عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Hochstein Seeks to Ease Tensions to Prevent Israel from Expanding War to Lebanon

US envoy Amos Hochstein meets with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri during a visit to Beirut. (AFP)
US envoy Amos Hochstein meets with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri during a visit to Beirut. (AFP)
TT
TT

Hochstein Seeks to Ease Tensions to Prevent Israel from Expanding War to Lebanon

US envoy Amos Hochstein meets with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri during a visit to Beirut. (AFP)
US envoy Amos Hochstein meets with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri during a visit to Beirut. (AFP)

Senior adviser to US President Joe Biden Amos Hochstein will travel to Beirut and Tel Aviv to try to prevent a recent escalation between Israel and Hezbollah from turning into an all-out war.

He will first head to Tel Aviv on Monday before flying to Beirut. The unscheduled visit underscores Washington’s efforts to prevent Israel from expanding its war on Gaza to southern Lebanon.

As it stands, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his military commanders are ignoring Washington’s pleas.

The American administration still holds Hezbollah responsible for the current escalation, a western source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

It added that there is no justification for expanding the conflict, although Hezbollah has intensified its attacks against Israel in retaliation to its assassination of one of its most prominent field commanders, Taleb Sami al-Abdullah.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Lebanon Liz Johnson had held talks with caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib about the developments in the South and efforts to contain the tensions.

She warned that Washington will not provide political cover should the conflict expand.

Bou Habib, for his part, said Lebanon has received warnings that Israel intended to expand the war. Warnings have also poured in from several countries, urging restraint and against Lebanon getting dragged to war.

Parliamentary sources quoted influential American circles as saying that Netanyahu is ignoring the White House’s advice against expanding the war.

They believe that restoring calm in the South starts with a ceasefire in Gaza. The conflict in the South began when Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Syria Says Arrested Assad-Era General Over Chemical Attack

In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups. (Reuters file)
In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups. (Reuters file)
TT
TT

Syria Says Arrested Assad-Era General Over Chemical Attack

In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups. (Reuters file)
In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups. (Reuters file)

Syria's interior ministry on Friday announced the arrest of a general from ousted president Bashar al-Assad's era, accusing him of involvement in a 2013 chemical attack on a suburb of the capital, Damascus.

In August 2013, the army under Assad's rule was accused of using chemical weapons to target areas then under opposition control, killing more than 1,400 men, women and children, according to US intelligence and rights groups.

With Syria at the height of its civil war, the Assad government denied responsibility, but agreed to hand over its chemical arsenal in order to avert US strikes.

Assad went on to remain in power for more than a decade, only to be ousted in 2024 by opposition forces led by now President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

On Friday, the ministry said it arrested "Khardal Ahmed Dayoub, a former brigadier general in the forces of the ousted regime and former head of the Air Force Intelligence branch in Daraa, for his direct involvement in systematic violations against civilians".

The ministry accused Dayoub of being "implicated in chemical attacks during his service in the Damascus branch and his presence in the Harasta area" where "he oversaw repressive operations and contributed to the logistical coordination for the bombing of Eastern Ghouta with internationally prohibited chemical weapons".

Dayoub, the latest in a string of Assad-era officials detained in recent months, is also accused of extrajudicial killings and coordination with Iran and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, both of which were backing the ousted government.

Survivors of the attacks, including medics, at the time risked their lives by posting dozens of videos online, and spoke to journalists including AFP reporters about the horror they had witnessed.

The footage showed dozens of corpses, many of them children, outstretched on the ground.

Other images showed unconscious children, people foaming at the mouth and doctors trying to help them breathe.

- Global condemnation -

The scenes provoked revulsion and condemnation around the globe.

A United Nations report later said there was clear evidence sarin gas had been used.

Syria agreed that year to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and disclose and hand over its toxic stockpile under Russian and US pressure, averting the threat of strikes by Washington and its allies.

But that was not the last of the chemical attacks: the OPCW went on to blame Assad's forces for others later in the civil war.

Syria's civil war had begun in 2011, with a brutal crackdown on peaceful anti-regime protesters that yielded an armed uprising. More than half a million people ended up being killed, and millions more forced into exile.

Last month, Interior Minister Anas Khattab announced the arrest of Adnan Abboud Hilweh, one of the Syrian generals internationally sanctioned over involvement in the Ghouta attack.

Syria's new authorities have vowed to provide justice and accountability for Assad-era atrocities, while activists and foreign governments have emphasized the importance of transitional justice to ensure the country moves forward.

Last month, a Syrian court conducted the first hearing in an in absentia trial of Assad himself, alongside several senior members of his government.

Assad fled to Moscow as his country fell to opposition hands in December 2024, bringing to a stunning end decades of rule by his clan.

Arab World

US Aims to Consolidate Lebanon-Israel Ceasefire Before Negotiations

This handout photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency's press office shows European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib (L) being received by Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on May 8, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency Press Office / AFP)
This handout photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency's press office shows European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib (L) being received by Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on May 8, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency Press Office / AFP)
TT
TT

US Aims to Consolidate Lebanon-Israel Ceasefire Before Negotiations

This handout photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency's press office shows European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib (L) being received by Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on May 8, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency Press Office / AFP)
This handout photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency's press office shows European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib (L) being received by Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun (R) at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on May 8, 2026. (Lebanese Presidency Press Office / AFP)

A Lebanese official source told Asharq Al-Awsat there were “serious US efforts” to secure the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel before the launch of direct negotiations between the two countries under US sponsorship next Thursday.

The source said that if the efforts fail, Lebanon will take part in the meetings but “will refuse to discuss any further details before the ceasefire is secured.”

The source said President Joseph Aoun was satisfied with the progress of the negotiation efforts and with Lebanon’s preparations for the talks.

The Lebanese military would be represented in the negotiations by Oliver Hakme, the military attaché at the Lebanese embassy in Washington, he added.

The source said the negotiations would be “a continuation of the two rounds of talks held in Naqoura on the Lebanese border, headed by Ambassador Simon Karam for the Lebanese delegation, with the positive addition of a higher level of US representation in these negotiations.”

The first meeting would focus on “general discussions, with no specific agenda,” continued the source, reiterating Lebanon’s position that “there will be no progress on any other point before the ceasefire is secured.”

Aoun was in “full and close” coordination with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on the negotiations, he added. Aoun was also satisfied with parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s recent positions on the strength of his relationship with the president, who agrees with him that any agreement needs guarantees because Israel is known for breaking its commitments.

Separately, an official statement said Aoun received former ambassador Simon Karam, the head of the Lebanese delegation to the Lebanese-Israeli negotiations, and gave him his instructions before he traveled to Washington.

Aoun also received a phone call from British National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, during which they discussed the situation in Lebanon and the region in light of recent developments and continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Aoun asked Powell to press Israel to abide by the ceasefire and stop demolition and bulldozing work in the southern villages and towns it occupies.

Aoun met with EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib. He told her that support provided by EU states to Lebanon should be directed toward pressure to force Israel to abide by the ceasefire, refrain from blowing up and bulldozing homes in villages in the south, and stop targeting paramedics, journalists and civil defense workers.

Aoun said Lebanon was committed to a ceasefire and to ending all military action as a starting point for negotiations that would end the unstable situation in the south, paving the way for the army to redeploy up to the international border, for Lebanese prisoners to be released, and for displaced people to return to their towns and villages.

Aoun briefed Lahbib on the large human losses caused by Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the rise in the number of displaced people to about one million, and the severe material damage to homes, property and crops.

Meanwhile, PM Salam received Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal. They discussed the situation in the south, efforts to secure the ceasefire, and the security situation in Beirut.

Arab World

New Gaza Police Force Faces Uncertainty over Composition, Representation

Members of the Hamas police force in Gaza. (Reuters file)
Members of the Hamas police force in Gaza. (Reuters file)
TT
TT

New Gaza Police Force Faces Uncertainty over Composition, Representation

Members of the Hamas police force in Gaza. (Reuters file)
Members of the Hamas police force in Gaza. (Reuters file)

The issue of allowing the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza into the enclave to begin its work remains unresolved. Israel continues to refuse its entry, while other complications persist over the conditions under which it would operate, including the creation of a police force under its authority instead of Hamas police and its government security agencies.

One of the 15 clauses in the “roadmap” presented to Hamas and other Palestinian factions during Cairo negotiations, specifically on April 19, clearly states that Hamas, the factions, clans, and individuals must hand over their weapons to the committee that would run the enclave.

The committee would have a security force to enforce the law.

The fate of Hamas employees was one of the unresolved issues in the negotiations that preceded and followed the latest roadmap. Their number is estimated in the tens of thousands, and their future remains unclear.

Sources from Hamas and other factions told Asharq Al-Awsat that the issue had largely been resolved, that fair solutions had been found for all sides, and that only final agreement remained.

The sources said Hamas and the factions had agreed to allow a new police force to enter Gaza and operate under the authority of the Gaza administration committee.

The main obstacle was Israel, which has so far refused to allow the committee itself to enter the enclave and assume its duties, they stressed.

Under the proposed plan, prepared within the Board of Peace, particularly by its director-general Nickolay Mladenov in consultation with the Gaza Administration Committee and mediators, 12,000 police officers would initially work under the committee’s supervision. Of those, 5,000 would be deployed in the first phase.

According to the plan, as Asharq Al-Awsat learned from sources within the factions and others in contact with the committee, the first 5,000 officers were selected from Palestinians who had been receiving training at police colleges in several Arab countries after leaving Gaza, both before and during the war.

The sources said they would undergo Israeli security screening.

Many Palestinians receive training at police colleges in countries including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Qatar, Türkiye, and others.

It remains unclear whether the remaining 7,000 officers would also be drawn from that pool, whose numbers appear to be far short of the required number. Israel is expected to reject students trained in Doha and Ankara.

It is also unclear whether the plan would include training for Gaza students at Al-Istiqlal University, which specializes in graduating police and military personnel. Officers from the Palestinian Authority inside the enclave had sent their sons there for education and training.

Many retired officers from the Palestinian Authority security services are now in Cairo. Some arrived from Gaza weeks ago as part of preparations for a comprehensive security plan led by Sami Nasman, the official in charge of security in the Gaza administration committee.

The same sources said there is a plan to use some Palestinian Authority security employees known as the “2005 enlistments,” along with police personnel from Hamas government employees who are under 45 and pass Israeli security screening.

They said this arrangement could be temporary until the recruitment of a new police force is completed. Former employees would be treated fairly through practical solutions that preserve their rights, while thousands of them would remain in police duties without weapons.

In February, the Gaza administration committee posted a registration link on its website for the new police force. More than 100,000 young Palestinians from inside Gaza registered for jobs. At the time, discussions focused on selecting only 2,000 of them as a first step, followed by another 3,000.

The Times of Israel on Friday quoted a US official and a Middle Eastern diplomat as saying the UAE had transferred $100 million to the Board of Peace to train the new police force.

The website said the transfer was the largest received by the Board of Peace to date, following pledges worth $17 billion announced at a donor conference hosted by US President Donald Trump in February.

The new Palestinian police force is viewed as a top priority for the Board of Peace, which seeks to create new civilian and security bodies to govern Gaza, with the aim of removing Hamas from power and pushing toward an Israeli withdrawal, the website said.