BEIRUT: US envoy Morgan Ortagus is expected in Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese officials on disarming militant group Hezbollah, sources familiar with her visit said, amid fears in Lebanon that Israel could launch a renewed air war on the group.
Those worries have been driven by days of intensifying Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s south and east that have killed more than a dozen people, most of them Hezbollah members, according to Lebanese security sources.
Lebanon fears the bombing shows Israel intends to ramp up its air campaign, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was intended to end a year-long war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Ortagus, the White House’s deputy Middle East envoy, is expected to attend a meeting on Wednesday reviewing the Lebanese army’s efforts to clear Hezbollah arms caches in the country’s south, in line with the 2024 truce.
Another US envoy, Tom Barrack, warned last week that Hezbollah may face a new confrontation with Israel if Lebanese authorities fail to act quickly to disarm the group in full, which Hezbollah has rejected doing so far.
On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed a man that Israel said was a weapons dealer on behalf of Hezbollah. Lebanese security sources said the man, named Ali Al-Musawi, was the most senior member of the group to be killed since the ceasefire.
Also on Sunday, United Nations peacekeepers said they had “neutralized” an Israeli drone that was flying over their patrol in south Lebanon in “an aggressive manner.”
A source briefed on the incident told Reuters peacekeepers shot the drone instead of downing it with jamming devices because it was deemed to be posing a threat, and that an Israeli tank then fired a warning shot near peacekeepeers.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said the drone was carrying out “routine intelligence gathering” and was not posing a threat. He said Israeli troops then threw a hand grenade at the area but did not fire directly at UN troops.
The Israeli military says its continued strikes in Lebanon are targeting Hezbollah’s attempts to re-establish military infrastructure in the south, which the group denies doing.
US envoy Ortagus expected in Lebanon as tensions with Israel spike
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US envoy Ortagus expected in Lebanon as tensions with Israel spike
- Ortagus, the White House’s deputy Middle East envoy, is expected to attend a meeting on Wednesday reviewing the Lebanese army’s efforts to clear Hezbollah arms caches in the country’s south, in line with the 2024 truce
- Lebanon fears the bombing shows Israel intends to ramp up its air campaign, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was intended to end a year-long war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon
Morocco to open two deepwater ports in 2026 and 2028, minister says
- The facility will be surrounded by 1,600 hectares for industrial activities and 5,200 hectares for farmland irrigated by desalinated water, Baraka said
MARRAKECH: Morocco will open a new deepwater Mediterranean port next year and another on the Atlantic in 2028, Equipment and Water minister Nizar Baraka said, as the North African country aims to replicate the success of Africa’s largest port, Tanger Med.
Nador West Med, under construction on the Mediterranean, is scheduled to be operational in the second half of 2026, Baraka told Reuters in an interview.
It will offer 800 hectares for industrial activity, with plans to expand to 5000 hectares, surpassing Tanger Med’s industrial zones, he said.
The port will also host Morocco’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal — a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) — linked by a pipeline to industrial hubs in the northwest, as Morocco pushes investments in natural gas and renewable energy to reduce dependence on coal.
Further south on the Atlantic coast, Morocco is building a $1 billion port in Dakhla, in the disputed Western Sahara region.
The facility will be surrounded by 1,600 hectares for industrial activities and 5,200 hectares for farmland irrigated by desalinated water, Baraka said.
“The port will be ready in 2028 and will be Morocco’s deepest at 23 meters,” Baraka said. Such depth would support heavy industries focused on processing raw materials from Sahel countries, he said.
Officials have marketed Dakhla as a gateway for landlocked Sahel nations to global trade.
Both Nador and Dakhla ports will include quays dedicated to exporting green hydrogen once production begins, Baraka said.
Nador and Dakhla would be Morocco’s third and fourth deepwater ports after Tanger Med and Jorf Lasfar, an energy, bulk cargo and phosphates exports port on the Atlantic.
By 2024, industrial zones near Tanger Med hosted 1,400 firms employing 130,000 people across sectors including automotive, aeronautics, textiles, agri-food and renewable energy, official figures show.
Morocco is also considering building a port in Tan-Tan on the Atlantic in partnership with green hydrogen investors, Baraka said. “We are conducting studies to decide the appropriate size of the port,” Baraka said.
