logo
US official urges Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah if it expects any financial help

US official urges Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah if it expects any financial help

Ya Libnan17-02-2025

Tom Harb Director of the American Middle East Alliance
The Director of the American Middle East Alliance, Tom Harb, said that the US 'Congress is sending a message to Lebanon : 'Disarm the militias within 6 months if you expects any US financial aid.'
In an interview with Al-Jadeed TV, he pointed out that 'there is an American point of view that requires Israel to remain in 5 points in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed and the state and army exercise their role,' explaining that 'Lebanon must set a time limit in the ministerial statement for reform and dealing with the party to obtain aid.'
Harb who was born and raised in Lebanon was the CO-Chair for the American Middle East Coalition for Trump during 2016 election. AMCT is a coalition of Middle eastern organizations and affiliates who believed in Trump's agenda. He played an educational role among the Middle eastern communities in United States and through Middle East media. On March 14, 2005, a month after PM Rafik Hariri's assassination , over a million Lebanese headed to downtown Beirut to demand the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after a nearly 29-year of military presence. The mass rally was later dubbed the Cedar Revolution or Independence Uprising. The Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group whose operatives were convicted in Hariri's assassination has replaced the Syrian occupational forces . The majority of the Lebanese now consider Hezbollah an Iranian occupational force
Also, Tom Harb is the President of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution WCCR – USA Chapter, an NGO representing Lebanese activists worldwide. The WCCR was established in 2005, after the people of Lebanon rallied in demand for freedom and independence. It is now considered the most unwavering union in representing the hope and aspirations of millions of Lebanese and the Diaspora.
The majority of the Lebanese people consider Hezbollah's war with Israel as an attempt to increase Iran's influence in Lebanon.
Hezbollah is a proxy of the Quds Force , the foreign arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard , IRGC
Hezbollah's top leaders were all killed in the war and its current leader Naim Qassem fled to Tehran Iran last October for fear of being assassinated like his predecessors
Many in Lebanon have been saying that the Shiites of Lebanon, an essential and proud segment of the population deserve better leadership—leaders who put Lebanon first and work toward rebuilding the tens of thousands of Shiite homes destroyed by war. Many have been quoted as saying 'No nation should be led by a group that operates more like a 'terrorist organization' for foreign interests than a true defender of its people.
Many say is time for the Shiites of Lebanon to rise against Hezbollah's stranglehold and produce leaders who embrace Lebanon as their homeland, not as a mere outpost for Iranian influence.
Hezbollah's former top leader Hassan Nasrallah who was assassinated last September pledged allegiance to Iran and its Supreme leader

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

US envoy to Syria Barrack to visit Lebanon, report says
US envoy to Syria Barrack to visit Lebanon, report says

Nahar Net

time3 hours ago

  • Nahar Net

US envoy to Syria Barrack to visit Lebanon, report says

by Naharnet Newsdesk 10 June 2025, 13:56 U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack will soon visit Beirut to meet with Lebanese officials, local media reports said. U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus is reportedly leaving her position and her replacement has not yet been announced. In her first visit to war-hit Lebanon in February, Ortagus voiced from the presidential palace in Baabda pro-Israel statements. "We are grateful to our ally Israel for defeating Hezbollah," Ortagus said, adding that the United States has set a "red line" that Hezbollah should not be a member of Lebanon's next government. U.S. journalist Laura Loomer said in a post on X that Ortagus "will be cordially reassigned to another role in the Trump administration." "She wanted to be the Special Envoy to Syria, but the position was instead given to Tom Barrack," Loomer added.

Father and son killed in Israeli strike on Shebaa
Father and son killed in Israeli strike on Shebaa

Nahar Net

time3 hours ago

  • Nahar Net

Father and son killed in Israeli strike on Shebaa

by Naharnet Newsdesk 10 June 2025, 11:46 An Israeli strike killed a Lebanese father and son Tuesday in a southern village, the Lebanese health ministry and state media said, the latest deaths despite a November ceasefire. A second son was also wounded in the strike in Shebaa, the state-run National News Agency reported. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. "An Israeli enemy drone carried out a strike in the village of Shebaa, killing two people and wounding one," a health ministry statement said. On Monday evening, an Israeli drone struck a car in the southern town of Nmayriyye in the Nabatiyeh district. Israel had warned on Friday that it would keep up its strikes on Hezbollah targets across Lebanon despite the condemnation expressed by the Lebanese government after a massive strike on south Beirut the previous night on the eve of the Eid al-Adha holiday. The strikes levelled nine residential blocks. The Israeli military said they targeted underground drone factories. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strikes as a "a flagrant violation" of the November 27 ceasefire agreement, which was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities that culminated in two months of full-blown war.

Trump pushes ahead with maximalist immigration campaign in face of LA protests
Trump pushes ahead with maximalist immigration campaign in face of LA protests

Nahar Net

time3 hours ago

  • Nahar Net

Trump pushes ahead with maximalist immigration campaign in face of LA protests

by Naharnet Newsdesk 10 June 2025, 14:52 Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles. The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration's immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a president has done so — and is deploying active-duty troops to support the guard. By overriding Newsom, Trump is already going beyond what he did to respond to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when he warned he could send troops to contain demonstrations that turned violent if governors in the states did not act to do so themselves. Trump said in September of that year that he "can't call in the National Guard unless we're requested by a governor" and that "we have to go by the laws." But now, the past and current president is moving swiftly, with little internal restraint to test the bounds of his executive authority in order to deliver on his promise of mass deportations. What remains to be seen is whether Americans will stand by him once it's operationalized nationwide, as Trump looks to secure billions from Congress to dramatically expand the country's detention and deportation operations. For now, Trump is betting that they will. "If we didn't do the job, that place would be burning down," Trump told reporters Monday, speaking about California. "I feel we had no choice. ... I don't want to see what happened so many times in this country." 'A crisis of Trump's own making' The protests began to unfold Friday as federal authorities arrested immigrants in several locations throughout the sprawling city, including in the fashion district of Los Angeles and at a Home Depot. The anger over the administration's actions quickly spread, with protests in Chicago and Boston as demonstrations in the southern California city also continued Monday. But Trump and other administration officials remained unbowed, capitalizing on the images of burning cars, graffiti and Mexican flags — which, while not dominant, started to become the defining images of the unrest — to bolster their law-and-order cause. Leaders in the country's most populous state were similarly defiant. California officials sued the Trump administration Monday, with the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, arguing that the deployment of troops "trampled" on the state's sovereignty and pushing for a restraining order. The initial deployment of 300 National Guard troops was expected to quickly expand to the full 4,000 that has been authorized by Trump. The state's senior Democratic senator, Alex Padilla, said in an interview that "this is absolutely a crisis of Trump's own making." "There are a lot of people who are passionate about speaking up for fundamental rights and respecting due process, but the deployment of National Guard only serves to escalate tensions and the situation," Padilla told The Associated Press. "It's exactly what Donald Trump wanted to do." Padilla slammed the deployment as "counterproductive" and said the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department was not advised ahead of the federalization of the National Guard. His office has also pushed the Pentagon for a justification on the deployment, and "as far as we're told, the Department of Defense isn't sure what the mission is here," Padilla added. Candidate Trump previewed immigration strategy during campaign Much of this was predictable. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump pledged to conduct the largest domestic deportation operation in American history to expel millions of immigrants in the country without legal status. He often praised President Dwight D. Eisenhower's military-style immigration raids, and the candidate and his advisers suggested they would have broad power to deploy troops domestically to enact Trump's far-reaching immigration and public safety goals. Trump's speedy deployment in California of troops against those whom the president has alluded to as "insurrectionists" on social media is a sharp contrast to his decision to issue no order or formal request for National Guard troops during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, despite his repeated and false assertions that he had made such an offer. Trump is now surrounded by officials who have no interest in constraining his power. In 2020, Trump's then-Pentagon chief publicly rebuked Trump's threat to send in troops using the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that empowers the president to use the military within the U.S. and against American citizens. Current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled support on his personal X account for deploying troops to California, writing, "The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE," referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Defense Department said Monday it is deploying about 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to support National Guard troops already on the ground to respond to the protests. White House responds to an 'incompetent' governor Protesters over the weekend blocked off a major freeway and burned self-driving cars as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades in clashes that encompassed several downtown blocks in Los Angeles and led to several dozen arrests. Much of the city saw no violence. But the protests prompted Trump to issue the directive Saturday mobilizing the California National Guard over Newsom's objections. The president and his top immigration aides accused the governor of mismanaging the protests, with border czar Tom Homan asserting in a Fox News interview Monday that Newsom stoked anti-ICE sentiments and waited two days to declare unlawful assembly in the city. Trump told Newsom in a phone call Friday evening to get the situation in Los Angeles under control, a White House official said. It was only when the administration felt Newsom was not restoring order in the city — and after Trump watched the situation escalate for 24 hours and White House officials saw imagery of federal law enforcement officers with lacerations and other injuries — that the president moved to deploy the Guard, according to the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. "He's an incompetent governor," Trump said Monday. "Look at the job he's doing in California. He's destroying one of our great states." Local law enforcement officials said Los Angeles police responded as quickly as they could once the protests erupted, and Newsom repeatedly asserted that state and city authorities had the situation under control. "Los Angeles is no stranger to demonstrations and protests and rallies and marches," Padilla said. "Local law enforcement knows how to handle this and has a rapport with the community and community leaders to be able to allow for that." The aggressive moves prompted blowback from some of Trump's erstwhile allies. Ileana Garcia, a Florida state senator who in 2016 founded the group Latinas for Trump and was hired to direct Latino outreach, called the recent escalation "unacceptable and inhumane." "I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings — in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims — all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal," said Garcia, referring to Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and key architect of Trump's immigration crackdown. The tactics could be just a preview to what more could come from the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. GOP lawmakers are working to pass a massive tax-and-border package that includes billions to hire thousands of new officers for Border Patrol and for ICE. The goal, under the Trump-backed plan, is to remove 1 million immigrants without status annually and house 100,000 people in immigration detention centers.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store