Lebanon assures Jordan of solidarity after foiled threats to national security

Jordan's flag flutters in the ancient Roman city of Jarash, north of Amman. (AFP)
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Updated 16 April 2025
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Lebanon assures Jordan of solidarity after foiled threats to national security

  • After arrest of 16 suspects ‘planning acts of chaos and sabotage,’ Beirut is ‘fully prepared’ to cooperate by sharing info about 2 who reportedly trained in Lebanon, says PM Nawaf Salam
  • Palestinian Authority condemns the ‘terrorist plots’ and says ‘attempts to target and weaken Jordan are targeting and weakening Palestine’

LONDON: Lebanon’s prime minister expressed solidarity with Jordan following the arrest on Tuesday of several suspects accused of involvement in plots to compromise Jordanian national security.

During a telephone conversation with his counterpart, Jafar Hassan, Nawaf Salam pledged Lebanon's full cooperation in efforts to tackle threats to Jordan’s security and stability.

Earlier, the Jordanian General Intelligence Department arrested 16 people suspected of “planning acts of chaos and sabotage,” the Jordan News Agency reported. Two of the suspects, Abdullah Hisham and Muath Al-Ghanem, were believed to have visited Lebanon to coordinate with a senior leader in the Muslim Brotherhood and receive training, the agency added.

Salam said Lebanese authorities were “fully prepared” to cooperate with their Jordanian counterparts by providing information about individuals suspected of involvement in the plots who received training in Lebanon, the country’s National News Agency reported.

“Lebanon refuses to be a base or a launching pad for any action that would threaten the security of any brotherly or friendly country,” the prime minister added.

In a message posted on social media platform X, Lebanese MP Fouad Makhzoum said the case affects Lebanon’s relations with Arab and other foreign countries, and urged the government to clarify the circumstances surrounding the suspects’ training.

“All solidarity with Jordan in the face of malicious attempts to undermine its stability,” he added.

During a telephone call with Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, Lebanon’s former prime minister, Najib Mikati, similarly expressed his solidarity with Amman.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the “terrorist plots” and said they represented an attempt to undermine national security. The president’s office said “attempts to target and weaken Jordan are targeting and weakening Palestine,” the Palestinian News Agency reported.


US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon

Updated 11 December 2025
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US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon

  • “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
  • Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured

WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”