Category: 2. World

BEIRUT: Karim Souaid, the governor of Lebanon’s central bank, on Tuesday banned banks and other organizations from doing business with Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a financial institution affiliated with Hezbollah.

Seen as a major step by the Lebanese state, the move coincided with the launch by the Israeli army of more than 10 surprise raids on targets in western and eastern mountain ranges of the Bekaa Valley. The Lebanese Ministry of Health said six people were wounded in the strikes.

A subsequent raid struck a well-drilling machine in the border town of Wadi Faara, killing 12 people, including five Lebanese nationals and seven Syrians from the same family, and injuring several more. Israeli strikes also hit the towns of Bodai, Kasarnaba, Shmistar and Brital. One missile landed near Shmistar Secondary School while exams were taking place, shattering windows and causing panic and distress among students.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes sent a clear message to Hezbollah, as he accused the organization of attempting to rebuild its forces to threaten his country.

A resident of Shmistar told Arab News the areas targeted by the attacks were “abandoned sites.” The Israeli army said its fighter jets, “guided by the Intelligence Directorate and Northern Command,” had targeted military compounds in the Bekaa Valley affiliated with Hezbollah.

Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, said the strikes focused on camps that were used by Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force to store weapons and train for attacks against Israeli forces. Hezbollah members and weapons depots were identified at the sites, he added, as he accused the militant group of violating the November 2024 ceasefire agreement.

Meanwhile, Banque du Liban, Lebanon’s central bank, said: “Lebanese financial institutions are banned from providing or facilitating financial, monetary or transfer services or brokerage services in favor of unlicensed institutions, companies and associations.”

The statement specifically identified “Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, Tasheelat S.A.L., Al-Yusr for Finance and Investment, Bayt Al-Mal Lil Muslimin, and any entity listed on international sanctions lists.”

The ban also covers “establishing or implementing financing, leasing or lending arrangements, or facilitating access for such entities or their branches to the Lebanese banking system, in any currency.”

The central bank said the decision was part of “preventive measures aimed at protecting Lebanon’s financial and economic sectors from dealing with unlicensed or internationally sanctioned entities.”

It continued: “Violations of this decision will trigger strict legal action, which may include the suspension or revocation of licenses, freezing of accounts and assets, and referral to the Special Investigation Commission.”

The US Department of State designates Hezbollah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. It has imposed sanctions on Al-Qard Al-Hassan and affiliated officials, and accused them this month of facilitating attempts by Hezbollah to evade sanctions and enable Al-Qard Al-Hassan to conduct millions of dollars of transactions through “shadow” accounts. Israeli forces struck branches of the institution during the war against Hezbollah last year.

In other developments, during a plenary session, members of the Lebanese parliament criticized delays by the government in efforts to ensure possession of weapons is restricted to state forces; its failure to disclose a US proposal for a mechanism to implement the ceasefire agreement with Israel and UN Resolution 1701; for diluting the issue of recovery of depositors’ funds in Lebanese banks; and for failing to resolve the issue of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Resolution 1701 was adopted by the Security Council in 2006 with the aim of resolving the conflict that year between Israel and Hezbollah. It calls for an end to hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, the withdrawal of Hezbollah and other forces from parts of the country south of the Litani River, and the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups.

The criticisms from opposition MPs came during a discussion about the performance of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government after its first 150 days in office.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan condemned “the government’s failure to set a timetable for dismantling and handing over weapons and imposing sovereignty.”

He added: “The government must move quickly to end the presence of military structures on Lebanese territory. No one can hope for the return of Arab and international relations to Lebanon if this is not done,” given that “the government is unable to protect the UNIFIL (the UN’s Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeeping mission) forces that support Lebanon.”

MP Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, said: “The current authority is acting as a bystander, neither starting to disarm nor to take possession of the weapons. What is happening is a process of buying time until a US-Iranian agreement takes place.

“The question is, if that does not happen, do we remain like this? Instead of taking the initiative to present a Lebanese paper to address this issue, we wait for the US paper and discuss what can be done with it.”

Independent MP Michel Moawad said: “Lebanon is facing a historic opportunity to address weapons and the military groups outside state control, rebuild the nation and break free from isolation.

“While the government’s stance is good, it lacks implementation. The opportunity is present now; failure to act will lead to further occupation, destruction and isolation, and ultimately everything will be lost.”

Fouad Makhzoumi, also an independent MP, expressed regret that “the government’s decision has devolved into negotiating with every weapon outside the state’s authority.”

He added: “What is required of those who carry weapons is to hand them over to the state. Those bearing arms are required to surrender them to the state, enabling it to defend itself against the threat of war, have the means to recover and liberate the five points from the renewed occupation (by Israeli forces), secure the return of prisoners, and initiate negotiations to delineate the Blue Line.”

He urged the government to “fully implement the ceasefire agreement, the Taif Agreement and Resolution 1701 in all its provisions, and to mandate the army to prevent any of the repeated and systematic attacks on UNIFIL.”

Hezbollah MP Ibrahim Al-Moussawi criticized what he described as a failure to provide the Lebanese army with “weapons to protect the homeland against the enemy.”

He said: “We are among the first advocates for a just Lebanese state for all its citizens but where is this state? We do not question anyone’s patriotism and the army is our army, but there is a foreign ‘veto’ that prevents arming the army.

“Lebanon has fully implemented all its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, while Israel has failed to implement a single clause.”

He warned that “whoever thinks they are dealing with others based on a political logic of victors and vanquished is a traitor to Lebanon,” and added: “What we are witnessing is an existential threat, and any understanding on any other basis will put us all in a circle of loss.”

An engineering source, meanwhile, said the report was “very selective”, and did not have any detailed information about what the engines were doing immediately before the switches were flipped. The document does say that the engine speed began to decrease from take-off values “as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off.”

This, they said was important – because flipping the switches to cut-off and back was something a pilot would be trained do to in order to restart an engine that was already losing power.

Tim Atkinson, an aviation consultant and former air accident investigator in the UK said, “it is very disappointing to read a report which does provide a few salient facts, but leaves many more questions”.

Another element of the report that has caused controversy is a reference to a safety bulletin – known as a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin – published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018.

This was used to alert the aviation community that operators of some Boeing 737 models had reported cases in which the fuel cut-off switches had been fitted with the locking feature disengaged – potentially enabling the switch to be flipped by accident.

At the time, the FAA described this as an “airworthiness concern”, but said it was “not an unsafe condition” that would require mandatory action via what is known as an Airworthiness Directive.

Operators of a number of different Boeing models fitted with similar switches, including 787s, were advised to carry out simple inspections.

The investigation report says Air India did not carry out those inspections – prompting speculation that the accident could have been caused by faulty switches being flipped by accident.

However, in an internal note seen by the BBC, the FAA has since reiterated its belief that the issue did not compromise safety.

Engineering sources have also pointed out that the report says the throttle control module on the crashed aircraft was replaced on two occasions, most recently two years before the accident. This would have involved replacing the cut-off switches as well.

According to Bjorn Fehrm of Leeham Company, the reference to the FAA’s advice contained in the report was “totally irrelevant” in the context of the accident.

Nevertheless, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has asked the operators of all aircraft covered by the FAA’s original bulletin to carry out inspections by 21 July.

For former accident investigator Tim Atkinson, the vagueness of the report may have been deliberate – in order to suggest an explanation for the crash, while avoiding being too explicit.

“The very worst reports are those written to be read ‘between the lines’, and if that is what we have here, then it does no credit to the investigators,” he said.

Meanwhile those seeking firm answers to what happened on Flight 171 may well have to wait.

International protocols stipulate that a final report should be published within a year of the accident. However, in practice, it can take a lot longer than that.

AFP/Getty Images

What the report says

Reuters

Missing information

A divided United States supreme court gave US President Donald Trump the green light on Monday to resume dismantling the Education Department.

The conservative-dominated court, in an unsigned order, lifted a stay that had been placed by a federal district judge on mass layoffs at the department.

The three liberal justices on the nine-member panel dissented.

Trump pledged during his White House campaign to eliminate the Education Department, which was created by an act of Congress in 1979, and he moved in March to slash its workforce by nearly half.

Trump instructed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “put herself out of a job”.

Around 20 states joined teachers’ unions in challenging the move in court, arguing that the Republican president was violating the principle of separation of powers by encroaching on Congress’s prerogatives.

In May, District Judge Myong Joun ordered the reinstatement of hundreds of fired Education Department employees.

The supreme court lifted the judge’s order without explanation, just days after another ruling that cleared the way for Trump to carry out mass firings of federal workers in other government departments.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said in the Education ruling that “only Congress has the power to abolish the Department”.

“The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naïve, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave,” Sotomayor said.

Traditionally, the federal government has had a limited role in education in the US, with only about 13 per cent of funding for primary and secondary schools coming from federal coffers, the rest being funded by states and local communities.

But federal funding is invaluable for low-income schools and students with special needs. And the federal government has been essential in enforcing key civil rights protections for students.

After returning to the White House in January, Trump directed federal agencies to prepare sweeping workforce reduction plans as part of wider efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — previously headed by Elon Musk — to downsize the government.

Trump has moved to fire tens of thousands of government employees and slash programmes — targeting diversity initiatives and abolishing the Education Department, the US humanitarian aid agency USAID and others.

The UK Government is replacing physical immigration documents for most student and worker visas with a digital proof of immigration status, an eVisa. An eVisa is an online record of a person’s immigration permission in the UK, and any conditions which apply, which can be viewed by creating and accessing an online UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account.

eVisas are part of an enhanced border and immigration system that will not only make the visa process easier, but is more secure, digital and streamlined. eVisas are tried and tested, with millions of people already using them on select immigration routes.

British High Commissioner, Jane Marriott CMG OBE, said:

These changes to the UK visa system will make it much simpler for students and workers to prove their identity and visa status. It also means applicants can hold onto their passports, saving them time.

Updating from a physical document to an eVisa does not affect anyone’s immigration status or the conditions of their permission to enter or stay in the UK.

E-visas are being rolled out for the main applicants for:

• Students, including short term study for 11 months   

• Global Business Mobility routes (specifically, Senior or Specialist Worker, Graduate Trainee, UK Expansion Worker, Service Supplier, Secondment Worker)   

• Global Talent    

• International Sportsperson    

• Skilled Worker (including Health and Care)   

• Temporary Work routes (specifically, Charity Worker, Creative Worker, Government Authorised Exchange, International Agreement, and Religious work routes)    

• Youth Mobility Scheme   

Holders can link their travel document (such as passport) to their UKVI account to facilitate straightforward international travel. People who have created a UKVI account will be able to use the view and prove service to prove their status securely with third parties, such as employers or landlords (in England).

Applicants applying as a dependant, or as a main applicant for visas other than study or work, e.g. general visitor visas, will still need a physical sticker visa. Anyone with existing, in date, physical visa stickers do not need to take any action.

This will eventually be rolled out to all visa routes meaning a more secure and streamlined process for all UK visa customers.

For updates on the British High Commission, please follow our social media channels:

Donald Trump has said that he is disappointed but not done with Vladimir Putin, in an exclusive phone call with the BBC.

The US president was pressed on whether he trusts the Russian leader, and replied: “I trust almost no-one.”

Trump was speaking hours after he announced plans to send weapons to Ukraine and warned of severe tariffs on Russia if there was no ceasefire deal in 50 days.

In a wide-ranging interview from the Oval Office, the president also endorsed Nato, having once described it as obsolete, and affirmed his support for the organisation’s common defence principle.

The president made the phone call, which lasted 20 minutes, to the BBC after conversations about a potential interview to mark one year on since the attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Asked about whether surviving the assassination attempt had changed him, Trump said he liked to think about it as little as possible.

“I don’t like to think about if it did change me,” Trump said. Dwelling on it, he added, “could be life-changing”.

Having just met with Nato chief Mark Rutte at the White House, however, the president spent a significant portion of the interview expanding on his disappointment with the Russian leader.

Trump said that he had thought a deal was on the cards with Russia four different times.

When asked by the BBC if he was done with Putin, the president replied: “I’m disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him. But I’m disappointed in him.”

Pressed on how Trump would get Putin to “stop the bloodshed” the US president said: “We’re working it, Gary.”

“We’ll have a great conversation. I’ll say: ‘That’s good, I’ll think we’re close to getting it done,’ and then he’ll knock down a building in Kyiv.”

The conversation moved onto Nato, which Trump has previously criticised as “obsolete”.

Asked if he still thought this was the case, he said: “No. I think Nato is now becoming the opposite of that” because the alliance was “paying their own bills”.

He said he still believed in collective defence, because it meant smaller countries could defend themselves against larger ones.

President Trump was also asked about the UK’s future in the world and said he thought it was a “great place – you know I own property there”.

He spoke about how he was looking forward to an unprecedented second state visit to the UK in September this year.

On what he wanted to achieve during the visit, Trump said: “Have a good time and respect King Charles, because he’s a great gentleman.”