Hezbollah

Sheikh Mohammed also discussed Israeli ‘violations’ in Lebanese territory with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

Qatar’s prime minister has announced plans to set up what he described as a “massive” solar plant in Lebanon to help ease its energy crisis.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani made the announcement during his visit to Beirut on Friday, after meeting his Lebanese counterpart, Nawaf Salam.

“We have agreed to establish a comprehensive framework for cooperation in the energy sector and to present viable solutions,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

QatarEnergy has reached an agreement with French company TotalEnergies to jointly develop a solar power plant in Lebanon as an initial project.

The aim is to develop a major investment project “that would benefit the Lebanese economy, as well as the Qatari companies and entities participating in it”, he added.

Prime Minister Salam said he would put the plans for Lebanon’s electricity sector to the Lebanese Cabinet soon.

“The Qatari side will fund, implement and activate the project without any cost on the Lebanese state,” Lebanon’s leader said, adding that such a move is important because of the country’s financial crisis.

Lebanon’s state electricity company is one of the biggest sources of debt, haemorrhaging about $40bn over past decades with a bloated workforce and outdated infrastructure. The company provides only a few hours of electricity a day and the state, until a year ago, took advances from the Central Bank when diesel fuel ran out.

Sheikh Mohammed said Doha stands in “solidarity with the Lebanese people” and the entire region “in this dire hour”. Lebanon has been struggling with multiple energy crises in recent years and the situation has been compounded by the country’s financial collapse and Israel’s ongoing assault.

Earlier in the day, the Qatari PM also met Lebanon’s president and parliament speaker.

Among the topics discussed was the situation in southern Lebanon, where Israel continues its assault, capturing dozens of towns and villages.

Sheikh Mohammed said “Israeli violations within the Lebanese territories” were a large part of his talks.

He said that Israel should withdraw from Lebanon and cease its attacks, adding that Qatar is working in coordination with the United States to help lay the groundwork for future reconstruction in southern Lebanon to allow displaced people to return to their homes.

Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon have continued despite a ceasefire agreed in June. Under the agreement brokered by the US, the Lebanese government is to disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah. In return, Israeli forces will gradually withdraw from southern areas that they occupy. However, Hezbollah is not part of the agreement and has refused to disarm until Israel withdraws from the country.

Lebanese authorities say Israeli attacks have killed more than 4,300 people in the country since March. About 1.2 million people were also displaced in Lebanon at the height of the war.

Although most have returned home since the June ceasefire, more than 300,000 people remain displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Lebanon’s PM Salam thanked Qatar for its “continuous” support during some of Lebanon’s “darkest hours”.

Lebanon’s president reaffirms the commitment to bring all arms under state control.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has discussed the confiscation of explosives intended for use against Israel during a telephone call with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Lebanese Presidential Palace has announced.

Aoun received the call on Thursday, assuring Rubio that Lebanese security forces are fully carrying out their duties in confiscating illicit arms across the country.

Last week, an explosive-laden truck carrying 780kg (1,720lb) of explosives was intercepted on a highway between Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

On Thursday, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah acknowledged the group’s connection to the shipment, stating that the materials were intended for operations against Israel.

Speaking to reporters at the Lebanese parliament, Fadlallah said Hezbollah had immediately contacted security agencies to clarify ownership of the vehicle and cargo, demanding the materials be returned and detained personnel released.

Rubio urged Aoun to hold accountable those who ordered, financed, and directed the shipment, warning that “returning explosives to [Hezbollah] should be out of the question,” a State Department official told US media.

The official added that Rubio also advocated for direct military-to-military communication between Lebanese and Israeli forces “for deconfliction”.

In response, the Presidential Palace reported that Aoun asked Rubio to press Israel to halt its attacks and destruction in southern Lebanon.

Separately on Thursday, Rubio spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Iran, according to Israeli media reports.

The explosives-laden truck

On Monday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam confirmed that Lebanon would conduct an investigation to track down members of Hezbollah linked to the incident.

Judicial officials told The Associated Press news agency that the truck was carrying 780kg (1,720lb) of explosives, including 250kg (550lb) of TNT and 550lb of C4 plastic explosives.

Salam described the transport as a “criminal operation” and praised security forces for intercepting the vehicle along the strategic highway linking Beirut with the Bekaa Valley.

For years, Hezbollah moved weapons freely across parts of the country. However, in March, the Lebanese government declared all military activities by the group illegal. Despite the government’s pledge to bring all weaponry under state control, the group has stated its intention to continue transporting arms in its confrontation with Israel.

Earlier this spring, Lebanese and Israeli envoys met in Washington under the auspices of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, marking the first direct diplomatic contact between the two nations in decades.

Despite that diplomatic push from Washington, Israel has repeatedly violated the November 2024 ceasefire deal between it and Hezbollah, with Lebanon frequently reporting civilian casualties.

The renewed diplomatic friction comes as heavy Israeli attacks continue across southern Lebanon, where dozens of villages have been systematically demolished and large areas remain under Israeli military occupation, despite a framework agreement signed in June.

Five Syrians and one Lebanese wounded in latest Israeli attack, officials say.

An Israeli drone attack has wounded six people in Lebanon’s Hermel district, close to the Syrian border, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

The ministry said on Friday that the six wounded included five Syrian nationals, two of them women, and one Lebanese.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that the drone attack targeted a car.

It added the area has largely been spared such attacks since an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire was agreed in June.

Israel’s military claimed it struck “a Syrian terrorist” who “operated under the direction of the Iranian regime”, alleging that the man “planned and advanced attacks” against Israeli forces in Syria’s southern territory.

Since the ouster of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes against Syria. It has sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan since 1974, and has carried out repeated incursions deeper into Syrian territory, sometimes seizing residents.

Israel has also continued to attack Lebanon since a ceasefire with Hezbollah was agreed in June.

It has vowed to keep troops in so-called security zones along its border in both Syria and Lebanon.

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa told the UN General Assembly last month: “We reject Israeli attempts to impose a fait accompli. We reject their aggressions, which undermine peace and security.”

He said Israel had carried out “500 air strikes, more than 1,200 incursions and 300 detentions” in Syria.

He also called for Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territory and for the international community to commit to a 1974 agreement that created a UN-supervised separation zone between Israeli and Syrian forces.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said there were no casualties after small arms fire targeted a border post.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says one of its posts on the Lebanon-Israel border was targeted by small arms fire, with no casualties reported.

The UN force said the incident occurred on Wednesday morning with several rounds of small arms fire targeting a UNIFIL position near Kfar Shouba along the UN-drawn border with Israel, known as the Blue Line.

“Such deliberate attacks gravely endanger the lives of peacekeepers,” UNIFIL said in a statement, adding that it was investigating the incident.

Under pressure from the United States and Israel, the UN Security Council decided earlier this year to set December 31 as the end of the mandate for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

UNIFIL was initially created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion, and its mandate has been renewed annually since then.

The mission was expanded after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Proponents say it remains important to maintaining a demilitarised buffer between the two sides along the volatile Israeli and Lebanese border.

Israel has long accused UNIFIL of failing to prevent threats posed by Hezbollah and has increasingly pushed for the end of its mission since cross-border fighting escalated in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

UNIFIL currently has 7,500 peacekeepers from around 50 countries operating in Southern Lebanon.

Last month, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam pressed the UN on the need to “avert the vacuum” that would be caused by withdrawing the mission from the country’s south without a viable replacement.

Violence has decreased since a ceasefire following a June memorandum of understanding in the US-Iran war. Lebanon and Israel concluded a US-sponsored framework agreement later that month.

The Israel-Lebanon deal involves the disarmament of Hezbollah, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon’s south and the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones”.