English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For  May 16/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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Bible Quotations For today
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 14/01-06/:”‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Titles For Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 15-16 May/2026
A Government of "Halloween Masks" controlled by a hidden cabinet of advisors: A President of words, not deeds, and the futility of negotiations with Israel/Elias Bejjani / May 15, 2026
Elias Bejjani/Video Link to my interview on Al-Hawiya Youtube platform
US announces 45-day extension of Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, launches Pentagon talks
Lebanon, Israel ceasefire extended by 45 days
UN says Lebanon-Israel talks 'critical opportunity' to end war
Berri tells Aoun he can convince Hezbollah to cease fire if Israel does
Report: Israel would seek US approval to hit 'Beirut' if Iran war renews
Lebanon delegation says truce extension, security track open path to 'lasting stability'
Hezbollah attacks Israeli barracks as strikes hit Tyre, kill 3 paramedics in Harouf
Israel Refuses to Withdraw from Lebanon before ‘Disabling’ Hezbollah
US Casts Israel-Lebanon Talks on Thursday as ‘Positive and Productive’
Israel Army Says Striking Hezbollah Sites in Tyre Area of South Lebanon
Israeli Strikes Wound Dozens in Lebanon as Talks in US Enter Second Day
War Worsens Lebanon's Economic Crisis with Job Losses, Price Gouging and Slow Business
Israel Reports Soldier Killed in South Lebanon, Orders Evacuation of 5 Villages
Lebanon PM says country has had enough ‘reckless’ wars for foreign interests
Jumblat warns that Hezbollah can't be disarmed by force
Berri has 'something to say' when talks end but 'will not speak for now'
Hezbollah arms to be addressed internally after ceasefire and withdrawal, official says
Report: Lebanon, Israel to agree Israeli withdrawal in exchange for Hezbollah disarmament

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 15-16 May/2026
Trump Leaves Beijing Touting Business Deals, Heaping Praise on Xi
Trump Says He and China’s Xi Agree Iran Cannot Have Nuclear Weapons
US scraps deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland
Araghchi Says Iran Has 'No Trust' in the US, Will Negotiate Only If it Is Serious
MBS, Qatar emir discuss regional developments in phone call
UAE affirms steadfast position, refutes Iranian allegations in BRICS meeting
UAE President, Indian PM Discuss Strengthening Partnership, Review Regional Developments
FBI Offers $200,000 Reward to Catch Ex-Air Force Specialist Wanted on Espionage Charges in Iran
Pakistan Says 11 Citizens, 20 Iranian Nationals Being Repatriated from Vessels Seized by US
Israel says targeted head of Hamas armed wing with Gaza strike
Palestinian Authority Says Teen Killed by Israeli Forces in West Bank
Hamas to Choose its Leader on Sunday Amid Push for Comprehensive National Dialogue
Israel Threatens to Sue NYT Over Report on Sexual Abuse of Palestinian Inmates
Iraq PM Vows Monopoly on Arms as Parliament Approves Government
Morocco and Syria Establish Joint Business Council

Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 15-16 May/2026
Palestine and Israel… This is the Only Solution/Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Iran War: Fighting Over Numbers/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
The Current Crisis…and the Ideological Dilemma/Fahid Suleiman al-Shoqiran/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Iran Between the Legitimacy of Confrontation and the Legitimacy of a Settlement/Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Why Netanyahu is calling for an end to US military aid to Israel/David Powell/Al Arabiya English/15 May ,2026
Japan, Germany and Zombie Firms: The Quiet Suicide of Socialized Corporations/Drieu Godefridi/Gatestone Institute/May 15, 2026
Selected Face Book & X tweets for May 15/2026

Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on 15-16 May/2026
A Government of "Halloween Masks" controlled by a hidden cabinet of advisors: A President of words, not deeds, and the futility of negotiations with Israel.
Elias Bejjani / May 15, 2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/05/154480/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRpuvF6WzA
Neither Aoun, nor Salam, nor the "Arafatist" government of Ghassan Salamé and Tarek Mitri, nor Geagea and his ministers, nor "that Saiefi boy" and his minister of selective justice—none of them are the actual rulers or decision-makers. All of them are merely "Halloween masks" they are directed, not free, moving only by remote control. The real ruler is the "Government of Advisors" belonging to Nabih Berri and Hezbollah, protected by a "Trojan Horse" cover provided by all so called politrical parties. This includes those who falsely claim sovereignty on one hand, and those are drowning in the lie of "Resistance and Liberation" on the other.
Lebanon is an occupied and stolen country, ruled by desert ghosts. It is a total mess—who knows in which hole Naim Qassem and the rest of the "Party of Satan" thugs are hiding in? This is why the negotiations in America between Israel and these masked Lebanese rulers are futile and will yield no results.
Why are these negotiations useless?
The answer is simple: the demands of the Lebanese delegation are exactly the demands of Hezbollah. They want a ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal, the release of Hezbollah prisoners, the return of people to the south, and reconstruction. Even worse, they are talking about the 1949 Armistice Agreement—an agreement that is ancient and long forgotten! They don't want normalization; they only want "security arrangements."
These people live outside of time, in a world of fantasy and denial, completely detached from reality. They are not the leaders of this era.
The only solution is for Israel is to finish its war and uproot Hezbollah from its very foundations—not just in the South, Beirut, and the Bekaa, but from all of Lebanon. The rulers, all of them should be kicked out to their homes, the criminals among them must be prosecuted, and Lebanon should be placed under international trusteeship. Arab and international forces should then step in to complete the mission and assist Israeli army.
In conclusion:
The rulers of Lebanon are just "masks." The political classes and the so called political partiers are moved by remote control—either by Iran or Saudi Arabia. Neither side wants Lebanon to make peace with Israel, because that would close the doors for those who trade in the lie of "Liberation" and the myth of "throwing Israel into the sea."
In summary, sadely we the Lebanese are living in a time of drought and decay, where everything is upside down and logic is lost. Try solving that if you can!

Elias Bejjani/Video Link to my interview on Al-Hawiya Youtube platform
Exposing and ridiculing Lebanon’s puppet rulers and the owners of their Trojan horse political party companies, affirming that Israel is an ally of Lebanon, that peace will be imposed by force, and that the decision to eradicate the cancer of Hezbollah is irreversible/Explaining the reality of the Iranian advisory government’s authority in Lebanon
Title: Netanyahu at Baabda Palace Soon? Elias Bejjani Reveals the Scenario of Peace Imposed by Force!
In a high-stakes and explosive episode of “Power of ogic” hosted by Abdel Rahman Darnika, political activist Elias Bejjani shatters all political taboos, offering a radical and unprecedented analysis of the Lebanese crisis.
Is the era of diplomacy over? Bejjani presents shocking hypotheses regarding Lebanon’s future, arguing that the “Hezb Statelet” has completely hijacked national sovereignty, rendering official institutions mere facades operated by foreign “Remote Controls.”
Key highlights of this controversial interview include:
The Baabda Scenario: How could peace with Israel be imposed by force? And why does Bejjani foresee Netanyahu reaching the heart of Lebanese decision-making?
An Alliance of Necessity: Has Israel become the “ally” required to uproot Iranian influence from Lebanon?
Unmasking the Elite: A blistering critique of the political establishment, military leadership, and even religious figures; why does Bejjani believe they are all complicit in covering up the “Iranian Occupation”?
The Diaspora’s Roadmap: Bejjani’s vision for dismantling Hezb’s infrastructure and overturning politicized judicial rulings dating back to the Syrian hegemony era.
A conversation that defies expectations and confronts the viewer with existential questions about
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/05/154394/
May 11/2026

US announces 45-day extension of Lebanon-Israel ceasefire, launches Pentagon talks
Al Arabiya English/15 May ,2026
The State Department announced a 45-day extension of a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel on Friday after the third round of direct talks mediated by the United States concluded.
A fourth round will take place at the State Department on June 2-3, State Department Spokesman Tommy Pigott said. Despite the continued attacks between Hezbollah and Israel, the US took note of Beirut’s efforts and stance against Hezbollah’s attacks. “The US remains cognizant of the challenges posed by Hezbollah’s continued attacks on Israel, without the consent or approval of the Government of Lebanon, undertaken in order to derail this process,” Pigott said. Pigott made his remarks after a two-day session of “highly-productive talks” between Lebanon and Israel. In addition to the fourth round of talks, a separate security track will be launched at the Pentagon on May 29 with military delegations from both sides, he added. The ceasefire extension will allow the security track to “meaningfully improve the communication and coordination between Israel and Lebanon, facilitated by the United States,” he said. “We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border,” Pigott said.
Lebanon welcomes outcome
Beirut welcomed the outcomes of the two-day talks, saying the establishment of the security track provides “critical breathing space for our citizens, reinforces state institutions, and advances a political pathway toward lasting stability.”In a statement released by the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, Lebanon said it would continue to engage constructively in negotiations while safeguarding its sovereignty and protecting the safety of its people. “Our objective is to transform the current ceasefire momentum into a comprehensive and lasting agreement that safeguards the dignity, security, and future of the Lebanese people.”
Israeli envoy upbeat
The Israeli envoy to Washington said the talks were “frank and constructive.” In a post on X, he said that there will be “ups and downs, but the potential for success is great.”

Lebanon, Israel ceasefire extended by 45 days
Agence France Presse/15 May ,2026
Lebanon and Israel on Friday extended a ceasefire for 45 days, despite a new flareup in violence, the U.S. State Department said after mediating talks."The April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said. He said that the State Department would hold negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent political agreement on June 2 and 3, and that the Pentagon would bring together delegations from the countries' militaries on May 29. "We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing genuine security along their shared border," Pigott said. Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the talks were frank and constructive. “There will be ups and downs, but the potential for success is great,” he said in a social media post. “What will be paramount throughout negotiations is the security of our citizens and our soldiers.”The ceasefire, already extended, had been due to expire on Sunday. The United States, Israel and Lebanon consider the ceasefire in effect despite continued violence, with Israel pounding targets in Lebanon again during the talks.

UN says Lebanon-Israel talks 'critical opportunity' to end war
Agence France Presse/15 May ,2026
The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon said on Friday that talks between Lebanon and Israel offer a "critical opportunity" to end the Israel-Hezbollah war.
"Diplomatic efforts now offer a critical opportunity to stop the violence," Imran Riza said in a statement, adding that he hoped "ongoing negotiations will pave the way toward a political solution". "Airstrikes and demolitions continue daily, with an unacceptable toll on civilians and civilian infrastructure," he added. Israeli attacks have killed at least 2,951 people since the start of the war on March 2, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

Berri tells Aoun he can convince Hezbollah to cease fire if Israel does
Naharnet/15 May ,2026
Speaker Nabih Berri has told President Joseph Aoun in a phone call that Hezbollah would fully commit to a ceasefire if the Lebanese delegation managed to clench a ceasefire commitment from the Israeli side, MTV reported on Friday afternoon, shortly before the start of the second day of Lebanese-Israeli talks in Washington. Al-Jadeed also reported Berri's message but added that he also wants a halt to Israel's demolition of homes in the south. "Intensive contacts are underway to try to reach a unified position between Lebanon, the United States and Israel through a joint statement to be announced at the conclusion of negotiations this evening. Alternatively, the joint statement may be replaced by separate statements issued by each of the three parties," MTV said. "The Lebanese delegation sensed during yesterday's round of negotiations U.S. understanding of Lebanon's demands and concerns," MTV added. Al-Jadeed for its part said that "the ceasefire will be extended and not consolidated in the Lebanese-Israeli talks today," which means that Israeli violations might continue. "The U.S. State Department will issue a statement at the end of the meeting, after the Lebanese and Israeli sides agreed not to issue a joint statement in order to 'avoid embarrassment,'" Al-Jadeed added. "Direct military coordination between the Lebanese and Israeli armies is one of the key Israeli demands in the negotiations," it said.

Report: Israel would seek US approval to hit 'Beirut' if Iran war renews
Naharnet/15 May ,2026
If the U.S. war against Iran is renewed, it would have "immediate implications" for the war picture in Lebanon, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported. "In such a scenario, Israel would ask the United States for a 'green light' to renew strikes in Beirut, amid Hezbollah's increased use of explosive drones," the daily said. Israel and its press use the word Beirut to refer to both the capital and its southern suburbs. "There is deep frustration in Israel that the United States is preventing operations in Beirut. Israel would like greater freedom of action, but at the same time it wants to give negotiations with the Lebanese government a chance," Yedioth Ahronoth added. It said that "even if Washington grants the 'green light,' IDF (Israeli army) activity in Lebanon would be limited if fighting with Iran resumes, because Military Intelligence and the Air Force would be heavily invested in Iran."

Lebanon delegation says truce extension, security track open path to 'lasting stability'
Agence France Presse/15 May ,2026
Lebanon's negotiating delegation in Washington said on Friday that the extension of the truce with Israel and the establishment of a U.S.-facilitated security track pave the way for "lasting stability".The truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war was extended for 45 days following the third round of negotiations between Lebanese and Israeli representatives in Washington. "The Lebanese delegation welcomes today's outcome," it said, in a statement shared by the Lebanese presidency. "The extension of the ceasefire and the establishment of a U.S.-facilitated security track provide critical breathing space for our citizens, reinforce state institutions, and advance a political pathway toward lasting stability. "Our objective is to transform the current ceasefire momentum into a comprehensive and lasting agreement that safeguards the dignity, security, and future of the Lebanese people." State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said after the meeting that Washington would hold negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent political agreement on June 2 and 3 and that the Pentagon would bring together delegations from the countries' militaries on May 29. The Lebanese delegation said "a formal political track has been initiated, reflecting Lebanon’s constructive engagement and strengthening prospects for a durable peaceful resolution". The country now aims to achieve "the full restoration of state authority across all Lebanese territory in order to protect its borders, uphold national sovereignty, and ensure the security of its people". The truce may be extended further "should the negotiation tracks yield positive result".
The delegation also said its goals include the return of the displaced, reconstruction in the south and the release of Lebanese detainees in Israel. Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Tehran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Israeli attacks since then have killed more than 2,900 people in Lebanon, including more than 400 since an April 17 truce took effect, according to Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah on its end also attacked Israeli targets in Lebanon and northern Israel, saying it is responding to the latter's "violation" of the truce. The group is strongly opposed to Beirut's direct talks with Israel. A 2024 ceasefire aiming to end the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah has failed to achieve its objectives. The delegation said that "to avoid the failures of previous arrangements, Lebanon insists on a phased and verifiable implementation process, supported by the United States, to ensure that all commitments are fulfilled without compromising Lebanese sovereignty".

Hezbollah attacks Israeli barracks as strikes hit Tyre, kill 3 paramedics in Harouf
Agence France Presse/15 May ,2026
An Israeli strike hit a building in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Friday after an evacuation warning, state media reported, despite an extension in the truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel's military had called on residents of several buildings in Tyre to immediately evacuate ahead of planned strikes in the area. "Urgent warning to residents of Lebanon, especially to residents of the city of Tyre... you are located near Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure against which the IDF is preparing to operate," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X. "We urge you to immediately distance yourselves from these buildings and the surrounding structures, and move at least 300 meters away from them," the post said, alongside a map identifying the sites.
- Hezbollah targets Israel with drones -
Hezbollah said on Friday it had launched drones at an Israeli barracks near Nahariya in northern Israel, as Lebanon-Israel talks entered a second day. In a statement, the Lebanese group said that it had targeted the Liman barracks north of Nahariya, "with a squadron of attack drones".
Three paramedics killed in Harouf -
An Israeli strike on Harouf in south Lebanon killed three paramedics from the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee on Friday, the Lebanese health ministry said. In a statement, the ministry said an Israeli strike "directly targeted" the Islamic Health Committee's center in Harouf, south Lebanon, killing three paramedics and critically wounding a fourth.
Other strikes around Tyre wounded nearly 40 people, destroyed a health center and damaged the neighboring Hiram Hospital, wounding six medical workers, the ministry said.
The Israeli military meanwhile said its forces have killed more than 220 Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon over the past week.

Israel Refuses to Withdraw from Lebanon before ‘Disabling’ Hezbollah
Washington: Ali Barada/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Israel refused to withdraw from Lebanese territories it occupied during its recent war with Hezbollah before eliminating the military capabilities of the Iran-backed group and securing its northern borders. Israel’s position came during the third round of direct negotiations with Lebanon held in Washington, D.C. on Thursday and hosted by the US State Department represented by senior adviser Mike Needham and the US ambassadors to Lebanon, Michel Issa, and to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not participate because he was accompanying President Donald Trump in China. The Lebanese delegation is led by Presidential Special Envoy Simon Karam accompanied by Lebanon’s ambassador to the United States Nada Hamadeh Moawad, deputy ambassador Wissam Boutros, and military attaché in Washington, Brig. Gen. Oliver Hakmeh. The participants from Israel included Deputy National Security Adviser Yossi Draznin, National Security Council Deputy Director for Foreign Policy Uri Resnick, and ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter.
Ceasefire extension
Negotiators in Washington discussed extending the current Israel-Lebanon ceasefire beyond next Sunday’s deadline.Lebanese officials emphasized the need for full compliance by both Israel and Hezbollah, while Israel argued its military actions are necessary to counter threats from the Iran-backed group. US mediators continue to support Israel’s right to self-defense under the November 2024 ceasefire agreement and are expected to decide soon on extending the truce.
The Israeli ambassador
Leiter said in remarks to the press from the Israeli embassy in Washington that Israel’s presence in Lebanon is tied to the continued existence of Hezbollah. He said the party is heavily armed with intent on attacking Israeli communities with rockets. He stressed that Israel would no longer allow such threats. He explained that the current focus is on reaching a peace treaty as if “there were no Hezbollah” and fighting the group as if there were no peace treaty. “I believe we will achieve both”, he stated
Lebanese silence
Leiter said ahead of the latest negotiations that no diplomatic progress or peace agreement with Lebanon would be possible unless Hezbollah is dismantled militarily. He added that a shared interest in freeing Lebanon from Hezbollah would ultimately prevail. The Israeli ambassador said that Israel has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon, but it also has no immediate plan to withdraw from its territories. He expressed cautious optimism about peace prospects, claiming shifting Lebanese public opinion ,including among Shiites, against Hezbollah. However, he acknowledged that achieving progress would be difficult due to decades of entrenched dynamics and Lebanese hesitation despite alleged shared interest in reducing Hezbollah’s influence.

US Casts Israel-Lebanon Talks on Thursday as ‘Positive and Productive’
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
The United States cast Israel-Lebanon talks held in Washington on Thursday as "productive and positive" and a State Department official said more discussions aimed at ending their conflict will continue on Friday. A senior Lebanese official said earlier that Lebanon will demand that US ally Israel cease fire in the face-to-face talks, as Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continued to trade blows despite a US-backed truce declared last month. An Israeli government spokesperson said the talks were taking place with the goal of disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement. A State Department official said a meeting of Lebanese and Israeli envoys, along with US officials, started at about 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) and ended eight hours later. The US official said there was a "full day of productive and positive talks" on Thursday that will continue on Friday. The talks are the sides' third meeting since Israel intensified air attacks on Lebanon after Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on March 2, three days into the US-Israeli ‌war on Iran. ‌Israel had widened its ground invasion into Lebanon's south last month. Beirut is attending despite strong ‌objections ⁠from Hezbollah. Fought ⁠in parallel to the US-Iran conflict, Israel's war in Lebanon has rumbled on since US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire on April 16, though hostilities have largely been contained to southern Lebanon since then.
The fragile ceasefire is due to expire on Sunday.
With Lebanon's health ministry reporting 22 people killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, including eight children, the senior Lebanese official said the Lebanese delegation would seek "a ceasefire that Israel implements". The Israeli military said an explosive drone launched by Hezbollah fell within Israeli territory near the border and injured several Israeli civilians. Israel has kept troops in a self-declared security zone in south Lebanon, saying this aims to shield northern Israel from attack by Hezbollah, which ⁠fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel during the war. The Israeli military said it ‌carried out a new wave of attacks on Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon on ‌Thursday. Hezbollah said it carried out 17 attacks on Israeli troops in the south on Wednesday.
LEBANON, ISRAEL BROADEN DELEGATIONS
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's decision to ‌pursue the talks reflects deep divisions in Lebanon over Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in 1982. The Beirut government has sought ‌its disarmament since last year. When the April 16 ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah's disarmament would be a fundamental demand in peace talks with Lebanon. The Washington meetings mark the highest-level contact between Lebanon and Israel in decades. Both Lebanon and Israel are broadening their delegations for this round, after the sides were represented by their ambassadors to Washington in the previous two meetings. Lebanese Presidential Special Envoy Simon Karam and ‌Israel's Deputy National Security Adviser Yossi Draznin were participants in the talks, as well as senior Israeli military representatives, a State Department official said.
The US-led mediation between Lebanon and Israel has emerged ⁠in parallel to diplomacy aimed at ⁠ending the US-Iran conflict. Iran has said that ending Israel's war in Lebanon is one of its demands for a deal over the wider conflict. Trump hosted the last meeting between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to Washington at the Oval Office, saying at the time he looked forward to hosting Netanyahu and Aoun in the near future, and that he saw "a great chance" the countries would reach a peace deal this year. Aoun later said the timing was not right for a meeting with Netanyahu, and that Lebanon must first secure "a security agreement and a halt to the Israeli attacks, before we raise the issue of a meeting between us". Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in a May 10 interview with the pan-Arab broadcaster Al Arabiya, said Lebanon's principles in negotiations were shoring up the ceasefire, securing a timetable for Israeli withdrawal, and winning the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. The Lebanese health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed 2,896 people in Lebanon since March 2, including 589 women, children and medics. Some 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon, many of them fleeing from the south. Israel says 17 of its soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.

Israel Army Says Striking Hezbollah Sites in Tyre Area of South Lebanon
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Israel's military said Friday it was striking Hezbollah targets in the Tyre area of south Lebanon, as the two countries entered the second day of US-brokered talks in Washington. "The military has begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the area of Tyre in southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement, hours after issuing evacuation warnings for five towns and villages. An AFP correspondent saw strikes in the area. In a separate statement, the military said "a number of explosive drones" had fallen in several areas of northern Israel, with no injuries reported. The exchanges of fire come despite a truce with Lebanon intended to halt the fighting.

Israeli Strikes Wound Dozens in Lebanon as Talks in US Enter Second Day
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Israel carried out new strikes in southern Lebanon that it said targeted the Hezbollah group on Friday, wounding 37 people as the two countries' envoys started a second day of peace talks in Washington. United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon Imran Riza condemned the "unacceptable" toll from continued attacks, saying that "diplomatic efforts now offer a critical opportunity to stop the violence". A truce in the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has been in place since April 17, but it has not stopped the fighting, with hundreds killed in strikes since then and both sides accusing the other of violations. "The army has begun striking Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the area of Tyre in southern Lebanon," the Israeli military said in a statement. An AFP correspondent reported a series of strikes, two of them near Tyre city, while state media said another targeted a center run by a local NGO near a hospital. Lebanon's health ministry said the strikes on the Tyre district wounded at least 37 people, including six hospital personnel, nine women and four children. Hafez Ramadan, a resident near the building targeted by the airstrike, said the building housed displaced people who had fled their towns due to the war, and was adjacent to a hotel where the displaced were also staying.
"There are only women, children and the elderly here. Because of this strike, people have been displaced again." The Israeli army had earlier issued evacuation warnings for five towns and villages in and around the southern city. It later issued a new evacuation warning for five other towns across the south.
'Unacceptable' toll -
In a separate statement, the military said an Israeli soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, bringing the number of Israeli soldiers killed in clashes with Hezbollah since early March to 19. A civilian contractor was also killed. Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported other strikes on locations in the south not included in the Israeli evacuation warnings. Hezbollah meanwhile claimed several attacks on Israeli troops in at least six southern Lebanese towns. Riza said "the reality on the ground in Lebanon has been deeply alarming", adding that "airstrikes and demolitions continue daily, with an unacceptable toll on civilians and civilian infrastructure". But he expressed his hope that the Lebanon-Israel talks "will pave the way toward a political solution". Representatives from Lebanon and Israel, officially at war for decades, resumed talks at the State Department in Washington shortly after 9:00 am (1300 GMT), one diplomat said. The US described the first day of talks in Washington on Thursday as positive, but neither Lebanon or Israel have commented. Lebanon hopes that the round of negotiations in Washington on Friday will end with an extension of the ceasefire and an agreement from Israel to halt its attacks. The truce is set to expire on Sunday if an extension is not agreed.
'Humiliating' talks -
Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Israeli attacks since then have killed more than 2,900 people in Lebanon, including more than 400 since the truce took effect, according to Lebanese authorities. The negotiating teams in Washington are being led by Lebanon's Simon Karam and Israel's Yechiel Leiter, both political veterans with entrenched views. A former ambassador to Washington and independent politician, 76-year-old Karam is known for his defense of Lebanese unity in a country riven by sectarian divisions. Leiter is Israel's ambassador to the United States and a longtime ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is well-versed in Israeli settler politics, conservative activism and hard-edged diplomacy. Lebanon is under heavy US and Israeli pressure to disarm Hezbollah. Israeli troops have invaded parts of southern Lebanon since the start of the war, carrying out widespread demolitions of villages over the past weeks. Hezbollah, meanwhile, rejects outright any direct engagement between the two countries. Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qamati said Friday that Beirut "going to direct, humiliating negotiations with the Israeli enemy is not a separate issue from a comprehensive conspiracy against the nation, its sovereignty and its resistance" at a time when "the south is being destroyed and martyrs are being killed daily".

War Worsens Lebanon's Economic Crisis with Job Losses, Price Gouging and Slow Business
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Ayman al-Zain watched on a recent afternoon as a bulldozer cleared the rubble of what used to be his sports clothing store, which was one of dozens of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes against the Hezbollah militant group. With a nominal truce in place that has reduced but not halted the fighting, Al-Zain tried to assess whether to rebuild the shop in Beirut’s southern suburbs that he once hoped to pass down to his kids. But it's unlikely he will be able to do so anytime soon, and not only because of the fear of more airstrikes. “Everything is expensive,” he told The Associated Press. “If I want to open a new store and get mannequins, hangers and some accessories, the prices are very different than before.”The US-Israeli war with Iran, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, have sent economic shock waves across the Mideast. In Lebanon, those woes have been compounded by the country's existing economic problems and by largely unregulated markets that are vulnerable to price gouging.“This continues to be a major economic shock, one of honestly an existential nature,” said Economy Minister Amer Bisat, who is part of the Lebanese Cabinet that came into office over a year ago on a reformist agenda.
Problems have piled up for years
Since 2019, the tiny Mediterranean country has been in the throes of an economic crisis that pulverized the value of its local currency and its banking system. That's when Lebanese banks collapsed, which evaporated depositors’ savings and plunged about half of the population of 6.5 million into poverty, after decades of rampant corruption, waste and mismanagement. The country suffered some $70 billion in losses in its financial sector, further compounded by about $11 billion in the 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to the World Bank. The Lebanese pound has since lost over 90% of its value against the US dollar.
The cash-strapped state electricity company provides only a few hours of power a day, and most Lebanese rely on diesel generators to make up the difference. That makes the economy particularly vulnerable to fuel price increases. Lebanon was already “grappling with multiple rounds of crises,” said Mohamad Faour, professor of finance at the American University of Beirut. "So this round of war only made an already fragile situation more fragile.”
With this new war, 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced, largely from southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs. Many are sheltering in schools with no work or draining whatever money they have renting out apartments or hotel rooms.
Economy suffers job losses and crippling inflation
In an interview with the AP from his office, Bisat estimated that the country faces an economic loss of around 7% of its gross domestic product due to the war because “companies are closing, people are losing their jobs, tourists are not showing up.”
Evidence of inflation abounds. In the usually bustling produce market in Sabra, south of Beirut, vendor Ahmad al-Farra looked dejected as an elderly woman shopping for watermelon, tomatoes and potatoes walked away without buying anything after checking the price tags. Prices have spiked since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28, followed quickly by a resurgence of war between Israel and Hezbollah. “We're keeping our prices low so we can sell, and even then we're not selling,” al-Farra said as the sound of an Israeli drone whizzed overhead. Even consumers who can afford to spend are anxious and cutting back on nonessential purchases, leaving many businesses empty. Riad Aboulteif, who runs several restaurants and bars in the capital, said his revenue has dropped by some 90% since the war began, as Lebanon’s shrinking middle class cuts costs.
People are saving more money for their survival and not making plans to celebrate birthdays or other special occasions, he said at one of his bars in the bustling Hamra district of Beirut, where the loud chatter of customers once overpowered the jazz music coming through the sound system. That night, only a few tables were occupied. He's had to downsize his staff and restructure his menus to offer more affordable items.
War fuels price gouging
Meanwhile, the country’s bankrupt government has struggled to crack down on unfair and illicit profiteering and the hoarding of fuel and other essential items. Many agricultural areas in southern and eastern Lebanon are no longer accessible because of airstrikes and clashes, but al-Faraa believes suppliers have raised prices beyond what is necessary to cover cost increases. Some of the starkest increases have been in generator bills. Families and businesses for years have paid multiple utility bills to cover privately supplied electricity and water in the absence of government services. Neighborhood generator owners charge a monthly fee, and some landlords have their own generators and charge the cost to tenants. Frustrated business owners have said that generator bills have doubled at times, forcing them to shorten their hours of operation or even close on some days to cut costs. “If we didn’t take these measures, we cannot continue,” Aboulteif said. Bisat said his ministry has conducted over 4,000 inspections of private generators, gas stations and shops across the country since the start of the war in March and lodged dozens of complaints to the courts. But the issue will not be quickly resolved. In the meantime, the government has little ability to crack down on the handful of companies that import and distribute fuel and other goods.
No sign of relief on the horizon
With no end to the war in sight, the economic situation shows no sign of easing. A tenuous ceasefire is in place between the US and Iran, but talks between Washington and Tehran are gridlocked. A nominal truce between Israel and Hezbollah has reduced but not stopped the fighting in Lebanon. For now, Lebanese families and business owners are confronting the challenges day by day and hoping for the best. “Only God knows how we’ve been trying to manage ourselves," al-Farra said.
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Israel Reports Soldier Killed in South Lebanon, Orders Evacuation of 5 Villages
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Israel's military said Friday that one of its soldiers died in combat in southern Lebanon, bringing its losses to 20 personnel since the war with Hezbollah began in early March. Staff Sergeant Negev Dagan, 20, "fell during combat in southern Lebanon", the military said, without providing additional information. Since the war began, 19 Israeli soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed. Moreover, Israel's military called on residents of five villages in southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate ahead of expected attacks against Hezbollah, despite a truce with Lebanon intended to halt the fighting. "In light of the terrorist Hezbollah's violation of the ceasefire agreement, the Defense Army is compelled to act against it forcefully," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, listing five villages near the city of Tyre, on the south Lebanon coast. "For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and stay away from the villages and towns by a distance of no less than 1,000 meters," he added.

Lebanon PM says country has had enough ‘reckless’ wars for foreign interests
AFP/15 May ,2026
readLebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday said his country had enough “reckless” wars for foreign interests, calling for Arab and international support in Beirut’s negotiations with Israel. Speaking at an NGO dinner, Salam said that he hoped to “mobilize all Arab and international support to bolster our position in the negotiations” with Israel, shortly after the last round of talks ended and extended the ongoing truce for 45 days.
In an implicit rebuke to Hezbollah, which joined the Middle East war in support of Iran, Salam said the country had “enough of these reckless adventures serving foreign projects or interests” and that the Lebanese military should be the only armed body in the country.

Jumblat warns that Hezbollah can't be disarmed by force
Naharnet/15 May ,2026
Druze leader Walid Jumblat has said that he does not fear a new civil war in Lebanon because such a war "requires two armed sides, and currently only Hezbollah possesses weapons.""However, we are living through a period of dangerous instability, and some Lebanese leaders may actually desire a return to civil war because they are prisoners of their past," Jumblat said in an interview with French news portal Mediapart. "Today, there are those who encourage the rejection of the entire Shiite community under the pretext of isolating Hezbollah, as if all Shiites are Hezbollah. This is absurd," Jumblat added. He said "this brings to mind an old Israeli idea, supported by some figures on the Lebanese right, which considers Mount Lebanon to be Christian land, and that the solution is to 'return' the Shiites to Iraq.""Today, we are hearing this suicidal theory again, which calls for the expulsion of the Shiites from Lebanon, forgetting that they have been an integral part of Lebanese society for centuries," Jumblat lamented. Asked about the American and Israeli demands for the immediate disarmament of Hezbollah, Jumblat said "dialogue with Hezbollah is necessary" seeing as "it is not a foreign entity in Lebanon.""The problem today is: with whom within the party do we negotiate? In Hassan Nasrallah's time, it was possible to engage in dialogue with him because he understood Lebanon in his own way and had a large popular base. Today, however, we don't know who actually leads the party. Naim Qassem is merely a spokesperson, not the decision-maker," Jumblat said. "With the continuation of Israeli attacks, assassinations, and bombings, it's impossible to demand that a Hezbollah fighter surrender his weapon. He would simply tell you: Go away," the Druze leader suggested. He added that for disarmament to be discussed, "a degree of calm must first be achieved, along with an Israeli withdrawal guaranteed by the United States, the strengthening of the Lebanese Army, and the establishment of a new international force to replace UNIFIL." "Let's be clear: disarming Hezbollah by force, as the Americans demand, is militarily and politically impossible. The Lebanese army is composed of Lebanese -- Shiites, Sunnis, Druze and others -- and it cannot be forced to fight Shiite villages," Jumblat went on to say.Noting that Israel has created a "mini-Gaza" in south Lebanon through destruction, Jumblat said he supports negotiations, whether direct or indirect, but on the following conditions: a return to the 1949 armistice line, with a mutual monitoring mechanism and an international force that could include the French and Italians.

Berri has 'something to say' when talks end but 'will not speak for now'
Naharnet/15 May ,2026
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is "opti-pessimistic" regarding the third round of direct talks with Israel, noting that "there is no ceasefire" and reiterating his preference for indirect negotiations to reach a genuine truce. A nominal ceasefire reached last month has spared Beirut from strikes, but war has continued in southern and eastern Lebanon. A strike also targeted Beirut's southern suburbs during the truce. "I am opti-pessimistic (about the negotiations)," Berri told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Friday. "I will not speak for now; but when the negotiations end, I will have something to say." Berri added that any agreement must be under a "Saudi-Iranian-American umbrella."

Hezbollah arms to be addressed internally after ceasefire and withdrawal, official says
Associated Press/15 May ,2026
A third round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon kicked off in Washington Thursday, days before the expiration of a truce that reduced but did not stop the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Lebanese officials are hoping that the two-day negotiations will yield a new ceasefire deal and pave the way for tackling a series of thorny issues, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah. A U.S. State Department official described the full day of discussions on Thursday as "productive and positive" and said the U.S. looks forward to day two on Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door session and did not offer additional details.
Talks move to a higher level -
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended the first Israel-Lebanon meetings in Washington in April, was with President Donald Trump on a visit to China and did not attend Thursday's session. The current round of talks represents a step toward more serious negotiations, with higher-level envoys from Lebanon and Israel taking part after the initial preparatory sessions were headed by the ambassadors of the two countries to Washington.
Lebanon's envoy heading up Thursday's talks, Simon Karam, is an attorney and well-connected former Lebanese ambassador to the U.S. who recently represented Lebanon in indirect talks with Israel over implementation of the ceasefire that preceded the latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hezbollah. On the Israeli side, Deputy National Security Adviser Yossi Draznin was set to attend. There are still large gaps in what the two sides want from the direct talks. Israeli officials have focused on disarming Hezbollah and described the negotiations as a precursor to a potential normalization of diplomatic relations. Lebanese officials have said they are seeking a security agreement or armistice that would stop short of normalization.
Trump has publicly called for a meeting between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Aoun has declined to meet or speak directly with Netanyahu at this stage — a move that would likely generate blowback in Lebanon.
Lebanon hopes for ceasefire -
A senior Lebanese official familiar with the negotiations in Washington said Thursday Lebanon wants a complete ceasefire first and then would negotiate withdrawal of Israeli forces. The issue of Hezbollah's weapons would be dealt with politically in Lebanon after that, he said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly about the talks. He said Lebanon is "relying heavily on the U.S. administration" to provide it with leverage in the negotiations with Israel and believes that Trump is "sincere" in his desire to help Lebanon.
The official said that when Trump and Aoun spoke recently, Trump did not pressure Aoun to meet or speak with Netanyahu and was understanding when Aoun explained his reasons for declining. According to the official, Aoun told Trump that if he went to Washington and shook hands with Netanyahu and the talks later fell apart, it could have internal repercussions in Lebanon and discredit Trump. Aoun told Trump that if the two countries are able to reach a security deal, he would come to the White House and "inaugurate" it and Trump responded by saying "I like that," the official said. If Israel agrees to a ceasefire and withdraws from the territory it is occupying in southern Lebanon, the official said, he believes Hezbollah would agree to an arrangement under which it would hand over its weapons to the Lebanese army, which could keep some of them and destroy others. Under this plan, Lebanon could consider allowing individual Hezbollah fighters to join the Lebanese army if they meet eligibility requirements, he said. Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter in an interview with Israeli news site Walla News Thursday said Israel aims "to negotiate for full peace as if Hezbollah does not exist — borders, embassies, visas, tourism, everything." Despite Lebanese officials' assertions that diplomatic normalization is not currently on the table, he said he believes "it is possible to reach such an agreement within a few months." But, he added, "it would be conditioned on the success of the second track — dismantling Hezbollah."

Report: Lebanon, Israel to agree Israeli withdrawal in exchange for Hezbollah disarmament
Naharnet/15 May ,2026
Israel and Lebanon are expected to agree on an Israeli military withdrawal from Lebanese territory in exchange for the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported on Friday. The report stated that the CIA has prepared a plan for disarming the group, and that delegations from Israel and Lebanon are expected to meet on Friday to continue U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Washington. A U.S. State Department official had described Thursday's talks as "productive and positive" despite pessimistic Lebanese and Arab media reports.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on 15-16 May/2026
Trump Leaves Beijing Touting Business Deals, Heaping Praise on Xi
Asharq Al Awsat/15 May 2026
US President Donald Trump departed China on Friday touting business deals that gave markets little to cheer, while Beijing warned Washington about mishandling Taiwan and said its war with Iran should never have started. Trump's visit to America's main strategic and economic rival, the first by a US president since his last trip in 2017, had aimed for tangible results to beef up his dented approval ratings ahead of crucial midterm elections.
The summit was filled with pageantry, from grand receptions with goose-stepping soldiers to lavish banquets and private tours of a secret garden, while Trump repeatedly heaped praise on his host, commenting on his warmth and stature. "It's been an incredible visit. I think a lot of good has come of it," Trump told Xi at their final meeting at the Zhongnanhai complex, a former imperial garden housing the offices of Chinese leaders, before they dined on a menu of lobster balls and Kung Pao scallops.
But just before Friday's meeting, China's foreign ministry issued a blunt statement outlining its frustration with the United States and Israel's war with Iran. "This conflict, which should never have happened, has no reason to ‌continue," the ministry said, ‌adding that China was supporting efforts to reach a peace deal in a war that had severely affected ‌energy supplies ⁠and the global ⁠economy. At Zhongnanhai, Trump said the leaders had discussed Iran and felt "very similar", though Xi did not comment. Trump had been expected to urge China to use its leverage with Iran to make a deal. But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push Tehran hard or end support for its military, given Iran’s value to Beijing as a strategic counterweight to the US.
A brief US summary of Thursday's talks highlighted what the White House called the leaders' shared desire to reopen the Strait of Hormuz off Iran, through which a fifth of global oil and gas once flowed, and Xi's apparent interest in American oil purchases to pare its dependence on the Middle East. "What's notable is that there's no Chinese commitment to do anything specific with regards to Iran," said Patricia Kim, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings ⁠Institution.
BOEING SHARES SLIDE
US officials said they had also agreed deals to sell farm goods and ‌made progress on setting up mechanisms to manage future trade, with both sides expected to identify $30 ‌billion of non-sensitive goods. There were scant details of the deals, however, and no signs of a breakthrough on selling Nvidia's advanced H200 AI chips to China, despite CEO Jensen ‌Huang's dramatic last-minute addition to the trip. Trump told Fox News that China had agreed to order 200 Boeing jets, its first purchase of US-made commercial jets ‌in nearly a decade, but that was far short of the roughly 500 expected by markets, and Boeing shares fell more than 4%.
"For the market, the summit can be strategically reassuring while underwhelming in substance," said Chim Lee, senior China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Chinese stocks slid on Friday as the summit between the leaders of the world's top two economies produced few deals to excite investors. The summit's main achievement may be maintaining a fragile trade truce struck when the leaders last met in October and Trump ‌suspended triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods while Xi backed away from choking off supplies of vital rare earths. It has not yet been decided whether to extend the truce beyond its expiry later this year, US ⁠Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, accompanying Trump, told ⁠Bloomberg TV on Friday. Such an extension would be "the most basic benchmark" for the summit, said the Brookings' Kim.
STARK WARNING ON TAIWAN
Xi's remarks to Trump that mishandling Taiwan, the democratically governed island Beijing claims, could lead to conflict, delivered a sharp, if not unprecedented, warning during a summit that otherwise appeared friendly and relaxed. Taiwan, just 50 miles (80 km) off China's coast, has long been a flashpoint in ties, with Beijing refusing to rule out use of military force to gain control of the island and the US bound by law to provide it the means of self-defense.
"US policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today," Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also traveling with Trump, told NBC News, adding the Chinese "always raise it ... we always make clear our position and we move on."Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung thanked the United States on Friday for repeatedly expressing its support.
Rubio said Trump had brought up with Xi the issue of Hong Kong's most vocal China critic, media tycoon Jimmy Lai, jailed for 20 years in February in the Asian financial hub's biggest national security case. Hong Kong affairs are an internal matter for China, the foreign ministry has said previously when asked about Lai, who has denied all the charges against him.
While they may not have clinched many deals, both sides celebrated a steadier footing in a relationship Xi called the most important in the world. "We must make it work and never mess it up," he said at Thursday's state banquet.

Trump Says He and China’s Xi Agree Iran Cannot Have Nuclear Weapons
Asharq Al Awsat/15 May 2026
US President Donald Trump said his patience with Iran is running out and he had agreed in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Tehran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and must reopen the Strait of Hormuz. "We’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve," Trump said on Friday after he met Xi in Beijing on the second day of talks which included the Iran war, Taiwan, trade and other issues.
Iran effectively shut the strait to most shipping traffic in response to US-Israeli attacks which began on February 28, causing an unprecedented disruption to global energy supplies. China is close to Iran and the main buyer of its oil. The US paused its attacks on Iran last month but began a blockade of the country's ports. Talks aimed at ending the conflict have stalled with Iran refusing to end its nuclear program or relinquish its stockpile of enriched uranium. Tehran denies it intends to build a nuclear weapon.
Xi did not comment on his discussions with Trump about Iran, although China's foreign ministry issued a blunt statement outlining Beijing's frustration with the Iran war.
"This conflict, which should never have happened, has no reason to continue," the ‌ministry said.
Trump said of ‌Iran in an interview aired on Thursday night on Fox News' "Hannity" program: "I am not going to be ‌much more patient. ⁠They should make ⁠a deal." On the key issue of Iran's hidden stockpile of enriched uranium, Trump suggested it only needed to be secured by the US for public relations purposes. "I don't think it's necessary except from a public relations standpoint," Trump said in the interview. "I just feel better if I got it, actually. But it's, I think, it's more for public relations than it is for anything else." After talks between Trump and Xi on Thursday, the White House said the leaders had agreed that the strait should be open and that Xi made clear China's opposition to the militarization of the waterway and any effort to charge a toll for its use, as Iran has threatened to do. Trump said Xi also promised not to send Iran military equipment. "He said he’s not going to give military equipment, that’s a big statement," Trump said ⁠on "Hannity".
Xi also expressed interest in purchasing more American oil to reduce China's future dependence on the strait, the ‌White House readout of the talks said.
DIPLOMACY ON HOLD
Trump is keen to elicit Chinese support to ‌end a war that has become an electoral liability as it drags on towards key US midterm elections in November. But analysts doubt Xi will be willing to push ‌Iran hard or end support for its military, given its value as a strategic counterweight to the US. In an interview with CNBC from Beijing ‌on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he believed China would "do what they can" to help open the strait, something "very much in their interest." Before the war, about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies passed through the waterway. But diplomacy has been on hold since last week when Iran and the US each rejected the other's most recent proposals. In the latest incidents in the strait, an Indian cargo vessel carrying livestock from Africa to the United Arab Emirates was sunk on Wednesday in ‌waters off the coast of Oman. India condemned the attack and said all 14 crew members had been rescued. Vanguard, a British maritime security advisory firm, said the vessel was believed to have been hit by a ⁠missile or drone which caused an explosion.
LEBANON TALKS
Thousands of Iranians were killed in the US and Israeli air strikes in the first weeks of the war, and thousands more have been killed in Lebanon since the war re-ignited fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. Talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials on Thursday in Washington were productive and positive, according to a senior State Department official, who said they were set to continue on Friday. Trump said his aims in starting the war were to destroy Iran's nuclear program, end its ability to attack neighbors and make it easier for Iranians to overthrow their government. A senior US admiral told a US Senate committee on Thursday Iran's ability to threaten its neighbors and US regional interests had been "significantly degraded".
But Admiral Brad Cooper declined to directly address reports by Reuters and other news organizations that Iran had retained significant missile and drone capabilities.
Iran's rulers, who used force to put down anti-government protests at the start of the year, have faced no organized opposition since the war began. Their grip on the strait has given them additional leverage in negotiations. Iran is seeking the lifting of sanctions, reparations for war damage and acknowledgment of its control over the strait.

US scraps deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland
Reuters/15 May ,2026
The Pentagon has canceled plans to deploy 4,000 US-based troops to Poland, two US officials said, a surprise decision that renews questions about President Donald Trump’s expected troop cuts in Europe. Two weeks ago the Pentagon announced it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from NATO ally Germany, in part due to a widening rift over the Iran war between Trump and Europe. General Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s acting chief of staff, confirmed the decision during testimony on Friday before the House Armed Services Committee. But he did little to explain it, besides saying “it made the most sense for that brigade to not do its deployment in theater.”Joe Courtney, a Democratic lawmaker, told LaNeve the decision sent a “horrible message” about Trump’s commitment to Europe.“Frankly, it’s not just our adversaries that are paying attention. It’s our allies,” Courtney said. One US official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, suggested the Poland decision was part of a near-term solution to ultimately allow for the previously announced drawdown in Germany, which hosts 35,000 US forces. That would suggest the troops that were meant to rotate into Poland might instead come from elsewhere. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had received assurances that Poland’s security would not be impacted by any decisions on the US troop presence.
“I received assurances, and this is also important to me, that these decisions are of a logistical nature and will not directly affect deterrence capabilities and our security,” he told a news conference on Friday. The US has been reviewing its troop presence in Europe and has long been expected to scale it back following demands from Trump that NATO take a larger role in the defense of Europe. The Pentagon has not yet detailed how it envisions future troop laydowns across the continent. Even as lawmakers expressed exasperation and confusion over the Poland decision, the Pentagon said it followed “a comprehensive, multilayered process.”
“This was not an unexpected, last-minute decision, and it would be false to report it as such,” Pentagon spokesperson Joel Valdez said.
Trump’s anger over Iran
Trump has also been angered that European allies did not join the US war against Iran, and sparred with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who last month said the Iranians were humiliating the US in negotiations. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters the Poland decision appeared to be a surprise.
“As far as I know, we weren’t notified about it,” she told reporters. When the Germany withdrawal was announced, a senior US official said it would bring US troop levels in Europe back to roughly pre-2022 levels, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a buildup by then President Joe Biden. The latest decisions to withdraw troops also came amid increasing pressure from Washington on European countries to raise defense spending, and accusations that reliance on US forces had allowed them to neglect their own militaries. Reuters exclusively reported last month an internal Pentagon email that outlined options to punish NATO allies that Washington believes failed to support US operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from NATO and reviewing the US position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
Alarmed by Trump’s past criticism of NATO, lawmakers from both parties last year backed a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, barring troop levels in Europe from falling below 76,000. Trump signed the measure into law in December. However, the administration has some leeway. The NDAA provision allows the president to cut troop levels below 76,000 if he certifies that he has consulted with NATO allies and provides independent assessments of how it would affect US security, the alliance and deterrence of Russian aggression. A senior NATO military official, commenting on the role of allied deployments, said rotational forces were not central to the alliance’s planning. “Rotational forces do not factor into NATO’s deterrence and defense plans,” the official said. “NATO will continue to maintain a strong presence on its Eastern Flank, in particular the Canadian and German troops there. The Alliance remains in close consultation with relevant authorities regarding the matter.”
Late last year, there were about 85,000 US troops in Europe.

Araghchi Says Iran Has 'No Trust' in the US, Will Negotiate Only If it Is Serious
Asharq Al Awsat/15 May 2026
Tehran has "no trust" in the US and is interested in negotiating with Washington only if it is serious, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday, as talks on ending the war remained on hold. Araghchi told reporters in New Delhi that all vessels can pass through the Strait of Hormuz except those "at war" with Tehran, if they coordinate with Iran's navy. But the situation around the waterway, vital to global energy and commodities ‌markets, was "very complicated", ‌he added, during a visit to attend a BRICS ‌foreign ⁠ministers' meeting in India. In a ⁠post on X, Araghchi said he told India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar that "Iran will always carry out historical duty as protector of security in Hormuz," according to his post on X. Iran effectively shut the strait, which normally handles about one-fifth of the world's seaborne oil and gas supply, to most shipping after the US and Israel began their war on Iran in February.
PAKISTANI-MEDIATED US-IRAN TALKS HAVE STALLED
Washington and Tehran announced a ⁠ceasefire last month but have been struggling to thrash out a ‌lasting peace pact. Talks mediated by Pakistan have ‌been suspended since Iran and the U.S. each rejected the other's latest proposals last week. Araghchi ‌said "contradictory messages" had raised Iranian doubts about the Americans' real intentions, adding that ‌the Pakistani mediation process had not failed but was in "difficulty". The United States and Israel have cut short two previous rounds of talks with Tehran in the past 13 months by launching campaigns of air strikes on Iran. Iran is trying to keep the latest ceasefire to ‌give diplomacy a chance but is also prepared to go back to fighting, Araghchi said. The issues holding up negotiations between the ⁠two sides include Iran's ⁠nuclear ambitions and its control of the Strait of Hormuz. Hours before he spoke, US President Donald Trump said his patience with Iran was running out and said he had agreed in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Tehran must reopen the strait.
Asked if Tehran was open to mediation by Beijing, Araghchi said Iran appreciated the efforts of any country that had the ability to help. "We have very good relations with China," he said. "We are strategic partners, and we know that the Chinese have good intentions. So, anything they can do to help diplomacy would be welcomed." Araghchi added: "We hope that, with the advancement of negotiations, we will reach a good conclusion so that the Strait of Hormuz can be completely secured and we can expedite the normalization of traffic through the strait."

MBS, Qatar emir discuss regional developments in phone call
Al Arabiya English/15 May ,2026
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday discussed regional developments during a phone call with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The Saudi Press Agency reported that the two officials reviewed bilateral ties and areas of joint cooperation.They also discussed the latest regional and international developments and ongoing efforts aimed at enhancing security and stability, according to the SPA. Read more: MBS, UAE president discuss efforts to enhance regional security and stability

UAE affirms steadfast position, refutes Iranian allegations in BRICS meeting
Al Arabiya English/15 May ,2026
The UAE on Friday affirmed its rejection of Iran’s allegations and attempts to justify the Iranian “terrorist attacks” that targeted the country as well as other countries in the region. During a BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in India, the UAE’s Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar also reiterated the UAE’s rejection of any allegations or threats targeting its sovereignty, national security, or independent decision-making, reaffirming that the UAE reserves its full sovereign, legal, diplomatic, and military rights to respond to any threat, allegation, or hostile act.He added that “attempts at coercion, leveling accusations, or promoting malicious claims will not undermine the UAE’s principled positions, nor deter the country from safeguarding its supreme national interests and upholding its sovereignty and independent decision-making.” He also said that the UAE “does not seek protection from others and is fully capable of deterring this unprovoked aggression,” and reaffirmed that “the UAE reserves its full and legitimate right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

UAE President, Indian PM Discuss Strengthening Partnership, Review Regional Developments
Agencis/May 15/2026
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday on opportunities to strengthen cooperation within the framework of their countries’ Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The leaders stressed their shared commitment to advancing their development partnership and expanding cooperation in ways that support lasting prosperity for their peoples, reported the UAE’s state news agency WAM. “They reviewed the significant progress in collaboration across sectors that support both countries’ development priorities, particularly the economy, investment, energy, space, food security, technology, and artificial intelligence,” it added. “They also exchanged views on a number of issues of mutual interest, particularly developments in the Middle East and their serious implications for regional and international peace and security, as well as their impact on maritime security, energy supplies, and the global economy.”“Modi reiterated India’s condemnation of the Iranian terrorist attacks targeting civilians, civilian facilities and infrastructure in the UAE, saying they are a violation of sovereignty and international norms and laws,” said WAM.

FBI Offers $200,000 Reward to Catch Ex-Air Force Specialist Wanted on Espionage Charges in Iran
AP/May 15/2026
The FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to capture and prosecution of a former US Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran in 2013 and was later charged with revealing classified information to the Tehran government.
Monica Elfriede Witt, 47, was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2019 on charges of espionage, including transmitting national defense information to the government of Iran. She remains at large. Witt “allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in a news release Wednesday. “The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts.”It wasn't immediately known why the FBI was bringing attention to Witt's case. The United States and Iran have been at war since Feb. 28. Witt served in the Air Force between 1997 and 2008, where she was trained in the Farsi language and was deployed overseas on classified counterintelligence missions, including to the Middle East. She later found work as a Defense Department contractor. The Texas native defected to Iran in 2013 after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in the country that the Justice Department says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards.Before that, Witt had been warned by the FBI about her activities, but told agents that she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran, prosecutors said. According to the indictment, Witt placed at risk "sensitive and classified US national defense information and programs,” the news release said. “Witt allegedly intentionally provided information endangering US personnel and their families stationed abroad. She also allegedly conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the US government,” it said.

Pakistan Says 11 Citizens, 20 Iranian Nationals Being Repatriated from Vessels Seized by US
Reuters/May 15/2026
Pakistan is repatriating 11 of its nationals and 20 Iranians from vessels seized in the high seas by the US, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday. They were repatriated through Singapore to ‌Bangkok en ‌route to Pakistan's capital Islamabad ‌on ⁠Friday night, Dar ⁠added in an X post, with the Iranians due to continue to their homeland. "All individuals are in good health and high spirits," the Pakistani minister ⁠said. It was not immediately ‌clear which ‌vessels they had been on. The US-Israeli ‌war on Iran, which began ‌in February, was suspended last month after a fragile ceasefire but Washington and Tehran have engaged in naval ‌confrontations and seizures of each other's vessels as they struggle ⁠to ⁠reach a peace pact.Pakistan has been mediating between the US and Iran.Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, which normally handles about one-fifth of the world's seaborne oil and gas supply, to most shipping after the war began.

Israel says targeted head of Hamas armed wing with Gaza strike
Reuters/15 May ,2026
Israel said it had targeted the head of Hamas’ armed wing with a strike in Gaza on Friday, describing him as an architect of the October 7, 2023, attacks that precipitated Israel’s two-year assault on the Palestinian territory. Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the fate of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, who became the militant group’s military chief in the Gaza Strip after Israel’s killing of commander Mohammad Sinwar in May 2025. Haddad is the most senior Hamas official targeted with a strike by Israel since an October US-backed deal that was meant to halt fighting in Gaza. The attack comes as Hamas has been tightening its grip in a sliver of territory on Gaza’s coast under its control. In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said Haddad “was responsible for the murder, abduction, and harm inflicted on thousands of Israeli civilians (and) soldiers.”The two leaders did not say whether they believed Haddad had been killed. Medics and witnesses in Gaza said an airstrike had targeted an apartment in the Gaza City area of Rimal, killing at least one person and wounding several others. The identity of the person killed was not immediately clear. A second Israeli air strike soon after targeted a vehicle on a nearby street, the medics and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the second strike.

Palestinian Authority Says Teen Killed by Israeli Forces in West Bank
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
The Palestinian Authority said Friday that a 15-year-old was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli army said he had been throwing stones at Israeli cars on a road. The authority's health ministry said it had been informed of the killing of Fahd Zidan Oweis. He was "shot dead by the (Israeli) forces at dawn today in the town of Al-Lubban al-Sharqiyya in the Nablus governorate. His body has been withheld," it said. The Israeli army told AFP it "eliminated a masked terrorist" who had "hurled rocks towards Israeli vehicles on a central road, endangering lives.”

Hamas to Choose its Leader on Sunday Amid Push for Comprehensive National Dialogue
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Hamas voiced hope that a direct meeting would be held between its leadership and Fatah’s after the end of the latter’s eighth general conference, which is being held for a second day in Ramallah, Gaza, Cairo, and Beirut. The conference is due to end on Saturday with the election of new members to Fatah’s Revolutionary Council and Central Committee. On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was re-elected by consensus as the movement’s leader among conference members. Representatives of several factions, both inside and outside the Palestinian territories, attended the opening session. A Hamas representative was also seen in Gaza. Asharq Al-Awsat learned that the identity of Hamas’s new political bureau chief is expected to be settled on Sunday. The race has been narrowed to Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya, who is seen as having the stronger chance of becoming the movement’s overall leader. Husam Badran, head of Hamas’s National Relations Office and a member of its political bureau, said Fatah’s conference offered an opportunity to shift internal national relations and raise readiness to confront “Israeli plans to eliminate the Palestinian cause once and for all by exploiting international and regional circumstances.”In a press statement released by Hamas, Badran called on Fatah to hold a direct meeting after its current conference to agree on a Palestinian national strategy on all issues of concern to Palestinians at a sensitive stage for their cause. “It is time to rise above differences and the consequences of the past, and to look to the present and the future on the basis of national partnership and collective responsibility,” he urged.
He called for action on the ground and politically “in a way that matches the sacrifices of our people, who expect from us clear and direct action that changes their difficult reality in all fields.”
Asharq Al-Awsat learned that Palestinian factions and the Follow-up Committee of National and Islamic Forces in Gaza recently sent messages to Abbas through Fatah leaders, calling on him to convene a comprehensive national dialogue in Cairo.
Two sources from the Palestinian factions said they had not received a response to the messages, adding that the Fatah leaders who conveyed them had indicated that there would be moves on the issue soon after the movement completed its internal arrangements.
The sources said Egypt strongly supports many of the efforts made in this regard. They said Cairo had recently conveyed messages to the Palestinian Authority and Fatah leadership from factions present in the Egyptian capital, including a Hamas delegation that had been there.
They said messages were also conveyed by Türkiye in the same context during a visit by Palestinian Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh to Ankara, where he met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The sources said Arab and Islamic countries support efforts to reshape the Palestinian national scene. Fatah has repeatedly refused to attend Cairo meetings with Hamas. Its leaders have, however, met delegations from PLO factions, including the Popular Front and the Democratic Front.
A senior Hamas source told Asharq Al-Awsat: “We hope there will be new moves to end the division and hold a comprehensive national meeting, whether at the level of the secretaries-general or the broader Palestinian leadership, with the aim of setting a roadmap for national aspirations and confronting the challenges facing our cause.”It remains unclear how Abbas would respond to such a step. Some leading figures in Fatah and the Palestinian Authority believe Hamas is no longer in a position to set conditions for joining any framework unless it commits to international resolutions. In a speech opening Fatah’s conference on Thursday evening, Abbas said Gaza was an integral part of the State of Palestine. He said any transitional arrangements must be temporary and must not undermine the unity of Palestinian land, the unity of representation, legitimacy, or the Palestinian political and legal systems. “Our national unity remains the solid foundation for confronting challenges and ending the division, according to principles we have all agreed on,” Abbas said. He said these principles are based on recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative, committing to its political program and international obligations, upholding the principle of one system, one law, and one legitimate weapon, and committing to peaceful popular resistance.
“We have called on everyone to commit to these principles, which will open the way to national unity, help strengthen the steadfastness of our people, and achieve their aspirations for freedom and independence, and the embodiment of our independent, sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he added. Hamas has often insisted on rejecting international resolutions that include recognition of Israel. This has previously undermined efforts by Arab and international parties to push for its entry into the PLO, or even to bring it closer to Fatah. Hamas did not comment on Abbas’s speech.

Israel Threatens to Sue NYT Over Report on Sexual Abuse of Palestinian Inmates
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Israel on Thursday threatened to take The New York Times to court over a piece it published denouncing allegedly widespread sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar have ordered the "initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times", according to a joint statement issued by their offices. The offices said that the piece by Nicholas Kristof, a prominent opinion columnist, was "one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper". Kristof's investigation is based on testimonies gathered in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from 14 men and women who said that they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces. The report described "a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children -- by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards". The New York Times responded that any legal claim over the "deeply reported opinion column" lacked merit. "This threat, similar to one made last year, is part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting and stifle journalism that does not fit a specific narrative," Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for the newspaper, said in a statement.
Kristof's piece said there was no evidence that Israeli leaders ordered rapes.The Israeli foreign ministry alleged that Kristof had based his piece "on unverified sources tied to Hamas-linked networks".It also accused the paper of deliberately timing the publication to "undermine" an independent Israeli report on Hamas sexual violence perpetrated during its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which was published on the same day. Israeli forces have detained thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank since Hamas's 2023 attack, which triggered the war in Gaza. The United States has high protections for journalistic expression, with libel suits needing to prove that information was purposefully untrue and with harmful intent. President Donald Trump and his allies have nonetheless filed a number of lawsuits against media outlets, some of which have reached settlements rather than risk repercussions from his administration.

Iraq PM Vows Monopoly on Arms as Parliament Approves Government
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Iraqi lawmakers approved a new government on Thursday led by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who vowed to ensure a state monopoly on weapons amid growing US pressure to dismantle Tehran-backed groups. Iraq has long walked a tightrope between the competing influences of its allies, neighboring Iran and the United States. Iraq's parliament voted in favor of Zaidi's government and program, just a few weeks after he was designated following months of political deadlock. Zaidi's program includes "reforming the security apparatus by restricting weapons to state control and strengthening the capabilities of the security forces", state news agency INA quoted the parliament media office as saying. In Iraq, a government wins a confidence vote when parliament approves half plus one of its ministries. Only 14 ministerial nominations out of 23 posts were approved on Thursday, as key political parties continue to negotiate several portfolios. Zaidi, Iraq's youngest prime minister at the age of 40, was chosen to form the new government late last month. His nomination followed months of political wrangling after the United States vetoed the previous frontrunner, former premier Nouri al-Maliki. He is backed by the Coordination Framework, a ruling alliance of Shiite groups with varying ties to Iran. Iraq's Prime Minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi, front left, arrives at the Iraqi parliament to attend the voting of his government in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 14, 2026. (AP)
- Divisions? -
Senior US diplomat Tom Barrack meanwhile said his government was ready to work with Zaidi "to advance our shared goals of prosperity for the Iraqi people and the elimination of terrorism, which is always an impediment to the people's progress".
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi congratulated Iraq's new government following the approval from parliament. "Strengthening the friendly and brotherly relations between Tehran and Baghdad has always been at the top of the priorities of our foreign policy," he wrote on X.
The US has recently piled pressure on Baghdad to disarm Iran-backed groups, which it designates as terrorist organizations. After the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, those groups intervened in support of Tehran and hit US facilities in Iraq more than 600 times before a ceasefire was announced, according to a US official.
Washington also struck their positions and bases, killing dozens of fighters.
Recently, several powerful Iraqi politicians have also called for a state monopoly on weapons, revealing divisions over the sensitive issue. While some armed groups showed readiness to cooperate, others remain adamant that the issue should not be discussed under US pressure.
Hussein Mounes, the head of a parliamentary bloc close to the Kataib Hezbollah group, criticized the "clear and direct American interference in shaping the political scene". He told journalists that the question of the state's monopoly on arms cannot be achieved through "pressure". The new premier faces other daunting tasks. His government will also need to repair Iraq's relations with Gulf countries, which have protested attacks by Tehran-backed groups on their territory during the war. His program has also set economic reforms as a main priority, with an emphasis on diversification and investment, in a country where almost the entire economy relies on oil. Iraq has lost significant income due to the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, given that oil exports make up about 90 percent of the country's budget revenues.

Morocco and Syria Establish Joint Business Council
Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani reopened on Thursday his country’s embassy in the Moroccan capital Rabat. The FM was on an official visit to the kingdom at the head of a ministry delegation. He met with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita, hailing the historic ties between their countries. Speaking at a joint press conference with Bourita, he also praised Morocco’s “noble humanitarian, moral and political stance the kingdom’s leadership adopted by supporting the aspirations of the Syrian people throughout the past 14 years.”
He expressed his gratitude to the kingdom for swiftly restoring political ties with Syria after the ouster of the Assad regime in December 2024. The first contacts were held with Morocco 20 days after the collapse of the regime, he remarked. Bourita was invited to visit Damascus, he added, saying that an agreement was reached on a comprehensive course for relations between their countries that would kick off with the political path and later cover economic, educational and trade aspects. He added that the two sides also agreed to establish a joint business council and expand cooperation by drawing on Morocco’s experience in several sectors, reported Syria’s state news agency SANA. “Syrian-Moroccan relations are moving in an upward direction, and we will continue working to strengthen and advance them,” Shaibani said. For his part, Bourita said the reopening of the Syrian embassy in Morocco was evidence that relations between them have returned to normal after over ten years. “The kingdom, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, was always clear in supporting the aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom and dignity,” he added, while underscoring Rabat’s backing of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial unity. He noted that the new Syrian authorities’ political, security, economic and judicial steps are steering the country towards stability and ending the “dark period” it had endured for years despite the regional challenges.

The Latest LCCC analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on 15-16 May/2026
Palestine and Israel… This is the Only Solution
Jebril Elabidi/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
Palestine is a word that resonates deeply in the conscience of every Arab and Muslim. It is a shared cause whose burdens and suffering displaced people we have carried for decades amid unprecedented global dithering and neglect regarding an issue of human right before being a political and existential question.
An independent Palestinian state remains the cornerstone of a prospective peace. The two-state solution is the key to stability in the Middle East and remains the only viable and workable framework for coexistence. Peace in exchange for a two-state solution is the only real formula for resolving this long-standing conflict that has cost the region so much already. Peaceful coexistence begins with negotiations toward two neighboring states: a viable Palestinian state, not fragments of territory studded with settlements that Israel’s far-right governments have fostered to prevent the emergence of a cohesive and territorially connected Palestinian state. Although Israel itself will pay the price for this policy because there can be no stability or security without a resolution of the Palestinian question, Israeli extremists do not even accept the idea of a mixed state. The Israeli army continues to seize Palestinian land simply by declaring it state or military property, stripping the native inhabitants of ownership and handing it to immigrants, thereby building a state upon dispossession and blood. Israel disregards Article 53 of the Geneva Convention, which stipulates that “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited,” uprooting Palestinian olive groves, demolishing homes, and expelling their inhabitants from their land. Since the occupation of Palestine and other Arab territories began in 1948, this occupying force has persistently sought to legitimize its confiscation and bulldozing of land, as well as its construction of settlements inhabited by people from various nationalities and nations who share nothing but their Jewish faith and who eventually banded together under the banner of the “Yisrael Beiteinu” party. Peace in exchange for a two-state solution is the formula for resolving the conflict in the Middle East, and peaceful coexistence begins by negotiating the establishment of two neighboring states. We continue to say and repeat it: Israel will never achieve security or stability otherwise, no matter how powerful it becomes or how heavily it fortifies itself with walls and weapons.
We have grown accustomed to Israeli governments emptying initiatives to achieve this of their substance by dragging the process into the swamp of Kissingerian politics: postponing major issues and then fragmenting initiatives into stages, thereby ensuring that only ten percent are ever implemented. This has been the fate of most previous peace initiatives; whether collectively proposed by Arab states or advanced unilaterally, they all were ultimately circumvented.
Israel can “Judaize” its state once it recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to a state of their own. That is not the problem. Calling for a Jewish state while simultaneously claiming to be a liberal democracy, however, is untenable. No matter how much time goes by, Israel has only one option, and the whole world knows it. Any other path would merely condemn both sides to perpetual conflict until there is a final reckoning.

Iran War: Fighting Over Numbers
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
“Finish the job!” This is the advice given by those who want US bombing of Iran to be resumed until it achieves its goal. It comes from Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, prominent American commentators Mark Levin and Victor Davis Hanson, and leaders of the National Rising and People’s Mujahedin Iranian opposition groups in exile. The problem is that it isn’t clear what the job that is to be finished consists of? Some of those in the finish-the job camp take it to mean regime change in Tehran without having any particular alternative in mind.They believe that once the Khomeinist system is toppled, any form of government in Tehran would be tolerable just as in Syria what mattered was to get rid of the Assad regime and not the nature of its successor.
Others want a particular group to be installed in Tehran with a benevolent attitude towards Israel as a key condition. The two exile opposition groups mentioned above cast themselves as legitimate successors to the present leadership in Tehran. US President Donald Trump started the war by implicitly promoting the goal of regime change but in its Venezuelan version, that is to say, replacing the top echelon of the Khomeinist system with a lower echelon amenable to working with the United States. On several occasions Trump even asserted that he has already achieved that goal and was working with a “new regime” in Tehran.
But once it became clear that the imaginary “new regime” was the old big bad wolf, Trump declared the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as the key goal of the war.
Yet, the strait remained closed because those who had shut it in the first place were killed by the Israelis, and the midgets who replaced them in the Tehran chain of command lacked the authority and courage go even suggest re-opening it. It is now clear that Iran lacks the power to protect itself against airstrikes while the US-Israel tandem lack the will to achieve the famous three Cs of any war: Conquer, cleanse and control-something that requires boots on the ground, many boots. Latest leaks from US intelligence sources show that the sensational numbers bandied by War Secretary Pete Hegseth were whimsical to say the least. He had said that US and Israeli bombings had destroyed 75 percent of Iran’s military capabilities without specifying 75 percent of how much. Hegseth also claimed that the US-Israel alliance had attacked over 15,000 targets without saying how many were destroyed and how badly, and more importantly how significant those destroyed were in military terms.
Initially, Hegseth reported that Iran had 1,500 ballistic missiles, a figure based on no evidence and that the stockpile would be exhausted in a few weeks. Now, US services say they actually don’t have verifiable numbers and that Iran seems to have resumed producing more missiles and drones. The number of Iran’s missile launching pads was put at 33 with 30 of them claimed to have been destroyed. Now we are told that 30 of them remain active.
To be sure the new leaked numbers may be as fantasy-based as the ones before; coming from sources that war waging a war within this war to destroy the Trump presidency.
In this war within the war, Trump’s many political foes inside the US, in Europe and elsewhere, try to force him into another bout of bombing that would prolong the global economic crisis without forcing Tehran to surrender because there is no one on the ground to surrender to.
And if Trump doesn’t walk into that trap, they hope to portray him as the loser he accuses everyone else to be. However, and I may be wrong, I think Trump - whatever you think of the method in his madness or the madness of his method - is smart enough a cookie to know a bad deal when he smells one. Taking stock of what has happened so far, he surely knows that the Khomeinist regime has been militarily, economically and politically crippled. It may plod along on crutches for a while but is in no position to resume its marathon of mischief any time soon.
In the first act of this war drama we were shown a gun.
In the second act that gun did what guns do.
In the third act we could witness the collapse of those hit by that gun.
In that third and decisive act the Iranian people including some in and around the crippled regime must write the denouement.
In the third act the crippled regime will face a long hot summer of discontent with hyper-inflation, mass unemployment, lengthy blackout, power shortages and inability to print money to buy silence. The mass risings that marked last winter’s political scene would resume with greater vigor. In fact, I think that had the war not happened today we would have been closer to meaningful change in Tehran than ever.
Trump now says his priority is a nuclear deal under which Tehran accepts to abandon uranium enrichment for between 15 and 30 years. He also wants the famous 440 kilograms of enriched uranium, another number plucked from thin air, handed over presumably to US.
Tehran says it won’t agree to anything longer than five years but is prepared to dilute half of the 440 kilos and transfer the other half presumably to Russia. The fight over the number of years Iran should freeze its nuclear project is surrealistic. Does Trump really think the Islamic Republic will survive for another 15 or 30 years to honor such a deal?
And does the crippled regime in Tehran think that Trump and Netanyahu will be there for another five years to honor their part of the bargain?
Trump says he doesn’t want China’s help.
Yet one could, as Beijing seems to suggest, pluck a compromise number from thin air, say seven years, and have a few barrels of enriched uranium handed over in front of American TV cameras as happened in Ukraine, Argentina and Kazakhstan decades ago, to allow all sides to declare victory and move to something tangible here and now that is to say the end of the twin blockades in the Strait of Hormuz. The fight over ultimately meaningless numbers is no justification for prolonging a war that started with no clear objective. If there is no stomach for “finishing the job,” the least bad option is to end the war.

The Current Crisis…and the Ideological Dilemma
Fahid Suleiman al-Shoqiran/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
It is natural that military and political analysis should dominate the current moment and occupy center stage in public discourse. Yet intellectual and ideological analysis of the crisis is equally necessary and deserves to stand alongside political analysis itself. This is precisely where many of the most visible commentators have fallen short.
Yes, it is easy to describe what is happening now simply as a “crisis” in the immediate journalistic sense. But as major events evolve, they gradually become absorbed into the daily rhythm of international media coverage, much as happened during the early waves of religious violence in Europe or with the globalization of terrorism through satellite broadcasting during the final decades of the twentieth century. Yet the event, in its broader meaning, is also fundamentally philosophical. During the Gulf War, for example, the veteran leftist philosopher Jean Baudrillard wrote his famous work The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, advancing a deeply leftist interpretation of the conflict. In this context, I agree with what Abdullah bin Bijad wrote several days ago:
“The philosophy, thought, and political models of the Left are fundamentally directed against monarchies around the world. In the Arab world, leftist movements were formed on the basis of hostility toward the Arab monarchies, foremost among them the Gulf Arab states. Thus, the Left in all its forms, currents, and political models remains a fundamental adversary of the Gulf Arab states. There is little difference in this regard between the leftism of Marx and that of Lenin, or between the leftism of Stalin and that of Mao. All share the same philosophical and intellectual hostility, not merely a political one.”Historically, after the waves of religious violence, Eric Hobsbawm wrote about terrorism and described it as a “phenomenon.” Following its culmination in the attacks of September 11, Jacques Derrida wrote extensively about the concept of the “event.” When asked why he was so preoccupied with it, he replied:
“Everything exists in the present; the past and the future are always expressed through the present. This is the thread I tried to complicate somewhat. The question of time has run throughout all my work. Nevertheless, what you say about this special interest in the event is true.”Incidentally, even before all of this, Edward Said published Covering Islam in 1981. Ironically, the book only became widely read among Arabs and Muslims after September 11 because it challenged dominant Western interpretations of Islam.
The point is that every major event, whether political, military, or economic, generates its own crises. Even major positive transformations create tensions and resistance among those who oppose them. In this sense, the concept of the event, especially the political event, produces not only the immediate crises documented by the media, but also deeper and more enduring crises over the long term. Such events also revive powerful philosophical concepts, including Hegel’s notion of alienation: estrangement from reality, existing within something without truly belonging to it. Yes, this current war will differ fundamentally from those that preceded it on every level. What is regrettable, however, is the failure of many to reinforce their political analysis with ideological criticism of their opponents. This reflects either a serious intellectual shortcoming or an inability to process an event of such magnitude theoretically while simultaneously responding to its immediate developments. The hostility directed at the Gulf states is rooted in a dangerous ideological framework. That is precisely what some continue to avoid emphasizing, whether out of ignorance, complicity, or intellectual laziness.

Iran Between the Legitimacy of Confrontation and the Legitimacy of a Settlement
Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al Awsat/May 15/2026
The elites of the Iranian regime have succeeded in absorbing the first blow, averting a vacuum in decision-making. Their rapid absorption of the shock has enabled them to maintain control and brought hardliners who had long operated in the shadows, its most radical military and political figures, into the fore. This has radically transformed the hierarchy, especially within the military apparatus, with “iron curtain” generals rising to the top. This new configuration was shaped by the pairing of General Ahmad Vahidi at the top of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and his close associate General Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, who leads the Supreme National Security Council. This duo, alongside radicals within the Supreme Leader’s inner circle, was probably behind the decision to appoint Mojtaba Khamenei as the successor of his father as supreme leader. Decision-making mechanisms were transformed rapidly and opaquely under the pressure of an assault that had itself been the pretext for implementing them.
Confrontation, or “standing up to aggression,” has effectively become the regime’s source of legitimacy. In fact, it now underpins the legality of religious, military, and political elites of the same ideological factions and has allowed them to impose absolute control. Their shared affiliation, or rather the exclusive hold of their camp, has allowed the men leading Iran to present themselves as a unified and cohesive unit capable of absorbing the losses of the initial strike and overcoming its harsh repercussions for both the individuals and institutions making decisions. It has created the impression that Iran’s political system was never dependent on individuals, but beneath the surface, it continues to carry the burden of potentially combustible contradictions.
Grounded in ambiguity and steadfastness, Iran’s home front has adopted a framework of several dual structures within the IRGC, including the Vahidi-Zolqadr duo and the IRGC-Supreme Leader’s Office duo. The latter provided religious legitimacy through the election of the supreme leader, whose obscurity has itself been strategically leveraged both domestically and abroad. He is presented as the ultimate authority who has the final say on decisions, an arrangement that has allowed Vahidi, his generals, and the radical faction of the Supreme Leader’s Office to manage its military and political confrontations with Washington.
The dilemma facing this hardline and relatively cohesive power structure is that it draws its legitimacy from the conflict, which has transformed executive power into a military operations room led by generals who do not believe in diplomacy. They are obstructing negotiations and refusing to show any flexibility regarding their red lines, especially what they consider “Iranian nuclear pride,” Iran’s geopolitical position, and its imperial legacy. These ambitions align with their expansionist aspirations, which they regard as a pillar of their revolutionary legitimacy.
It has become clear that drawing from confronting foreign powers is a domestic burden. Although this ruling elite leverages this legitimacy to dominate the domestic sphere, it remains wary of the threats that any settlement with the outside world could create at home. Legitimacy grounded in a settlement is fundamentally different from the legitimacy of confrontation. The latter merely requires willingness to fight on, and that is already the case. On the other hand, it has none of the requisite settlement of this scale with the current military balance of power with Washington and the domestic political balance.
The “third Supreme Leader” is not truly present and his strategic absence, as the regime sees it, denies him the authority to make decisive decisions that his predecessors had possessed. Moreover, the current ruling elite cannot provide political cover for such decisions.
These challenges are compounded by the profound transformations unfolding within Iranian society itself. Iran is a divided country whose society is more politically and socially advanced than this ruling elite, and it understands that the elites are in position of weaknesses, avoiding clashing with them for now because they are equally aware of its brutality.
More dangerously still, the prospects for a settlement with this elite are slim. Washington is not in a position to offer even limited gains that could help the Iranian leadership make concessions, nor is the Iranian elite in a position to reach a difficult settlement. What Washington is offering is a poison chalice, and no one knows who will drink it nor the severity of its consequences. Meanwhile, the regime does not have the national antidote for this poison that its founding supreme leader had possessed.
The danger of reaching a settlement stems from the ruling elite’s lack of legitimacy to reach such a settlement. The big question in Iran remains what comes after signing an agreement. Once such an agreement is concluded, its legitimacy would come under scrutiny from all sides, leaving the current rulers to confront its domestic contradictions. Accordingly, the regime faces a difficult challenge: either permanent confrontation or a painful settlement. For General Vahidi and his brothers-in-arms, both options amount to a massacre.

Why Netanyahu is calling for an end to US military aid to Israel
David Powell/Al Arabiya English/15 May ,2026
The US has supplied arms to Israel since the early 1960s. But it was only in the late 1970s – following the October/Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the subsequent Egypt-Israel peace treaty of 1979 – that Israel became a major recipient of military aid from the US. Washington’s thinking at that time was twofold. It wanted to stave off any further existential threats to Israel by maintaining its Cold War ally’s qualitative edge in military technology over any Soviet backed Arab potential enemies. US military aid to both Israel and Egypt was also intended as a reward for the land-for-peace deal concluded between these two former enemies.
Every ten years since then, the US Congress has appropriated ever increasing sums in military aid to Israel. Under the current aid package – renewed in 2016, under the Obama administration – Israel receives $3.8 billion dollars a year. The next package comes up for renewal this year. So, with this apparent annual US largesse to Israel, many were surprised when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a lengthy interview with CBS on May 10 that he wanted to see this American military aid phased out completely.
Netanyahu argued that Israel had “come of age” and wanted to be seen as a partner rather than a country needing constant handouts, whether economic or military. He boasted of Israel’s “high-tech juggernaut economy” that was now in a position to buy its own armaments, and of the country’s technological prowess which it already shared with America and which “we’re going to share … with our Arab friends too.”
Already, $500 million of the $3.8 billion a year in US military aid goes towards joint US-Israeli missile defence programs. The David’s Sling and Arrow systems for defence against mid-range and long-range missiles, were developed jointly under this partnership programme. Netanyahu wants to expand such cooperative ventures to replace direct US aid.
It is important to remember that US military aid comes with major strings attached. It falls under the Foreign Military Funding program, which requires all purchases made using these funds to be from US defence companies. Israel is not at liberty to use the money to buy weapons from any other country, or from its own defence companies. This is the reason some in Israel argue that the aid program benefits the US rather than Israel, essentially supporting US defence companies while hampering the development of Israel’s own industry. The Israeli PM will certainly be concerned about this negative effect of the military aid program on Israeli companies, though he understandably did not use this argument in his interview on a major US network.
But an essay in last month’s Foreign Affairs by a leading Israeli defence analyst argued strongly that it was bad for his country’s economy to go on taking defence “coupons” from the US that could only be spent in America. He also noted that receiving aid also clashed with Israel’s self-image as the “start-up nation” which was now a regional military superpower. Other countries like the Gulf states, after all, pay for US weapons from their own budgets. The essay also warned that the question of aid to Israel was becoming a political question in America and was undermining support for Israel. This is another aspect of the aid program that will worry Netanyahu. And with good reason.
Support in the US for Israel is dropping sharply, especially among the young, even after the ceasefire in the Israeli war on Hamas that has left Gaza largely in ruins. A poll conducted in March by the Pew Research Center found that 60 percent of American adults had an unfavorable view of Israel, compared with 53 per cent last year. And most people under the age of 50, whether Democrat and Republican supporters, said they viewed Israel and its current prime minister negatively. Another poll by Quinnipiac University in August last year found that 60 percent of US voters were against sending more military aid to Israel – the highest percentage since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023.
This trend is also seen among the country’s politicians, especially on the Democrat side. Veteran senator Bernie Sanders tried in April to persuade the US Senate to block sales to Israel of heavy bombs and bulldozers, declaring that ending US military aid to the Netanyahu government was “long overdue.” The vote went against him, but Democrat senators voted overwhelmingly in support – an indication that ending US military aid to Israel is now the majority Democrat position in the Senate. Other leading Democrats are also calling for a halt to all US arms sales to Israel. Rahm Emanuel – a former Obama aid and mayor of Chicago, and a likely Democrat candidate for the presidency in 2028 – said last month “the days of taxpayers subsidizing Israel militarily, that’s over.”
Netanyahu sees Donald Trump as Israel’s most supportive ever US president. And he knows that there is no guarantee the next man or woman in the White House in less than three years will be as reliable a partner, especially if popular support for Israel continues to drop. He is hoping that transforming Israel from a recipient of US military aid into a partner in defense projects will help improve his country’s image with American voters. But some in the US point out that aid to Israel directly benefits the US, supporting an estimated 20,000 jobs in its defense companies – one reason why President Trump was not immediately supportive of Netanyahu’s idea of ending the military aid program. But now that this issue is firmly in the minds of US politicians, Netanyahu hopes transforming dependency on the US into a defense partnership will help restore Israel’s standing in the US as well as give a boost to Israel’s own defense industry.

Japan, Germany and Zombie Firms: The Quiet Suicide of Socialized Corporations
Drieu Godefridi/Gatestone Institute/May 15, 2026
Both the Japanese and German models, then, had real achievements. Both produced world-class companies and generated admiration. Both, however, also concealed the same poison: the gradual conversion of the private company into a social institution whose first duty is no longer to create value, but to preserve existing arrangements.
A zombie firm protects existing employees, managers, lenders and suppliers. It also occupies labor, capital, land, credit and attention that could have gone to new companies, new technologies and new workers. It saves the visible job today by preventing the invisible job tomorrow.
The company ceases to be a vehicle for creating successful products for the marketplace. It becomes an institution for protecting insiders.
In that world, requiring consensus between all the so-called "stakeholders" is a liability. It causes the purpose of the firm gradually to shift from winning the future to distributing pain as slowly as possible. The American model... retains one decisive advantage: it still allows failure to fail.
In America, companies can fire, pivot, sell assets, enter bankruptcy, restructure, attract new capital, disappoint both shareholders and employees, and start again. The process, while perhaps appearing counterintuitive, is also restorative: it is why capital moves.
The American corporation is not a miniature welfare state. If it cannot compete, its assets can be broken apart and used by someone else. A society that protects its dying firms does not become humane — it becomes a subsidized graveyard of the economically dead.
Germany and Japan will either free their businesses from the socialist myth of entrenched "stakeholders" — or, more and more, they will see their investments disappear in global competition. Both the Japanese and German models of capitalism had real achievements, producing world-class companies and generating admiration. Both, however, also concealed the same poison: the gradual conversion of the private company into a social institution whose first duty is no longer to create value, but to preserve existing arrangements.
Japan, in the 1980s, was supposed to be the future. Its industrial groups, protected by dense networks of banks, suppliers and friendly shareholders, were praised as more patient, more loyal and more strategic than America's purportedly short-term capitalism. Germany, meanwhile, was sold as the humane alternative to Anglo-Saxon brutality: strong unions, worker participation, industrial discipline, export prowess and a "social market economy" that allegedly reconciled capitalism with solidarity.
Both the Japanese and German models, then, had real achievements. Both produced world-class companies and generated admiration. Both, however, also concealed the same poison: the gradual conversion of the private company into a social institution whose first duty is no longer to create value, but to preserve existing arrangements.
The results are now visible. In the IMF's 2025 results, GDP per capita, in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), stands at about $90,000 for the United States, around $74,000 for Germany and only about $57,000 for Japan. The country once imagined as America's replacement is now far behind America. Germany, once Europe's industrial engine, has been flirting with stagnation and contraction: official German data show that GDP rose by only 0.2% in 2025, after two consecutive weak years.
The usual explanations are not false. Japan suffered a monumental asset bubble, then a banking crisis, then demographic aging. Germany suffered the energy shock after 2022, the self-inflicted damage of the Energiewende (a turn toward "renewable energy"), Chinese competition, high labor costs and suffocating bureaucracy.
Regrettably, these explanations do not go deep enough.
The Company That No Longer Belongs to Its Owners
A private company creates jobs, trains workers, pays taxes, supplies customers and sustains communities. These are consequences of its central function, not substitutes for it. Its central function is to allocate capital profitably. If that sounds cold, it is – but it is, in fact, the underlying condition of prosperity.
When profit is treated as morally suspect, the company transforms into something else: a pension office, an employment agency, a regional planning tool, a national prestige project, a union stronghold or a political theater. It may still have shareholders. It may still publish accounts. It may still use the vocabulary of business. But its "business plan" and operating principle have changed. Japan and Germany did not abolish capitalism. They domesticated it. They surrounded it with obligations, customs and veto players until its most important goal — profit — became almost indecent.
Japan: The Price of Harmony
In Japan, socialization took the form of the keiretsu, cross-shareholdings, "main bank" relationships, lifetime employment norms, seniority-based promotion and a corporate culture that often confused loyalty with efficiency.
A recent illustration of the keiretsu system's paralyzing effects is Toshiba's prolonged decline and difficult restructuring in the 2010s and 2020s. Tied to the Mitsui group through historical cross-shareholdings, main-bank relationships, and cultural norms of loyalty and consensus, Toshiba faced massive losses from its U.S. nuclear business (Westinghouse), accounting scandals, and operational inefficiencies. Instead of swift divestitures or bold pivots, the group's emphasis on stability and internal support delayed decisive action. The Mitsui keiretsu's attempt to rescue it ultimately failed, leading to delisting from the stock exchange in 2023 and acquisition by a consortium. Only under new private ownership has Toshiba implemented aggressive job cuts (up to 4,000 domestically) and restructuring —steps that traditional keiretsu mechanisms had long resisted. Economists have long studied Japan's "zombie firms": companies kept alive despite poor productivity and weak profitability, often with the help of banks unwilling to force restructuring. Research on Japan's "lost decades" has linked these firms to broader inefficiencies and deflationary pressures. A zombie firm protects existing employees, managers, lenders and suppliers. It also occupies labor, capital, land, credit and attention that could have gone to new companies, new technologies and new workers. It saves the visible job today by preventing the invisible job tomorrow.
Germany: The Consensus Trap
In Germany, socialization took the form of co-determination (Mitbestimmung): labor councils, supervisory boards with forced labor representation, a political culture hostile to abrupt restructuring, and a legal framework that makes reform expensive, negotiated and slow. The words are different. The outcome is similar. The company ceases to be a vehicle for creating successful products for the marketplace. It becomes an institution for protecting insiders.
A striking illustration of Germany's Mitbestimmung system is visible at Volkswagen Group. Under German law, half of the seats on Volkswagen's 20-member supervisory board are occupied by employee representatives, including powerful union leaders from IG Metall. This structure gives workers significant influence — and often de facto veto power — over major strategic decisions. In today's intense global competition against Chinese electric vehicle makers and other agile rivals, Volkswagen needs to close or drastically downsize several high-cost German factories, reduce its oversized workforce, and accelerate restructuring.
However, Mitbestimmung forces management into lengthy negotiations with the labor council and unions. Any major factory closure, large-scale layoffs, or rapid cost-cutting measure requires union approval or expensive compromises, such as costly early-retirement schemes and job-security guarantees. This co-determination model, while protecting German workers, prevents Volkswagen from taking the swift and painful decisions required in today's hyper-competitive international environment. As a result, the company loses market share, sees its profit margins shrink, and struggles with persistent inefficiencies compared to its faster-moving competitors.
Mitbestimmung was often praised as a civilized compromise between capital and labor. Workers have representation. Management must consult. Decisions are slower, but supposedly wiser. Mediation is institutionalized, therefore conflict is moderated.
There is some truth in this. In periods of stability, the German model can produce high-quality incremental improvement. It is well suited to perfecting a combustion engine, optimizing a machine tool, or coordinating suppliers around an established industrial process.
The world economy, bluntly, no longer rewards only incremental improvement. It rewards speed, software, platforms, integration of artificial intelligence, radical capital reallocation and efficiency.
In that world, requiring consensus between all the so-called "stakeholders" is a liability. It causes the purpose of the firm gradually to shift from winning the future to distributing pain as slowly as possible. When a company must close a plant, abandon a technology, write off an investment or move capital into an uncertain new field, every veto bottleneck matters. Every protected constituency matters. Every negotiated delay matters. Reuters, pointing to high energy costs, weak investment, demographic pressures and low productivity, recently described Germany as "sleepwalking into permanent stagnation." Several major German industrial groups are implementing large-scale job cuts amid the country's prolonged manufacturing crisis. Volkswagen Group, Europe's biggest carmaker, plans to eliminate 50,000 jobs in Germany by 2030 — an escalation from an earlier 35,000-job-cut agreement — following a sharp drop in profits. Bosch, a major automotive supplier, is cutting around 20,000 jobs, primarily in its transportation division, after profits nearly halved last year. In the steel industry, Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe has agreed with unions to cut or outsource approximately 11,000 jobs (about 40% of its workforce) as part of a restructuring that will also slash production capacity by roughly 25%.
These moves reflect broader pressures on Germany's industrial heartland, with the automotive sector alone already shedding over 50,000 jobs in 2025.
America is showing the way forward
The American model is frequently denounced as harsh, unequal, unstable and obsessed with shareholders. Much of this criticism is fair. Some of it is even justified.
The American model, nonetheless, retains one decisive advantage: it still allows failure to fail.
In America, companies can fire, pivot, sell assets, enter bankruptcy, restructure, attract new capital, disappoint both shareholders and employees, and start again. The process, while perhaps appearing counterintuitive, is also restorative: it is why capital moves.
The American corporation is not a miniature welfare state. If it cannot compete, its assets can be broken apart and used by someone else. A society that protects its dying firms does not become humane — it becomes a subsidized graveyard of the economically dead.
Germany and Japan will either free their businesses from the socialist myth of entrenched "stakeholders" — or, more and more, they will see their investments disappear in global competition.
*Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain), philosopher (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain) and PhD in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is an entrepreneur, CEO of a European private education group and director of PAN Medias Group. He is the author of The Green Reich (2020).
© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.

Selected Face Book & X tweets for May 15/2026
Open Source Intel
Israel and Lebanon are nearing a deal in Washington. Phased IDF withdrawal from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah disarmament or significant moves toward it. A CIA-prepared plan for dismantling the group is also on the table.

Barak Ravid
A senior official in the U.S. State Department: "We held a full day of productive and positive talks between Israel and Lebanon, which lasted from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon. We look forward to continuing this tomorrow and hope to have more details to share then."

Nadim Koteich
THE POST-IRAN MIDDLE EAST IS SORTING ITSELF INTO TWO ARCHITECTURES.@narendramodi @MohamedBinZayed
summit today is the most visible signal yet that I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE, US) has crossed from economic forum into security architecture. The Iran war accelerated what diplomacy alone never could.Abu Dhabi brings concrete assets to this architecture: Israel’s Iron Dome now operational on UAE soil, a Hormuz bypass pipeline doubling capacity by 2027, and an OPEC exit that declares full sovereign control over its own energy destiny. Abu Dhabi is also building the digital layer of this architecture. Through the Stargate AI computing infrastructure and the Pax Silica semiconductor alliance, the UAE is positioning itself as the AI infrastructure gateway of the Global South.India brings scale, with 1.4 billion people, the world's fastest-growing major economy, and an urgent need for a Gulf energy partner that controls its own export routes. Meanwhile, a second bloc is consolidating: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt bringing together a mix of nuclear cover, Suez access, NATO membership, and mediation capital from the Iran ceasefire. Two architectures. Two visions of the post-Iran Middle East and Asia. One built on collective weight, mediation and appeasement. One built on infrastructure depth and direct partnerships.
Abu Dhabi chose its lane early, and today's summit is what that choice looks like in practice.

Dr Walid Phares
"Ask an Iranian" Ask all Iranians...One of the major questions raised by Middle East analysts since the start of the ongoing war between the allies the US and Israel and the Islamic regime in Iran, is about the outreach to the Iranian opposition and the partnership between the allies and the Iranian people. One of the major questions continue to be: What do the people of Iran wants from the West. That answer was clarified after 50,000 Iranians were massacred by the regime in January 2026. The people wants the regime out. How do we know it? Iranians are posting, speaking and demonstrating. They want to resist and they want us to help them. We need to speak to them, we need to ask them the question: what do you want us to do for you? Last year two directors #ElliotFeld and #JonathanPottins and an executive producer @GreggHurwitz produced a short film "Ask an Iranian", which has won two prices so far. Hurwitz said: "Ask an Iranian," is a a short doc I made with a great team about foreign PSYOPs from the perspective of those who know best. Islamists fear nothing more than a vocal Iranian telling the TRUTH about the Middle East. This is the real story of the Islamic Republic of Iran as told by 6 Iranian-Americans, unfiltered and with a stark warning for America. I was invited by my partner at Educate America, @GazelleSharmahd , to observe the filming in Los Angeles and meet both old and new friends, including influencer @MatthewNouriel , national security analyst #BejanKiyan , Iranian-American political activist @EYaghoubian, and others. Gazelle, who now serves as Iran Desk Director at the International Freedom Coalition (IFC), also invited me to a major film event in the City of Angels, where the documentary received a special award. Gazelle, Matthew, Bejan, and Elham were prominently featured in discussions about the oppression of Iranian activists, women, youth, and other sectors of society. Particular attention was given to the case of #JamshidSharmahd, whose murder by the regime became a symbol of the brutality faced by dissidents and their families. His daughter, Gazelle Sharmahd, has become one of the leading voices exposing the regime’s crimes. The film is already regarded as one of the strongest Iranian-American documentaries addressing the legacy of the Iranian Revolution and the realities of the current regime. In retrospect, it also served as a warning — foreshadowing the wave of arrests and massacres that shook Iran in early January of this year.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain
CENCTOM Commander Cooper: I do appreciate that you've applauded the Lebanese Armed Forces for their efforts to disarm Hezbollah. While the current effort in conflict has demonstrated the extent to which Hezbollah is rearmed, a strong Lebanese Armed Forces remains the best pathway for Lebanon through which Hezbollah can be disarmed once and for all, and we know that needs to happen. So what can the US do to support the Lebanese Armed Forces to ensure that they have the necessary capacity to disarm Hezbollah, while also holding them accountable?
Taking on the disarmament of Hezbollah is a tall order. They've been funded by Iran for decades with billions of dollars, and Hezbollah is inculcated into every fabric of the Lebanese society. I think right now our continued commitment with modest dollars to the Lebanese Armed Forces is helpful. They have in particular several units who can do more. We have to be, I believe our commitment could be to provide the funding necessary so that they can do more.