Nawaf Salam

Lebanon’s Death by a Thousand Hezbollah Cuts

It took Lebanon’s cabinet six months to even begin discussing the fate of Hezbollah’s arsenal. Whatever decision emerges will go to the Higher Defense Council for further deliberation and planning, then to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to devise an implementation strategy. If each step takes as long as the first, disarming Hezbollah could be ...

Jordan Sees Tourism Slump over Gaza War

Jordan has seen a decrease in the number of tourists visiting its famed ancient city of Petra and other sites since the Gaza war began in October 2023, according to officials. Although Jordan does not border the Gaza Strip, it has been among several countries across the region impacted by the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group ...

Israeli Drone Kills Hezbollah Member in Khiam

A Hezbollah member was reportedly killed and four injured, on Monday, in an Israeli drone strike that targeted the Old Slaughterhouse neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Khiam, according to Al-Arabiya television. Hezbollah officially mourned Ali Suleiman Abu Abbas, who was killed in the town of Khiam. The strike came after a relatively ...

Israel PM Says to Instruct Army on Gaza War Plan this Week

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he would convene a cabinet meeting later in the week to decide on how to proceed in the war in Gaza. "Later this week, I will convene the cabinet to instruct the [army] on how to achieve the three war objectives we have set," he said at the opening of a government meeting. He ...

Iran says US Accountability for Attacks on Nuclear Sites Part of Ay Future Talks

Iran said Monday it would hold the United States accountable for attacks on its nuclear sites in any future negotiations, while ruling out direct talks with Washington. The United States struck key Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, briefly joining a war launched by Israel that had derailed talks on Tehran's atomic programme. "In any ...

Israeli Ex-Security Chiefs Urge Trump to Help end Gaza War

Hundreds of retired Israeli security officials including former heads of intelligence agencies have urged US President Donald Trump to pressure their own government to end the war in Gaza. "It is our professional judgment that Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel," the former officials wrote in an open letter shared with the media ...

Lebanon, the Unraveling Republic

American political scientists in the sixties were quite pessimistic when analyzing the cascading political crises befalling Lebanon since the late fifties. Leila Meo used the label of “improbable nation” (1963), and Michael Hudson characterized it as a “precarious republic" (1965). This sense of instability prompted numerous scholars to ...

Israeli Hostage Videos: Standoff Between Netanyahu and Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Sunday to aid hostages in Gaza, as outrage built at videos showing two of them emaciated. The premier's office said he spoke to the ICRC coordinator for the region, Julien Lerisson, and "requested his involvement in providing ...

Salam Inaugurates the "August 4 Victims Street"

On Sunday evening, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Beirut port explosion, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam inaugurated the "August 4 Victims Street" near the entrance to the port. “Take your hands off the judiciary,” he declared from this symbolic location, emphasizing that there would be no compromise when it comes to justice. “Truth ...

Israel Says Ground Troops Conducted Raids in Syria

Israel's military said Sunday ground troops had operated in southern Syria, seizing weapons and questioning individuals suspected of arms trafficking, in the latest cross-border raid since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December. A military statement said that troops had completed overnight "a mission involving on-site questioning of several ...

Welcome Back!

As soon as press leaks emerged suggesting that the Lebanese file was being taken away from US envoy Tom Barrack and handed back to former envoy Morgan Ortagus, a certain optimism resurfaced among the Lebanese. This might be explained by the fact that Ortagus is seen as more than just a US envoy; she has indeed become some kind of celebrity in ...