UN passes resolution urging Israel to pay Lebanon $850mn over oil spill
The United Nations General Assembly Second Committee has overwhelmingly approved a draft resolution that urges Israel to pay Lebanon over $850 million in compensation for a major oil spill during the regime’s 2006 war on the Arab country.

The committee passed the draft titled “Oil slick on Lebanese shores” in a recorded vote of 158 in favor and 9 against, with 6 abstentions.

Here we go as predicted: the Lebanese central bank attempts to prevent a "panic mode" scramble on the part of the public to remove all deposits, and the recently imposed (unofficial) regulations geared toward staving off capital flight are predictably failing fast, per Reuters:

“Clients with guns have entered banks and security guards have been afraid to speak to them as when people are in a state like this you don’t know how people will act.”

Lebanon's private banks reopened a week ago on Friday following a two-week closure due to massive anti-government protests which created gridlock across the country's main cities, including closure of other public institutions such as schools.

The World Bank weighed in on Friday, urging leaders in Beirut to form new Cabinet within a week, citing risks to Lebanon's stability as "deeply concerning," according to the AP.

As governments in Iraq and Lebanon stagger and stumble under huge waves of popular protest, powerful factions loyal to Iran are pushing to quash political upheaval which challenges Tehran’s entrenched influence in both countries.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri has resigned and the government of Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has been pushed to the brink of collapse.

Both governments have enjoyed backing from the West. But they have also relied on the support of political parties affiliated with powerful Iran-backed Shi’ite armed groups, keeping allies of Tehran in key posts.

That reflects the relentless rise of Iranian influence among Shi’ite communities across the Middle East, since Tehran formed the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982 and after Saddam Hussein was toppled in Iraq in 2003.

Amid recent statements by both Iranian and Hezbollah leaders accusing the United States of hijacking the massive anti-corruption protests which have gridlocked Lebanon for over the past two weeks, the White House has made the dramatic and unexpected move of freezing US military aid to the Lebanese Army.

The money, part of a military aid package totaling $105 million, had been approved by Congress and the State Department, and requested by the Pentagon. Interestingly, proponents of the package argued that it would allow the Lebanese Army to grow more independent, making it less cooperative with Hezbollah.

According to Reuters the aid was frozen two days following Tuesday's resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who in a parting speech admitted he'd "reached a dead end" amid the protests which have reportedly involved one million people, or up to 25% of Lebanon's total population, and further called on "all Lebanese to protect civil peace".

A major incident has unfolded along Lebanon's southern border with Israel on Thursday involving an Israeli drone. Hours ago Lebanese media reported that Hezbollah operatives shot down an Israeli aircraft, identified as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), likely with an anti aircraft missile, specifically a MANPAD (or man-portable air-defense system).

Tires are burning, smoke is rising towards the sky. It is October, the 18th day of the month, the capital city of Lebanon, in the past known as the “Paris of the East”, is covered in smoke.

For years I was warning that the country governed by corrupt, indifferent elites, could not hold together, indefinitely.

For all those five years when I was calling Beirut home, things were going down the drain. Nothing was improving: almost no public transportation, electricity shortages, contaminated and erratic water supply. Periodically, garbage has been piling up along the streets and suburban roads. Once an airplane lands and the doors open, the terrible stench of garbage welcomes us, residents of Beirut, back home.

Almost everyone knew that all this could not continue like this, forever.

Exactly two years ago, Saudi Arabia’s firebrand State Minister for Gulf Affairs, Thamer Al-Sabhan, called for “toppling Hezbollah”, promising “astonishing” developments in “the coming days”, whilst maintaining that the issue was not about bringing down the Lebanese government, despite the fact that Hezbollah forms part of it. Five days later, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who holds dual Lebanese-Saudi citizenship, announced his “shock” resignation in a statement from the Saudi capital, Riyadh. So much for not seeking to create anarchy.

In citing his reasons for his short-lived resignation (he resumed his post after almost three weeks’ captivity in the Kingdom), Hariri cited in a televised speech Iranian interference in Lebanon, referring to Hezbollah as “Iran’s arm” and a “state within a state”. Clichéd Saudi rhetoric, no doubt dictated to him by his abductors.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Trump administration wants political leaders in Lebanon to rapidly create a new government in the wake of the resignation of the country’s prime minister, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

"In light of Prime Minister [Saad] Hariri’s resignation, the United States calls on Lebanon’s political leaders to urgently facilitate the formation of a new government that can build a stable, prosperous, and secure Lebanon that is responsive to the needs of its citizens," Pompeo said on Tuesday.https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=images+yemeni+children%2C+dead+or+dying+from+saudi+airstrikes&qpvt=Images%3a++Yemeni+children%2c+dead+or+dying+from+Saudi+Airstrikes&form=IGRE&first=1&cw=1129&ch=597

Embattled Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has submitted his resignation as people remain on the streets across Lebanon for the thirteenth day of anti-government demonstrations against the country’s economic crisis.

“I have reached a dead end today. I will head to the Baabda Palace to submit the government's resignation to President Michel Aoun,” Hariri said as he addressed the Lebanese nation in a televised speech on Tuesday evening.

“Posts are not important; what’s important is the country's dignity and safety,” he added, calling upon people from all strata of the Lebanese society to preserve the stability and security of the country.

Hariri highlighted that he wants to make a “positive shock,” saying, “No one is bigger than his country.”

He also told Lebanese political parties that “It is our responsibility to protect Lebanon.

Under the constitution, Hariri’s cabinet would stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed.

Under the bright sun and facing the sea, over 2,000 protesters gathered on Sunday in Sour, a coastal city in south Lebanon known in English as Tyre. The mood was cheerful, people came with friends and family, all carrying a Lebanese flag.

“The people want the fall of the regime,” they chanted to music.

Protesters are here for the fourth day in a row. Like in the rest of the country, the mobilisation started on Thursday night after the government announced it would impose a $0.20 daily tax on internet calls from apps such as WhatsApp.

A senior Iranian military commander hailed the country’s deterrence system as one that has helped keep enemies at bay and offset economic pressures exerted on the Islamic Republic by the US and its allies over the past year.

The chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has cautioned Israel against waging a new war, saying any such “mistake” would lead to annihilation.

To prove the point, Major General Hossein Salami, when taking the floor at a meeting of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei with senior commanders of the IRGC on Wednesday, stressed that Tel Aviv is no longer viewed as a threat due to an upgrade in his country’s deterrence capacity.

“Any new war will lead to the total disappearance of this regime from the world’s political geography”, he uttered, adding that Israel is well aware any small mistake “will be its last”.

The neocons are not about to give up and admit defeat. Due primarily to Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, the presence of the Islamic State is now considerably reduced in Syria.

This is, of course, unacceptable for the neocons and Trump’s State Department, so last week Sec. State Pompeo accused Syria once again of using chemical weapons.

There is no evidence this incident occurred. This is the case with all of the supposed chemical attacks in Syria.

From The Guardian, May 22, 2019.

The spokesman for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's administration has confirmed that Saudi leaders have been sending messages to Iran's president through a head of state, though refraining to give any details on the nature of those messages.

Ali Rabiei made the remarks during his weekly press briefing in Tehran on Monday, when he was asked about reports denoting that the Saudi leadership has been sending messages to Iran's chief executive.

“Yes, this is true that they have sent messages to Mr. Rouhani through a head of state,” Rabiei noted, adding, “We must see signs of it [Saudi’s goodwill] without any ambiguity, and the first sign of it is to stop the aggression against Yemen and put an end to the massacre of Yemenis.”

in his interview with 60 Minutes, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tried to do some damage control on the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, and the ongoing war in Yemen. The focus ultimately was brought back to the Saudis’ favorite topic, Iran.

While President Trump has said that the US is not interested in a war with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir, took to a UN meeting to suggest that US military options are still being considered.

While it seems a bit presumptive for the Saudi FM to decide to speak to US policy, his comments that US patience is “not inexhaustible” seems to be directed both at threatening Iran, and at trying to get the rest of the world on board with the conflict.

Al-Jubeir says that the UN report on the attack will be available soon, and that there is a whole list of options, including military options, still being considered, with him wanting to mobilize international support for what is to come.

Published: September 24, 2019
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SOURCE: MINT PRESS
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran are escalating to new heights, drawing the United States into a confrontation with the Islamic Republic after a sophisticated attack targeted Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil facility — the largest oil processing facility in the world — knocking out half of the country’s oil capacity, or more than 5 million barrels a day, and leaving the oil fields in flames.

The attack was nothing the Kingdom had seen before or expected: According to U.S. and Saudi intel, 18 drones and seven cruise missiles were launched and went undetected by both American and Saudi radar systems. The weaponry even went unnoticed by the U.S. military base nearby, the Prince Sultan Airbase, which is guarded by an American Patriot missile defense system and over 500 U.S. military personnel.

Though President Trump has downplayed the idea of war with Iran over the past couple of days, the actual decision is to be made at a high-profile meeting, either Thursday or Friday depending according to reports.

Trump will be joined by a number of national security officials and other aides, and will be presented with a wide array of options by the Pentagon. Options are said to range from full-scale war to a simple cyberattack.

Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was very clear about the Pentagon not pushing any specific agenda on this matter, saying the response would be purely a “political judgement.”

Among Trump’s officials, Pompeo is seen as the one pushing hardest for a military response. He’s been in Saudi Arabia meeting with officials there, and probably will come back all the more hawkish.

After arriving at the Beirut airport on my way to Damascus for a conference of union representatives, I myself personally experienced just how much the Lebanese people totally hate and resent the presence of those pesky Zionists hovering around their southern border, always up to no good.

Every Israeli prime minister – not least Benjamin Netanyahu – understands that a military entanglement with Hezbollah, Lebanon’s armed Shia movement on Israel’s northern border, is a dangerous wager, especially during an election campaign.

It was Shimon Peres who lost to Netanyahu in 1996, weeks after the former prime minister had incensed Israel’s Palestinian minority – a fifth of the population – by savagely attacking Lebanon in a futile bid to improve his military, and electoral, standing.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said yesterday that Tel Aviv will continue targeting Iran and Hezbollah, local news site Arutz Sheva reported.

“Iran is advancing regional terror and we are working to foil it everywhere possible. In order to do that, we need to remove Iran’s legitimacy, and that’s what the prime minister did,” Katz said, referring to Benjamin Netanyahu revealing details of secret Iranian nuclear sites.

“We will continue to fight Iran and Hezbollah, even if it is not comfortable for [Blue and White leader MK] Yair Lapid and his friends,” he added.

He continued: “Lapid supported Hezbollah when he claimed that Israel was responsible for Hezbollah’s attacks.”

New elections were called after Netanyahu failed to cobble together enough support for reelection as prime minister. He remains interim PM.

On September 17, Israelis go to the polls again to elect a prime minister and Knesset members.

Ten parties are competing for seats. Polls show Netanyahu-led Likud and Benny Gantz/Yair Lapid’s Blue and White party are each projected to win 31 of 120 Knesset seats, according to polls.

Throughout Jewish state history, Israeli coalitions governed, no single party ever winning a majority on its own.

Today extremist right-wing parties dominate Israel’s political landscape, reflecting hardline rule, democracy pure fantasy as in the West.

Netanyahu is desperate to retain power ahead of an October pre-indictment hearing on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges, strong evidence against him.

Two weeks after the first significant Israel-Hezbollah exchange of fire since the 2006 war, Hezbollah announced Monday it has downed another Israeli drone in southern Lebanon, The Washington Post reports.

A Hezbollah media statement said the group had "confronted" the Israel drone with "appropriate weapons" near the southern town of Ramiyeh, indicating the small drone was shot down. The paramilitary group now has the drone in its possession.

However, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) denied its surveillance drone was shot down, only saying it had crashed in the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning. The IDF affirmed it had been conducting a reconnaissance mission in the area.

After pro-Iran allies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq were all hit in suspected Israeli strikes in the space of less than 24 hours, signalling a new aggression out of Tel Aviv and willingness to risk yet another major Middle East war, Arab capitals are now alerting their armed forces to be on a war footing.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Monday condemned the "Israeli assault on the southern suburbs of Beirut" and told the country's United Nations Special Coordinator, that the recent spate of drone strikes on Lebanon amount to a "declaration of war".

SOURCE: WBTV.COM
NORTH CAROLINA (Mark Price/Charlotte Observer) - A series of Special Forces military training exercises -- including gunfire with blanks -- is being staged across 21 North Carolina counties starting Aug. 30, and the Army is telling the public not to be alarmed at the suspicious-looking activity.

Known as Robin Sage training, the unconventional warfare exercises can be likened to live-action role playing in the extreme, with hostile engagement playing out between Special Forces students, volunteer civilians and soldiers out of Fort Bragg. It continues through Sept. 12, said a press release.

Heavily populated counties like Wake, Cumberland and Union counties are among training sites, according to the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg.

The students will match wits with more seasoned soldiers, who will “act as realistic opposing forces and guerrilla freedom fighters,” officials said in a release.

UK ordered Lebanese development bodies to ban both the political and military wings of Hezbollah in order to continue receiving economic aid, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported yesterday.

In a document dated February, the UK Ministry of International Development said: “The British government is dedicated to expand its ban on Hezbollah to include its political and military wing; therefore, anybody who is to benefit or cooperate with us must ban political and military wing and members of Hezbollah.”

The letter, which noted that Hezbollah’s sovereignty has widely increased in the Arab region, stated that dealing with Hezbollah or joining it is a punishable crime in the UK.

Lebanon accused Israel on Tuesday of threatening its civilian infrastructure after Israel told the United Nations Security Council that Iran was exploiting the Port of Beirut to smuggle weapons to the Hezbollah movement, reports Reuters.

Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said that in 2018 and 2019, “Israel found that Iran and the Quds Force have begun to advance the exploitation of the civilian maritime channels, and specifically the Port of Beirut.”

“The Port of Beirut is now the Port of Hezbollah,” Danon told the 15-member Security Council. Israel sees Hezbollah, against which it fought a month-long war in 2006, as the biggest threat on its borders.

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.

View image on Twitter

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: