Latest news with #Pro-Hezbollah
The Sun
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Lebanon cabinet to discuss Hezbollah disarmament amid US pressure
BEIRUT: Lebanon's cabinet will reconvene on Thursday to address the contentious issue of disarming Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group has already dismissed the government's decision to strip it of weapons. US envoy Tom Barrack has visited Beirut multiple times recently, presenting a disarmament proposal with a set timeline. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated the army has been tasked with a plan to limit weapons to state forces by late 2025. This marks the first such move since Lebanon's civil war ended over 30 years ago. The government links the disarmament effort to a November ceasefire aimed at halting hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Last year's two-month war significantly weakened Hezbollah both militarily and politically. Hezbollah rejected the disarmament decision, calling it 'non-existent' and accusing the cabinet of undermining Lebanon's sovereignty. The group warned the move would allow Israel to interfere with Lebanon's security and future. Amal, Hezbollah's ally led by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, also criticised the decision. Iran, Hezbollah's main supporter, said disarmament is solely the group's decision. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated Iran does not interfere in Hezbollah's choices. Two Hezbollah-affiliated ministers walked out of Tuesday's meeting in protest. Hezbollah framed the boycott as opposition to Lebanon's submission to US and Israeli influence. Pro-Hezbollah media suggested the group may withdraw ministers or push for a no-confidence vote. Israel has warned it will escalate military action if Lebanon fails to disarm Hezbollah. Recent Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed two people, according to health officials. – AFP
Shafaq News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Israel kills Hezbollah artillery chief in southern Lebanon strike
Shafaq News – Beirut Israel's military confirmed on Thursday it had killed Mohammad Jamal Murad, a senior Hezbollah commander, in an airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Mansouri. In a statement, the Israeli army said Murad, head of Hezbollah's coastal artillery unit, was behind recent rocket attacks on Israel and had been rebuilding the group's rocket-launching capabilities along Lebanon's coast. #عاجل 🔸جيش الدفاع قضى على قائد المدفعية في قطاع الساحل في حزب الله الارهابي🔸هاجم جيش الدفاع في وقت سابق اليوم في منطقة المنصوري جنوب لبنان وقضى على المدعو محمد جمال مراد الذي شغل منصب قائد المدفعية في قطاع الساحل لدى حزب الله الارهابي. 🔸وكان المدعو مراد مسؤولًا عن العديد… — افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) July 10, 2025 Lebanese media reported that an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle in Mansouri, south of Tyre, killing one person and injuring another. Pro-Hezbollah sources later identified the fatality as Murad.
Nahar Net
10-04-2025
- Nahar Net
Bulgaria returns body of 2012 bus bomber to Lebanon
by Naharnet Newsdesk 10 April 2025, 17:01 The body of a French-Lebanese dual national, who bombed a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria in 2012, was being repatriated to Lebanon on Thursday, a source with knowledge of the matter said. The attack at Bulgaria's Burgas airport was the deadliest against Israelis abroad since 2004. Five Israelis, including a pregnant woman, and the Bulgarian bus driver were killed along with the bomber, Mohamad Hassan El-Husseini, 23. At the Husseini family's request, the head of Lebanon's General Security agency at the time, Abbas Ibrahim, was "in contact with the Bulgarian authorities" to seek the repatriation of the body, the source told AFP. Bulgarian authorities asked the family to engage a lawyer and agreed to return Husseini's remains during the war between Israel and Hezbollah last year, the source said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media. The family was set to receive his body on Thursday ahead of burial, the source added. Both Bulgaria and Israel accused Hezbollah of orchestrating the bombing, an accusation that played a part in the European Union's subsequent decision to blacklist the group's military wing as a "terrorist" organization. Pro-Hezbollah social media accounts have circulated a notice from Husseini's family setting the funeral for Friday in the group's south Beirut stronghold. In 2020, a Bulgarian court sentenced Lebanese-Australian Meliad Farah and Lebanese-Canadian Hassan El Hajj Hassan to life in prison over the attack. Neither defendant was present for the trial. Airport CCTV footage showed Husseini wandering inside the airport's arrivals hall with a backpack shortly before the explosion tore through a bus outside the terminal that was headed to a Black Sea resort. Prosecutors said they had been unable to determine if the explosives were detonated by the bomber or his convicted accomplices.
Nahar Net
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Hezbollah MP asks politicians to expose US-Israeli 'blackmail' against Lebanon
by Naharnet Newsdesk 17 March 2025, 12:34 Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said Monday that the people will again defend their land if the state fails to shoulder its responsibilities against the Israeli occupation and violations. "When the state abandons this (southern) region, the people will take the responsibility and will not accept the occupation," Fadlallah said, adding that the cause of south Lebanon should not be solely the cause of the Shiites and the southerners but a "national cause." Fadlallah said the U.S. and Israel are pressuring Lebanon to take political decisions "that are not in line with its interests, history, or the sacrifices of its people," urging the Lebanese officials to be transparent with the public about the Israeli and American "blackmail". Israel "will neither have a political nor a military foothold" in Lebanon, Fadlallah warned. Pro-Hezbollah media had previously reported that the U.S. is "dragging Lebanon into peace negotiations" with Israel. Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri confirmed that Israel is trying to drag Lebanon into "direct negotiations" but stressed that normalization has not been discussed officially with the Lebanese state and that Lebanon would not normalize with Israel.
Nahar Net
14-03-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Is Lebanon on the brink of normalizing ties with Israel?
by Naharnet Newsdesk 14 March 2025, 14:24 As Lebanon negotiates sticking points with Israel after a 13-months-long war that ended with Israeli troops occupying five "strategic hills" in south Lebanon and frequent violations of a ceasefire reached in late November, the topic of normalizing relations with Israel have come to the spotlight. But will negotiations eventually lead to normalization? An Israeli political source said that Israel wants to reach normalization with Lebanon. "We and the Americans think that this is possible after the changes that have occurred in Lebanon," the source told Israel's Channel 12. Lebanon for its part said the negotiations with Israel are "indirect", but Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri hinted that Israel is trying to drag Lebanon into "direct negotiations." Both Metri and Information Minister Paul Morkos said that Lebanon would not normalize with Israel. Metri said Lebanon did not receive a direct call to sign a peace accord with Israel, but that there is pressure on some politicians and an unofficial push in the U.S. to pressure Lebanon into normalizing relations with Israel. - LF says normalization not an option - Lebanese Forces sources said that Hezbollah started using the term "normalization" in its media after Pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper warned that the U.S. is "dragging Lebanon into peace negotiations." A source of the Lebanese Forces party told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Friday, that no Arab country can normalize with Israel before a Palestinian state is established. "Normalization is not an option for us," the source said, adding that the U.S. has called for the implementation of 1701, and not for normalization. What is being proposed is a return to the 1949 Armistice Agreement - which ended the hostilities of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the LF source and a senior Lebanese official said. - What are the negotiations about? - Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus said earlier this week that the U.S. will be "bringing together Lebanon and Israel for talks aimed at diplomatically resolving several outstanding issues between the two countries" - the release of Lebanese prisoners, the remaining disputed points along the Blue Line, and the remaining 5 points where Israeli forces are still deployed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that representatives of the Israeli and Lebanese armies, the U.S. and France have agreed during a meeting of the ceasefire committee in Naqoura to "establish three joint working groups" aimed at resolving the three outstanding issues. "Everything that is being said about these groups being a prelude to normalization is baseless," sources told Beirut-based pan-Arab TV station Al Mayadeen. Lebanon will not engage in any "direct" negotiations with Israel, the sources said. - Past negotiations - In 2022, Lebanon and Israel separately signed copies of a U.S.-mediated sea border deal after months of indirect talks. Israel's then Prime Minister Yair Lapid claimed that the deal meant Lebanon de facto "recognizes the State of Israel, in a written agreement," but Lebanon and Hezbollah said the signing did not signal a recognition of Israel or a normalization of ties. After several Arab-Israeli wars, Egypt was the first Arab state to recognize Israel diplomatically in 1979. It was followed by Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. In October 2023, Saudi Arabia suspended talks on the possible normalization of relations with Israel, following the Israeli war on Gaza.
