In the @mideast.csis.org 's newest Babel episode, Jon Alterman speaks with @mohanad.bsky.social about how Hezbollah's involvement in drug trade networks has evolved over recent years. It's a special episode, and Mona Yacoubian's first Babel appearance. Tune in: www.csis.org/podcasts/bab...

Day 600 missing Daddy #BringOmriHome to Roni and Alma and Lishay while there’s still time. End this cruel neglect and abandonment, as you call for aid into Gaza, you must not neglect the remaining hostages held in the most hellish conditions. #BringThemAllHomeNow 🎗️ Stay alive Omri. Survive.

Great to see PM Nawaf Salam announce the start of the cannabis commission formation process (for medical use), a key recommendation in my @CarnegieMEC paper earlier this year. News: nna-leb.gov.lb/en/politics/77… Paper: carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

In the 2nd panel of the “War and Peace in the 21st Century” conference, Merissa Khurma, @mohanad.bsky.social, Sanam Vakil and Gérard Araud analysed how the international community can promote dialogue and solutions to a lasting peace in the Middle East #WP2025

“The war in Lebanon came on top of half a decade of financial and economic crises, and was accompanied by a new geopolitical reality,” @mohanad.bsky.social, Deputy Director for Research at @carnegiemec.bsky.social, discussed the sociopolitical situation in Lebanon after Israel's attacks #WP2025

Analysts, experts and diplomats told me Israel wants Lebanon and Syria to stay weak and divided. They feel they can manage the chaos via their military and technological superiority. featuring @aronlund.bsky.social @ayoub.bsky.social @mohanad.bsky.social www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

واضح اليوم ان صدورا كثيرة تضيق برئيس الحكومة نواف سلام وخياراته السياسية. لكن المفاجئ أن واشنطن باتت اليوم ممن يسارع لانتقاده

Interesting 🧵 worth the read, especially in connection to recent events at the Syrian-Lebaneese borders #Lebanon

@mohanad.bsky.social delves into how the conflict in #Syria allowed for the emergence of #captagon traffickers in #Lebanon in this excellent report.

🚨 Thread: Lebanon’s Captagon Networks & Their Political Implications 🚨 My latest paper explores how Captagon trafficking fuels power structures in Lebanon. Three key takeaways: 🧵👇

Nir Oz and Nahal Oz are names engraved in sadness and grief. Nothing justifies Hamas’s crimes there.

جيد أن هذه الحكومة حصلت على الثقة وبدأ عداد العمل فيها. لكن على هذه السنة المقبلة أن تكون مثمرة ومؤشراً لمسار مختلف لو قيض للبلد أن يسلكه. السنوات الماضية اتسمت بقدر هائل من القسوة والعنف واللامبالاة بحق الناس على أيدي الطبقة السياسية، ولا بأس ببعض الضوء في نهاية نفق مظلم طويل.

سريالي اصرار الثنائي على اسم إضافي هنا او هناك، فيما يتوالى القصف الاسرائيلي والخروقات الفاضحة للاتفاق، على وقع اشتباكات الحدود اللبنانية السورية، ناهيك عن الأزمة الاقتصادية الخانقة. الحفاظ على السلاح يبقى اهم من الناس وأرواحهم وممتلكاتهم ومستقبلهم، هذه الحقيقة المرة التي علينا تجرعها عند كل استحقاق

AP’s Bassem Mroue investigates the state of Syria’s near-extinct Jewish community, now numbering nine individuals. @bmroue.bsky.social @apnews.com abcnews.go.com/Internationa...

A half apology

Some anxious Syrians in Damascus are reflecting on the next phase, saying it’s hard to imagine an era both worse and longer than the current one, a bittersweet consolation, perhaps.

Israel and Saudi Arabia reach normalization breakthrough, clearing path for hostage deal Israel and Saudi Arabia reach normalization breakthrough, clearing path for hostage deal www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

The Syrian Upheaval Has Iranian Leaders Reeling, Too www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/w...

في مقالي الأخير استند إلى بحوث عن الجيش السوري أدرتها في الماضي ومن دراستي للنظم السلطوية العسكرية العربية الأخرى للمساهمة في الإجابة على سؤال لماذا امتنع الجيش عن الدفاع عن بشار الاسد؟ carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/...

This is what I got when I googled for Sednaya prison just now! I hope it stays this way!!!

In this post I draw on past research I led on the Syrian army and on civil-military relations in other military-backed authoritarian Arab states to help answer the question of why the army failed to defend Assad: Anatomy of a Military Fall carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/...

Scoop: Yoav Gallant's planned event at Adas Israel was cancelled after members spoke out against hosting the former Israeli defense minister — a fairly big deal at a major Jewish establishment synagogue in the capital forward.com/news/680911/...

A video excerpt shows a meeting between Ahmad Al-Sharaa (Al-Jolani) and Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali (the deposed regime’s Prime Minister) to coordinate the transfer of power and ensure services in Syria. We hope the military doesn’t dominate and that Syrians achieve their democratic aspirations.

A🧵 on the Lebanon implications of the Assad regime's collapse. The most significan element here is the refugee issue, with many thousands of Syrians already relocating. Most likely, this will continue, specifically if we see a smooth and orderly transition 1/7

“I haven’t seen the sun until today” #Syria-n rebels free prisoners from Assad’s notorious dungeons who celebrate in Damascus streets apnews.com/article/syri...

There was no place more feared in Assad’s Syria than Sednaya Military Prison. By Sunday, the guards had fled, its doors were flung open and this fortress of terrified silence was alive with the sounds of parents and children calling out for their missing. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Opposition forces tied to the Military Operations Management room have entered Latakia and Tartous along #Syria's coast.

I’m not a Syrian refugee anymore. I’m Syrian. Just Syrian.

I love this

صباح الخلاص من النظام الأسدي. التحدي الأساسي اليوم يكمن في اعادة بناء الدولة السورية، والانتقال من مرحلة الفوضى والتشرذم. حتى اليوم، أظهرت الفضائل وعياً حيال التعاطي مع الأقليات والاسرى، على أمل ترجمة ذلك في إعادة تكوين مؤسسات الدولة.

Why is the capture of Hama so important? My quick breakdown with comments from expert and author @qunfuz.bsky.social “After Hama [was liberated], I thought to myself: ‘The Syrian revolution is back.’” www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12...

على أبواب حمص

50+ Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been wiped off the map entirely since October 7 amid intensifying attacks, threats, and harassment by Israeli settlers — almost always with the backing of Israel's army and police. @orenziv.bsky.social visited them. www.972mag.com/west-bank-vi...

Biden pardons his son, a smooth transition into a Trump era? www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...

On Ya'alon's Gaza statement: "These politicians, chief among them Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich & National Security Min Itamar Ben-Gvir, speak openly & proudly of depleting Gaza's population by half & building settlements on the ruins of the Strip's destroyed cities & villages."

Interesting to see here the emphasis on the HTS translation from Arabic: “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant”, and the mention of “unity of fronts” of all Syrian opposition against Assad.

One Lebanese detainee had died of torture last month. This is the new norm.

The Ankara-backed Syrian Interim Government announces the start of Operation Freedom's Dawn, in which the Syrian National Army will recover "usurped territories" from the SDF. They don't specify which areas they're thinking of, but Tell Refaat comes to mind. www.enabbaladi.net/726470/%d8%a...

بعيداً عن السياسة، في الجنوب والبقاع والضاحية، أهل وأصدقاء قلوبهم مفجوعة بالمُصاب والتهجير نتيجة القصف الوحشي. لأرواح من قضوا الرحمة، وللمصابين الشفاء العاجل، وللمفجوعين والمتألمين صبراً كثيراً، كثير من الحب والتمنيات بمستقبل لا مكان فيه للقتل والدمار والاحتراب.

Geothermal power is having a moment in the US. @zeitlin.bsky.social notes another thing in its favor: not only does it have bipartisan support, but it was left out of the IRA and thus is not "tainted" in the eyes of IRA-skeptic Republicans. heatmap.news/politics/bip...

The far right propaganda videos are all over the landing page. In 2016, the algorithm was looking for you (Cambridge analytica), in 2024, it was crawling over you

كلفة الدمار والاذى وفقدان الآلاف وجرح عشرة الاف جزء كبير منهم بات معوقاً مدى الحياة، لن ترد في الخطاب السياسي والنقاش العام، محظور ذلك لان الأخير بات من صنف علوم الغيب والماورائيات.

Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims pay high price in war between Israel and Hezbollah “Lebanese Shias are being collectively punished. Their urban areas are being destroyed, and their cultural monuments and building are being destroyed," - @mohanad.bsky.social apnews.com/article/leba...

حزب الله مسؤول عن رمي الناس في أتون هذه الحرب القاتلة وبين أنياب هذه الحكومة الفاشية في اسرائيل. ومسؤوليته في هذه الحرب ليست ثانوية على الاطلاق، لا بل يجب أن تكون جزءاً من نقاشنا العام في الشهور والسنوات المقبلة.

Nermin is a Gazan doctor who managed to flee to Egypt early this year. The war destroyed her life, but she has won a PhD place at the UK's Leicester University. Her place is not funded & she is raising money to pay for her education. Please share www.gofundme.com/f/help-nermi...

Impunity and rely on Israel’s judiciary and media to deliver justice/accountability.

من معالم هذه الحرب الاسرائيلية على لبنان، انها تريد حزاماً امنياً خالياً من البشر تحت الليطاني وليس حزب الله فحسب. كيف نفسر هذا التدمير الممنهج لكل المنشآت والمنازل؟

“The maternal mortality rate for black women in America is forty to fifty times greater than for women in Switzerland.” From Adam Tooze’s newsletter

My mother moved from her place which is close to the southern suburbs, into a building near Hamra. The neighbours received a call asking them to evacuate. They notified the authorities & were told this is a hacked Lebanese number & part of a wider Israeli psy op in Beirut.

It failed? What about the dozens of civilians under the rubble ?