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BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem has thanked a senior Iranian official for his country’s ongoing support in confronting Israel, the Lebanese group said on Thursday.

For decades, Tehran has been the main backer of the group, which emerged badly weakened from last year’s war with Israel that saw its arsenal pummelled and senior commanders killed.

Qassem met with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani, who arrived in Beirut on Wednesday, and thanked Iran “for the ongoing support to Lebanon and its resistance against the Israeli enemy”, the group said in a statement.

He also thanked Iran for its support for Lebanon’s “unity, sovereignty and independence”, and emphasised “the brotherly relations between the Lebanese and Iranian people”.

Larijani’s visit came after the Lebanese government tasked the army with drawing up a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year.

Recent statements from Iranian officials in support of Hezbollah keeping its weapons have angered Lebanese officials.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2025

• Palestinians fear move will rob them of any chance to build a state of their own
• US urged to pressure Tel Aviv to stop settlement building; EU opposed to territorial change
• 17 more killed as Gaza bombardment intensifies

MAALE: Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced work would start on a long-delayed settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, a move his office said would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian government, allies and campaign groups condemned the scheme, calling it illegal and saying the fragmentation of territory would rip up peace plans for the region.

Standing at the site of the planned settlement in Maale Adumim on Thursday, Smotrich, a settler himself, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had agreed to the revival of the E1 development, though there was no immediate confirmation from either.

“Whoever in the world is trying to recognise a Palestinian state today will receive our answer on the ground. Not with documents nor with decisions or statements, but with facts. Facts of houses, facts of neighbourhoods,” Smotrich said.

Israel froze construction plans at Maale Adumim in 2012, and again after a revival in 2020, because of objections from the US, European allies and other powers who considered the project a threat to any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Restarting the project could further isolate Israel, which has watched some of its Western allies condemn its military offensive in Gaza and announce they may recognise a Palestinian state.

Palestinians fear the settlement building in the West Bank — which has sharply intensified since the 2023 Gaza war — will rob them of any chance to build a state of their own in the area.

In a statement headlined “Burying the idea of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich’s spokesperson said the minister had approved the plan to build 3,401 houses for Israeli settlers between an existing settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

In Maale Adumim, Smotrich told Reuters that the plan would go into effect on Wednesday.

Breaking the Silence, an Israeli rights group established by former Israeli soldiers, said what it called a land grab “will not only further fragment the Palestinian territory, but will further entrench apartheid”.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the Palestinian president’s spokesperson, called on the United States to pressure Israel to stop settlement building.

“The EU rejects any territorial change that is not part of a political agreement between involved parties. So annexation of territory is illegal under international law,” European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said.

Bombardment of Gaza

Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 17 people were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes as the military intensified its bombardment of Gaza City.

The dead included six civilians who had been waiting for humanitarian aid, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal. “The Israeli occupation forces are intensifying their raids in the Zeitun area” of Gaza City, he said.

“For the fourth consecutive day, the area has been subject to a military operation, resulting in numerous deaths and injuries,” said Bassal.

“Since dawn today, we have received 28 calls from families and residents of this neighbourhood, some of whose children have been killed. Many people cannot leave these areas due to artillery fire,” the spokesperson added.

Maram Kashko, a resident of Zeitun, said the strikes had increased over the past four days. “My nephew, his wife and their children were killed in a bombardment,” he said.

An AFP videographer said their bodies were taken to Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City and buried shortly afterwards at the Sayyid Hashim cemetery.

On Wednesday, the head of the Israeli military said he had approved a new plan for operations in the Gaza Strip aimed at freeing all hostages and defeating Hamas.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2025

Russia, in July, became the first country to extend diplomatic recognition to the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan. A month later, Kazakhstan recognised a Taliban diplomat as Chargé of Affairs of the Afghan Embassy in Astana. Tajikistan, once a vocal critic of the Taliban, is also seeking to improve its bilateral ties with the regime next door in Afghanistan. Each move demonstrates a shift in geopolitical calculus – Russian and Central Asian governments are acknowledging neighbourhood realities. As Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev put it: “this regime is a long-term factor … and we must work with it”.

Even before the public recognition of the Taliban’s government, Moscow was among the few countries that did not close its embassy after the US withdrawal in 2021 and the collapse of the Afghan republic. Russia was also the first country to sign an economic deal with the Taliban to provide Kabul with wheat, oil and gas. Earlier this year, Russia also removed the Taliban from its list of banned terrorist groups, even though the group still features under sanctions imposed by United Nations Security Council, where Russia holds a permanent seat.

Kazakhstan’s choice to engage with the Taliban has seen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu fly to Afghanistan, announcing an aim to lift bilateral trade to $3 billion, a six-fold increase. Kazakhstan has also delisted the Taliban as a terrorist group.

The regional calculus appears to be that a stable and drug-free Afghanistan – even under an extremely conservative Taliban rule – is beneficial to neighbourhood stability.

Tajikistan’s approach is perhaps the most marked change, with Dushanbe’s critical stance on the Taliban stretching back to the creation of the group in the 1990s. At the time, Tajikistan faced conflict between regime loyalists and opposition groups, fearing the Taliban would destabilise the country. After the US withdrawal in 2021, Dushanbe first bolstered troops along its border with Afghanistan, concerned about infiltration. However, in 2023, Tajikistan’s government allowed cross-border markets to reopen. A high-level Taliban delegation visited Dushanbe in 2024 with a senior Tajik national security official undertaking a return trip.

While trade is one motivation for this shift in approach by Russian and Central Asian countries, the ongoing risk from drug trafficking is a significant factor. UN data shows that drug production – mainly opium cultivation – sharply decreased following a drug ban imposed by the Taliban government in April 2022. But the restriction imposed an economic and social challenge because many Afghan farmers had relied on poppy crops to attend to basic needs. So, it is possible that the economic deals with Russia and the rapprochement with Kazakhstan and Tajikistan could be seen as an opportunity to supply those needs and further reduce the economic shock from cutting down opium cultivation.

Terrorism is also a persistent challenge for the region. Russia, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan fear that an unstable Afghanistan could pose a risk to their internal security. Russia and Kazakhstan are concerned at the potential radicalisation of large Muslim populations, with Russia in particular scarred by the recent trauma of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, in which an Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISK) terrorist cell killed 145 people and injured more than 500.

The regional calculus appears to be that a stable and drug-free Afghanistan – even under an extremely conservative Taliban rule – is beneficial to neighbourhood stability. More so than a Western-backed Afghan government that for two decades failed to curtail the dangers emanating to the region.

British-Australian doctor Mohammed Mustafa has seen first-hand the horrors occurring daily in Gaza from his time working in hospitals across the region. Speaking to chief political correspondent Tom McIlroy, he describes life on the ground in the war zone, says that Australian politicians are clinging to talking points while children die, and warns that recognition of Palestinian statehood must be matched by real action to end the humanitarian crisis