By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Lebanon at the edge: Diplomacy between fire and restraint

BEIRUT—Lebanon has entered a critical moment. An intense flurry of regional and international contacts is unfolding against the backdrop of open Israeli threats against Lebanon and mounting internal pressure. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Hezbollah’s move in launching Women’s Action Unit marks a milestone

Forging resistance from the grassroots

BEIRUT—The official launch of Hezbollah’s Women’s Action Unit marks a defining organizational and social milestone, reflecting decades of accumulated women’s participation and responding to the demands of a critical historical moment.

By Shahrokh Saei 

Who benefits from a disarmed Lebanon?

TEHRAN – Lebanon’s fragile ceasefire with Israel, brokered in late November 2024 by the United States and France, was meant to halt hostilities and open the door to a negotiated settlement. Yet more than a year later, the truce has proven largely illusory. Israel continues near-daily strikes on Lebanese territory, claiming to target Hezbollah compounds and rocket launch sites, but offering no verifiable evidence to substantiate its assertions.

By Wesam Bahrani 

Lebanese foreign minister's comments draw criticism

TEHRAN - Lebanon’s top diplomat, Youssef Raggi, has raised eyebrows inside the Arab country with his unfriendly remarks against Iran and the Hezbollah resistance movement. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Youssef Raggi’s diplomatic derailment

When will Lebanese leadership restore institutional discipline? 

BEIRUT—Handpicked by the Lebanese Forces (LF), Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi has, since taking office, behaved less like a custodian of national diplomacy and more like a partisan activist focused only on a narrow ideological agenda. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Israel’s aggressive blueprint: A rebuttal to Lebanon’s pro-Israel propaganda

BEIRUT—In early December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again peeled back the last veneer of diplomatic pretence. 

By Sondoss Al Asaad

From Oracle to Starlink: Lebanon’s security sovereignty in the wind

BEIRUT — Lebanon has always lived in the crossfire of regional conflicts, but rarely has its digital sovereignty been placed so casually on the negotiating table.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Lebanon faces a choice between real power and foreign illusions

BEIRUT—Lebanon’s political and security landscape has long been defined by a paradox: the nation’s true defenders often operate outside formal institutions, while the official state struggles to assert authority, maintain sovereignty, or protect its people.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Lebanon’s neutrality debate in a shifting regional context

BEIRUT — Let’s try, for a moment, to imagine a Lebanon where words mean what they say. In that alternate universe, “neutrality” would imply rejecting foreign meddling of any kind, “interference” would refer to bombing residential areas, and “sovereignty” might include the radical notion of objecting to drones overhead.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

LF outsourcing patriotism to the occupiers: See how it ended in Afghanistan

BEIRUT—No contradiction in Lebanese politics is more glaring than the desire of the Lebanese Forces (LF) to see the Israeli enemy resolve their political dispute inside Lebanon. A party that claims to defend state sovereignty routinely seeks foreign intervention against a Lebanese actor with a proven popular and national base.

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Lebanon’s art of giving everything away for free

BEIRUT — For decades, Lebanon’s leaders have embraced a peculiar diplomatic approach: yield concession after concession, gain nothing in return, and feign surprise as the nation’s leverage steadily disappears.

By Sondoss Al Asaad 

Naqoura talks: Trojan Horse of economic and political normalization

BEIRUT—The Lebanese government’s decision to appoint former ambassador Simon Karam, a civilian with openly political positions, to lead the Lebanese delegation in the so-called Military Technical Committee meetings in Naqoura is not a procedural adjustment. Rather, it is a political landmine.

By Sondoss Al Asaad

Sanctified semantics: Lebanon’s risky drift into the ‘Abrahamic’ politics

BEIRUT—President Joseph Aoun’s description of Lebanon as a place where “all the Children of Abraham can meet” was portrayed as a gesture of coexistence during his address to Pope Leo XIV.

By Nabil Mansour

Could the Pope’s Lebanon visit temper Israeli threats and mend political divisions?

BEIRUT - Pope Leo XIV’s arrival in Beirut—his first foreign trip since ascending the papacy—comes at a moment when Lebanon is poised between escalating Israeli threats and a political class locked in chronic division.