Hezbollah elects Naim Qassem to succeed slain head Nasrallah

Hezbollah elects Naim Qassem to succeed slain head Nasrallah
Lebanon’s Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem speaks during a rally supporting Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Beirut, Lebanon. (File/Reuters)
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Updated 29 October 2024
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Hezbollah elects Naim Qassem to succeed slain head Nasrallah

Hezbollah elects Naim Qassem to succeed slain head Nasrallah
  • Shoura Council says had elected Qassem, 71, in accordance with its established mechanism for choosing a secretary general
  • Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburb over a month ago

BEIRUT: Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had elected deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburb over a month ago.
The group said in a written statement that its Shoura Council had elected Qassem, 71, in accordance with its established mechanism for choosing a secretary general.
He was appointed as Hezbollah’s deputy chief in 1991 by the armed group’s then-secretary general Abbas Al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack the following year.
Qassem remained in his role when Nasrallah became leader, and has long been one of Hezbollah’s leading spokesmen, conducting interviews with foreign media, including as cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the last year.
Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27, and senior Hezbollah figure Hashem Safieddine — considered the most likely successor — was killed in Israeli strikes a week later.
Since Nasrallah’s killing, Qassem has given three televised addresses, including one on Oct. 8 in which he said the armed group supported efforts to reach a ceasefire for Lebanon.
He is considered by many in Lebanon to lack the charisma and gravitas of Nasrallah.
The Israeli government’s official Arabic account on X posted, “His tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.”
“There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force,” it wrote.


Russian bases in Syria threatened by insurgent advance, say Moscow’s war bloggers

Russian bases in Syria threatened by insurgent advance, say Moscow’s war bloggers
Updated 56 min 58 sec ago
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Russian bases in Syria threatened by insurgent advance, say Moscow’s war bloggers

Russian bases in Syria threatened by insurgent advance, say Moscow’s war bloggers
  • Rapid advances by the insurgents threaten to undermine Russia’s geopolitical clout in the Middle East
  • Russian war bloggers say the most immediate threat is to the future of Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province and to its naval facility at Tartous on the coast

DAMASCUS: Two strategically-important Russian military facilities in Syria and Moscow’s very presence in the Middle East are under serious threat from rapidly advancing insurgents, Russian war bloggers have warned.
With Russian military resources mostly tied down in Ukraine where Moscow’s forces are rushing to take more territory before Donald Trump comes to power in the US in January, Russia’s ability to influence the situation on the ground in Syria is far more limited than in 2015 when it intervened decisively to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Rapid advances by the insurgents threaten to undermine Russia’s geopolitical clout in the Middle East and its ability to project power in the region, across the Mediterranean and into Africa. They also risk dealing an embarrassing setback to President Vladimir Putin, who casts Russia’s intervention in Syria as an example of how Moscow can use force to shape events far away and compete with the West.
But Russian war bloggers, some of whom are close to the Russian Defense Ministry and whom the Russian authorities allow greater freedom to speak out than the military, say the most immediate threat is to the future of Russia’s Hmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province and to its naval facility at Tartous on the coast.
The Tartous facility is Russia’s only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.
Influential Russian war blogger “Rybar,” who is close to the Russian Defense Ministry and has over 1.3 million followers on his Telegram channel, said Moscow’s forces were facing a grave threat.
“In reality we need to understand that the insurgents will not stop,” Rybar warned.
“They will try to inflict the maximum defeat and the maximum reputational and physical damage on the representatives of the Russian Federation (in Syria) and in particular to destroy our military bases.”
Relying on the Syrian army alone was a lost cause, he added, saying it would continue to fall back unless properly supported by the Russian air force and specialists.
The Russian Defense Ministry could not be reached for comment on a non-working day. The Russian Embassy in Damascus has advised Russian nationals to leave Syria.
Asked on Saturday in Doha about the fate of the Russian bases, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was “not in the business of guessing” what would happen, but said Moscow was doing all it could to prevent “terrorists” from prevailing.
He said he was not worried about how events in Syria would affect his own reputation or that of Russia, but was worried about the fate of the Syrian people.

RUSSIAN FORCES BADLY EXPOSED, SAYS BLOGGER
The Russian air force has been helping government forces launch air strikes against insurgents and the Kremlin has said it still supports Assad and is analizing the situation to see what help is needed to stabilize the situation.
However, Russia’s “Fighterbomber” war blogger, who has over 500,000 followers, said Moscow’s forces in Syria were badly exposed and that losing the Hmeimim air base would mean losing the ability to carry out air strikes which he said was 75 percent of Moscow’s capabilities there.
“The Hmeimim airfield is not a multi-story industrial project with basements. It is a field with lightly assembled buildings on top, which will cease to function as soon as the enemy gets within artillery or drone flight range,” he said.
“The situation with the naval base in Tartous is about the same. Of course, it can be defended and held for quite a long time if there is someone and something to do it, but it will either not be able to function at all, or in a very limited way.”
Nor, he warned, would a full evacuation of all of Russia’s military equipment be possible if it became necessary.
“Therefore, the main task of our forces in Syria is to prevent the enemy from entering Latakia, even if we have to temporarily give up the rest of the territory.”
With over 600,000 followers, war blogger “Starshe Eddi” said Russia had paid a heavy price for a foothold in Syria.
“Ten years there, dead Russian soldiers, billions of roubles spent and thousands of tons of ammunition expended — they must be compensated somehow and somehow,” he wrote.
“The only thing that can...give us a chance to compensate for the current failure and the resources we have used up is our retention of the Latakia and Tartous provinces.”
Igor Girkin, a prominent Russian ex-militia commander who fought in Ukraine and who is serving a four-year jail term after accusing Putin and the army’s top brass of mistakes in the Ukraine war, said Moscow’s position in Syria had always been exposed from a reinforcement and supply point of view.
“Now our enemies have naturally decided to take advantage of our weakness at the moment when we are busy on the Ukrainian front,” he wrote from prison.
“We are overstretched. The defeat of the Syrian side will also be our defeat.”


Source close to Hezbollah says sent 2,000 fighters to Syria

Source close to Hezbollah says sent 2,000 fighters to Syria
Updated 07 December 2024
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Source close to Hezbollah says sent 2,000 fighters to Syria

Source close to Hezbollah says sent 2,000 fighters to Syria
  • The source said that since the Islamist-led militant offensive began last week, Hezbollah has not taken an active part in the fighting
  • The group’s fighters had been sent “to defend its positions” in the mountains along the Syria-Lebanon border

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah has sent 2,000 fighters into Syria, a source close to the armed group said on Saturday, as ally Damascus reels from a militant offensive that has seized major cities.
The Iran-backed group, which has fought alongside the forces of President Bashar Assad during Syria’s war since 2011, “sent 2,000 fighters to the Qusayr area” near the Lebanese border, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The source said that since the Islamist-led militant offensive began last week, Hezbollah has not taken an active part in the fighting.
The group’s fighters had been sent “to defend its positions” in the mountains along the Syria-Lebanon border, the source said, adding that Hezbollah “has not yet participated in any battles.”
The militant coalition in Syria has already seized two of Syria’s main cities, Aleppo in the north and Hama in the center.
They launched their offensive on November 27, the same day that a ceasefire took effect in the war between Hezbollah and Israel, which has left the Lebanese group weakened.
On Saturday, militant forces were at the gates of the key central city of Homs and were advancing toward the capital Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
The source said Hezbollah sent “150 military advisers to Homs, to help the Syrian army if it decides to defend” the city.
Since 2013, Hezbollah has openly backed Assad’s forces.
Hezbollah fighters helped Assad regain territory lost earlier in the civil war, which broke out in 2011 after the repression of anti-government protests.
The Lebanese group supported Syrian government forces as they seized Qusayr city from militant control in 2013, with Hezbollah later setting up a military base and training camp there.
But as the war in Syria had been largely dormant until last week, Hezbollah has “withdrawn the majority of its fighters over the past two years,” said the source.
It did keep military advisers in Aleppo and Hama, the source said, without specifying whether they had left before the militant forces captured the two cities in recent days.
Russia and Iran have also intervened in the war to prop up Assad’s rule and help his forces claw back territory.
Tehran on November 28 announced that one of its Revolutionary Guards generals had been killed in the fighting in Aleppo.


Yemen can’t wait ‘forever’ for peace roadmap, UN envoy says

Yemen can’t wait ‘forever’ for peace roadmap, UN envoy says
Updated 07 December 2024
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Yemen can’t wait ‘forever’ for peace roadmap, UN envoy says

Yemen can’t wait ‘forever’ for peace roadmap, UN envoy says
  • Any chance of implementing a roadmap has effectively been put on hold by escalating regional crises sparked by the war in Gaza
  • Although preparatory discussions are continuing with all sides, “obviously... it cannot stay like this forever,” Grundberg said

MANAMA: Yemen’s warring parties and beleaguered people cannot wait indefinitely for a roadmap to peace before the country slips back to war, the UN special envoy told AFP.
Hans Grundberg insisted it was “still possible” to solve the conflict in impoverished Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi militants control much of the country.
But any chance of implementing a roadmap has effectively been put on hold by escalating regional crises sparked by the war in Gaza.
Although preparatory discussions are continuing with all sides, “obviously... it cannot stay like this forever,” Grundberg said in an interview at the Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain.
“At a certain point, there is an expected delivery that the parties want to see happen. And if that doesn’t take place, you risk losing the necessary momentum that you have, and that danger is clear.”
He added: “There are belligerent voices in the region. What I’m saying is, don’t go down that road — it’s possible to settle this conflict.”
Yemen has been at war since March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition began a campaign to dislodge the Houthis who had seized control of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, months earlier.
A UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022 calmed fighting and in December last year, even after the Israel-Hamas war had started, the warring parties committed to a peace process.
But US and British strikes on Houthi targets in January, after the militants began attacking shipping on the vital Red Sea trade route, “complicated the mediation space tremendously.”
“On the basis of that, we have not been able to take the step forward from the commitments that were agreed to in 2023 to the assigned roadmap,” Grundberg said.
The UN envoy said it’s not “possible to move forward with the roadmap right now, because I don’t think that the implementation of that roadmap would be possible.”
But he added: “I still believe that the foundation for a roadmap in Yemen is there because the conflict between Yemenis is solvable.
“However, the complicating factor now is the regional destabilization, where Yemen has become an integral part through the attacks in the Red Sea.”
Grundberg said the roadmap is “not a magic wand” for Yemen, which has been plunged into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises with two-thirds of the population dependent on aid.
The roadmap is intended as a structure for implementing humanitarian and economic commitments, and steps toward a permanent ceasefire and political process, over a nominal period of three years.
“So here I think the responsibility that lies on our side is to ensure that this momentum is upheld and that the parties understand the necessity to... trust in the fact that this is possible to achieve,” Grundberg said.
“If not, the consequences are known. If you slip back into a violent confrontation internally, I think the consequences of that are pretty well known and I don’t think that they would be in favor of anyone.”
He added: “I would guess that the Yemeni people should be impatient as a whole. I think that they have been waiting for peace for far too long.
“Everyone wants this to come to an end.”


Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 44,664

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 44,664
Updated 07 December 2024
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Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 44,664

Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 44,664
  • The toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 24 hours

GAZA STRIP: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Saturday that at least 44,664 people have been killed in nearly 14 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 105,976 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.


Israeli military says it killed Hezbollah fighter threatening troops in southern Lebanon

Israeli military says it killed Hezbollah fighter threatening troops in southern Lebanon
Updated 07 December 2024
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Israeli military says it killed Hezbollah fighter threatening troops in southern Lebanon

Israeli military says it killed Hezbollah fighter threatening troops in southern Lebanon
  • The Israeli military released aerial footage of an operation along with the statement

CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Saturday that it struck a Hezbollah fighter in southern Lebanon who posed a threat to its troops, adding it was operating within ceasefire agreements while remaining deployed to address threats to Israel.
The Israeli military released aerial footage of an operation along with the statement, showing a motorcycle being targeted with an airstrike, resulting in the bike bursting into flames.
Hezbollah did not immediately comment about the incident.