Beirut

From Budapest to Beirut to Tehran

Perspectives from Across the Pond

The road to the second Lebanon ceasefire

At midnight local time on April 17, a second ceasefire in as many years went into effect between Israel and Lebanon. Brokered, or to some degree imposed, by the United States, this cessation of hostilities...

How the Iran war is helping Lebanon and Israel tiptoe toward peace

One of the paradoxes of war is that it can jolt peacemakers into action when conventional diplomacy fails. That’s what appears to be underway right now between Israel and Lebanon.As a direct result...

Trump Announces 10-Day Ceasefire in Lebanon

Trump Announces Ceasefire: Following conversations with both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump announced on April...

Israel and Lebanon Hold Direct Talks in Washington as War With Hezbollah Continues

Talks Held in D.C.: Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted talks between delegations from Israel and Lebanon in Washington on April 14 — the first time the two countries had engaged...

How the UAE Is Cracking Down on Illicit Iranian Finance

Iran’s attacks on the Gulf state have created an opportunity to starve Iran’s proxy network of funds.

A breakdown of Israel’s heavy bombardment of Beirut on April 8

On the afternoon of April 8, Israel launched its deadliest and most intense wave of airstrikes in Beirut since the war with Hezbollah restarted in early March. Initial reports claimed that the Israel Defense...

U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Negotiations With Iran Do Not Extend to Hezbollah in Lebanon

“The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!” So declared President Donald Trump with regard to the representatives Iran dispatched to Pakistan to negotiate with  a U.S. team led...

Hezbollah at War: What Comes Next for Lebanon and the Region

Israel Launches Large Wave of Strikes Against Hezbollah

IDF Strikes Reported Against Multiple Hezbollah Positions: The IDF announced on April 8 that it had carried out the “largest attack across Lebanon” against Hezbollah targets...

Hezbollah Emerged from Iran’s Revolution, Not “Resistance” to Israel

A false claim, now common in Western media and academia, portrays Hezbollah as having emerged in response to Israel’s 1982 invasion and subsequent occupation of Lebanon. In reality, Hezbollah arose in...

5 Men Now Running Iran

The joint U.S.-Israeli campaign has eliminated the Islamic Republic’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, and his son and successor Mojtaba has yet to appear publicly. However, the regime remains intact. The...

Israeli goals in Lebanon war shift from imminently disarming Hezbollah to reestablishing South Lebanon Security Zone

The renewed Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah that began on March 2 is now over a month old, with little change in the overall picture or disposition of the main actors. However, Israeli officials...

Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker: April

Welcome back to the Trump Administration Foreign Policy Tracker. Once a month, we ask FDD’s experts and scholars to assess the administration’s foreign policy. They provide trendlines of very positive, positive, neutral, negative, or very negative for the areas they watch. ...

Lebanon declares Iranian ambassador-designate ‘persona non grata’ before Iranian missile explodes over Lebanese airspace

On March 24, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi announced that he had instructed his ministry’s secretary-general “to summon the Iranian Charge d’Affaires in Lebanon,”...

Lebanon Declares Iranian Ambassador Persona Non Grata

Tehran’s Envoy Declared ‘Persona Non Grata’: Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi said on March 24 that he had “instructed today the Secretary-General of the Ministry...

Lebanon Will Keep Hezbollah’s Arms, Lose its South

Lebanon has made its choice. Instead of enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and its own cabinet’s decision to disarm Hezbollah, Beirut will allow the pro-Iran militia to keep its weapons but...

Israel eliminates 3 Hamas members operating in Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on March 22 that it killed Walid Muhammad Dib, a Hamas financial official, in Lebanon. Two other Hamas operatives in Lebanon were killed by the IDF over the past...

Kuwait and UAE report disrupting domestic Hezbollah cells

Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates claimed to have disrupted several terror cells linked to Hezbollah over the past week. Both Persian Gulf countries alleged that their security forces identified networks...

Strikes continue hitting Iran-backed Iraqi militias, Kataib Hezbollah declares temporary US embassy ceasefire

Airstrikes, likely conducted by the United States as part of the US-Israeli operation against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies, have continued hitting Iran-backed militias in Iraq. Many of...