WINTER PARK, FLORIDA: Seattle resident Maggie Mohamed was looking forward to spending the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in her native Egypt.
Now, with the spread of the new coronavirus, flying is off the table. So is having friends and relatives over for a potluck iftar, the breaking of the fast. Mohamed is older than 65 and says she cannot risk it.
“It’s very sad. We were very excited,” she said. But, “I don’t take it as a punishment. I take it as a wake-up (call).”
Ramadan, which starts later this month, unites Muslims the world over in fasting and worship. This year, it follows a string of religious holidays that have also unified the faithful from different religions in grappling with how to observe familiar rituals and celebrations in a time of unfamiliarity.
Mohamed is contemplating workarounds. She always looks forward to the special Ramadan prayers, known as “taraweeh,” at the mosque. She will now pray at home with her daughter. But what about the dua, or supplication? The imam moves her to tears. As he prays for dead loved ones or those suffering in faraway lands in his “miraculous” voice, sobs rise from the faithful and intermingle with chants of “Amen” recited in unison.
Mohamed wonders: Can he make dua over Zoom video conferencing?
“That would help us a lot,” she said, even as she noted it wouldn’t be the same. At her mosque, female worshippers hug and chat after the prayers as children scurry around and dates and chocolate are passed from hand to hand.
During Ramadan, the faithful abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset as they strive for self-purification and empathy. It’s a time for prayers, introspection and charity. Normally, it’s also a time for family, friends and festive feasting.
This year, there are indications the outbreak will cast a pall over many beloved rituals.
Many Muslims have been praying for the coronavirus cloud, which has already disrupted Islamic worship the world over, to lift before Ramadan. Mosque closures and modified calls for prayers urging the devout to pray at home have left many feeling emotional. They are relying on worship at home and online religious classes. This year, some are planning virtual interfaith iftars.
Texas-based imam Omar Suleiman said empty mosques are reason for reflection.
“How do we build ourselves to where we are more connected to Him?” asked Suleiman, who has been streaming virtual sermons and nightly reflections to more than 1.4 million Facebook followers.
“Now we have a chance to develop empathy with those that have not had access to their religious spaces due to oppressive circumstances.”
Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore have banned popular Ramadan bazaars where hawkers sell food and drinks in congested open-air markets or roadside stalls. In predominantly Muslim Malaysia, vendors are now planning to bring their businesses online through mobile apps or digital platforms provided by local authorities during the fasting month.
Mohamad Fadhil, a trader in Malaysia’s southern Johor state, said he was resigned to not being able to do business at the Ramadan bazaar or perform the taraweeh prayers at the mosque. “We just have to be patient and follow orders,” he said.
In Iran, which is suffering one of the world’s worst outbreaks, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested that mass gatherings may be barred through the holy month. “Remember to heed your prayers and devotions in your lonesomeness,” he said.
The Islamic Waqf, which administers the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third-holiest site, announced today that the mosque will continue to be closed to worshippers for Ramadan.
It’s difficult, Sheikh Azzam Khateeb, the director general of the Waqf, said before the latest announcement, but “the health of the worshippers comes before anything else.”
Zuher Dubie, a 71-year-old mosque preacher in the West Bank city of Nablus, has been observing Ramadan and praying in mosques since he was 10. For the first time since, Dubie said, he wouldn’t be able to practice some of the month’s rituals.
“There will be no social gatherings, no Ramadan aroma in the markets, no collective prayers … in mosques,” he lamented.
In Egypt, the Ministry of Religious Endowments decided to suspend communal Ramadan activities, including mass charity iftars around mosques. Mosques have already closed for prayers there and the country is under a night-time curfew.
Ramadan is normally lively in the country of more than 100 million — and steeped in tradition.
Ordinarily, worshippers fill mosques and shoppers swarm markets. Loved ones gather over scrumptious iftars. Strangers break bread together in street banquets that feed the needy. Cafes teem with patrons chatting over a cacophony of gurgling water pipes and blaring music. And Ramadan lanterns cast a colorful glow over bustling streets.
In some areas, a “mesaharati,” bangs on a drum as he wakes up residents for “suhoor,” the pre-dawn meal that will sustain them through another day of fasting.
Souad Selim, an Egyptian, has been wondering what all the changes this year would mean for a cherished Ramadan ritual.
Before, she would slip early to bed as many binge watch television shows produced for Ramadan entertainment. At around 3:00 a.m., she would wake up to have “suhoor” and cook up a storm. Using groceries that she and co-workers had pitched in to buy, she would prepare dozens of meals before she left for work. Before iftar, Selim and other volunteers would go outside to distribute boxes neatly packed with salad, rice, chicken or meatballs.
Now, she likely won’t be able to hand out meals on the street but she’s determined to send iftars to the homes of those she knows need them.
“It’s hard to describe how much goodness and blessings Ramadan brings,” she said.
Muslims grapple with Ramadan rituals in coronavirus era
https://arab.news/68cr8
Muslims grapple with Ramadan rituals in coronavirus era
- Many Muslims have been praying for the coronavirus cloud to lift before Ramadan
Israeli Likud party ministers urge Netanyahu to annex West Bank
- The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament
Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.
They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu’s meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.
The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
There was no immediate response from the prime minister’s office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.
“We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria,” they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Their petition cited Israel’s recent achievements against both Iran and Iran’s allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.
It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.
“The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented,” the petition stated.
Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.
With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.
Israel’s pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.
Syria state media says talk of peace deal with Israel ‘premature’
- “Statements concerning signing a peace agreement with the Israeli occupation at this time are considered premature,” state TV reported
- “It is not possible to talk of the possibility of negotiations over a new agreement”
DAMASCUS: Syrian state media reported Wednesday that statements on signing a peace deal with Israel were “premature,” days after Israel said it was interested in striking a normalization agreement with Damascus.
“Statements concerning signing a peace agreement with the Israeli occupation at this time are considered premature,” state TV reported an unidentified official source as saying.
“It is not possible to talk of the possibility of negotiations over a new agreement unless the occupation fully adheres the 1974 disengagement agreement and withdraws from the areas it has penetrated,” it added.
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said his country had an “interest in adding countries, Syria and Lebanon, our neighbors, to the circle of peace and normalization while safeguarding Israel’s essential and security interests.”
The statement came amid major shifts in the region’s power dynamics, including the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in December and the weakening of his ally Lebanese armed group Hezbollah after its latest war with Israel.
Syria’s new Islamist authorities have confirmed they held indirect talks with Israel to reduce tensions.
Since Assad’s ouster, Israel has repeatedly bombed targets inside Syria while Israeli troops have entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone along the 1974 armistice line on the Golan Heights and carried out incursions deeper into southern Syria.
Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has repeatedly said Damascus does not seek conflict with its neighbors, asking the international community to pressure Israel into stopping its attacks.
Syria has said that the goal of ongoing negotiations is the reimplementation of the 1974 armistice between the two countries.
Saar insisted that the Golan Heights, much of which Israel seized in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognized by the United Nations, “will remain part of the State of Israel” under any future peace agreement.
Control of the strategic plateau has long been a source of tension between Israel and Syria, which are technically still at war.
Gulf diplomacy with Iran helped limit conflict with Israel, Middle East experts say
- Pursuit of pragmatic relations between GCC nations and Tehran prevented fighting from escalating ‘out of hand’
- Trump-brokered peace agreement offers ‘opportunities’ for further steps toward regional security, according to academics specializing on the region
LONDON: Improved relations between Arab Gulf countries and Iran helped contain the recent conflict with Israel, Middle East experts said on Wednesday during a discussion about regional developments.
Israel attacked Iran on June 13 with airstrikes targeting its nuclear program and military sites. Iran retaliated during the 12-day conflict by launching salvos of missiles toward Israeli cities.
Many feared the war might escalate, dragging in other countries in the region, especially after the US joined the airstrikes on June 22 by dropping bombs on key Iranian nuclear sites.
While Iran did retaliate against the US by attacking Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar on June 23, President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire two days later, and Iran has refrained from attacking other US targets in the region.
When the war started, Gulf countries condemned Israel’s attacks on Iran and called for deescalation. There has been a shift in the region in recent years away from an adversarial relationship with Iran to one of more pragmatic relations, cemented by a Chinese-brokered agreement between Riyadh and Tehran in March 2023.
“That reintegration of Iran into the Gulf security complex has played a really prominent role in preventing this from getting out of hand,” Simon Mabon, a professor of international politics and director of the SEPAD peace and conflict research center at Lancaster University, said during a discussion about developments in the Middle East this year.
This approach showed Gulf states building a regional security architecture from the inside that is “inclusive,” he added. It is viewed as a more “pragmatic and more sustainable way of building a longer-term form of prosperity,” and the approach speaks to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reforms program and the economic pragmatism of Gulf states, he added during the online event organized by SEPAD and the Foreign Policy Centre in London.
Eyad Alrefai, a lecturer in political science at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah and a SEPAD fellow, said the efforts to forge new relationships between Gulf countries and Iran meant that the nations had been able to “manage their differences diplomatically,” and this included economic issues.
There had been less Iranian interference in the domestic affairs of GCC countries, and also in the wider Arab region, he added. This included Iran’s decision not to get involved in Syria when President Bashar Assad, an Iranian ally, was removed from power by opposition fighters in December last year.
The West’s position on the Iran-Israel conflict, largely seen to be one of support of Israel, was symptomatic of the fact that those countries continue to adopt a “tactical” outlook toward the region rather than a strategic one, Alrefai said. He urged those countries to engage with the Middle East as a socioeconomic, sustainable project moving forward.
If the truce between Iran and Israel continues to hold, many see the end of the brief war as a potential opportunity for more stability in the region.
Lina Khatib, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program, said there was “a real possibility for an integrated economic and security and political partnership” to emerge. She said a weakened Iran also opens up the chance to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Trump said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed to the terms of a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed during a devastating military campaign launched by Israeli authorities in response to the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which 1,200 people were killed and dozens taken hostage.
Khatib said a shift in domestic Israeli politics, with pressure from Trump, could reopen a pathway toward a long-term agreement between Israel and Palestine. This would also lead to further normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries, she added.
“This will in turn encourage the flow of funding to places like Lebanon and Syria for reconstruction, which could only be good news for these countries economically, but also will help with stability,” Khatib said.
“Having a stable region is very much in the interest of countries in the Gulf as well.”
Clive Jones, a professor of regional security and director of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Durham University, said Israel had scored a huge win against Iran but ran the risk of failing to convert it into a diplomatic opportunity.
“The challenge for Israel now is how you actually cash in those military gains for diplomatic advantage,” he said.
“I think Israel is actually missing a huge opportunity, for example by not engaging more proactively with the new regime in Syria.”
He said Israel’s reliance on its military superiority would not be enough to secure long-term security.
Why latest Gaza ceasefire proposal may offer a pause — but not a path to peace
- As aid remains blocked and famine looms, a fragile US-backed truce faces skepticism from Hamas, Israel, and rights groups
- With starvation deepening and no sign of peace, experts warn Israel’s aim is to force Palestinians out of Gaza — by design
LONDON: When global attention shifted to the conflict between Israel and Iran, the urgency around ending the war in Gaza appeared to dissipate. But for Palestinian civilians living under fire and the families of hostages still awaiting news, the nightmare remained very much alive.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Israel had accepted the key conditions required for a 60-day ceasefire, although he did not detail the specific terms of the agreement.
He said Qatar and Egypt, which have played significant roles in the negotiations, would present the final proposal to Hamas. Trump urged Hamas to accept the deal, warning that if they reject it, the situation “will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE.”
Trump’s announcement came ahead of a scheduled meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next week, where Trump indicated he would take a “very firm” stance.
He expressed optimism that a ceasefire agreement could be finalized as soon as next week.
Despite these statements, the fighting has escalated. Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee has announced renewed operations in northern Gaza, the aim being the elimination of “terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”
On June 29, Israeli forces ordered mass evacuations from northern Gaza and Jabalia to Sheikh Radwan, warning residents to move south ahead of intensified strikes.
The US-backed proposal to end the conflict, originally presented by US envoy Steve Witkoff on May 31, called for a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of 10 living Israeli hostages, while venturing into the thorny issue of Hamas disarmament.
But the plan had drawn criticism, with Hamas rejecting the proposal, saying it was “biased in favor of Israel” and failed to address the Palestinian enclave’s dire humanitarian crisis.
Instead, Hamas called for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a permanent ceasefire, and the transfer of authority for the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian-led body.
Israel too had issued several non-negotiable demands, raising doubts about the proposal’s potential to deliver lasting peace — until Trump’s announcement on Wednesday.
Although it has signaled openness to a ceasefire if Hamas releases the remaining hostages, Israel has insisted on the disarmament or exile of the Hamas leadership. Some Israeli ministers have even threatened to resign over any deal that does not secure Hamas’s defeat.
“I don’t see any indication that we’re moving toward a ceasefire,” Khaled Elgindy, visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, told Arab News.
“It seems fairly clear that Netanyahu does not want to stop bombing and starving Gaza.
“He and his defense minister, Israel Katz, have said very clearly that they’re not going to allow any humanitarian aid, which is the most urgent priority right now, even more than a ceasefire.”
Since early March 2025, Israel has largely blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. These restrictions have halted the flow of essential supplies — including food, medicine, and fuel — dramatically worsening an already dire situation.
Although Israel resumed limited aid shipments in mid-May, UN agencies and humanitarian groups have widely condemned the effort as inadequate to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents.
International rights groups have denounced the aid restrictions as violations of international law, accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war and pushing Gaza toward a man-made catastrophe — claims the Israeli government denies.
Aid agencies say the blockade has caused acute shortages of food, clean water, fuel, and medical supplies, driving the population to the brink of famine.
Despite growing international pressure, Israeli officials insist on retaining control over aid distribution, arguing that the measures are necessary to prevent supplies from falling into the hands of Hamas.
In May, this stance led to the launch of a controversial new mechanism: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. Backed by the US and Israel but rejected by the UN, the GHF has come under fire for failing to meet humanitarian standards and for relying on Israeli military oversight.
The GHF replaces the longstanding UN-led aid system, which Israel claims allowed Hamas to divert supplies — an allegation firmly denied by the UN and most humanitarian organizations.
Operating through four military-controlled distribution hubs in southern Gaza, the GHF forces civilians to travel long distances to collect prepackaged food, water, and hygiene kits — often under the watch of Israeli troops.
Critics, including the UN and major aid groups, say the GHF politicizes aid and enables Israel to weaponize relief by tightly regulating access.
Deadly incidents have occurred near distribution sites, with video footage showing scenes that observers have compared to concentration camps.
One such incident took place on June 15, when Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians gathered near an aid center in Rafah. At least eight were killed and dozens wounded, according to witnesses and Gaza health officials.
Survivors described the scene as a trap, with no safe way to evacuate the wounded amid the chaos.
The UN and international rights groups condemned the violence. The Council on American-Islamic Relations labeled the aid centers “human slaughterhouses” due to repeated fatal shootings of civilians seeking food and water.
The international community has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Gaza since the Israeli military operation began on Oct. 7, 2023, in retaliation for the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. Those appeals, however, have largely fallen on deaf ears.
In early June, the US vetoed yet another UN Security Council resolution calling for an unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Dorothy Shea, US ambassador to the UN, defended the veto, saying the resolution would “undermine diplomatic efforts” to reach a ceasefire. She also criticized the UN for not having designated Hamas a terrorist organization.
Hamas is described as such by the US, UK, and EU.
“We would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza,” she said.
Still, pressure continues to mount. On June 18, the World Food Programme emphasized the urgent need for another ceasefire to allow safe and consistent delivery of critical food supplies to families in Gaza.
On June 12, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and unrestricted humanitarian access. The resolution, introduced by Spain, Slovenia, and others, was backed by 149 countries and condemned Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war.
A day later, the 10 elected members of the UN Security Council (E10) urged compliance with international law and emphasized the urgent need for humanitarian relief.
“A ceasefire will take a lot of diplomatic effort,” Elgindy said. “But at a minimum, there should be international pressure to force Israel to stop preventing food and medicine from entering Gaza. Even that is not really happening.”
The ceasefire proposal under discussion — supported by the US, Egypt, and Qatar — calls for a phased release of 10 living Israeli hostages and 18 bodies, in exchange for more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners.
INNUMBER
• 5,833+ Killed in Gaza since hostilities resumed in March.
• 9 Israeli evacuation orders issued May 22 to June 12 across Gaza.
• 962 Israeli ceasefire violations in six weeks after Jan. 2025 agreement.
(Sources: WHO & Palestine’s representative to the UN)
Hostages would be freed over the first week of the truce, while Hamas would halt hostilities and permit aid to resume through the previously suspended UN-led system.
Israel signed off on the plan in May and is awaiting Hamas’s formal response. But Hamas insists on guarantees of a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the restoration of full aid access.
Hamas also opposes Israel’s demand for the group’s full disarmament and the immediate release of all hostages before any ceasefire takes effect.
Witkoff has condemned Hamas’s conditions as “unacceptable,” urging the group to accept the deal as a basis for proximity talks.
Israel, meanwhile, maintains that any ceasefire must include the dismantling of Hamas as a military and governing entity and the return of all hostages.
It was triggered by the unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which saw some 1,200 people killed, the majority of them civilians, and around 250 taken hostage, many of them non-Israeli nationals.
Israel’s retaliatory assault has displaced 90 percent of Gaza’s population, decimated infrastructure, and brought the health system to the brink of collapse.
Elgindy described the situation as “the worst humanitarian crisis since this horror began in October 2023.”
“It’s never been worse,” he said. “So, my sense, based on everything that we’re seeing and what the Israelis are saying, is they are moving ahead with their plan to forcibly displace the population through starvation and bombing and destruction.
“They’ve told us that this is their endgame, and we should believe them.”
Indeed, Israel’s strategy appears aimed at concentrating Gaza’s population in a small southern zone while seizing control of roughly 75 percent of the territory. The plan, approved by Israel’s security cabinet and supported by the US, has prompted alarm from human rights groups.
Organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the effort as ethnic cleansing and a possible war crime, citing forced displacement and collective punishment.
With supplies blocked and civilians trapped in an ever-shrinking space, Gaza’s 2.2 million residents face escalating desperation and a vanishing hope of survival.
Israeli officials, including Netanyahu and members of his far-right coalition, have openly discussed annexing parts of Gaza and “conquering” the territory. Some have called for its depopulation, drawing global condemnation and renewed calls to end arms sales and military aid to Israel.
According to Elgindy, Israeli leaders claim to have informal agreements with some countries to accept Palestinians from Gaza — although several regional powers have flatly rejected such plans.
“Jordan and Egypt and Saudi Arabia and others have completely rejected the idea,” he said.
“But of course, since the most powerful nation in the world, the US, is endorsing the idea of expelling the population, the Israelis feel that it’s not only likely, but probable. And where they go is not of concern to Israel.
“The only thing that this Israeli leadership cares about is that they leave. And that is why they’re continuing to use starvation as a weapon while targeting aid workers, ambulances, and civilian infrastructure.
“So, all we know is that they want them to leave, but they don’t care where they go or how they go. I think they’re calling it voluntary relocation. But of course, when you bomb and starve the population, nothing is voluntary.
“There are even reports that they’re willing to pay $5,000 per family for a job and a house. They’re willing to spend billions on expelling the population rather than on rebuilding what they’ve destroyed.”
That possibility of forced mass displacement raises urgent questions about the future of international law.
“I think this is a test right now for the international community,” Elgindy said.
“Does international law mean anything at all? And if Israel is allowed to carry out its plan of ethnic cleansing of Gaza after it’s destroyed it, after broadcasting its intentions for many months — if this is allowed to go ahead, then we know for certain that international law is a complete farce and means nothing and will never mean anything going forward.
“It will be impossible to try and revive the idea of a rules-based order after Gaza.”
Lebanon PM steps up efforts on weapons control
- Lebanese officials drafting response to US disarmament proposal
- PM Nawaf Salam says country cannot stay on the sidelines of historic regional shifts
BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Wednesday said that his government is intensifying its efforts to confine weapons solely to state institutions and to extend its authority across all areas of the country as part of a broader push to advance the implementation of a ceasefire.
Salam’s comments come as Lebanese officials are drafting a response to Washington’s proposal to disarm Hezbollah, which was presented by the US envoy to Syria and Lebanon, Tom Barrack, during a visit to Beirut last month.
The proposal centers on achieving full disarmament by the end of the year, strengthening Lebanese-Syrian relations, implementing financial reforms, and establishing a UN-supervised mechanism to secure the release of prisoners held by Israel during the recent war on Hezbollah.
Barrack is scheduled to visit Beirut on Monday to discuss the response.
During his address to the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, Salam confirmed control over Rafik Hariri International Airport and its access roads as part of security measures aimed at combating smuggling and enhancing public safety.
However, he added that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese territory is integral to the country’s stability, emphasizing Lebanon’s efforts to intensify political and diplomatic pressure to enforce Resolution 1701, secure the return of displaced citizens to their villages, and advance the reconstruction of areas devastated by last year’s war with Israel.
To date, a $250 million loan has been secured from the World Bank to fund the immediate reconstruction phase, pending parliamentary approval, said Salam.
In parallel, Lebanon is partnering with UN agencies to implement over $350 million worth of projects in the south — spanning education, health, shelter, and food security — as part of a four-year support plan.
Salam said that Lebanon will also host an international reconstruction conference in the coming months to mobilize support under the leadership of the government.
“Reconstruction is not solely a matter of engineering or finance, but a comprehensive political, economic, and social process,” he said.
“The cumulative crises facing Lebanon leave no room for delay or denial. True salvation requires meaningful reform that builds a modern state, one that restores the trust of its citizens and earns the confidence of the international community.”
Salam highlighted the role of regional countries in supporting Lebanon’s reconstruction, describing President Joseph Aoun’s visits to Arab states as “concrete steps toward revitalizing Lebanon’s relations with its Arab neighbors and reasserting its role within the framework of regional cooperation.”
He added: “The region is undergoing a historic transformation, and Lebanon cannot afford to stand on the sidelines. There can be no progress outside the Arab fold, and no future without a partnership founded on mutual respect and shared interests.”
The prime minister also noted the direct coordination with Syria to reinforce border security, curb smuggling activities, and ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees.
“We look forward to meaningful contributions that will help restore what has been lost and strengthen the country’s path to recovery.”
A tripartite committee composed of representatives from the offices of Salam, Aoun, and Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri recently held a series of meetings to draft a preliminary framework to serve as the executive response to the US disarmament proposal.
A political source familiar with the committee’s discussions told Arab News: “The atmosphere is constructive, and a preliminary draft of Lebanon’s response will be finalized by Monday, ahead of US envoy Barrack’s arrival in Beirut.”
The source said that Berri is tasked with communicating Hezbollah’s stance on the US demands.
“It is unlikely that Lebanon’s response will be any less stubborn than Israel’s. Lebanon cannot be expected to make all the compromises, while Israel ignores every ceasefire agreement,” the source said.
This includes Israel’s failure to withdraw from the five key Lebanese points it occupies, its daily attacks on southern and northern Lebanon, and refusal to release prisoners.
According to sources, Hezbollah refuses to be bound by any timeframe to disarm.
“It views Lebanon’s current treatment as a form of imposed guardianship, especially while Israel continues to pose an existential threat. The US is required to provide written guarantees of Israel’s full commitment to the agreement,” sources said.
Hezbollah confirmed that it has handed over the area south of the Litani River to the Lebanese Army, which then seized hundreds of weapons depots.
However, the situation regarding weapons north of the river is subject to different conditions, which the military group said is being handled through internal dialogue that began with Aoun several months ago.
Mohieddine Al-Shahimi, a professor of international law, told Arab News that the US proposal to Lebanon is nothing new.
“US envoy Barrack is simply laying out a roadmap for Lebanon to implement all the international resolutions it has previously failed to carry out, starting with the Taif accord and extending to the ceasefire agreement.”
The agreement, brokered by the US and France, aims to implement Resolution 1701, which calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament, exclusive control of weapons by the state, deployment of the Lebanese Army south of the Litani River, and the restoration of full Lebanese sovereignty over its territory.
“The agreement is being implemented gradually and depends on the state’s efforts, placing full responsibility on its shoulders. Only after this will Israel fulfill its obligations under the agreement,” Al-Shahimi said.
Al-Shahimi believes that Hezbollah is deliberately stalling.
“The party is waiting to see how American-Iranian relations unfold, while ignoring that Israel has grown more aggressive, and that Syria is very different from what it once was. Hezbollah is creating false hopes of guarantees. This strategy puts Lebanon dangerously close to the edge and plays directly into Iran’s hands.”
The Iran-backed group has been severely weakened by its war with Israel last year, with more than 70 percent of its military arsenal destroyed and many of its front-line fighters killed.
“Hezbollah knows that the situation has changed both locally and internationally, and its old tactics no longer work,” said Al-Shahimi.
“Iran, in turn, is draining Hezbollah, as it created the weapons to defend its own interests, but it does not see itself as responsible for defending Hezbollah. Perhaps Hezbollah, through its deliberate denial, is trying to gain internal leverage.”
Hezbollah has accused Israel of violating the Nov. 27 truce 3,799 times, including 1,916 airspace breaches and 112 maritime violations, resulting in 159 deaths and 433 injuries.
