Hezbollah

Israeli Airstrikes Target Southern and Eastern Lebanon

Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, targeting suspected Hezbollah positions, according to the Israeli army. The main strikes hit areas near the Litani River, between Deir Siryan and Zawtar al-Sharqiya, as well as Aishiyeh, Mahmoudiyeh and Jarmaq, northeast of Nabatieh. ...

President Aoun Receives Saudi Envoy Ahead of Barrack Visit

President Joseph Aoun met on Thursday with Saudi Arabia’s special envoy for Lebanon, Prince Yazid bin Farhan, at Baabda Palace. The Saudi envoy’s visit precedes the arrival in Beirut of United States envoy Tom Barrack, who gave Lebanese officials a one-week deadline to respond to the US roadmap for Lebanon – which aims, among other things, ...

Hezbollah: Unverified Figures Point to Heavy Losses Since October 2023

Hezbollah has reportedly sustained heavy losses since the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, according to information relayed Thursday by Al-Hadath. Approximately 10,000 fighters are said to have been put out of action, including over 4,000 killed, among them several senior military and political officials of the Shia party. These ...

Berri Allegedly Awaits Hezbollah’s Response to Barrack’s Proposal

As discussions continue over the document submitted by US envoy Tom Barrack, Lebanese authorities are still awaiting Hezbollah's official response to the comments issued by the Lebanese side. According to local broadcaster Al-Jadeed, a Hezbollah representative met on Tuesday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and handed him what was described as ...

The Final Red Line: Can Lebanon Avoid the Consequences?

As the dust settles from the most consequential Israel–Iran confrontation in decades, attention is shifting sharply to a more familiar, but no less volatile, battleground: Lebanon. The war may have moved west, but its logic remains the same. Deter, dismantle, destroy. The question no longer is whether Hezbollah will disarm, it’s what Israel ...

Six Pages That Could Make or Break Lebanon

Six pages: that’s the full length of the US document handed to Lebanese authorities. The official response to those six pages is what US special envoy Tom Barrack will be seeking during his upcoming visit, scheduled on Monday. For Lebanon’s leadership, the time has come to “step out of the shadows” and take clear, time-bound action. As ...

What Is the Shia Issue with the Diaspora?

The issue of expatriate voting - if it makes it onto Parliament’s agenda - has taken on a sectarian dimension, placing the Shia community in an increasingly contradictory position, both in relation to the broader Lebanese diaspora and to the very idea of Lebanese emigration itself. This tension is especially perplexing given that Shias ...

Disarming Hezbollah Is Here, Lebanon’s Peace with Israel Is Next

Now that the leaders of Lebanon are certain that Israel and America would not shy away from using force against Iran when need be, and now that they are sure that the bark of China and Russia in the Middle East is louder than their bite, Beirut is finally moving on Hezbollah’s arms. Lebanon’s normalization with Israel will come next. Druze ...

Hezbollah’s Arms and the US Ultimatum: Lebanon Faces Critical Decisions

The question of Hezbollah’s weapons cannot be resolved solely within Lebanon. As an ideological, military and political extension of Iran, Hezbollah’s arsenal is intrinsically linked to broader regional dynamics, especially the power balance between Tehran and Washington. Experts agree that local initiatives will be ineffective unless ...

The US Push for Hezbollah Disarmament and the Future of Lebanon

As the United States escalates its initiatives aimed at the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Lebanese government finds itself at a critical juncture, facing a multitude of internal and external challenges. A recent statement from Tom Barrack, the US Ambassador to Turkey, the Presidential Envoy to Syria, and the "de facto envoy" to Lebanon, ...

Pasdaran-Hezbollah: Severing the Umbilical Cord

A former Sunni MP — once a leading voice in parliament and still one of the few clear-headed voices left in the country — told me, during a conversation at the height of the Cedar Revolution, that the 1982 Israeli siege of Beirut had been an existential turning point for his community. Under the shelling, they realized that their dream of Arab ...