A drowning and a fire under the roof of one state.
In a scene repeated with the first rainfall, the fig leaf has once again fallen off a crumbling infrastructure. Streets were flooded with “a handspan of water,” leaving them—and citizens—trapped in a torrent loaded with dirt, garbage and everything that comes with it.
The weather system that opened the country’s autumn season and ushered in the “migration” toward winter failed to extinguish the fires raging in people’s daily lives. Their flames reached citizens’ pockets as the prices of fuel products rose, to the point that getting a loaf of bread now inevitably means passing through a “Strait of Hormuz” queue.
The cost-of-living crisis is not new, but its danger coincides with the country’s fragile security situation, imposed by the reality on the ground in the south.
There, the Israeli army has once again placed the Lebanese Army in the crosshairs by controlling the meters and points where Lebanese troops are allowed to deploy and position themselves.
The Lebanese Army responded to the call for security issued by the residents of Deir Mimas to harvest their olive crop. But the Israeli army threatened the soldiers and warned that they would be directly targeted, before contacts with the Lebanon Military Coordination Group managed to defuse the Israeli “mine.”
Israel attempted to undermine the authority of the national army on its own soil and among its people, in a clear challenge and a double standard regarding demands that the military institution have the exclusive right to enforce state sovereignty.
That right is guaranteed by agreements and by conferences already held and promised to support the army in carrying out its missions. The latest was the preparatory Paris meeting.
Although its ink is still on paper, the Paris conference represented an Arab and international step toward embracing the military institution, while also addressing the vacuum of the day after UNIFIL.
The Paris atmosphere surrounding the trilateral meeting and its preparatory discussions was conveyed by the president to the prime minister.
Following the government’s renewed vote of confidence in Parliament, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is packing his files for New York.
According to Al Jadeed information, the UNIFIL file will be at the top of the agenda, in addition to a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
But the security that will accompany Salam to the United Nations General Assembly was denied by the U.S. side to the Palestinian president.
Washington refused to grant Mahmoud Abbas a visa to attend the UN gathering, citing concerns that his presence would undermine peace.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu—wanted by many international bodies over allegations including war crimes, while his government faces genocide allegations—has been granted access to the UN platform, where 158 votes recognized the Palestinian state.
Ironically, the visa that the United States denied the Palestinian president was granted to the Iranian delegation, with Washington approving visas for senior Iranian officials to attend the UN General Assembly.
Washington has opened its arms to receive its adversary next week, at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump has raised the level of threats against Tehran.
Trump told Axios that he was facing a decisive crossroads and a momentous decision in the confrontation with Iran, including whether he wanted to intervene and eliminate the Iranian regime.
In the same high-pitched statement, he tied his final decision on the next steps in the war to an upcoming meeting with what he called his regional allies on the sidelines of the New York gathering, in order to gauge their views.
Based on his previous experience of taking opposing positions, Trump’s high-pitched rhetoric appears aimed at the midterm election battlefield, with a message designed primarily for domestic American consumption—especially as he stands on the threshold of the White House preparing to welcome the “Chinese dragon.”