A tumultuous week in a tumultuous year

Dear readers,

It’s been a tumultuous week, amidst a tumultuous year. In a region where lines in the sand are rapidly shifting, it’s always hard to predict what the newsweek will bring. We certainly would not have anticipated the events of last Sunday – the death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raissi and his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a helicopter crash. Once again, our news team scrambled to cover the latest news and explain to you what the succession means. Plus, we reacted to the news that the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as three Hamas officials: Yahya Sinwar, its leader in Gaza, Mohammed Deif, the commander of its Qassam Brigades military wing, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its political bureau. By Thursday morning we woke to the news that three school students were wounded while they were on a van after an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah member in southern Lebanon. Plus, Ireland, Spain and Norway announced they’ll recognize Palestine as a state on May 28.

School in southern Lebanon in mourning

Schools were in a state of shock and mourning on Thursday morning, in the southern Lebanese district of Nabatieh, following an Israeli drone strike on a road linking Kfar Dejjal to Shoukine. A physics teacher at Hassan Kamel al-Sabbah High School in Nabatieh was killed. He is accused by Israel of being a member of Hezbollah’s weapons manufacturing unit. Students from another school, the Lycee de Shoukine public school, found themselves caught in the crossfire. The minivan taking them to school was driving on the road targeted by the strike. Several of them suffered minor injuries in the strike. Read more here

Iran

The death of the Iranian president in a helicopter crash raised the question of who would succeed him, and above all, who would succeed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The late president was seen as the leading candidate to replace the supreme leader. As Iran announces it will hold presidential elections on June 28, a day well within the 50 days required under Iranian law to hold the elections, the president’s death has certainly reshuffled some cards, as Laure-Maïssa Farjallah explains. Lebanon declared three days of mourning and the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri and Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib attended the funeral in Tehran. However, reactions to the death were far from unanimous in Lebanon.

Late Iranian Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian, who also died in the crash, was a regular visitor to Beirut, where he would meet the heads of Hezbollah and Hamas' Lebanon branch since Oct. 7. What happens now ? I explain here.

Syrians in Lebanon

Relations between the Lebanese authorities and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have been at an all-time low since UNHCR representative in Lebanon Ivo Freijsen sent a missive to the Interior Ministry on May 17, expressing concern about the « inhumane measures » taken against Syrian refugees and migrants, and reminding Lebanon of its obligations under international conventions. The missive was eventually withdrawn at the Lebanese authorities’ request. At a time when the controversy surrounding the presence of Syrians is growing bigger, L’Orient Today’s Anne-Marie El-Hage interviewed a UNHCR representative who has been in Lebanon since January 2023, Ivo Freijsen.

And finally, our culture reporter, Jim Quilty, has been paying a visit to the Arab Image Foundation’s (AIF) new location. A treasure trove of photographic archives, containing more than 500,000 photos and documents from the Middle East, North Africa and Arab diaspora. The port blast of Aug. 4, 2020 ruined AIF’s longtime Gemmayzeh location. The team took great pains to secure the collections and open in a new location. Find out more here.

I wish you a good weekend readers.

Very best,

Olivia Le Poidevin

Head of L’Orient Today