If the glass at your house got shattered during Hezbollah’s war with Israel, the Iran-backed militia would pay you $1,200 to fix it, a hefty sum by Lebanese standards. Reports, perhaps exaggerated, suggest...
Lebanon officially has a new government. On January 13, 2025, Nawaf Salam was appointed prime minister-designate and tasked with cobbling together a cabinet. He accomplished this task by February...
The state of ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, which went into effect on November 27, 2024, has now officially expired. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has withdrawn from almost all areas occupied...
Hezbollah is in a crisis. The group suffered an unprecedented drubbing by Israel, which decimated most of its arsenal, eliminated a substantial number of its fighters, and killed its iconic Secretary-General...
With Hezbollah sidelined, both Israelis and Lebanese must start thinking beyond security and cease-fire arrangements and start saying the word peace, louder and louder. The more the P word is uttered, the more normal it becomes
On Saturday, Hezbollah’s recently minted Secretary-General Naim Qassem offered his group’s first comment on the downfall of the regime of Bashar al Assad in Syria. The Assad regime was one of Hezbollah’s...
If Julani is to remain in power for the coming years, he could play a transformative role in Syria and the Middle East.
The Assad regime has fallen. Meanwhile, the dreaded Third Lebanon War, during which Israel gave Hezbollah an unprecedented drubbing, is either over or in a ceasefire-induced lull. But the Iranian-backed...
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem delivered two speeches—one on November 29 and another on December 5— after the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that took effect on November 27. Most...
Lebanon’s willingness to assent to a U.S.-proposed ceasefire offers a pathway to ending the current war, but significant challenges remain. Chief among these is Israel’s demand for operational freedom,...
Hezbollah has been launching rockets just miles from Israel’s northern border and has shown a willingness to target UNIFIL bases.
U.S. Envoy Back in Beirut: Amos Hochstein, a senior advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, returned to Beirut on November 19, hours after several news outlets reported that Lebanon and the Iran-backed terrorist...
Naim Qassem’s second speech as secretary-general of Hezbollah, delivered on November 6, was as predictable in content as timing. It came, as is the group’s custom, to commemorate 40 days since the...
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One day after his surprise appointment as Hezbollah’s new secretary-general, Naim Qassem delivered his inaugural speech from that post—his fourth speech since Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination. Qassem’s...
The Iranian-backed group has deep popular roots, and its degradation or elimination will have to rest equally on military defeat coupled with political and social pressure
Responding to comments made by a senior Iranian official regarding Iran’s willingness to negotiate with France over the implementation of a key UN Security Council Resolution concerning...
Iran has a long-term plan and it includes trying to weaken Israel through long slow wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
With Hassan Nasrallah gone, Hezbollah reeling and Iran’s grip weakening, the Lebanese have started crawling out of the woodwork. On Monday, a few oligarchs and a bloc of 31 lawmakers, out of 128, called...
With Israel’s September 27 assassination of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s voice has been subdued. But it has not, unfortunately, been entirely silenced. The mantle of Hezbollah’s...