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Le Drian Holds Talks in Lebanon to Consolidate Ceasefire with Israel

A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency Press Office on December 8, 2025, shows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency Press Office on December 8, 2025, shows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
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Le Drian Holds Talks in Lebanon to Consolidate Ceasefire with Israel

A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency Press Office on December 8, 2025, shows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency Press Office on December 8, 2025, shows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meeting with French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian (L) at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)

French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian continued his meetings with Lebanese officials on Tuesday over consolidating the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Le Drian held talks on Monday with President Joseph Aoun and parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, Army Commander Rodolphe Haykal and former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and his son MP Taymur Jumblatt on Tuesday.

Aoun told Le Drian that Lebanon welcomes any role France can play within the Mechanism committee overseeing the ceasefire, rejecting accusations that the Lebanese army was not doing enough to meet its end of the agreement.

The committee aims to end the hostilities, ensure Israel’s withdrawal from regions it is occupying in southern Lebanon and release Lebanese detainees held by Israel.

A Lebanese presidency statement said Aoun welcomed French President Emmanuel’s constant support for Lebanon, stressing that they reflect the depth of Lebanese-French ties.

Aoun revealed to Le Drian that the Mechanism will meet again on December 19.

“Our desire to activate the Mechanism meetings reflects our willingness to negotiate to reach diplomatic solutions because we never want to adopt war rhetoric,” Aoun added.

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades last week under the auspices of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism.

The two sides met at the UN peacekeeping force's headquarters in Lebanon's Naqoura near the border with Israel, where the guarantors of the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah regularly convene.

Former Lebanese ambassador to the US Simon Karam and Israeli National Security Council official Uri Resnick were included as civilian representatives in the ceasefire mechanism for the first time.

Aoun told Le Drian that “the positive stances from fraternal and friendly states that followed last week’s meeting reflect their support for this step and will inevitably ease the pressure” that Lebanon was under.

He reiterated his rejection of criticism that the army was not doing enough to enforce the ceasefire agreement.

He instead accused Israel of continuing its attacks against Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire. He said it has destroyed homes and properties, preventing the army, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Mechanism from completing their duties.

He stressed that the army and UNIFIL were acting in complete coordination, while urging the need to provide the military with the necessary equipment to allow it to fulfill its mission in full.

The mission, he remarked, is not limited to regions south of the Litani River, but includes all of Lebanon.

Le Drian, for his part, conveyed to Aoun Macron’s support for Karam’s appointment to the Lebanon’s negotiating team, adding that Paris “will always stand by Beirut’s national choices.”

Talks between Berri and the envoy, which lasted over an hour, tackled the situation in Lebanon and the region, especially Israel’s ongoing violations of the ceasefire.

Paris is set to hold next week a meeting between France, the United States and Saudi Arabia in preparation for a conference aimed at backing the Lebanese army and support a roadmap for a long-term ceasefire.

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Arab World

Netanyahu Denies Contacts with Syria Have Led to Final Agreement

Israeli tanks deployed near the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan, Dec. 8, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli tanks deployed near the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan, Dec. 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Netanyahu Denies Contacts with Syria Have Led to Final Agreement

Israeli tanks deployed near the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan, Dec. 8, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli tanks deployed near the buffer zone on the Syrian Golan, Dec. 8, 2024. (AFP)

Contacts and meetings held between Israel and Syria have not reached any final understanding or agreement between both sides, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday in response to a report published by Asharq Al-Awsat.

Asharq Al-Awsat had quoted unnamed sources saying US mediation brought Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa together for a meeting during September’s UN General Assembly in New York.

Those talks advanced far enough that Netanyahu declined to endorse a draft security arrangement with Damascus, it wrote.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in statement: “There were contacts and meetings organized by the US, but no agreements and understandings with Syria were ever reached.”

Amid the controversy, a Syrian source familiar with the details told Channel 12: “The final draft of the agreement is almost ready and in its last stages. A breakthrough could happen very soon.”

The source added: “The agreement’s terms are largely agreed upon, with many clauses symbolically signed and written, waiting for US officials to approach Israel and say: ‘This is the final formula, and we want to move forward.’”

He said the pause is currently on Israel’s side, not Syria’s. “So far, the formula is acceptable to Syria and largely acceptable to Israel.”

Israeli media outlets recalled what happened between both sides last September.

The i24 News channel said that at the time, Sharaa had affirmed Damascus and Jerusalem will soon share a new security agreement. His comments came shortly after Reuters said Washington is pushing for enough progress to be made by the time world leaders gather in New York for the UN General Assembly at the end of the month to allow Trump to announce a breakthrough.

The Israeli channel said the deal was obstructed after Syria presented territorial demands that Israel cannot accept, including a withdrawal from the strategically sensitive Mount Hermon and areas in Syria’s buffer zone.

Later, the Times of Israel newspaper confirmed the reports saying that while there was optimism in September that a deal could be signed, Reuters reported at the time of the assembly that contacts between Israel and Syria regarding the deal had reached a dead end due to Israel’s demand to open a “humanitarian corridor” into the Sweida province in southern Syria – where sectarian violence has killed hundreds of people from the Druze community, which Israel has vowed to protect.

The newspaper also cited an Axios report saying Israel has reportedly presented Syria with a detailed proposal for a new security agreement regarding southwest Syria, demanding a no-fly zone and demilitarized zone over its border in Syria, with no limits on Israeli deployment on its own territory.

In return, Israel would withdraw in stages from the buffer zone it established after Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad fell last December, but would remain on the peak of Mount Hermon.

The Israeli army has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria for nearly a year, since the Assad regime was brought down, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries. Two posts are on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.

Israel said it seized the areas in southern Syria last December due to fears they would fall into the wrong hands after the regime collapsed and said it would hold on to them until a new security deal was signed.

The Walla website reported that Netanyahu was present at the UN General Assembly meeting and was planning to meet with the Syrian leader and sign a security deal with Syria.

But Damascus insisted on Israel’s withdrawal from territory seized in the Golan Heights since Assad’s fall. Tel Aviv refused, saying its troops need to remain in the area to protect its residents in the north.

Arab World

Shells of Unknown Origin Land Near Military Airport in Damascus, Syrian State TV Says

Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Damascus over the summer. (Reuters file)
Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Damascus over the summer. (Reuters file)
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Shells of Unknown Origin Land Near Military Airport in Damascus, Syrian State TV Says

Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Damascus over the summer. (Reuters file)
Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Damascus over the summer. (Reuters file)

Shells of unknown origin fell in the vicinity of Syria's Mezzah military airport in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, the state-run Al Ekhbariya TV reported.

Syria's state news agency earlier reported the sound of an explosion in the vicinity of Damascus and said the matter was under investigation.

The airbase sits at the gateway to parts of southern Syria.

Arab World

Israeli Army Takes Journalists into a Tunnel in a Gaza City It Seized and Largely Flattened

Mattresses and a plastic chair lie on the floor inside a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
Mattresses and a plastic chair lie on the floor inside a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Army Takes Journalists into a Tunnel in a Gaza City It Seized and Largely Flattened

Mattresses and a plastic chair lie on the floor inside a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)
Mattresses and a plastic chair lie on the floor inside a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)

One by one, the soldiers squeezed through a narrow entrance to a tunnel in southern Gaza. Inside a dark hallway, some bowed their heads to avoid hitting the low ceiling, while watching their step as they walked over or around jagged concrete, crushed plastic bottles and tattered mattresses.

On Monday, Israel's military took journalists into Rafah — the city at Gaza's southernmost point that troops seized last year and largely flattened — as the two-month-old Israel-Hamas ceasefire reaches a critical point. Israel has banned international journalists from entering Gaza since the war began more than two years ago, except for rare, brief visits supervised by the military, such as this one.

Soldiers escorted journalists inside a tunnel, which they said was one of Hamas' most significant and complex underground routes, connecting cities in the embattled territory and used by top Hamas commanders. Israel said Hamas had kept the body of a hostage in the underground passage: Hadar Goldin, a 23-year-old soldier who was killed in Gaza more than a decade ago and whose remains had been held there.

Hamas returned Goldin's body last month as part of a US-brokered ceasefire in the war triggered by the fighters' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and hundreds taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but says roughly half the dead have been women and children.

Israel and Hamas are on the cusp of finishing the first phase of the truce, which mandated the return of all hostages, living and dead, in exchange for Palestinians held by Israel. The body of just one more hostage remains to be returned.

Mediators warn the second phase will be far more challenging since it includes thornier issues, such as disarming Hamas and Israel’s withdrawal from the strip. Israel currently controls more than half of Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to travel to Washington this month to discuss those next steps with US President Donald Trump.

Buildings lie in ruins amidst the rubble in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 8, 2025. (Reuters)

Piles of rubble line Rafah's roads

Last year, Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, where many Palestinians had sought refuge from offensives elsewhere. Heavy fighting left much of the city in ruins and displaced nearly one million Palestinians. This year, when the military largely had control of the city, it systematically demolished most of the buildings that remained standing, according to satellite photos.

Troops also took control of and shut the vital Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world that was not controlled by Israel.

Israel said Rafah was Hamas’ last major stronghold and key to dismantling the group’s military capabilities, a major war aim.

On the drive around Rafah on Monday, towers of mangled concrete, wires and twisted metal lined the roads, with few buildings still standing and none unscathed. Remnants of people's lives were scattered the ground: a foam mattress, towels and a book explaining the Quran.

Last week, Israel said it was ready to reopen the Rafah crossing but only for people to leave the strip. Egypt and many Palestinians fear that once people leave, they won't be allowed to return. They say Israel is obligated to open the crossing in both directions.

Israel has said that entry into Gaza would not be permitted until Israel receives all hostages remaining in the strip.

Israeli soldiers gather next to the entrance of a tunnel where the army says the body of soldier Hadar Goldin was held in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP)

Inside the tunnel

The tunnel that journalists were escorted through runs beneath what was once a densely populated residential neighborhood, under a United Nations compound and mosques. Today, Rafah is a ghost town. Underground, journalists picked their way around dangling cables and uneven concrete slabs covered in sand.

The army says the tunnel is more than 7 kilometers (4 miles) long and up to 25 meters (82 feet) deep and was used for storing weapons as well as long-term stays. It said top Hamas commanders were there during the war, including Mohammed Sinwar, who was believed to have run Hamas’ armed wing and was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack. Israel has said it has killed both of them.

“What we see right here is a perfect example of what Hamas did with all the money and the equipment that was brought into Gaza throughout the years," said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. "Hamas took it and built an incredible city underground for the purposes of terror and holding bodies of hostages.”

Israel has long accused Hamas of siphoning off money for military purposes. While Hamas says the Palestinians are an occupied people and have a right to resist, the group also has a civilian arm and ran a government that provided services such as health care, a police force and education.

The army hasn’t decided what to do with the tunnel. It could seal it with concrete, explode it or hold it for intelligence purposes among other options.

Since the ceasefire began, three soldiers have been killed in clashes with about 200 Hamas fighters that Israeli and Egyptian officials say remain underground in Israeli-held territory.

Hamas has said communication with its remaining units in Rafah has been cut off for months and that it was not responsible for any incidents occurring in those areas.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of repeated violations of the deal during the first phase. Israel has accused Hamas of dragging out the hostage returns, while Palestinian health officials say over 370 Palestinians have been killed in continued Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect.