
the possibility that Israel may seek to expand its control there. Others view
the developments within the broader issue of Hezbollah’s weapons, while the US
position remains a key factor in determining the scope and timing of any wider
Israeli action.
Heavy shelling
Ali al-Taher came under intense Israeli artillery fire overnight Sunday into
Monday, continuing until dawn. Local reports said that more than 70 shells
struck the area. The attacks continued Monday morning with drone strikes, while
shelling hit the area between Zawtar and Mayfadoun. Netanyahu adviser Dmitry
Gendelman maintained that “Israel would remain in the security zone and act
independently to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure. Gendelman said
Ali al-Taher contained a Hezbollah command center, and claimed the destruction
of a tunnel complex beneath Beaufort Castle, along with operations targeting the
group’s infrastructure, personnel and weapons. Israeli claims of having seized
the hill come amid conflicting accounts over the nature of its presence there
and underground facilities in the area. Reports have suggested that operatives
remain inside a facility and that efforts are underway to encircle them and cut
supply routes.
Missed opportunity
Retired Brig. Gen. Yaarob Sakher said Lebanon missed a “golden opportunity” at
Ali al-Taher, arguing that Hezbollah could have handed the area over to the
Lebanese Army as an additional pilot zone. “There was a golden opportunity for
Lebanon at Ali al-Taher,” Sakher told Asharq Al-Awsat. “Hezbollah could have
handed it over to the Lebanese Army, which would enter and take control, but the
party refused.”In his assessment, the refusal gave Israel an opportunity to
harden its position. He added that Hezbollah is unlikely to surrender the area
because of its military significance. “We do not know everything that is there,
but Ali al-Taher appears to contain what could be described as a major
operations room, alongside an extensive tunnel network believed to connect with
other areas,” he explained. Sakher added that circulating information points to
the possible presence of weapons and ammunition depots and senior personnel,
noting that Hezbollah’s determination to hold the area suggests it carries
considerable importance.
Beyond Ali al-Taher
Retired Brig. Gen. Khaled Hamadeh, by contrast, cautioned against reducing the
escalation to the fate of the heights, viewing the intensified bombardment as
part of a broader Israeli course of action. “The issue goes beyond Ali al-Taher,
and we are heading toward further escalation,” Hamadeh told Asharq Al-Awsat,
linking the developments to Israeli operations in other southern areas,
including Mansouri and Zawtar. In his view, Israel “will not allow any security
or military surprise in areas it considers sensitive,” and the operations are
intended to send a message beyond any single position on the ground. “The
fundamental issue is not Ali al-Taher or any particular military position, but
Hezbollah’s weapons,” he stressed.Israel is acting on the premise that the
framework agreement with Lebanon requires the weapons to be addressed and that
the current situation will leave the door open to further strikes, he remarked.
“The main problem lies in the lack of political will to disarm Hezbollah,” he
added.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on August 11-12/2026
Trump says Iran must pay reparations for 'damages and death' in Lebanon
Agence France Presse/August 11/2026
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that Iran should be “responsible for the
damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza,” in
response to Iran’s insistence that U.S. payment of war reparations is a
pre-condition to any resolution of the ongoing hostilities."I am likewise
demanding compensation from Iran," Trump said, noting that his demand included
not only damages arising from the current war with Iran, but also Iranian
attacks on U.S. targets going back more than two decades as well as payments to
the families of Iranian protesters killed by authorities over the past 50 years.
Tehran has demanded that the U.S. first end its blockade of Iranian ports and
lift sanctions on its oil industry. As negotiations have floundered, the
strait's blockage by Iran has sent fuel prices soaring and rattled the world
economy, putting pressure on Trump ahead of midterm elections in November. In
his post, Trump referenced the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, which he has
previously said Iran was "probably involved" in. On Monday he said his various
demands for compensations would be put "firmly into any, and all, future
negotiations" with Iran.
Trump pivots back to sanctions for Iran as other strategies to end war fizzle
Associated Press/August 11/2026
President Donald Trump likes to say that he started his war with Iran after 50
years of economic pressure had failed to stop its nuclear weapons ambitions —
but he's now betting that another financial squeeze can bring an end to that
war. The Trump administration is hoping that months of bombing have pushed
Iran's economy to a breaking point that will force its leadership to cave to
demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil
and natural gas tankers. The president on Monday said that since Iran is seeking
compensation as part of any peace talks, he now intends to demand the same for
the U.S. side. It's part of a larger pivot this weekend by Trump to argue that
Iran is now on the cusp of financially collapsing, even though it has already
endured decades of financial sanctions, which are often a longer-term strategy
rather than an immediate tool of warfare that can halt a conflict. The shift
comes as U.S. stockpiles of key weapons have dwindled and as stop-start talks
seem again to have stalled. But Trump insists the pressure can lead to a
breakthrough. "Yeah, they can make trouble, but they're broke," Trump told
reporters. "They have no money. You know, Iran is broke, totally broke. And,
they're not paying their soldiers. They have inflation of 300%."Inflation is
running high in Iran, although Trump's estimates were higher than what
administration officials have been citing to reporters. But the prospect of a
longer war also carries inflation risks for other nations, including the U.S. —
where the war and higher gasoline prices are unpopular. Crude oil prices climbed
on Monday as investors interpreted Trump's comments as a sign that fewer ships
would be traversing the Strait of Hormuz, continuing to limit global supplies of
gasoline, jet fuel, natural gas and other forms of energy. The Iran war largely
closed the waterway involved in shipping roughly 20% of global oil supplies
before the conflict — and attempts to reopen the strait have been short-lived as
it has become a source of leverage for the Iranians in negotiations. Iran does
not appear to be publicly intimidated by the prospect of more financial
sanctions."Whenever Washington proves itself incapable of pursuing diplomacy, it
retreats into sanctions; and whenever those sanctions fail to produce results,
it simply increases the dose," said Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for Iran's Foreign
Ministry, on social media. "The real risk is that American politicians, clinging
to this bad habit, will instead strangle their own remaining chances of a less
humiliating exit from a crisis of their own making."
The White House has called this 'Operation Economic Fury'
The president didn't say what additional financial pressure would be applied,
but the administration has since April 16 been engaged in what it calls "
Operation Economic Fury " against Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called
this component the "financial equivalent" of a bombing campaign as the countries
that buy oil from Iran or bank with it could be sanctioned. But one problem with
this pivot is that the sanctions are unable to bite as quickly as the impact of
the largely shuttered strait, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at
Columbia University who helped direct Iran sanctions strategy in the Obama
administration.Nephew stressed that the value of sanctions as a tool is limited
because Trump has not articulated clear strategic goals for the war, at times
stressing that it can't have a nuclear weapon, then emphasizing the strait and
then talking about ballistic missiles. Instead, Trump has engaged in a massive
series of aerial assaults and a level of destruction that has not produced the
quick end that he initially promised. "Economic pressure is a possible element
in his strategy, but he's yet to explain the purpose," Nephew said. "Trump has
systematically weakened his own hand through his inadequate use of force,
inarticulate elucidation of an objective, and vacillation on negotiations."Still,
the sanctions and the ongoing U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports give the U.S.
economic and financial leverage, said Juan Zarate, a deputy national security
adviser in the George W. Bush administration. Zarate said the U.S. sanctions
threatening third-party countries doing business with Iran also have an impact.
But these things take time, he noted. "The ultimate question will be how far the
United States is willing to go to constrict Iran's oil trade and threaten third
countries with severe sanctions -- and whether it has the patience to test
whether the economic pain will change the regime's behavior," Zarate said.
Past presidents used sanctions. Trump has said they didn't go far enough
Trump's latest pivot to economic issues with Iran is something of a flip-flop.
Trump has long derided past presidents who used sanctions to limit Iran's
economic ability to pay for its military and nuclear development. In a speech
last week in Las Vegas, he defended the bombing, missiles and drone attacks that
began on Feb. 28 by indicating that the sanctions from previous administrations
that date back to November 1979 had failed to succeed. "It's been 47 years, but
really, it's been 50 years because they've been saying 47 for three years, it's
been 50 years," Trump said. "And no other president has done what you should
have done a long time ago, because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, can't have
it."The Iranian economy has suffered gravely because of the war, with the
International Monetary Fund estimating the overall economy shrinks by 5.4% and
the Iranian government recently reporting an annual inflation rate of 88.6%. The
U.S. Treasury Department said average loadings of Iranian oil have decreased
from 1.8 million barrels per day before the war to less than 500,000 barrels per
day over the past month. The U.S. economy — the world's largest — has continued
to grow, but inflation is elevated and borrowing costs have risen in ways that
have hurt Trump's popularity and led to disapproval of the Iran war. A senior
U.S. official, insisting on anonymity to discuss strategy, said the U.S.
military has set back Iran's ability to produce, sell and ship oil and other
energy resources. The administration sees the naval blockade of the strait and
sanctions as effective and views Trump as having additional options that can be
cranked harder in the weeks and months ahead. Trump is essentially arguing that
U.S. voters are better able to tolerate any economic inconveniences than
Iranians, who have been in a state of economic hardship for years.
"It's not just what the military can do — we've got the most powerful economy in
the world as well," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday in a joint
appearance with Bessent. "And when you've got a motivated treasury secretary who
can pull a lot of levers because he knows how to do it, you can put a lot of
pressure on adversaries."
Trump says Iran options are let Tehran fail economically or
‘hit them really hard’
Reuters/11 August ,2026
US President Donald Trump accused Iran of being “devious negotiators” in an
interview released late on Monday and described some of his current options in
the war – “just bop along” and let Tehran fail economically or hit them “really,
really hard.”“I’m sort of negotiating,” Trump told Real America’s Voice in a
phone interview. “They’re very devious negotiators.”Since the conflict began in
late February, Trump has repeatedly oscillated between threats of escalation and
claims that a peace deal is imminent. Pakistan said on Tuesday the US and Iran
were close to “some sort” of deal, and Qatar said talks on managing the Strait
of Hormuz were at an advanced stage, despite reports of new attacks on shipping
in regional waters. Trump described one of his possible strategies as: “Do what
I’m doing now: just bop along and look how bad they’re doing.”“Economically,
they are a mess. They can’t borrow money. We control their money, what they had,
which is a lot. They had a lot, and we have total control of it. I’m their
banker,” he said, referring to frozen Iranian assets. Another option would be to
“hit them really, really hard,” Trump said. Trump also shrugged off concerns of
low munitions, saying the US was “building them like crazy” and cast blame on
his predecessor, former US president Joe Biden.Reuters reported last week that
the US Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range
missiles during the war, raising concerns about the military’s readiness for
future conflicts. “We’re fine with munitions... But the reason it would be
lower, and we’re building them like crazy, but the reason it’s low is because he
(Biden) gave $300 billion worth to Ukraine,” Trump said.
Iran says Hormuz to stay closed unless US meets Tehran’s conditions
Al Arabiya English/11 August ,2026
The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the US does not change its
behavior and accept Iran’s conditions to end the war, the newly appointed
secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said on Tuesday. His
comments are the strongest indication so far that any deal in talks with Oman
over the waterway would not immediately reopen it to shipping if the US does not
also abide by its commitments in a memorandum of understanding toward ending the
conflict reached between Washington and Tehran in June.“As long as America does
not change its behavior and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of
Hormuz will not be opened,” Mohsen Rezaei, a close ally of Supreme Leader
Mojtaba Khamenei, was quoted by semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying.
“America must end the war, pay Iran’s frozen assets, the war must end throughout
the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza,” he said. “If an agreement is reached
between Iran and Oman regarding the transit route through the Strait of Hormuz,
this agreement will be a matter separate from the closure of the Strait of
Hormuz.”
Trump calls for compensation
Rezaei, appointed on Sunday as second-in-command of the body that coordinates
Iran’s security and foreign policy, said the conditions had been transmitted to
the US through mediators.Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Khamenei, also said on
X on Tuesday that “the punishment of the aggressor continues, and the Strait of
Hormuz will not be opened until Iran’s conditions are met.”Oil futures extended
their gains due to concerns over the fate of the strait.There was no immediate
comment from Washington on Iran’s latest comments, but President Donald Trump
had already raised a new US demand himself – that Iran pay compensation for
people killed in wars, attacks and protests – and also accused Tehran of being
“devious negotiators.”“We’re going to ask for money for the damage they’ve done
over a 50-year period,” Trump said at the White House on Monday. In an interview
released late on Monday, he described some of his current options in the war –
“just bop along” and let Tehran fail economically or hit them “really, really
hard.”“I’m sort of negotiating,” Trump told Real America’s Voice in the phone
interview. “They’re very devious negotiators.”
Trump has alternated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal
is imminent.
Pakistan had raised hopes of progress
Before the rhetoric escalated again, Pakistan, one of the main mediators in the
conflict, along with Qatar, had raised hopes that the two sides might be closing
in on a deal that would in effect reopen the vital waterway, through which a
fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war. “The
signals in the last two, three days are that we are close to some sort of an
arrangement,” Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said in an interview with
Bloomberg News.Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict – mainly in
Iran and Lebanon – since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February
28.
Iran has retaliated by striking US assets and infrastructure in the region, as
well as civilian sites across several regional countries.
Attacks on shipping
Adding to the rhetoric from both sides, there were reports of new attacks on
shipping in the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea, highlighting the threat to
maritime trade. Four crew members were killed in a suspected attack by Yemen’s
Iran-backed Houthis on a small cargo vessel in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on
Tuesday, Yemen’s transport ministry said. The fatalities aboard the
Egyptian-owned Tihamah, if confirmed, would be the first deaths in a Houthi
strike on shipping since the Iran war began. The Houthis have not claimed the
attack. A US helicopter on Tuesday fired missiles into the engine room of a
Panama-flagged cargo ship that attempted to break the American blockade of
Iran’s ports, the US military said. The US Navy MH-60 helicopter fired on and
disabled the M/V Vela Nova “after the ship’s civilian crew ignored repeated
warnings from American forces,” US Central Command said on X, adding that the
vessel “is no longer transiting to Iran in violation of the US blockade.”The US
first announced a blockade of shipping trying to reach Iran’s ports in April and
reimposed it in July after the June peace accord crumbled.With Reuters
Netanyahu masters balancing act as he rejects Trump's Gaza
plan
Associated Press/August 11/2026
It's possibly the most important job of any Israeli prime minister: maintain
good relations with the United States while pushing back on demands seen as
undermining Israel's security. No one has managed the balancing act longer than
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader. But with the
Iran war at a stalemate, and U.S. President Donald Trump looking to advance
peace efforts elsewhere, Netanyahu's task is getting harder less than three
months away from Israeli elections. On Sunday, Netanyahu rejected Trump's latest
plan to advance the stalled ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel will not withdraw
from any of the roughly 60% of the territory it controls until Hamas has been
completely disarmed — something the militant group controlling the other 40% has
long resisted. Netanyahu risks angering Trump, who he has repeatedly said is the
greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House. But even a hint of
compromise with Hamas could be fatal for Netanyahu's reelection in a country
deeply traumatized by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that happened on his watch.
Trump, meanwhile, is under pressure to deliver on his promise of being a global
peacemaker as talks with Iran stall and gas prices stay elevated ahead of U.S.
congressional elections in November. Netanyahu says there will be no progress on
Gaza ceasefire until Hamas disarms.
The Gaza plan announced by Trump last month grew out of his October ceasefire
deal, which ended major Israeli military operations there and brought about the
release of all remaining hostages but has otherwise largely stalled. Under the
latest agreement, Hamas would gradually give up its weapons while Israeli forces
halt their attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza. Hamas accepted the deal,
even as the group linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation
of a Palestinian state, something Israel's current government and most of its
political class adamantly reject. Netanyahu rejected the plan, saying Israel
would not retreat from any of its positions in Gaza until Hamas has been
completely disarmed. That would leave other elements of the ceasefire, including
the deployment of international forces and any reconstruction of the devastated
territory, on hold.
At the same time, the Israeli military seems to have eased off on its strikes on
Gaza that have killed over 1,250 people since the ceasefire came into effect,
according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Israeli media reported that the authority
for carrying out strikes has been limited to the army's chief of staff,
apparently in a quiet gesture toward Trump's ceasefire efforts. The Israeli
military did not respond to a request for comment. "We are focused on actions,
not rhetoric or politics," an official with the Board of Peace, the Trump-led
entity overseeing the ceasefire, told The Associated Press. "There have been
some results on the ground in the last few days," the official added, including
"restraint from strikes" and new Israeli military procedures."There is
constructive cooperation behind the scenes and our conversations continue," the
official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to talk about the ongoing discussions.Oct. 7 looms over a tough
campaign for reelection. In his election campaign, Netanyahu has boasted of
Israel's military achievements in the wars that followed the Oct. 7 attack.
Israeli forces have seized territory in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and launched
two major air wars against Iran and its disputed nuclear program. But the "total
victory" Netanyahu promised in Gaza has yet to materialize. Many Israelis blame
him for the security failures that led to the initial attack, as well as
previous attempts to contain Hamas that at times included allowing Qatar to
deliver suitcases filled with cash to Gaza.
Netanyahu's far-right allies, who will likely be crucial to his ability to form
a government after the elections, have welcomed his rejection of the Trump plan.
Trump "wants to see real steps taken toward rehabilitating Gaza, while
Netanyahu's two right-wing partners and the Likud's faltering election campaign
is keeping him from yielding even a millimeter," wrote Jonathan Lis, the
diplomatic correspondent for Israel's Haaretz newspaper. Ghaith al-Omari, a
former Palestinian negotiator who is now a senior fellow at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy, said that even if the White House ignores
Netanyahu's rejection of the plan, Trump is still stuck unless he can persuade
the Israeli leader to change course. Hamas is meanwhile winning the "blame game"
by appearing to be the more reasonable of the two sides, he said.
Trump's standing in Israel has fallen as he has tried to wind down the Iran war.
Trump was wildly popular in Israel during his first term, when he lent
unprecedented support to Israel's claims to territory seized in war, including
by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
The trend continued in his second term, as he backed Israel's actions in Gaza
and joined it in bombing Iran. The alliance was particularly beneficial to
Netanyahu, whose political future remained uncertain. The prime minister relied
on Trump to improve his image at home.
But the allies' interests diverged last spring, as Israel pressed for further
strikes on Iran and against Hezbollah in Lebanon, while Trump looked to wind
down the regional conflict in order to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ease
pressure on the world economy.
Since then, Trump has said that he would "likely" endorse Netanyahu ahead of the
Israeli election but has not yet given his full backing. And while a formal
endorsement from a U.S. president still carries weight in Israel, the rift
between the two leaders suggests it could also complicate Netanyahu's campaign.
"A few months ago, a significant majority of Israelis assumed that when
President Trump is making decisions, he's taking Israeli security interests into
account. This is no longer the case," said Yohanan Plesner, head of the Israel
Democracy Institute, a think tank in Jerusalem. The closeness between Netanyahu
and Trump "used to be an asset," he said, but not anymore. Netanyahu has defied
past US presidents, but the risks are greater now.
Netanyahu has a long history of defying U.S. presidents, particularly Democratic
ones. During his first term, in the late 1990s, he resisted efforts by President
Bill Clinton to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians. He clashed publicly
with President Barack Obama over the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. But that
approach carries greater risks now, as Israel's military campaigns have left it
increasingly isolated diplomatically and upended its historic support among
Democratic voters in the U.S., leaving Trump as one of Israel's few strong
allies. Netanyahu's dependence on Trump is "tremendous," Plesner said, and
voters will punish him if he is seen as mismanaging the key relationship. "If
Trump will insist on carrying on, I think Netanyahu will have no choice but to
tag along rather than take on the president, since he's left Israel with very
few diplomatic cards to maneuver."
Drone strike sparks massive blaze at Libya's Zawiya refinery
Associated Press/August 11/2026
Firefighters in western Libya fought Tuesday to extinguish the remnants of a
massive fire caused by a drone strike on an oil facility, and a car bomb killed
a senior military officer in the country's east, in the latest attacks in the
chaos-stricken North African nation. The drone hit a gasoline tank at the Zawiya
oil refinery in the Mediterranean town of Zawiya on Monday, about 47 kilometers
(about 30 miles) west of capital Tripoli, the state-run National Oil Corporation
said. The attack ignited a massive blaze at gasoline-storage tank that burned
through the night and was still burning as of Tuesday afternoon, according to
the Civil Defense, a first responders' agency. There were no reports of
casualties, the health authorities said. No group has claimed responsibility for
a series of attacks on oil facilities in Zawiya, or the car bomb in the eastern
city of Benghazi on Monday. Footage aired by local media showed massive flames
and fireballs erupting from the tank, with black and orange smoke rising in the
sky as firefighters spray what appears to be foam or water in efforts to quench
the intense fire. As they fought the flames, another drone hit close to a key
oil tank nearby but did not cause casualties or damage, the company said. The
company said the tank, which held 4.5 million liters of fuel when it was hit,
collapsed, and declared a state of maximum emergency at the facility. Two drones
hit the town's power plant, with one damaging its firefighting system while the
second landed close to the facility's main fuel storage, local media reported.
Monday's strikes were the latest in a series of drone attacks on oil
infrastructure in Zawiya, which houses critical energy infrastructure including
the country's largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant. The
drone strikes come as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to arrive in
Libya for a visit. He is due to visit both Tripoli and Bengahzi. Over the
weekend, the oil company said drone strikes had hit a fuel tank and a
desalination plant linked to the oil facilities in Zawiya. It said the tank was
damaged. The attacks come as tensions are rising between the government of
western Libya and a warlord who controls the city of Zawiya. Much of western
Libya is ruled by local militias loosely allied to Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid
Dbeibah's government in Tripoli. Jalel Harchaoui, an analyst affiliated with the
Royal United Services Institute in London, said warlord Mohamed Bahroun has been
cornered by the government and his forces "are likely to resort to desperate
measures."Separately, a senior military officer with the forces of powerful
commander Khalifa Hifter was killed in a car bomb Monday evening in the eastern
city of Benghazi, authorities said. Maj. Gen. Fawzy al-Mansouri, director of the
military intelligence of Hifter's self-styled Libyan National Army, was killed
when an explosive-laden vehicle exploded into his car in the Sayyida Aisha
neighborhood in Benghazi after, the LNA said. The LNA is allied with one of
Libya's two rival governments, which controls the country's eastern and southern
parts.
The attacks underscored the fragility of security in the oil-rich country.
Libya, a largely lawless Mediterranean country, has been plunged into chaos and
division following the 2011 uprising-turned-civil war, which toppled and later
killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Amid the chaos, militias grew in
wealth and power, particularly in Tripoli and the western part of the country.
The county has been divided for years between rival administrations in the east
and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Currently, it is
governed by Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah's government in the west and by
the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad in the east.
Yemen targets Houthi positions in response to attacks
Al Arabiya English/11 August ,2026
Yemen’s armed forces on Tuesday have targeted several Houthi positions and
gatherings. Army drones further targeted Houthi mortar systems and positions in
the al-Radha Mountains in the governorate of Marib while the air force targeted
a Houthi camp on the al-Alam front in al-Jawf governorate. Earlier, a Yemeni
military source said that the Houthis had targeted neighborhoods in the city of
Marib with drones and missiles. Correspondents of Al Arabiya and Al Hadath
reported hearing two explosions in Marib while Yemeni air defenses were engaging
Houthi drones. All the while, the Houthis continued shelling the port city of
Mokha with missiles as Al Arabiya’s correspondent heard two consecutive
explosions near the port.The Iran-backed Houthis have recently increased armed
attacks targeting ships in the Red Sea and striking both civilian and military
targets in Yemen.
Houthis hit targets in central Yemen and Red Sea port city
Associated Press/August 11/2026
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked the government-held port city of
Mokha on the Red Sea coast and other areas of the country, deepening fears over
threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.
Yemen's military said the rebels targeted both Mokha and the central province of
Marib with missiles and drones but did not provide further details. The Houthis
struck Marib and the eastern province of Hadramout last week, killing dozens of
government troops and civilians. They hit Mokha with missiles and drones over
the weekend and killed at least seven people, including three troops, according
to the Yemeni military. Mokha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally
recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping to avoid the
Houthi-held port of Hodeida. The strikes came as part of a recent escalation by
the Houthis against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring
Saudi Arabia, which supports the internationally recognized Yemeni government,
and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively
shut down by Iran, there has been a renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab
el-Mandeb Strait at Yemen's southern tip, which is an alternate route for Saudi
Arabia to ship its oil to open oceans. The Houthi attacks could reignite Yemen’s
civil war after a four-year hiatus following a 2022 truce, and open a new front
in the Middle East war.
Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia
Associated Press/August 11/2026
A Syrian court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad along with his
younger brother to death in absentia on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and
war crimes during Syria's 14-year conflict that left about half a million people
dead. The sentences at the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus are the first
against Assad or members of his inner circle since the Assad family's five
decades in power came to an end 20 months ago. "Bashar Assad used state agencies
to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity," said judge Fakhareddine
al-Aryan during a court session that was aired live on state TV. Also sentenced
to death in the same case was Assad's maternal cousin Atef Najib, who was
convicted of overseeing a crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led
to the uprising and later the civil war. Amid tight security, Najib stood inside
a cage wearing a prisoner's uniform as the judge read the sentence. A crowd of
people gathered outside the courthouse in central Damascus to hear the verdict.
Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after the government's fall in
December 2024 and received political asylum. Syria's new rulers have asked
Russia to hand the Assads over. Najib, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Department
of the Treasury in April 2011, was later detained and is one of the
highest-ranking officials to be put on trial. Najib is a former Syrian army
brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern
Syria's Daraa province under Assad in 2011. During his tenure, more than a dozen
teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa were
arrested and tortured. The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the
repressive policies of Assad's security forces. The protests were met by a
brutal government crackdown and spiraled into a 14-year civil war that ended
with Assad's ouster in a lightning rebel offensive. Maher Assad was a former
commander of the Syrian military's 4th Armored Division — which Syrian
opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug
trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centers.
Colombia Recognizes Israeli Claim Over Syria's Golan
Heights
Asharq Al Awsat/August 11/2026
Colombia's newly appointed hard-right government on Monday recognized Israel's
claim over the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967. The United
States was until now the only country to recognize Israel's annexation of the
territory in 1981. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella took power on
Friday, following a bombastic campaign during which he promised tight relations
with the US and Israel as a way to combat armed groups in his own country. His
foreign ministry announced recognition of Israel's claim on the same day that a
powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, killing at least 111 people and
injuring dozens more. "The Government of Colombia recognizes Israeli sovereignty
over this territory, as well as that State's right to protect itself against
external threats," read a statement published on X.
"Colombia recognizes that maintaining Israel's control and sovereignty over the
Golan Heights is an essential component of its national defense," it added. The
United Nations maintains that the plateau is Syrian territory under Israeli
military occupation.Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar thanked his "good
friend" De la Espriella for the recognition. The pair had agreed on the move in
the Colombian city of Barranquilla, he said, one day before De la Espriella's
inauguration. "Defensible borders are essential to guarantee the continued
existence of the Jewish people in our historic homeland," Saar, who attended the
swearing-in, posted on X.Last month, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
reiterated that the Golan Heights were part of Syria, describing Israeli
occupation as "totally unacceptable."De la Espriella's leftist predecessor
Gustavo Petro had ardently criticized Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip,
severing diplomatic relations and halting Israeli arms imports into Colombia.The
US-backed millionaire now in office has promised to restore ties.Last month, he
said he planned to open a Colombian embassy in Jerusalem, which Israel regards
as its capital, including the occupied Palestinian part. This is not recognized
internationally, however, and most countries conduct their diplomatic missions
from Tel Aviv.
The Latest LCCC analysis & editorials from
miscellaneous sources published
on August 11-12/2026
The Manufacture of Fear, the State of Exception, and Human Life Laid Bare in
Lebanon
Dr. Mona Fayad/Levant time Time/10/2026
Since the Ain al-Rummaneh bus incident in 1975, which served as the symbolic
spark of the war, the Lebanese people have been caught in an unbroken cycle of
organized fear, rather than occasional fear. This falls within what some
thinkers call the “economy of fear” or the “politics of fear,” in which fear
becomes something that is manufactured and managed, rather than merely a
spontaneous emotion.
Fear performs three dangerous functions here:
First, it paralyzes collective action. When a society lives under the permanent
threat of war, civil strife, collapse, or an external or internal enemy, its
primary concern becomes individual survival rather than collective action. The
possibility of organized resistance to any form of domination or occupation
consequently begins to disintegrate.
Second, fear reproduces narrow communal loyalties, because it drives people to
seek protection within their primary groups of belonging: their sect, their
leader, their party. Fear thus becomes a mechanism for reproducing the very
system that is supposedly responsible for the crisis.
Finally, under the sway of fear, everything becomes justifiable: weapons beyond
the control of the state, the suspension of the law, repression, corruption, and
even dependence on foreign powers, because “the circumstances are exceptional.”
We thus enter a state of exception that never ends.
Our history bears witness to recurring stages in the manufacture of fear:
The civil war: fear of the sectarian other.
Successive occupations: fear of the external enemy.
The post-2005 period: fear of assassination and chaos.
Since 2019: fear of economic collapse.
Regional wars and wars of support: persistent fear and anxiety over existence
itself.
The problem, then, does not lie in the existence of real dangers, for such
dangers do indeed exist, but in transforming them into a permanent structure for
managing society. Nor does it lie in the fact that the population has succumbed
to fear, but rather in the fact that this fear has often been fabricated,
amplified, or exploited in ways that prevent any genuine moment of emancipation.
The ultimate result is what might be described as a society living in a
permanent state of psychological emergency.
If fear is produced as an instrument for controlling the political sphere, its
deepest effect lies in the redefinition of the human being within that sphere
itself, something Giorgio Agamben’s theses on “bare life” capture with
particular precision. In the Lebanese context, this involves not merely
spreading a climate of fear, but transforming the citizen into a biological
being stripped of protection, living in a gray zone between law and non-law,
where rights are suspended in the name of security or sectarian necessity.
In this sense, the “economy of fear” intersects with what Michel Foucault calls
“biopower,” which does not merely control bodies, but reproduces them within
systems of discipline and surveillance: the prison, the hospital, the school,
the barracks… The Lebanese case, however, reveals a further shift: instead of
life being managed with a view to improving it, as in classical models of
biopower, fear is managed in order to keep life at its bare minimum, at the
level of “survival” rather than “living.”
The Lebanese individual thus approaches the condition of “bare life,” in the
Agambenian sense, constantly exposed to exceptional sovereign decisions and
deprived of any prospect of legal and political stability. This convergence
between the production of fear and the stripping of human beings of their
political status gives rise to an invisible structure of governance, in which
the social contract is replaced by the logic of permanent emergency and a
“politics of neglect” prevails over the exercise of power itself. More than
that, it becomes a management of deterioration: of the economy, healthcare,
education, emigration, and even the Beirut port explosion…
If the “state of exception” provides the theoretical point of departure for
understanding the transformation of sovereignty in the Lebanese context, it does
not represent a mere temporary legal condition. Rather, it has established a
permanent structure of governance within which the relationship between power
and society is continually reshaped. In this sense, the “manufacture of fear”
can be regarded as the practical extension of the state of exception, since the
suspension of legal and institutional rules can only be sustained through the
continuous production of a climate of threat.
In this context, the citizen ceases to be a political actor and instead becomes
the object of emergency policies, governed by the logic of individual survival
and severed from any shared contractual horizon. Dismantling this system
therefore requires more than simply restoring the rule of law. It requires
restoring the political meaning of life itself, that is, reintegrating the
individual into the sphere of citizenship beyond the logic of exception and
fear.
Fear thus becomes an invisible instrument of governance, reshaping collective
mindsets and entrenching what might be called a “permanent psychological
emergency,” in which anxiety is continually reproduced as a structural condition
of precarious stability. This process does not rest solely on the existence of
objective dangers. It also feeds on a social vulnerability rooted in deep
divisions and the absence of a shared national narrative. Dismantling the
economy of fear therefore entails not only exposing its mechanisms, but also
rebuilding trust and institutions and producing an alternative collective
meaning.
Hezbollah’s Role
In this context, the mechanisms of domination cannot be understood without
addressing the role of Hezbollah and the policies it has imposed on Lebanon, in
conjunction with the ruling establishment and with the support of the Syrian
regime and Iran, particularly during the period when this axis exercised
absolute dominance, a dominance that is now visibly receding, especially since
the fall of Assad.
A crucial philosophical and legal distinction arises here. A rigorous
distinction must be drawn between a “state of emergency,” which derives from the
law and is regulated by constitutions within clearly defined limits and
conditions, and a “pre-legal state of exception,” imposed by this axis as an
open-ended fait accompli, without limits or safeguards. In the latter case, laws
and boundaries were swept aside and rights stripped away, entirely transforming
the role of Lebanon’s Constitution and institutions. Instead of serving as a
shield to protect society, under the weight of this domination they were reduced
to little more than an official and legal cover for the abuse of power and the
entrenchment of authoritarianism.
The parallel sovereignty exercised by Hezbollah did not stop at the legal
control of individuals. It penetrated, insidiously, into “bare life” itself,
stripping it of value and exposing it to the violence of arbitrary sovereign
decisions. Consequently, this “bare life,” viewed through the prism of the
“exception,” became the vital fuel sustaining Hezbollah’s exercise of sovereign
power, which perpetuates itself through the continuous production of a repressed
and domesticated “biopolitical body,” subjected to absolute control under the
cover of law and a false sovereignty designed to prevent any form of dissent.
This logic has manifested itself concretely in the assassination of intellectual
and political activist Lokman Slim in an area under Hezbollah’s control; in the
events of May 7, 2008, when weapons were used domestically to impose political
equations through the force of a fait accompli; and in the obstruction of the
judicial investigation into the Beirut port explosion and the open threats made
against judges. Such practices have entrenched a principle of total impunity and
effectively nullified the sovereignty of the Lebanese judiciary.
Through this systematically engineered fear, human beings in Lebanon have been
reduced to the condition of “bare life.” Political opponents are exposed to
physical elimination, accusations of treason, or symbolic forms of condemnation
that effectively strip them of protection. Meanwhile, citizens from Hezbollah’s
own support base are themselves exposed by being thrust into cross-border
regional wars, whether through military intervention in Syria or the unilateral
opening of fronts of attrition, without authorization or cover from their state,
reducing them to mere biological fuel for a transnational project.
This exposure has not been confined to individuals. It has also extended to the
very structure of the Lebanese state and to neighboring states, whose
sovereignty has been violated through the legitimization of illicit smuggling
routes, the usurpation of the decision over war and peace, and the
transformation of borders, along with the usurped sovereign decision itself,
into open arenas for advancing military and security agendas entirely outside
the frameworks of international law and the political contract. State and
society alike have thus been left at the mercy of an exceptional sovereignty
that feeds on the eclipse of law and the perpetuation of fear.
Ultimately, the visible and continuing decline of this axis, both regional and
domestic, is opening a breach in the wall of the permanent “state of exception”
and providing an unprecedented historic opportunity to free human beings in
Lebanon from a condition in which they are left defenseless before arbitrary
power and restore them to the protection of the law. Yet the military and
political decline of the militia and the Iranian project does not automatically
entail the immediate restoration of state sovereignty. Such a restoration faces
another formidable barrier within the political establishment itself: the
structure of Lebanon’s “deep state.”
This “deep state,” sustained by networks of sectarian interests, factional
power-sharing, and systemic institutional corruption, constitutes the hidden
bureaucratic and financial extension that originally enabled militia domination
to emerge and endure. It is this structure that now refuses to relinquish its
gains and forcefully obstructs the effective implementation of judicial
accountability mechanisms, structural reform, and the building of genuinely
legitimate institutions.
Accordingly, the future of the Lebanese state and the restoration of its full
sovereignty cannot be achieved merely through the retreat of parallel arms or
the weakening of their regional sponsors. They depend on a deeper and more
complex battle: dismantling the deep state’s clientelist system.
Putting an end to the exposure of human beings and the nation to arbitrary power
requires moving from the realm of “terror and military salvation” to that of
“citizenship, law, and the cleansing of public administration.” Without
dismantling this infrastructure of disguised authoritarianism, sovereignty will
remain little more than a deferred promise, while Lebanon’s future will remain
caught between a weakening armed power and a deep state that refuses to be born
anew.
The Dictatorship of Virtue
Pierre Rehov/Gatestone Institute/August 11/2026
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22662/dictatorship-of-virtue
Certain opinions are no longer treated as debatable; they are treated as
evidence of bigotry or harm. Institutions that once managed disagreement now
police belief, and dissent is answered not with argument but with consequences a
person can feel: a lost job, a withdrawn invitation, a name circulated as a
warning to others.Nowhere has the shift been more thorough than in higher
education. University offices created to enforce civil rights law grew into
administrative empires devoted to reshaping thought and policing dissent. Many
universities began requiring faculty candidates to submit "diversity statements"
that worked as political litmus tests, obliging applicants to affirm theories
about systemic oppression and then pledge to advance them. Employees were
pressured to affirm contested propositions, among them that all white people
benefit from and are complicit in racism, or that colorblindness is itself a
form of bias, rather than simply to treat colleagues fairly. Several brands then
paid a commercial price when customers concluded they had been recast as targets
to be re-educated.
Some school districts "socially transitioned" children without telling their
parents, then labeled the objecting parents extremists. When states legislated
to protect minors and preserve single-sex spaces such as restrooms and changing
rooms, the answer from activist organizations was frequently accusations of
bigotry rather than arguing with evidence.
When institutions decide that disagreement itself constitutes harm, fact-finding
becomes secondary to control of the narrative.
The American constitutional order rests on the opposite assumption. The Founding
Founders did not believe any faction held a monopoly on truth and morality or a
right to compel agreement. They protected speech because they knew the powerful
would always be tempted to silence inconvenient views in the name of progress or
safety, and always claimed to be for the listener's own good. The First
Amendment exists to shield the opinions that the elites and the powerful
dislike, not the ones they already share. It reflects a sober estimate of human
nature and the appetites of institutional power.
Enforced virtue has never produced better people. It produces people who have
learned to keep their real thoughts to themselves until the moment they no
longer have to.
Certain opinions are no longer treated as debatable; they are treated as
evidence of bigotry or harm. Institutions that once managed disagreement now
police belief, and dissent is answered not with argument but with consequences a
person can feel: a lost job, a withdrawn invitation, a name circulated as a
warning to others.The urge to treat political disagreement as moral failure did
not originate in American universities or human resources departments. It is an
impulse older than the Spanish Inquisition, and it always arrives wearing the
robes of a higher cause.
During the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre argued that the new
republic required citizens whose private convictions aligned with revolutionary
virtue. Those who fell short were not considered fellow citizens holding
different opinions. They were enemies of the people, to be corrected or removed.
He built the machinery to enforce that view, and for a year the Reign of Terror
sent thousands to the guillotine on suspicion of insufficient zeal. Then the
premise turned on him. On July 27, 1794, the same Convention Robespierre had
threatened the day before shouted him down and decreed his arrest; the next
evening, he and 21 of his closest associates met the same guillotine, without
trial, before a cheering crowd.
The experiment proved a durable lesson: once a faction claims the exclusive
right to define truth and the power to enforce it, the result is not a better
society but fear, purges, and eventual backlash against the enforcers
themselves.
The same impulse now operates inside the United States under gentler branding.
Diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and transgender affirmation have
replaced the older revolutionary vocabulary, but the structure is identical.
Certain opinions are no longer treated as debatable; they are treated as
evidence of bigotry or harm. Institutions that once managed disagreement now
police belief, and dissent is answered not with argument but with consequences a
person can feel: a lost job, a withdrawn invitation, a name circulated as a
warning to others.
Consider what happened to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford professor of medicine
who argued that prolonged COVID-19 lockdowns would harm children and that
protection should focus on the elderly. Internal records later released as "the
Twitter files" showed that the social media platform had quietly placed him on a
"Trends Blacklist" that throttled the reach of his posts. He had used no abusive
language. His offense was holding a scientific position that Twitter, under
pressure from the US federal government, had decided fell outside permissible
debate.
Nowhere has the shift been more thorough than in higher education. University
offices created to enforce civil rights law grew into administrative empires
devoted to reshaping thought and policing dissent. Many universities began
requiring faculty candidates to submit "diversity statements" that worked as
political litmus tests, obliging applicants to affirm theories about systemic
oppression and then pledge to advance them. Eventually, some states, such as
Florida and Texas, moved to ban these requirements at public institutions
precisely because they operated as loyalty oaths. When Texas's law took effect,
the University of Texas at Austin dismissed roughly 60 staff and shuttered the
offices that had administered them.
The 2023 congressional hearings on antisemitism at American universities exposed
the double standard in real time. Asked directly whether "calling for the
genocide of Jews" violated their codes of conduct, the presidents of Harvard,
MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania each answered that "the answer depended
on the context." The equivocation was not accidental. It revealed institutions
that had spent years expanding the definition of "harm" to shield favored groups
while struggling to name an actual call for mass murder. Within days, Liz Magill
resigned from Penn, and the storm over Harvard's Claudine Gay had begun.
Corporate America, in 2020, absorbed the same demands. Following the death of
George Floyd, major companies pledged billions to "racial equity" programs and
training that often recast ordinary workplace friction as evidence of systemic
racism. Employees were pressured to affirm contested propositions, among them
that all white people benefit from and are complicit in racism, or that
colorblindness is itself a form of bias, rather than simply to treat colleagues
fairly. Several brands then paid a commercial price when customers concluded
they had been recast as targets to be re-educated. Anheuser-Busch learned this
most expensively: after Bud Light created a commemorative beer can for
transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a boycott took hold, the brand lost its
decades-long crown as America's best-selling beer, and the parent company's
North American revenue fell by roughly $1.4 billion over the year. The big-box
retailer Target absorbed a similar blow over LGBT pride merchandise marketed to
children.
The same pattern reached the institutions that supply information. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, legitimate questions about lockdowns, school closures, and
vaccine policy were frequently reframed as moral rather than empirical disputes.
The Great Barrington Declaration, signed by epidemiologists from Harvard,
Oxford, and Stanford and eventually by tens of thousands more medical
professionals, was denounced and quietly suppressed. Later data on learning
loss, heaviest among poor and minority children, and on the mental health toll
of prolonged closures suggested that those inconvenient opinions had not been
wrong, merely unwelcome. Enforcement has been equally aggressive on
transgenderism. American medical organizations continued to push an
"affirmation-only" model for minors even as Europe moved the other way.
Britain's Cass Review found "remarkably weak" evidence that puberty blockers
relieve gender dysphoria and led the UK National Health Service to halt their
routine use, with Sweden and Finland restricting such treatment to research
settings. Gender transition in the US, meanwhile, exploded, driven largely by
adolescent girls with no childhood history of gender dysphoria, and
detransitioners began suing the medical practitioners and institutions that had
rushed them. Some school districts "socially transitioned" children without
telling their parents, then labeled the objecting parents extremists. When
states legislated to protect minors and preserve single-sex spaces such as
restrooms and changing rooms, the answer from activist organizations was
frequently accusations of bigotry rather than arguing with evidence.
When institutions decide that disagreement itself constitutes harm, fact-finding
becomes secondary to control of the narrative.
This approach carries predictable costs. When institutions punish dissent and
reward conformity, they bleed competence and public trust. Over the past decade,
public opinion polls by Gallup have recorded falling confidence across most
major institutions, from the media to large corporations to the US Congress,
with higher education suffering the steepest decline of all, from a 57% majority
in 2015 to a record low of 36%. Parents have organized at school boards. States
have cut funding for diversity bureaucracies. These reactions are routinely
filed under "polarization" or "backlash." They can equally be described as
citizens noticing that certain institutions decided ordinary Americans required
re-education, and are beginning to say no.
The American constitutional order rests on the opposite assumption. The Founding
Founders did not believe any faction held a monopoly on truth and morality or a
right to compel agreement. They protected speech because they knew the powerful
would always be tempted to silence inconvenient views in the name of progress or
safety, and always claimed to be for the listener's own good. The First
Amendment exists to shield the opinions that the elites and the powerful
dislike, not the ones they already share. It reflects a sober estimate of human
nature and the appetites of institutional power.
A dictatorship of virtue eventually consumes its own promises. It guarantees
fairness and cohesion but delivers resentment, cynicism and decay. America is
watching the process unfold across its campuses, corporations, newsrooms and
government agencies. The question is not whether citizens will keep noticing the
contradictions and their costs; they already have. It is whether the
institutions that embraced this model will adapt before they spend the last of
their legitimacy. History is not encouraging. Enforced virtue has never produced
better people. It produces people who have learned to keep their real thoughts
to themselves until the moment they no longer have to. **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.
© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.
Makkah Defense Agreement: Stability of Balances of Power
Yousef Al-Dayni/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 11/2026
Perhaps the most significant reading of the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement
between Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan is that it is not a mere reaction to
current events. This contrasts with many reductive analyses that attempt to
confine the agreement within the context of the war with Iran or Israeli
arrogance, even if it will inevitably cast a shadow over those developments.
Instead, the agreement focuses more heavily on the future landscape of
tomorrow's world amidst these staggering transformations.
The agreement, particularly with reports of its openness to other regional
nations joining, reveals an early awareness that the international system
governing state relations since the end of the Cold War is undergoing a phase of
transformation and decline. It underscores that waiting for an alternative
system to stabilize without taking action is a strategic risk bordering on a
gamble in a region inflamed by chaos and lawlessness. The modern international
system was established in 1945 around the centrality of American power and
global institutions created under the balance of power resulting from World War
II. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 further
sharpened the distinct features of this system, steering it toward a unipolar
context dominated by the United States. This era also witnessed the rise of an
open global economy, common markets, Western-aligned alliances, and what later
became known as "globalization," whose promise was to reduce the likelihood of
conflict between major powers and states.However, history that inspiring teacher
took a different path. The events of September 11, 2001, placed a limit on
conventional military power, giving rise to sub-state entities, jihadist
movements, and armed militias of varying and conflicting religious backgrounds.
Despite their differences, these groups operate toward a single goal:
undermining the concept of the nation-state and destabilizing the global system
and its agreements, however fragile they may be.The disruption was not confined
to militarization, politics, and security; economics entered the fray in 2008.
The financial crisis dealt a heavy blow to the Western economic model, revealing
new actors, led by China, which rapidly transformed into a major economic and
strategic power. This crisis also paved the way for Russia's return to the heart
of the threat facing the Old Continent.
The final blow - as the Arab saying goes - came with the COVID-19 pandemic,
which exposed the fragility of supply chains. However, it also opened the door
for accelerated digital transformation, linking it to services, technology
economies, and energy.
The lesson of the post-World War II era is that any reconfiguration of the
international system does not occur through gradual or peaceful transitions. The
1991 Gulf War, for instance, was not solely to liberate Kuwait, but reflected a
foundational moment for the post-Cold War era. Similarly, it can be said that
the October 7, 2023, attack did not just ignite the situation in Gaza, but
caused the long-festering Palestinian wounds to bleed painfully. Yet, at the
same time and despite its horrifying tragedies, it pushed the cause forward on
the international stage.
Furthermore, it raised the dilemma of militias and factions, and the role of
entities operating under the ambiguous and masked concept of resistance, which
conceals beneath it an Iranian drive for hegemony and threat through its proxy
arms - a flashpoint that ultimately escalated to target the security of the Red
Sea and the maritime corridors of the world's most critical trade, commodities,
and data.Saudi Arabia, its allied nations, and moderate states also read these
shifts as a warning message. What is happening now is the building of a solid
regional layer in light of the strategic retrenchment sought by Washington. This
equation has recurred frequently in the international context: whenever
international systems change, regional powers are compelled to rearrange their
positions until the new balance of power stabilizes.
The specific nature of the Makkah agreement is that it brings together three
countries possessing complementary elements of strength that support one
another. It will also face significant challenges, most notably transitioning
from the principle of joint defense to deeper mechanisms for consultation and
decision-making, defining the nature of threats that warrant collective action,
building interoperability between forces, coordinating defense industries,
exchanging information, and developing a vision for maritime and aerospace
security, as well as defense against the evolution of cheap instruments of war,
such as drones, and the challenges of technological and cyber warfare.In his
important recent book, "Inflection Point: Biden, Trump, and the Future World
Order," Thomas Wright argued that the post-Cold War world has reached its end.
He noted that the difference between the two leaders was not over preserving the
old system, but rather in how to retreat from its heavy burdens, amid the rise
of competing powers and the increasing need for regional and middle powers to
assume greater responsibility for their own security and interests. In it, he
quotes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who used a highly significant
phrase: we are facing a "rupture, not a transition." In this context, the Makkah
Joint Defense Agreement can be valued as an important preemptive step, serving
as early preparation for a moment whose features have not yet fully formed, and
which can be confronted through partnerships and alliances rather than
anticipation and waiting.
Makkah Defense Agreement: Symbolism and Activation
Amal Abdulaziz al-Hazzani/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 11/2026
Prior to the signing of the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement between Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan, and Türkiye last week, Riyadh had previously signed a joint strategic
defense agreement with Islamabad in September 2025 at Al-Yamamah Palace in the
capital, Riyadh. This prior accord shared the same context and objectives:
deterrence and the protection of mutual interests. In practice, the
Riyadh-Islamabad agreement was activated by a decline in Iranian attacks on the
Kingdom over the past months, as Tehran outsourced this task to other parties in
Iraq and Yemen to deflect responsibility.
However, the confusing and unstable regional situation prompted Riyadh to
engineer a strategy that will create a new reality in the region through the
formation of a trilateral bloc comprising Riyadh, Islamabad, and Ankara. The
Makkah agreement is, first and foremost, the outcome of the success of Saudi
diplomacy in strengthening its relations with countries in the region and the
world, as well as its keenness to crown its defense steps with an announced,
legitimate cover and achieve mutual interests for friendly nations.Following the
signing, official statements from the parties to the agreement were consistent
in emphasizing three points: the agreement does not target a specific sect, nor
does it target specific countries, and its tasks are fundamentally focused on
deterrence and defense rather than aggression. Iranian propaganda claiming that
the agreement targets a specific sect is baseless, and Iran has failed to even
market this allegation. Furthermore, the parties to the agreement stressed that
it does not target specific countries. The three nations are influential powers
- economically, politically, and militarily. They are not militias, nor do they
operate in secrecy. Their agreement is not directed at Iran specifically, nor at
Israel, which is anxious over what its press has labeled an "Islamic NATO."
Since the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Tehran in February, Tehran has
heavily directed its offensive forces toward the Gulf states and Jordan, as well
as their civilian institutions. This was used as a leverage card against the US,
signaling that its regional allies are under the threat of its missiles and
drones. The Gulf states and Jordan did not respond militarily to these attacks,
refusing to grant Iran its objective of expanding the scope of the war and
igniting the region in a furnace of turmoil whose end only God knows.
In reality, the United States' plan was offensive against Iranian territory and
did not account for a defense plan for its allies, who took it upon themselves
to intercept the attacks and succeeded in defending their territories. If Iran's
ballistic program, which it has been developing for decades, has produced 8,000
missiles according to statistics, this implies a need for the same number of
anti-missile interceptors, let alone easily manufactured drones.
Pakistan is an advanced nuclear state that continues to develop its military
industry, particularly within the framework of its naval forces, due to its
proximity to India, which it views as a strategic adversary. Türkiye is a member
of the NATO alliance, which was established to execute defensive and offensive
military actions, and possesses advanced military manufacturing programs.
Nevertheless, it is attempting to expand its arsenal with foreign industries, as
is the case with the Russian S-400 air defense system and its negotiations to
purchase American F-35 fighter jets.
Saudi Arabia has directed its energy resources toward civilian development,
state-building, and international cooperation for more than eight decades.
However, today it is entering the field of military manufacturing in a turbulent
region that has persistently remained like a powder keg, ready to ignite with
the smallest spark. Such industries require time, experts, and partners for
technology transfer and training. Yet, until then, securing a portion of
defensive security by building partnerships and implementing agreements with
friendly nations is undoubtedly a clever strategy with which Riyadh has
surprised the region.
Such an agreement may endure for a long time without any expectation of needing
to activate it. However, its mere existence as a glowing red warning sign amid
regional developments will alter the calculations of aggressive states and
foster immense public optimism among the countries of the region, which
celebrated this agreement not only for security reasons, but also as a symbol of
Islamic solidarity representing over a billion Muslims.
A Haven of Stability in a Turbulent Sea
Ghassan Charbel/Asharq Al-Awsat/August 11/2026
For decades, the Middle East has resembled a massive ship sailing amid storms,
mines, dreams, and illusions. It is a ship carrying Arabs, Persians, Turks, and
Kurds—Sunnis, Shiites, Jews, and Christians. The passengers hold divergent
memories: days of glory they yearn for, and days of defeat they dream of
erasing. Some wounds lie dormant under forgetfulness, while others inflame anew.
It was only natural for the journey to witness reckless adventures and
adventurers, attempts to hijack the ship's course, and bids to seize command.
The Middle East ship is of exceptional importance, as it holds vast oil and gas
wealth whose safe flow is considered vital to the global economy. This is
precisely what makes it both critically important and a target of ambitions at
the same time.
For decades, an impression prevailed that the Middle East's importance to the
global economy obligated major powers to maintain stability there to safeguard
their own interests. These nations did not hesitate to intervene whenever they
perceived a threat to these interests, as occurred when the forces of Saddam
Hussein's regime invaded Kuwait. However, stability remains threatened unless it
emerges from within the region itself.
Since the eve of the mid-last century, the ship has faced two major shattering
events. The first was the establishment of the State of Israel and the
repercussions of that earthquake in a series of Arab-Israeli wars. The second
was the victory of Khomeini's revolution, which made turmoil a permanent feature
of life in the region. Israel and Iran did not hesitate to pursue a costly
dream: attempting to reshape the Middle East to seize the leadership position or
the primary role within it.
Israel is a state that occupies the lands of others and does not accept even the
establishment of a Palestinian state alongside it, a state that has not
recognized definitive borders for itself to this day. Iran is a state that does
not accept boundaries for its influence in the region, seeking to reshape it
through penetrations, and through encirclement operations when penetration is
unfeasible. After Al-Sinwar's Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, Benjamin Netanyahu's
government fought wars on multiple fronts. After the fall of the Syrian link in
the “Axis of Resistance,” Netanyahu spoke several times about reshaping the
Middle East. The “flood” itself revealed the scale of the Iranian project to
reshape the region.In the context of the military confrontation with the US,
Iran made two grave mistakes. It applied its past hostage-taking experience to
the Strait of Hormuz. It is no simple matter for a state to decide to hold the
fate of the entire global economy hostage. Neither distant nor neighboring
countries can accept this. Conceding this right to Iran would mean accepting its
possession of a weapon equivalent to holding a nuclear weapon.
The second mistake is its insistence on targeting Gulf Cooperation Council
countries under the pretext of them hosting US bases or having mere partnerships
in the field of defense. Iran ignored the obligations of the Beijing Agreement
signed with Saudi Arabia and moved its loyal militias in Yemen and Iraq to
target the Kingdom.Between choking the global economy through Hormuz and
bombarding Gulf countries with missiles and drones, the Middle East ship seemed
on the verge of sinking into endless wars and economic and existential
catastrophes. This was accompanied by a growing feeling in the region that the
international guarantee for regional stability was no longer sufficient or
present. Washington's calculations in this context remain those of an external
party with its own interests, in addition to its complex decision-making
mechanism.
It became imperative to consider a major and decisive role for key regional
states invested in the Middle East's future to prevent the ship from permanently
sliding into minefields. It was also necessary to counter the practices of
expanding the war and spreading chaos with an option that provides an umbrella
from which to broaden the scope of stability and reduce the opportunities
available for adventures and adventurers alike.In this context, the "Makkah
Mutual Defense Agreement" can be understood. It sends an unmistakable message
that prominent countries in the region will not allow the Middle East to remain
a hostage to proxy wars and ambitions at a time when regional states must be
allowed to dedicate themselves to tackling the burdens of development, building
their economies, and improving the standard of living for their peoples.
The choice of Makkah, with its heavy symbolism, as the venue for signing the
agreement is a message reflecting the depth of the Saudi, Turkish, and Pakistani
commitment to what was agreed upon. There is no need to recall the political,
economic, and military weight provided by the gathering of these three nations,
not to mention their location and their relations with America, China, Russia,
and Europe as well.
The signatories were careful to use the term "mutual defense," meaning that any
attack on one party to the agreement constitutes an attack on all parties,
sending an unmistakable message. The Turkish Foreign Minister clarified that the
agreement mirrors Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which considers an attack on any
member state to be an attack on all member countries. The Makkah agreement is
not a declaration of war against any specific country, but rather a serious
attempt to make wars more difficult and costly, thereby forcing those gambling
on conflict to abandon their adventures. The agreement has renewed hope that the
Middle East will not remain hostage to those dreaming of reshaping it on the
basis of destabilization, altering its identity, and imposing new norms that
contradict the values of good neighborliness and mutual interests. The regional
and international weight of the three countries provides the agreement with a
deterrent power that prevents states or organizations from sliding into
practices that only deepen wounds, drain nations, squander wealth, and waste
opportunities for stability and development. It is no exaggeration to say that
regional and international actors must henceforth take into account this
tripartite alignment, which serves as a harbor of stability in a turbulent sea.
Selected Face Book & X tweets
on August 11/2026
Israel Foreign Ministry
Turkey has the audacity to criticize Israel. But what are the
facts on the ground?
Thousands of Turkish soldiers. Dozens of military bases and outposts across
Syria, Iraq and Cyprus.While Erdogan’s military aggression knows no borders, and
Turkey occupies 36% of Cyprus, 5% of Syria and 2,000 km² of Iraq. Israel
temporarily controls merely 0.1% of Syria - a buffer zone to protect its
citizens from proven security threats.
Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران
Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the U.S. and Iran are close to
some sort of an arrangement, adding that a lasting peace will be in the region’s
interest.
Asif told Bloomberg News that "things are shaping up again in favor of a peace
arrangement or a deal. The signals in the last two or three days are that we are
close to some sort of an arrangement."
SK/@SparkleKitten39
The Muslim religion is the fastest-growing religion per capita in the United
States, especially among minority races.Last month I attended a training. During
the training session, three speakers representing the Roman Catholic,
Protestant, and Muslim faiths each presented their beliefs. I was particularly
interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say. The Muslim gave a great
presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a video. After the
presentations, time was provided for questions and answers. When it was my turn,
I directed my question to the Muslim and asked:
'Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that most Imams and clerics
of Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against the infidels of the world
and, that by killing an infidel, (which is a command to all Muslims) they are
assured of a place in heaven. If that's the case, can you give me the definition
of an infidel?'There was no disagreement with my statements and, without
hesitation, he replied, “Nonbelievers"I responded, 'So, let me make sure I have
this straight. All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who
is not of your faith so they can have a place in heaven. Is that correct?'
The expression on his face changed from one of authority and command to that of
a little boy who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.'He
sheepishly replied, 'Yes.'
I then stated, 'Well, sir, I have a real problem trying to imagine the Pope
commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Dr. Stanley ordering all
Protestants to do the same to guarantee them a place in heaven!'
The Muslim was speechless.I continued, 'I also have a problem with being your
friend when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me!
Let me ask you a question:
Would you rather have your Allah, who tells you to kill me for you to go to
heaven, or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to heaven and He
wants you to be there with me?'
You could have heard a pin drop. Needless to say, the organizers and/or
promoters of the 'Diversification' training seminar were not happy with my way
of dealing with the Islamic Imam, and exposing the truth about the Muslims'
beliefs.
In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in the US to elect the
President.I think everyone in the U.S. should be required to read this, but with
the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized unless each of us sends
it on! This is your chance to make a difference.
Mosab Hassan Yousef
There's no "political Islam." There's only Islam. The idea of a separate
political version implies a non-political one exists, which is false. Islam does
not separate mosque and state.
Gregory Galligan
Canada welcomes Lebanon’s historic decision to abolish the death penalty.
Canada opposes the death penalty in all cases, everywhere. This important step
sends a strong signal of Lebanon’s commitment to human rights and represents
meaningful progress on its broader reform agenda.
Baba Banaras™
Devil is deleted
https://x.com/RealBababanaras/status/2071600995336106007/video/1
Hamas terrorist Zaher Ibrahim Khalil Abu Salem who abducted, r@ped & killed 2
Israeli girls on Oct 7, was killed in an intel based op by IDF. He has changed
his identity & living as street hawker in Gaza
Dr Walid Phares
The New York Times ran a hit piece against me in 2020 as part of a smear
campaign against @realDonaldTrump . The NYT writer used "jihadi sources" used by
two agencies operating against Trump by Obama bureaucrats. What is to come will
shock the American people...
@ChuckGrassley @AGToddBlanche @dojphofficial @dh
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Told I24 News that Saudi Arabia has not faced such grave danger since its
creation in the 1930s, and that such a threat will not go away through Saudi
current photo-op foreign policy. All these F15s, F16s, F18s that Riyadh owns,
now is the time to use them, or else, why is Saudi the 8th biggest defense
spender in the world?If Saudi Arabia does not stand up for itself and punch back
now, no one can rescue it, neither Pakistan whose missiles cannot reach Saudi
Arabia to defend it, nor Turkey that has been Saudi Arabia's historic rival. See
less