US team tells Aoun: ‘We want to see a new phase of stability in Lebanon’

President Joseph Aoun meets with US delegation headed by Ronny Jackson, along with US ambassador Lisa Johnson in Beirut. (X @LBpresidency)
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Updated 22 February 2025
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US team tells Aoun: ‘We want to see a new phase of stability in Lebanon’

  • Hezbollah uses social media influencers to cover Nasrallah’s funeral procession

BEIRUT: The US “wants to witness a new era of peace and stability in Lebanon and the Middle East amid the many changes happening in the region,” US Congressman Ronny Jackson said in Beirut on Saturday.

His assurance came during a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun as US diplomatic efforts toward Lebanon continued with government leaders seeking US intervention to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the five strategic hills it still occupies.

President Aoun received US Congressman Darrell Issa and his delegation on Friday evening.

Following the meeting, Darrell said that UN Resolution 1701 had taken years to reach the stage where it was at today.

“However, in less than 60 days, we witnessed a quasi-full cooperation between both the Lebanese and Israeli sides.”

He added that the Israelis withdrew from most Lebanese territories, except for five areas. The Lebanese Army has strengthened its control over the Lebanese lands.

“However, what has not yet happened, and what I discussed with President Aoun and other leaders this week, is the destruction of large weapon depots.

“Every day, there are explosions due to the destruction of weapons and the discovery of new tunnels full of firearms.

“Therefore, there will be a longer transitional period to eliminate the arms,” Issa said.

“Both sides understand that the full implementation of resolution 1701 will eventually take place, which includes Israel’s return to historically recognized borders, ensuring both Lebanese and Israeli sides can live without the fear of crossing each other’s borders with weapons.”

Amid the diplomatic drive, Lebanese Army Command requested to “retain the majority of military personnel of all ranks on duty on Sunday, Feb. 23.”

The military move is in parallel with the funeral proceedings of former Hezbollah chiefs Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, five months after their assassination in Israeli raids on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Lebanese state has officially become involved in the funeral proceedings of Nasrallah and Safieddine through the direct supervision of the security leadership.

The security chiefs attended Friday’s meeting led by President Aoun.

The army command has also moved to suspend all drone permits issued in Beirut and its surrounding areas.

It had previously announced that there would be a temporary freeze on all firearm permits, while Hezbollah “strictly prohibited its supporters from firing shots during the funeral proceedings.”

The Israeli threat remained a key concern for both the organizers and participants in the funeral proceedings, especially since Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement have not ceased.

The Israeli army opened fire at a car on the outskirts of the border village of Houla, setting it ablaze.

An Israeli military drone launched a stun grenade near a citizen on a farm on the outskirts of Kfarchouba.

The General Directorate of Internal Security implemented special traffic measures ahead of the funeral of Nasrallah and Safieddine, which began on Friday night and will continue until the end of the funeral, “as large numbers of citizens are expected to attend.”

Hezbollah’s higher committee for the funeral (of Nasrallah) finalized the arrangements for the proceedings, scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. and conclude at 4 p.m. at the Camille Chamoun sports stadium at the southern entrance to Beirut.

The procession will then reach the old airport road, where Nasrallah will be laid to rest.

Hussein Fadlallah, the head of the committee, described the funeral as an “exceptional event that the world would not forget.”

Meanwhile, information about official attendees continued to surface.

It was confirmed on Saturday that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri would attend the funeral in person.

An Iranian official said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would also attend.

Al-Masirah TV, affiliated with Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement, reported that “a high-level delegation departed from Sanaa International Airport to attend the funeral, led by Yemen’s Grand Mufti Shams Al-Din Sharaf Al-Din.”

A security source told Arab News: “Delegations from Tehran will arrive in Beirut via a third country. This is due to Lebanon’s suspension of flight permissions for Iranian planes to land at Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport, following Israeli threats to target the airport.”

The source said: “The news circulating among Hezbollah’s supporters about 400,000 travelers arriving at the airport for Nasrallah’s funeral is highly exaggerated. This number requires at least 2,000 planes to transport them from abroad.

“We estimate that the number of arrivals from abroad until Friday night does not exceed 40,000, half Lebanese citizens.”

Lebanese citizens holding French citizenship received a text message from the French Consulate in Beirut urging “all its (French) nationals in Lebanon to refrain from using the airport road and limit their movements on Sunday.”

Hezbollah invited numerous social media influencers, both Arab and foreign, to cover the funeral.

These include Americans such as Jackson Hinkle, as well as Europeans, Latin Americans, Iraqis, Yemenis, Palestinians, Algerians and Bahrainis.

Media coverage was organized for them in the southern suburbs of Beirut and several southern border towns, providing them with materials, images and statements that were made available to various journalists, focusing on resistance and the devastation caused by the Israeli enemy.

Social media platforms witnessed the emergence of pages dedicated to the occasion, encouraging people to participate in the funeral, which is regarded as a “day of farewell.”

This call to action comes amid challenging weather conditions, particularly as a polar storm has affected Lebanon since Saturday.

The storm has resulted in road closures from the Bekaa and southern regions toward the capital due to snow and ice accumulation, with temperatures dropping to unprecedented levels.

Wounded members of Hezbollah, who sustained injuries to their eyes and limbs from pager explosions, participated in these calls to the public.

 


Israel’s Netanyahu aide faces indictment over Gaza leak

Updated 9 sec ago
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Israel’s Netanyahu aide faces indictment over Gaza leak

  • Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024
  • The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.

JERUSALEM: An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces indictment on security charges pending a hearing, Israel’s attorney general said on Sunday, for allegedly leaking top secret military information during Israel’s war in Gaza. Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024. The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement that Urich and another aide had extracted secret information from the Israeli military and leaked it to German newspaper Bild. Their intent, she said, was to shape public opinion of Netanyahu and influence the discourse about the slaying of six Israeli hostages by their Palestinian captors in Gaza in late August 2024. The hostages’ deaths had sparked mass protests in Israel and outraged hostage families, who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing ceasefire talks that had faltered in the preceding weeks for political reasons.
Netanyahu vehemently denies this. He has repeatedly said that Hamas was to blame for the talks collapsing, while the militant group has said it was Israel’s fault no deal had been reached. Four of the six slain hostages had been on the list of more than 30 captives that Hamas was set to free were a ceasefire to be reached, according to a defense official at the time. The Bild article in question was published days after the hostages were found executed in a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza.
It outlined Hamas’ negotiation strategy in the indirect ceasefire talks and largely corresponded with Netanyahu’s allegations against the militant group over the deadlock.
Bild said after the investigation was announced that it does not comment on its sources and that its article relied on authentic documents.
A two-month ceasefire was reached in January this year and included the release of 38 hostages before Israel resumed attacks in Gaza. The sides are presently engaged in indirect negotiations in Doha, aimed at reaching another truce.


How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk

Updated 9 min 44 sec ago
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How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk

  • Decades of infrastructure neglect have left Arab and Bedouin areas without basic protections enjoyed by Jewish communities
  • Residents are calling for equal emergency planning, arguing that safety during conflict should be a right, not a privilege

LONDON: As Iranian rockets shook East Jerusalem in mid-June, Rawan Shalaldeh sat in the dark while her seven-year-old son slept. She had put him to bed early and hid her phone to prevent the constant alerts from waking him, hoping sleep would shield her child from the terror above.

“The bombing was very intense; the house would shake,” Shalaldeh, an architect and urban planner with the Israeli human rights and planning organization Bimkom, told Arab News.

While residents in nearby Jewish districts rushed into reinforced shelters, Shalaldeh and her family in the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Al-Zaytoun had nowhere to go.

Israelis gather in a underground shelter in Tel Aviv on June 24, 2025, after sirens sounded in several areas across the country after missiles were fired from Iran. (AFP/File)

“East Jerusalem has only about 60 shelters, most of them inside schools,” she said. “They’re designed for students, not for neighborhood residents. They’re not available in every area, and they’re not enough for the population.”

Her home is a 15-minute walk from the nearest shelter. “By the time we’d get there, the bombing would already be over,” she said.

Instead, her family stayed inside, bracing for the next strike. “We could hear the sound but couldn’t tell if it was from the bombs or the interception systems,” she recalled. “We couldn’t sleep. It was terrifying. I fear it will happen again.”

That fear is compounded by infrastructure gaps that make East Jerusalem’s residents more vulnerable. “Old homes in East Jerusalem don’t have shelters at all,” she said. “New homes with shelters are rare because it’s extremely hard to get a building permit here.”

Arab and Bedouin communities were left without basic protections enjoyed bytheir Jewish neighbors. (AFP)

Israeli law requires new apartments to be built with protected rooms. However, homes built without permits are unlikely to follow the guidelines, leaving most without safe space.

The contrast with West Jerusalem is stark. “There’s a big difference between East and West Jerusalem,” Shalaldeh said. “In the west, there are many shelters, and things are much easier for them.”

Indeed, a June 17 report by Bimkom underscored these disparities. While West Jerusalem, home to a mostly Jewish population, has about 200 public shelters, East Jerusalem, which is home to nearly 400,000 Palestinians, has just one.

Even where shelters do exist they are often inaccessible. The municipality’s website fails to clearly mark their locations, and many residents are unaware they exist. Some shelters even remain locked during emergencies — especially at night.

The report concluded that the current infrastructure is grossly inadequate, leaving most East Jerusalem residents without access to basic protection during attacks.

Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem hold temporary residency IDs that lack any listed nationality and must be renewed every five years. Unlike Arab citizens of Israel — often referred to as “48 Arabs” — or residents of southern Israel, they do not have Israeli citizenship.

For many Palestinian and Arab citizens of Israel, the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June laid bare a deeper inequity — one that extends beyond conflict and into the fabric of everyday life.

“I haven’t spoken with any of my friends in the north yet, but I saw videos on Instagram,” Shalaldeh said. “Arab families tried to enter shelters and were prevented — because they’re Arab.”

The war, she said, exposed an uncomfortable truth for many Arab citizens of Israel. “After the war, many realized they’re not treated like Israelis — even though they have citizenship, work in Israel and speak Hebrew.”

“There’s an Israeli policy that tries to blur their identity. But the war opened a lot of people’s eyes. It became clear they’re not equal, and the issue of shelters was shocking for many.”

One town where this inequity became alarmingly visible was Tira, a predominantly Arab community in central Israel with roughly 27,000 residents. Though well within the range of missile attacks, Tira lacks adequate public shelters.

“Most of the few shelters that exist are outdated, insufficient, or located far from residential areas,” Fakhri Masri, a political and social activist from Tira, told Arab News. “In emergencies, schools are often opened as temporary shelters, but they only serve nearby neighborhoods and can’t accommodate everyone.

“Many homes do not have protected rooms, and this leaves families, especially those with children or elderly members, extremely vulnerable.”

When sirens sounded during the attacks, panic set in. “It was the middle of the night,” Masri said. “Many of us had to wake our children, some still half asleep, and scramble for any kind of cover.”

With official shelters scarce, families resorted to improvised solutions. “People ran into stairwells, lay on the ground away from windows, or tried to reach school shelters — if they were even open or nearby,” he said.

Others simply fled to their cars or huddled outdoors, hoping distance from buildings would offer some safety.

“It was chaotic, frightening, and it felt like we were left completely on our own,” Masri said. “The fear wasn’t just of rockets — it was also the fear of having no place to run to.”

Underlying this crisis, he argued, is a deeper pattern of state neglect. “Arab towns like Tira were never provided with proper infrastructure or emergency planning like Jewish towns often are,” he said. “That in itself feels like a form of discrimination.

“It makes you feel invisible — like our safety doesn’t matter. It’s a constant reminder that we’re not being protected equally under the same state policies.

“We are not asking for anything more than what every citizen deserves — equal rights, equal protection, and the right to live in safety and dignity. It is a basic human right to feel secure at our own home, to know that our children have somewhere safe to go during an emergency.”

Masri, who has long campaigned for equal emergency protections, called on the Israeli government to end discrimination in shelter planning.

“Treat Arab towns with the same seriousness and care as any other town,” he said. “We are people who want to live in peace. We want our children to grow up in a country where safety is not a privilege but a right — for everyone, Jewish and Arab alike.

“Until that happens, we will keep raising our voices and demanding fairness, because no one should be left behind.”

The picture is similar for the roughly 100,000 Bedouin who live across 35 unrecognized villages in the Negev and Galilee regions, often in makeshift homes that provide little protection. Many of these villages are near sensitive sites targeted by Iran.

One such village is Wadi Al-Na’am, the largest unrecognized village in Israel, home to about 15,000 Bedouin residents in the southern Negev desert.

“When we say unrecognized, it means we have nothing,” said Najib Abu Bnaeh, head of the village’s emergency team and a member of its local council. “No roads, no electricity, no running water — and certainly no shelters.

“During wars, people flee the villages. They hide in caves, under bridges — any place they can find.”

IN NUMBERS

250 Shelters built across Negev since Oct. 7, 2023 — half of them by the state.

60 School-based shelters in East Jerusalem, concentrated in select locations.

1 Public shelter in East Jerusalem.

200 Public shelters in West Jerusalem.

(Source: Bimkom)

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the army began installing a small number of shelters in unrecognized villages. But Abu Bnaeh said that these efforts have fallen short.

“In our village, they built two structures,” he said. “But they have no ceilings, so they don’t protect from anything.”

He estimates that more than 45,000 protective buildings are needed across all unrecognized villages.

As the head of Wadi Al-Na’am’s emergency response team, Abu Bnaeh leads a group of 20 volunteers. Together, they assist residents during missile alerts, evacuating families to shelters in nearby townships such as Segev Shalom and Rahat, and delivering food and medicine.

“We train people how to take cover and survive,” he said. “We also help train teams in other villages how to respond to injuries, missiles and emergencies.

“The best way to protect people is simple. Recognize the villages. Allow us to build shelters.”

Even recognized villages face issues. In Um Bateen, officially recognized in 2004, basic infrastructure is still missing.

“Although our village is recognized, we still don’t have electricity,” Samera Abo Kaf, a resident of the 8,000-strong community, told Arab News.

“There are 48 Bedouin villages in northern Israel. And even those recognized look nothing like Jewish towns nearby.”

Building legally is nearly impossible. “The state refuses to recognize the land we’ve lived on for generations,” she said. “So, we build anyway — out of necessity. But that means living in fear; of winter collapsing our roofs, or bulldozers tearing our homes down.”

Abo Kaf said that the contrast is obvious during her commute. “I pass Beer Sheva and Omer — trees, paved roads, tall buildings. It’s painful. Just 15 minutes away, life is so different.

“And I come from a village that is, in many ways, better off than others,” she added.

With each new conflict, the fear returns. “Israel is a country with many enemies — it’s no secret,” Abo Kaf said. “Every few years, we go through another war. And we Bedouins have no shelters. None.

“So not only are our homes at risk of demolition, but we also live with the threat of rockets. It’s absurd. It’s infuriating. If something doesn’t change, there’s no future.”

Michal Braier, Bimkom’s head of research, said that no government body had responded to its report, though many civil society organizations have supported its findings based on specific cases.

“There are stark protection gaps between high- and low-income communities,” she told Arab News. “And most Arab and Palestinian communities rank low on socio-economic indicators.

“This is a very neo-liberal planning and development policy that, by definition, leaves the weak behind.”
 

 


Turkiye’s Kurdish region finds it difficult to accept peace is at hand

Updated 56 min 30 sec ago
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Turkiye’s Kurdish region finds it difficult to accept peace is at hand

  • Conflict has caused 50,000 deaths among civilians and 2,000 among soldiers

HAKKARI, Turkiye: Southeast Turkiye, where the army has battled Kurdish militants for decades, is not yet convinced that lasting peace is at hand.

In a slickly managed ceremony recently held across the border in Iraq, members of the Kurdish rebel group PKK destroyed their weapons as part of a peace process underway with the Turkish state.

But on the streets and in the tea houses of Hakkari, a Kurdish-majority town some 50 kilometers from the Iraqi border, few people express much hope that the deadly conflict is over.

One tea drinker who was willing to speak asked not to be filmed. “We don’t talk about it,” he said.

The conflict has caused 50,000 deaths among civilians and 2,000 among soldiers, according to Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mehmet Duman, a local, said: “The state must take a step” to match the symbolic operation to destroy PKK weapons in Iraq.

“Turkiye has won,” Erdogan said Saturday, a day after the PKK’s symbolic destruction of weapons signaling the start of the disarmament process. “Eighty-six million citizens have won,” he added.

While he has opened a peace process with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, he has also continued his crackdown on opposition parties.

The government has arrested hundreds of members of the CHP, a social-democratic, secular party. The main opposition force to Erdogan, it is rising in the polls.

Those arrested include the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the party’s likely candidate in the next presidential elections, and the mayors of other major cities who took power when CHP made major gains in March 2024 local elections.

Accused of “corruption,” they deny the charges against them. The crackdown has also hit opposition media outlets, such as the Sozcu channel. 

On Saturday morning, before the plenary session of his AKP party, Erdogan sought to be reassuring.

“We know what we are doing. No one should worry, be afraid, or question anything. Everything we are doing is for Turkiye, for our future and our independence,” he insisted.

The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress, and formally disband and disarm.

Ocalan renewed his call in a video message broadcast on Wednesday, saying, “I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons.”

The PKK issued a statement from the fighters who were laying down their weapons, saying that they had disarmed “as a gesture of goodwill and a commitment to the practical success” of the peace process.

“We will henceforth continue our struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism through democratic politics and legal means,” the statement said.

Turkish parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmus said that the initial disarmament step had proceeded “as planned,” but cautioned that the process was far from complete.

“There’s still a long way to go in collecting many more weapons,” Kurtulmus said. “What matters is ending the armed era in a way that ensures weapons are never taken up again.”

The official noted that the Turkish parliament was close to setting up a commission to oversee the peace process.

Devlet Bahceli, Erdogan’s nationalist ally who initiated the peace process, welcomed the ceremony, saying it marks “historic developments that signal the end of a dark era.”


UAE, Turkish presidents reaffirm support for regional stability

Updated 13 July 2025
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UAE, Turkish presidents reaffirm support for regional stability

  • Al-Nahyan, Erdogan discuss regional, international issues in phone call
  • Talks reflect strong ties between Ankara, Abu Dhabi

LONDON: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan discussed recent developments in the Middle East with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Sunday.

During a telephone call the leaders emphasized their countries’ commitment to supporting all efforts that promote peace and stability in the region, the Emirates News Agency reported.

They emphasized the need for improved coordination to tackle regional crises through dialogue and diplomacy, which they said was essential for achieving lasting peace and stability.

The call reflects the close ties and economic partnership between Ankara and Abu Dhabi and strong cooperation in various sectors.


Syrian Kurdish authorities reiterate call for autonomy after Damascus meeting

Updated 13 July 2025
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Syrian Kurdish authorities reiterate call for autonomy after Damascus meeting

  • The Kurdish administration said Syrians ‘have suffered for decades from a centralized’ regime and called for a decentralized and democratic system
  • The Kurds control vast swathes of territory in Syria’s north, including oil and gas fields

DAMASCUS: Syria’s Kurdish authorities called again on Sunday for a system of government that preserves a measure of their de facto autonomy, days after Damascus rejected “any form” of decentralization.
Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — the Kurdish administration’s de facto army — and interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa first struck an accord in March to integrate Kurdish institutions into the state, but its implementation has been held up by differences between the two parties.
The pair met again on Wednesday in the presence of a US envoy to discuss the stalled efforts, but Damascus afterwards reiterated its opposition to “any form of division or federalization,” and called for SDF fighters to be absorbed into the army.
In a statement Sunday, the Kurdish administration called “for a pluralistic democratic system, social justice, gender equality, and a constitution that guarantees the rights of all components” of society.
“Syrians have suffered for decades from a centralized system that monopolized power and wealth, suppressed local will, and dragged the country into successive crises,” it said.
“Today, we aspire to be effective partners in building a new Syria, a decentralized Syria that embraces all its people and guarantees their rights equally.”
The Kurds control vast swathes of territory in Syria’s north, including oil and gas fields.
Kurdish forces, with the support of a Washington-led coalition, played a vital role in the fight against the Daesh group in Syria, which ultimately led to the jihadist group’s territorial defeat.
In an interview with the channel Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday, US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said that while he recognized the SDF’s role in the fight against the IS group, it had to accept the “reality” that “the only future path for them is Damascus.”