English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News
& Editorials
For February 13/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the
lccc Site
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2026/english.february13.26.htm
News Bulletin Achieves Since
2006
Click Here to enter the LCCC Arabic/English news bulletins Achieves since 2006
Click On
The Below Link To Join Elias Bejjaninews whatsapp group
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FPF0N7lE5S484LNaSm0MjW
اضغط
على الرابط في
أعلى للإنضمام
لكروب
Eliasbejjaninews whatsapp group
Elias Bejjani/Click on
the below link to subscribe to my youtube channel
الياس
بجاني/اضغط
على الرابط في
أسفل للإشتراك في
موقعي ع اليوتيوب
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOOSioLh1GE3C1hp63Camw
Bible Quotations For today
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also
Luke 12/33-40: Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.
Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the
heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. "Stay dressed for action
and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to
come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once
when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake
when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have
them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the
second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!
But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief
was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be
ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February
12-13/2026
Elias Bejjani/Link to the video and text of my interview with the
Transparency YouTube platform: A Constitutional Exposure and Explanation of the
Heresies Imposed by Hezbollah on Lebanon;
Khamies El Sakra -“Drunkards Thursday”, Maronite Tradition/Elias Bejjani
Elias Bejjani: A Solemn Denunciation of the Tragic Crime in Tumbler Ridge, and
an Urgent Call to Restore Family Values
Video-Link to commentary by Journalist Ali Hamade
Trade and prisoner disputes keep Lebanon-Syria relations at a standstill
IDF Targets Hezbollah Operative in Al-Tayri, Adraee Says
Israel Targets Sites in South Lebanon as Forces Enter Kfar Kila
Lebanon and Syria Reach One-Week Deal to Resume Truck Transit
Lebanese Army Cracks Down on Illegal Crossings as Syria Temporarily Eases Truck
Restrictions
Lebanon to Decide on Plan to Control Arms North of Litani Next Week, Minister
Says
Hezbollah's Installment Payments for Shelter Reveal Depth of Financial Crisis
Trapped between aid and reality: Tripoli residents flee collapsing homes, face
unaffordable rents
Beirut port disaster remains unsolved five years after deadly blast
PM Salam departs to Munich via main terminal, skips VIP lounge
Village in southern Lebanon buries a child and father killed in Israeli drone
strike
North of the Litani on the Government’s Table/Asaad Bechara/Nidaa Al Watan
Do Not Lose the Compass: Weapons First and Foremost/Jean El Faghali/Nidaa Al
Watan
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published
on February
12-13/2026
Iranian authorities subjected Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi to
‘life-threatening mistreatment,’ Nobel Committee says
Trump warns Iran of ‘very traumatic’ outcome if no nuclear deal
Israel Has Joined Trump's 'Board of Peace,' Netanyahu Says
Netanyahu Skeptical of an Iran Breakthrough
Deaths in Iran's Crackdown on Protests Reach at Least 7,000
Netanyahu says Trump creating conditions that may lead to 'good deal' with Iran
Israel President Says at End of Visit Antisemitism in Australia 'Frightening'
Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Says the US and Iran Showing Flexibility on Nuclear
Deal
US Increases its Pressure on Iran in Iraq
German Parliament Speaker Visits Gaza
UNRWA’s Lazzarini Warns Ignoring Gaza Risks New Generation of Anger
UN: Syria's President and 2 Top Ministers Were Targets of 5 Foiled Assassination
Attempts
US Forces Withdraw from Syria's Al-Tanf Base
Syria Says its Forces Have Taken over al-Tanf Base after a Handover from the US
Ethiopia and Sudan: The Intersections of Regional War and Security
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on February
12-13/2026
A few words of advice on Iran and Gaza/Clifford D. May/ The Washington
Times
Syria Looks to Offshore Oil and Gas for Economic Renewal/Seth J. Frantzman/Nationalo
Interest
The Palestinians' Other Big Lie/Khaled Abu Toameh/ Gatestone Institute
Al Jazeera Centre for Studies: Academic Veneer Normalizing Terrorism
Toby Dershowitz/ InsightL-FDD
X Platform Selected twittes for 11/2026
The Latest
English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on February
12-13/2026
Elias Bejjani/Link to the video and text of my interview with the
Transparency YouTube platform: A Constitutional Exposure and Explanation of the
Heresies Imposed by Hezbollah on Lebanon;
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/02/152078/
An Affirmation of the Heroism and
Patriotism of Our People Refuged in Israel, Demanding Their Return with Honor
and Dignity, Led by the Honorable, Clean-Handed Leader and Distinguished
Resistance Figure, Etienne Sakr (Abu Arz).
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/02/152078/
A constitutional explanation of the reality of the formation of the
Mullah-aligned, terrorist, and jihadist Hezbollah in Lebanon: An illegal
organization, a gang of villains, and a mercenary army that is ideologically,
financially, and culturally subordinate to the Mullah rulers of Iran—relying on
them for its decisions, authority, and lifestyle. This is accompanied by an
emphasis on the necessity of Lebanese negotiations with Iran, under Arab,
international, and American supervision, to withdraw this gang, its members, and
its weapons from Lebanon. It further calls for the dismantling of all its
military, media, and educational institutions to liberate the Shiite community
and, with it, all of Lebanon.
Elias Bejjani/Selected headlines from my interview from Transparency youtube
platform
February 12/2026
Literally, this is what Hassan Nasrallah said: “Our project, which we have no
choice but to adopt as ideological believers, is the project of an Islamic state
and Islamic rule, and for Lebanon not to be a single Islamic republic but rather
part of the greater Islamic Republic, ruled by the Imam of the Age and his
rightful deputy, the Supreme Jurist, Imam Khomeini.”
*Legally, Lebanon must negotiate with Iran, under Arab, international, and U.S.
supervision, regarding Hezbollah’s weapons, presence, and institutions that are
subordinate to and take orders from Tehran.
*The “Army, People, Resistance” formula is unconstitutional and was imposed in
ministerial statements by force. Legislation comes from Parliament, not from a
ministerial statement, which is merely a proposed action plan.
*Perpetual hostility is a sick sectarian ideology promoted by Sunni and Shiite
political Islam to justify their continued existence.
*Hezbollah’s decision-making lies in Iran, with religious authorization.
*The Shiite community has been kidnapped and held hostage since 1982.
*Hezbollah is an Iranian army composed of Lebanese mercenaries.
*Hezbollah has never been legitimate, Lebanese, or a resistance movement; it is
terrorist in its clerical ideological structure.
*The Lebanese Army is capable of disarming Hezbollah if mandated by the state.
*Israel has not attacked Lebanon even once; rather, it has always responded to
attacks launched against it from Lebanon by Syrian, Arab, Iranian, jihadist, and
leftist actors.
*There are no real parties in Lebanon, but rather party-companies, foreign
agencies, and fundamentalists from Sunni and Shiite political Islam.
*Christians are caught between a criminal leader, a corrupt one, and a
Pharisaic, Judas-like figure, alongside a political class incubated by
occupations.
*true measure of any leader’s credibility and patriotism appears when he gains
money and power.
*Those who abandoned expatriates were not Hezbollah or Berri, but the Lebanese
Forces and Michel Aoun’s movement in 2016 when they celebrated the current
hybrid electoral law tailored to Hezbollah, originally proposed under the Syrian
occupation.
*There can be no genuine political work under occupation. Anyone operating under
occupation has no choice but to become its tool and cover. The options under
occupation are: armed resistance, steadfast political opposition, civil
disobedience, or working through influential states to compel the occupier to
withdraw.
*The South Lebanon Army were heroes and should return with heads held high and
be apologized to, especially their distinguished leader Etienne Saqr (Abu Arz).
*Hezbollah did not liberate the South, is not part of the Lebanese fabric, and
does not represent the Shiites; it is a fully-fledged Iranian army composed of
Lebanese mercenaries.
*The Lebanese Constitution does not mention Israel as an enemy. Rather, it
contains provisions that define the concept of the enemy and others that apply
to those who collaborate with the enemy. These criteria do not apply to Israel,
but rather to the three occupations that have devastated Lebanon since the
imposition of the Cairo Agreement: the Baathist Syrian regime, Palestinian
terrorist organizations, and Iran’s terrorist army — namely, Hezbollah.
*Any elections held under occupation are null and illegitimate.
*Governance in Lebanon to this day remains hostage to Hezbollah.
*What is required today, not tomorrow, is to close Lebanon as an open arena —
since the Cairo Agreement — for those who trade in what they falsely call
“resistance” and “liberation of Palestine.”
*The only solution is full peace with the State of Israel; whoever wishes to
fight it should do so from his own country.
*The Lebanese Army is defensive, not offensive, and the majority of Lebanese do
not see Israel as an enemy but as a neighbor. There are no existing problems
between Lebanon and Israel, and Israel has no ambitions in Lebanon.
Khamies El Sakra -“Drunkards
Thursday”, Maronite Tradition
Elias Bejjani/February 12/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/02/115838/
Today, Thursday, February 12/2026,
the Catholic Maronites in Lebanon celebrate a tradition, and not a religious
event. A tradition they call “Drunkards Thursday,” which is the day that falls
before the beginning of the forty-day fasting ritual – the Lent, that begins on
the Ash Monday, February 16/2026
In past years, Maronite families, particularly in the mountainous areas, used to
gather on this day at the dinner table to pray, meditate, and thank God for His
blessings and gifts. They used to gather to thank the Lord for His gifts, and to
supplicate for His blessings and approval before they start the Lent fasting,
and before the start of austerity and prayers in preparation for the celebration
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and his ascension to heaven.
The “Drunkards Thursday”, is neither a Maronite, nor a Christian holiday.
Rather, it is a tradition that many of our people no longer celebrate, even if
they remember it.
Historically, “drunkards Thursday” is an old tradition, and we do not know in
any era of time it existed, and who created it, but it was certainly practiced
in our mountains every year on the Thursday before the beginning of the
forty-days fasting ritual – The Lent. There is very little information written
about it in the books of Lebanese history and the Maronite church records (synaxarium).
Some historical records say that the Maronites used to drink wine and Arak (Ozo)
on this day, as a token of joy and partnership between parents and families
during their blessed gatherings around the dinner table, as a replicate, concept
and symbolism of the secret and last supper of Jesus Christ with his disciples,
in a religious bid to give thanks to God for His blessings and gifts that He
bestowed upon them.
Elias Bejjani: A Solemn Denunciation of the Tragic Crime in Tumbler Ridge, and
an Urgent Call to Restore Family Values
Elias Bejjani/February 11, 2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/02/152050/
My heart is consumed by a
bitter combination of anger and profound sorrow; my soul aches for the ten lives
stolen and the families shattered by this senseless massacre in Tumbler Ridge,
British Columbia. I am shaken to my core by the horrific news of the shootings
at a local home and at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. To see one of Canada’s
worst mass shootings unfold in such a small, tight-knit community—targeting
innocent students and residents—leaves me, and all of Canada, reeling in a state
of absolute pain and disbelief.
What happened today is a true tragedy and a painful human disaster that cannot
be justified or ignored. To target children in their place of learning and
families in their homes is a direct attack on the most sacred pillars of any
society: human life, the family, and community safety.
In these dark moments, I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the
victims. I express my unwavering solidarity with the people of Tumbler Ridge and
with all Canadians who have been traumatized by this terrible event.
Such crimes call us to reflect on the foundations upon which society is built.
The healthy family, founded on a man and a woman, is the cornerstone of a stable
and balanced community. When families fall apart, confusion and loss increase,
and many young people grow up without guidance, protection, or clear moral
direction. This often leads to the social struggles and instability we see
affecting many Canadians today.
Preserving and strengthening family unity must be a national priority. The
government must return to protecting the natural definition of the family and
stop redefining or reshaping it in ways that contradict the timeless moral and
human values upon which strong societies are built.
I also affirm that the vast majority of the Canadian people stand with family
values and believe in preserving the moral and cultural identity of their
society. No political movement—especially the ideological left—should impose its
belief-driven concepts on the broader population. Canada was built on pluralism
and respect for differing opinions, not on ideological imposition. Confronting
violence requires not only security measures, but also a return to values, to
strong families, to sound moral upbringing, and to shared ethical
responsibility.
Prayer for the Repose of the Souls of the Victims
O Lord God, Giver of Life and Shepherd of souls, We lift up to You our prayers
for those who have departed suddenly from this world in Tumbler Ridge. Grant
them, O Lord, rest in Your heavenly Kingdom. Receive them into the light of Your
presence, Where there is no pain, no sorrow, and no suffering, But everlasting
life.
Comfort their families and loved ones. Wipe away the tears of every broken
heart. Grant healing—both physical and emotional—to the dozens wounded in this
attack. Send Your peace upon this town and upon all of Canada. Lord of Peace,
protect the children of this nation. Strengthen families in love and unity.
Remove from us the spirit of violence and hatred, And fill us instead with
mercy, justice, and truth. For Yours is the glory forever. Amen. May God rest
the souls of the victims, heal the injured, and protect Canada from all harm.
*The author, Elias Bejjani, is A Canadian Lebanese Human Rights activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website: https://eliasbejjaninews.com
Video-Link to commentary by
Journalist Ali Hamade
Title: The Strike: Lebanon Before Iran! Why?Trump & Negotiations: Donald Trump
is seeking negotiations primarily to buy more time for strategic preparations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyROagqsbXA
Netanyahu’s Stance: Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that it is either a wide-scale
war that undermines and topples the regime, or no limited war at all.
Targeting Hezbollah: The reasoning behind striking Hezbollah first is to pave
the way for a broader confrontation with Iran.
Military Movements: The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is heading to the
region and will be stationed behind Cyprus.
Regional Borders: Attention is focused on Iran's northern borders with
Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, following the visit of U.S. Vice
President JD Vance.
Strategic Encirclement: Negotiations provide the U.S. an extra opportunity to
strengthen the military build-up surrounding Iran.
Internal Pressure: In preparation for a wave of upcoming protests, the U.S. has
supervised the entry of over 6,000 Starlink satellite communication devices into
Iran.
Trade and prisoner disputes keep Lebanon-Syria relations at
a standstill
RFI/February 12/2026
Lebanese officials say relations will take time to improve after decades of
mistrust. They accuse Syria’s new authorities of maintaining the same approach
as under Assad – putting what they describe as “security considerations” ahead
of economic cooperation.
For Lebanon, resolving long-standing disputes such as the demarcation of the
Lebanon-Syria border should come first.
Trade routes under pressure
Syria remains a crucial trade corridor, serving as Lebanon’s land gateway to
Iraq, Jordan, Gulf countries and Iran. Lebanese agricultural exports rely
heavily on transit through Syrian territory, as do goods arriving via the ports
of Beirut and Tripoli. Lebanese businesses have also expressed interest in
participating in Syria’s post-war reconstruction, either through direct
investment or by sharing expertise. Instead of easing trade, Syria’s new
authorities introduced measures that Lebanese officials say have harmed
Lebanon’s interests. Caught between conflict and crisis, Syria faces 'incredibly
fragile moment' Syrian authorities imposed a flat $1,500 fee on every container
transiting Syria to Arab countries, introduced tariffs on certain agricultural
products – including a $55-per-tonne tax on bananas – and tightened procedures
for trucks crossing the border.ebanon has meanwhile sought to show goodwill.
President Joseph Aoun met Syria’s transitional president Ahmed al-Charaa twice,
while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam travelled to Damascus in April 2025 with a
ministerial delegation.Lebanon also appointed a new ambassador to Syria, Henri
Qastoun, who waited three months before he was allowed to present his
credentials to Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani.Syria limited its
representation in Beirut to Iyad el-Hazaa, its top diplomat in Lebanon, who
previously oversaw political relations in the coastal province of Latakia.
Prisoner dispute
During meetings with Lebanese officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Tarek
Mitri, Syrian leaders repeated the same message: improving relations depends on
two issues – Syrian prisoners in Lebanese jails and supporters of the former
Assad regime allegedly present in Lebanon. Damascus is demanding the release of
nearly 2,500 Syrian detainees, including hundreds of Islamists accused of
terrorism or crimes against state security. Many have been held for years
without trial, alongside others accused of rape or murder. Lebanese leaders
consider the demands unacceptable. They say transferring detainees awaiting
trial would require a law passed by parliament, which they believe has no chance
of being adopted. As Syrian workers return home from Turkey, local businesses
feel the loss. On 30 January, the Lebanese government approved an 18-point
judicial agreement between Lebanon and Syria allowing the transfer of convicted
prisoners to their country of nationality. The agreement excludes detainees
awaiting trial and limits transfers to prisoners already sentenced. Those
convicted of rape or murder would be eligible only after serving 10 years of
their sentence. Some 300 Syrian detainees could be affected. The agreement also
provides for reciprocity, allowing Lebanese nationals convicted in Syria to be
transferred to Lebanon. The deal represents a compromise between Syrian demands
and Lebanese concerns. It does not meet Damascus’s initial request to transfer
all detainees, but it goes further than Lebanon’s earlier refusal to allow
prisoner transfers.
Standoff deepens
During visits to Beirut, Syrian delegations included justice and interior
ministers as well as security officials, reflecting Damascus’s focus on security
issues. In mid-December, a Syrian intelligence delegation visiting Beirut went
to two seaside restaurants in the capital frequented by businessmen once close
to the former Syrian regime. The delegation also handed Lebanese officials a
list of 200 Syrian officers, politicians and business figures close to Assad
believed to have taken refuge in Lebanon. Days later, Lebanese and Arab media
outlets, including Al Jazeera, reported alleged plots by Assad supporters
operating from Lebanon to destabilise Syria’s new leadership. Lebanese leaders
sought US mediation to try to ease tensions with Damascus. “We have been
surprised that the Americans showed understanding toward Damascus’s demands,”
said a source close to President Aoun, speaking anonymously.
Facing pressure from Syria and limited support from Washington, Lebanese leaders
began looking for compromises. Syrian Army seizes northeast as US abandons
Kurdish-led forces
Security operations
At the start of January, the Lebanese army carried out large-scale searches in
Jabal Mohsen, an Alawite neighbourhood in the northern city of Tripoli, and in
five other localities near the Syrian border inhabited by members of the same
religious community. After the March 2025 massacres in Syria’s coastal
provinces, at least 60,000 Syrian Alawites fled to Lebanon. Many settled in
areas where Lebanese Alawites live, in Christian villages in Mount Lebanon and
in predominantly Shia regions. Municipal councils in the five localities later
said in a joint statement that “the Lebanese army carried out search and
inspection campaigns in all camps housing displaced Syrians”. “No person
belonging to a military organisation or preparing armed operations was
apprehended during these searches, which formally contradicts the report
broadcast on the subject by Al-Jazeera,” the statement said. It remains unclear
whether Damascus will consider these steps sufficient to open talks on economic
and trade relations between the two countries.
This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI
correspondant Paul Khalifeh.
IDF Targets Hezbollah Operative in Al-Tayri, Adraee Says
This is Beirut/February 12/2026
The IDF carried out an airstrike targeting a Hezbollah operative near al-Tayri
in southern Lebanon on Thursday evening, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson
Avichay Adraee announced on X. The attack hit a car with three missiles,
according to Annahar. This strike follows a series of attacks along the
Lebanon-Israel border over the course of Thursday, damaging houses with
artillery shelling in Yaroun and al-Adissa, as well as a cross-border operation
with troops in Kfar Kila
Israel Targets Sites in South Lebanon as Forces Enter Kfar
Kila
This is Beirut/February 12/2026
Earlier on Thursday, Israel struck the town of Yaroun with artillery shelling,
along the Lebanese-Israeli border in the Bint Jbeil district.Israeli forces also
crossed the border and entered the town of Kfar Kila. Two houses in Yaroun's old
neighborhood were damaged, according to the Lebanese National News Agency. In
addition, two houses were demolished and a building was bombed near the town of
Al-Adissa.
Lebanon and Syria Reach One-Week Deal to Resume Truck
Transit
This is Beirut/February 12/2026
A temporary Lebanese-Syrian agreement was reached on Thursday to restore normal
truck traffic through the Masnaa border crossing for one week, until February
20, 2026, following days of disruption and protests. The understanding was
concluded during a joint meeting between Lebanese and Syrian delegations at the
Lebanese Customs Center in the al-Masnaa border region. The talks brought
together representatives of the relevant official administrations, as well as
syndicates and unions from both sides. Participants agreed to implement a
transitional regulatory mechanism based on the principle of reciprocity, meaning
that each side grants the other the same rights and treatment. The move follows
three consecutive days of protests by the Refrigerated Trucks Syndicate, which
led to the suspension of truck transit to and from Lebanon at the Masnaa
crossing, compounding losses in the transport sector.
Under the temporary mechanism, Lebanese trucks will be permitted to enter Syrian
customs yards to unload their cargo before returning to Lebanon carrying Syrian
goods. The same arrangement will apply to Syrian trucks entering Lebanese
territory during the agreement’s duration. The agreement also allows Lebanese
and Syrian trucks that were stranded between the two borders at the time of the
meeting to enter on a one-time basis. These trucks must leave empty after
unloading and the measure will not set a precedent or create any acquired rights
beyond the specified period.In addition, both sides emphasized that direct
communication channels between the competent authorities will remain open to
address any operational challenges during implementation. Pending agreement on a
permanent framework, the temporary arrangement is expected to ease trade and
transportation flows between Lebanon and Syria after days of halted transit and
mounting economic losses.
Lebanese Army Cracks Down on Illegal Crossings as Syria
Temporarily Eases Truck Restrictions
This is Beirut/February 12/2026
The Lebanese army has stated it will crack down on illegal border crossings
along its boundary with Syria on Thursday, as the two countries work towards
addressing their porous border and the illicit networks operating across it.
Crossings in the northern Beqaa Valley are a primary focus of the army’s efforts
to increase monitoring of the border region which is not clearly delineated.
Smuggling networks linked with Hezbollah have long relied on the unmonitored
border region to transfer arms, goods, and cash into Lebanon, much of it
originating from Iran and was facilitated by the former al-Assad regime in
Syria. The new Ahmed al-Sharaa government has increasingly sought to crack down
on this illicit traffic and solidify the Lebanon-Syria frontier. Last week, the
Syrian Ministry of the Interior dismantled terrorist cells in the Rif Dimashq
Governorate and captured drones and military hardware allegedly linked to
Hezbollah. Earlier this week, Syria banned foreign trucks from entering the
country, straining Lebanon’s transport sector and sparking protests on the
Lebanese side. On Thursday, Lebanese and Syrian officials met and reached an
agreement to reverse the truck ban for a week and create a transitional
transport regulatory mechanism based on reciprocal treatment. Lebanon’s
stepped-up military presence near crossing points, alongside Syria’s increasing
attention paid towards border security and illicit networks, signals growing
momentum for both countries to more precisely demarcate and monitor their
borders as both states seek to consolidate sovereignty over their respective
territories.
Lebanon to Decide on Plan to Control Arms North of Litani Next Week, Minister
Says
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
Lebanon’s government will decide next week how to move to the second phase of a
plan to extend its authority and place all arms under state control in areas
north of the Litani River, its information minister said on Wednesday. The
decision will be based on a presentation by the army outlining its needs and
capabilities, the minister, Paul Morcos, told reporters during a visit to
Kuwait, where he was attending an Arab meeting. The Lebanese army said in
January that it had taken operational control in the area between the Litani
River and the border with Israel. The cabinet asked the army to brief it in
early February on how to pursue disarmament in other parts of the country,
Reuters reported. "We have completed the first phase, south of the Litani
River. Next week the government will take a decision regarding the second
phase considering what the army commander sets out in terms of needs and
capabilities, so that we can decide accordingly, based on that explanation,"
Morcos said. Lebanon has been seeking to place all arms under state control, in
line with a November 2024 US-brokered ceasefire that ended a war between Israel
and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Morcos ruled out the possibility of any confrontation between the Lebanese
army and Hezbollah, saying the objective was "to extend state authority and
achieve stability, and insofar as these goals can be achieved together, we will
proceed". Israel has carried out regular strikes in Lebanon since the end of the
war with Hezbollah, killing around 400 people since the ceasefire, according to
a toll from Lebanese security sources. Israel has accused Hezbollah of seeking
to rearm in violation of the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon. Hezbollah says it
has respected the ceasefire in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah's Installment Payments for Shelter Reveal Depth of Financial Crisis
Beirut: Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
A decision by Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem to limit housing support
to a three-month window has thrown a spotlight on the group’s tightening
finances, after it moved from yearlong lump-sum payments to staggered
installments paid once every quarter. Qassem said Hezbollah would disburse
housing allowances for February, March, and April 2026 to “everyone whose home
was destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.” The payment had originally been due in
early December for three months. Instead, the party paid allowances for the
previous two months and has now approved another three-month tranche, despite a
10-day delay since the disbursement was announced.
Uneven payments, lingering questions
Housing allowances are seen not only as a political signal but also as a
practical test of the group’s ability to cover rent, school transfers for
children, transportation costs, and the reality of prolonged internal
displacement turning into a forced way of life.
Rana, who fled a southern town to Beirut, said families’ priority was no longer
politics but securing a place to live. “People are asking about rent support,
about the duration, about continuity. Three months go by quickly, and after
that, no one knows what will happen,” she said. Hassan, another affected
resident living in Beirut’s southern suburbs, said the announcement “eased part
of the anxiety,” but added that “the issue is not just the announcement, it is
the regularity of payment and whether everyone is included.”
Disparities in payouts
Behind the anxiety lies what residents describe as selective disbursement. In
the previous phase, not all beneficiaries received full housing allowances,
residents of the southern suburbs said, noting disparities in case outcomes. One
resident said he had received only $2,000 for four months, adding that other
payments from the previous year had not reached him in full and that he did not
know their fate.Another said he received $3,000 for six months, but that talk of
additional allowances had continued without clarity on how they would be
completed or whether they would be paid at all. A woman from the Haret Hreik
area said: “We don’t know whether what is being paid is a full housing
allowance, partial installments, or a settlement. People are talking, but there
is no clear official answer.”
‘Committed’ to housing support
Hezbollah says it has “decided to secure housing,” and sources familiar with the
details said the step is aimed at easing the burden on those affected in the
postwar phase, especially amid rising living costs and soaring rents.But the
pledge comes amid intensifying external pressure and sanctions aimed at curbing
the flow of funds to the group.The US Department of the Treasury recently
announced it had taken “action to disrupt two key mechanisms Hezbollah uses to
sustain its economic stability,” namely “revenue generation in coordination with
the Iranian regime and the exploitation of Lebanon’s informal financial
sector.”Opponents of Hezbollah say the issue is no longer merely political but
directly linked to the group’s ability to secure liquidity to meet social
obligations, foremost among them housing allowances. The real test, they argue,
will be in regular payments and clarity of mechanism, not in the announcement
itself.
Temporary relief
Jad Al-Akhawi, head of the Lebanese Democratic Coalition, told Asharq Al-Awsat
that talk of injecting funds resembled “a morphine shot.”“In previous periods,
it was said that large sums of money entered the country, but they were not
disbursed. Today, there may be limited spending, but it remains within the
framework of temporary calming, nothing more,” he said. He added that the state
had pledged around $300 million, arguing that Hezbollah’s move was “an attempt
to give people a dose of calm, something like morphine, until actual funding
becomes available.”He ruled out a return to previous financing patterns,
particularly through institutions such as Al-Qard Al-Hasan, saying that
continuation of that approach would pose “serious risks to the economy.”
Trapped between aid and reality: Tripoli residents flee
collapsing homes, face unaffordable rents
LBCI/February 12/2026
With tired hands carrying his personal belongings and a heart weighed down by
even greater worries, Mohammed moved some of his things after he and dozens of
others were asked to leave the hospitality institute in Tripoli. The institute
had taken in people whose homes were threatened with collapse after years of
neglect by the state and local authorities. The government says it provided
Mohammed and others with $1,000 per family for three months to rent housing
until a permanent solution could be found. But those affected see it
differently. From the institute, Mohammed’s next destination was not far: he
moved in with his brother in Tripoli. The small, crowded home was little
different from the one he was forced to leave. Old walls, barely enough space
for its occupants, and a new worry added to the burdens of displacement.
Mohammed says rents in Tripoli have become unbearable. Prices keep rising, and
available homes are either far from the city, uninhabitable, or in need of
repairs he cannot afford. Here lies the paradox. The government says it paid and
provided three months’ rent support. Mohammed and dozens of other families say
the amount is barely enough, as landlords demand four to six months in advance.
Between the numbers on paper and the reality of having no roof over his head,
Mohammed remains stuck, without a real home and without a clear solution.
Beirut port disaster remains unsolved five years after deadly blast
LBCI/February 12/2026
For five years, the mystery of the ammonium nitrate that exploded at the Beirut
port has remained unsolved. Public opinion remains divided. Some blame Hezbollah
for the presence of the ammonium nitrate, with Syria behind it to fight armed
groups in its territory. Others accuse former supporters of the Syrian
opposition of bringing it in. Between these two theories, some suggest Israel
exploited the situation to damage the port. Administratively, the theory of
negligence cannot be ignored: the shipment may have been unloaded carelessly for
logistical reasons, leading to its explosion during welding. Investigations have
considered all these scenarios. Judge Tarek Bitar simulated the port fire and
sent legal inquiries to several countries. For the first time, he revealed a
judicial request sent to Syria after the new regime took power, asking whether
any Syrians had admitted to using part of the ammonium nitrate that exploded in
Beirut.
So far, Lebanese authorities have received no response. The judge is also
awaiting a reply from the central bank regarding bank transactions linked to
companies mentioned in the case. Sources say the outcome of these inquiries will
not delay the indictment, which the investigating judge insists on issuing as
quickly as possible—especially after he was cleared by the investigative body of
“usurping power,” the charge previously brought against him by Judge Ghassan
Oueidat. Because usurping power is a criminal offense, a judge cannot issue an
indictment while under investigation for a crime.
Issuing the indictment does not close the case. The public prosecutor must
review it, raising the question: will Lebanon’s top prosecutor, Judge Jamal al-Hajjar,
who retires in March, take on this politically sensitive case at the end of his
career? The file may face political pressure ahead of parliamentary elections,
regardless of the outcome, or will responsibility pass to a new judicial term?
PM Salam departs to Munich via main terminal, skips VIP lounge
LBCI/February 12/2026
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam departed for Munich from the airport’s main
passenger terminal rather than the VIP lounge, in a move that drew attention for
breaking with common protocol for senior officials. Salam was seen leaving
through the regular departures area alongside other travelers, instead of using
the airport’s official salon typically reserved for high-ranking state figures.
Village in southern Lebanon buries a child and father
killed in Israeli drone strike
AP/February 12, 2026
YANOUH: Mourners in southern Lebanon on Tuesday buried a father and his young
son killed in an Israeli drone strike that targeted a Hezbollah member. Hassan
Jaber, a police officer, and his child, Ali, were on foot when the strike on
Monday hit a passing car in the center of their town, Yanouh, relatives said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said the boy was 3 years old. Both were killed at the
scene along with the car driver, Ahmad Salami, who the Israeli military said in
a statement was an artillery official with the Lebanese militant group. It said
it was aware of a “claim that uninvolved civilians were killed” and that the
case is under review, adding it “makes every effort to reduce the likelihood of
harm” to civilians.Salami, also from Yanouh, was buried in the village Tuesday
along with the father and son. “There are always people here, it’s a crowded
area,” with coffee shops and corner stores, a Shiite religious gathering hall,
the municipality building and a civil defense center, a cousin of the boy’s
father, also named Hassan Jaber, told The Associated Press. When the boy and his
father were struck, he said, they were going to a bakery making Lebanese
breakfast flatbread known as manakish to see how it was made. They were standing
only about 5 meters (5.5 yards) from the car when it was struck, the cousin
said. “It is not new for the Israeli enemy to carry out such actions,” he said.
“There was a car they wanted to hit and they struck it in the middle of this
crowded place.”Jaber said the little boy, Ali, had not yet entered school but
“showed signs of unusual intelligence.”“What did this innocent child do wrong,
this angel?” asked Ghazaleh Haider, the wife of the boy’s uncle. “Was he a
fighter or a jihadi?”Attendees at the funeral carried photos of Ali, a striking
child with large green eyes and blond hair. Some also carried flags of Hezbollah
or Amal, a Shiite party that is allied with but also sometimes a rival of
Hezbollah. Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, of which the child’s father was a
member, said in a statement that the 37-year-old father of three had joined in
2013 and reached the rank of first sergeant. The strike came as Israel has
stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon. The night
before the strike in Yanouh, Israeli forces launched a rare ground raid in the
Lebanese village of Hebbarieh, several kilometers (miles) from the border, in
which they seized a local official with the Sunni Islamist group Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya,
or the Islamic Group in English. The group is allied with Hezbollah and the
Palestinian militant group Hamas. The low-level conflict between Lebanon and
Israel escalated into full-scale war in September 2024, later reined in but not
fully stopped by a US-brokered ceasefire two months later. Since then, Israel
has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild and has carried out near-daily
strikes in Lebanon that it says target Hezbollah militants and facilities.
Israeli forces also continue to occupy five hilltop points on the Lebanese side
of the border. Hezbollah has claimed one strike against Israel since the
ceasefire.
North of the Litani on the
Government’s Table
Asaad Bechara/Nidaa Al Watan/February 13, 2026 (Translated from Arabic)
North of the Litani is back in the spotlight—not as a decisive sovereign file,
but as a recyclable political headline. The government will discuss the army’s
plan to withdraw Hezbollah’s weapons from north of the Litani. But the
discussion itself is the crux of the matter—not the plan, nor the withdrawal.
In Lebanon, when a file of this kind is placed “on the table,” what is often
sought is the table itself—not what is on it or what comes after it.
The move comes at a carefully calculated moment. Before the Paris
conference to support the Lebanese Army, there had to be some movement, some
signal, some reassuring message to the outside world. So the decision came: “We
will discuss.” Not approve, not implement—just discuss. A gesture of goodwill
complete with diplomatic conditions, but lacking sovereign ones. What matters is
that Western capitals can say the Lebanese government addressed the issue. What
it actually did about it is merely an internal Lebanese detail.Here, one recalls
the phrase attributed to U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham about duality in the East:
what is said is one thing, what is done another, and what is truly intended a
third. The state speaks the language of the international community but moves
according to the dictionary of internal balances. The army drafts plans, the
government discusses, and the outcome is known in advance: no decision, no
confrontation, no resolution. It is no small detail
that the preparatory meeting for the Paris conference, which had been scheduled
in Qatar, was canceled. The cancellation itself is a statement. The
international community is no longer satisfied with general titles or verbal
signals. It wants a clear path forward: What comes after the discussion? What
comes after the table? But Lebanon, as usual, answers with silence or
procrastination. Meanwhile, it is easy to predict what
will happen in Paris. Just as the government will discuss the north-of-the-Litani
plan, donors will discuss supporting the army. Discussion in exchange for
discussion. File for file. Neither will reach implementation nor translation
into action. A classic Lebanese equation: postponed sovereignty in exchange for
conditional aid, yielding a zero-sum outcome for both sides.The real message
lies neither in the plan nor in the conference, but in the continued management
of the crisis instead of resolving it. Lebanon tells the outside world what it
wants to hear and tells the inside what ensures the status quo remains
unchanged. North of the Litani becomes a cabinet item not because it is
resolvable, but because it is politically usable.In the end, neither north of
the Litani will change, nor will the balance of power shift, nor will the state
reclaim its decision. The only thing that will change is the language of
official statements, while reality—as usual—remains stronger than any table.
Do Not Lose the Compass: Weapons First and Foremost
Jean El Faghali/Nidaa Al Watan/February 13, 2026 (Translated from Arabic)
Amid an unprecedented financial collapse, weakened state institutions, and
attempts to undermine both domestic and international confidence in Lebanon,
many urgent headlines compete for attention: economic reform, restructuring the
banking sector, fighting corruption, and restoring Arab and international
relations.Yet all these files, important as they are, remain trapped in a
vicious circle unless the fundamental question is resolved: who holds the
decision of war and peace? And who monopolizes the use of force on Lebanese
territory?
So do not lose the compass: weapons first.The modern state rests on a basic
principle in political science—the state’s monopoly over legitimate arms. This
monopoly is not an administrative detail; it is the essence of sovereignty and
the very measure of a state’s existence. When centers of military power
multiply, the national decision becomes fragmented, and institutions turn into
hollow structures incapable of enforcing laws, protecting borders, or even
implementing independent public policies. In such a case, talk of reform or
stability becomes impossible, because the constitutional and security
foundations of the state are shaken.In Lebanon, decades of temporary settlements
have entrenched the reality of weapons outside the framework of the state under
various banners. A country that does not monopolize its security decision cannot
reassure investors, guarantee monetary stability, or build a balanced foreign
policy. All of this remains hostage to regional calculations that transcend
direct national interests.Linking weapons and the economy is not theoretical.
Any economic recovery plan requires a politically and security-stable
environment and clarity in sovereign decision-making. The international
community, as well as Arab states, view the weapons issue as a test of the
Lebanese state’s seriousness in reclaiming its role. There can be no sustainable
aid or major investments while the country risks sliding into military
confrontation by a decision that bypasses constitutional institutions. Trust—the
rare currency in Lebanon today—begins with clarity of authority and a single
reference point.Restricting weapons to the hands of the state does not target
any Lebanese faction or community. On the contrary, it is the gateway to
restoring the idea of equal national partnership. When military power is subject
to elected and accountable institutions, citizens feel equal before the law,
with no privilege granted to one side over another. Keeping weapons outside the
state framework entrenches a sense of imbalance in the distribution of power,
deepens sectarian anxieties, and weakens attachment to the common entity.
Arguing that livelihood reforms should take priority before addressing the
weapons issue ignores the organic link between the two. How can painful
reforms—requiring bold decisions and broad sacrifices—be implemented amid deep
divisions over the state’s identity and role? How can borders be controlled,
smuggling prevented, fair taxation enforced, or the parallel economy combated
without a single clear security authority? Any genuine economic reform
presupposes a state capable of imposing its policies across its entire
territory.
There is no doubt that the weapons issue in Lebanon is complex, tied to delicate
internal and regional balances. But its complexity does not justify postponing
it indefinitely.Lebanon today stands at a crossroads: either it continues
managing its crises through temporary settlements that leave the root problem
intact, or it faces the truth with courage—there can be no recovery without full
sovereignty, and no sovereignty without a monopoly over arms.Do not lose the
compass. Before plans and promises, before conferences and foreign support,
there is one foundational condition: weapons first. When the state regains its
full decision-making authority, every reform becomes possible, and every hope
achievable.
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports
And News published
on February
12-13/2026
Iranian authorities subjected Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi to
‘life-threatening mistreatment,’ Nobel Committee says
Christiane Amanpour, Mostafa Salem, Jomana Karadsheh, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Jaya
Sharma, CNN/February 12/2026
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told CNN on
Wednesday that Mohammadi has been subjected to severe physical abuse in Iran,
according to credible reports from inside the country.
Frydnes told CNN’s chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, that the
committee is “horrified” by the accounts it has received regarding Mohammadi’s
recent arrest and detention. According to those reports, during her arrest in
December, she was beaten repeatedly with wooden sticks and batons and dragged
across the ground by her hair, sustaining injuries that left open wounds on her
head. He said she was also repeatedly kicked in the pelvis and genital area,
leaving her in severe pain and unable to sit or function normally. “The reports
are, in fact, horrifying,” Frydnes told CNN. “This constitutes cruel and
inhumane treatment — a blatant violation of international human rights law.” He
added that heavy interrogations and intimidation have continued during her
detention and that she has been denied adequate and sustained medical care.
Frydnes expressed particular concern given Mohammadi’s known heart disease and
other medical conditions, warning that her health needs are not being properly
addressed. “We definitely worry that she will not be able to live any longer,”
he said, citing the seriousness of her condition and the reported escalation of
mistreatment in recent weeks. He linked her case to what he described as broader
unlawful mass killings and repression following recent protests in Iran, calling
her treatment another example of the regime’s crackdown.
Addressing what actions the Nobel Committee can take, Frydnes said it is
appealing directly to Iranian authorities to uphold international law and cease
violations. He also called on the international community to increase pressure
on Tehran. “This is a call both to the regime in Iran and to the international
community to put pressure on them so that Ms. Mohammadi’s safety is taken care
of,” he said. He urged governments in contact with Iran to make her immediate
and unconditional release part of their discussions. Frydnes acknowledged that
awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to individuals facing persecution can carry
risks, potentially intensifying pressure against them. However, he noted that
Mohammadi had taken significant risks for years before receiving the prize and
has remained steadfast in advocating for “women, life, freedom,” a reference to
the Iranian slogan, as well as democracy and basic human rights in Iran.
During her arrest in December, security forces beat the activist repeatedly and
dragged her by the hair, tearing sections of her scalp, and continued to beat
her in the transport vehicle, the Nobel Committee said in a statement issued
earlier Wednesday. CNN has reached out to the Iranian Foreign Ministry and its
UN mission in New York for comment. ne of Iran’s most prominent human rights
activists, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 and has spent most of the past two
decades as an inmate of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. In December 2024,
Iranian authorities suspended her prison term to allow her to recover from
surgery, but she was arrested again a year later and has remained in detention
since then. The new sentence was imposed amid a widespread crackdown on dissent
in Iran following mass protests against the regime in January that have plunged
the country into crisis. On Sunday, Mohammadi ended a hunger strike she began in
early February to protest her “unlawful detention, dire prison conditions, and
the denial of contact with her family and lawyers,” according to her foundation,
which cited reports indicating that her physical condition was “deeply
alarming.”In a short call on Sunday with her lawyer Mostafa Nili, Mohammadi said
she was hospitalized last week but was transferred back to the detention center
in Mashhad before her treatment was complete. Mohammadi has a medical history
that includes heart attacks, chest pain and high blood pressure, as well as
spinal disc issues and other illnesses, according to the foundation, which is
run by her family.
Trump warns Iran of ‘very traumatic’ outcome if no nuclear deal
AFP/February 12, 2026
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump threatened Iran Thursday with “very
traumatic” consequences if it fails to make a nuclear deal — but Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was skeptical about the quality of any such
agreement. Speaking a day after he hosted Netanyahu at the White House, Trump
said he hoped for a result “over the next month” from Washington’s negotiations
with Tehran over its nuclear program. “We have to make a deal, otherwise it’s
going to be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don’t want that to happen, but we
have to make a deal,” Trump told reporters.“This will be very traumatic for Iran
if they don’t make a deal.”Trump — who is considering sending a second aircraft
carrier to the Middle East to pressure Iran — recalled the US military strikes
he ordered on Tehran’s nuclear facilities during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran
in July last year. “We’ll see if we can get a deal with them, and if we can’t,
we’ll have to go to phase two. Phase two will be very tough for them,” Trump
said. Netanyahu had traveled to Washington to push Trump to take a harder line
in the Iran nuclear talks, particularly on including the Islamic Republic’s
arsenal of ballistic m
Israel Has Joined Trump's 'Board of Peace,' Netanyahu Says
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
Israel has joined US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" initiative, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday during his visit to Washington
where he met Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Visuals released earlier
on Wednesday after the Netanyahu-Rubio meeting showed them holding a document
with Netanyahu's signature on Israel joining the board. Netanyahu said on X he
"signed Israel's accession as a member of the "Board of Peace.
He later discussed Iran with Trump.
A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the
board and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization
force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan on
which Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas signed off. Under Trump's Gaza
plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza's temporary governance. Trump
thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle
global conflicts.The board will hold its first meeting on February 19 in
Washington to discuss Gaza's reconstruction. Many rights experts say that Trump
overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory's affairs resembled a
colonial structure. Israel's presence on the board is expected to bring further
criticism as the board does not include a Palestinian. Countries have reacted
cautiously to Trump's invitation to join the board launched in late January.
Many experts are concerned the board could undermine the United Nations.While
some of Washington's Middle Eastern allies have joined, many of its traditional
Western allies have stayed away. The ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly
violated, with at least 580 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers reported
killed since it began in October, according to Palestinian and Israeli tallies,
respectively. The next phase of Trump's Gaza plan calls for resolving complex
issues like Hamas' disarmament, which the group has long rejected, further
Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the deployment of an international peacekeeping
force. Israel's assault on Gaza has killed over 72,000, according to Gaza's
health ministry, caused a hunger crisis and internally displaced Gaza's entire
population. Multiple rights experts, scholars and a UN inquiry say it amounts to
genocide. Israel calls its actions self-defense after Hamas-led militants killed
1,200 people and took over 250 hostages in a late 2023 attack.
Netanyahu Skeptical of an Iran Breakthrough
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was skeptical that US nuclear
talks with Iran will lead to a breakthrough but described his meeting with US
President Donald Trump at the White House as “excellent.”Speaking to reporters
Thursday in Washington before boarding a plane to return to Israel, Netanyahu
said Trump’s terms and Iran’s “understanding that they made a mistake the last
time when they did not reach an agreement, may lead them to agree to conditions
that will enable a good agreement to be reached.”While he said he did “not hide
my general skepticism” about any deal, he stressed that any agreement must
include concessions about Iran’s ballistic missiles program and support for
militant proxies.He added that the conversation Wednesday with Trump, which
lasted more than two hours, included a number of other subjects, including Gaza
and regional developments but focused on the negotiations with Iran.
Deaths in Iran's Crackdown on Protests Reach at Least 7,000
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
The death toll from a crackdown over Iran’s nationwide protests last month has
reached at least 7,002 people killed with many more still feared dead, activists
said Thursday.The slow rise in the number of dead from the demonstrations adds
to the overall tensions facing Iran both inside the country and abroad as it
tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program. A second
round of talks remains up in the air as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu pressed his case directly with US President Donald Trump to intensify
his demands on Tehran in the negotiations.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations
with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated. If it can, I
let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference,” Trump wrote afterward on
his TruthSocial website. “Last time Iran decided that they were better off not
making a Deal, and they were hit. ... That did not work well for them. Hopefully
this time they will be more reasonable and responsible.”Meanwhile, Iran at home
faces still-simmering anger over its wide-ranging suppression of all dissent in
the Iranian Republic. That rage may intensify in the coming days as families of
the dead begin marking the traditional 40-day mourning for the loved ones.
Activists' death toll slowly rises
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which offered the latest
figures, has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest
in Iran and relies on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. The slow
rise in the death toll has come as the agency slowly is able to crosscheck
information as communication remains difficult with those inside of Iran. Iran’s
government offered its only death toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were
killed. Iran’s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities
from past unrest. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess
the death toll, given authorities have disrupted internet access and
international calls in Iran. The rise in the death toll comes as Iran tries to
negotiate with the United States over its nuclear program.
Diplomacy over Iran continues
Senior Iranian security official Ali Larijani met Wednesday in Qatar with
Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Qatar hosts a major
US military installation that Iran attacked in June, after the US bombed Iranian
nuclear sites during the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June. Larijani also met with
officials of the Palestinian Hamas group, and in Oman with Tehran-backed Houthis
from Yemen on Tuesday. Larijani told Qatar’s Al Jazeera satellite news network
that Iran did not receive any specific proposal from the US in Oman, but
acknowledged that there was an “exchange of messages.”Qatar has been a key
negotiator in the past with Iran, with which it shares a massive offshore
natural gas field in the Arabian Gulf. Its state-run Qatar News Agency reported
that ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani spoke with Trump about “the
current situation in the region and international efforts aimed at de-escalation
and strengthening regional security and peace,” without elaborating. The US has
moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the
Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement and have the firepower necessary
to strike Iran should Trump choose to do so. Already, US forces have shot down a
drone they said got too close to the Lincoln and came to the aid of a US-flagged
ship that Iranian forces tried to stop in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth
of the Arabian Gulf. Trump told the news website Axios that he was considering
sending a second carrier to the region. “We have an armada that is heading there
and another one might be going,” he said.
Concern over Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was “deeply appalled by
credible reports detailing the brutal arrest, physical abuse and ongoing
life‑threatening mistreatment” of 2023 Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.
The committee that awards the prize said it had information Mohammadi had been
beaten during her arrest in December and continued to be mistreated. It called
for her immediate and unconditional release. “She continues to be denied
adequate, sustained medical follow‑up while being subjected to heavy
interrogation and intimidation,” the committee said. “She has fainted several
times, suffers from dangerously high blood pressure and has been prevented from
accessing necessary follow‑up for suspected breast tumors.”Iran just sentenced
Mohammadi, 53, to over seven more years in prison. Supporters had warned for
months before her arrest that she was at risk of being put back into prison
after she received a furlough in December 2024 over medical concerns.
Netanyahu says Trump creating conditions that may lead to
'good deal' with Iran
LBCI/February 12/2026
The European Union's aviation safety regulator on Thursday recommended the
bloc's airlines stay out of Iran's airspace until March 31, saying it was
extending an earlier warning. "The presence and possible use of a wide range of
weapons and air-defence systems, combined with unpredictable state responses ...
creates a high risk to civil flights operating at all altitudes and flight
levels," the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said in a bulletin.World
powers and regional states fear a breakdown in negotiations between Iran and the
United States could ignite a conflict that could spill over to the rest of the
oil-producing region.Iran has vowed a harsh response to any strike and has
cautioned neighbouring Gulf Arab countries that host U.S. bases that they could
be in the firing line if they were involved in an attack. Reuters
Israel President Says at End of Visit Antisemitism in
Australia 'Frightening'
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
Antisemitism in Australia is "frightening" but most people want good relations,
Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday as he wrapped up a four-day
visit and was met by protests in the city of Melbourne. Herzog's tightly policed
visit to Australia this week was meant to offer consolation to the country's
Jewish community following the mass shooting on Bondi Beach that killed 15
people in December, said AFP. However, it sparked demonstrations in major
cities, including in Sydney, where police used pepper spray on protesters and
members of the media, including an AFP photographer, during scuffles in the
central business district on Monday night. Herzog told Channel Seven's Sunrise
ahead of his Melbourne stop that a "wave" of anti-Jewish hatred in Australia had
culminated in the December 14 killings at Bondi.
"It is frightening and worrying," he said.
"But there's also a silent majority of Australians who seek peace, who respect
the Jewish community and, of course, want a dialogue with Israel." The Israeli
head of state said he had brought a "message of goodwill to the people of
Australia"."I hope there will be a change. I hope things will relax," he said.
Herzog attended a Jewish community event after a meeting with Victoria's
governor at Melbourne's Government House. Protesters waving Palestinian flags
and chanting slogans squared off with police outside the event. More are
expected to turn out later at around 5 pm (0600 GMT) on Thursday.Herzog told the
audience at the community event: "We came here to be with you, to look you in
the eye, to embrace and remember."He also said demonstrators outside should
instead "go protest in front of the Iranian embassy". The Australian government
accused Iran last year of orchestrating a recent wave of antisemitic attacks and
expelled Tehran's ambassador. Canberra, citing intelligence findings, accused
Tehran of directing the torching of a kosher cafe in the Sydney suburb of Bondi
in October 2024 and a major arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in
Melbourne in December 2024.
Controversial visit
Ahead of his arrival, national broadcaster ABC reported that a building at
Melbourne University had been graffiti-ed with the phrase: "Death to Herzog".
Many Jewish Australians have welcomed Herzog's trip. "His visit will lift the
spirits of a pained community," said Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the
Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the community's peak body. But some in
the community disagreed, with the progressive Jewish Council of Australia saying
he was not welcome because of his alleged role in the "ongoing destruction of
Gaza". The UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry found last year
that Herzog was liable for prosecution for inciting genocide after he said all
Palestinians -- "an entire nation" -- were responsible for the Hamas attack on
Israel in October 2023.
Israel has "categorically" rejected the inquiry's report, describing it as
"distorted and false" and has called for the body's abolition.
Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Says the US and Iran Showing Flexibility on Nuclear
Deal
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
The United States and Iran are showing flexibility on a nuclear deal, with
Washington appearing "willing" to tolerate some nuclear enrichment, Turkish
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Financial Times in an interview published
Thursday. “It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian
enrichment within clearly set boundaries," Fidan, who has been involved in talks
with both Washington and Tehran, told the FT.“The Iranians now recognize that
they need to reach a deal with the Americans, and the Americans understand
that the Iranians have certain limits. It’s pointless to try to force
them.”Washington has until now demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium
enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that is
considered weapons grade, said Reuters. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has
said Iran would continue to demand the lifting of financial sanctions and
insist on its nuclear rights including enrichment.Fidan told the FT he believed
Tehran “genuinely wants to reach a real agreement” and would accept
restrictions on enrichment levels and a strict inspection regime, as it did in
the 2015 agreement with the US and others. US and Iranian diplomats held talks
through Omani mediators in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy,
after President Donald Trump positioned a naval flotilla in the region, raising
fears of new military action. Trump on Tuesday said he was considering sending a
second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, even as Washington and Tehran
prepared to resume negotiations.The Turkish foreign minister, however, cautioned
that broadening the Iran-US talks to ballistic missiles would bring "nothing but
another war."The US State Department and the White House did not respond to a
request for comment outside regular business hours.
US Increases its Pressure on Iran in Iraq
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
US pressure over Iranian influence in Iraq is increasing amid consultations to
form a new government and messages from Washington affirming its willingness to
use “the full range of tools” to counter what it describes as “Iran’s
destabilizing activities.”US Chargé d’Affaires Joshua Harris confirmed during a
meeting on Thursday with Abdul Hussein Al-Mousawi, head of the National Approach
Alliance, that any Iraqi government “should remain fully independent and focused
on advancing the national interests of all Iraqis.”A US embassy statement said
the meeting addressed the importance of a strong partnership between the United
States and Iraq that delivers “tangible benefits” for both sides within the
framework of safeguarding Iraqi sovereignty, bolstering regional stability, and
strengthening economic ties. Harris stressed his country’s readiness “to use the
full range of tools to counter Iran’s destabilizing activities in Iraq,” a
statement seen as a dual message directed at forces linked to Tehran and at
blocs engaged in government formation negotiations.The media office of the
National Approach Alliance, which is part of the Coordination Framework, stated
that the meeting discussed the latest developments in Iraq and the region, and
ways to strengthen bilateral relations “in line with the principle of mutual
sovereign respect and shared interests.”It also addressed consultations among
political parties to abide by constitutional mechanisms and the results of
elections. Both sides stressed the importance of ensuring the success of
negotiations between the US and Iran in a way that contributes to de-escalation
and the adoption of dialogue.Last month, US President Donald Trump warned Iraq
over a reinstatement of Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister, saying that the
country “descended into poverty and total chaos” under his previous leadership.
“That should not be allowed to happen again” Trump wrote on social media. Al-Maliki,
who has long-standing ties to Iran, dismissed Trump’s threat as “blatant
American interference in Iraq’s internal affairs,” and vowed to “continue to
work until we reach the end.”The Coordination Framework, which holds a
parliamentary majority, has named al-Maliki to serve again as Iraq’s prime
minister, citing his “political and administrative experience and role in
managing the state.”
German Parliament Speaker Visits Gaza
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
The speaker of Germany's lower house of parliament briefly visited the
Israeli-controlled part of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the body told AFP. Julia
Kloeckner spent "about an hour in the part of Gaza controlled by Israeli army
forces", parliament said, becoming the first German official to visit the
territory since Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023 that sparked the
devastating war. Since the start of the conflict, Israel has drastically
restricted access to the densely populated coastal strip. In a statement shared
by her office, Kloeckner said it was essential for politicians to have access to
"reliable assessments of the situation" in Gaza."I expressly welcome the fact
that Israel has now, for the first time, granted me, a parliamentary observer,
access to the Gaza Strip," she said. However, she was only able to gain a
"limited insight" into the situation on the ground during her trip, she said.
Kloeckner appealed to Israel to "continue on this path of openness" and
emphasised that the so-called yellow line, which designates Israeli military
zones inside the Gaza Strip, must "not become a permanent barrier".Contacted by
AFP, the German foreign ministry said it would "not comment on travel plans or
trips by other constitutional bodies that wish to assess the situation on the
ground".Germany has been one of Israel's staunchest supporters as the European
power seeks to atone for the legacy of the Holocaust. But in recent months,
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has occasionally delivered sharp critiques of Israeli
policy as German public opinion turns against Israel's actions in Gaza. In
August, Germany imposed a partial arms embargo on Israel, which was lifted in
November after the announcement of what has proved to be a fragile ceasefire for
Gaza. Merz visited Israel in December and reaffirmed Germany's support.But in a
sign of lingering tension, Germany's foreign ministry on Wednesday criticized
Israeli plans to tighten control over the occupied West Bank as a step toward
"de facto annexation".
UNRWA’s Lazzarini Warns Ignoring Gaza Risks New Generation of Anger
Riyadh: Abdulhadi Habtor/Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, says UNRWA’s future cannot
remain “hostage indefinitely” to the absence of a political solution, as he
prepares to leave his post next month. In a wide-ranging interview with Asharq
Al-Awsat, Lazzarini called for a gradual shift in how services are delivered,
allowing Palestinian institutions to eventually build the capacity to take over.
At the same time, he warned that abandoning nearly 2 million people in Gaza,
half of them children, to trauma and hopelessness risks sowing the seeds of new
generations of anger.
Strong backing from Saudi Arabia
Lazzarini said UNRWA’s cooperation with Saudi Arabia is “strong,” both
financially and politically.Riyadh, he said, is deeply engaged in the political
process and works with the EU under the umbrella of the “Global Alliance for the
Implementation of the Two-State Solution,” where UNRWA has been invited to be
part of the broader discussions. For Lazzarini, sustainable access to essential
services must rest on a clear political framework. Saudi Arabia and other
partners in the alliance have helped provide that framework and voiced firm
political support for the agency during what he described as a challenging
period. He said the Kingdom’s level of political engagement and the initiatives
advanced within the alliance left a strong impression. Inviting a
humanitarian-development agency such as UNRWA into discussions about the future
of Palestinian institutions, he said, reflects the seriousness of that
partnership.
A funding squeeze and a “silent war”
UNRWA is also battling a chronic funding crisis. After a year of austerity,
Lazzarini said he was forced weeks ago to cut services by around 20%, including
health care and education, affecting beneficiaries directly. Beyond Gaza, he
warned of what he called a “silent war” in the occupied West Bank, overshadowed
by events in the enclave. Over the past two years, developments there have come
“close to de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank,” he said. Settlement
expansion has accelerated. Settler violence has risen “with little
accountability.” Large-scale security operations, especially in Jenin and
Tulkarm, have emptied camps and displaced large numbers of residents.
What has happened in Gaza, Lazzarini said, “defies description.” The suffering,
he added, is “unbearable.”Once described as an open-air prison, Gaza has, after
more than two years of unrelenting war, become a landscape of daily atrocities
carried out almost around the clock, before the eyes of the world. Between 80%
and 90% of the territory has been destroyed, he said, leaving behind a
“post-catastrophic” environment. The population is in constant flight. More than
70,000 people have been killed, according to estimates, not counting those still
buried beneath the rubble. He described systematic starvation driven by
political decisions and efforts to make life in the enclave untenable, pushing
residents toward departure.More than 380 UNRWA staff members have been killed,
he said. Others were detained and tortured. Agency facilities were struck. The
violations of international law, he added, have gone largely unpunished,
deepening what he called a climate of impunity.
Political targeting and pressure
Lazzarini said he himself faced “political and diplomatic targeting” during his
tenure, tied not to his person but to his office and what UNRWA represents.
After his first visit to Gaza, he was declared persona non grata and barred from
returning, with instructions issued not to engage with him. The targeting was
not directed personally as much as at the function and the symbolism of UNRWA,
he said. Some Israeli officials, he noted, have openly stated that their
objective is to end the agency’s role, seeing it as perpetuating the refugee
issue. UNRWA’s 75-year existence, he argued, does not explain the problem.
Instead, it reflects the international community’s failure to reach a just and
lasting political solution.
The two-state solution
Lazzarini reaffirmed that the two-state path remains “a fundamental option,” but
warned that developments in Gaza and the West Bank are pushing any serious
political horizon further out of reach. The events after Oct. 7, he said, should
have been “a wake-up call.” This conflict, he stressed, cannot be left
unresolved. Nearly 2 million people in Gaza, half of them children, are living
in profound trauma with no clear future. Ignoring that reality, he warned, means
planting anger in a new generation, with consequences for the region’s
stability. He also voiced concern that solidarity and compassion are no longer
driving international responses as they once did. In both Gaza and Sudan, he
said, he sensed “a great deal of indifference” toward vast humanitarian crises.
Yet he insisted the core lesson is to hold fast to humanitarian values, however
bleak the circumstances. The alternative, he warned, is a world stripped of
standards and restraint, ruled by the law of the jungle rather than
international law. For Lazzarini, sustainable access to essential services must
rest on a clear political framework.
Rethinking UNRWA’s future
Looking ahead, Lazzarini said UNRWA cannot continue indefinitely in its current
form.
He called for a phased transition in service delivery, enabling Palestinian
institutions to build capacity to assume those responsibilities over time.The
agency must remain the custodian of the refugee cause until a just solution is
achieved, he said. But the mechanics of delivering services should not remain
frozen, waiting endlessly for a political breakthrough.
UN: Syria's President and 2 Top Ministers Were Targets of 5 Foiled Assassination
Attempts
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
Syria’s president, interior minister and foreign minister were the targets of
five foiled assassination attempts last year, the UN chief said in a report on
threats posed by ISIS militants released Wednesday. The report said President
Ahmad al-Sharaa was targeted in northern Aleppo, the country’s most populous
province, and southern Daraa by a group assessed to be a front for the ISIS
group. The report, issued by Secretary-General António Guterres and prepared by
the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, gave no dates or details of the attempts
against al-Sharaa or Syrian Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab and Foreign
Minister Asaad al-Shibani. The assassination attempts are more evidence that the
militant group remains intent on undermining the new Syrian government and
“actively exploiting security vacuums and uncertainty” in Syria, the report
said. It said al-Sharaa was “assessed to be a primary target” of the ISIS. And
it said the front group provided ISIS with plausible deniability and "improved
operational capacity.”Al-Sharaa has led Syria since his opposition forces ousted
longtime Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024, ending a 14-year civil
war. In November, his government joined the international coalition formed to
counter the ISIS group, which once controlled a large part of Syria. The UN
counter-terrorism experts said the militant group still operates across the
country, primarily attacking security forces, particularly in the north and
northeast. In one ambush attack on Dec. 13 on US and Syrian forces near Palmyra,
two US servicemen and an American civilian were killed and three Americans and
three members of Syria's security forces were wounded. President Donald Trump
retaliated, launching military operations to eliminate ISIS fighters.According
to the UN counter-terrorism experts, the ISIS group maintains an estimated 3,000
fighters across Iraq and Syria, the majority of them based in Syria. The US
military in late January began transferring ISIS detainees who were held in
northeastern Syria to Iraq to ensure they remain in secure facilities. Iraq has
said it will prosecute the militants. Syrian government forces had taken control
of a sprawling camp housing thousands of ISIS detainees following the withdrawal
of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as part of a ceasefire with the
Kurdish fighters. The report released Wednesday to the UN Security Council said
as of December, before the ceasefire deal, more than 25,740 people remained in
the al-Hol and Roj camps in the northeast, more than 60% of them children, with
thousands more in other detention centers.
US Forces Withdraw from Syria's Al-Tanf Base
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
US forces have withdrawn to Jordan from Syria's Al-Tanf base, where they had
been deployed as part of the international coalition against the ISIS group, two
Syrian military sources told AFP on Wednesday. One source said "the American
forces withdrew entirely from Al-Tanf base today" and decamped to another in
Jordan, adding Syrian forces were being deployed to replace them.A second source
confirmed the withdrawal, adding the Americans had been moving equipment out for
the past 15 days. The second source said the US troops would "continue to
coordinate with the base in Al-Tanf from Jordan".During the Syrian civil war and
the fight against ISIS, US forces were deployed in the country's
Kurdish-controlled northeast and at Al-Tanf, near the borders with Jordan and
Iraq. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been a major partner of
the anti-ISIS coalition, and were instrumental in the group's territorial defeat
in Syria in 2019. However, after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad over
a year ago, the United States has drawn closer to the new government in
Damascus, recently declaring that the need for its alliance with the Kurds had
largely passed.Syria agreed to join the anti-ISIS coalition when President Ahmed
al-Sharaa visited the White House in November. As Sharaa's authorities seek to
extend their control over all of Syria, the Kurds have come under pressure to
integrate their forces and de facto autonomous administration into the state,
striking an agreement to do so last month after losing territory to advancing
government troops. Since then, the US has been conducting an operation to
transfer around 7,000 suspected extremists from Syria -- where many were being
held in detention facilities by Kurdish fighters -- to neighboring Iraq.
Following the withdrawal from Al-Tanf and the government's advances in the
northeast, US troops are mainly now based at the Qasrak base in Hasakeh,
according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Despite ISIS's territorial
defeat, the group remains active. It was blamed for a December attack in Palmyra
in which a lone gunman opened fire on American personnel, killing two US
soldiers and a US civilian.Washington later conducted retaliatory strikes on
ISIS targets in Syria.
Syria Says its Forces Have Taken over al-Tanf Base after a Handover from the US
Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
Syrian government forces have taken control of a base in the east of the country
that was run for years by US troops as part of the war against the ISIS group,
the Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday. The al-Tanf base sits on a
strategic location, close to the borders with Jordan and Iraq. In a terse
statement, the Syrian Defense Ministry said the handover of the base took place
in coordination with the US military and Syrian forces are now “securing the
base and its perimeters.”The US military did not immediately respond to an email
from The Associated Press regarding the Syrian statement. The Syrian Defense
Ministry also said that Syrian troops are now in place in the desert area around
the al-Tanf garrison, with border guards to deploy in the coming days. The
deployment of Syrian troops at al-Tanf and in the surrounding areas comes after
last month’s deal between the government and the US-backed and Kurdish-led
Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, to merge into the military. Al-Tanf garrison
was repeatedly attacked over the past years with drones by Iran-backed groups
but such attacks have dropped sharply following the fall of Bashar Assad’s
government in Syria in December 2024. Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa
has been expanding his control of the country, and last month government forces
captured wide parts of northeast Syria after deadly clashes with the SDF. A
ceasefire was later reached between the two sides. Al-Tanf base played a major
role in the fight against the ISIS group that declared a caliphate in large
parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014. ISIS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria
two years later. Over the past weeks, the US military began transferring
thousands of ISIS prisoners from prisons run by the SDF in northeastern Syria to
Iraq, where they will be prosecuted.
The number of US troops posted in Syria has changed over the years.The number of
US troops increased to more than 2,000 after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas
in Israel, as Iranian-backed militants targeted American troops and interests in
the region in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The force has since been
drawn back down to around 900.
Ethiopia and Sudan: The Intersections of Regional War and Security
Osman Mirghani/Asharq Al Awsat/February 12/2026
Three important inferences can be drawn from the recent investigative report
published by Reuters. It presents detailed information, supported by satellite
imagery, about a fully integrated military support base that is home to an
airstrip, a drone control center, and a training facility for thousands of
fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and mercenaries, with supply routes
coming from Somaliland. The first inference is that we are facing an attempt to
ignite a new front in the Sudanese conflict after the army and allied forces had
made significant progress on the western axis, notably in Kordofan. The second
concerns Ethiopia’s ambitions; backed by foreign actors, it is seeking to change
the regional balance of power to achieve objectives tied to the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam, its claims over Sudanese agricultural lands in the al-Fashqa
area, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s goal of gaining access to a seaport,
whether through the port of Berbera in Somaliland or the Eritrean port of Assab.
The third inference is that the Ethiopian government is doubling down to
overcome domestic problems amid tensions in Tigray, the ongoing conflict in the
Amhara region with the Fano Front, as well as clashes in Oromia.
The well-documented Reuters report (includes images, and testimonies from 15
sources, provided detailed accounts of how the base was built and financed, and
the training it hosts. Everything in the report confirms the conclusions that
had been drawn by the Sudanese intelligence last year, some of which were leaked
or discussed by General al-Burhan, who has warned of neighboring countries’
attempts to fuel the war. Over this period, the Sudanese army moved large forces
to the Blue Nile axis in anticipation of escalation, which enabled it to repel
this year’s attacks by the RSF and its People’s Liberation Movement (Abdelaziz
al-Hilu faction) allies in that area.
Although the report underscores the role of foreign players in the Sudanese
conflict, as well as certain parties' plots to perpetuate and broaden the chaos
(with obvious implications this carries for regional countries and Red Sea
security), the reality is that Ethiopian involvement is not new, even if it has
now become broader and more alarming. Since the war began, Ethiopian Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed has taken positions that reflect his involvement in the
foreign plot to prop up the RSF. During the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development (IGAD) summit in July 2023 (three months into the war), he claimed
that Sudan had been struggling to deal with a “vacuum of leadership,” calling
for the imposition of a no-fly zone and the intervention of international
forces. That was not the only stance he has voiced. In December 2023, Abiy Ahmed
received RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti), as part of a tour the latter
had been making to grant himself legitimacy as a potential leader at a time when
his forces were expanding. Hemeti was received like a state official and a guard
of honor in Addis Ababa, and Abiy Ahmed deliberately made the images of his
meeting with Hemeti and his delegation public. Those earlier positions
demonstrate the trajectory of Abiy Ahmed’s involvement in Sudan’s war. The
signals he had sent in 2023 were translated into the dangerous escalation of
2026. Moreover, there is reason to believe that Ethiopia has become the major
logistics hub of the RSF and its political allies after arms supplies via Chad
and Libya were severely curbed.
What are the broader implications of these developments? Arming and resupply of
the RSF with weapons and mercenaries, as well as the construction of a support
base in Ethiopia, cannot be understood in isolation of other schemes aimed at
encirclement and the fomenting of chaos and instability in the region, from Bab
al-Mandab to the Red Sea. Ethiopia is operating on three parallel fronts, and it
has found allies. Their project goes beyond merely boosting Addis Ababa’s
influence in the Horn of Africa; it must be seen within the broader regional
context and its implications for regional national security.
In addition to the Sudan front, Ethiopia is making moves on the so-called
“Republic of Somaliland.” Addis Ababa signed an agreement with its leadership to
obtain maritime access and establish a military base in exchange for diplomatic
recognition. These steps have enraged the Somali federal government, and the
situation has aggravated further after Israel entered the fray and recognized
Somaliland, given all that this entails for regional security. Ethiopia’s
pursuit of maritime access also explains its growing tensions with Eritrea,
which it has repeatedly accused of occupying Ethiopian territory or supporting
movements opposed to the regime. Throughout, Addis Ababa has simultaneously
sought to bargain for access to a seaport, with its eye on Eritrea’s port of
Assab.The Reuters report places Sudan’s war at the heart of this complex and the
network of actors seeking to destabilize the region and change the balance of
power between the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. Given that this scheme has
become clear and documented, steps to contain and foil it will probably
intensify soon- not only in support of Sudan but in defense of regional
security.
The Latest
LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on February
12-13/2026
A few words of advice on Iran and Gaza
Clifford D. May/ The Washington
Times/February 12/2026
In case your Latin is rusty, that means “Carthage must be destroyed!” Cato the
Elder would repeat the demand in every speech he gave in the Roman Senate. This
was between the Second and Third Punic Wars in the 150s BCE. In case your
history is rusty, too, the Punic Wars were between Rome (you know where that is)
and Carthage (which was on the coast of what is now Tunisia). The conflict
spanned 118 years, from 264 to 146 BCE. Talk about your “endless wars”! As a
matter of fact, I intend to – after subjecting you to just three more paragraphs
of ancient history.In the Second Punic War, Carthage was stripped of its navy
and many of its territories, including several Mediterranean islands and parts
of Spain. Through trade, however, Carthage became prosperous again. Old man Cato
– perhaps remembering the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE where Hannibal killed as
many as 70,000 Roman soldiers in a single day – was determined that Carthage
never again become a threat. Around 150 BCE, the Romans found a pretext to
demand that the Carthaginians abandon their city and rebuild inland, which would
have meant they would no longer be a maritime power. When the Carthaginians
refused, Rome laid siege to the city for three years, killing or enslaving the
population and leaving behind only ruins. Fast forward to 1919, when British
economist John Maynard Keynes denounced the Treaty of Versailles as a
“Carthaginian Peace” because, following what would become known as World War I,
crushing reparations and territorial losses reduced “Germany to servitude” and
planted the seeds of “vengeance” which, he predicted, would inevitably sprout
into a future conflict.
World War II followed less than a generation later.
“Study history, study history,” Winston Churchill advised. “In history lies all
the secrets of statecraft.”Franklin Roosevelt understood that. He could have
ended World War II earlier if he’d pursued a ceasefire, a truce, or a cessation
of hostilities with the Axis powers. But, as Cato might have advised, he
insisted – and announced at the Casablanca Conference in 1943 – that the war
would end only after America’s enemies accepted “unconditional surrender.” In a
Feb. 12, 1943 radio address, he explained: “In our uncompromising policy we mean
no harm to the common people of the Axis nations. But we do mean to impose
punishment and retribution in full upon their guilty, barbaric leaders.”After
the decisive conclusion of the war, the Allies disarmed and occupied both
Germany and Japan. They then applied not a Carthiginian Peace but the
Churchillian principle of “In Victory: Magnanimity.”
They rebuilt institutions, implemented the Marshall Plan, and helped transform
former enemies into prosperous democracies and security partners while
maintaining a military presence to deter Soviet expansion. Contrast that with
the subsequent Korean War, which ended with an armistice rather than resolution.
That may have been the least-bad alternative at the time, but the result is that
73 years later roughly 28,000 American troops remain in South Korea – not as
partners in an integrated alliance like NATO, but as guardians of a militarized
border frozen in time.
Over those decades, North Korea has acquired nuclear weapons. It’s now receiving
advanced military technology from Moscow in exchange for supporting Vladmir
Putin’s war against Ukraine with both troops and munitions. And it’s ruled by a
dynastic dictator who sounds more bellicose than ever.
In other words, in Korea, the ceasefire established an “endless war.”Despite
that and other abundant evidence, conventional wisdom has held for years that
peace can be “processed,” that “conflict resolution” is a science that can be
taught in universities, that a policy of “de-escalation” shortens rather than
prolongs wars, and that an “exit strategy” is as good as a victory. I’m not
arguing against diplomacy. I am arguing that negotiations are only a means to an
end – not an end in themselves. I’m also not saying that studying history and
applying it to the world’s current conflicts leads to obvious policy decisions.
Statecraft is not so simple.
But a few conclusions strike me as self-evident.
Iran’s rulers are self-proclaimed jihadis who for 47 years have stated their
genocidal goals with exquisite clarity: “Death to Israel!” and “Death to
America!” They’re also the world’s leading state sponsors of terrorism and
lately they’ve been massacring tens of thousands of unarmed Iranians. What would
Cato advise regarding this theocracy? I think he’d say: “Delenda est!”Similarly,
the Hamasniks in Gaza, also self-proclaimed jihadis, despite being seriously
battered in the barbaric war they launched, are sticking to their guns –
literally and figuratively. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman told Fox News
last week: “Hamas has returned to schools, hospitals, and kindergartens and is
turning them into military bases. A Hamas commander is in charge of each school
in Jabalia in northern Gaza.”I think Churchill would advise that the “day after”
a ceasefire is not the same as “the day after” a victory. So, the time for
magnanimity has not yet arrived. President Trump – and other Western leaders –
also might want to hear a few words of wisdom from Niccolo Machiavelli, the
16th-century Florentine political and military theorist. A relevant insight from
“The Prince”: Delaying a conflict doesn’t make it go away – it only gives your
enemy time to get stronger while you lose the advantage of initiative.Clifford
D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD),
a columnist for the Washington Times, and host of the “Foreign Podicy” podcast.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/feb/10/words-advice-iran-gaza/
Read in The Washington Times
Syria Looks to Offshore Oil and Gas for Economic Renewal
Seth J. Frantzman/Nationalo
Interest/February 12/2026
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/syria-looks-to-offshore-oil-and-gas-for-economic-renewal
Damascus’ entrance into the energy market will require it to update its
dilapidated infrastructure.
Damascus witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Chevron
and the Qatar-based company Power International Holding on February 4. The goal
of the new agreement is to push forward with the “development of the country’s
first offshore oil and gas field,” Syrian state media SANA said. US special
envoy to Syria Tom Barrack wrote that he was “honored to witness Syria’s
historic milestone for offshore gas exploration.”
Syria is seeking investment as the country benefits from sanctions relief and
Damascus works to unify the country. For instance, forces of the Syrian Interior
Ministry were deployed to areas in eastern Syria during the first week of
February after an agreement on January 30 between Damascus and the US-backed
Syrian Democratic Forces. This means that Syria’s government now controls most
of the country. This is a major change from a year and a half ago, when the
Assad regime was in charge, and the country was divided. It’s also a major
change from more than a decade of civil war that began in 2011.
The new Syrian transitional government has sought to focus its efforts on
economic development. Achieving sanctions relief from the United States and the
West was a major effort. Another has been outreach to Turkey, Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, and other countries. Damascus has also sought to maintain amicable ties
with Moscow. Russia was a key patron of the Assad regime. Moscow has pivoted to
welcome Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara.
Developing positive ties with the United States, Europe, Russia, and its
neighbors helps Damascus sell itself as a safe place for investment. Chevron’s
exploration deal with a Qatar-based company is key. “The agreement aims to
invest in exploration and drilling within Syrian territorial waters, strengthen
strategic energy partnerships, and support development pathways. The signing
ceremony took place at the People’s Palace in Damascus,” according to Syrian
state media.
The development is being watched in the region. The agreement in Damascus was
signed by Yusuf Qablawi, the CEO of the Syrian Petroleum Company, Erik Keskula,
the CEO of Power International Holding, and Frank Mount, the current president
of Chevron’s Corporate Business Development.
The offshore agreement also comes as Syria has secured gas and oil
infrastructure in eastern Syria. These sites along the Euphrates will also be
important for Damascus’s infrastructure development. For Syria’s existing energy
infrastructure, what matters is for the central government to secure the
infrastructure after many years of neglect. For prospective offshore projects,
the major issue will be building new infrastructure. Success in this endeavor,
as indicated in Qablawi’s statement, could position Syria as an energy player in
the Eastern Mediterranean. Damascus aims to become an exporter and achieve a
“gas surplus that benefits citizens and strengthens the national economy.”
The Eastern Mediterranean is already a complex region for energy exploration and
production. For instance, in December, Israel agreed to a $35 billion mega-gas
export deal with Egypt. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with
the President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, and the prime minister of
Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in December 2025. Israel-Greece-Cyprus ties, which
also include potential energy agreements, are viewed by some as a challenge to
Turkey’s role in the region.
This means that Syria is entering an already well-trodden playing field. It
could lead to peaceful agreements, but it could also lead to competition.
Israel-Syria tensions, for instance, have persisted throughout the last year,
with Israel carrying out airstrikes on Syria and also military raids along the
border.
For the United States, the new developments in Syria are positive. Barrack is
not only the US envoy to Syria, but also the ambassador to Turkey, a critical
supporter of the new Syrian government. Therefore, there is a natural synergy in
Washington’s support for Damascus and America’s alliance with Turkey. At the
same time, US ties have been tested by clashes between Syria’s government forces
and those of the US-backed SDF in January. A January 30 agreement appears to
pave the way to integrate the SDF into a unified Syria. However, much work
remains. Bringing investment to eastern Syria through reconstruction and by
opening the border and trade will be important. Many areas controlled by the SDF
experienced economic isolation over the last decade due to the civil war and
desperately need investment and infrastructure support. Basic necessities, such
as water and electricity, are sometimes missing in cities like Kobane. Oil and
gas development could help improve conditions for people throughout Syria,
particularly in long-neglected areas.
The Palestinians' Other Big
Lie
Khaled Abu Toameh/ Gatestone Institute/February 12, 2026
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22267/palestinians-al-aqsa-lie
That such a large number of Muslims are able to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in
Jerusalem every week shows that Hamas's claim that the Jews are desecrating the
mosque and plotting to control it is another big lie produced by the terror
group and its supporters.It is worth noting that Jews do have a right to visit
the Temple Mount, primarily because it is also the holiest site in Judaism,
where the First and Second Temples once stood.
[T]he arrangement set up in 1967 allowed non-Muslims to visit the Temple Mount
but restricted praying there to Muslims.
Ten days after the Six Day War, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, out of
respect for Muslim concerns, forbade Jews to pray on the Temple Mount and
proclaimed the Kingdom of Jordan the protector of the holy site.
Non-Muslims, including Jews and Christians, regularly tour outdoors on the
grounds of the Temple Mount but, since 2000, have not been allowed to enter
inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock.
Palestinian officials and media outlets regularly and falsely portray the visits
as "violent incursions by extremist Jewish settlers." It is worth recalling that
to many Palestinians, all Jews in Israel are "settlers" and that, in their eyes,
all of Israel is just one big settlement.
It is abhorrent to see the Palestinians and many Muslims use a mosque --
especially falsely -- to justify terrorism and the murder of Jews. It is even
more abhorrent to see Hamas and other Palestinians proudly name their
dishonorable crimes after a mosque.
The long-familiar Palestinian campaign to destroy Israel continues to this day.
Palestinian officials continue to repeat all the same fraudulent accusations.
Unless this anti-Israel and anti-Jewish campaign stops, the next October 7-style
massacre by Palestinians -- presumably what they would like, distracting from
and derailing US President Donald J. Trump's attempts to rebuild Gaza without
Palestinian leadership -- is just around the corner.
"The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all
ours, and they [Jews] have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We
salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is
clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah. Every martyr will be placed in
Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah." — Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas has repeatedly justified its October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel by arguing
that it was seeking to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest shrine in
Islam, against attempts by Jews to take it over.
Hamas -- officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States,
Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan,
Israel, Paraguay, and the Organization of American States -- even named the
attack, during which more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were
murdered and thousands injured and tortured, after the mosque: "Operation Al-Aqsa
Flood."
In 2024, Hamas published a statement in which it claimed that the attack was
primarily the result of "the Israeli Judaization plans to the blessed al-Aqsa
Mosque, its temporal and spatial division attempts, as well as the
intensification of the Israeli settlers' incursions into the holy mosque."
More than two years after the October 7 massacre -- the worst crime committed
against Jews since the Holocaust -- the Al-Aqsa Mosque remains intact, as tens
of thousands of Muslims continue to visit it and pray there without being
harassed.
On October 31, 2025, the Hamas-affiliated media website Quds Press reported:
"Tens of thousands of [Muslim] worshippers performed Friday prayers at the
blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque."
On January 9, 2026, the Muslim Brotherhood's Ikhwan Online website reported:
"Tens of thousands of Palestinians performed Friday prayers at the blessed Al-Aqsa
Mosque and its courtyards."
Notably, Hamas describes itself as "one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood
in Palestine."That such a large number of Muslims are able to pray at the Al-Aqsa
Mosque in Jerusalem every week shows that Hamas's claim that the Jews are
desecrating the mosque and plotting to control it is another big lie produced by
the terror group and its supporters.
It is worth noting that Jews do have a right to visit the Temple Mount,
primarily because it is also the holiest site in Judaism, where the First and
Second Temples once stood.
After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel asserted control over the Old City of
Jerusalem, where the Temple Mount, together with the Al-Aqsa Mosque, are
located. More significantly, the arrangement set up in 1967 allowed non-Muslims
to visit the Temple Mount but restricted praying there to Muslims.
Ten days after the Six Day War, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, out of
respect for Muslim concerns, forbade Jews to pray on the Temple Mount and
proclaimed the Kingdom of Jordan the protector of the holy site.
Non-Muslims, including Jews and Christians, regularly tour outdoors on the
grounds of the Temple Mount but, since 2000, have not been allowed to enter
inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock.
In recent years, however, Hamas and other Palestinians have been waging a
campaign to protest visits by Jews to the Temple Mount. Palestinian officials
and media outlets regularly and falsely portray the visits as "violent
incursions by extremist Jewish settlers." It is worth recalling that to many
Palestinians, all Jews in Israel are "settlers" and that, in their eyes, all of
Israel is just one big settlement.
In 2015, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas began echoing the
propaganda advice of Adolf Hitler's great ally, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj
Amin al-Husseini, simply to claim that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was threatened,
denouncing the visits by Jews to the Temple Mount. Abbas said:
"The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all
ours, and they [Jews] have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We
salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is
clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah. Every martyr will be placed in
Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah."
October 7 was not the first time that Hamas and other Palestinians have used the
false claim about the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a pretext to attack Israel and murder
Jews.
In 2000, the Palestinians made similar charges against Israel. They baselessly
accused Israel of planning to desecrate the mosque and seize control of it.
These false allegations led to the eruption of the Second Intifada, also known
as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which lasted from September 2000 to February 2005.
Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians were killed during the violence, which
included a massive wave of suicide bombings in major Israeli cities, including
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. At the time, the Palestinians also sought to
justify the killings by falsely and maliciously claiming that they had to take
action to foil the Jews' alleged plots against the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It should be emphasized here that the Jews touring the Temple Mount compound,
like other non-Muslim tourists, do not set foot inside the mosque. This fact,
however, has not stopped Palestinian officials and media outlets from
regurgitating the lie that the Jews are "violently storming and defiling" the
mosque.
It is abhorrent to see the Palestinians and many Muslims use a mosque --
especially falsely -- to justify terrorism and the murder of Jews. It is even
more abhorrent to see Hamas and other Palestinians proudly name their
dishonorable crimes after a mosque.
"The fact that Hamas 'celebrated' this [October 7] massacre by glorifying and
associating it with Islam's third holiest Mosque, Al-Aqsa, and through
associating each of their gruesome acts of terror with the praise of God is
undoubtedly appalling in and of itself," remarked Alan Baker, Director of the
Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Security and
Foreign Affairs, who in 1993 helped negotiate and draft the Oslo Accords between
Israel and the Palestinians. Baker added:
"One might have expected that this shocking phenomenon would have generated
weighty introspection and discomfort among Muslims throughout the world, as well
as among the wider international community, regarding this juxtaposition of one
of the most reprehensible acts of terror known to humanity, together with one of
the most revered Muslim Holy Sites and the Muslim praise to God. Indeed, one may
well wonder how millions of Muslims worldwide are able to resignedly tolerate
and live with the regrettable association and identification of one of their
holiest religious sites with one of civilization's most cruel massacres? By any
accepted and universal logic and reason, holy sites revered as such by all
religions, and especially one of the most sacred and most central religious
sites revered by Muslim worldwide, should signify peace, brotherhood, and love
of humanity rather than wholesale murder, rape, and terror. One would hope that
the majority of modern Muslims would be thoroughly shocked and alarmed by it.
Regrettably, there appears to be no indication that any serious Muslim scholar,
organization, or state, or, for that matter, any self-respecting non-Muslim
state, international organization, or international leader, has thought it
appropriate to object to and disassociate themselves from the juxtaposition of
Islam, its holy sites, and the October 7 Hamas 'Al-Aqsa Flood' massacre."
By repeatedly invoking the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Palestinians aim to rally support
from Muslims in the hope of recruiting them to the Jihad (holy war) to destroy
Israel and replace it with an Islamist state.
The long-familiar Palestinian campaign to destroy Israel continues to this day.
Palestinian officials continue to repeat all the same fraudulent accusations.
Unless this anti-Israel and anti-Jewish campaign stops, the next October 7-style
massacre by Palestinians -- presumably what they would like, distracting from
and derailing US President Donald J. Trump's attempts to rebuild Gaza without
Palestinian leadership -- is just around the corner.
**Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
**Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)
© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.
Al Jazeera Centre for Studies: Academic Veneer Normalizing Terrorism
Toby Dershowitz/ InsightL-FDD/February
12/2026
Is Al Jazeera using its “academic” arm, the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies (AJCS),
to normalize Hamas’s atrocities, while hiding behind the veneer of a purportedly
rigorous research institution? From February 7 to 9, an AJCS-sponsored forum in
Doha, Qatar, gave pride of place to figures such as Hamas leader Khaled Meshal
under the banner of academic discourse. AJCS is one of at least a dozen parts of
the Al Jazeera Media Network’s ecosystem, funded and run by the Qatari ruling
family, and used as soft power tools to amplify anti-Western and pro-Islamist
narratives. Established to provide research support to Al Jazeera’s news
channels, AJCS also serves to integrate the network into academic spheres. Those
connections allow AJCS to enjoy a patina of academic credibility to launder and
legitimize the violent ideas espoused by figures like Meshal and Iran’s Foreign
Minister Abbas Araghchi.
When Meshal spoke in Doha, he justified Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in
Israel by calling it legitimate “resistance.” Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007.
The U.S. Justice Department announced terrorism and murder conspiracy charges
against Meshal for his central role in the October 7 atrocities in 2024.
Araghchi had a different agenda: deflecting attention away from the thousands of
Iranians slaughtered by his regime in recent weeks in the deadliest massacre
since the country’s 1979 revolution. Araghchi used his remarks to call
“Palestine … a test of whether international law has meaning, whether human
rights have universal value.” There was no pushback from the moderator about
this ironic call for justice. Past speakers at the conference include Hamas
officials Osama Hamdan and Basem Naim. Hamdan was placed on the Specially
Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) list by the U.S. Treasury after a Hamas
suicide attack in Jerusalem killed 23 people and injured 130 others in
2003.Hamdan facilitated training for a key planner of the 1996 Jaffa Road bus
suicide bombings that killed 45 commuters.
Naim’s Treasury designation noted that he “holds a leadership role on Hamas’s
Council on International Relations.”
The forum also gave voice to some of Al Jazeera’s co-opted correspondents,
including Gaza-based Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar. Besides
being a reporter for Al Jazeera, the Israeli Defense Forces, based on documents
found in Gaza, identified him as a company commander in the East Khan Younis
Battalion. Al Jazeera denies it. If true, this raises additional concerns about
its reporters serving as Hamas operatives while on Al Jazeera’s payroll. Not
surprisingly, the network denied the allegations. Abu Omar filmed himself with
Hamas operatives breaching Israeli kibbutzim on October 7. His published
accounts on Al Jazeera expressed joy at the atrocities unfolding against
Israelis, telling Al Jazeera that he “was filled with tears” and “experiencing
the scenes that we have always heard about, live and directly.”Abu Omar
amplified Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif’s words that “everyone who has a
gun should take it out, because today is the day.”Abu Omar is a former reporter
for Al-Aqsa TV, which is sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department as “a
television station financed and controlled by Hamas” that airs content “designed
to recruit children to become Hamas suicide bombers.” When AJCS chooses its
speakers, it signals what it values. AJCS is about more than sketchy forums, of
course. Its partnerships deserve scrutiny too. In May 2025, AJCS co-hosted a
conference with the obscure but influential Strategic Council on Foreign
Relations in Iran (SCFR). SCFR is the advisory board to the supreme leader of
Iran, helping to shape the Ayatollah’s policies around the world.
It should raise eyebrows that an ostensibly independent research arm of a media
entity partners with a murderous office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. By
partnering with the SCFR, AJCS signals solidarity with Iran’s oppressors, not
its victims.
Technically, Araghchi is a diplomat. But he gave the lie to that title at the
2024 Al Jazeera Forum when, as secretary general of SCFR, he cautioned Arab
nations against diplomacy with Israel and normalizing relations with the Jewish
state.
At the 2024 Forum, Araghchi also said nuclear weapons “have no place” in Iran’s
religious doctrine but proclaimed that Iran has the right to enrich uranium for
civilian purposes. In fact, the regime has stymied international monitoring of
its enrichment, sought to expand its nuclear program, and has no civilian use
for its production of 60 percent enriched uranium. But there was no refutation
or questioning of Araghchi’s statement when he appeared at the Al Jazeera Forum.
In 2025, AJCS co-organized a conference with Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa
University in order to “deconstruct Western narratives.” Reflecting Qatar’s
foreign policy, Al Jazeera’s organizers charged Western media with “justifying”
Israel’s right to self-defense in the face of Hamas’s atrocities. Moreover, they
attacked media outlets for “false reports” about Hamas terrorists raping Israeli
women, notwithstanding the evidence to the contrary.
Arafat Madi Shoukri, a senior researcher at AJCS, organized the conference.
Israel designated Shoukri as a Hamas operative for his work with the
Hamas-aligned Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR).
Shoukri has been photographed with Ismail Haniyeh, an architect of the October 7
massacre. He also directed the London-based Palestinian Return Centre (PRC),
which former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared an illegal
Hamas-affiliated organization that engages in terror-affiliated activities.
That conference featured as its keynote speaker Wadah Khanfar, a former director
general of Al Jazeera. According to the Palestinian outlet Raya Media Network,
Khanfar was “active in the Hamas movement” and a “leader in the movement’s
office in Sudan.”In May 2024, Khanfar praised Hamas’s October 7 terrorist
attack, proclaiming it “came at the ideal moment for a radical and real shift in
the path of struggle and liberation.”Mutaz al-Khatib, from Hamad Bin Khalifa
University’s College of Islamic Studies, spoke at the conference on
“professional ethics” in war coverage. On October 7, 2023, he posted on Facebook
that, “What happened was merely a rehearsal that shows that liberating Jerusalem
is possible.”Fatima Alsmadi, a researcher at the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies,
lectured that Israel has somehow “benefited” from Nazism in the aftermath of its
extermination of European Jewry. She praised Al Qassam Brigade spokesperson Abu
Obaida’s propaganda techniques that had “a specific goal to link Israel to the
Nazis,” were “not arbitrary,” “done in stages,” and “well thought out.”
Weaponizing Nazi imagery against Israel legitimizes Hamas terrorism and inverts
historical truth.
AJCS’s Journal for Communication and Media Studies adheres to the same editorial
approach as its conferences. A January 2026 journal article relies on quotes
from the International Association of Genocide Scholars, a discredited group
that requires no expertise to have voting rights, as evidenced by Emperor
Palpatine, the villain of the Star Wars franchise, and similar non-experts
joining as members. This is important because IAGS touted a resolution it
represented as“a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide
studies” that what is happening on the ground in Gaza is genocide. Al Jazeera
and AJCS have two personas. One is radical and platforms Hamas and Islamists
like the late Yusuf Qaradawi, the most influential cleric aligned with the
Muslim Brotherhood, whose show “Shariah and Life” was on the news channel for 17
years. The other is slick and partners with big tech to leverage modern
technology throughout the newsroom, in the field, and online that, in turn,
amplifies Islamists and Qatari foreign policy. AJCS operates under strict Qatari
media laws that prohibit criticism of the tiny Persian Gulf nation’s emir and
Doha’s policies. Freedom House has rated Qatar “Not Free” for 27 years. Al
Jazeera as a whole seeks to appeal to Western sensibilities by crafting a
public-facing image of an independent institution that it says “aims to present
a balanced understanding” of the Middle East and the Arab world. AJCS has not
lived up to any standard of scholarship. The glitz of Al Jazeera’s flashy
conference and global reach should not distract from the perils of treating the
Al Jazeera ecosystem like a neutral entity, untethered to a foreign
authoritarian state’s policies.
U.S. government agencies should investigate whether Al Jazeera or its center or
others on its behalf, have paid any expenses or provided material support
associated with Hamas officials’ participation in any of its programming. If
investigators discover such connections, appropriate sanctions, fines, or other
measures should be taken. Likewise, the U.S. Department of Education should
assess whether any American educational institutions have partnerships with AJCS.
Congress and the Justice Department should assess if the center’s actions should
be disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Department of
Justice has already determined that other parts of AJMN must register as Qatari
foreign agents. Until Doha stops using any part of the Al Jazeera Media Network
to whitewash terrorism, American institutions and companies need to reconsider
their relationship with all platforms in its vast ecosystem. Continued
collaboration from Western organizations only emboldens the next denials and
justifications for violence.
**Toby Dershowitz is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies. Eitan Fischberger is an independent OSINT investigator. Follow Toby
on X @tobydersh. Follow Eitan on X @EFischberger. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a
Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national
security and foreign policy.
X
Platform Selected twittes for 11/2026
Joseph Sopholaus
Christian presence in Syria will end in a few years. The new
regime, as the old one, will not tolerate "differences". The only hope for the
Christian ethnicities of Syria is to relocate them to Lebanon, at least there
they might have a chance to be safe from the ongoing genocide.
U.S. Congressman Ryan Mackenzie
@RepMackenzie
Appreciated the chance to ask Nadine Maenza, former Chair of the United States
Commission on International Religious Freedom, about ongoing threats to Syrian
Christians and other minorities. The message from Chairwoman Maenza and the
Lehigh Valley Syrian community is clear — Syrian Christians want equal
citizenship and protection under the law.