US President Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
announced Tuesday that he directed his administration to allow US air carriers to fly directly to Leb
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
, more than 40 years after such flights were suspended. Trump delivered the news on his Truth Social network shortly after hosting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House.
The US president said Aoun "has done a remarkable job working to transform his country" and expressed hope that other countries will follow Washington’s path in resuming direct flights to "this beautiful land."
Before flights to Lebanon can resume, US officials will need to conduct an extensive security review of the Beirut airport and certify its safety. Even then, it is unclear if American carriers will want to fly into Lebanon in the near future, however, as continuing US-Iran
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Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
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tensions disrupt larger air traffic and questions about Hezbollah’s influence in parts of the country remain.
And despite Trump’s announcement, the US State Department continued to strongly advise against travel to Lebanon due to the security risks involved.
"Do not travel to Lebanon for any reason due to the risk of crime, terrorism, unrest, kidnapping, landmines, and armed conflict," a State Department advisory said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it "looks forward to working with airlines and our interagency partners to implement the President’s directive and support the safe return of flights to Lebanon." There was no immediate comment from the US Transportation Department.
Aoun came to Tuesday’s meeting aiming to secure US support for the Lebanese Armed Forces, which is tasked with helping disarm Hezbollah. He has also been pushing for the US to urge Israel to hasten its withdrawal of troops from southern Lebanon.
Trump’s announcement on the resumption of flights did not mention either of these issues.
Direct flights between the US and Lebanon were suspended in 1985 by president Ronald Reagan’s administration following the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 by Lebanese Islamist terrorists, who brutally killed a US Navy diver and held dozens of US nationals hostage for more than two weeks.
Lebanon currently has one international airport, in south Beirut next to Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold that has been subjected to heavy Israeli bombardment during successive wars, though last month it began moving to convert an airbase near the Syrian border to a passenger hub.
Beirut airport has continued to operate during the several Israel-Hezbollah conflicts since 2023, only closing briefly during periods of major escalation. Lebanon has been forced to repeatedly pursue international guarantees that Israel will not target Beirut airport, which it has previously accused Hezbollah of using to transport money and weapons.
Lebanese authorities have repeatedly denied the Israeli allegations, though Beirut has reportedly conducted a large-scale purge of Hezbollah’s presence at the airport, doing enough to even satisfy Israel and the US, according to US and Lebanese officials.
Good for them.
The handover of territory is the first test of the pilot, which Leb
...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....hopes will enable it to restore control over a strip of land about 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep into the country that remains occupied by Israeli troops in a self-declared "security zone."
Dozens of villages have been razed in that area, and public infrastructure has been destroyed, including hospitals, power stations and water pumps, amid fighting with Hezbollah. Tens of thousands of Lebanese who call the area home have been unable to return.
The Lebanese army said its units began deploying in Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh in the Nabatieh region.
The army renewed a call for residents "not to head to the town until the security situation stabilizes, and to comply with the instructions of the deployed military units to ensure their safety."
Aside from Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, the areas of Froun and Srifa are also part of the pilot.
Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian...
Syrian authorities said Tuesday that they had foiled an attempt to smuggle over 200 grenades into Lebanon, apparently destined for Hezbollah. The Syrian General Authority for Borders and Customs said it seized 226 grenades that were hidden inside a car that was heading into Lebanon at a border crossing near Damascus. Last week, Syria said it stopped a large shipment of advanced weapons and missiles heading over the border from Iraq that were destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
‘WEAPONIZATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE’
Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian...
Israel called on the UNESCO World Heritage Committee "to reject the cynical weaponization of cultural heritage," citing Hezbollah’s use of the Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon as a military base.
The 48th session of the committee convenes Tuesday in Busan, South Korea.
"For years, Hezbollah has systematically weaponized and desecrated this historic Crusader fortress, converting it into a military stronghold," Israel says of the castle, which is currently held by IDF forces after the site was captured during the recent fighting.
"Hezbollah constructed a massive network of terror tunnels directly beneath the ancient site and launched approximately 400 rockets at Israeli civilians from this compound," the Foreign Ministry continued in a statement, adding that the Lebanese state "bears full responsibility for allowing a terrorist organization to exploit its sovereign territory and sensitive heritage sites."
Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets from the Beaufort Ridge toward northern Israel during the current round of fighting, mainly at the border community of Metula, the military says.
"UNESCO’s silence on Hezbollah’s systematic desecration of Beaufort, while targeting Israel’s defensive operations, is a moral abdication," Israel said.
The Foreign Ministry also blasted the Paleostinian delegation to UNESCO for trying to turn the West Bank site of Sebastia into a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
"Sebastia is the historic, biblical capital of the ancient Kingdom of Israel," said the Foreign Ministry. "The attempt to portray the site as facing an emergency is entirely unsupported by professional evaluation, and serves only as a political tool to erase the site’s profound, well-documented Jewish and Christian history."
"The real threat to Sebastia is the Paleostinian Authority’s own record of neglect and complicity, which has allowed the ancient ruins to suffer rampant vandalism, theft, and desecration," it said.
"UNESCO cannot remain silent when Death Eaters systematically hijack heritage sites," the statement continued, "nor can it allow its platform to be exploited to erase well-documented history."
Israel has accused the organization of being biased against the Jewish state and of diminishing its connection to the Holy Land. Israel also objected to UNESCO’s acceptance of Paleostine as a member state. In 2019, during US President Donald Trump
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
’s first term, Israel and the US both quit UNESCO. The US, which subsequently rejoined the agency under former president Joe
The Big GuyBiden
...46th president of the U.S. Sleazy Dem machine politician, paterfamilias of the Biden Crime Family...
, is slated to again withdraw at the end of the year.