Iraq PM says Israel crossed ‘all red lines’ with Nasrallah killing

Demonstrators hold pictures of Hassan Nasrallah, late leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, during a protest vigil near the suspension bridge leading to Baghdad's Green Zone on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
Demonstrators hold pictures of Hassan Nasrallah, late leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, during a protest vigil near the suspension bridge leading to Baghdad's Green Zone on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Iraq PM says Israel crossed ‘all red lines’ with Nasrallah killing

Iraq PM says Israel crossed ‘all red lines’ with Nasrallah killing
  • Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines,” Sudani said in a statement

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani condemned on Saturday the Israeli killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as a “crime.”
The Friday attack on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that killed the Iran-backed group’s leader was a “shameful attack” and “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines,” Sudani said in a statement, calling Nasrallah “a martyr on the path of the righteous.”
 

 


Syria condemns ‘despicable’ Israeli killing of Nasrallah

Syria condemns ‘despicable’ Israeli killing of Nasrallah
Updated 16 sec ago
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Syria condemns ‘despicable’ Israeli killing of Nasrallah

Syria condemns ‘despicable’ Israeli killing of Nasrallah
  • The government announced three days of official mourning, SANA reported

DAMASCUS: Syria on Saturday condemned Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, one of Damascus’s key supporters in years of civil war, and declared public mourning.
A foreign ministry statement carried by state news agency SANA said that the late Friday air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs that killed Nasrallah was a “despicable aggression.”
“The Zionist entity (Israel) confirms through this despicable aggression, once again... its barbarism and wanton disregard for all international standards and laws,” it said.
“The Syrian people... have never for a day forgotten (Nasrallah’s) positions of support,” the statement added.
The government announced three days of official mourning, SANA reported.
Hezbollah since 2013 has openly backed the forces of President Bashar Assad in his country’s civil war, which broke out after the repression of anti-government protests.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country since the war began in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Hezbollah.
Along with Russia, Hezbollah backer Iran has helped Assad regain territory lost earlier in the civil war.
While Damascus condemned Nasrallah’s killing, in areas outside government control, some were celebrating, including in the Idlib jihadist-run rebel bastion.
Many Syrian opposition supporters and activists consider Hezbollah responsible for their woes, after the group fought Syrian rebels in a number of areas, leading to heavy losses among opposition factions and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee.
 

 


Hundreds of fleeing families sleep on beaches and streets after Israel’s strikes shake Beirut

Hundreds of fleeing families sleep on beaches and streets after Israel’s strikes shake Beirut
Updated 7 min 37 sec ago
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Hundreds of fleeing families sleep on beaches and streets after Israel’s strikes shake Beirut

Hundreds of fleeing families sleep on beaches and streets after Israel’s strikes shake Beirut
  • Lines of people trudged up to the mountains above the Lebanese capital, holding infants and a few belongings

BEIRUT: Smoke was still rising from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday morning, visible to many of the families who had fled their homes there the night before to escape Israel’s massive bombardment.
It had been a harrowing night — getting out amid earthshaking explosions, looking in vain for space in one of the overflowing schools-turned-shelters. By the morning, hundreds of families were sleeping in public squares, on beaches or in cars around Beirut.
Lines of people trudged up to the mountains above the Lebanese capital, holding infants and a few belongings.
Overnight, Israel unleashed a series of strikes on various parts of Dahiyeh, the predominantly Shiite collection of suburbs on Beirut’s southern edge where tens of thousands of residents live. The biggest blasts to hit Beirut in nearly a year of conflict killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, Friday.
The assault was part of a rapid escalation of Israeli strikes the past week that has killed more than 700 people in Lebanon. Israel has vowed to cripple Hezbollah and put an end to 11 months of its fire onto Israeli territory in what Nasrallah described as a “support front” for his ally Hamas in Gaza.
The newly displaced swell the numbers Beirut is absorbing
The people escaping Friday night’s mayhem joined tens of thousands who have fled to Beirut and other areas of southern Lebanon the past week to escape Israel’s bombardment.
For many residents of Dahiyeh, the forced evacuation was disconcertingly familiar.
Some were Lebanese who had lived through the bruising monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, when Israel leveled large parts of the Beirut suburbs. Others were Syrians who had taken refuge from the long civil war in their own country.
Fatima Chahine, a Syrian refugee, slept on the Ramlet Al-Bayda public beach in Beirut with her family and hundreds of strangers. The night before she, her husband and their two children had piled onto a motorcycle and raced out of Dahiyeh, with “bombing below us and strikes above us.”
“Thank God, no one was wounded,” she said.
The government has opened up schools in Beirut to take in the displaced. But Syrians have reported that some sites turn them away to reserve the few spaces for Lebanese. Chahine said her family came directly to the beach.
“We only want a place where our children won’t be afraid,” she said. “We fled from the war in Syria in 2011 because of the children and we came here, and now the same thing is happening again.”
Since Monday, some 22,331 Syrians in Lebanon have crossed back into Syria, along with 22,117 Lebanese, according to Lebanese authorities.
Chahine said returning is not an option for her family; she is from an opposition area and so could face reprisals from the Syrian government.
At the beach, the displaced were spread out over the sidewalk or in cars parked by the curb. Others were camped out in beach pagodas or on blankets in the sand.
“We spent more than three hours going in circles between schools and shelters and we didn’t find one with room,” said Talal Ahmad Jassaf, a Lebanese man who slept on the beach with his family. He said he is considering going to the relative safety of Syria. But he worries about airstrikes on the road between Beirut and Damascus.
Some people are left without aid

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said this week’s escalation had more than doubled the number of people displaced by the conflict in Lebanon. There are now over 211,000 people displaced, including some of the humanitarian workers who should be responding to the crisis, it said. Around 85,000 of them are sleeping in shelters, it said.
“Humanitarian capacities to respond have been severely overstretched,” it added.
Displaced people sleeping outside in Beirut largely told The Associated Press that they had not received assistance from any humanitarian organization.
A stadium in the seaside neighborhood of Manara owned by the Nejmeh soccer club opened its doors to the displaced, who spent the night sleeping on bleachers.
Among them was Mariam Darwish, her husband and five children. She fled her home in Dahiyeh earlier in the week when the first Israeli strikes hit there.
Darwish said they had received water from the soccer club but that no organization had brought food, blankets or other supplies.
“People are helping each other out, family and friends are getting things for each other,” she said.
She and her husband had fled during the 2006 war, when their oldest son was a baby, and returned to their home when the war ended. They hope their house will still be standing to return to this time, she said.
“We’re worried about our children and the schools, that they’ll lose out on their future,” she said. “What can we do? We can only say thank God.”
She added, “May the resistance be victorious.” At the time of the interview, Hezbollah had not yet confirmed Nasrallah’s death.
Despite their battered-down circumstances, others also struck a defiant tone.
Jamal Hussein fled Dahiyeh at 3 a.m. with his extended family amid ongoing bombing and spent the night sleeping on the seaside promenade in Beirut’s upscale Ain Mreisseh district.
“Of course we aren’t afraid for ourselves, but we have children,” he said. “We are steadfast and ready to sacrifice more than this.”


Netanyahu says Israel ‘settled the score’ with Nasrallah’s killing

Netanyahu says Israel ‘settled the score’ with Nasrallah’s killing
Updated 18 min 15 sec ago
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Netanyahu says Israel ‘settled the score’ with Nasrallah’s killing

Netanyahu says Israel ‘settled the score’ with Nasrallah’s killing
  • The Israeli premier said his country was on the cusp of “what appears to be a historic turning point” in the fight against its “enemies”

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel had “settled the score” with the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike in Beirut.
“We settled the score with the one responsible for the murder of countless Israelis and many citizens of other countries, including hundreds of Americans and dozens of French,” he said in his first statement since Nasrallah’s death on Friday.
He was alluding to 1983 bombings in Beirut that killed 63 people at the US embassy and 241 US marines and 58 French paratroopers at their barracks.
Netanyahu said that as long as “terrorist” Nasrallah was alive, he “would quickly restore the capabilities we had eroded from Hezbollah” in a series of recent operations.
“So, I gave the order — and Nasrallah is no longer with us.”
The Israeli premier said his country was on the cusp of “what appears to be a historic turning point” in the fight against its “enemies.”
According to Netanyahu, who has faced growing criticism at home and abroad over his war policy after nearly a year of fighting in the Gaza Strip, the killing of the Hezbollah leader was essential for achieving Israel’s goals.
“Nasrallah’s elimination is a necessary condition for achieving the goals we set: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes and the long-term alteration of the balance of power in the region,” he said.
It will also help facilitate the return of hostages seized by Hamas during its October 7 attack and still held in Gaza, he said.
“The more (Hamas leader Yahya) Sinwar sees that Hezbollah will no longer come to his aid, the greater the chances of returning our captives,” Netanyahu said.
“We are winning. We are determined to continue striking our enemies, returning our residents to their homes and bringing back all our hostages. We do not forget them for a moment.”


Saudi FM slams Israel’s ‘barbaric practices’ against ‘defenseless’ Palestinian civilians

Saudi FM slams Israel’s ‘barbaric practices’ against ‘defenseless’ Palestinian civilians
Updated 42 min 44 sec ago
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Saudi FM slams Israel’s ‘barbaric practices’ against ‘defenseless’ Palestinian civilians

Saudi FM slams Israel’s ‘barbaric practices’ against ‘defenseless’ Palestinian civilians
  • Addressing the UN General Assembly, Prince Faisal calls for full membership for Palestine
  • Priority for the Kingdom is to ‘fulfill the needs of future generations, empower women and youth, and build bridges with the world’

CHICAGO: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister on Saturday condemned Israel’s “crimes” and “barbaric practices” against “defenseless civilians” in the Gaza Strip during his speech to the UN General Assembly.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan accused Israel of creating a “real humanitarian catastrophe” that is “continuing to get worse.”

He lauded the recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is illegal under international and humanitarian law.

Prince Faisal urged the UN to recognize Palestine as a full member, saying: “We welcome the adoption by the General Assembly on May 10, 2024, of a resolution that states that the state of Palestine fulfills all the conditions to become a fully fledged member state of our organization, and we welcome the decision of Norway, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Armenia, who have recognized the brotherly country of Palestine.”

He added: “We call upon other states to bilaterally recognize the state of Palestine, and to act together in order to recognize the state of Palestine as an independent state.”

Israel’s actions continue despite Saudi efforts to “stop the bloodshed, to ensure unhindered humanitarian access, and to realize the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people,” including an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Prince Faisal said.

“We categorically reject all crimes perpetrated by Israel against the kindred Palestinian people. The most recent crimes committed against civilians, defenseless civilians, is just one chapter in the story of suffering by this brotherly people who have been suffering for decades now,” he added.

Israel’s “barbaric” practices since last year have “cost the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, in particular women and children,” he said.

“We’re seeing bombing, murder and destruction. This is a real humanitarian catastrophe and it’s continuing to get worse. It’s necessary to halt this aggression.”

Saudi Arabia has provided $5 billion to the people of Gaza in the past year, and is working with different UN agencies to raise a total of $106 billion for reconstruction and humanitarian aid, Prince Faisal said.

The Kingdom is working with UN ministerial committees, Norway and the EU to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians on the basis of the two-state solution, he added.

Saudi Arabia is also working to “fight against the financing of terrorism” by cooperating with international partners, he said.

The Kingdom is working to bring peace to the region by resuming relations with Syria, pushing to resolve the Yemen crisis, and striving for peace and stability in Sudan, Prince Faisal said, adding that his country is preparing to host the third round of Sudanese peace talks in Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia has restored diplomatic relations with Iran “based on the respect of sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs, and also on respect of the UN Charter,” he said.

“We hope that Iran will cooperate with the international community, in particular vis-a-vis its nuclear program and its ballistic missile program.”

A priority for Saudi Arabia is to continue to “fulfill the needs of future generations, to empower women and youth, and to build bridges with the world,” Prince Faisal said, adding that the Kingdom is addressing major world issues such as climate change.

Last September, Saudi Arabia created an international organization to address water resource challenges, he said.

The Kingdom, which was chosen to host Expo 2030, will use the forum “to focus on the (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goals,” Prince Faisal said, adding that the event is “an opportunity to find political solutions when it comes to sustainability, and also to honor our commitments to developing countries.” 

He said: “We hope that the efforts being made will enable us to establish a common principle with mutual respect to build a better future for the whole of humanity.”


Why Lebanon is seen as trapped ‘between mafia and militia’

Why Lebanon is seen as trapped ‘between mafia and militia’
Updated 50 min 50 sec ago
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Why Lebanon is seen as trapped ‘between mafia and militia’

Why Lebanon is seen as trapped ‘between mafia and militia’
  • Two experts claim strategic missteps being made by the US as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah intensify
  • Academic Hamoud Salhi and expert Jean AbiNader made the comments while appearing on Ray Hanania Radio Show

CHICAGO/LONDON: Lebanese experts have painted a bleak picture of the country’s imminent future, describing the nation as trapped “between mafia and militia” and criticizing the failure of the US to intervene effectively in the region. 

Speaking on the Ray Hanania Radio Show, Hamoud Salhi, a political science professor at California State University-Dominguez Hills, and Jean AbiNader, vice president for policy at the American Task Force on Lebanon, highlighted the strategic missteps being taken by the US, especially as tensions between Israel and Hezbollah intensify. 

The US “is strategically being affected. Number one, can you afford continuing to sponsor this war?” Salhi said, adding that further escalation could draw Hezbollah and Iran’s regional allies, such as Yemen and Iraq, into a broader conflict.

He explained that up to this point the US had attempted to leverage its influence in the region through Israel to counterbalance growing powers such as Russia and China. 

However, after nearly a year of conflict, Salhi questioned the sustainability of the current US approach, saying: “The US cannot sustain that. And more than anything else, Israel cannot sustain this war.” 

He warned that continued regional instability could lead to mass protests, putting “huge pressure” on the US and its Arab allies. 

“The US could potentially lose its allies in the region, the leaders they are working with,” Salhi said, adding that any potential normalization efforts must include a solution to the Palestinian’s cause. 

FASTFACTS

• A Hezbollah statement on Saturday said Hassan Nasrallah ‘has joined his fellow martyrs.’

• Israeli military said Ali Karki, commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and several other commanders, were also killed in the attack.

• Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said ‘the resistance movement, heading by Hezbollah, will decide the fate of the region.’

He anticipated that any significant changes in Washington’s position would likely occur only after the US presidential election on Nov. 5. At that point President Joe Biden, no longer constrained by election concerns and with just over two more months left in office before the inauguration of his successor on Jan. 20 2025, “could get away with adopting decisions that could favor the region.” 

Judging by events on Thursday, when Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York to address the UN General Assembly, US influence over Israel is weakening.

The day before Netanyahu’s arrival, in a joint statement, the US and 11 allies, including France, the European Union, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, had called for “an immediate 21-day ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border to provide space for diplomacy toward the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement.” 

The White House and French officials indicated the ceasefire plan had been coordinated directly with Netanyahu. But faced with pressure from the rightwing members of his government, Netanyahu’s first act on touching down in the US was to disown the proposal, with a spokesperson claiming that he had not even responded to it. 

Instead, the prime minister’s office said, he had “instructed the IDF to continue fighting at full force, according to the plans that were presented to him.” 

In recent months, the US, alongside Qatar and Egypt, has been a primary broker in ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had indicated that similar efforts could also halt the hostilities between Hezbollah and Tel Aviv. 

However, in the past week, both Hezbollah and Israel have escalated their attacks, and on Saturday Israeli aircraft carried out a massive airstrike in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb, killing Nasrallah along with several other Hezbollah figures and possibly some Islamic Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Opinion

This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)

A statement from Hezbollah on Saturday said Nasrallah “has joined his fellow martyrs” but that the group would “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”

This escalation followed the detonation of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives in two waves of attacks suspected to have been carried out by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, which killed dozens of people and injured thousands more across Lebanon. Most of the dead are believed to have been fighters, based on death notices posted online by Hezbollah.

Subsequent Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon and Beirut suburbs have killed nearly 700 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. 

“The issue of Lebanon is part of the bigger picture, part of the grand design that Israel has,” said Salhi. “We could talk about the Golan (Heights), we could talk about what’s happening today even in Yemen. Those are really complex issues. 

“But it is also, as we’ve seen so far, connected to the big, big problem of the existence of an entity like Israel, who sees its security through strength, military buildup and occupation within the context of their bigger picture, which is to occupy other countries for the purpose of achieving the right agenda.” 

Israel and Lebanon have a long history of conflict, with tensions peaking during the Lebanese Civil War. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 in response to attacks from Palestinian militants, occupying southern Lebanon until 2000 while fighting a guerrilla war against Hezbollah. 

After Israel’s withdrawal, Hezbollah attacks led to the 2006 Lebanon War, which formally ended with UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The resolution, calling for a cessation of hostilities, Israeli withdrawal, and the deployment of UNIFIL forces, remains only partially implemented, further entangling Lebanon in a web of unresolved conflict. 

“(This situation) gets to the heart of what we’ve been saying about Lebanon for 40 years,” said AbiNader.

“In other words, most people have in their mind the image of a country torn between Christians and Muslims, which is absolutely inaccurate. And now the narrative is the country is torn between Christians and Hezbollah, or between Israel and Hezbollah. The overriding images are incorrect to begin with. 

“But we are fighting for the soul of Lebanon,” he said, adding that the question at this point was whether Lebanon was going to become “an outpost for the Iranian paramilitary called Hezbollah, or is it going to return to its weak roots as a quasi-democratic country?” 

The current situation, he said, highlighted the fragile balance underpinning Lebanon’s entire political system. 

“The expression a lot of Lebanese use is, they’re caught between the mafia and the militia. Mafia, the old political leadership, and the militia, which has its own raison d’etre. 

“And so Lebanon has really put itself into a trap that underscores the question of whether or not Lebanon can survive.”

AbiNader said that Hezbollah had been able to fill the vacuum created by Lebanon’s antiquated and dysfunctional political system, itself a major obstacle to progress. 

“Until you have a (proper) state, you have Hezbollah, which has a stronger military, bank system, supermarkets, all this kind of stuff that supports people and has been done the way the government should, but didn’t,” he said. 

The Lebanese people are suffering now because “the overriding (Israeli) narrative is that Hezbollah is bad, therefore, by extension, the Lebanese are bad and so we can do whatever we want to protect our northern border.” 

Israel’s current attacks on Lebanon are motivated by a determination to allow an estimated 70,000 Israelis, displaced from the north by Hezbollah rocket and missile attacks since Oct. 7, to return to their homes close to the Lebanese border. 

But the bid to drive Hezbollah back from the border region, said AbiNader, “has resulted in increased retaliation toward the Lebanese people, and very little toward Hezbollah.

“Look at the threats that Israel is making. They’re always saying: ‘OK, Lebanese civilians get out of these areas, because it’s where Hezbollah has its rocket launchers. We’re going to go in and clean up the rocket launchers.’

“Well, we just accept what’s said about Hezbollah without really knowing on the ground what’s there and not there. It’s no question (Hezbollah) are a malign force, but they also represent Lebanese people.

“So, the question is, how do we get the needs of the Lebanese people, that Hezbollah represents, met without further antagonism?”

AbiNader called for the international community to intervene and establish clear boundaries to “stop what’s happening in Lebanon,” adding that competing US interests in the region have long complicated Lebanon’s integration and progress. 

“But it’s not going to happen,” he said.

“Hezbollah and Israel certainly are not going to change. They both think they’re protecting their own people, their own interests, therefore they’re morally right. So, when you have two moral rights arguing against each other, you’re not going to have an easy resolution.” 

He added: “So until there’s some dialog about these dueling narratives — without trying to find who’s right, just to find out where’s the middle ground —  we’re going to continue to have this conflict.”