English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  June 20/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
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Bible Quotations For today
 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
Matthew 11/25-30/:"‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

Titles For Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 19-20 June/2026
These are enemies; they are neither brothers nor friends/Elias Bejjani/June 19/2026
Celebrating Fathers Day: A Biblical Perspective on Duty, Honor, and Sacrifice/Elias Bejjani/June 21/2026
Netanyahu the Leader, Trump the Businessman, and the Existential Struggle for the Future of Israel and Lebanon/Elias Bejjani/June 18/2026
Four Israeli Soldiers Fell in Southern Lebanon
47 killed in airstrikes as Israel and Hezbollah agree to ceasefire
Rubio voices support for Lebanon during call with Aoun
Lebanon’s Aoun tells Rubio ‘comprehensive ceasefire’ essential ahead of talks next week
Israel, Hezbollah agree to ceasefire in Lebanon, U.S. official says
Israeli minister says ‘all of Lebanon must burn’ after four soldiers killed
Netanyahu says Israel will make Hezbollah pay 'heavy price' for soldiers killed
Mediators focus on Lebanon as escalation drives Iran from talks
Aoun says Israeli escalation undermines ceasefire
France urges Israel to 'respect' US-Iran deal ceasefire
Iran tells Hezbollah US talks impossible without comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon
US tells Iran that Israel won't further escalate in Lebanon
Trump says can stop Israel in Lebanon: They respect me and do as I say
Hezbollah says will 'defend their land, people' against Israeli attacks
Iran FM says Israel wants 'permanent war' after 'Lebanon must burn' comment
US push to get Iran talks started hits an early bump due to intense fighting in Lebanon
Iran Signs the Termination of its Lebanese Proxy/Elie Aoun/June 19/2026

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 19-20 June/2026
Video Link/Free Press Middle East analyst Haviv Rettig Gur anylsis the USA-Iranian Agreement
Trump Says Iran Is ‘FINISHED’ After Cancelled Negotiations — As Israeli Attacks Threaten Deal
Confusion in Strait of Hormuz amid reports Iran has reclosed the waterway
Iran says it will waive fees for Hormuz during 60-day negotiation period
IRGC sets up secretive cells in Iraq to conduct drone attacks on Gulf: Reuters
Pakistan’s Sharif thanks MBS for Saudi Arabia’s commitment to peace in the region
In call with Pakistan PM, Saudi crown prince welcomes US-Iran deal
US says needs $80 billion for Iran war, other bills: media
For Vance, Iran talks could shape political rise
Iran peace deal must address human rights: UN experts
Iran’s chief negotiator says US talks bound by Tehran’s ‘red lines’
Syria reports new Israeli incursion into Quneitra village amid ongoing border tensions
Iraq to export crude, naphtha through Syria after Hormuz shock
Saudi envoy tells UN Security Council two-state solution only path to lasting Mideast peace
Gaza ceasefire ‘failing’ as hunger, rats and rubble define daily life, UN humanitarian chief warns
UN aid chief demands ‘dignity’ for Gaza Strip’s population
Cairo says FM to meet Pakistan, Saudi, Turkey counterparts in Egypt Sunday
Italy’s Meloni slams Trump, scraps FM trip to US for lie that she begged him for photo

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 19-20 June/2026
'There Is a Serious Problem in My Country' A Conversation with Joël Rubinfeld, Part II/Grégoire Canlorbe/Gatestone Institute/June 19, 2026
Is Cyrus turning Judas?As Trump ‘calls the shots’ over Iran, Israel is urged to trust in the Lord, not men./Charles Gardner/Israel Today/June 19, 2026
Question: Why are there so many different Christian interpretations?/GotQuestions.org/June 19/2026
What does the US-Iran agreement reveal about the true winners and losers of the war?/Jonathan Gornall/Arab News/June 19, 2026
Will Tehran rejoice and Netanyahu worry following US-Iran agreement?/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 19, 2026
How Iran, the US and the Gulf can build something that lasts/Hassan Al-Mustafa/Arab News/June 19, 2026
The key features of the region’s emerging security architecture/Ali Reza Enayati/Arab News/June 19, 2026
Selected Face Book & X tweets on 19 June/2026

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 19-20 June/2026
These are enemies; they are neither brothers nor friends
Elias Bejjani/June 19/2026
Egypt is against peace between Lebanon and Israel, and its ambassador is marketing to maintain Hezbollah's arsenal. The Turks, Pakistanis, Qataris, Saudis, and behind them the infidel Mullahs, are required to get off our backs, clear out of our skies, and mind the tragedies and miseries of their own peoples and the affairs of their own countries

Celebrating Fathers Day: A Biblical Perspective on Duty, Honor, and Sacrifice
Elias Bejjani/June 21/2026
Today, 21 June/2026 Canada celebrates The Fathers' Day. As we gather to celebrate the importat family event, we are reminded of the pivotal role fathers play in our lives. Fathers, both in their presence and sacrifices, mirror the divine fatherhood of God Himself. This day is not merely about showering our fathers with gifts and words of appreciation but also about reflecting on our duties and obligations towards them, as underscored by biblical teachings.
The Bible provides profound insights into the importance of honoring our fathers. Ephesians 6:2-3 commands, "Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise—"so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." This directive is clear: honoring our fathers is not just a noble act but a divine injunction that brings blessings.
Furthermore, Proverbs 23:22 instructs us, "Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old." These verses highlight that respect and obedience to our fathers are lifelong duties. They underscore the need to appreciate the wisdom and experience that our fathers impart, recognizing their efforts and sacrifices in nurturing us.
Fathers, in many ways, emulate God the Father, who is described in Psalm 103:13: "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him." Just as God’s compassion and care are boundless, so too are the efforts of our earthly fathers. They toil and labor, often in silence, to provide for us, ensuring our well-being and success.
In honoring our fathers, we acknowledge the countless sacrifices they have made. From working long hours to provide for the family to making tough decisions for our betterment, fathers constantly put their children's needs before their own. This dedication is aptly captured in the Lebanese saying, "No one is dear to my heart more than my son, but the son of my son." It speaks to the enduring love and legacy that fathers build, emphasizing the generational impact of their devotion.
However, it is disheartening to see that not all children recognize or reciprocate this dedication. Some neglect their fathers, disregarding their wisdom and contributions. To such individuals, the biblical admonition in Proverbs 30:17 serves as a stern reminder: "The eye that mocks a father and scorns a mother will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures." This vivid imagery warns of the severe consequences of disrespect and neglect towards one’s parents.
As we celebrate Fathers' Day, let us remember that honoring our fathers is not limited to a single day of festivities. It is an ongoing commitment to show respect, provide care, and express gratitude for all they do. Let us strive to embody the principles of the Bible, ensuring that our fathers feel valued and appreciated every day of their lives.
In conclusion, Fathers' Day is a powerful reminder of the immense love and sacrifices our fathers have made for us. By honoring them, we not only fulfill our biblical duties but also strengthen the bonds of family and faith. Let us cherish our fathers, acknowledging their vital role in our lives and upholding the respect and honor they rightfully deserve.

Netanyahu the Leader, Trump the Businessman, and the Existential Struggle for the Future of Israel and Lebanon
Elias Bejjani/June 18/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/06/155371/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVkR_3bMZsI
There are moments in history when leaders are judged not by the deals they negotiate, the headlines they generate, or the popularity they enjoy, but by their willingness to confront existential threats and defend their nations against overwhelming odds. Such moments separate statesmen from politicians and patriots from opportunists.
This is why history is likely to remember Benjamin Netanyahu far more favorably than many of his critics imagine today.
Whether one agrees with all his policies or not, Netanyahu has dedicated his political life to a singular mission: ensuring the survival and security of the Jewish state in one of the most hostile and volatile regions on earth. He has led Israel while facing threats that most Western leaders can scarcely comprehend—threats not merely to borders or interests, but to the very existence of his nation.
For decades, Israel has lived under the shadow of organizations and regimes openly committed to its destruction. Iran's rulers have repeatedly called for the elimination of the Jewish state. Hezbollah has built an enormous missile arsenal on Israel's northern border. Hamas transformed Gaza into a launching pad for terrorism. Radical Islamist movements, both Sunni and Shiite, continue to view Israel's existence as unacceptable.
Unlike most Western leaders, Netanyahu has never had the luxury of treating these threats as theoretical. They are real, immediate, and deadly.
Donald Trump, by contrast, has approached international affairs primarily as a businessman and dealmaker. His instinct is to negotiate, compromise, and pursue agreements that can be presented as victories. Such an approach may work in business. It may even work in certain diplomatic disputes. But the Middle East is not a corporate boardroom.
The region's conflicts are shaped by history, ideology, religion, and deeply rooted strategic ambitions. The forces confronting Israel are not simply seeking better terms at the negotiating table. Many are motivated by ideological visions that leave little room for compromise.
Trump's greatest weakness in dealing with the Middle East has been his tendency to view every challenge through the lens of personal diplomacy and transactional politics. His admiration for dramatic agreements often blinds him to the long-term realities faced by America's allies. In the case of Israel, this misunderstanding becomes particularly dangerous.
A leader who sleeps safely thousands of miles away from hostile borders cannot fully appreciate what it means to govern a nation whose enemies openly discuss its destruction. Netanyahu does not enjoy that luxury. Every major decision he makes is measured against one fundamental question: Will Israel survive and remain secure?
That burden has shaped his leadership and explains why he has devoted so much effort to confronting Iran and its regional network of proxies.
Among those proxies, Hezbollah stands as perhaps the most dangerous.
Contrary to the mythology promoted by its supporters, Hezbollah has never been a genuinely Lebanese national resistance movement. From its inception, it was created, financed, armed, trained, and directed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its leaders have repeatedly proclaimed their allegiance to the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih and their loyalty to Iran's Supreme Leader. They have openly presented themselves as part of a transnational revolutionary project whose command center lies in Tehran rather than Beirut.
Hezbollah's weapons were not accumulated to strengthen Lebanese sovereignty. Its military infrastructure was built to advance Iran's strategic interests throughout the region. Its wars have repeatedly devastated Lebanon while expanding Tehran's influence. Its political power has weakened Lebanese institutions, obstructed the emergence of a strong sovereign state, and reduced Lebanon's ability to act independently in matters of war and peace.
Today, Hezbollah possesses military capabilities that exceed those of the Lebanese state itself. It maintains an independent armed force, controls strategic national decisions, and exercises enormous influence over Lebanon's political life. No country can claim full sovereignty while an armed organization loyal to a foreign power operates above the authority of the state.
This reality has created an extraordinary convergence of interests between Israel and millions of Lebanese citizens.
Both have suffered from Hezbollah's dominance.
Both have paid the price for Iran's regional ambitions.
Both seek a future in which Lebanon is governed by its constitutional institutions rather than by an armed organization serving foreign interests.
For decades, many Lebanese have dreamed of restoring their country's sovereignty, rebuilding its economy, reviving its democratic institutions, and ending the cycle of wars imposed upon it by forces beyond its control. Those aspirations are not incompatible with Israel's security interests. In many respects, they are complementary.
Yet too many policymakers in Washington and European capitals continue to misunderstand this reality. They speak of stability while tolerating the existence of a heavily armed Iranian proxy controlling much of Lebanon's national life. They urge restraint upon Israel while ignoring the source of the instability itself.
The struggle against Hezbollah is not merely another regional dispute. It is part of a broader contest between sovereignty and foreign domination, between legitimate state authority and militia rule, between national independence and ideological imperialism.
Policies that restrict Israel's ability to defend itself while allowing Hezbollah to remain entrenched and heavily armed ultimately prolong the problem rather than solve it.
History will judge Netanyahu not by temporary political controversies or fashionable diplomatic narratives, but by whether he succeeded in protecting Israel against forces openly committed to its destruction. Future generations may remember him as a strategist, a patriot, and one of the most consequential defenders of the Jewish state in modern history.
Trump will undoubtedly be remembered as an American president and a remarkable political phenomenon. Yet history may also ask whether he fully understood the existential nature of the threats facing Israel and the wider Middle East, and whether his preference for agreements and grand bargains sometimes obscured realities that cannot be negotiated away.
Conclusion
The ultimate irony of the Middle East today is that Israel and the majority of the Lebanese people increasingly share the same strategic objective: ending Hezbollah's domination of Lebanon and freeing the country from Iran's grip. While diplomats continue to repeat outdated slogans about "resistance," the reality is that Hezbollah's own leaders have repeatedly declared their allegiance to Iran's Supreme Leader and to the doctrine of Wilayat al-Faqih. They have never hidden their identity as participants in a broader Iranian revolutionary project.
Lebanon today is not fully sovereign. Its most important national decisions—war, peace, foreign policy, and security—remain heavily influenced by an armed organization that operates outside the authority of the Lebanese state. No nation can be truly independent while a foreign-backed militia possesses greater military power than its own government.
The world must finally recognize that the struggle against Hezbollah is not merely Israel's fight. It is also the struggle of millions of Lebanese who want to reclaim their country, restore state authority, rebuild their economy, and live free from the consequences of Iran's regional ambitions. The interests of those Lebanese and the interests of Israel converge on one essential point: Hezbollah's military dominance must end.
This is why attempts to restrict Israel's ability to confront Hezbollah are strategically misguided. Lasting peace cannot be built upon the continued existence of an armed Iranian proxy that holds an entire nation hostage. A free Lebanon, a secure Israel, and a more stable Middle East all require the same outcome: the restoration of full sovereignty to the Lebanese state and the end of Hezbollah's military supremacy.
History will remember Benjamin Netanyahu as a leader who understood that reality and acted upon it. Whether the international community chooses to acknowledge it today or not, the road to a sovereign Lebanon, a secure Israel, and a more peaceful Middle East begins with confronting the forces that have prevented all three for decades.

Four Israeli Soldiers Fell in Southern Lebanon
Israel Today Staff/June 19, 2026
Four Israeli soldiers were killed in a combat operation in southern Lebanon. The report was released for publication by the IDF on Friday morning. In the incident, three additional soldiers were killed, whose names have not yet been released for publication. Details about the incident are still under investigation.
Among the fallen is the Commander of the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Brigade, Lieutenant-Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon. The 32-year-old from Beit HaShita fell in combat in southern Lebanon, where he led his soldiers in the currently ongoing operations against the terrorist organization Hezbollah on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Ben Simhon rose through the ranks of the Armored Corps in the 401st Brigade and carried out most of his major command roles there throughout his service. He commanded soldiers and officers in operational positions and stood out for his professionalism and leadership. Subsequently, he served as Chief of Staff of the Northern Command during Operation “Northern Arrows” until the Residents returned, and completed this role in August. He then attended the Command and Staff Course, and in April returned to field command when he was appointed Commander of Battalion 52.
Ben Simhon was married and a father of two daughters. He came from a family closely connected to the military: He himself as well as four of his brothers served in the 401st Armored Brigade, while another brother served his duty in the Golani Brigade. His wife also stands in the ranks of the Israeli Armed Forces and serves as an officer in the Combat Collection of Military Intelligence as well as in Border Defense.

47 killed in airstrikes as Israel and Hezbollah agree to ceasefire
Arab News/June 19, 2026
JERUSALEM/DUBAI: Israeli airstrikes and bombardments killed at least 47 people and wounded 97 others in Lebanon since midnight Friday, according to the latest updated toll from the Lebanese health ministry. The dead included at least seven women and two children and the figures were released as a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was due to start. Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire beginning at 4 p.m. local time on Friday, a US official said, after an escalation in hostilities in Lebanon sorely tested the US-Iranian interim deal to end the wider Middle East conflict. A senior Israeli ​official and two Hezbollah sources confirmed the ceasefire to Reuters. “If Hezbollah does not attack us, then for us it is not a time of war,” the Israeli official said. Israeli forces would remain in southern Lebanon, the official added. But nearly an hour after the truce was meant to take effect, a Reuters journalist in northern Israel said Israeli strikes could still be seen taking place across the border in Lebanon. A plume of smoke rose from behind a Lebanese village near the frontier. Israel reported four of its soldiers killed in south Lebanon in one of the deadliest Hezbollah attacks of the ‌war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would make Hezbollah pay 'heavy price' for the killing of the soldiers. The Iran deal ‌requires the US, Iran, and their allies to declare an immediate and ​permanent ‌termination ⁠of military operations ​on ⁠all fronts, including Lebanon. Violence has picked up over the course of the week after initially abating when the agreement was first announced. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah earlier told Reuters that Iran had informed the group that talks with Washington could not continue without a comprehensive ceasefire. The senior US official told Reuters that the ceasefire was worked out by negotiators for the US and Qataris with help from Iran. “Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,” the US official said. “We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire.”Israel, which was not consulted in the negotiations that ⁠led to this week’s US memorandum of understanding with Iran, has bristled at the apparent ‌requirement that it halt its campaign in Lebanon, which it invaded after ‌Hezbollah fired across the border in solidarity with Tehran on March 2. The ​Israeli official said Israel had the freedom to ‌act against emerging threats and threats to its forces and territory. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to “extract a ‌very heavy price” from Hezbollah for the killing of the four soldiers. Israeli officials have voiced anger at the US-Iran pact, saying it does not go far enough to address Israeli concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.
AOUN CONDEMNATION
President Joseph Aoun on Friday condemned the ongoing Israeli escalation of attacks in Lebanon, but said the military attacks would not deter effort to reach a comprehensive ceasefire as quickly as possible. “What we are witnessing today in the South and the Bekaa Valley in terms of the expansion of Israeli attacks and more killing and destruction constitutes a dangerous and condemned escalation, especially since it has affected dozens of innocents, including women and children, and practically targets all ongoing efforts to consolidate the ceasefire and end the war, particularly after the recent developments that occurred between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Lebanese presidency posted on social media. “However, this will not deter efforts to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire as quickly as possible, and this is what I instructed the Lebanese negotiating delegation to pursue in the next round in Washington.”Aoun added: “There can be no leniency on this matter, because a comprehensive ceasefire is the gateway to addressing other issues, the most important of which are the Israeli withdrawal, the deployment of the army, and the return of the prisoners.”
DEADLY AIRSTRIKES
Israel said it carried out strikes targeting Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure across several areas in response to repeated Hezbollah ceasefire violations. Hezbollah denied it had violated the ceasefire, and accused Israel of repeatedly ‌violating truce terms, including the terms of the US-Iran agreement. A statement from the group accused Israeli forces of carrying out attacks that killed civilians, destroying homes and ⁠infrastructure, and continuing its ⁠ground incursions.
FIGHTING FOR HIGH GROUND
Heavy fighting overnight was concentrated in an area north of the Litani River known as Ali Al-Taher hill — high ground strategically important to Hezbollah where Israeli forces had sought to advance, a senior Lebanese security source said. Hezbollah said its fighters ambushed an Israeli force advancing near the hill, destroying three Merkava tanks with guided missiles and targeting troops with rocket and artillery fire. Hezbollah said it later attacked Israeli forces that had sought to enter the area to retrieve casualties. Israel has seized a self-declared security zone in the south, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attack. Its forces have been razing villages in the south where they say Hezbollah has embedded itself. Hezbollah has continued to launch attacks on Israeli positions in the south this week, including with explosive drones that have killed and injured troops.
Lebanon’s health ministry has recorded 3,912 people killed in Lebanon as a result of Israeli attacks since ​March 2, including 746 medics, women and children. Israel’s death ​toll from this round of hostilities with Hezbollah includes at least 32 soldiers and four Israeli civilians.
* With Reuters and AFP

Rubio voices support for Lebanon during call with Aoun
Al Arabiya English/19 June ,2026
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday, reaffirming Washington’s support for Lebanon’s efforts to extend state authority across all its territory, according to a readout of the call. Rubio also expressed support for Lebanon’s legitimate institutions, “including security and military ones, foremost among them the Lebanese Armed Forces,” Aoun’s office said. For his part, Aoun stressed the need for Israeli attacks to stop and said a “comprehensive ceasefire” was a key pillar for the US-led Lebanese-Israeli talks scheduled for next week. Washington is set to host the fifth round of direct political talks at the State Department next week, while the Pentagon is expected to lead the second round of military negotiations between the two neighboring countries. Rubio said that Beirut’s bilateral talks with Israel were the “only feasible path” to reconstruction, economic recovery, and ending recurrent cycles of violence, according to the readout provided by the State Department. State Department Spokesman Tommy Piggot said Rubio commended Aoun’s courage in pursuing a historic opportunity for Lebanese sovereignty and recovery. “The Secretary reaffirmed the United States’ full support for the Government of Lebanon’s efforts to create a fully sovereign Lebanese state that is at peace with all its neighbors,” Pigott said. “Secretary Rubio reiterated the need to disarm Hezbollah and to re-establish control over all Lebanese territory. They also discussed the need to coordinate with regional allies to advance these aims,” Pigott added.

Lebanon’s Aoun tells Rubio ‘comprehensive ceasefire’ essential ahead of talks next week
AFP/June 19, 2026
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a call Friday that a comprehensive ceasefire must be secured in order for talks with Israel to progress. The State Department, meanwhile, announced the resumption of negotiations in Washington from June 23 to 25. These discussions will provide an opportunity to “make progress toward a lasting peace,” department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement. Rubio reaffirmed Washington’s support for Lebanon’s efforts to extend state authority across all its territory, according to a readout of the call. Rubio also expressed support for Lebanon’s legitimate institutions, “including security and military ones, foremost among them the Lebanese Armed Forces,” Aoun’s office said. The Lebanese presidency said Aoun thanked Rubio for US support but stressed “the need for Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory to cease through the achievement of a comprehensive ceasefire, which Lebanon considers a fundamental basis for advancing the Lebanese-US-Israeli negotiations scheduled to take place in Washington next week.”Rubio, according to the statement, insisted on the importance of Lebanon carrying through on its efforts to disarm the Hezbollah armed group, which is fighting Israel in the south of the country. “They discussed the next round of negotiations, scheduled for June 23 to 25 in Washington, where the two sovereign governments will make progress toward a lasting peace,” Pigott said. “Secretary Rubio reiterated the need to disarm Hezbollah and to re-establish control over all Lebanese territory,” he said. Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, insisted in a social media post that Israel was committed to an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, but only “if Hezbollah honors the agreement and ceases its hostilities.”

Israel, Hezbollah agree to ceasefire in Lebanon, U.S. official says
Laila Bassam, Pesha Magid and Steve Holland/Reuters/June 19/2026
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire on Friday, a U.S. official said, after an escalation in hostilities in Lebanon sorely tested the U.S.-Iranian interim deal to end the wider Middle East conflict.A senior Israeli official and two Hezbollah ‌sources confirmed the ceasefire to Reuters, which the U.S. official said was due to begin at 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) "If Hezbollah does not attack us, then for ‌us it is not a time of war," the Israeli official said. Israeli forces would remain in southern Lebanon, the official added. Two Lebanese security sources said Israel carried out a dozen airstrikes in the first hour after ​the ceasefire came into effect, but none were recorded after 5 p.m.. An Israeli military official confirmed that there had been no strikes since 5 p.m. but denied that Israel had carried out a dozen strikes after 4 p.m. A Reuters journalist in northern Israel saw airstrikes ongoing inside Lebanon at around 4:50 p.m. Israeli airstrikes had killed at least 47 people in Lebanon since midnight, the Lebanese health ministry reported. Israel reported four of its soldiers killed in south Lebanon in one of the deadliest Hezbollah attacks of the war. The Iran deal requires the United States, Iran, and ‌their allies to declare an immediate and permanent termination of ⁠military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon. Violence has picked up over the course of the week after initially abating when the agreement was first announced. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah earlier told Reuters that Iran had informed the group that talks with Washington could not continue without a comprehensive ⁠ceasefire. The senior U.S. official told Reuters that the ceasefire was worked out by negotiators for the U.S. and Qataris with help from Iran. "Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire," the U.S. official said. "We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire."Israel, which was not consulted in the negotiations that led to this week's U.S. memorandum of understanding ​with ​Iran, has bristled at the apparent requirement that it halt its campaign in Lebanon, which it invaded ​after Hezbollah fired across the border in solidarity with Tehran on March ‌2.The Israeli official said Israel had the freedom to act against emerging threats and threats to its forces and territory. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to "extract a very heavy price" from Hezbollah for the killing of the four soldiers. Israeli officials have voiced anger at the U.S.-Iran pact, saying it does not go far enough to address Israeli concerns over Iran's nuclear programme.
DEADLY AIRSTRIKES
Israel said it carried out strikes targeting Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure across several areas in response to repeated Hezbollah ceasefire violations.
Hezbollah denied it had violated the ceasefire, and accused Israel of repeatedly violating truce terms, including the terms of the U.S.-Iran agreement. A statement from the group accused Israeli forces of carrying out attacks that killed civilians, destroying ‌homes and infrastructure, and continuing its ground incursions. Heavy fighting overnight was concentrated in an area north of the ​Litani River known as Ali al-Taher hill - high ground strategically important to Hezbollah where Israeli forces had sought ​to advance, a senior Lebanese security source said. Hezbollah said its fighters ambushed an ​Israeli force advancing near the hill, destroying three Merkava tanks with guided missiles and targeting troops with rocket and artillery fire. Hezbollah said it ‌later attacked Israeli forces that had sought to enter the area to ​retrieve casualties. Israel has seized a self-declared security zone ​in the south, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attack. Its forces have been razing villages in the south where they say Hezbollah has embedded itself. Hezbollah has continued to launch attacks on Israeli positions in the south this week, including with explosive drones that have killed and injured troops. Lebanon's health ministry has ​recorded 3,912 people killed in Lebanon as a result of Israeli ‌attacks since March 2, including 746 medics, women and children. Israel's death toll from this round of hostilities with Hezbollah includes at least 32 soldiers and ​four Israeli civilians.

Israeli minister says ‘all of Lebanon must burn’ after four soldiers killed
AFP/June 19, 2026
JERUSALEM: Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Friday that “all of Lebanon must burn” after Israel’s military announced the deaths of four soldiers there. “With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not up for bargaining. All of Lebanon must burn,” Ben Gvir said in a statement. “Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or on our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday. Ben Gvir’s comments drew a sharp rebuke from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said Israel’s only interest is a ‘permanent war.’“This is not a rant by a random genocidal lunatic. It's a public post by the national security minister of the Israeli regime. The genocidal death cult headquartered in Tel Aviv is a threat to all of humanity. It threatens all humans. Its only interest is permanent war,” Araghchi posted on social media. Israel’s military said Friday it was striking Hezbollah targets in parts of southern Lebanon, despite a peace deal in the Middle East war that includes Lebanon. “During the night, the army struck and continues to strike Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure in several areas in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement. “These strikes come after repeated violations of the ceasefire by the terrorist organization Hezbollah,” it added.Earlier on Friday Hezbollah its fighters destroyed three Israeli tanks and that clashes were ongoing, a day after Lebanese state media reported that Israeli strikes in the south had killed 16 people. The fighting comes despite the United States and Iran signing an agreement to end the Middle East war on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, said its fighters had targeted “three Merkava tanks with guided missiles, which led to their destruction.”The group said Israeli forces “consisting of an armored platoon and an infantry platoon (tried) to infiltrate toward the side of the Ali Al-Taher hills” — a strategic site overlooking the key town of Nabatieh. “The clashes are still ongoing,” Hezbollah said in the statement released in the early hours of Friday. Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in early March by attacking Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the US-Israeli military campaign.Israel retaliated with broad strikes across Lebanon and by launching a ground invasion in the south, which borders Israel and has long been under Hezbollah’s sway. The hostilities have continued despite the US-Iran agreement. On Thursday, Hezbollah said it had been fighting Israeli forces attempting to advance from the town of Arnoun toward the outskirts of Kfar Tibnit, near Nabatieh. Lebanon’s official National News Agency also reported a drone strike targeting a car in the Kfar Tibnit area, killing two people. In the neighboring village of Zebdine, another drone killed one more person, the agency said. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said that peacekeepers in Lebanon had also reported exchanges of fire on Thursday.

Netanyahu says Israel will make Hezbollah pay 'heavy price' for soldiers killed
Associated Press/19 June ,2026
The Israeli military said strikes were ongoing on Friday after four of its soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, were killed in an attack on a tank in a village near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh. An explosive drone attack wounded another five, it added. Israel then launched multiple strikes against "Hezbollah infrastructure sites" in Nabatiyeh and other areas, according to a military statement, which accused the militant group of "blatant ceasefire violations."Later, the military said it also struck targets in the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, with Lebanese media saying the village of Douris was hit. "Israel will not tolerate attacks on our soldiers or on our territory, and it will exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah for these attacks," Netanyahu said in a statement Friday.Hezbollah acknowledged targeting Israeli tanks and said its attacks were in response to what it called Israel’s own violation of the ceasefire. It said the attacks came after Israeli forces attempted to reach the northern side of Ali al-Taher hilltop, a strategic point that overlooks Nabatiyeh and that Israeli troops have been trying to capture. The fighting threatens to unravel the newly signed deal. Beyond ending the hostilities in Lebanon, the agreement calls for ensuring Lebanon’s "territorial integrity and sovereignty."It does not say whether that means Israel would withdraw from the large swaths of southern Lebanon it has occupied since Hezbollah joined the war in its early days by firing rockets and drones at northern Israel. Iran has insisted Israel pull back, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that forces would remain in a "security zone" of southern Lebanon as long as "Israel’s security needs require it."Israeli troops will stay in Lebanon "as long as necessary", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, vowing to make Iran-backed Hezbollah pay a "heavy price" for its attacks. "Israel will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon for as long as necessary for the protection of the communities of the north."Defense Minister Israel Katz had also said the military would stay in Lebanon, adding it would respond "with considerable force" to any attack. Israel’s actions in Lebanon have created a rift between Israel and the U.S., with Trump becoming increasingly critical of his close ally Netanyahu. The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, came to Israel’s defense on Friday, however, noting the deaths of the soldiers in a post on X. "Israel strikes when struck," he wrote. "Ceasefire happens when Hezbollah stops shooting & killing."

Mediators focus on Lebanon as escalation drives Iran from talks
Associated Press/19 June ,2026
Israel's military said Friday its forces struck targets throughout southern and eastern Lebanon overnight into Friday as Hezbollah reported intense fighting in the area, threatening the nascent agreement between Iran and the United States to end their war. Talks planned for Friday in Switzerland between Iran and the United States, which Vice President JD Vance had been scheduled to attend, found themselves postponed as the fighting intensified. Mediators worked to reschedule the meetings crucial for starting talks over a permanent end to the Iran war, with much of the attention focused on Lebanon, regional officials said. Meanwhile, the death toll in Lebanon rose sharply. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported at least 18 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, which the Israeli military said were ongoing. Israel, meantime, said four of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, including a lieutenant colonel. An explosive drone attack hurt another five, it added. The Israeli military also struck targets in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley on Friday. Continued fighting in Lebanon could unravel the newly signed deal, which calls for an immediate halt to military operations "on all fronts, including in Lebanon," and for ensuring Lebanon's "territorial integrity and sovereignty."The deal aims to end the war and has reopened the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, while bringing the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran's stranglehold on the strait had all but stopped the flow of oil through the key waterway. U.S. President Donald Trump said he signed the agreement to avoid "economic catastrophe" in the U.S., after the war caused oil prices to skyrocket, made financial markets skittish and fueled inflation. After the signing of the agreement, more than 12.5 million barrels of oil were shipped through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday night, the U.S. said.
US and Israel at odds over conflict in Lebanon
Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the agreement. Iran insists Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern Lebanon it is occupying, but the wording of the interim deal doesn't explicitly require that.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, has refused to withdraw. He said Thursday that Israeli forces will remain in a "security zone" of southern Lebanon as long as "Israel's security needs require it."Trump, meantime, has been openly critical of Netanyahu's recent moves, saying the day before the agreement with Iran was signed that "without the U.S. there would be no Israel." "Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did — I have had a great relationship with Bibi," Trump said, using a nickname for Netanyahu. "Now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon."
The renewed Israeli attacks in Lebanon came as planned talks in Switzerland between Iran and the United States over their efforts to reach a permanent end to the Iran war were delayed.
Vance delays trip to Switzerland as talks postponed
U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday put off his trip to Switzerland where he had been set to lead the talks. The White House blamed logistical issues. Two regional officials, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, said mediators were focused on calming the fighting in Lebanon. One said Iran pulled out of the Switzerland meeting specifically over the fighting and Netanyahu's comments, describing them as violating the interim deal between Iran and the U.S. Two other regional officials, similarly speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, described Pakistan as being "stunned" by Iran's decision not to go to the talks Friday. Those discussions in Switzerland were to shift the conversation toward sanctions relief, maritime security, nuclear-related measures, verification, sequencing and regional assurances, one of the officials said. Those are key to ensuring a final deal between Iran and the U.S. be reached.
Following the signing of the interim deal, the U.S. said it had lifted its blockade, allowing oil tankers to begin freely moving through the Strait of Hormuz after months of being unable to use the critical channel. Still, the tentative agreement has drawn sharp criticism from some in the U.S. — including a few congressional Republicans — who worry Washington ceded too much to Iran with relief from sanctions and a potential $300 billion fund to help with rebuilding. In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei seemed to endorse direct negotiations, saying in a statement on state media that "it is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy's opinion." It was Khamenei's first reaction to the agreement, and it was interpreted as a shift in Iran's approach. Hard-liners, especially Khamenei's father, the previous supreme leader, have long opposed direct talks, especially after the U.S. pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The supreme leader has not been seen in public since he was wounded in a strike at the start of the war.
US defends deal with Iran
Vance, who was initially personally skeptical of the U.S. going to war with Iran, has increasingly become the administration's face of the conflict and has been outspoken in defending the deal. On Thursday, he took the relatively unusual step of appearing at the White House to defend the initial deal to extend the ceasefire 60 days and allow for more negotiating — arguing that while it offers concessions, Iran first has to comply with U.S. demands. Vance also offered a blunt warning to Israel, saying Trump was "the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time."

Aoun says Israeli escalation undermines ceasefire
Agence France Presse/19 June ,2026
President Joseph Aoun on Friday condemned the latest Israeli strikes on eastern and southern Lebanon, saying the "killing and destruction constitutes a dangerous escalation". "It effectively targets all ongoing efforts to consolidate the ceasefire and end the war," a statement from the presidency said, after Israeli attacks in the south and east killed at least 18 people.

France urges Israel to 'respect' US-Iran deal ceasefire
Agence France Presse/19 June ,2026
France on Friday urged Israel to "respect" a deal signed between the United States and Iran to end the Middle East war, the French foreign minister said after overnight Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. "This agreement provides for a cessation of hostilities, the Israeli government must respect it, and the United States in particular must exert all the necessary pressure on the Israeli government to ensure that this is the case," Jean-Noel Barrot said on FranceInfo radio.

Iran tells Hezbollah US talks impossible without comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon
Associated Press/19 June ,2026
Iran has informed Hezbollah that it will not continue the negotiations with the US without a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said. Israel’s military struck targets throughout southern Lebanon overnight into Friday and Hezbollah reported intense fighting in the area, threatening the nascent agreement between Iran and the United States to end their war. Lebanese media reported at least 18 people killed in the strikes, and Israel said four soldiers died, vowing to make Hezbollah pay a heavy price. Pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen said that Iran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the agreement. Iran insists Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern Lebanon it is occupying, but the wording of the interim deal doesn’t explicitly require that and only ensures Lebanon’s "territorial integrity."

US tells Iran that Israel won't further escalate in Lebanon
Naharnet/19 June ,2026
The U.S. has "relayed" to Iran that Israel will not further escalate its attacks in Lebanon as the Trump administration seeks to get high-stakes nuclear talks with Iran back on track, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Asked whether the U.S. would provide those guarantees, the source said: "Hezbollah violated the ceasefire. Israel has agreed to let it be, which was relayed to the Iranians, and it's up to Hezbollah to stop."Israel carried out a wave of deadly strikes across Lebanon Friday in response to a Hezbollah attack that killed four soldiers in southern Lebanon -- despite the U.S.-Iran agreement declaring an end to the conflict on all fronts. Iran, meanwhile, has asked for guarantees that hostilities in Lebanon will end before planned talks in Switzerland with Vice President JD Vance and other top officials can take place. Vance’s planned Thursday departure was postponed.
It’s not clear how the Trump administration relayed the information to the Iranians or whether it will be enough to reschedule the planned technical discussions.

Trump says can stop Israel in Lebanon: They respect me and do as I say
Naharnet/19 June ,2026
U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he can restrain Israel from attacking Lebanon. "They have a lot of respect for me, and they do as I say," he told an interviewer on a televised show. Trump added that if it weren't for him, "Israel would have been eviscerated," noting his relationship with Netanyahu is "good" but adding, "we have to keep him a little bit sane."

Hezbollah says will 'defend their land, people' against Israeli attacks
Agence France Presse/19 June ,2026
Hezbollah vowed to defend Lebanon's territory and people against Israeli attacks on Friday, accusing its foe of violating a ceasefire as fighting flared. "The Islamic Resistance will remain vigilant against any aggression. Its fighters will defend their land and people," the Iran-backed group said in a statement, refuting Israeli accusations that it had violated the truce, and instead insisting "the enemy has never complied with any ceasefire agreement".

Iran FM says Israel wants 'permanent war' after 'Lebanon must burn' comment
Agence France Presse/19 June ,2026
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israel on Friday of wanting "permanent war" following remarks from its far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir saying "all Lebanon must burn" after four Israeli soldiers were killed there. "This is not a rant by a random genocidal lunatic. It's a public post by the national security minister of the Israeli regime. The genocidal death cult headquartered in Tel Aviv is a threat to all of humanity. It threatens all humans. Its only interest is permanent war," Araghchi said on X.

US push to get Iran talks started hits an early bump due to intense fighting in Lebanon
Associated Press/19 June ,2026
The American push to quickly begin high-stakes talks with Iran hit a snag Friday, just days after the signing of an agreement that opens a two-month window for negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program and returning oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to prewar levels. Iranian officials did not travel as planned to Switzerland, insisting that Israel strikes on Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants Lebanon must stop before the talks can take place, according to three regional officials and a person familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing mediation to try to get the talks rescheduled and spoke on condition of anonymity. The situation was fluid as Israel and Lebanon agreed on Friday to renew their ceasefire, according to a U.S. official and regional officials. It remains to be seen whether that could help put the U.S.-Iran talks back on track.
In Washington, President Donald Trump lashed out once again in the midst of the intensified fighting in Lebanon and the stalled nuclear talks. "We didn't meet out of desperation, Iran did," Trump wrote in a social media post Friday. "They are FINISHED! We'll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!"Trump's vice president, JD Vance, had been prepared to make an overnight flight to meet with his Iranian counterparts at a mountainside resort in the tiny Swiss village of Obbürgen and begin the technical talks. Vance's staff and a small group of journalists had gathered at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in anticipation of the trip. Dozens of White House officials, advance staffers and more media were already in Switzerland. Then the trip was called off — abruptly and for the time being. A White House statement said Vance, tapped by Trump to lead the negotiations, decided to postpone his travel. It made no mention of the escalating violence in Lebanon.
"The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable," the statement said.
But, according to officials, the Iranians made clear to the White House that they had balked at starting the talks with Vance because of the Israeli action in Lebanon. The fighting had intensified with at least 47 killed by Israeli airstrikes, while four Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, officials said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel's military would stay in a "security zone" of southern Lebanon as long as "Israel's security needs require it."
Israel and Hezbollah are not parties to the U.S.-Iran agreement. Iran insists Israel must withdraw from the large swath of southern Lebanon it is occupying, but the wording of the interim deal does not explicitly require that and only ensures Lebanon's "territorial integrity."
Hours before postponing his trip, Vance gave some indication of the state of flux when he told reporters at a White House briefing that he was uncertain if the talks were going to happen this weekend."We think these technical negotiations start sometime this weekend," Vance said. "That's still the plan. But that could change." Soon after Vance spoke to reporters, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, endorsed direct negotiations with the United States. His terse statement, read by state media, appeared to signal to the Islamic Republic's leadership that it could move forward with a first round of talks. "It is obvious that the face-to-face negotiations that will be held in the future will not mean accepting the enemy's opinion," Khamenei said.
The messaging seemed to give Khamenei, who was badly wounded in the U.S. strike on Feb. 28 that killed his father, some maneuverability. Hard-liners in the Iranian government, including Khamenei's father, long opposed direct talks with the White House, especially after Trump, during his first term, pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. Vance was initially expected to go to Switzerland to sign the agreement at a formal ceremony. Instead, Trump signed the document Wednesday during a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles with French President Emmanuel Macron. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, separately signed the agreement. It says Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under rubble left by U.S. military strikes last year targeting Tehran's key nuclear sites, must at minimum be diluted under international supervision. It also says Iran shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons — a commitment Tehran has made previously. Other commitments remain to be worked out.
Iranians would be going into the talks with a measure of confidence after effectively shutting down the strait, causing global economic reverberations, said Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East Program at Defense Priorities in Washington. She said the U.S. is now "essentially trying to negotiate our way back to the prewar status quo."Neil Quilliam, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House think tank, said the "buoyant" Iranian leadership feels it has the upper hand. The endorsement of the talks by the Iranian supreme leader "sends a very strong signal domestically: 'We're now on an equal footing with the U.S.'"
"'Trump has gone from calling for regime change on Feb. 28 to this: Now they're going to sit down with us directly and talk about these big issues,'" Quilliam said of the Iranians' thinking. "So it's intended more for the domestic audience, and telling them: 'We are firmly in control of this. There can be no protests, no revolution: We are a new regime and we're staying put.'"For Vance, a likely 2028 presidential contender, how the negotiations play out could have enormous ramifications for his political fortunes. Vance's skepticism of foreign wars was a core part of his political identity during his political rise, which included election as a U.S. senator. Now he finds himself the chief defender of negotiating an endgame to Trump's conflict that Democrats have largely derided as a foolish gambit. Some hawkish Republicans are aghast that Trump is getting behind a settlement that could put billions of dollars into Iran's coffers. U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said aspects of the deal are "completely out of step" with Trump's goals. Trump fiercely criticized Obama for the 2015 nuclear agreement, which Trump argued failed to stop Tehran from advancing toward a weapon and funneled billions of dollars to the Islamic Republic. The Republican president exited the U.S. from the deal in 2018. Trump has pushed back against comparisons to that earlier agreement, saying he had "negotiated from strength" after a major military campaign while asserting that Obama was paying the Iranians off and not receiving acquiescence. Wicker, R-Miss., was particularly concerned about the $300 billion fund for the reconstruction and economic development of Iran mentioned in the 14-point agreement. Trump and Vance have said no U.S. taxpayer money would go to such a fund and it would not come without concessions and reforms by Tehran.

Iran Signs the Termination of its Lebanese Proxy
Elie Aoun/June 19/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/06/155395/
By signing the MoU with the United States, Iran has officially terminated Hizballah, its foundation documents, and the so-called “Islamic Resistance” (or the quest for an “Islamic Revolution” in Lebanon). This was accomplished in the wording of the MoU’s first paragraph.
As an “ally” of Iran, as an extension of Iran’s “military operations”, all Hizballah’s military activities (internal or external) are now subject to “immediate and permanent termination.”
By acquiescing to Lebanon's "sovereignty," Iran (and its “ally” Hizballah) must now respect Lebanon's independence and authority over Lebanese affairs, free from interferences by Iran or Hizballah.
By ensuring Lebanon’s "territorial integrity”, Iran affirms that Lebanon's borders and territory should be respected. As a result, it must refrain from financing or arming any militant or non-militant group on Lebanese soil. It must bring to an end any “Islamic Revolution” aspirations within the Lebanese state – since such measures are aimed as a revolution against the Lebanese national government.
In summary, Iran has not only agreed to a “cease fire” or to end a war. It also agreed to the “immediate and permanent termination” of its Lebanese proxy.
The Iranian regime does not need a language interpreter to understand that the presence of Iranian military officers on Lebanese soil (against the will of the Lebanese government), the wrongful issuance of Lebanese passports to the benefit of Iranian military personnel, the financing or arming of any group on Lebanese soil, starting revolutions, and issuing military or non-military orders to any group on Lebanese soil, constitute violations of Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Despite the presence of many pertinent issues between the United States and Iran, the fact that Lebanon was mentioned three times in the first paragraph (of the MoU) is a clear indication that the drafters had given special prominence to the Lebanese portion of the conflict. For that, we are grateful.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 19-20 June/2026
Video Link/Free Press Middle East analyst Haviv Rettig Gur anylsis the USA-Iranian Agreement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9ERgLUxdzc&t=3696s
Did Trump Surrender to Iran? | Haviv Rettig Gur
The Free Press and Ask Haviv Anything
Jun 18, 2026
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump and Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran. The agreement set up a 60-day period of negotiations and covers the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, frozen funds, sanctions relief, Iranian oil exports, Lebanon, and more. In the hours since, figures across the political spectrum have fiercely debated whether the deal is good for the U.S.—or if it represents a form of capitulation to the Iranian regime. So we went to Free Press Middle East analyst Haviv Rettig Gur to break it all down: how the strait will be opened, what the nuclear concessions are, and how much money Iran could be getting; the biggest concerns for the U.S. and Israel, and the state of their relationship; why Trump’s team wasn’t prepared for the war’s true costs; what’s next for the Gulf States; and who the real winner will be when the dust finally settles.

Trump Says Iran Is ‘FINISHED’ After Cancelled Negotiations — As Israeli Attacks Threaten Deal
Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff
President Donald Trump warned Iran is "FINISHED" and would "get no money" out of the newly signed deal with the U.S. after the two sides cancelled a meeting set for Friday in Switzerland—as the agreement appears fragile less than 48 hours after it was signed.
Trump said "we'll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!" referring to the 60-day period after the agreement was signed overnight Wednesday to negotiate outstanding issues, including the future of Iran's nuclear program. The deal included a commitment from the U.S. to lift sanctions on Iran and unfreeze Iranian assets in foreign accounts in the final agreement, to be made within 60 days. Iran and the U.S. cancelled the first meeting of the second round of negotiations without explanation, though the White House suggested the delay was due to "logistics."Three unnamed diplomats told The New York Times Iran backed out because of Israel's continued attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Israel and Hezbollah reached a ceasefire agreement Friday morning after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 47 people in Lebanon since midnight, Reuters reported, citing the Lebanese health ministry, while Israel said four of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon. The deal between the U.S. and Iran required military hostilities between both sides and their allies to cease on all fronts, including Lebanon, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear his country was not involved in the agreement and is not required to adhere to its terms.
Tangent
In an earlier Truth Social post on Friday, Trump attacked critics of his Iran deal, claiming the U.S. has "diminished Iran! It doesn't, any longer, have an Air Force, a Navy, Antiaircraft Equipment, Radar, or practically anything else, and yet the Dumocrats say that Iran is better off now than it was four months ago." Trump has faced bipartisan criticism over the deal, including from some of his MAGA allies, and almost no one has said the U.S. came out ahead in the agreement.
Key Background
Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to fly to Switzerland on Friday to begin negotiating a final agreement with Iran after Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday. The initial deal ended all military hostilities between the two sides and required Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without tolls during the 60-day negotiating period. The U.S. is also required to lift its naval blockade on Iranian ships within 30 days, and issue immediate waivers on exports of Iranian oil.
further reading
Some Republicans Finally Express Support For Trump's Iran Deal—Without Praising It (Forbes)

Confusion in Strait of Hormuz amid reports Iran has reclosed the waterway
Nathan Rennolds/Euronews/June 19, 2026
Tensions are building once again in the Strait of Hormuz amid reports that Iran has reclosed the waterway, potentially throwing the recently signed US-Iran memorandum of understanding into doubt. In a post on Telegram on Friday, Iranian activist Ilia Hashemi said there were reports of warning shots fired in the area and that ships had been warned not to approach the Strait, one of the world's busiest energy transit chokepoints. Hashemi later said that the warning fire had ceased and that vessels were receiving no answer when asking via radio whether the passage was indeed closed. At the same time, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority announced that ships that submit "compliant transit requests" would be allowed to transit the Strait "during the announced period".The maritime authority said crew would have to make their requests "at least 48 hours" before arriving at the Strait. It added that it would not charge ships fees for 60 days.It comes as Israel and Lebanon traded a series of strikes overnight and into Friday.The Israeli military reported that four of its soldiers had been killed in the south of the country on Thursday, with five others injured in an "explosive drone impact" on Friday.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would "not tolerate attacks on our soldiers" and promised to "exact a very heavy price from Hezbollah". Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had earlier called for "all of Lebanon" to "burn" following the attacks. The Israel Defense Forces carried out strikes across southern Lebanon overnight, targeting what it said were Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure. At least 18 people have reportedly been killed in the strikes so far. It comes as scheduled talks between the US and Iran on implementing their initial peace agreement in Switzerland were postponed.

Iran says it will waive fees for Hormuz during 60-day negotiation period
AFP/Reuters/June 19, 2026
DUBAI: Iran’s Strait of Hormuz body said on ​Friday it would waive planned fees to use the strait during a 60-day negotiation period ‌under the ‌memorandum ​of ‌understanding signed ⁠with ​the United ⁠States this week. Ships seeking passage through the strait while the interim agreement is ⁠in force must ‌submit ‌transit requests ​at ‌least 48 hours before ‌arrival, Iran’s Arabian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) said in a notice. Iran ‌would waive fees for security, safety, ⁠environmental services ⁠and related insurance during the period, while requiring vessels to coordinate routes and transit times in advance due to areas affected ​by ​mines and to ensure safe navigation. A total of 25 commercial vessels crossed the newly-reopened Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, the highest number since mid-April, according to data from maritime tracking firm AXSMarine published on Friday.
The spike came after Iran and the United States agreed to reopen the crucial route under an agreement to end the war, but before the cancelation of talks between the sides in Switzerland that had been planned under that deal. On June 18 “we observed 25 verified commercial vessel crossings through the Strait of Hormuz — the highest single-day count since 18 April and more than five times the average daily level recorded during the first ten days of June,” AXSMarine said in a news release. Iranian forces effectively closed off the strait after US and Israeli strikes sparked the war on February 28. Maritime authorities reported dozens of attacks on ships in the area. Iran later briefly reopened the global trade artery to commercial traffic, prompting a short spike in crossings on April 18. Before the war, about 120 vessels a day had passed through the strait, according to leading shipping journal Lloyd’s List. A fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports passed through the strait in peacetime, according to economists. AXSMarine said crossings averaged 7.6 a day from the start of March. The number of crossings on Thursday may be higher, as some ships turn off or manipulate their AIS transponder signals to avoid detection while passing through the strait. Thursday’s “spike came amid the largest AIS signal disruption event we have observed in the Arabian Gulf since the conflict began, with more than 200 commercial vessels affected simultaneously by spoofing or abnormal AIS behavior,” it said.
Safe shipping plans
Shipping groups warned this week that plans for the resumption of traffic were still not clear and it was not thought safe to start exiting the Gulf through the strait. Jakob Larsen, chief security officer at leading shipping lobby BIMCO, said however that the body “expects an international coordination body to be established shortly to facilitate transits.”The International Maritime Organization’s chief Arsenio Dominguez said in April that the body was working on a plan to ensure safe transit for ships stuck in the Gulf by the conflict. More than 500 commercial vessels are still stuck in the Gulf, with about 11,000 seafarers on board, according to the IMO. It says 20,000 seafarers in the region have been affected by the war overall.

IRGC sets up secretive cells in Iraq to conduct drone attacks on Gulf: Reuters
Reuters/June 19, 2026
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has set up secretive new cells in Iraq to carry out attacks on Gulf countries that host American forces, bypassing established militia networks to avoid detection, eight Iraqi sources told Reuters. Three or four cells, each comprising about 10 elite Iraqi Shiite Muslim fighters, launched at least seven drone attacks from desert locations ​near the southern cities of Basra and Samawa against sites in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates between April 20 and May 17, three of the sources said. A number of their members were drawn from Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hard-line Shiite factions with thousands of fighters. But the new groups operate outside its command structure, reporting directly to the IRGC, according to the sources, who include two Iraqi military officials, another security official and five local militia commanders. The establishment of the new Iraqi cells, which has not previously been reported, reflects a shift in IRGC tactics aimed at preserving Iran’s ability to project force across the region at a time when its armed proxy groups are greatly diminished and its own military and economic resources are depleted, the five militia commanders said.
Iraq, a Shiite-majority country, has a host of militias, many of which maintain close ties to Tehran. They form a key pillar of Iran’s regional “Axis of Resistance,” stretching from Gaza and Lebanon to Yemen and Iraq. Groups acting under the banner of Islamic Resistance in Iraq have claimed responsibility for dozens of drone and rocket attacks against American assets in the country, drawing deadly retaliatory airstrikes, since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. But there has been no mass mobilization ‌of Iran’s proxies inside Iraq’s ‌borders.
Several powerful Shiite factions there have been signaling since last year that they are ready to disarm and focus on domestic politics to ​avert ‌an escalating ⁠conflict with ​the administration ⁠of US President Donald Trump. That development may have spurred the IRGC to set up groups under its direct control, according to Jasim Al-Bahadli, a retired Iraqi army general, and two lawmakers from the Shiite governing alliance. Two of these factions, Asaib Ahl Al-Haq and the Imam Ali Brigades, announced this month that they would begin surrendering their weapons to state authorities following repeated US warnings to Iraq’s government to disband armed groups operating on its soil.
“The newer groups established by the IRGC appear smaller, more ideologically hardened and more tightly controlled, reflecting Iran’s need to conserve resources amid economic strain,” said Bahadli, who is an expert on Shiite armed groups. US Iran deal does not address Tehran’s support for proxies. The US and Iranian presidents signed an interim agreement on Wednesday to end the war, with negotiations to follow on difficult issues like the future of Tehran’s nuclear program. But Iranian officials have said Tehran’s support for “resistance groups” is not up for discussion, and the agreement does not address the issue. Iran’s foreign ministry and its missions to the United Nations in New York and Geneva did not immediately respond to detailed questions for this article.
The US ⁠State Department reiterated “expectations that the Iraqi government take immediate measures to dismantle all the tools of Iran’s destabilizing activities in Iraq to include the IRGC and ‌Iran-aligned terrorist militias in Iraq.”
At a meeting on Monday, Iraq’s new prime minister, Ali Al-Zaidi, and US envoy Tom Barrack discussed Iraqi plans ‌to ensure “the complete disarmament and disbandment of all armed groups” operating outside Iraqi state control and to ensure “Iraqi territory cannot be ​used by any side to threaten regional peace,” according to a joint statement. Zaidi’s military spokesman, Sabah Al-Numan, ‌declined to comment for this article. Kuwait’s information ministry, the Saudi government communications office and the UAE foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
The war in Iran has battered the world’s most important energy-producing ‌region, disrupting supplies and sending inflation surging. Tehran responded to US-Israeli bombing runs by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s trade in oil and liquefied natural gas passes, and launching a sweeping campaign of drone and missile strikes on Gulf neighbors. New groups that emerged in Iraq during the conflict, often operating under unfamiliar names and with minimal public profiles, carried out at least three drone attacks targeting Kuwait, two targeting Saudi Arabia and two aimed at the UAE, the three Iraqi security sources said, citing a combination of human intelligence, intercepted communications and evidence gathered from launch sites. Targets included Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem Air Base, where US forces are deployed, and a military terminal ‌at the country’s international airport, the sources said without elaborating. The attacks aimed at Saudi Arabia and the UAE were intercepted, according to the sources who could not confirm the intended targets. Reuters could not independently verify their accounts.
An early test for Iraq’s new prime minister
Iraqi officials said the IRGC ⁠turned to the new cells to maintain plausible deniability, ⁠deflect blame from the country’s main Iran-backed groups and reduce US pressure on Baghdad to disarm them.
The Iraqi security forces have limited information about the groups but are working to uncover their chains of command to help prevent future attacks, the officials said. The groups include elite fighters with expertise in drone operations and communications, they added.
Tehran spent decades and billions of dollars building up its network of regional alliances, which has been severely weakened since the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel has hammered Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, while the Houthi movement in Yemen has been targeted by US and British airstrikes. Syrian President Bashar Assad was toppled in December 2024, cutting off an important supply route for Iraqi militias and further isolating the Islamic Republic. Rather than maintain a broad network of well-funded groups in Iraq, Iran now appears to be relying on a limited number of “more radicalized cadres willing to operate with leaner financial support, prioritising loyalty, deniability and operational impact over mass recruitment,” said Bahadli, the militia expert. The new groups pose an early test for Iraq’s Zaidi, who took office last month following US pressure on the dominant alliance of Shiite political blocs to prevent the return of former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, who has close ties to Iran. Baghdad has long walked a tightrope between its two closest allies, Washington and Tehran, a balancing act that became more difficult during the war. Attacks emanating from Iraq also risk unraveling Baghdad’s painstaking efforts to rebuild ties with wealthy Gulf neighbors, which have been strained since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 but had started to thaw in recent years. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE summoned Iraq’s envoys in April to protest the strikes. Iraqi ​authorities are investigating whether they include a May 17 drone attack that caused a fire at ​the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, security officials said. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted three drones that entered its airspace from Iraq the same day, an attack the Iraqi officials said was carried out by a new group. Zaidi condemned the two attacks, describing them as criminal acts, and promised a joint inquiry with both Gulf countries to verify whether Iraqi territory was used to target them. Numan, Zaidi’s spokesman, did not answer questions about the status of the investigation.

Pakistan’s Sharif thanks MBS for Saudi Arabia’s commitment to peace in the region
Al Arabiya English/June 19.2026
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he spoke to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday and thanked him for Riyadh’s “unwavering commitment” to peace in the region. In a post on X, Sharif said the Crown Prince’s “wise leadership and the Kingdom’s unwavering commitment to regional peace and stability remained vital guiding forces throughout this crisis.”The Pakistani premier said the two leaders agreed that the next phase of negotiations needed to continue to be guided by a “firm commitment to dialogue, diplomacy, and vigilance against any attempt to undermine the peace process.” Separately, MBS and Sharif discussed bilateral relations. “I also expressed complete satisfaction at the excellent state of Pakistan–Saudi Arabia relations and looked forward to further strengthening our economic partnership under the visionary leadership of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” he said.

In call with Pakistan PM, Saudi crown prince welcomes US-Iran deal
Arab News/June 19, 2026
RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a phone call on Friday, the Saudi Press Agency reported. During the call, the crown prince welcomed the agreement between the US and Iran to end military operations and commended Pakistan’s mediation efforts, SPA added. He also reiterated the Kingdom’s hope that the deal would lead to a permanent agreement that strengthens security and stability in the region. The two sides also reviewed bilateral relations and discussed ways to enhance cooperation. Sharif thanked Prince Mohammed and the Saudi leadership for Riyadh’s “unwavering commitment” to peace in the region. In a post on X, Sharif said the crown prince’s “wise leadership and the Kingdom’s unwavering commitment to regional peace and stability remained vital guiding forces throughout this crisis.” The Pakistani premier said the two leaders agreed that the next phase of negotiations needed to continue to be guided by a “firm commitment to dialogue, diplomacy and vigilance against any attempt to undermine the peace process.”He added: “I also expressed complete satisfaction at the excellent state of Pakistan–Saudi Arabia relations and looked forward to further strengthening our economic partnership under the visionary leadership of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”

US says needs $80 billion for Iran war, other bills: media
AFP/June 19, 2026
WASHINGTON: The US Defense Department will ask Congress to approve around $80 billion to cover costs from the Iran war and other expenses, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. President Donald Trump has faced backlash from Americans who accuse him of pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into the Middle East conflict while oil prices and inflation skyrocket in the United States. Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg shared the request with lawmakers this week, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the discussions. Pentagon leaders have said they risk running out of money for operations in the coming months unless Congress passes a new wartime spending bill, the newspaper said. The military may need to cut back on training and troop deployment along the US-Mexico border as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown, it added. The Pentagon said last month the cost of the war with Iran had climbed to nearly $29 billion, although Democrats and other critics of the war have suggested the true cost — including damage inflicted by Iran — could be far higher. Concerns over the war straining US weapons stockpiles also deepened last month after Acting US Navy Secretary Hung Cao cited the conflict as a reason for pausing arms sales to Taiwan. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the idea when asked in an interview if there was a crisis in munitions stockpiles. Some of the $80 billion, if approved, would go toward munitions, personnel pay and ship operations, the Journal cited a source as saying. The war, triggered by US-Israeli strikes on Tehran in late February, has engulfed the crude-rich Middle East and choked the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the world’s oil supplies. A deal to end the war was under strain on Friday after fighting flared between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon and talks in Switzerland were postponed. Some lawmakers have said they will not vote to back additional funding for the war unless the conflict receives congressional authorization. Democrats have accused Trump of violating the Constitution by starting the war without Congress’s backing. Under the War Powers Act, presidents have 60 days to obtain congressional approval after introducing US forces into hostilities. That deadline passed weeks ago, and Democrats say Trump is now breaking the law.

For Vance, Iran talks could shape political rise
Reuters/19 June ,2026
US Vice President JD Vance is poised to take on his biggest role yet on the international stage as President Donald Trump’s chief negotiator to end the three-month war with Iran, a moment that could shape Vance’s prospects as a White House successor.
The two nations agreed to a provisional peace agreement on Wednesday that suspended hostilities but left core issues unresolved, deferring decisions on Iran’s nuclear program, its support for regional militant proxies and the economically vital Strait of Hormuz to 60 days of talks. The discussions are a high-risk scenario for all sides in the conflict, the broader Middle East, and for Vance’s political ambitions. And the situation remains fluid: Vance cancelled a planned Thursday night flight to Switzerland for the start of talks, though the White House said the US delegation is “prepared to depart at the first available opportunity.”The fast-moving developments coincide with the publication of Vance’s book on his conversion to Catholicism, “Communion,” and a media tour to promote it, during which he discussed his faith while positioning himself as the Iran deal’s top booster. The campaign-style push reached a crescendo on Thursday with a White House news conference where Vance laid out US hopes for a final peace deal and offered what some observers called one of the strongest rebukes of Israel in US history, while also swatting away a question about a potential presidential run. “If the Iranians don’t change their behavior, their military and their nuclear program is still destroyed,” Vance said. “If they do change their behavior, then they are going to have a transformative relationship with the Middle East, and the Middle East will have a transformative relationship with the people of Iran.”Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a leader in the party’s foreign policy establishment, called Vance the “architect” of the peace agreement, and said the vice president should present a final deal to the Senate for approval. Trump joked on Wednesday that Vance had little to gain and much to lose from this assignment. “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit. If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD!” the president chortled during a news conference at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France. Representatives from Vance’s office declined to comment for this report.
Defending Trump
Trump ran for office promising lower prices and an end to what he called “forever wars” in the Middle East. Instead, inflation has accelerated, and he launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Some Republican allies have accused Trump of granting Tehran major concessions to alleviate the price pressures caused by the conflict. While Trump has touted the provisional peace deal as a total military and diplomatic victory, it appears at this point to have advanced few of his goals from the outset of the war: Iran’s theocratic government remains in place, it retains ballistic missiles and a stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and it continues supporting anti-Israel militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. Vance has had to defend the president’s decisions while trying to establish some distance from Trump’s falling approval ratings. He has attempted to do so by pointing to marginal economic improvements while declaring “there’s a lot more work to do.”“Have a little bit of faith in the president of the United States. The idea that he is going to strike a deal that’s bad for the American people, it’s preposterous,” Vance said on Thursday. He told conservative media host Megyn Kelly earlier in the week that he remained engaged on the Iran war because distancing himself from the effort would be “a very immature way to approach the political process,” while accusing hawkish conservatives of seeking to continue US attacks “until every bomb has been dropped, or until every Iranian is dead.”Vance has cautioned against intensifying the war and advocated for Trump to pursue a diplomatic exit. He is one of the leaders of an ascendant wing of the Republican Party that hopes to restrain US global military pursuits.
He is not without critics.
“In my opinion, the vice president — the chief negotiator on this project — has not well served the president,” right-wing media figure Ben Shapiro said on Thursday on Fox News. Trump appears to have elevated Vance as the face of the agreement rather than Secretary of State Marco Rubio — traditionally the country’s chief diplomat — triggering questions from administration allies about Rubio’s role in negotiations. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said no one on Trump’s team voiced opposition to the provisional peace deal. Rubio is also seen as a contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, though neither he nor Vance have said they plan to seek the presidency. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The move to promote Vance, though, is typical of the way Trump has managed cabinet officials in his second term, said one person close to the White House, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. “This back and forth is throwing people off, but Trump knows what he’s doing,” the person said. “He is literally conducting a tryout in real time.”Throughout it all has been Vance’s book, which he has jokingly promoted in nearly every media engagement alongside discussion of the day’s news. Facing a grilling about Iran, immigration and civil rights on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, the vice president quipped: “Let’s talk about the book — I’m here to sell books.”

Iran peace deal must address human rights: UN experts
Arab News/June 19, 2026
LONDON: The memorandum of understanding signed between the US and Iran must not obscure the human rights situation in the Middle Eastern country, 13 UN experts have warned. They welcomed the signing of the MoU but added that it fails to take human rights into account. It “focuses almost entirely on military withdrawal, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, nuclear commitments, sanctions relief and a $300 billion reconstruction fund,” they said in a statement. “The Iranian people — who have suffered enormously from both external military aggression and internal repression — are barely visible in this framework.”The conflict has caused widespread damage across Iran and led to thousands of fatalities. Infrastructure has been particularly affected, with US and Israeli strikes hitting hospitals, schools and religious buildings. The UN experts highlighted that the situation inside Iran had already been precarious for many people before the war due to reprisals against anti-regime protesters and the presence of a large number of refugees from Afghanistan. “Since the war began in late February, Iranian authorities have moved aggressively against dissent. Thousands have been detained, with many reportedly tortured, forcibly disappeared, subjected to mock executions or forced to confess on camera. At least 156 individuals have been executed since the war began,” said the group, which includes Mai Sato, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran. “The human cost has been compounded by severe economic harm in Iran, as well as in the region and globally.”The group pointed out that at least 42 people have been executed by the regime since the outbreak of hostilities on espionage grounds, which relied on confessions obtained by torture. Access to legal counsel for them and many others detained on similar charges remains restricted, while around 1,500 Iranians have had their assets seized. Access to the internet has also been heavily suppressed since the start of the war, devastating numerous businesses and severely limiting communication with the outside world. Unemployment has increased markedly and inflation has reached 115 percent. The experts welcomed the announcement of the $300 billion reconstruction fund, but warned that it needs to be used to help ordinary Iranians. “A deal that serves geopolitical interests while leaving the Iranian people behind is not a peace agreement worthy of the name,” they said. “The reopening the Strait of Hormuz merely restores what existed before this war began. The bar must be far higher than a return to the status quo. “The voices of Iranians — millions of whom took to the streets demanding fundamental change — must be heard in any negotiation that claims to secure their future.” The group called for the final deal to address the human rights of ordinary Iranians, including a demand for a moratorium on executions of political prisoners and the release of those in detention without charge.

Iran’s chief negotiator says US talks bound by Tehran’s ‘red lines’
AFP/June 19, 2026
TEHRAN: Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Friday that talks with the United States would remain bound by Tehran’s “red lines.”“As we have shown in the past path of negotiations, we are steadfast in fulfilling the conditions and red lines set, and in achieving the interests of the Iranian nation,” Qalibaf said in remarks published by the official IRNA news agency. “If the enemy seeks to be excessive, we have proven that our fingers are on the trigger and we have no hesitation in giving a crushing response to the enemy.”Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding this week ending a regional war that erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Switzerland said US talks with Iranian negotiators on a pact to end the Middle East conflict would not take place on Friday, as Vice President JD Vance dropped plans to travel to Geneva, adding to uncertainty whether a lasting truce can be found. “The logistics of ​these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” the White House spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday night. Vance and the US delegation had been ready to depart as soon as plans were finalized. The White House blamed logistical issues, but the announcement came after a report from Al-Mayadeen, a pan-Arab satellite channel that is politically allied to Hezbollah, that Iran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. “A senior American official told me that one of the reasons for postponing the trip might be Iranian claims regarding the situation in Lebanon,” Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on social media. Qalibaf’s remarks came after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said he had approved the US-Iran deal despite having a “different view” on the matter, without elaborating.
In a message read out on state television, Khamenei said that direct talks with the United States “will not mean accepting the enemy’s point of view.”
In response to Khamenei’s message, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country’s foreign policy apparatus “will be used to secure the sublime interests of Iran” and “protect the rights of the noble Iranian nation.”President Masoud Pezeshkian, who signed the deal on behalf of his country, issued a similar statement promising to adhere to Iran’s red lines and defend its “dignity, honor and authority.”The US-Iran deal, which US President Donald Trump also signed, lays the groundwork for detailed 60-day negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief.
It remains unclear when talks for a final settlement would start after a first meeting in Switzerland slated for Friday was postponed. Hezbollah lawmaker says Iran told group talks with US hinge on comprehensive ceasefire. Lebanese Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan ​Fadlallah told Reuters that Iran had informed the group that talks ‌with the ‌United ​States ‌could ⁠not ​continue without ⁠the implementation of a comprehensive ceasefire. He called on ⁠the Lebanese government ‌to ‌reject ​any ‌direct negotiations with ‌Israel while Israeli attacks on Lebanon continue, and ‌said Washington bore responsibility ⁠for ensuring Israel ⁠halted its attacks and implemented the terms of the agreement. Israel must stop hostilities in Lebanon, US must pressure Israel, French minister says. Israel must stop its hostilities in ​Lebanon and the United States must put pressure on Israel, French foreign minister Jean-Noel ‌Barrot said ‌on ​Friday. Israel ‌said ⁠on ​Thursday it ⁠would not rule out carrying out attacks beyond a military control ⁠zone in southern ‌Lebanon ‌in a challenge ​to ‌the terms ‌of a US-Iran pact that called for the respect of ‌Lebanon’s sovereignty. Barrot, speaking to French broadcaster ⁠franceinfo, ⁠said that France was still working to hold an international conference to mobilize support for the Lebanese army. The agreement provides for an end to the Middle East war on all fronts, including Lebanon, the lifting of the two-month US naval blockade on Iranian ports, and Tehran’s reopening of the Strait of Hormuz “with no charge for 60 days only.”It also includes an Iranian commitment not to procure or develop nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran has consistently denied pursuing. Conservatives in Iran appeared deeply skeptical of the deal and US intentions, with some expressing concern that Tehran could be giving up key sources of leverage before securing compensation and sanctions relief. “The Americans do not honor to any commitments, they have not been loyal to any agreements, and they will not be,” said Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the ltraconservative Kayhan newspaper, in an interview with state television on Thursday. He added: “the Strait of Hormuz is the way to get compensation.”Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for parliament’s national security commission, took issue with reports of possible inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities by a UN watchdog. “I hope the government denies this, but if this claim is true … the parliament will stand up to lawlessness and disobedience,” he said in a post on X.'

Syria reports new Israeli incursion into Quneitra village amid ongoing border tensions
Arab News/June 19, 2026
QUNEITRA, Syria: Israeli forces carried out an overnight incursion into a village in Syria’s southern Quneitra province, raiding several homes before withdrawing, Syrian state media reported on Thursday, in the latest incident highlighting ongoing tensions along the frontier.
According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), a unit consisting of nine Israeli military vehicles entered the village of Al-Asbah in the Quneitra countryside shortly after midnight on Wednesday. The forces searched a number of homes before leaving the area.No casualties or arrests were immediately reported.
Continuing border incursions
The reported operation comes amid what Damascus describes as repeated Israeli violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that established a UN-monitored buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Syrian authorities say Israeli forces have continued to conduct military incursions into southern Syrian territory, including raids, arrests, land-clearing activities and artillery strikes. Damascus has repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Syrian territory, maintaining that Israeli actions in the south are illegal under international law and urging the international community to intervene to halt what it describes as ongoing violations.
Growing concern over Israeli presence
The latest raid comes against the backdrop of broader concerns over Israel’s military presence in southern Syria. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed the territory, a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Following the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar Assad’s government in December 2024, Israeli forces moved into the UN-monitored buffer zone adjacent to the Golan Heights, saying the deployment was necessary to prevent attacks by armed groups and to disrupt weapons transfers from Iran to Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon. The United Nations and several international critics have argued that the deployment violates the 1974 ceasefire arrangements. According to AP reporting, Israel currently controls approximately 235 square kilometers within the buffer zone and surrounding areas that Syria's interim government says should be vacated.
Calls for withdrawal
Syrian interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa has repeatedly called on Israel to withdraw from the territory, while residents in the affected areas have reported increased military checkpoints, restrictions on movement and occasional confrontations between Israeli troops and local villagers.
The AP reported that Israel has expanded military control in several neighboring territories since the outbreak of regional conflicts following Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel, describing the areas as security buffer zones intended to prevent future attacks. Israeli officials have said such measures are necessary for national security, while Syria and other regional governments argue that the continued presence of Israeli forces risks further destabilizing already fragile border regions.
As tensions persist, Damascus continues to press for the full implementation of the 1974 disengagement arrangements and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas it considers occupied Syrian territory. (With SANA & AP)

Iraq to export crude, naphtha through Syria after Hormuz shock
Reuters/June 19, 2026
DUBAI/BAGHDAD: Iraq is preparing to export crude oil and naphtha through ports in Syria, Syrian and Iraqi energy officials and refinery sources said after the Iran war cut off its main Gulf shipping routes. The move would broaden an arrangement that has seen Iraq export fuel oil through the Mediterranean port of Baniyas after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which sharply curtailed Gulf export routes for OPEC’s second-largest producer. Two Iraqi oil officials said plans to diversify crude and fuel export routes, including through Syria, would continue even after the Iran war ends and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz returns to normal, as part of a government-approved strategy to reduce Iraq’s reliance on a single export corridor. “The Iraqi government and the oil ministry attach the highest importance to diversifying crude export routes, particularly through Syrian territory,” Iraqi oil ministry spokesperson Saleem Al-Rikabi told Reuters.
Rikabi said the oil ministry, through state oil marketer SOMO, was continuing “discussions and cooperation” with Syria to expand exports through its western neighbor. Iraq ‌normally exports a ‌total of around 3.6 million barrels of oil per day and before the Iran war around ‌3.4 ⁠million bpd flowed through ⁠its southern Basra terminals. Mohammed Al-Ahdab, head of the media office at Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), said the operation and offloading were continuing, despite the anticipated opening of the strait. Before the disruption caused by the Iran war, Iraq mainly exported its fuel oil from the Gulf port of Khor Al-Zubair, but the conflict has forced it to seek alternative routes after the strait was closed and storage facilities began filling up. The initial work-around, which began operating in April, saw millions of barrels of Iraqi fuel oil trucked across Syria to Baniyas and re-exported from there. Syria plans to open two extra unloading areas and other facilities in Baniyas within a week to handle Iraqi crude oil and naphtha, a Syrian energy ministry official said. ⁠Ahdab said Baniyas can now unload an average of 900 tanker-trucks per day. Crude could begin crossing ‌from Iraq to Syria at around 50,000 barrels per day once the loading installations ‌are ready, the two Iraqi oil ministry officials said. There were no immediate details on planned levels of naphtha exports. Tanker-truck exports are expected to begin ‌in early July, Syrian and Iraqi officials said, while SOMO is set to open offices in Baniyas. FEE INCOME FOR SYRIA In April, SOMO ‌awarded contracts to supply about 650,000 metric tons of fuel oil per month from April to June to be trucked overland via Syria. Iraq exported a record 18 million tons of fuel oil in 2024, equivalent to roughly 1.5 million tons per month, with the best available data for 2025 showing they were near the levels reached in late 2024. SPC Deputy CEO Ahmad Kobbaji told Reuters in May that Syria had limited infrastructure, but was increasing its ‌unloading and re-export capacity for Iraqi fuel products. Under President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Syria is seeking to reintegrate into the regional and global economy after decades of Assad family rule and nearly 14 years ⁠of war devastated its economy and ⁠left it politically and financially isolated. Syria is earning transit fees from the fuel oil shipments, paid through buyers and intermediaries rather than directly by SOMO, the Iraqi oil ministry officials said. Reuters was unable to determine what Syria was earning or how fees were collected. Iraqi fuel oil shipped via Syria had reached destinations across Africa and Europe, with the latest tanker arriving in Alexandria, Egypt, on June 9, LSEG shipping data showed.
IRAQ KEEN TO EXPORT, DESPITE RISKS
The route to Baniyas is fraught with challenges, with highways damaged by years of war, and Reuters reporters saw lines of Iraqi tankers stretching for more than 30 km (19 miles) along the road to the port. In June, two Iraqi fuel tankers collided near Homs, spilling thousands of liters of fuel, while protesters in northeast Syria blocked Iraqi tankers to protest against rising fuel prices and deteriorating living conditions. A source at the Baniyas facility with direct knowledge of the transfers said the Iraqi fuel oil is not processed at the refinery. Instead, tanker trucks unload at a marine platform connected to storage tanks north of the refinery, from where the fuel is pumped directly to waiting export tankers. Meanwhile, Syria is working on reviving war-damaged pipelines to replace the tanker route, SPC’s Kobbaji said in May. The Iraq-Syria oil pipeline can pump up to 300,000 barrels per day, the Syrian energy ministry official said.

Saudi envoy tells UN Security Council two-state solution only path to lasting Mideast peace
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/June 19, 2026
NEW YORK: The Saudi permanent representative to the UN told the Security Council on Thursday that the Palestinian issue remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict, warning that genuine peace cannot be achieved without ending Israel’s occupation. Speaking on behalf of the Arab Group at a council meeting on Gaza, Abdulaziz Alwasil said lasting peace requires that Palestinians exercise their “legitimate and inalienable rights,” foremost an independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. He voiced “extreme concern” over continuing Israeli violations in the Occupied Territories, citing the targeting of civilians, settlement expansion, land confiscation, home demolitions, displacement and annexation, warning that these threaten regional and international stability. The Arab Group rejected all Israeli measures aimed at entrenching the occupation or imposing sovereignty over Palestinian territory, calling them “null and void” and a clear violation of international law and the UN Charter. The group welcomed international efforts toward a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and called for building on them toward a comprehensive plan ending the conflict, protecting civilians and launching a credible political track toward a two-state solution. The group condemned continued “massacres” against Palestinians and demanded immediate, sustained humanitarian access throughout Gaza, rejecting any use of aid as political pressure, which it called collective punishment. It urged greater international support for relief efforts and unimpeded UN agency access. Alwasil condemned Israeli moves to annex parts of Gaza and displace residents, calling this a violation of US President Donald Trump’s plan.
The group reaffirmed Jerusalem’s status as part of the Occupied Territories since 1967, rejecting attempts to alter its demographic or legal character, and called for preserving the status quo at holy sites. Alwasil urged the Security Council to fulfill its UN Charter responsibilities and the international community to end the occupation and uphold Palestinian rights.

Gaza ceasefire ‘failing’ as hunger, rats and rubble define daily life, UN humanitarian chief warns
Ephrem Kossaify/Arab News/June 19, 2026
NEW YORK CITY: Seven months after the Security Council adopted Resolution 2803 in support of the US peace plan for Gaza, the ceasefire in the territory remains fragile and the humanitarian recovery is dangerously incomplete, the UN’s aid chief warned council members on Thursday.
Palestinians are still being killed each day, nearly a million people lack adequate shelter, and children are awoken by rats biting their faces, said Tom Fletcher, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.He told the council that while Resolution 2803 — which endorsed US President Donald Trump’s 20-point “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” in November last year, a month after the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit on the issue — had produced measurable gains, those gains simply represented “movement away from a catastrophic baseline, not the fulfillment of fundamental needs.”Fletcher added: “Gaza is being held together by humanitarian workarounds and Palestinian perseverance. This is unsustainable.”By the time Resolution 2803 was passed by the Security Council, more than 67,000 Palestinians had been killed during the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023, and more than three quarters of buildings and roads in Gaza were damaged or destroyed. Since the ceasefire took effect, Fletcher said, nearly another 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, including, UNICEF has reported, more than 250 children. “This is what happens when children are described as ‘collateral damage’ and ‘potential terrorists’ rather than humans and potential neighbors,” he told the council. Fletcher acknowledged that significant humanitarian progress has been made since the ceasefire took hold. Denial rates for humanitarian missions have fallen from 31 per cent to 11 per cent. The proportion of households that report going to bed hungry has dropped from 92 per cent to 36 per cent.
Gaza is no longer classified as being in “famine” (Phase 5 of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), though it remains in “severe crisis” at Phase 4. More than 21,000 truckloads of aid, an average of 108 per day, have been delivered by the UN and its partners, a 72 per cent increase from pre-ceasefire levels. More than 600,000 people have received shelter aid, and one hundred classrooms have been rehabilitated. But Fletcher said that there is still no hospital in Gaza that is fully operational; for 1.1 million children, clean water remains a daily uncertainty; and sanitation conditions are deteriorating to the point where doctors report a stark increase in cases of rat bites.
“Let that sink in,” Fletcher said.
Seventy per cent of the population still requires proper shelter. Restrictions on so-called “dual-use” items that Israeli authorities say might be used for military purposes — which the World Health Organization reported has at times included prosthetic limbs — are blocking the delivery of critical supplies. Fuel shortages, lack of spare parts, and restrictions on armored vehicles for aid workers further compound an already dire picture. “It is not enough to silence the weapons — we must restore dignity,” Fletcher said. Gaza remains the most dangerous place on earth for aid workers, he added. Almost 600 humanitarians have been killed there in nearly three years, more than half of all those killed worldwide during that time. Fletcher warned that less than a quarter of the 2026 humanitarian appeal target for Gaza has been funded: “Behind these numbers are meals not cooked, water not delivered and nearly 1 million people left without adequate shelter.”
He also drew the council’s attention to deteriorating conditions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where he said a decades-long decline was accelerating. More than 1,000 incidents of settler violence have been recorded in 2026 alone, an average of six a day.
Calls by Israeli officials for “voluntary migration” by Palestinians, combined with forced displacements, home demolitions, land confiscations and restrictions on movement, were “hollowing out daily life,” Fletcher said, and appeared to be designed to alter the demographic composition of the occupied territory in violation of international law. The council also heard from Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s global humanitarian policy lead, and a Palestinian mother from Jerusalem living in the West Bank, whose husband’s family remains trapped in Gaza. She told council members that the ceasefire “is failing,” that Gaza was “being carved up again,” and that highlighting only the number of aid trucks crossing the border masked a deeper failure to reach families with desperately needed assistance.
“A truck crossing a border is not the same as aid reaching a family,” she said. She also relayed testimony from people on the ground in Gaza, including Eman, a mother of three living in a cloth tent, who described how mice and rats chew through the fabric and contaminate her family’s food. Tahrir, a grandmother who has to walk for hours to collect water, said “every cup has become precious.”Even when goods reach local markets, Khalidi said, high prices mean they are inaccessible to many people. Wheat is currently more than five times its prewar price, eggs are four or five times more expensive, and the cost of cooking gas has more than doubled. Israel has banned Oxfam and many other humanitarian groups from bringing any goods into Gaza at all since March 2025, she added. “Blocking principled humanitarians is part of a wider collective punishment,” Khalidi said. She called on the council to hold parties accountable for their actions immediately — not after further political negotiations, not after disarmament, and not as a reward for compliance — and to use “all available political, diplomatic and legal tools to end atrocities, to end the occupation.”She added: “We cannot allow the summit of our ambition and our will to be a world where children have sufficient calories to survive and are spared constant bombing, yet remain hungry, bitten by rats, homeless and out of school.”

UN aid chief demands ‘dignity’ for Gaza Strip’s population
AFP/June 19, 2026
NEW YORK: People living in Gaza deserve to regain their “dignity” rather than merely survive, the UN aid chief said on Thursday, as he criticized Israeli obstructions to the distribution of humanitarian assistance. Tom Fletcher, addressing the UN Security Council, acknowledged the flow of aid has improved since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Oct. 10 — with an average of 100 deliveries entering the Palestinian territory each day. But, he said, “these fragile gains are the bare minimum of what Palestinians need and what we can provide — and what international law demands.”“We cannot allow the summit of our ambition and our will to be a world where children have sufficient calories to survive and are spared constant bombing, yet remain hungry, bitten by rats, homeless, and out of school,” Fletcher added. “It is not enough to silence the weapons — we must restore dignity.”Fletcher specifically called for the opening of all crossing points into Gaza and the immediate lifting of Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods such as medical equipment and fuel. Bushra Khalidi, a humanitarian officer with the NGO Oxfam, invited to address the Security Council, called on member states to act with “urgency, with courage, with humanity.”A Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, while several others were injured in artillery and drone attacks targeting different areas of the territory, according to medical sources. Meantime, medical sources reported that two wounded Palestinians arrived at Nasser Medical Complex after Israeli artillery shelling struck Al-Bi’a Street north of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Several other civilians were also injured when an Israeli drone targeted a house near Al-Sunna Mosque in the Al-Nafaq area, north of Gaza City.

Cairo says FM to meet Pakistan, Saudi, Turkey counterparts in Egypt Sunday
AFP/19 June ,2026
Egypt’s foreign minister will host his counterparts from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in the Mediterranean city of Alamein on Sunday, Cairo’s foreign ministry said. Badr Abdelatty “will hold a quadrilateral meeting on Sunday with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, followed by an expanded session of talks and a joint press conference,” the ministry said in a statement late Thursday. It did not specify the topic of the discussions, but the four countries have been involved in mediation efforts around the Middle East war. The four foreign ministers last met in April on the sidelines of a diplomatic forum in the Turkish resort city of Antalya. The Alamein meeting comes after US-Iran talks scheduled in Switzerland for Friday, aimed at following up on the US-Iran agreement to end the war, were postponed, according to the Swiss foreign ministry. The White House confirmed that US Vice President JD Vance’s planned trip to Switzerland for the talks had been cancelled. The agreement, which was reached earlier this week, aims to end the fighting, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin a 60-day period of negotiations on broader issues, including Tehran’s nuclear program. It was also meant to halt fighting in Lebanon. However, clashes have since resumed between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters. The US said a renewed ceasefire went into effect on Friday afternoon.

Italy’s Meloni slams Trump, scraps FM trip to US for lie that she begged him for photo
Reuters/Published: 19 June ,2026
“There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg,” Meloni said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused her one-time close ally Donald Trump of fabricating a story about her on Friday, after the US President told an Italian TV channel that she had “begged” him to take a photo with her at a G7 summit. Meloni said she was “astonished” by his comments, which were “completely made up”. She also chided him for acting with far greater deference to the enemies of the West than he does towards old, established allies. Underscoring how much Trump’s comments have angered Meloni’s government, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced he was cancelling a planned visit to the US next week.The latest exchange marks a sharp deterioration in ties, coming just days after signs emerged at the G7 summit that the two right-wing leaders had steadied a previously strained relationship following tensions this year over the war on Iran. Video from the event in France showed Meloni and Trump deep in conversation, sitting side-by-side on a small sofa, but the US leader suggested he had merely indulged her by chatting with her. “She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her,” Trump was quoted as saying by La7 TV channel in a brief interview, after he himself asked the journalist about Italy’s prime minister.“She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her,” Trump said, according to La7’s translation.
The channel did not release the original audio, just a dubbed version.
Meloni hits back in sharply worded statement
Meloni responded: “Donald Trump’s statements are completely made up. I am frankly astonished. I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves like this towards his allies: it is not the first time, moreover.”“I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence,” she said, adding: “There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg.”Announcing the cancellation of his planned US trip, Foreign Minister Tajani said on X: “The serious and offensive words of President Trump towards Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offend the whole of Italy.”Top Meloni official says Trump is destroying historic ties. One of Meloni’s closest political allies, who usually shuns the media spotlight, struck out at Trump using a tone that would have been unthinkable beforehand. “It is unclear whether out of intent or ineptitude (Trump) is wrecking the historic relations between the United States and Europe,” Giovanbattista Fazzolari, undersecretary to the prime minister’s office, said in a statement. “With his inappropriate outbursts, he has managed no easy feat, to make the United States unpopular across the entire European continent, damaging not only Europe but above all the United States,” he added. Meloni was once a vocal supporter of Trump and was the only European leader to attend his inauguration in 2025. However, she criticized him this year for lashing out at Pope Leo over his condemnation of the Iran conflict. That in turn prompted a blunt rebuke from the US president, who accused her of lacking courage.

The Latest LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 19-20 June/2026
'There Is a Serious Problem in My Country' A Conversation with Joël Rubinfeld, Part II
Grégoire Canlorbe/Gatestone Institute/June 19, 2026
Belgium... banned the overflight of aircraft carrying materials that could be used by Israel for military purposes. That is how my country treats the only democracy in the region, which is currently fighting an existential war on seven fronts -- not just to defend itself but to defend Western civilization. Belgium and other countries in Europe are trying to prevent Israel from defending itself -- and Europe!
In Belgium... there are people of integrity, but they remain the exception. In the political sphere, the most notable example is Georges-Louis Bouchez, president of the Mouvement Réformateur ("Reformist Movement," a center-right party)....
Two thousand years ago, Jews were accused of "deicide"; today, of "genocide." Antisemitism, like a virus, adapts to its environment. In Western societies, where religion is less important, the accusation is recast in the dominant language of the moment — that of human rights.
The problem is that he has to hold the coalition together.
In Belgium, the most notable example of a politician with integrity is Georges-Louis Bouchez, president of the Mouvement Réformateur, who regularly speaks out against antisemitism and defends pro-Israel positions.
Joël Rubinfeld is a founding member and president of the Belgian League Against Antisemitism and president of the Jewish Coalition for Kurdistan. He was president of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium, vice-president of the European Jewish Congress, and co-chairman of the European Jewish Parliament.
Grégoire Canlorbe: With the rise of antisemitism in Europe, what has been the result? Has there been an exodus of Jews from Belgium, and if so, what has been its scale?
Joël Rubinfeld: Yes, there has been, although there is no precise data. We might turn to the statistics of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which records how many Jews from different countries who settle in Israel under the Law of Return, the right to come "home" - called Aliyah, to go up. These figures make it possible to tell how many Belgian Jews move to Israel each year but do not include those moving to other countries. Many of these new arrivals are closely linked to the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe, which has unfolded in two main phases.
The first phase began in late September 2000, with the outbreak of the Second Intifada. The months that followed saw a re-emergence of unabashed antisemitism here in Belgium, mainly driven mainly by political and activist circles on the left. Since then, the spectrum has broadened.
From 2000, the numbers rose from around 60 departures a year to more than a fivefold increase over 15 years. Before this century, departures were generally driven by ideological or identity-based choices, such as idealism or Zionism, without any sense of urgency. From 2000 onward, a different dynamic emerged: whenever a conflict broke out in the Middle East, antisemitism spiked in Belgium. This happened during the Second Intifada, which began in 2000; then during the war with Hezbollah in 2006, then on four occasions during conflicts with Hamas (2008–2009, 2012, 2014, 2021). Events taking place thousands of kilometers away had a direct impact on the daily lives of Jews in Belgium.
The second phase took place in the last two-and-a-half years, starting with Hamas's invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023 -- but with a change in nature. One might have expected that the jihadist invasion of October 7, would trigger a wave of solidarity and empathy toward Israel. It did -- for maybe two hours. On the very day of the attack -- days before the IDF retaliated -- the antisemites you see today came out of the woodwork. They exploited the war in Gaza to advance their narrative and swell their ranks -- to the point of turning the debate into a form of institutional hostility.
This is also what took place in Belgium in most political parties. They began accusing Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza, calling for economic sanctions or even a boycott of the Jewish state. The latest example was the twelve-point anti-Israel plan pushed by Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, a leading figure and former president of the centrist party Les Engagés, The Committed Ones. The plan includes discriminatory measures targeting not only Israel, but also Belgian Jews.
One point, particularly troubling, is a case that came to us recently: Belgian citizens in the eastern part of Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria are denied access to Belgian consular services. A family of Belgian Jews living in Ma'aleh Adumim, in Judea, went to the Belgian consulate in Jerusalem the other day to renew their passports and were turned away. They then turned to the embassy in Tel Aviv and were refused as well. The message being sent was: "If you want a passport, move to the internationally recognized areas of Israel."
One must grasp the symbolic meaning of this: Judea is where the name "Jew" originated. Yet today, Belgian citizens of Jewish faith are being discriminated against for living on their own ancestral land.
The Belgian authorities try to defend themselves by claiming that this is not an ethnic specification, but a geographic one. In practice, however, this measure applies only to "Belgians residing in the settlements" — that is, Jews living in the Old City of Jerusalem or in Judea and Samaria. What is ironic is that a Belgian residing in Ramallah, for example, would face no obstacle in renewing their documents. Does this also mean that a Belgian living in East Jerusalem would receive consular services — provided they were not Jewish?
I actually put this question to the Foreign Ministry spokesperson; he dodged it. He claimed not to know the answer. The question, though, is simple: what is done for Belgians living in other disputed or occupied territories — Taiwan, Northern Cyprus, Crimea, Nagorno-Karabakh, and so on? There, one does not see exceptional treatment. This is clearly a double standard, like the special "legal status" imposed on Jews during the Second World War.
Belgium has also banned the overflight of aircraft carrying materials that could be used by Israel for military purposes. That is how my country treats the only democracy in the region, which is currently fighting an existential war on seven fronts--not just to defend itself but to defend Western civilization. Belgium and other countries in Europe are trying to prevent Israel from defending itself – and Europe!
Canlorbe: How do you and other Jews view the various antisemitic acts that have occurred in Belgium since October 7? Was October 7 a catalyst?
Rubinfeld: We witnessed not just a simple increase in antisemitic acts, but an explosion.
According to figures from Unia — the inter-federal body responsible for monitoring racism and discrimination — in the three months after October 7, 2023, reported antisemitic acts rose by 1,000% -- ten times higher than for the same period the previous year.
Another organization, Antisemitisme.be, recently published its figures for 2025, recording 232 antisemitic incidents – which may not seem all that many, but these figures remain far below the reality. They are just, as the saying goes, "the tip of the iceberg."
In Brussels, for instance, there is a "pro-Palestinian" demonstration in the city center every day. It is not authorized, but it is tolerated by the city's mayor. During these gatherings, participants openly chant the 2.0 slogan of the "Final Solution" -- "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" -- yet such incidents are not included in the statistics. If these daily occurrences alone were added, they would already exceed all official totals.
The problem is the trend. The official figures represent an 80% increase compared to 2024, which was already an abnormally high year after October 7, 2023, when levels were high.
Canlorbe: Are the French different from the Belgians in their attitude toward antisemitism?
Rubinfeld: Belgium broadly faces the same problems as France. The reactions, however, differ.
In France, when an antisemitic act takes place, it often triggers a clear public response: statements from political leaders, media coverage, and condemnations from public figures. This was seen again recently when the names of Jews were mangled by the leader of the French far left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The incident sparked an uproar and was denounced by many political, intellectual, and media figures.
In Belgium, this kind of mobilization is rare. Yes, there are people of integrity, but they remain the exception. In the political sphere, the most notable example is Georges-Louis Bouchez, president of the Mouvement Réformateur ("Reformist Movement," a center-right party), who regularly speaks out against antisemitism and defends pro-Israel positions.
Of the twelve Belgian political parties, eight have embraced what is currently the central antisemitic theme: falsely accusing Israel of "genocide" in Gaza. Three of the five parties are in the governing coalition — the foreign minister himself speaks that way.
At its core, there seems to be a historic, ancient hatred that changes its vocabulary according to the era. Two thousand years ago, Jews were accused of "deicide"; today, of "genocide." Antisemitism, like a virus, adapts to its environment. In Western societies, where religion is less important, the accusation is recast in the dominant language of the moment — that of human rights. In addition, there seems to be a linguistic drift: Israel means Zionist means Jew. By conflation, what begins as criticism of a state gradually turns into targeting people -- a "domino effect" -- in France and Belgium and other places as well.
Canlorbe: Unless I am mistaken, your family on both sides, had to flee countries where there was antisemitic persecution. Morocco joined the Abraham Accords. In Russia, Federal Law No. 128-FZ of May 5, 2014 criminalizes Holocaust denial and the approval of Nazi crimes. In your view, are Morocco and Russia fallback options for Jews?
Joël Rubinfeld: Yes, the last three generations of my father's family had to flee antisemitic persecution, first from Russian pogroms, then from Poland, then, in 1939, from Austria, after which, they found refuge in Belgium.
On my mother's side, the story is different. She was born in Morocco and had to leave her country in 1960 amid a growing climate of insecurity for Jews. Further back, her family descends from Jews expelled from Spain at the time of the Inquisition — under Isabella the Catholic and Torquemada — who found refuge in Morocco in 1492. Life there was not always idyllic, but my mother's family were able to remain on the same land for nearly five centuries.
Today, as his ancestors did before him, the King of Morocco protects the Jews, but very few remain. When my mother was born in 1943, there were nearly 300,000 Jews in Morocco; today, the number is estimated at 2,000 to 3,000. Despite this, I feel a bond with the country. I do not feel a bond with Austria. I feel somewhat at home in Morocco. In fact, I feel safer walking around in Morocco than in many neighborhoods in Brussels.
I know Russian Jews living in Moscow, and they seem to live there normally. However, Russia does not really seem like a fallback option, not least because of local practices when it comes to democracy and freedom of expression.
Canlorbe: Trump is probably the most pro-Israel president America has ever had. Do you have any concerns that the MAGA movement, despite Trump's support for Israel, could become a springboard for a new generation of right-wing antisemites?
Rubinfeld: Antisemitic tendencies can be found in every camp. On the radical fringe of the MAGA movement and the American far right, influencers such as Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Nick Fuentes are injecting the antisemitic poison into the minds of millions of young people online. It is a real problem that needs to be confronted with the utmost determination.
On the Republican side, this type of discourse is relatively recent and has mainly developed around purveyors of hate active on social media. But over the past twenty years, it is above all within the Democratic camp that antisemitism has gained ground through its radical wing, such as the "Squad."
One must fully grasp the significance of certain political signals, such as the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York. His election may herald a national trend, in two, six, or ten years. This is all the more striking given that New York is, outside Israel, the city with the world's largest Jewish population.
Antisemitism is universal. It can be found on the left and on the right. Herbert Pagani in Plea for My Land (Plaidoyer pour ma terre) summed it up: the left-wing antisemite blames the Jews for being capitalists, while the right-wing antisemite blames them for being revolutionaries.
Canlorbe: In Belgium and France, where socialism and anti-Zionism have risen simultaneously, do you see any connection?
Joël Rubinfeld: Antisemitism fits nicely with the views of the far left. Some authors regarded as foundational have made explicitly antisemitic statements. Karl Marx, for instance, in On the Jewish Question (1843), evidently innocent of the psychological device known as projection --attributing to others aspects of yourself of which you feel ashamed -- "What is the secular basis of Judaism? Practical need, self-interest. What is the secular cult of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his secular God? Money. Very well then! In emancipating itself from huckstering and money, and thus from real and practical Judaism, our age would emancipate itself."
This passage contains a line of thinking still present in certain minds: the idea that "the Jew" embodies money, calculation, enslavement, and that, in order to be "free", one must "emancipate oneself" from Jews. This twisted rhetoric culminated in the industrial-scale mass-extermination of Jews carried out by Nazi Germany.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon also expresses a rather raw antisemitism: "The Jew is the enemy of the human race. This race must be sent back to Asia, or exterminated." "Rothschild, Crémieux, Marx, Fould — malicious, bilious, envious, acrid beings (...) The Jew must disappear: by iron, by fire, or by expulsion."
Proudhon even includes Marx, although he was not, strictly speaking, Jewish: his grandfathers were indeed rabbis, but his parents had converted to Protestantism, and Marx was baptized at the age of six. Yet beyond personal rivalries and sectarian quarrels, the central idea remains: the Jew — or the presumed Jew — is portrayed as the incarnation of evil.
The same interpretive lens is at work today among certain frameworks: whether one calls it wokism, intersectionality, or Islamo-leftism, one often finds a Marxist worldview divided between oppressors and oppressed. The designated enemy is "the white person," and even more so "the white male"; within a Marxian or Proudhonian logic, "the Jew" ends up being portrayed as a kind of "super-white" — the ultimate enemy.
Antisemitism: it reaches levels of verbal and physical violence rarely seen in other forms of hatred, because it does not merely target an individual or a group; it constructs a totalizing myth — that of a supposedly omnipresent, corrupting force responsible for all evils.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Although Bart De Wever condemned the October 7 attack, he refused to support Israel in the war in Gaza; moreover, he conditionally recognized the Palestinian state. Is that really a policy worthy of someone claiming to support Israel?
Joël Rubinfeld: The reality is more complex.
Within the coalition, there are five parties, three of which follow an anti-Israel line: the Flemish Christian Democrats, the Flemish socialists, and the French-speaking centrists. On the other side are the government's two heavyweight parties: the Flemish nationalists — De Wever's party — and the French-speaking center-right party led by Georges-Louis Bouchez.
Bart De Wever is neither an outspoken critic of Israel nor an unwavering supporter; yet if most likely, if left to his own judgment, he would stand on Israel's side rather than oppose it.
The problem is that he has to hold the coalition together. The three anti-Israel parties are smaller, but each could bring down the majority by leaving the government. And for those parties, the Palestinian cause has become a central electoral issue — in a sense, a matter of political survival. So De Wever is not hostile to Israel; he is above all constrained by the internal balance of his coalition.
On the question of recognizing Palestine, Bart De Wever accepted a conditional formula: the anti-Israel parties wanted immediate recognition, as Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and others did — and as France later put on the agenda. De Wever and Bouchez did not want to go that far.
In the end, it is a "Belgian compromise": no one is happy, but no one is entirely losing either.
Canlorbe: What hopes do you place in conservative [in French: libéral] politician Georges-Louis Bouchez?
Rubinfeld: He represents the main political shield for Belgium's Jews. And I do mean the man, more than the party: if he were replaced tomorrow by someone more lukewarm, it is not unthinkable that the Reformist Movement, too, could end up on the wrong side of history.
What makes the difference is his personality. Bouchez is a straight-talker, someone who is neither impressed nor intimidated. In a context where media, activist, and electoral pressure push many politicians into making concessions, this ability to stand firm makes all the difference. Georges-Louis Bouchez may not have Winston Churchill's composure, but he does have his resolve.
© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Is Cyrus turning Judas?As Trump ‘calls the shots’ over Iran, Israel is urged to trust in the Lord, not men.
Charles Gardner/Israel Today/June 19, 2026
While complicated negotiations with Iran over a ceasefire deal with the US are still clearly in progress, it’s difficult to know quite how to interpret it all. Except that it looks a lot like President Trump is throwing Israel under the bus. The man who had appeared to be a modern-day Cyrus figure is turning out to be a potential Judas, leaving Israel at the mercy of terrorists while ensuring the safe passage of oil. He is reported to have told journalists, “I call the shots, not him,” with reference to his erstwhile ally Bibi Netanyahu. But such arrogance will be laughed at by the God who still sees Israel as the apple of his eye because, at the end of the day, it is the Lord of heaven and earth who is in control and who keeps watching over his Word to see that it comes to pass.
Mr Trump has apparently started something he refuses to finish. The truth, however, is that it’s not so much that Israel needs America as the other way around, as US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has intimated. Israel is on the frontline of the battle for Judeo-Christian (i.e. Western) civilization, with American soldiers not yet involved on the ground. And whether they reach nuclear bomb capability or not, Iran remains determined to wipe out the Jewish state. Their proxy Hezbollah keeps firing towards that end from Lebanon, but the President wants Israel to meekly lay down their arms.
It’s very naïve to think Iran’s current leaders are suddenly being reasonable and with good intentions; the US leader should heed the wise advice Winston Churchill once offered to appeasers in our Parliament that you cannot negotiate with the devil. Meanwhile, sensing our weakness no doubt, the Russians have fired a warning shot at a British yacht in the English Channel while our leaders are too busy navel-gazing to notice the urgent need for a viable navy. (Having said that, new Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis is a supporter of Israel, so watch this space.) For it is weak leaders, pandering to left-wing wokery, who have helped the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah to survive.
Recognising a Palestinian state that doesn’t exist, as Britain and other leading nations have done to their shame, amounts to a commitment to dividing the land God has given to his ancient people. I am reminded of a prophecy given by the late Lance Lambert in 2010 to the effect that “devastating judgment” would be unleashed on nations pursuing such a plan.
“Their economies would fail, their financial system break down, and even their climate would fail them,” he declared, adding: “Old and powerful nations will become as if they are Third World countries, and the likes of China and India would arise to take their place.”
Moreover, it was “arrogance” to think that God’s eternal promises could be defied. But amidst all this shaking, two peoples were not to fear – “the true and living Church and Israel”.
As Christian Friends of Israel spokesman David Soakell has pointed out, it was Cairo-born Yasser Arafat who invented the idea of a Palestinian people, even receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Yet the irony of this was his declaring that “Peace for us [the Arabs] means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations.”
David adds that “unless the head is cut off the snake, the deathly poisonous bite will remain”, adding that the ‘invention’ of a Palestinian people was the greatest marketing stunt of the twentieth century.
Meanwhile the long-running, and unprovoked, Hamas aggression from Gaza – culminating in the barbaric massacre of October 7th, 2023 – was the ‘peace offering’ from those, including America, who pressured Israel into withdrawing from the strip in 2005. ‘Land for peace’, they were assured. Give away some of what little land you have, and conflict will cease. How much more of this kind of ‘peace’ can the Jewish people afford?
We in the West should hang our heads in shame over our failure to stand foursquare with Israel, without whom we would never have received the gospel of peace that Jesus brought to the world. It’s time to repent of our shocking betrayal, or we may have to face the certain judgment of the God who has said: “In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.” (Joel 3:1f)
In the meantime, Israel may well end up alone – even without American support as the prophet Ezekiel suggests (see chapters 38 & 39) when all the nations come against them. But the Lord will be their helper.
As the Israelites of old were counselled: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.” (2 Chronicles 20:15)
https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/is-cyrus-turning-judas/
**Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; To the Jew First, A Nation Reborn, and King of the Jews, all available from Christian Publications International.

Question: Why are there so many different Christian interpretations?
GotQuestions.org/June 19/2026
Answer: Scripture says there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). This passage emphasizes the unity that should exist in the body of Christ as we are indwelt by “one Spirit” (verse 4). In verse 3, Paul makes an appeal to humility, meekness, patience, and love—all of which are necessary to preserve unity. According to 1 Corinthians 2:10-13, the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God (verse 11), which He reveals (verse 10) and teaches (verse 13) to those whom He indwells. This activity of the Holy Spirit is called illumination.
In a perfect world, every believer would dutifully study the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15) in prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit’s illumination. As can be clearly seen, this is not a perfect world. Not everyone who possesses the Holy Spirit actually listens to the Holy Spirit. There are Christians who grieve Him (Ephesians 4:30). Ask any educator—even the best classroom teacher has his share of wayward students who seem to resist learning, no matter what the teacher does. So, one reason different people have different interpretations of the Bible is simply that some do not listen to the Teacher—the Holy Spirit. Following are some other reasons for the wide divergence of beliefs among those who teach the Bible.
1. Unbelief. The fact is that many who claim to be Christians have never been born again. They wear the label of “Christian,” but there has been no true change of heart. Many who do not even believe the Bible to be true presume to teach it. They claim to speak for God yet live in a state of unbelief. Most false interpretations of Scripture come from such sources.
It is impossible for an unbeliever to correctly interpret Scripture. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). An unsaved man cannot understand the truth of the Bible. He has no illumination. Further, even being a pastor or theologian does not guarantee one’s salvation.
An example of the chaos created by unbelief is found in John 12:28-29. Jesus prays to the Father, saying, “Father, glorify your name.” The Father responds with an audible voice from heaven, which everyone nearby hears. Notice, however, the difference in interpretation: “The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.” Everyone heard the same thing—an intelligible statement from heaven—yet everyone heard what he wanted to hear.
2. Lack of training. The apostle Peter warns against those who misinterpret the Scriptures. He attributes their spurious teachings in part to the fact that they are “ignorant” (2 Peter 3:16). Timothy is told to “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). There is no shortcut to proper biblical interpretation; we are constrained to study.
3. Poor hermeneutics. Much error has been promoted because of a simple failure to apply good hermeneutics (the science of interpreting Scripture). Taking a verse out of its immediate context can do great damage to the intent of the verse. Ignoring the wider context of the chapter and book, or failing to understand the historical/cultural context will also lead to problems.
4. Ignorance of the whole Word of God. Apollos was a powerful and eloquent preacher, but he only knew the baptism of John. He was ignorant of Jesus and His provision of salvation, so his message was incomplete. Aquila and Priscilla took him aside and “explained to him the way of God more adequately” (Acts 18:24-28). After that, Apollos preached Jesus Christ. Some groups and individuals today have an incomplete message because they concentrate on certain passages to the exclusion of others. They fail to compare Scripture with Scripture.
5. Selfishness and pride. Sad to say, many interpretations of the Bible are based on an individual’s own personal biases and pet doctrines. Some people see an opportunity for personal advancement by promoting a “new perspective” on Scripture. (See the description of false teachers in Jude’s epistle.)
6. Failure to mature. When Christians are not maturing as they should, their handling of the Word of God is affected. “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly” (1 Corinthians 3:2-3). An immature Christian is not ready for the “meat” of God’s Word. Note that the proof of the Corinthians’ carnality is a division in their church (verse 4).
7. Undue emphasis on tradition. Some churches claim to believe the Bible, but their interpretation is always filtered through the established traditions of their church. Where tradition and the teaching of the Bible are in conflict, tradition is given precedence. This effectively negates the authority of the Word and grants supremacy to the church leadership.
On the essentials, the Bible is abundantly clear. There is nothing ambiguous about the deity of Christ, the reality of heaven and hell, and salvation by grace through faith. On some issues of less importance, however, the teaching of Scripture is less clear, and this naturally leads to different interpretations. For example, we have no direct biblical command governing the frequency of communion or the style of music to use. Honest, sincere Christians can have differing interpretations of the passages concerning these peripheral issues.
The important thing is to be dogmatic where Scripture is and to avoid being dogmatic where Scripture is not. Churches should strive to follow the model of the early church in Jerusalem: “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). There was unity in the early church because they were steadfast in the apostles’ doctrine. There will be unity in the church again when we get back to the apostles’ doctrine and forego the other doctrines, fads, and gimmicks that have crept into the church.

What does the US-Iran agreement reveal about the true winners and losers of the war?
Jonathan Gornall/Arab News/June 19, 2026
LONDON: When President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, Barack Obama, who as his predecessor had forged the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, warned that doing so “without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake.”
The US, Obama added, “could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East.”Eight years on, that predicted war, triggered by the surprise joint attack on Iran by the US and Israel on February 28, has now been fought and — temporarily, at least — halted. But following the publication on Thursday of the 1,050-word memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran, analysts say the war has ended in a strategic defeat for the US that has left Iran, and its nuclear ambitions, in a far stronger position than before.“On the face of it, it’s a terrible agreement for everyone except Iran,” said Sir John Jenkins, former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq. “I also think there’s a dilemma for the GCC. If the US can’t be trusted to secure their national interests, who can?”For Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, professor in global thought and comparative philosophies at the UK’s School of Oriental and African Studies and co-director of the Centre for Iranian Studies, the MoU is “a huge strategic defeat for both Trump and Netanyahu as they didn’t achieve any of their self-declared goals with this disastrous war.”“Rather, Iran is now in the position to dictate what happens in Lebanon and Palestine with more leverage than ever before in recent history.” Furthermore, “there is also a growing realization in the US that supporting Israel’s war crimes comes with a heavy political and economic price.”
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which endured indiscriminate and unprovoked attacks by Iran during the conflict, have expressed diplomatic support for the agreement, which, if it is adhered to by all parties for the next 60 days, at least secures immediate relief from bombardment. The Saudi Council of Ministers “expressed hope that peace would be achieved in a manner that enhances regional and global security while taking into account the security interests of countries in the region and respecting their internal affairs.”
There was a similar message from the UAE’s foreign ministry, which stressed “the importance of ‌dialogue, ⁠diplomacy and adherence to international law.”Writing for Arab News this week, Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ali Reza Enayati, argued that the conflict had exposed the limitations of the region’s traditional security architecture and should serve as a catalyst for a new order based on cooperation, economic integration and shared responsibility among regional states.
Enayati outlined a vision built around four principles: a nonpolar regional system in which security is managed collectively by regional countries rather than external powers; a greater emphasis on political solutions to conflicts and the lifting of sanctions; deeper economic cooperation and trade; and recognition that security and development are indivisible across the region. He also stressed Iran’s readiness to work with neighboring countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, to build a framework aimed at long-term stability, growth and prosperity. But while the MoU makes no provision for Tehran to compensate the Gulf states for the extensive damage they have suffered under Iranian bombardment, the US “undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”Additionally, the US Treasury Department will issue waivers to allow the export of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives, and the US “undertakes to make fully available for use the frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”On Monday, three days before the wording of the MoU was revealed, a joint statement by the E4 — France, Germany, Italy and the UK, joined by 30 other countries — welcomed the “diplomatic breakthrough” as “a moment of opportunity to restore regional stability and stabilize the global economy.”Yet every one of six analysts approached by Arab News agreed that, in the words of Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute specializing in US foreign policy and national security, the MoU represents only “an expensive return to the prewar status quo, with the additional costs of greater skepticism and uncertainty among US regional partners about America’s overall strategic reliability.”Trump, said Christian Emery, an associate professor in international politics at University College London, “has achieved none of his aims for the war.”
“A regime that seemed to be teetering under the weight of domestic protest now has renewed confidence that it can withstand the most powerful military in the world and use its own hard power and geography to reshape the region to its advantage.”Before the war, he said, both the US and Israel insisted that “any deal on the nuclear issue must see Iran end its support for regional proxies and accept major limits on its ballistic missile capabilities.”But “those two demands have now disappeared from the memorandum of understanding, and Washington has stopped trying to link them to the final agreement.” For Ibrahim Al-Marashi, professor of Middle East history at California State University San Marcos, the MoU represents “an absolute costly return to the prewar status that not only leaves core tensions unresolved, it is the outcome of what essentially became a Gulf civil war as a result of the US intervention. And that Gulf civil war will take years, if not decades, to resolve.”“The only thing that was achieved was the demonstration of Iran’s ability to bring the greatest war machine to a standstill by destabilizing its immediate environment.”
Under the terms of the MoU, the US has also agreed to remove its naval blockade of Iran and to withdraw all its forces “from the proximity of the Islamic Republic of Iran” within 30 days after the final deal is struck. Iran’s only commitment, meanwhile, is to allow shipping to return to the prewar status quo of free passage through the Strait of Hormuz, with no charge — but only for 60 days. The MoU states that “the traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start,” but then adds that “considering the need for removing the technical and military obstacles and demining by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will be instated within 30 days.”What might happen after 60 days is anyone’s guess. The MoU provides only that Iran “will conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz in discussion with other Persian Gulf littoral states” — states that might reasonably wonder why Iran is now being given any say at all over the legal free passage of vessels through the strait.
“If Iran is able to assert its illegal claim to control the strait, then it’s a money-spinner and a threat of future closure at any time,” Sir John said. “I don’t see how the GCC can live with this.”
The war, said Caroline Rose, a senior director at the Soufan Center specializing in security and defense in the Middle East and North Africa, “has shown the geopolitical fragility of the Strait of Hormuz.” “I don’t think we will see the prewar levels of maritime traffic through the strait again, as shipping companies and countries are now in a race to diversify and identify alternative routes.”
But for many, the most astonishing part of the MoU relates to Iran’s nuclear program.
When Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, and reimposed the sanctions it had removed, he declared it to be “a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.”
But now the MoU obliges the US to “terminate all types of sanctions” against Iran, which in turn “reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons” — exactly the position the two countries were in under the terms of the JCPOA before it was scrapped by Trump.
In June 2025, following the Operation Midnight Hammer attacks on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth praised Trump for “decimating — choose your word — obliterating, destroying, Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”Now, however, the MoU tacitly acknowledges that Iran’s nuclear program and stockpile of enriched uranium had not in fact been eliminated.
Point 8 states that the US and Iran have agreed “to resolve the disposition of stockpiled enriched material” and “to discuss the issue of enrichment and other mutually agreed matters related to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear needs.”Pending the final deal, Iran “will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program, and the United States of America will not impose any new sanctions and will not deploy additional forces in the region.” What is clear from the MoU, said Emery, is that “all Trump really cares about at this stage is restoring freedom of navigation in the Gulf and getting markets to react accordingly.” “On the nuclear issue, the minimum he needs is for Iran not to be seen as developing a nuclear weapon and for there to be the appearance of a process that will eventually determine the fate of Iran’s enriched nuclear material.” The MoU commits the US and Iran to “negotiating and achieving the final deal” in a maximum of 60 days. That, said Al-Marashi, is a wholly unrealistic timeframe. “Time is on Iran’s side,” he said. “Iran has found a way to weaponize time. Procrastination over the next 60 days is a strategic goal of Iran.”Tehran, Emery said, “is under little pressure to agree to major concessions for the sake of a quick deal. They have never felt compelled to do so before, and they now believe the US has much less leverage, having already played its ultimate coercive card: military force.”“Iran may be tempted to wait and see whether Trump emerges further weakened by November’s midterm elections before making any major concessions of its own.”The MoU contains a provision allowing the talks to be extended by mutual consent and, Emery said, “it seems inevitable that this will be necessary.”
“The 60-day window is simply too short to negotiate a technically complex agreement covering enrichment limits, inspections, sanctions relief, dispute resolution, procurement, implementation schedules, and verification mechanisms. “Even the initial process of verifying how much enriched uranium Iran possesses poses a far greater technical challenge than it did in the lead-up to the JCPOA.”For Rose, the 60-day timeframe to seal a final deal “is a direct reflection of how fast the Trump administration wants to close the book on this conflict ahead of midterms and dodge congressional application of the War Powers Act.”“The Iranian regime will likely wait this process out and resist giving up major pieces of leverage.”Official Israeli silence over the terms of the MoU speaks volumes.
As an ally of the US, the document commits Israel to “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” and to not initiating “any war or any military operation” and “ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.”
The final deal, it adds, “will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”In Israel, commentators have greeted the deal as “a catastrophic capitulation” to Iran, which leaves Israel “vulnerable and constrained.”For the Gulf states, Rose added: “The real spoiler after the 60-day period would be a potential Israeli campaign against Iran. This would not only revive intra-regional escalation but could (again) place targets on the backs of Gulf countries with strikes on infrastructural and civilian sites of interest. “Gulf states will want to avoid this scenario entirely and secure assurances from Tel Aviv that there will be no continuation of escalation after the US and Iran secure a deal.” In addition to causing global economic harm and significant loss of life, the war, Brian Katulis said, “has also resulted in a reordering of a fragile balance of power in the Middle East, and the region remains in disequilibrium.”
Among the issues that the MoU fails to address directly is Iran’s use of regional proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. “Because this deal does not address many core issues that led to the conflict and because the Trump administration has such a poor track record in producing lasting diplomatic outcomes on the global stage, it seems inevitable that some return to conflict will take place,” Katulis said. Not entirely inevitable, Adib-Moghaddam believes.
“We are witnessing a historical shift in the regional dynamics, as outsourcing security to the US military actually translated into an intense security dilemma for the Arab monarchies,” he said.
“Real security for the Gulf requires including Iran and Iraq in a viable architecture driven by regional states. “This is the only option left after this war, and the sooner this reality (is embraced), the sooner the peoples of the region can live their lives without the brutality of these ongoing conflicts.”

Will Tehran rejoice and Netanyahu worry following US-Iran agreement?
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/June 19, 2026
History may repeat itself. We do not forget the iconic scene of Iranian Minister Javad Zarif standing on the balcony of the Palais Coburg Hotel in Vienna 11 years ago, waving to journalists with a smile after signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
It was a spectacular Iranian victory, co-signed by US President Barack Obama. All of Europe supported it, and China and Russia were witnesses. Vienna’s joy was short-lived as the JCPOA was quickly torn up by Obama’s successor, Donald Trump. Relations became strained, ports were closed, oil tankers were pursued, and Iran was besieged. The new agreement struck by US Vice President JD Vance and Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, subsequently signed by President Trump, is preliminary, with a deadline of no less than two months to reach a final detailed agreement. Trump wants a propaganda victory, deliberately signing it at the Palace of Versailles, echoing the treaty that ended World War I. However, Versailles was also a symbol of a treaty of sin; it led to the more destructive World War II. Ghalibaf can feel extremely pleased with the victory over Trump’s negotiating team, led by Vance and his advisors Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. In the chaos and ambiguity surrounding the framework agreement, I believe the most important question is not about opening the Strait of Hormuz, or collecting Iran’s frozen billions, or supporting Iran with an additional $300 billion, but about its continuity and the possibility of its collapse.
The agreement rehabilitates Tehran’s regime as a regional power.
Most of the funds Iran will acquire in the coming weeks are likely to go primarily towards strengthening the military position, not to support living conditions or the Iranian economy
Vance’s theory is that the Iranian regime will discover through the new economic rescue that peace is its best option. Unfortunately, it echoes what Obama said after signing the JCPOA. In April 2015, he stated that the agreement “will strengthen the more moderate forces within Iran.”
Obama’s theory was quickly proven wrong as the Iranian regime intensified its crackdown on its citizens, benefiting from its political victory and new funds. The Quds Force led by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps head Qasem Soleimani encroached beyond its borders, with militias flocking to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and other places.
Most of the funds Tehran will acquire in the coming weeks are likely to go primarily towards strengthening the military position, not to support living conditions or the Iranian economy. The Iranian leadership fears the possibility of a return to war against it, and its political doctrine considers Iran a military power, harnessing all its resources for this strategy. Tehran’s new leadership will need enormous sums to rehabilitate its defensive and offensive capabilities, utilizing the frozen funds and significant oil sales at high prices it will obtain under the agreement. Meanwhile, Israel watches the scene with anger, anxiety, and vigilance. It is unlikely to accept Iran’s return as a major regional power threatening it, especially after having sought to undermine it. Therefore, it will seek to pressure Trump to correct the course of negotiations.
The framework agreement will not only face objections from Israel, and partly the Gulf, but also skepticism from within the Trump administration.
Despite its many drawbacks, the positive aspect of the preliminary agreement is that it has made it easier for both parties to back away from fighting, which would have been difficult given domestic and international public opinion. It also offers both sides an opportunity to return and negotiate the details. There are many pitfalls that the agreement did not address and will be points of concern later, and negotiators may succeed in restricting Iran’s activities and military capabilities.
Despite his reprimands and insults to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump cannot ignore him or Israeli public opinion. He needs American Jewish support. Trump also cannot ignore the Republican Party hawks; they are his inner circle and protect his back in Congressional conflicts. All of them are satisfied with the nuclear agreement, but some will oppose giving Iran free rein in the region. The final conclusion is that lifting sanctions and allowing it to sell oil will provide Iran with about $200 billion annually, along with a financial fund for its reconstruction, which will ultimately grant it about half a trillion dollars. This will make Iran a greater monster than it was before. It is likely that Netanyahu will return to lead the military scene in the region if subsequent negotiations fail to change Iran’s path.

How Iran, the US and the Gulf can build something that lasts
Hassan Al-Mustafa/Arab News/June 19, 2026
Saudi Arabia began where any serious reading of the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran had to begin — with the one issue everything else hinges on: the security of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Kingdom’s Council of Ministers welcomed the deal to halt military operations and open detailed talks toward a lasting settlement, but it attached a condition in the same breath. Freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, it said, must be restored to what it was before Feb. 28. in a way that strengthens the security of the region and the world, respects the security interests of the region’s states and leaves their internal affairs alone.
So, Riyadh, which threw its diplomatic weight behind the mediation led by Pakistan and Qatar, takes the view that no agreement is worth the name unless it serves the interests of the Arab Gulf. Its statement on Tuesday made that explicit, naming three conditions it treats as nonnegotiable foundations: safe passage restored through the Strait of Hormuz, respect for internal affairs, and due regard for security interests. Strip any of them out and the agreement cannot hold.
Riyadh takes the view that no agreement is worth the name unless it serves the interests of the Arab Gulf. Behind that position is a clear worry: that the understanding will be left half-built, that the region will slide back to where it started or that Washington and Tehran will retreat into a private, narrow bargain that waves away the concerns of the Gulf capitals. Those capitals are, after all, Tehran’s neighbors and they absorbed Iranian attacks throughout the recent war. Yet they declined to join the fighting, holding to self-defense and to “strategic patience” — wagering that diplomacy, slow and costly as it is, remains the surest way to settle matters with Iran. What they ask of Iran in return is simple: that it build its relations on good neighborliness and gives up both the export of its revolution and the funding of its proxies.
Riyadh knows that a truce means little while the causes of conflict remain. It wants talks with Tehran that are practical and specific, aimed squarely at those causes — the kind that produce a stable neighborhood in which states can cooperate or compete across politics, trade, sport and development without lurching toward confrontation or estrangement.
This is why the framework cannot be treated as a private American-Iranian matter. Shift the status of the Strait of Hormuz or the rules of deterrence between Washington and Tehran and the tremor runs straight through the Arab Gulf and into the global economy. The question that matters, then, is not the signature itself but the structure beneath it: how to build an agreement sturdy enough to outlast its first few weeks; one that hands each side a legitimate win without leaving the Gulf to pay later for gaps no one was willing to discuss at the time.
Holding the ceasefire and starting nuclear talks on a fixed 60-day clock will demand a real scaffolding — political, security and economic — that makes compliance more attractive to every party than a slide back into escalation and that gives every state in the region a genuine stake in the outcome.The agreement must guarantee full freedom of navigation outright: no political tolls, no unilateral security arrangements, no threat — overt or implied — to commercial ships and oil tankers.
Each side can claim its prize. Iran can tell its public it secured recognition of its geographic role under international law, rather than the fait accompli it has tried to impose. The US can say it reopened a vital artery without a full-blown war. The Gulf states need more than words, they need a rigorous maritime monitoring regime that keeps the strait from becoming a lever of blackmail at the first nuclear or regional quarrel. The second file ties economic relief to verified conduct. Iran needs a financial lifeline for its drained treasury, while Washington wants measurable behavior on the nuclear program and on the actions of the Revolutionary Guard and its militias. The remedy is sequencing: lift oil restrictions, ease payments, open investment — but in stages, with every economic concession matched by a documented step on security or the nuclear file.
The third file is the program itself. The stockpile of highly enriched uranium must be brought under control and regular inspections established under the authority of the International Atomic Energy Agency — clearly enough to protect Iran’s right to a transparent, peaceful civilian program while closing off the path to a weapon. Any dash for that threshold would set the whole Middle East racing toward the bomb. The fourth file is regional influence. No deal between Washington and Tehran will survive if Arab countries keep being used as bargaining chips. Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have become arenas for trading military signals, at a steep cost to their stability and their people’s safety. They must recover their full sovereignty, with their own central governments — not “substate forces” — holding the decisions of war and peace.
None of this will come easily. But it is the only way to build durable Gulf-American-Iranian understandings — ones that lift the tension dragging on the economies of the region and the world, and that give diplomacy, development and partnership their standing back.
*Hassan Al-Mustafa is a Saudi writer and researcher specializing in Islamist movements, the evolution of religious discourse, and Gulf-Iran relations.
X: @Halmustafa

The key features of the region’s emerging security architecture
Ali Reza Enayati/Arab News/June 19, 2026
On Monday, Iran and the US signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war, with several countries in the region playing an important role in securing the agreement and making intensive efforts to provide the necessary political groundwork for it.
These diplomatic efforts reflect a clear understanding of the importance of stability in this vital region, whose repercussions extend beyond the regional level and directly affect international security. But does the American war imposed on Iran, along with its regional ramifications, represent a setback to the traditional regional order we have known for decades, or does it reflect a reassessment of the foundations of the previous system and mark a turning point in the shaping of a new order? And in such a pivotal historical moment, should efforts not be directed toward shaping a new regional order founded on security and stability for all, while placing greater emphasis on economic growth and development? These are questions we do not seek to answer directly but rather to explore from a positive perspective in search of the most constructive path forward.In theory, the new order emerging from the 40-day war may be defined by four main features that set it apart from the previous one.
Firstly, the new regional order is founded on a nonpolar framework in which multilateral cooperation among the region’s states is based on equality, moving away from the old pattern of polarization that set one bloc against another. This proposed order is carried by its eight constituent states, without exclusion and within a framework of sustained interdependence. Regional security, in this model, is a shared responsibility, with no direct role for external powers, which would instead cooperate with the new system.
The new regional order is founded on a nonpolar framework in which multilateral cooperation is based on equality. Secondly, political solutions must stay at the forefront of addressing all outstanding issues in the region, rather than reducing the broader reality to the 40-day war alone. Lasting peace and stability cannot be achieved as long as other conflicts remain unresolved and economic sanctions are not lifted. Thirdly, moving beyond an excessive focus on the geopolitical foundations of relations among the countries of the region, especially in light of the weak economic cooperation between them. No future solution can succeed without strengthening trade, expanding economic cooperation among regional states and giving greater priority to development projects.
Finally, respect for the shared destiny of the region’s countries in matters of security and development is essential, as neither can be achieved in one part of the region at the cost of instability in another. What is needed is a comprehensive framework that embraces all states without fragmenting their security or development. The experience of war has shown that security is indivisible and that all states must contribute to safeguarding it and benefit from it equally.
It is important to note that there is broad scope for regional and international interdependence with developments in the region in pursuit of legitimate interests. However, it should also be emphasized that the Zionist entity should have no place in these equations because, unlike other states, it is not a natural part of the region. Rather, it is a colonial project imposed through an apartheid system against the Palestinians and one that seeks to generate crises across the region.
It is essential to emphasize that, if the region is to overcome the security dilemma it currently faces, it must move beyond the previous order and give greater priority to nonpolarity, the peaceful resolution of all disputes, recognition of a shared destiny and reliance on its own capabilities.
To realize the desired goals of building a new security system, the Islamic Republic of Iran is prepared to cooperate with its neighbors, particularly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to work together toward shaping a brighter future in which the region’s countries enjoy economic and commercial growth, ensuring well-being and prosperity for generations to come.
*Ali Reza Enayati is Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Selected Face Book & X tweets on 19 June/2026
John Bolton

Trump’s deal gives Iran the ability to bring in billions of dollars and fund the rebuilding of the instruments of state power. This will reconstitute Iran’s terror proxies in the region and around the world, putting us right back to where we were before.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
It always puzzles me why the insistence on Tel Aviv as the capital of the “genocidal cult.” The cult government has its seat of power in Jerusalem. If you don’t recognize Israel anyway, why the preference for Tel Aviv as the capital of what you don’t recognize and not Jerusalem.

Dennis Ross
If Iran is holding up the implementation of the MoU and the opening of the Straits over Lebanon this demonstrates the folly of allowing them to link the issues. We cannot want the MoU more than Iran. This also shows how Iran’s leaders will continue to use their leverage on the Straits unless they see what they have to lose.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Iran is holding America responsible for Israeli “attacks” on “Lebanon.” (These are Israeli responses to Hezbollah’s attacks). If America does pressure Israel to stop, the Middle East has gotten itself a new sheriff: The racist, radical, crazy, Islamic regime of Iran.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Lebanon and Hezbollah claim that Israel killed civilians in its last response to Hezbollah’s attacks. The truth is that whenever there is a ceasefire, Hezbollah embeds its fighters with families that pretend to be going back home, to the depopulated zone Israel is controlling. By taking civilians to the war zone, Hezbollah puts them in danger in its bid to reclaim land, not only reach a ceasefire.

Marco Fattorini
https://x.com/MarcoFattorini/status/2067918162213892351/video/1
Giorgia Meloni's response: "Donald Trump's statements are completely made up, I'm frankly appalled. I don't know why the President of the United States behaves this way with his own allies; after all, it's not the first time it's happened. I can only say it's a shame that he doesn't show the same determination with the enemies of the West, with the enemies of the United States, with leaderships toward which he instead proves much more accommodating; however, one thing he must remember: I and Italy never beg."

Lindsey Graham
Completely agree with President Trump’s analysis that Iran’s capability to generate another October 7 or continue to be the largest state sponsor of terrorism on the planet has been massively degraded. To those who say Iran is stronger now than before, that is an insult to the American military and it is delusional thinking because the Iranian economy is in shambles.
Mr. President, continue to try to find a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and other issues that have plagued the world since 1979. The day diplomacy is off the table will present America and our allies with some very stark choices. In the meantime, as we pursue diplomacy, make it crystal clear that Israel will not have to tolerate being attacked by Iranian proxies who cause parts of Israel to be uninhabitable. Pray for peace.

Aryo
IRGC strength wasn't navy or air force.
It has always been missiles and drones plus nuke labs.
They still have lots rockets
They still have drones
They still have nuclear enrichment
IRGC is now completely in charge of Hormuz Strait, meaning they have control of US Gas pumps
And we are paying them 300 billions

John Spencer
The relationship between the U.S. and Israel is not transactional, it is a long and vital partnership, but the next time you hear the tired question of "What does the U.S. get for $3.8 Billion to Israel," answer simply - RETURNS.
R – Research, Innovation, and the Combat Laboratory
Access to one of the world's most active laboratories for military innovation, where new technologies, concepts, and operational methods are developed, tested, and refined under real combat conditions. Combined with one of the world's leading defense technology and startup ecosystems, this environment generates technological advancements, operational insights, and innovation that would be difficult, expensive, and in many cases impossible to replicate through peacetime experimentation, exercises, simulations, or war games.
E – Economic Benefits
American jobs and manufacturing supported through purchases of U.S.-made military equipment, while strengthening the U.S. defense industrial base through joint production, co-development, and missile defense cooperation for the benefit of the U.S. military and American national security.
T – Technology
Access to military technologies refined in combat, from active protection systems and missile defense to counter-drone capabilities, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies.
U – Unique Understanding of Modern Warfare
Battlefield lessons drawn from one of the world's most active conflict environments, providing insights into urban warfare, tunnel warfare, missile defense, drones, battlefield medicine, artificial intelligence, and modern combat. These lessons help the United States adapt and prepare without having to learn them first through American casualties, American mistakes, or American wars.
R – Regional Stability Through Alliance
A capable ally helping deter common adversaries and maintain stability in one of the world's most strategically important regions while remaining willing and able to fight alongside the United States when necessary.
N – National Security Intelligence
Intelligence that helps prevent attacks against Americans, American forces, and American interests while improving U.S. understanding of shared threats, adversaries, and emerging security challenges.
S – Strategic Freedom to Focus on China
Greater freedom for the United States to concentrate military, diplomatic, and economic resources on long-term competition with China in the Indo-Pacific while helping preserve a favorable balance of power in the Middle East.