Prime Minister Hassan Diab was appointed to his post in January 2020, succeeding Saad Hariri. Diab’s short time in office has been racked with instability from events mostly out of his control, starting with the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying economic crisis, and culminating in the August 4 explosion in the port of Beirut.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has called for new parliamentary elections, saying they are the only way to take the country out of its current crisis.

“We cannot get out of this structural crisis without holding early parliamentary elections,” the independent Sunni politician said Saturday in a televised address.

Diab clarified that he would be ready to continue carrying out his duties for the next two months until all of Lebanon’s political parties can agree on how to proceed.

The protests are taking place in the aftermath of a huge blast at Beirut's port on Tuesday, which has killed at least 158 people and left some 5,000 injured and 300,000 homeless.

Demonstrations resumed in the Lebanese capital earlier in the day, with protesters demanding the resignation of the government and social reforms. Protests have already been marred by violence, with demonstrators throwing projectiles and police firing tear gas.

The number of people injured in ongoing clashes between police and protesters in central Beirut has climbed to 490, according to local media reports.

The Lebanese capital descended into chaos on Saturday in the wake of Tuesday’s massive explosion in Beirut’s port, which killed at least 157 people, injured over 5,000 others and displaced 300,000 more. Demonstrators are calling for the nation’s government to resign.

A Sputnik Arabic correspondent in downtown Beirut has filmed dramatic footage of the situation in capital amid ongoing clashes between protesters and security forces.

Protesters in Beirut occupied government ministries, set fires and faced off against security forces Saturday in an outpouring of anger directed at Lebanon's leaders following the huge blast that ripped through the city earlier this week.

As the battles raged, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab delivered an address to the nation that left little doubt that the political establishment intends to dig in. He offered early elections and said he needed two more months to secure an agreement among the country's political factions.

New footage shows the horrifying moment when Lebanon’s capital, Beirut was hit by a devastating shockwave from a deadly explosion at the city’s port. More than 60 people are still believed to be missing.

Rescue teams continue to clear the rubble in search of victims of the two blasts that devastated much of Beirut on Tuesday.

The short clip obtained by RT’s Ruptly video agency starts with bewildered residents staring at the giant mushroom cloud of thick smoke left by the first explosion at the capital’s port area. A few seconds later the second, more loud and powerful blast occurs, sending an intense shockwave far into the city streets.

Police in Beirut fired teargas and rubber bullets at thousands of people who had turned out to demand accountability for one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has seen. They also shot live ammunition in the air, in an attempt to disperse the furious crowds.

Driven by anger at the corruption and incompetence that appears to have fostered Tuesday’s tragedy, people gathered from early afternoon in the city’s central Martyrs Square, where activists have erected a mock gallows for Lebanon’s top politicians.

The protesters chanted: “The people want the fall of the regime,” and held posters saying: “Leave, you are all killers.” More than 150 people died in the blast, about 6,000 were injured and at least 60 are still missing, according to the health ministry.

As the dust from the explosion settles, its political fallout is just beginning to be felt, reviving a protest movement that last year toppled the prime minister but left the system he presided over almost intact.

Angry Lebanese plan major protest on Saturday, one day before team investigating explosion reports to cabinet.

Dozens of bags of fireworks were stored in the same hangar as thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate at Beirut’s port and may have been a decisive factor in igniting the explosive chemical compound that fuelled Tuesday’s huge explosion, a former port worker and other sources have told the Guardian.

As angry Lebanese plan a major protest in central Beirut on Saturday, scrutiny has focused on how 2,750 tonnes of the dangerous material could have been stored so close to residential neighbourhoods for years – despite repeated warnings of the risk it posed.

A former port worker, Yusuf Shehadi, told the Guardian he had been instructed by the Lebanese military to house the chemicals in warehouse 12 at the port despite repeated protests by other government departments.

Earlier, the Israeli air force struck facilities reportedly controlled by Hamas in the Gaza Strip after several explosive balloons had been launched from the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli military confirmed on Twitter that ?rocket alert sirens, which went off in northern Israel on Friday morning in the upper Galilee region, were a false alarm.

A leading Lebanese opposition figure has blamed Hezbollah, along with the country's 'corrupt' government, for the devastating explosion in Beirut which capsized a cruise ship and has so far claimed 137 lives.

Bahaa Hariri, whose father, Prime Minister Rafiq, was assassinated in 2005, said last night everyone in the city knew Hezbollah controlled Beirut's port and airport and it was inconceivable that the authorities did not know the deadly ammonium nitrate was stored in a warehouse there.

Speaking for the first time Mr Hariri, 54, said: 'The question we have to ask is how come for six years this combustible material was allowed to remain in the middle of this city of two million people?'

Many people have been injured after an explosion rocked Beirut, Lebanon, causing significant damage to houses in the nearby area, LBC TV reports, citing the health minister.

A powerful explosion has taken place near a port in Beirut, Lebanon, a Sputnik correspondent has reported.

According to Sputnik’s correspondent, the explosion was preceded by a small pop, with black and white smoke appearing five minutes after.

The blast was so powerful that the windows of surrounding houses and shops were destroyed kilometres away from the epicentre, the report said.

At the moment of the explosion in the port of Beirut on 4 August, Professor Andreas Theophanous was at his home in Nicosia. His first thought was that there has been an earthquake. After checking online, he found out that Beirut had been shook by a large explosion.

Sputnik spoke to Mr Theophanous, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Nicosia and President of the Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs, to discuss the blast and its economic and political repercussions for Lebanon and the wider region.

Sputnik: Cyprus experienced a somewhat similar incident in 2011, when a large amount of ammunition and military explosives self-detonated at the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base. What lessons has Cyprus learned from the tragedy that can be applied in the case of Beirut?

The massive explosion that hit the Lebanese capital's port damaged over half of Beirut’s buildings and roughly 300,000 people have been made homeless, the city’s Governor Marwan Abboud has said.

Russia's Roscosmos state corporation has shared satellite photos of Beirut's port before and after the apocalyptic explosion that destroyed much of the city. The photos were taken by Russia's Canopus-B satellite, developed by the All-Russia Research Institute of Electromechanics (NPP VNIIEM), and designed for remote sensing of the Earth.

The Lebanese capital was rocked by a massive explosion on Tuesday that struck the city's port, leaving at least 80 dead and thousands injured. It also caused extensive damage to buildings, resulting in hundreds of people being left homeless.

A horrifying video has emerged online that shows a church mass in Beirut be interrupted by a powerful blast in the city's port, the shockwave of which caused the windows of the building to shatter.

In the footage, the priest is seen performing a ritual in front of the altar when the lights go out and the building begins to shake. A few seconds later, the church windows are blown in, causing the priest and the congregation to flee for their lives.

The explosion that devastated Beirut has been linked to a mishandled ammonium nitrate cargo confiscated from a foreign ship. Now a former crew member tells RT the vessel, owned by a dodgy businessman, was a disaster in the making.

Some 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate – a highly explosive fertilizer – went up in a terrifying blast in Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanese officials have said. The mushroom-shaped explosion left a wasteland where the city port stood, turning the surrounding buildings into ruins and killing more than 100 people. Thousands of others have been injured in a kilometers-wide radius. Personnel from the port authorities have been arrested while a probe has been launched into the mishandling of the dangerous material. But how did this ludicrously large cache end up in the Beirut port in the first place?

Iran sent its first and second batch of medical and humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, after a massive explosion in Beirut which has killed more than 100 people and wounded over four thousand others so far. The blast damaged buildings across the capital , sending a giant cloud into the sky.

The number of fatalities and those wounded is expected to rise as search and rescue operations are still underway. Some reports say up to 300,000 have also been left homeless by Beirut explosion.

Speaking to Press TV, the Iranian Red Crescent Society officials said they will send more humanitarian assistance to Lebanon in the coming days and by any means necessary. They also said they have offered the option of treating some of the injured in the Iranian hospitals.

22-member medical team, including general practitioners, orthopedists, anesthesiologists, operating room specialists, pediatricians, neurologists, nurses and field hospital experts were also dispatched to Lebanon on Wednesday.

Lebanon’s main grain silo at Beirut port was destroyed in a blast, leaving the nation with less than a month’s reserves of the grain but enough flour to avoid a crisis, the economy minister said on Wednesday.

Some 250,000 people have become homeless and a hospital was destroyed in an explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, the city's governor Marwan Abboud told the local MTV Channel.

Initial reports suggested that the explosion may have been caused by an incident in the firework storage area. However, later, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate, which is typically used as an agricultural fertilizer, had been stored for six years at a port warehouse without proper safety measures, “endangering the safety of citizens.”

This statement was backed by General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, who said a “highly explosive material” had been confiscated years earlier and stored in the warehouse, just minutes’ walk from Beirut’s shopping and nightlife districts.

A huge rescue operation and an international aid effort got underway Wednesday, less than 24 hours after much of Beirut was buried by rubble and choked by smoke in a colossal explosion Tuesday afternoon.

Lebanese health minister Hamad Hasan said 135 people have been killed and 5,000 injured in the explosion. Dozens of people are still missing.

Those figures look set to rise with hospitals overwhelmed and victims still trapped underneath debris.

"There is no word to describe the horror of the catastrophe that occurred in Beirut yesterday," Lebanese President Michel Aoun said during an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the Lebanese News Agency reported.

President Trump on Wednesday hedged his comments from the previous day that the massive explosion in Beirut was caused by a bomb – saying that the blast that left more than 70 dead and thousands injured could have been an accident.

A confidential highly-informed Israeli source has told me that Israel caused the massive explosion at the Beirut port earlier today which killed over 100 and injured thousands. The bombing also virtually leveled the port itself and caused massive damage throughout the city.

Israel targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot at the port and planned to destroy it with an explosive device. Tragically, Israeli intelligence did not perform due diligence on their target. Thus they did not know (or if they did know, they didn’t care) that there were 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a next door warehouse. The explosion at the arms depot ignited the next door warehouse, causing the catastrophe that resulted.

It is, of course, unconscionable that Israeli agents did not determine everything about their target including what was in its immediate vicinity. The tragedy Israel has wreaked is a war crime of immense magnitude.

Former Israeli Member of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin gleefully hailed yesterday’s devastating explosion in Beirut as a “gift” from God in time for the Jewish festival Tu B’Av.

Feiglin posted on Facebook that he thanked God that the deadly blast took place in Beirut, and claimed it was just in time for Tu B’Av, which is a festival of love, and in modern times has become a romantic Jewish holiday for dancing, handing out flowers and singing.

“Today is Tu B’Av, a day of joy, and a true and huge thank you to G-d and all the geniuses and heroes really (!) who organized for us this wonderful celebration in honor of the day of love.”

Lebanon has placed every official responsible for the security of Beirut's port for the last six years under house arrest as it investigates a massive explosion which has devastated the city.

The country's political leaders vowed those responsible for the tragedy would 'pay the price', but customs officials pointed the finger of blame back at them - saying they were repeatedly warned of the danger but failed to act.

It came as an astonishing photo emerged, purporting to show the dock's Warehouse 12 filled with ammonium nitrate - with the highly explosive chemical stored in simple construction sacks with no other protection in place.

Lebanon's health ministry has raised the death toll to over 73 killed, including 3,700 wounded, after late afternoon a blast centered on Beirut's port unleashed a massive seismic shock and explosion that leveled an entire district of the city and was felt as far away as Cyprus in the Mediterranean.

Later in the evening Lebanon's Prime Minister announced that the explosions were caused by an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate left unsecured for 6 years in a warehouse. This came on the heels of a formal Israeli denial that it had anything to do with it, which also seemed be echoed by Hezbollah officials.

With the official consensus growing that the massive explosion was horrible accident due to neglect, President Trump's words on the tragedy once again presented that it could be something more. He said early in the evening that after meeting with top military commanders: "They seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind."

President Trump on Tuesday said that U.S. military generals have informed him that the massive explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut earlier in the day – leaving more than 70 people dead – was likely caused by a bomb.

“I've met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that this was not some kind of manufacturing explosion type of an event,” Trump said. “They seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.”

The blast flattened much of the city's port, while damaging buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. Along with the more than 70 deaths, at least 3,000 others were injured.

It appears confirmed that the source of the massive blast that rocked Beirut and grabbed the world's attention was centered on a fireworks depot.

Via AlMasdarNews.com

A Hebrew-language channel stated on Wednesday night that the Israeli army expects an attack by Hezbollah during the Islamic Eid Al-Adha holiday.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation, Kann, reported that Israel fears a “second attack” by Hezbollah in the next 48 hours, that is, during the celebration of Eid al-Adha.

The news channel reported that, based on this expectation, the Israeli army has strengthened its forces in the north near the Lebanese and Syrian borders, deploying advanced missile systems, special rockets and intelligence-gathering capabilities, for fear of a reaction from Hezbollah, after one of its members was killed in an airstrike on July 20th in Damascus.

The Israel-based news channel quoted a “Lebanese diplomat in Beirut” – whom they did not name – as saying that Hezbollah does not want a comprehensive escalation with Israel, but that it is looking for a real retaliation.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday they had detected individuals deemed suspicious on the border with Lebanon, dubbed the "Blue Line" to mark the color of helmets of UN peacekeepers who were deployed there after Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.

On Monday, the Israeli forces said they had thwarted an attempt by what they called "terrorists" to infiltrate the country, referring to Lebanon's Hezbollah paramilitary troops.

"Several suspects were spotted at a security fence along the Blue Line in Western Galilee shortly ago," the IDF said in a press release.

Along with Iranian military advisors and Russian air support, Hezbollah fighters are involved in aiding Syria combat US aggression, including its ISIS, al-Nusra and other jihadist proxies.

Israeli airstrikes in Syria killed Hezbollah fighters before. Its leadership vowed to retaliate against Israeli aggression when any of its personnel are harmed.

For days, tensions along the Lebanese/Israeli border remain heightened.

On Monday, Lebanese Al-Manar television reported the following:

Israel’s IDF “claim(ed) that “Hezbollah attempted to carry out an infiltration operation and that the Israeli army frustrated the attack and killed a number of its fighters,” adding:

“Hezbollah then issued a statement to refute the Israeli claims and stress that the Israeli army unilaterally opened fire for fear of Hezbollah response to the killing of the martyr Ali Mohsen in the latest raid on Syria.”

“Americans should not blame others in vain,” Iranian general Esmail Gha’ani has declared, “this is a fire they have lit and today has engulfed them.” Gha’ani, a veteran military commander who heads the Quds Force, the branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for extraterritorial operations, was speaking about the massive fire that has overtaken a U.S. navy vessel in San Diego.

The provocative remarks come amid signs of a new level of covert warfare being waged against Iran. The country has been beset by its own mysterious infernos and explosions, including at parks, medical clinics, power plants, ports, factories, a missile production compound, and a nuclear facility. The latter has been attributed to Israel by a source speaking to the New York Times. The incidents also come as the Trump administration has greenlighted the CIA to target Iranian infrastructure with cyberweapons.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanese Hezbollah fighters not to test his military, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz has promised a powerful response, after a bout of shelling on the Israel/Lebanon border.

Israeli forces opened fire on the disputed Shebaa Farms area along the Lebanese border on Monday, responding to what they said was an infiltration attempt by a “terrorist cell.” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops say they blasted the infiltrators with machine guns and tanks, and managed to thwart the incursion.

Although witnesses from Lebanon contacted by Reuters verified the Israeli story, Hezbollah officials denied an infiltration attempt, saying in a statement that Israeli forces had taken “nervous action” and fired upon the Shebaa Farms themselves.

Submitted by South Front,

The Middle East is rapidly moving towards a new round of confrontation between the US-Israeli bloc and Iranian-led Shiite forces...

On July 26, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) deployed M109 Doher howitzers near the separation line with Lebanon. The deployment of howitzers became the latest in a series of broad measures employed by the IDF near Lebanon recently. Earlier, the 13th “Gideon” Infantry Battalion of the IDF’s elite 1st “Golani” Brigade reinforced troops near the border. The number Israeli Hermes 450 drone reconnaissance flights also significantly increased over southern Lebanon. Additional IDF units were also deployed in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. On top of this, the IDF announced that it will hold the Lebanese government responsible “for all actions emanating from Lebanon”.

Just this past weekend, on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put Syria and Lebanon on notice, saying that any and all attacks for provocations along the border would result in a military response.

Netanyahu further outlined that the governments would bear responsibility. The remarks made at his weekly cabinet meeting seemed particularly aimed at Hezbollah. He said this was part of Israel's “consistent policy to not allow Iran to entrench militarily on our northern border” — this in reference to Lebanese Hezbollah, which is widely seen as but an arm of the Ayatollah. And on Monday there are already reports of shots fired along the Israeli-Lebanese border, something that's been somewhat rare of late. The AP reports:

Lebanon says Israeli reconnaissance drones have entered the country’s airspace and flown over the southern parts of the Arab country more than two dozen times in flagrant violation of a UN Security Council resolution.

The Lebanese Army said in a statement that the unmanned aerial aircraft crossed into Lebanese skies at around 5:50 a.m. local time (0250 GMT) on Friday and left at around 12 p.m. They hovered over southern Lebanon and conducted 20 missions.

The statement added that Israeli aircraft violated Lebanese airspace 9 times on Saturday.

All violations were in a circular flight format and are being monitored in coordination with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), it said.

“Enemy forces have flown unmanned air vehicles with observational purposes, and flown them over the southern Hula province," Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.

People in Lebanon are once again queuing in front of bakeries in the hopes of getting their much needed share of bread, as the country spirals into an unprecedented economic crisis.
The national currency has collapsed, leading the Lebanese pound to lose more than 70 percent of its value - pompting renewed protests across the country on Sunday night.

Over the past few days, videos have surfaced on social media of Lebanese citizens crowding bakeries, and even bread trucks, to battle for loaves of bread.

Furnace owners have refrained from selling their bread to shops due to alleged high production costs according to fluctuation in the currency’s exchange rates, Arabi21 reported.

Activists in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city north of Beirut, called for protests on Monday, which have resulted in the closure of shops.

Local residents tweeted images of the onece-bustling markets empty, with the stalls removed and shuttered shop fronts on Monday morning.

It’s looking like a long, hot summer, as tensions increase between Washington and Tehran, US elections approach, and the “maximum pressure” exercised by the US escalates. After Syria, it is Lebanon’s turn. The country’s financial failure has reached the point of no return. The US is trying to attribute the consequences of the severe economic situation to Hezbollah, the strongest of Iran’s allies even if US officials claim otherwise. However, Iran and its ally have resolved that the Lebanese society to which Hezbollah belongs will not be bullied or pushed into famine. No one should be surprised to see Iranian ships docking at Latakia harbour to supply Lebanon with much needed food, energy and medical supplies.

The former Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said that Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah are pushing Israel to the brink.

In an interview with Israel's national Hebrew-language daily newspaper Maariv on Friday, the former Israeli Defense Minister had expressed his concern about Iran possessing enriched uranium, which he said is eight times the permitted amount according to the nuclear agreement, and that a month ago Iran successfully launched a spy satellite into orbit.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said during a televised speech Tuesday that new US sanctions would aim to starve Lebanon, stressing that the party would not submit to the latest “American move.”

At least nine people were killed Tuesday in Israeli attacks on a Syrian military base near the historic city of Palmyra. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the death toll, saying six of the slain were “not Syrian,” but were believed to be Lebanese.

Israeli attacks in Syria are common enough, and often target foreign Shi’ites, who irrespective of their country of origin will be labeled “Iranian” by Israeli officials. The Syrian government confirmed the attack, saying they’d intercepted several Israeli missiles.

Palmyra is not a major site of combat lately, so it’s not clear why Israel would attack it in the first place. Palmyra is an important historical site, and after years of complaining of damage ISIS might do there, its likely there will be a backlash if Israel damages anything as well.

A Beirut tribunal has dropped charges against an Israeli collaborator accused of overseeing the torture and killing of captives at a prison facility in southern Lebanon some two decades ago, in a verdict that the Hezbollah resistance movement and rights activists say was issued under pressure from the US.

Amer Fakhoury — a dual Lebanese-American national — was accused of murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and torture while presiding over Khiam Prison run by the Israeli-sponsored South Lebanon Army (SLA)militia group — formed by army defectors — during the regime’s 1982-2000 occupation of southern Lebanon.

Widely known as the ‘Butcher of Khiam,’ he fled Lebanon along with hundreds of other SLA members after the Lebanese army, backed by Hezbollah, drove Israel out of the country in 2000.

Lebanon announced Saturday it will default on its Eurobond debt for the first time in its history. The protest-racked country has seen a recent change in government, banks opened for merely about half of the past few months, strict controls on hard currency withdrawals and transfers abroad amid a liquidity crisis, a plummeting Lebanese Lira since October, a run on dollars, and crushing public debt which has lately blown up to nearly 170% of its gross domestic product (now about $89.5 billion).

Prime Minister Hassan Diab confirmed in public statements the bond payment of $1.2 billion due on Monday will not be paid: “The debt has become bigger than Lebanon can bear, and bigger than the ability of the Lebanese to meet interest payments,” he said in a televised address. “We are paying the price for the mistakes of the past years. Must we bequeath them to our children?”

SOURCE: ZERO HEDGE

A US department of defense employee has been arrested and charged with transmitting "highly sensitive classified" information to a foreign national with ties to the Lebanese Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

According to US federal prosecutors, 61-year-old Mariam Taha Thompson told a Lebanese man the names of foreign informants, as well as details of the information they provided to the United States - revealing some of the government’s most closely held secrets, according to the New York Times. Officials say Ms. Thompson endangered the lives of both sources and military personnel.

She was arrested at an overseas US base on February 27.

There was this moment during the State of the Union Address that I can’t stop thinking about.

When President Trump spoke to army wife Amy Wiliams during his speech and told her he’d arranged her husband’s return home from Afghanistan as a “special surprise,” it was difficult to watch.

Sgt. Townsend Williams then descended the stairs to reunite with his family after seven months of deployment. Congress cheered. A military family’s reunion — with its complicated feelings that are typically handled in private or on a base — was used for an applause line.

That gimmick was the only glimpse many Americans will get of the human reality of our wars overseas. There is no such window into the lives or suffering of people in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, or beyond.

That’s unacceptable. And so is the myth that Trump is actually ending the wars.

Sources within the “Axis of the Resistance” believe the next battle between Hezbollah and Israel, if ever it takes place, would be “controlled and not sporadic, with a focus on specific military objectives without damaging the infrastructure, on both sides”.

The sources consider Gaza as a precedent. In Gaza Palestinians and Israelis have fought many recent battles that lasted only a few days in which the objectives bombed were purely military. This is a new rule of engagement (ROE) regulating conflict between the belligerents. When Israel hits a non-military target, the Palestinian resistance responds by hitting a similar non-military target in Israel. The lesson extracted from the new ROE between Israel and the Palestinians is that every time exchanges of bombing go out of control, both sides understand they have to bring it back to an acceptable and equitable level, to limit damage and keep such mutual attacks from targeting civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must be channeling the spirit of Houdini as he continues to plot his escape from one of the most convoluted political dilemmas in Israel’s history.

It is no secret that Netanyahu’s political behavior is almost entirely shaped by his desire to survive in office for as long as possible in order to avoid possible jail time. But how long will the Israeli escape artist manage to survive, now that a date for his trial has already been set?

After months of bargaining with the country’s political elite, on one hand, and pleading to his own right-wing constituency on the other, Netanyahu has failed to create the necessary momentum that would render him immune from prosecution and secure his position at the helm of Israeli politics.

After failing to form a government following the April elections, Netanyahu has masterfully linked his fate as a Prime Minister to all of Israel’s affairs, internal and external.

SOURCE: RT
After emerging as the Democratic frontrunner in wake of Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, Bernie Sanders heads to Nevada leading in polls but facing new opposition: the Israel lobby and its vast cash reserves.
Despite being pipped at the post in Iowa by Pete Buttigieg (with the help of a malfunctioning voting app, his supporters claim), Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders came out victorious in last week’s New Hampshire primary. With the Nevada primary just a week away, a Morning Consult poll published this week put the progressive senator ten points ahead of Joe Biden, the former vice president and until now, the supposed frontrunner for the 2020 nomination.

While the news has energized Sanders’ supporters, it’s also motivated mainstream Democrats and establishment talking heads, who’ve taken to slamming Sanders as a “communist,” and a “left-wing version of Trump.”

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).

On 28-30 January, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) held its 13th annual international conference entitled "Strategic Assessment for Israel: A Look at the Coming Decade." INSS researcher, Retired Brig. General Dr Meir Elran, has shed light on Israel's strategic goals and outlined Israel's vision of Russia's role in the Middle East.

"War Games in the North" came as part of the INSS annual conference in the Smolarz Auditorium at Tel Aviv University with Israeli, American and Russian participants discussing various scenarios of a potential development of a conflict in the Middle East, involving Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Hezbollah and Iran and global players – the United States and Russia.

The participants in the military simulation came to the conclusion that all of the actors of the hypothetical conflict - in which Israel initiates attacks on Lebanon and Syria – would opt for de-escalation as no one is interested in an all-out war.

Lebanon’s capital Beirut has been plunged into chaos amid massive protests. Police struggled to contain the angry crowds with tear gas and water cannon, prompting President Michel Aoun to ask the military to intervene.
Aoun has asked the national army to restore peace and order on the streets of Beirut, as the city saw fierce clashes between protesters and security forces. Aoun called on the military to “protect the safety of peaceful protesters and of public and private property.”

Army storming the crowd with their reinforcements. Just more scare tactics. #Beirutpic.twitter.com/6u29chqyWs

— Samah Hadid ???? (@samahhadid) January 18, 2020
Crowds have taken to the streets of Beirut in a massive protest against Lebanon’s soaring debt, which stands at about $87 billion, equal to more than 150 percent of GDP. The public unrest is also fueled by an almost three-months-long power vacuum and by a crippling economic crisis.

Russian and Chinese warships joined Iran’s Navy and Revolutionary Guards vessels on Friday for four days’ worth of maritime exercises in the Gulf of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean, simulating search and rescue, anti-piracy and shooting drills.

The US Navy is concerned that the recent lull in hostilities with Iran following this summer’s string of escalatory actions in the form of tanker sabotage attacks, ship seizures and drone shootdowns may be repeated, Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has said.

“I think they’re going to continue to perform provocative actions over there,” Modly said, speaking to Reuters on Friday. “And I think they’ll look at every opportunity they can to do that,” he added, without offering any more details.

“There’s nothing that suggests to me, short of a regime change there, that you have a different tone set from the leadership, that would suggest to me that they’re going to stop doing what they’ve been doing,” Modly explained.

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

The Chief-of-Staff for the Israeli Armed Forces, Aviv Kochavi, said on Wednesday that Israel cannot allow Iran to station militarily in Iraq. According to Ynet News, Kochavi stated on the seventh anniversary of the death of the former Chief-of-Staff, Amnon Lipkin Shahak, that the Israeli army would never allow Iran to be stationed in Iraq.

“The Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Iraq… transfer advanced weapons there monthly. We cannot leave this situation without interference,” he said.

“In the coming war, we will have to attack with great force in populated areas and also target the state structure or the entity that allows terrorism to act against us,” Kochavi continued.

Of the 180 countries classified by Reporters Without Borders’ annual report on press freedom, seven Middle Eastern countries are listed at the bottom 10% category of the world’s worst violators.

In 2018, Israel, which often prides itself on being "the only democracy in the Middle East", ranked 88th, a hardly shocking realization, considering its constant targeting, killing, wounding and arresting of Palestinian journalists. The Palestinian Authority achieved an even worse rank, at 137th place. It is telling that not a single Middle Eastern country has made it to the top 30% rank.

In countries like Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, where independent monitoring of government behavior is almost entirely absent, hundreds of journalists simply disappear in the black hole of brutal prison systems – malnourished, medically neglected, and routinely tortured.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met for an hour and 45 minutes on the specifics of a proposed US-Israel defense pact. The pact amounts to a more or less direct US intervention in Israeli politics, after two elections failed to end with a government formed.

The Trump Administration had made no bones about preferring Netanyahu over his primary political rival Benny Gantz, and the pact seems to be pandering to that fact, since Gantz is opposed to the deal.

Netanyahu looks to be steering heavily into this US lifeline, arguing that the deal proves he needs to stay in power, and that in the event of a rotation government with Gantz, he’d have to be first because of his “unique” ties with the US.

The Israeli government has increased discretionary spending on settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory by 50 per cent over the last two years, reported the Jerusalem Post.

According to data published by settlement watchdog Peace Now, so-called “discretionary spending” “is expenditure by various ministries outside the general budget, including from the Interior, Housing, Education, and Energy and Water ministries, as well as the National Roads Authority”.

These funds are directed towards the construction of settlement housing units, as well as for roads inside the settlements, “buildings for educational, social and religious purposes, commercial centres and industrial parks”, the report added.

But while it’s fair to say Iran is involved in the Iran protests, if not the way Pompeo presents it, and tangentially involved in Iraq, opposing the protesters, Pompeo’s attempt to tie Iran to the Lebanon protests is plainly untrue.

Lebanon’s protest of the past month has seen protesters faulting the government for its inability to handle economic struggles, and chiefly the government’s inability to reliably provide electricity across the country.

Pompeo said Lebanese protesters “want Hezbollah and Iran out of their country,” which is simply not true. Indeed, the only politician that suffered from the protest movement was Prime Minister Hariri, a long-time political rival of Hezbollah.

In all three countries, the protests have been non-sectarian in nature, and despite Pompeo’s claims to the contrary, none of them have presented their protests are at all about removing the Ayatollahs from power.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
The Israeli government is aiming to increase the volume of Israel’s defence exports, reported Globes, which has revealed the main points of the plan for the first time.

The project, being overseen by the Defence Ministry’s International Defence Cooperation Directorate (SIBAT) led by Brigadier General (Res.) Yair Kulas, will begin to be rolled out in early 2020.

According to Globes, the plan is based on “focused seminars for senior commanders in foreign armies”, Israeli military “assistance for promoting sales of Israeli weapons”, and “subsidising small and medium-sized defence companies seeking to sell arms around the world”.

Speaking this week, Kulas said that SIBAT favours a major expansion of agreements between countries, resulting in significant deals for the large defence companies, especially Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.

Though banks reopened this week in Lebanon, with the country's financial institutions remaining front and center in massive anti-government protests amid accusations of corruption and wild mismanagement, withdrawal limits have now been made official by the country's Banks Association — previously unofficially enforced.

The formal controls now include limiting withdrawals to $1,000 per week, with transfers abroad only ambiguously defined necessary for “urgent matters”.

Yet the collective panic, driven by fears patrons won't be able to retrieve their deposits from banks, has only compounded, as now The Washington Post reports “Dollars have virtually disappeared.”

Though banks reopened this week in Lebanon, with the country's financial institutions remaining front and center in massive anti-government protests amid accusations of corruption and wild mismanagement, withdrawal limits have now been made official by the country's Banks Association — previously unofficially enforced.

The formal controls now include limiting withdrawals to $1,000 per week, with transfers abroad only ambiguously defined necessary for “urgent matters”.

Yet the collective panic, driven by fears patrons won't be able to retrieve their deposits from banks, has only compounded, as now The Washington Post reports “Dollars have virtually disappeared.”

YOSSI VERTER, HAARETZ, NOVEMBER 22, 2019

It was totally clear in his remarks Thursday: The embattled prime minister aims to accuse the legal system of launching a coup against him – and wait for the masses to follow his lead.

Not a smidgen of humility or regret did we hear from defendant Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night. Israel’s first sitting prime minister to be charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust neither bowed his head in shame nor gave any other indication of soul-searching.

Like any garden-variety criminal, he assailed the police investigators, the prosecutors and the attorney general in crude language and with boundless chutzpah. With his back to the wall, both figuratively and literally, and facing trial, maybe even prison, he gave shape to what has been written on the wall for three years now: He has no intention of going quietly and cutting his losses.

Source: Moon Over Alabama

The Attorney General of Israel just indicted Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in three cases. The announcement comes at a time of political stalemate. It might help to resolve it.

Israel had two parliament elections this year which both ended in a political stalemate. Neither Prime Minister Netanyahu of the Likud Party nor Blue and White coalition leader Benny Gantz managed to form a government. Both were unable to find enough additional votes to form a coalition and to gain a majority.

Now the parliament has 21 days to find a majority. It will likely fail and a third election seems inevitable.

Source: Moon Over Alabama

The Attorney General of Israel just indicted Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in three cases. The announcement comes at a time of political stalemate. It might help to resolve it.

Israel had two parliament elections this year which both ended in a political stalemate. Neither Prime Minister Netanyahu of the Likud Party nor Blue and White coalition leader Benny Gantz managed to form a government. Both were unable to find enough additional votes to form a coalition and to gain a majority.

Now the parliament has 21 days to find a majority. It will likely fail and a third election seems inevitable.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

The Iranian armed forces today launched a major air defence drill codenamed “Guardians of Velayat’s Sky-98” in the northeastern province of Semnan, local media reported.

Air Defence Brigadier General Alireza Sabahifard said yesterday that the manoeuvres were being held across an area of some 416,000 square kilometres and will simulate a conflict in the Gulf, especially over the Strait of Hormuz.

“If the enemy intends to invade, attack or even infringe on our country’s skyline, which is one of our red lines, we can deal with it,” he said.

The manoeuvres come as tensions between Iran and the United States and Saudi Arabia persist in the Gulf region.

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.