Beirut: With Iran-backed Hezbollah on the defensive after a series of heavy Israeli blows, the United States and Iran are locked in a showdown over Lebanon’s future, analysts said.
Hezbollah, the most powerful regional force backed by Iran, which arms and finances it, has long held sway in Lebanon.
But the group’s influence is now in question after Israel’s assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a significant setback.
Hezbollah’s losses have left Lebanon in a “tug of war between Iran and the United States,” said Michael Young of the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank.
“The Israelis with the Americans... are trying to use military force to try to transform the balance of power in Lebanon to their advantage,” he told AFP.
“There are no signs that the Iranians are going to accept this without a fight.”
Hezbollah is considered better armed than Lebanon’s national military and remains the only group that did not put down its weapons after the 1975-90 civil war.
Last year, it opened a new front with Israel over the conflict in Gaza, in support of its ally Hamas.
It carefully calibrated attacks to avoid a full-blown conflict, which eventually came on September 23 when Israel stepped up bombing of Hezbollah strongholds, including south Beirut.
The United States has pushed for ceasefire, but has also expressed support for Israeli attempts to “degrade Hezbollah’s infrastructure.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this month that “it’s clear that the people of Lebanon have an interest — a strong interest — in the state asserting itself and taking responsibility for the country and its future.”
Kim Ghattas, the author of “Black Wave,” a book on the Saudi-Iran rivalry, said: “Lebanon is caught between Iran and Hezbollah on the one hand, and Israel and the US on the other.”
But “Washington’s vision doesn’t necessarily align with Israel’s in terms of war goals and tactics,” she said.
“The US would certainly like to see a weakening of Hezbollah, maybe even the disarming of the group, but it is wary of Israel going too far with the military campaign.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon it could face destruction “like Gaza” as Israel vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah until it secures its northern border.
“I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end,” Netanyahu said on October 8.
Iran, for its part, “wants to preserve what’s left of its assets in Lebanon and ensure the survival of the regime,” Ghattas said, referring to the Islamic republic.
“It needs to walk a fine line between continuing to support Hezbollah... while signalling it is ready for diplomacy.”
Iran’s meddling drew a rare rebuke from Lebanon last week, as Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused it of “blatant interference” over remarks attributed to a Tehran official regarding ceasefire terms.
Mikati charged that Iran had attempted “to establish an unacceptable guardianship over Lebanon,” after Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf reportedly told France’s Le Figaro newspaper that his government was ready to negotiate on the implementation of a 2006 UN resolution that calls for only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers to be deployed in southern Lebanon.
As the Israel-Hezbollah war nears its one-month mark, calls have mounted for Lebanon to elect a president after a two-year void due to political deadlock.
The last president, Michel Aoun, was a Hezbollah ally, making the vote a test for the country’s political trends.
In an interview with AFP, Mikati said serious efforts were underway to elect a president, in line with calls from the United States and other Western allies.
Political leaders in Lebanon too have made careful appeals for a new president, trying to avoid impressions they were leveraging Hezbollah’s setbacks for political gain.
“The Lebanese parties hostile to Hezbollah understand that the situation is very delicate,” said Young.
“They don’t want to provoke the Shiite community, which already feels humiliated and angry and isolated and let’s remember, is armed,” he added.
While suspicion between sects has grown since the Israeli-Hezbollah war forced displaced Shiite communities into Christian-majority areas, many are wary of a repeat of the country’s 15-year war.
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 also recalls bitter memories for Lebanese and ultimately led to the creation of Hezbollah, one of Israel’s most formidable foes.
“It seems that politicians in Lebanon have learned lessons of the past, but the longer this current limbo and war lasts, the harder it will be to keep tensions under control,” said Ghattas.
US, Iran in ‘tug of war’ over Lebanon: analysts
https://arab.news/8knw9
US, Iran in ‘tug of war’ over Lebanon: analysts
- Iran’s meddling drew a rare rebuke from Lebanon last week, as Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused it of “blatant interference” over remarks attributed to a Tehran official regarding ceasefire terms
- Hezbollah is considered better armed than Lebanon’s national military and remains the only group that did not put down its weapons after the 1975-90 civil war
Israel warns of strikes on Hezbollah financial arm, tells Lebanese to evacuate
The warning came hours after Israel said it hit Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the Lebanese capital Beirut, while officials in Gaza said rescuers were still recovering people from the rubble after an Israeli attack on Saturday that killed dozens.
“Residents of Lebanon, the IDF (Israeli military) will begin attacking infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association — get away from it immediately,” the military’s spokesperson said in a statement on X.
The Hezbollah-linked financial institution has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 across central Beirut and its suburbs.
In the northern Gaza Strip, officials said rescuers were still recovering people from the rubble after an Israeli attack on Beit Lahiya that left 87 people dead or missing on Saturday, according to the health ministry — one of the highest death tolls for months from a single attack.
Israel said it was investigating reports of the incident.
It marked an intensification of Israel’s offensives against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar raised hopes of an opening for ceasefire negotiations to end more than a year of conflict.
With US elections approaching, officials, diplomats and other sources in the region say Israel is seeking through military operations to try to shield its borders and ensure its rivals cannot regroup.
Israel is also preparing to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month, though Washington has pressed it not to strike Iranian energy facilities or nuclear sites.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was the subject of an assassination attempt by “Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah” on Saturday when a drone was directed at his holiday home. In a call with former US President Donald Trump, the prime minister reiterated that Israel would make decisions based on its own interests, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
Israel’s government has spurned several attempts by the United States, its main ally and military backer, to broker ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon.
Beirut strikes
In Beirut, Israel said its air force had followed strikes on Saturday with an attack on Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters there as well as an underground weapons workshop.
Fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, the Israeli military said.
Reuters witnesses saw smoke rising from Beirut’s southern suburbs, once a densely populated zone that also housed Hezbollah offices and underground installations.
On a visit near the border, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said forces were dismantling Hezbollah tunnels, weapons stores and infrastructure. “Our goal is to completely ‘clean’ the area so that Israel’s northern communities may return to their homes,” he added.
Hezbollah made no immediate comment on the strikes, but said it had fired missiles at Israeli forces in Lebanon and at a base in northern Israel.
Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the group began launching rockets in support of Hamas.
At the start of October, Israel launched a ground assault inside Lebanon in an attempt to stabilize the border region for its citizens who had fled rocket attacks in northern Israel.
On Sunday in southern Lebanon, security and civil defense sources said two aid workers were killed in an Israeli strike on a house being used as a clinic, while the Lebanese military said three of its soldiers were killed in a strike on an army vehicle.
Over the last year, Lebanese officials estimate that more than 2,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million people displaced. Fifty-nine people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the same period, say Israeli authorities.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in the attack that sparked the war, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military response in Gaza has left more than 42,500 people dead, Palestinian officials say.
Evacuation orders
A 41-year-old Israeli colonel was killed, and another officer was wounded in combat in northern Gaza on Sunday, the Israeli military said. Israel’s Channel 12 and public broadcaster Kan reported an explosive device had gone off under a tank.
Gaza’s health ministry said rescue operations following the strike in Beit Lahiya were being hindered by communications problems and by ongoing Israeli military operations.
The strike came two weeks into a major assault around Jabalia, just south of Beit Lahiya, where Israel says its troops have been trying to root out remaining Hamas fighters.
Israel said the strike hit a Hamas target, questioning an earlier death toll of 73 released by the Hamas media office.
As the fighting has continued, two of the three remaining hospitals in northern Gaza have been hit and patients, medical staff and displaced people injured, according to the United Nations. The UN has been urgently seeking access.
Israel says militants use civilian areas including schools and hospitals for cover, a charge Hamas denies.
More than 5,000 Palestinians left Jabalia via designated routes, an Israeli military spokesperson said on X.
Evacuation orders have fueled fears among many Palestinians that the operation is intended to clear them from northern Gaza to enable Israeli control of the area after the war.
Israel has denied this, saying it is trying to protect civilians and separate them from Hamas fighters.
Palestinians were also shocked by footage appearing to show people in a street in Jabalia being hit by a strike as they approached to rescue someone who had already been hit. Reuters verified the location of the footage, but not the date. Israeli officials had no immediate comment.
The Israeli offensive, triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, has made most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people homeless, caused widespread hunger and destroyed hospitals and schools.
KSrelief continues food aid distribution in Pakistan, several other countries
- The charity distributed 1,500 shelter bags in Pakistan's Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces
- The aid benefited 10,500 individuals from the most vulnerable families in flood-affected areas
RIYADH: Saudi aid agency, KSrelief, has continued to provide food assistance to vulnerable communities in Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Pakistan.
In Syria, the agency distributed 888 food baskets and 888 hygiene kits on Friday in the town of Salqin, located in the Harem district of Idlib Governorate. This initiative benefited 5,328 individuals.
In South Sudan, KSrelief handed out food aid to displaced persons in the Equatoria Region, benefiting 2,500 families.
In Lebanon, the agency implement the fourth phase of its Bakery Project in the Akkar Governorate and Miniyeh District.
Last week, the project distributed 175,000 bundles of bread to needy families, including Syrians, Palestinians, and members of the host community, benefiting a total of 12,500 families in North Lebanon.
In Pakistan, KSrelief distributed 1,500 shelter bags on Friday in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
These bags benefited 10,500 individuals from the most vulnerable families in flood-affected areas.
Jordanian FM calls Israeli offensive in Gaza ‘inhumane,’ urges international action
- Ayman Safadi takes to X account to denounce Israeli government’s actions
LONDON: Jordan’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs has issued a scathing condemnation of Israel’s military actions in northern Gaza, calling the ongoing offensive “inhumane” and a “war crime.”
Ayman Safadi took to his official X account on Sunday evening to denounce the Israeli government’s actions and urge immediate international intervention.
“The horror Israel is bringing on the entire population of northern Gaza is inhumane,” he wrote, adding that the offensive was “pure evil and a war crime that humanity should not tolerate.”
Safadi’s remarks came as the death toll in Gaza continued to rise.
Since the Israeli military launched its large-scale offensive following a Hamas attack in early October last year, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in the enclave.
The retaliatory strikes have leveled entire neighborhoods and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians. Hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed, struggling to treat the injured amid widespread shortages of medical supplies, food, and water.
“It is a massacre that should be faced with decisive international action to stop it immediately, including through imposing an arms embargo and effective sanctions,” Safadi continued in his statement.
The foreign minister accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, saying: “Israel is starving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, bombing entire neighborhoods out of existence, burning displaced children in tents, and destroying hospitals.”
He also claimed that Israel was “brutally terrorizing the whole population to push them out of their homeland.”
International calls for a ceasefire have grown as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened, but efforts at the UN Security Council to broker a truce have stalled amid geopolitical divisions.
Safadi criticized the international community’s response, saying: “Failure to stop this massacre is a shame on the whole international community. The Israeli government is continuing with its inhumane war crimes because the world is allowing it to. The impunity must end.”
He further urged the Security Council to take concrete steps to prevent further loss of life.
“Israeli occupation forces should not be allowed to burn any more Palestinian children alive, should not be allowed to commit any more murders, and destroy any more schools or hospitals,” he said.
Safadi called for the immediate protection of civilians and the implementation of international law.
He said: “There is no justification for the failure by the international community and its institutions to protect the innocent, stop the ethnic cleansing, implement international law, and ensure justice.”
WHO certifies Egypt as malaria-free
- “Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history and not its future,” WHO chief said
GENEVA: Egypt was certified as malaria-free on Sunday, with the World Health Organization calling the achievement “truly historic” and the culmination of nearly a century of work to stamp out the disease.
“Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history and not its future,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
“This certification of Egypt as malaria-free is truly historic, and a testament to the commitment of the people and government of Egypt to rid themselves of this ancient scourge.”
Globally, 44 countries and one territory have now been certified as malaria-free.
Certification is granted by the WHO when a country has proven that the chain of indigenous malaria transmission by Anopheles mosquitoes has been interrupted nationwide for at least the previous three consecutive years.
A country must also demonstrate the ability to prevent the re-establishment of transmission.
Malaria kills more than 600,000 people every year, 95 percent of them in Africa, according to the WHO.
Yemen evacuates embassy staff, group of stranded citizens from Lebanon
- Thousands of foreigners have fled the country as Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalates
AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s government has evacuated the majority of its diplomatic mission in Lebanon and began airlifting the first group of stranded Yemenis out of the Lebanese capital, an official told Arab News on Sunday.
A group of eight Yemenis flew from Beirut to Amman on Middle East Airlines over the weekend, returning home on Yemenia Airways. This came as the Yemeni ambassador to Lebanon and several members of Yemen’s diplomatic mission in the Lebanese capital left the country, leaving behind Yemen’s consular and administrative officer.
The official said the Yemeni government is arranging for the evacuation of 33 Yemenis from Lebanon who have registered at the Yemen Embassy in Beirut. Thousands of foreigners fled Lebanon in recent months as the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah escalated.
The Yemeni Embassy in Beirut asked Yemenis who wanted to leave the country to register their names at the embassy before directing them to travel to Syria by land after failing to secure a flight to get them out. Yemenis there rejected the embassy’s proposal to travel to Syria by land, citing security concerns, and demanded that the Yemeni government evacuate them by air, just like other citizens.
Mushtaq Anaam, a postgraduate Yemeni student living in Beirut’s Cola neighborhood who in the past petitioned the Yemeni government to evacuate him from Lebanon, told Arab News that he changed his mind about leaving the country after discovering a safer place in Lebanon’s far north, and that he is concerned about missing classes if he returns to Yemen and his university in Lebanon reopens.
“I have six months remaining to finish my studies. Instead of going to Yemen and paying $800 or $1,000 to return to Lebanon, I chose to stay here and leave Beirut for a safer area in the north,” Anaam said.
