The Trump administration announced Friday that it has placed sanctions on Lebanon’s ex-foreign minister, a key Christian parliamentary ally of the Lebanese Iran-backed group Hezbollah, PBS reports. The sanctions were placed on current lawmaker Gebran Bassil, who is a son-in-law of President Michel Aoun and head of the largest political bloc in Lebanon’s parliament.
Tens of thousands of Muslims, from Pakistan to Lebanon to Jerusalem, poured out of prayer services to join anti-France protests on Friday, as the French president’s vow to protect the right to caricature the Prophet Muhammad continues to roil the Muslim world.
“Lebanese citizens should know that Hezbollah is their problem, not Israel, because if Hezbollah acts against the State of Israel, Lebanon will pay the price. I hope it will not happen, and we’re here to be prepared for a moment I hope will not come,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Tuesday as he visited a military exercise in the north of the country.
In an effort to resolve their maritime border dispute, long-time enemies Israel and Lebanon met Wednesday for a historic day of talks at a United Nations building in the Lebanese city of Naquoura, Fox News reports. The meeting concluded with both sides agreeing to reconvene for US brokered negotiations. Both sides stressed that the talks should not be interpreted as a sign of ties or of normalizing diplomatic relations.
Lebanon and Israel, still technically at war, held unprecedented talks under UN and US auspices Wednesday to settle a maritime border dispute and clear the way for oil and gas exploration within a “reasonable time.”
Azerbaijan and Armenia accuse each other of deadly attacks over the contested territory of Nagorno-Karabakh despite a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia over the weekend. The clashes reportedly killed at least seven people and injured dozens.
Lebanon’s parliament speaker said on Thursday that a framework had been agreed for talks with Israel to end a long-running maritime border dispute between the two nations that are formally at war.
A Bulgarian court sentenced two Islamic militants to life imprisonment without parole over a 2012 bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver in an attack blamed on Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah.
As the US believes Iran has continued to develop nuclear weapons, and as the United Nations arms embargo on Iran expires next month, the State Department announced Wednesday that it is pressing forward with “snap back” sanctions that are provided for under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran Nuclear deal, Fox News reports. Under the terms of the JCPoA, snapback sanctions can be re-imposed if Iran is perceived to be violating the terms of the agreement. However, as the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPoA in 2018, UNSC members Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia have unequivocally stated the US has no authority to unilaterally enforce snapback sanctions once the current embargo is lifted on October 18.
A massive fire erupted at the Beirut port on Thursday, just weeks after a massive blast at the same site devastated the Lebanese capital.
Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh recently met Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a widely expected meeting. It was designed to showcase that the two terrorist groups can meet openly as if they are governments of two countries.
There are no confirmed ties between Iran-backed Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah and the August 4 explosion in Beirut so far, but the group has found itself coming under fire in the wake of the disaster, the Jewish National Syndicate (JNS) reported Tuesday.
Roger Stone, the convicted longtime friend and advisor of U.S. President Donald Trump, told an enthusiastic audience of evangelical Christians on Sunday that he had recommitted his life to Christ after falling away from his faith.
Israeli aircraft bombed several Hezbollah observation posts along Israel’s northern border early Wednesday after shots were fired from Lebanon toward Israel Defense Force soldiers, the army said.
As the United Nations prepares to renew the mandate of its peacekeeping operation in southern Lebanon, Israel is working with Security Council members to push for tough changes in the way the force deals with the Hezbollah militant group, Israeli officials said Wednesday.
Israel‘s Foreign Ministry reacted to the verdict in the case of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination by saying Hezbollah had “taken hostage” the future of the Lebanese people.
The Israeli military sees its Ground Forces — tanks, infantry, combat engineering and artillery — as in desperate need for a makeover if it is to be prepared for the types of battles it is likely to encounter in future wars.
In the immediate aftermath of the August 4 explosion which blasted through Beirut, Christian Arab broadcasting company SAT-7 Arabic Channels began ministering to the city’s devastated community, CBN News reports. SAT-7 broadcasts to around 30 million people in the Middle East and North Africa, sharing the Gospel in Arabic, Farsi and Turkish.
Israel has destroyed one-third of Syrian air defenses in the past two years, and close to a thousand surface-to-air missiles have been launched towards Israel Air Force jets during missions for its “war-between-wars” campaign targeting Iranian infrastructure in the war-torn country.
The United Nations Security Council remains at odds over the way the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon operates on the ground, with the United States backing Israel’s demands for major changes.