English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News
& Editorials
For March 12/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For today
The Miracle Of the Seven Loaves and the
small few fish
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew
15/29-39:”After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee,
and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him,
bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others.
They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when
they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind
seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. Then Jesus called his disciples to
him and said, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me
now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away
hungry, for they might faint on the way.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Where are
we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ Jesus asked
them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ They said, ‘Seven, and a few small fish.’Then
ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the
fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and
the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and
they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had
eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children. After sending away the
crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on March 11-12/2026
The War on Hezbollah-The Iranian Terrorist Proxy Continues/LCCC website
Links for important News Websites
An Enemy of Lebanon and its People/Elias Bejjani/March 12/2026
Video link of an interview with the daughter of the martyr Amer Fakhoury and the
expatriate activist Ghela Fakhoury from the "Transparency" Youtube Platform/
Hezbollah elements caused the death of the Qlaiaa priest Pierre Al-Rahi and the
Lebanese Army did not protect us.
Video link in English/Lebanese Shiite activist, Lynn Harfoush, from Baalbek,
criticizes Hezbollah and Israel in a powerful speech before the Security
Council: Hezbollah dragged us into a war we never chose./DRM News/March 11/2026
'We love Lebanon', says Trump, as he calls for getting rid of Hezbollah
Israel pounds Beirut suburbs after first joint Iran-Hezbollah missile attack
Calls for deescalation in Lebanon at UN Security Council
Israeli strike hits building in Aisha Bakkar in central Beirut
At least 26 killed in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, Bekaa's Tamnin
Israel strikes Beirut, Dahieh and east and south Lebanon
Beirut's southern suburbs under Israeli fire for 10th day of war
Major escalation as Israel heavily bombs Dahiyeh after large Hezbollah rocket
barrage
Report: US suspends cooperation with army to press for Haykal's removal
States backing UN peacekeepers in Lebanon voice 'deep alarm' at hostilities
Raad urges 'real peace' in Lebanon, not 'surrender imposed by enemy'
EU promises more humanitarian flights and cash to Lebanon
Europeans reportedly try to talk to Hezbollah over possible settlement
Haykal offers condolences over priest in Qlayaa, residents expel Jradeh
UN aid chief warns Lebanon crisis is worsened by ‘out of control’ war
Lebanon's latest conflict brings rare public backlash against Hezbollah
Death toll in Lebanon rises to 570, including women, children, and paramedics
A statement from Said Ghattas, founder of the Under the Cedar Tree foundation,
regarding the tragic incident that occurred in Klayaa and the death of Father
Pierre Al-Raai.
Lebanon's latest conflict brings rare public backlash against Hezbollah as war
flares again
Israel’s Goals and Challenges in the New Hezbollah War/Seth J. Frantzman/This Is
Beirut/March 11/ 2026 |
When intellectuals think like some Lebanese taxi drivers/Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya
English/11 March/2026
The Lebanese Army Goes Rogue/Hussain Abdul-Hussain/This Is Beirut/March 11/2026
Cypriot, Lebanese officials blame Hezbollah for drone attacks on UK base in
Cyprus; IRGC responsibility also possible/David Daoud/ FDD's Long War
Journal/March 11/2026
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous
Reports And News published
on March 11-12/2026
The War on Hezbollah-The Iranian Terrorist Proxy Continues/LCCC website
Links for important News Websites
Trump says war to end 'soon' as 'nothing left to target'
UN Security Council demands Iran halt attacks on Gulf states
US says Iran campaign cost $11 bln in six days: Report
US intelligence says Iran government is not at risk of collapse, say sources
Trump signals US will tap oil reserve to ease Iran price shocks
US warns Iranian ports used for military purposes become legitimate targets
FBI warns California that Iran could launch drones at the West Coast: Report
Romania to let US use its air bases for Middle East operations: President
Iran tells world to get ready for oil at $200 a barrel as it fires on merchant
ships
US State Department says US diplomatic facility was targeted in Iraq
Cruz: Danger from sleeper cell attacks ‘has never been higher’
Qatar Has More Than Earned U.S. Condemnation for Persecuting Religious
Minorities at Home
Muslim Brotherhood-Linked Online Network Impersonates Israelis Amid Ongoing War
With Iran
Iran's new supreme leader 'lightly injured' but active, Iranian official says
Israeli settler violence rises in West Bank under Iran war curbs
Israeli settler violence rises in West Bank under Iran war curbs
Who Wants To Tell Him?': Lindsey Graham Mocked After Bizarre New Iran Claim
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on March 11-12/2026
Trump Could End the War Tomorrow. I Don’t
Think He Will./Matt Pottinger/The Free Press/March 11/2026
Trump Is Trying To Run the World Like a Pyramid Scheme. That Should
Terrify/Holly Hudson/The Daily Beast/March 11/2026
Is the Islamic Republic Down and Out in the Levant and Beyond?/Reuel Marc
Gerecht/Hoover Institution/March 11/2026
Iran War Provides Opportunity for Russia To Test U.S. Alaska Defenses/Emmerson
Overell/FDD-Policy Brief/March 11/2026
If Saudi Arabia Wants U.S. Alliance, It Must End Support for Sudanese Armed
Forces — Aligned with Muslim Brotherhood and Iran — Not Fund It/Anna
Mahjar-Barducci/Gatestone Institute/March 11, 2026
Iran as a cautionary tale/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya English/11 March/2026
X Platform Selected twittes for March 11/2026
on March 11-12/2026
The War on Hezbollah-The Iranian Terrorist Proxy Continues
LCCC website
The just war being waged by the United States and Israel against Iran and its
proxies—devils, terrorists, drug traffickers, and mafia networks—continues
relentlessly and will not stop before their complete defeat.
To follow the news, below are links to several news websites:
National News Agency (Lebanon)
https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar
Nidaa Al Watan
https://www.nidaalwatan.com/
MTV Lebanon
https://www.mtv.com.lb/
Voice of Lebanon
https://www.vdl.me/
Asas Media
https://asasmedia.com/
Naharnet
https://www.naharnet.com/
Al Markazia News Agency
https://almarkazia.com/ar
LBCI (English)
https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/en
LBCI (Arabic)
https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/ar
Janoubia Website
https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/ar
Kataeb Party Official Website
https://www.kataeb.org
Elias Jradi: An Enemy of
Lebanon and its People
Elias Bejjani/March 12/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/03/152694/
Elias Jradi, who holds his seat in the Lebanese Parliament through fraud and
intimidation, is a long-standing leftist who believes neither in sovereignty nor
in faith. He stands against everything the “Land of the Cedars” represents—its
values, its message, its civilization, and its deep-rooted history of faith and
sacrifice.This individual was raised on the ideologies of Marx and Nasser; he is
blinded by a deep-seated hatred toward the West and its culture. Despite being
registered as a Christian, his political identity is entirely shaped by the
culture of political Islam—both Sunni and Shia—which traces its roots back to
Ottoman influence.Plainly speaking, there is no difference between him and the
likes of Arafat, Michel Aflaq, or the leaders of Hezbollah. He is a remnant of a
global leftist movement that is hateful toward everyone, and most dangerously,
toward itself.
It is well known that the people of the Souther Lebanon did not truly elect him.
Instead, he was appointed by Hezbollah, utilizing an electoral law tailored to
serve their Iranian expansionist and terrorist agenda. He is a “Trojan Horse”
and a modern-day “Iscariot.” There is no credibility in any justification for
his actions, as his hostility toward Lebanon and its people is undeniable.
Though a physician by trade—an eye doctor, no less—he is spiritually and
politically blind. He has spent his career supporting the “militia” culture and
the lie of the “Resistance,” never showing a hint of remorse or professional
integrity.
Characters like this Trojan Iscariot should be expelled from every place they
visit. His expulsion today from the heroic town of Qliaa was not a random act;
it was the rejection of a “devil” who came with arrogance to desecrate a land
that sanctifies freedom and remains loyal to its Lebanese identity and Christian
faith. Let evey patriotic Lebanese pray for mercy for the soul of Father Pierre
Al-Rai, a man who carried his cross with honor. He refused to compromise,
surrender, or kneel. He has ascended with his cross to the heavenly dwellings
that God has prepared for the righteous and the brave.
Video link of an interview
with the daughter of the martyr Amer Fakhoury and the expatriate activist Ghela
Fakhoury from the "Transparency" Youtube Platform/ Hezbollah elements caused the
death of the Qlaiaa priest Pierre Al-Rahi and the Lebanese Army did not protect
us.
March 10/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/03/152684/
Transparency" Youtube Platform Introduction
Are the features of a buffer zone starting to materialize south of the Litani?
And what is the reality of what occurred in the town of Qlaiaa that led to the
martyrdom of Father Pierre Al-Rahi? Ghela Fakhoury opens the 'black box' and
reveals the behind-the-scenes of what is happening in Christian and border
villages.
In a high-stakes episode of 'Politics and People' with journalist Patricia
Samaha, Transparency News hosts Ms. Ghela Fakhoury (daughter of Amer Fakhoury)
in a dialogue that crosses red lines. Fakhoury speaks about the 'upcoming
occupation' of the South and discloses exclusive information regarding the
infiltration of Hezbollah elements into residential neighborhoods in Qlaiaa,
Rmeish, and Marjayoun, and how residents are being placed in direct
confrontation with Israeli shelling. She also addresses the 'crisis of trust'
between Washington and the Lebanese Army leadership, and the fate of the
President’s initiatives under the control of the 'Resistance Axis' (Moumanaa)."
Timestamps
00:00 – Fiery Introduction: Has the buffer zone begun to take shape?
02:15 – The Truth of What Happened in Qlaiaa: How was Father Pierre Al-Rahi
martyred?
04:50 – "Bodies in the Freezers": Leaked information regarding Hezbollah
elements in hospitals.
06:12 – An Israeli Call to the Mukhtar of Rmeish: What was told to him,
including specific names?
08:45 – "Resistance from Behind Our Homes": The residents' outcry against
Hezbollah elements.
11:30 – The Fall of the "Treason" Accusation: Who are the real "Agents of Iran"?
13:50 – Washington and the Lebanese Army: Why has trust declined?
15:05 – "The Occupation is Coming": Ghela Fakhoury’s predictions for the future
of the South.
Video link in English/Lebanese
Shiite activist, Lynn Harfoush, from Baalbek, criticizes Hezbollah and Israel in
a powerful speech before the Security Council: Hezbollah dragged us into a war
we never chose.
DRM News/March 11/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/03/152710/
Lebanese Shiites activist Lynn Harfush delivered an emotional address at the
United Nations Security Council, condemning both Hezbollah and Israel for
dragging Lebanon into repeated wars. She described displacement, fear, and
destruction faced by civilians and urged the international community to support
the Lebanese state and army to restore sovereignty and peace.
‘Let My People Live’: Lebanese Woman’s Emotional Plea at UN Over Endless War
Lebanese Mother Tells UN: ‘Hezbollah Dragged Us Into War We Never Chose’
'We love Lebanon', says Trump,
as he calls for getting rid of Hezbollah
Naharnet/March 11/2026
U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday commented on the situation in Lebanon amid
the current hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. "We're working on it very
hard. We love Lebanon. We love the people of Lebanon and we're working very
hard. We've gotta get rid of ... Hezbollah has been a disaster for many years,"
said Trump in response to a question from MTV's reporter in Washington.
Israel pounds Beirut suburbs
after first joint Iran-Hezbollah missile attack
Reuters/12 March/2026
Israeli strikes battered Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Wednesday, lighting
up the city’s skyline with flashes of red and setting buildings in the area
aflame after Lebanese Hezbollah launched a volley of rockets into northern
Israel.
Israel launched an offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah after it opened fire
on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the
US-Israeli war on Iran. Israeli strikes have killed more than 600 people in
Lebanon, and uprooted 800,000 more, Lebanese authorities say. On Wednesday
night, Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel as
part of a “series of operations,” indicating there could be more to come.
Lebanese security sources told Reuters more than 100 rockets were launched. A
senior Israeli defense official said Iran and Hezbollah had launched a joint
missile attack, describing it as the first coordinated action against Israel
since the war began.
‘Rough conditions’ for displaced Lebanese
Dozens of explosions lit up the sky north of the Israeli city of Nazareth as
Israel’s missile defense system intercepted rockets from Lebanon. Some could be
seen crashing to the ground. Israel’s ambulance service said two people had been
lightly wounded by the rockets.
The Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs began almost immediately after
Hezbollah’s attack, sending half a dozen consecutive booms reverberating across
the city. The skyline was covered in thick smoke, Reuters footage showed. In one
of the bombed locations, flickering orange flames were visible late into the
night. Israel’s military has repeatedly ordered residents of the southern
suburbs to leave over the last week, prompting a displacement crisis as
government shelters struggle to cope. Less than a quarter of the 800,000
displaced had found space in government shelters, but even there they live in
“super rough conditions,” said Maureen Philippon, the Norwegian Refugee
Council’s Lebanon director. Shelters lack showers and
sufficient toilets, several families occupy the same rooms and there are fears
of infectious diseases spreading, she told Reuters. Some residents of the
southern suburbs told Reuters they had nowhere to go and no choice but to return
home between bombing raids despite Israeli evacuation orders. On Wednesday
night, after strikes began, the Israeli military said it would “soon act with
overwhelming force” against Hezbollah and that residents should leave
immediately.
Israeli strikes kill priest, medic in Lebanon
Israel’s strikes on Lebanon have killed 634 people since March 2, including 91
children, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Catholic priest Pierre al-Rahi and Red
Cross medic Youssef Assaf, who died after sustaining injuries in separate
Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon earlier this week, were buried on Wednesday.
Pope Leo offered his condolences for Rahi, saying he was a “true shepherd”. The
International Committee of the Red Cross mourned Assaf in a statement on social
media, saying he “lost his life while carrying out his humanitarian duty”.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli strike hit an apartment block in central
Beirut, the second time in days that Israel targeted the heart of the capital.
Lebanon’s health ministry said four people were wounded. Israel’s military did
not comment on the strike. “The sound was indescribable, the fear is
indescribable. Enough is enough, enough. This is a nightmare, when will it end?”
said Bassima Ramadan, a woman living across the street.
Israel presses Lebanon at UN
The Israeli military says it has struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets since
March 2, launching daily airstrikes in the south, Beirut’s southern suburbs, and
the eastern Bekaa Valley. Israel’s military ordered
reinforcements to the area bordering Lebanon including its elite Golani Brigade
and has also sent soldiers into southern Lebanon, establishing new positions
there. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Hezbollah fighters were braced for the
possibility of a full-scale Israeli invasion of the south. Lebanon said last
year it aims to establish a state monopoly on arms and its cabinet last week
outlawed Hezbollah’s military activities.
But Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said on Wednesday that
Beirut needed to take direct action. “If Hezbollah is being dismantled, what are
the evidence? What are the operations against the launch sites? Where are the
seizures of their weapons? Where is your military?” Danon said.
Calls for deescalation in Lebanon at UN Security Council
Agence France Presse/March 11/2026
Senior U.N. officials and member states called Wednesday for an end to fighting
in Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting for the past ten days.
"An immediate de-escalation and cessation of violence is imperative," Rosemary
DiCarlo, the U.N. lead for political and peacebuilding affairs, told a Security
Council meeting in New York. Lebanon was drawn into
the war last week when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the
killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli
strikes. Around 30 countries, including those with U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon,
earlier Wednesday issued a joint statement voicing "deep alarm at the escalation
of hostilities.""Faced with war, Lebanon must be supported. Its sovereignty and
territorial integrity must be preserved," Jerome Bonnafont, the French
ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters before the Security Council
meeting. He added that the countries he represented, including France, Britain,
Germany, India and Korea, "condemn in the strongest terms" Hezbollah's attacks.
Israel's U.N. envoy Danny Danon said that Israeli forces will continue to
operate in Lebanon "as long (as) there will be a threat against us.""Israel does
not want to be operating, but Israel will not accept rockets fired at our
people, and we will do whatever is necessary to stop them," Danon told
reporters.
'Grave peril' -
During the Security Council meeting, several states including France and Britain
condemned the Hezbollah attacks -- saying they had dragged Lebanon into regional
war. Meanwhile, Russia primarily blamed the United States and Israel over their
strikes on Iran. "It is the American and Israeli
military escapade that is plunging the overall region ever deeper into chaos,"
said Anna Evstigneeva, Russia's deputy U.N. envoy. The Lebanese ambassador,
Ahmad Arafa, said his country "finds itself trapped in a war that it did not
choose between Israel and Hezbollah." "Lebanon is facing an extremely dangerous
moment and a true humanitarian catastrophe," he said. The death toll from 10
days of fighting reached 634 on Wednesday, with more than 800,000 people
displaced, according to Lebanese officials. U.N. aid
chief Tom Fletcher warned the Security Council of "a moment of grave peril for
Lebanon and for the region." "As a result of the region's latest war, and
following months of violence, we've watched the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon
intensify with alarming speed," he later added.
Israeli strike hits building in Aisha Bakkar in central
Beirut
Agence France Presse/March 11/2026
Israel pressed its attacks across Lebanon on Wednesday, hitting an apartment
building in central Beirut, in the second targeting of the heart of the capital
since the Middle East war began. Lebanon was drawn into the war last week when
Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli strikes. Israel, which kept up its
strikes in Lebanon even before the war despite a 2024 ceasefire, has since
launched air raids across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas -- an
offensive that has left 570 people dead according to the health ministry.
Lebanese authorities said Wednesday that 780,000 people had been registered as
displaced, with more than 120,000 staying in government shelters. Lebanon's
state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that "the enemy targeted an apartment
in the Aisha Bakkar area" in central Beirut, a densely populated neighborhood
close to one of the city's biggest shopping malls. AFPTV's live broadcast showed
the sound of an air strike followed by a fireball erupting in an apartment
within a multi-story residential building in Beirut. An AFP correspondent saw
destroyed walls in a building's seventh and eighth floors, with damaged cars
nearby and security forces present at the scene. When the strike hit, "I ran
from room to room, pulled my wife and daughter out of the rooms and hid them
behind a wall, then the second strike hit", said Fawzi Asmar, owner of a bakery
on the street where the strike took place. Samer Knio, a civil defense
paramedic, said glass and debris fell on his team as they were evacuating the
dead and wounded from the scene, "but God protected us".Mohammad, who lives in
the building next to the one struck, told AFP: "I blame the state. It has to
know who is entering these areas and what's going on." As Israeli strikes
displace hundreds of thousands of people, some residents fear being caught in
Israeli air raids targeting people taking shelter nearby. "We don't know who
they're targeting. Maybe someone related to something, maybe not," Amal Hisham,
46, said. "Who do I blame? Who do I not blame?"
So far the health ministry has announced an initial toll of four people wounded
in the Beirut strike. It marks the second central Beirut strike, after the
Israeli army last week targeted a hotel in the heart of the capital, with Iran
later saying that strike killed four of its diplomats.
Southern suburbs -
On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army resumed strikes on Beirut's southern
suburbs, according to the NNA, after issuing a new evacuation warning to
residents of two neighborhoods. A live broadcast by AFPTV showed black smoke
rising from three sites over the southern suburbs following strikes. The Israeli
army announced Wednesday that overnight it had carried out "an additional wave
of air strikes in the Dahieh area of Beirut", referring to Beirut's southern
suburbs. AFPTV images show destroyed buildings and neighboring apartment blocks
severely damaged by the strikes. Israeli air raids also continued in southern
and eastern Lebanon. Seven people were killed in a strike on the east Lebanon
town of Tamnin al-Tahta, according to the health ministry. The health ministry
on Wednesday said that "successive raids launched by the Israeli enemy" on the
southern town of Qana in Tyre district overnight killed five people and wounded
five others. In Hennawiyeh, also in the Tyre district, the ministry said another
overnight Israeli strike wounded two people, and a follow-up attack killed them,
along with a rescuer who came to the scene. The ministry also announced the
death of a Red Cross paramedic from wounds sustained when "the Israeli enemy
targeted the ambulance he was travelling in... on a rescue mission" two days
earlier in Majdal Zoun, Tyre district. The health ministry on Wednesday said 14
healthcare workers are among the 570 people killed in Israeli strikes since the
war came to Lebanon on March 2.
At least 26 killed in Israeli strikes on south Lebanon, Bekaa's Tamnin
Agence France Presse/March 11/2026
An Israeli air strike killed ten people, including 4 children, and wounded 17
others in an east Lebanon town on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said,
as the war in Lebanon entered its 10th day. The strike targeted a building
inhabited by a Syrian family in Tamnin al-Tahta. In Ali al-Nahri, five people
were wounded in a strike. Another strike on Zalaya in southeast Lebanon killed
one. In south Lebanon, successive raids on the town of Qana in the Tyre district
killed five people and wounded five others, while at least 11 people were killed
in strikes on Bint Jbeil, Nabatieh, and Shehabiyyeh. In Hennawiyeh, also in the
Tyre district, the ministry said the night prior that an Israeli strike wounded
two people, and a follow-up attack killed them, along with a rescuer who came to
the scene.
Israel strikes Beirut, Dahieh and east and south Lebanon
Naharnet/March 11/2026
Israeli air raids continued Wednesday in southern and eastern Lebanon and south
Beirut.
Strikes targeted many regions across Lebanon including Haret Hreik and Hay
al-Amerkan in Dahieh, Harabta and Bouday in Bekaa, and the southern towns of
Zebqine, Touline, Qabrikha, Shaqra, Majdal Selem, Hanaway, Habboush-Arabsalim,
Tayr Harfa and al-Hmairi. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel targeted an apartment in
the Aisha Bakkar area, in the second targeting of the heart of the capital since
the Middle East war began. The strikes on the south
killed two people, raising the death toll Wednesday to at least 28. Ten people,
including children, were killed earlier in a strike on Tamnine in east Lebanon
and at least 16 in the south. The Israeli army also warned of imminent strikes
on al-Kharayeb, Arzi, Zrarieh, Mazraat al-Wasata, Mazraat Jomjom and Matariyet
al-Shumar in the Sidon district, after warning earlier the residents of Yater,
al-Qlayleh, Kafra and Majdalzoun.
Hezbollah for its part said it has targeted an Israeli position in Blat with
artillery shells and troops south of Khiam with a salvo of missiles. Later in
the day, The Israeli army urged again residents of Beirut's southern suburbs to
evacuate ahead of strikes on Haret Hreik, Ghobeiri, Laylaki, Hadath, Burj al
Barajneh, Shiyyah, Tahwitat al-Ghadir.
Beirut's southern suburbs under Israeli fire for 10th day of war
Naharnet/March 11/2026
Three strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Wednesday, after Israel issued
evacuation warnings for residents of Haret Hreik and Burj al-Brajneh. Images
from AFPTV showed thick black smoke rising from the targeted areas in Haret
Hreik and Hay al-Amerkan.
Major escalation as Israel heavily bombs Dahiyeh after large Hezbollah rocket
barrage
Agence France Presse/March 11/2026
The Israeli military said Wednesday that it had launched a new wave of strikes
on Hezbollah targets in the southern Beirut suburbs, vowing to act with "great
force" in the area. The military said it had begun a
"large-scale wave of strikes" on Hezbollah infrastructure in Dahiyeh, the
Lebanese capital's southern suburb, where the Iran-backed group holds sway.
In a separate statement on X, military spokesman Avichay Adraee said
Israeli forces "will soon act with great force against (Hezbollah) facilities,
interests, and military capabilities" in the area, after the military reported
rocket fire from Hezbollah towards Israel "in the last few hours."At least ten
violent and simultaneous airstrikes meanwhile targeted several areas in Dahiyeh.
Hezbollah for its part said it had launched rockets and advanced missiles at
northern Israel as part of a new operation against its foe. Hezbollah in a
statement said that "in response to the criminal aggression against dozens of
Lebanese cities and towns and Beirut's southern suburbs", its fighters targeted
sites in northern Israel "with dozens of rockets" as part of a new operation
announced a short time earlier. In subsequent statements, the group said its
fighters also targeted other locations in northern Israel as part of the
operation, including the headquarters of the Israeli military's northern command
near Safed and two bases in Haifa "with volleys of advanced missiles". Israeli
military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X that "we will respond to them",
referring to the Hezbollah operation announcement, and vowed a severe response.
Report: US suspends cooperation with army to press for Haykal's removal
Naharnet/March 11/2026
The United States has suspended its coordination with the Lebanese Army in an
effort to increase pressure for the removal of the army commander, Rodolphe
Haykal, the L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper has learned from several diplomatic
sources. However, such a measure is rejected in Lebanon as the war continues.
International actors have reportedly intervened to prevent any harm to the army
commander at this stage, the report added. It also said that the United States
sent a clear message to Beirut on Tuesday: "Disarm Hezbollah and begin direct
negotiations with Israel," to which Lebanon is trying to respond.
States backing UN peacekeepers in Lebanon voice 'deep alarm' at hostilities
Agence France Presse/March 11/2026
In New York, around 30 countries backing the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon
voiced concern over the fighting in Lebanon, which was drawn into the war last
week when militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli strikes. Israel,
which kept up its strikes in Lebanon even before the war despite a 2024
ceasefire, has since launched air raids across Lebanon and sent ground troops
into border areas -- an offensive that has left 570 people dead according to the
health ministry. Israel's U.N. envoy Danny Danon said Wednesday that Israeli
forces would continue to operate in Lebanon "as long (as) there will be a threat
against us". Hezbollah meanwhile affirmed its "commitment" to the new Iranian
supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamanei. Jerome Bonnafont,
the French ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York that "we
troop contributing countries to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, joined
by several other member states, express our deep alarm at the escalation of
hostilities in Lebanon".
Raad urges 'real peace' in Lebanon, not 'surrender imposed
by enemy'
Naharnet/March 11/2026
The head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, and reportedly the group's deputy
chief, MP Mohammad Raad, has said that his party wants "real peace" in Lebanon
and not a "surrender" imposed by Israel, calling on the government to take
Hezbollah's stances into consideration.
"Despite the government's actions, the resistance continues to affirm its clear
and unequivocal position, calling for the government's mistake to be rectified
through a realistic understanding between the government and the resistance,
whose legitimate right cannot be usurped as long as Lebanese land remains
occupied," said Raad in an op-ed in the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper.
"Yielding to pressure exerted by the enemy, whether directly or indirectly
through influential international and regional actors, will not serve the
country's interests, nor will it fulfill the Lebanese people's demands for
ending the occupation, restoring sovereignty, and achieving national unity for
the sound management of the country's internal affairs," Raad warned. He added
that the "claim" that the monopoly on arms was a principle adopted in the Taif
Agreement "stems from a flawed understanding of the agreement."
He pointed out that a clause in the Agreement stipulates "liberating occupied
Lebanese land from the Israeli enemy," and that this paragraph states "taking
all necessary or available means to liberate the land from Israeli occupation."
"The resistance is committed to achieving real peace in Lebanon, not to having
the enemy impose surrender under the guise of peace. This is what the government
must recognize and strive to achieve through a national consensus that supports
it in reaching such an acceptable peace," Raad went on to say.
EU promises more humanitarian flights and cash to Lebanon
Associated Press/March 11/2026
The European Union has given Lebanon 100 million euros ($115 million) in
humanitarian support, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on
Wednesday in a call with President Joseph Aoun. “Yesterday, we delivered over 40
tonnes of supplies and we plan to organize more humanitarian flights,” she said
in a post on social media, without providing details on the aid. The EU is
tracking a potential migration crisis in Lebanon and Iran because of the war,
and has scrambled to safety return European citizens from the Middle East. Drone
attacks in EU-member Cyprus, an island in the Eastern Mediterranean, have drawn
statements of support and collective defense from across Europe.
Europeans reportedly try to talk to Hezbollah over possible settlement
Naharnet/March 11/2026
Two European countries have requested, through intermediaries, to contact
Hezbollah to explore a possible settlement to resolve the current situation,
al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday. "The two countries, via their
intelligence chiefs, sent initial messages to the party in recent days
requesting a meeting and expressing their readiness to conduct shuttle diplomacy
between Lebanon and Israel," the daily said. "The two countries have not yet
received a response due to the complex procedures Hezbollah employs in its
communication," al-Akhbar added. "Western intelligence agencies previously made
similar requests, and it was revealed that they had coordinated the move
beforehand with the United States, but Hezbollah saw no benefit in meeting with
them," the newspaper reported.
Haykal offers condolences over priest in Qlayaa, residents expel Jradeh
Naharnet/March 11/2026
Army chief General Rodolphe Haykal visited the southern town of Qlayaa by
helicopter on Wednesday to offer condolences over the death of the town's priest
by Israeli fire. Residents of the town later expelled
Change MP Elias Jradeh after he arrived to offer condolences. Jradeh, who has a
leftist past, is known for supporting resistance against Israel but he is not
affiliated with Hezbollah. "The people of Qlayaa are our loved ones, but their
reaction was expected due to the absence of authorities and their failure to
defend the people of the south," Jradeh said after the incident. The priest,
Father Pierre al-Rai, died of wounds sustained from Israeli tank fire, according
to state media and a medical source. The border village had not previously been
caught up in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. The National News Agency
(NNA) reported that a house in the Christian town was "hit twice in succession
by artillery shelling from a hostile Merkava tank" on Monday. The first strike
wounded the homeowner and his wife, according to NNA. After several neighbors,
including Rai, and Red Cross paramedics rushed to the scene, the house was hit a
second time, wounding Rai and three others.
The priest later died of his wounds, a medical source told AFP.
It was not clear why Israeli forces targeted the house, which is located
on the outskirts of the town. The mayor of Qlayaa, Hanna Daher, called on the
Lebanese Army and state to "prevent any armed manifestations inside the town or
in its vicinity, and to pursue anyone who carries weapons outside the framework
of legitimate institutions". The people of Qlayaa
"refuse to allow their town to be turned into an arena for any armed activity
that might endanger civilians," he said, in comments carried on the NNA.
On Friday, Rai had taken part in a gathering organized by locals in the
neighboring town of Marjayoun, where they said they were determined to remain in
their homes despite evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli army to all
residents south of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers from the border. In a
speech, Rai had said: "When we defend our land, we defend it peacefully, and we
carry only the weapons of peace, goodness, love and prayer.""We are compelled to
remain in danger because these are our homes and we will not leave them."
Residents of Christian towns along or near the border are trying to stay out of
the confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel.
UN aid chief warns Lebanon crisis is worsened by ‘out of
control’ war
Associated Press/March 11/2026
U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called this “a moment of grave peril for
Lebanon and for the region,” as the conflict disrupts markets, supply chains and
aid operations. Speaking Wednesday at an emergency
U.N. Security Council meeting, he said disruptions to sea routes like the Strait
of Hormuz are driving up costs and delaying humanitarian supplies by as much as
six months. “And when that happens,” he said “the most vulnerable people in
Lebanon and across the region are hit first — and hardest.”
Lebanon's latest conflict brings rare public backlash against Hezbollah
Associated Press/March 11/2026
The Lebanese mother of two had just awakened to prepare the pre-dawn meal before
another day of fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when Israeli
warplanes began attacking southern Lebanon in retaliation for rockets and drones
launched by Hezbollah. The family quickly packed up and headed toward Beirut,
seeking safety from another deadly war between Israel and Hezbollah. With tens
of thousands of others fleeing on that March 2 day, the usually one-hour trip
from the southern city of Nabatiyeh took 15 hours. "I am against giving pretexts
to Israel," said the 45-year-old woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for
fear of reprisals from the Hezbollah supporters she lives among.
"I am totally against Hezbollah's decision to start with the first
strike," said the woman, who is now living with her husband, their 17- and
12-year-old children, and her mother-in-law inside a school turned into a
shelter in the Lebanese capital. As Hezbollah enters a new round of fighting
with Israel just 15 months after the last Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a
November 2024 U.S.-brokered ceasefire, the Iran-backed militant group and
political party is facing increasing grassroots discontent within its base and
problems with the Lebanese authorities.
Population still reeling from the previous war
On March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks on Iran,
igniting a war in the Middle East, Hezbollah fired missiles and drones into
Israel for the first time in more than a year. Hundreds of thousands of
residents of southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa valley and Beirut's southern
suburbs have fled their homes after Israeli warnings that their neighborhoods,
towns and villages would be targeted. The new round of fighting comes as Shiite
communities that suffered the brunt of the last conflict are still reeling from
it. The last Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and
caused $11 billion in damage, according to the World Bank. Unlike in the past,
when many people were afraid to publicly criticize Hezbollah, some Lebanese
Shiites are openly blaming the militant group for their current misery as they
find themselves living in the street, on public squares, or with relatives or
friends amid cold weather and fasting during Ramadan. For Hussein Ali, it was
the second time in less than two years that he was forced to leave his house in
Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik. During the last Israel-Hezbollah war,
the apartment where he lived was destroyed and now the vegetable vendor is
worried the same thing will happen again. "No one wanted this war," said the
man, who is also staying in the school and relying on aid to survive. "People
haven't recovered from the previous war."
Government takes a harsher stance
After the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990, militias were required to disarm,
but Hezbollah was exempted because it was fighting Israel's occupation of
southern Lebanon at the time. Now the Lebanese
government has sought to crack down on the group's armed wing and end its status
as a parallel armed force outside of state control. The shift was clear when, on
March 2, the Lebanese government moved to declare Hezbollah's military
activities illegal, with all but two of the 24 Cabinet ministers voting in
favor; only the two Hezbollah ministers voted no. Even ministers from
Hezbollah's strongest ally, the Amal group of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri,
voted to approve the measure. "The government confirms that the decision of war
and peace is only in the hand of the state," Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said,
adding that the government "orders the immediate ban on all of Hezbollah's
military activities as they are illegal and it should be forced to hand over its
weapons to the Lebanese state."The Lebanese army has since begun to crack down
and last week arrested three Hezbollah members who were found transporting
weapons at a checkpoint. But the men were released on bail Monday. Government
officials have accused Hezbollah of repeatedly taking unilateral military
actions that should be under state authority. On Oct. 8, 2023, the group began
attacking Israel a day after the assault led by the Iranian-backed Hamas on
southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza. Now, the group has entered the fray
on behalf of Iran to avenge the killing of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, as well as in retaliation, it says, for Israeli violations of the
November 2024 ceasefire. Some Hezbollah supporters see the war as justified. Ali
al-Amin, a Lebanese journalist who is a harsh critic of Hezbollah, said that
while some people are now criticizing the militant group more than in the past,
many still remain quiet out of fear for their safety. "Criticism could have a
high cost and not all people express their opinions," said al-Amin, a Shiite
Muslim from south Lebanon, who added that many poor Shiites rely on assistance
that could be cut off anytime by Hezbollah or the allied Amal group. In the
past, people who criticized Hezbollah on social media were sometimes roughed up
by its supporters and forced to make new videos saying they were wrong.
But the group still has many supporters. They say that Hezbollah's decision to
strike was justified because Israel had not abided by the November 2024
ceasefire.
Since the ceasefire, Israel has continued to carry out almost daily airstrikes
on Lebanon, which have killed about 400 people, including dozens of civilians,
and that have also prevented the reconstruction of destroyed areas. "We cannot
tolerate that anymore," said Ali Saleh who was displaced from a southern village
near Nabatiyeh. "I pray for God to protect our young men and make them
victorious against Israel." Even the Shiite woman who criticized Hezbollah's
move to strike first said that if the militants hadn't, the result might have
been the same. "If we attack they will attack us and if we don't attack they
would have attacked us," she said. Sadek Nabulsi, a political science professor
at the Lebanese University whose thinking aligns with Hezbollah, said the latest
complaints are nothing new and don't represent a fissure in grassroots support
for the Iranian-allied militants. There was a similar outcry during the 14-month
Israel-Hezbollah war that ended in 2024 and the monthlong war in 2006, he said.
"Hezbollah's base of support is known for ... tolerating pain," Nabulsi said.
"If you look at this base of support, despite all the harsh conditions, it is
still coherent, patient and waiting for salvation."
Death toll in Lebanon rises to 570, including women,
children, and paramedics
Agence France Presse/March 11/2026
Israeli strikes have killed 570 people in Lebanon since the Middle East war
spread to the country on March 2, the health ministry said on Wednesday. The
ministry provided a demographic breakdown of those killed, reporting that 439 of
them were men, 45 women, and 86 children. The toll includes 14 healthcare
workers, the ministry said. The Hezbollah-affiliated
Islamic Health Committee said on Tuesday that 15 of its rescuers had been killed
in Israeli attacks since the start of the war. In a statement, the medics said
their crews were subjected to "a series of direct attacks since the beginning of
the aggression, which led to the martyrdom of 15 people and the wounding of more
than 30 among the paramedics who were performing their humanitarian duty of
rescuing the wounded and providing relief to civilians". Nearly 760,000 people
had been registered as displaced since the outbreak of the war. In an updated
figure, the government's disaster management unit said the total number of
people who registered their names on a website affiliated with the social
affairs ministry reached 759,300, including 122,600 people staying in government
shelters.
A statement from Said Ghattas, founder of the Under the
Cedar Tree foundation, regarding the tragic incident that occurred in Klayaa and
the death of Father Pierre Al-Raai.
Under the Cedar Tree, a Foundation for Peace
In the Christian border village of Klayaa, the residents had made a clear
decision: they would remain on their land and stand firm in their homes despite
the pressures and dangers surrounding them. It was a declaration of dignity and
peace — a refusal to abandon their village.
But Hezbollah militants infiltrated the village and used it as a platform to
launch attacks on Israel. By bringing war into a community that had chosen
steadfastness and peace, they put innocent civilians directly in harm’s way.
After Hezbollah fired at Israel from within the area, Israel returned fire.
Amid the chaos and destruction that followed, the village priest, Father Pierre
al-Ra'i, rushed to help the wounded. In the act of serving his people and trying
to save lives, he lost his own. His death is a painful reminder of the human
cost when terrorist groups turn civilian communities into battlefields.
Today we honor those who remain steadfast on their land in the face of
intimidation and violence. The people of these villages chose resilience,
dignity, and peace. They deserve to live without being used as shields for the
cowards of Hezbollah.
Responsibility must be spoken plainly. Hezbollah continues to carry out the
agenda of Iran, dragging Lebanon and its people into wars that are not theirs.
By operating from civilian areas and Christian villages that rejected their
presence, they place Lebanese lives at risk and deepen the suffering of the
country.
The Lebanese government has also shown that it has failed in its duty to protect
the Lebanese people and to disarm Hezbollah. Despite assurances to the world
that Hezbollah had been disarmed and that the Lebanese Army would safeguard the
nation, armed militants were still able to infiltrate a peaceful village and
launch attacks that brought devastation upon it. Hezbollah has now proven
something even more troubling: if it cannot control the people of Lebanon, it is
willing to destroy the country instead. This reality should be clear to the
world. The time has come for change — for accountability, for sovereignty, and
for a Lebanon where the state protects its people rather than allowing militias
to endanger them. Lebanon deserves better. Its people deserve a state that
protects them, not one that allows militias to operate freely. And its villages
deserve to live in peace.
May God grant eternal rest to Father Pierre al-Ra'i and to all innocent lives
lost to the evil of terrorism. May their sacrifice never be forgotten, and may
their memory inspire a future of peace, courage, and protection for the people
of Lebanon.
Lebanon's latest
conflict brings rare public backlash against Hezbollah as war flares again
Bassem Mroue/AP/March 11/2026
The Lebanese mother of two had just awakened to prepare the pre-dawn meal before
another day of fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan when Israeli
warplanes began attacking southern Lebanon in retaliation for rockets and drones
launched by Hezbollah. The family quickly packed up and headed toward Beirut,
seeking safety from another deadly war between Israel and Hezbollah. With tens
of thousands of others fleeing on that March 2 day, the usually one-hour trip
from the southern city of Nabatiyeh took 15 hours. “I am against giving pretexts
to Israel,” said the 45-year-old woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for
fear of reprisals from the Hezbollah supporters she lives among. “I am totally
against Hezbollah’s decision to start with the first strike,” said the woman,
who is now living with her husband, their 17- and 12-year-old children, and her
mother-in-law inside a school turned into a shelter in the Lebanese capital. As
Hezbollah enters a new round of fighting with Israel just 15 months after the
last Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a November 2024 U.S.-brokered ceasefire,
the Iran-backed militant group and political party is facing increasing
grassroots discontent within its base and problems with the Lebanese
authorities.
Population still reeling from the previous war
On March 2, two days after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks on Iran,
igniting a war in the Middle East, Hezbollah fired missiles and drones into
Israel for the first time in more than a year. Hundreds of thousands of
residents of southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa valley and Beirut’s southern
suburbs have fled their homes after Israeli warnings that their neighborhoods,
towns and villages would be targeted. The new round of fighting comes as Shiite
communities that suffered the brunt of the last conflict are still reeling from
it. The last Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and
caused $11 billion in damage, according to the World Bank. Unlike in the past,
when many people were afraid to publicly criticize Hezbollah, some Lebanese
Shiites are openly blaming the militant group for their current misery as they
find themselves living in the street, on public squares, or with relatives or
friends amid cold weather and fasting during Ramadan. For Hussein Ali, it was
the second time in less than two years that he was forced to leave his house in
Beirut’s southern suburb of Haret Hreik. During the last Israel-Hezbollah war,
the apartment where he lived was destroyed and now the vegetable vendor is
worried the same thing will happen again. “No one wanted this war,” said the
man, who is also staying in the school and relying on aid to survive. “People
haven’t recovered from the previous war."
Israel’s
Goals and Challenges in the New Hezbollah War
Seth J. Frantzman/This Is Beirut/March 11/ 2026 |
Hezbollah’s opening of a front from Lebanon in support of Iran was not a
surprise for Israel, which is again discussing the forcible dismantling of the
organization. It remains unclear whether Lebanon is ready to disarm Hezbollah,
and whether Israel will be able to do so itself. The new war is escalating, one
that Israel and Hezbollah have been preparing for since the November 27, 2024
ceasefire ended the previous conflict. Hezbollah suffered major losses in its
conflict with Israel, which started on October 8, 2023 in the wake of the Hamas
attack on Israel. It lost many of its leaders and its capacity to fire missiles
was degraded to some extent. In November 2024, reports claimed that the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) destroyed up to eighty percent of its medium- and
long-range rockets. However, Hezbollah may not have been as weakened as these
Israeli estimates initially suggested, and the group has maintained its drone
arsenal.In the days leading up to the launch of the joint U.S.-Israel campaign
on Iran, it was widely reported Hezbollah was re-arming and preparing for war.
Israel’s Ynet media quoted an IDF official as saying that the military’s working
assumption was that an offensive on Iran would trigger Hezbollah’s entry into
the war. “[Israel’s] Northern Command fully prepared for this scenario. There
was no surprise from our side. There were orderly plans and advance
preparations,” the official added.
A day after Hezbollah initiated the latest round of fighting, IDF Chief of Staff
Eyal Zamir said Israel would not stop its campaign until the group was disarmed.
Under the November 2024 ceasefire, Lebanon was supposed to disarm Hezbollah. The
new Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, and prime minister, Nawaf Salam, were seen
as having the potential to change the situation in their country. However, it is
now clear that Hezbollah did not withdraw north of the Litani River, despite the
Lebanese Armed Forces’ January 8, 2026 announcement that it had finished
disarmament along the border.
Since Hezbollah’s initial rocket attack against Israel on March 2, Hezbollah has
escalated with drone attacks and more rocket launches. Footage from Israel’s
northern city of Kiryat Shmona has shown Iron Dome air defense missiles being
used to intercept Hezbollah drone and rocket attacks. In another incident,
several Israeli homes were struck by Israeli fire as the IDF sought to take out
a Hezbollah drone.
Israel has retaliated with waves of airstrikes in Lebanon and escalated by
calling on hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate the southern suburbs of
Beirut. It also announced it was establishing a buffer zone in Lebanese
territory along the border. Israeli soldiers have been wounded by Hezbollah’s
anti-tank fire and on March 8 the IDF said two soldiers were killed.
The war is now growing and Israel is hinting that it will try to finish what
began in October 2023. Yet, questions linger over what will come next. In the
first five days of fighting against Hezbollah, the IDF said that it had struck
“over 600 terror targets across Lebanon from the air, sea, and ground, with some
820 munitions.” This is less than the thousands of munitions used in strikes on
Iran and the more than 1,600 sorties flown by Israeli warplanes there.
The challenge for Israel is that it is now clear Hezbollah has fighters south of
the Litani, as confirmed by IDF casualties. Despite almost daily Israeli strikes
after the November 2024 ceasefire, Hezbollah has rearmed, indicating that
Israel’s strategy has been ineffective.
Since October 2023, Israel has pursued a doctrine of pre-empting threats across
multiple fronts. Under this approach, the IDF remains deployed in Lebanon and
Gaza and has established a buffer zone in Syria following the fall of the Bashar
al-Assad regime in December 2024. The doctrine prioritizes offensive operations
over reactive defense. However, Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah after the
November 2024 ceasefire has consisted of precision strikes that appeared aimed
at managing the conflict rather than achieving a decisive victory. Israel has
become addicted to this kind of crisis management over the years, with some
likening it to “mowing the grass.” Was Israel’s policy in Lebanon in 2025
portrayed as keeping Hezbollah in check, when in fact it fell back on old
patterns of “mowing the grass?” This is the question Israel will need to ask as
it presses forward. Despite claims that Lebanon may now enforce a ban on
Hezbollah “military” activity, it is not clear if Beirut is ready to actually
disarm Hezbollah. It is also not clear if Israel will be able to disarm the
group.
Airstrikes are ineffective at disarming terrorist groups. Israel doesn’t appear
ready to deploy its ground troops to capture the Bekaa, Beirut’s southern
suburbs, or other areas of Lebanon. Israel’s experience in Gaza also shows that
even with ground troops, groups like Hamas and Hezbollah blend into the civilian
population only to reappear later. As a result, Israeli policymakers and the IDF
will need to consider strategies to defeat Hezbollah and the lessons learned
since October 2023.
**Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machine,
Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an
adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
When
intellectuals think like some Lebanese taxi drivers
Makram Rabah/Al Arabiya English/11 March/2026
In Lebanon – and perhaps globally – there is a peculiar type of intellectual –
this applies to standup comedians and influencers as well – who appears every
time Hezbollah drags the country into another catastrophe. We all know the type
and they have come across our desk and newsfeeds. Calm voice, measured tone, and
an almost religious devotion to the language of “objectivity.” They insist that
politics is complicated, that events must be understood within their broader
strategic context, and that emotional reactions must give way to sober analysis.
Your typical omnipresent conscientious objector, but the lazy kind.
For the latest headlines, visit our Google News channel. Yet listen carefully to
what they actually say and something curious happens. Beneath the academic
critical vocabulary and polished delivery lies a logic remarkably similar to
that of a Beirut taxi driver who is convinced the world is secretly controlled
by the Freemasons. Before anyone misreads the comparison, let me be clear. As a
teenager who did not yet have the privilege – or responsibility – of holding a
driver’s license, I spent an inordinate amount of time in Beirut taxis. I have
enormous respect for taxi drivers. They are among the hardest-working people in
this country, navigating impossible traffic, political chaos, and economic
collapse simply to put food on the table. But while I respect their work ethic,
my respect does not extend to the conspiracy theories some believe.
The difference between the taxi driver and the self-styled intellectual is
mostly stylistic. A taxi driver might speak openly about secret societies and
hidden cabals controlling world events. The intellectual dresses the same
instinct in the language of “geopolitical frameworks” and “strategic
calculations.” Yet both ultimately arrive at the same conclusion: What appears
irrational must secretly be part of a hidden master plan. This ‘intellectual
reflex’ has once again surfaced after Hezbollah decided to fire a handful of
rockets into Israel – an action that achieved no meaningful military effect but
immediately handed Israel a pretext for escalation. Instead of confronting the
obvious recklessness of this move, a familiar chorus of commentators rushed to
explain its supposed strategic wisdom. Perhaps, they suggested, Hezbollah was
acting preemptively. Perhaps the rockets were meant to rearrange the regional
balance. Perhaps the group was trying to deter a larger Israeli strike. Perhaps
what appears reckless is actually part of a deeper strategy invisible to the
untrained eye. In other words, perhaps madness is really genius. This ritual has
become predictable. Every time Hezbollah drags Lebanon into confrontation, a
small army of analysts emerges to reassure the public that what looks irrational
is in fact deeply strategic. The problem is that reality stubbornly refuses to
cooperate with these theories. The rockets achieve nothing. Lebanon pays the
price. And the analysts move on to the next explanation.
This is not analysis. It is rationalization.
What these commentators refuse to confront is a simple reality: Hezbollah is not
merely a Lebanese political actor calculating the national interest of the
Lebanese state. It is part of a regional military architecture whose strategic
direction ultimately flows from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. When
Hezbollah escalates, it is not acting as a sovereign Lebanese actor weighing
Lebanon’s interests. It is acting as a component of a broader regional axis
whose priorities lie elsewhere. This reality has been clear for years, yet the
intellectual acrobatics continue.Indeed, the role played by these
pseudo-objective commentators is not accidental. By constantly searching for
strategic wisdom behind reckless behavior, they normalize the logic that keeps
Lebanon hostage to perpetual conflict. Every destructive decision becomes
“complex.” Every escalation becomes “deterrence.” Every disaster becomes part of
a larger strategy.In this sense, these commentators perform a valuable service.
In their obsessive pursuit of analytical sophistication, they end up acting as
useful idiots for Iran’s regional project, laundering reckless actions into
something that appears intellectually respectable.
Meanwhile the consequences are painfully visible on the ground.
Communities in southern Lebanon are once again displaced. Families are breaking
their Ramadan fast in public squares and on sidewalks because their homes are no
longer safe. Entire towns are living under the constant threat of escalation –
all because a handful of rockets were launched in a gesture that had no
meaningful strategic value. Yet even in the face of this reality, the
rationalizations continue. Some commentators now argue that escalation might
“shake the stalemate” and force international actors to intervene
diplomatically. Others suggest Hezbollah’s actions could eventually produce a
better outcome for Lebanon. This argument rests on a grotesque premise: That
destruction can somehow serve as the foundation of national salvation. If
Lebanon must first burn in order to be saved, then the country that emerges from
such salvation will hardly be fit for human habitation. The truth is far simpler
than the elaborate theories suggest. Hezbollah’s decision to escalate was not a
masterstroke of strategic brilliance. It was a reckless act that once again
placed Lebanon in the crosshairs of a regional conflict it neither controls nor
benefits from. But the deeper problem exposed by this episode goes beyond
Hezbollah itself. It concerns the intellectual culture that continues to
normalize and rationalize such behavior. Lebanon’s future cannot be built on the
analytical habits of people who mistake irresponsibility for strategy. To be
clear, the constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and rightly so. These
commentators are free to say whatever they wish. A democratic society must
tolerate misguided opinions, regardless how senseless and cowardly they might
be. But tolerance does not require deference. In the Lebanon that must emerge
after this war, this particular breed of pseudo-intellectual should no longer be
treated as a compass for national decision-making. Their voices may remain part
of the conversation, but their intellectual confusion cannot be allowed to guide
the reconstruction of a country already pushed to the brink. Lebanon has heard
enough taxi-stand geopolitics disguised as intellectual analysis. A country on
the edge of collapse cannot afford commentators who mistake conspiracy for
strategy.
The Lebanese
Army Goes Rogue
Hussain Abdul-Hussain/This Is
Beirut/March 11/2026
https://thisisbeirut.com.lb/articles/1332997/the-lebanese-army-goes-rogue
The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF),
under its commander Rodolphe Haykal, has defied the state it is sworn to serve,
effectively siding with Hezbollah at a moment when Lebanon teeters on the edge
of the abyss. After Hezbollah drew Lebanon back into war on March 2, the
Lebanese cabinet rushed into an emergency meeting and banned the militia’s
military activities, ordering the LAF to enforce the directive without delay.
The army’s response was swift and revealing. Five days later, Haykal convened
his senior staff and articulated a different vision, one in which the army’s
paramount duties were preserving national unity and confronting “Israeli
aggression.” The military’s subsequent statement echoed Hezbollah’s rhetoric far
more than the government’s directive, framing Israeli strikes as the primary
threat while sidestepping any commitment to disarm the Iran-backed militia.
By refusing to act as the state’s enforcer and instead positioning itself as the
guardian of a status quo that empowers Hezbollah, the LAF has gone rogue: a
betrayal that is the culmination of decades of deliberate subversion.
Established in 1945 as a force loyal to the Lebanese state, the LAF was once a
symbol of national cohesion. During the 1975–1990 civil war, its ranks fractured
along sectarian lines, with Shia and Druze units defecting to form militias that
derisively labeled the army “the tool of Lebanon’s rulers.” Yet before 1990, the
LAF remained fundamentally oriented toward state authority.
That changed irrevocably under Syrian occupation. After the 1989 Taif Agreement
ended the civil war, Syria—under the Assad regime—remade the Lebanese military
in its own “Arab nationalist” image.
Recruitment, especially of officer cadets, fell under the vetting of Syrian
intelligence, a system Hezbollah later inherited after Syria’s 2005 withdrawal.
Promotions, including those of figures such as Aoun and Haykal, required the
militia’s tacit approval. The army’s combat doctrine was rewritten to prioritize
“Lebanese-Syrian brotherhood,” a phrase lifted straight from the propaganda
churned out in Damascus. It also designated Israel as Lebanon’s sole existential
enemy, in direct contravention of the Taif Agreement’s call for neutrality and
the diplomatic resolution of disputes.
Taif had been a hard-won compromise in which Lebanon’s Christians accepted the
country’s Arab identity in exchange for Muslims renouncing military entanglement
in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Lebanon would reclaim its occupied south only
through UN-backed diplomacy pursuant to Security Council Resolution 425. A
stable, peaceful Lebanon would have stripped Assad of his pretext for
indefinitely occupying and controlling the country. Instead, Damascus, and later
Hezbollah, sought perpetual tension with Israel. Even after Israel’s 2000
unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the fabricated “Shebaa Farms”
dispute provided a convenient justification for continued armament and Syrian
occupation.
The 2005 Cedar Revolution expelled Assad from Lebanon, sparking demands for
Hezbollah’s disarmament. The militia responded the following year by launching a
war against Israel to burnish its “resistance” credentials. In 2008, Lebanon’s
cabinet, without Shia ministers, attempted to curb Hezbollah by replacing its
ally overseeing security at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport and
ordering the dismantling of its private telecom network. The LAF refused to take
action, instead warning that enforcing the cabinet’s decisions would shatter the
army along sectarian lines. Hezbollah militants then overran Sunni- and
Druze-populated areas of Beirut, forcing the government to retract its decisions
and cementing the militia’s de facto veto over Lebanese policy.
For years, Washington grappled with the paradox of whether it should fund an
army that shields Hezbollah rather than confronting it. Yet a counterargument
persisted: absent a reliable state institution, who else could wrest sovereignty
from the militia?
Policy hawks argued that Israel could simply pulverize Hezbollah through
overwhelming force, similar to its military campaigns in Gaza. But that promised
endless cycles of destruction without a lasting resolution. Only the Lebanese
state—bolstered perhaps by Israeli military pressure—could achieve Hezbollah’s
full disarmament and prevent its resurgence. The strategy hinged on cultivating
anti-Hezbollah momentum within Lebanon, particularly within the LAF itself. That
bet has now collapsed. With Hezbollah weakened by prior losses yet still capable
of dragging Lebanon into wider conflict, the army’s refusal to enforce the
cabinet’s ban exposes the depth of its infiltration and doctrinal capture. The
international community, barring Iran and its proxies, stands firmly with the
Lebanese state. Washington must now pivot from futile entreaties to decisive
action by guiding Lebanon in rebuilding its army from the ground up, much as it
did with Iraq’s security forces after Saddam Hussein’s fall. This means vetting,
retraining, and reorienting a force that has long been compromised. Haykal must
step down immediately. An interim command, untainted by Hezbollah influence,
should take charge and forge a professional military capable of monopolizing
legitimate force.Lebanon cannot afford to sacrifice its sovereignty or resign
itself to Israeli bombardment or civil strife just to preserve an army too
fearful to shield the country. Armies exist to safeguard nations; they are not
sacred cows to be protected at the nation’s peril.
**Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at The Foundation for Defense of
Democracies (FDD) in Washington, DC.
Cypriot,
Lebanese officials blame Hezbollah for drone attacks on UK base in Cyprus; IRGC
responsibility also possible
David Daoud/ FDD's Long War
Journal/March 11/2026
On March 1, a loitering munition struck the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) base in
Akrotiri on the southern tip of Cyprus at approximately 10:03 pm. The drone,
reported to be an Iranian Shahed-type platform, struck and caused minor damage
to one of the base’s hangars. Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides identified
the drone as Iranian, but his foreign minister told The Guardian that it was
launched from Lebanon. Additional drones fired at the RAF’s Akrotiri base over
the coming days were intercepted.
No party took responsibility for the attacks. However, over the coming days,
senior Cypriot officials hardened their attribution to Hezbollah. Lebanese
government officials would soon also blame the group, albeit initially
hesitantly and indirectly.
On March 4, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi posted to X “in solidarity
with Cyprus,” while noting that he had briefed his Cypriot counterpart
Constantinos Combos on the “decision taken by the [Lebanese] government to move
forward with the decision to place all weapons under the authority of the
state.” Raggi was referring to the Lebanese government’s March 2 decision to
proscribe Hezbollah’s “military and security” activities, and order to the group
to “surrender its weapons to the Lebanese state.”
Raggi addressed the matter again in a more direct March 8 post on X, expressing
his hope that the attack would not lead Cyprus to “confuse the Lebanese state
with those acting outside its authority and legal framework.” The Lebanese
foreign minister again “recalled the recent decision of the Lebanese government
declaring all military and security activities carried out by Hezbollah to be
unlawful,” and stated that the “attacks against Cyprus must be understood in
this context.”Later that day, Raggi officially named Hezbollah as the actor
responsible for the attacks, saying that the group’s “unlawful activities of
which the blatant attack on Cyprus was one such manifestation, defy the will of
the Lebanese government and people.”Strengthening the allegations against
Hezbollah is its history of threatening to attack Cyprus. On June 19, 2024, then
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah alleged that his group possessed
information that Israel conducts annual drills in Cyprus, and that Israel might
need to use Cypriot airports and bases in a future war if Hezbollah struck
Israeli runways. Nasrallah warned that if Cyprus opened those facilities to
Israel for operations against Lebanon, “that means the Cypriot government has
become part of the war,” and Hezbollah would treat Cyprus as “part of the war.”
Nevertheless, Iranian responsibility for the drone attacks is also possible.
Despite the drones almost certainly originating in Lebanon, evidence from
Israeli targeting in Beirut suggest Iranian operatives may have targeted the
base. On March 6, after completing a wave of airstrikes in Hezbollah’s
stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Israel Defense Forces released a
statement on its targets, which “include[ed] an Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps Aerospace Force Headquarters” in Dahiyeh. The IRGC’s Aerospace Force is
the primary branch responsible for the development, production, and operation of
the Shahed drone series, precisely the type of weapon that was used in the
attacks on Akrotiri.
The public record on Akrotiri’s and other British facilities’ role in the war is
mixed. Reuters reported that Britain had moved additional air assets to Akrotiri
in anticipation of US action, but also quoted UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper
as saying that the US had not specifically requested access to Akrotiri. In
addition, UK MP Stephen Doughty stated that the RAF base was not being used by
US bombers.
However, some reports indicate that British sovereign bases in Cyprus were
employed in support of the US war effort against Iran, though Cyprus itself has
remained officially neutral. The UK officially acknowledged that it had accepted
a US request to use British bases for “specific, limited defensive” strikes on
Iranian missile depots or launchers. Reuters also published a photo caption
showing a US U-2 aircraft taking off from the RAF base on March 3, strongly
suggesting that at least some US-linked surveillance or support activity
originated from Akrotiri.
**David Daoud is Senior Fellow at at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
where he focuses on Israel, Hezbollah, and Lebanon affairs.
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2026/03/cypriot-lebanese-officials-blame-hezbollah-for-drone-attacks-on-uk-base-in-cyprus-irgc-responsibility-also-possible.php
Read in FDD's Long War Journal
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports
And News published
on March 11-12/2026
News of
the ongoing war between Iran on one side and the US and Israel on the other. The
news is abundant, fragmented, and difficult to keep track of as it evolves
constantly. For those wishing to follow the course of the war, the following are
links to several television channels and newspapers:
Asharq Al-Awsat Newspaper
https://aawsat.com/
National News Agency
https://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/ar
Al Arabiya/Arabic
https://www.alarabiya.net/
Sky News
https://www.youtube.com/@SkyNewsArabia
Nidaa Al Watan
https://www.nidaalwatan.com/
Al Markazia
https://www.nidaalwatan.com/
Al Hadath
https://www.youtube.com/@AlHadath
Independent Arabia
https://www.independentarabia.com/
Trump says war to end 'soon' as
'nothing left to target'
Agence France Presse/March
11, 2026
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday again signaled there could be a swift
ending to the U.S. war on Iran, saying there is little left in the country for
U.S. forces to attack. There is "practically nothing
left to target" and the war will end "soon," Trump was quoted as saying in an
interview with Axios. "Any time I want it to end, it will end."Trump has given
repeated mixed messages about the timing and aims of the war but on Monday he
also said the ending could come "soon." The U.S. president faces negative
domestic polls and fears over the global economic disruption from the
U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran. Accusations that
the White House launched the war without preparing for consequences, including
Iranian disruption of oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, are
putting the 79-year-old Republican under political pressure. Speculation is
mounting that Trump may seek a quick exit in an attempt to save his party from
further damage ahead of November midterm elections for control of Congress.
However, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that "this
operation will continue without any time limit, as long as necessary, until we
achieve all the objectives."And Iran says it is ready to fight back.
The United States and Israel should "consider the possibility that they
will be engaged in a long-term war of attrition that will destroy the entire
American economy and the world economy, and will cause all of its military
capabilities to be eroded to the point of destruction," Ali Fadavi, advisor to
the commander-in-chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, told state television.
Just Wednesday, the Revolutionary Guards said they had struck a Liberia-flagged
vessel and a Thai bulk carrier in the Hormuz maritime chokepoint.
UN Security Council demands
Iran halt attacks on Gulf states
Al Arabiya English/11 March/2026
The UN Security Council on Wednesday passed a resolution calling for Iran to
immediately halt its attacks on Gulf states, saying they breach international
law and pose a “serious threat to international peace and security.”The
resolution, passed by 13 votes with two abstentions, “demands the immediate
cessation of all attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against Bahrain,
Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.”It also
“condemns any actions or threats by the Islamic Republic of Iran aimed at
closing, obstructing, or otherwise interfering with international navigation
through the Strait of Hormuz.”On February 28, the United States and Israel
launched strikes on Iran that killed its supreme leader and triggered a war in
the Middle East. Tehran has responded with drone and missile attacks across the
region, including strikes that have hit neighboring countries that say they are
neither involved in the war nor have allowed warring parties to launch attacks
from their territory. Iran has also fired on commercial ships passing through
the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial sea passage for the global fuel trade, in a bid
to inflict pain on the global economy.
With AFP
US says Iran campaign cost $11 bln in six days: Report
Reuters/12 March/2026
The opening week of the war against Iran cost the United States more than $11.3
billion, lawmakers were told in a Pentagon briefing, according to a New York
Times report underscoring the pace at which the conflict is consuming weapons
and resources. The Times, citing unnamed sources
familiar with Tuesday’s closed-door briefing, said members of Congress were told
that the figure excludes many costs connected with the buildup to the strikes --
suggesting the final tally for the first week could rise substantially.
Defense officials had previously told Congress that roughly $5.6 billion
worth of munitions were expended in just the first two days of fighting,
according to US media -- a burn rate far higher than earlier public estimates.
US intelligence says Iran government is not at risk of collapse, say sources
Reuters/12 March/2026
US intelligence indicates that Iran’s leadership is still largely intact and is
not at risk of collapse any time soon after nearly two weeks of relentless US
and Israeli bombardment, according to three sources familiar with the matter. A
“multitude” of intelligence reports provide “consistent analysis that the regime
is not in danger” of collapse and “retains control of the Iranian public,” said
one of the sources, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss US
intelligence findings. The latest report was completed within the last few days,
the source said. With political pressure building over soaring oil costs,
President Donald Trump has suggested he will end the biggest US military
operation since 2003 “soon.”But finding an acceptable end to the war could be
difficult if Iran’s hardline leaders remain firmly entrenched. The intelligence
reporting underscores the cohesion of Iran’s clerical leadership despite the
killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, the first day
of the US and Israeli strikes. Israeli officials in
closed discussions also have acknowledged there is no certainty the war will
lead to the clerical government’s collapse, a senior Israeli official told
Reuters. The sources stressed that the situation on the ground is fluid and that
the dynamics inside Iran could change. The Office of the Director of National
Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment.The White
House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shifting objectives
Since launching their war, the US and Israel have struck a range of Iranian
targets, including air defenses, nuclear sites, and members of the senior
leadership. The Trump administration has given varying reasons for the war. In
announcing the beginning of the US operation, Trump urged Iranians to “take over
your government,” but top aides have since denied that the objective was to oust
Iran’s leadership. In addition to Khamenei, the strikes have killed dozens of
senior officials and some of the highest-ranking commanders in the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite paramilitary force that controls
large parts of the economy. Still, the US intelligence reports indicate that the
IRGC and the interim leaders who assumed power after Khamenei’s death retain
control of the country. The Assembly of Experts, a group of senior Shiite
clerics, earlier this week declared Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, the new supreme
leader. Israel has no intention of allowing any remnants of the former
government to stay intact, said a fourth source familiar with the matter. It is
unclear how the current US-Israeli military campaign would topple the
government. It would likely require a ground offensive that would allow people
inside Iran to safely protest in the streets, said the source. The Trump
administration has not ruled out sending US troops into Iran.
Intel suggests Kurds lack firepower to fight Iran. Reuters reported last
week that Iranian Kurdish militias based in neighboring Iraq consulted with the
US about how and whether to attack Iran’s security forces in the western part of
the country. Such an incursion could put pressure on
Iranian security services there, allowing Iranians to rise up against the
government. Abdullah Mohtadi, the head of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan,
part of a six-party coalition of Iranian Kurdish parties, said in an interview
on Wednesday that the parties are highly organized inside Iran and that “tens of
thousands of young people are ready to take up arms” against the government if
they receive US support. Mohtadi said he has received
reports from inside Iranian Kurdistan that IRGC units and other security forces
have abandoned bases and barracks out of fear of US and Israeli strikes.
“We have been witnessing tangible signs of weakness in Kurdish areas,” he
said. But recent US intelligence reports have cast
doubt on the ability of the Iranian Kurdish groups to sustain a fight against
Iranian security services, according to two sources familiar with those
assessments. The intelligence indicates that the groups lack the firepower and
numbers, they said. The Kurdish Regional Government, which governs the
autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan where the Iranian Kurdish groups are based,
did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Iranian Kurdish groups
have in recent days asked senior officials in Washington and US lawmakers for
the US to provide them with weapons and armored vehicles, another person
familiar with the matter said. But Trump said on Saturday that he had ruled out
having the Iranian Kurdish groups go into Iran.
Trump signals US will tap oil reserve to ease Iran price shocks
Bloomberg/ 12 March/,2026
President Donald Trump indicated he would tap the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve
to help ease oil prices that have soared amid the war with Iran. “We’ll do that
and then we’ll fill it up,” Trump said Wednesday in an interview with local
television station WKRC during a visit to the Cincinnati area. “Right now, we’ll
reduce it a little bit and that brings the prices down.”Earlier Wednesday, the
International Energy Agency agreed to discharge 400 million barrels from
emergency oil reserves, its largest-ever release, as governments seek to contain
a price spike driven by the Middle East war. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve
currently contains about 415 million barrels, little more than half its
capacity, following a series of drawdowns by the Biden administration. Those
included a record sale of 180 million barrels to help lower gasoline prices
after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Trump is facing political pressure to
address rising fuel prices that have been driven up by the spike in oil.
November’s midterm elections will hinge in large part on Americans’ attitudes
toward the cost of living, and the polls show the public giving the president
poor marks for his handling of the economy.
US warns Iranian ports used for military purposes become
legitimate targets
Al Arabiya English/11 March/2026
The US military warned Iranian civilians on Wednesday to avoid all port
facilities where Iran’s navy is operating, accusing the regime of using these
areas for attacks.
“Civilian ports used for military purposes lose protected status and become
legitimate military targets under international law,” the US Central Command
(CENTCOM) said in a statement.
CENTCOM went on to urge civilians in Iran to “immediately” avoid port facilities
and called on Iranian dockworkers, personnel, and commercial vessel crews to
avoid Iranian naval vessels and military equipment. “Iranian naval forces have
positioned military vessels and equipment within civilian ports serving
commercial maritime traffic,” CENTCOM said. CENTCOM
also said that it would continue taking every feasible precaution to minimize
harm to civilians, “although the US military also cannot guarantee civilian
safety in or near facilities used by the Iranian regime for military purposes.”
FBI warns California that Iran could launch drones at the West Coast: Report
Reuters/11 March/2026
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was not worried about Iran-backed
attacks on US soil, as the FBI warned of Iranian drones potentially striking the
US West Coast, ABC News reported. The US and Israel carried out strikes on Iran
nearly two weeks ago, launching the Middle East into a war. Tehran has carried
out retaliatory strikes in response to the US-Israeli strikes that killed top
Iranian officials, including the country’s supreme leader.
When asked on Wednesday if he was worried that Iran may increase it
retaliation to include strikes on US soil, Trump told reporters, “No, I’m not.”
ABC News later reported that the FBI had warned police departments in California
that Iran could retaliate for US attacks by launching drones at the West Coast.
“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran
allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles
from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland,
specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US
conducted strikes against Iran,” the FBI wrote in an alert distributed at the
end of February, according to ABC News. “We have no
additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this
alleged attack.”Spokespeople for the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department,
California governor and Los Angeles mayor did not immediately respond to
requests for comments. Reuters reported earlier this
month that Iran and its proxies could target the US with attacks in response to
US strikes. A threat assessment produced by the Office of Intelligence and
Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security said Iran and its proxies
“probably” pose a threat of targeted attacks on the United States, although a
large-scale physical attack was unlikely.
Romania to let US use its air bases for Middle East
operations: President
AFP/11 March/2026:
Romania decided on Wednesday to let the United States use air bases in the
eastern European country to refuel aircraft involved in the US-Israeli war on
Iran, the country’s president said. Parliament approved the measure after it was
reviewed by the Supreme Council of National Defense earlier in the day.
President Nicusor Dan called it a “temporary deployment of American military
equipment and forces in Romania” in a statement following the council meeting.
The move would allow refueling of aircraft and the deployment of monitoring and
satellite communications equipment, Dan said.
Iran
tells world to get ready for oil at $200 a barrel as it fires on merchant ships
Parisa Hafezi and Alexander Cornwell/Reuters/March 11, 2026
Iran said the world should be prepared for oil to hit $200 a barrel as its
forces attacked merchant ships on Wednesday in the blockaded Gulf. Iran also
fired at Israel and targets across the Middle East on Wednesday, demonstrating
it can still fight back despite what the Pentagon has described as the most
intense U.S.-Israeli strikes yet.
Oil prices that shot up earlier this week have eased and stock markets have
rebounded, with investors betting for now that U.S. President Donald Trump will
find a quick way to end the war he began alongside Israel nearly two weeks ago.
Trump, who has repeatedly tried to reassure markets this week that the campaign
will end soon, told Axios in a telephone interview that there was "practically
nothing left" to target in Iran. "Little this and that... Any time I want it to
end, it will end," Trump said during a brief phone interview.
WORST ENERGY SUPPLY DISRUPTION SINCE 1970s
But so far there has been no let-up on the ground, or any sign that ships can
safely sail through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil has
been blockaded behind a narrow channel along the Iranian coast in the worst
disruption to energy supplies since the oil shocks of the 1970s. The
International Energy Agency, made up of major oil consuming nations, recommended
releasing 400 million barrels from global strategic reserves to stabilise
prices, the biggest such intervention in history, which was swiftly endorsed by
Washington. But the rate at which countries can release it would account for
just a fraction of the supply through the Hormuz Strait. "Get ready for oil to
be $200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security, which you
have destabilised," Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran's military
command, said in comments addressed to the United States. Oil prices, which shot
up briefly to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday, have since settled around $90,
suggesting investors are betting on a swift end to the war and reopening of the
strait.
IRAN MAKES CLEAR IT INTENDS TO PROLONG ECONOMIC SHOCK
Iranian officials made clear on Wednesday they intended to impose a prolonged
economic shock as the war carries on. After offices of a bank in Tehran were
hit overnight, Zolfaqari also said Iran would respond with attacks on banks that
do business with the United States or Israel. People across the Middle East
should stay 1,000 metres from banks, he added.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said their forces had fired on two ships in the Gulf
that had disobeyed their orders. One, a Thai-flagged bulk carrier, was set
ablaze, forcing the evacuation of crew, with three people reported missing and
believed trapped in the engine room. Reuters could not verify the second
incident described by the Guards involving what they described as a
Liberian-flagged ship. But two other ships, a Japanese-flagged container ship
and a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier, were reported to have sustained
damage from projectiles. The strikes raised the number of merchant ships that
have been hit since the war began to 14. A senior Israeli official told Reuters
Israeli leaders now privately accepted that Iran's ruling system could survive
the war. Two other Israeli officials said there was no sign Washington was close
to ending the campaign. [O/R]
IRANIAN OFFICIAL SAYS MOJTABA KHAMENEI LIGHTLY WOUNDED
In the latest public display of defiance, huge crowds of Iranians took to the
streets on Wednesday for funerals for top commanders killed in airstrikes. They
carried caskets and brandished flags and portraits of slain Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son and successor, Mojtaba. An Iranian official
told Reuters that Mojtaba Khamenei had been lightly wounded early in the war,
when airstrikes killed his father, mother, wife and a son. He has not appeared
in public or issued any direct message since the war began.
The Iranian military said on Tuesday it had launched missiles at targets
including a U.S. base in northern Iraq, the U.S. naval headquarters for the
Middle East in Bahrain, and at targets in central Israel. Explosions rang out in
Bahrain, while in Dubai four people were wounded by two drones that crashed
near the airport. In Tehran, residents said they were growing accustomed to
nightly airstrikes that have sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to
the countryside and contaminated the city with black rain from oil smoke. "There
were bombings last night but I did not get scared like before. Life goes on,"
Farshid, 52, told Reuters by phone.
'NO TIME LIMIT', SAYS ISRAEL
U.S. and Israeli officials say their aim is to end Iran's ability to project
force beyond its borders and destroy its nuclear programme, though they have
also invited Iranians to topple the country's clerical rulers. Israel's Defence
Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday the operation "will continue without any
time limit, as long as required, until we achieve all objectives and win the
campaign”. But the longer the war goes on, the greater the risk to the global
economy, and if it ends with Iran's system of clerical rule surviving, Tehran is
certain to declare victory. Iran's police chief, Ahmadreza Radan, said on
Wednesday anyone taking to the streets would be treated "as an enemy, not a
protester. All our security forces have their fingers on the trigger". More than
1,300 Iranian civilians have been killed since the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes
began on February 28, according to Iran's U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani.
Scores have also been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Iranian strikes on
Israel have killed at least 11 people and two Israeli soldiers have died in
Lebanon. Washington says seven U.S. soldiers have been killed and around 140
have been wounded.
US State Department says US diplomatic facility was
targeted in Iraq
Humeyra Pamuk, Kanishka Singh and Ismail Shakil/Reuters/March 11, 2026
A drone struck a major U.S. diplomatic facility in Iraq on Tuesday amid the
U.S.-Israeli air war on Iran, but there were no injuries and everyone was
accounted for, according to a U.S. official and an internal State Department
alert seen by Reuters. The drone hit the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center,
next to the Baghdad airport, impacting near a guard tower, the internal alert
from the Department seen by Reuters said. Individuals at the facility were
ordered to "duck and cover", it said. A separate alert said everyone was
accounted for.
The State Department confirmed the center was targeted and pointed to
"Iran-backed terrorist militias" but offered no other details about the
incident. The U.S. and the Iraqi government are in close contact about steps to
protect U.S. personnel and facilities, it added in a statement on Wednesday.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Washington Post first reported the incident and said a total of six drones
were launched toward the compound in Baghdad and that five were shot down. It
also said the attack was likely carried out by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq,
an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed factions. Iraq condemned the attacks near
the Iraqi bases but did not mention the damaged U.S. facility, according to the
Washington Post. "The (Iraqi) Ministry of Defense stresses that it will not
stand by as a spectator. Rather, it will firmly confront and pursue … all
parties involved," the ministry said in a statement cited by the newspaper. The
U.S. and Israel began attacks on Iran on February 28. Iran has responded with
its own strikes on Israel and Gulf countries with U.S. bases. Raising the stakes
for the global economy, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would
block oil shipments from the Gulf unless U.S. and Israeli attacks cease. The
United States and Israel pounded Iran on Tuesday with what the Pentagon and
Iranians on the ground called the most intense airstrikes of the war, despite
global markets betting that President Donald Trump will seek to end the conflict
soon.
The Revolutionary Guards said it fired missiles on Tuesday evening at Qatar's
U.S.-operated Al Udeid base and the Al Harir base in Iraq's Kurdistan. Those
launches were followed by drone attacks targeting a gathering of U.S. troops at
Al Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates and Juffair naval base in
Bahrain. U.S. President Donald Trump has said the strikes were aimed to
eliminate what he called imminent threats from Iran, citing its nuclear and
ballistic missile programs and its support for militant groups Hamas and
Hezbollah.
Iran, which denies seeking a nuclear weapon, has called the attacks an unlawful
violation of its sovereignty. Iran does not have nuclear weapons. Israel is
believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, while
Washington is also nuclear-armed. Israel says 11 civilians have been killed in
Iranian attacks. Iran's U.N. ambassador said on Tuesday the U.S.-Israeli
strikes had killed more than 1,300 civilians.
Cruz: Danger from sleeper cell attacks ‘has never been
higher’
Sophie Brams/The Hill/March 11, 2026
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned this week that the danger posed by Iranian-linked
sleeper cells operating inside the U.S. has “never been higher,” as tensions
escalate between the two nations. “The risk of terrorism right now is quite
high,” Cruz said, responding to a question from NewsNation’s Jackie Koppell. “We
tragically saw in Austin, Texas, just last weekend, we saw a terrorist attack.
We also saw another terrorist attack in New York City.”
Cruz tied the risk to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), arguing the funding lapse has weakened the agency’s ability to
respond to potential terrorist activity. Republicans sought to use the conflict
with Iran to pressure Democrats, who have stonewalled funding over demands for
reforms to President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda, into reopening the
DHS by emphasizing its role in counterterrorism. That framing has failed to move
the needle, however. “The danger has never been higher than right now,
particularly after four years of open borders under Joe Biden,” Cruz said. “We
know that radical Islamic terrorists entered this country, and there’s a
vulnerability all across this country.” “It is disgraceful and indefensible for
the Democrats to vote party line not to fund the Department of Homeland Security
right now,” he added.
His warning comes as U.S. intelligence officials have reportedly intercepted
communications believed to be from Iran that could serve as an “operational
trigger” to activate potential sleeper agents outside the country, according to
an alert reviewed by ABC News. The network reported that the encrypted
communications were relayed across multiple countries shortly after Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb.
28. Following the initial strikes, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social
platform X that he had instructed counterterrorism and intelligence teams to “be
on high alert” and mobilize necessary security assets. “While the military
handles force protection overseas, the @FBI remains at the forefront of
deterring attacks here at home – and will continue to have our team work around
the clock to protect Americans,” Patel wrote.
Fears that Iran may utilize sleeper cells outside their country in retaliation
for the military operation grew after a gunman opened fire at a popular bar in
Austin’s entertainment district on March 1, killing three people and injuring
more than a dozen others.
The FBI said in a press conference later that day that while a motive for the
shooting had not yet been identified, there were “indicators” of terrorism. The
gunman, identified as Ndiaga Diagne, was wearing clothes with an Iranian flag
design and “Property of Allah” written on it during the attack, law enforcement
sources told The Associated Press. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) similarly
expressed concerns about the threat of sleeper cells on Tuesday, saying there
were tens of thousands of people in the U.S. “that we don’t know their
background.” “We encourage Americans to continue to be vigilant,” he told
NewsNation. “There are people that still live around us that are still a threat
and we’ve got to be able to track it.”
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Qatar
Has More Than Earned U.S. Condemnation for Persecuting Religious Minorities at
Home
Natalie Ecanow & Mariam Wahba/FDD-Policy Brief/March 11/2026
It should not be surprising that a government that provides sanctuary to Hamas
and avidly supports the Muslim Brotherhood has a record of infringing its own
citizens’ religious liberty. Finally, it has earned a formal reprimand from a
key religious persecution watchdog.
Recognizing Qatar’s record of “ongoing” and “systemic” restrictions on religious
freedom, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) — which
released its 2026 annual report on March 4 — recommended that the Trump
administration place Qatar on the State Department’s Special Watch List (SWL)
“for engaging in or toleration of severe violations of religious freedom.”
Notably, Saudi Arabia, another Gulf ally, has carried the stronger Country of
Particular Concern (CPC) designation since 2004, setting a clear precedent for
holding regional partners to account.
The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan commission established under the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA). IRFA empowers the executive
branch to designate states engaging in severe religious freedom abuses as
Countries of Particular Concern, which can result in diplomatic or economic
consequences. Countries that do not meet all the criteria for CPC designation
but merit scrutiny are placed on the SWL.
Qatar’s Record of Abuse
On paper, Qatar’s constitution provides for freedom of religion and freedom of
worship. However, the commission noted in its report that Qatari authorities
“continued to limit freedom of worship for non-Muslim religious
minorities.”Qatar’s Baha’i community, in particular, faces systemic
discrimination. Last summer, authorities sentenced 71-year-old Baha’i leader
Remy Rowhani to five years in prison for posting content on social media that
allegedly “cast doubt on the foundations of Islam.” The United Nations had
previously warned that Rowhani’s case was “part of a broader and disturbing
pattern of discrimination” in Qatar “against individuals based on their religion
or belief.”An appeals court acquitted Rowhani in September, but abuses against
religious minorities did not abate. Non-Muslim communities in Qatar face
arbitrary arrests, interrogation, and increased surveillance. In addition to
Rowhani’s case, the United Nations has called attention to Wahid Bahji, a
Qatari-born Baha’i whom Qatari authorities reportedly deported in 2025. The
United Nations claims that Doha blacklisted Bahji “based merely on his adherence
to a minority religion” and that “his case follows a series of deportations and
blacklisting of Baha’is” over the last two decades.
Conversion Is a Punishable Crime
Under Qatar’s Penal Code, conversion from Islam to another religion constitutes
apostasy, a capital offense. While no execution for apostasy has been recorded
since Qatar’s independence from Britain in 1971, the threat of severe punishment
is codified.
Article 259 of the Penal Code separately criminalizes questioning or opposing
Islamic tenets or promoting other religions, with a prison sentence of up to
five years. Proselytizing for any faith other than Islam is likewise prohibited,
punishable by up to five years for individuals and up to 10 years for
organizers.
The practical consequences for converts are severe. Qatari nationals and migrant
workers who leave Islam face harassment, surveillance, and monitoring.
Conversion is not legally recognized, meaning converts have no formal standing
to claim a change in religious identity. According to Open Doors USA, a
Christian persecution watchdog, Christians from Muslim backgrounds in Qatar are
“heavily persecuted.”Non-Qatari converts also face deportation and loss of
employment. Non-Qatari Christian residents enjoy comparatively greater latitude
to practice their faith privately, but the government monitors worship
activities.Washington Should Heed USCIRF’s Special Watch List Recommendation
The United States has long made human rights and religious freedom central to
its foreign policy, and partners who benefit from American security guarantees
and diplomatic backing should uphold those values. Qatar must not be exempt. A
SWL designation does not impose sanctions, sever defense ties, or remove
security guarantees. It is a watch-and-engage mechanism: a formal signal that
the United States is paying attention and expects progress. Placing Qatar on the
SWL would preserve the bilateral relationship while making clear that
Washington’s commitment to freedom of religion or belief applies across the
board. The credibility of the U.S. commitment to religious freedom globally
depends on applying consistent standards, even to close allies. **Natalie Ecanow is
a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD),
where Mariam Wahba is a research analyst. For more analysis from Natalie, Mariam,
and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Natalie on X @NatalieEcanow. Follow
Mariam on X @themariamwahba. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington,
DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on foreign policy and national
security.
Muslim Brotherhood-Linked Online Network Impersonates
Israelis Amid Ongoing War With Iran
Max Lesser & Emmerson Overell/FDD-Policy Brief/March 11/2026
As Iranian missile barrages continue to strike cities and towns across Israel, a
coordinated network impersonating Israelis on the X social media platform is
amplifying divisive narratives in Hebrew. FDD researchers recently identified
more than 100 accounts in this network exploiting the Iran war in apparent
attempts to worsen cleavages in Israeli society. The accounts’ attributes and
activities resemble those of a persistent influence campaign known as ISNAD, an
Arabic word referring to a chain of individuals who transmit and authenticate
Islamic traditions. Israeli researchers from Active Info and the operator of a
WhatsApp news network serving Israel’s Haredi community first identified the
network, according to a 2024 investigative report by the Israeli news outlet
Haaretz, which also noted the network’s connection to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) has also published
several in-depth reports discussing ISNAD’s evolving narratives and tactics
since 2024. X should move quickly to investigate and remove this network, as it
likely violates the platform’s policies on deceptive content.
Amplifying Narratives of Division
The accounts identified by FDD post primarily in Hebrew, with many accounts
explicitly presenting themselves as Israelis. However, around one-third of
accounts in the network connect to X via non-Israeli mobile apps and app stores,
from regions including West Asia, North Africa, and Europe. X lists the
remaining accounts in this network as “based in Israel” but flags nearly all of
them as possibly using a proxy that masks their true location. The accounts
amplify divisive political and social narratives: criticizing Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, highlighting alleged Israeli security failures,
claiming Israel’s democracy is collapsing, criticizing Israel’s Haredi
population, and occasionally calling for a revolution. The accounts also appear
to reuse a shared library of messages, distributing them across accounts with
light paraphrasing, likely to evade detection that relies on exact duplicates.
After the U.S.-led war against Iran’s clerical regime was launched on February
28, the accounts began aggressively exploiting the conflict in their messaging.
Between November 1 and February 28, less than 5 percent of their posts were
Iran-related, compared with more than 20 percent once the war began. Many of
these Iran-related posts aim to demoralize Israelis, highlighting the impact of
Iranian strikes on Israel, claiming that Netanyahu dragged Israelis into the
war, and even occasionally asserting that Israel cannot possibly win against
Iran.
Historical Influence Operations Impersonating Israelis
A persistent online influence operation, ISNAD has impersonated Israelis on X
and other platforms for several years. Analysis from the INSS has shown that
ISNAD amplifies narratives criticizing the Israeli government, undermining the
sense of public security, encouraging civic resistance, and exploiting divisive
social issues. ISNAD also uses AI to generate content that is nearly but not
precisely identical, making coordination harder to detect, and often replies to
authentic Hebrew-language content rather than posting original material. These
narratives and behaviors closely resemble those of the cluster of more than 100
accounts that FDD identified.
X Must Investigate and Act
Given the risk that designated or sanctioned actors may attempt to exploit major
platforms, X should investigate whether the network is tied to prohibited
entities and enforce its policies accordingly. Such an investigation is
especially necessary given that the Treasury and State Departments designated
multiple Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations in January and
March. X should move quickly. However, a single takedown is not sufficient. X
should monitor attempts by the network to reconstitute itself and apply
persistent enforcement as new accounts associated with it emerge.
*Max Lesser is a senior analyst on emerging threats at the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies’ (FDD’s) Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI),
where Emmerson Overell is the CCTI Project Coordinator. For more analysis from
the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CCTI.
FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on
foreign policy and national security.
Iran's new supreme leader 'lightly injured' but active,
Iranian official says
Parisa Hafezi/Agencies/.March 11/2026
Iran's newly-appointed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was lightly injured but
is continuing to operate, an Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday after
state television described him as war wounded. Khamenei has not been seen by
Iranians, or issued any public statement or message, since his selection on
Sunday by a clerical assembly and is widely rumoured to have been wounded in
the Israeli and U.S. strikes. Seen as a hardliner close to the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps, Khamenei was the leading contender to succeed his
father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of strikes on
February 28. The official did not give details about when Khamenei was injured
or why he had not made any statement to the public since his appointment. The
first air strikes in the war were aimed at decapitating Iran's leadership, and
besides his father, they killed Khamenei's mother, sister and wife, state
television said. "His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei is today the
heir to the blood of his martyred father, his martyred mother, his martyred
sister and his martyred wife," a news anchor read out on state television,
using Khamenei's full titles and honorifics.
"He, who is a janbaz of the Ramadan War, inherits the path of the proud and
steadfast martyrs of this land," the anchor added, using an Iranian term for a
wounded veteran, and the name Iranian officials have given the current conflict
because it is happening during Islam's fasting month. Israel's intelligence
assessment is that Khamenei was lightly wounded and that is why he has not
been seen in public, a senior Israeli official told Reuters. The new supreme
leader was pushed through with extensive support from the Revolutionary Guards,
sources have told Reuters. Long the head of his father's office, known in
Persian as the beyt, he has had a direct role in running the Iranian state for
years. However, he is not well known to ordinary Iranians having made few
public speeches or other appearances in the past.
Israeli settler violence rises in West Bank under Iran war curbs
Pesha Magid and Ali Sawafta/Reuters/March 11/2026
Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are taking advantage of curbs on
movement imposed during the war on Iran to attack Palestinians, with military
roadblocks preventing ambulances reaching victims quickly, rights groups and
medics say.Settlers have killed at least five Palestinians in the West Bank
since the United States and Israel began airstrikes against Iran on February
28, according to the Palestinian health ministry. A sixth man died after
inhaling teargas fired during an attack, according to Israeli rights group
B'Tselem. Israel's military blocked many West Bank roads with iron gates and
mounds of earth on the first day of the war, and has largely shut crossings with
Israel. The Israeli military says the curbs are preemptive measures while it is
carrying out airstrikes on Iran and against Lebanese group Hezbollah, which has
fired missiles at Israel in solidarity with Tehran.Palestinians in remote West
Bank villages say the roadblocks have left them increasingly exposed to settler
violence. The Israeli military has also continued to carry out the raids it
frequently conducts in Palestinian cities and towns during peacetime to arrest
Palestinians, often without charge, they say. The Israeli military said they do
not prevent medical teams from treating wounded civilians and it enables freedom
of movement for medical teams in the West Bank. A spokesperson for the Yesha
Council, which represents Jewish settlements, did not immediately respond to a
Reuters request for comment on the attacks.
'Who Wants To Tell Him?': Lindsey Graham Mocked After
Bizarre New Iran Claim
Ed Mazza/HuffPost/ March 11, 2026
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday made a bold prediction about President
Donald Trump’s war with Iran, but critics say it had a glaring flaw. Graham, who
has been oneofthebiggestcheerleaders for war with Iran while also pushing for a
conflict with Cuba, praised Trump as “the right guy at the right time” because
of Tehran’s supposed nuclear program. “When he heard they were that close to 10
[nuclear] weapons, he acted,” Graham gushed. “And you know what? When this is
over, we’re gonna obliterate their nuclear program and there’s gonna be a new
dawn in the Mideast.”But those claims would seem to conflict with what Trump
himself said after he launched a series of strikes on Iran last June, which also
targeted the nation’s nuclear program. At the time, Trump declared the military
operation a success, saying the strikes had “completely and totally obliterated”
Iran’s program. When some analysts suggested that the attack had only set the
program back by months, the White House slammed those reports in a statement
headlined: “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated — and Suggestions
Otherwise are Fake News.”That same statement included a quote from the president
insisting that “obliteration is an accurate term” for the destruction the U.S.
caused in Iran last summer. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also praised Trump
last June for “a resounding success” in Iran in which he “created the conditions
to end the war, [while also] decimating — choose your word — obliterating,
destroying, Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”
Critics were quick to point out the inconsistency between Graham’s prediction on
Tuesday and those claims from last year:
The Latest
LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on March 11-12/2026
Trump Could End the War Tomorrow. I
Don’t Think He Will.
Matt Pottinger/The Free Press/March
11/2026
https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2026/03/09/trump-could-end-the-war-tomorrow-i-dont-think-he-will/
Energy markets breathed a sigh of relief on Monday after President Donald Trump
suggested he could declare victory over Iran at any time. “I think the war is
very complete, pretty much,” he told CBS News. In a press conference later in
the day he suggested several times that the war had achieved its basic
objectives of rolling back Iran’s weapons programs and that it would be over
“very soon.”As I listened closely, however, I could hear Trump circling back to
a rationale for staying in the fight long enough to ensure the United States
doesn’t find itself back where we started in a few short years. Let me explain
why I believe Trump is more likely than not to listen to his instinct to “finish
the job,” as family members of recently fallen U.S. service personnel beseeched
him this weekend, even if it means weeks (not days) of war still lay ahead.
In the four years I worked for him during his first term, I learned that Trump
sees the threat posed by the Iranian regime—to U.S. national security, regional
stability, and even to Trump personally—as being categorically different from
that posed by other U.S. adversaries. “Look, they’re just evil,” was how he put
it last Tuesday while hosting German chancellor Friedrich Merz. “It’s not the
politics; it’s their whole philosophy.”The only other nation Trump regarded in
remotely similar terms was North Korea. But then he tested his assessment of the
threat by meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in person three times in
2018 and 2019. I accompanied Trump for the first two encounters and believe he
came away with a sense that Kim could be deterred. Trump, with good reason,
concluded long ago that the Iranian regime cannot.
Trump gave Tehran plenty of opportunities to prove this instinct wrong. This
administration has made good-faith efforts to reach a nuclear deal with the
Islamic Republic. During his first term, Trump signaled his willingness to meet
with Iranian leaders directly. French president Emmanuel Macron tried to broker
an encounter and the U.S. president came within moments of getting on a phone
call with then–Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in late 2019. But Rouhani—who,
in any case, had nothing close to the authority of now-deceased Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei—chickened out.
Weeks later, Iranian proxy forces in Iraq killed a U.S. defense contractor, an
act that Trump answered with air strikes on those same proxies. Tehran saw this
as an opportunity to try to drive the United States out of the Middle East for
good; Washington soon learned that the IRGC Quds Force leader, Major General
Qasem Soleimani, was planning to attack U.S. outposts throughout the Middle
East. Trump made the decision to strike Soleimani first. It was one of the
decisions by Trump that impressed me most. He wasn’t facing pressure from his
team to do it. In fact, some of his closest advisers issued sober warnings of
what could go wrong. The president heard these views out and then he made his
decision, with a sense of gravity and conviction. (When I first heard about the
president’s decision, I thought it was a recipe for disaster. I soon came to
believe it was a masterstroke.)
Soleimani was killed soon after, on January 3, 2020. Since that day, the Iranian
regime has tried repeatedly to assassinate Trump (along with others who worked
for him). Trump knows that newly named Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei—son of
the same leader who tried to kill Trump and who Israeli forces killed 10 days
ago—won’t be the kind of guy to let bygones be bygones.“I’m not going through
this to end up with another Khamenei,” Trump said in an interview last week. In
his press conference tonight, he said he was “disappointed” the regime had
selected Mojtaba “because we think it’s going to lead to just more of the same
problem for the country.”Therein lies the dilemma Trump seemed to be contending
with in his public statements on Monday: He can wage a short, indecisive war—one
in which both Trump and the Iranians claim victory (regime survival is all it
will take for the regime to make such a claim). Or he can wage a longer war that
has a higher chance of preventing the regime from repeating its congenital cycle
of bad-faith negotiations, pursuit of nuclear weapons, and proxy warfare all
over again. That is why I suspect Trump was speaking from his gut when he said
tonight: “I want a system that’s not going to be attacking us. We want a system
that can lead to many years of peace. And if we can’t have that, we might as
well get it over with right now.”
*Matt Pottinger was deputy national security advisor from 2019 to 2021. He
chairs the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and is CEO
of research and advisory firm Garnaut Global LLC.
Trump Is
Trying To Run the World Like a Pyramid Scheme. That Should Terrify
Holly Hudson/The Daily Beast/March 11/2026
Trump seems to believe the presidency comes with C-Suite access for the planet
as a whole: he can interview foreign leaders for job openings, dissolve
international peacekeeping entities, fudge the expense reports, and dispatch his
wife to “do” diplomacy like she’s running the annual company charity auction.
(All the items for sale are signed copies of her autobiography, of course.) And
that’s before the environmental rollbacks and the renaming sprees like the
planet is a failing franchise he’s trying to rebrand. In Trump’s head, the U.S.
is corporate HQ and the rest of the world is a network of regional branch
offices.
Most leaders wrestle with governing. Trump skips the match and just announces he
won. Everything is going the way he says it’s going—better than ever! He has
decided he’s going to redecorate not just the White House ballroom but the
entire globe, starting with hostile takeovers of Venezuela and Iran; maybe Cuba
and Greenland penciled in for next quarter?
Let’s start with Trump’s latest foray into international headhunting: his
announcement that he must be personally involved in selecting Iran’s next
Supreme Leader. He’s also suggested that the regime’s handpicked successor to
the Ayatollah killed in the recent U.S. strike should, wait for it, be killed
too. This would be worth of an HR investigation if Trump believed in HR; the man
who free-associates through war briefings now wants to run the hiring committee.
You can imagine the interview now: ‘Tell me about a time you showed leadership
under pressure. Are you willing to relocate? Also, would you describe your
hatred of America as a strength or an opportunity?”
Foreign policy turns into reality TV the second he touches it. He can’t help it.
It’s The Apprentice: Tehran, complete with Trump as the executive producer, the
star, and the guy who keeps pausing the meeting to ask how his hair is coming
across on camera.
Plenty of presidents meddle abroad. Trump does it with the confidence of a man
who thinks theology is a management style, not a worldview. He genuinely can’t
grasp why a theocratic state might not want career coaching from a
twice-divorced casino owner who treats spiritual authority like a PR problem and
keeps trying to workshop the Pope. Also, he just bombed them. But why stop at
hiring foreign dictators when you can also restructure the entire international
order? Trump has announced his intention to create a body, which he hints could
supplant the United Nations, called the “Board of Peace,” all the while handing
out comic-book job titles and re-orgs like “Shield of the Americas.” Because
apparently the problem with global diplomacy isn’t the complexity of
international relations. It’s that the name doesn’t sound tough enough.
This is peak Trump business thinking: take an 81-year-old institution that has,
at minimum, kept the biggest powers in meetings, not on battlefields, for
decades, and treat it like a failing restaurant chain that just needs better
signage. That’s the same genius who brought us Trump University (shut down for
fraud), Trump Steaks (discontinued, the only product that tastes like a press
conference), and Trump Airlines (grounded faster than you can say “Chapter 11.”)
The “Board of Peace” sounds like something a kindergarten teacher would call the
corner where children go to resolve their playground disputes, which, come to
think of it, might actually be an improvement over the current UN Security
Council. But there’s something genuinely unhinged about a man who thinks you can
solve centuries of geopolitical complexity by changing the letterhead. It’s like
announcing you’re going to cure cancer by renaming it “Happy Cells Syndrome.”
Paging RFK, Jr.
Donald Trump at the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J.
Trump Institute of Peace on February 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. / Chip
Somodevilla / Getty Images
Donald Trump at the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J.
Trump Institute of Peace on February 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. / Chip
Somodevilla / Getty Images
Here’s what connects Trump’s Supreme Leader auditions, his UN makeover plans,
and his wife’s new diplomatic career: a breathtaking inability to grasp that
other countries aren’t subsidiaries of Trump International. In his mind,
sovereign nations are property acquisitions. He’s writing performance reviews
for countries he’s never met. And for at least one country, he’s going to
misspell in all caps. By that I mean “Spain,” not “Tajikistan.” The Performance
Improvement Plan for Iran probably has bullet points like ‘smile more’ and ‘stop
making me look bad.’
This leaves the rest of the world doing international diplomacy with America on
a kiddie leash. While Trump obsesses over ballroom drapes during war briefings,
European leaders are probably in some back room drawing straws to see who has to
be the designated adult when he starts threatening to dissolve NATO. At this
point, the world’s strategy is the same one you use with a loud toddler in a
nice restaurant: give him a menu, tell him he’s in charge, and quietly move the
knives while he doodles on the placemat. Then praise his “Board of Peace,” throw
a shiny participation trophy his way and do the actual diplomacy after he’s
tucked into bed.
Is the Islamic Republic Down and Out in the Levant and Beyond?
Reuel Marc Gerecht/Hoover Institution/March 11/2026
https://www.hoover.org/research/islamic-republic-down-and-out-levant-and-beyond
Since October 7, 2023, Iran’s theocracy has watched its entire westward foreign
policy crash, disabled by an Israeli counterattack and its shockwaves. The
Islamic Republic’s proxy-based imperialism, which had given Tehran a relatively
inexpensive means to intervene in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, the Gulf, Gaza, and,
most consequentially, in Syria, hasn’t been deconstructed—more hamstrung by
losses in the Levant. This situation won’t change, especially if the Israelis
“mow the lawn,” that is, launch frequent attacks against the command and
supplies of its enemies.
Yemen’s Houthis, relatively unscathed, are still allied with the clerical
regime, but they have always been more an annoyance and an embarrassment, not a
serious threat, to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, global
shipping, and the United States’ Navy. Iran’s sway in Iraq, though still
sometimes decisive, has proven of little use in the battle against Israel and
America. Since October 7, 2023, Iraq hasn’t become an Iranian missile platform
and Iraq’s democracy keeps on ticking, producing alliances and a domestic press
that have eaten away at Iran’s hegemonic ambitions.
Tehran has so far been unable to turn Iraq into a new Lebanon, where
Iranian-backed militias reliably execute its agenda inside the country and, more
importantly, abroad. The Iraqi Shia just haven’t proven as malleable as the
Lebanese Shia; they don’t view themselves as a besieged minority and the Iraqi
clergy, led by the last great transnational cleric, the Iranian-born Ali al-Sistani,
has kept its distance from Tehran. Israel’s demolition of the Hezbollah
leadership and the earlier deaths of Qasem Soleimani, the dark lord of the
Revolutionary Guards’ expeditionary Qods force, and his Iraqi ally, Abu Mahdi
al-Muhandis, by an American missile in 2020, continues to reverberate among
Iraqis. The Islamic Republic has never had a deep bench of talent; knowing how
to deal with independent-minded Arabs isn’t a Persian strong-suit. The
trajectory in Iraq for Tehran, even if its allies can gain more political clout,
isn’t great.
For Tehran, nothing makes up for the losses in the Levant. The late Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in Syria, Brigadier General Hossein Hamadani,
who died in the battle of Aleppo in 2015, saw Syria as the fulcrum of the
Islamic Republic’s Middle Eastern ambitions and even key to the survival of the
revolution at home. Lose Syria, and widespread Shiite dissent, fracturing, and
even rollback in Lebanon and in Iraq become possible. Hamadani, who had a big
hand in crushing the pro-democracy Green Movement in 2009, believed that the
regime’s esprit—its sense of itself as a victorious revolutionary
movement—depended on its success in Syria.
Always aimed at the United States, its Zionist subsidiary, and Muslim states
aligned with America, the Islamic Republic invested massively in the
Arabs—primarily in the “Shiite arc” once it became apparent in the 1980s and
1990s that the clerical regime had insufficient traction among Sunni Arabs to
make a difference. For the theocracy, Syria and Lebanon were inextricable since
Syria offered a land route to Hezbollah, the linchpin of Tehran’s anti-Zionist
ambitions. Radicalized Lebanese Shia, who’d created their own version of
militant Shiism before the Islamic revolution and who were later nourished by
their far stronger Iranian brethren, have been the indispensable foot-soldiers
for Iran’s theocracy, an advance guard that made Arab Shiite cooperation with
Persians operationally much easier.
Elsewhere, Tehran just couldn’t tilt Sunni fundamentalism away from its Gulf
sponsors towards a militancy that created Tehran-guided militias of use against
Israel and the United States. Hating America just wasn’t enough for most
holy-warrior Sunnis, who saw Shiites as the original deviants. Al-Qa’ida and
Iran could certainly come to an understanding. But the clerical regime saw
itself as much more than a transit hub for dozens of death-wish believers who
wanted to kill Americans.
Tehran could successfully piggy-back on pre-existing “national” hatreds, most
effectively among the Palestinians, who loathe Jews far more than they loathe
Shiites. The Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas both found friends and
patronage within the Islamic Republic’s ruling elite. But the PLO’s
anti-Americanism faded when the group got ejected from Lebanon in 1982 and, more
consequentially, when its Soviet and communist Eastern European patrons
collapsed. By the 1990s, Hamas became the most effective Sunni outfit that
Tehran bestowed its cash and violent ambitions upon—even though these
Palestinian Islamists hadn’t targeted Americans outside of Israel. Killing Jews
in Israel was good enough.
But the Islamic Republic’s larger ambition—to be the vanguard for all Muslims,
especially for Arabs, Islam’s progenitors—dissolved in the bloodbath of the
Syrian rebellion against the Iranian-allied Assad dictatorship. It also got
severely wounded on the home-front. One of the big reasons why the theocracy has
so far successfully thwarted internal rebellions is that it is well aware that
the vast majority of Iranians despise it. The mullahs and the Revolutionary
Guards plan accordingly. But like the Spartans, who always wanted to keep a
large reserve at home to suppress rebellious helots, the theocracy just doesn’t
have the Iranian manpower to amp up its malice against foreigners. The Iranian
grand strategy of using proxies was in part born of this depressing reality.
And Iran’s theocracy isn’t going to rise like a phoenix. The Islamic Republic no
longer possesses a vibrant, alluring creed, capable of energizing foreign
Shiites, let alone Sunnis, who watched Iran slaughter Sunni Arabs in Iraq and
Syria. There are some crimes for which there is no forgiveness. The Iranians may
try to buy their way back into Syria, and Middle Eastern corruption should never
be underestimated. But the dimensions of what is required to sustain Hezbollah
against Israel, especially if Jerusalem continues to pummel the group, is
probably just too large for corrupt commerce to satisfy.
And the Lebanese Shia justifiably now fear the concatenation of Sunni groups who
now rule next door under the leadership of Ahmad al-Shar’aa. Some of these men
are hardcore Sunni holy warriors who’ve bled for years fighting Alawis, the
heretical Shiites from whom the Assads sprang, and Hezbollah. Imagining these
men wandering into Lebanon to get even isn’t hard. The trajectory in the Levant,
even if future Israeli actions in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank provoke more
waves of anti-Zionist anger, is unlikely to escape the Islamic Republic’s past
alliances.
What the clerical regime still possesses is a certain technical know-how with
missiles, drones, and nuclear weapons. It’s capacity for terrorism—always a
favorite default choice since it is low cost, sufficiently deniable, and
provides a real frisson—is uncertain. The many instances of the regime
contracting out its assassination and kidnap plots to mediocre criminals and
novices doesn’t suggest that the theocracy has either a A- or B-Team ready to
deploy. The regime’s technical prowess is a real concern for Israel, especially
if the United States were to again lose interest in combatting the Islamic
Republic. It’s unlikely that the clerical regime’s atomic ambitions are going to
come to fruition any time soon: the Israeli and American attacks—and the threat
of future raids—have probably revoked Tehran’s threshold status. Yet the
regime’s continuing pursuit of a nuke and more long-range missiles gives the
theocracy pride and self-confidence (and a bit of deterrence against Israel),
without which the regime has zero chance of reviving its regional dreams.
But such mechanical savoir-faire will not compensate for weakness on the ground.
It can compensate neither for the loss of Syria nor the evanescence of the
revolution’s promise. A real revolutionary state, the Islamic Republic has never
wanted to live through its rhetoric. Ali Khamenei and his men have always wanted
to see results, sustained if incremental progress towards expelling the United
States from the Middle East, undermining Arab rulers who have fortified their
dominions with American support, and sapping the will of Israelis and killing
them whenever practicable.
The ruling circle within Iran, however shrunk by the supreme leader’s paranoia,
may be stronger now than before the most recent uprising and nationwide
bloodletting. Surviving gives purpose and cohesion. Slaughtering your own
countrymen who’ve fallen from the righteous path likely will intensify the
theocracy’s determination, not collapse it into fearful pragmatism.
Yet the Iranian regime can’t turn back the clock. Islamic militancy in Iran is
irreversibly in decline, gutted by its success. This may be true—or true
enough—throughout the Near East, among both Sunnis and Shiites. Tehran’s earlier
successes, when it looked like Khamenei had developed a brilliant proxy-based
way to extend the regime’s awe and influence, were built on dead Sunni Arabs.
With ironic and pivotal help from the Israelis, payback has been a bitch.
Tehran is going to have to work really hard to transfer effective weapons to
Hezbollah and Hamas. Cash payments may help keep these militant organizations
from fracturing. But such a survival is depressing. Iran’s theocracy has to
figure out how to do more with a lot less, assuming it can survive popular
insurrections. If past is prologue, it’s an ugly future.
**Mr. Gerecht is a resident scholar at the Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies.
https://www.hoover.org/research/islamic-republic-down-and-out-levant-and-beyond
Read in Hoover Institution
Iran War Provides Opportunity for Russia To Test U.S.
Alaska Defenses
Emmerson Overell/FDD-Policy Brief/March 11/2026
As the U.S.-led war against Iran’s clerical regime continues apace, Russia is
testing American capabilities in another corner of the globe.
Two Russian maritime patrol aircraft flew through the Alaskan and Canadian Air
Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ) on March 4. The pair of Tu-142 planes were
met by 12 Canadian and American aircraft sent to monitor and intercept the
Russian patrol, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Although Russia frequently flies through Alaska’s ADIZ, Moscow is likely taking
advantage of America’s focus on the Middle East to probe for potential gaps in
allied intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and rapid-response
capabilities in the Arctic.
Russian Threats to the U.S. Homeland
This month’s high-altitude U.S.-Russia encounter follows a similar event last
month. On February 19, NORAD identified Russian aircraft operating near Alaska’s
ADIZ and responded by dispatching an array of fighter jets and ISR aircraft. As
with the latest incident, Russian planes remained in Alaska’s ADIZ — a stretch
of demarcated international airspace that sits immediately before a country’s
sovereign airspace — and did not enter sovereign U.S. territory. Indeed,
Moscow’s recent aerial actions in the High North are nothing new. Russia
frequently operates within Alaska’s ADIZ to repeatedly assess what actions
trigger a NORAD response, as well as the speed of the response. In 2025 alone,
NORAD detected and dispatched aircraft to monitor and escort Russian aircraft in
Alaska’s ADIZ nine times: twice in February, once in April and July, four times
in August, and once in September.
However, Russia’s incursion into Alaska’s ADIZ last week is the first since
Washington initiated Operation Epic Fury against Tehran’s ruling regime. Moscow
likely wanted to test America’s Arctic monitoring and response capabilities amid
the war in the Middle East by sending two maritime patrol aircraft into Alaska’s
ADIZ. NORAD’s response of six fighter jets along with six refueling and ISR
aircraft was likely intended as a strong signal to the Kremlin that although the
United States is currently focused on Iran, its northern frontier remains
heavily protected.
Cold War Tensions Resurface in the North
The incidents around Alaska have highlighted the broader Russian challenge to
the U.S. and its allies in the Arctic. British Defense Minister John Healey
recently warned, “Russia poses the greatest threat to the Arctic and High North
security that we have seen since the Cold War.”
Healey’s statement coincided with NATO’s announcement of the newly established
Arctic Sentry scheme, a multi-domain enhanced Vigilance Activity that aims to
bring all allied Arctic exercises and efforts under one coordinated umbrella.
According to NATO, Arctic Sentry builds upon the agreement between President
Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the alliance will
“collectively take more responsibility for the defense of the region considering
Russia’s military activity.”
Heightened Coordination Among NATO States Is Critical
The Arctic is a vital strategic region, especially in the context of Russian
threats against the West. Robust surveillance capabilities are critical for
allied countries to monitor Moscow’s activities in the Arctic. This includes
tracking Russian submarines transiting the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK)
Gap into the Atlantic or potential missile launches targeting the West. NATO
countries with Arctic territories, among them Canada, Norway, Denmark and the
United States, as well as countries close to the region like the United Kingdom,
should endeavor to strengthen the alliance’s force posture in the region. They
should prioritize improving and expanding sovereign and joint NATO ISR
capabilities at every level, from seabed to outer space, using the new Arctic
Sentry scheme to enhance cooperation on threats posed by Russia. *Emmerson
Overell is a project coordinator at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)
for the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI). For more analysis from
Emmerson and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CCTI. FDD
is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national
security and foreign policy.
If Saudi Arabia Wants U.S. Alliance, It Must End Support for Sudanese Armed
Forces — Aligned with Muslim Brotherhood and Iran — Not Fund It
Anna Mahjar-Barducci/Gatestone Institute/March 11, 2026
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22337/sudan-saudi-arabia-muslim-brotherhood
Sudan's ongoing civil war is not just a clash between the Sudanese Armed Forces
(SAF) and their former military allies-turned rivals, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
It is a calculated power grab by the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood, recently
listed by the US as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)....
Meanwhile, the terrorist organization appears to be using the SAF as a Trojan
horse to dominate northeast Africa and the Red Sea – a critical artery for
global commerce.
Saudi Arabia's ideological red lines have long included deep hostility to the
Muslim Brotherhood — but only within its own borders. Beyond the kingdom, Saudi
policy has increasingly shown support to Muslim Brotherhood-backed groups. In
Yemen, for instance, Saudi Arabia, stirring up trouble in the neighborhood, has
been supporting and empowering the Muslim Brotherhood's Islah Party.
Since the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan in April of 2023, Saudi Arabia has
become the principal supporter of the SAF. Saudi Arabia also financed a major
arms deal between Pakistan and the SAF, valued at approximately $1.5 billion.
More recently, the Sudan's army-backed government signed a deal with a Saudi
company for gold exploration along the Red Sea coast.
Saudi support to the SAF risks continuing the entrenchment of Islamist jihadi
aggression, whether Sunni or Shiite, that threatens regional stability.
For the West, the lesson of 2026 is straightforward: oppose Iran without apology
— and also oppose the Muslim Brotherhood without apology. Anything less rewards
terrorism and prolongs instability in the Arab and Muslim world.
If Saudi Arabia wants to be considered an ally of the United States, it needs to
have zero tolerance for extremist ideology and to understand that Washington
cannot accept any rehabilitation of the Muslim Brotherhood. Supporting the SAF,
which is infused with Muslim Brotherhood affiliates who maintain ideological and
operational links with Iran's proxies, risks undermining the very objectives
that the West claims to pursue in the region. Alliances built on short-term
tactical convenience may appear useful in the moment, but they can ultimately
empower the same ideological and geopolitical forces that Western governments
are trying to contain. The West cannot afford to have fake alliances that
ultimately empower the threats the West is claiming to fight.
Sudan's ongoing civil war is not just a clash between the Sudanese Armed Forces
(SAF) and their former military allies-turned rivals, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The Muslim Brotherhood appears to be using the SAF to take over Sudan. Pictured:
SAF soldiers sit atop a tank after their capture of an RSF base in Omdurman, on
May 26, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty Images)
Sudan's ongoing civil war is not just a clash between the Sudanese Armed Forces
(SAF) and their former military allies-turned rivals, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
It is a calculated power grab by the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood, recently
listed by the US as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The US
announced plans to formally classify the group as a Foreign Terrorist
Organization (FTO) starting March 16, 2026, and accused it of carrying out mass
violence against civilians during Sudan's ongoing war. Meanwhile, the terrorist
organization appears to be using the SAF as a Trojan horse to dominate northeast
Africa and the Red Sea – a critical artery for global commerce.
The Muslim Brotherhood appears to be using the SAF to take over Sudan. SAF
leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and Ali Karti, secretary-general of the Sudanese
Islamic Movement (SIM), the local iteration of the transnational Muslim
Brotherhood in Sudan, maintain a strategic alliance. This partnership supports
both SAF operations amid the civil war and the Muslim Brotherhood's political
goals.
To gain influence and bolster their position in the Sudanese civil war, the SAF
has relied partially on Iranian support. Before the 2026 war in Iran erupted on
February 28 with the US-Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, Tehran supplied the SAF with weapons (including drones), munitions,
intelligence support, and technical assistance.
This deepening alignment was starkly illustrated earlier this month, when a
video circulated online featuring Al Naji Abdullah, a Muslim Brotherhood
high-ranking figure and a commander aligned with the SAF. In the clip, speaking
on behalf of Sudanese "mujahideen" operating within and alongside the SAF
structure, Abdullah voiced explicit support for Iran and threatened to mobilize
Sudanese fighters if US and Israeli ground forces entered Iran:
"We support Iran and we say it from here in Sudan. If the Americans and the
Zionists deploy ground forces in Iran, we will send forces from among us to
confront them. We say this openly... we will send all our battalions to fight
there."
The SAF, however, was ultimately forced to adjust its public messaging when Iran
kept on launching missile and drone barrages at neighboring Gulf states,
striking many targets, including in Saudi Arabia. Since the outbreak of the
civil war in Sudan, Saudi Arabia has become the principal supporter of the SAF.
The Iranian strikes on Saudi territory forced the kingdom to adopt a sharper
stance. Saudi Arabia condemned Iran's "brazen and cowardly" attacks, declared
its right to respond militarily, and hardened its rhetoric toward Iran in a
clear shift from its earlier caution.
This shift exposes a contradiction at the core of Saudi Arabia's regional
policy. The kingdom continues to support the SAF, whose battlefield survival has
depended in part on weapons and assistance previously supplied by the very
Iranian regime now targeting Saudi territory. Saudi Arabia's ideological red
lines have long included deep hostility to the Muslim Brotherhood — but only
within its own borders. Beyond the kingdom, Saudi policy has increasingly shown
support to Muslim Brotherhood-backed groups. In Yemen, for instance, Saudi
Arabia, stirring up trouble in the neighborhood, has been supporting and
empowering the Muslim Brotherhood's Islah Party.
Since the outbreak of the civil war in Sudan in April of 2023, Saudi Arabia has
become the principal supporter of the SAF.
Saudi Arabia also financed a major arms deal between Pakistan and the SAF,
valued at approximately $1.5 billion. More recently, the Sudan's army-backed
government signed a deal with a Saudi company for gold exploration along the Red
Sea coast.
Under these circumstances, the SAF quickly pivoted to echoing Saudi Arabia's
hardened rhetoric, condemning Iran and aligning its public messaging with that
of its principal financial patron. Yet the SAF's deep ideological links to the
Muslim Brotherhood suggest that this rhetorical shift does not represent a
genuine break with the broader Islamist currents that have historically
intersected with the ideology of the Iranian regime. As a result, the SAF's
denunciations of Iran do not represent a geopolitical repositioning, but rather
an act of political opportunism.
For the West, Saudi Arabia can and should be a partner in confronting the
Iranian threat — especially after Iran's direct assaults on Gulf states and
global energy security. Partnership, however, cannot mean indulgence. The West
needs simultaneously to stand firm against the Muslim Brotherhood's
transnational network, which has repeatedly proven destabilizing — from Sudan's
decades of Islamist rule and genocide, to its facilitation of jihadist transit
and weapons smuggling.
Saudi support to the SAF risks continuing the entrenchment of Islamist jihadi
aggression, whether Sunni or Shiite, that threatens regional stability.
For the West, the lesson of 2026 is straightforward: oppose Iran without apology
— and also oppose the Muslim Brotherhood without apology. Anything less rewards
terrorism and prolongs instability in the Arab and Muslim world.
If Saudi Arabia wants to be considered an ally of the United States, it needs to
have zero tolerance for extremist ideology and to understand that Washington
cannot accept any rehabilitation of the Muslim Brotherhood. Supporting the SAF,
which is infused with Muslim Brotherhood affiliates who maintain ideological and
operational links with Iran's proxies, risks undermining the very objectives
that the West claims to pursue in the region. Alliances built on short-term
tactical convenience may appear useful in the moment, but they can ultimately
empower the same ideological and geopolitical forces that Western governments
are trying to contain. The West cannot afford to have fake alliances that
ultimately empower the threats the West is claiming to fight.
© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.
Iran as
a cautionary tale
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya English/11 March/2026
With the latest developments in the Middle East, we can clearly see how the
policies of a government can shape not only its global image but also the
prosperity and stability of its own people. Nations ultimately choose their path
through the strategies they adopt and the way they interact with their neighbors
and the international community. Some countries pursue diplomacy, cooperation,
and economic development, thereby increasing their legitimacy and influence in
the world. Others pursue confrontation, ideological expansion, and regional
escalation, which often isolates them and harms their own long-term interests.
Today, two striking examples in the Middle East demonstrate these contrasting
paths. On one side stands Saudi Arabia, which has increasingly positioned itself
as a diplomatic mediator and a stabilizing force in regional and global
conflicts. On the other side stands the Iranian government, whose policies of
escalation has repeatedly deepened tensions and undermined its own strategic
position. The contrast between these two approaches reveals an important lesson
about leadership, governance, and the consequences of political choices.
Saudi Arabia’s strategy: Diplomacy, stability, and global engagement
Over the past several years, Saudi Arabia has adopted a foreign policy that
emphasizes diplomacy, mediation, and constructive engagement with the
international community. Rather than placing itself at the center of conflicts,
the Kingdom has increasingly sought to position itself as a facilitator of
dialogue between opposing sides. This strategy has allowed Saudi Arabia to
strengthen its global standing while also enhancing its regional leadership.
One of the most notable aspects of Saudi Arabia’s approach has been its
willingness to host negotiations and diplomatic discussions involving major
international conflicts. In recent years, the Kingdom has served as a venue for
discussions related to the war between Russia and Ukraine, bringing together
officials from different countries in an attempt to explore diplomatic
solutions. By opening its doors to these conversations, Saudi Arabia has
demonstrated that it is not merely a regional power but also a country capable
of contributing to global diplomacy.
Saudi Arabia has also played a role in mediation efforts in the Middle East and
Africa. In the ongoing conflict in Sudan, for example, the Kingdom has hosted
negotiations aimed at reducing violence and facilitating humanitarian
assistance. These efforts reflect a broader strategy in which Saudi Arabia seeks
to use its diplomatic influence to encourage dialogue and de-escalation rather
than confrontation. This approach has helped reshape Saudi Arabia’s global
image. Instead of being viewed solely through the lens of oil politics or
regional rivalries, the Kingdom is increasingly seen as a country that can serve
as a bridge between nations. By maintaining relationships with a wide range of
global powers and offering a platform for negotiations, Saudi Arabia has
strengthened both its credibility and its diplomatic influence.
Another example of Saudi Arabia’s stabilizing role in the current conflict can
be seen in its position as a logistical and diplomatic hub for international
travel and cooperation. Because of its central location and stable relations
with numerous countries, Saudi Arabia has become an important gateway connecting
different parts of the world. In times of crisis, such connectivity can play a
significant role in facilitating diplomatic engagement and maintaining
communication channels between nations.Through these policies, Saudi Arabia has
strengthened its reputation as a responsible regional actor.
Iran’s Strategy: Escalation and regional expansion
In contrast to Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic approach, the policies of the Iranian
government have moved in the opposite direction. Instead of narrowing conflicts
and encouraging stability, Tehran has frequently adopted strategies that expand
tensions and draw additional actors into confrontations. Iran’s primary
geopolitical conflict is with the United States and Israel. However, in moments
of heightened tension, the regime has extended its confrontational policies
beyond those direct rivals. Rather than limiting conflict to those adversaries,
Iran has sometimes targeted or threatened other regional states that had no
direct role in the dispute. Such actions risk widening conflicts and creating
instability throughout the region. When confrontations spread beyond their
original actors, the consequences can quickly become unpredictable and
dangerous. Instead of isolating disputes and seeking diplomatic solutions,
escalation often multiplies tensions and increases the risk of broader regional
crises. In many ways, these policies can be seen as self-defeating. By expanding
conflicts rather than containing them, Iran is alienating itself from
neighboring countries and reinforcing perceptions that it is a destabilizing
force in the region. This perception can lead to greater diplomatic isolation
and the strengthening of alliances designed to counter Iranian influence.
The strategic consequences of these two paths
The contrast between Saudi Arabia and Iran illustrates how different policy
choices can produce dramatically different outcomes. Saudi Arabia’s strategy of
diplomacy and mediation has increased its legitimacy and influence in global
affairs. By serving as a platform for negotiations and encouraging dialogue
between rival actors, the kingdom has strengthened its position as a respected
diplomatic player. Iran’s strategy of confrontation, on the other hand, has
deepened tensions and reinforced its isolation. Instead of building bridges with
its neighbors, Tehran’s actions have frequently widened divisions and
intensified regional rivalries. These policies not only affect Iran’s
relationships with other countries but also shape the broader geopolitical
environment of the Middle East. In international politics, influence is not
determined solely by military strength. It is also determined by trust,
credibility, and the ability to build partnerships.
A lesson for the region
The Iranian government’s policies demonstrate how escalation and confrontation
can undermine a country’s interests and isolate it from its neighbors. Saudi
Arabia’s policies, by contrast, illustrate how a country can increase its
legitimacy and influence by acting as a mediator and stabilizing force. By
promoting dialogue and facilitating negotiations, the Kingdom has strengthened
its reputation and expanded its diplomatic role on the global stage.
X Platform Selected twittes for
March 11/2026
Michel Hajji Georgiou
If someone has a contact with this great tribune of the plebe that is Jean-Luc
Melenchon, try to explain to him that if the neighboring state is a thug and
criminal state, the Hezb is not a Marxist-Leninist liberation movement, nor a
local antenna of little singers to the wooden cross.
Thank you.
Michel Hajji Georgiou
Pour résumer :
- L'État est incapable - par volonté ou par impuissance - de désarmer le Parti,
adoptant un flou artistique qui ferait pâlir les plus modernistes et
nouvellistes des peintres contemporains.
- Les voisins font pression sur l'État pour désarmer le Parti et menacent de
bombarder l'infrastructure. … See more
To sum it up:
- The state is incapable - by will or by impotence - to disarm the Party,
adopting an artistic blur that would fade the most modernists and novelists of
contemporary painters.
- Neighbors are putting pressure on the state to disarm the Party and
threatening to bomb the infrastructure.
- The Party doesn't care about each other and does what it wants.
The citizen, he, follows, frantic, truffles and nonsense of each other receiving
evacuation orders and bombs on the face.
Only joys in the prospect for Lebanon.