English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  May 11/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 11/01-16/:"Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’"

Titles For Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 10-11 May/2026
The victories of the mullahs and Hezbollah are defeats of destruction, suicide, calamities for their people, plague, ignorance, madness and morbid religious delusions/Elias Bejjani/May 09/2026
May 07, 2008 Barbaric Invasion of Beirut & Mount Lebanon/Elias Bejjani/May 07/2026
May 6 Martyrs' Day: Assassinating Memory to Flatter the New Ottoman-Erdoganist "Sublime Porte"/Elias Bejjani/May 06/ 2026
At least 9 killed as Israel pounds Lebanon despite truce
Lebanon Says Two Paramedics Affiliated with Hezbollah Killed by Israeli Strikes in South
Salam, al-Sharaa discuss security, transport and energy
EU official urges increased humanitarian access in south Lebanon
Israel maintains ‘very high’ alert ahead of direct talks with Lebanon
New impersonation case in Lebanon: How a fake Iraqi officer reached security figures
Israeli military issues evacuation warning for villages in southern Lebanon
Breakthrough in Lebanon’s amnesty law talks after Aoun meeting: Sources
Lebanon seeks clearer path with Syria amid shifting regional dynamics
Lebanese Army Arrests Iraqi Man for Impersonating a Security Official
Serious Accusation from the Syrian Interior Ministry Against Hezbollah
Zamir: There is No Ceasefire on the Northern Front
IDF: We Destroyed 70 Hezbollah Targets During the Past Week
How Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps became both sanctuary and pressure point

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 10-11 May/2026
Trump rejects ‘unacceptable’ Iranian terms for ending war
Iran Rejects Dismantling Nuclear Facilities; Details of the Response to the U.S. Proposal
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Threatens Resumption of Fighting if Diplomacy Fails
Iranian State TV: Response Focuses on Ending War on All Fronts, Especially Lebanon
Graham Calls for Launching "Project Freedom Plus" After Trump Rejects Iran’s Response
Iran responds to US ceasefire proposal but Trump rejects it as 'unacceptable'
Iran war ‘not over,’ uranium must be removed: Netanyahu
Trump warns Iran 'will be laughing no longer' amid negotiations
Iran sends response to US proposal via Pakistan
Iran’s response to US proposal prioritizes ceasefire across all fronts, including Lebanon
Iran warns France, UK of ‘immediate response’ to any Hormuz deployment
Iran's Guards threaten US Mideast sites as Trump awaits Tehran response
Iran army says countries siding with US to 'face difficulties' in Hormuz
Iran denies reports of oil leak near Kharg Island export hub
Report: Iran Supreme Leader Healing from Serious Injuries
UAE says targeted by two Iranian drones
Using Strait of Hormuz as ‘pressure tool’ will deepen crisis, Qatari PM tells
Iran’s Supreme Leader briefs military chief on ‘new guiding measures’: Report
South Korean ship in Strait of Hormuz hit by unidentified object, ministry says
Ship struck by projectile off coast of Qatar
Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill Three, Medics Say, Testing Fragile Ceasefire
Spain says 94 people of 19 nationalities removed from hantavirus ship Sunday
One of repatriated French passengers from hantavirus-hit ship has symptoms, PM says
Trump expected to 'apply pressure' on Xi over Iran: US official
Kremlin says Witkoff and Kushner will visit Moscow ‘soon enough’ to continue dialogue
Remains of US soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco have been recovered
Syria court charges former security official with acts amounting to ‘war crimes’
Report: shepherd uncovers alleged secret Israeli base in Iraqi desert

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 10-11 May/2026
China’s long game and Trump’s Iran gamble/Raghida Dergham/Al Arabiya English/10 May ,2026
The Saudi 'No'/Pierre Rehov/Gatestone Institute/May 10, 2026
What Does the Age of ‘Nationalisms’ Mean for the Future of a United Britain?/Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/10 May 2026
Leaving Politics Out of Hajj/Hassan Al Mustafa/Asharq Al Awsat/10 May 2026
Iran responds to US ceasefire proposal but Trump rejects it as 'unacceptable'/JON GAMBRELL and SAMY MAGDY/AP/May 10, 2026

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 10-11 May/2026
The victories of the mullahs and Hezbollah are defeats of destruction, suicide, calamities for their people, plague, ignorance, madness and morbid religious delusions
Elias Bejjani/May 09/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/05/144467/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjrmfwGPbgY
The arrogance of Iran's mullah regime and its disregard for its internal reality and actual military capabilities laid the foundation for the collapse of its expansionist project.
Instead of reassessing the balance of power and backing down from its suicidal nuclear ambitions, the regime doubled down on stubbornness and arrogance. It resorted to threats and loud rhetoric—mainly targeting the United States and Israel—convinced it possessed the power to deter and challenge the world.
But this hollow arrogance brought about a decisive response from President Donald Trump, who moved swiftly to dismantle Iran’s missile and nuclear infrastructure, isolate the regime diplomatically, and deal a fatal blow to its unrealistic nuclear dreams—dreams that never matched the true size or capacity of Iran’s resources.
As for the much-hyped Iranian threats to strike the U.S. and Israel, they are nothing more than empty soundbites—completely detached from reality. Iran, which hasn't won a direct military confrontation in over four decades, is incapable of confronting either the U.S. or Israeli power. All it can do is resort to media noise and hollow bluster that change nothing in the real balance of power.
Just like Hamas, Hezbollah, and other ideologically driven groups—whether Arab nationalists, leftists, or Sunni and Shiite political Islamists—Iran’s rulers have fallen into the trap of fatal miscalculation.
They have completely lost touch with reality, failing to assess their own true capabilities or those of the so-called “Great Satan” (America) and “Little Satan” (Israel). Instead, they remain trapped in delusional, pathological fantasies that they claim are “divinely inspired.”
They have misunderstood their true size and misjudged their enemies. This chronic mental and ideological dysfunction is what has brought them to the brink of total collapse—just like all others in history who have failed to understand their own limits and those of their opponents.
Why Do Ideologues Drag Their Nations into Lost Battles?
Following the political and military developments in the Middle East raises a simple and urgent question:
Why do ideologically driven leaders—whether religious or political—consistently drag their countries into doomed wars that only bring destruction, despair, and ruin?
The answer lies in the widespread disease of strategic miscalculation, one that afflicts, among many others, the rulers of Tehran and their militant proxies—particularly Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). Add to them the larger landscape of political Islam in both its Sunni and Shiite forms, as well as their counterparts in the Arab and global leftist revolutionary camps.
The Illusion of Power and the Detachment from Reality
These groups suffer from a narcissistic overestimation of their own power, constantly fueled by closed ideological narratives that claim they possess absolute truth and divine or historical destiny.
They live inside echo chambers filled with self-affirming beliefs and dogma. They see themselves as eternally victorious and divinely favored—even as their reality is one of failure and humiliation. At the same time, they deny or downplay the strength of their adversaries, leading to decisions based on fantasy, wishful thinking, and delusion rather than truth and sober analysis.
Psychological Mechanisms Behind Strategic Stupidity
This behavior can be understood through several psychological mechanisms and cognitive distortions:
Confirmation Bias: Ideologues seek only the information that supports their beliefs and ignore all contradicting evidence.
Groupthink: These groups turn inward, suppressing dissent and rewarding blind conformity.
Collective Narcissism: They see themselves as morally and ideologically superior, incapable of error or defeat.
Identity Anchoring: Their ideology is so deeply tied to their group identity that admitting defeat would mean personal and collective collapse.
Illusion of Control: They believe they can control outcomes and destiny—despite reality proving otherwise.
When Defeat Is Rebranded as “Victory”
When these actors suffer catastrophic defeats, they don’t admit failure. Instead, they resort to pathological justification and redefine their losses as moral or symbolic victories.
This is precisely what Hamas does: it brought destruction, famine, and displacement to the people of Gaza, yet still claims it achieved “divine victory.”
Hezbollah is no different: its fighters are killed daily, its facilities bombed, its leaders targeted deep inside Beirut, and yet it still clings to its weapons and boasts about “steadfastness” and “resistance.”
Iran’s Mullahs: Arrogance on the Road to Collapse
The clearest and most dangerous example of strategic blindness caused by miscalculation is the Iranian regime. Israel, with support from the United States, has systematically destroyed the military infrastructure that the mullahs built over 40 years across Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen. One by one, their nuclear facilities and regional influence have been dismantled.
Yet the regime lives in a state of total denial.
It believes that its stubbornness and arrogance will somehow reverse the strategic tide. It has rejected every diplomatic offramp, believing it can defy America, Israel, and the international community.
The result? Its capabilities continue to erode. Its commanders are assassinated with precision, from Yemen to Damascus. Its economy is strangled by sanctions. And its people suffer from poverty, repression, and hopelessness. Still, the regime clings to the myth of “resistance” as if it were a viable strategy. In truth, it is a suicidal illusion.
Collapse Is Inevitable—and the Price Will Be High
What the mullahs and their allies fail to realize is that their ideological stubbornness will only lead to a devastating collapse—not only of their regimes, but of thousands of innocent lives that will be caught in the fallout. Hezbollah, now a burden on Lebanon and its own Shiite community, has no exit strategy. Its ideology leaves no room for retreat. Hamas, which betrayed Gaza, has no option but to continue destroying what remains of its people’s lives. As for the mullahs, they have passed the point of no return. Their regime is delegitimized, cornered, and running out of time.
Conclusion: When reason is replaced by delusion, hallucination, and the narcissism of miscalculation and distorted perception of reality. What unites these actors is that they have all replaced reason with ideology, analysis with slogans, and truth with delusion. They do not know when to win or when to surrender, because they are prisoners of ideological narcissism that makes retreat impossible. For them, miscalculation is not just a strategic flaw—it is a fatal condition. One that doesn’t merely topple regimes, but devastates nations and destroys entire peoples.

May 07, 2008 Barbaric Invasion of Beirut & Mount Lebanon
Elias Bejjani/May 07/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/05/118016/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WOToQkmfMU&t=81s
May 7, 2008, is forever etched in Lebanon’s collective memory as a criminal day of shame—when murderers, invaders, and mercenary militias serving the Iranian regime launched a barbaric coup against the Lebanese state, its people, and its sovereignty.
Hezbollah, in collaboration with Amal Movement, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), and other armed groups loyal to the Syrian-Iranian axis of evil, invaded the capital Beirut and parts of Mount Lebanon. In this coordinated and premeditated assault, these militias violated the sanctity of the capital, terrorized its peaceful civilians, displaced families, looted properties, tortured innocents, and murdered the defenseless—all under the pretext of resisting “government decisions” that challenged Hezbollah’s illegal military communications network.
This day, now known infamously as the "Black 7th of May," marked a turning point in Lebanon’s modern history—a moment when the mask of so-called "resistance" fell and exposed the true face of Hezbollah: a terrorist militia acting on behalf of Tehran to subdue Lebanon through force and intimidation.
Michel Aoun, the political Iscariot of modern Lebanon, opportunistically justified and later benefited from this criminal invasion. His alliance with Hezbollah paved his path to the presidency in 2016. During his tenure, Aoun dismantled the state from within, surrendered its institutions to Hezbollah’s authority, and contributed to Lebanon’s total collapse—politically, economically, and morally.
The May 7 invasion was not just a military operation. It was an Iranian-led coup attempt against the legitimate Lebanese state. It desecrated Beirut’s freedom, targeted Sunni neighborhoods, occupied media outlets, and left dozens dead. Its goal: to prove that no Lebanese authority—civil or military—could ever stand against Hezbollah without paying a deadly price.
To this day, the invasion’s consequences remain: Hezbollah continues to act as an armed state within a state. Palestinian and Syrian armed elements still operate freely in their camps. The sovereignty of Lebanon remains hostage to Tehran's regional ambitions.
Justice Delayed Is Not Justice Denied
This criminal and barbaric invasion must not be forgotten. The perpetrators—local and foreign—must one day be brought to justice. The Lebanese people, especially those in the diaspora, must continue to demand accountability, justice, and full implementation of international resolutions that uphold Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty.
As the Prophet Isaiah (33:1) warned:
“Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you cease betraying, you will be betrayed.”
What Must Be Done.
To ensure May 7 is never repeated, the following urgent measures must be taken:
Full disarmament of Hezbollah and all other Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian militias operating illegally within Lebanon.
Reclaiming all territories currently run as militia-controlled “mini-states,” including Hezbollah’s southern stronghold and armed Palestinian camps.
Immediate implementation of all relevant UN Security Council resolutions—particularly:
Resolution 1559 (2004): Calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias.
Resolution 1701 (2006): Demands the cessation of hostilities and prohibits the presence of any armed forces in South Lebanon other than the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL.
Resolution 1680 (2006): Urges Lebanon and Syria to delineate their border and establish full diplomatic relations.
The 1949 Armistice Agreement with Israel: Must be revived and fully enforced to restore border stability and end militia cross-border provocations.
Declare Lebanon a failed state under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, enabling international intervention to restore state authority and protect civilians.
Empower UNIFIL with an expanded mandate to enforce disarmament and administrative restoration across all Lebanese territories—not only the South.
A Call to Action
All free and patriotic Lebanese—at home and abroad—must unite to rescue their homeland from occupation, collapse, and sectarian tyranny. We must raise our voices at the United Nations, in international forums, and in the global media to demand an end to Hezbollah’s armed rule and the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty.
May Almighty God protect Lebanon and its people, and may justice prevail.

May 6 Martyrs' Day: Assassinating Memory to Flatter the New Ottoman-Erdoganist "Sublime Porte"
Elias Bejjani/May 06/ 2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/05/154243/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKvtNSaJ2c0&t=2s
On the day the gallows were erected in Beirut’s Martyrs' Square (Place des Canons) and Damascus’s Marjeh Square, over 120 writers, intellectuals, and free freedom fighters were executed in two waves. They were the defiant voices against 400 years of Ottoman occupation. By order of the butcher, Jamal Pasha, these executions in Beirut and Damascus were synchronized to silence the spirit of resistance. In Lebanon, this commemoration was abolished during the government of Prime Minister Siniora. Today, in Syria, under the transitional president, it has also been scrapped. Erasing Lebanon’s memory is an integral part of obliterating its identity, history, civilization, and the rights of its diverse peoples. The same applies to the diverse social fabric of Syria.
May 6: When Memory is Assassinated for Political Sycophancy
As May 6, 2026, passes—burdened by the 110-year-old wounds of the gallows set by Jamal Pasha—we face a surreal scene that transcends physical execution to the moral genocide of historical memory. What we are witnessing in Lebanon and Syria today is not a mere "calendar adjustment," but a systematic forgery of history. It aims to wipe away the blood of free martyrs with the rag of "political flattery" toward rising Turkish influence and its Muslim Brotherhood tools.
The Lebanese Forgery: From "Martyrs' Day" to "Press Day"
The conspiracy against memory in Lebanon began under the Siniora government, where the sanctity of this day was bypassed. It was downgraded from a "Day for Martyrs" who confronted four centuries of loathsome Ottoman occupation to a mere "Press Martyrs' Day." This distortion was no accident; it was a stab in the back of Lebanese identity and blatant sycophancy toward the Turkish-Brotherhood and Arafatist-Arabist axis. Limiting the commemoration to the press is an attempt to belittle the struggle of an entire nation and a deliberate oversight of the fact that those hanged were poets, thinkers, and national leaders whose only crime was demanding dignity in the face of the "Sick Man of Europe."
Syria: Falling into the Trap of "Erdoganist Flattery"
The scene in Syria is no different. With Ahmed al-Sharaa’s rise to power, we see a repetition of the Lebanese scenario through the abolition of the holiday. This move confirms that the political decision in Damascus has become a hostage to Turkish influence. The Syrian people are being forced to forget the atrocities of Jamal Pasha so as not to disturb the relations with Ankara's new "Sultan," Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Pillars of the Historical Crime
The Erasure of Identity: Abolishing Martyrs' Day is part of a broader scheme to erase the civilizational and pluralistic identity of Lebanon and Syria, replacing it with a subservient identity revolving around a "Neo-Caliphate."
Falsification of Facts: In 1916, gallows were set for over 120 free activists. Transforming this supreme sacrifice into a single professional category (the press) is a forgery of history, which documents that their martyrdom was a comprehensive cry for national independence.
Political Dependency: The abolition of this day in both countries proves that successive governments prefer pleasing foreign powers over remaining loyal to the blood of those who paved the way for independence.
A Cry for Historical Justice
Today, on the 110th anniversary (1916–2026), we demand:
Restoring May 6 as a comprehensive national holiday for all martyrs of freedom executed by the Ottoman occupation, not a restricted "professional day."Designating a separate day for Press Martyrs to honor their role without compromising the greater national memory.
Rejecting all forms of flattery toward Turkish influence or Brotherhood ideologies that attempt to whitewash the history of Ottoman crimes in our lands. In summary, A nation that forgets its martyrs is a nation without a future. Those who erase the memory of Martyrs' Square and Marjeh Square are merely paving the way for new gallows of dependency and subjugation." May 6, 2026: Our squares will remain witnesses, and "Jamal Pasha" will remain a criminal in the records of history, no matter how hard the sycophants try to bleach his record.
The Stages of the Crime: Abolishing Martyrs’ Day to Maliciously Alter Collective Memory and Erase the Legacy of Resistance Against Ottoman Occupation. Martyrs' Day (May 6) has undergone several amendments in the official Lebanese calendar, most notably during the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora:
Date of Abolition: Martyrs' Day was abolished as a public holiday and a unifying national day in 2005, during the term of President Emile Lahoud and the first government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
The Substitution: The official symbolism of this day was shifted from "Martyrs' Day"—which commemorates the patriots executed by Jamal Pasha in 1916—to "Press Martyrs' Day." Consequently, the observance became restricted to the Press and Editors’ Syndicates, with work only halting in newspapers, rather than remaining a comprehensive national holiday for the entire state. Historical Background: May 6 had been an official holiday since its inception but was first abolished in 1977 during the Lebanese Civil War. It was reinstated as an official national holiday in 1994.The Siniora government’s 2005 decision revoked its "public holiday" status once again, confining it to a professional syndicate framework under the title of "Press Martyrs."This calculated move aims to distort the collective memory associated with the struggle against Ottoman occupation by narrowing its scope to a specific professional group

At least 9 killed as Israel pounds Lebanon despite truce
Agence France Presse/10 May 2026
Israel carried out strikes across Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least nine people in the south according to authorities, with raids also targeting a highway not far from Beirut outside of Hezbollah's traditional strongholds. The fresh attacks were some of the most intense since the start of a three-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that has done little to halt daily exchanges of fire, mostly in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah said Saturday that it had targeted troops in northern Israel with drones on at least two occasions in response to the continued strikes. The Israeli military said "several" explosive drones were launched into Israeli territory, with one army reservist severely wounded and two others moderately injured in one of the attacks. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA), meanwhile, reported a series of Israeli strikes across the south, including one on the town of Saksakiyeh. The health ministry said that raid "resulted in an initial toll of seven martyrs, including a girl, and 15 wounded, including three children." The Israeli military said it struck "Hezbollah terrorists operating from within a structure used for military purposes" in Saksakiyeh. It added it was "aware of reports regarding harm to uninvolved civilians in the structure in which the terrorists were struck. The details of the incident are under review." The health ministry reported that another Israeli strike on a motorbike in the city of Nabatieh hit "a Syrian national and his 12-year-old daughter". "After they managed to move away from the site of the first strike, the drone attacked a second time," killing the father, the ministry said, adding the drone then targeted the girl "directly for a third time".
The girl was undergoing life-saving surgery, it added. In the southern town of Bedias, the health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli strike and 13 wounded, including six children and two women. Israel's military had called on residents of nine villages to evacuate, saying it would act "forcefully" against Hezbollah, though neither of the two locations of the fatal strikes were included in the warnings. NNA also reported that the "Israeli enemy launched two strikes on the Saadiyat highway", referring to a location around 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Beirut and outside areas where Hezbollah has traditionally held sway. It later reported a third strike nearby.
- 'A new phase' -
Under the terms of the ceasefire released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks". Earlier on Saturday, its military said it had struck more than 85 Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the past 24 hours. Its troops are also operating inside an Israeli-declared "yellow line", running around 10 kilometers (six miles) inside Lebanon along the border, where residents have been warned not to return. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah on Saturday warned of "a new phase, in which the resistance (Hezbollah) will not accept a return to pre-March 2". Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 when it launched rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in U.S.-Israeli strikes. Even before then, Israel had carried out regular strikes targeting the group -- accusing it of seeking to rearm -- in spite of a 2024 ceasefire intended to end the last war between the foes. Until March, Hezbollah had refrained from firing back. "When it attacks our villages and suburbs, the enemy must expect a response, and this is what the resistance is doing," Fadlallah said, alluding to an Israeli attack this week on Beirut's southern suburbs that it said killed a Hezbollah commander. In addition to its drone attack in northern Israel, Hezbollah on Saturday also claimed several attacks on Israeli military targets inside Lebanon using rockets and drones.
Lebanese and Israeli representatives are set to hold a fresh round of direct talks in Washington next week. A first meeting was held days before U.S. President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire in Lebanon, and the second round as he announced a three-week extension.
Fadlallah said the meetings amounted to a "path of concessions", reiterating his party's call for the government to withdraw in favor of indirect talks. Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed nearly 2,800 people since March 2, including dozens since the truce went into force, according to Lebanese authorities.

Lebanon Says Two Paramedics Affiliated with Hezbollah Killed by Israeli Strikes in South
Asharq Al Awsat/10 May 2026
Lebanon's health ministry said two paramedics from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were killed and five others wounded on Sunday in two Israeli strikes on the country's south despite a ceasefire. As the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling on a variety of other south Lebanon areas, Israel's army warned residents of three villages to evacuate, saying it would act forcefully against the Iran-backed group there. Israel has kept up strikes despite a ceasefire in place since April 17 that was supposed to halt hostilities with Hezbollah, while the armed group has pressed on with its own attacks, mainly on Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon but also across the border. A Lebanese health ministry statement said that Israel "directly targeted, with two strikes, two Health Committee sites", killing one paramedic and wounding three others in Qalaway, and killing another paramedic and wounding two others in Tibnin. The statement decried what it called Israel's continued "violation of international laws".  The Israeli military said in a statement that on Sunday its forces had struck "more than 20 terror infrastructure" targets in southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and headquarters. Israel has expanded its strikes in recent days, and the health ministry on Sunday raised the overall death toll from Israeli strikes since war erupted to 2,846 killed, including 108 health and emergency workers. Israeli raids have killed dozens of people in Lebanon since the ceasefire. Under the terms of the truce released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks". Its troops are operating behind an Israeli-declared "yellow line" which runs around 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Lebanon's border. Residents have been warned not to return to the area. On Saturday, the NNA reported heavy Israeli strikes in various parts of Lebanon including one that killed seven people, and several raids around 20 kilometers south of Beirut outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds. Lebanon and Israel are preparing to hold a third round of talks on May 14-15 in Washington, with veteran Lebanese diplomat Simon Karam recently appointed by President Joseph Aoun to lead his country's delegation. A first landmark meeting between the countries, which have no diplomatic relations, was held days before US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire, while the second round came as he announced a three-week truce extension.
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 when it launched rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Salam, al-Sharaa discuss security, transport and energy
Agence France Presse/10 May 2026
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Damascus on Saturday on a visit tackling issues including security, transport and energy. Beirut and Damascus have been rebuilding their ties after the December 2024 overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in Syria, whose family dynasty exercised control over Lebanese affairs for decades and is accused of assassinating numerous officials in Lebanon who expressed opposition to its rule. A statement from the Syrian presidency said the officials discussed "developing economic and trade cooperation... and bolstering security coordination in order to support stability and confront challenges", as well as regional and international developments. Syrian state news agency SANA said the visit aimed to "develop joint cooperation... particularly the economy, transportation and energy" sectors. Salam was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri as well as Lebanese ministers for energy, economy and transport. Salam hailed "significant progress" on joint issues at the end of the visit, telling reporters that "we discussed continuing efforts to address the issue of detained Syrians (in Lebanon) and to uncover the fate of the missing and forcibly detained in both countries". In March, Lebanon transferred more than 130 Syrian convicts to their home country to serve the remainder of their sentences there, as part of an agreement signed a month earlier. Lebanon has also been seeking information on political assassinations in the country under the Assad dynasty. The discussions also addressed "the need for stricter Syria-Lebanon border controls and preventing all types of smuggling", Salam added. Lebanon and Syria share a porous, 330-kilometre (205-mile) border notorious for the smuggling of people and goods. Last month, the main border crossing was closed for several days due to an Israeli threat to target it, with Israel accusing Hezbollah of using the crossing for military purposes and smuggling, though it ultimately did not carry out the strike. Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since the Iran-backed group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war with rocket fire at Israel on March 2, though a ceasefire was announced last month. Hezbollah, which fought alongside Syrian government forces during the country's civil war, lost a major ally and cross-border supply route with Assad's ouster. Syria's new authorities are hostile to the Lebanese group and its sponsor, and have announced the arrest of alleged Hezbollah-affiliated cells in recent months, while the group has denied having any presence in Syria. Salam said that "we will not allow Lebanon to be used as a platform to harm any of its Arab brothers, including Syria".

EU official urges increased humanitarian access in south Lebanon
Agence France Presse/10 May 2026
European Union crisis management chief Hadja Lahbib on Saturday urged increased humanitarian access in south Lebanon, where Israel has kept up strikes and Hezbollah has been launching attacks despite a ceasefire. "Humanitarian aid is ready, but too often it cannot reach those who need it most," Lahbib told a news conference on the second day of her visit to Lebanon, ahead of an expected EU aid delivery. A ceasefire came into effect on April 17 but Israel has kept up strikes. Its troops are operating inside an Israeli-announced "yellow line" that runs around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep inside Lebanon along the border, where Lebanese have been warned not to return. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks". With both sides trading accusations of truce violations, the Iran-backed Hezbollah has also announced attacks, mainly on Israeli targets in south Lebanon. "South of the Litani River, access is still severely restricted due to evacuation orders and Israeli military activity. And this includes 55 villages below the so-called yellow line," Lahbib said.
The Litani River runs around 30 kilometers from the border, an area where many of the attacks since the ceasefire have taken place. She noted that key infrastructure including bridges over the Litani have been destroyed, "and that means longer routes, people waiting days and days for help"."Even north of the Litani River, where some of these constraints have eased, it is still not enough. We need humanitarian access in full respect of international humanitarian law. Aid cannot save lives if it cannot reach people," she said. Lahbib said that since the start of the war, the European Union had announced some 100 million euros in new humanitarian support for Lebanon and had sent six planes carrying aid, with a seventh due to arrive in the coming days. Authorities say more than 2,750 people have been killed since March 2, including at least 104 health and emergency workers, with Israeli strikes having killed dozens since the ceasefire. More than one million people have been displaced. "Hospitals and ambulances targeted and journalists attacked for simply doing their job -- there is no justification for this. International humanitarian law must be respected," Lahbib said. "This crisis is not over, so all support for the Lebanese people must continue," she said. Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli strikes. On Saturday in Bourghliyeh near the southern city of Tyre, AFP correspondents saw peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) distributing aid to displaced people.

Israel maintains ‘very high’ alert ahead of direct talks with Lebanon
LBCI/10 May 2026
Ahead of the first direct negotiation session between Lebanon and Israel in Washington this week, a clearer picture of the negotiation process is emerging in Tel Aviv. The first track is diplomatic and linked to extending the ceasefire period and preparing for a phase that could eventually lead to an agreement between the two countries. The second track is technical and centers on discussions over maps related to the border between the two countries, as well as the possibility of establishing what Israeli officials described as a security separation agreement. This would reportedly be based on the formation of joint Lebanese-Israeli working groups tasked with addressing both the dismantling of Hezbollah’s weapons and border issues. The reports about what Israel seeks from the negotiations come as operations continue in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah drones are reportedly targeting soldiers, military commanders, and security agencies, while a high level of alert remains in place in northern Israel. Lebanon's leadership split widens over direct talks with Israel. Pending the outcome of the Washington talks, the Israeli military announced it is maintaining a “very high” level of readiness, both in terms of defense systems and offensive preparations, stressing that it is prepared for all scenarios, including a war on multiple fronts.

New impersonation case in Lebanon: How a fake Iraqi officer reached security figures
LBCI/10 May 2026
The head of security at the Iraqi Embassy was not actually the embassy’s head of security, and the alleged head of Iraq’s Counterterrorism Service in Beirut turned out to have no connection to counterterrorism, or even to the security sector. Are authorities facing a second “Abu Omar” case, this time with an Iraqi version? Tarek Nasrawi, an Iraqi national who lived in Lebanon for seven years and is married to a Lebanese woman from Brital, built a broad network of relationships with officers, security officials, and civilians. He met several security figures and agency chiefs, including State Security Director-General Maj. Gen. Edgar Lawandos, before Lebanese Army Intelligence arrested him on charges of impersonation and confiscated the military uniform he allegedly used. Nasrawi, also known in Lebanon as Tarek al-Husseini, is not an Iraqi officer but an employee at a sweets shop in Khalde. Investigations found that he had allegedly been impersonating a security official for about a year and a half, presenting himself in an official security capacity while requesting meetings with officers, security chiefs, and other security figures in Lebanon. The case began after the Beirut Intelligence Branch received information that he was trying to arrange a meeting with a branch officer, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Mourtada.Suspicions immediately arose. Authorities then decided to lure him to the Beirut Intelligence Branch through Brig. Gen. Mourtada last Wednesday. Al-Husseini arrived at the branch, and during questioning, investigators determined that he was impersonating a security official. He was immediately arrested and transferred to the investigation branch of the Intelligence Directorate at the Ministry of Defense, where investigations remain ongoing under the supervision of the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation. Investigations showed that the man was allegedly acting for the sake of “social prestige,” building relationships, and benefiting from services. He also allegedly misled people he met into believing he was a partner in the sweets shop where he worked. So far, investigators say there is no evidence of security-related intentions or activities linked to espionage or terrorism. Sources at State Security do not deny that a meeting took place between al-Husseini and Maj. Gen. Lawandos, but said it occurred 10 days after Lawandos assumed his new position, as part of a congratulatory visit and an attempt to open channels of security coordination between the Iraqi Embassy and State Security. According to the sources, the meeting lasted only four minutes. Al-Husseini congratulated Lawandos, wished Lebanon better days ahead, and then requested a photo with him using his personal phone. The sources stressed that the directorate never published the photo on its website or among Lawandos’ official activities and said no further communication took place between the two men. Security sources also questioned why Lawandos’ photo in particular was leaked and circulated, despite the suspect having met numerous security figures, asking who leaked it and why it surfaced at this time.
Other security sources, however, said al-Husseini himself posted the photo on his Facebook account before the account was blocked amid the ongoing investigation.
What about the other security agencies?
Security sources said Nasrawi’s meetings with officers and security figures extended across multiple agencies and included encounters with several agency chiefs. At the same time, the sources stressed that no communication took place between Nasrawi and any figure within the army. In the same context, the General Security Directorate issued a statement denying reports that al-Husseini had met Director-General Maj. Gen. Hassan Choucair. Ultimately, the final judgment rests with the judiciary, particularly as communication continues with the relevant Iraqi authorities to uncover all details surrounding the case.

Israeli military issues evacuation warning for villages in southern Lebanon
LBCI/10 May 2026
The Israeli military issued an urgent warning Sunday to residents in several villages in southern Lebanon, ordering immediate evacuation ahead of potential strikes targeting what it said were Hezbollah positions. In a statement posted by Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee, residents of Deir el-Zahrani, Jarjouaa, and Sajd in the Jezzine area were instructed to leave their homes immediately. The statement said that, in light of what it described as Hezbollah’s violations of the ceasefire agreement, the military was compelled to act against the group with force, while stressing that it does not intend to harm civilians. Residents were urged to evacuate their homes immediately and move away from the villages to open areas at least 1,000 meters away, for their own safety. It also warned that anyone staying near Hezbollah members, facilities, or military equipment would be placing their lives at risk.

Breakthrough in Lebanon’s amnesty law talks after Aoun meeting: Sources
LBCI/10 May 2026
Sources told LBCI that a meeting between the parliamentary consultative committee tasked with following up on the proposed general amnesty law and President Joseph Aoun was positive, with a primary focus on the issue of Islamist detainees. According to the information, Aoun handled the file “wisely,” listening to the various viewpoints and acting as an “arbiter” without intervening in the details of the proposal, stressing that legislative work remains exclusively within the jurisdiction of Parliament. During the meeting, all obstacles that had been hindering the approval of the proposed general amnesty law in the joint parliamentary committees were reportedly removed. The discussions also led to a formula aimed at preserving the prestige of the military institution while helping address grievances tied to the detainees’ cases.

Lebanon seeks clearer path with Syria amid shifting regional dynamics
LBCI/10 May 2026
The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and subsequent Arab efforts to secure alternative trade routes have placed Syria at the center of a new regional landscape, while Lebanon remains on the sidelines. Amid these major shifts, Saturday’s visit to Damascus by the Lebanese prime minister and a ministerial delegation carries greater significance. While Lebanon is engaged in negotiations with Israel over its southern borders, its eastern and northern borders require, first and foremost, something simpler than negotiations: a political decision to reorganize relations with Damascus.
Sources familiar with the details of the visit said it is not intended to resolve a specific issue, but rather to establish a path toward developing relations between the two countries. However, a key question arises: where do the other pillars of Lebanese authority stand on rebuilding trust in Lebanese-Syrian relations? LBCI sources also said the president deliberately used the term “brother” in reference to al-Sharaa in a statement issued in solidarity following an attack on a mosque in Homs at the end of 2025. In Ain el-Tineh, according to LBCI sources, there is no objection to any positive arrangement with the Syrian leadership, and it views favorably any coordination that serves the interests of both countries. As for Hezbollah, its file continues to weigh heavily on Lebanon’s relations, without reaching the level of direct Syrian intervention in Lebanese affairs. In conclusion, Energy Minister Joe Saddi summed up the situation in a few words: in light of all the change taking place in the region, we must be at the table, not outside it.

Lebanese Army Arrests Iraqi Man for Impersonating a Security Official
Asharq Al Awsat/10 May 2026
The Lebanese army said on Sunday that it had arrested an Iraqi national for impersonating an Iraqi security official in Lebanon, the second alleged high-level imposter caught in recent months. A military source told AFP that the man had managed to network with Lebanese security and intelligence officials, telling them he worked at Iraq's Beirut embassy. The scandals have highlighted the fragility of Lebanon's institutions, which are built on a sect-based power-sharing system in a country rife with foreign interference, and where personal connections often play a key role in gaining influence, money and privilege. An army statement said the Iraqi man was arrested "for impersonating an Iraqi security official on Lebanese territory, as a result of a surveillance and security follow-up operation". Preliminary investigations indicate that the man was using "forged documents", the statement said, adding that the military uniform he had been using was seized. The military source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the man "is married to a Lebanese woman and managed to get close to an intelligence official in Beirut, presenting himself as an Iraqi officer in the counter-terrorism branch, and a security attaché at the Iraqi embassy". The Lebanese intelligence official allegedly helped the man "make contact with security and military officials and meet them", the source said. The suspect actually works at a popular cafe on the airport road in Beirut's southern suburbs, the source added, after he started out there doing valet parking. It is the second recent high-level impersonation case to rock Lebanon. For months, authorities have been investigating an imposter who posed as a prince, extorting several politicians with the help of a religious figure. The military source said that in the latest case, preliminary investigations into the man and those who met him have not yet uncovered a motive, adding that during the meetings "he promised to provide financial assistance from Iraq".
The case's seriousness owes to the man's ability to "convince intelligence officers of his fake identity", the source added.

Serious Accusation from the Syrian Interior Ministry Against Hezbollah
Al-Markazia/May 10, 2026  (Translated from Arabic)
The Syrian Ministry of Interior has accused Hezbollah of providing sanctuary on Lebanese territory for criminals from the former regime. The ministry added that several individuals involved in crimes committed during the previous regime’s era fled to Lebanon, and that Syrian authorities are seeking their extradition to hold them accountable. Furthermore, the ministry explained that the authorities have taken steps aimed at building trust and strengthening the partnership with Lebanon, emphasizing that Beirut is considered a "true and reliable partner" in efforts to secure the borders between the two countries.

Zamir: There is No Ceasefire on the Northern Front
Al-Markazia | May 10, 2026  (Translated from Arabic)
The Israeli Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, stated that "there is no ceasefire on the Northern Front." He added: "Our goal is to prevent the threat of anti-tank missiles, thwart infiltrations into the Galilee, and create the conditions for the dismantling of Hezbollah." He continued, noting: "The Israeli Army has not been assigned the specific goal of disarming Hezbollah."

IDF: We Destroyed 70 Hezbollah Targets During the Past Week
Nidaa Al-Watan | May 10, 2026  (Translated from Arabic)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released a video announcing that "forces from the 146th Division destroyed approximately 70 targets and eliminated more than 30 Hezbollah operatives during the past week." According to the statement: "The combat group forces of the 551st Brigade, under the command of the 146th Division, are operating in southern Lebanon, south of the forward defense line, to prevent any direct threat to the towns in the northern region. Over the past week, in cooperation with the Air Force, approximately 70 targets were attacked and more than 30 operatives were eliminated. In one operation yesterday, Saturday, forces identified an operative approaching in a manner that posed an immediate threat; shortly after being spotted, the Air Force, directed by ground troops, eliminated the terrorist and removed the threat."
The statement added: "The Air Force also recently intercepted several rockets detected in the area where our forces are operating in southern Lebanon. In accordance with established policy, sirens were not activated. The IDF will continue to act against any threat targeting Israeli citizens and our forces, in line with the directives of the political echelon."

How Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps became both sanctuary and pressure point
NAJIA HOUSSARI/Arab News/May 10, 2026
BEIRUT: For years, Lebanon’s refugee camps were characterized by overcrowding, poverty and political neglect. Now, two months into the renewed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, they have become places of relative refuge in a sea of destruction — even as they strain under a fast-growing influx of displaced people. Since March 2, when Israel launched its military campaign in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets after the Feb. 28 US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee moved quickly to reaffirm support for displaced families. The committee, which manages relations between the Lebanese state and the Palestinian refugee camps, worked to secure minimum conditions for survival under an emergency response plan, even as it knew the available aid would fall far short of the needs.
The scale of the displacement is stark. As of April, the committee had recorded 5,391 displaced families, or 22,033 people, sheltering in camps, surrounding communities and emergency centers run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). According to the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, 7,813 were children. Among the displaced were 1,299 Lebanese, 3,101 Palestinians, 410 Palestinian refugees from Syria, 404 Syrians, 16 stateless people and 18 people of undocumented nationality. Those new arrivals are joining communities that were already stretched thin. According to the last full census, conducted in 2017 by Lebanon’s Central Administration of Statistics in coordination with its Palestinian counterpart, about 225,000 people were living in the 12 official camps and surrounding clusters. Of those, 73.6 percent were Palestinian.
The camps are administered internally by Palestinian factions under informal arrangements dating from the 1969 Cairo Agreement, which Lebanon later scrapped after years of bloodshed linked to the presence of Palestinian arms on its territory. The Lebanese army and security forces do not enter the camps, but they maintain a tight perimeter around them. That unusual status has helped produce a wartime paradox. By May 5, UNRWA said 1,132 displaced people, or 328 families, had registered at its two emergency shelters, up by 951 people in a single week. The surge followed Israeli evacuation orders for villages in southern Lebanon. The numbers are likely to further increase, as Israel on May 9 issued new evacuation orders for nine villages in southern Lebanon, resuming its bombing campaign despite a US-mediated ceasefire in place since mid-April.
The Israeli military says it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure. Earlier on May 9, it said it struck more than 85 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon within 24 hours, as well as an underground weapons site in the Bekaa Valley, The Times of Israel reported.
However, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health says the vast majority of those killed in Israeli attacks were civilians. Rights groups and international NGOs condemned Israel’s attacks on civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
This is not the first time the camps have absorbed displacement from outside. They had already taken in about 27,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria who fled during Syria’s civil war, most of them settling in the sprawling Ain Al-Hilweh camp near Sidon.
Now, with the ceasefire collapsed and fighting resumed, camps in the south and in Beirut’s southern suburbs have largely escaped direct strikes, turning them, paradoxically, into refuges for Lebanese and others fleeing nearby villages. Residents say the shift has been especially visible in Tyre, south of the Litani River. “Every camp is seeing an economic boom,” said Abu Raafat, a Palestinian resident of one of the Tyre camps. “People from the surrounding areas, especially around Tyre, are doing their shopping inside Al-Bass camp,” he told Arab News. “Some have set up businesses here after their shops were destroyed or because going back to their villages, with the Israeli bombardment, just is not possible.”However, he noted that “there is huge pressure — not a single room left to rent.”That sense of revival might be misleading. Conditions in the camps were already dire before the war, shaped by years of economic collapse, currency meltdown and a sharp decline in UNRWA’s ability to provide basic services. The latest influx is pushing an already brittle environment closer to rupture.
“The Palestinian camps have become safe zones compared to what’s around them,” Hisham Debsi, director of the Tatweer Center for Strategic Studies and Human Development and a Palestinian researcher, told Arab News.
“Everyone is investing in them now — for better and for worse.”
Still, not all the camps have been spared the ongoing violence. The area around Ain Al-Hilweh was hit by direct Israeli airstrikes in March, killing people and causing widespread damage. The perimeter of Burj Al-Barajneh camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs was struck by heavy raids that forced families to flee. Beddawi camp in the north was also targeted, with casualties reported. The damage has deepened an economic crisis that was already severe. According to the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Beirut, the war has frozen commercial activity in the south and wiped out jobs in agriculture, construction and tourism — sectors that employ thousands of Palestinian workers. At the same time, the conflict has pushed a longstanding political issue further into the background: Palestinian arms in Lebanon. The handover of Palestinian weapons to the Lebanese state, part of a broader effort to consolidate arms under government control, completed its fifth phase late last year, when Palestinian National Security forces in Ain Al-Hilweh transferred a batch of heavy Palestinian Liberation Organization weapons to the Lebanese army.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and their allies, however, have refused to join the process, tying any disarmament of their fighters to Hezbollah’s disarmament. Debsi said the PLO-led initiative remains in place in coordination with the Lebanese government, but the war has pushed it down the priority list. Even so, political coordination has not stopped. Debsi said engagement continues through direct contact with the president, the prime minister, and Lebanon’s military and security leadership. He said that coordination rests on ties between Palestinian security forces and their Lebanese counterparts, as well as trust between the state, PLO-affiliated factions and the Palestinian Authority’s embassy in Beirut. By contrast, the Lebanese government does not engage politically with Hamas or Islamic Jihad, Debsi said, in line with the cabinet’s decision to place arms under state control.Contact is limited to security channels, and Beirut has rejected the creation of joint committees with either group that could amount to a backdoor form of political representation.
Beyond politics, the war is surfacing inside the camps in quieter but more troubling ways. Obituaries appear from time to time on social media for Palestinians killed in the fighting in the south. The latest were Tareq Yousef and Louay Nimr, mourned on May 7. Both were from Burj Al-Shamali camp near Tyre. Sources told Arab News that the two young men were members of Islamic Jihad. Reports had already emerged of dozens of young Syrians being killed, many believed to have been working as agricultural laborers in southern Lebanon.
That raises urgent questions: Is Hezbollah recruiting young Palestinian and Syrian refugees to fight alongside its forces? And what are the risks of exploiting communities already battered by poverty and limited opportunity, as happened in Nahr Al-Bared, a northern Lebanon camp, in 2007?
Palestinian and Syrian fighters are being deployed alongside Hezbollah on the ground, Palestinian sources told Arab News. Even so, conflicting reports continue to circulate about the scale and significance of that involvement. At the same time, some observers say attitudes in the camps are shifting. After years of violence and instability, many Palestinians now view weapons as a liability rather than a source of protection and want an end to the bloodshed.
“The Palestinian factions close to Hezbollah are well known,” a Palestinian source in one of the southern camps said. “Besides Hamas and Islamic Jihad, there is the Popular Front founded by George Habash and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which later split into two factions. “One faction supports Hezbollah and is led by the son of Ahmed Jibril, while the other, headed by Talal Naji, has chosen to align itself with the PLO,” the source added. According to the same source, fighters deployed by Hezbollah are divided into two groups: those trained for the Radwan Force and those assigned to rear positions, which have suffered the heaviest losses. Fighters with families in Lebanon were publicly mourned, while others were not, with their identities undisclosed. Unidentified bodies are reportedly still held in hospital morgues in parts of Lebanon, and, unlike in previous conflicts, Hezbollah has not disclosed its casualties. In recent comments to the Reuters news agency, Hezbollah ​legislator Ibrahim Al-Moussawi acknowledged losses and damage in southern Lebanon but said “you don’t go into making calculations of how many are going to be killed” when “pride and sovereignty and independence” are at stake.
Hezbollah’s media office said the figure of several thousand fighters killed in the present war was false. In April, the bodies of 76 Syrians killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon were transferred to Syria. Of them, 37 were repatriated through Masnaa-Jdeidat Yabous, while 39 were returned through the Qaa-Jousieh crossing. The source said that there are security cells operating in the camps to recruit fighters discreetly, and that residents are aware of their activities.
The source also mentioned young men who have disappeared, with their families left without information. There are also efforts to re-recruit members of resistance brigades previously formed by Hezbollah and later disbanded as a burden on the party, the source added.
Zuhair Hawari, a researcher in Palestinian and Arab affairs, told Arab News that “competition for political control in the camps and the worsening social conditions of Palestinian refugees are a cause for concern, warning that this could lead to sectarian tensions.”
A Lebanese source monitoring the situation of Palestinian refugees in Sidon said members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad had joined Hezbollah in fighting in the south. The source described it as an opportunity to fight Israel that Hezbollah had not previously allowed, while saying the number of Palestinians involved was limited. “(Hezbollah) currently has four generations of Lebanese fighters,” the source told Arab News. “The oldest active combatants are in their 30s and 40s.
“Recruitment of Syrians remains minimal due to a lack of trust. Even its own members are carefully vetted, yet issues still arise.”However, as the war drags on, aid agencies warn that the camps’ fragility is becoming harder to contain. The World Food Programme has expressed serious concern about the situation of Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon, warning that the outlook for the coming months is bleak.
UNRWA, in its latest report, said it “is cooperating with its partners to respond to the current humanitarian crisis, while continuing to provide its essential services in the areas of education, health, and hygiene in all camps and agency facilities, as long as the security situation allows.”
In March, the agency launched an urgent appeal for $12.3 million to fund priority response activities in Lebanon at a time when its services in the camps were already under intense strain because of a financial shortfall. That pressure is being felt in the camps in immediate ways. Austerity measures, including reduced working hours and lower staff salaries, have been in place since February. Anxiety is growing over possible cuts to essential UNRWA services that refugees rely on for education, health care, water and sanitation. The Institute for Palestine Studies has warned that, while it is still unclear where the war will lead Lebanon and the wider region, it is almost certain to have catastrophic consequences for Palestinian refugees and their camps.
The institute said that, as UNRWA services weaken, living conditions will become even more difficult and complex, raising fears that a prolonged war could trigger a collapse of services in the camps. It also warned that vital sectors in the camps could come to resemble conditions in Gaza, especially as the authorities responsible for managing the camps are unable to fully carry out their duties.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 10-11 May/2026
Trump rejects ‘unacceptable’ Iranian terms for ending war
Agencies/May 10, 2026
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday rejected Iran’s response to a US proposal for peace talks to end the war, as two ships were allowed to pass through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called “Representatives.” I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,” Trump ​posted on Truth Social, without giving further detail. Iranian state media said the response focused on ending the war on all fronts, especially Lebanon, and on the safety of shipping through the strait, Iranian state TV said, without indicating how or when the vital waterway might reopen. It followed a US proposal to end fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said Tehran’s proposal included an immediate end to the war on all fronts, a halt to the US naval blockade, guarantees of no further attacks on Iran and the lifting of sanctions on Iran, including a US ban on Iranian oil sales. The Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed sources saying Iran proposed diluting some of its highly enriched uranium and transferring the remainder to a third country. Pakistan, which has been mediating talks over the war, forwarded the Iranian response to the US, a Pakistani official said.Despite a month-old ceasefire in the conflict and after some 48 hours of relative calm, hostile drones were detected over several Gulf countries on Sunday, underlining ‌the threat still facing the ‌region. Still, the QatarEnergy-operated carrier Al Kharaitiyat passed safely through the strait and was heading for Pakistan’s Port Qasim, according to ​data ‌from ⁠shipping analytics ​firm Kpler.
⁠It was the first Qatari vessel carrying liquefied natural gas to cross the strait since the US and Israel started the war on February 28. In addition, a Panama-flagged bulk carrier bound for Brazil that had previously attempted to transit the strait on May 4 passed through, using a route designated by Iran’s armed forces, Tasnim reported on Sunday.

Iran Rejects Dismantling Nuclear Facilities; Details of the Response to the U.S. Proposal
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Threatens Resumption of Fighting if Diplomacy Fails
By: Bandar Al-Doushi/Al Arabiya/Washington – May 10, 2026  (Translated from Arabic)
The semi-official Iranian news agency "Tasnim" reported on Sunday, citing an informed source, that the Iranian response to the American proposal—delivered via Pakistani mediators—stresses the necessity of ending the war on all fronts and lifting sanctions imposed on Tehran. The agency added that the proposal demands the cancellation of U.S. OFAC sanctions on Iranian oil sales within 30 days and an end to the naval blockade imposed on Iran. According to the source, the Iranian proposal stipulates an immediate cessation of war and guarantees against any renewed attacks on Iran. It also emphasizes the need to end hostilities across all regional fronts. The source further noted that Tehran’s demands include "Iranian management of the Strait of Hormuz if the United States undertakes certain commitments," without specifying the nature of those commitments. The Wall Street Journal also revealed features of the Iranian response. According to the report, Tehran rejected dismantling its nuclear facilities but agreed to dilute highly enriched uranium and transfer the remainder to a third country. The response included a provision to discuss nuclear issues within the next 30 days. Tehran suggested ending the fighting and gradually reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for lifting the blockade. State media reported on Sunday that Tehran’s response ignored the nuclear program issue, focusing instead on ending regional fighting. According to the official news agency "IRNA," the counter-offer seeks first to ensure the security of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz before starting talks on sensitive issues, including the nuclear program.The recent U.S. proposal included an agreement to end the war, reopen the Strait to international navigation, and scale back Iran’s nuclear program, according to the New York Post. The White House has not yet issued an official comment. President Donald Trump has previously asserted that dismantling the nuclear program is a primary war objective. Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated on "X" that his country "will not bow" to adversaries, adding that dialogue does not mean surrender but aims to protect national interests.In contrast, Trump vowed to use military force if Tehran does not agree to the latest proposal. He hinted at reactivating "Project Freedom," an operation involving U.S. Navy escorts for commercial vessels. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told ABC that Trump is giving diplomacy "every possible chance before returning to hostilities."
Report 2: Trump to Axios on Netanyahu Call: "Iran Negotiations Are My Responsibility"

Iranian State TV: Response Focuses on Ending War on All Fronts, Especially Lebanon
Al Arabiya.net & Agencies – May 10, 2026  (Translated from Arabic)
President Donald Trump stated that he discussed the Iranian response with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call he described as "very nice." Axios quoted Trump saying they discussed the response "among other topics," adding: "It was a very nice call; we have a good relationship," but he clarified that negotiations regarding Iran are "my own responsibility, and not the responsibility of anyone else." Trump did not clarify whether he intends to continue negotiations or lean toward military action. Iranian State TV reported that the response focuses on ending the war on all fronts, specifically Lebanon, and ensuring the safety of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, without specifying the timing or mechanism for reopening the waterway. The Wall Street Journal noted that while Tehran refuses to dismantle facilities, it offered to dilute enriched uranium. An official from Pakistan confirmed that Islamabad delivered the response to the U.S. as part of its mediation role. On Sunday, Trump threatened to attack anyone approaching Iran's "buried uranium." He explained that the Space Force is monitoring underground sites and asserted that the U.S. would secure the uranium soon. Trump claimed his administration has achieved 70% of its goals in Iran, stating: "Iran is defeated; it no longer has an army, leaders, or defenses. If we withdrew now, they would need 20 years to rebuild, but we are not finished with our goals yet."

Graham Calls for Launching "Project Freedom Plus" After Trump Rejects Iran’s Response
Al Arabiya.net & Agencies/ May 10, 2026  (Translated from Arabic)
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called for a "change in approach" toward Iran, stating that "Project Freedom Plus" appears to be a "very right option" following Tehran’s "unacceptable" response. "Project Freedom" refers to an operation launched by Trump last week to "liberate" ships stuck in the Strait of Hormuz, which was suspended after 48 hours to allow room for diplomacy. Graham said he appreciates President Trump’s "serious efforts" to reach a diplomatic solution to change the behavior of the "terrorist Iranian regime." However, he noted that continued attacks on international shipping and Washington’s allies, coupled with an "entirely unacceptable" response, necessitate a reconsideration of the current strategy. He concluded: "Under these circumstances, Project Freedom Plus seems like a very right option at this time."

Iran responds to US ceasefire proposal but Trump rejects it as 'unacceptable'
JON GAMBRELL and SAMY MAGDY/AP/10 May ,2026
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal via Pakistani mediators and wants negotiations to focus on permanently ending the war, but President Donald Trump quickly rejected it as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” with no details. Iran seeks to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, and to ensure the security of shipping, state TV said. Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump earlier on social media accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!"Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier. Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.
Drone attacks target Gulf Arab nations
The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility. Qatar's Foreign Ministry called the ship attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region." The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center gave no details about the ship's owner or origin.Kuwait Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones but did not say where they came from. Iran and armed allied groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
Iran says it's on ‘full readiness’ to protect nuclear sites
Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets. The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships. In an interview posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored.
“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS airing Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.
Iran warns against French-British effort in the strait
Iran's deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort that aims to support maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities are over. “The presence of French and British vessels, or those of any other country, for any possible cooperation with illegal U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media. French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying it won't be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping once conditions allow. Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was quickly paused. South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation that said two unidentified objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the strait last week, causing an explosion and fire. A foreign ministry spokesperson said officials have yet to determine who was responsible.

Iran war ‘not over,’ uranium must be removed: Netanyahu
AFP/10 May ,2026
Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium must be “taken out” before the US-Israeli war against Iran can be considered over, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview Sunday. “It’s not over, because there’s still nuclear material -- enriched uranium -- that has to be taken out of Iran. There’s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” Netanyahu said in an excerpt of an interview due to air later Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program. “You go in and you take it out,” the Israeli leader said when asked how the uranium could be removed. Netanyahu said that US President Donald Trump had a similar position. “I’m not going to talk about military means, but the president, what President Trump has said to me -- ‘I want to go in there.’“However, Netanyahu’s statement was in contrast to Trump’s public position. The 79-year-old Republican is under increasing domestic pressure to end the Iran war and he insists that Tehran’s nuclear program has been contained. In an interview aired Sunday but apparently recorded earlier, Trump said Iran was “militarily defeated” and he insisted that the uranium could be removed “whenever we want.” “We’ll get that at some point, whenever we want. We’ll have it surveilled,” he told indeendent television journalist Sharyl Attkisson. “We have that very well surveilled. If anybody got near the place we will know about it and we’ll blow them up.” Asked by CBS how the uranium stockpiles could be taken out from Iran, Netanyahu said he would prefer an agreement. “I think it can be done physically. That’s not the problem. If you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That’s the best way.”Pressed on whether there are military options to seize the hidden uranium, Netanyahu said, “I’m not going to talk about our military possibilities, plans, or anything of the kind.” “I’m not going to give a timetable to it, but I am going to say that’s a terrifically important mission.”In addition to the unresolved uranium stockpile issue, Netanyahu said there were several other war aims that had yet to be accomplished. “There’s still proxies that Iran supports, their ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we’ve degraded a lot of it, but all that is still there and there’s work to be done.”Netanyahu’s interview with “60 Minutes” was due to air at 7:00 pm (2300 GMT).

Trump warns Iran 'will be laughing no longer' amid negotiations
Agence France Presse/10 May ,2026
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday accused Iran of "playing games" and laughing at America for decades, but said it soon would be made to stop -- without commenting directly on reports of Tehran's response to Washington's latest peace proposal. "Iran has been playing games with the United States, and the rest of the World, for 47 years (DELAY, DELAY, DELAY!)," Trump said on his Truth Social platform. He also accused Tehran of "laughing at our now GREAT AGAIN Country" but added: "They will be laughing no longer!"

Iran sends response to US proposal via Pakistan
Agencies/10 May ,2026
Pakistan has received Iran’s response to the United States’ proposal on the Iran war and the response has been sent to the US, a Pakistani government official involved in the talks said on Sunday. The source did not provide further detail about the proposal. This comes after Iranian state media reported on Sunday that Iran had sent its response to a US proposal to begin peace talks to end the war. “The Islamic Republic of Iran sent today through Pakistani mediators its response to the latest text proposed by the United States to end the war,” the official IRNA news agency said, without offering details. According to Iran’s proposal, the current phase of negotiations will focus exclusively on the cessation of hostilities in the region, a source familiar with the matter told IRNA. US President Donald Trump said Iran appears interested in reaching a broader agreement aimed at ending conflicts across the region, particularly in Lebanon, according to remarks made in an interview on Saturday. Speaking in the interview posted by the news program on X, Trump said discussions with Tehran were ongoing and suggested Iran’s response to a US proposal focused on ending the war “on all fronts,” especially Lebanon. Trump indicated that Washington was pursuing a diplomatic track but warned that military options remained available if negotiations failed.He also described the talks as significant for regional stability, while signaling that Lebanon remained a central issue in the negotiations. Sources in both camps have told Reuters the latest peace efforts are aimed at a temporary memorandum of understanding to halt the war and allow traffic through the Strait of Hormuz while they discuss a fuller deal, which would have to address intractable disputes such as Iran’s nuclear program. Meanwhile, Iranian state media reported that Tehran's proposed text in response to US focused on ending the war on all fronts especially Lebanon. After some 48 hours of relative calm following sporadic clashes last week, hostile drones were detected over several Gulf countries on Sunday, underlining the threat still facing the region despite a month-old ceasefire. But the QatarEnergy-operated carrier Al Kharaitiyat passed safely through the strait and was heading for Pakistan’s Port Qasim, according to data from shipping analytics firm Kpler, the first Qatari vessel carrying liquefied natural gas to cross the strait since the US and Israel started the war on February 28. Sources said earlier the transfer, which offered a modicum of relief to Pakistan after a wave of power blackouts caused by a halt to vital gas imports, had been approved by Iran to build confidence with Qatar and Pakistan, both mediators in the war. The proposal put forward by the United States would formally end the war before the start of talks on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump is under pressure to end war ahead of China visit
With US President Donald Trump due to visit China this week, there has been mounting pressure to draw a line under the war, which has ignited a global energy crisis and poses a growing threat to the world economy. But, despite diplomatic efforts to break a deadlock between the two sides and the passage of the Qatari gas tanker, the threat to shipping lanes and the economies of the region remained high. On Sunday, the UAE said it intercepted two drones coming from Iran, while Qatar condemned a drone attack that hit a cargo ship coming from Abu Dhabi in its waters. Kuwait said its air defenses had dealt with hostile drones that entered its airspace. Tehran has largely blocked non-Iranian shipping through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and which has emerged as one of the central pressure points in the war. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who discussed Pakistan's mediation efforts to end the war with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami on Saturday, told Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that using the Strait of Hormuz as a “pressure tool” would only deepen the crisis. He told Araghchi in a phone call that freedom of navigation should not be compromised, the Qatari foreign ministry said on Sunday, without specifying the exact date of the call.

Iran’s response to US proposal prioritizes ceasefire across all fronts, including Lebanon
LBCI/10 May ,2026
Iran’s response to the U.S. proposal focuses on ending the war on all fronts, particularly in Lebanon, Iranian state media reported, according to Reuters.

Iran warns France, UK of ‘immediate response’ to any Hormuz deployment
AFP/Published: 10 May ,2026
Iran warned Britain and France on Sunday that its armed forces would launch “a decisive and immediate response” to any warships being sent to the Strait of Hormuz, after Paris and London dispatched vessels to the region. “We remind them that both in times of war and in times of peace, only the Islamic Republic of Iran can establish security in this strait and it will not allow any country to interfere in such matters,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi posted on X. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday said that France had “never envisaged” a naval deployment in the Strait of Hormuz but rather a security mission that would be “coordinated with Iran.”At a news conference in Nairobi, Macron said he was sticking to his position after Iran warned of a “decisive and immediate response” to any French or British deployments in the strategic waterway. Britain and France are leading efforts to create an international coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz, but only after a peace deal between the US and Iran is secured.

Iran's Guards threaten US Mideast sites as Trump awaits Tehran response
Agence France Presse/10 May ,2026
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards threatened Saturday to target U.S. sites in the Middle East if its tankers come under fire, Iranian media reported, as Washington was left waiting for Tehran's response to its latest negotiating position. "Any attack on Iranian tankers and commercial vessels will result in a heavy attack on one of the American centres in the region and enemy ships," the Guards said, a day after U.S. strikes on two Iranian tankers in the Gulf of Oman. U.S. President Donald Trump had said on Friday he was expecting Iran's answer to Washington's latest proposal for a peace deal "supposedly tonight". But if Tehran sent Pakistani mediators a response, there was no public sign of it, and Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reportedly questioned the reliability of U.S. leadership. "The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy," he said in a call with his Turkish counterpart, according to Iran's ISNA news agency. On Friday, a U.S. fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers that Washington accused of challenging its blockade of Iran's ports. An Iranian military official told local media the navy had responded with strikes. That incident followed another flare-up the night before in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital international sea lane that Iran is seeking to control in order to extract tolls and wield economic leverage over the United States and its allies. The U.S. says it is unacceptable for Tehran to control the key oil route. Washington has sent Iran, via Pakistani mediators, a proposal to extend the truce in the Gulf to allow for talks on a final settlement of the conflict, launched 10 weeks ago with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. A reporter for French broadcaster LCI, Margot Haddad, said Saturday that Trump had told her in a brief interview he still expected to find out Iran's answer "very soon". Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said Friday the proposal was still "under review".
Oil slick Top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio met Saturday with the leader of Qatar, a key intermediary for Washington in dialogue with Iran, discussing "continued close coordination to deter threats and promote stability and security across the Middle East," the State Department said.
Qatar's Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met the previous day with U.S. Vice President JD Vance to discuss the Pakistani-led efforts to broker a permanent peace. Iran has attacked sites in Qatar during the war, pointing to the wealthy emirate's role as host of a major U.S. air base. Meanwhile, satellite images have shown an apparent oil slick spreading off the coast of Iran's Kharg Island, a key oil export terminal for the Islamic republic. It was not immediately clear what caused the apparent spill, which was off the island's west coast and appeared to cover more than 20 square miles (52 square kilometers), according to global monitor Orbital EOS. A UK-based non-governmental organisation, the Conflict and Environment Observatory, told AFP that by Saturday the slick was "much reduced", and may have been caused by leaking oil infrastructure. Kharg Island is at the heart of Iran's oil export industry, a lynchpin of its battered economy, and lies in the Gulf far north of the narrow Strait of Hormuz. Following the start of the war on February 28, Iran largely closed the strait, throwing global markets into turmoil and driving up oil prices. The U.S. later imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports in response, and Trump this week abandoned a short-lived U.S. naval operation to reopen the strait to commercial shipping.

Iran army says countries siding with US to 'face difficulties' in Hormuz
Agence France Presse/10 May ,2026
Iran's army warned on Sunday that countries complying with U.S. sanctions against the Islamic republic would face difficulties crossing the Strait of Hormuz. Early this month the U.S. government imposed new sanctions on Iranian interests and warned ships against paying authorities in Tehran to pass through the strait. The United States and Bahrain have drafted a U.N. resolution, seen by AFP, calling on Iran to halt restrictions on shipping through the waterway, which has become a major flashpoint since the outbreak of war on February 28.
"Countries that comply with the United States by imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran will certainly face difficulties crossing the strait," army official Mohammad Akraminia told Iran's official IRNA news agency on Sunday. "We have established a new legal and security system in the Strait of Hormuz. From now on, any vessel wishing to pass through it must coordinate with us," he added.He said the system was "now in force" and would bring "economic, security and political gains". On Saturday, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security commission, issued a similar warning in a post on X. "We warn governments, including microstates like Bahrain, that siding with the U.S.-backed resolution will bring severe consequences. The Strait of Hormuz is a vital lifeline; do not risk closing it on yourselves forever," he wrote. Iran has allowed only a trickle of ships to pass through the waterway, a route that in peacetime accounts for a fifth of the world's oil and gas flows, along with other vital commodities. Last month, Iranian deputy speaker of parliament Hamidreza Hajibabaei said Tehran had received its first revenue from the tolls it imposed on the strait. Veto-wielding Russia has warned it is prepared to block the U.N. Security Council resolution proposed by the United States and Bahrain, according to diplomatic sources.

Iran denies reports of oil leak near Kharg Island export hub
Reuters/10 May ,2026
Iran’s Oil Terminals Company denied reports of an oil leak near Kharg Island on Sunday, according to state media, after satellite imagery this week appeared to show a large slick west of the country’s main oil export hub in the Gulf. The company’s chief executive said inspections had found no evidence of leaks from storage tanks, pipelines, loading facilities or tankers operating near the island. He added that the Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Center (MEMAC), a regional marine pollution body, had also reported no sign of leakage in the area. The official said Iranian teams had conducted additional field inspections and laboratory testing after the reports emerged and had not identified “even the smallest trace” of leakage.

Report: Iran Supreme Leader Healing from Serious Injuries
Reuters/10 May 2026
US intelligence assesses that Iran’s new supreme leader is playing a critical role in shaping war strategy alongside senior Iranian officials, according to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence, reported CNN on Saturday. The reports found that “precise authority within a now-fractured regime remains unclear, but that Mojtaba Khamenei is likely helping direct how Iran is managing negotiations with the US to end the war.”Khamenei has not been seen in public since he sustained serious injuries during an attack that killed his father and several of the country’s top military leaders at the beginning of the war, leading to speculation about his health and role in the Iranian leadership structure. The Trump administration continues to pursue a diplomatic end to the conflict as a ceasefire stretches past a month with US intelligence assessing that Iran continues to dig out from the US bombing campaign that left significant Iranian military capabilities intact and the ability to survive months more of an American blockade, according to sources.
Khamenei was announced as Iran’s new supreme leader replacing his father days after the strike that injured him, but to date the US intelligence community has not been able to visually confirm his whereabouts, the sources said. “Part of the uncertainty stems from Khamenei not using any electronics to communicate, instead only interacting with those who can visit him in-person or by sending messages via a courier,” one of the sources added. “Khamenei remains isolated as he continues to receive medical treatment for his injuries, including bad burns on one side of his body impacting his face, arm, torso, leg,” the sources added, according to CNN. Mazaher Hosseini, head of protocol in the office of Iran’s supreme leader, on Friday said Khamenei is healing from his injuries and “is now in complete health.” Hosseini said Khamenei’s foot and lower back were slightly injured and that “a small piece of shrapnel had hit him behind the ear,” but that the wounds are healing. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told Iranian state media earlier this week that he had held a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Khamenei, marking the first reported in-person meeting between a top Iranian official and the country’s new supreme leader. What US officials do know about Khamenei’s status is based on information picked up from those who are communicating with him, the sources familiar told CNN. “There is, however, some question among intelligence analysts as to whether some in Iran’s power structure might be claiming access to Khamenei to coopt his authority to push their own agendas.”The war has degraded Iran’s military capabilities, but not destroyed them, according to US intelligence reports. CNN previously reported that US intelligence assessed that roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers had survived US strikes. A recent report increased that figure to two thirds partially due to the ongoing ceasefire providing Iran with time to dig out launchers that might have been buried in previous strikes, according to sources familiar with the intelligence. A separate CIA report found that Iran can likely last up to four more months of the ongoing American blockade without complete destabilization of its economy, the sources said.
While US intelligence assessments indicate that Khamenei is involved in helping develop Iran’s negotiating strategy for a diplomatic end to the war, one source familiar with the latest information told CNN there is evidence he is fairly removed from the decision-making process and only sporadically accessible. As a result, senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps officials are essentially running the day-to-day operations along with Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the source added. “There is no indication he is actually giving orders on any ongoing basis but nothing proving he is not,” a second source familiar with the US intelligence assessments said, referring to Khamenei.

UAE says targeted by two Iranian drones
Al Arabiya English/10 May ,2026
The United Arab Emirates said it intercepted two Iranian drones on Sunday as a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East war came under strain.“UAE air defence systems successfully engaged two UAVs launched from Iran,” the defence ministry said in a statement on X. Also on Sunday, Kuwait’s armed forces detected several hostile drones in Kuwaiti airspace early in the morning and responded according to established procedures, the defense ministry said. The UAE has reported being attacked in the past days by Iran after four weeks of relative calm since a ceasefire in the Iran war was announced by the United States. The attacks prompted the UAE to shift to remote learning for schools last week, but authorities said on Sunday that in-person learning would resume from Monday.With agencies

Using Strait of Hormuz as ‘pressure tool’ will deepen crisis, Qatari PM tells
Agencies/10 May ,2026
Qatar’s prime minister told Iran’s foreign minister that using the Strait of Hormuz as “a pressure tool” would only deepen the crisis in the Gulf, the Qatari foreign ministry said on Sunday. Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman A Thani also told Iran’s Abbas Araghchi in a phone call that all parties in the conflict should respond to mediation efforts to end the war. Al Thani “stressed that freedom of navigation is a firmly established principle that is not open to compromise, and that closing the Strait of Hormuz or using it as a pressure card only serves to deepen the crisis,” the ministry said in a statement. Al Thani is also Qatar’s foreign minister.

Iran’s Supreme Leader briefs military chief on ‘new guiding measures’: Report
Reuters/10 May ,2026
The head of Iran’s armed forces unified command met Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and received from him “new guiding measures to pursue military operations and firmly confront adversaries,” the semi-official Fars news reported on Sunday. The Fars report said that Ali Abdollahi, who commands the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, had briefed Khamenei on the readiness of the country’s armed forces. It did not say when their meeting took place. “The armed forces are ready to confront any action by the American-Zionist (Israeli) enemies. In case of any error by the enemy, Iran’s response will be swift, severe, and decisive,” Abdollahi was reported as saying.

South Korean ship in Strait of Hormuz hit by unidentified object, ministry says
Reuters/10 May ,2026
A bulk carrier operated by South Korean shipper HMM, which had been stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, was struck by an unidentified object on May 4, the Korean foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday, after the Korean authorities carried out an on-site inspection into the ship.
The object was confirmed to have hit the ship’s stern, the ministry said.

Ship struck by projectile off coast of Qatar
Agence France Presse/10 May ,2026
An unknown projectile struck a ship off the coast of Qatar early Sunday morning, a UK maritime agency reported, after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards threatened to target U.S. vessels in the region. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a bulk carrier had reported being hit 23 nautical miles northeast of Doha by an "unknown projectile". "There was a small fire that has been extinguished, there are no casualties. There is no reported environmental impact," the agency said. Iran's Fars news agency reported, citing an unidentified source, that "the bulk carrier that was struck near the coast of Qatar was sailing under the U.S. flag and belonged to the United States". The incident comes after a U.S. fighter jet on Friday disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers in the Gulf of Oman to prevent them from continuing to Iran. Iran's Guards then threatened on Saturday to target U.S. sites in the Middle East and "enemy ships" if its own tankers came under fire.

Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill Three, Medics Say, Testing Fragile Ceasefire
Asharq Al Awsat/10 May 2026
Israeli strikes killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, including two members of the Hamas-run police force, health officials said, in violence that underscored the fragility of a US-brokered ceasefire. Medics said an airstrike killed one person in the Maghazi refugee camp, while another killed the head of the criminal police force in Khan ‌Younis, Wessam Abdel-Hadi, ‌and his aide, according to Gaza's Hamas-run ‌interior ⁠ministry. Reuters has previously ⁠reported that Israel has heightened its attacks on Gaza's Hamas-run police force, which the group has used to re-establish governance in areas under its control. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on either incident.
PERSISTENT VIOLENCE
The blast that killed the two police officers left only a mangled metal skeleton where their car ⁠had stood in the Al-Amal neighborhood of Khan ‌Younis in southern Gaza. The men's white-shrouded bodies were carried on shoulders through ‌the streets during the funeral. A mourner, Ali Mousa, condemned Israel's killing of members of the enclave's police force. "Although the ceasefire came into effect several months ago, the occupation continues to target ‌the police officers to cause chaos among the people of the same nation," Mousa told ⁠Reuters. "The occupation ⁠aims to create chaos and confusion within the Gaza Strip. This is its sole objective," he added. Violence in Gaza has persisted despite an October 2025 ceasefire, with Israel conducting almost daily attacks. At least 850 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, local medics say, while Israel says fighters have killed four of its soldiers over the same period. Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for ceasefire violations. More than 72,500 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza war started in October 2023, Gaza health authorities say, most of them civilians.

Spain says 94 people of 19 nationalities removed from hantavirus ship Sunday
LBCI/10 May ,2026
A repatriation operation on Sunday evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities from a cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has triggered international alarm, Spain's health minister said. Announcing the conclusion of a "pretty intense" day in the Canary Islands, Monica Garcia said two further flights would leave on Monday for Australia and the Netherlands, carrying six and 18 people respectively. AFP

One of repatriated French passengers from hantavirus-hit ship has symptoms, PM says
Reuters/10 May ,2026
One of five French passengers who were on a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak showed symptoms during a repatriation flight on Sunday, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on X. Groups of passengers and crew disembarked from a cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak on Sunday to be evacuated to their respective countries in a process overseen by global health officials and expected to last until Monday. The passengers, none of whom were showing symptoms of the virus, were taken to Tenerife airport in military buses to be evacuated from the island in government planes sent by their respective countries, government officials said, emphasizing that they will have no contact with the public.

Trump expected to 'apply pressure' on Xi over Iran: US official
LBCI/10 May ,2026
Donald Trump is expected to press Chinese President Xi Jinping on Iran when he visits Beijing next week, a senior administration official said Sunday, as the U.S. president seeks a deal to end the Middle East war. "I would expect the president to apply pressure," the official said in a call with reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that Trump has done so in previous calls with the Chinese leader.AFP

Kremlin says Witkoff and Kushner will visit Moscow ‘soon enough’ to continue dialogue
Reuters/10 May ,2026
Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Sunday that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would visit Moscow “soon enough” to continue dialogue with Russia on the settlement in Ukraine, news agency Interfax reported.

Remains of US soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco have been recovered
AP/May 10, 2026
CASABLANCA: The remains of a US Army soldier who went missing during military exercises in Morocco a week ago have been recovered in the Atlantic Ocean, the US military said Sunday. Military teams are still searching for a second missing soldier. The remains found are those of 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., a 14A Air Defense Artillery officer, who was one of two US soldiers who fell off a cliff during a recreational hike in Morocco while off duty. He was 27 years old. The two were reported missing May 2 after participating in African Lion, annual multinational military exercises held in Morocco. “A Moroccan military search team found the Soldier in the water along the shoreline at approximately 8:55 a.m. local time May 9, within roughly one mile of where both Soldiers reportedly entered the ocean,” USArmy Europe and Africa said in a statement. The two went missing around 9 p.m. near the Cap Draa Training Area outside Tan-Tan, a terrain characterized by mountains, desert and semidesert plains, according to the Moroccan military. Their disappearance triggered a search-and-rescue operation involving more than 600 personnel from the United States, Morocco and other military partners. The operation deployed frigates, vessels, helicopters and drones. Search efforts will continue for the missing second soldier, a US defense official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to speak publicly on the issue. The official said a US contingent remained in Morocco after the multinational war games ended Friday to provide command and control and to continue search and rescue operations. Key was assigned to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, USArmy Europe and Africa said. He earned a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with minors in international business, entrepreneurship, and business administration. He entered military service in 2023 as an officer candidate and earned his commission through Officer Candidate School in 2024 as an Air Defense Artillery officer. He later completed the Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, according to the statement. The search-and-rescue operation, now in its ninth day, has covered more than 12,000 square kilometers of sea and littoral zone, currently adding around 3,000 square kilometers per day. The soldiers had been taking part in African Lion 26, a US-led exercise launched in April across four countries – Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal – with more than 7,000 personnel from over 30 nations. Since 2004, it has been the largest US joint military exercise in Africa.In 2012, two US Marines were killed and two others injured during a helicopter crash in Morocco’s southern city of Agadir while taking part in the exercises.

Syria court charges former security official with acts amounting to ‘war crimes’
AFP/May 10, 2026
DAMASCUS: Syria’s judiciary brought charges on Sunday against former security official Atif Najib for acts amounting to “war crimes” in 2011 against peaceful protesters in Daraa province, the cradle of the country’s uprising. Najib was the former head of political security in the southern Syrian province and is accused of orchestrating a crackdown there. Washington sanctioned him for human rights abuses in April 2011, one month after the uprising erupted. He appeared in a Damascus criminal court again on Sunday after the opening session last month in the trials of former senior figures, most prominently longtime president Bashar Assad and his brother Maher Assad, who are both being tried in absentia. Judge Fakhr Al-Din Al-Aryan read out the charges at Sunday’s session, part of which was broadcast on state television, as Najib stood in the dock. “The accusations against you relate to events in Daraa province in early 2011, when the peaceful (protest) movement was met with an excessive use of force,” Aryan said. “As head of the political security branch then, you held direct and joint leadership responsibility for systematic acts that targeted civilians including killing, torture and arbitrary detention,” he added. He said abuses attributed to Najib, some of them deadly, include the arrest and torture of children due to “political writings on walls,” involvement in “suppressing protests with excessive force” and “opening direct fire” on a peaceful sit-in at Daraa’s Al-Omari mosque. They also include “torture leading to death” in his branch’s detention centers.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
“You were the ultimate authority in Daraa province and hold direct responsibility for issuing orders to kill, arrest and torture... and for participating with political, security and military leaders in an organized hierarchical structure in committing these grave violations,” the judge said. The actions attributed to Najib and others not present “amount to war crimes... and crimes against humanity,” he added. The court heard statements from Najib and witnesses, state media said, after the judge halted media coverage. State news agency SANA said the next session would be held on May 19. Syria’s more than 13-year civil war killed more than half a million people and displaced millions of others. Tens of thousands of people disappeared, many into the country’s brutal prison system. The uprising began in Daraa on March 15, 2011, after 15 students were arrested for allegedly writing anti-government slogans on the city’s walls. Residents said the students were tortured, leading to a protest to demand their release that ended in bloodshed. Security personnel suppressed peaceful demonstrations with force and fired live ammunition to disperse sit-ins at several locations. Najib was dismissed after the crackdown, as the protests spread to other provinces. He was among the first Assad-era officials arrested by the new authorities after the December 2024 ousting of the longtime ruler. Syrian authorities have recently announced the arrest of a number of Assad-era figures, including on Friday with the detention of two former generals, one of whom is accused of involvement in a 2013 chemical attack on a Damascus suburb.

Report: shepherd uncovers alleged secret Israeli base in Iraqi desert
Ekbal Zein/Euronews/May 10, 2026
The Wall Street Journal, citing US sources, has revealed that Israel set up a secret military base in the Iraqi desert before the outbreak of the war with Iran, with the aim of providing air cover for its operations. The move came last February, with the base in Anbar province hosting special forces and Israeli search-and-rescue units, set up to deal with the possible downing of warplanes inside Iran. According to the report, Tel Aviv offered the services of its secret facility after a US F-15 fighter jet was shot down near Isfahan, but US forces declined and carried out the rescue of the pilots independently, while Israel conducted parallel air raids to secure the area.
How was the base discovered?
Strikingly, the base was not uncovered by Iraqi security agencies but by a shepherd in the area who noticed unusual military activity, including helicopter movements and gunfire, and reported it, prompting Iraqi forces to launch an urgent investigation. Israel, however, moved quickly and carried out intensive strikes that left one Iraqi soldier dead. Iraq announces huge oil find near Saudi border as Hormuz crisis bites. At the time, Iraq questioned the circumstances of the incident and held the United States responsible for the attack. Qais al-Mohammadi, deputy commander of Iraqi army operations, said: "This reckless operation was carried out without coordination or approval." By contrast, another Iraqi military official voiced unease about what had happened, saying: "It appears that a force was present on the ground before the strike, backed from the air and operating beyond the capabilities of our units."Israeli Air Force Chief of Staff Tomer Bar had previously stated that special forces were carrying out "exceptional operations" during the confrontation with Iran, without giving further details.
Why the Iraqi desert in particular?
An intelligence expert explained that the western Iraqi desert is an ideal environment for such secret bases because of its vast expanse and sparse population, adding: "It was essential for Baghdad to conduct reconnaissance and inspections before any moves."
This desert, which stretches west of the Euphrates River in Anbar province and connects with the deserts of Syria and Jordan, is an extremely arid area inhabited by Bedouins and covers around 23% of Iraq’s territory. The region includes the towns of al-Qaim, Anah, Hit and Rutba, and is considered one of Iraq’s richest areas in natural resources, containing confirmed phosphate reserves estimated at about two billion tonnes, as well as free sulphur, silica sand and natural gas.
These developments come against a highly complex political and military backdrop, as Baghdad strives to maintain a delicate balance between its two most powerful allies: Washington and Tehran. Amid this fragile balance, the United States continues to press Iraq to disarm Iran-backed groups that Washington designates as terrorist organisations. These groups target US interests inside Iraq, from its embassy in Baghdad to diplomatic and logistical facilities, and on to oil sites operated by foreign companies.

The Latest LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 09-10 May/2026
China’s long game and Trump’s Iran gamble
Raghida Dergham/Al Arabiya English/10 May ,2026
Iran is not the decisive factor in the reshaping of the balance of power between the United States and China, where regional wars and the files of oil, energy, and sanctions are turning into tools in a larger battle over leadership of the international order. The course of American-Iranian confrontations or negotiations will be present at the anticipated American-Chinese summit in Beijing between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping, but it will not be decisive in the future of the strategic competition between the two largest powers in the world.
President Trump is going to Beijing with the mentality of a man who wants to extract tangible and rapid realities. In his mind, China benefited for a long time from the hesitation of previous American administrations and from Washington’s preoccupation with Middle East wars, and the time has come to redraw the rules of economic and strategic engagement with it — firmly but calmly. President Xi looks at the relationship with the United States from a completely different perspective based on strategic cunning and on managing the long term, not on the rhythm of rapid political deals or electoral calculations. This divergence in the political mindset of the two men will be strongly present at the negotiating table in Beijing. The Taiwan file will remain the most dangerous knot in the American-Chinese relationship. For Beijing, the issue is not only about an island or regional influence, but about sovereignty, identity, and national unity that do not accept compromise. The United States, meanwhile, deals with Taiwan as the forward line of defense for the Asian security order and for the credibility of American alliances in confronting Chinese expansion. Therefore, any mistake in calculations or any attempt to impose military realities by force could open the door to the most dangerous international confrontation in decades. The South China Sea has also turned into an open arena of confrontation with possibilities of escalation. China considers that it has a historic and strategic right in those waters and maritime passages, while the United States insists on preserving freedom of navigation and preventing Beijing from turning the sea into a closed sphere of influence. Behind the military arguments lies a deeper battle over who controls global trade routes and the arteries of the international economy.
Yet the most important confrontation may no longer be naval or military as much as technological and economic. The United States realizes that the real race with China revolves around artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, and control over advanced technology. Therefore, Washington is working to prevent China from obtaining advanced electronic chips and technologies that it considers directly linked to American national security. China, for its part, sees the United States using the tools of economics, sanctions, and technology to slow its rise and prevent it from becoming the world’s leading power.
A silent battle is also taking place over supply chains, rare minerals, and energy. Washington seeks to reduce industrial dependence on China and rebuild alternative production networks with allies, while Beijing uses its enormous industrial and commercial weight to preserve its influence in the global economy. Here oil enters the heart of strategic competition, not as a mere commodity, but as a tool of influence, alliances, and mutual pressure. President Donald Trump recently tried to limit China’s expansion in the global energy sector after destroying its influence in Venezuela, and is attempting to besiege it through oil pressure if he succeeded in applying the Venezuela model to Iran. Trump failed in the Iran war because he hesitated in military decisiveness, and therefore fell into the arms of the adversary as in the mistake of losing tactical momentum. The ambitions of confiscating Beijing’s dependence on Iranian oil failed, so that “Great America” would control global oil markets.
The relationship between Beijing and Tehran is not an ideological alliance as much as it is a relationship of cold interests. China does not look at Iran through the eyes of an ideological partner, but through the eyes of a state that secures part of its oil needs and helps it confront American pressure. Xi will deal with extreme caution with any attempt by Trump to push him into participating in economically or oil-wise suffocating Iran because he will remember very well Trump’s primary goal, which is to suffocate China through oil.
Under the current situation, Trump realizes that his battle with Iran has become intertwined with his battle with China. The siege on Iranian oil is not aimed only at pressuring Tehran, but also at reducing one of the sources of strength from which Beijing benefits in energy security. At the same time, Donald Trump finds himself in need of China’s help in the crisis of the ruling Revolutionary Guards’ control over global navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.
The American president wants to go to Beijing from the position of the man who transferred the factor of time into his own hands in the war with Iran through the success of the strategy of besieging Iranian ports, not from the position of a president trapped in an open war in the Gulf region. It is precisely here that the American-Chinese equation intersects with the Iranian equation. The Iranian Revolutionary Guardss reads the conflict with a completely different mentality. Tehran’s men believe that Donald Trump, no matter how much he raises the ceiling, does not want a major war that could threaten the American economy and disrupt his primary priority in confronting China. Therefore, the Iranian leadership is betting that Trump’s need for a deal is ultimately greater than the Islamic Republic’s need to retreat.
The Revolutionary Guards does not see retreat as merely a political concession, but as the collapse of the doctrine of the revolution itself. For this reason, the Iranian leadership behaves with the mentality of one who prefers going to the edge of strategic suicide over admitting defeat. Acknowledging failure is not possible in its dictionary, even if the country is suffocating under sanctions, siege, and the erosion of the economy.
There is no room for the surrender on which Trump insists in the flood of his tweets and statements without stopping at the mentality of the Iranian doctrine in order to understand his enemy and its meaning: in suicide there is pride, and in surrender there is humiliation.
The equation today is therefore no longer between war and peace, but between surrender and suicide. Trump believes that the oil siege and economic suffocation will eventually produce a new Iranian reality, whether through internal popular pressure or through pushing the Iranian leadership to accept harsh American conditions. Tehran, meanwhile, believes that the long term works in its favor, and that Trump will retreat before reaching the moment of decisiveness.
China watches this equation with concern and pragmatism at the same time. It does not want the collapse of the Iranian regime in a way that grants Washington a major strategic victory, but it also does not want a broad regional war that threatens the global economy, energy markets, and strikes Chinese growth at its core. Therefore, Beijing will continue its delicate game between protecting its interests with Iran and preventing slipping into a direct confrontation with the United States. Within this landscape, Iran appears larger than merely a nuclear file and smaller than being the center of the world. It is a strategic card in a broader international game, but it is also a knot that may open the door to major understandings or to larger explosions. Therefore, what will take place in Beijing between Trump and Xi will not remain confined to the bilateral relationship between Washington and Beijing, but will have direct repercussions on the Middle East, Iran, and the future of international balances in the coming years.

The Saudi 'No'
Pierre Rehov/Gatestone Institute/May 10, 2026
The Abraham Accords, once touted as a breakthrough, have quietly moved, in Saudi political conversation, into the deep freeze.
In September 1967, the Arab League, at its summit in Khartoum, delivered the famous three "no's": no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. Notably, the declaration made no mention of a Palestinian state, which the late senior PLO official Zuheir Mohsen significantly pointed out in 1977, had not yet been invented:
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism." — Zuheir Mohsen, Trouw, March 31, 1977.
Once US President Donald J. Trump, without Saudi Arabia lifting a finger, relieved the kingdom of its foremost adversary, Iran, and removed the major threat to the kingdom, what would Saudi Arabia need Israel for anyway? To the Saudis, the Abraham Accords doubtless look like an agreement signed by others, but never embraced by the one Arab power that truly mattered.
The Arab League's Khartoum resolution was never truly about borders. It expressed a fundamental rejection of Jewish sovereignty on land the Arab world, guided by religious doctrine, considered permanently to be held in trust (waqf, endowment) for Allah.
The late Abba Eban, serving as Israel's foreign minister, had called the pre-1967 "border" -- merely an armistice line where the fighting had stopped in 1949 -- "the Auschwitz lines." Riyadh appears to understand this perfectly, which is precisely why its condition was framed as it was.
The Arab League's response to the 1948 UN partition plan was a genocidal invasion of the newly born Jewish state by the armies of five Arab states. Khartoum repeated this rejection in 1967. Saudi Arabia continues the same refusal today in language carefully tailored for Western chancelleries. Qatar, meanwhile, plays an even more institutionalized double game: hosting America's largest regional military base while protecting Hamas commanders, financing Muslim Brotherhood networks, and deploying Al Jazeera TV network as the ideological megaphone for the entire project. Israeli security cannot rest any hope on a recognition that will not come. It will depend instead on the determined elimination of the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies when the opportunity arises, and the fight for power that might well define the Sunni world once the Shia threat no longer binds it together. The Abraham Accords, once touted as a breakthrough, have quietly moved, in Saudi political conversation, into the deep freeze. Once US President Donald J. Trump, without Saudi Arabia lifting a finger, relieved the kingdom of its foremost adversary, Iran, and removed the major threat to the kingdom, what would Saudi Arabia need Israel for anyway? To the Saudis, the Abraham Accords doubtless look like an agreement signed by others, but never embraced by the one Arab power that truly mattered. Pictured: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) meets with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Qatar's Amiri Diwan/ AFP via Getty Images)
Riyadh has chosen its words with care, yet the meaning could hardly be more clear. Saudi Arabia will not recognize the State of Israel — not under the present Israeli government and -- here comes the poison pill -- not before the creation of an independent Palestinian state along the 1949 "Auschwitz" armistice lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Saudi foreign minister has framed this stance as a strategic principle rather than a negotiating position. A 2025 survey conducted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy revealed that 99% of Saudi citizens view normalization with Israel as a negative development. The Abraham Accords, once touted as a breakthrough, have quietly moved, in Saudi political conversation, into the deep freeze.
Once US President Donald J. Trump, without Saudi Arabia lifting a finger, relieved the kingdom of its foremost adversary, Iran, and removed the major threat to the kingdom, what would Saudi Arabia need Israel for anyway? To the Saudis, the Abraham Accords doubtless look like an agreement signed by others, but never embraced by the one Arab power that truly mattered.
Only the packaging has changed. After the UN adopted the 1947 partition plan, the Arab League and the Arab states rejected it and opposed any form of Jewish sovereignty on any part of the land, and chose war instead of the two-state solution on offer from the international community. In September 1967, the Arab League, at its summit in Khartoum, delivered the famous three "no's": no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel. Notably, the declaration made no mention of a Palestinian state, which the late senior PLO official Zuheir Mohsen significantly pointed out in 1977, had not yet been invented:
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."
Judea and Samaria were wrested in 1967 from Jordan, which had controlled those territories since 1948 without ever suggesting a Palestinian entity there, either. The Arab League's Khartoum resolution was never truly about borders. It expressed a fundamental rejection of Jewish sovereignty on land the Arab world, guided by religious doctrine, considered permanently to be held in trust (waqf, endowment) for Allah. What has evolved since then is not the refusal itself, but the language used to express it.
Today's Saudi position, cloaked in the vocabulary of international law and Palestinian self-determination, serves the same purpose: to make any recognition of Israel conditional on terms Riyadh knows Jerusalem cannot accept. Where Khartoum was blunt and openly hostile, the contemporary version is polished, presentable and "politically correct" in Western foreign ministries — and therefore more potent.
The kingdom no longer conceals its antisemitic undertones that accompany this repositioning. In January 2026, the Anti-Defamation League took the unusual step of issuing a public statement highlighting its alarm over the sharp rise in antisemitic rhetoric in Saudi Arabia and the growing public attacks on the Abraham Accords by prominent Saudi figures. Two weeks later, the front page of the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah labeled the United Arab Emirates a "Zionist Trojan horse" in the Arab world. Such commentary appears in outlets operating under close royal supervision, signaling what the leadership wishes to be heard.
The diplomatic record aligns with the rhetorical shift. In September 2025, Saudi Arabia and France co-hosted a high-profile conference at the UN General Assembly, where multiple countries announced their recognition of a non-existent Palestinian state. The initiative explicitly endorsed the "right of return" and sought to reinforce the legitimacy of UNRWA — the UN agency whose long-documented role in employing Hamas operatives in Gaza has raised serious questions for decades. A country genuinely interested in narrowing the gap with Israel would not spearhead an international campaign promoting outcomes that would be an existential threat to Israel. Saudi Arabia has chosen what side it is on.
Israel's response is shaped not by ideology but by hard-won experience. The results of creating an independent Palestinian entity are already known: the experiment has already been conducted. In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip — every Jewish civilian was expelled, every IDF soldier pulled out, and complete territorial control handed over to the Palestinian Authority. What followed was the emergence of a jihadist emirate, the firing of tens of thousands of rockets at civilians in Israel -- a country smaller than the state of New Jersey (roughly 22,000 sq.km.) -- and the horrors of October 7, 2023.
The Saudi demand is essentially that Israel repeat that same failed experiment on the hills of Judea and Samaria, overlooking Ben-Gurion International Airport and Tel Aviv, and surrounding Jerusalem on three sides. No Israeli government, regardless of its political makeup, can agree to such terms. The late Abba Eban, serving as Israel's foreign minister, had called the pre-1967 "border" -- merely an armistice line where the fighting had stopped in 1949 -- "the Auschwitz lines." Riyadh appears to understand this perfectly, which is precisely why its condition was framed as it was. At its core, Saudi Arabia's reluctance to recognize Israel is theological as well as a political power grab, lest Israel gain too much stature in the neighborhood. The Saudi monarch carries the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, conferring a unique religious legitimacy unmatched by any other Sunni capital. Granting formal recognition to a sovereign Jewish state in the heart of Dar al-Islam — territory historically conquered for the Muslim nation (umma) — would require conceding a doctrinal point that strikes at the very foundation of the Saudi monarchy. The kingdom's "Vision 2030" has modernized the surface — introducing movie theaters, allowing women to drive, and launching futuristic projects such as NEOM. It has not, however, rewritten the religious basis of the throne's legitimacy. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose dependence on this religious legitimacy has only grown since the Khashoggi murder, is unlikely to risk it for a normalization with a country that, since defeating Saudi Arabia's main enemy, Iran, may now be more of a problem than a benefit. Israel's strategic value is simply not needed anymore. Israel, for its part, can extract a certain short-term strategic benefit from a weakened but still surviving Iranian regime. As long as Tehran continues to threaten Sunni capitals, Israel remains an indispensable regional player, and the broader architecture of the Abraham Accords retains some rationale. Yet no Israeli government will base its long-term security on such a calculation, not to mention what a betrayal it is of the Iranian people, whom Trump encouraged to give up so much in the hope of real freedom.
What comes after in Iran may prove more consequential. The Sunni world has never been monolithic. The Muslim Brotherhood, officially designated a terrorist organization by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and even Austria, continues to enjoy sponsorship and amplification from Qatar and Turkey. In January 2026, the Trump administration formally labeled the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Lebanese branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist entities, sharpening a fault line long obscured by the shared priority of containing Iran.
Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, although not in open conflict with Israel, currently poses a more organized threat to Jerusalem than at any point in modern history: neo-Ottoman ambitions, active military and political support for the Syria's HTS regime, sheltering Hamas leadership, and promoting jihadist fatwas from the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars.
Qatar, meanwhile, plays an even more institutionalized double game: hosting America's largest regional military base while protecting Hamas commanders, financing Muslim Brotherhood networks, and deploying Al Jazeera TV network as the ideological megaphone for the entire project.
Should the Iranian regime eventually collapse — whether through internal revolt or popular uprising, the longstanding rivalry between the anti-Muslim Brotherhood bloc (UAE, Morocco, Bahrain) and the Qatar-Ankara axis would inherit the central role long played by Iran. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE would then face that confrontation having lost the one common enemy that had justified their alignment. In such a landscape, they would need a capable partner possessing the technological and military edge they cannot readily develop themselves. Israel is that partner, whether or not formal recognition ever materializes.
No Arab state is prepared to recognize Israel as a Jewish state rooted in Jewish faith and history: doing so would mean accepting permanent Jewish sovereignty over land that Islamic tradition regards as territory conquered to be held in perpetuity for Islam. The Arab League's response to the 1948 UN partition plan was a genocidal invasion of the newly born Jewish state by the armies of five Arab states. Khartoum repeated this rejection in 1967. Saudi Arabia continues the same refusal today in language carefully tailored for Western chancelleries.
October 7, 2023 showed, in the most brutal terms, what the Saudi formula produces when implemented. Israeli security cannot rest any hope on a recognition that will not come. It will depend instead on the determined elimination of the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies when the opportunity arises, and the fight for power that might well define the Sunni world once the Shia threat no longer binds it together.
Pierre Rehov, who holds a law degree from Paris-Assas, is a French reporter, novelist and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of six novels, including "Beyond Red Lines", "The Third Testament" and "Red Eden", translated from French. His latest essay on the aftermath of the October 7 massacre " 7 octobre - La riposte " became a bestseller in France. As a filmmaker, he has produced and directed 17 documentaries, many photographed at high risk in Middle Eastern war zones, and focusing on terrorism, media bias, and the persecution of Christians. His latest documentary, "Pogrom(s)" highlights the context of ancient Jew hatred within Muslim civilization as the main force behind the October 7 massacre.
**© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

What Does the Age of ‘Nationalisms’ Mean for the Future of a United Britain?
Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Al Awsat/10 May 2026
Few observers were surprised by the local election results in Britain and Northern Ireland yesterday. Opinion polls had already shown that the ruling Labor Party was heading toward a painful defeat under its weak, opportunistic leadership that lacks substance, conviction, and charisma. Its current leader’s rise to power in the 2024 general election was more the result of others failures than through any merit of its own. Labor's share of the vote in this seemingly sweeping victory was telling: the party won 411 seats with only 34 percent of the vote.
That is, Labor had increased its vote share by no more than 1.6 percent after the defeat of 2019. Indeed, that 34 percent was the lowest vote of any party with an outright parliamentary majority since the end of the Second World War.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, saw their share collapse, from 44 percent in 2019 to just 20 percent in 2024. The centrist Liberal Democrats raised their share to 12.2 percent, a gain of 0.7 percent. But most of the Conservatives' votes had gone to the far right- the Reform Party born from the twin of Brexit and hostility toward immigration and immigrants. Indeed, Labor did not win the 2024 election by offering a coherent alternative grounded in a solid set of values. It won because it had benefited from chaos and divisions at the top of the Conservative hierarchy on one hand, and from the rise of a populist party, Reform, that was more extreme and more hostile to immigrants than even the Conservative right on the other.
Even so, despite the generous and largely undeserved mandate that Labor and its leader had received, the current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, chose to settle scores within the party rather than reaching out to its various factions and defusing their desire for revenge.
Backed by the right wing of the Labor party that had dominated the party under former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his former ally Peter Mandelson (the most powerful and influential figure in Blair's circle, Starmer launched a ferocious campaign against the remnants of the party's previous left-wing leadership.
After the 2024 elections, the Conservative Party was in shambles. The defeat not only cost the party power but opened the floodgates to defections. A number of hardline Conservatives left to join the extremist Reform Party, among them several senior ministers from recent Conservative governments. Ironically, some of these defectors had themselves been born to immigrants from ethnic and religious minority communities, including Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists.
As for Britain's "two-party system," which goes back to 1721, it is worth recalling that between 1721 and 1924, the two rivals were the Whigs, who later evolved into the Liberal Party after absorbing various groupings, and the Tories, the Conservative Party. Since 1924, the Conservatives and Labor have been the two key players. The most significant political shift seen in yesterday's results was the rise of "nationalist" sentiment across the board: both in their proto-independence form in the non-English political entities (Scotland, Ireland, and Wales), and in their isolationist, anti-immigrant form in England itself, though Reform also made inroads in the non-English entities.
These two nationalisms are ideological rivals. The racist and economic notions of the far-right that underpin Reform's isolationism across Britain and Northern Ireland present a stark contrast to the "nationalism" of the Scots, Welsh, and Irish, which is rooted in notions of liberation from the weight of England's old "colonial" legacy.
In any event, Reform was the big winner in yesterday's elections, followed by the Green Party, which many now regard as a credible alternative to Labor on the left.
Reform's rapid and alarming rise runs parallel to the broader ascent of far right, racist, and neo-fascisms movements from India to the Americas to Europe. What is happening today, however, cannot be understood in isolation from Margaret Thatcher's legacy. Thatcher was the last Western leader to boycott South Africa's apartheid regime. She waged wars of attrition against the welfare state that had been built in Britain after the Second World War. She had led the battle against "European identity" before her disciples and the heirs of her policies fulfilled her dream of separating Britain from Europe. At the time, Thatcher's policies "complemented" those of Washington under Ronald Reagan. The European stage today, however, is far more complicated. The "special relationship" between Washington and London was real at the time; that is no longer the case. Thatcher was once the loudest of Washington's European allies. Today, other European capitals are more "right-wing" than London, including Berlin. Moreover, conflicts within Europe are now shaped by the detente taking shape between Washington and Moscow.
Personally, I believe the collapse of the two-party system in Britain will endure for some time. I also fear it may prove costly for both its internal stability and national unity, as it is difficult to imagine the nationalists of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland finding comfort in a government headed by Reform extremists.

Leaving Politics Out of Hajj
Hassan Al Mustafa/Asharq Al Awsat/10 May 2026
Millions have watched the videos of Iranian pilgrims being received in Madinah and saw how they were greeted warmly and presented with flowers as they arrived, one after the other, to perform the Hajj pilgrimage this year. They were at ease, in safety, and far from the fallout of the war that has swept through the Middle East and the complex political and security realities that it produced. These scenes surprised observers unfamiliar with Saudi policy. Moreover, Saudi Arabia had itself been the target of several Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks during the war between Israel and the United States on one side and Iran on the other since February 28. The Kingdom was not a belligerent in this war; on the contrary, it had been proactively seeking to spare the region from violence and chaos through diplomacy, in order to resolve differences and reach sustainable diplomatic solutions, repeatedly reaffirming that it would not allow its territory, airspace, or territorial waters to be used for offensive operations. Even so, it was subjected to wanton Iranian attacks on vital civilian infrastructure and strategic facilities, damaging its national security. To this behavior, Iran’s open violation of international law, Saudi Arabia responded with defensive military measures and diplomacy. It also drew a clear line between politics on the one hand and the serving of the pilgrims of making Hajj to the sacred house of God on the other. Even when those pilgrims came from the country that had attacked the Kingdom, Riyadh did not receive them as though they had been responsible for those attacks, but as guests who had come to perform religious rites and visit Makkah and Madinah.
During the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in 2025, thousands of Iranian pilgrims had been in Saudi Arabia and could not return to their country. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued directives to the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah to "facilitate all the needs of the Iranian pilgrims and provide them with all the services they need until conditions would allow for their safe return to their homeland and families." The Saudi authorities carried this out with great efficiency under the close supervision of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.
To the Saudi government, what matters is adhering to the laws governing Hajj and totally avoiding any "politicization of Hajj," including through slogans or images, and revolutionary speeches by any party whatsoever. This refusal to use religious rites as a political tool is not new, nor is it tied solely to recent developments in the Gulf. It is a longstanding Saudi policy aimed at ensuring that Hajj remains highly organized, safe, and spiritual - at arm’s length from division, discord, or sectarian fanaticism.
In this context, it is worth recalling remarks of Major General Mohammed al-Omari, commander of the Saudi Special Emergency Forces, who stated that "the primary goal of the forces is to preserve the security of Hajj and the safety of the guests of God." He stressed that pilgrims should be treated "with the utmost comfort and care," adding that "the security of Hajj is a red line; we will not allow anyone to approach it, let alone cross it."
Such explicit rhetoric is meant to create a clear deterrent against any unlawful act before it occurs. Without it, the pilgrimage season could descend into disorder and become a space exploited by partisan groups to promote their ideas, recruit followers, and mobilize their bases, a real threat to pilgrims, visiting delegations, and Saudi security alike. Historically, the kings of Saudi Arabia have always regarded "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" as the title dearest to them. It confers to them the honor of overseeing the Holy Kaaba in Makkah, the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah, and other holy sites. They therefore see themselves as being personally responsible for the comfort and safety of pilgrims, and for ensuring that they return to their homelands safely.
According to sources I spoke with, several religious authorities in the seminary of Najaf in Iraq and the seminary of Qom in Iran have stressed the importance of complying with Saudi regulations. They have unequivocally reiterated that violating the Kingdom's law is "religiously forbidden" and that Iranian pilgrims, like all others, must follow the instructions of the Saudi authorities because safeguarding order is among their highest obligations.
Saudi policy has consistently rested on preventing the use of religion for political or partisan ends and on providing the pilgrims of the sacred house of God with every service they need, including medical care and logistical support, regardless of where they come from. The underlying principle, throughout, is adherence to the law, refusal to politicize Hajj, and the conviction that the security of Hajj is a red line Riyadh will not allow anyone to cross.

Iran responds to US ceasefire proposal but Trump rejects it as 'unacceptable'
JON GAMBRELL and SAMY MAGDY/AP/May 10, 2026
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal via Pakistani mediators and wants negotiations to focus on permanently ending the war, but President Donald Trump quickly rejected it as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” with no details. Iran seeks to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, and to ensure the security of shipping, state TV said. Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Iran’s nuclear program. Trump earlier on social media accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!"
Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier.
Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.
Drone attacks target Gulf Arab nations
The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility. Qatar's Foreign Ministry called the ship attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region." The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center gave no details about the ship's owner or origin. Kuwait Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones but did not say where they came from.
Iran and armed allied groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
Iran says it's on ‘full readiness’ to protect nuclear sites
Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.
The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships. Another sticking point in negotiations is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons grade. In an interview posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored.
“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS airing Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.
The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year. Iran warns against French-British effort in the strait
Iran's deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort that aims to support maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities are over.
“The presence of French and British vessels, or those of any other country, for any possible cooperation with illegal U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media. French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying it won't be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping once conditions allow.
Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was quickly paused.
South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation that said two unidentified objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the strait last week, causing an explosion and fire. A foreign ministry spokesperson said officials have yet to determine who was responsible.
**Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Selected Face Book & X tweets for May 10/2026
Donald J Trump Posts TruthSocial
Commentary account
Question: Is the war with Iran over? And if it isn't, who will decide when it is?
ISRAEL PM: It's not over because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled.
There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce.

60 Minutes
https://x.com/i/status/2053482816134955065
“I think it accomplished a great deal, but it’s not over,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells 60 Minutes about the war in Iran. Netanyahu says highly enriched uranium must be removed from Iran and believes “it can be done physically.”

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
I’m more optimistic than ever about peace between Lebanon and Israel. The stars are aligned in an unprecedented way and Lebanese Prez Aoun and PM Salam are playing ball. This doesn’t mean the way forward is easy or guaranteed. If Lebanon misses this chance, it’ll be doomed for a long time.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
America is the superpower that all nations want to befriend, or envy. Israel is the most successful state, economy and military in the Middle East.
The Lebanese are lucky that America and Israel are interested in having Lebanon aligned with them. The alternative is that Lebanon will remain under the influence of backward countries Iran, Saudi, Egypt and Turkey, an alignment that has brought Lebanon to the disaster it’s been for the past half a century. The Lebanese should ignore the noise and vilification of Israel. What’s not good for Palestinians is good for the Lebanese. Every patriotic Lebanese should put their country’s own interests first. Peace.

Mario Dayba
https://x.com/i/status/2053245722988818690
Nawaf al-Mousawi, terrorist, former MP, wonders how can one have an ounce of humanity and still calls for peace with Israel while his men are being killed.
Now this terrorist understands how we felt watching our innocent people slaughtered by the Syrian Assad regime while he cheered and supported and celebrated our murder for 30 years.
Now this terrorist understands how we felt when his goons handed out sweets the day THEY killed Gebran Tueni and Pierre Gemayel. Now this terrorist understands how we look at him and his kind when they glorify the assassination of President Bachir Gemayel on live television.​​​​​​​​​​​
There can be no coexistence with evil.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
https://x.com/i/status/2053546604137681384
Ricardo is a friend, but I disagree with his pro-Hezbollah views, especially unbefitting of someone who sits on the Board of Trustees of The American University of Beirut.