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Arab World

Satterfield Leaves Beirut With Proposals to Solve Oil Conflict

Berri received Satterfield on Friday in Ain Al-Tineh/NNA
Berri received Satterfield on Friday in Ain Al-Tineh/NNA
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Satterfield Leaves Beirut With Proposals to Solve Oil Conflict

Berri received Satterfield on Friday in Ain Al-Tineh/NNA
Berri received Satterfield on Friday in Ain Al-Tineh/NNA

US acting assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, David Satterfield left Beirut on Friday carrying in his pocket a list of Lebanese proposals to solve the land and maritime border conflict with Israel after hearing a unified position against the so-called “Hoff Line,” in reference to former ambassador Frederick Hoff, who had led similar talks in the term of former US President Barack Obama.

Ministerial informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Lebanese proposals include “the participation of a US representative in the regular tripartite meetings at UN positions in the Ras al-Naqoura, southern Lebanon between the Lebanese and Israeli sides. Another proposal suggests forming a four-party political committee in the presence of a US delegate.

The sources also spoke about a proposition to refer the conflict to an international court or to return to the old maps currently present in Britain.

In 2011, Hoff had suggested to demarcate the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel, by giving Lebanon about 550 square kilometers from the 860 square kilometers area,” the sources explained.

Lebanon mobilized at the political and security levels to discuss the repercussions of a border crisis with Israel, which claims the ownership of an offshore oil and gas field known as Block 9, an area in which Lebanon plans to conduct an oil and gas drilling program in 2018.

Satterfield met on Friday with Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Speaker Nabih Berri, and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, carrying on talks he had kicked off when he arrived to Lebanon a week ago to prepare for the visit of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who visited Lebanon last Thursday and heard the same Lebanese proposals.

Sources at the Foreign Ministry told the Central News Agency on Friday that talks about a US proposal to divide the disputed area in a way to offer Lebanese 60 percent in exchange to 40 percent to Israel is not accurate, as things are more complicated.

“The American side is trying today to reach a new suggestion related to the area which Israel claims the ownership, after being convinced that Lebanese is attached to rejecting the Hoff Line,” the sources said.

Also on Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah intervened on the line of the border conflict with Israel by saying that Lebanese unified official stance regarding Lebanon's rights to its offshore resources is a key factor to score victory in the regional battle over oil and gas, calling the state to approach this file from a position of strength.

“If the American asks you to bow to his demands to restrain Israel, tell him that he must accept your terms so that you hold Hezbollah back from taking action against Israel," Nasrallah said.

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Arab World

Gaza No Longer in Famine After Aid Access Improves, Hunger Monitor Says

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen after the global hunger monitor, in Gaza City, August 28, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen after the global hunger monitor, in Gaza City, August 28, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
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Gaza No Longer in Famine After Aid Access Improves, Hunger Monitor Says

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen after the global hunger monitor, in Gaza City, August 28, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen after the global hunger monitor, in Gaza City, August 28, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa/File Photo

There is no longer famine in Gaza, a global hunger monitor said on Friday, after access for humanitarian and commercial ​food deliveries improved following a fragile October 10 ceasefire in the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants.

The latest assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification comes four months after it reported that 514,000 people - nearly a quarter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip - were experiencing famine. The IPC warned on Friday that the situation in the enclave remained critical, Reuters reported.

"Under a worst-case scenario, which would include renewed hostilities and a halt in humanitarian and commercial inflows, the entire Gaza Strip (would be) at risk of famine through mid-April 2026. This underscores the severe and ongoing humanitarian crisis," the IPC said in the report.

Israel controls all access to the coastal enclave. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, in August disputed that there was famine in Gaza. COGAT says 600-800 trucks have entered Gaza daily since the start of the truce in October, ‌and that food made ‌up 70% of all those supplies.

COGAT rejected the report's findings.

"The report relies on ‌severe ⁠gaps in ​data collection ‌and on sources that do not reflect the full scope of humanitarian assistance. As such, it misleads the international community, fuels disinformation and presents a false depiction of the reality on the ground."

Israel's Foreign Ministry said that far more aid was going into Gaza than what was reflected in the report and that food prices there had dropped sharply since July.

Hamas disputes Israel's aid figures, saying far fewer than 600 trucks a day have made it into Gaza. Aid agencies have repeatedly said far more aid needs to get into the small, crowded territory and have said Israel is blocking needed items from entering, which Israel denies.

NO FAMINE, BUT STILL CATASTROPHIC CONDITIONS

The IPC said five famines have been confirmed in the past 15 years: in Somalia ⁠in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, Sudan in 2024, and most recently in Gaza in August.

For a region to be classified as in famine at least 20% of people ‌must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and ‍two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or malnutrition ‍and disease.

"No areas are classified in famine," the IPC said of Gaza on Friday. "The situation remains highly fragile and is contingent on ‍sustained, expanded and consistent humanitarian and commercial access."

Even if a region has not been classified as in famine because those thresholds have not been met, the IPC can determine households are suffering catastrophic conditions, which it describes as an extreme lack of food, starvation and significantly increased risks of acute malnutrition and death.

The IPC said on Friday that more than 100,000 people in Gaza were experiencing catastrophic conditions, but projected that figure to decline to around 1,900 people by ​April 2026. It said the entire Gaza Strip was classified in an emergency phase, one step below catastrophic conditions.

"Over the next 12 months, across the entire Gaza Strip, nearly 101,000 children aged 6–59 months are expected to suffer from acute ⁠malnutrition and require treatment, with more than 31,000 severe cases," the IPC said.

"During the same period, 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will also face acute malnutrition and require treatment," it said.

AID CHALLENGES REMAIN

Antoine Renard, the top UN World Food Programme official in Gaza and the West Bank, said there were signs of improvement in the dire hunger situation in Gaza.

"The fact that most of the population is having two meals per day is actually a clear sign that we are actually having a bit of reversal," he told reporters on Thursday.

However, he said it was "a constant struggle" to get streamlined access to Gaza at scale and speed with humanitarian and commercial trucks facing congestion at the border crossings.

The United Nations and aid groups also warned on Wednesday that humanitarian operations in Gaza were at risk of collapse if Israel does not lift impediments that include a "vague, arbitrary, and highly politicized" registration process.

The International Rescue Committee’s Zoe Daniels said high food prices meant it was hard for many people in Gaza to obtain enough high-quality food even when it was available in the market, while Jolien Veldwijk of CARE said the situation in Gaza had not improved as much as it ‌should have.

"People are relying on canned food that is pre-cooked or community kitchens, and they don’t hold the nutritional value that is needed for people to recover from malnutrition.”

Arab World

Lebanon-Israel Truce Committee Talks Widen as Hezbollah Disarmament Deadline Nears

People inspect a damaged building, after Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a militant from the Lebanese Iran-aligned Hezbollah group, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People inspect a damaged building, after Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a militant from the Lebanese Iran-aligned Hezbollah group, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Lebanon-Israel Truce Committee Talks Widen as Hezbollah Disarmament Deadline Nears

People inspect a damaged building, after Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a militant from the Lebanese Iran-aligned Hezbollah group, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People inspect a damaged building, after Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a militant from the Lebanese Iran-aligned Hezbollah group, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon November 23, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

The committee overseeing the Hezbollah-Israel truce in Lebanon focused on Friday on how to return displaced people to their homes, addressing civilian issues to help prevent ​renewed war if a year-end deadline to disarm Hezbollah is not met.

The 15th meeting of the committee reflected a long-standing US push to broaden talks between the sides beyond monitoring the 2024 ceasefire, in line with President Donald Trump's agenda of cementing peace deals across the volatile Middle East, according to Reuters.

Israel has publicly urged Lebanese authorities to fulfil a commitment under the truce to disarm Hezbollah, ‌warning that ‌it would act "as necessary" if Lebanon does not ‌take ⁠steps ​against the ‌Iran-aligned proxy militia.

At Friday's meeting in the south Lebanon coastal town of Naqoura, civilian participants discussed steps to support safe returns of residents uprooted by the 2023-24 war and advance economic reconstruction, the US Embassy in Beirut said.

A source familiar with the discussions told Reuters they also addressed disputes over how to limit weaponry south of the Litani River ⁠and deploying the Lebanese army into Hezbollah's stronghold region.

The Lebanese and Israeli participants agreed ‌that durable political and economic progress was essential ‍to reinforcing security gains and ensuring ‍long-term stability and prosperity, the US Embassy added in a ‍statement.

The committee added that a strengthened Lebanese army, which participants described as the guarantor of security south of the Litani River but was for many years outgunned by Hezbollah, was critical to sustaining stability.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun ​affirmed the priority of returning residents of border villages to their homes, a presidency statement said, adding that the ⁠committee would reconvene on January 7.

Lebanon and Israel have been officially enemy states for more than 70 years. Since the US-brokered truce, the two sides have traded accusations of violations while Israel has continued to carry out strikes that have killed hundreds, saying it is targeting Hezbollah attempts to rebuild military capabilities.

At the committee's December 3 meeting, the first including civilians from both sides, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he hoped civilian participation would help defuse tensions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said then the atmosphere at the meeting was good and ‌that the sides agreed to put forth ideas for economic cooperation, but that Hezbollah must be disarmed regardless.

Arab World

Egypt Says Gas Deal with Israel is 'Strictly Commercial'

Under the deal, Leviathan will sell about 130 bcm of gas to Egypt through 2040 or until all contract values are fulfilled - File Photo
Under the deal, Leviathan will sell about 130 bcm of gas to Egypt through 2040 or until all contract values are fulfilled - File Photo
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Egypt Says Gas Deal with Israel is 'Strictly Commercial'

Under the deal, Leviathan will sell about 130 bcm of gas to Egypt through 2040 or until all contract values are fulfilled - File Photo
Under the deal, Leviathan will sell about 130 bcm of gas to Egypt through 2040 or until all contract values are fulfilled - File Photo

Egypt said that a natural gas deal with Israel was a "strictly commercial" arrangement with no political dimensions, adding it was concluded by private energy companies under market rules without direct government intervention, Reuters reported.

Earlier this week, Israel approved an export deal signed in August with Chevron and its partners, NewMed and Ratio, to supply up to $35 billion of gas to Egypt from the Leviathan natural gas field.

Egypt's position on the Palestinian cause is "firm and unwavering," supporting the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, rejecting forced displacement, and adhering to a two-state solution, the head of Egypt's State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday described the agreement as the largest gas deal in Israel's history, adding it would help bolster regional stability.

Under the deal, Leviathan, which has reserves of around 600 billion cubic metres, will sell about 130 bcm of gas to Egypt through 2040 or until all contract values are fulfilled, NewMed said in a statement.

Egypt's gas production began declining in 2022, forcing it to abandon its ambitions to become a regional supply hub. It has increasingly turned to Israel to make up the shortfall.