English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News &
Editorials
For October 04/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2026/english.october04.26.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens,
to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.Take note, I have told you
beforehand
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 24/23-31: "If
anyone says to you, "Look! Here is the Messiah!" or "There he is!" do not
believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great
signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note, I have
told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, "Look! He is in the wilderness", do
not go out. If they say, "Look! He is in the inner rooms", do not believe it.
For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will
be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will
gather. ‘Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the
powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in
heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see "the
Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven" with power and great glory. And he
will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Titles For The English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related
News & Editorials published on October 03-04/2026
The Maronite Bishops’ Sinful Statement is a Copy of Hezbollah’s
Statements, the Deviation of Joseph Aoun and the Iscariotism of Patriarch Al-Rahi/Elias
Bejjani/October 03/2026
The Annual Feast of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus/Elias Bejjani/October
01/2026
Joseph Aoun: The Diabolical Clone of Michel Aoun and Emile Lahoud/Elias Bejjani/September
30, 2026
The Monthly Meeting of the Maronite Bishops
Aoun: Army, Security Forces Sole Authorities Responsible for Lebanese Security
Negotiation for negotiation's sake': Jumblat warns of 'Lebanese Oslo
Continuous Israeli escalation in the South: Violent raid on Nabatieh al-Fawqa
and artillery shelling and explosions affecting several towns
Huge Israeli explosion targeting a school in Houla.. and violent escalation
extends in the South
Details told for the first time.. What happened inside Hezbollah after
Nasrallah's assassination?
Arrangements for "After UNIFIL": European understandings of around 200 personnel
and tasks focused on supporting the Lebanese Army
Israeli foot and mechanized incursion inside Zouatar al-Sharqiya and explosions
in Al-Mansouri
Raggi and Needham discuss framework agreement and restricting arms to the state
Lebanon's continuous efforts to activate the framework race Israeli escalation -
Vatican and Jordan support Beirut's demands.. explosions and raids in the South
- Fuel prices heading downward.. secret meeting at Camp David discusses Iran and
Houthis
Iran again: Lebanon is an arena and no to negotiation.. Will the State respond
appropriately?!/Lara Yazbeck/Al-Markazia/ 03 October/2026
The indictment in the port crime is around the corner... The lesson is in
executing judgments not in enumerating names and evidence!/Joanna Farhat/Al-Markazia
/ 03 October/2026
Damascus denies Turkey talks with Hezbollah: "Era of militias is over" and
negotiation exclusively with Lebanese state
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on
October 03-04/2026
UAE: Flydubai Co-Pilot Attempted Terrorist Attack
Netanyahu invites ‘true hero’ Indian FlyDubai captain to Israel
First Israeli repatriation flight lands in Tel Aviv after flydubai attack
Report: Suspect in Flydubai Attack was Barred from Flying in Oman
Oil tankers attacked in Hormuz strait
Flights between Iran and Iraq’s Najaf to resume on Sunday, Iraqi state news
agency says
High-Level Security Meeting at Camp David: Trump Administration Weighs Broad
Military Options Against Iran and Yemen
Pakistan Says Makkah Alliance to Discuss Houthi Attacks at Emergency Riyadh
Meeting
Trump's Top National Security Aides Meet Secretly at Camp David on Iran, Yemen,
Axios Reports
US Coast Guard Intercepts Ship Transporting Fuel to Cuba
Iranian UN Delegation Duo ‘Kicked Out’ of US, Says State Dept
Iran Executes Man Linked to Anti-government Protests
Saudi Civil Defense: Houthi Missile Shrapnel Injures Resident, Damages Property
in Aseer
Yemen’s Armed Forces Say It Is Conducting Strikes Against Houthis in Sanaa
Hospital Says 5 People Killed in Gaza
Prime Minister of Iraq: The state has completed its sovereignty and weapons are
subject to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
Israel Targets Top Hamas Leader in Deadly Gaza Strike on Anniversary
Syria Security Incidents Raise Questions Over Who Benefits from Instability
US-Russia talks on Ukraine involve multi-billion dollar oil deal: Report
Russia warns diplomats, foreigners to leave Kyiv over strike threat
Ten injured in Australia as car crashes into crowd north of Sydney
Paris Police: Student Protest Movement Spirals Out of Control
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on October 03-04/2026
They Hate America/Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/October 03/2026
Iran Needs to Reconcile with Itself/Mohammed al-Rumaihi/Asharq Al Awsat/October
03/2026
Zahra Rises in Morocco/Abdel Rahman Shalgham/Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
In Tabuk, humanity and compassion came before politics/Rabbi Marc Schneier/Arab
News/October 3, 2026
German Unity Day: A strong partnership for a shared future/Michael Kindsgrab/Arab
News/October 2, 2026)
Selected Face Book & X tweets on October 03/2026
Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on October 03-04/2026
The Maronite Bishops’ Sinful Statement is a Copy of Hezbollah’s
Statements, the Deviation of Joseph Aoun and the Iscariotism of Patriarch Al-Rahi
Elias Bejjani/October 03/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/10/158051/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxkmClRDWqc
The Bkerke statement… a carbon copy of Hezbollah’s statements!
Whoever reads the erroneous and sinful statement of the Maronite bishops issued
yesterday (October 02, 2026) realizes that there are no longer any notable
differences between the statements, speeches and narratives of Hezbollah and the
approaches of Joseph Aoun and the statements of these bishops and the sermons of
Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi. Same vocabulary, same narrative, same obfuscation,
and same deliberate abandonment of the core issue which is the Christian
existence and the occupation of Lebanon by Hezbollah. The statement of the
Maronite bishops issued yesterday after their monthly meeting in Bkerke, chaired
by Patriarch Al-Rahi, is a scandal in every sense of the word, and a blatant
betrayal of Bkerke’s historic role as a fortress of sovereignty, freedom, and
Maronite existence.
First: Hezbollah’s narrative verbatim in the first clause
The statement begins with a clause that could be a statement issued by
Hezbollah’s media relations office:
“The members of the Council repeatedly denounce the continued Israeli
aggressions against the South and its people. And they call on the international
community to exert efforts for the return of the population to their land and to
support the ongoing negotiations and the process of restricting arms to the
state.”
What Israeli aggressions, Your Eminences?
Israel does not aggress. Israel is responding to Hezbollah’s occupation of
Lebanon and its refusal to implement the Framework Agreement, which clearly and
unequivocally stipulates the disarmament of Hezbollah and the cleansing of the
South, the Bekaa and all of Lebanon from its elements, warehouses and missiles
before any Israeli withdrawal. The use of the word “aggressions” is Hezbollah’s
vocabulary par excellence. Hezbollah, which occupies Lebanon, which refuses to
hand over its weapons, which humiliates the state daily and attacks its rulers
and institutions, and insists on keeping its occupational status above the
constitution and above the law. Why didn’t the statement mention the Framework
Agreement? Why this collusion of silence? Because mentioning the Framework
Agreement means naming the real criminal, who is Hezbollah, and it seems that
Bkerke has decided not to name the criminal, but to adopt its non-Lebanese
discourse. But more dangerous and more painful, the statement did not mention
the Christian villages and towns in the South! Their Eminences did not mention
that these villages are besieged, deprived of aid, their people humiliated at
the checkpoints of the army and Hezbollah, and that the aid convoys that reach
them are subjected to assault, insult and extortion by Hezbollah elements at the
internal crossings set up by the Shiite occupation in the heart of the homeland.
Where are you regarding your flock in Debel, Rmeish, Ain Ebel, Al-Qouzah, Deir
Mimas and others? Are these not Maronites? Is their blood not of your blood?
Second: Obfuscation of the functional massacre against the Maronites
The statement in its fifth clause talks about the Lebanese University and the
file of making contracted professors full-time and preserving balance. What
superficiality and what escapism!
The balance has collapsed in the entire state and not only in the university.
The Shiite duo has been systematically expelling Christians from public
administrations for years and seizing their positions by force of thuggery and
terrorism, positions which are supposed to be divided equally between Christians
and Muslims. And the current Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, a Sunni, completes the
mission and steals what remains of Christian positions for the benefit of
members of his own sect.
We did not uncover this matter; it was uncovered with numbers and documents by
Father Tony Khadra in documented television interviews, and by detailed reports
issued by the Labora Foundation which documents the functional extermination of
Christians in the state.
Where are the bishops regarding this existential file? They turned a blind eye
to it. They acted as if they live in Switzerland, not in Lebanon. As if they
represent a sectarian segment other than the Maronites. A complete, complicit,
shameful silence.
Third: A statement in harmony with those who protect Hezbollah
This flawed statement that abandons the Maronites is a collaborative statement,
indeed fully in harmony with the occupation. And the occupation here is
Hezbollah. It is also in harmony with the positions of the President of the
Republic, Joseph Aoun, who blatantly protects Hezbollah, refuses to implement
the Framework Agreement with Israel, and promotes the same false narrative with
which the bishops’ statement began: “Israeli aggressions”. This is extremely
dangerous. With this narrative you are keeping the occupation and wasting a
historic opportunity to liberate Lebanon. You are giving Hezbollah the Christian
cover it needs to remain, and to continue destroying Lebanon, isolating it,
killing it and displacing its youth. What remains of Bkerke under the
pontificate of Patriarch Al-Rahi, who publicly boasts that he does not read and
that his appetite for food has not changed and that he sleeps soundly 7-8 hours?
Bkerke, which used to scream in the face of the Palestinian and Syrian occupier
and sanctified freedoms and values and protected Lebanon whose glory was given
to it, has today become repeating the statements of the terrorist and Persian
Hezbollah. Bkerke, which was a refuge for the oppressed, has today become
ignoring the oppression of its own Christian people in the South and in the
state administrations.
We say it frankly: This statement does not represent the free, sovereign and
faithful Maronites. This statement represents submission. It represents
surrender. It represents collusion. The bishops and Patriarch Al-Rahi should be
ashamed.
The Annual Feast of Saint Thérèse of the
Child Jesus
Elias Bejjani/October 01/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/10/157998/
Who is Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus whose annual Feast Day falls on October
1st
1- Birth and Early Life
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, was born
on January 2, 1873 in Alençon, Normandy, France. She was the ninth and youngest
child of a holy family: Louis Martin, a jeweler, and Zélie Guérin, a lace-maker.
Both parents were later canonized on October 19, 2008. She lost her mother at
age 4, and her father moved with his five daughters to Lisieux, where she spent
the rest of her life. All five sisters became nuns.
2- Entry into the Carmelite Order – Her Age
From a young age she felt called to Carmel. On May 29, 1887 she asked her father
to enter, but faced refusal from the parish priest, the Bishop of Bayeux, and
the prioress because of her young age. She did not give up. She traveled with
her father to Rome to meet Pope Leo XIII and childishly begged him to allow her
to enter at age 15. The Bishop finally allowed it, and she entered the Discalced
Carmelite convent of Our Lady in Lisieux on April 9, 1888, at only 15 years old,
where three of her sisters had already entered. She received the habit on
January 10, 1889. She made her religious vows on September 8, 1890 – the
Nativity of the Virgin Mary.
3- Her Illness and Healing by the Virgin – “Our Lady of the Smile”
At age 10, after her beloved sister Pauline entered Carmel, she suffered a
serious, mysterious nervous and psychological illness with hallucinations and
severe pain. Doctors could not explain it. Her family prayed fervently before a
statue of the Virgin Mary in her room. As she writes in her autobiography “Story
of a Soul”: On May 13, 1883, Pentecost day, I was looking at the statue of the
Virgin, and finding no help on earth, I turned my whole heart toward my heavenly
Mother and begged her to have mercy on me… Suddenly the Virgin appeared to me so
beautiful, more beautiful than I had ever seen, and she smiled at me with a
tender smile, and immediately the pain disappeared and my health returned. Hence
the Virgin in Lisieux is called “Our Lady of the Smile – La Vierge au Sourire”.
Thérèse called this healing “the grace of the smile of the Queen of Heaven” that
saved her from depression.
4- Her Prayer to the Virgin
Thérèse loved the Virgin with a deep filial love, not seeing her as a distant
Queen but as a close and small mother like herself. One of her most famous
prayers to the Virgin is: “O Mary, O Virgin, O Mother of Jesus and our Mother,
you who with a clear smile deigned to console and heal your daughter, Saint
Thérèse of the Child Jesus from depression, restore to us the smile of life…”
She also wrote a long poem titled “Why I Love You, O Mary”, saying: “You know
that I love you, you who made yourself small to embrace me… More than Queen, you
are my Mother.”
5- Date and Cause of Death
On the night of Holy Thursday to Good Friday in 1896, she suffered a sudden
hemorrhage from her mouth. It was the beginning of pulmonary and intestinal
tuberculosis. She hid her illness and endured terrible pain for months with a
constant smile, experiencing a dark night of faith and spiritual darkness. She
received the Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion for the last time on
August 19, 1897, and died in the convent on September 30, 1897 at 7:20 PM, at
only 24 years old. Her last words were: “My God, I love You!”
6- Miracles
Before her death she promised: “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I
will let fall from heaven a shower of roses.” As soon as her autobiography
“Story of a Soul” was published in 1898 (first edition 2000 copies), letters
poured in from all over the world about miracles through her intercession:
Medically documented cures of incurable diseases, which were the cause of her
beatification and canonization
Sudden conversions of sinners, especially the story of the criminal condemned to
death, Henri Pranzini, who converted before his execution through her prayer
when she was 14
Protection of soldiers in World War I, where French soldiers carried her picture
in the trenches
The appearance of a strong scent of roses as a sign of her presence and
intercession – the most famous sign until today.
7- Date of Canonization by the Vatican
Her cause was one of the fastest in modern Church history:
April 29, 1923: Beatified by Pope Pius XI after two miracles
May 17, 1925: Canonized in Rome by Pope Pius XI himself
1927: Declared by Pope Pius XI as Patroness of the Missions and Missionaries in
the world, although she never left the convent, alongside Saint Francis Xavier.
October 19, 1997: On the centenary of her death, Pope John Paul II declared her
a Doctor of the Universal Church, the third woman to receive this title after
Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena. She is the youngest Doctor in Church
history.
8- Her Characteristics as a Nun and Saint
She did nothing extraordinary in appearance, her holiness was in “The Little Way
– La petite voie”: Childlike Confidence: She lived like a small child in the
arms of a loving Father, trusting blindly in God’s mercy, not His justice.
Absolute Humility: She considered herself a “little flower” only fit to adorn
the altar of Jesus, not a cedar of Lebanon.
Love in Small Things: She washed dishes, smiled at difficult sisters, endured
cold and small humiliations for love of Jesus. She said: “To pick up a pin from
the ground for love of Jesus is an act that saves souls.”
Prayer for Priests and Sinners: She offered her life as a sacrifice of love for
the Church and the world.
Evangelical Simplicity: She taught that holiness is not in great deeds but in
doing small things with great love.
Hence she was called “The Little Flower of Jesus” and “The Flower of Lisieux”.
9- Prayer Through Her Intercession for Peace in the World and for Peace in
Lebanon
Prayer to Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus for Peace
O Little Saint Thérèse, O fragrant rose of Lisieux, you who promised to shower
the earth with roses from heaven, you who lived war in your heart and
transformed every small pain into a prayer of love,
We ask you today on your feast day to intercede for our suffering world.
Look at the wars tearing apart Ukraine, the Holy Land, Sudan and all corners of
the earth, and at the hardened hearts that have forgotten we are all children of
one Father.Teach us your little way: to overcome hatred with a smile, violence
with prayer, and despair with childlike trust. Shower upon us roses of peace,
roses of forgiveness, roses of mercy.
Prayer for Lebanon
Your second homeland, Lebanon, that loves you so much: O beloved Saint of
Lebanon, O patroness of our families and our churches that bear your name from
Jounieh to Souhaila, Bcharre and every village, Intercede for wounded Lebanon.
This homeland that knows suffering like you – illness, war, emigration, fear for
tomorrow. Give its children the smile of the Virgin that healed you, to heal its
despair and depression. Give its youth the hope to stay, its leaders the wisdom
of humility, and its families the peace of the house of Nazareth that your holy
family lived. O Our Lady of the Smile, O Mother of Thérèse and our Mother,
protect Lebanon under your mantle, and make it a land of holiness and peace, as
the saints dreamed. Amen.
Note: The information contained in this study is compiled from numerous
documented ecclesiastical, theological, academic, and media sources.
The author, Elias Bejjani, is a Lebanese expatriate activist
Author’s Email: Phoenicia@hotmail.com
Author’s Website: https://eliasbejjaninews.com
Elias Bejjani
Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
Email phoenicia@hotmail.com& media.lccc@gmail.com
Joseph Aoun: The Diabolical Clone of
Michel Aoun and Emile Lahoud
Elias Bejjani/September 30, 2026
Where was Joseph Aoun on the day he delivered his oath speech, and where is he
today? An exposure and a backward U-turn that has dashed hopes, and a blatant
replication of Emile Lahoud and Michel Aoun.
The Monthly Meeting of the Maronite Bishops
Vatican News / October 02, 2026
The Maronite bishops held their monthly meeting on the second Friday of October
2026 at the Patriarchal Seat in Bkerke, chaired by Patriarch Cardinal Mar
Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, with the participation of the Superiors General of the
Maronite religious orders, and discussed ecclesiastical and national affairs. At
the conclusion of the meeting, they issued the following statement:
1 – The members of the Council repeatedly denounce the continued Israeli
aggressions against the South and its people. And they call on the international
community to exert efforts for the return of the population to their land and to
support the ongoing negotiations and the process of restricting arms to the
state.
2 – The members of the Council followed the work of the United Nations General
Assembly and the positions issued by the Lebanese delegation and the delegations
of friendly countries. And they look forward to a positive, salvific translation
of them in the near future.
3 – The members of the Council record their dismay at the deterioration of the
financial and economic conditions in the country, and its negative repercussions
on the livelihood of citizens, and the exorbitant cost of living, at a time when
job opportunities are declining and the emigration of youth in search of a
better life is increasing. And they call on officials to advance economic reform
and curb corruption and high prices and rationalize tax policy and return
depositors’ funds and not make the Lebanese pay prices they cannot bear.
4 – The members of the Council express their satisfaction with the official
openness between Lebanon and Syria, which promises better relations between
them, on the basis of respect for the sovereignty of each of the two countries.
And they stress the necessity of opening and controlling the borders and dealing
with the movement of people according to the laws, to improve security
conditions, exchange of goods and bilateral economic cooperation.
5 – The members of the Council stress the need to maintain the required national
balance in the file of making contracted professors full-time at the Lebanese
University, in order to achieve fairness and commitment to competency criteria
and other academic criteria. And they ask the Council of Ministers to be
attentive to the requirements of this balance in any appointments or formations.
6 – In the blessed month of the Rosary, the members of the Council, together
with His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, urge all the faithful to recite the Rosary,
placing in the hands of Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, abundant
petitions for peace in Lebanon, the East and the world, accompanying their
prayers with concrete acts of repentance and mercy.
Aoun: Army, Security Forces Sole Authorities Responsible
for Lebanese Security
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said the army and state security forces alone
were responsible for citizens’ security, as Israeli attacks continued across
southern Lebanon and Maronite bishops called for all weapons to be brought under
state control. Aoun made the remarks during a meeting with a delegation from
Deir Mimas, a predominantly Christian town south of the Litani River, where he
reaffirmed the state’s commitment to residents facing Israeli attacks and
displacement. He described the determination of southern residents to remain on
their land as the strongest response to Israeli displacement and intimidation,
pledging continued support for those who stayed in their villages and those
forced to flee. Municipal chief Tania Bernaba welcomed Aoun’s insistence that
weapons remain exclusively in state hands and that decisions on war and peace
rest with its legitimate institutions, particularly the army and security
forces. She outlined the town’s difficult security, economic and humanitarian
conditions, stressing that residents wanted to remain connected to state
institutions and services rather than feel abandoned or isolated. In response,
Aoun expressed solidarity with residents affected by Israeli attacks and pledged
that the state would provide protection and support wherever security conditions
permitted. “The Lebanese army and legitimate security forces will be the sole
authorities responsible for citizens’ security,” he said, describing the state’s
responsibility toward southern residents as a non-negotiable national priority.
He added that political, diplomatic and negotiating efforts were continuing to
halt Israeli attacks, secure a complete withdrawal from occupied territory and
deploy the army to the internationally recognized southern border.
Maronite bishops back negotiations
Aoun’s position was echoed by the Council of Maronite Bishops, which condemned
continued Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon following its monthly meeting in
Bkerke. The bishops urged the international community to help displaced
residents return to their homes, support ongoing negotiations and back efforts
to place all weapons under state control. Meanwhile, several residents of
Nabatieh al-Fawqa entered their town on foot despite Israeli threats, coinciding
with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s visit to Nabatieh.Their return underscored the
determination of southern residents to reclaim their homes, while highlighting
the gap between government efforts to restore normal life and conditions on the
ground, where Israeli threats and military operations continue.
Israeli attacks continue across southern Lebanon
The political statements came amid continued Israeli military operations across
several southern towns, including artillery shelling, airstrikes and
demolitions. Field reports indicated that Israeli artillery targeted Mays al-Jabal,
while troops fired machine guns toward the outskirts of Baraachit and carried
out major demolitions in Beit Lif and Aitaroun, in the Bint Jbeil district.
Israeli aircraft also launched two rounds of strikes on Mansouri, south of Tyre,
where a powerful explosion sent tremors through Tyre and neighboring towns.
In Majdal Zoun, Israeli forces carried out two successive demolitions after
artillery struck Beit Yahoun, Mansouri, Wadi Zibqin and Wadi al-Slouqi at dawn.
Machine-gun fire was also reported toward Hadatha and the outskirts of Baraachit.
Negotiation for negotiation's sake': Jumblat warns of
'Lebanese Oslo
Naharnet/October 03/2026
Lebanon's Druze leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat has warned that the talks with Israel
appear to have entered a cycle of "negotiating for the sake of negotiating,"
where the Lebanese delegation will face new demands in every session.
Accordingly, he advised drawing lessons from the Oslo process and sarcastically
called for "deepening coordination" with the Ramallah headquarters of the
Palestinian Authority. In Oslo, "diplomats observed that with every round of
negotiations, parts of the land were lost and its features altered," Jumblat
noted. "Hence, senior advisors and legal experts must address this strange
paradox to safeguard Oslo and its offshoots in Palestine and Lebanon," a
sarcastic Jumblat added, in a series of posts on his X account. He concluded
that the logical inference from this entire narrative is that the Palestinian
Oslo Accords were "born dead," and that a "Lebanese Oslo" is on its way -- with
"no limits to Israeli demands and ambitions other than further expansion to
seize land and water, alongside the potential establishment of settlements."The
Oslo Accords were a pair of agreements signed in the 1990s between Israel and
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Signed in Washington, D.C. after
secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway the accords allowed the establishment of the
Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-governance over parts
of the West Bank. Critics of the Oslo process argue that it created an endless
cycle of talks on "interim arrangements" without ever reaching a final
resolution on core issues -- such as permanent borders, Palestinian statehood,
the status of Jerusalem, refugees, and Israeli settlements.
Continuous Israeli escalation in the South: Violent raid
on Nabatieh al-Fawqa and artillery shelling and explosions affecting several
towns
Janoubia/03 October/2026
Israeli forces continued their military and aerial escalation on various sectors
of southern Lebanon, where warplanes launched a violent raid targeting the town
of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, coinciding with artillery shelling that hit valleys and
towns in the western and central sectors, and scattered field explosions that
extended into the night hours. Israeli warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft
continued to impose a dense presence violating southern airspace: Raid on
Nabatieh al-Fawqa: Warplanes targeted the town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa with a
violent raid that caused a huge blast in the area. Low-altitude flying and mock
raids: The skies of the western sector and southern regions witnessed intensive
flying of warplanes at very low altitude, during which they released flares and
carried out mock raids to spread terror. Dropping illumination bombs: The
Israeli army dropped illumination bombs at night over the towns of Majdal Zoun,
Al-Mansouri, and their surroundings to expose movements and activate aerial
surveillance. The scope of field and artillery targeting expanded to include
several axes and strategic valleys: Targeting valleys and border villages:
Artillery shelling hit Wadi al-Hujair, as well as Wadi Zebqin and Wadi Hassan on
the outskirts of Majdal Zoun, coinciding with direct shelling targeting the town
of Al-Mansouri in Tyre district, and the vicinity of Zouatar al-Sharqiya and
Mifadoun. Series of graduated explosions: The southern field witnessed huge
explosions inside neighborhoods and towns of Majdal Zoun, Mays al-Jabal, and
Beit Lif. This graduated field escalation, between violent raids, intensive
artillery shelling, explosions and aerial activation, reflects the continuation
of a state of severe tension and high readiness along the border strip and the
southern depth until late at night.
Huge Israeli explosion targeting a school in Houla.. and
violent escalation extends in the South
Janoubia/03 October/2026
Southern towns witnessed today, Saturday, a wide field escalation, including
huge Israeli explosions and violent and continuous artillery shelling, extending
from Houla and Mays al-Jabal and Qantara and Aitaroun to Al-Mansouri and
Tallousa and Bani Hayyan and Wadi al-Hujair and Braasheet, while the sound of a
number of explosions was heard in large areas of the South. Information reported
that Israeli forces carried out an explosion between the towns of Mays al-Jabal
and Houla, before targeting with a huge explosion the Jabal Amel preparatory
school in the town of Houla, followed by another explosion inside the town. In
Al-Mansouri, two very powerful explosions rang out, the echo of one of them
heard in large areas of the South, coinciding with violent and continuous
artillery shelling targeting the town. Artillery shelling extended to hit the
towns of Tallousa and Bani Hayyan, coinciding with targeting Wadi al-Hujair,
while the outskirts of Braasheet were subjected to artillery shelling. In the
same context, an explosion was recorded in the town of Qantara and another in
the town of Aitaroun, while an Israeli drone dropped a sound bomb over Wadi al-Salouqi
from the side of the town of Chaqra. The escalation comes amid continued field
tension in the South, where border towns have witnessed in recent days explosion
operations, artillery shelling and drone flying, amid continued Israeli
operations in several areas of the South. In a separate development, the Israeli
army spokesman announced that 8 soldiers were slightly injured yesterday,
Friday, in a traffic accident between two vehicles in southern Lebanon. The
spokesman said an investigation into the circumstances of the accident is
underway, noting that 6 of the soldiers were evacuated to hospital for
treatment, before they all returned to their homes, pointing out that their
families were informed.
Details told for the first time.. What happened inside
Hezbollah after Nasrallah's assassination?
Janoubia/03 October/2026
MP Hassan Fadlallah, member of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, revealed
details about the phase that followed the assassination of Hezbollah
Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and the role he said Sayyed Hashem
Safieddine assumed during that period, confirming that he immediately took over
leading the field work and managing the transitional phase, which he described
as one of the most difficult phases the party has gone through.
Fadlallah said, during a special episode with Al-Mayadeen channel on the
occasion of the second anniversary of the assassination of Sayyed Hashem
Safieddine, that Sayyed Nasrallah and Sayyed Safieddine were "inseparable in
biography, approach and thought," recalling stations from Safieddine's career
since his return to Lebanon. Fadlallah explained that Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
asked Safieddine to return from his study trip in the Iranian city of Qom, to
begin organizational work inside the party. He pointed out that after his return
to Lebanon, Safieddine headed to the southern front, where he began field and
organizational work. Fadlallah said that "Hezbollah is one leadership with one
methodology and multiple generations," noting that after Nasrallah's
assassination, Safieddine "immediately" took over leading field work. He added
that Safieddine managed, despite intensive Israeli raids, to manage the
transitional phase, considering that the five days separating the assassination
of Nasrallah and Safieddine were "pivotal in the history of Hezbollah."
According to Fadlallah, the resistance remained in the field during that period
thanks to Safieddine's leadership and management of the phase. Fadlallah
revealed that Safieddine initiated the appointment of alternative leaders to
replace the leaders who were assassinated in the resistance apparatus and other
fields, as part of managing the phase that followed Nasrallah's assassination.
Fadlallah described the assassination of Nasrallah and Safieddine as an
"earthquake that struck Hezbollah," but added that this earthquake "did not
bring us down." "Continuing with the will of the two martyrs" – Fadlallah
concluded his talk by affirming that "Hezbollah continues strongly with the will
of the two martyr Sayyeds," adding: "And this is our covenant with all the
martyrs."
Arrangements for "After UNIFIL": European understandings of
around 200 personnel and tasks focused on supporting the Lebanese Army
Janoubia/03 October/2026
Diplomatic discussions are accelerating over shaping the features of the new
phase of security and international arrangements in southern Lebanon as the
deadline for drafting alternatives to the tasks of the international forces (UNIFIL)
approaches. At a time when Beirut and decision-making capitals are heading to
discuss international safe havens guaranteeing stability, the European approach
appears governed by cautious calculations combining France and allied countries'
desire to protect forces and secure UN cover, and the realism of the field that
pushes toward reducing direct deployment in favor of enhancing the capabilities
of legitimate military institutions. In the framework of searching for security
and strategic arrangements for the "post-UNIFIL" phase, information نقلا عن a
political source to newspaper Nidaa Al-Watan indicates that Beirut insists on
the inevitability of an international presence and support to support stability.
In this context, France is leading intensive consultations with a group of
prominent European countries — including Italy, Germany, Spain, and Norway — to
discuss the possibility of launching a "multinational force." Despite ongoing
discussions, no final decisive formula has yet been reached concerning:
The size of the force and its field deployment scope. The nature of its direct
mandate and mechanism of its relationship with the Lebanese Army. Granting
powers: A major aspect of deliberations focuses on granting this force clear and
direct powers — which may reach reliance on Chapter VII of the UN Charter — to
ensure protection of its elements and self-defense, based on lessons from
attacks and pressures to which UNIFIL forces were exposed and political
reservations within the participating European governments. In contrast to the
political discussion about field mandate, a diplomatic source revealed to Nidaa
Al-Watan newspaper the limits and reality of the anticipated European
participation size, pointing to the following dimensions: The ceiling of 200
personnel: Diplomatic estimates suggest that the total European participation in
the event of forming the international force will not exceed the ceiling of 200
personnel. Transformation of mission nature: Stability at this limited number
means in practice that the European force will not be a wide-scale field
deployment force undertaking security and direct tasks on the ground. Focus on
capacity building: The priority of this force will shift toward providing
logistical support, technical training, and raising the operational efficiency
of the Lebanese military and legitimate forces, to be a lever for preparing the
Lebanese Army and enabling it to extend and assume field responsibility
independently.These developments reflect a gradual shift in the international
vision for managing the southern file; the scene moves away from the formula of
traditional international forces of dense size, heading toward more flexible
models focused on supporting the Lebanese Army and enabling it by itself, under
a political and UN umbrella that ensures balance and provides the necessary
international cover to protect borders.
Israeli foot and mechanized incursion inside Zouatar al-Sharqiya
and explosions in Al-Mansouri
Al-Markazia/03 October/2026
Israeli operations continue in the south, and in a notable field development,
photos from the town of Zouatar al-Sharqiya in Nabatieh district showed the
presence of soldiers and an Israeli military vehicle inside a residential area,
amid continued Israeli military movements in the region. The photos show a
number of soldiers moving on foot on a dirt road surrounded by houses and trees,
while another photo documents a tank positioned on the road between buildings.
In a related context, an Israeli Apache helicopter carried out a combing
operation towards the outskirts of the town of Zouatar al-Sharqiya in Nabatieh
district.
An Israeli Apache helicopter carried out a combing operation towards the
outskirts of the town of Zouatar al-Sharqiya in Nabatieh district. After days of
absence, Israeli drone aircraft is flying in the skies of the southern suburb of
Beirut. Israeli forces carried out a number of huge violent explosions in the
town of Al-Mansouri south of Tyre, and white smoke clouds were seen rising in
the vicinity of residential areas. The explosions resulted in tremors and loud
sounds that reached Tyre and villages of the district. Reports of explosion and
burning of houses in Houla were reported. Artillery shelling targeted Tallousa
and Bani Hayyan. A raid targeted the valley on the outskirts of Deir Seryan, and
Israeli warplanes launched two raids on the town of Bani Hayyan - Marjayoun
district. Information reported a raid with a missile that did not explode
towards the town of Qantara, as well as a raid targeting Wadi al-Hujair towards
Qantara. Two raids had targeted Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Mifadoun with concussion
missiles. The Israeli army carried out an explosion operation in the town of
Houla in Marjayoun district, during which it booby-trapped a private school in
the town before blowing it up and destroying it completely.The skies of the
Bekaa witnessed flying of Israeli warplanes at medium altitudes, coinciding with
Israeli artillery shelling targeting the town of Al-Mansouri in southern
Lebanon. In parallel, Israeli warplanes launched a raid in two waves targeting
the town of Kfar Tebnit, at a time when tense field atmospheres continued in a
number of southern areas. In addition, a violent explosion occurred at dawn
today targeting the forest of Beit Yahoun towards Aita al-Jabal. Israeli
warplanes flew at low level in the skies of the eastern sector in the South. In
contrast, Israeli media reported that 5 Israeli soldiers were injured with
varying wounds during the night as a result of an operational accident in
southern Lebanon.
Raggi and Needham discuss framework agreement and
restricting arms to the state
Al-Markazia/ 03 October/2026
Foreign and Expatriates Minister Youssef Raggi wrote on X: "During the meeting
with US Deputy National Security Advisor Michael Needham at the White House,
developments in Lebanon and the region were discussed, especially the framework
agreement and what is related to its implementation, including Israel's
withdrawal from the South and restricting arms to the state."
Lebanon's continuous efforts to activate the framework race
Israeli escalation - Vatican and Jordan support Beirut's demands.. explosions
and raids in the South - Fuel prices heading downward.. secret meeting at Camp
David discusses Iran and Houthis
Al-Markazia/03 October/2026
While the Lebanese state intensifies its movement to prove its seriousness in
returning to the South, militarily and developmentally, and to activate the
framework agreement, and is met with popular welcome clearly shown yesterday in
the reception of the people of Nabatieh for Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, the
positions of Hezbollah clinging to arms on one hand, and Israel's escalatory
practices in the southern field on the other hand, put Lebanon's official option
of negotiation to liberate the land in general and the framework in particular,
to the test. However, it is certain that Washington, the sponsor of direct
negotiations, and Beirut, will not let this path fall, even if its fruits will
not appear before the Israeli elections at the end of this October. Continuous
efforts: Attention is thus directed to the round of Lebanese-Israeli talks that
Tampa - Florida will host between 22 and 24 of this month initially, which
appears will be military only, in light of Tel Aviv's refusal of any political
negotiations currently. Diplomatic sources tell Al-Markazia that more than one
country has entered into efforts to expand meetings to become political and
military, as Lebanon wants. Among these countries, the Vatican which was visited
by the head of the negotiating delegation, former ambassador Simon Karam in
recent hours, and Jordan whose King Abdullah discussed with US Secretary of
State Marco Rubio yesterday the Lebanese file, but no positive breakthrough has
been recorded on this level so far. In parallel, official Lebanon continues its
contacts to secure an alternative to UNIFIL as its mandate in the South nears
its end at the end of this year. Fears of escalation: Meanwhile, fears grow of
an Israeli escalation in the south, the closer the date of the electoral
entitlement in Tel Aviv approaches, and these fears are in place given the
behavior of the Israeli army in the field. In this context, Israeli forces today
carried out a number of huge violent explosions in the town of Al-Mansouri south
of Tyre, and white smoke clouds were seen rising in the vicinity of residential
areas. The explosions resulted in tremors and loud sounds that reached Tyre and
villages of the district. Reports of explosion and burning of houses in Houla.
Artillery shelling targeted Tallousa and Bani Hayyan. A raid targeted the valley
on the outskirts of Deir Seryan, and Israeli warplanes launched two raids on the
town of Bani Hayyan - Marjayoun district. A raid was reported targeting Wadi al-Hujair
towards Qantara. Two raids had targeted Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Mifadoun with
concussion missiles. A violent explosion also occurred at dawn today targeting
the forest of Beit Yahoun towards Aita al-Jabal.
South is priority: In positions, Interior Minister Ahmed al-Hajjar, in a meeting
organized by Democratic Gathering member MP Faisal al-Sayegh, under the
patronage of Progressive Socialist Party head MP Taymour Jumblatt, in honor of
Beiruti figures, considered that Prime Minister Salam's visit accompanied by
ministers to Nabatieh, "comes to confirm the priority of the South in the
government's concerns, and its keenness to provide all capabilities to support
the steadfastness of southerners."
Support and liberation: For his part, Al-Sayegh affirmed "supporting the
negotiation option as long as it leads to liberation of the land and return of
residents and liberation of prisoners and restoration of depositors' money." He
considered that "Salam's visit to the South constitutes a clear signal of
adherence to land and sovereignty," stressing "the necessity of the state's
presence in the South."
Al-Rahi to Rome: On another hand, Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara
Boutros Al-Rahi received in the Patriarchal Seat in Bkerke Minister of
Communications Charles Hajj and it was an occasion to present current
situations. Hajj said in a chat with journalists that he conveyed to Patriarch
Al-Rahi greetings of President of the Republic General Joseph Aoun, wishing him
success in his visit to Rome Sunday. Hajj pointed out that during the meeting
the general conditions in the country were discussed. And he affirmed that "Bkerke,
as a historic reference, has a comprehensive national role," calling to approach
its positions with a spirit of impartiality, commitment and responsibility.
Fuel: In daily life, a piece of good news broke the darkness of the Lebanese's
living situation. The head of the fuel stations owners syndicate Georges Brax
wrote via his page on X: The decision of US President Donald Trump to retreat
from his intention to ban diesel export from America and the decision of the
Group of Seven to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from their
strategic stock during 4 months, will ease pressure on demand in international
markets and push oil and fuel prices to decline, before the US midterm
elections.
By agreement or military action: Trump announced at dawn today that oil prices
will drop as soon as the war the United States is waging against Iran ends. He
said, during a speech he delivered at an electoral meeting in the state of
Alabama, "We are paying a small price compared to the price if Iran obtained a
nuclear weapon." He added "The war with Iran will end very soon with an
agreement or by military action, and Tehran will never possess a nuclear
weapon," noting that part of our problem is that I do not know who I am dealing
with in Iran because there is no one who wants leadership.
Secret meeting: In contrast, developments accelerating on the Houthi-Saudi front
do not seem reassuring, and they may push to American intervention. The Axios
website reported that senior members of President Trump's government held a
secret meeting at the presidential retreat at Camp David to discuss next steps
regarding the war with Iran and the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi
rebels in Yemen. The report indicated that the Trump administration did not
announce this unusual meeting at all. The last time a similar meeting was held
was in June 2025, just days before Israel launched a war against Iran. One
official said - referring to the crisis in the Middle East "Decisions have been
taken or at least in-depth discussions have taken place." The White House
declined to comment.
Terrorist act: Also regionally, and in new investigations into the Fly Dubai
plane incident, UAE Attorney General Hamad Saif Al-Shamsi announced Saturday
that investigations revealed the co-pilot's initiation of carrying out a
terrorist operation. He explained that the co-pilot began implementing his plan
during the flight, where he assaulted the pilot inside the cockpit using the
"emergency axe" and tried to take control of the plane's controls. The UAE
Attorney General confirmed that investigations are still ongoing to uncover all
circumstances of the incident and its motives and associated connections,
besides completing technical examinations and examining material and digital
evidence, provided that final results will be announced upon completion of
necessary procedures.
Iran again: Lebanon is an arena and no to negotiation..
Will the State respond appropriately?!
Lara Yazbeck/Al-Markazia/ 03 October/2026
Al-Markazia - All the positions of Iranian officials confirm that Tehran insists
on considering Lebanon an arena, and that it does not view it as a state that
has a president and a government and a constitution and laws and a sovereign
decision that no other state may or should bypass or override, but rather sees
it as a province subordinate to it, no more and no less, according to sovereign
sources telling Al-Markazia. This was shown again by the recent positions of the
commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Ismail Qaani,
who considered that "the martyrdom of the master of the resistance and a number
of leaders did not prevent the new generation of Hezbollah fighters from
continuing the fight," confirming that this generation "will not leave Israel
alone." The man decided, therefore, that the party will continue to fight
Israel, ignoring all Lebanese decisions that consider the party an illegitimate
organization and ignoring its efforts to turn the page of armed conflict with
Israel and its adoption of diplomacy to reach solutions and settlements. Also,
Qaani said that "the performance of these fighters during the past period led to
targeting about 373 Israeli tanks and troop carriers at the hands of resistance
fighters in Hezbollah," but he forgot that this performance allowed the Israeli
to re-occupy dozens of villages and kilometers in the south with their
displacement and destruction until erasing them from the map. And he considered
that "the belt of defense and independence and pride extending from Afghanistan
to Yemen and from Iran to Gaza and Lebanon in various parts of the Islamic world
should be strengthened," in a position confirming that Iran is clinging to unity
of arenas, and Lebanon is an "arena" of these arenas, and not a state or entity
in itself, in Tehran's calculations. And as Qaani pointed out that "Hezbollah
fought one of its most difficult wars and fought heroically," affirming that "
Israel has not incurred similar losses throughout its history," the sources say
that Lebanon also has not incurred similar losses for decades. Qaani concluded
"At a time when it was promoted that Hezbollah had ended and lost the ability to
resist, its fighters entered the field only two days after the outbreak of the
war and the martyrdom of our great Imam, and continued to fight in a manner that
astonished friends and foes alike," as additional evidence that this war the
party entered at Iran's timing and by its decision and in support of it and
service of its interests, and that it has no relation to Lebanon or its
liberation or protection, neither near nor far.It remains that this blatant
Iranian challenge to Lebanese legitimacy and the Lebanese people comes on the
morrow of a meeting that gathered in New York Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in which the former insisted on opening a
new page between the two states, based on each respecting the sovereignty of the
other, and it comes also after numerous official Lebanese demands to Iran to
stop interfering in Lebanese affairs. But all these appeals did not help, and
here is Qaani mobilizing the party for a third support perhaps..So what will the
Lebanese state do? Will it raise the ceiling of confrontation with Iran via
closing the Iranian embassy for example? Or will it surrender to the Iranian
fait accompli?
The indictment in the port crime is around the corner...
The lesson is in executing judgments not in enumerating names and evidence!
Joanna Farhat/Al-Markazia / 03 October/2026
Al-Markazia - After six years on the crime of the port explosion, features of
dismantling knots and obstacles began to dissipate with investigative judge
Tarek Bitar receiving the submission of the Cassation Public Prosecution
supervised by lawyer Mohammad Saab and consisting of 270 pages. And as has
become known the submission is not binding on the judicial investigator, who has
the authority to assess its content and take what he deems appropriate before
issuing his decision. And this means that margin of judicial delay is still
existing if Bitar sees necessity for additional procedures. Until here one can
bet that the date of issuing the indictment has indeed become around the corner,
except that the real confrontation may begin with the names that the file will
include to give their testimonies to build upon them the required legal
consequence. Lawyer Cecile Roukoz, sister of victim Joseph, says to Al-Markazia,
"The issue is not summarized by names of persons or their political
affiliations, as much as it revolves around knowing the full truth and
determining who caused the killing of victims and destruction of part of Beirut
city. And families await issuance of indictment to know what Judge Tarek Bitar
reached, far from any prejudgments or targeting of a person or entity." Roukoz
adds "Issuance of indictment does not necessarily mean immediate transfer to the
Judicial Council, as it is supposed that judicial steps concerning persons who
did not appear before the judicial investigator, and who delayed appearing
before him, precede that. And here the question concerning the procedure that
Bitar will take regarding them remains open, will he hold sessions to take a
position on them before issuing the decision, or will he include in the decision
itself what he deems appropriate of procedures, including issuing arrest
warrants? And we do not forget that there is the file of persons whom former
Cassation public prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat released and still remains
under anticipation, as families await that Bitar take a clear judicial position
on their situation in light of what investigation concluded. Therefore
importance of this stage lies not in issuance of decisions only, but in their
implementation also, because lesson is in implementation not in talk." In case
of issuance of arrest warrants, the next step becomes linked to Public
Prosecution and judicial police, in terms of referring warrants and executing
them according to اصول. And here, according to Roukoz, will be the real test of
ability of judiciary and state to transform what is issued by judicial
investigator of decisions into actual procedures on ground. Regarding content of
indictment, Roukoz confirms that families of victims do not await accusations
against specific names or parties "we do not want except truth," and it is
supposed that indictment presents a complete judicial narrative of facts,
supported by evidence and reports on which investigation relied, and that it
determines acts and responsibilities that judge concluded, reaching to explain
how dangerous materials reached port, and who is behind them, and why they
remained in hangar number 12, and who knew of their existence and why danger was
not addressed. Strength of indictment lies in justifying evidence and relying on
it not in number of names contained therein because thereby it forms basis for
next judicial stage. But if it appears to families that persons or
responsibilities were not included in procedures despite existence of what
requires that, then we resort to Judicial Council to follow what we deem
necessary within available legal frameworks."
Roukoz concludes "The external path linked to how explosive materials entered
Lebanon, and entities linked to them, still remains in framework of secret
investigation, and what families await is that indictment reveals results of
investigation. And as families of victims I confirm that we do not demand
political judgments nor prejudged accusations, want to know who caused killing
of 233 persons and that judgments be issued by judiciary and be executable."The
next battle in port explosion file may take new forms such as besieging
decision, or questioning its effects, or drowning it in political tug before
reaching Judicial Council hall. And here lies importance of stage according to
legal sources to Al-Markazia. Case no longer awaits only an indictment but
transformed into real test of state's ability to protect this decision, whatever
names will be in it, and let judiciary have its say far from balance of
political forces.
Sources add "If indictment includes responsibilities at political or
administrative or high security level, this indicates its exit from gray zone in
which it remained for many years. And discussion will no longer revolve only
around 'who caused negligence, or who bears political responsibility,' but
around specific acts and criminal responsibilities and persons whose names will
become part of announced judicial path and here politics is expected to
move."With inclusion in indictment of names belonging to presidents of republic
and military leaderships, sources weigh return of issue of immunities and
competences to forefront strongly, and raising questions related to competent
reference for prosecution and limits of judicial judiciary competences.
Therefore, next stage appears closer to battle around content of decision and
its effects, more than battle to prevent its issuance" sources conclude.
Damascus denies Turkey talks with Hezbollah: "Era of militias is over" and
negotiation exclusively with Lebanese state
Janoubia/ 03 October/2026
[Same as previous report – translation as above] The Syrian presidency
categorically denied any contacts or talks with Hezbollah, placing reports that
spoke about a direct meeting between the two parties in Turkey in the category
of "incorrect allegations." Damascus confirmed that its official and political
approach toward the Lebanese file is based on direct dealing with the Lebanese
state and its legitimate institutions exclusively, announcing a rupture with
previous formulas of dealing outside the framework of the state. The media
advisor to the Syrian presidency, Ahmed Mowafaq Zeidan, said in press statements
that reports talking about contacts with Hezbollah are "completely devoid of
truth," considering that stakeholders stand behind spreading this news. Zeidan
explained dimensions of Syrian position noting that Syria "previously paid the
price of rapprochement with militias outside the framework of the Lebanese
state." Zeidan asserted that "the era of militias has ended and has no place in
the current equation," affirming that any Syrian negotiating or political path
with the Lebanese side "is with the official state and its institutions, not
with any militia." This comes after an official denial published by the Syrian
government in English via platform X, refuting details of the alleged meeting.
The strict position from Damascus came in response to a report published
Thursday in which Reuters, citing six informed sources, claimed direct talks
between representatives of Syrian government and Hezbollah in Turkey during
September, allegedly to reduce tension between the two sides, which the agency
then described as first announced meeting of its kind. These political and media
controversies come amid continued security and military tension between Damascus
and Hezbollah against background of sensitive files inside Syria where Syrian
authorities announced arrest of a security cell in southern Syria, confirming it
belongs to Hezbollah and was working to prepare platforms for launching rockets
from inside Syrian territory. In contrast, Hezbollah issued a statement denying
any connection to the mentioned cell, reaffirming that it has no weight or
security and military activity inside Syrian territory. The decisive position of
the Syrian presidency reflects a structural shift in Damascus's regional
strategy; it seeks to disavow side understandings with non-governmental forces,
and consolidate exclusive dealing with official institutions of states, which
doubles isolation of armed factions and redraws rules of relationship between
Damascus and Beirut through legitimate channels only.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on October 03-04/2026
UAE: Flydubai Co-Pilot Attempted Terrorist Attack
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
The United Arab Emirates Attorney-General said investigations into the incident
aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 revealed that the co-pilot attempted to carry out
a terrorist act, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported on Saturday. The
co-pilot began executing his plan during the flight, attacking the captain
inside the cockpit using a crash axe and attempting to take control of the
aircraft, the Attorney-General added. He assured that investigations are ongoing
to establish the full circumstances, motives, and any links related to the
incident, as well as to complete technical examinations and analysis of physical
and digital evidence. The final results will be announced upon the conclusion of
all necessary procedures, he assured. The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv came
close to disaster on Wednesday morning when the attacker stabbed the captain.
Passengers told interviewers that the captain, who was seriously wounded,
managed to open the cockpit door, allowing a group of passengers and crew
members to overpower the attacker. Two reserve pilots who were also on board
then managed to regain control of the aircraft, stabilize it, and land safely.
Netanyahu invites ‘true hero’ Indian FlyDubai captain to
Israel
AFP/October 3, 2026
TEL AVIV: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday invited to Israel as a
guest of honour the Indian captain of a Tel Aviv-bound FlyDubai flight who
offered a dramatic account of how he saved the plane after being attacked.
Netanyahu said he wanted Captain Smit Machchhar and Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, one of Israel’s key international partners, to light a flame at a
national ceremony for Israel’s Independence Day next May, saying the role was
usually reserved for Israeli citizens.“You are a true hero of the brave peoples
of India and Israel and you are a hero of the entire world,” Netanyahu said in a
video his office released of his telephone conversation with the hospitalised
captain.UAE investigators have said that the co-pilot planned the “terrorist
act” by attacking Machchhar with an axe.
Asked how the attack unfolded, Machchhar said the co-pilot had asked to take
time to pray, as devout Muslims do five times a day. “A lot of locals, they do
pray, which is not out of the ordinary. While he was praying, out of respect, I
was just looking at the front and not at the back,” Machchhar said. “Suddenly
after I think I would say about four to five minutes, there was a big blow to
the back of my head. My first thought was that there was catastrophic damage to
the aircraft and something is not right. “But then after that the blows kept
coming one after the other. That’s when I realised that it’s not the aircraft,
it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me.”While saying his memory was
not entirely clear due to his injury, Machchhar said he managed to pull open the
cockpit door “but I think he shut it back closed.” “I had that one last fight
left in me,” Machchhar explained, saying he knew he faced certain death if not.
“That’s when I pushed against everything. I gave everything that I had and just
went for the door and opened the door and thankfully people were waiting.”
First Israeli repatriation flight lands in Tel Aviv after
flydubai attack
Agence France Presse/October 03/2026
The first flight carrying Israelis home from the United Arab Emirates after
services were suspended following the flydubai attack landed in Tel Aviv early
Saturday, according to Israel's airport authority website. The arrival, which
Israeli media called a repatriation flight, came after Wednesday's drama aboard
a Dubai-Tel Aviv route that officials say narrowly avoided catastrophe. During
the flydubai incident, the jet's Indian captain was assaulted by his co-pilot
but he managed to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to
overpower the attacker and force an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates are investigating the attack and have
yet to determine the assailant's motive, although Israeli and US leaders have
suggested links to Islamist extremism or Iran. Saturday's repatriation flight,
operated by Israeli carrier Arkia, arrived from Dubai at Ben Gurion Airport
shortly after 1:00 am local time (2200 GMT Friday), according to the airport's
online arrivals list. The Arkia flight took off from Dubai on Friday, becoming
the first Israeli-operated flight to depart the Emirates since flydubai halted
its Israel route and El Al cancelled scheduled flights intended to bring
Israelis home.
Report: Suspect in Flydubai Attack was Barred from Flying in Oman
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
The co-pilot accused of attacking the captain of a flydubai flight to Israel had
previously been barred from flying in Oman over concerns about his extremist
views, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The WSJ said that Omani
authorities had banned the pilot from flying over concerns he had adopted
radical ideological views, citing people familiar with the matter. The sources
said Flydubai later hired the pilot, allowing him to operate flights on the
route between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. It was not immediately clear
whether Oman had shared its concerns about the pilot’s extremism with other
countries or airlines. There was also no information about the nature of the
views that led to him being described as an extremist. UAE authorities are
leading the investigation into the incident. A UAE government spokesman declined
to comment on the attacker’s record in Oman, saying it would be inappropriate to
“preempt the findings of the investigation or influence its course.”Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday described Wednesday’s incident, in
which a Flydubai plane came close to being brought down, as a terrorist act. He
said the attacker “came with the intention of bringing down the plane with
everyone on board.”Aviation security analysts said the incident represented a
major security failure. While a lapse in screening procedures may have allowed a
weapon to get through, they said, an attacker with such motives should have been
identified and stopped long before reaching the airport. Netanyahu said Israel
was investigating whether the pilot had carried out the attack alone or had been
acting in coordination with others. The captain and co-pilot are being
investigated in the UAE after being transferred there on Thursday from Tabuk,
where the plane made an emergency landing. Israel hopes to be able to question
the attacker.The flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv came close to disaster on
Wednesday morning when the attacker stabbed the captain. People who were on
board told interviewers that the captain, who was seriously wounded, managed to
open the cockpit door, allowing a group of passengers and crew members to
overpower the attacker. Two reserve pilots who were on the flight then managed
to regain control of the aircraft, stabilize it and land safely.
Oil tankers attacked in Hormuz strait
Agence France Presse/October 03/2026
Two oil tankers have been struck by "unidentified projectiles" in the Strait of
Hormuz region, a British maritime agency said Friday, in the latest threat to
shipping in the waterway. The Hormuz passage, through which a fifth of the
world's oil and LNG passed before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against
Iran in late February and sparked the Middle East war, remains at the heart of
the conflict. Tehran has been blocking the passage of commercial ships, firing
on vessels it accuses of unauthorised crossings. Washington responded with a
counterblockade of Iranian ports in an effort to prevent Tehran from exporting
its oil. The first attack caused "a small fire and blackout onboard", the UK
Maritime Trade Operations agency said Friday, adding that the fire was later
extinguished. There were no reported casualties or environmental impact, it
added. The vessel, which was exiting the strait, was able to resume its journey,
UKMTO said, without specifying the ship's ports of origin and destination. Hours
later, another crude oil tanker reported being struck by an "unknown projectile"
east of Oman, with all crew safe and no environmental damage reported, according
to the UKMTO. The agency said authorities were investigating the incidents.
Flights between Iran and Iraq’s Najaf to resume on Sunday,
Iraqi state news agency says
Reuters/October 03/2026
Iraq’s Najaf International Airport will resume flights to and from Iran from
Sunday, with three evening flights scheduled, Iraq’s state news agency cited the
airport as saying on Saturday.Iraq said on Friday a US waiver would allow
Iranian airlines to operate up to 40 daily flights to and from Najaf, excluding
Mahan Air.
High-Level Security Meeting at Camp David: Trump Administration Weighs Broad
Military Options Against Iran and Yemen
Janoubia / October 3, 2026
In an unannounced move reflecting the sensitivity of the current phase and the
gravity of the options on the table, senior officials in U.S. President Donald
Trump’s administration held a previously undisclosed, high-level security
meeting at the Camp David retreat. The hours-long session focused on future
courses of action regarding the confrontation with Iran and developments in the
Yemen conflict, according to a report by *Axios* citing three U.S. officials.
The meeting carried significant strategic implications given the participants
and the timing: Secrecy and Timing: The report described the lack of an official
announcement as "unusual," noting that the last meeting of such a high level and
secrecy took place in June 2025—just days before the outbreak of military
hostilities between Israel and Iran. Level of Representation: The meeting was
chaired by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and attended by Secretary of State
Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, CIA
Director John Ratcliffe, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan
Kane. Pivotal Decisions: The site quoted an informed official confirming that
the meeting resulted in decisions on specific issues and involved in-depth
discussions regarding upcoming strategic steps. This intelligence and military
activity unfolds against a backdrop of political deadlock and escalating direct
threats from the United States: Negotiations at an Impasse: These intensive
meetings coincide with a dead end in talks, occurring as Trump weighs the option
of resuming large-scale military operations against targets inside Iran. A Stern
Warning from Trump: The situation is compounded by Trump’s uncompromising
statements, in which he presented Tehran with a stark ultimatum: "Now I have to
make a decision: either Iran signs the deal, or it will cease to exist." The
Camp David meeting reflects the regional crisis sliding into a critical phase;
the high level of secrecy and the caliber of attendees suggest that Washington
is finalizing decisive military and political options that could redefine the
rules of engagement with Tehran and its regional allies in the period ahead.
Pakistan Says Makkah Alliance to Discuss Houthi Attacks at
Emergency Riyadh Meeting
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
Pakistani Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar announced that the Strategic
Political and Defense Committee of the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement between
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye will hold an emergency meeting in Riyadh next
week to discuss Houthi attacks on the Kingdom. Speaking at a press conference on
Friday, Dar said the committee would determine the next steps at the meeting,
adding that more than six countries had expressed interest in joining the Makkah
alliance, according to Reuters. In a statement carried by Reuters on Friday, the
Pakistani military said its senior commanders had strongly condemned the Houthi
attacks on Saudi Arabia, expressed solidarity with the Kingdom and reaffirmed
their commitment to the security of Islam’s holy sites. The Makkah Joint Defense
Agreement, signed on Aug. 7 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif,
stipulates that an armed attack against any one of its signatories shall be
considered an attack against all three.Any joint military response is subject to
an assessment by the member states, particularly the country under attack,
taking into account the need for such action, the nature and severity of the
attack, the level of threat and the contributions required from each party to
achieve the intended integration of their efforts. Istanbul hosted the first
meeting of the agreement’s Strategic Political and Defense Committee on Aug. 31,
bringing together the foreign and defense ministers and military chiefs of staff
of Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan. During the meeting, the three countries
reaffirmed their determination to work together under the Makkah agreement to
achieve sustainable peace and stability in their region and continue supporting
efforts to promote de-escalation and restraint. They encouraged peaceful
solutions to crises in line with their commitment to fulfilling their regional
responsibilities. The three countries’ foreign ministers subsequently met in New
York on Sept. 24 to review progress toward establishing the agreement’s general
secretariat, committees and working groups, as well as preparations for the
launch of their activities. The ministers also condemned attacks targeting
Makkah and civilian and economic facilities in Saudi Arabia, stressing the
Kingdom’s right to take whatever measures it deemed appropriate to defend its
security under Article 51 of the UN Charter.On Sept. 25, the three countries’
military chiefs of staff met in Riyadh to review the security situation and
attacks against Saudi Arabia. They condemned the strikes targeting Makkah and
the Kingdom’s civilian and economic infrastructure. Participants also discussed
ways to further strengthen cooperation among their armed forces, develop
intelligence cooperation, enhance military coordination and integrate their
capabilities to bolster deterrence and collective defense.
Trump's Top National Security Aides Meet Secretly at Camp David on Iran, Yemen,
Axios Reports
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
US President Donald Trump's top cabinet members met secretly at the
presidential retreat at Camp David to discuss next steps in the Iran war
and the Houthi conflict in Yemen, Axios reported on Friday.Vice President
Vance chaired the meeting, the news outlet reported, citing people familiar
with the matter. The Trump administration did not announce the unusual meeting.
The last time a similar meeting was held was in June 2025, just days before
Israel launched a war against Iran. Other participants included Secretary of
State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House envoy Steve
Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Gen. Dan Caine. Referring to the crisis in the Middle East, one official said
that one or more decisions were made, or at least there were in-depth
discussions. With negotiations stalled, President Trump is considering resuming
major combat operations against Iran.
US Coast Guard Intercepts Ship Transporting Fuel to Cuba
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
The US Coast Guard said Friday it had intercepted a ship transporting oil to
Cuba in violation of a US oil blockade imposed in January, said AFP. "In early
September, a Coast Guard tactical team boarded M/V Grace in the Caribbean Sea"
as it was "transiting to Cuba, carrying fuel," a Coast Guard statement said. The
vessel "was believed to be employing tactics common amongst the 'dark fleet,'"
the statement said. The term describes ships that transport sanctioned or
high-risk commodities while concealing their origin, ownership and destination,
per the International Maritime Rescue Federation. The Grace was then escorted to
the port of Progreso, in eastern Mexico, where the Mexican navy "confirmed the
presence of large quantities of fuel in the vessel's ballast tanks," the Coast
Guard statement said. Earlier this summer, the Coast Guard boarded and detained
the Jaira Provider, "another substandard vessel determined to be carrying
illicit fuel to Cuba," it said. Relations between Washington and Havana have
worsened since President Donald Trump returned to power in January 2025. The
Republican leader says the Communist island located just 150 kilometers (90
miles) from Florida represents an extraordinary threat to the United States.
Since January, Washington has imposed a de facto oil embargo on the island of
9.4 million people, plunging the country into a deep economic and energy crisis.
Iranian UN Delegation Duo ‘Kicked Out’ of US, Says State
Dept
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
The United States has "kicked out" two members of the Iranian delegation who
attended the recent UN General Assembly after they ignored an order to leave the
country, the State Department said Saturday. "Two more members of the Iranian
delegation were found still in (New York) long after the United Nations General
Assembly had passed. They have now been kicked out of the US," a US official
told AFP, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio "means business." US media
reported the State Department had told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi
and his delegation to leave the country Monday and resorted to expelling the two
members after learning from the Iranian mission to the UN they remained in the
country on Friday. One member of the delegation left Friday night, while the
second departed Saturday morning, according to Axios. US and Iranian officials
had met the week prior in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
US President Donald Trump had rejected a proposal from Tehran to reopen the
Strait of Hormuz, but told US media he expected talks to resume in the coming
days. Iranian state news agency IRNA reported that Tehran had no more direct
talks scheduled with Washington.
Iran Executes Man Linked to Anti-government Protests
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
Iran said Saturday it had executed a man convicted of a raft of charges
including firing a military-grade weapon at police officers during
anti-government protests earlier this year. Siavash Jamshidi was accused of
targeting security personnel during mass demonstrations that peaked in January
in which thousands of people were killed, said AFP. Since that time, Iranian
authorities have stepped up executions of convicts linked to the unrest. "Jamshidi
was sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh through brandishing and firing a
firearm, as well as conspiracy and collusion against national security," Iran's
judiciary said, using the legal term moharebeh to mean "waging war against God".
The judiciary's Mizan Online website said he was also found guilty of offences
not related to the protests, including "fraud, making threats, theft, possession
and carrying of an illegal military-grade weapon". Other charges included
"complicity in kidnapping, brandishing a weapon to intimidate, and intentional
infliction of bodily harm".Mizan said Jamshidi was "active" during the
demonstrations, which were sparked in December last year by grievances over
living costs in Iran, but peaked on January 8 and 9 with huge rallies. Iranian
authorities reported more than 3,000 deaths in the unrest, attributing the
violence to "terrorist acts" orchestrated by the United States and Israel.
Foreign-based NGOs however maintain that Iranian security forces fired on
protesters. US President Donald Trump threatened at the time to intervene
militarily in Iran. Weeks later in late February, the United States and Israel
launched a joint attack on the Iranian republic, triggering the Middle East war.
Since then, arrests and executions have multiplied in Iran, linked both to the
war and the protests. In 2025, Iran executed at least 1,639 people, the largest
number in any year since 1989, according to the NGOs Iran Human Rights and
Together Against the Death Penalty.
Saudi Civil Defense: Houthi Missile Shrapnel Injures
Resident, Damages Property in Aseer
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
Saudi Arabia's General Directorate of Civil Defense stated that Civil Defense
teams in Ahad Rafidah Governorate, Aseer Region, responded on Friday, October 2,
to falling shrapnel from a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi
militia following its interception and destruction. The falling shrapnel injured
an Asian expatriate resident and caused material damage to a prayer room inside
a building, as well as several civilian vehicles, the Saudi Press Agency said.
Approved emergency procedures were immediately implemented at the site.
Yemen’s Armed Forces Say It Is Conducting Strikes Against
Houthis in Sanaa
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
Yemen's armed forces said early on Sunday it was conducting strikes against the
Iran-aligned Houthis in the capital Sanaa and the group's stronghold Saada. A
spokesperson for Yemen's armed forces, which are aligned with the legitimate
government, said forces were targeting "vital targets", without providing
further details. The conflict between the Iran-backed Houthis and forces
aligned with the government mostly stopped after a 2022 truce, but fighting
has broken out again in a spillover from the wider war between Iran and the
United States. Hostilities resumed this year after the Houthis escalated
attacked in Yemen, making major territorial gains along the Red Sea coast.
Earlier, government forces broke a new wave of Houthi attacks targeting the
western front of the city of Taiz and forced the attackers to retreat. This
coincided with a broad escalation in air and artillery targeting operations that
struck the group's positions, reinforcements, and supply lines across various
fronts in the governorate. The Iran-backed Houthi group has been exerting
pressure for more than two weeks in an effort to encircle the city of Taiz from
the south by seizing control of its countryside and isolating it from the
liberated Yemeni regions toward Lahij and Aden. It has also been trying to
consolidate its gains in the West Coast and Bab al-Mandab regions by taking
control of the highlands. Armed Forces spokesperson Colonel Majid Al-Nuzaili
said that the forces carried out 71 precise operations against Houthi
gatherings, mobilizations, and reinforcements in the areas of Al-Aqrud, Samea,
Al-Ahkoum, Al-Akboosh, Jabal Rasen, Jabal Jardad, Bani Omar, Bani Bakari, Al-Kaawish,
and Al-Athawir. He added that the operations resulted in the destruction of a
number of hostile transport and support vehicles and the neutralization of
militia elements, repelling their advance.
Hospital Says 5 People Killed in Gaza
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
Israeli strikes overnight in Gaza killed five people, according to al-Shifa
Hospital, where the casualties were taken. Four women were among the dead. A
mother and daughter among them were Christians, a minority in Gaza, the hospital
said, A large fire burned at the site, where the strikes tore a gaping hole in
the ground floor of a multistory building. The hospital said people were still
reported missing beneath the debris. Israel's military did not immediately
comment, saying it was checking for information. Israeli strikes have killed at
least 1,439 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached with the Hamas
militant group nearly a year ago, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
Its figures are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent
experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants. Israel says it
is targeting Hamas and other militants who pose a threat, and in response to
ceasefire violations, including occasional attacks.
Prime Minister of Iraq: The state has completed its
sovereignty and weapons are subject to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces
Al Arabiya.net and agencies/October 3, 2026
The Prime Minister of Iraq, Ali Al-Zaidi, confirmed on Saturday that the state
has completed its sovereignty and that weapons are subject to the
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Al-Zaidi explained that Iraq will move,
with the unity of its people, from confronting crises to building the future,
and that "the greatest thing we need is to preserve our unity in a homeland that
accommodates everyone." While he stated that his government will continue to
fight corruption, protect public funds, and strengthen preventive oversight,
adding that the state has completed its sovereignty with the end of the
international coalition’s military mission, and today it is a country that owns
its decision and protects its land and sky, and weapons in it are subject to the
Commander-in-Chief. Al-Zaidi had set June 30, 2027, as a deadline to end the
file of confiscating the weapons of groups close to Iran in the hands of the
Iraqi state, in an announcement that came the day after the end of the mission
of the international coalition led by Washington to fight armed groups. Al-Zaidi
said, "October 1, 2026 is a serious beginning to address the issue of weapons
outside the control of the state, and commitment to constitutional entitlements,
in accordance with a clear road map and agreed-upon timetables that do not
exceed June 30, 2027, and in accordance with the constitutional principle of
leaving the decision on war and peace to the constitutional authorities, and
preventing any military action otherwise." Continuing, "The government will
work, in accordance with the constitution, to completely disarm all non-Iraqi
armed groups present on Iraqi territory, in a way that preserves the country's
security and stability and controls its borders."
Israel Targets Top Hamas Leader in Deadly Gaza Strike on Anniversary
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
Israel said on Saturday that it attempted to kill Hamas's top leader in the Gaza
Strip in an airstrike on an apartment that local officials said killed five
people, four of them women.The pre-dawn strike came on the anniversary according
to the Jewish calendar of the October 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest-ever day for
Israel which retaliated with a devastating offensive in Gaza. The Israeli
military said it aimed to kill Ali al-Amoudi, describing him as the "right-hand
man" of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar and saying he was involved in planning
the October 7 attack. Israel said it was reviewing whether it killed or injured
him.
It said it targeted him after learning that he was inside an apartment building,
saying it showed that Hamas was using civilians as human shields."Today, al-Amoudi
is the most senior Hamas figure in the Gaza Strip and is directly involved in
Hamas's terror activities and in rebuilding the organization for war. The
terrorist was struck in order to remove the threat," a military statement said.
"Steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise
munitions," the military said, adding it "regrets any harm caused to uninvolved
individuals". Israel killed Sinwar in Gaza in October 2024, in what many
Israelis saw as a major symbolic victory, although Israel has vowed to keep
destroying Hamas even since a US-brokered ceasefire was declared a year ago.
Amoudi is considered Hamas's top person in the Gaza Strip. The movement's leader
Khalil al-Haya lives in Qatar and has tried to maneuver diplomatically to
Hamas's advantage. Haya agreed in July to a US plan for Hamas to give up its
weapons, in what President Donald Trump hailed as a breakthrough but Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as insincere. An official at Gaza
City's Al-Shifa hospital told AFP it received at dawn the bodies of five people
and a number of injured following an airstrike in the Rimal neighborhood. It
said the dead were two women and their daughters, as well as a man. Mahmoud
Bassal, the spokesman for the civil defense agency which operates as a rescue
force under Hamas authority, said two missiles directly hit the apartment,
causing a fire and damaging the building. Mourners gathered later on Saturday at
the small Greek Orthodox church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City for the funeral
of the two women, identified as 56-year-old Maysaa Abu Daoud and her 36-year-old
daughter Mary Al-Najjar. Ihab Ayad, a relative of the women, said that they had
been "minding their own business" at home when Israel carried out the strike.
"We didn't hurl stones or fire rockets. If any child among us carries a stone,
they call him a terrorist, a murderer. But they possess the most powerful
arsenal and destroy everything," he said. The Hamas-led October 7 attack killed
1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. The
massive Israeli offensive in response has left most of Gaza in ruins and killed
more than 74,200 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, which is under
Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
Israeli forces have killed more than 1,440 people since the announcement of the
ceasefire a year ago, according to Gaza's health ministry. The Israeli military
has identified five deaths in its ranks over the same period, as well as the
death of one civilian contractor.
Syria Security Incidents Raise Questions Over Who Benefits from Instability
Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
A series of security incidents across Syria in recent days raised concerns over
attempts to undermine the authorities and spread instability as Damascus
struggles to restore security and revive its economy. The latest incident
involved an attack on a bus carrying electricity company employees on the Masyaf
Bridge in Homs, leaving several people dead and wounded. It coincided with an
explosion on a gas pipeline supplying the Tishreen thermal power plant in the
Damascus countryside, knocking three power generation stations out of service
and affecting drinking water networks. Two days earlier, an explosion struck a
gas pipeline in eastern Syria, while an assassination attempt targeted a Defense
Ministry officer in al-Sanamayn, in Daraa province. Unlike previous incidents,
which occurred at relatively long intervals, the latest episodes unfolded within
days of one another. Their timing is particularly sensitive as Syrian
authorities face mounting economic pressure while seeking to restore stability,
attract reconstruction investment and transform the country into a strategic
energy corridor linking Arab states to Türkiye and Europe, amid disruptions to
shipping through the Strait of Hormuz caused by the US-Iran confrontation. A
Syrian security source declined to comment on the situation. Asharq Al-Awsat
spoke to two security and military experts about who might benefit from
weakening the authorities and spreading chaos.
Who Stands to Benefit?
Syrian strategic security and military expert Ismat al-Absi described the
incidents as a deliberate pattern of sabotage rather than isolated events. Their
occurrence within a single week was neither coincidental nor random, he told
Asharq Al-Awsat, describing them as a systematic campaign targeting vital
infrastructure and portraying the state as incapable of protecting citizens’
most basic rights. He suggested the primary objective was psychological:
convincing Syrians that nowhere in the country was safe and that the new
authorities had yet to establish effective control beyond major urban centers.
Al-Absi identified ISIS sleeper cells as potential beneficiaries, arguing that
exposing government security failures could help the group rebuild its
clandestine network and recruit new members. Remnants of the former regime and
their financial and military networks also had an interest in perpetuating
instability, he argued, citing their knowledge of vital installations,
familiarity with former security procedures and financial resources accumulated
through years of corruption. He said such networks could establish small armed
cells, sabotage infrastructure and assassinate officers involved in the
political transition or pursuing Assad-linked networks. Al-Absi also identified
Israel as having an interest in keeping Syria militarily weak and divided, while
Iran, despite losing its former influence, retained influential networks,
particularly along the Syrian coast. Arms and drug traffickers were another
potential beneficiary, he added, as weak security allowed cross-border smuggling
routes through Türkiye, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to remain profitable. Rather
than a single perpetrator, he described an intersection of interests that stood
to gain directly from instability.
Five Simultaneous Priorities
Al-Absi proposed five parallel measures, stressing that security solutions could
not be separated from political, economic and institutional reforms. The first
was completing the process of bringing all weapons under state control. The
second involved building an effective intelligence apparatus free of corruption,
addressing what he described as fragmentation and poor coordination among
existing agencies. Third, he called for tackling the economic crisis fueling
violence, citing unemployment exceeding 40 percent in some provinces and incomes
below the poverty line. He proposed reviving small and medium-sized businesses
in marginalized areas, creating temporary jobs through public works programs and
ensuring basic services reached rural communities where economic and cultural
deprivation contributed to the spread of radical ideas. His fourth priority was
inclusive national dialogue. According to al-Absi, Syria’s communities viewed
the transition through different fears: Druze concerns over central domination,
Alawite memories of the March 2025 coastal violence, Sunni demands for
safeguards against renewed authoritarian rule and Kurdish aspirations to
preserve administrative gains in the northeast.
He advocated an elected constituent assembly representing all communities to
draft a new constitution, alongside genuine administrative decentralization and
clearly defined provincial financial powers.Al-Absi believes that the fifth path
lies in maintaining transparent communication with the public. Official silence
surrounding explosions and assassinations fueled conspiracy theories and fear,
he argued. Citing the Sept. 21 explosion at an ammunition depot in al-Eis, south
of Aleppo, he urged authorities to disclose whether poor storage was responsible
or explain measures taken if internal security breaches were suspected. He also
called for professional state media focused on providing information rather than
propaganda. Syria had a historic opportunity to rebuild, he argued, but needed
swift, measurable decisions and tangible results within months rather than
years, stressing that legitimacy was earned through actions, not slogans.
Swift, Precise Response Needed
Syrian political and security researcher Diaa Qaddour agreed that the country’s
multiple security challenges required urgent action. “When these challenges
converge, the situation becomes more complicated, requiring a more precise and
faster response,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat. Qaddour cautioned that the recent
incidents might or might not be connected. He pointed to Syria’s sensitive
circumstances following its removal from sanctions and terrorism lists,
alongside threats from ISIS and strained relations with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and
Iranian militias in Iraq. The proliferation of weapons and opposition to the
country’s political changes further complicated the domestic security landscape,
he added. Although these factors appeared separate, Qaddour argued that
collectively they served one overarching objective: weakening the government and
frustrating its efforts to establish security and stability.
US-Russia talks on Ukraine involve multi-billion dollar oil
deal: Report
Al Arabiya English/October 03/2026
The Trump administration’s talks with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine have
expanded to include a multibillion-dollar oil deal that would benefit business
executives with ties to US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the New
York Times reported on Saturday. The deal, which is contingent on approval from
the US government and the Kremlin, involves a sprawling set of oil fields,
refineries and gas stations around the world owned by Lukoil, the NYT reported.
With Reuters
Russia warns diplomats, foreigners to leave Kyiv over strike threat
AFP/03 October ,2026
Russia on Saturday issued a new call for diplomats and foreigners to leave Kyiv,
warning the Ukrainian capital of new “massive” strikes, in a statement by its
foreign ministry. Moscow has been pummeling Ukraine with drone and missile
barrages throughout its offensive and in the past weeks has stepped up the
strikes against Kyiv, targeting key infrastructure. In a statement on Saturday,
the Russian foreign ministry said it “had previously urged foreign nationals and
diplomats in Kyiv to leave the city and refrain from visiting Ukraine.”For the
latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine war, visit our dedicated page. “We note
with concern that not everyone has heeded these warnings, and that individuals
are knowingly exposing themselves to mortal danger,” the ministry said.“The
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will continue to deliver massive
retaliatory strikes,” it warned. It also stated that “responsibility for any
potential negative consequences rests entirely with those who ignore this
warning.”On Friday, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city should now be on a
war footing as the enemy was “tearing Kyiv apart” with strikes on bridges and
energy infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused his Russian
counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of ripping up the rulebook of armed conflict by
sanctioning massive attacks on civilian areas, an accusation the Kremlin has
rejected.
Ten injured in Australia as car crashes into crowd north of Sydney
Reuters/03 October ,2026
Ten were injured when a man drove into a crowd in the Australian city of
Newcastle on Saturday after appearing to lose control of the car, authorities
said. The 18-year-old driver was arrested at the scene in the suburb of Wallsend
about 110 km (70 miles) north of the New South Wales state capital, Sydney. When
the incident occurred, fans had lined local streets to send off the Newcastle
Knights rugby league team, compete in the National Rugby League grand final in
Sydney on Sunday. Two of those hospitalized, a 5-year-old girl and a 67-year-old
man, were in a critical condition, authorities said. Newcastle Mayor Gavin
Morris said the driver seemed to have lost control of the car. “It appears that
he revving the car in some form,” Morris said in televised remarks. Police said
initial indications suggested the incident was not terrorism-related.
Paris Police: Student Protest Movement Spirals Out of
Control
Al-Markaziya / October 3, 2026
The Paris police chief stated on Saturday that the student protest movement
spreading across France has now spiraled "out of control." He urged protesters
to return to peaceful methods, warning that authorities would respond firmly to
acts of violence and vandalism. In a message posted on the X platform ahead of
new protests scheduled to begin next Tuesday, Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure
wrote that the movement's initiators no longer have control over it; he called
on students to abandon school blockades, cease rioting, and adopt peaceful forms
of protest. "It is time to return to peaceful forms of action," Faure added,
noting that parents also bear the responsibility of keeping their children away
from the influence of what he described as "professional agitators" and their
supporters. Since Monday, authorities have arrested approximately 5,000
people—mostly teenagers—across the country, and dozens have been injured. Agathe
Foucault, a National Police spokesperson, told RTL radio that more than 600
police officers had also been injured. Teachers and citizens have been attacked,
while property damage is estimated at tens of millions of euros. Student unions
have called for a national day of protest on Tuesday. Security officials fear
that protests organized in central Paris, in particular, could lead to further
violence, amid concerns that far-left anarchist groups might hijack the
movement. Students setting up blockades at high schools have expressed anger
over overcrowded classrooms, persistent teacher shortages, and the deteriorating
condition of school buildings, attributing these issues to years of
underinvestment.
The Latest LCCC analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on October 03-04/2026
They Hate America
Majid Rafizadeh/Gatestone Institute/October 03/2026
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22894/they-hate-america
Coming from a Muslim family and being raised in Syria and Iran, I am all too
aware of politicians and influencers such as Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani and
others who carry that same formative identity.
Americans should be clear-eyed: Islamist politicians and influencers in the
United States will never place their first loyalty with America. It will not
happen. Do not even think about it.
The first reality is that when you grow up under Islamist religion, teachings
and doctrine, as I did, your identity is not your nationality. It is not
"American" or "German" or any other geographic label. It is entirely the
particular version of Sharia and Islamic doctrine you were taught. That is where
all allegiance is rooted. Everything else — citizenship papers, the
Constitution, the flag — is secondary, to be used to protect and expand this
primary identity.
The second reality is the doctrine of exclusive truth we were taught. We were
raised to believe our path is the only correct one and that everyone else is on
the wrong path, destined for hell because they are not favored by Allah.
Shia Islam was presented as the final, perfect religion; all others as
incomplete or corrupted. This premise produces a sharp view of the world as "us
versus them." We were taught that a person who does not affirm the shahada...
before the end of his days, or who never believed it in the first place, does
not enter heaven. This teaching instills in one a sense of moral superiority: we
are the good; everyone else, unless he converts, is deficient.
From this vantage point, America, which predominantly does not adhere to these
beliefs, is the realm of the wrong path, the infidel way.
To look at such suffering [on 9/11] and declare it "deserved" requires a depth
of inhumanity, a contempt for the victims as human beings with feelings,
passions and wishes, just as they have. Such a statement is possible only when
these victims are first reclassified as people on the wrong path, people who do
not merit ordinary human sympathy, or even as less than people at all: merely
objects.
Historically, the pattern begins with promises of a better life: socialism, free
necessities such as water and electricity, benefits such as housing for the
poor, women's rights, full religious and ethnic rights, and so on, just as the
founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, promised the
people of Iran. When power is secured, the actual program is revealed.
The loyalty of these individuals remains solely to Islamist rule and their
version of Sharia. It will never transfer to America.... America, by embodying
the opposite [values], becomes an existential affront to the identity itself.
Hatred follows automatically.
These individuals also show little gratitude or appreciation. The same voices
that say America deserved 9/11 or that gain influence and prosper in America
rarely acknowledge that America gave their family a home, the freedom to
criticize anything without going to prison, and the generous chance to move
up.... Instead of being grateful to America and Americans, the host society is
owed no gratitude: nothing. Everything is filtered through the same Islamist
identity: this life and the next depend on fidelity to it. America is never a
priority. It is an opulence to speak freely — to have the complete liberty to
write these words or to remain silent — that only America affords.
Americans should be clear-eyed: Islamist politicians and influencers in the
United States will never place their first loyalty with America. Their worldview
is what underlies statements such as the claim that America "deserved" 9/11.
Hasan Piker, the influential streamer who has campaigned alongside candidates
including Abdul El-Sayed, said "America deserved 9/11."Coming from a Muslim
family and being raised in Syria and Iran, I am all too aware of politicians and
influencers such as Abdul El-Sayed, Zohran Mamdani and others who carry that
same formative identity.
Americans should be clear-eyed: Islamist politicians and influencers in the
United States will never place their first loyalty with America. It will not
happen. Do not even think about it.
For some, the feeling goes further into genuine hatred of America, Western
civilization and the freedom individuals have to choose how they live. The
pursuit of office and influence is driven by the aim of advancing their core
identity, not of strengthening the nation that granted them the opportunity.
The first reality is that when you grow up under Islamist religion, teachings
and doctrine, as I did, your identity is not your nationality. It is not
"American" or "German" or any other geographic label. It is entirely the
particular version of Sharia and Islamic doctrine you were taught. That is where
all allegiance is rooted. Everything else — citizenship papers, the
Constitution, the flag — is secondary, to be used to protect and expand this
primary identity. The second reality is the doctrine of exclusive truth we were
taught. We were raised to believe our path is the only correct one and that
everyone else is on the wrong path, destined for hell because they are not
favored by Allah.
Shia Islam was presented as the final, perfect religion; all others as
incomplete or corrupted. This premise produces a sharp view of the world as "us
versus them." We were taught that a person who does not affirm the shahada — "Ashhadu
an la ilahaillallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah, wa ashhadu anna ʿAliyyan
waliyyu Allāh" ("I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear
witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and I bear witness that Ali is
the wali (friend/guardian) of Allah") — before the end of his days, or who never
believed it in the first place, does not enter heaven. This teaching instills in
one a sense of moral superiority: we are the good; everyone else, unless he
converts, is deficient.
From this vantage point, America, which predominantly does not adhere to these
beliefs, is the realm of the wrong path, the infidel way.
That worldview is what underlies statements such as the claim that America
"deserved" 9/11. Hasan Piker, the influential streamer who has campaigned
alongside candidates including El-Sayed, said "America deserved 9/11, dude. Fuck
it, I'm saying it."
Please pause for a minute and consider the human reality of that day: people
trapped on upper floors of burning towers, choosing to leap to their death
rather than be consumed by fire, falling through the air while others below
watched in horror. To look at such suffering and declare it "deserved" requires
a depth of inhumanity, a contempt for the victims as human beings with feelings,
passions and wishes, just as they have. Such a statement is possible only when
these victims are first reclassified as people on the wrong path, people who do
not merit ordinary human sympathy, or even as less than people at all: merely
objects. Many who hold such views will not advertise them while they are still
accumulating power. Historically, the pattern begins with promises of a better
life: socialism, free necessities such as water and electricity, benefits such
as housing for the poor, women's rights, full religious and ethnic rights, and
so on, just as the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
promised the people of Iran. When power is secured, the actual program is
revealed. Lies and deception, called taqiyya, in the service of imposing their
preferred version of Islamism and sharia, are treated as desirable.
The loyalty of these individuals remains solely to Islamist rule and their
version of Sharia. It will never transfer to America. The conflict is inevitable
and built-in. It means that American values such as freedom of speech, equal
rights for women, freedom of religion (or from religion), and the right to leave
a faith without penalty directly contradict core elements of the identity they
carry. In the Islamic framework, a woman's testimony or inheritance is worth
half that of a man; the only fully legitimate religion is their own; apostasy is
punishable by death and criticism of their religion is a capital offense.
Freedom of expression and conscience as Americans understand them do not exist.
America, by embodying the opposite, becomes an existential affront to the
identity itself. Hatred follows automatically.
These individuals also show little gratitude or appreciation. The same voices
that say America deserved 9/11 or that gain influence and prosper in America
rarely acknowledge that America gave their family a home, the freedom to
criticize anything without going to prison, and the generous chance to move up.
In their countries of origin, criticism of rulers or doctrine can cost you your
liberty or life. Yet the narrative remains that only their Islamist beliefs and
ideology delivered success. Instead of being grateful to America and Americans,
the host society is owed no gratitude: nothing. Everything is filtered through
the same Islamist identity: this life and the next depend on fidelity to it.
America is never a priority.
As someone who has been immersed in both worlds, I owe America everything. I owe
America my life. I would not be able to write this article without America.
There is no other country where you can enjoy what you want and be who you want
the way you can in America. It is an opulence to speak freely — to have the
complete liberty to write these words or to remain silent — that only America
affords. It would be totally ungrateful — and in fact a form of seething hatred
— not to see that gift and to criticize Americans while ignoring the unique
freedom this country gives.
In short, do not vote for candidates whose core ideological and religious
identity is built in opposition to American values and whose conception of
themselves is built around Islamism, which rejects free speech, equal civic
standing, religious freedom and the liberty to leave a religion. For them,
America is not home in any deep sense. It is an obstacle.
The occasional eruption of phrases such as "America deserved 9/11" is not an
aberration; it is an unveiling of a hate for America and of an extremely
different hierarchy of loyalties. Voters who want America to prosper and remain
first should at least be aware of that alternative and cast their votes with
appreciation.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a political scientist, Harvard-educated analyst, and
board member of Harvard International Review. He has authored several books on
the US foreign policy. He can be reached at dr.rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu
*Follow Majid Rafizadeh on X (formerly Twitter)
*© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.
Iran Needs to Reconcile with Itself
Mohammed al-Rumaihi/Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
The first thing Iran needs at this critical juncture is to reconcile with
itself. I mean here the ruling groups that contest decision-making, and that the
world cannot possibly deal with as a single voice. No mediator, however skilled,
can produce a stable agreement with a party whose negotiator does not know the
limits of his own authority, and whose counterpart cannot be confident that its
signature will bind the rest of those in power. I see this knot as the root of
the "Iranian problem."Last week, the Iranian foreign minister spoke of Tehran's
readiness to open the Strait of Hormuz within a week, through an initiative
conveyed to Washington by mediators. News of this kind is welcome, and on the
face of it whoever objects bears responsibility for the crisis continuing. But
it is followed by impossible conditions. A deadline of just seven days to open a
strait that is no longer fully closed. And what of the nuclear file, the
ballistic missiles, and the armed "arms" beyond the borders? Negotiations may
begin with a partial arrangement, but it is a mistake to market it as a solution
to the root of the dispute. And if the conditions include protecting the
military relationship with Hezbollah and the Houthis, the question becomes more
pressing: is the aim to calm the region, or to guarantee the survival of the
instruments that helped set it alight?
The neighbors have a direct interest in knowing the answer. Lebanon and Yemen
are homelands with interests of their own, and they cannot be reduced to Iranian
negotiating cards. Any settlement that grants Tehran the right to decide the
future of armed groups in either country, behind the backs of their state
institutions, defers the problem and widens it. Iranians have the right to seek
security, and so do their neighbors. But making Iran's security conditional on
others remaining exposed is a recipe for perpetuating the conflict. The
memorandum of understanding mediated through Islamabad was signed by the Iranian
and American presidents, and was followed immediately by an attack on a ship in
Hormuz. What is a commitment worth if an armed apparatus has the capacity to
disable it? A signature is not tested in the meeting room. Its real test begins
when the instructions reach those who carry the weapons, and they are required
to comply.Another example in circulation is the contradiction over the powers of
the Iranian delegation to New York: talk of a full mandate, followed by
objections to the negotiations and demands that the foreign minister be held to
account. Announcing powers is no substitute for clarity about the reference
authority that grants them and protects them. A negotiator who fears his
adversaries at home may spend his effort shoring up his own position more than
closing the distance with the other side. Mohammad Javad Zarif's book The
Resilience of Diplomacy- he had wanted, as he says in its introduction, to call
it Smiling Lips and a Bleeding Liver, but backed away for fear of being
attacked- is useful for understanding this side of the internal struggle. The
train of Iranian politics, as the introduction puts it, has no guaranteed seats.
Its author spent eight years at the foreign ministry and set out his experience
of the complexities of domestic politics and diplomatic work in Iran. The value
of this testimony is that it comes from inside the ruling establishment. But in
my estimation it also invites us to be wary of interpreting every Iranian
contradiction as a finely crafted negotiating ruse, as some analysts tell us.
Sometimes we overstate the intelligence behind conduct that is explained by
rivalry and an inability to agree.
I believe part of the crisis lies in the way power is distributed. The
multiplicity of institutions designed to protect the system has become an
obstacle, governed by no known rules, especially in the absence of a charismatic
Supreme Leader. With many bodies able to object and responsibility for outcomes
obscure, any decision can be blocked. The overlapping of powers, conceived as a
pluralism that would prevent a monopoly of force or a threat to the system from
within, has become a path to weakening the system itself. What serves the
survival of the ruling groups turns out to damage the state's capacity to take
the decisions the country needs. Nor is it right to reduce the scene to a
diplomatic team that wants peace and a military team that rejects it. Within a
single institution, interests and assessments may diverge, and the same person's
position may change as his place and his calculations change. That is why the
phrase "Tehran has decided" is sometimes broader than reality. Which body
decided? Who agreed? And who holds the means of implementation? These are
practical questions for any mediator, not an academic luxury or a pretext for
closing the door to dialogue. We need not pretend to know what the mediators are
saying behind closed doors. It is enough to look at what they need for their
mission to succeed: a party able to make a commitment and carry it out. As for
the neighbors, they cannot suspend their security and development while waiting
for the end of an internal conflict they have no power to influence. Economic
pressure may push the decision-makers to settle their differences, or the
opposite may happen: the outbidding increases, the rivals trade accusations of
having given things away, and the cost passes to the Iranian citizen. There is
no guaranteed result from sanctions, just as there is no guarantee that time
alone will mend this defect.What can be said is that the continuation of the
crisis makes a settlement more necessary, but it does not automatically bring it
closer. We face years of conflict, and the reconciliation required among the
Iranian factions is not near; it will pass through an internal struggle for one
group to prevail over the rest, and through agreement on a national interest
that weapons outside the public decision do not override. That begins with the
rulers' acknowledging that the cost of their quarrel is no longer an internal
affair, now that it has reached the region's interests and the lives of its
peoples. Then the Iranian will know what his state wants, and his neighbor will
know with whom to come to an understanding. To conclude: so long as every
commitment remains liable to be overturned from within, the political horizon
stays narrow, however many the initiatives. The beginning is an Iranian
agreement with Iran.
Zahra Rises in Morocco
Abdel Rahman Shalgham/Asharq Al Awsat/October 03/2026
Morocco is a homeland that planted the tree of its identity in the field of its
own soil long ago, and watered it with the sap of its mind. Geography has a
presence whose effect has never lapsed, and its people have maps that move along
the lines of time. The Atlantic Ocean, which the early Arabs called the "Sea of
Darkness," had more than one voice in its towering waves, and the Mediterranean
has a civilizational jostling that never subsides: the ebb and flow between war
and peace, and the widening spaces of intellectual, philosophical, and
scientific exchange. Nature's mountains and valleys, its desert and its green
world, hold places in the mind whose working never rests. The Moroccan people
are a fabric that never ceases to sharpen its threads through the force of
creative movement.
Over the past three decades the Kingdom of Morocco has achieved a model
industrial leap, outdoing some European countries in doing so: it has overtaken
Italy in the volume of its car manufacturing, and has localized the manufacture
of aircraft parts of various kinds. In 2011 Morocco witnessed a historic
political shift. In March of that year King Mohammed VI announced a course of
constitutional reform; a committee was formed to prepare a draft of a new
constitution; the committee's work was put to a popular referendum; and the
constitution was approved by a large popular majority. The new constitution
contained operative articles that marked a great shift across the whole of the
state's political life.
The new constitution provided that the head of government be appointed from the
political party that tops the elections to the House of Representatives, and
gave parliament a greater role in exercising legislative power and entrenching
its independence. It widened the scope of rights and freedoms, and made Amazigh
an official language alongside Arabic. It also provided for the protection of
all the tributaries that make up the national identity- Arab, Amazigh, and
Hassani, and the African, Andalusian, Hebrew, and Mediterranean components- and
enshrined the principle of equality between men and women and the goal of parity
between them.
Last Tuesday, September 29, King Mohammed VI charged Fatima Zahra Mansouri, a
leader of the Authenticity and Modernity Party, which topped the elections to
the House of Representatives, with forming the new government. The appointment
expresses more than one meaning. The first is full respect for the new
constitution in all its articles. The second is that Morocco is pushing hard
toward comprehensive modernization in its political and social life, for women
are no longer that pliant figure incapable of leadership. It also signals esteem
for the academic qualifications and the political and administrative experience
of whoever holds the premiership, without sinking into the mire that centuries
of discriminatory backwardness and the belittling of women have piled up.
Morocco's prime minister-designate, Fatima Zahra Mansouri, is no passing amateur
of politics. She has combined learning, work, and experience from every side.
She has been a prominent leader of the Authenticity and Modernity Party since
its fifth national congress in 2024, and she coordinates its collective
leadership; she has served more than once as mayor of Marrakech; and she was
minister of national territorial planning, urban planning, housing, and city
policy, a post that brings together national portfolios of the greatest
importance. She has also been elected to the House of Representatives more than
once. She holds advanced qualifications in law, having studied at Moroccan,
French, and American universities, and has practiced as a lawyer. All of this
gives her everything that leads fair-minded people to congratulate the office of
prime minister on her assuming it, more than they congratulate her on taking it.
Many great challenges await Fatima Zahra Mansouri in her new position. The first
is forming a coalition government of more than two parties alongside her own.
The parliamentary seats were scattered in the last elections: her party, which
won the highest number, took 97 seats, and she needs at least 198 members of the
House of Representatives to form her government. The cabinet that awaits Zahra
must achieve full cohesion if she is to meet the national obligations before
her, the most important being jobs for thousands of young people, the economic
problems sweeping every part of the world, and the preparations for the 2030
football World Cup, co-hosted with Spain and Portugal. Another question is never
absent. In every democratic life there are opposition political formations that
will mobilize their political strength to brake the government's progress in
carrying out the program it promised voters, and the Justice and Development
Party announced early on its opposition to Fatima Zahra Mansouri's government,
as soon as her appointment was announced.
The first question before her remains securing the minimum number required in
the House of Representatives. That calls for opening a dialogue with the parties
that hold seats in the chamber, so that she can obtain the necessary majority,
along with a minimum of understanding and cohesion in the government's work. An
Arab woman's taking the premiership of an Arab state is a flash of optimism and
hope in our world, where hoarse voices grow louder, their tongues uttering
nothing but the belittling of women's worth and attacks on their abilities,
calling for them to be treated with humiliating inferiority, and sprinkling over
all this the dust of what was lost in a dead past. The Moroccan event is big-
bezzaf, as Moroccans say. Zahra rises in Morocco.
In Tabuk, humanity and compassion came before politics
Rabbi Marc Schneier/Arab News/October 3, 2026
A FlyDubai flight carrying 174 people, most of them Israelis, made an emergency
landing in Saudi Arabia after a terrifying altercation in the cockpit. The
aircraft lost more than half its altitude before crew members and passengers
helped bring the situation under control.
The motive remains under investigation. Yet another part of this story is
already clear. When these frightened Israeli passengers landed in a country that
does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, they were met with Saudi
hospitality. Saudi medical personnel checked their blood pressure, airport staff
provided food, and passengers received care.Almog Italie, one of the Israeli
passengers, told Arab News: “Saudi Arabia took care of us, and it was the best
hospitality I ever experienced.”Italie then offered a hope that should resonate
throughout the region: He wants to return one day in peace.
I have spent more than 20 years building relations between Muslims and Jews.
That experience has taught me that political agreements can open doors, but only
human encounters persuade people to walk through them. There is no substitute
for the presence of Muslims and Jews in one another’s lives.
At the end of the day, we are human beings bound by the most natural form of
love: the instinct to protect another life.
I repeatedly tell audiences around the world that the children of Abraham are
bound by a common faith and a common fate. In Tabuk, those bonds became
something immediate and deeply personal. Saudis and Israelis were bound by their
common humanity.
We should be precise about what happened. This was an emergency landing, not
normalization. Saudi Arabia has made clear that diplomatic relations with Israel
must be accompanied by an irreversible path toward Palestinian statehood.
Nothing that happened in Tabuk changed that position or resolved the profound
political disagreements facing the region.Yet refusing to exaggerate this moment
does not mean we should fail to understand its significance.
Saudi professionals saw people in danger and treated them with dignity. Israeli
passengers returned home speaking warmly about the Saudi people who had cared
for them. For those few hours, neither side encountered the other through
speeches, political slogans or social media. They encountered one another face
to face. The Saudi people were no longer an abstraction to those passengers.
They were the people who welcomed and cared for them during one of the most
frightening moments of their lives. The Israelis who arrived in Tabuk were not
political symbols. They were human beings in need of help.
This is where peace begins.The flight itself tells another story about how far
the Middle East has already traveled. A regular commercial route between Dubai
and Tel Aviv exists because the UAE and Israel established relations through the
Abraham Accords. A journey once considered impossible became routine. Six years
later, when an emergency unfolded on that route, the aircraft landed safely on
Saudi soil. Future peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel would represent the
reconciliation of the spiritual center of Islam with the spiritual center of
Judaism. Its significance would reverberate far beyond two nations. It could
create opportunities for direct travel, medical cooperation, commerce, and
interreligious engagement while supporting a serious path toward Palestinian
dignity and statehood.
Peace cannot be limited to agreements between governments. It must create
relationships between peoples. A treaty can establish an embassy, but only human
contact can replace suspicion with trust. Judaism teaches that preserving human
life overrides almost every other religious obligation. Islam likewise regards
saving life as sacred. In Tabuk, that shared teaching was not discussed at an
interfaith conference or delivered in a sermon. It was lived.
Some may dismiss the Saudi response as ordinary airport protocol. Yet values are
revealed through the way institutions and people act under pressure. At the end
of the day, we are human beings bound by the most natural form of love: the
instinct to protect another life.
Muslims and Jews will not agree on every political question. Peace does not
require us to abandon our identities or surrender our convictions. It requires
us to recognize that the life of the person standing before us is as sacred as
our own.
When the diplomatic opportunity for Saudi-Israeli peace arrives, leaders should
remember what happened in Tabuk. The road to peace may begin not at a
negotiating table, but with a Saudi medic taking an Israeli stranger’s blood
pressure on an airport runway.
*Rabbi Marc Schneier is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and
the founding senior rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue. He is a noted adviser to
many Gulf states.
German Unity Day: A strong partnership for a shared future
Michael Kindsgrab/Arab News/October 2, 2026)
On Oct. 3, Germany celebrates the Day of German Unity — a day that reminds us of
the power of freedom, dialogue and the determination of people to shape their
own future. German Unity Day commemorates the reunification of Germany in 1990
following decades of division. It stands for the peaceful overcoming of borders,
the courage of citizens and the belief that cooperation can achieve what once
seemed impossible. These values remain relevant today, in a world where
dialogue, trust and international partnerships are more important than ever. For
Germany, unity also means looking beyond our own borders and building bridges
with partners around the world. Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is an
important example of how two countries can deepen their cooperation, bringing
different experiences, perspectives and strengths to the table.
For Germany, unity also means looking beyond our own borders and building
bridges with partners around the world
This year has already demonstrated the depth of German-Saudi relations. German
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Katherina
Reiche, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Minister for the Environment,
Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety Carsten Schneider have
all visited the Kingdom this year. In September, Wadephul and his Saudi
counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan met in Berlin to sign a memorandum of
understanding establishing a strategic dialogue at the foreign minister level.
This provides a new framework for regular consultation and closer coordination
and is an important step toward a more structured and forward-looking
partnership. Our cooperation today extends far beyond trade. It encompasses
energy, industry, investment, science, education, healthcare, culture and
technology. As Saudi Arabia advances Vision 2030, German expertise in areas such
as engineering, advanced manufacturing, vocational training and sustainable
technologies offers many opportunities for cooperation. GESALO, the German-Saudi
Arabian Liaison Office for Economic Affairs, plays an important role in
connecting businesses and strengthening economic exchange.
Energy and the transformation toward more sustainable economies are other
important areas of shared interest, from renewable energy and hydrogen to energy
efficiency and industrial transformation. A strong partnership, however, is
about more than politics and economics. It is about people.
Energy and the transformation toward more sustainable economies are other
important areas of shared interest. Institutions such as the Goethe-Institut,
the German Schools in Riyadh and Jeddah, and our many academic partners create
opportunities for education, language learning and cultural exchange. Saudis who
have studied in Germany are important bridges between our societies, just as
Germans living and working in Saudi Arabia gain a deeper understanding of the
Kingdom and its transformation.
The specialist medical training program associated with Charite —
Universitatsmedizin Berlin is another excellent example. Professional exchanges
and specialist training strengthen healthcare expertise while creating lasting
institutional and personal connections.
Our partnership is also part of a broader relationship between Europe and the
Gulf. Germany supports closer cooperation between the EU and the Gulf
Cooperation Council, including through high-level dialogue on regional stability
and economic prosperity.
As we celebrate German Unity Day, I look forward to continuing our work with our
Saudi partners. Germany and Saudi Arabia have much to contribute to one another.
Together, we can build on our strong foundations and create new opportunities
for our people and for a stable, connected and prosperous future. Happy German
Unity Day.
**Michael Kindsgrab is the German Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Selected Face Book & X tweets
on October
03/2026
Jewish Breaking News
REVEALED: The flydubai captain wounded in the cockpit attack has
described how the incident unfolded, saying the co-pilot initially asked if he
could pray in the cockpit — a request the captain said did not seem unusual.
Around four to five minutes later, the captain said he was suddenly struck
repeatedly in the back of the head. His vision became severely blurred, and
moments later, he felt the aircraft enter a sharp descent. Despite his injuries,
the captain managed to open the cockpit door at one point, but said the co-pilot
quickly shut it again. People outside attempted to enter using the cockpit
access code, but the co-pilot allegedly refused to grant them access from
inside.Lying injured on the cockpit floor, the captain recalled hearing the
aircraft rushing downward as passengers screamed.Believing he might not survive,
he said he summoned “one last fight,” forced himself back toward the cockpit
door, reached the internal twist handle and opened it. That allowed people
outside to enter the cockpit and help regain control of the aircraft.
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
The rioters are French citizens (naturalized or children of
naturalized) who enjoy equal rights as everybody else, and yet, they are
destroying the country that granted them all the rights.
Now imagine the Jewish state granting citizenship and equal rights to
Arab/Muslim Palestinians, who don't want Israel to exist in the first place. My
question is to @PeterBeinart @ChrisVanHollen and @jonstewart
Greco-Levantines World Wide
@GrecoLevantines
URGENT — SYRIA
Following reports of a new armed assault on Al-Suqaylabiyah, an Antiochian Greek
Orthodox Christian city in central Syria, Fr. Fadi Sankari issued an urgent
appeal to residents.“No one has the right to enter your homes or threaten your
safety and dignity.”
He called on residents to remain united, protect women, children and the
elderly, and avoid revenge and further violence. He also called on the
authorities to protect civilians, restore security and uphold the rule of law.
This comes amid what local residents describe as the fourth attack on Al-Suqaylabiyah
since Ahmad al-Sharaa took power.
Siaxares
A rumor out of Iran says Abbas Araghchi asked the Americans for
asylum the week he was in New York, got a preliminary yes, and pulled it two
days later. Family problems, he said.
The version going around was that his own security detail found out and his
sister and family were picked up overnight. That is why he stayed. He was trying
to bargain his way out of a case before Rubio told the delegation to get on a
plane.
I cannot confirm the asylum request. The week on the record is strange enough.
Pezeshkian spoke and left. Araghchi stayed, supposedly for indirect talks
through Qatar that went nowhere. Axios reported the State Department put a U.S.
protective detail on him after reviewing threats. Then Rubio ordered the team
out. They flew to Doha at 1:20 in the morning. Tehran denied they had been told
to leave.
Then he landed, and his sister was dead. Pezeshkian, the roads minister, the
atomic energy chief, Qatar, Pakistan, all sending condolences. A funeral photo.
No cause.
A foreign minister who needs American bodyguards in New York, because he does
not trust the men who flew in with him, is not negotiating from strength. He
comes home and the person who was supposed to be the leverage is in the ground.
The Islamic Republic does not have to announce how these things happen. It just
has to make sure the diplomat is the one standing at the grave. No matter what
happened, Araghchi's travel to New York and his extra stay and getting thrown
out were all very strange. The regime might be closer to falling than we think.
Gregg Mashberg
Reports say Jordan refused FlyDubai FZ1073 permission to land
after the aircraft declared an emergency and signaled unlawful interference.
ICAO rules call for maximum assistance and priority to aircraft in such
circumstances. If the reports are accurate, was Jordan’s refusal consistent with
its international aviation obligations—and, if not, what are the consequences?
מרטין קורטהמר
@Martinramataviv
Mia Goren, my beloved sister, was a rare woman; she was murdered on the seventh
of October, Simchat Torah morning, by Nazi Gazans solely for being Jewish. She
cared for the kindergarten children in Kibbutz Nir Oz right up to the very last
moment. Mia raised an entire generation of children with love and endless
devotion—my wonderful sister, I miss you so much. I love you forever and always.
Nechama
Here is Yasmin Khamis al-Bubou. This vermin was responsible for the Media
Communications,and for the radicalization to terrorism of the movement
Hamas.she was ELIMINATED during a targeted airstrike by the IDF in the city of
Gaza.
Bye-bye ya Yasmin
Mel G.Gibson
BREAKING: Virginia’s first Muslim lieutenant governor, Ghazala
Hashmi, was sworn into office using the Quran. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say
it again, Islam is NOT compatible with America.
Babak Taghvaee - The Crisis Watch
BREAKING: The Flydubai co-pilot who stabbed the captain and attempted to crash
Boeing 737 MAX 8 A6-FKF, operating flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on 30
September 2026, had been radicalized by Turkish backed al-Qaeda affiliated
groups in Syria and had even fought against the
India in UAE
UPDATE:Indian braveheart Capt. Smit remains under excellent medical care & is
recovering well. We are in touch with his family & local authorities, extending
support for a speedy recovery. Our thanks to UAE gov. for their care. We join
well-wishers in praying for his good health.