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US, France, Germany, UK Urge De-Escalation along Lebanon’s Southern Border

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (R) meets with the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Beirut on October 20, 2023. (AFP)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (R) meets with the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Beirut on October 20, 2023. (AFP)
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US, France, Germany, UK Urge De-Escalation along Lebanon’s Southern Border

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (R) meets with the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Beirut on October 20, 2023. (AFP)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (R) meets with the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Beirut on October 20, 2023. (AFP)

Contacts have intensified between Lebanon and international powers to de-escalate the tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held telephone talks with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to discuss the situation in Lebanon and the region, the PM’s office said on Friday.

Earlier on Friday, Mikati had received German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Beirut.

The FM underlined the need to “avoid any miscalculations and keep Lebanon away from the conflict” in Gaza as much as possible.

For his part, Mikati said: “We are exerting all our efforts to restore calm in the South.”

He called for pressure to be applied on Israel to “stop its aggression against Lebanon and reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”

Baerbock met her Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib. They agreed that the two-state solution would pave the way to tackling the root causes of the conflict in Gaza.

“We are banking on Germany’s influence in Europe and the world and its experience in suffering the calamities of war to reach an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered” to the enclave, Bou Habib added.

He also warned that the dangerous consequences of the conflict will not only impact the Middle East, but Europe in specific and the entire world.

The minister made the same warning before several ambassadors to Lebanon, including the envoys of Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Canada.

He urged their countries to intervene to pressure Israel to stop its escalation, while warning of the rising hate speech and incitement to violence that would spread to the West.

Meanwhile, caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Sleep received a telephone call from his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu for talks on the developments in southern Lebanon and Gaza.

Lecornu stressed that France was carrying out contacts with the international community to discuss the developments in Gaza.

He stressed “the need for Lebanon to steer clear of the repercussions of the situation in the Palestinian territories.”

Lebanon is a priority for France, he declared.

He also highlighted the role of the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) in the south and the need to avoid escalation along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

For his part, Sleem pointed to the “ongoing Israeli violations against civilians and civilian, health and religious infrastructure in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”

He said close coordination was ongoing between the Lebanese army and UNIFIL.

The situation in the South was discussed between Army Commander Joseph Aoun and a US Congressional delegation. They tackled the overall situation in Lebanon and its military and the challenges it is facing.

Aoun also held talks with Air Marshal Sampson, UK Defense Senior Advisor to the Middle East and North Africa, who was in Lebanon for a two-day visit.

Sampson underscored the UK’s stance that Lebanon must not be dragged into a regional conflict.

He stressed that the Lebanese army was leading efforts to protect Lebanon’s security and stability, and this is a priority for the UK.

He also met with Mikati during his visit and contacted UNIFIL commander Aroldo Lazaro, expressing the UK’s support to the peacekeeping force and its significant role in preserving calm and stability.

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Arab World

Airstrikes on Iraq’s PMF Site Kill 14 Including Anbar Commander

A billboard displays an image depicting a US Air Force airplane in flames, the name of the Iraqi deputy PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis who was killed in a US strike in 2020, and words that read in Arabic, "They will no longer have safety. By God, we will not spare them", in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP)
A billboard displays an image depicting a US Air Force airplane in flames, the name of the Iraqi deputy PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis who was killed in a US strike in 2020, and words that read in Arabic, "They will no longer have safety. By God, we will not spare them", in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP)
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Airstrikes on Iraq’s PMF Site Kill 14 Including Anbar Commander

A billboard displays an image depicting a US Air Force airplane in flames, the name of the Iraqi deputy PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis who was killed in a US strike in 2020, and words that read in Arabic, "They will no longer have safety. By God, we will not spare them", in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP)
A billboard displays an image depicting a US Air Force airplane in flames, the name of the Iraqi deputy PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis who was killed in a US strike in 2020, and words that read in Arabic, "They will no longer have safety. By God, we will not spare them", in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP)

Airstrikes targeting a site belonging to Iraq's Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces in the western province of Anbar killed at least 14 fighters, including the PMF's Anbar operations commander, and wounded 30 others overnight, security and health sources told Reuters early on Tuesday.

The PMF confirmed in a statement the death of its Anbar commander, Saad al-Baiji, ‌and several ‌of his companions. It accused the ‌United ⁠States of carrying ⁠out the attack, saying a US airstrike targeted a command headquarters while personnel were on duty.

The strikes targeted the PMF headquarters during a security meeting attended by senior commanders, the sources added.

The PMF is an umbrella group of ‌mostly Shiite paramilitary ‌factions that was formally integrated into Iraq's state security forces ‌and includes several groups aligned with Iran.

Separately, ‌at least six Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were killed and 22 wounded in an overnight rocket attack on their base north of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, security ‌and Peshmerga sources said, adding that it was not immediately clear who carried ⁠out ⁠the attack.

Tehran-backed armed groups have launched attacks on US bases in Iraq since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran in February, raising fears of a wider regional escalation.

The conflict has spilled beyond Iran's borders, with Tehran launching strikes on Israel and Gulf Arab states hosting US military installations, while Israel has carried out attacks in Lebanon following cross-border fire by Iran-aligned Hezbollah.

Arab World

Hezbollah Escalates its Rhetoric, Threatens Lebanese Govt

23 March 2026, Lebanon, Chaat: A Hezbollah flag is seen fixed to the debris after an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential home in Chaat. (dpa)
23 March 2026, Lebanon, Chaat: A Hezbollah flag is seen fixed to the debris after an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential home in Chaat. (dpa)
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Hezbollah Escalates its Rhetoric, Threatens Lebanese Govt

23 March 2026, Lebanon, Chaat: A Hezbollah flag is seen fixed to the debris after an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential home in Chaat. (dpa)
23 March 2026, Lebanon, Chaat: A Hezbollah flag is seen fixed to the debris after an Israeli airstrike that targeted a residential home in Chaat. (dpa)

Leading Hezbollah officials decided to escalate their rhetoric against the Lebanese government, threatening to take new political approaches after the war, even as its fighters battle Israeli troops on the ground.

The Iran-backed party has decided to effectively open a new battle in Lebanon, this time against the government and the political authority.

Mahmoud Qamati, deputy head of Hezbollah's political council, said last week: “A confrontation with the political authority is inevitable after the war.”

“Hezbollah is capable of turning the country and government upside down. The party’s patience has limits, and the traitors will pay for their betrayal,” he declared.

The government has slammed Hezbollah for dragging Lebanon to a new war with Israel and banned the group’s military operations. It has also expressed readiness for Lebanon to engage with negotiations with Israel to end the war.

Hezbollah political council member Wafiq Safa echoed Qamati’s remarks, saying the party will force the government to retract its decision to ban its military operations, “regardless of the way it will do so.”

At the moment, the party will not topple the government in the streets, but it has a “new agenda” that it will implement after the war, including street action, he said.

Hezbollah opponents dismissed the threats, saying the party was resorting to such rhetoric to rally its supporters after witnessing their displacement from the war, as well as the destruction of their homes and the mounting death toll.

Change MP Mark Daou told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Hezbollah is in the heart of the battle. It will try to escalate its positions to rally its supporters given their humanitarian plight and the party’s own failure in offering the displaced any real assistance.”

The Hezbollah leadership instructed its officials to “stir debates that are fodder for the media that would portray the party as coming under attack and so as the garner the public’s support,” he explained.

“Hezbollah is suffering from successive setbacks. The decisions taken by the government since 2024 until now are mounting against it,” he remarked.

“The party’s weapons are no longer legal and its allies have distanced themselves from it,” he added. It has also lost its ally, the Syrian regime, and its main backer Iran is under attack by the US and Israel.

“Hezbollah therefore has to protect itself by resorting to stoking sectarian tensions inside Lebanon,” Daou noted.

As for the post-war phase, that is up to the state to manage, such as reconstruction, protecting the people and addressing the affairs of the displaced, said the MP.

“The state will decide what will happen after the war. The Lebanese army also has a major responsibility to secure the situation in Lebanon and stop Hezbollah’s military operations so that the state can have control over decisions of war and peace,” he remarked.

Jad Al-Akhaoui, a Shiite opponent to Hezbollah and head of the Lebanese Democratic Coalition, said the party’s escalating rhetoric against the government “reflects changes in its political and military environment.”

“The blows it has suffered on various levels forced it to stoke tensions to compensate for its relative losses on the ground,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He noted that there have been rising calls within the Shiite community, which is the party’s main support base, demanding that the state impose monopoly over arms and that Hezbollah be held responsible for dragging Lebanon to war.

Hezbollah has reacted to these calls by adopting a sharper rhetoric in an attempt to intimidate its internal opponents and prevent a new political movement that works against it from emerging, he explained.

On Safa’s statements, Al-Akhaoui said Hezbollah is sensing that there will be official or international efforts to curb the party’s activities after the war.

“So, it is acting preemptively by drawing red lines as if to say that any decision about his weapons will be confronted, perhaps through means that go beyond traditional politics,” he remarked.

Al-Akhaoui ruled out that Hezbollah would succeed in having full control over post-war Lebanon as it did before the conflict. “It will still hold major sway and have the ability to obstruct or impose conditions, but not have total control,” he added.

Arab World

Syrian Army Says Base Targeted by Missiles from Iraq

A soldier from the US-led coalition stands guard during a joint US- Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) patrol in the countryside of Qamishli in northeastern Syria February 8, 2024. (Reuters)
A soldier from the US-led coalition stands guard during a joint US- Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) patrol in the countryside of Qamishli in northeastern Syria February 8, 2024. (Reuters)
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Syrian Army Says Base Targeted by Missiles from Iraq

A soldier from the US-led coalition stands guard during a joint US- Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) patrol in the countryside of Qamishli in northeastern Syria February 8, 2024. (Reuters)
A soldier from the US-led coalition stands guard during a joint US- Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) patrol in the countryside of Qamishli in northeastern Syria February 8, 2024. (Reuters)

Syria's army said on Monday that one of its bases in the northeast was targeted by a missile attack from neighboring Iraq, while an Iraqi official said a local armed group was behind the attack.

"One of our military bases near the town of al-Yarubiyah in the Hasakeh province was targeted by a missile attack," the army said in a statement.

The Iraqi official, requesting anonymity, told AFP that "an Iraqi faction fired seven Arash-4 rockets, an improved version of the Grad rocket, towards a base in the Hasakeh region".

He added that a rocket launcher platform had been found abandoned in the northern Rabia area, near the Syrian border.

This month, the Syrian army took over the Rmeilan base in Hasakeh after the withdrawal of a US-led international coalition against the ISIS group from it.

"We have been in contact and coordination with the Iraqi side regarding the incident, and they have confirmed that the Iraqi army has begun a search operation to locate the perpetrators," the Syrian military added.

Syrian Kurdish military official Sipan Hamo, who was recently appointed as Syria's Assistant Minister of Defense for the eastern region, said they "condemn the attack targeting" Rmeilan.

"We hold the Iraqi authorities fully and directly responsible for this act, due to their failure to control their territory and prevent its use to launch attacks that threaten our security and territorial integrity," he added stating that the incident resulted in "material damage, but no casualties".

Iraq has been unwillingly drawn into the conflict started on February 28 when the US and Israel launched a massive wave of strikes on Iran.

Pro-Tehran armed groups have claimed responsibility for near-daily attacks on US interests in Iraq and across the region, while strikes have also targeted these groups.