Bassem Mroue

The indirect negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah for a prisoners exchange are going on and a man who has a key role is a German intelligence agent, Der Spiegel reports . This is not the first time the Germans have worked on such an exchange since negotiations few years ago led to the release of an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israelis soldiers with hundreds of Arab prisoners in January 2004.

The war on terrorism did not destroy al-Qaida but on the contrary the group now is stronger than it was five years ago, a terrorism expert says. Bruce Hoffman of Rand Corporation tells Spiegel Online that it is not clear if Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri are still the ones ordering the attacks but that there is a command functioning from Pakistan's region of Waziristan. read the interview.

The Sunday Times quotes political and military sources in Israel as saying the Jewish state is preparing for possible war with Iran and Syria. The paper said the war in Lebanon led to a rethink in Israel that too much attention was being paid to the Palestinians. Read the article . Bassem Mroue Cairo Sept. 3, 2006. 8:50 p.m.

The war in Lebanon appear to be going to cost Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert his job. Most Israelis are not happy with the results of the 34-day war that did not achieve its main goals of returning two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah on July 12 as well as destroying the militant Lebanese group. Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said this week he is willing to take responsibility for the war. He added that there will be an investigation. In Lebanon, European countries have promised to send more than half the 15,000-member peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon after France and Italy alone said they will send 5,000 troops. The Lebanese government welcomed the European step.

Will Israel hit Iran's nuclear facilities on its own? The Jerusalem Post has a story on the issue and quotes a "senior source" as saying that if the United States is to take action it wont be until the spring or summer of 2008, few months before presidential elections. This means that Israel might repeat what it did to Iraq's Tamouz nuclear reactor in 1981 that was bombed while under construction. Bassem Mroue Beirut August 24, 2006. 8:45 p.m.

Three weeks after capturing him along with four other men near Baalbek, Israel released Monday Hassan Deeb Nasrallah and his colleagues who arrived home late in the day. The released man carries the same name of the Hezbollah leader but the middle name differs. From the first day of the August 2, capture in a commando operation, Israel had been saying that the five were Hezbollah members, a claim that the group kept denying. After the release of the five, one of the men, Bilal Nasrallah, said the Israelis thought he was the son of Hezbollah's leader. The raid to capture the five left 19 people dead. As-safir interviewed the men after they returned home. Bassem Mroue Beirut Aug. 22, 2006 11 a.m.