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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visits France on Friday, his first trip to a European country since his January election and as Paris pushes Beirut for long-demanded political and economic reforms.He is due to meet President Emmanuel Macron, who on a visit to Beirut days after Aoun’s appointment said France would hold an international aid conference to support Lebanon’s reconstruction after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.No date for the conference has been announced.Aoun was elected president after the position had been vacant for more than two years, under international pressure, including from former colonial power France.His election, along with the formation of a new government in February led by reformist premier Nawaf Salam, ended a prolonged political impasse.The breakthroughs came after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, long a powerful player in Lebanese politics, was left heavily weakened in the war.Lebanon’s new leaders now face the arduous task of reconstructing swathes of the country, and overseeing the disarmament of Hezbollah, beginning in south Lebanon.They must also carry out reforms demanded by the international community to unlock bailout funds amid a five-year economic collapse widely blamed on official mismanagement and corruption.”This visit to France is symbolically important” because Paris stood alongside Washington and Riyadh in pushing hardest for Aoun’s election, said Karim Bitar, lecturer in Middle East studies at Sciences-Po university in Paris.The trip also aims to restore France’s “traditional role” in mobilising “countries friendly to Lebanon” for their support at donor conferences, he added.- ‘Private interests’ -On Wednesday, Aoun told visiting French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian that he and the new government were “determined to overcome the difficulties that the reform process may face in the economic, banking, finance and judicial areas”.Bitar said that despite recent optimism, “there are still reasons to fear the new leaders’ task will not be so simple”.He accused “private interests” intrinsically linked to political, economic and media powers of seeking to “defend the system that has endured” since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.Such interests also seek to “prevent any economic or social reform, any state-building”, or agreement with the International Monetary Fund, he charged.Bitar also warned that Hezbollah was “not yet ready to hand over its weapons to the Lebanese state”.Under the November 27 ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its forces north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Israeli border.The Lebanese army was to deploy in the area, and any remaining Hezbollah military infrastructure there was to be dismantled.The ceasefire is based on United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for the disarmament of all non-state armed groups.Israel still regularly strikes what it says are Hezbollah targets and occupies five border points it considers strategic.Aoun said in an interview with the France24 channel broadcast Thursday that “Hezbollah is cooperating in south Lebanon”.He added that the Lebanese “army is undertaking its duties to the full” in the south.He accused Israel of “violating the ceasefire and the deal, including by remaining in five locations and not releasing prisoners”.”We seek to maintain the ceasefire,” he said, calling for guarantees from the United States and France, both of which oversaw the ceasefire agreement.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has accused Israel of exploiting followers of his minority faith in Syria as part of a broader plan to divide the Middle East along sectarian lines.Israel wants “to implement the plan it has always had… which is to break up the region into confessional entities and extend the chaos,” said Jumblatt, a key figure in Lebanese politics for more than four decades.”They want to annihilate Gaza, then it will be the West Bank’s turn… they are trying to destabilise Syria, through the Druze but also others,” he told AFP in an interview Wednesday.”It’s a dangerous game.”Israel has been making overtures towards Syria’s Druze community since Islamist-led rebels ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after more than 13 years of war.Since then, Israel has sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone along the armistice line on the Golan Heights, and war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported regular Israeli incursions deeper into southern Syria.The Druze faith has followers in Israel, Lebanon and Syria, including the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.They account for about three percent of Syria’s population and are concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.This month, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said 10,000 humanitarian aid packages had been sent to “the Druze community in battle areas of Syria” over the past few weeks.”Israel has a bold alliance with our Druze brothers and sisters,” he told journalists.- ‘Prevent the division’ -Israel also authorised the first pilgrimage in decades by Syrian Druze clerics to a revered shrine in Israel.Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would not allow Syria’s new rulers “to harm the Druze”, following a deadly clash between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus. Druze leaders rejected Katz’s warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.Druze representatives have been negotiating with Syria’s new authorities on an agreement that would see their armed groups integrated into the new national army.The talks had almost reached completion but “Israeli pressure” on some parties prevented the accord from being finalised, a source close to the negotiations told AFP, requesting anonymity as the matter is sensitive.Jumblatt noted that during the French mandate in the 1920s and 1930s, “Syria was divided into four entities: an Alawite state, a Druze state, the state of Damascus and the state of Aleppo”, the latter two being Sunni Muslim.”The Druze, with the other Syrian nationalists, were able to prevent the division of Syria” by launching a revolt and the plan later collapsed, he said.He expressed hope that any new division of Syria could be avoided, appealing to Arab leaders to support interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.- ‘Criminal’ -Jumblatt in December was the first Lebanese official to meet Sharaa after his Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that ousted Assad.Sharaa told Jumblatt that Syria would no longer exert “negative interference” in Lebanon, after Assad’s dynasty was accused of destabilising Lebanon for years and assassinating numerous Lebanese officials, including Jumblatt’s father.Kamal Jumblatt, who founded the  Progressive Socialist Party and opposed Assad’s father Hafez over his troops’ intervention in the Lebanese civil war, was killed near the Syrian border in 1977.This month, Syrian security forces arrested former intelligence officer Ibrahim Huweija, suspected of numerous killings including that of Jumblatt’s father.”He’s a big criminal, he also committed crimes against the Syrian people and should be tried in Syria,” Jumblatt said.Lebanon’s new authorities have been under pressure since a devastating war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, an Assad ally, Jumblatt said.”The Americans want Lebanon to normalise ties with Israel,” he said.Under a November ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw fighters from the border area and dismantle its military infrastructure there.The Israeli army was also to withdraw but troops are still deployed in five positions inside Lebanon that it deems strategic.

Six Russian tourists, including two minors, died on Thursday when a submarine carrying dozens of passengers sank off a major resort town on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.The governor of Egypt’s Red Sea region, Amr Hanafi, said “39 foreign tourists had been rescued and six others killed, with no one missing,” according to a statement shared by his office, confirming that the six tourists were Russian.Russian state news agencies quoted General Consul Viktor Voropaev as saying that two of the deceased were minors.The Russian consulate in the tourist hub of Hurghada earlier said the vessel had been carrying “45 tourists, including minors” on an underwater excursion to observe coral reefs when it “crashed 1 kilometre from the shore” at about 10:00 am local time (0800 GMT).Hanafi’s office said the vessel was carrying 45 tourists “of different nationalities including Russian, Indian, Norwegian and Swedish” and five Egyptian crew members.The website of Sindbad Submarines, the vessel’s owner according to the Russian consulate, said it could carry 44 passengers and two crew members to up to 25 metres (27 yards) depth.The consulate said that according to initial information, “most of those on board were rescued and taken to their hotels and hospitals in Hurghada”.Investigations were underway to determine the cause of the accident, the governor’s office said, adding that 21 ambulances had been dispatched.The submarine “had a valid license and its crew leader had the requisite academic qualifications,” they added.”Six people were struggling under the water and we were able to pull them out,” a Sindbad employee told the governor in the hospital, according to a video shared by the governor’s office.Four survivors, including at least one minor, were admitted to intensive care, according to the official statement.- Deadly accidents -Hurghada, a resort town about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of the Egyptian capital Cairo, is a major destination for visitors to Egypt, with its airport receiving more than nine million passengers last year, according to state media.Thursday’s forecast in the city was clear, with above average wind speeds reported but optimum visibility underwater. While dozens of tourist boats sail through the area daily for snorkeling and diving activities, Sindbad Submarines says it deploys the region’s “only real” recreational submarine.The vessel had been operational in the area for multiple years, according to a source familiar with the company.The Red Sea’s coral reefs and islands off Egypt’s eastern coast are major draws, contributing to the country’s tourism sector, which employs two million people and generates more than 10 percent of GDP.The area has been the site of several deadly accidents in recent years.In November, a dive boat capsized off the coast of Marsa Alam, south of Hurghada, leaving four dead and seven missing.Thirty people were rescued from another sinking boat, while last June two dozen French tourists were safely evacuated before their boat sank in a similar accident.In 2023, three British tourists died after a fire broke out on their yacht, engulfing their vessel in flames.

Israel’s parliament on Thursday passed a law expanding the power of politicians over judge appointments in defiance of a years-long protest movement against the judicial reforms pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The approval came with Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israeli history, locked in a standoff with the supreme court after the premier began proceedings to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and announced the sacking of Ronen Bar, head of the internal security agency.Critics said the new law was a “catastrophe” and a “nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy,” while the opposition swiftly filed a petition with the supreme court challenging the law.The legislation was approved by a vote of 67 in favour and one against, with the opposition boycotting the early-morning vote. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has 120 members.The overall judicial reform package sparked one of the largest protest movements in Israel’s history in 2023 before being overtaken by the war in Gaza.According to Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who sponsored the bill, the measure was intended to “restore balance” between the legislative and judicial branches.In his closing remarks ahead of the vote, Levin slammed the supreme court, saying it had “effectively nullified the Knesset”.”It has taken for itself the authority to cancel laws and even Basic Laws. This is something unheard of in any democracy in the world,” said Levin, the key architect of the judicial changes.Israel lacks a written constitution, but it has a number of Basic Laws which set out things such as human rights and the powers of the parliament.”But our supreme court didn’t stop at trampling the Knesset; it placed itself above the government. It can annul any government action, compel the government to perform any action, cancel any government appointment.”The days of appeasement and silencing are over, never to return,” Levin said.- ‘Catastrophe’ -Currently, judges — including supreme court justices — are selected by a nine-member committee comprising judges, lawmakers, and bar association representatives, under the justice minister’s supervision.Under the new law, which would take effect at the start of the next legislative term, the committee would still have nine members: three supreme court judges, the justice minister and another minister, one coalition lawmaker, one opposition lawmaker, and two public representatives -— one appointed by the majority and the other by the opposition.Yair Lapid, leader of the centre-right Yesh Atid party, announced on X that he had filed an appeal with the supreme court against the law on behalf of several opposition parties, just minutes after the parliamentary vote.”Instead of focusing all efforts on their (Israeli hostages in Gaza) return and healing the divisions within the people, this government is returning to the exact legislation that divided the public before October 7,” Lapid said in his post.”The amendment passed by the Knesset is another nail in the coffin of Israeli democracy,” said Eliad Shraga, head of Israeli NGO the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and one of the petitioners against the law.”This is a calculated attempt to take control of the judicial system and turn it into a tool in the hands of politicians,” he said in a statement.Claude Klein, a public law expert at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said enactment of the law would be a “catastrophe”.”They want to take real power. Netanyahu thinks that the supreme court is keeping him from running the country his way,” he told AFP.Klein said that over the decades, the top court had expanded its scope of action, in particular by ruling that any legal precedent or law can be reviewed or annuled, a concept to which Levin was “extremely hostile”.- New protests -The government’s judicial reforms package, first unveiled in early 2023, triggered massive weekly street protests that polarised Israeli society.Netanyahu’s detractors warn the multi-pronged package could pave the way for authoritarian rule and be used by the prime minister to quash any possible convictions against him in his ongoing corruption trial, an accusation the premier denies.Rallies have again erupted in key cities and on Wednesday thousands protested against the bill before it was approved in parliament.Netanyahu slammed the opposition in parliament on Wednesday.”Perhaps you could stop putting spanners in the works of the government in the middle of a war. Perhaps you could stop fuelling the sedition, hatred and anarchy in the streets,” he said.

Israel on Thursday kicked off a conference on fighting anti-Semitism, with the attendance of politicians from Europe’s far right driving division within the international Jewish community.Among those invited to the symposium are a member of Hungary’s Fidesz party and France’s National Rally (RN), whose cofounder was known for his anti-Semitic comments.Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar addressed the conference, decrying a “new anti-Semitism” stoked by “a disturbing alliance between the radical progressives on the far-left and Islamist fundamentalism”.”In the name of so-called ‘human rights’, the progressive movement fell captive to those seeking the destruction of the Jewish people,” he said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is later due to speak, as well as the current RN president Jordan Bardella, capping an unprecedented trip to Israel by a leader of his party.Analysts say the invitation of parties that have themselves been accused of anti-Semitism demonstrates the willingness of Israel’s right to cultivate new relationships with unlikely supporters, amid pressure from traditional allies over the Gaza war.Bardella on Wednesday visited sites where Hamas militants carried out their October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.He first travelled to a memorial marking the site of the Nova music festival, where Hamas fighters killed more than 370 people, including French nationals.”I came here first and foremost because I believe it’s vital for us to never forget what happened on October 7, 2023, here in Israel, what Islamism and the Hamas terrorist movement were capable of,” he said.Since Hamas’s attack on Israel, the RN has sought to present itself as a bulwark against anti-Semitism.The party was cofounded as the National Front by Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year, and who was charged and convicted in a French court for downplaying the Holocaust.His daughter, Marine Le Pen, has moved emphatically to distance the movement from her father’s legacy, renaming the party and seeking to make it more broadly electable.When asked about his party’s past during Wednesday’s visit, Bardella responded: “I don’t do politics in the rearview mirror.”- ‘Black and white’ -Thursday’s conference will focus on fighting what rights groups have described as a rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world, a priority for Netanyahu’s government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history.The guest list for the symposium, organised by right-wing Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, also includes Bardella’s fellow MEP Marion Marechal, who leads another far-right movement and is the niece of Marine Le Pen.Earlier in the week, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, a Kremlin ally, said he was travelling to Israel where he would attend the conference, but it was unclear whether he was in attendance.”The Serbs and the Jews are peoples that others have sought to annihilate,” the president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated statelet of Republika Srpska said on X. “That is why we stand together.”Bosnia on Thursday issued an international arrest warrant for Dodik, who is accused of flouting the constitution.”The current Israeli government sees the world in black and white,” said Denis Charbit, a political scientist at the Open University of Israel.Some in Israel feel the country is currently isolated, and needs “new friends”, even if it deems them distasteful, he added.Israeli media reported on guests who cancelled their appearances in protest of the far-right politicians’ presence, including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and the UK government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism, John Mann, have also withdrawn.On Wednesday, Bardella visited Netiv Haasara, on Gaza’s northern border, where he met with a Franco-Israeli survivor of October 7 who lost her husband and son in the attacks.During their conversation, Bardella described Israel’s offensive in Gaza a war of “civilisation against barbarism”. “We have always stated with the utmost consistency… that its retaliation and response were legitimate, but that it had to be carried out in accordance with international law,” he said.Bardella rejected the idea of “unconditional support” for Israel, but said he was in favour of close ties with “all nations fighting against Islamic terrorism”.

Six people died on Thursday, two of them minors, when a tourist submarine carrying dozens of Russian visitors sank off Egypt’s Red Sea coast near a major resort town.Egyptian state media put the toll at six, while Russian state news agencies quoted General Consul Viktor Voropaev as saying that five people were confirmed dead, two of them minors.Russia’s consulate in the tourist hub of Hurghada earlier said the vessel was carrying “45 tourists, including minors” on an underwater excursion to observe coral reefs when it “crashed 1 kilometre from the shore” at about 10:00 am local time (0800 GMT).”According to initial data, most of those on board were rescued and taken to their hotels and hospitals in Hurghada,” the consulate said, adding that diplomats had been dispatched to the pier.The website of state-owned Akhbar Al-Youm newspaper gave the toll of six dead and said 29 people were rescued, nine of them wounded.Russian state news agency Ria Novosti, quoting an Egyptian emergency services source, reported the death of “five foreigners and one Egyptian”.Local authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The website of Sindbad Submarines, the vessel’s owner according to the Russian consulate, said the vessel could carry 44 passengers to up to 25 metres (27 yards) depth.The Egyptian newspaper reported investigations were underway to determine what caused the accident.- Deadly accidents -Hurghada, a resort about 460 kilometres (280 miles) southeast of the Egyptian capital Cairo, is a major destination for visitors to Egypt, with its airport receiving more than nine million passengers last year, according to state media.Thursday’s forecast in the city was clear, with above average winds reported but optimum visibility underwater. While dozens of tourist boats sail through the coastal area daily for snorkeling and diving activities, Sindbad Submarines says it deploys the region’s “only real” recreational submarine.The vessel has been operational in the area for multiple years, according to a source familiar with the company.The Red Sea coral reefs and islands off Egypt’s eastern coast are major draws, contributing to the country’s vital tourism sector which employs two million people and generates more than 10 percent of GDP.The area has been the site of several deadly accidents in recent years.In November, a dive boat capsized off the coast of Marsa Alam, south of Hurghada, leaving four dead and seven missing.Thirty people were rescued from another sinking boat, while last June two dozen French tourists were safely evacuated before their boat sank in a similar accident.In 2023, three British tourists died after a fire broke out on their yacht, engulfing their vessel in flames.

The Iran-backed Huthis said Thursday they targeted an Israeli airport and army site as well as a US warship, soon after Israel reported intercepting missiles launched from Yemen.The Huthis “targeted Ben Gurion airport… with a ballistic missile… and a military target” south of Tel Aviv, their military spokesman Yahya Saree said.Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military said it intercepted two missiles launched from Yemen “prior to crossing into Israeli territory” after it activated air raid sirens across multiple areas, including Jerusalem.Saree said the rebels also “targeted hostile warships in the Red Sea, including the American aircraft carrier (USS Harry S) Truman,” which he said was “in retaliation to the ongoing US aggression against our country”.The United States launched what its Central Command called a “large scale operation” involving air strikes against the Huthis on March 15.Washington vowed to use overwhelming force until they stopped firing on vessels in the key shipping routes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the rebels threatened to resume attacks over the Gaza war.The Huthis have since reported near-daily US air strikes on areas under their control.- Rebels say 2 killed -Earlier Thursday, the rebels said two people had been killed in overnight air strikes near the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa that they blamed on the United States.The Huthis’ Al-Masirah TV channel reported nearly 20 strikes on Sanaa governorate, both north and south of the capital.”The American aggression killed two and injured two,” the Huthi-run health ministry’s spokesman Anis al-Asbahi said on social media platform X.Al-Masirah also reported strikes early Thursday in Saada, the Iran-backed rebels’ northern stronghold which Huthi media had said was hit 17 times the day before.While the United States does not always report these raids, a United States defence official told AFP on Sunday that American forces were “conducting strikes across multiple locations of Iran-backed Huthi locations every day and night in Yemen”.The latest strikes claimed by the Huthis come with Washington embroiled in scandal linked to the March 15 strikes. The Atlantic Magazine published the transcript of messages accidentally shared with its editor in a chat group of senior US officials on Signal, a commercially available messaging app.The magazine on Thursday published details of the March 15 attack plans, which it initially withheld, after the White House insisted no classified details were involved.In response to the US strikes, the Huthis have claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on the Truman carrier group off Yemen’s coast, as well as projectiles fired at Israel.The Huthis began targeting shipping vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with the Palestinian people, but paused their campaign when a ceasefire in Gaza took effect in January.Earlier this month, they threatened to renew the attacks in the vital maritime trade route over Israel’s aid blockade on the Palestinian territory, triggering the first US strikes on Yemen since President Donald Trump took office in January.