Articles

The situation in Iran continues to escalate on every front. Tensions are rising both in the political and media spheres and on the battlefield. The U.S. military is continuing its strikes against the Revolutionary Guards’ strategic facilities and transportation networks, while the Guards are retaliating by targeting—not Israel—but Arab countries, primarily the Gulf states. In recent days, Revolutionary Guard attacks have extended to Jordan, where two American soldiers were killed, four others wounded, and a seventh remains missing while participating in air defense operations aimed at intercepting missiles and drones. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claims that its attacks on Arab countries are intended to strike U.S. military bases located there. However, recent events contradict that claim, as Iranian strikes over the past two days targeted, among other sites in Kuwait, a power plant and a seawater desalination facility.

The trilateral framework agreement, negotiated under U.S. auspices and signed in Washington, introduced an ambitious mechanism to demilitarize southern Lebanon: the creation of "pilot zones." The initial phase of this project encompasses six key villages spread on both sides of the Litani River, namely Zawtar al-Gharbiyah north of the river, and Froun, Ghandouriyeh, Qalaouiyeh, and Burj Qalaouiyeh to its south. Under this framework, the Lebanese Army is tasked with deploying, establishing full control, and ensuring that these zones are entirely cleared of militia weapons. In return, Israeli occupation forces are required to carry out a gradual withdrawal.

When we have been driven back by enemy fire; when the adversary has stormed our cities, razed so many towns and villages, and forced our fellow citizens from their homes; when it has demonstrated that it can keep advancing until it encircles our capital; and above all when, weary of war, those who clamored for battle finally pleaded for a ceasefire, it stands to reason that, at the negotiating table, one cannot afford to be overly fastidious and may have to compromise on certain principles, such as national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Defeated France had to cede Alsace-Lorraine to the Kaiser's Empire in 1871; likewise, Germany, upon signing the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, was compelled to accept, among other humiliating terms, the demilitarization of the Rhineland and the reduction of its army to one hundred thousand men.

Salman Rushdie’s The Eleventh Hour is not a novel in the conventional sense, but a collection of five interconnected stories published after the assassination attempt against him in 2022. It stands among his most contemplative works, exploring old age, mortality, identity, and freedom. The “eleventh hour” is more than a moment in time. It is a sign. It evokes a civilization that senses it has reached its final test: the rise of populism, the erosion of democratic values, violence against free expression, and the identity crisis unsettling a globalized world. In this sense, the eleventh hour becomes a metaphor not merely for an individual stage of life, but for an entire civilization confronting itself.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan came under fresh Iranian attacks on Friday, in retaliation for American airstrikes carried out on Iranian soil. For the sixth consecutive day, Washington's Gulf allies are directly bearing the cost of this military escalation. The damage inflicted on civilian infrastructure on both sides points to a further intensification of the conflict. Late Friday evening, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the US military had launched, for the seventh consecutive night, a new wave of strikes against Iranian military positions and infrastructure. Iran's official state media reported powerful explosions shortly before midnight in several areas of southern Iran, including Bandar Abbas. Communication routes have been a particular focus of US military strikes over the past 48 hours.

In keeping with the great Maronite tradition, Patriarch Howayek addressed annual "messages" to his community throughout his patriarchate. The most celebrated of these, and rightly so, is the one he sent in 1930, titled "The Love of the Homeland." This text stands as his spiritual testament. In the twilight of his life — he died at the age of 88 — he revealed, among other things, his pastoral obsession with Lebanon, a country he had helped bring into being, and whose ruling classes seemed to have developed an alarmingly deficient sense of civic duty. The pamphlet is a passionate lesson in civics, opening with the love of the homeland and closing with elaborate and carefully worded recommendations on distributive justice — a cornerstone of the social justice so dear to Leo XIII.