US Ambassador to Turkey and US special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack speaks after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, in Beirut, Lebanon July 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Washington cannot “compel” Israel to do anything, US special envoy Thomas Barrack said in Beirut on Monday, in response to a reporter’s question about Lebanese demands that the US guarantees a halt to Israeli strikes on Lebanese territory.

The US last month proposed a roadmap to Lebanon‘s top officials to fully disarm Hezbollah within four months, in exchange for a halt to Israeli strikes and a withdrawal of Israeli troops still occupying positions in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon has asked Washington to act as a security guarantor to ensure that Israel will pull out its troops in full and halt targeting operations against members of Hezbollah, if the Iran-backed terrorist group begins handing in weapons.

Asked about those guarantees, Barrack told reporters after a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam that the US “has no business in trying to compel Israel to do anything.”

He also told reporters that the US was not forcing Lebanon to strip Hezbollah of its arms, or considering sanctions against Lebanese officials if Hezbollah is not disarmed.

“There’s no consequence, there’s no threat, there’s no whip,” Barrack said.

Barrack, a longtime adviser to US President Donald Trump, also serves as US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria.

He is making his third trip to Lebanon in just over a month to discuss the US roadmap, which covers disarmament of non-state armed groups, long-awaited economic reforms and better ties with Lebanon‘s neighbor Syria.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a months-long war last year that ended with a US-brokered truce calling for both sides to halt fighting, for Israel to withdraw troops, and for Lebanon to be free of all non-state arms, starting with the southern region closest to the Israeli border.

While Hezbollah has handed in some weapons from depots in the country’s south to the Lebanese army, Israel says the group is violating the ceasefire by attempting to re-establish itself.

Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel has breached the truce by continuing to occupy at least five vantage points in a strip of the Lebanese border, and carrying out strikes on what Israel says are Hezbollah members and arms depots.

The post US Cannot ‘Compel’ Israel to Do Anything, US Special Envoy Says in Lebanon first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

A bridge crane damaged by Israeli air strikes is pictured in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen, July 31, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

The Israeli military attacked Houthi targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah port on Monday in its latest operation against the Iran-backed terrorist group, which has been striking ships bound for Israel and launching missiles against it.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the army was “forcefully countering any attempt to restore the terror infrastructure previously attacked.”

The Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said on Monday that a series of attacks on the port was under way, without providing any details.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the port it attacked had been used “among other things, to transfer weapons from the Iranian regime, which are then used by the Houthi to execute terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and its allies.”

Since Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas began in October 2023, the Iran-aligned Houthis have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.

Israel has responded by launching attacks on Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, including the vital Hodeidah port.

“As I have made clear – Yemen’s fate is the same as Tehran’s. The Houthis will pay a heavy price for launching missiles toward the State of Israel,” Katz said.

The Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on Monday that the group attacked several targets in Israel with drones, which was in response to Israel’s recent attack on Hodeidah port and the continued military campaign against Gaza.

Earlier in July, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on the Greek ship Eternity C that maritime officials say killed four of the 25 people aboard.

In May, the United States announced a surprise deal with the Houthis where it agreed to stop a bombing campaign against them in return for an end to shipping attacks, though the Houthis said the deal did not include sparing Israel.

The post Israeli Military Attacks Houthi Targets in Yemen’s Hodeidah Port first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

People walk near a mural of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Tehran, Iran, June 23, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran, Britain, France, and Germany will hold nuclear talks in Istanbul on Friday, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said early on Monday, following warnings by the three European countries that failure to resume negotiations would lead to international sanctions being reimposed on Iran.

“The meeting between Iran, Britain, France, and Germany will take place at the deputy foreign minister level,” Esmaeil Baghaei was quoted by Iranian state media as saying.

The talks scheduled for Friday come after foreign ministers of the E3 nations, as those European countries are known, as well as the European Union’s foreign policy chief, held their first call on Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi since Israel and the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities a month ago.

The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to a 2015 nuclear deal reached with Iran – from which the United States withdrew in 2018 – that lifted sanctions on the Middle Eastern country in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.

The E3 have said they would restore UN sanctions on Tehran via the “snapback mechanism” by the end of August if nuclear talks that were ongoing between Iran and the US before the Israel-Iran air war do not resume or fail to produce concrete results.

“If EU/E3 want to have a role, they should act responsibly, and put aside the worn-out policies of threat and pressure, including the ‘snap-back’ for which they lack absolutely [any] moral and legal ground,” Araqchi said earlier in the week.

The snapback mechanism can be used to restore UN sanctions before the UN Security Council resolution enshrining the deal expires on Oct. 18.

Prior to the Israel-Iran war, Tehran and Washington held five rounds of nuclear talks mediated by Oman but faced major stumbling blocks such as uranium enrichment in Iran, which Western powers want to bring down to zero to minimize any risk of weaponization.

Tehran maintains its nuclear program is solely meant for civilian purposes.

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