🇱🇧 | Israeli aggressions in southern Lebanon in the past hours:

Israeli forces carried out artillery shelling targeting Ali Al-Taher, Hadatha, Bani Hayyan, Beit Yahoun, Wadi Al-Hujeir, the outskirts of Al-Qantara toward the valley, and Burj Matlin northeast of Kfarshouba. Airstrikes targeted the area between Ali Al-Taher and Al-Dabsha, Douhat Kfarman, and Al-Qantara toward Deir Syriane. Israeli tanks shelled Al-Mansouri with several rounds. Machine-gun fire and sweeping operations targeted Taybeh, the vicinity of Kfarshouba, Hadatha, and the area around Ali Al-Taher, with helicopter activity also reported near Ali Al-Taher. Hostile drones dropped a sound bomb on Kafra and explosive materials on Harash Ali Al-Taher, while illuminating bombs were reported over Douhat Kfar Rumman. A hostile explosion was also reported in Majdal Zoun. Israeli military vehicles were observed moving inside Al-Qantara and Hadatha, as well as in the Al-Shamis area north of Kfarshouba. Two Merkava tanks and a D9 bulldozer reportedly infiltrated the vicinity of Kfarshouba in the Al-Shamis area, northeast of the town.

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Defensive to Offensive

Test!

— What are the reasons behind Trump’s welcome and enthusiasm for the Saudi-Turkish-Pakistani “Mecca alliance”? And will Erdogan keep his promise not to leave Gaza alone amid the “genocide massacres”?

by Abdul Bari Atwan:

It was not surprising to us, nor to many others like us, that U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the tripartite Mecca defense alliance between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan and expressed his great happiness over it, describing it as a “big, bold, and important first step.”

This welcome and enthusiasm could not have come without President Trump being convinced of the objectives this alliance seeks to achieve:

First: The alliance was established to confront Iran’s growing regional power and its success, thus far, in confronting it with high levels of military and political efficiency and maintaining steadfastness on the battlefields throughout the past six months of the war of aggression against Iran.

Second: President Trump knows well, based on intelligence information, that this tripartite alliance does not, at least for the time being, pose any direct or indirect threat to the Israeli occupation state. Israel was not mentioned as an enemy in its narratives.

Third: The three countries that signed this alliance rank among the regional powers allied with the United States and are not involved in strategic military alliances with major powers such as China and Russia.

Fourth: This new regional alliance geographically surrounds Iran from three directions: the west, through Saudi Arabia; the east, through Pakistan; and the north, through Turkey. None of these countries shares a direct border with the Israeli occupation state, and none has engaged in a direct confrontation with Israel.

Fifth: A direct reduction of the U.S. security burden in the Middle East.

Sixth: Strengthening the stability of energy supply and trade routes in the region.

Seventh: Protecting infrastructure and oil facilities in the Gulf states that have been subjected to Iranian missile and drone attacks due to the presence of U.S. military bases on their territory.

Eighth: Expanding the scope of U.S. arms sales and defense industries to the three countries, which rely primarily on the United States and its military equipment for their armament.

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All eight of the reasons mentioned above, along with perhaps others, may explain why the alliance’s membership has not expanded to include other regional states as of this writing, despite the considerable efforts made by the three countries in this regard.

It is still too early to determine whether this alliance will succeed. Its three members are attempting to establish a regional alliance parallel to NATO and adopt its most prominent provisions, particularly Article 5, which stipulates that an act of aggression against one of the member states constitutes an act of aggression against all three, requiring them to confront that aggression immediately.

What is certain is that what President Trump either does not know or knows and chooses to ignore is that this tripartite alliance, comprising the three “Sunni” Islamic states, emerged because of the failure of the great U.S. military power to defeat Iran and achieve the objectives of the war declared against it, foremost among them overthrowing the regime, destroying its nuclear ambitions, confiscating all of its highly enriched uranium stockpiles, dismantling its highly advanced missile program and limiting its range to less than 200 kilometers, and halting all financial and military support to the factions of the Axis of Resistance.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama was adept at describing his country’s losing war against Iran when he wrote in a post on his account on the X platform: “This entire war and its enormous costs are aimed at removing an existing nuclear bomb and stopping the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which had remained open for hundreds of years.”

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Palestine and Al-Aqsa Mosque will be the first real test of this new tripartite alliance, directly or indirectly, while Iran will be the second.