What Trump’s picks for key foreign-policy roles mean for the Middle East

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, on Nov. 13, 2024. (POOL / AFP)
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Updated 17 November 2024
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What Trump’s picks for key foreign-policy roles mean for the Middle East

  • Likely impact of Republican president’s return to power becoming clearer with naming of nominees
  • Frustrated by Joe Biden’s inaction on Gaza, many Arab American voters abandoned the Democratic Party

LONDON: On Nov. 5 many Arab Americans, disenchanted with the Biden administration’s failure to curb Israel’s deadly military interventions in Gaza and Lebanon, abandoned their traditional support for the Democratic party and voted in record numbers for Donald Trump.

As revealed by an Arab News/YouGov poll in the run-up to the US presidential election, Arab Americans believed that Trump would be more likely than Kamala Harris to successfully resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict — even though he was seen as more supportive of Israel’s government than his opponent.

They also felt that Trump would be at least as good for the Middle East in general as Kamala Harris.

Now, however, as Trump reveals his picks for the key roles in his administration, it is becoming clearer what impact that protest vote might have on the Middle East, and on Palestinians.




A billboard that displays a photo of US President-elect Donald Trump is projected a day after the US election, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Nov. 6, 2024. (AP)

Some of the hires will have to be approved by Senate hearings. But amid talk that Trump’s team is planning to bypass vetting by making so-called recess appointments, many of the choices have raised eyebrows in Washington.

In terms of what Trump’s new team might mean for the Middle East in general, it is perhaps enough to know that Israel is celebrating both Trump’s victory and his picks for key positions.

“Some of the announcements,” commented The Jerusalem Post, “like a new ambassador to the UN and Israel, as well as for an incoming national security adviser and special envoy to the Middle East, are all positive developments in terms of shaping a team that will be supportive of Israel, and strong in the face of adversaries, such as Iran.”

According to a CNN report, current and former US officials have cautioned against assuming that the intelligence community is uniformly opposed to Trump. Across the 18 agencies that include thousands of analysts and operators, there are plenty who support him and likely welcome his return.

Marco Rubio — Secretary of State 

The appointment of Rubio, a Florida Republican senator known for his advocacy of a muscular US foreign policy, appears at odds with Trump’s oft-professed intention to see America withdraw from its role as the world’s policeman.

One of the “20 core promises to make America great again” in his Agenda 47 manifesto was a pledge to “strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world.”




Marco Rubio. (AP photo)

On the other hand, Trump has promised to ensure that “our government uses that great strength sparingly, and only in clear instances where our national interests are threatened.”

In 2016, when he ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, Rubio repeatedly criticized his rival’s isolationist foreign policy, saying “a world without our engagement is not a world we want to live in.

Rubio, a former member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence, doubtless brings a great deal of foreign-policy experience to the Trump team, along with a reputation for being a hawk, ready to take a hard line on Iran and China.

He also brings a strong commitment to Israel.

In footage of a 2023 confrontation between Rubio and activists of the group CODEPINK in Washington, Rubio replied, when asked if he would support a ceasefire, “No I will not,” adding “I want (Israel) to destroy every element of Hamas.”

Pressed to say if he cared about “the babies that are getting killed every day,” he replied: “I think it’s terrible, and I think Hamas is 100 percent to blame.”

Following Iran’s missile attack on Israel in October — carried out in retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh in Tehran — Rubio defended Israel's “right to respond disproportionately.”

Israel, he added, “should respond to Iran the way the US would respond if some country launched 180 missiles at us.”

In a tweet on Wednesday after his nomination was confirmed, Rubio said he would work to carry out Trump’s foreign policy agenda and under his leadership “we will deliver peace through strength and always put the interests of Americans and America above all else.”




Pete Hegseth. (Reuters photo)

Pete Hegseth — Secretary of Defense 

Many in Washington — and everyone in the Pentagon — are still trying to digest the news that the new man chosen to be in charge of America’s vast military machine is a 44-year-old presenter on Fox News, Trump’s favorite TV channel.

Hegseth, a co-host of the program “Fox & Friends Weekend” who has regularly interviewed Trump on the show, has been a staunch critic of “wokeness” in the military, demanding the sacking of any “general, admiral, whatever” involved in promoting the previous Democratic administrations’ agenda of diversity, equality and inclusivity.

Furthermore, he has spoken out in defense of US soldiers accused of war crimes committed in the region, condemning “the betrayal of the men who keep us free” in his latest book, “The War on Warriors.”

During Trump’s first term in office, he lobbied successfully for presidential pardons for three US soldiers who had been charged with, or had already been found guilty of, war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hegseth’s on-the-ground military experience has given him a grunt’s perspective on warfare. He rose to the rank of major in the Minnesota National Guard and served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But according to a statement from Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, he is “undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for (defense secretary) in American history, and the most overtly political.”

Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, himself a veteran, was more direct. Hegseth’s nomination, he said, is “the most hilariously predictably stupid thing” that Trump could have done.

Or dangerous. Clues to Hegseth’s worldview can be found among the many tattoos he sports. They include the 11th-century Latin Crusader rallying cry “Deus Vult,” “God wills it,” alongside a large “Jerusalem cross,” the symbol adopted by the Crusaders who sacked Jerusalem in 1099, slaughtering tens of thousands of Muslims and Jews in the city.

In the US the symbol is associated with far-right white nationalist movements. In 2016 Hegseth, then in the national guard, was withdrawn from guard duty at Biden’s inauguration because of the tattoo.




Steven Witkoff. (Getty Images via AFP)

Steven Witkoff — Special Middle East envoy

A real-estate tycoon and a long-time friend and golfing buddy of Trump’s, Witkoff has no diplomatic experience but is an uncompromising friend of Israel.

When President Biden paused weapons shipments to Israel in May because of concerns about Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, Witkoff responded by raising millions of dollars for Trump’s presidential campaign from wealthy US Jewish donors.

After attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress in July, Witkoff told Fox News “it was spiritual … it was epic to be in that room.”

Witkoff has no known experience of diplomacy or the Middle East. Nevertheless, Trump said in a statement, “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”

Witkoff will now be point man for Trump’s two big unfulfilled ambitions for the Middle East: an Israel-Palestine peace deal and normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The Kingdom has made clear that the latter is dependent upon meaningful progress toward sovereignty for the Palestinian people. Witkoff’s views on that are currently unknown, but it seems unlikely they would differ greatly from those of others in the new administration for whom the creation of a Palestinian state is anathema.




Mike Huckabee. (Getty Images via AFP))

Mike Huckabee — Ambassador to Israel

Of all Trump’s appointments, the one that has been received most rapturously in Israel is the naming of the former governor of Arkansas as America’s new ambassador to the country.

The appointment is seen by the Netanyahu government as a sign not only that the new administration will allow Israel to continue its provocative settlements campaign in the occupied territories, but also that Trump is giving the green light to plans for the full annexation of the West Bank.

Huckabee has always been a staunch defender of Israel. He once said there was “no such thing as a Palestinian,” suggesting the term was nothing more than a “political tool to try and force land away from Israel.”

He has taken part in at least two cornerstone-laying ceremonies at new Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. At one he attended in 2017 he said there was “no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

Unsurprisingly, his appointment has been welcomed by far-right Israeli ministers, including Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister who has led repeated provocative incursions by extremist settlers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who sent congratulations to “a consistent and loyal friend.”

On Monday Smotrich said Trump’s victory represented an “important opportunity” to “apply Israeli sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” the Jewish biblical names for parts of the West Bank. The year 2025, he added, “will, with God’s help, be the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”




Elise Stefanik. (Getty Images via AFP)

Elise Stefanik — Ambassador to the UN

A decade ago, aged 30, Stefanik was the youngest member of Congress. Since then, she has drifted from the center of the Republican party to the right. In the process, she has become a strong supporter of Trump, defending his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election result and describing those arrested for their part in the assault on the Capital as “Jan. 6 hostages.”

She has also been a vocal ally of Israel, which she has visited many times.

In 2023 she won praise from the US Jewish community for her aggressive questioning during a congressional hearing of college leaders, whom she accused of turning a blind eye to antisemitism during campus protests.

In March, she was honored for her stance at the Zionist Organization of America’s “Heroes of Israel” gala, where she was given the “Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson Defender of Israel Award.”

In her acceptance speech, Stefanik criticized Joe Biden’s “unconscionable actions and words that undermine the Israeli war effort.” She would, she said, “always be committed to supporting Israel’s right to defend itself … and I will continue to stand with Israel to ensure (it has) the resources it needs in this darkest hour.”

On Thursday the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories found that “Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there.”

As US ambassador, Stefanik — who has been openly critical of the UN for what she calls its “entrenched antisemitic bias” — will be perfectly positioned to push back against such claims.

The Washington Post predicted that Stefanik “will use her position at the United Nations to assail UN agencies and diplomats over any criticism of Israel, and air long-standing Republican grievances over the workings of the world’s most important multilateral institution.”




Michael Waltz. (Getty Images via AFP)

Michael Waltz — National Security Adviser

Florida Congressman Waltz, a former colonel in the US Army with multiple tours of Afghanistan and Iraq and four Bronze Stars to his name, is one of the few top-level Trump hires who brings relevant expertise to his new job.

A former special forces Green Beret, he served as a defense policy director for secretaries of state Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates — and navigating Washington’s corridors of power is a skill that runs in the family.

His wife is Julia Nesheiwat, the daughter of Jordanian immigrants who came to America in the 1950s. She is a former captain in the US Army’s Intelligence Corps and served in Afghanistan and Iraq. She also held national security roles in the Bush, Obama and previous Trump administrations.

Waltz is a member of the Kurdish-American Caucus in Congress, which “promotes knowledge and understanding of the Kurds, a distinct group of over 30 million living in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria, the US and elsewhere globally.”

The Caucus believes that Kurdistan is “a beacon of stability and security in Iraq, deserves strong US support,” and is “a vital ally in protecting US interests in Iraq and the entire region.” Iraqi Kurdistan, it says, is not only “vital to any vision of a peaceful and prosperous Iraq,” but also “critically serves as a break in the crescent from Iran to Lebanon.”

Waltz’s appointment, the Kurdistan 24 network commented, is “very good news for the Kurds.”




Tulsi Gabbard. (Getty Images via AFP)

Tulsi Gabbard — Director of National Intelligence 

In October 2019, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suggested that Gabbard, who at the time was a Democrat and a rival for the party’s backing, was being “groomed” by Russia, and that her foreign policy views echoed Russian interests.

Since then, the former Democratic congresswomen has switched sides, becoming an independent in 2022 and joining the Republicans this year.

Clinton’s unproven accusation is all the more startling now that 43-year-old Gabbard is about to be put in charge of more than a dozen intelligence agencies, from the FBI to the CIA.

Like many of Trump’s picks, Gabbard is a military veteran. She served in the Hawaii Army National Guard with tours of duty in Iraq and Kuwait. In Iraq from 2004 to 2005 she was part of a medical unit, where, she has said, “every single day, I was confronted with the very high human cost of war.” That experience, she added, shaped her outlook on America’s military adventures.

“I was not the same person when I came home from that war as I was when I left,” she said, “and it’s why I am so deeply committed to doing everything I possibly can to making sure that not a single one of our men and women in uniform, not another service member, has their life sacrificed in the pursuit of wars that have nothing to do with keeping the American people safe.”

On the campaign trail in 2019 she became known as the “anti-war presidential hopeful,” criticizing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan for having taken “trillions of dollars out of our pockets for health care, infrastructure, education, for clean energy.” America, she said, must “end these wasteful regime-change wars.”

That, however, was then. Gabbard is, after all, no stranger to U-turns, having abandoned the Democrats for the Republicans. In a cabinet full of hawks such as Marco Rubio talking tough on China and Iran, it remains to be seen if the head of the world’s biggest spy machine is still keen to rein America in.




John Ratcliffe. (Getty Images via AFP)

John Ratcliffe — Director of CIA

John Ratcliffe, a former representative from Texas, has been chosen by Trump to serve as the CIA director. He currently serves as co-chair at the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-linked think tank. Ratcliffe served as the director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021 during Trump’s first term. A CNN report said Ratcliffe “is seen as a largely professional and potentially less disruptive choice than some other former officials believed to have been under consideration.”




Alina Habba. (Getty Images via AFP)

Alina Habba — Trump attorney

Alina Saad Habba, a senior Trump adviser and attorney, said she was not considering the role of press secretary, for which she was hotly tippled before it went to Karoline Leavitt on Friday. An American lawyer and managing partner of a law firm based in New Jersey, Habba has been a legal spokesperson for Trump since 2021 and a senior adviser for MAGA, Inc., Trump’s Super PAC. Her parents were Chaldean Catholics who emigrated from Iraq to the US in the early 1980s.
 

 


Macron, on Egypt visit, to go near Gaza to show support for ceasefire

Updated 6 sec ago
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Macron, on Egypt visit, to go near Gaza to show support for ceasefire

  • A draft accord on treating Palestinian wounded brought out of Gaza is to be signed during the visit

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will go to an Egyptian port near the Gaza Strip next week to highlight concerns over the conflict in the Palestinian territory, his office said Thursday.
Macron will go to Arish, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Gaza, next Tuesday during a visit to Egypt, officials said.
Macron will meet humanitarian and security workers next Tuesday to stress his “constant mobilization in favor of a ceasefire,” his office said in a statement.
Arish is a transit point for international aid intended for Gaza.
But food and other supplies have not been able to use the nearby Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was suspended last month.
Macron is to go to Egypt on Sunday and on Monday will meet the country’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Egypt has been a mediator in the Israel-Hamas conflict since the Ocxtober 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and Macron will stress “the urgency” of securing a new ceasefire so that Gaza’s population is no longer has to bear a “humanitarian catastrophe,” Israeli strikes are ended and Israeli hostages in Gaza are freed, the French leader’s office said.
A draft accord on treating Palestinian wounded brought out of Gaza is to be signed during the visit.
 

 


Deadly fire on Gaza ambulances possible Israeli ‘war crimes’: UN official

Updated 15 min 36 sec ago
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Deadly fire on Gaza ambulances possible Israeli ‘war crimes’: UN official

  • Turk called for an “independent, prompt and thorough investigation” into the March 23 incident that Israeli officials have claimed was an attack on “terrorists”

UNITED NATIONS, United States: The death of 15 medics and humanitarian workers in Gaza after shots were fired at their ambulances raises further concerns of “war crimes by the Israeli army,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday.
“I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military,” said Volker Turk, before the UN Security Council.
Turk called for an “independent, prompt and thorough investigation” into the March 23 incident that Israeli officials have claimed was an attack on “terrorists.”
The bodies of 15 rescuers and humanitarian workers, including eight from the Palestinian Red Crescent and one from the UN, were found near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called a “mass grave.”
OCHA had said Tuesday that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on March 23, and that other emergency and aid teams were struck one after another for several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues.
This is “one of the darkest moments in this conflict that has shaken our shared humanity to its core,” said the president of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society Younes Al-Khatib before the UN Security Council on Thursday.
“The souls of Mostafa, Ezzedine, Saleh, Riffat, Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed Al-heila, Ashraf and Raed are asking for justice. Can you hear them?” he asked, demanding to know the fate of a 16th team member still missing.
“It’s worth noting, also, that during the communication with the team, the dispatch could hear a conversation in Hebrew between the Israeli forces and the team, meaning some were alive, still alive, when they were under the control of the Israeli forces,” Al-Khatib said.
The Israeli army has indicated it is investigating the “incident of March 23, 2025,” while claiming its soldiers had fired at “terrorists.”
Turk also condemned Israel for blocking the entry of humanitarian aid for a month and resuming its military operations, saying “the blockade and siege of Gaza,” and the subsequent suffering of civilians “constitutes a form of collective punishment.”
It “may also amount to the use of starvation as a method of war,” he said.
Turk expressed alarm over “inflammatory statements by senior Israeli officials about seizing, dividing, and controlling the territory of the Gaza Strip.”
“All of this raises serious concerns about international crimes being committed and contradicts the fundamental principle of international law regarding acquisition of territory by force.”
The war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.


Hundreds of thousands flee as Israel seizes Rafah in new Gaza ‘security zone’

Updated 03 April 2025
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Hundreds of thousands flee as Israel seizes Rafah in new Gaza ‘security zone’

  • Airstrike kills at least 27 Palestinians, including women and children, inside a school building

GAZA: Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced “security zone” they intend to seize.

A day after declaring their intention to capture large swaths of the crowded enclave, Israeli forces pushed into the city on Gaza’s southern edge, which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia, a suburb of Gaza City in the north.

FASTFACT

The assault to capture Rafah is a significant escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.

Later on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 27 Palestinians, including women and children, inside a school building that served as a shelter for displaced families in Gaza City, local health authorities said.
The Israeli military claimed the attack hit key Palestinian “terrorists.”
Medics said three missiles slammed into the Dar Al-Arqam school building in Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City, and the Israeli military said it struck a command center that militants had used to plan and execute attacks against Israeli civilians and army troops.
Rafah “is gone, it is being wiped out,” a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, said via a chat app.
“They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property,” said the man.
The assault to capture Rafah is a significant escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.
In Shejaia in the north, one of the districts where Israel has ordered the population to leave, hundreds of residents streamed out on Thursday, some carrying their belongings as they walked, others on donkey carts and bikes or in vans.
“I want to die. Let them kill us and free us from this life. We’re not living, we’re dead,” said Umm Aaed Bardaa.
In Khan Younis, where a strike killed several people, Adel Abu Fakher was checking the damage to his tent: “There’s nothing left for us. We’re being killed while asleep,” he said.
Israel has not spelled out its long-term aims for the security zone its troops are now seizing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops were taking an area he called the “Morag Axis,” a reference to an abandoned former Israeli settlement between Rafah and Khan Younis.
Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.
They fear Israel intends to depopulate those areas indefinitely, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people permanently homeless while Israel seizes some of Gaza’s last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure.
Since the first phase of the ceasefire expired at the start of March with no agreement to prolong it, Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, recreating what international organizations call a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel’s military said on Thursday it was investigating the deaths of 15 Palestinian aid workers found buried in a shallow grave in March near Red Crescent vehicles, an incident that caused global alarm.
The military said troops fired on the cars, believing they carried fighters.
Israel’s stated goal since the start of the war has been the destruction of the Hamas militant group, which ran Gaza for nearly two decades.
But with no effort made to establish an alternative administration, Hamas returned to control during the ceasefire.
Fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages Israel says must be handed over to extend the truce temporarily; Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that permanently ends the war.
Israeli leaders say they have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, with hundreds of people demonstrating in north Gaza’s Beit Lahiya on Wednesday. Hamas calls the protesters collaborators and says Israel is behind them.
The war began with an attack on Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023 with gunmen taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.
Rafah residents said most of the local population had followed Israel’s order to leave as Israeli strikes toppled buildings there.
However, a strike on the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most movement between the cities.
The movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombardment.
“Others stayed because they don’t know where to go, or got fed up of being displaced several times. We are afraid they might be killed or at best detained,” said Basem, a resident of Rafah who declined to give a second name.

 


Lebanese leaders reach consensus on border demarcation to present to US envoy

Updated 03 April 2025
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Lebanese leaders reach consensus on border demarcation to present to US envoy

  • President Aoun tells top military officers: Lebanon’s interests are above everything else
  • Joseph Aoun: It is the state that protects Lebanon, not its sects

BEIRUT: Lebanese leaders have reached a unified position on border demarcation to present to Morgan Ortagus, the US envoy, who is scheduled to arrive in Beirut before the end of the week.

President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, agreed that there “will be no negotiations with the Israeli side regarding (a) prisoner swap or withdrawal from the Lebanese hills still occupied by the Israeli Army,” a source in the government told Arab News on Thursday.

“However, Lebanon is open to discussing disputed land border points,” the source added.

“Regardless of the US envoy’s proposals, the Lebanese stance remains unchanged,” said the source, who clarified that the Lebanese Army “is fulfilling its duties by being deployed south of the Litani River and confiscating weapons in the border area, as acknowledged by the US side overseeing the ceasefire monitoring committee and the UNIFIL forces.”

The source said that the military had made significant progress on the issue, destroying weapons and ammunition seized from Hezbollah sites.

Aoun told top security officials on Thursday that Lebanon’s interests comes above anything else.

He was speaking during a visit to the leadership of the Internal Security Forces and the General Security Directorate.

“We have a great opportunity to seize at all levels, and we must show the people that we are mature enough to build the state and that we will build it,” he said.

The president called on security bodies to “remain unaffiliated with anyone, serve only Lebanon’s interests, and enforce the law,” noting that “the world is ready to help us, but we must first help ourselves.”

Aoun stated: “Lebanon’s interest comes above anything else. It is the state that protects Lebanon, not its sects. Parties and sects prioritize their interests, whereas your duty is to serve Lebanon.

“You must reject any demands or interference that might harm the nation’s interests and prompt people to respect the law, keeping in mind that no request outside the law will be tolerated.”

Also on Thursday, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi, the highest Maronite religious authority in Lebanon, said the time “has come to unify weapons in Lebanon, as stipulated in the Taif Agreement.”

He also told the Lebanese Editors Syndicate that the military “needs strengthening and support from other nations, but the solution now is diplomatic, as we are incapable of engaging in war, and no one can confront Israel.

“What has the resistance achieved with all its weapons against the Israeli war machine,” he asked, adding “now is not the time for normalization with Israel, as there are other issues that must be addressed first, such as border demarcation and disarmament.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would not withdraw from the five positions it controls in Lebanon.

He was speaking during a visit to an Israeli military site in southern Lebanon — one of the five hills still occupied since the ceasefire declaration in November.

At the site, which is near the Israeli settlement of Margaliot, Katz stated Israel’s presence at the five locations will be determined not by time but by the situation on the ground.

“Only if Hezbollah disarms and withdraws from the border can we discuss the withdrawal of the Israeli Army from these positions, and this matter is being coordinated with the Americans,” he said.

Katz anticipated “an increase in activity among Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, in Lebanon and Syria.”

He stated: “We are working to prevent the arming of Hezbollah and Palestinian organizations. The challenge will begin and intensify.”

Katz claimed that Hezbollah “is not a protector of Lebanon.”

He added: “The Iranians now realize that it is no longer capable of defending them.”

Elsewhere, an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle on the main road between Bint Jbeil and Yaroun in the border area.

The drone struck the vehicle from behind, resulting in two injuries, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.

The Israeli military conducted airstrikes around Naqoura and one strike in the town’s center, targeting pre-fabricated homes as replacements for the destroyed houses and facilities.

These pre-fabricated facilities were being used to meet citizens’ needs, serving as a substitute for the municipal building, destroyed by Israel following the ceasefire, said Naqoura Mayor Abbas Awada.

He highlighted that recent aggression occurring in proximity to UNIFIL headquarters falls “under the jurisdiction of the five-member ceasefire monitoring committee and UNIFIL forces.”

Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Authority reported that Israeli strikes destroyed a “newly established civil defense center and damaged ambulances and firefighting vehicles.”

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Armed Forces have taken proactive measures, with military units removing “engineering obstacles placed by Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory” near Al-Labouna in the Tyre region.

The military also closed an unauthorized dirt road created by Israeli units in the same area.

In an official statement, the Lebanese Army Command affirmed its ongoing commitment to “addressing Israeli violations through close coordination with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism and UNIFIL.”

The Army Command condemned Israel’s “persistent violations of Lebanese sovereignty and targeting of civilians across multiple regions.”

In another development, UNIFIL Western Sector Commander Gen. Nicola Mandolisi conducted his first meeting with Khirbet Selem Mayor Mohammed Rahhal.

Their joint statement highlighted “UNIFIL’s commitment to facilitating the safe return of displaced residents and supporting Lebanese military operations through strategic partnerships with the Fifth Brigade and the Second and Fifth Rapid Intervention Regiments, key components in regional stabilization efforts.”


South Sudan clashes kill 30: local official

Updated 03 April 2025
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South Sudan clashes kill 30: local official

  • The attack in northern Ruweng Administrative Area began earlier in the week
  • Local media reported that some of those killed were members of the armed groups

JUBA: At least 30 people were killed when a northern South Sudanese town was briefly overrun by an armed youth group, a local official said Thursday, following a cattle raid.
Clashes involving pastoralists and settled farming communities are common in the world’s youngest country, but this incident comes as tensions rise over South Sudan’s fragile political situation.
The attack in northern Ruweng Administrative Area began earlier in the week when a group of armed youth stole lambs before they were scared off by security forces, said Simon Chol Mialith, the local Minister of Information.
The following day, he told AFP, the group returned in greater numbers and attacked Abiemnom, and although “the youth and the security forces tried to defend the town, they were overrun by the Mayom armed youth.”
On Wednesday the South Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF) drove the group from the settlement, Mialith said, where calm has now been restored.
“The number has risen to 30 people confirmed dead and over 40 persons wounded,” he said, without giving further details.
Local media reported that some of those killed were members of the armed groups, but AFP was unable to confirm this.
The incident comes as forces allied to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar clash across the country, sparking regional concern and threatening a fragile peace deal in 2018 that ended a five-year civil war.
South Sudan has been bedevilled by instability and insecurity since independence in 2011, and despite its natural oil resources remains deeply impoverished.