Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – President Barack Obama told U.S. Jewish leaders it was likely rockets would fall on Tel Aviv if a nuclear deal with Iran was blocked and military action ensued, one of them said on Wednesday.

In a separate appeal to American Jews, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a fierce opponent of the July 14 accord, pushed back in a webcast on Tuesday against the Obama administration’s argument that the agreement was the only way to avoid eventual war with Iran.

The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives will vote on whether to reject the agreement when lawmakers return to Washington in September, party leaders said on Tuesday, setting up a showdown with the president.

By Joseph Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: The Lebanese government failed to agree on how best to move along after a difficult two-hour long meeting although the Prime Minister upheld the constitution and embarked on fresh negotiations to settle lingering disputes. He did not resign and pledged to call a new meeting on Friday after he and the Speaker, Nabih Berri, return from their visit to Cairo.

By Rola el-Husseini

During the past two weeks, Lebanon has been mired in a garbage crisis. The landfill used by Beirut since the mid-1990s has entirely overflowed, and local residents have forced the government to close it. Meanwhile, due to internal squabbling, the government has failed to extend its contract with the garbage company Sukleen and to find suitable alternative landfills. Civil society has attempted to step in to compensate for the lawmakers’ dereliction of duty, and Uber drivers have been called upon to help remove trash from the streets of the city.

This trash crisis mirrors and compounds 14 months of system-wide gridlock that has prevented the election of a new Lebanese president. Indeed, as one lawmaker from Beirut pointed out, “the [trash] issue is being used by politicians as a proxy for broader struggles.” The country is currently being managed by a caretaker government headed by Tammam Salam, the scion of a notable Sunni family that traces its origins back to the ranks of the Ottoman bureaucracy.

Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched a political campaign ahead of February’s parliamentary elections in what could prove a challenge to the moderates behind a landmark nuclear agreement reached last month.

Kareem Shaheen, The Guardian

The growing anarchy and stalemate in Syria has brought the country closer to de facto partition, as the overstretched and exhausted army of the president, Bashar al-Assad, retreats in the face of a war of attrition that has sapped its manpower.

The regime’s military has sought to retain a footprint in far-flung areas of the country, from Deir Ezzor in Syria’s eastern desert to Aleppo in the north and Deraa in the south, attempting to consolidate its hold over state institutions and protect its officer corps by retreating in the face of overwhelming offensives and subjecting lost territory to relentless and indiscriminate aerial campaigns.

But, facing a manpower shortage as tens of thousands of young men desert, the military has had to rely largely on local militias as enforcers for the regime. It is ceding territory to rebel fighters and the terror group Islamic State in favour of regrouping in its strongholds to the west, slowly paving the way for partition.

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — It’s summer in this proud Mediterranean city, with celebrities and Lebanese expats flocking to international festivals and parties at Beirut’s beaches and nightclubs. But the country’s own citizens are suffocating from mountains of stinking garbage collecting on the streets — yet another reflection of government paralysis and its inability to find a solution for the capital’s rubbish.

Lebanon has enjoyed relative calm amid the violence afflicting neighboring countries in the past few years. Despite a massive influx of Syrian refugees and occasional outbursts of sectarian clashes, Beirut has largely survived the regional upheaval, even if its politicians have been locked in internal disputes, unable to agree on a new president for more than a year.

The British ambassador’s farewell letter to Lebanon has been widely shared over the past few days on many Lebanese Facebook and Twitter pages. In the emotional and heart-felt piece, Tom Fletcher encourages Lebanese to look beyond the political chaos and to the bigger picture. Below the farewell letter:

"So…Yalla, Bye" by Tom Fletcher UK Ambassador to Lebanon

Dear Lebanon,

 Sorry to write again. But I’m leaving your extraordinary country after four years. Unlike your politicians, I can’t extend my own term.

 When I arrived, my first email said ‘welcome to Lebanon, your files have been corrupted’. It should have continued: never think you understand it, never think you can fix it, never think you can leave unscathed. I dreamt of Beirutopia and Leb 2020 , but lived the grim reality of the Syria war.

 Bullets and botox. Dictators and divas. Warlords and wasta. Machiavellis and mafia. Guns, greed and God. Game of Thrones with RPGs. Human rights and hummus rights. Four marathons, 100 blogs, 10,000 tweets, 59 calls on Prime Ministers, 600+ long dinners, 52 graduation speeches, two #OneLebanon rock concerts, 43 grey hairs, a job swap with a domestic worker, a walk the length of the coast (Video). I got to fly a Red Arrow upside down, and a fly over Lebanon’s northern border to see how LAF is enforcing Lebanese sovereignty. I was even offered a free buttock lift – its value exceeded our £140 gift limit, so that daunting task is left undone.

i24news

Berlin studying ways in which it can help Beirut lower costs of dealing with excess trash

In an attempt to ease Lebanon’s waste disposal problem, Germany is exploring ways for Beirut to export its garbage to the European country, according to Beirut-based paper The Daily Star.

Politicians in Beirut, divided by local and regional conflicts, have been unable to agree on where to dump the capital’s rubbish. Mounting piles of garbage festering in the summer heat are triggering health warnings and protests by residents furious their government failed to avoid a crisis ignited by the long-scheduled closure of a major landfill site last month.

By Joseph A. Kechichian,Senior Writer

Beirut: Lebanese Prime Minister Tamam Salam may resign on Wednesday, a senior government source told Gulf News. The possible resignation is due to intractable differences within the government and if it happens it will deal a serious blow to the ongoing political deadlock in the country. However, the posts of several important military and security officers will be extended, the source affirmed.

The terms of Walid Salman (Army Chief of Staff), Edmond Fadel (Chief of Army Intelligence) and General Jean Qahwaji (Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces) would be extended due to the highly sensitive and volatile security situation in Lebanon.