hezbollah

Joseph Aoun in Riyadh: From Yarzeh to Baabda?

All eyes are on Riyadh, awaiting the outcome of discussions between the Lebanese Army Commander-in-Chief, General Joseph Aoun, and Saudi officials. On Thursday, Joseph Aoun met the Saudi Minister of Defense in the presence of the new man in charge of the Lebanese dossier, Prince Yazid ben Farhane. While the Lebanese are closely scrutinizing the ...

Israeli Army Says It Neutralized 70% of Hezbollah’s Military Capabilities

The Israeli army claimed in a report published by Israeli media to have inflicted significant losses on Hezbollah during ongoing clashes in Lebanon, eliminating approximately 3,800 Hezbollah militants.  According to the report, 2,762 militants were killed during a ground offensive launched in late September, with thousands more reportedly ...

Turkey: The Arabs... Pawns Caught in Power Play

Erdogan seems to be indomitable and relentless in pursuing his ambitions. He just pulled off a remarkable masterstroke: toppling the Assad regime, with an American green light and a tacit Russian approval. Once shunned and labeled the gravedigger of Ataturk’s secular legacy – not to mention contested in the ballot box – he has now staged a ...

January 9 Session at Risk as Election Delay Looms

The key issue Walid Joumblatt brought back from Paris, coupled with the information shared with Nabih Berri about Joseph Aoun’s rising presidential prospects – stemming from his leadership of a key institution and his role in ensuring stability – has revitalized the stagnant presidential process. This development has prompted candidates to ...

Hezbollah Appoints Successor for Mohammad Afif

Hezbollah on Monday appointed Youssef al-Zein to take over the late Mohammad Afif's media relations duties. Afif was killed on November 17 in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, which targeted the Baath political party offices in the crowded Ras al-Naba’a area.

Mossad Agents Reveal Details of Pager Operation to CBS

Two Mossad agents who planned the pager attack in Beirut gave an interview on Monday to the American network CBS. According to the agents, the bombs were made in Israel by the Mossad, and the pagers were directly sold by Israel to Hezbollah through front companies. Hezbollah reportedly purchased over 16,000 pagers at “a good price,” according ...

Lebanon and Syria, the Tangled Web

The political evolutions in both countries are quite ambivalent since they usher in a new political era beset by the pitfalls and the dirty arcane of domestic and regional power politics. The downfall of Hezbollah and the Assad regime is dawning a new chapter in the life of both Lebanon and Syria, notwithstanding their societal and political ...

Israel Hands Over Seven Lebanese to Red Cross via UNIFIL

The Israeli army transferred on Sunday seven Lebanese detainees to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) at the Ras al-Naqoura crossing point. These individuals were arrested in the southern villages of Wazzani and Tayr Harfa following the ceasefire implementation on November 27. The detainees – Ahmed Haidar, Jaafar Haidar, ...

Khamenei Says Iran Does not Have or Need Regional Proxy Forces

Iran's supreme leader denied Sunday that militant groups around the region functioned as Tehran's proxies, warning that if his country chose to "take action", it would not need them anyway. The remarks came after a year in which Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza suffered heavy losses in wars with Israel, and two weeks after the ...

Addressing Ceasefire Violations and Israeli Withdrawals: Efforts Underway in the Coming Days

According to sources close to Speaker Berri, Hochstein is expected to chair the next meeting of the monitoring committee after the Christmas and New Year holidays, as he promised to Berri. A Western diplomatic source following the committee's work noted that an assessment of the situation in the south after the November 27 ceasefire reveals ...

Jean-Marc Ayoubi: A Leading Figure in Reproductive Medicine

March 31, 2019, is a landmark date in French medical history. On that day, Professor Jean-Marc Ayoubi led a pioneering surgical team to carry out the country’s first uterus transplant. The recipient, a 34-year-old woman born without a uterus due to MRKH syndrome, received the organ from a living donor — her own mother. Reflecting on the ...

What Is Israel Doing in Syria?

On the morning of Sunday, December 8, as the Syrian people had just rid themselves of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Israeli military declared the Golan Heights a “closed military zone,” while reinforcing its military deployment there. A few hours later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced from this territory, annexed by Israel in ...