What impact will the developments in Syria have on Lebanon?
Can Lebanon remain shielded from the turmoil shaking the region — from Syria to Iran, including Gaza?Just a few months ago, in December, there was room for cautious optimism. With the fall of Bashar Assad's regime in Syria, many believed that hope was on the horizon. The tyrant's ouster appeared to signal a potential end to Syrian interference in Lebanon's affairs, progress toward resolving the refugee crisis, and the beginning of the end for a totalitarian regime.That sentiment was especially strong in Lebanon, where the Syrian regime had long weighed heavily on political and security dynamics. It was no coincidence that Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was the first major figure to meet with Syria's new strongman, Ahmad al-Sharaa, seeking to open a new and promising chapter with Damascus.But reality quickly caught up with hope. In this...
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Nahar Net
9 hours ago
- Nahar Net
20 dead, 52 hurt in Damascus church suicide bombing
by Naharnet Newsdesk 22 June 2025, 21:58 The United Nations special envoy for Syria denounced Sunday's attack on a church in Damascus that killed at least 20 people as a "heinous crime". Syria's interior ministry said a member of the Islamic State jihadist group was behind the attack, in which dozens of people were wounded. U.N. envoy Geir Pedersen "condemns in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack at St. Elias Church... which killed and injured civilians who were attending mass", said a statement from his office. "He expresses his outrage at this heinous crime." Pedersen noted that the Syrian interim authorities had attributed the attack to IS, and "calls for a full investigation and action by the authorities," the statement added. Pedersen "calls on all to unite in rejecting terrorism, extremism, incitement and the targeting of any community in Syria". The Norwegian diplomat sent his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and hoped for the recovery of those injured, the statement said. Pedersen, 69, has been the special envoy for Syria since 2018.
Nahar Net
20 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Assad cousin arrested in Lebanon border ambush
Syrian authorities arrested Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, the interior ministry said Saturday, in one of the most high-profile arrests since the former president's ouster. Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia in December with only a handful of confidants, abandoning senior officials and security officers, some of whom have reportedly fled to neighboring countries or taken refuge in the coastal heartland of Assad's Alawite minority. An interior ministry statement said that intelligence services and other authorities managed to "lure the criminal Wassim al-Assad", carrying out a "well-planned ambush that resulted in his successful arrest". He is "considered among the most prominent drug traffickers and people involved in a number of crimes during the period of the former regime", the statement said, without elaborating on the other allegations against him. While Wassim al-Assad did not hold high office, he is the first prominent figure from the Assad family to be arrested since Islamist-led forces toppled the government on December 8, ending five decades of one-family rule. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned him in 2023, saying he had led a paramilitary unit and was "a key figure in the regional drug trafficking network". State news agency SANA, citing an unidentified security source in Homs province, said Wassim al-Assad was arrested on the Syria-Lebanon border. A security source, requesting anonymity, told AFP he was arrested Saturday in the Tal Kalakh area, in Homs province near the frontier. In recent years, Wassim al-Assad, who called himself a "customs broker", posted images of himself on social media near luxury cars, sometimes appearing in military clothing and bearing arms or shooting, at times alongside other armed men. Since taking power, the new authorities have occasionally announced the arrest of Assad-era security and other officials. In April, Syrian authorities said security forces had arrested Sultan al-Tinawi, a former officer in the feared air force intelligence, one of the Assad family's most trusted security agencies.
Nahar Net
5 days ago
- Nahar Net
War-weary Lebanese watch from sidelines as missiles fly in Israel-Iran conflict
by Naharnet Newsdesk 17 June 2025, 18:03 Since Israel launched a barrage of strikes on Iran last week and Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks against Israel, neighboring countries have been in the flight path. Outside the scope Downed missiles and drones have fallen in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, damaging houses, causing fires and reportedly killing one woman in Syria. But those countries have so far not been dragged directly into the conflict — which had killed at least 224 people in Iran and 24 in Israel as of Tuesday — and many in their war-weary populations are hoping it stays that way. In Lebanon, which is still reeling from last year's war with Israel, videos making the rounds on social media have shown revelers dancing and drinking on rooftops while projectiles flash across the sky in the background. Firas Maksad, managing director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Eurasia Group, a New York-based risk consultancy organization, happened to be visiting Lebanon when the conflict broke out and was attending a wedding when a parade of missiles began lighting up the sky as the DJ played ABBA's disco hit "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)". He posted a video of the scene that went viral. "Certainly most in Lebanon and also Syria are very satisfied to be outside the scope of this," Maksad said. In a park overlooking Damascus, 25-year-old Khaldoun Hallak has spent the past few evenings with his friends, drinking yerba mate, snacking on nuts, smoking hookah pipes and watching the sky for missiles streaking overhead. "We've been through 14 years of war, and this is the first time Syria has nothing to do with it and we're just spectators," Hallak said. No longer in the spotlight, a sense of relief For some in the region, there is also measure of schadenfreude in watching the two sides exchange blows. There's a Syrian expression that literally translates as, "The fang of a dog in the hide of a pig." It means that two people perceived as despicable are fighting with each other. The phrase has surfaced frequently on social media as Syrians express their feelings about the Israel-Iran conflict. Watching from a park Many Syrians resented Iran's heavy-handed intervention in support of former President Bashar Assad during the country's civil war, but are also angered by Israel's incursions and airstrikes in Syria since Assad's fall. The Sunni-majority Syrian population also widely sympathizes with the Palestinians, particularly with civilians killed and displaced by the ongoing war in Gaza. "May God set the oppressors against each other," said Ahmad al-Hussein, 18, in Damascus, who was sitting in a park with friends waiting to see missiles pass overhead Monday night. "I hope it continues. We've been harmed by both of them." Hallak echoed the sentiment. "Every time we see a missile going up, we say, may God pour gasoline on this conflict," he said. "If one side is hit, we will be happy, and if the other side is hit, we will also be happy. We will only be upset if there is a reconciliation between them." In Lebanon, where last year's Israel-Hezbollah war killed more than 4,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, and left destruction in wide swathes of the country's south and east and in Beirut's southern suburbs, some see retribution in the footage of destroyed buildings in Tel Aviv. "Of course I am against the Israeli occupation, and Iran is an Islamic country standing up to it," said Hussein al-Walid, 34, a welder in the southern coastal city of Sidon. Al-Walid shrugged off the possibility of a new war in Lebanon. "The war is already present in Lebanon," he said. "Israel isn't abiding by the agreement and is striking every day." Shouts of jubilation Hassan Shreyf, a 26-year-old student from the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has a strong base of support, said that after last year's war in Lebanon and the heavy losses suffered by the militant group, many of its supporters "were clearly anguished and didn't feel vindicated." "So anything, even a window breaking in Tel Aviv, is (now) a victory for them," he said. Every time Iranian missiles pass overhead, he said, people in the area break out in shouts of jubilation. At the same time, Chreif said, "there's always a silent group hugging the wall as we say in Arabic, treading carefully and praying we stay out of it."
