Israeli forces struck southern Beirut on April 27, marking the latest in a number of attacks since signing a United States-brokered ceasefire deal with the resistance group Hezbollah last November.
The strike targeted the Dahiyeh suburbs following an Israeli military order for residents to immediately evacuate. The bombing happened at a time when Lebanon is going through a political transition and stabilization.
“Today’s strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut generated panic and fear of renewed violence among those desperate for a return to normalcy,” said Jeanine Hennis, the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon.
“We urge all sides to halt any actions that could further undermine the cessation of hostilities, understanding and the implementation of SCR 1701,” she wrote on X.
SCR 1701 is a UN Security Council Resolution voted in August 2006, aimed at ending the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah. The terms of the resolution guide the current crisis and demand a cessation of hostilities, a full Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
Fighting accelerated between Israel and Hezbollah following the October 7, 2023, incursion into illegal Israeli settlements led by Hamas. To understand why Lebanon is important, one Middle East expert connected it back to an ongoing U.S. and Israeli effort to destabilize Middle Eastern nations.
“I see it as part of continuity of (an) agenda that dates back really to the late 1990s and the Project for the New American Century,” said David Yaghoubian, professor of History at Cal State-San Bernardino.
Lebanon has strategic importance due to its proximity to Israel and America’s need for a government compliant with U.S. and Israeli interests, he reasoned.
The Project for the New American Century was formed by U.S. neo-conservatives after a 1996 position paper titled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” was published by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, a Jerusalem-based think tank. The document was a policy paper for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that included an agenda to destabilize Middle Eastern nations and reshape the region.
The agenda became widely exposed when Retired General Wesley Clark, a former NATO Commander and critic of U.S. foreign policy stated in an interview, that shortly after 9/11, during a visit at the Pentagon,
He was told of a plan to “take out seven countries in five years”: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. The policy continued under multiple U.S. administrations, said Mr. Yaghoubian.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, has warned about America’s errant foreign policy. Minister Farrakhan cautioned that this shows that the U.S. doesn’t care about “democracy”
If it brings into power people she does not want or are not amenable to her foreign-policy objectives and national interest. He explained and expounded on this reality during Part 34 of his yearlong lecture series “The Time and What Must Be Done,” delivered in 2013.
“As a result of such planning, based on war mongering, the CIA (“Central Intelligence Agency”), the NSA (“National Security Agency”) and the government of the United States of America would engage, covertly, in creating and exploiting differences that naturally exist in all nations,”
said Minister Farrakhan, and he added, “put money behind these differences that would one day explode into possible civil war, fratricidal conflict, death and destruction—based on the lies of the mischief making of this Mischief Maker, and Universal Blood Shedder.”
Minister Farrakhan’s divine insight and words are as relevant in 2025 as in 2013 when he spoke them.
“Every time there has been a so-called democratic election in the Muslim world, that brought so-called Islamists into political power, America worked to destroy that democratically-elected government.
Which shows that America is not interested in a democratically elected government that produces a government that she is not in control of and cannot have free access to the natural resources of that nation,” Minister Farrakhan stated.
Early this year Lebanon voted in a new president and prime minister. The new government was officially formed on February 8 and is Lebanon’s first full-fledged administration since 2022.
The newly formed Lebanese government condemned the recent Israeli attacks as a breach of the ceasefire and called for an international monitoring mechanism to end Israel’s aggression.
“Lebanon wants an end to all these violations and to the Israeli occupation of the five hills and all Lebanese territory,” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told Lebanese reporters on April 29.
The ceasefire agreement required Israel to withdraw from Lebanon completely. However, it remained in five areas near the border, which Lebanese officials argue violates the agreement, infringes on Lebanon’s sovereignty, and amounts to an occupation. They have called on the UN Security Council to enforce a full Israeli withdrawal from these positions.
“If Israel doesn’t fully withdraw, that will jeopardize stability,” Mr. Salam warned. “Lebanon is committed to the agreement and the Israeli side must in turn abide by it,” he added. “We have an interest in keeping the U.S. and French stances on our side to achieve that,” continued Mr. Salam.
He said efforts are still ongoing to rally diplomatic forces to halt the attacks. “Communication is ongoing with the Americans, the French and all influential forces, especially Arab and European countries, to maintain this pressure and activate it further,” he said.
Until the ceasefire, tensions spiraled into a prolonged 14-month conflict. Despite the truce, mutual accusations of violations persisted.
Blended among the contention is Washington pressuring the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah. Calling it a “sensitive, delicate issue,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says he will not be rushed to disarm the group while Israel continues launching deadly air strikes on Lebanon.
Hezbollah officials argue that Lebanon is clear of ceasefire violations.
“Lebanon has committed no breach, while Israel has violated and attacked over 3,000 times,” said Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem.
However, he blasted the Lebanese government as being too “soft and simple,” in its response to Israel’s attacks and wants a stronger diplomatic push. “The resistance complied 100% with the (ceasefire) deal and I tell state officials that it’s your duty to guarantee protection,” he said on April 28.
Secretary-General Qassem says that Israel seeks to dominate and weaken Lebanon and the assault on Beirut’s southern suburbs had the approval of Washington.
“Put pressure on America and make it understand that Lebanon cannot rise if the aggression doesn’t stop,” he said, reminding Lebanese officials that America needs stability to achieve its interests.
Secretary-General Qassem vowed that Hezbollah would not make any concessions. His comments came as the Israeli military said it carried out more than 50 strikes in Lebanon in April.
In a wider angle, Mr. Yaghoubian said the ultimate aim is against Iran. He contends that Israeli and American media narratives saying Hezbollah’s power has been diminished go with their narrative that Iran’s air defenses have been eliminated.
It is propaganda to make Americans and allies comfortable with continuing the war with Hezbollah despite a ceasefire agreement and potentially open a broader war against Iran.
“I think observers would be wise to question whether or not Hezbollah and Iran are in as weak of a position as the Zionists and American imperialists are saying,” said Mr. Yaghoubian.
—Brian E. Muhammad, Staff Writer
