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Iraqi Prime Minister to Conduct First Cabinet Reshuffle

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (AP)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (AP)
    Baghdad –Hamza Mustafa
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Iraqi Prime Minister to Conduct First Cabinet Reshuffle

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (AP)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (AP)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced an imminent reshuffle in the cabinet and among a number of governors.

Sudani formed his government in Oct. 2022. Upon taking office, he pledged that he would evaluate the performance of ministers and those with special grades (governors, directors and undersecretaries of ministries), after a period of six months.

During a recent televised interview, Sudani revealed that he was about to make changes in the ministerial lineup and at the level of governors and directors. While this announcement is seen as a commitment by the premier to the government’s priorities, political observers noted that it could open the door to a dispute with the political blocs over the concerned ministries.

Those observers believe that the parliamentary blocs will tend to defend their respective ministers in order to cover corruption files, which would stir disagreements within Parliament.

Moreover, the election of governors was only the prerogative of the provincial councils, and since those councils have been suspended for around four years, reshuffling the governors could spark a dispute between the different political parties and Sudani, according to the observers.

During the interview, the Iraqi premier pledged to restore confidence in the political system, noting that “the level of trust has declined a lot, and therefore we need credibility to cooperate with the citizens.”

Regarding his intention to carry out a cabinet reshuffle, Sudani said: “The ministers were given 6 months to conduct a real assessment in order to complete their work in the ministerial portfolios… There are tools and a plan that the government must implement, whether in the field of health, education or agriculture, and other various ministerial portfolios.”

As for the provincial council elections, which have been suspended since 2019, the prime minister said that those would not be held before Dec. 20, pointing to procedures and requirements that the Electoral Commission would not be able to complete before this date.

With regards to fighting corruption and the recovery of stolen funds - one of the priorities in the government program, Sudani said: “Recovering funds is the best way to combat corruption.”

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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press said.
The agents spoke with CBS “60 Minutes” in a segment aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.
One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn't realize it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.
“We created a pretend world,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”
Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel's Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested on dummies multiple times to find the right amount of explosive that would hurt only the Hezbollah fighter and not anyone else in close proximity.
Mossad also tested numerous ring tones to find one that sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the heftier pager, in part by using false ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, providing a long battery life and more.
He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.
Hezbollah also was unaware it was working with Israel.
Gabriel compared the ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no clue that he is living in a false world and his family and friends are actors paid to keep up the illusion.
“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything.”
By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.
Israel triggered the attack on Sept. 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.
The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people who were killed in the pager attacks.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he just died, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts,” he said. “And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”
In the days after the attack, Israel's air force hit targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
By November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the deadly attack by Hamas group in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials have said.
The agent using the name “Michael” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners out of fear that they would explode, too.
“There is real fear,” he said.
Asked if that was intentional, he said, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”