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 (Read more at Arabnews).
At a hearing of the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control earlier in the week, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) described the ties between the Lebanese terrorist group and the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. “Hezbollah collaborates extensively with government officials in Venezuela on intelligence infrastructure, securing arms, identification documents, bank accounts and pipelines for moving operatives and equipment,” Cornyn said, citing a 2025 RAND study (Read more at JNS).
Barrack warned that if Beirut "fails to act now", Hezbollah's military wing will inevitably face "a major confrontation with Israel". Barrack also revealed an offer the United States made to Lebanon earlier this year, part of a plan called "One More Try", which included a framework for phased disarmament, verified compliance, and economic incentives under American and French supervision (Read more at New Arab).
The funding includes $190 million for the Lebanese Armed Forces and $40 million for the Internal Security Forces. The funding was released at a time when the Republican president’s administration has been slashing many foreign assistance programs, saying that its priority in spending taxpayer dollars is America First (Read more at Arabnews).
Hundreds of people protested in southern Lebanon on Wednesday against a planned visit by U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack, a day after the envoy stirred anger in the country by publicly scolding Lebanese reporters. Lebanon's state news agency said Barrack's visit to Tyre and the border town of Khiyam had been cancelled due to the demonstrations. Protesters carried banners reading "Death to America" and waved the flags of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal movement (Read more at Reuters).
Barrack emphasized Washington’s concern that Lebanon could slide back into internal conflict if no progress is made, saying that “no one wants to see a new civil war erupt in Lebanon.” He confirmed that Beirut is expected to unveil by August 31 a formal proposal addressing Hezbollah’s disarmament (Read more at I24News).
According to Israeli media, Barrack conveyed a request from Washington that Israel “restrain its strikes in Lebanon” and consider “negotiations with Syria.” His visit reflects growing international unease over Israel’s ongoing military operations and their potential to destabilise an already fragile region. Alongside Lebanon, Barrack urged Israel to pursue negotiations with Syria (Read more at 5pillarsuk).
U.S. Special Envoy Thomas Barrack said Monday that it is now Israel's turn to comply with the cease-fire agreement reached last November to end the war with Hezbollah, now that Lebanon has taken "the first step" toward disarming the Iran-backed militant group. Barrack, who met with Lebanon's top officials in Beirut, hailed the cabinet for endorsing earlier this month the objectives of a U.S.-proposed plan to disarm Hezbollah and for tasking the Army with preparing a plan to enforce a state monopoly on weapons by the end of the year (Read more at UPI).
The future of U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon has split the United States and its European allies, raising implications for security in the Middle East and becoming the latest snag to vex relations between the U.S. and key partners like France, Britain and Italy. At issue is the peacekeeping operation known as UNIFIL, whose mandate expires at the end of August and will need to be renewed by the U.N. Security Council to continue (Read more at ABC News).
The plan, submitted by US President Donald Trump’s regional envoy Tom Barrack, outlines the most detailed steps yet to neutralise the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which has faced increasing domestic and international pressure to disarm since last year’s war with Israel. Following a Cabinet meeting on Thursday (August 7), Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos confirmed the government had approved the objectives of the US plan but had not discussed its full contents (Read more at CNA).
Without a public commitment from Lebanese ministers, the US will no longer dispatch US envoy Thomas Barrack to Beirut for negotiations with Lebanese officials, or pressure Israel either to stop airstrikes or pull its troops from south Lebanon (Read more at Arab Weekly).
US Special Envoy Tom Barrack has proposed a plan to Lebanon’s top officials that would see the full disarmament of Hezbollah within four months. In return, Israel would halt its strikes and withdraw its forces from positions it still occupies in southern Lebanon. In his address, Qassem reiterated Hezbollah’s readiness to discuss all matters, including its weapons, but only within the context of a Lebanese national dialogue, and not under American pressure or threats (Read more at Middle East Eye).
Barrack said full disarmament should be completed by November or by the end of the year at the latest. The proposal also refers to establishing a mechanism overseen by the United Nations to secure the release of Hezbollah-linked prisoners by Israel (Read more at Arabnews).
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun spoke by phone to discuss making elements of Musk’s sprawling business empire available in Lebanon, a statement from Aoun’s office said on Thursday. The statement said Musk called Aoun and “expressed his interest in Lebanon and its telecommunications and Internet sectors.” Aoun invited Musk to visit Lebanon and said he was open to having Musk’s companies present in the country, which ranks among the countries with the lowest Internet speeds (Read more at Arabnews).
The United States targeted two senior Hezbollah officials and two financial facilitators with new sanctions on Thursday for their role in coordinating financial transfers to the Iran-backed group, the Treasury Department said (Read more at Reuters).
Ortagus spoke to Lebanese broadcaster LBCI at the end of a three-day visit to Beirut, where she met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and other officials and political representatives (Read more at AOL).
Israel and Beirut agreed the terms of ceasefire in November, but rockets have been fired from Lebanon twice this week, prompting Israeli air raids in return. A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, Tammy Bruce, indicated that Washington supports the Israeli position (Read more at Nahar Net).
“Today’s action underscores Treasury’s determination to expose and disrupt the schemes that fund Hezbollah’s terrorist violence against the Lebanese people and their neighbors,” Bradley T. Smith, Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said. “These evasion networks strengthen Iran and its proxy Hezbollah and undermine the courageous efforts of the Lebanese people to build a Lebanon for all its citizens.” (Read more at Kataeb)
A doctor and professor was deported after she returned from a trip to Lebanon despite having a valid U.S. visa, according to a court petition filed on her behalf. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, an assistant professor at Brown Medicine, held an H-1B visa when she traveled to her home country to visit her family. Court documents alleged that upon returning to the United States at the end of last week, she was held at Boston Logan International Airport for 36 hours before she was sent back to Lebanon this weekend in violation of a federal judge’s order to halt her deportation (Read more at NBC News).
Candidates include Camille Abousleiman, Firas Abi-Nassif, Philippe Jabre. US aims to curb Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon’s banking. US officials met with some potential candidates in Washington and at the US embassy in Lebanon (Read more at Arabnews).
“Michel is an outstanding businessman, a financial expert, and a leader with a remarkable career in Banking, Entrepreneurship, and International Trade,” Trump said on Truth Social. He succeeds Ambassador Lisa A. Johnson in this position. Born in Bsees, Aley district, Issa lived in Beirut in his early childhood then moved to France and studied economics at the University of Paris. He completed the prestigious postgraduate course at banking institutes while embarking on a twenty-year career at UBAF- Chase Manhattan Bank- Banque Indosuez and Credit Agricole (Read more at Yalibnan).
The waiver suggests the Trump administration intends to try to strengthen Lebanon's military and the new government that took office in January. The aid is part of a broader Trump administration strategy to try to continue weakening Hezbollah, decreasing its influence in Lebanon and making sure the ceasefire with Israel holds (Read more at Axios).
"We have been forced to suspend or cut back or drastically reduce many of our programmes and that includes nutrition programmes," UNICEF's deputy representative in Lebanon, Ettie Higgins said. "The assessment revealed a grim picture of children’s nutrition situation, particularly in the Baalbeck and Bekaa governorates, which remained densely populated when they were repeatedly targeted by air strikes", said Higgins (Read more at Reuters).
Hezbollah slammed the remarks by US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus as "blatant interference", as Lebanon's prime minister-designate struggles to form a government amid political pressure from the Iran-backed group. "We have set clear red lines in the United States that they (Hezbollah) won't be able to terrorise the Lebanese people, and that includes by being a part of the government," Ortagus said after meeting President Joseph Aoun (Read more at France 24).
Members of the the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence quizzed the former four-term Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii about her week-long, 2017 trip to Syria and Lebanon, as she seeks to become U.S. director of national intelligence. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) asked Gabbard why she met with Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, who threatened the United States and Europe with suicide bombers in 2011 if they attacked Syria or Lebanon. Gabbard said she was unaware of the grand mufti’s threat until Heinrich asked her about it on Thursday. “I made it a point to meet with different religious leaders, both Muslim leaders as well as various Christian and Catholic leaders who were there in the region,” Gabbard testified. “I did that both in Syria and in Lebanon to hear from them about what their concerns or thoughts were with regard to the war that was being raged at the time.” (Read more at JNS)
The unusually direct US intervention in Lebanon's sectarian politics appears aimed at capitalizing on shifts in the power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle East. U.S. officials have passed on messages to Salam and to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun - who enjoyed U.S. support as army commander and was elected president in early January - that Hezbollah should not be included in the next cabinet (Read more at Daily Observer).
Currently, UNRWA does not receive any aid from the United States, so there is no direct impact from the recent decisions concerning the United Nations system for UNRWA. U.S. aid to UNRWA was suspended last year and until March 2025, following an agreement between U.S. lawmakers. This decision follows Israel's accusation that 12 of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in the Gaza Strip participated in the deadly attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 (Read more at LOrient Today).
Brian Hughes, the spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House, said on Friday that a “short, temporary ceasefire extension” was “urgently needed.” “The government of Lebanon, the government of Israel and the government of the United States will also begin negotiations for the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after Oct. 7, 2023,” the White House stated (Read more at JNS).
In a statement, National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said President Donald Trump is committed to ensuring Israeli citizens can safely return to their homes in northern Israel, and also supported Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and the new Lebanese government. "All parties share the goal of ensuring Hezbollah does not have the ability to threaten the Lebanese people or their neighbors," said Hughes (Read more at Anadolu Ajansı).
The State Department said in a statement that it had convened a “virtual donors meeting” on Thursday “with partners and allies to discuss critical security assistance needed for Lebanon to fully implement the cessation of hostilities.” It said the new assistance to Beirut would support both the country’s armed forces and internal security forces “as they work to assert Lebanese sovereignty across the country.” Lebanon has struggled for years to finance its public institutions including the army following a 2019 economic crisis (Read more at Defense Post).
The U.S. Department of Justice vigorously opposed at a French court hearing in December the release of a Lebanese militant jailed for attacks on American and Israeli diplomats in France more than 40 years ago, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Brigade (LARB), Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was sentenced to life in 1987 for his role in the 1982 murders in Paris of U.S. military attache Charles Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov, and the attempted murder of U.S. Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984 (Read more at USNews).
In separate notices sent to Congress, the State Department said it was moving $95 million in military assistance intended for Egypt and $7.5 million for Israel toward supporting the Lebanese army and its government (Read more at AP).
In Riyadh meeting, US and Saudi Arabia agreed they had 'once in thirty-year opportunity' to sideline Hezbollah with election of new president. The US has told Lebanese officials that Saudi Arabia is prepared to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars to reconstruct their war-torn country if Lebanese army commander Joseph Aoun is elected president (Read more at Middle East Eye).
Hochstein’s statement on Monday came as Israel was withdrawing its forces from Naqoura in the western sector of the border, with the Lebanese army deploying in the area. However, the US official did not specify a timetable for the Israeli withdrawal (Read more at Aljazeera).
The conversations intensified in recent months, the sources said, driven by the possible expiry on Dec. 20 of sweeping U.S. sanctions on Syria and by Israel's campaign against Tehran's regional network, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and Iranian assets in Syria (Read more at USNews).
"When we get reports of potential violations, we have a mechanism that we put in place with the government of France to look at those potential violations, determine if they are in fact, violations, and then engage with the parties to ensure that they aren't repeated," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said (Read more at Barron's).
With Hochstein shuttling between the countries, meeting Israeli negotiators under Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and reporting back daily to U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, France was also in the picture. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot visited the region in early November at Israel's request despite tensions between the countries. He held long talks with Dermer on the mechanics of a ceasefire with a phased approach to redeployments, with the two delegations poring over maps, two sources aware of the matter said. As things worsened for Lebanon, there was frustration at the pace of talks. "(Hochstein) told us he needed 10 days to get to a ceasefire but the Israelis dragged it out to a month to finish up military operations," a Lebanese official said (Read more at Reuters).
In an interview with Channel 12 News, Hochstein said that “the real issue was the linkage that Hezbollah had made between Lebanon and Gaza, and being able to break that linkage, delinking the two conflicts, was the key to solving this one.” “The Lebanese deal here opens an opportunity on the hostage deal,” he said. “They [Hamas] wake up this morning at 4 a.m. with Hezbollah, that used to be actively supportive of Hamas in the northern front, cutting a deal and ending that conflict.” (Read more at New York Post).
However, while ending the fighting was necessary to “start the peace” in the region, he added, “I am hopeful but not naïve. The difficulty of achieving normalization after Oct. 7 is extraordinary.” (Read more at JNS)
It includes Halt to hostilities, Israeli troops withdrawing, Hezbollah pulling north, Lebanese army deploys, a monitoring mechanism, and unilateral Israeli strikes(Read more at Reuters).
But there will not be U.S. combat troops in the area, a senior U.S. official told reporters on Tuesday. The official called the ceasefire deal showed Hamas militants that the conflict in Lebanon was delinked (Read more at USNews).
Biden, who made remarks at the White House shortly after Israel's security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote, said he had spoken to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Fighting would end on Wednesday at 4 a.m. local time (0200 GMT), he said (Read more at USNews).
Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers and presidential envoy Amos Hochstein will serve as co-chairs of the truce enforcement and monitoring mechanism until a new civilian official is appointed. Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun received Jeffers at his office in Yarzeh (Read more at JNS).
Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s pointman on Israel and Lebanon, arrived as Hezbollah’s allies in the Lebanese government said the militant group had responded positively to the proposal, which would entail both its fighters and Israeli ground forces withdrawing from a U.N. buffer zone in southern Lebanon. However, there was no such optimism in the Gaza Strip, where the looting of nearly 100 aid trucks by armed men worsened an already severe food crisis (Reade more at Associated Press).
Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Tuesday, seeking to clinch a ceasefire agreement after the Lebanese government and Hezbollah agreed to a U.S. ceasefire proposal, although with some comments. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said the group had given its own feedback on the truce draft and that it was shared with Hochstein. He said whether a ceasefire was reached now depended on Israel and whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was serious about one. Hezbollah stood ready to keep on fighting for a long time, he added (Read more at Yahoo News).
"We have made a lot of progress. Lebanon has a very positive view on this proposal," a Lebanese official said. Despite this progress, Israeli officials have yet to formally respond to the US truce plan. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed Monday that Washington has shared proposals with both the Lebanese and Israeli leadership (Read more at ISNA).
Lisa Johnson, the US ambassador, met on Thursday with Berri, who maintains friendly relations with politicians across Lebanon's political spectrum including Hezbollah, to submit the written proposal. There were no details reported about what the proposal entails Read more at Middle East Eye).
Hezbollah welcomes any effort to stop the war in Lebanon but does not pin its hopes for a ceasefire on a particular U.S. administration, Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi said on Thursday when asked about Donald Trump's election victory (Read more at MSN).
Mikati said his government’s stance was clear on seeking a ceasefire from both sides and implementation of UN security council resolution 1701, which ended the last round of conflict between the two foes in 2006. The US embassy in Beirut did not immediately respond to requests for comment (Read more at Guardian).
Israel is unwilling to go back to the status quo ante after its military offensive in Lebanon. Israel is unwilling to go back to the status quo ante after its military offensive in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told US envoys Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, who were in Israel on a new push to secure ceasefires in both Lebanon and Gaza, that Israel’s acceptance of a ceasefire in Lebanon hinged on its ability to “counter threats” and return displaced people to the north (Read more at Arab Weekly).
The U.S. had drafted a 60-day truce proposal that would see Hezbollah pull back from Lebanon's southern border, both sides cease attacks and 10,000 Lebanese army troops deploy in the south. "It was totally unrealistic because of the onus it places on the Lebanese army to solve these problems," a Western diplomat told Reuters (Read more at USNews).
The comments follow news that US envoy Amos Hochstein left the region without making a stop in Beirut. He had been in Israel for talks. "We are working very hard and making progress on reaching understandings of what would be required for the effective implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701. This would be the basis of a diplomatic resolution to the crisis," Blinken said, referring to the 2006 mandate (Read more at Middle East Eye).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. envoys on Thursday that Israel's ability to counter threats to its security from Lebanon and return displaced people to the north were key elements of any ceasefire deal with Lebanon. He was speaking shortly after a Hezbollah attack on northern Israel's town of Metula killed five people. "The main issue is not the paperwork of this or that agreement, but Israel's ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon," Netanyahu's office cited him as telling the two U.S. envoys (Read more at CBC).
U.S. President Joe Biden dispatched Special Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, deputy assistant to the president and senior adviser for energy and investment. Senior Israeli and American officials said that an agreement could be reached within weeks (Read more at JNS).
The United States on Wednesday urged Israel to protect civilian lives and cultural sites in Lebanon after Israel began heavy airstrikes on the historic city of Baalbek and surrounding villages in the eastern Bekaa region. “We have made clear that the campaign they are conducting in Lebanon should not, cannot, must not look like the campaign that they have conducted in Gaza. We do not want to see that type of widespread damage,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said (Read more at Swissinfo).
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides leads the European Union nation closest to Gaza. The small Mediterranean island nation has played a critical role in efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza since the war between Hamas and Israel began more than a year ago. He said that Biden and White House officials briefed him on the latest stepped-up efforts by the U.S. administration and other mediators but declined to offer further details about the discussion (Read more at Associated Press).
Blinken has also held talks this week to advance efforts to find a diplomatic solution in Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground campaign and intensified air assault against Hezbollah over the past month that has displaced 1.2 million people (Read more at Swissinfo).
The United States and Qatar announced a resumption of negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said mediators were exploring new options after months of failing to seal a US-led plan (Read more at France 24).
Austin's messages related to an incident that occurred last Sunday when three Lebanese soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on an army vehicle in southern Lebanon (Read more at RBC-Ukraine).
“We will continue to collaborate with our Israeli counterparts to gain better fidelity on exactly what they are looking at,” Austin told reporters in Rome (Read more at Arabnews).
After holding talks in Beirut on Monday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Hochstein suggested that ceasefire efforts are focused on the implementation of a United Nations Security Council resolution that ended the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. Hochstein added that additional steps must be taken to make sure that 1701 is enforced “fairly, accurately, transparently, so that everybody knows the path that we’re on” (Read more at Aljazeera).
Signatories include former Congress members Donna Shalala and Toby Moffett, former President Barack Obama's former transportation secretary Ray LaHood, academics, CEOs and investors (Read more at MSN).
The action targeted three individuals linked to Hezbollah's finance arm and four Lebanon-based companies registered to conceal ties to the group. The US also sanctioned three individuals involved in the production and sale of the amphetamine known as captagon, who it said have funded the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its allies, including Hezbollah (Read more at News Arab).
“There are specific strikes that it would be appropriate for Israel to carry out. But when it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut for the past few weeks, it’s something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we were opposed to,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said (Read more at Swissinfo).
Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati also assured that efforts are underway to de-escalate tensions and to "remove any pretext for Israel to attack Beirut airport, ports, and land border crossings." (Read more at BreakingNews)
After weeks of intensive diplomacy aimed at securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants, the United States has settled on an altogether different approach: let the unfolding conflict in Lebanon play out. For the U.S. the Israeli campaign could bring at least two benefits. First, weakening Hezbollah could curb Tehran's influence in the region and lower the threat to Israel and to U.S. forces. Washington also believes that military pressure could force Hezbollah to put down arms and pave the way for the election of a new government in Lebanon that would oust the powerful militia movement, which has been a significant player in Lebanon for decades. Jonathan Lord, a former Pentagon official now with the Center for a New American Security in Washington, said that would be hard to achieve (Read more at Reuters).
Strengthening Lebanon's army will be crucial to implementing a key United Nations Security Council resolution that aims to keep peace on the country's border with Israel, the United States and France have warned (Read more at Yahoo News).
"It's the fastest, safest way to get Americans out of harm's way," Consul General Julie Eadeh said in an interview in Istanbul. Ten of 12 U.S. chartered flights from Beirut have arrived in Istanbul carrying 1,025 citizens and immediate family members since Oct. 2, according to another U.S. official (Read more at AOL).
Qassem said the group supported the efforts of Lebanon's Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, to secure a ceasefire, without providing further details on any conditions demanded by Hezbollah. "For a year, you had the world calling for this ceasefire, you had Hezbollah refusing to agree to one, and now that Hezbollah is on the back foot and is getting battered, suddenly they've changed their tune and want a ceasefire," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said (Read more at MSN).
“I’m making (it) very clear that there should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza.” Mr Netanyahu said on Oct 8 in a video message directed at the people of Lebanon that Hezbollah was weaker than it had been in many years and urged Lebanese to “take back your country” (Read more at Strait Times).
The U.S. embassy in Beirut remains open and can help Americans who need emergency passports or other documentation and the U.S. will continue to make airplanes available as long as the Beirut airport remains open White House press spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said (Read more at USNews).
When State Department spokesman Matthew Miller asked if the US still sees Israel’s ground offensive in Lebanon as a "limited operation," Miller responded: "We have seen the ground operations so far continue to be limited." Asked if the US believes Israel has complied with international law so far, he said: "That's never the question I can answer with a sweeping conclusion here." He also emphasized the importance of keeping Beirut airport and the roads to the airport be open so that American citizens and citizens of other countries who want to leave that can get out (Read more at Anadolu Ajansı).
"Military pressure can at times enable diplomacy. Of course, military pressure can also lead to miscalculation. It can lead to unintended consequences," a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement (Read more at USNews).
The United States will provide nearly $157 million in new humanitarian assistance to support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region, the State Department said in a statement on Friday. "This funding will address new and existing needs of internally displaced persons and refugee populations inside Lebanon and the communities that host them. The assistance will also support those fleeing to neighboring Syria," the State Department said (Read more at AOL).
Nasrallah blocked any effort to elect a person who was not its ally Suleiman Frangieh. One candidate is the commander of the Lebanese armed forces Gen. Joseph Aoun, who is supported by the U.S. and France. The Lebanese armed forces will be a key player in any post-war settlement in Lebanon. With Nasrallah dead and Hezbollah at its weakest in years, the Biden administration thinks there is now an opportunity to dramatically reduce its influence on the Lebanese political system and elect a new president who is not an ally of the Shia militia, two U.S. officials said (Read more at Axios).
The Biden administration believes it is appropriate for Israel to continue with its ground and air attacks on Hezbollah for now, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday, even as he acknowledged the risk of the operation in Lebanon expanding beyond Israel’s current aims. Washington has repeatedly warned Israel against escalating the conflict, but a three-week ceasefire proposal put forward by the U.S. and other countries last week was quickly dismissed by Israel in favor of intensified operations (Read more at Arab America News).
U.S.-arranged flights have brought about 350 Americans and their immediate relatives out of Lebanon this week. U.S.-arranged flights have brought about 350 Americans and their immediate relatives out of Lebanon this week (Read more at Associated Press).
Many of them were from Michigan. "We are already hearing reports of confirmed deaths and fear there will be more. We cannot stand by while our constituents and their families are suffering," Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In a post on X earlier on Thursday, Tlaib said the U.S. government's "lack of urgency to get Americans out of Lebanon is shameful." (Read more at USNews)
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday offered support to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “dismantling attack infrastructure” along the border with Lebanon, after Israel launched “targeted ground raids” on Hezbollah. Austin also issued a warning to Iran of “serious consequences” should it directly attack Israel in response to their attacks on the Tehran-backed militant group (Read more at Defense Post).
Asked about reports that Israeli ground troops were preparing to move into southern Lebanon, Biden told reporters that he was “comfortable with them (Israel) stopping.” Several top aides reinforced Biden’s call for a ceasefire by urging a diplomatic resolution to the violence to allow tens of thousands of displaced Israelis and Lebanese to return to their homes along the border. Washington “will continue to work with our partners in the region and around the world to advance a diplomatic resolution,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a State Department conference (Read more at Cyprus Mail).
The United States is watching to see what Hezbollah does to try to fill its leadership vacuum "and is continuing to talk to the Israelis about what the right next steps are", White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said (Read more at Cyprus Mail).
Mark Kelly, chair of the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee, said Israel used a 2,000-lb (900-kg) Mark 84 series bomb. JDAMs convert a standard unguided bomb using fins and a GPS guidance system into a guided weapon (Read more at NDTV).
The U.S. hopes the new deal could lead to longer-term stability along the border between Israel and Lebanon. Months of Israeli and Hezbollah exchanges of fire have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes, and escalated attacks over the past week have rekindled fears of a broader war in the Middle East (Read more at Associated Press).
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib criticized Biden’s address as “not strong, not promising”. The United States “is the key ... to our salvation,” he told an event in New York City hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Read more at Arabnews).
Washington is going to discuss "concrete ideas" with allies and partners to prevent the war from broadening. Asked if that is a disagreement with the Israeli stance, the U.S. official nodded. The spiraling conflict over Israel's northern border with Lebanon is a focus for Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week (Read more at USNews).
In late July, the United States raised its travel advisory for Lebanon to its highest "do not travel" classification, after a strike on southern Beirut killed a top Hezbollah commander (Read more at Business Standard).
U.S. officials say the Biden administration is "extremely concerned" about the risk of an all-out war between Israel and Lebanon, but hopes to use growing Israeli military pressure on Hezbollah to get a diplomatic deal (Read more at Axios).
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Saturday said he was worried about escalation between Israel and Lebanon but that the Israeli killing of a top Hezbollah leader brought justice to the Iran-backed group. He said he still sees a path to a ceasefire in Gaza but that the U.S. is "not at a point right now where we're prepared to put something on the table." (Read more at ANews)
The State Department in May 2018 had declared Bazzi to be a “specially designated global terrorist” and offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. In February 2023, he was arrested in Romania and extradited to the US. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has said Bazzi “has provided millions of dollars to Hezbollah over the years, generated from his business activities in Belgium, Lebanon, Iraq and throughout West Africa” (Read more at Arabnews).
A day after the killing of a senior Hezbollah member seen as a key figure in those attacks, many of those Americans welcomed the news but said it stirred painful memories without resolving the past. “It doesn’t bring closure,” said Michael Harris, 59, a Marine veteran who was “blown out” of his barracks in one of the attacks and lives today in Rhode Island. “It wasn’t just one person responsible.” Valerie Giblin, 61, of Smithfield, R.I., shared a similar sense of unresolved grief. Her husband, Timothy Giblin, died in the barracks attack when their daughter was 2 years old. “I was 20 years old,” she said. “I never remarried. I’ll be his wife until the day I die.” (Read more New York Times).
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, "We're collecting information in the same way that journalists are across the world, to gather the facts about what might have happened," Miller said the United States was always concerned about any incident that can raise tensions in Middle East and urged Iran not to take advantage of any incident to raise instability. Miller also said that civilians were not legitimate targets for any type of operation (Read more at USNews).
OFAC has sanctioned three individuals, five companies and two vessels. It has facilitated dozens of LPG shipments to the Government of Syria. The US Treasury said “two prominent Hezbollah officials involved in these efforts include Muhammad Qasir (Qasir) and Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal (Read more at Nahar Net).
A dual Lebanese-Belgian citizen accused by the United States of financing Lebanese armed group Hezbollah is expected to plead guilty in a criminal case charging him with sanctions evasion and money-laundering conspiracies. Prosecutors said Bazzi covertly sold real estate he owned in Michigan and transferred the funds abroad, in violation of those sanctions (Read more at Arabnews).
The meeting, which hasn't been announced by the White House or the Israeli government, was initiated by the Biden administration to take the pulse on the Israeli side and coordinate their policies about the situation in Lebanon. The virtual meeting lasted an hour. The U.S. team was led by White House national Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. President Biden's advisers Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk also participated. The Israeli team was led by the Minister for Strategic Affairs and Netanyahu confidant Ron Dermer (Read more at Axios).
The US treasury said the Hezbollah-controlled Talaqi Group used two tankers to ship LPG worth tens of millions of dollars from Iran to China. The US Treasury Department targeted companies, individuals and vessels accused of being involved in the shipment of Iranian commodities, including oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Yemen and the UAE on behalf of a Houthi financial official’s network. It said the revenue from Sa’id al-Jamal’s network helps finance the Houthis’ targeting of shipping in the Red Sea and civilian infrastructure (Read more at Arab Weekly).
Israel has so far not targeted Hezbollah in Beirut. U.S. and Israeli officials agree that an all out war between Israel and Hezbollah would cause huge destruction on both sides and could lead to a regional war. The Israeli official said Hochstein expressed concern that if the IDF strikes Beirut, Hezbollah would respond by firing long-range missiles at Israel, which would likely lead to even further escalation (Read more at Axios).
Washington has been in discussions with Israeli and Lebanese officials since Saturday's attack. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated U.S. support for Israel. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday echoed Blinken's statement: "Israel has every right to defend itself against Hezbollah like they do against Hamas." (Read more at Reuters).
The White House will offer deportation relief and work permits to an estimated 11,500 Lebanese nationals already in the U.S., due to conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The measure, under an authority known as Deferred Enforced Departure, will allow Lebanese nationals to remain in the U.S. for 18 months and could be renewed. U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, which is home to Lebanese Americans in Detroit and elsewhere, applauded the move (Read more at USNews).
Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said in a statement that Lebanon was facing “great instability.” (Read more at Arabnews).
The U.S., France, and others have recently floated plans that would rely on the LAF and UNFIL to take a greater role in southern Lebanon. Yet more of the same is not the answer. The United States must acknowledge reality: its Lebanon policy is failing. And the dire consequences are coming into view (Read more at Providence).
Lebanon's deputy parliament speaker said that he believed the timing of his visit pointed to progress in efforts to secure a Gaza truce "within the next few hours or days". Lebanon's caretaker prime minister said that a halt to fighting in the Gaza Strip as early as this week would trigger indirect talks to end hostilities along Lebanon's southern border with Israel (Read more at USNews).
“The next few weeks are a real hinge point — for Gaza, for Israel, for Lebanon, for the Red Sea, for Iraq,” said Senators Chris Coons. “It could create that window of 45 days, during Ramadan for a full implementation of UNSC resolution 1701,” he said. Senators Chris Coons and Richard Blumenthal told Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri that Israel “is not bluffing” about an offensive (Read more at Arabnews).
Democratic Senator Chris Coons is headed for Beirut in what some observers comment is a show of US support for Lebanon at a time of ongoing crisis (Read more at Al-Monitor).
Lebanon foreign minister continues, the US should pressure Israel. Washington remains Israel’s primary foreign backer, sending it roughly $4 billion annually in military aid, which constitutes about 16% of Israel’s defense budget (Read more at CNBC).
