English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News &
Editorials
For September 12/2026
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
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Bible Quotations For today
The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and
anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.
Letter of James 05/13-20/:”Are any among you suffering? They
should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among
you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over
them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will
save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed
sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for
one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful
and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it
might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its
harvest. My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and
is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner
from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude
of sins.”
Titles For The English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News &
Editorials published on September 11-12/2026
In Memory of Abbot Paul Naaman: A Monk of the Nation and the Conscience of Free
Maronites/Elias Bejjani/September 11/2026
Inside Every Human Being There Is a Beast …The true struggle within every human
being is between the image of God within them and the distortion of that
image/Elias Bejjani/September 9, 2026
Abbot Boulos Naaman Passes Away After a Distinguished Monastic Journey...
Zamir says any Hezbollah attack to be met with 'immediate, powerful response'
Israeli PM says forces seized Hezbollah weapons in Ali al-Taher ‘financed’ by
Iran
Israel says ready for more strikes on Hezbollah after tunnel detonation
Israel Says Ready for More Strikes on Hezbollah after Tunnel Detonation
Israel army says it withdrew from Ali al-Taher to Shqif after massive demolition
Report: Hezbollah's ability to control Nabatieh area dramatically damaged
US sanctions financial entities and individuals allegedly linked to Hezbollah
Residents of Southern Lebanon Gather to Watch Israeli Drones Drop Explosives on
their Village
Berri: Situation dangerous, framework agreement has fallen
UN letter accuses Israel of constant violations in Lebanon
From military site to rubble: The aftermath of Israel's Ali al-Taher blast
Israel's Ali al-Taher operation ends: Questions over Hezbollah's response remain
Israeli army releases footage of alleged Hezbollah underground network in
Beaufort and Ali al-Taher hills
Lebanon's fuel prices rise
Abbot Naaman Rests in Peace/Colonel Charbel Barakat/September 11/2026
How long, O Lord, will You continue to forget me?/Colonel Charbel
Barakat/September 11/2026
Lebanon...the Project of Neutrality Begins with the State/Michel Douaihy/Asharq
Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News
published on
September 11-12/2026
Trump says US will never forget 9/11, 'that's why we fight today'
Trump says he has no regrets over Iran war despite midterm election risk
Next 9/11 Shock Might Be Being Planned Where We’re Not Looking, UK’s MI5 Chief
Says
Hormuz Shipping Traffic Falls to Single Digits
Iran says to discuss Hormuz with Gulf states in Oman on Monday
Iran president says pressure on country at critical, dangerous stage
Iran-linked groups used Claude for propaganda, supreme leader funeral plans:
Anthropic
IAEA Confirms Activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain
Iran is Reportedly Producing Ballistic Missiles Again in Underground Facilities
Israel Assassinates Qassam’s Commander of the Khan Younis Brigade
Germany Charges 7 Over Suspected Hamas Oct. 7 Anniversary Plot
Israeli Support for Ethiopia’s Maritime Access Bid Fuels Tensions With Egypt
Trump tells MBS US will provide intel, targeting assistance amid Yemen
escalation: Source
Houthi advance a 'resounding victory', says Khamenei adviser
Saudi Arabia launches two airstrikes on Yemen's Mocha airport
Yemeni Forces Reposition Themselves in Southern Mokha
Houthis Seize Bab Al-Mandeb and Yemeni Islands in Southern Red Sea
Houthi Casualties Strain Sanaa Hospitals’ Capacity
Iraqi Factions Demand Law Bringing All Weapons Under State Control
Syria Arrests Nine Former Assad-Era Pilots
Syrian Parliament Seeks to End Institutional Disorder
Titles For The Latest English LCCC analysis & editorials
from miscellaneous sources published
on September 11-12/2026
A State in a State of Failure/Akl
Awit/Face Book/September 11/2026
The Invasion of Britain: The UK No Longer Belongs to Its Own People/Robert
Williams/Gatestone Institute/September 11, 2026
America 25 Years After 9/11/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
A Quarter Century Since the September 11 Attacks/Dr. Amal Moussa/Asharq
Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
Civilizations Break, But How?/Radwan al-Sayyed/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
The Second Nabatieh Appeal and the Frontiers of Southern Consciousness/Mustafa
Fahs/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
A Statement Never Issued/Eli Khoury/Now Lebanon/September 11/2026
Selected Face Book & X tweets on September 11/2026
Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published
on September 11-12/2026
In Memory of Abbot Paul Naaman: A
Monk of the Nation and the Conscience of Free Maronites
Elias Bejjani/September 11/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/09/157412/
With the passing of Abbot Paul Naaman, the Lebanese Maronite Order loses not
only a former Superior General, historian, and scholar, but Lebanon itself loses
one of its great men—one who carried the cause of the nation in his mind, heart,
and conscience, and defended it with the courage of monks, the faith of
believers, and the steadfastness of free men.
Abbot Paul Naaman was a school of authentic Lebanese patriotism and a free
Maronite voice that knew no compromise when it came to Lebanon, its identity,
its mission, its freedom, and its sovereignty. He lived as a monk devoted to his
ecclesiastical calling, yet at the same time he was an intellectual, cultural,
and national struggler who carried Lebanon’s concerns in all his writings,
research, and public positions. He refused to bow to the culture of fear or to
appease those whose projects targeted the Lebanese entity and its historical
identity.
He belonged to the generation that believed in Lebanon the Message—free,
sovereign, and independent Lebanon; the Lebanon envisioned by Patriarch Elias
Peter Hoayek, whose philosophy was articulated by Charles Malik and for which
Bashir Gemayel and his righteous companions gave their lives. It is therefore no
surprise that MP Nadim Gemayel described him today as “Bashir’s companion and a
man of firm convictions,” for Abbot Naaman remained throughout his life faithful
to the values of freedom, dignity, and sovereignty that Bashir Gemayel embraced
and ultimately sacrificed his life to defend.
He wrote history rather than merely witnessing it. He preserved the Maronite and
Lebanese memory from distortion and documented the pivotal chapters of our
nation’s history, fully aware that nations which lose their memory also lose
their future. In an era marked by compromise and surrender, Abbot Paul Naaman
remained steadfast like one of the Cedars of the Lord—unchanging in his
convictions, unwavering in principle, and uncompromising regarding the truth of
Lebanon.
Today, as we bid him farewell, we feel that a great cedar of Lebanon has fallen.
Yet its roots will remain deeply planted in the soil of the homeland, and his
ideas, writings, and positions will continue to serve as guiding lights for
future generations along the path of truth and freedom.
Yet our Christian faith knows no despair in the face of death, for death, to the
believer, is not an end but a passage into eternal life.
The Holy Scriptures proclaim:“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
blessed be the name of the Lord.”(Job 1:21)
And our Lord Jesus Christ says: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”(John 11:25)
And He adds: “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”
(John 11:26)
The Apostle Paul further comforts us with these words: “I have fought the good
fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”(2 Timothy 4:7)
Indeed, Abbot Paul Naaman fought the good fight, completed his mission
faithfully, and remained steadfast in his faith, his Lebanon, and his Church
until his final breath.
May his soul rest in peace in the embrace of the Heavenly Father. May his memory
remain eternal among the righteous, and may his national and spiritual legacy
continue to inspire every Lebanese who believes in a free, sovereign, and
independent Lebanon—a homeland of mission, holiness, and witness.
Glory to his soul, eternal rest to his pure spirit, and heartfelt condolences to
his family—especially his nephew, Dr. Charles Chartouni—to his relatives, to the
Lebanese Maronite Order, and to all Lebanese who, with his passing, have lost a
great monk, an exceptional thinker, and one of the guardians of Lebanon’s
historical identity.
Inside Every Human Being There Is a
Beast …The true struggle within every human being is between the image of God
within them and the distortion of that image
Elias Bejjani/September 9, 2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/09/151757/
Christian faith teaches us a fundamental truth: the human being was created in
the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) and was called to live in communion
with Him, in love and holiness. Yet, because of the Fall, every person carries
within himself a wounded nature. In this wounded nature lies what can be
described, in spiritual terms, as an inner “beast”—a force of uncontrolled
instincts and desires that emerges when the human person separates himself from
God’s grace.
This beast is not an independent power. It is not stronger than the human person
by nature. It remains dormant as long as the person lives in humility,
generosity, and love, and remains faithful to the gifts and responsibilities
entrusted to him by his Heavenly Father.
The beast sleeps when the human being lives according to love, because love is
not merely a moral value; love is God Himself:
“God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”
(1 John 4:16).
As long as a person is conscious of his holiness, of his identity as a child of
God by grace, and remains faithful to God’s commandments, the inner beast
remains restrained. The awareness of standing one day before God’s judgment is
essential to Christian life, for Scripture tells us:
“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10).
On the last day, when God reclaims from the human being the gift of life, the
soul will stand alone before Him. At that moment, wealth, power, and earthly
achievements lose all value. They remain behind, because:
“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing
out” (1 Timothy 6:7).
The only thing a person carries with him is his spiritual provision—his faith
expressed through works of love. As Christ says:
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one
according to his work” (Revelation 22:12).
According to what this spiritual provision contains, the Lord will either say:
“Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew
25:21), or the soul will face separation from God if it is empty of love, mercy,
and good works, and filled only with greed, pride, and unrepented sin, where:
“Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).
The inner beast awakens when faith weakens, hope fades, and the human being
falls into temptation. At that point, the person returns to the “old self” and
abandons the new life given through baptism by water and the Holy Spirit,
forgetting the words of Scripture:
“Put off the old man… and put on the new man, which was created according to
God” (Ephesians 4:22–24).
When a person distances himself from God, disobeys His commandments, and lives
as if God does not exist, the beast within rises and dominates. Sin then becomes
not an isolated act, but a way of life, because:
“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
In this light, Jesus presents to us the parable of the rich fool (Luke
12:16–21). This man was not condemned for being rich, but for believing that his
life depended on his possessions. He spoke only to himself and not to God. He
trusted his barns, not his Creator. Therefore God said to him:
“Fool! This night your soul will be required of you.”
This parable reveals a deep spiritual truth: the true beast within the human
person is the illusion of self-sufficiency and independence from God. When God
is removed from the center of life, the human being becomes a slave to money,
power, and pleasure. As Jesus teaches:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).
This truth applies not only to individuals, but also to societies and political
systems. The crisis of our world—and of Lebanon in particular—is not only
political or economic, but spiritual. It is the crisis of humanity that has
forgotten God. Therefore Christ’s warning remains timeless:
“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
(Mark 8:36).
In conclusion, the true struggle within every human being is between the image
of God and its distortion. Salvation does not come by suppressing the beast
through human effort alone, but by returning to God through repentance, grace,
and a life rooted in faith and love. For in God alone there is true life:
“But now having been set free from sin… you have your fruit to holiness, and the
end, everlasting life” (Romans 6:22).
Abbot Boulos Naaman Passes Away After a Distinguished
Monastic Journey...
Al-Markaziya | September 11, 2026 (Google translation from
Arabic)
Death has claimed the former Superior General of the Maronite Order, Abbot
Boulos Naaman (born in the town of Chartoun in 1932). A historian and
researcher, he was one of the most prominent religious, intellectual, and
national figures in the modern history of the Lebanese Maronite Order.
Abbot Boulos Naaman—born in 1931 and former Superior General of the Lebanese
Maronite Order (1980–1986)—has fallen asleep in the hope of resurrection and
eternal life. He earned a doctorate in history from the Gregorian University in
Rome in 1966. Upon returning to Lebanon, he worked in education and the
administration of schools affiliated with the Order, later holding leadership
and academic positions at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK). He
authored several works and memoirs documenting the history of the Maronites and
pivotal stages in modern Lebanese history, most notably the book *Lebanon of the
Maronites: Whither?* In this context, MP Nadim Gemayel wrote on his "X" account:
"Abbot Naaman—bold, a Maronite deeply attached to his land, and fierce in his
defense of Lebanon. A companion of Bachir [Gemayel] and a man of unyielding
conviction. Farewell." Gemayel accompanied his post with a photograph showing
the Abbot and Bachir Gemayel, with Charles Malik standing between them (attached
here). Hawwat: For his part, MP Ziad Hawwat, a member of the Strong Republic
bloc, wrote on X: "It is with deep sorrow and grief that we received the news of
the passing of Abbot Boulos Naaman, a prominent Maronite, national, and
intellectual figure who left a profound mark on Lebanon's modern history.
Lebanon has lost a monk who dedicated his life to knowledge, history, and
monasticism; who bore the concerns of the nation, humanity, and freedom during
Lebanon's darkest times; and who remained a witness to pivotal moments in the
country's history, defending its identity and its mission of coexistence. Abbot
Boulos Naaman was a man of bold national thought and stance—a historian and
researcher who enriched the Lebanese library with his writings and memoirs. His
presence in national and intellectual life embodied the continuing role of the
Lebanese Maronite Order in serving Lebanon and humanity." Hadi Mahfouz: The Very
Reverend Abbot Boulos Naaman—born in 1931 and former Superior General of the
Lebanese Maronite Order (1980–1986)—has fallen asleep in the hope of
resurrection and eternal life. He is mourned by the Very Reverend Father General
Hadi Mahfouz, Superior General of the Lebanese Maronite Order, the General
Council, and the Superior and community of the Holy Spirit Monastery in Kaslik,
alongside his family.
His Beatitude and Eminence Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rahi will
preside over the funeral service on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 4:00 PM, at
the Monastery of Saint Anthony in Ghazir, the seat of the General
Administration. The late monk’s body will lie in state at the monastery church
starting at 10:00 a.m., where condolences will be received until the time of the
funeral service. Condolences will also be received on Sunday, September 13, at
the Monastery and University of the Holy Spirit – Kaslik, from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00
p.m., and on Monday, September 14, at the Monastery of Saint Anthony – Ghazir,
during the same hours. May God have mercy on him and bless the Order with
saintly monks.
Zamir says any Hezbollah attack to be met with
'immediate, powerful response'
Naharnet/11 September 2026
Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir visited the 36th Division area on Friday together
with the chief of the northern command after the Israeli army blew up the
Hezbollah tunnels of the strategic Ali Taher ridge. “After the Hamas attack on
October 7, it was Hezbollah that initiated and launched the war against Israel
on the northern front. Hezbollah is fighting and destroying Lebanon on behalf of
the Iranian regime,” Zamir said. “Every village where a terrorist infrastructure
is established and terrorists reside would be endangering itself,” Zamir warned.
He added: “After the severe blow that Hezbollah suffered, we will not allow it
to restore its capabilities and reestablish itself in the region. We will defend
our communities at all costs -- the IDF (Israeli army) stands as a buffer on the
front line. Any attack on the northern communities or on the IDF (army) forces
defending the communities will be met with immediate and powerful
response.”Zamir also said that the Lebanese Army “must demonstrate effectiveness
on the ground. Otherwise, it will not be possible to advance the agreement
signed between the Israeli government and Lebanon.”
Israeli PM says forces seized Hezbollah weapons in Ali al-Taher ‘financed’ by
Iran
Reuters/Published: 11 September ,2026
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israeli forces had
seized weapons from the Ali al-Taher ridge in Lebanon. “There are things here,
some of the weapons that we took out from there. Vast quantities of weapons from
there. Organized and financed by Iran for years,” Netanyahu said on video. “You
see here an anti-aircraft gun. There are missiles here. There are landmines
here, computers and many other things. Everything has been brought out –
everything is in our hands.”Lebanon’s state news agency NNA said the Israeli
military carried out a powerful blast at the ridge, with tremors and the sound
of the explosion felt across Nabatieh and surrounding areas. The Israeli
military said its forces had established “operational control” over the ridge,
both above and below ground, before dismantling the infrastructure. The network
extended for more than 2 km (1.24 miles) and contained dozens of rockets,
missiles and drones, as well as anti-tank missiles, mines and explosive devices,
it said. The military said a central command complex
belonging to Hezbollah’s Badr unit was located within the underground
infrastructure. The complex contained command centers, weapons storage rooms and
living quarters that allowed fighters to remain underground for extended
periods, it said. The Ali al-Taher ridge, about 15 km (10 miles) from the
Israeli border, has become one of the most contested areas of the war between
Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah is believed to have built an underground command
center and weapons stores there, according to Lebanese security sources who
spoke to Reuters in July. The ridge has been one of
Israel’s main operational focuses and lies within an expanded, self-declared
Israeli buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
Israel says ready for more strikes on Hezbollah after
tunnel detonation
Agence France Presse/11 September 2026
Israel said Friday that it was prepared for more strikes on Hezbollah after
demolishing tunnels built by the Iran-backed group in southern Lebanon with a
massive explosion. "We are ready and prepared to continue the campaign, to
continue striking Hezbollah and at additional locations," Defense Minister
Israel Katz said in a video message. Israel late Thursday blew up what it
described as a vast network of tunnels under the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge
where Hezbollah kept a command center, living quarters and stocks of weapons
with which to strike northern Israel and invading Israeli troops. A huge
fireball was seen in the area, with the U.S. Geological Survey recording a
tremor equivalent to a 4.1 magnitude earthquake. The
blast came a week after Israeli troops said they had seized the strategic
highlands as they solidified control of a "security zone" in southern Lebanon.
"We promised protection to the residents of the north, and we delivered," Katz
said in his message, which came on the eve of the Jewish new year and weeks
ahead of tight elections. "Now there is a strong
security zone, stronger than ever before, which protects the communities from
attack and direct fire, and enables us to maintain control and threaten
Hezbollah deep inside the area," Katz boasted. Israel said the tunnel network
was built over two decades with the help of Hezbollah's patron Iran, whose
clerical government has also backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel and the
United States attacked Iran in late February, sparking the Middle East war.
Hezbollah, founded to oppose an earlier Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon
that began in 1982, dragged the country into the wider conflict when it fired
rockets at Israel in solidarity with Iran. Lebanese authorities say Israeli
military operations in the country have killed more than 4,300 people since
March. The Israeli army said that the Ali al-Taher network comprised tunnels
extending for more than two kilometers that held dozens of Iranian-made rockets,
missiles and drones, as well as other weapons.
The ridge lies on the edge of Israel's self-styled security zone just a few
kilometers from the UNESCO-listed Beaufort castle, another strategic site that
Israel captured in recent months.
Israel Says Ready for More Strikes on Hezbollah after
Tunnel Detonation
Asharq Al Awsat/11 September 2026
Israel said Friday that it was prepared for more strikes on Hezbollah after
demolishing tunnels built by the Iran-backed group in southern Lebanon with a
massive explosion. "We are ready and prepared to
continue the campaign, to continue striking Hezbollah and at additional
locations," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a video message, Reuters
reported. Israel late Thursday blew up what it
described as a vast network of tunnels under the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge
where Hezbollah kept a command center, living quarters and stocks of weapons
with which to strike northern Israel and invading Israeli troops.
A huge fireball was seen in the area, with the US Geological Survey recording a
tremor equivalent to a 4.1 magnitude earthquake. The blast came a week after
Israeli troops said they had seized the strategic highlands as they solidified
control of a "security zone" in southern Lebanon. "We promised protection to the
residents of the north, and we delivered," Katz said in his message, which came
on the Jewish new year and weeks ahead of tight elections. "Now there is a
strong security zone, stronger than ever before, which protects the communities
from attack and direct fire, and enables us to maintain control and threaten
Hezbollah deep inside the area." Israel said the tunnel network was built over
two decades with the help of Hezbollah's patron Iran, whose clerical government
has also backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel and the United States attacked
Iran in late February, sparking the Middle East war. Hezbollah, founded to
oppose an earlier Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon that began in 1982,
dragged the country into the wider conflict when it fired rockets at Israel in
solidarity with Iran. Lebanese authorities say Israeli military operations in
the country have killed more than 4,300 people since March. The Israeli army
said that the Ali al-Taher network comprised tunnels extending for more than two
kilometres that held dozens of Iranian-made rockets, missiles and drones, as
well as other weapons. The ridge lies on the edge of Israel's self-styled
security zone just a few kilometres from the UNESCO-listed Beaufort castle,
another strategic site that Israel captured in recent months.
Israel army says it withdrew from Ali al-Taher to Shqif after massive demolition
Naharnet/September 11/2026
Joelle Fares, who recently moved to Marjayoun, was sitting there Thursday when
"everything shook". Israel said it was demolishing key tunnels built by
Hezbollah beneath the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon. The
explosions triggered a 4.1 magnitude tremor and rocks from the detonation
completely blocked the Khardali road. Elsewhere on the
border, Israeli forces also carried out violent detonations in al-Mansouri,
al-Khiam and Baraashit. Strikes targeted overnight into Friday al-Qantara,
al-Mansouri, Harees, Nabatieh al-Fawqa, and Wadi Zebqine, and artillery shelled
Wadi al-Hujair.
The Israeli army said its forces withdrew Friday from Ali al-Taher and
redeployed in al-Shqif, adding that the strategic hill will remain within the
army's target range. "Our forces will maintain fire control over Ali al-Taher
and will confront any attempt by Hezbollah to return there."
Report: Hezbollah's ability to control Nabatieh area
dramatically damaged
Naharnet/September 11/2026
After around three months of fighting against Hezbollah, the Israeli army
destroyed 14 tunnel routes in the strategic Ali Taher ridge with a total length
of more than 5.4 km using about 1,100 tons of explosives. According to Israel’s
Maariv newspaper, the Israeli army says that about 50 Hezbollah fighters were
holed up in the compound, which was built over more than 20 years. The Israeli
army “says that what remains this morning (Friday) of the Ali Taher ridge, under
which Iran built Hezbollah's last and most significant defense line in southern
Lebanon for two decades, is ‘nothing more than a sandbox,’” Maariv reported.
The commander of the Israeli army’s 36th Division told troops just before
the tunnels were detonated yesterday: "The commando brigade and the Yahalam
unit, together with the forces of the Fire Brigade, Golani and the 7th Brigade,
led one of the most complex operations we have ever carried out … We operated
above ground and underground, facing near and distant threats.”A senior Israeli
military official said Hezbollah's ability to command and control the area has
been dramatically damaged.
"You have to be there to understand the magnitude of the event and its
significance, both psychological and physical, for Hezbollah," the senior
military official told Maariv. According to him, the compound was a "nerve
center" for the Badr unit, and to the north of it, Hezbollah has no
infrastructure of a similar size. According to the senior source, at the
beginning of the operation, there were about 50 Hezbollah fighters in the
underground system. According to him, most of the Hezbollah fighters were
killed, some inside the tunnels and others when they tried to escape. In some
cases, clashes developed between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters at a
range of just a few meters. Hezbollah simultaneously attempted to deliver
supplies to the fighters who had barricaded themselves underground and even sent
additional operatives to rescue and reinforce them. According to the source, at
least ten Hezbollah fighters who tried to reach the ridge for these purposes
were injured. The supply packages that were delivered contained communication
equipment, food, water, cigarettes and chocolate. According to the source, the
fighters who had barricaded themselves in the area were given the option to
leave with a white flag, but they refused, and some fled in violation of
Hezbollah’s instructions. The Israeli army emphasized that, contrary to various
publications, no Iranians were found there. After gaining control above ground,
the center of gravity shifted to the tunnel system. This is more than 5.4
kilometers of underground tunnels, into which fighters from the Israeli combat
engineering corps inserted approximately 1,100 tons of explosives in a lengthy
and complex process. "The entire work of over 20 years of building such a
significant infrastructure has crumbled into nothing," the source said.
According to the source, Hezbollah called on Iran to help it along the way.
"Desperate calls, both publicly and secretly: Come to our aid, do something, at
least make a statement," he said. Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem 's latest
call to the Iranians a week ago received a chilly response from Tehran, Maariv
added. Despite the completion of the destruction of the infrastructure, the
Israeli army said that there is no intention to leave the area. The forces will
be redeployed in positions that will allow control of the area, and the Israeli
army emphasizes that they will continue to enforce the line and prevent
Hezbollah from returning to it, Maariv said. "We are not leaving it," the senior
official clarified.
US sanctions financial entities and individuals allegedly linked to Hezbollah
Naharnet/September 11/2026
The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it has taken action against entities
and individuals that support Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah.
In a statement, the Treasury charged that the two groups “fuel Iran’s
destabilizing influence in the Middle East, endanger U.S. and partner forces,
and facilitate extensive sanctions evasion schemes.”“Spread across Iraq,
Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Türkiye, today’s targets underscore the
global reach of the Iranian regime’s illicit networks and the serious threat
posed by the terrorist proxy organizations that operate on its behalf,” the
statement said. It added that the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “uses
front companies to transfer funds derived from Iranian oil sales to exchange
houses in the region.”
“IRGC-QF members in Lebanon work with Hezbollah financial officials to receive
the funds in Lebanon via several Lebanese money exchangers,” the Treasury said,
adding that Hussein Ibrahim, Abdallah Hamieh and U.S.-designated Mohamad
Noureddine have also been involved in transferring these funds.
“Together these Lebanese businessmen and money changers constitute a significant
channel for transferring money from the IRGC-QF to Hezbollah. Between May 2025
and September 2025, Hussein Ibrahim and Abdallah Hamieh transferred hundreds of
millions of dollars from the IRGC-QF to Hezbollah. Once the money is in Lebanon,
U.S.-designated Hezbollah member Ossama Jaber worked with Ghaith Hussein Wehbe
(Wehbe), a Hezbollah money courier, to personally collect money from these cash
exchangers on behalf of Hezbollah financial officials,” the Treasury claimed.
It said that Hezbollah uses these funds to “purchase weapons, manufacture
equipment, and pay salaries to its members.”“U.S.-designated Hezbollah financier
Hamdi Zaher El Dine (Hamdi) directs and operates several Lebanese gold and cash
exchanges through family members and close associates to evade sanctions. While
Hamdi Zaher El Dine is not listed on the legal structure of these Lebanese
exchange houses, he directs family members who either work in, or are in the
legal structure of, these exchange houses,” the Treasury added.
“Hamdi’s sister, Mervat Jamil Zahreldine, works at two of these exchanges
on Hamdi’s behalf, holding a position at Yousef Ibrahim Mansour and Partner for
Exchange, and Power of Attorney at Gold Pro SARL. While Gold Pro SARL is not
licensed by the Central Bank of Lebanon to import gold, Hamdi uses hawalas to
purchase gold from Dubai, UAE, and then uses couriers to bring the gold into
Lebanon,” the Treasury said. Similarly, at the alleged
direction of Hamdi, Syria- and Turkey-based Amir Al-Makansi operates a gold
exchange company based in Syria with additional offices in Istanbul, Turkey.
“While this exchange house primarily deals in gold, it also uses Lebanese
exchange houses to change currency for Hamdi in large denomination bills that
are known in the Lebanese exchange sector to be frequently sourced to
Hezbollah,” the Treasury said. It added that the
aforementioned individuals and entities are being designated for having
“materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or
technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Hezbollah.”
Residents of Southern Lebanon Gather to Watch Israeli
Drones Drop Explosives on their Village
Asharq Al Awsat/September 11/2026
A group of men and children gathered Friday at a vantage point overlooking their
village in southern Lebanon, watching from a distance as Israeli drones
descended, carrying boxes laden with explosives to be dropped on houses. It has
become a daily ritual for residents of Mansouri, who fled the village weeks ago
and now are watching its destruction from the neighboring village of Hanniyeh.
Active fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah has simmered down since they entered into a truce in June, but the
Israeli military now occupies large swaths of southern Lebanon, where it
regularly carries out controlled demolitions. Massive clouds of smoke and dust
rise periodically from Mansouri, as the men watching debate which neighbor's
house has been destroyed this time and look for signs of their own. Early
Friday, the Israeli military detonated the village's public school, Lebanese
state media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a
request for comment about the demolitions. Villagers decry the Lebanese
government's lack of response. Some displaced residents blame the Lebanese
government along with Israel, saying that authorities abandoned the village. Ali
Hussein Ghanem, a tobacco farmer from Mansouri, is staying with relatives in
Hanniyeh along with his wife and children.“This is something that should never
happen,” he said, watching the smoke rise over his village from a distance.
“Isn’t the state supposed to protect our town rather than hand it over to
Israel?”Wissam Khashabi, a beekeeper, also from Mansouri, agreed.
“We are seeing our land being destroyed,” he said. “We have lost our property,
our orchards, and all our livelihoods. The state is not really doing
anything.”On Thursday, Israeli officials said they had blown up Hezbollah tunnel
networks under the strategic Ali Taher ridge near the town of Nabatiyeh, in a
different part of southern Lebanon. The force of the blasts caused the earth to
shake in surrounding areas. The Israeli military said the ridge contained
extensive underground military infrastructure built by Hezbollah. It had been
the site of clashes between Israeli forces and the militant group in recent
weeks, before Israel announced it had taken “operational control” of it. No
political solution in sight Many residents of Mansouri fled when the latest
Israel-Hezbollah war began in March, but returned after the truce in June — only
to flee again when the Israeli military issued a call to evacuate the village
last month and began striking it again. Israel said at the time that it was
responding to ceasefire violations by Hezbollah. But it’s not clear why it has
been demolishing the village since then. Some of the
displaced were taken in by relatives, while others are staying in school
shelters in the nearby city of Tyre. At the height of the war, some 1.2 million
people were displaced in Lebanon. The ceasefire has allowed most of them to
return home, but more than 300,000 remain displaced. With negotiations between
Israel and Lebanon — and between the US and Iran — stalled, there is no
political solution in sight that would allow them to go home.
The latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began on March 2, when the
militant group fired rockets across the border two days after Israel and the US
launched a war on Iran. The Lebanese government and
Israel reached a framework agreement in June stating Israel will withdraw from
Lebanon as Hezbollah is disarmed, but there has been little movement on
implementing it. Lebanese and Israeli officials are expected to meet for another
round of talks in Rome later this month.
Berri: Situation dangerous, framework agreement has fallen
Naharnet/September 11/2026
Speaker Nabih Berri has stated that "the situation is dangerous" in south
Lebanon and "solutions remain far off," noting that "the framework agreement has
fallen.""If the Israelis want to occupy, they can do so," Berri added, in
remarks to al-Joumhouria newspaper. Regarding the role of the Lebanese Army amid
the Israeli escalation and the widening scope of attacks, Berri emphasized that
"the army is the fundamental pillar for the Lebanese structure." The Speaker
also addressed his relationship with President Joseph Aoun, affirming that it
remains intact despite disagreements on several issues. "We differ on a number
of matters, but that does not preclude our friendship," Berri said.
When asked about the possibility of a breakthrough in the near future
given current diplomatic efforts, Berri expressed pessimism: "I am not
optimistic. The greatest proof of my lack of optimism is the ongoing killing and
the loss of lives -- including children -- alongside the acts of leveling and
demolition."He added: "The moves being made are of no value; unfortunately,
there are no solutions," referring to the efforts and initiatives aimed at
finding a way out of the crisis.
UN letter accuses Israel of constant violations in Lebanon
Associated Press/September 11/2026
Lebanon’s mission to the United Nations has accused Israel of committing nearly
2,000 "land, air and sea violations" of Lebanon’s sovereignty during the month
of July, according to a letter to the U.N. The letter, published Thursday on the
U.N. website, did not give details of the alleged violations. The Israeli
military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel occupies a large swath of southern Lebanon it seized during a
ground invasion after Hezbollah militants began firing rockets across the border
into Israel in March.
Lebanon and Israel reached an agreement in June that calls for Israel to
withdraw from occupied areas in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.
Implementation has largely stalled, with Israel continuing airstrikes as it
accuses Hezbollah of attacking its forces.
From military site to rubble: The aftermath of Israel's Ali
al-Taher blast
LBCI/September 11/2026
Israel said it used 1,100 tons of explosives in the attack on Ali al-Taher
hills, which was carried out along several fronts. One of the targeted areas was
the mountain ridge visible behind the site, stretching from al-Dabsha toward Ali
al-Taher.The scene now reflects the scale of the blasts and the destruction they
left behind. Just two days earlier, an LBCI camera had
filmed the same area as it was being used for Israeli military maneuvers ahead
of an operation targeting what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
described as one of the largest military sites.The force of the massive
explosions was reportedly equivalent to a 4.1-magnitude earthquake, with the
tremors reaching Qlayaa in the Marjayoun district on the eastern side of the
mountain. From there, the impact is more visible, with vast stretches covered in
white rubble. By targeting Ali al-Taher, Israel has created what some describe
as a new chapter in the conflict. Meanwhile, Hezbollah argues that Netanyahu has
given the battle dimensions extending beyond the borders after failing to force
the fighters inside the tunnels to surrender. Israel
says the three-month battle resulted in the deaths of more than 50 Hezbollah
members. However, Hezbollah sources said the tunnels did not contain any
fighters on Thursday night.
Israel's Ali al-Taher operation ends: Questions over Hezbollah's response remain
LBCI//September 11/2026
The scene left behind by 1,100 tons of explosives was enough for Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to claim an initial victory in what has become
Israel’s longest war, which is set to enter its third year in about a month.
The destruction at Ali al-Taher hill, which had posed one of the biggest
challenges to the Israeli army for months, has provided Netanyahu with a
political lifeline as he faces growing pressure just weeks before elections. His
support has fallen to three points below that of his strongest rival, Gadi
Eisenkot.
Israel celebrated the scene, with Netanyahu declaring that Iran and what he
called its “axis of evil” are weaker than ever. Israeli Defense Minister Israel
Katz threatened to continue military operations against Hezbollah following the
explosion, referring to the area Israel considers a security zone in South
Lebanon. He described it as stretching from the coast in the west to Beaufort
Castle and the approaches to Mount Hermon in the east.
Israeli army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, meanwhile, said the “Yellow Line” would
remain under Israeli control without any changes. He called on the Lebanese army
to demonstrate its effectiveness on the ground, warning that otherwise the
framework agreement would not move forward. The next question is whether Iran
and Hezbollah will respond to the destruction of Ali al-Taher or whether the
crisis surrounding the hill has ended with the completion of the operation. That
has become the million-dollar question in Israel, where officials have struggled
to assess the likelihood and scale of a response 24 hours after the operation.
Israeli forces have nevertheless been placed on the highest level of alert in
Lebanon and along the border, as well as on other fronts, amid concerns that
Iran or Hezbollah could use the Jewish New Year holiday to launch a response. As
for the battlefield itself, statements by Israeli military officials suggest
that the Ali al-Taher area was free of Hezbollah personnel when the main
operation was carried out. According to those accounts, the operation was
conducted gradually to push Hezbollah fighters out of the area. In the first
stage, Israeli commando forces took control of the area above ground through
offensive operations that included ambushes, the use of grenades and drones, and
fire directed at tunnel entrances, as well as at positions and infrastructure
where Hezbollah activity had been detected.
The second stage, which the Israeli army described as the more complex phase,
began after control had been consolidated over the open terrain and key
positions along the mountain range. The army then moved underground, with the
operation carried out by the Commando Brigade and units including Egoz, Maglan,
Yahalom and Golani, as well as the 7th Brigade.
Israeli army releases footage of alleged Hezbollah
underground network in Beaufort and Ali al-Taher hills
LBCI//September 11/2026
Israeli army spokesperson Ella Waweya published videos and footage on X showing
what she described as an underground network of routes built by Hezbollah
beneath the Beaufort and Ali al-Taher Hills in southern Lebanon. “This is what
the underground network of routes established by Hezbollah beneath the Beaufort
and Ali al-Taher Hills in southern Lebanon looks like,” Waweya wrote.
Lebanon's fuel prices rise
LBCI/September 11/2026
On Friday, September 11, 2026, the prices of 95 and 98 octane fuel increased by
LBP 49,000, while diesel rose by LBP 52,000. Gas prices remained unchanged.
The current prices for hydrocarbon derivatives are as follows:
Gasoline 95 octane: LBP 2,679,000
Gasoline 98 octane: LBP 2,697,000
Diesel: LBP 2,539,000
Gas canister: LBP 1,190,000
Abbot Naaman Rests in Peace
Colonel Charbel Barakat/September 11/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/09/157421/
Abbot Boulos Naaman, whom the Lebanese knew as the head of the Lebanese Maronite
Order and as a historian who delved deep into the study of history, focusing on
Lebanon and the struggle of its people - indeed accompanying them during
decisive stages of the war events and contributing as much as possible to
bringing them together - was not a personality distant from the years of
struggle that we lived through, nor was he among those who disowned, out of fear
or awe, our people in the South when roads between regions were cut and
alliances changed. He insisted on planting a monastery between Ain Ebel and
Rmeish to cement the Annunciation [Al-Bishara], whose name this region bears, in
a monastery and institute that in times of crisis was a source of knowledge and
a refuge in times of hardship.
How much Abbot Naaman accompanied us by sea and by land, and endured, like all
Southerners, the consequences of the wrong choices that separated regions from
one another and brought back an atmosphere of fighting and violence even within
members of the same household. I still remember him on the day of the Qamar
School incidents and the subsequent prisoner exchange between the Lebanese
Forces and the Army, which took place in the Order's monastery in Ashrafieh, and
he had personally requested my presence. In that operation, I saw the great
distance between the two forces relied upon to protect the free regions in East
Beirut, and that desperate look that wounded his faith in the future and made me
understand that things were going contrary to how they should be.
Abbot Naaman also listened to my story about Rafqa of Ain Ebel at the Order's
monastery in Harissa one evening, and he summoned Father Mahfouz that day, who
had written the story of the saint. And after hearing what is in the Ain Ebeli
tradition about our Rafqa, he made me understand that I was late. Perhaps there
had been room for research in this direction, but the matter had been decided.
And my answer was that she who preferred to distance herself from worldly
boasting perhaps does not want us to scratch her humility or disturb God's will
in her.
Abbot Naaman knew oppression on the day he was forced to negotiate between Aoun
and Geagea to save Christians from the fratricidal fighting that humiliated them
and killed their sons, ending with handing over the regions that precious blood
had liberated in the face of the brutal occupier, then we returned to hand them
over to him without a fight in order to preserve what remained after the battles
and violent rounds between brothers.
Abbot Naaman endured the heartbreak and accepted to withdraw into seclusion in
order to focus on prayer and research away from the spotlight. And today he goes
to meet his Lord carrying with him many talents and tragedies and the results of
the attempts he made, and he will hear from Him Almighty His judgment on the
effort and the trials even if they failed, and we hope that the Lord will accept
them and receive him in the embrace of the Virgin Lady, Mother of Light and Our
Lady of the Annunciation, whom he loved and worked so that she would continue to
protect South Lebanon as she is consecrated and her memory continues in the rest
of the Lebanese regions.
How long, O Lord, will You continue to forget me?
Colonel Charbel Barakat/September 11/2026
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/2026/09/157408/
Psalm 13 of the Prophet David calls out to the Lord, saying: “How long, O Lord,
will You continue to forget me? How long will You hide Your face from me?” In
the same vein, the Lebanese people—especially among the Shia community—are
asking: “How long, President Aoun, will you continue to ignore the people and
their tragedies, attending only to your fears of the armed party and its
masters?”
The Lebanese people at the heart of the Shia environment are rising up against
the actions of the Iranian-backed party. They have despaired of its constant
exploitation—with or without pretext—for Iran’s interests and to execute its
orders. Yet President Aoun, his government, and his army continue to appease and
flatter the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) faction, without turning
their attention to the people’s suffering and pain.
President Aoun and his government responded to the calls of the residents of
Nabatieh and dispatched the Lebanese Army to stop the Israel Defense Forces from
attacking the city. However, fearing the party’s displeasure, they began
apologizing to it so the move would not appear as a concession to the people—a
move that might trigger a large-scale Shia movement demanding the disarming of
the party and an end to the war across the country. Consequently, they framed
the deployment as a routine operation carried out by the army anywhere. Where
was this army before the residents’ demands? And why did it allow elements of
the party’s Islamic Health Authority to enter Zawtar al-Gharbiya before its own
troops to search for any surviving party fighters and prevent them from being
handed over to the army? This is a tactic well understood by the Americans and
Israelis.
As one of the IRGC’s combat proxies, the party is used so that the IRGC
leadership can rely on it, believing it can effect change. However, it has
become paralyzed, lacking public loyalty and local cover, on top of its military
and logistical losses. Thus, its fall will be grand and resounding, contributing
to the cinematic finale being orchestrated for the fall of its masters in
Tehran.
Preparations for the final act of this play are complete. Nothing will stand in
the way of the American-Arab-Israeli alliance, which will emerge victorious and
invite free Iranians to take the initiative, assume leadership of their people,
and transition the country to a new system whose features are currently being
drawn in global decision-making capitals. The outcome will contribute to
long-term regional stability, crowning the second half of President Trump’s
term.
The IRGC regime still believes it can influence the course of events. It tricks
people into believing it is preparing nuclear weapons deep within “Jabal al-Fas”
(Axe Mountain), where it constructed underground tunnels leading to the nearby
Natanz reactor to transfer 60% enriched uranium—which the Americans had buried
beneath it last summer. It will attempt to complete its enrichment underground
inside this mountain, but the world stands on guard. This time, it will be the
decisive blow that ends the regime and buries all its evils and animosities.
As for the party, which represents its largest, most influential, and most loyal
offshoot, it will be stripped of all popular support. It will retain no
influence among Lebanese Shias, who will confidently press for peace and
openness toward their Israeli neighbor despite—and perhaps because of—all the
suffering.
Numerous were the illusions under which the party and its supporters lived.
However, current events have exposed what was hidden and shattered the carefully
curated image that lacked real substance or capacity to endure. This is the
stark truth known to everyone, young and old. Threatening rhetoric will yield no
action, and the party’s faction will beg the Lebanese authorities to settle for
merely receiving their weapons, for trials are coming, and the blood of
martyrs—especially innocent civilians—will not be cheap. Everyone who claimed
leadership and has not yet been killed must mentally prepare for this phase: the
phase of severe punishment. They will find no one to defend them, neither in the
courts nor among the oppressed people who hold them responsible for all the
destruction, ruin, and agony they experienced.
When the government previously decided to elevate the grievances stemming from
the series of political assassinations to an international tribunal, the
condition set by the Syrian regime and its executing partner (Hezbollah) was to
avoid revealing the connection between the perpetrators and their superiors in
the party and the regime. This cost, accepted by Hariri’s government, provided
the convenient exit for Hassan Nasrallah to later prevent the enforcement of
verdicts and the prosecution of the perpetrators by framing them as “saints,”
thereby halting investigations into who gave the assassination orders—the core
of the issue.
Today, some claim—especially after the United States designated the party as an
Iranian organization and an integral part of the IRGC—that the party represents
the Shia community and that an entire sect cannot be put on trial. This is the
crux of the matter. Just as the decisions of the International Tribunal were
thwarted to prevent the prosecution of the Syrian regime and the Iranian-backed
party that carried out Assad’s orders during that wave of assassinations, these
figures now seek to block the prosecution of the party’s leadership—the very
leadership responsible for the destruction, ruin, and death across Lebanon,
particularly in the south—under the pretext that they represent the Shia
community.
Hence, they attempt to suppress Shia protests against the party and absorb any
movement opposing it. For this reason, they portray the army’s deployment in
Nabatieh as a routine procedure rather than a response to the demands of
residents who are tired of covering for destructive projects and staying silent
about killers and drug traffickers. These elements exploit their children and
send them to fight fellow Lebanese to prevent the state from rising,
subsequently provoking their Israeli neighbor to cover up their sabotage.
Ultimately, they seek to continue covering for the party and its leaders,
protecting them from prosecution and from being brought to justice.
How long will those in power in Lebanon bury their heads in the sand and cover
up crimes, displacement, and homelessness as if nothing happened? How long will
those at the forefront of the nation act cowardly and refrain from speaking the
truth out of appeasement or fear?
A country built on a policy of appeasement and crime cover-ups will never rise,
no matter how much time passes. The Lebanese people ought to confront those
claiming responsibility, telling them clearly that things are not going well,
and that gallows will be erected to include them for their negligence as long as
they fail to carry out their duties.
Lebanon...the Project of Neutrality Begins with the State
Michel Douaihy/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
In Lebanon's long-running debate over neutrality, the question often begins from
the outside: Can Lebanon be neutral in a region engulfed in conflict? And can a
small state situated at the center of intertwined regional and international
conflicts distance itself from competing axes?
But perhaps the more important question is entirely different: Does Lebanon,
first and foremost, have a state capable of making the decision to adopt
neutrality? This idea was at the heart of my intervention during the workshop on
neutrality organized by Saint Joseph University at the Philip Salem Center for
Lebanese Political Studies on July 29 and 30, 2026.
Neutrality is not merely a foreign policy choice, nor is it a slogan that can be
raised in response to Lebanon's internal divisions. Above all, it is a matter
connected to the very nature of the state: sovereignty, unity of
decision-making, and the ability of institutions to determine strategic choices
and implement them.
Lebanon's problem has never been its relations with the outside world. No state
can live in isolation, and Lebanon, by virtue of its geography, history, and
economic nature, needs a broad network of Arab and international relations. The
problem begins when foreign relations turn into political and security
alignments that make the country part of conflicts beyond its capacity. At that
point, Lebanon is no longer a state managing its relations with others. Instead,
it becomes a space where the relations and conflicts of others are managed on
its soil. This is precisely where neutrality acquires its true meaning.
Neutrality does not mean that Lebanon must have no position, abandon its Arab
identity, remain silent in the face of wars, or shirk its humanitarian and moral
responsibilities. A neutral state can condemn aggression, support international
law and the right of peoples to self-determination, and participate in
diplomatic and humanitarian efforts. There is, indeed, a difference between
taking a moral position and participating in war.
A state can speak for what it believes in and defend, through diplomatic means,
the principles it considers just, without becoming a military party to the
conflicts of others. This is the essential distinction between moral neutrality
and political neutrality: neutrality does not mean abandoning principles.
From here emerges the idea of "positive and active neutrality," not as a
withdrawal from the world, but as a different way of engaging with it. Such
neutrality is based on respecting Lebanon's Arab and international commitments,
refusing to turn its territory into an arena for conflict, and establishing the
state as the sole authority over sovereign decisions, particularly on matters of
security and foreign policy. The problem, however, is that neutrality cannot
come into being through an administrative decision or a political speech.
The experiences of states that have chosen neutrality confirm that this option
requires more than a declaration. It requires strong institutions, domestic
consensus, and a foreign policy capable of securing recognition and respect from
abroad. Neutrality is not a gift bestowed by major powers on small states. It is
the result of a state's ability to protect its position and convince others that
respecting its neutrality serves stability. This is where the Lebanese challenge
reveals its true dimensions.
Lebanon is not an island isolated from the region. It lies at the heart of
conflicts in which the calculations of Israel, Iran, Türkiye, the United States,
and other powers intersect. Each of these powers has its own interests and its
own view of Lebanon. Therefore, declaring neutrality from within is not enough
if Lebanon remains weak and incapable of asserting its sovereignty, or unable to
speak to the world with one voice. When centers of power multiply, so does
decision-making. Strategic decisions then become divided between official
institutions and other forces, leaving sovereignty itself incomplete. This is
why the statement that captures the essence of the debate is clear: a state that
does not monopolize the decision of war cannot monopolize the decision of peace,
and therefore cannot monopolize the decision of neutrality.
Restoring the state's exclusive authority over decision-making is not an issue
that concerns one political camp against another. It is the first condition for
establishing a modern state. The decision of war and peace is not merely a
security decision. It is the decision most closely tied to the fate of society
and the future of the state. Naturally, it should be made by institutions that
represent the collective national will and legitimacy.
In this context, it is also necessary to reconsider the concept of national
security. Security is not simply a matter of the number of soldiers and weapons.
It also means protecting society, the economy, and political stability. For
Lebanon in particular, it means having the ability to prevent its territory from
becoming an arena for the wars of others.
Small states cannot alter the balance of power in the world, but they can manage
their vulnerabilities intelligently, reduce the cost of the conflicts
surrounding them, and turn their geographic position from a source of threat
into a source of value.
For this reason, in this approach, neutrality is not a sign of weakness. It may
instead be one of the strongest political choices, because it presupposes a
state that knows its interests, sets its priorities, and has the ability to
withstand pressures that push it into conflicts that do not serve it. True
protection does not come from seeking shelter abroad, but from building a state
in which every citizen feels that the law protects them as it protects everyone
else, and that the state belongs not to a sect, group, or party, but serves as a
common framework for all.
Therefore, neutrality is not the starting point of the Lebanese crisis. It is
the result. It cannot substitute for reform, nor is it a magic formula for
addressing weak institutions, internal divisions, and multiple centers of power.
Before Lebanon asks whether it can declare neutrality, it must ask itself
whether it is capable of building the state that would make such neutrality
viable and sustainable.Here Lebanon faces two choices: either it remains a
territory over which the projects of others intersect, with its fate managed
according to the calculations of regional and international powers, or it
reclaims its position as a state that determines its own interests and shapes
its foreign policy according to its national priorities. Neutrality is not
Lebanon's abandonment of its role. In reality, it is the recovery of that role.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published
on September 11-12/2026
Trump says US will never forget 9/11, 'that's why we fight today'
LBCI/11 September ,2026
President Donald Trump vowed Friday that the United States would never forget
the September 11, 2001 attacks and would continue to "fight," as he marked the
25th anniversary in a ceremony at the Pentagon. "Today we renew the sacred oath
that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago. We will never,
ever forget. That's why we fight today," said Trump, who opted to skip
commemorations in New York. "We don't have a choice. There can only be victory.
We fight hard. We fight to win." AFP
Trump says he has no regrets over Iran war despite midterm
election risk
Reuters/11 September ,2026
President Donald Trump said he did not regret going to war against Iran despite
the impact the conflict may have on the November US midterm elections.
“I don’t believe in the word ‘regret.’ You can always question yourself a
little bit,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham when
asked if he regretted the Iran war due to the impact it may have on the
elections.“If I had it do again, I would do exactly as I did,” Trump said in the
interview broadcast on Thursday on “The Ingraham Angle” show.
Trump dismissed suggestions that some of his supporters were upset and
demoralized about the war. “I don’t think they’re demoralized. I think they’re
very proud of the fact that I’m not letting Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump
said. Trump reiterated his thinking that the war will end immediately after the
midterm election. “It ends right after the election,” Trump said in the
interview. He made similar comments on Wednesday, alleging Tehran was trying to
influence the elections that will determine whether Trump’s Republican Party
retains control of Congress. The rise in oil and gas prices due to the
US-Israeli war on Iran has become a major issue for Republicans in the lead-up
to the elections. The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 and Iran
responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases.
US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed thousands
and displaced millions. Trump has cited weakening Iran’s nuclear capabilities as
one of his war objectives. Iran does not have nuclear weapons and says its
uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes. The US is nuclear-armed.
Iranian FM, Pakistani army chief discuss restoring diplomatic efforts,
de-escalation
Next 9/11 Shock Might Be Being Planned Where We’re Not
Looking, UK’s MI5 Chief Says
Asharq Al Awsat/September 12/2026
Intelligence services must not dwell too much on past threats but accept that a
new strategic shock along the lines of the 9/11 attacks could already be in
preparation where they are not looking, the head of Britain's MI5 spy agency
said. In an opinion piece published on Friday to mark 25 years since al-Qaeda
militants crashed hijacked passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New
York and the Pentagon, MI5's Director General Ken McCallum said security
agencies had to be ready to adapt to current and future challenges. "We know
that the next strategic shock will, by definition, not resemble the last one.
That is perhaps the most important lesson of all," McCallum wrote in the
commentary for the Independent newspaper. "We must of
course always learn from the last attack – but must beware of preparing
brilliantly to fight yesterday’s enemy, using yesterday’s methods, against
yesterday’s target ... The uncomfortable truth is that the next strategic shock
may already be taking shape somewhere we are not yet looking."Al-Qaeda, though
diminished, remains a threat, as does the aspiration of that group and other
militants for mass casualty attacks, McCallum said. This was recently borne out
by a foiled extremist plot to kill hundreds in gun attacks on the Jewish
community in the northern English city of Manchester, he added.
But McCallum said MI5 was also facing rising state-backed aggression,
ranging from sabotage carried out by criminal proxies to cyberattacks on power
stations. Unlike in 2001, many systems and services are in the hands of the
private sector and it will require governments, businesses and academia all
working together to close vulnerabilities and to respond swiftly in a crisis, he
said. "We cannot wait for the next shock to discover who owns the vulnerability,
who has the authority to act, or who was supposed to pick up the phone," he
wrote. "We owe the victims of 9/11 – and those who will otherwise become the
victims of tomorrow’s attack – something more than remembrance. We owe them
preparation, resilience and the courage to adapt before the next shock arrives."
Hormuz Shipping Traffic Falls to Single Digits
Asharq Al Awsat/September 11/2026
Vessel transits at the Strait of Hormuz fell to seven on Thursday from 11 the
previous day, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Friday, well below the
10-day average of 15.Of the seven vessels, two Panamax ships exited the strait,
one carrying fertilizer and the other sailing in ballast, according to data from
ship tracker Kpler as of 0306 GMT. Five vessels
entered the strait, including a Panamax vessel carrying dry bulk cargo, a
Handysize vessel laden with steel, a Handysize vessel carrying grains, a
medium-range tanker loaded with dirty petroleum products, and a Supramax vessel
carrying dry bulk cargo.
The figures exclude any vessels that might have crossed the strait with their
Automatic Identification System transponders turned off to avoid detection.
Meanwhile, two ballast QatarEnergy-linked vessels, the Al Ghashamiya and
the Al Daayen, appeared inside the Strait of Hormuz this week on September 9 and
6, respectively, after last being seen outside the waterway on September 6 and
3. Another QatarEnergy-controlled vessel, Al
Marrouna, also exited the Strait of Hormuz this week, delivering a cargo from
Ras Laffan to Pakistan on September 10. The voyage marked the first known LNG
shipment aboard a Qatar-linked tanker since late July, when Al Areesh carried a
cargo from Ras Laffan also to Pakistan. Before the Iran war started on February
28, the strait typically handled about 125 large, commercial vessels per day,
including tankers, gas carriers, bulkers and container vessels, accounting for
some 20% of the world’s daily crude oil and liquefied natural gas supply. A US
blockade of Iran-related shipping has halted Iranian crude oil exports since it
was reimposed in mid-July.
Iran says to discuss Hormuz with Gulf states in Oman on
Monday
LBCI/September 11/2026
Iran's foreign ministry said the country would meet with Gulf states in Oman on
Monday to discuss the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which the Islamic republic has
blockaded during the Middle East war. "This meeting is intended to promote
better understanding among the countries of the region and help strengthen
shared regional security," the ministry said in a statement on Friday, adding:
"Iraq and other littoral Persian Gulf states" will participate.AFP
Iran president says pressure on country at critical,
dangerous stage
Agence France Presse/September 11/2026
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday that pressure on his country
from the United States had reached a critical and dangerous stage, speaking in
India ahead of a Brics summit."Iran has been subjected to heavy sanctions in
recent years; this pressure has reached a critical and dangerous stage in recent
months following the military aggression by the United States and Israel," he
said, adding that "the world today is going through a period of unprecedented
complexity".
Iran-linked groups used Claude for propaganda, supreme
leader funeral plans: Anthropic
Al Arabiya English/11 Septembe/2026
Anthropic said it disrupted three Iranian state-aligned influence operations
that allegedly used its Claude artificial intelligence system to help design
propaganda campaigns, disguise state-backed messaging as independent content and
target audiences in multiple languages across social media platforms. The
company said the accounts were linked to actors working within or on behalf of
three Iranian state propaganda institutions: the Islamic Culture and
Communications Organization under the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance,
the Islamic Propaganda Office of Khorasan Razavi and the Islamic Propaganda
Organization’s Bina Cultural Observatory. According to Anthropic, the actors
described their efforts as part of a “soft war” or “cognitive warfare” program
aimed at shaping public opinion inside Iran and abroad.The groups used Claude to
build campaign plans, doctrine manuals, persona systems, target databases and
ministerial planning documents, allowing them to produce organizational
structures and campaign material that Anthropic said would otherwise have
required a fully staffed program office. The actors also focused heavily on
concealing the state origins of their messaging, according to the company’s
threat intelligence report released on Thursday. As
one actor linked to the Islamic Culture and Communications Organization put it,
the role of cultural attachés was “not to be the narrator, but the director” of
the narratives. Anthropic said the groups took
deliberate steps to hide their identities and locations. Because access to
Claude from within Iran is blocked, the actors used virtual private networks
(VPN) and foreign phone numbers to register and verify accounts. Despite those
efforts, they repeatedly disclosed their locations, institutions and roles in
conversations with Claude, while institutionally branded documents and
open-source information helped tie the accounts to the relevant organizations.
Anthropic said it later identified and banned the accounts associated with all
three operations, cutting off their access to Claude and sharing information
about the activity with industry and research partners.
AI used to build propaganda infrastructure
Anthropic said Claude served as the “main administrative and operational layer”
for the three operations. The actors used the system to create digital
operations manuals, coded project portfolios, persona systems, early-warning
protocols and amplification schedules. They also used Claude to turn official
government intelligence bulletins into tailored content in Farsi, Arabic, Urdu,
Malay, Spanish and English, with plans to expand into 20 languages.
Anthropic said the groups also used the model to “launder attribution,”
producing posts that appeared to come from foreign writers or independent media
outlets and creating hashtag campaigns designed to look as though they had
originated organically among ordinary users. The
content was distributed across Iranian platforms including Eitaa, Bale and
Rubika, as well as X, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok and YouTube, according to the
report. Some of the material was also observed being spread through channels
sympathetic to narratives associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
False claims and foreign targets
One operation produced official ICCO-branded ministerial documents detailing a
nine-part international influence portfolio as well as organizational plans for
the funeral of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the early
days of the war. Another operation, based in Mashhad,
ran what Anthropic described as a multi-province content factory known as
“Manjanegh,” or “Catapult.” The network used dozens of activists to repackage
Iranian security services’ public reporting under different personas without
links to those services, and allegedly amplified the material through paid
campaigns across more than 100 Iranian channels, including IRGC-linked outlets.
Anthropic also said an actor linked to the Bina Cultural Observatory generated
messaging in the official voice of an IRGC spokesperson. During a campaign
connected to the 2026 US-Israel-Iran war, the network falsely attributed claims
to Western research institutions including CSIS, Brookings and RAND in an effort
to make state-backed messages appear more credible.
The report also said the networks targeted international officials, Iranian
opposition figures and the Baha’I community, while using AI-generated personas
and coordinated distribution tactics to make state-backed messaging appear more
independent and credible.
IAEA Confirms Activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain
Asharq Al Awsat/September 12/2026
The United Nations atomic watchdog said on Thursday it has observed construction
activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily-fortified site suspected of
housing nuclear-related activities. International Atomic Energy Agency chief
Rafael Grossi said new movement at the complex had been spotted in remote
imagery. “There are some indications that there is movement around this
construction site,” Grossi told Bloomberg Television.
“We don’t have any concrete information as to activities that may be taking
place there,” he added. Pickaxe Mountain, located in the Zagros Mountains
roughly 220 kilometers south of Tehran, began drawing particular attention after
an Iranian centrifuge workshop was sabotaged six years ago. Iran said it
intended to move sensitive nuclear-related infrastructure underground to protect
it from attack. “They said at the time, ‘we are going to put everything in
tunnels, inside a mountain,’” Grossi told Bloomberg. “This was going to be
impermeable and protected from attacks.”Western intelligence suspects Iran is
building an undeclared enrichment facility inside Pickaxe Mountain that could be
used to enrich uranium. On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump mentioned the
Pickaxe at a Republican rally and said: “We notice there’s a little activity at
Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them
very hard.”Trump has been threatening strikes on Pickaxe Mountain since at least
mid-July.
Unverified nuclear stockpile
At the quarterly meeting of the IAEA board of governors in Vienna this week,
Grossi said the UN watchdog has been completely blind regarding Iran's nuclear
program since at least June 2025, when the US and Israel launched a 12-day
conflict that included strikes on nuclear sites. Prior to the June strikes, the
IAEA calculated that Iran possessed approximately 440,9 kilograms of uranium
enriched to 60%, which is close to the 90% needed to make a bomb and well above
the 3.67% limit set by a 2015 now-defunct agreement with Iran.
On Wednesday, the UN atomic watchdog’s board reported Iran to the UN
Security Council for the first time in 20 years, citing it for failure to
cooperate in a long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by
inspectors at undeclared sites. The resolution accused Iran of failing to comply
with its nuclear reporting obligations, citing it for failure to cooperate in a
long-running investigation into uranium traces detected by inspectors at
undeclared sites.
Tehran responds
In return, Iranian deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi slammed the IAEA
for referring Iran's nuclear file to the UN Security Council. Gharibabadi wrote
in a post on X, “They attack Iran's safeguarded nuclear facilities, disrupt the
normal process of verification, and then use that very disruption as a pretext
to issue a resolution.” He described the approach as “fabricated”, saying: “With
these fabrications, you cannot make up for the failure of your policies and
actions, nor achieve any result at the Security Council.”
Iran’s mission to the UN also denounced the resolution. “It follows a
telling trend and facilitates further erosion and ultimate collapse of the
proliferation regime as a whole,” the mission said in a post on X. The
resolution sparked criticism in Tehran. Politicians said Iran should accelerate
the development of the nuclear program and reconsider its membership in the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iranian deputy Rouhollah Najabat said that
following the IAEA Board of Governors’ resolution, Tehran will accelerate the
technical development of its nuclear program. “Westerners should know that the
path of threats and referring the case to the Security Council is ineffective,”
Najabat said.
He added that Iran will make no concessions but will take a “more serious and
firm” approach. The deputy warned that the Iranian parliament will not remain
“passive.”Lawmaker Alireza Salimi, a member of parliament’s presiding board,
said Iran had “serious options” for responding. “One of our options could be
withdrawal from the NPT,” he said, adding: “Iran will certainly respond.”
Iran is Reportedly Producing Ballistic Missiles Again in
Underground Facilities
Asharq Al Awsat/September 12/2026
Iran has resumed its production of ballistic missiles using stockpiled
components and working in underground facilities, officials from the US and
Middle East familiar with the matter said. Despite
heavy attacks on its missile sites and industrial facilities during the initial
phase of the war, Iran has been busy assembling liquid-propellant missiles,
which have to be fueled just before launch, as well as solid-propellant
missiles, which can be stored ready to fire, some of the officials told The Wall
Street Journal. Intelligence points to activity at several underground sites,
including the Khojir missile facility in southeastern Iran, those officials
said. Iran is also attempting to build new underground assembly points to avoid
getting struck again, the daily quoted them as saying. So far, Iran is mainly
assembling the new missiles from existing components in more limited quantities
than before the war, the US and regional officials said. The US and Israel
damaged a number of industrial facilities needed to produce missile components
and missiles themselves, and the naval blockade has complicated imports of parts
and ingredients for solid fuel. The renewed production underscores the
difficulty of fully dismantling Tehran’s missile program, a goal of the war the
US and Israel launched on Feb. 28. “When there are no bombings of the
facilities, you can replace damaged infrastructure, and you can buy new
components from other countries and store them in the facilities,” said Tal
Inbar, a senior analyst at the US-based Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. “You
have to be extremely naive to think that Iran is not rebuilding its
missile-production capabilities.” A White House
official didn’t directly address the question of whether Tehran had resumed
production of ballistic missiles but said that Iran’s nuclear facilities had
been obliterated and its military forces severely degraded. “Iran is weaker now
than ever before, and President Trump will never allow Iran to have a nuclear
weapon,” the official said. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said
the US had “destroyed up to 90% of Iran’s drone, ballistic missile, and naval
industrial base” and “significantly degraded” Iran’s ability to launch missiles
and drones.
Israel Assassinates Qassam’s Commander of the Khan Younis
Brigade
Gaza: Asharq Al Awsat/September 11/2026
Israel's military said on Friday it had killed a top Hamas commander in a Gaza
airstrike a day earlier, as it presses ahead with a bombing campaign in the
Palestinian territory despite US-backed efforts to salvage a 2025 ceasefire. In
a statement, Hamas' armed wing confirmed the death of Mohammed Abdel Salam
al-Yazouri in a Thursday airstrike, saying he played a prominent role in
planning the October 7, 2023 attacks that set off Israel's two-year military
assault. The Israeli military said the strike targeting Yazouri also killed two
other commanders. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Al-Yazouri, also known as "Abu Al-Haitham," was commander of Gaza's Khan Younis
Brigade in the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement.
He and Hudhaifa Abu Muammar, an engineer in the Qassam Brigades, were
killed in an Israeli drone strike while they were walking in the Al-Mawasi area
at midnight Thursday-Friday. Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Yazouri
was not quickly identified, as he was in pieces and his body, including his
face, was disfigured. The sources revealed that the sudden loss of contact with
him prompted some of those close to him to try to find out if he was the target,
and it became clear in the early hours of dawn that he was among the victims.
According to two sources, al-Yazouri assumed responsibility for the Khan
Younis Brigade shortly after the assassination of the brigade leaders Ezzedine
al-Haddad and Mohammad Oudeh, who were assassinated within ten days in May.
Al-Yazouri was the commander of central and western Khan Younis, before becoming
the general commander of the brigade. He worked for
years in other positions within the Qassam leadership, including the
intelligence apparatus, which was one of the agencies that worked on gathering
security information in preparation for the October 7, 2023, attack. A third
source said al-Yazouri escaped several assassination attempts, whether during
the current war or years before it. One of the most
prominent attempts occurred when he was with Rafe Salama, Mohammad Sinwar, and
Yahya Sinwar in a tunnel in Khan Younis in 2021. Israeli planes bombed the site
with several missiles during what was known as the battle of the "Sword of
Jerusalem," which Israel named "Guardian of the Walls." Everyone survived the
attack. Abu Muammar was an engineer in the Qassam
Brigades who was responsible for developing the military capabilities of the
brigades and was close to its prominent leaders. He
was responsible for several attacks against Israeli forces during the Gaza war
and others before it.
Germany Charges 7 Over Suspected Hamas Oct. 7 Anniversary
Plot
Asharq Al Awsat/September 11/2026
German prosecutors on Friday charged seven suspected members of Palestinian
group Hamas for allegedly planning attacks to coincide with the second
anniversary of the October 7, 2023, assault in Israel. "Since at least July
2025, Hamas had been planning a deadly attack in Germany or Austria targeting
Israeli representatives, people of the Jewish faith or pro-Israeli individuals,"
prosecutors alleged. "This attack was to take place in the immediate run-up to
the second anniversary of Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023," they
continued. Suspected high-ranking Hamas operatives allegedly tasked two German
citizens with securing weapons and ammunition in Germany, prosecutors said.
They were allegedly joined by a Danish national, a Bulgarian and three
Lebanese, according to prosecutors. When arrested last October, police found
three of the men with an automatic rifle, 13 pistols and 700 bullets, according
to the charges.The seven, whose full names have not been made public, are in
custody. Another man suspected of having acted as a ringleader, identified only
as Mohammed A., was arrested in London in November and has not yet been
extradited. Prosecutors suspect he moved some of the weapons to Vienna and made
a video taking responsibility in the name of Hamas for the planned attack.
Germany has been on alert for potential attacks against the Jewish community
since October 7, 2023. The 2026 attack inside Israel,
by fighters from the armed wing of Hamas in Gaza, resulted in the deaths of
1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's massive retaliatory ground offensive and bombardment of Gaza has
killed 73,670 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the
Gaza health ministry, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable. The
ongoing Israeli military response has reduced to rubble most of the densely
populated Palestinian territory, which had a population of around two million
before October 2023.
Israeli Support for Ethiopia’s Maritime Access Bid Fuels
Tensions With Egypt
Asharq Al Awsat/September 12/2026
Israeli support for landlocked Ethiopia’s bid for access to the Red Sea is
fueling tensions with Egypt, which has repeatedly opposed Addis Ababa’s moves
amid a separate dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and its impact
on Cairo’s Nile water share.
The Israeli backing raises friction with Egypt and gives Tel Aviv another way to
pressure Cairo over its positions, despite the legitimacy of Egypt’s stance
under international law, experts told Asharq Al-Awsat. They said the
international community would ultimately determine the outcome. Ethiopia has
been landlocked since 1993, when Eritrea gained independence after a
three-decade war. It relies on neighboring countries’ ports, particularly
Djibouti’s. The Ethiopian News Agency said Israel had announced diplomatic
support for Ethiopia’s efforts to secure access to the sea. It quoted Israeli
Ambassador to Ethiopia Avraham Neguise as saying that his country firmly backed
the East African nation’s push for a Red Sea outlet. Empowering and
strengthening Ethiopia and stabilizing the Red Sea are in everyone’s interest,
not Ethiopia’s alone, and Israel stands with Ethiopia in this effort, Neguise
told the agency on Thursday evening. It was not Neguise’s first intervention on
an issue dividing Egypt and Ethiopia. In August, he told reporters that Israel
would “continue to strengthen its support for Ethiopia, with the aim of helping
it become a leading economic power on the African continent.”
Threat to Egyptian interests
African affairs expert Asmaa al-Husseini said the Israeli statements “increase
tensions with Egypt” and point to “a covert Israeli role in Ethiopia’s Red Sea
moves aimed at harming Egyptian interests.”The issue may not trigger a direct
crisis between Cairo and Tel Aviv, she told Asharq Al-Awsat, but Egypt would
closely monitor it. Cairo’s response would depend on the level of escalation and
Ethiopia’s actions on the ground. “Egypt has the right to defend its national
security,” Husseini said. “If any military arrangements targeting it are pursued
in the Red Sea, Egypt will take measures to prevent them. Ethiopia and Israel
understand this, but they are trying by every means to impose a fait accompli.
Egypt will never accept that.”Neguise’s latest remarks coincided with renewed
Egyptian opposition to Ethiopian access to the Red Sea. “There are sovereign
states with ports on the Red Sea, and no one has the right to grant any country
military maritime access. Otherwise, there would be chaos, particularly as many
African countries are landlocked,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told
a news conference on Thursday evening. “There is no problem with commercial
access,” he added. Ramadan Qarny, an expert on African affairs, said Egypt’s
opposition rested on several established principles. “The first is legal:
respect for international law, which affirms the exclusive right of littoral
states to maintain a presence on the Red Sea coast,” Qarny told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“The second is respect for African Union principles, which uphold the sanctity
of borders inherited from the colonial era. Raising this issue could therefore
open the door to widespread unrest across African countries.”The third
principle, Qarny said, was that “Egypt’s actions and position align with the
principles of the African and Arab states bordering the Red Sea.” Qarny said
Israel was seeking Ethiopian backing on a similar issue: Israel’s presence in,
or recognition of, the breakaway Somaliland region, which took place in December
2025.“There is a political quid pro quo,” he said. “Israel supports Ethiopia in
obtaining access to the Red Sea coast in exchange for Ethiopian support for
Israel’s recognition of the breakaway Somaliland region.”
Cairo’s position
Cairo has not officially responded to Israel’s continued moves on Ethiopia.
Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed El-Orabi, a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and the chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign
Affairs, has downplayed their impact.
In earlier remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said they would “neither undermine nor
change” Egypt’s positions. Qarny said Israeli support was unlikely to
significantly alter the dynamics of the Egyptian-Ethiopian disputes. “Tensions
already exist and are likely to increase,” he said, adding that Ethiopian media
had in recent months waged what he described as “a coordinated and organized
campaign,” led by the Ethiopian News Agency, against Egypt’s positions.
The campaign, he said, had targeted Cairo’s stance on the Grand Ethiopian
Renaissance Dam, the Nile Basin countries’ Cooperative Framework Agreement and
Ethiopia’s bid for maritime access.
Trump tells MBS US will provide intel, targeting assistance
amid Yemen escalation: Source
Al Arabiya English/September 11/2026
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke with US President Donald Trump
multiple times in recent days as Riyadh and Washington coordinate over the
escalating situation in Yemen, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Trump told MBS that the US would provide intelligence and targeting assistance,
one source told Al Arabiya English, as the Iran-backed Houthis make significant
gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline.The discussions come as the US steps up
its military engagement with Saudi Arabia. US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief
Adm. Brad Cooper traveled to the Kingdom in recent hours and is expected to meet
with senior Saudi military and government officials to discuss coordination, the
source said. CENTCOM has previously described freedom of navigation and regional
security as key priorities. A senior Trump administration official said the US
was focused on protecting its core national security interests, including
ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, “while empowering our regional
partners to take the lead in managing and resolving regional security
challenges.” The official added: “We are in continuous dialogue with Saudi
Arabia and the Republic of Yemen Government regarding regional stability.”
Houthi advance a 'resounding victory', says Khamenei adviser
Agence France Presse/September 11/2026
An adviser to Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei called the advance in Yemen
by Tehran-backed Houthi fighters a "resounding victory" on Friday, after they
seized a key island in the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait. "Congratulations on
this resounding victory, Ansar Allah," Mohammad Mokhber wrote on X, referring to
the Houthis by their formal name.
Saudi Arabia launches two airstrikes on Yemen's Mocha airport
Agence France Presse/September 11/2026
Saudi Arabia launched two airstrikes on Friday targeting the airport of the
strategic city of Mocha, now under Houthi control, according to the Iran-backed
group's Al-Masirah TV channel. Yemen's Houthis seized control of the Red Sea
port city on Thursday after launching a major offensive against Saudi-supported
Yemeni government forces around the Bab al-Mandab Strait. "The Saudi enemy
launched two strikes on Mocha airport," the Houthi TV channel said. A local
government official told AFP later that "six missiles targeted the Mocha port,"
but he did not specify where they came from. The Houthis seized a key island on
Friday and appeared in control of land along the Yemeni side of the Bab
al-Mandab, sealing their takeover of the vital artery for Saudi oil exports.
Hazem al-Assad from the Houthis' politburo told Al-Araby al-Jadeed news outlet
on Friday that "there is no cause for international concern" over free
navigation through the strait. The waterway, which links Asia to Europe via the
Red Sea and Suez Canal, has gained importance as a transit route since the start
of the wider Middle East war, which saw Iran blockade the Strait of Hormuz.
Yemeni Forces Reposition Themselves in Southern Mokha
Aden: Asharq Al Awsat/September 11/2026
Battles on the Yemeni western coast and west of Taiz entered a new phase on
Thursday as government forces reorganized their deployment south of the city of
Mokha, and formed an alternative command center in the Dhubab district toward
Bab al-Mandeb, following breakthroughs achieved by the Iran-backed Houthi group
on a number of fronts during the past hours. The development came following days
of violent battles on the west coast, during which the Houthi forces managed to
advance in al-Waziyah and Mawza and seize control of important positions as
government forces withdrew from positions in Hays and al-Khawkha. The Houthis
continued to push large human reinforcements to the confrontation lines, using
missiles, drones, and heavy weapons. Member of the Presidential Leadership
Council and commander of the National Resistance Tareq Saleh said the armed
forces on the west coast were regrouping in preparation for the next phase in
the fighting. According to local media, Saleh said the armed forces on the west
coast “have paid a heavy cost, including martyrs and wounded, in the days they
have been fighting the Houthi assault.”The armed forces include the National
Resistance, Giants Brigades and National Shield forces. He said the forces
confronted an attack “planned and supported by Iran.” He also accused Iran of
being involved in the fight “though its various tools.”The military media of the
National Resistance announced the formation of the new command center in the
Dhubab region, south of Mokha, in the direction of Bab al-Mandeb to positions
closer to the city of Mokha. Houthi militants had seized control Wednesday of
al-Waziyah, southwest of Taiz, and Mawza, east of Mokha, in addition to the
Khalid bin Al-Walid camp in the Mawza district, following violent battles with
government forces.
National Resistance and other forces withdrew from areas in the Hays district
north of Mokha and Khawkha south of Hays. The Houthis continued their advance on
the northern and eastern axes leading to Mokha. Military media sources reported
that the Houthis stormed several areas in the Mokha district, seizing control of
the Jabal al-Nar camp, which housed the headquarters of the military forces
command on the western coast. Zuqar Island was struck by two ballistic missiles
amid escalation that included wide areas of the coast and the Red Sea. Air
strikes meanwhile hit Houthi positions in al-Tahita, al-Salif, and Kamran island
in Hodeidah. More air raids sough to weaken the group’s fire power and cut its
supply routes. These developments come a week after a
broad Houthi attack began in western Taiz and southern Hodeidah, during which
the group managed to mobilize large numbers of fighters and open more than one
front at the same time, with heavy use of missiles, drones, and artillery
shelling to cover its ground movements. Despite the Houthis’ heavy losses, they
continued to bring more reinforcements to the fronts amid apparent disarray in
government forces and a depletion of their reserves.
Houthis Seize Bab Al-Mandeb and Yemeni Islands in Southern
Red Sea
Asharq Al Awsat/September 12/2026
The Iran-backed Houthi group expanded on Friday its control on the western coast
of Yemen, reaching wide areas of the Dhubab district, which directly overlooks
the Bab al-Mandeb strait. Militants also captured Mayyun Island and the Hanish
Islands archipelago and Zuqar Island in the Red Sea. The developments raise the
risks surrounding one of the most important strategic waterways in the world, a
day after the Houthis seized Mokha city and its strategic port. The Houthis
seized control of wide areas in Dhubab, including the Bab al-Mandeb area,
following heavy shelling against government forces, which were forced to retreat
toward the southern outskirts of the district. With
the group's arrival in these areas, its deployment now extends over a wide
coastal and island area directly connected to the waterway that separates the
Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis entered Mayyun Island, located in the
heart of the Bab al-Mandeb strait, and deployed there without resistance,
following the withdrawal of naval military forces from the island, according to
field sources. Warplanes launched raids on Houthi targets in the Mokha district,
in an attempt to contain the progress achieved by the group during the past
days. The Yemeni government called for international support. In a statement
Friday from a meeting the previous day, its National Defense Council said it was
on the front line of defending freedom of navigation and condemned the Houthis’
renewed attacks on Saudi Arabia. The council stressed that the battle is not
about controlling individual positions or districts, but rather about restoring
state institutions and its sovereignty, warning against turning the coasts and
islands into platforms to threaten Yemen, the countries of the region, and
international navigation. The council said that Yemen, in its defense of Bab
al-Mandeb, its coasts, islands, and territorial waters, is not defending itself
only, but rather the freedom of navigation, maritime security, and the stability
of world trade. It called on the international
community, especially the UN Security Council and countries overlooking the Red
Sea, to bear their responsibilities to prevent turning Bab al-Mandeb and Yemeni
coasts and islands into leverage for blackmail or platforms of threat to
international navigation and trade.
Houthi Casualties Strain Sanaa Hospitals’ Capacity
Sanaa: Asharq Al Awsat/September 12/2026
The fallout from the Houthis’ military escalation in Yemen is straining
hospitals and endangering civilians in areas under the group’s control, while
fueling rare criticism from within its own ranks. Activists and former fighters
accuse the group of exploiting poverty to recruit young men, trading on
fighters’ blood and diverting resources to the war effort at the expense of
civilian needs. Medical sources in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa told Asharq
Al-Awsat that the group’s Health Ministry had recently ordered several
government hospitals to limit admissions of critically ill patients. Intensive
care units, emergency departments and other wards have instead been reserved for
wounded Houthi fighters arriving from the front lines.The measures cover
Al-Thawra, Al-Jumhouri, Police, Military, Al-Quds, 48 and Kuwait hospitals —
among the capital’s leading medical facilities. Their capacity to treat
civilians has consequently shrunk, particularly for patients needing urgent care
or intensive treatment. The restrictions coincided
with the arrival in Sanaa of large numbers of dead and wounded Houthi fighters
following battles on several fronts across Yemen.Health workers said hospitals
were taking in growing numbers of casualties and setting aside beds, equipment
and wards for those arriving from combat zones, including fighters requiring
surgery or intensive care.
Hospitals under strain
The Houthis have tightened security around several medical facilities, barred
media access and withheld information about the identities and conditions of
casualties arriving from the front lines.Health workers said the influx of
wounded fighters had pushed hospitals closer to capacity, leaving less room for
civilian patients. Ahmed, whose relative needed treatment in Sanaa, said his
family struggled to obtain the necessary care at Al-Jumhouri Hospital and was
forced to look elsewhere because the facility lacked the resources to treat the
patient. He accused the Houthis of channeling
available medical resources into the war effort, warning that civilians —
particularly children, older people, chronically ill patients and emergency
cases — faced growing risks. The measures come as the health system in
Houthi-held areas reels from years of war, dwindling funding and severe
shortages of medicine, supplies and medical staff. Health facilities have also
been damaged, forcing some to close.The strain extends beyond Sanaa. The
capital’s main hospitals routinely receive referrals from other provinces and
regions, meaning their reduced capacity affects a far wider population under
Houthi control.
Dissent from within
As the escalation weighs on the health sector, criticism is also mounting among
figures and activists aligned with the Houthis. Their
complaints center on the war’s human cost, the treatment of fighters and the
families of those killed or wounded, and recruitment practices that prey on
economic hardship.
In the latest rebuke, activist and former Houthi fighter Abdullah Sharaf
al-Mahdi attacked the group’s leaders and supervisors, accusing them of trading
on fighters’ blood and sidelining bereaved and wounded families for personal
gain. Fighters and their families bear the cost of the
war, al-Mahdi said, while officials and supervisors receive privileges including
property and financial allocations. The conflict, he added, had become a vehicle
for advancing the interests of factions within the group.
Al-Mahdi said he regretted the years he had spent fighting for the
Houthis and would not support them again. His comments reflect a shift among
some critics from opposing the group’s policies to questioning its motives for
prolonging the war.
Criticism has also emerged from within Houthi-controlled institutions.
Abdu Bishr, a member of the Houthi-controlled parliament in Sanaa, accused the
group of ignoring Yemenis’ suffering and pursuing what he called “futile” wars.
He urged it to keep economic and humanitarian issues out of the conflict.
Bishr called for salaries to be paid, detainees released and airports
reopened. He warned that what he described as “taking pleasure in bloodshed”
would deepen the humanitarian catastrophe and urged the group to ease people’s
suffering or “leave the scene.”Houthi activist and writer Zaid al-Kibsi also
criticized the group’s recruitment of young people and adolescents, saying it
exploited poverty and worsening economic conditions to push more of them toward
the front lines. He accused the Houthis of using religious and sectarian
rhetoric, along with slogans of “jihad and martyrdom,” to recruit young people
as many families struggle to meet their basic needs.
ome recruits depend on the group’s modest payments to support their families
while risking death or injury in combat, al-Kibsi said.
Many are young men who have had no chance to build their lives or start
families, leaving their relatives to bear the consequences when they are killed
or wounded.
Iraqi Factions Demand Law Bringing All Weapons Under State Control
Baghdad: Hamza Mustafa/Asharq Al Awsat/September 12/2026
Iraqi factions have renewed their demand that the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga
forces be included in a plan to bring weapons under state control through a new
law. Qais al-Khazali, a senior figure in Asaib Ahl
al-Haq, which announced last month that it had handed over its weapons, said the
Kurdish forces were “constitutional and recognized by law.”Iran-aligned Iraqi
groups have repeatedly set conditions for accepting the plan. Observers believe
the groups are trying to buy time as they await the outcome of the Iran-US
conflict in the region. Al-Khazali, a leader in the Coordination Framework
alliance, said in televised remarks on Thursday night that “the Peshmerga is a
constitutional institution and is not subject to the criteria for bringing
weapons under state control.”“These forces are recognized under the law,” he
added. Al-Khazali said bringing weapons under state control was “a legitimate
aspiration for the stability of state institutions.” He added that “Shiite
politicians are more concerned with this project than others.”He said weapons
had been transferred to state institutions “genuinely, rather than merely
symbolically,” adding that Asaib Ahl al-Haq’s weapons had been placed under the
authority of the Popular Mobilization Forces. Al-Khazali’s position on the
Peshmerga reflects sharp divisions among Shiite forces, including armed factions
that have demanded the disarmament of Kurdish formations.
Al-Zaidi had made bringing weapons under state control a central part of
his government program. Asaib Ahl al-Haq and other factions joined the
settlement in the hope of easing international pressure and clearing the way for
their participation in political and executive roles. Sabah al-Numan,
spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said on Thursday
that talks with armed factions were underway at the highest levels to resolve
the weapons issue. He said, however, that implementation would begin after the
international coalition’s mission ends on Sept. 30.
A law applying to everyone
Al-Khazali’s remarks followed local reports citing sources familiar with the
talks with the factions. The sources said the factions had demanded a new law
requiring everyone, including the Peshmerga, to disarm. Several faction
officials told figures in the Coordination Framework that restrictions on
weapons should apply to all parties, the sources said.
They said the proposal aimed to control, regulate, and manage weapons nationwide
under a unified legal framework. This would prevent measures from being applied
selectively to one party but not another. The sources said a committee would be
formed in the next phase to draft a law governing the control, regulation, and
management of weapons. The draft would undergo legal
review before being referred to parliament for a vote, with political forces
participating in the process. Kifah Mahmoud, media adviser to the president of
the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the Iraqi
constitution recognizes the legitimacy of the Peshmerga’s weapons.”He described
al-Khazali’s remarks as “a belated acknowledgment.” Mahmoud said the federal
government was fully informed about the Peshmerga’s weapons, equipment and
military divisions. He added that the Peshmerga was an essential part of Iraq’s
official military establishment. He said bringing the Peshmerga into the debate
over weapons control in Baghdad reflected deep divisions within the governing
alliance and an attempt to divert attention from the heart of the crisis. A
political source familiar with the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat that the
government’s plan was being obstructed by disagreements within the governing
alliance itself. The source said some figures opposed disarmament because they
believed these groups should not be stripped of their power and influence.
Syria Arrests Nine Former Assad-Era Pilots
Asharq Al Awsat/September 11/2026
Syrian authorities said Thursday nine former pilots, including three generals,
who are accused of having taken part in lethal bombings of towns and villages
under the former rule of Bashar al-Assad, had been arrested. For more than 13
years of a civil war that claimed over half a million lives, Syrian forces
relentlessly shelled areas held by the opposition before Assad was toppled in
December 2024 and the current government came to power.
Following a series of operations in Latakia in the country's west, the
Internal Security Forces arrested nine former military pilots "involved in war
crimes against the Syrian people... in several regions", news agency SANA
reported, citing authorities. Among them are generals
Menhel Anwar Saleh, Sami Ibrahim Mahmoud, and Ghayath Ali Rehye. "Their crimes
caused a large number of casualties... and inflicted extensive damage on towns
and villages, in addition to displacing residents and destroying homes and
civilian infrastructure," SANA added. Since al-Assad was overthrown, the new
authorities have arrested dozens of former security officials, and trials began
in April. Syrian authorities said Monday they had
arrested a former general accused of involvement in the bloody repression of
protests in 2011 that sparked the country's civil war and the 1982 Hama
massacre. Syria sentenced Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad, and five other
security officials to death in absentia in August for atrocities committed
during the civil war, the first such ruling under the new authorities. The
former president fled Syria as his government fell and is believed to be living
in Russia.
Syrian Parliament Seeks to End Institutional Disorder
Damascus: Asharq Al Awsat/September 11/2026
The Syrian People’s Assembly has begun coordinating with a number of executive
bodies to launch a legislative phase focused on modernizing the legal framework
governing state institutions. The administrative steps are part of broader
efforts to improve government efficiency and governance. Speaker of the People’s
Assembly Abdul Hamid Awak previously stressed that priority would be given to
legislation proposed by the executive branch. He said
that a balance would also be maintained between bills submitted by government
institutions and proposals put forward by lawmakers. In recent months, several
ministries and government agencies have moved forward with drafting new laws and
regulations for parliamentary approval. These include proposals from the
Ministry of Interior for legislation defining its functions and
responsibilities, as well as a law regulating firearm ownership and combating
crime. Other proposed legislation concerns the Ministry of Sports and Youth,
including amendments related to its responsibilities and affiliated
institutions. Additional measures seek to strengthen the organizational
structure and authority of the Ministry of Local Administration and its
subsidiary bodies and councils, in addition to the final draft of a financial
law governing administrative units. Work is also
underway on a project covering expropriation, property law, and agrarian reform.
A committee formed by the Ministry of Agriculture is leading the initiative in
cooperation with several ministries and agencies, including the Ministries of
Public Works and Housing, Local Administration, Defense, and Interior, before
submitting it to the relevant parliamentary committees.
Parliament is also awaiting a new media law drafted by the Ministry of
Information, journalism and media unions, and specialized committees tasked with
defending journalists’ rights in Syria. Additional legislative proposals include
judicial codes of conduct and laws governing the Ministry of Justice and its
operations. These steps follow the creation of
internal committees within ministries and relevant institutions after the fall
of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. A series of workshops was organized to review
existing legislation, identify legal gaps, incorporate recommendations, and
begin drafting new legal frameworks. According to sources who spoke to Asharq
Al-Awsat, parliament is currently focused on approving the committees recently
formed, defining their mechanisms of operation, completing logistical and
procedural preparations, and approving the budget for its 30 month term.
The budget is expected to be approved and announced during the next
session, scheduled for the second week of this month. According to the sources,
this will be the last session dedicated to parliament’s internal affairs before
the legislative phase officially begins.The sources described the process as a
“comprehensive legislative revolution” targeting all state institutions and the
three branches of government.
According to members of the People’s Assembly, the next phase and parliamentary
agenda will focus heavily on these projects, which are estimated to number in
the dozens and have been submitted by various ministries and institutions,
including the Ministries of Justice, Interior, Local Administration and
Environment, Sports and Youth, Agriculture, and others.
They expect the legislative and voting phase to begin during the next
session, starting with laws concerning civil and service institutions linked to
local communities and public life. These measures aim to resolve legal
contradictions, close loopholes, and clarify overlapping authorities.They are
considered urgent legislation needed to improve organizational structures and
revitalize institutions that currently face significant governance challenges
due to multiple supervisory authorities and the accumulation of laws and
decisions.
Nevertheless, lawmakers said that parliament’s top priority remains legislation
concerning transitional justice, political isolation, and civil service reform.
“These laws are directly connected to the Syrian revolution and its social
base,” members said, emphasizing their importance in promoting social peace,
strengthening stability, and addressing injustices suffered by people dismissed
from their jobs because of their support for the revolution.
On that basis, the first parliamentary sessions are expected to approve
legislation dealing with individuals dismissed because of their stance toward
the former regime. The law would establish provisions and mechanisms to address
this complex issue, particularly in terms of compensation and creating a special
pathway for reinstating them to their former positions or assigning them to
other government jobs.
The Latest LCCC analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published
on September 10-111/2026
A State in a State of Failure
Akl Awit/Face Book/September 11/2026
Everything that increases decreases.
The adage applies, in an implacable and ongoing manner, to the entire Lebanese
situation, and particularly to that of the individuals, the worthy but poor
Lebanese, those living on modest incomes, and the heirs of a vanished middle
class.
If the country's state is lamentable for multiple reasons — internal and
external, local, regional, and international — the general neglect, the
underhanded handling of the issue of bank deposits, the exorbitant cost of
living, the delirious rise in the prices of food and basic necessities, the
increase in taxes affecting the vast majority of Lebanese, as well as the
invention of new imperial taxes (such as the solar energy tax), have become
impossible to swallow, digest, and repeat. Whatever negative consequences their
rejection, revolt against their application, or refusal to comply would bring,
they would face.
The Republic has brilliantly passed the test of "a State in a State of Failure,"
surpassing the banana republics of all places and all times, and obtaining the
highest possible grade in terms of power, corruption, dubious mediation,
nepotism, suspicious appointments, ambiguous nominations, tutelage, occupation,
war, destruction, forced displacement, extermination, population transfer,
terrorism, and collective massacre. This is under the action of those who have
disarmed it of its authority, its Constitution, and its dignity, especially
among those who obey the Iranian Wilayat al-Faqih and/or various foreign wills,
in an objective, fruitful, and complementary cooperation with the Israeli enemy.
In this State in a State of Failure, no one inspires respect. No one. Absolutely
no one. Any leniency in this regard, at any level — from the top of the pyramid
down to its base, through all administrations and institutions — constitutes
participation in the crime and an ignoble betrayal. Like the betrayal
represented by obedience to a foreign state.A failed state is a failed state.
And we are a failed state. In its case, neither rafistolage, nor embellishment,
nor makeup, nor makeup, nor artificial reconstruction of lost virginity, nor
sedatives, nor deliberate blindness, nor indulgence, nor running forward, nor
going back do anything.Since this is the situation, it would be appropriate for
those in power, the government and... the legislation to show a minimum of moral
courage — if there is still anything like that. I mean all presidencies, all
councils and all authorities, without exception and unanimously.So let them take
the initiative to declare the Lebanese Republic a failed state.
And if this moral courage is lacking, is there another solution?
Yes, there is one. Yes, there is one. Push the suicide to its ultimate term. In
other words, let what we are experiencing today worsen to the point where the
very existence of Lebanon and its Republic becomes a danger to the whole world.
Then everyone will look for a solution that suits their own interests, and after
that, nothing will push. Then will come the tears and the gnashing of teeth.
Fails in a failed state.
The Invasion of Britain: The UK No Longer Belongs to Its
Own People
Robert Williams/Gatestone Institute/September 11, 2026
Britain is falling – hard. Worse, the British government appears to be
facilitating its fall.
The tiny village of Piddington – population 350 people – is about to receive
1,250 male illegal immigrants, who will be housed at a local former military
base. The village's inhabitants, who are terrified, are saying they will declare
independence and have called on US President Donald Trump to support them.
The results of Britain's changing demographics are available for all to see. In
the working-class communities, where immigrants have historically moved, Britons
such as Tommy Robinson were vilified and treated as enemies of the state for
pointing out a few hair-raising facts, such as the increasing criminalization of
free speech, out-of-control censorship and the mind-numbing number of rapes and
other sexual attacks by asylum seekers in Britain. In 2002-03 there were
approximately 16,400 police-recorded rape offenses, a number that has reached a
peak of about 71,000–74,700 as of July 2026. And these are just the ones that
are reported.
The British government, however, does not want the public to know how many
rapists are foreigners: Although the government was ordered to release
statistics with offenders' nationalities, the government is fighting that
ruling.
The invasion of Britain is happening at multiple levels. Birmingham's city
council is seeking a court injunction to ban activists from the "Raise the
Colours" campaign – a patriotic movement of British pride – and others from
flying British and English flags from lampposts in the city citing "public
safety." They want people who defy such a potential order to go to prison. As
outlandish as this sounds, they are likely to be successful....
Fly your own flag in your own country and you will be fined and sent to prison.
The UK no longer belongs to its own people.
In other news, since 2023, MI5, MI6 and the Government Communications
Headquarters (Britain's "intelligence, security and cyber agency") have been
running a Summer Intelligence Internship, a sort of recruitment effort from
which white people are explicitly excluded...
The authorities are not even hiding it anymore: Safeguarding Britain from
threats is not even on the agenda. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is, and who
cares whether those who apply are even right for the job?
The question that so many Brits are presumably asking themselves these days is
not only why the British government thinks it a good idea to allow continued
illegal immigration into the country, but why men from the third world in
particular, who think raping women and children is normal, should be allowed to
set foot on British soil at all. Pictured: Illegal migrants try to board a
dinghy to cross the English Channel to Britain, on June 30, 2026 in Wissant,
France. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
"Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith," Winston Churchill wrote
of Islam in the late 1890s when he was still a young man.
"It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at
every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of
science — the science against which it had vainly struggled — the civilisation
of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome."
It now reads like a prophecy about the current fate of the country he led.
Britain is falling – hard. Worse, the British government appears to be
facilitating its fall.
Instead of firmly closing Britain's borders and turning away more immigrants, on
August 19, 2026, the Home Office published a nine-page booklet, "Understanding
behaviours and expectations in the UK: a guide for asylum seekers." This
brochure explains to newly arrived illegals that rape and sex with children are
serious crimes in Britain and that engaging in both "could affect your asylum
claim." The question that so many Brits are presumably asking themselves these
days is not only why the British government thinks it a good idea to allow
continued illegal immigration into the country, but why men from the third world
in particular, who think raping women and children is normal, should be allowed
to set foot on British soil at all.
Since 2018, around 200,000 illegal immigrants in small boats have arrived in the
UK. The majority of these illegals have been allowed to stay in Britain, with
just 4% (around 9,000) of them being deported. The majority of the migrants come
from Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Iran. Seventy-five percent of
arrivals are men.
Illegals, however, make up just a fraction of the collective immigration into
the UK: According to the latest statistics:
"In 2021/22, there were: 10.7 million people... living in the UK who were born
abroad (16% of the total population). Of these... 6.8 million (10% of the
population) were born outside the EU. A more recent ad hoc estimate by the ONS
suggests that, as of June 2024, around 13.1 million people living in the UK were
born overseas, including... 9.2 million born outside the EU. This was equivalent
to around 19% of the UK population. which has led to at least 13 million foreign
born residents living in Britain today, an increase of roughly 2.4 million
people since 2021/22."
That is an extraordinary amount of mainly third world immigrants, mostly male,
in just a few years.
Not only is the British government failing to deport these illegal immigrants;
it is currently moving them out of the hotels where they have been staying until
now and into small towns and villages across the country, where the men may have
absolutely nothing to do. The tiny village of Piddington – population 350 people
– is about to receive 1,250 male illegal immigrants, who will be housed at a
local former military base. The village's inhabitants, who are terrified, are
saying they will declare independence and have called on US President Donald
Trump to support them.
They have every reason to fear this influx. The results of Britain's changing
demographics are available for all to see. In the working-class communities,
where immigrants have historically moved, Britons such as Tommy Robinson were
vilified and treated as enemies of the state for pointing out a few hair-raising
facts, such as the increasing criminalization of free speech, out-of-control
censorship and the mind-numbing number of rapes and other sexual attacks by
asylum seekers in Britain (such as here, here, here, here and here). In 2002-03
there were approximately 16,400 police-recorded rape offenses, a number that has
reached a peak of about 71,000–74,700 as of July 2026. And these are just the
ones that are reported.
Now the turn has come for the rest of Britain to shoulder the consequences of
open borders. Allison Pearson, a journalist for The Telegraph, recently
described Britain as no longer safe for women and children, ruled by a
government that simply does not care. "Scarcely a day passes without learning of
some unbearable new abomination," she wrote, referring to the skyrocketing rates
of rape and other sexual attacks in Britain by asylum seekers, adding:
"There is no longer any room for doubt that violent and sexual attacks on
British women, girls and children by illegal migrants and other men from
misogynist cultures are shrugged off as collateral damage by a Government that
refuses, for reasons of political expediency and ideological preference, to
protect them."
Among the most recent abominations:
Two Afghan illegal migrants were found guilty of attacking a couple on a first
date in a London park with the men taking turns raping the woman while holding a
knife to her date's throat.
A Syrian teenager was jailed after raping a woman in a public toilet on
Bournemouth beachfront.
An Eritrean man, Bruke Desalagne, was found guilty of raping a male pensioner
outside a church.
Cab driver Abdul Farid Nabizada, a former military translator from Afghanistan,
was jailed for abducting and raping a teenage passenger.
The British government, however, does not want the public to know how many
rapists are foreigners: Although the government was ordered to release
statistics with offenders' nationalities, the government is fighting that
ruling.
The invasion of Britain is happening at multiple levels. Birmingham's city
council is seeking a court injunction to ban activists from the "Raise the
Colours" campaign – a patriotic movement of British pride – and others from
flying British and English flags from lampposts in the city citing "public
safety." They want people who defy such a potential order to go to prison. As
outlandish as this sounds, they are likely to be successful: Oxfordshire sought
an injunction against the flying of St George's Crosses and Union Flags in June.
At the time, a council spokesman said:
"Residents across Oxfordshire, from Adderbury to Wallingford, have complained to
the council about safety risks, intimidation and distress linked to this
activity. The ongoing scale and persistence of the behaviour by Raise the
Colours has created safety risks, caused distress within communities, and led to
abuse and intimidation directed at council teams and residents."A judge granted
the injunction banning the flags and anyone breaching it will face fines or
imprisonment.
Fly your own flag in your own country and you will be fined and sent to prison.
The UK no longer belongs to its own people.
In other news, since 2023, MI5, MI6 and the Government Communications
Headquarters (Britain's "intelligence, security and cyber agency") have been
running a Summer Intelligence Internship, a sort of recruitment effort from
which white people are explicitly excluded to "increase diversity within our
organisations":
"For the 2026/27 academic year, if you're in your final or penultimate year of
university, from a Black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority background
and from a socially or economically disadvantaged background, this internship
will help you discover if a career in intelligence is right for you. We're
confining the applications for this internship to those within this demographic
due to a current underrepresentation in our workforce."
The authorities are not even hiding it anymore: Safeguarding Britain from
threats is not even on the agenda. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is, and who
cares whether those who apply are even right for the job?
*Robert Williams is based in the United States.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22841/invasion-of-britain
© 2026 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute.
America 25 Years After 9/11
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
This morning, the great city of New York will once again hold a ritual ceremony
that has become a fixed part of its annual agenda for a quarter of a century.
The names of the 2,977 men, women and children who died in the terrorist attacks
on World Trade Center’s twin towers on September 11 will be read aloud while
millions of Americans watch the commemoration on TV with a mixture of grief and
anger.
This year, however, there will be a small but significant change in the
mise-en-scene of the annual event as families of victims will reportedly shun
the new Mayor Zahran Mamdani who does not endorse the generally accepted
narrative if what was the biggest terror attack in history. In other words, a
tragedy that initially brought all Americans together in anger and grief may now
forge into another fissure along partisan lines, at least in New York.
Reflecting on that issue, I decided to re-read the 570 pages of the 9/11
Commission Report and to my surprise, I found that even then partisan divisions
had prevented a proper understanding of the tragedy and the lessons to be drawn
from the start.
Reading "The Report" was like going through a French nouveau roman. It starts
with the promise of uncovering an ingenious plot, but offers nothing but
re-heated platitudes served with a pseudo-philosophical garnish. The reader ends
up asking: where is the beef?
It all starts with what looks like a misunderstanding of the mission of the
commission. The commissioners tell us that they had three aims:
- To offer "the most complete narrative" of the events. But what the report
offers is a collage of numerous articles and books that have already covered the
"event".
- To assemble as many personal testimonies as possible of the survivors of the
attacks and their families. This, though, a laudable effort, is of little help
in identifying the ideology and the machine that produced the killers in the
first place.
- Making recommendations about ways and means of preventing similar attacks That
should have been the "meat" of the report. It is not. It was, in fact, its
Achilles heel. The reasons are not hard to imagine. The commissioners have a
politico-technocratic mindset. They are the products of a political culture that
assumes that all problems have technical and bureaucratic solutions. Such
solutions are standard: create a new layer of bureaucracy and spend some more
money.
The commission itself was a typical product of such thinking. So, it was not
surprising that it came up with only two new proposals: one is to create a
Cabinet post dealing with intelligence, a twin for the existing Homeland
Security tsar. The other is a suggestion to spend money on “improving the lives
of disaffected youths in Arab and other Muslim countries”.
I am not kidding! Less than 10 percent of the report, basically its Chapter II,
was devoted to the key question: who were these terrorists, where did they come
from, and what made them tick?
The report said: "We learned about an enemy who is sophisticated, patient,
disciplined, and lethal. The enemy rallies broad support in the Arab and Muslim
world by demanding redress for political grievances, but its hostility towards
us and our values is limitless." Leaving aside the odd syntax - obviously
someone insisted that the last phrase be added - the paragraph quoted above
shows how the commission got on the wrong track. The report assumes that there
was a single, readily identifiable enemy. This is the routine way of political
thinking, as shaped during the Cold War.
Anyone with knowledge of the Arab countries and the Muslim world in general
would know that this is not the case. The problem with the 25-year war on terror
is precisely that the democracies, and those Muslims who aspire after democracy,
are faced with a multi-faceted threat that assumes numerous forms.
This war has to be fought in numerous battlefields and against many enemies
that, though united in their efforts to destroy democratic societies, first
among them the US, use a bewilderingly wide range of weapons and tactics. The
George W Bush administration opened the military theater of this war by
“liberating” Afghanistan and Iraq and seeking to destroy the terrorists nested
there.
But this is a war that must also be fought in diplomatic, cultural, religious,
and, above all, political battlefields. In all those theaters the US needed, and
could have found, allies, including among a majority of the Muslims who have
been the first victims of terror. The commission made no suggestions about how
to engage in those battlefields, who to choose as allies and who to identify as
neutrals or foes.
Now, this enemy does not grow on trees. He is a citizen of a state, has bases
and safe havens not in space, but in real countries, and uses all the facilities
of the modern global system. It was astonishing that the 9/11 Commission chose
to fly over all that. It discovered extensive contacts between al-Qaeda and 24
governments in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Tom Kean, the Commission's Republican Chairman came up with his own gem of a
phrase. "Although we are safer today, we are not safe," he asserted. Well, how
can you be safer if you are not safe in the first place? What he meant was that
Americans are less unsafe now than they were on the eve of 9/11.
The commission asked why was it that terrorists especially hated America but
provided no answer. The answer could be found in hundreds of books, articles and
sermons that make the round across the globe, including in the United State
itself. In fact, though you might find it odd, the bulk of what the global
anti-American industry produces comes from the US itself. The US is an "evil
animal" because it can bite back when bitten. The 9/11 Commission failed in its
mission.
The culture war between the MAGA camp and the wokeist coalition of
crypto-Communists and bleeding heart liberals shows that the failure has
continued for a quarter of a century. The Hate-America ailment has crept even
into the commemoration ritual in New York.
A Quarter Century Since the September 11 Attacks
Dr. Amal Moussa/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
On this day, September 11, 2001, a full quarter century ago, the world witnessed
attacks against the United States of America. It was an event that took the
world by surprise and threw it into confusion, given that it targeted the most
powerful state in the world, and given the enormity of the attacks and the
gravity of their human toll, which exceeded 2,753 dead.
A quarter century is of course no great span in the reckoning of history,
but it is at the same time an important period in which to assess the world's
record in the war on terror, a war that brought most of the world together
despite differences in approach.
The first observation is that these attacks represent a pivotal date in the
history of the world generally and of the Middle East in particular, coming
roughly ten years after the Second Gulf War and the liberation of Kuwait.
Most likely, had those attacks not occurred, the world today would look very
different in every respect. It is certain that the global situation would have
been less tense, less violent, and less prone to wars. These were truly historic
attacks in the sense that they transformed international policies and reshaped
language, concepts, and attitudes, ultimately altering the world's geopolitical
map. In other words, their repercussions have been profound, far-reaching, and
continue to this day.
Today, a quarter century on, the question imposes itself: What have been the
successes and the failures in this war on terror?
Before identifying those successes and failures, it is important to note that
the war on terror, seen through a global experience spanning a quarter century,
indicates that terrorism is a compound and complex phenomenon, and that
genuinely putting an end to it means addressing its causes and cutting it off at
the roots.There is of course no doubt that being able to eliminate those who
masterminded the attacks- whether Osama bin Laden in 2011 or, after him, Ayman
al-Zawahiri in 2022, along with others from al-Qaeda, an organization skilled at
concealment- was an important step in this war, particularly as this achievement
was reinforced by the dismantling of al-Qaeda's infrastructure, the destruction
of its principal camps, and the crippling of its capacity to launch new attacks.
Nor can one deny the US success in protecting the American home front from any
possible attacks after those of September 11, 2001.
The world also carried out a deep change in the concept of global security
during this war. Screening and surveillance procedures at airports and border
crossings became extremely strict, which reduced the number of terrorist
incidents worldwide after a period in which they had grown more frequent in a
number of European, Arab, and Muslim capitals.
Yet despite the steps achieved- which we may classify as essentially security
and military steps- we cannot speak of sustainable security having been attained
in the world. For while al-Qaeda's dominance has effectively ended, more extreme
organizations have been generated, such as ISIS, which left massacres behind it
and sowed terror, particularly in Iraq and Syria, quite apart from the Taliban's
return to power in Afghanistan after the American withdrawal. All of which
explains that what has occurred is the rise of what are called the second and
third generations of extremist organizations, classified as more brutal than
those that preceded them. Generally speaking, the problem does not lie in the
outcomes of the war on terror themselves so much as in the extent to which the
world has seriously and deeply addressed the underlying causes that give rise to
terrorism and produce terrorists.
It is important to make clear that wars waged against multifaceted phenomena are
more difficult and more complex than conventional wars between states.
The challenge becomes even greater when the phenomenon stems from a combination
of civilizational, economic, cultural, and political causes. This is what makes
the war on terror a unique kind of conflict, one that requires a wide range of
strategies and mechanisms.
What deserves attention on an occasion such as this, one that concerns the
entire world and not the United States alone, is that everyone has felt the
repercussions of these attacks.
The prospects for success in the war on terror remain uncertain, particularly
when viewed alongside the rise of racism around the world, the growing influence
of right-wing parties, and the use of Islamophobia as a tool for deepening
cultural, ethnic, and religious discrimination.
Poverty, unemployment, and the limited resilience of many countries in the face
of climate change, and the economic and social fragility it leaves behind,
likewise serve as invisible factories producing groups that experience
exclusion, marginalization, and closed doors.
Added to this is Europe's policy of closing its cities to migrants while
accepting only the skilled workers it needs. In other words, there are
compelling signs of narrow-mindedness and rejection of the other, all of which
create fertile ground for nurturing terrorism and extremism.
Therefore, on a day such as this, it may be worthwhile to view the war on terror
from a new perspective, one capable of making a real difference and achieving
lasting success.
Civilizations Break, But How?
Radwan al-Sayyed/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
The far-right Alternative for Germany party has won in one of the states of what
was formerly East Germany. It may take power in that small state for the first
time, having defeated the Christian Democratic Union, the country’s governing
party, in the local elections. Every German media outlet, and British and
American ones besides, counted this a calamity of a kind that had not befallen
Germany since the Second World War. The curious thing
is that this far-right party takes great pride in the legacies of the former
system in communist Germany during the Soviet era. So how are the two to be
reconciled - a far-right with a Soviet heritage? It was voted for by the young
and the old alike, many of whom said they had been wronged and were being
discriminated against by the two large parties, the Christian Democrats and the
Socialists. Never mind; this is not the subject I want
to discuss. What deserves discussion is the alarm that entered the German and
Western media generally, some of which said that German civilization - yes,
civilization- had broken. So, is Germany a civilization? And if it is, does it
break with the loss of a local election? In an event of this kind, is
civilization at stake, or is it the policies of governments, given that the
far-right wave is still advancing in France and in the Scandinavian countries?
The curious thing, a second time and a third, is that the centrist
governments still in place are preoccupied with the other fear, of Putin and
Russia, while the young of the rising right hold that Russia does not deserve to
be feared. Indeed the "bourgeois" governments are less alarmed by the Russian
president, Vladimir Putin, than by American abandonment and gradual withdrawal,
and by an inclination, like that of the European right, to make peace with
Russia and to imagine a better future with it.
In the 19th century a scientific conflict broke out, if the expression is
permissible, between the Anglo-Saxons and the Germans over what could properly
be called “science”. While the British and the Americans held that the empirical
disciplines were what deserved the name of “science” - and that history,
philosophy, and the social disciplines, not being empirical, were therefore not
sciences - the Germans insisted that the humanities, in which they excelled,
deserved the name of “human sciences” even if they did not possess the precision
of the experimental, empirical, and mathematical sciences.
In the end the formula "sciences of man" prevailed, but only after acquiring a
good many of the features of experiment and testing, in social statistics and in
psychoanalysis and its clinics. Philosophy, meanwhile, mingled with mathematics,
while history, or the science of history, held out. The great historian Arnold
Toynbee, who was closer to the German point of view, holds that it was philology
that made history a science, and historicism a school of scholarly inquiry.
The Germans' great achievements in the humanities - the sciences of man, the
humanistic disciplines of civilization - could not withstand the ambitions of
the German state, which fought several wars to unify the country and then set
off the First and Second World Wars, the two that brought America into Europe,
where it remains. Oswald Spengler, the German thinker
and author of “The Decline of the West”, held that the sciences of man, which
exposed man's savagery, were among the factors in the decline of Germany, and
indeed of the whole West. He made frequent use of the phrase "the breaking of
civilization," and his view was that it is violence that breaks civilization, by
destroying the built world. And it is man who does this without hesitation, but
not just any man: it is the man of the state. A single person does not make a
civilization, however many the gifted among them. But when several states
combine to set off wars, however their responsibilities may differ, the
non-violent civilization that gathers these peoples, who have become nations and
states, is broken. Western civilization has passed
through many crises and many wars. But Germany, which took part in setting off
most of them, has remained the most abundant and the deepest in its knowledge of
their horrors. The French long opposed German reunification, and opposed
Germany's having an army, since they sit on its border and have suffered most
from its wars. They are afraid now of Germany's rearming and enlarging its army,
on two grounds: the Russian danger, and the disintegration of NATO should the US
neglect it or withdraw from it. Germany and France, in
which apprehension and fears of civilizational breakage now prevail, are the two
most threatened by the right rising within them. But the French have written the
most, over the past two decades, about the collapse of the West and the breaking
of civilization. What comes to mind, of course, is that the officials of the two
countries should hasten to cooperate in warding off the evils of the right,
despite French fears of Germany's renewed strength.
American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, who died last year, recovered in his
book “After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory” Aristotle's proposition that living
together is the greatest factor of peace among nations. MacIntyre remained
convinced of this. But the theory was never proved correct in antiquity, as the
wars of Greece and Iran demonstrate, nor in modern times, as the wars between
Germany and France demonstrate. Johan Huizinga, the historian of the Middle
Ages, says that it is true that nations build civilization, but states demolish
it.
The curious thing, finally, is that the rising European right is against war,
and accuses countries with imperial leanings of stirring it up.
The Second Nabatieh Appeal and the Frontiers of Southern Consciousness
Mustafa Fahs/Asharq Al-Awsat/September 11/2026
The Second Nabatieh Appeal was not merely a call to save a threatened city, nor
simply a continuation of an earlier appeal that had warned of a danger drawing
near. Between the two appeals, the situation moved from a stage of warning to
one in which the danger has become existential for the city of Nabatieh, given
what it represents not only to its own people, but to Jabal Amel and to the
entire southern Shiite milieu. Nabatieh is not simply
a city that lies in the line of fire. It is a social, cultural, and
civilizational hub in the history of Jabal Amel, a major urban center with an
important geographic, economic, and educational position. Today, because of all
that it represents, it is surrounded by danger. It is therefore no longer
possible to treat what is happening there as merely a local or military matter.
It is a moment that calls for warning society, particularly southern society,
about the meaning of what is taking place. But the
importance of the appeal is not measured by the number of its signatories, nor
by its ability, at this moment, to produce an organized political movement. Its
importance lies in the fact that it is a political act different from what has
prevailed, and that it opens a window in a wall of long-standing stereotypes
reinforced by the Shiite duo in its approach to southern communities, until the
south has sometimes appeared to be a single bloc, a single position, and a
single voice.Societies are not like that. In moments of danger and heightened
sensitivity, societies reshape themselves and begin to reclaim their ability to
think about themselves, defend their interests, and distinguish between what is
said in their name and what they actually want. The
Second Nabatieh Appeal is therefore not an organization, nor a form of political
organization, nor a declaration of division within the southern Shiite milieu.
It is an expression of a condition taking shape first at the level of
consciousness and collective thought, which may later, if its conditions mature,
lay the groundwork for an oppositional political movement.
Herein lies its deeper significance. The war did not destroy stone alone. The
wars of support and what followed them have left deep social, economic, and
psychological effects. They have scattered families, struck at sources of
livelihood, and threatened cities, towns, and villages that are part of southern
memory. And when the house is destroyed, the city is threatened, and return
itself is not guaranteed, the question of war begins to turn into a question of
life.
A southerner can remain opposed to the occupation, hold fast to the south's
right to defend itself, and support the resistance, while at the same time
asking: Who decides on war? Who pays its price? Who protects the city? And who
guarantees that the south remains a place where people can live?
Here we arrive at the frontiers of southern consciousness. The issue is not a
move from one party to another, nor a revolt against the Shiite duo. It is the
beginning of a possible transition from "resistance first" to "the south first";
from the question of weapons to the question of survival; and from the question
of who represents the sect to the question of who represents the interests of
its people.
For this reason, the phrase "Nabatieh's survival matters more than the survival
of weapons" becomes more than a slogan. It is a reordering of the relationship
between means and ends. Weapons are a means, while the human being, the city,
the land, and memory are the ends. And when the means itself begins to threaten
the end, society has the right to ask questions and reconsider.
Consciousness does not begin when positions change, but when asking
questions becomes possible. The Second Nabatieh Appeal may therefore not be the
beginning of a fully formed political movement, but it certainly lays the
groundwork for a reshaping of collective consciousness. It says that the south
is not a silent bloc, that the southerner is not a number in the balance of
regional axes, and that cities are not merely positions in a battle. The south
is a society that wants to live, cities whose people want them to remain, and a
memory that does not want to become rubble. The value of the appeal, then, lies
not only in saving Nabatieh today, but in opening the way to a larger question:
Can the south reclaim its right to define its own interests for itself?
Accordingly, the Second Nabatieh Appeal may be the first step on that
road.
It stands at the frontiers of a new consciousness, not yet fully formed, but
beginning to take shape.
A Statement Never Issued
Eli Khoury/Now Lebanon/September 11/2026
A Hypothetical State Of The Republic Address — Not A Description Of What Lebanon
Is, But An Argument For What A Functioning State Should Finally Become.
A statement never issued by the President of the Republic, nor by the Prime
Minister, nor by the Council of Ministers, nor jointly by the Presidency and the
Government. It may never be issued. It is simply a modest attempt to articulate
what most citizens may aspire to — and what day-to-day politics too often
overlooks.
Fellow Lebanese,
We address you today not to describe another crisis, not to announce a temporary
settlement to an old one, and not to add another promise to the many the
Republic has accumulated and failed to keep. We address you because the time has
come for the Lebanese state to behave like a state, and to stop treating the
most basic conditions of its existence as unreasonable objectives, or as
concessions that require, each time, the approval of those who have benefited
from its absence.
For decades, the Lebanese have paid a heavy price for postponing the obvious:
diminished sovereignty in the name of realism; arms outside the state in the
name of resistance; obstruction in the name of partnership; sectarian patronage
in the name of balance; corruption in the name of stability; and intimidation in
the name of civil peace. Over time, the exceptions ceased to be exceptions and
became a system in their own right — one in which the Constitution coexists with
its opposite, the law with those who violate it, and the state with those who
compete with it for its most basic functions.
That phase is over.
The Lebanese Republic is not a temporary arrangement among communities, a
permanent truce among sects, or an arena for the projects of others. It is one
constitutional state for all its citizens, with one territory, one sovereignty,
one law, one set of institutions, and one legitimate military and security
authority. On that basis, and in accordance with the Constitution, the National
Accord, applicable law, international resolutions, and Lebanon’s own
obligations, we place before the Lebanese a clear program for reclaiming the
Republic — not as a political slogan, but as a project of government and
execution.
SECURITY
The existence of any armed organization outside the institutions of the state —
whatever its name, history, sect, slogans, or source of funding — is
incompatible with the very principle of statehood, with the Constitution, and
with the requirements of the National Accord. The Taif Agreement explicitly
provided for the disbanding of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias and the
surrender of their weapons to the state, as well as for the extension of state
authority over all Lebanese territory through its own forces. Relevant
international resolutions have reaffirmed the same principle: no military
authority, no independent security decision, and no legitimate weapon outside
the Lebanese state.
Accordingly, the era of military organizations parallel to the state is over.
This decision is directed against no sect, region, or social environment, nor
against any citizen because of his or her political views or affiliation. It
does not deny any party the right to peaceful political activity under the law.
It does, however, categorically end the claimed right of any party,
organization, or group to maintain an army, arsenal, independent security
apparatus, military communications network, combat facilities, closed zones of
influence, an independent decision over war and peace, or the freedom to operate
outside the law or on behalf of a foreign state.
Under a clear phased plan, the state will deploy and reinforce the Lebanese
Armed Forces and legitimate security services throughout Lebanese territory and
across all land, sea, and air borders and crossings. Where necessary, the
Government will seek assistance from the United States, U.S. Central Command,
friendly states, and other capable partners for training, equipment, technology,
intelligence, and logistical support. Command, sovereignty, authority, and
decision-making, however, will remain exclusively Lebanese.
The state will not engage in a daily debate over its right to be a state, nor
negotiate the principle of its sovereignty. Those who oppose government
decisions politically or publicly retain every right to do so within the law.
But anyone who threatens with arms, endangers civil peace, incites violence,
obstructs legitimate forces in carrying out their duties, or attempts to turn
enforcement of the law into a sectarian or communal confrontation will be dealt
with by the competent institutions according to the act committed — not
according to the cause they claim to represent.
We will explain our position to the skeptical, answer those who seek answers,
and reassure those who are afraid, because a confident state does not fear
explanation. But explanation is one thing; asking permission is another. A state
does not ask permission to enforce its Constitution, seek a party’s approval to
protect its borders, or require political consensus to end illegal arms.
A state does not ask permission to enforce its Constitution.
No cause stands above the Republic, no concern comes before the citizen, and no
objective is greater than a lasting peace that protects both.
NATIONALLY
To every Lebanese citizen, from every sect, confession, and region: your
guarantee is not a weapon, a leader, an embassy, or a foreign state. As
experience has repeatedly shown, your guarantee is the Republic, and the
Republic’s guarantee is the Constitution, the law, its institutions, and
equality among citizens.
We remain committed to the national partnership on which the Republic was built,
to the National Accord, and to the constitutional reforms that emerged from it.
But that commitment must be matched by an explicit and final recognition by
every Lebanese community of the primacy of the Lebanese Republic, the Lebanese
Constitution, civil law, and state authority over any partisan, sectarian, or
regional obligation. No state can be built where obedience to the law is
optional, or where the Constitution is a reference book for some and a
dream-interpretation manual for others.
We respect religions and religious communities and their right to administer
their religious affairs within the law. We equally respect the citizen’s right
not to belong to a sect, not to be religious, and not to be subject in his or
her civil and political rights to any authority other than the state. We
therefore call upon religious authorities and councils themselves to help free
religion from politics and politics from religion, and to prevent religious
institutions from becoming partisan, electoral, or security instruments.
We will no longer accept the reduction of a community to a party, or a party to
a community. No party owns the Shia. No party owns the Sunnis. No party owns the
Christians, the Druze, or any other Lebanese community. The citizen is an
individual with full rights before being a member of a group, and the sect is a
national community whose rights are protected — not political property
registered in the name of an organization, family, or leader. Just as we protect
one community from domination by another, we must protect the individual from
his own community as well, because freedom is incomplete if the individual is
free from the state but captive to his sect — or the reverse.
Nor will there be legitimacy for any clandestine or unlawful relationship
between a party, organization, or sectarian institution and a foreign state or
agency. Lebanon conducts international relations through the state on behalf of
the Lebanese. Political parties may maintain the open political relationships
permitted by law. Secret financing, foreign direction, parallel apparatuses, and
organizational subordination to another state are not political pluralism. They
are an erosion of sovereignty and an unlawful attachment to foreign power.
The law will apply to associations and organizations that violate the
Constitution, whether the pretext is religious or ideological; that engage in
military or security activity; that receive unlawful foreign financing or
direction; or that operate on behalf of a foreign actor in violation of the law.
An independent judiciary alone will establish the violation and impose the
penalty. There can be no place for an organization that uses religion as a route
to political power, nor for politics that refuses to separate religion from the
state; no cause greater than the Republic, and no religious law above the
Constitution.
We do not seek to abolish Lebanon’s national balance, nor to freeze it forever
as it is. The objective is a gradual transition from sectarian patronage
permeating every administration, appointment, and decision toward clear
constitutional and political guarantees for communities, matched by equivalent
guarantees for individuals, within a decentralized or federal system that
distributes authority rationally between the center and the regions. The purpose
is not to abolish Lebanon’s communities, but to remove them from the daily
administration of the state, preserving individual and collective rights without
making sectarian identity the compulsory admission card to every job,
institution, and right.
Within that framework, we will redefine parity and confessional representation
so that the greater part of their guarantees moves away from public employment
and daily administration and into constitutional institutions and political and
geographic representation. This will proceed alongside the separation of
religion and state, centrally and locally, and the protection of secular and
non-religious citizens to the same degree as believers and religious
communities.
POLITICALLY
We will launch a constitutional and legislative process to complete what has
remained unfinished since Taif and to develop what experience has shown needs
development. Foremost among these reforms will be the establishment of a
bicameral system: a Senate in which Lebanon’s communities are represented and
which serves as the highest authority on constitutional and existential
questions affecting the nature of the Republic and its fundamental balances, and
a House of Representatives progressively based on national political
representation and citizenship.
We do not want a ceremonial Senate added to the institutions merely to satisfy a
constitutional provision that was never implemented. We want a chamber with a
genuine function, one that, alongside and in complement to the President of the
Republic, carries constitutional primacy and a decisive voice on fundamental
matters: constitutional amendments; the identity and system of the state; war
and peace; treaties affecting sovereignty; nationality; personal-status law;
fundamental electoral laws; administrative or territorial divisions; and
guarantees concerning Lebanon’s communities and the basic freedoms connected to
them.
On these questions, a passing political majority must not be able to alter the
rules of coexistence or the identity of the system without the consent of the
chamber created specifically to protect them. Where a matter falls
constitutionally within the Senate’s authority, its approval must be a final
condition for enactment, not an advisory opinion that may simply be bypassed.
The House of Representatives, meanwhile, remains the principal political and
legislative chamber for everyday government, alongside and in balance with the
Council of Ministers: granting and withdrawing confidence, legislating on
general matters, approving budgets, taxation, and economic and social policy,
and overseeing the executive. The division is therefore clear: a Senate that
protects the Republic from any majority overwhelming its constitutional compact,
and a House that governs through political rather than sectarian majorities.
In parallel, we will redefine the relationship between the central government
and local administrations and communities within a decentralized or federal
system with clearly assigned powers, resources, and responsibilities. Lebanon
needs a strong center where strength belongs at the center — sovereignty,
defense, foreign policy, monetary policy, fundamental rights, and national
standards — and strong regions wherever government can be more effectively
administered closer to the citizen.
Decentralization or federalism is neither partition nor contradiction, just as
centralization is not synonymous with unity. The unity of a state is measured by
the unity of its sovereignty, Constitution, rights, and borders — not by how
many signatures in Beirut are required to repair a road in Akkar, a school in
the Chouf, or a hospital in the South.
We will shape that relationship so that it can accommodate the aspirations of
decentralists and federalists alike, giving regions the right to administer
their communities, services, development, a substantial share of their
resources, and their local affairs within the general authority of the state —
not apart from it and not against it.
We will therefore undertake a comprehensive review of administrative and
municipal divisions and of the powers of governorates, districts,
municipalities, and municipal unions, together with an objective examination of
the form of decentralized or federal government best suited to Lebanon. This
will proceed alongside reviews of electoral and nationality laws, party
regulation, and political financing, so that the country’s administrative and
electoral map reflects real communities and actual needs rather than the
accumulated remains of historical compromises and temporary political interests.
Before rebuilding the political system, we must know the country we are
rebuilding. We will therefore conduct the broadest possible census and
measurement of Lebanese public opinion, at home and throughout the diaspora,
according to independent, transparent, and scientific standards, in preparation
for modern, auditable national and local elections designed to treat the
Lebanese as citizens capable of choosing and holding power accountable — not as
electoral herds summoned every four years to reproduce the same political class.
A Senate that protects the Republic from any majority overwhelming its
constitutional compact, and a House that governs through political rather than
sectarian majorities.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Our Republic, for all the depth of its history, the scale of its influence, and
the reach of its cultural and economic presence, remains a relatively small
state in geopolitical and military terms. It is therefore in Lebanon’s interest
to belong to a network of alliances and partnerships with states that share its
commitment to sovereignty, free enterprise, and democratic government, and whose
relationships with Lebanon are compatible with its Constitution and interests.
The purpose is simple: to secure the broadest and deepest possible protection
for our territory, our people, and our stability.
We need hardly remind ourselves of Lebanon’s contributions since the founding of
the modern state: to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
to the early life of the United Nations, to the modernization and dissemination
of the Arabic language, and to the establishment of the Arab League. Nor should
we forget the price Lebanon paid in a long Arab-Israeli conflict that it sought,
from the outset, not to become the permanent arena for.
We will not judge our relations with Syria, Turkey, Iran, Israel, Cyprus, or any
other near or distant state through inherited slogans or ideological alignments.
We will judge them by their respect for Lebanon, its sovereignty, and its
interests, and by their willingness to deal with it on the basis of reciprocity.
No ideological dogma can impose eternal enmity, and no permanent friendship can
justify sacrificing Lebanese interests.
We will seek, first and foremost, to develop a strategic relationship with the
United States, while deepening our ties with Europe and the United Kingdom, the
states of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the countries
of the Lebanese diaspora, and other states that are friendly and important to
Lebanese interests. Lebanon’s relations with the world will rest on a clear
rule: mutual respect first, shared interests second, and no external
relationship at the expense of Lebanese sovereignty or national decision-making.
ADMINISTRATIVELY
A new Republic cannot be built with an old administration. We will therefore
insist without compromise on the separation of powers, judicial independence,
administrative competence, and political and religious neutrality, and on a
principle long absent from Lebanese practice: public office is a service, not
the property of a party or sect, and the administration exists to serve
citizens, not manage them as clients of a leader or political office.
We will undertake the comprehensive digitization of the state, connect its
databases, and modernize its financial, oversight, information, intelligence,
and security systems within a strict legal framework protecting citizens’
privacy and defining precisely the authority to collect, access, and use
information. We want a state that knows what it needs to know to protect its
citizens and their public wealth — not a state that spies on them. Technology
must create a more efficient state governed by law, not a more corrupt police
state.
In parallel, we will launch an integrated judicial, financial, regulatory, and
security process to pursue corruption and recover public and private funds and
rights, beginning with the largest, best-documented cases and those that have
most severely affected citizens’ lives. This will not be political revenge or a
spectacle of public humiliation. But neither will it submit to bargains designed
to protect those responsible. No political immunity for the corrupt, no
sectarian protection for thieves, and no partisan settlement for offenders.
A broad restructuring of public administrations and institutions will eliminate
duplication, merge overlapping bodies, close channels of waste, and redistribute
human resources according to need and competence. Municipalities and their
unions will simultaneously be strengthened financially, administratively, and
institutionally so that they become the principal executive foundation of any
serious decentralized or federal system rather than impoverished institutions
waiting for transfers from the capital.
The state will also conduct a modern, comprehensive national inventory and
census of its assets, property, resources, citizens and residents, as well as
the Lebanese diaspora worldwide. A country cannot be governed when its state
does not know precisely what it owns, who lives on its territory, where its
citizens are, what its regions need, or the extent of its human, real-estate,
and economic wealth. Knowledge is not an administrative detail. It is the first
requirement of serious public policy.
ON THE GROUND
None of the above matters if it remains ink on paper. The priority will
therefore be phased, measurable execution — not the production of more plans
destined for drawers.
Any official or officer proven to have engaged in corruption, collusion,
deliberate obstruction of legitimate decisions, or violation of the law will be
referred to the appropriate judicial and oversight authorities. In accordance
with law and due process, anyone in a position of authority who refuses to
execute lawful orders within his jurisdiction will be removed from that
position. The state cannot ask citizens to respect its decisions while its own
officials and officers decide for themselves which decisions they will implement
and which they will obstruct.
The state will fulfill the obligations arising from agreements and negotiations
approved by its constitutional institutions swiftly and confidently, without
hesitation or historical complexes, while surrendering neither an inch of
Lebanese territory nor any Lebanese right. Monopolizing arms is not aggression;
negotiation is not surrender; and peace is not defeat. A state that knows its
interests and its rights does not fear confronting terrorism or sitting at a
negotiating table. It should fear others speaking in its name or negotiating its
future while it remains absent.
This will be accompanied by a security and administrative plan beginning with
full state control over administrative Beirut, followed by Greater Beirut, the
airport, the port, the capital’s entrances, and its critical infrastructure,
while simultaneously securing all borders and crossings and extending state
authority over every area in which current military operations have ended. A
state cannot credibly demand full sovereignty over its territory while its own
capital contains areas, facilities, or networks over which its institutions lack
complete control.
Border control will be comprehensive: demarcation wherever demarcation is
required; permanent technological and human surveillance; suppression of
smuggling; and prevention of the movement of weapons, fighters, and illicit
funds in either direction. The Government will then announce a phased timetable
for extending effective state authority across every district, beginning with
the least penetrated and most readily secured areas, and expanding continuously
and systematically until it reaches every village, every neighborhood, and every
kilometer of Lebanese territory.
There will be no territory forbidden to the state, because territory forbidden
to the state is territory over which its sovereignty is merely nominal. Lebanon
will be in the strongest possible position to compel a complete Israeli military
withdrawal, and to secure it with the assistance of the United States and
friendly states, once all unlawful military presence on Lebanese territory has
ceased.
On displacement and refugees, the state will establish, in cooperation where
necessary with relevant states and international bodies, organized accommodation
centers in safe areas under its full authority, allowing identity, movement,
residency, services, and security to be properly regulated while respecting
human dignity and legal obligations. It will organize the dignified return of
displaced Lebanese to their villages, and of refugees to their countries or
lawful places of residence. A comprehensive review will also address the status
of foreigners and unlawful residents, while naturalization cases tainted by
fraud, forgery, or violations of law will be reopened.
The principle will be simple: those with a legal right will be protected by the
state; those without one will be subject to lawful procedures; and anyone who
obtained citizenship fraudulently or unlawfully will have his or her case
referred to the competent authority for whatever revocation is permissible under
the Constitution and law. There will be no collective punishment and no
targeting based on ethnicity, religion, or nationality. But demographic and
legal disorder will no longer constitute state policy merely because it is
easier than enforcing the law.
Monopolizing arms is not aggression; negotiation is not surrender; and peace is
not defeat.
AND THE EXCUSES
We already know the objections. We will be told that the time is not right, that
national unity is fragile, that civil peace is threatened, that the
administration is incapable, that the army needs time, that the international
community may not provide sufficient support, that regional circumstances are
delicate, and that some issues must wait for others. We also know that those who
repeat these arguments most insistently are precisely those for whom the
emergence of the state would be least convenient.
The Lebanese have heard these arguments for decades, until exceptions became a
system of government, postponement became public policy, and incapacity became a
national doctrine. Whenever an opportunity arose to rebuild the state, we were
told that preserving unity required postponing it; that protecting civil peace
required accommodating those who threatened it; that administrative weakness
prevented administrative reform; and that the army’s limited capabilities
required accepting another armed force alongside it. The disease became the
argument against the cure.
We say precisely the opposite. The absence of parallel armed organizations
strengthens national unity because it frees communities from fear of one
another. The state’s monopoly over arms protects civil peace because it turns
political disagreement into disagreement rather than potential war. Enforcement
of the law revitalizes the administration by restoring the meaning of decision
and responsibility. Ending parallel armies does not weaken the Lebanese Armed
Forces; it finally gives them the status and role that any national army should
possess.
To argue that the state is not yet ready to exercise sovereignty is to reverse
cause and effect. A state does not first become ready to exercise sovereignty
and then exercise it; it becomes ready by beginning to exercise it. An army does
not first become strong and then monopolize armed force; it grows strong when
the Republic decides that it is the only army. An administration does not become
competent before being entrusted with responsibility; it becomes competent when
failure, misconduct, and obstruction carry consequences.
Fellow Lebanese,
We are not proposing another rearrangement of the Lebanese crisis, nor another
attempt to manage the balance between the institutions of the state and the
institutions of the non-state. We have an opportunity to end that duality and
move from a Republic that continually negotiates its right to exist to one that
regards its existence as a right beyond negotiation.
We will not promise that the road will be easy. There will be political
resistance, threatened interests, money, influence, propaganda, and attempts to
provoke sectarian fear, because many forces have learned to derive their
strength from the weakness of the state, and they will not celebrate its return.
But the Republic cannot make its right to live dependent upon the consent of
those who profit from its absence.
We want a Lebanon in which a Shia can be Shia without belonging to a party; a
Christian can be Christian without searching for a protector; a Sunni can be
Sunni without needing a patron; a Druze can be Druze without fearing numbers or
geography; a secular citizen can be secular, an atheist can be an atheist, and a
citizen can be a citizen before anything else. We want a state that protects
difference without becoming a compact of mutual fears; that protects communities
without imprisoning individuals within them; and that does not ask Lebanese
citizens to abandon their identities, but prevents any one of those identities
from erasing their Lebanese one.
We want a decentralized or federal system that allows these communities to
administer most of their local affairs, reassuring one another instead of
competing endlessly for control of the central state. The greater a region’s
ability to manage what concerns it, the less it must fear others managing the
details of its life; and the clearer the center’s authority over fundamental
sovereign matters, the more united Lebanon becomes, not less.
We will not measure the success of this period by the number of statements we
issue, conferences we hold, or dialogue tables we convene. We will measure it by
whether the state has one weapon and real borders; whether the law is stronger
than the political leader and the judiciary stronger than the telephone call;
whether public office goes to the competent rather than the connected; and
whether citizens are safe both from arbitrary state power and from those who
would challenge it. We will also measure it by whether decisions of war and
peace, foreign policy, and the future of the Republic are made inside the
institutions of the Lebanese state — not in any other capital.
These are not the demands of one group of Lebanese upon another. This is not a
project for the victory of one sect over another, nor the replacement of one
form of domination with another. These are the conditions for the existence of
the Republic itself.
For too long, we have asked how to preserve peace without building the state,
how to preserve unity without agreeing on its rules, how to preserve the army
without granting it the monopoly of force, and how to preserve our communities
by keeping them afraid of one another.
It is time to reverse the equation.
Build the state, and peace becomes a natural consequence of its existence.
Protect the individual, and the community becomes secure. Distribute power
through decentralization or federalism, and protect the unity of the Republic
from the endless struggle for control of its center. Entrust existential
questions to a strong Senate, and ordinary political competition to a political
House of Representatives. Entrust force exclusively to legitimate institutions,
so that political disagreement becomes safe rather than the prelude to war.
No cause is greater than the Republic. No concern is greater than the citizen.
No objective is greater than peace.
And with these three, we begin.
**Eli Khoury is the publisher of NOW_leb. He tweets @eli_khoury
Selected Face Book & X tweets
on September 11/2026
Barak Ravid
Happy holiday to all my followers in Israel and around the world.
I want to thank you for reading what I write here, thank you for the trust and
loyalty. In the coming year as well, I will make every effort to provide you
with the fastest, most reliable and accurate information. May we all have a good
year.
Eddie Fadel
It was you, The Lebanese Maronite Order and the Lebanese
Resistance, when the war spread across the country, You came to rescue Lebanon.
Today we mourn Abbot Boulos Naaman, The Abbot of the Lebanese Maronite Order who
served the Lebanese Maronite Order and the Lebanese Resistance to SAVE Lebanon.
You chose to fall asleep in September with Bachir We will remember forever.
Rest in Peace giant
#Lebanon
Condoleezza Rice
I was honored to join the President and First Lady, Secretary
Hegseth, and General Caine this morning for the 25th Anniversary 9/11 Observance
Ceremony at the Pentagon.
Let us always remember: That those who thought the world could be ruled by hate
and fear were wrong. Our country did not let that dark vision of humanity stand.
That vigilance is still required to protect and secure us. That we are one
people — drawn from different religious, ethnic and national origins, but forged
into an extraordinary whole — we are American. That we are called to protect
each other and to care for one another.
That freedom is fragile and must be defended and won by each generation.
That we are a fortunate people who enjoy the blessings of liberty and must never
take them for granted. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans V that struggle is a
privilege — that out of it comes perseverance and hope. September 11 tested us,
but it did not break us. As we meet the many challenges ahead, may the memory of
our response to that searing experience bring hope for our future as a country
and as a people.
Naoum Abi-Rached
Gladiator : Now We Are Free · Ihsan Dincer
·Lebanon does not lack talent, potential, or people willing to act. What it
lacks is a shared vision, a clear roadmap, and the collective will to turn words
into action.
For too long, corruption, institutional failure, economic collapse and the
erosion of sovereignty have held the country back.
The way forward requires a rupture with the systems that failed us and the
building of something new: competent leadership, accountable institutions, an
engaged civil society, and a strong partnership with the Lebanese Diaspora.
Different voices. One shared responsibility.
Only together can we rebuild our Lebanon. 🇱🇧