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Ortagus Briefed on Hezbollah Activities in Lebanon during Israel Visit

People inspect the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli drone in the village of Harouf in the Nabatieh Governorate, southern Lebanon, 25 October 2025. (EPA)
People inspect the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli drone in the village of Harouf in the Nabatieh Governorate, southern Lebanon, 25 October 2025. (EPA)
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Ortagus Briefed on Hezbollah Activities in Lebanon during Israel Visit

People inspect the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli drone in the village of Harouf in the Nabatieh Governorate, southern Lebanon, 25 October 2025. (EPA)
People inspect the wreckage of a vehicle targeted by an Israeli drone in the village of Harouf in the Nabatieh Governorate, southern Lebanon, 25 October 2025. (EPA)

US envoy to Lebanon and Israel Morgan Ortagus was briefed on Sunday on Hezbollah’s activities and attempts to rebuild its military infrastructure in Lebanon. 

During a visit to Israel, she was also briefed on the army’s defensive and offensive plans along the border with Lebanon. 

Ortagus, Defense Minister Israel Katz, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, Commander of Israel’s Northern Command Rafi Milo, and representatives of the US Central Command and Israeli national security council toured the Israeli border with Lebanon on Sunday, a day before Ortagus is set to visit Beirut to attend meetings of the committee overseeing the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. 

The meeting is set to be held on Wednesday as Israel has intensified its assassinations of members of Iran-backed Hezbollah. Since Thursday, it has killed eleven people, including at least seven Hezbollah members. 

Israel has assassinated over 365 members of the party since the ceasefire was reached in November in what it says are efforts to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its military capabilities and infrastructure. 

During Sunday's tour, Katz expressed his gratitude to US President Trump and Ortagus for their support for Israel and its efforts to protect its borders. 

Israel will continue to defend its northern regions against any threats, he vowed. 

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that his country would seek no approval to strike targets in Gaza or Lebanon, despite agreeing to ceasefires.  

"Israel is an independent state. We will defend ourselves by our own means and we will continue to determine our fate," Netanyahu told a meeting of government ministers.  

"We do not seek anyone's approval for this. We control our security," he said, following a week of visits by a parade of the highest level US officials seeking to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza. 

Lebanon is under international pressure to disarm Hezbollah and implement its government decision to impose state monopoly over arms. Hezbollah has remained defiant, however, refusing to lay down its weapons despite the daily Israeli attacks against its members. 

Head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad said on Sunday: "Key to Lebanon's security and stability does not lie in meeting the conditions of the enemy, but in making Israel meet its commitments and really cease its attacks." 

He underlined the need to bolster national unity to confront Israel’s ambitions. 

Moreover, he said it was "wrong to claim that the resistance [Hezbollah] was to blame for the enemy’s shameful attacks. Rather, Israel is attacking Lebanon because it is pursuing an expansionist agenda and it wants Lebanon to yield to it." 

On Sunday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the southern town of al-Naqoura. Another person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on the town of al-Nabi Chit and a third, a Syrian, was killed in a strike on the town of al-Hafir on Sunday night. 

Israel killed two people on Saturday on a strike on a car and motorcycle. Its army said it targeted members of Hezbollah’s Radwan Unit. 

Lebanese political parties are demanding that Hezbollah lay down its weapons. 

Member of the Strong Republic bloc MP Said al-Asmar said an Israeli military escalation is still on the table. "This is what we have been hearing from American officials, and the Lebanese people will pay the price of such a development," he warned, saying the solution lies in Hezbollah’s disarmament. 

"We are not acquitting Israel of anything, but we also have a responsibility that we are not meeting. Israel will continue to attack us as long as Hezbollah keeps on asserting that it is recovering its capabilities and ready to go to war at any moment," he added. 

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Arab World

Syria Moves Military Reinforcements East of Aleppo After Telling Kurds to Withdraw

Military vehicles drive along a road as the last Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters left the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, state-run Ekhbariya TV said, following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations after days of deadly clashes, in Latakia, Syria, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Military vehicles drive along a road as the last Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters left the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, state-run Ekhbariya TV said, following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations after days of deadly clashes, in Latakia, Syria, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Syria Moves Military Reinforcements East of Aleppo After Telling Kurds to Withdraw

Military vehicles drive along a road as the last Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters left the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, state-run Ekhbariya TV said, following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations after days of deadly clashes, in Latakia, Syria, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Military vehicles drive along a road as the last Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters left the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, state-run Ekhbariya TV said, following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations after days of deadly clashes, in Latakia, Syria, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)

Syria's army was moving reinforcements east of Aleppo city on Wednesday, a day after it told Kurdish forces to withdraw from the area following deadly clashes last week.

The deployment comes as Syria's government seeks to extend its authority across the country, but progress has stalled on integrating the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration and forces into the central government under a deal reached in March.

The United States, which for years has supported Kurdish fighters but also backs Syria's new authorities, urged all parties to "avoid actions that could further escalate tensions" in a statement by the US military's Central Command chief Admiral Brad Cooper.

On Tuesday, Syrian state television published an army statement with a map declaring a large area east of Aleppo city a "closed military zone" and said "all armed groups in this area must withdraw to east of the Euphrates" River.

The area, controlled by Kurdish forces, extends from near Deir Hafer, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Aleppo, to the Euphrates about 30 kilometers further east, as well as towards the south.

State news agency SANA published images on Wednesday showing military reinforcements en route from the coastal province of Latakia, while a military source on the ground, requesting anonymity, said reinforcements were arriving from both Latakia and the Damascus region.

Both sides reported limited skirmishes overnight.

An AFP correspondent on the outskirts of Deir Hafer reported hearing intermittent artillery shelling on Wednesday, which the military source said was due to government targeting of positions belonging to the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

- 'Declaration of war' -

The SDF controls swathes of the country's oil-rich north and northeast, much of which it captured during Syria's civil war and the fight against the ISIS group.

On Monday, Syria accused the SDF of sending reinforcements to Deir Hafer and said it would send its own personnel there in response.

Kurdish forces on Tuesday denied any build-up of their personnel and accused the government of attacking the town, while state television said SDF sniper fire there killed one person.

Cooper urged "a durable diplomatic resolution through dialogue".

Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration, said that government forces were "preparing themselves for another attack".

"The real intention is a full-scale attack" against Kurdish-held areas, she told an online press conference, accusing the government of having made a "declaration of war" and breaking the March agreement on integrating Kurdish forces.

Syria's government took full control of Aleppo city over the weekend after capturing its Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsud and Achrafieh neighborhoods and evacuating fighters there to Kurdish-controlled areas in the northeast.

Both sides traded blame over who started the violence last week that killed dozens of people and displaced tens of thousands.

- PKK, Türkiye -

On Tuesday in Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country's northeast, thousands of people demonstrated against the Aleppo violence, while shops were shut in a general strike.

Some protesters carried Kurdish flags and banners in support of the SDF.

"This government has not honored its commitments towards any Syrians," said cafe owner Joudi Ali.

Other protesters burned portraits of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, whose country has lauded the Syrian government's Aleppo operation "against terrorist organizations".

Türkiye has long been hostile to the SDF, seeing it as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a major threat along its southern border.

Last year, the PKK announced an end to its long-running armed struggle against the Turkish state and began destroying its weapons, but Ankara has insisted that the move include armed Kurdish groups in Syria.

On Tuesday, the PKK called the "attack on the Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo" an attempt to sabotage peace efforts between it and Ankara.

A day earlier, Ankara's ruling party levelled the same accusation against Kurdish fighters.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 45 civilians and 60 soldiers and fighters from both sides killed in the Aleppo violence.

Arab World

Lebanon Says France to Host Conference to Support Army

French Special Presidential Envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian looks on during a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam (not pictured) at the Government Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 14 January 2026. (EPA)
French Special Presidential Envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian looks on during a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam (not pictured) at the Government Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 14 January 2026. (EPA)
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Lebanon Says France to Host Conference to Support Army

French Special Presidential Envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian looks on during a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam (not pictured) at the Government Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 14 January 2026. (EPA)
French Special Presidential Envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian looks on during a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam (not pictured) at the Government Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 14 January 2026. (EPA)

Lebanon said Wednesday that a conference in support of the country's army as it seeks to disarm Hezbollah would take place in Paris on March 5.

The announcement follows recent promises of support to the military, which lacks funds, equipment and technical expertise.

Presidency spokeswoman Najat Charafeddine said President Joseph Aoun met French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, Saudi envoy Yazid bin Farhan and ambassadors including from the US, Egypt and Qatar, discussing preparations for "a conference to support the Lebanese army and internal security forces".

"It was decided to hold the conference in Paris on March 5, to be opened by French President Emmanuel Macron," she said at the presidential palace.

Under US pressure and fearing expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming the Iran-backed Hezbollah, which was badly weakened in more than a year of hostilities with Israel that largely ended in late 2024.

Last week, Lebanon's army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm the group, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border.

A plan for the disarmament north of the Litani is to be presented to cabinet next month.
Israel, which accuses Hezbollah or rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Lebanon's army has dismantled tunnels and other military infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah near the Israeli border in recent months, seizing weapons and ammunition, despite its limited capacities.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.

Last month, talks with international envoys in Paris touched on the Lebanese army's needs, while its chief agreed to document its progress in disarming Hezbollah.

Arab World

Iraqi Officials Arrest Man Wanted by Australian Police as 'Number One Priority'

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the arrested man, Kazem Hamad, was a threat to national security. (Getty Images file)
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the arrested man, Kazem Hamad, was a threat to national security. (Getty Images file)
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Iraqi Officials Arrest Man Wanted by Australian Police as 'Number One Priority'

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the arrested man, Kazem Hamad, was a threat to national security. (Getty Images file)
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the arrested man, Kazem Hamad, was a threat to national security. (Getty Images file)

Iraqi officials have arrested a man wanted by Australian Federal Police as a person of interest in ​the investigation into a spate of firebombings, including an antisemitic attack on a Melbourne synagogue, police said on Wednesday.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the arrested man, Kazem Hamad, was a threat to national security and that she had identified ‌him as her "Number ‌One priority".

Iraq's National ‌Center ⁠for ​International ‌Judicial Cooperation said in a statement that Kadhim Malik Hamad Rabah al-Hajami had been arrested as part of a drugs investigation, after a request from Australia.

Barrett said Iraqi officials had made an independent decision to arrest the man ⁠in their own criminal investigation, after Australian Federal Police provided ‌information to Iraqi law enforcement ‍late last year.

"This ‍arrest is a significant disruption to an ‍alleged serious criminal and his alleged criminal enterprise in Australia," she said in a statement.

In October, Barrett said that in addition to being a ​suspect in arson attacks in Australia linked to the tobacco trade, the man ⁠was "a person of interest in the investigation into the alleged politically-motivated arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue" in Melbourne.

Australia expelled Iran's ambassador in August after the Australian Security Intelligence Organization traced the funding of hooded criminals who allegedly set fire to the Melbourne synagogue in December 2024 to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Hamad, previously convicted in Australia for drug trafficking ‌offences, was deported from Australia to Iraq in 2023.