hezbollah

Hashem Safieddine Laid to Rest in South Lebanon

Hezbollah held a funeral procession for Hashem Safieddine, former head of the party’s Executive Council, in his hometown of Deir Qanoun al-Naher in southern Lebanon on Monday. Mourners gathered to pay their final respects to the senior Hezbollah figure, killed in an Israeli strike on October 3, 2024. The funeral followed a mass ceremony held ...

Patriarch Rai Navigating the Delicate Situation in Bkerke

It has been 14 years since Patriarch Bechara Rai assumed the seat of the Maronite Patriarchate, as he was elected on March 15, 2011 – shortly after the popular uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s bloody regime erupted in Syria. Rai succeeded Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, who had resigned that same year, a month before Rai’s election. Sfeir had ...

Dormant Cells Could Be Activated to Discredit President Aoun's Mandate

Dormant cells in certain areas and in some Palestinian camps might be activated to destabilize Lebanon during the mandate of President Joseph Aoun, who emphasized the state’s monopoly over weapons in his inaugural speech, according to a security report obtained by opposition politicians.   “There are fears of an attempt to use dormant cells ...

Shifting Paradigms and Policy-Making

The cascading events that have resulted in the defeat of Iranian proxies in the Near East have not yet elicited the due questioning among political actors. The systematic dismantling of the power nodes that have structured the strategic continuum patiently woven by Iran throughout the last two decades should have impelled political actors to ...

Misleading Appearances

A relentless mobilization and exploitation of the popular masses on Lebanese soil. The objective: to offset the massive strategic losses suffered in recent months. This appears to be the defining feature of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ approach—and, by extension, that of Hezbollah, its frontline proxy—in the coming phase. Neither ...

Israeli Reactions to Nasrallah and Safieddine’s Funerals

Israeli reactions surfaced on Sunday, coinciding with the funeral of former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, held in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that “the fighter jets flying over Beirut send a clear message: whoever threatens and attacks Israel will meet ...

Final Farewell to Nasrallah and Safieddine: A Funeral Amid High Tensions and Rehashed Messages

Under a sky crisscrossed by Israeli military aircraft and Lebanese Army helicopters, the funeral of former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and former head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council Hashem Safieddine took place, nearly five months after their deaths in Israeli airstrikes. Tens of thousands of people poured into the capital to ...

Israeli Escalation in Southern Lebanon

Israeli forces stepped up Sunday their airstrikes on several localities in southern Lebanon. The targeted regions include the area between Qlayleh and al-Sama'iyah in the district of Tyre, as well as the axis linking Deir Qanun al-Nahr and Maarub. Strikes also hit the vicinity of Shahur and Ansar, as well as the area between Hallousiyeh and ...

Senator Ronny Jackson Calls for a Security Monopoly by the Lebanese Army

A delegation from the US Congress, led by Senator Ronny Jackson, met on Saturday with the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, in the presence of the US Ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson. At the end of the meeting, Jackson expressed the United States’ desire to see a new phase of peace and stability in ...

BIA Held Hostage: Sunday Flights to Be Suspended

Lebanon's sole airport will suspend all flights on Sunday, February 23, from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM during the funeral of Hezbollah’s former Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, according to a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation at Beirut International Airport (BIA). Beirut’s airport has served not only as a transit hub for ...

Reconstruction in the Hands of the State and Hezbollah

With Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral set to conclude this Sunday, Hezbollah will soon face pressing challenges it has sought to evade — both within its own ranks and across Lebanese society. The Hezb urgently needs a massive influx of Iranian funds to fulfill its long-standing reconstruction promises. However, recent developments indicate a ...

14 Billion Dollars: The Devastating Losses of the Hezbollah-Israel Conflict

$14 billion! That is the historic and no less colossal amount of damage caused by the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. This sum includes both material damage and economic losses. The reconstruction costs are estimated at around $12 billion.   For Nassib Ghobril, chief economist at Byblos Bank, economic losses amount to at least $3 ...