Occupier’s Confusion: Conflicting Positions on Ceasefire and Escalation / Arab-Islamic Summit: International Inability to Stop the War… Al-Assad Asks, “Where Are the Means of Enforcement?”
November 12, 2024
The political editor wrote
Recently Gideon Sa’ar was appointed as foreign minister succeeding Yisrael Katz, and Katz was shifted to replace to ousted defence minister Yoav Gallant. But when the new foreign minister Sa’ar says that a ceasefire with Lebanon is close and negotiations are advancing toward a final formula, and the new defence minister Katz asserts there will be no ceasefire with Lebanon and that military operations will continue until the resistance surrenders, the only conclusion is that the entity is in a state of confusion and lack of vision; if there were a decision to escalate the war as Katz claims, Sa’ar would refrain from talking about a near end to the conflict, and if real progress had been made in negotiations, Katz would not speak of escalation. It seems that each minister is addressing a group within the internal audience – some, eager to end the war, find hope in Sa’ar’s words, while others, who wish for continued aggression, applaud Katz’s stance.
In contrast to this internal disarray, the resistance’s clarity was evident in the words of Hezbollah’s Media Relations official, Mohammad Al-Afif, who commended the ongoing political and diplomatic efforts in the Washington-Trump, Moscow, and Tehran triangle, even though these efforts have yet to bear fruit in negotiations or ending the war, leaving the battlefield as the sole authority. Afif pointed out that the intensified rocket fire, now surpassing 300 rockets, disproves the entity’s leaders’ claims of the resistance’s depleted arsenal. The daily surge in launches, rather than decline, confirms the resistance’s readiness, as rockets fired from the frontline challenge Israeli allegations, echoed by some Lebanese, about its control over Lebanese lands and the supposed destruction of the resistance’s capabilities.
In Riyadh, the Arab-Islamic summit convened, with leaders emphasising the war of extermination against the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza, and the destructive aggression against Lebanon. The summit reiterated the priority of halting the war through a UN resolution under Chapter VII, enforcing the entity’s withdrawal. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s speech addressed all concerns about the resistance and the war’s future, asserting that the cause, first and foremost, is the defense of Palestine. He questioned the failure of the Arabs to assert their will, rejecting their reasons as insufficient excuses for their partaking in international collusion, and emphasised that the resistance, through its steadfastness and martyrdom, has shifted the balance. He questioned the means and opportunities that Arabs, Muslims, and Africans have at their disposal to reshape the global balance.
