Armed Militias and Extremist Groups

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivers a speech during a meeting of Pope Leo XIV with authorities, civil society and diplomatic corps at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on November 30, 2025. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP via Getty Images)

Lebanon, Israel to hold second round of direct talks: What we know

While Israel and Lebanon continue talks, Israeli airstrikes have persisted and Hezbollah shows no sign of complying with disarmament requirements.

Fighters affiliated with Yemen's separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) man a position as they deploy amid tensions in the southern port city of Aden, on February 3, 2022, after Washington announced sending a warship and fighter jets to help defend its Gulf allies as conflict with Yemeni rebels intensifies. (Photo by Saleh Al-OBEIDI / AFP) (Photo by SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images)

Yemen's STC separatists advance in Hadramout as UAE-Saudi rift grows

The fighting between the UAE-backed southern separatists and Saudi-aligned tribal forces, nominal allies against the Houthis, has raised concerns about the division of Yemen.

Simon Karam

Who is Simon Karam, head of Lebanon’s delegation to talks with Israel?

Karam is a veteran diplomat and a legal scholar who served as Lebanon’s ambassador to the United States from 1992 to 1993.

US deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza, at UN headquarters in New York, on Sept. 18, 2025.

US pressure prompted Israel-Lebanon talks to avert war with Hezbollah

According to an Israeli security source, US envoy Morgan Ortagus’ visit was perceived in Israel as a warning that President Donald Trump will not accept Israel launching a large military campaign in southern Lebanon.

Latest News

Lebanon and Israel hold first direct talks in decades: What to know

A view of a concrete wall built by Israel near the Blue Line in southwest Yaroun, Lebanon, on Nov. 13, 2025.

Analysis

A Trump bargain: Pardon Netanyahu in exchange for Israel-Syria security deal?

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - OCTOBER 13: U.S. President Donald Trump (2R) is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) at Ben Gurion International Airport on October 13, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. President Trump is visiting the country hours after Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages captured on Oct. 7, 2023, part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Trump warns Israel not to 'interfere' in Syria after deadly raid

Bakr ALkasem / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Trump’s Muslim Brotherhood move reignites Israel’s battle over Raam

Mansour Abbas, head of Israel's conservative Islamic Raam party, speaks to the press before casting his ballot at a polling station in the northern Israeli village of Maghar on November 1, 2022. - Israelis began voting in their fifth election in less than four years, with veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu campaigning for a comeback alongside far-right allies. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Displaced Sudanese who fled el-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces rest near the the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region, on Oct. 28, 2025.

RSF’s el-Fasher takeover kills 2,300 in Sudan as UAE accused of aiding militia

Videos coming out of the captured North Darfur city show scenes of brutal violence and devastation, with hospitals turned into “slaughterhouses” and civilians executed in the streets.

A boy reacts sitting amid the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on Oct. 29, 2025.

Israel renews Gaza ceasefire after airstrikes kill over 100 Palestinians

After a night of aerial strikes in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the killing of an Israeli soldier in Rafah, the Israeli military announced the resumption of the Gaza ceasefire.

Hamas militants carry a body retrieved from a tunnel in an area north of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Oct. 28, 2025.

Live Updates

Netanyahu orders 'powerful' strike in Gaza after Hamas attack in Rafah

Earlier in the day, Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military force that was conducting engineering work in the Rafah area, which remains under Israeli control.

Sudanese residents gather to receive free meals in Al Fasher, a city besieged by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in Darfur region, on August 11, 2025. RSF attacked a famine-hit refugee camp in North Darfur state on August 11, 2025, killing at least 40 civilians and injuring 19 others, rescuers said. Al-Fasher is the last city in the western Darfur region still held by the Sudanese army, at war with the paramilitary group since April 2023. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by STR/AF

Aid groups sound alarm on 'atrocities' after RSF captures Sudan's el-Fasher

Sudan’s RSF are facing numerous accusations of rights violations and abuses against civilians following their takeover of el-Fasher city in the Darfur region.

A United Nations convoy evacuating families from Sweida moves through the buffer zone in Busra al-Harir in Syria's southern Daraa province on July 22, 2025.

Bus attack in Syria’s Suwayda kills 2 as violence flares: What to know

Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hiji is calling for independence for southern Syria’s Suwayda province as violence continues in the area despite a July ceasefire.

MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Despite uptick in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, both sides reluctant for war

Even as Israel's strikes on Hezbollah fuel speculation about a return to war, Israeli officials say the ceasefire in Lebanon will hold.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - JULY 18: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine attends a meeting between Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz at the Pentagon on July 18, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. This is Katz's first official visit to the United States and the counterparts will discuss shared defense priorities, including Iran’s threat posture and the ongoing war in Gaza. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Pentagon’s top general to visit Gaza monitoring center in Israel

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine is expected to head to Israel with plans to meet top US and allied military officials involved in postwar efforts to stabilize Gaza.

Men inspect the wreckage of a damaged cement factory following overnight Israeli airstrikes in Ansar, southern Lebanon, on Oct. 17, 2025.

Lebanon draws US, Arab envoys as Israel tensions spike

Intense international and regional diplomatic efforts are underway in Lebanon to accelerate Hezbollah’s disarmament and ease tensions between Israel and Lebanon amid rising fears of renewed war.

Syria's internal security forces are deployed in Tadamon to secure a protest in Tadamon, Syria, on Feb. 7, 2025.

Analysis

Syria officials: US strike on jihadi commander a message to rebel holdouts

A US strike that killed a prominent rebel in Syria in early October aimed to send a message to militants who refuse to join the new Syrian national army, Syrian sources told Al-Monitor.

Cagatay Cebe

By Cagatay Cebe

In Istanbul, reporting on security and counterterrorism

US President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives at the White House on April 7, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Analysis

'A real collision course': Israel fumes at US takeover of Gaza, West Bank policy

Current and former Israeli officials are bristling at intense US pressure to conclude the war in Gaza at "whatever the cost," fearing that the worst is yet to come.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Chairman of the US-led committee to monitor the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel Lt. Gen. Joseph Clearfield meets Lebanon President Joseph Aoun in Beirut, Oct. 23, 2025.

‘No one wants to return to war,’ Lebanon’s Aoun tells US general overseeing ceasefire

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged the committee tasked with monitoring the ceasefire that ended last year’s war with Israel to pressure the latter to end its daily attacks on Lebanon.

Iraqi national security adviser Qasim al-Araji meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in Tehran, on Oct. 20, 2025.

Iraq's security chief visits Iran, steps up border and railway cooperation: What to know

Iraqi national security adviser Qasim al-Araji’s trip to Iran focused on efforts to deal with Kurdish groups on the border and a much-delayed railway linkage between the two countries.