Lebanon

Syria Dismantles Lebanon-Linked Captagon Smuggling Network

A major shipment of nearly one million Captagon pills originating from Lebanon was intercepted in Syria’s border region of Rankous, where authorities say they dismantled a cross-border smuggling network moving narcotics through Syria toward neighboring countries. According to a statement from the Syrian Ministry of Interior, the ...

MP Makhzoumi Backs State Sovereignty and Direct Talks with Israel

Parliamentarian and founder of the National Dialogue Party Fouad Makhzoumi on Saturday stressed the primacy of state sovereignty and endorsed direct negotiations with Israel as key to ending the country’s current crisis, saying “the exclusive right of the state to decide on war and peace” must be upheld.  Speaking at a ...

Lebanon Ceasefire Opens a Diplomatic Window, Now Comes the Hard Part

When the ambassadors of Lebanon and Israel met at the White House on April 23, it was the kind of image that would have seemed unthinkable just months earlier. Their joint appearance alongside President Donald Trump — to announce a three-week extension of the cessation of hostilities — was a shift from decades of indirect, back-channel ...

Lebanon Says 13 Killed in Israeli Strikes in South

Lebanon's health ministry said 13 people were killed on Friday in Israeli strikes in the south, including in a town where Israel's army had issued an evacuation order despite a ceasefire. The strikes in Habboush killed eight people, including a child and two women, and wounded 21 others, the ministry said, raising an earlier toll. Other strikes ...

Hezbollah Says Reinforced Fighters in South Lebanon Despite Disarmament

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has brought reinforcements and weapons to the south of the country since the start of the war with Israel on March 2, the organization's director of media relations said on Friday. The Lebanese army said in January it had finished disarming the group near the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, the scene of ...

Bound to Tehran: How Hezbollah Is Unraveling Lebanon's Ceasefire

The ceasefire in Lebanon remains fragile amid the state’s inability to fully assert control on the ground. Hezbollah is continuing its military operations, while Israeli retaliation for the group’s attacks keeps Lebanon caught in a cycle of escalation with no clear end in sight. The Lebanon-Israel truce announced by the U.S. on April ...

Iran Activates Air Defenses as Trump Faces Congressional Deadline

Tehran's air defences were activated to counter small aircraft and drones late Thursday, as the White House signalled that it will not be reined in by a congressional deadline on the Iran war. The Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that air defence systems, heard in some parts of the Iranian capital, were activated "to counter small aircraft ...

UAE Announces Travel Ban on Nationals to Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq

The United Arab Emirates foreign ministry on Thursday announced a travel ban on Emirati nationals going to Iran, Lebanon and Iraq, citing regional developments including the Middle East war. Iran has targeted the Gulf nation throughout the Middle East conflict sparked by a U.S.-Israeli attack before a fragile ceasefire was announced, including ...

U.S. Urges Meeting Between Lebanese President, Israeli PM

The U.S. embassy in Lebanon on Thursday urged a meeting between Lebanese and Israeli leaders as the health ministry said Israeli strikes on the country's south killed at least 15 people despite an ongoing ceasefire. Israeli and Lebanese representatives this month have met twice in Washington -- the first such meetings in decades -- after ...

Rubio is Right, a Vetted and Trained Lebanese Army Could be the Answer

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made an important announcement when he said that Washington is developing a plan to pursue Hezbollah’s disarmament by building up trusted units within the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). “We’re working towards establishing… a system that actually works where vetted units within the Lebanese Armed Forces ...