Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned of a “crushing” attack on Lebanon in response to any military action from Lebanese group Hezbollah.

In an interview with Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television on Friday, group leader Hassan Nasrallah said key Israeli sites were in the range of Hezbollah’s rockets.

“Over the weekend we heard Nasrallah’s arrogant words about his attack plans,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of the weekly government meeting, adding:

Israel and Hezbollah have not engaged in an outright military confrontation since the 34-day devastating war in the summer of 2006, but a fresh conflict is possible, with regional tensions running high.

Maj-Gen. Amir Baram, the head of the Israeli Defence Forces’ (IDF) Northern Command, has warned that Lebanon would pay a heavy price in case of a new armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We will continue to act to thwart its [Hezbollah’s] efforts to threaten our security, covertly and overtly as required, and if war is imposed on us, we will exact a heavy price from this organisation and those who give it backing, wherever necessary,” the military commander said on Tuesday at a memorial dedicated to the 13th anniversary of the 2006 Lebanon War.

SOURCE: OIL PRICE

Contemporary Middle Eastern history is strongly influenced by energy politics. Besides providing revenue for the state’s coffers, oil is also a potent geopolitical tool in the hands of resource-rich countries. Recently, officials from Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have engaged in talks to restart the dysfunctional pipeline that once connected oilfields near Kirkuk in Iraq with the coastal city of Tripoli in Lebanon. Restarting the pipeline could have long-term political, economic, and strategic consequences for the involved states and the wider region.

THE ART OF THE DEAL

US intelligence liaison report shows conflict with Hezbollah pushed Unit 8200 to its ‘technical and resource limits’; repeated Israeli requests led to new intel-sharing mechanism

The Israeli government on Monday expressed openness to discussions led by the U.S. about disagreements with Lebanon over the countries' shared maritime border.

Talks could be “for the good of both countries’ interests in developing natural gas reserves and oil” the office of Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz’s office said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The statement reportedly follows Steinitz's meeting with U.S. envoy David Satterfield.

Israel and Lebanon both claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon hopes to unleash offshore oil and gas production as it grapples with an economic crisis. Washington is mediating between the two countries, which have been officially at war since Israel's creation in 1948.

Speaking to lawmakers after the meeting, Berri described the meeting as "positive" and said it would be followed up. He said things are moving in the right direction because of the Lebanese "unified" position that protects maritime and land borders, according to his remarks published in the state National News Agency.

Several heavy explosions occurred early on Sunday in the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, a number of media reports say. The reports, citing eyewitnesses, further suggested that American and French warplanes have been seen flying over the port at the time of the incident.

The government of Fujairah denied on Sunday media reports about several heavy explosions taking place at the emirate's port, insisting that the port is functioning as usual.

"The press service of the Fujairah government denied media reports about powerful explosions in the emirate's port earlier this day and confirmed that ship traffic is as usual," the state-run WAM news agency reports.

Lebanon would never survive if half a million Palestinian refugees and 1.6 million Syrian refugees remained in the country, the Lebanese president, Michel Aoun, said yesterday.

Aoun remarks came during a meeting held at the presidential palace in the Lebanese capital of Beirut with a delegation from the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), headed by its secretary general Souraya Bechealany.

Aoun called on the MECC to help the Lebanese government resolve the Syrians refugees’ issue “by persuading Western countries to accept the refugees return to their countries as soon as possible.”

BEIRUT — During a Middle East tour last month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo focused primarily on Iran’s influence in the region, but on Mar. 20 in Jerusalem he also labeled Russia an adversary of US regional allies in addition to Iran and China when speaking about energy and security in the eastern Mediterranean. “Revisionist powers like Iran and Russia and China are all trying to take major footholds in the East and in the West,” Pompeo said, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Greece and Cyprus.

The Lebanese-based Hezbollah militant group has sufficient resources to enter Israel’s border region of Galilee and "destroy" Israeli forces in case if the IDF attacks Lebanon, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said.

"The resistance has many strong and decisive means. The time for a quick war is over. The resistance is capable of entering Galilee… That part of Israel that thinks about intervention in Lebanon will be destroyed and crushed," Nasrallah said live on the Al-Manar TV channel on Thursday.

The United States delivered five million rounds of ammunition to the Lebanese Army Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon announced on Twitter.

The Lebanese Army stormed a Syrian refugee camp near the town of Bar Elias in the Beqaa Valley on Wednesday, removing tents and detaining most of the male refugees living there.

The New Arab’s affiliate Syria TV reported that the army destroyed 110 empty tents from the Yasmin Refugee Camp. These had been donated by humanitarian organizations for use in emergency situations. Up to 80 people were detained for not possessing the correct documents. The army also confiscated motorcycles belonging to refugees.

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New York Times Opinion

We apologize for the anti-Semitic cartoon we published. Here’s our statement.

"We are deeply sorry for the publication of an anti-Semitic political cartoon last Thursday in the print edition of The New York Times that circulates outside of the United States, and we are committed to making sure nothing like this happens again," the opinion section tweeted Sunday.

"Such imagery is always dangerous, and at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide, it's all the more unacceptable," continued the apology, which was widely shared on Twitter.

The Lebanese defence minister ruled out the possibility of military conflict with Tel Aviv in the near future, however.

Lebanon's Defence Minister Elias Bou Saab has warned that the Lebanese Air Force will strike Israel's Ben Gurion airport in the event of a military conflict between the two states, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Hezbollah's al-Manar news site.

Speaking during his tour to the southern part of the country, the minister promised Beirut will react symmetrically to Tel Aviv's military actions.

"If Israel bombards our airport, we will bombard its airport; if it strikes our oil facilities, we will strike its oil facilities," he was quoted as saying by al-Manar.

Now that Iran has designated the US military as a terrorist organization in response to the US declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group, it would be only fitting for the mullahs to offer a bounty for info on donors to the war party political class in the United States, in particular those calling for attacking Iran.

The Iranians might want to start with casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. In addition to donating millions to politicos who have sworn loyalty to Israel, Adelson famously called for nuking Iran.

French Ambassador to Lebanon Bruno Foucher said Sunday that France is holding discussions with senior officials in the Lebanese Armed Forces to secure maritime and land defense equipment for Lebanon, local media reported.

"We have opened a financing account of 400 million euros (about 449.3 million U.S. dollars) for this purpose," Foucher was quoted as saying by the National News Agency.

His remarks came during the yearly ceremony to honor veterans in the Lebanese and French armies.

During his visit with US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, Lebanese President Michael Aoun reportedly received a US-Israeli document detailing plans for creating a civil war in Lebanon with covert false flag operations and possible Israeli invasion.

Although the source of the document is Israeli and created in partnership with Washington, no one knows who presented it to Aoun. The Lebanese TV station, Al-Jadeed, initially reported the document on Lebanese TV and a video on its website. Geopolitics Alert translated the report for this article.

THE VALIDITY OF THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD BE QUESTIONED. THAT SAID, THE PLAN IS CONSISTENT WITH THE U.S. SOP FOR REGIME CHANGE.

Beirut (GPA) – During his visit with US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, Lebanese President Michael Aoun reportedly received a US-Israeli document detailing plans for creating a civil war in Lebanon with covert false flag operations and possible Israeli invasion.
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Although the source of the document is Israeli and created in partnership with Washington, no one knows who presented it to Aoun. The Lebanese TV station, Al-Jadeed, initially reported the document on Lebanese TV and a video on its website. Geopolitics Alert translated the report for this article.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday held talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during which he thanked him for “defending” the Christians of the Middle East.

“We thank you for your stances that defend the Christian minorities in the Levant and we hope you will continue this help,” Aoun told Putin during the Kremlin meeting.

Lebanon's top military prosecutor has ruled that homosexuality is not a crime, deciding not to prosecute a case of “sodomy."

Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss the US decision to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights with Lebanon’s president at talks in Moscow later on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, Reuters reports.

US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Monday officially granting U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.

“Such decisions undoubtedly have negative consequences from the point of view of a settlement in the Middle East and the general atmosphere of political settlement in Syria,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Speaker Nabih Berri downplayed the impact of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Lebanon, dismissing it as just another visit from an American official biased toward Israeli interests, in remarks to Al Joumhouria newspaper published Wednesday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri has undergone a "precautionary" heart procedure in Paris, his office said in a statement Monday.

"Hariri this morning underwent a cardiac catheterization and stent insertion procedure at the American Hospital in Paris," the statement said.

The US sanctions and financial siege that we currently experience, along with being added to the list of terrorist organizations, and lately, the British decision to add Hezbollah’s political wing to their own list of terrorist groups, and the consequences of all these measures – because in the past, they have already added our military branch, as they say, on the list of terrorist organizations, and a few days ago, they added the political branch, according to their (purely artificial) distinctions… In this respect, when we speak of US sanctions, we should expect them to become even more severe, both against those who support us and against us, that is to say against the Islamic Republic of Iran, against Syria, and against all Resistance movements and the Resistance Axis, and against us (Hezbollah).

General Security announced Wednesday that over 170,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their country from Lebanon since December 2017.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford issued a statement Monday denying weekend media reports that the US plans to leave around 1,000 troops in Syria, saying the reports are “factually incorrect.”

Dunford presented the current planned “residual force” as 200, saying that this hadn’t changed since February. The US announced 200 would stay on February 21, but on February 22 officially increased that number to 400.

It’s not clear from Dunford’s statement where the “incorrect” aspect of the new report, which came out of a Wall Street Journal, exists. That report suggested that the 1,000 figure was not yet finalized, but was being discussed. Dunford’s comments didn’t include any details on what is actually being discussed, but just that nothing was finalized.

Lebanon is readying to receive US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week in his first ever visit at a time when the Lebanese economic-political map is being redrawn and while Lebanon is suffering its most serious economic downturn in recent history.

Reasons for the deterioration of the local economy include not only the corruption of Lebanon’s political leadership and lower level administration but also US sanctions imposed on Iran. The latest sanctions are the harshest ever imposed. They will also dramatically affect Lebanon so long as President Donald Trump is in power if Lebanon does not follow US policy and dictates.

While in Jerusalem, Pompeo is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in spite of the close proximity of his visit to Israel’s April 9th election.

The Israeli occupation army yesterday claimed that it had uncovered a secret Hezbollah cell which was preparing to strike it from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, a statement reported by Israeli media said.

It added that Hezbollah kept the cell, known as the Golan File, secret from Syrian regime President Bashar Al-Assad, stating that the cell is being run by Hezbollah commanders in Beirut.

Hezbollah’s operatives mixed with local residents and started patrolling the borders from the Syrian side in order to monitor the movement of Israeli troops.

Former Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya’alon admitted on Thursday that the Israeli officials had for years lied about the existence of alleged Hezbollah tunnels beneath the Lebanon-Israel border.

Speaking to Israel’s Army Radio, Ya’alon said that the Israeli officials lied about the tunnels for years before they decided to carry out an operation to destroy them earlier this week.

“We did it to mislead the other side,” Ya’alon told the Army Radio. “There is an exaggeration in the way it [the operation] was presented, and I hope that does not hurt us,” he added.

Regarding previous remarks he delivered in 2016 that there was “no single tunnel” in the north, Ya’alon said: “My comments two years ago that there are no tunnels in the north was a lie in order to preserve the security of the state.”

Israel has breached Lebanon’s waters by licensing a company to “exploit an area” for oil and gas near disputed borders, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.

The two countries have an unresolved maritime border dispute over a sea zone of about 860 sq km (330 square miles) which extends along the edge of three of Lebanon’s energy blocks.

US diplomats mediated between them last year after a spike in tensions that also involved a row over a border wall Israel built and over Iran-backed Hezbollah’s growing arsenal.

The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation Wednesday grounded the Boeing 737 MAX at Beirut's airport and banned the model from using Lebanese airspace.

Germany will not follow Britain’s lead in declaring Iran-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, a senior official was quoted as saying on Friday, a decision that may fuel tensions with Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Lebanon renewed its rejection of the violation of its rights and sovereignty through the planned gas pipeline project between the Israeli occupation, Cyprus and Greece.

The Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Gebran Bassil, said in a statement that “letters were sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the General Assembly, the High Representative for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy, and the foreign ministers of Cyprus, Greece and Italy regarding the project of laying gas pipeline between Israel, Cyprus, Greece, and then Italy.”

In his letters, the Lebanese minister stressed the necessity “not to affect the rights of Lebanon in the Special Economic Zone and the need to invoke the international laws related to the sea and the coordinates sent by Lebanon to the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.”

Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil Saturday called for Lebanese people to maintain trust in the government as it undertakes speedy reforms, after international ratings agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded its economic outlook from stable to negative.

Interview of Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah Secretary General, with Ghassan Ben Jeddou, founder of the pan-Arab and anti-imperialist Al-Mayadeen channel, January 26, 2019.

Having lost considerable influence in Europe and other parts of the world over the chaotic Brexit process, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking to gain leverage by boxing-in Hezbollah. British politics under the Conservative government not only appears to have lost the plot, but many may not be faulted if they also ask whether May has lost her marbles as well.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, it has been announced by Home Secretary Sajid Javid, is henceforth to be designated as a “terrorist organization” in its entirety. To date, Britain has only designated the armed wing of the group. The reason given for this move is plainly ridiculous and alludes to why many wonder if Britain has run into a cul-de-sac of its own making. According to Javid, he decided to proscribe Hezbollah because it is “continuing in its attempts to destabilize the fragile situation in the Middle East.”

The United Kingdom’s House of Commons voted on Tuesday night to ban all wings of Hezbollah due to its destabilizing influence in the Middle East, classing the movement as a terrorist organization.

The UK Labour Party allowed its MPs freedom to vote their conscience stating that there is “not sufficient evidence” that the organization meets proscription criteria and accusing the home secretary of taking the decision based on his “leadership ambitions.”

Israel yesterday welcomed the British decision to blacklist the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, calling for all EU member states to follow suite, the Anadolu Agency reported.

“Thank you to the UK and my friend @sajidjavid for deciding to designate all of #Hezbollah as a terrorist group. All who truly wish to combat terror must reject the fake distinction between “military” & “political” wings. Now is the time for the #EU to follow suit!” Israeli Minister of Public Security and Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan wrote on Twitter.

Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, was key in facilitating covert relations between Gulf states and Israel in the early 2000s.

Secret ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia accelerated in 2003, when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked longtime Mossad chief Meir Dagan to reexamine relations with neighboring Gulf states, according to a report by Barak Ravid for Israel’s Channel 10.

“The prime minister made it clear to Dagan that it is appropriate to try to use, as they say, the change in the political climate,” according to Dov Weisglass, a former senior adviser to Sharon who was present during the meeting.

“This was the opening shot of the Mossad’s extensive secret diplomatic activity vis-à-vis the Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia,” Ravid reported.

The official Labour Party position was that Corbyn’s friends should not be banned, on the basis of a specious argument that the political wing is not connected to the military wing. Tony Blair’s Institute has been lobbying hard for a UK ban on the Iranian-backed terrorists Hezbollah. Entirely coincidentally the former Tony Blair got paid $12 million by Iran’s bitter rivals and his own client, the Saudi regime. Fancy that…

With the IDF apparently engaged in multiple strikes aimed at preventing Hezbollah from acquiring advanced weaponry and stopping Iranian entrenchment in Syria, the navy drills for tense encounters off the Israeli coast.

The US ambassador to Lebanon has expressed concern over militant group Hezbollah’s growing role in the new cabinet. Hezbollah, which also takes part in elections, has named a health minister and two other posts in Lebanon’s government. US officials have called on Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s new cabinet to ensure the group does not receive support from public resources.

Saudi Arabia supported Israel in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, an Israeli TV channel has claimed

In the third part of a series of reports entitled “Secrets of the Gulf,” Israeli news channel Channel 13 reported on the secret relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and quoted senior Israeli officials as saying that Tel Aviv had received letters from Riyadh urging it to strike Hezbollah with all its might.

However, the results of the war “caused great disappointment in Riyadh,” according to the channel correspondent, Barak Ravid.

During a Wednesday night interview with FOX Business host Trish Regan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made several statements that raised eyebrows, such as claiming that Cuba had invaded Venezuela and “taken control” of the Venezuela’s “security apparatus” and that U.S. sanctions illegally imposed on Venezuela “aren’t aimed at the Venezuelan people.”

However, the most surprising claim Pompeo made in the interview was that Hezbollah and Iran were “active” in Venezuela, presenting a national security “risk for America.”

After accusing China, Cuba and Russia of interfering with U.S. efforts to install U.S.-funded opposition figure Juan Guaidó and oust current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Pompeo made the following assertion:

Late on February 11, Israeli forces struck positions of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the province of Quneitra near the Golan Heights, according to local sources. Shells and missiles reportedly hit at least 8 buildings and positions, including the Quneitra city hospital and an observation post near the al-Shaab Mount.

Later Israeli media claimed that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had hit positions of Lebanese Hezbollah. The IDF released no official comment on the incident.

The attack followed a series of media reports claiming that the Lebanese movement was buying US and British weapons and equipment from former members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). These reportedly included US-made TOW anti-tank guided missiles and UK-made thermal surveillance systems. The militants reportedly hid these weapons ignoring terms and conditions of the reconciliation agreement with the Damascus government.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has warned that Israel may deplete his country’s potential offshore oil and gas reserves after the Tel Aviv regime awarded energy exploration licenses near a disputed maritime boundary in Mediterranean waters.

Speaking after a meeting with visiting Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Beirut on Thursday, Berri said Israel has “licensed two companies to start drilling by April 2020 at most,” warning that the move threatened “to drain a whole basin" and a large part of Lebanon's oil wealth before the country even starts to drill.

The senior Lebanese legislator went on to say that he had raised the issue with the Italian prime minister earlier in the day, and the latter “had shown readiness to back Lebanon up on all fronts.”

The speaker said it was important to warn Italian energy company Eni of the Israeli “violations” against Block 9.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri says the Israeli regime is violating Lebanon's sovereignty in a “dangerous” manner by licensing a company to "exploit an area" for oil and gas resources near a disputed region.

The maritime dispute between the two sides runs over a sea zone of about 800 square kilometers. The underlying Levant basin of the Eastern Mediterranean has been proven to contain large natural gas reserves, probably even crude oil.

"(It is) a dangerous matter. Israel has licensed and exploited an area adjacent to the Lebanese southern maritime borders," Berri was quoted by lawmakers from Amal party as saying on Wednesday after a meeting.

"This is an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty and targets our oil wealth and waters."

The head of the militant Hezbollah group in Lebanon warned Israel late Saturday over its continued attacks in Syria, saying a miscalculation could drag the region into a war.

Hassan Nasrallah made the comment during a wide-ranging interview that lasted more than three hours with the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV station.

Nasrallah said Iran, Syria and Hezbollah could "at any moment" decide to deal differently with Israel's actions in Syria and hinted that Tel Aviv might be a target.

Israel Hayom has learned that alongside Jerusalem’s decision to postpone the transfer of Qatari funds to Hamas following the escalation on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, Egypt has issued the terrorist organization’s political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh (pictured) an ultimatum.

Cairo has made it clear that Haniyeh must decide whether “Hamas takes its orders from Tehran or continues to implement the understandings for calm” formulated by the head of Egyptian intelligence Abbas Kamel.

A senior Egyptian intelligence official told Israel Hayom that senior Hamas members, chief among them Haniyeh, had contacted Kamel with the request that Israel be sent the message that “Hamas was not involved in the grave events on the border.”

I do not for one second doubt that Americans are feeling more stressed and suffering more health-degrading symptoms as a result than they were prior to Trump’s election. But Pacific Standard and its “growing body of research” ignore the most obvious and significant culprit behind this phenomenon which is tearing people’s health to shreds: the mass media which has been deliberately fanning the flames of Trump panic.

The always excellent Moon of Alabama blog has just published a sarcasm-laden piece documenting the many, many aggressive maneuvers that this administration has made against the interests of Russia, from pushing for more NATO funding to undermining Russia’s natural gas interests to bombing Syria to sanctioning Russian oligarchs to dangerous military posturing.

President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday told his French counterpart that Israel could be forced to strike the Hezbollah terror group’s rocket-building operations “in the heart of Beirut,” a development he warned would drag Lebanon into a punishing regional war that neither side wants.

Rivlin made the remarks during a meeting with France’s President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace in Paris during an official visit to mark 70 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and France.

Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari said that it was time that the United Nations Security Council took action to stop constant Israeli attacks on Syrian territory, adding that Damascus might exercise its right to self-defence and respond to the Israeli attack on Damascus Airport with a symmetric strike on Tel Aviv Airport.

"Isn't it is the right time for this council to take the necessary measures to stop the repeated Israeli aggression against the territories of my country or should we attract the attention of the war makers in this council be exercising our legitimate right for self-defence and respond to the Israeli aggression against the Damascus International Airport by launching an aggression against Tel Aviv Airport?" Jaafari said speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

The U.S. State Department allegedly sent a cable to the Lebanese Embassy in Washington that warned them against inviting Syria to the Arab Economic Summit in Beirut that is scheduled to take place this week, Al-Akhbar reported on Wednesday.

According to Al-Akhbar, Lebanon was not only warned against inviting Syria to the Arab Economic Summit, but Washington also threatened sanctions against Lebanon if they participate in any reconstruction efforts.

Institute for National Security Studies says the volatile situation along the northern border as well as in the Gaza Strip could lead Israel to war against Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinians at the same time.

Lebanon's foreign minister has called on the Arab League to restore Syria's membership to the 22-member bloc, the latest indicator that Arab countries are preparing to welcome Damascus back into the fold after years of diplomatic isolation.

Speaking at the opening session of an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut, Gebran Bassil said it was an "historic shame" to keep Syria out of a regional economic summit planned for Sunday, adding that Damascus should be back "in our arms".

The U.S. State Department criticized Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group on Monday for digging tunnels into Israel and stockpiling rockets, as Washington steps up efforts to isolate Tehran.

In recent weeks, Israeli forces uncovered tunnels they said were dug by Hezbollah, and Lebanon complained about Israel’s construction of a barrier along disputed parts of the border.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, regards Hezbollah as a terrorist group and has pledged tougher steps to counteract Iranian influence in the region, but it has also reiterated its backing for the Lebanese government - which includes Hezbollah representatives - and army.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week vowed to expel “every last Iranian boot” from Syria, where Iran has been fighting alongside Hezbollah, and where Israel has been carrying out strikes against both.

The Lebanese media reported on Saturday that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was hospitalized after apparently suffering a heart attack.

Additional reports said that Nasrallah is also fighting cancer.

Israel Hayom quoted Lebanese journalist Jerry Mahar as saying that "an intelligence source confirmed that a senior figure in the Hezbollah organization was hospitalized today in a hospital in the capital Beirut, and other sources confirmed that it was Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who has been fighting cancer for years."

The reports were not confirmed by any official source in the country and Hezbollah did not respond to the report.

Nasrallah has not been seen in the media since reports of the exposure of Hezbollah tunnels in Operation Defensive Shield.

Israel’s decision to launch a ground war to accomplish what its air force had failed to do was made hesitantly and haphazardly. While Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) units had been making forays into southern Lebanon during the second week of the conflict, the Israeli military leadership remained undecided over when and where–even whether–to deploy their ground units.

In part, the army’s indecisiveness over when, where and whether to deploy its major ground units was a function of the air force’s claims to victory. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) kept claiming that it would succeed from the air–in just one more day, and then another. This indecision was mirrored by the Western media’s uncertainty about when a ground campaign would take place–or whether in fact it had already occurred.

Lebanon says it will file a complaint with the UN Security Council against the Israeli regime’s violation of a number of points contested by Beirut, especially a wall it has built near the Lebanese border.

Lebanese officials said Thursday they would raise the issue of the wall with the United Nations Security Council and a top US diplomat.

The comments came after Tel Aviv placed 25 cement blocks near the illegal Israeli settlement of Miskaf Aam, opposite the Lebanese town of Adaisseh, with six blocks placed on disputed points. In response, the Lebanese Army deployed reinforcements to the area.

“What happened today is dangerous and could spark a security incident,” a political source told Lebanon’s The Daily Star.

The blocks had been placed “without informing UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon],” a Lebanese Army statement said.

According to a report in Lebanon, Israeli Air Force planes circled low in the south of the country and there were "sonic booms" over Tyre.

“What’s more frozen, refugee camps or humanity?” That is the recurring question you find being asked in the past week on social media under the hashtag of “Arsal Tastagheeth” (Arsal cries out for help).

The Lebanese mountainous border town of Arsal was covered with snow following Storm Norma, leaving Syrian refugee camps in unimaginably horrible conditions.

With temperatures between -4 to -8 degree Celsius, refugees’ tents in the Beqaa area were either flooded with water, or destroyed by snow.

According to the UN refugee agency, 151 sites that are home to some 11,000 Syrians have been heavily affected.

Speaking in Cairo on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo set an uncomfortabe goal for the United States in Lebanon, the expulsion of Hezbollah. He said the US would never accept the status quo, wherein Hezbollah has a “major presence” in Lebanon.

The US has always had a problem with Hezbollah, viewing them as a terrorist organization because of their history of fighting Israel. Yet beyond its fighting force, Hezbollah is a huge faction inside Lebanon, including a major political party within the current ruling coalition.

While Pompeo tried to spin Hezbollah as part of “Iranian adventurism” across the region, the reality is that Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based organization that is thoroughly Lebanese. There is no place to expel them to.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were forced to suspend their Lebanese border operation for the second time in the last 24 hours, a military communique from Beirut read this evening.

According to the communique, the Israeli Defense Forces were required to halt their operation after the Lebanese Army informed the UNIFIL forces about the IDF troops crossing the UN “Blue Line”.

The Lebanese Army has now been placed on high alert, the communique added.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun yesterday warned of the “Israeli threats” which could lead to new wars, displacement and ethnic cleansing.

Speaking before members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Lebanon in the capital Beirut, Aoun said that “peace does not take place while deals are made at the expense of the refugee who was expelled from his land and his identity was stolen”.

“Peace does not come at the expense of manipulating demography and changing the geographical and social parameters of countries. Peace does not result from deepening racism and rejecting the other.”

The Lebanese president was referring to US President Donald Trump’s proposed Middle East peace plan dubbed the “deal of the century”.

The multitude of policy zigs and zags seems to constitute a case of a president suffering from foreign policy bipolar disorder. Yet a pattern may exist amidst all of the turmoil. Trump’s foreign policy instincts often appear to be a sound and refreshing contrast to the stale conventional wisdom that has led the United States to careen from one interventionist debacle to another over the past quarter-century. (His early hostile stance toward North Korea and his policy toward Iran at all times are the major exceptions to sound instincts.) But time and again Trump has allowed his advisers to talk him out of his initial (usually correct) positions. That’s not surprising. The president is not an avid reader about foreign policy (or apparently anything else), and his knowledge base is alarmingly shallow. That deficiency gives policy advisers an exceptional degree of influence.

President Donald Trump’s announcement on Dec. 20 that his administration would quickly pull some 2,000 troops from Syria and 7,000 of the 14,000 in Afghanistan seemed to have caught many high-ranking U.S. as well and U.S. allies around the globe off guard.

It is unclear, however, to what extent the pullout will be able to be implemented. Trump is under a lot of pressure from even his supporters to back off or slow down the plan.

This often happens throughout history, when the core beliefs of a country promulgated by elites are challenged — and in the case of the U.S., it is both Republican and Democratic elites. The dismay at the retirement of Secretary of Defense James Mattis indicates the many battles ahead for a rebalancing of U.S. foreign policy.

Yesterday, Israel carried out an unprovoked Christmas Day attack against Syria. According to reports citing the Russian Ministry of Defense, six Israeli F16 fighters violated neighboring Lebanese airspace and while passing over Sidon, fired 16 laser-guided GBU-39 bombs towards targets in and around the capital city of Damascus, 14 of which were intercepted by Syrian air defense systems.

More shocking details were revealed today, as the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the IDF jets flew in to firing position – just as two civilian passenger airliners were in the air preparing for their landings into both Beirut and Damascus airports.

As a result, Syrian military defense units did not deploy its surface-to-air missiles and electronic jamming “to prevent a tragedy” and instead allowed Damascus air traffic control divert one of its passenger flights to an emergency destination at Khmeimim in Latakia.

Syria’s air defenses have responded to a number of air raids in the vicinity of Damascus, Syrian media reported Tuesday night.

Al Arabiya’s correspondent said that the Israeli raids near Damascus were carried out from Lebanon’s airspace.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Israeli raids were targeting weapons storage areas of Iranian militias and Hezbollah positions in the countryside of Damascus.

Rami Abdulrahman told Al Arabiya’s sister channel Al Hadath that Israeli raids targeted the western and southern suburbs of Damascus.

State television Al-Ekhbariya carried a breaking ticker saying air defenses had intercepted missiles. But it only referred to “hostile targets” in a later report.

Lebanese state-run National News Agency said Israeli war planes performed mock raids above southern Lebanon.

Reports are still preliminary, but it does appear that Israel is once again in violation of international law, as it violates both Lebanese airspace and Syria’s sovereignty by launching another belligerent attack against Syria’s capital city of Damascus.

According to multiple reports including Syrian state media SANA, the Syrian Arab Army’s ground-to-air missile defense systems around Damascus were deployed against incoming targets.

Thus far, reports of any casualties in Syria are still unknown.

According to Israeli military sources, Israeli air defenses were then “activated” against anti-aircraft missiles coming from Syria to target Israeli jets. Israel claims no damage was done, nor any injuries to IDF personnel.

Two civilian planes in Lebanese airspace 'narrowly avoided catastrophe' from Israeli warplanes: Lebanese Transport Minister

Israeli forces Wedneday were forced to halt construction of a cement border wall opposite the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila after the Lebanese Army disputed several points planned for the wall.

The incident occurred hours after dozens of Israeli forces deployed in the area after Syria shot down Israeli missiles that were launched over Lebanese territory the night before, and also as a separate Israeli operation continued nearby to block alleged “Hezbollah tunnels” with cement.

A team from the Lebanese Army’s Geographic Affairs Unit was seen standing behind a border fence and marking disputed areas just beyond it. The Army then informed UNIFIL personnel on the ground, who in turn ordered the Israeli soldiers to move back seven meters behind the planned course of the cement wall.

The Russian Defence Ministry has stated that neither of the passenger planes that were threatened due to an Israeli airstrike on Syria was related to Russian air carriers.

Six Israeli F-16 fighter jets directly threatened to two civil planes during a recent airstrike on Syria, Gen. Maj. Igor Konashenkov, the spokesman of the Russian Defence Ministry, said on Wednesday.

"Provocative actions of the Israeli Air Force on the evening of 25 December, when six F-16 aircraft launched an airstrike on the territory of Syria from the airspace of neighbouring Lebanon, created a direct threat to two passenger aircraft", the spokesman said.

An eerie video composed of a recorded audio prayer and a photo of one "Hajj Jamal Ghalaini" occasionally pops up on Facebook. The voice is that of an alleged religious sheikh, praying for the well-being of the man in the photo for saving the Palestinian refugee youth of Lebanon, by facilitating their departure to Europe.

The video would have been just another odd social media post, were it not for the fact that Ghalaini is a real person, with his name recurring in the ongoing tragedy of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Many have credited their successful "escape" from Lebanon by citing this person, who, kindly, they say, has made the journey to Europe far cheaper than all other human smugglers.

We know little about Ghalaini, except that he seems to operate brazenly, without much legal repercussions from Lebanese authorities or the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which is, supposedly, the caretaker of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Something strange is going on.

An eerie video of a photo of one “Hajj Jamal Ghalaini” with a prayer on a backing track pops up occasionally on Facebook. The voice is that of an allegedly religious sheikh, praying for the well-being of the man in the photo for saving the Palestinian refugee youth of Lebanon by facilitating their departure to Europe.

The video would have been just another odd social media post, were it not for the fact that Ghalaini is a real person, with his name recurring in the ongoing tragedy of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Many have credited their successful “escape” from the country to this person who, they say kindly, has made the journey to Europe far cheaper than all other smugglers of desperate human beings.

We know little about Ghalaini, except that he seems to operate brazenly, without many legal repercussions from the Lebanese authorities or the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the supposed caretaker of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Israeli propaganda and its docile Western media relays presented the operation as a large-scale military offensive that would strike a huge blow to the Party of God, as if the Zionist entity had entered Lebanese territory (or was about to do so), whether on land or underground. A speech by the Hezbollah Secretary General was announced for the same day by the Israeli and Western media, which would have seemed to confirm the importance of the Israeli operation. And given Hezbollah's silence, it was ultimately said that this silence was due to the shock in which the Lebanese Resistance found itself after this surprise operation that would have ruined its most secret plans.

The Lebanese Army and UNIFIL went on alert Monday after the Israeli army rolled out 200 meters of barbed wire along the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel, the state-run National News Agency reported.

All the signs suggest that the terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing the Middle East towards instability and the brink of an all-out war. They also suggest that the coming days and weeks may witness serious developments that no one can foresee or predict accurately.

There are many Israeli analysts and writers who believe that the Israeli Prime Minister’s remarks and plans are designed to eliminate or rather alleviate the enormous internal pressures to which he is being subjected, especially the bribery accusations against him and his wife and the police recommendation that he be investigated by the attorney general. This is not the first time that the police have made such a recommendation, and it seems like it won’t be the last.

IDF troops operate beyond fence with Lebanon to place equipment to detect Hezbollah tunnels

“There is not a single point in the occupied territories out of reach of Hezbollah’s missiles,” Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem said.

With Israel focusing on decreasing Iran’s presence in Syria and neutralizing Hezbollah’s precision-guided missiles and terrorism tunnels from Lebanon, it has no interest in an escalation now with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

At the same time, Netanyahu said at the regular meeting of Likud minister that precedes the weekly cabinet meeting, “If there is no choice, we are today in a situation to do much more in a military campaign in Gaza if needed, because we are taking advantage of the time to prepare. The security cabinet has already received an initial briefing.”

The Lebanese army has strengthened its troops’ presence on the country’s southern border town of Meiss Ej Jabal in light of Israel’s recent actions near the United Nations-demarcated Blue Line between the two countries, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported yesterday.

NNA said that the current security situation at the country’s southern borders was “notably strained,” explaining that there were around sixty Israeli soldiers as well as military tanks deployed across the area.

The Israeli military, the agency added, “continues to inspect the area through its drones which has been flying over the area.”

Israeli troops have fired warning shots near the border with Lebanon in light of a recent operation by the Israeli military to block what it claims are tunnels the Hezbollah resistance movement has dug into the occupied territories.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that Israeli forces had shot in the air across from Meiss Ej Jabal village in the Marjeyoun district of the southern Lebanese province of Nabatieh on Saturday, after they were “surprised” by an army patrol that had been obscured by a thick fog.

The Israeli army, however, claimed that it had opened fire at Hezbollah activists.

With the next election around the corner, the Israeli prime minister is manufacturing a conflict with Hezbollah to distract from his other failures

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there is a “reasonable possibility” that the Israeli military may have to conduct operations inside Lebanon territory. This move will go in the framework of the ongoing Operation Northern Shield, which is aimed at discovering and neutralizing Hezbollah cross-border tunnels.

Netanyahu also revealed that Israel will call for a U.N. Security Council meeting soon to demand a condemnation of the alleged Hezbollah actions.

“Israel expects an unequivocal condemnation of Hezbollah, the imposition of additional sanctions on Iran, a condemnation from the Lebanese government and a demand that it stops giving its approval for the use of its territory for these attacks against Israel,” Netanyahu said.

So far, Operation Northern Shield has been carried out on the Israeli side of the contact line only. However, Hezbollah already put its forces on high alert and warned Israel that it’s ready to respond to any aggression.

Israel announced yesterday morning a military and engineering operation, which it dubbed “Operation Northern Shield”, aimed at destroying what it alleges are offensive tunnels belonging to the Lebanese resistance group, Hezbollah, on the border with Lebanon. This operation represents Israel’s new approach to war, which has been Israel’s favourite in recent years. It calls this approach “the War Between Wars” (WBW) which involves fighting battles with limited goals and avoids direct confrontation, instead relying on intelligence. It focuses on air force and special forces operations in a manner in line with the army’s 2015 strategic document. Why WBW and why “Operation Northern Shield”?