The Levant Files

Ancient Phoenician port and UNESCO World Heritage Site faces fresh bombardment as ceasefire frays Israel's military issued an evacuation order on Tuesday for the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, warning residents to flee north of the Zahrani River ahead of possible strikes. For the first time, the order extended to the city's Christian Quarter, which earlier warnings had spared. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed Hezbollah was operating in the quarter and cautioned that any building used by the group could be targeted. The order arrives as a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, renewed only last week, frays badly. A strike on Tyre on Monday killed five people and wounded eight, four of the dead Red Cross paramedics, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. The bombardment has also battered the city's celebrated antiquities: Ali Badawi, the culture ministry's regional director for archaeological sites in south Lebanon, said recent shelling had ...

Third vote in 18 months leaves young Balkan nation without a clear government Kosovo's latest snap election has failed to deliver the political breakthrough the country desperately needs, deepening a crisis that observers warn is endangering the stability of Europe's youngest nation. In the June 7 vote — the third parliamentary election in just 18 months — Prime Minister Albin Kurti's centre-left Vetevendosje party won the most votes but again fell short of a governing majority. Near-complete results put the party at roughly 43 percent, down sharply from the 51 percent it secured in December, pointing to difficult coalition talks ahead. The opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) took about 21 and 17 percent respectively. The repeated trips to the polls stem from a paralysing institutional impasse. A deeply divided parliament failed to elect a new president in April, worsening a crisis triggered by inconclusive elections in February...

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has claimed a decisive victory in Armenia's parliamentary election, a result that strengthens his government's pivot toward the West and away from its traditional alliance with Russia. According to Armenia's Central Election Commission, Pashinyan's Civil Contract party took 49.81 percent of the vote, far ahead of the pro-Russian Strong Armenia alliance, which finished a distant second at 23.29 percent. With roughly 94 percent of ballots counted, the result would hand Civil Contract a comfortable majority of about 64 of the 105 seats in the National Assembly. Turnout in the country of three million was nearly 59 percent. Two other opposition forces cleared the threshold to enter parliament: former President Robert Kocharyan's Armenia Alliance, with about 9.9 percent, and the Prosperous Armenia party, at roughly 4 percent. Pashinyan called the outcome a "historic victory that will ensure Armenia's eternity and development."...

Trump predicts 'total victory' over Iran, but a gap between Washington's optimism and Tehran's demands leaves the outcome uncertain. President Donald Trump declared this week that the United States is on the verge of a sweeping diplomatic win over Iran, telling supporters during a tele-rally for Senator Lindsey Graham that Washington would soon declare "total victory." "You're really gonna win it over the next two weeks when we declare total victory," Trump said. "It'll happen very soon, and oil prices will come tumbling down." Trump claimed Iranian negotiators are prepared to concede on every American demand, including the central question of nuclear weapons. "They're willing to give us everything, they're willing to give us no nuclear weapon," he said, adding that an agreement "will not allow for nuclear weapons in any way, shape, or form." Speaking later before boarding Air Force One, he suggested a de...

According to The Jerusalem Post analysis by Herb Keinon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced what the writer described as his “Levi Eshkol moment” this week, choosing to defy US President Donald Trump’s call for restraint after Iran fired 11 ballistic missiles at Israel. The episode has exposed visible cracks in the US-Israel alliance, not necessarily because the relationship is collapsing, but because Netanyahu’s decision showed that Israel is again prepared to act independently when it believes its strategic deterrence is at stake. Trump reportedly urged Netanyahu on Sunday not to retaliate after Iran’s missile attack. The message was public enough for Israel’s enemies, allies, and regional partners to hear clearly: Washington wanted Israel to hold back. Netanyahu chose otherwise. His decision echoed earlier moments in Israeli history when prime ministers rejected American pressure. In 1967, Levi Eshkol ignored President Lyndon Johnson’s warning not to launch a preemptive strike ...

Nournews, a news outlet closely associated with Iran's Supreme National Security Council and widely regarded as reflecting the views of Iran's security establishment, has published an analysis examining the motives behind recent military exchanges involving Israel, Iran, and Lebanon. The report argues that the latest escalation is not merely a series of isolated military incidents but part of a broader strategic contest over regional security arrangements and the future of diplomacy between Tehran and Washington. According to the analysis, tensions intensified after Israeli strikes targeted Beirut's southern suburbs, an area considered a stronghold of Hezbollah. Iran viewed the attack as a violation of one of its key security red lines. The situation subsequently escalated through an Iranian missile response and Israeli retaliatory strikes against locations inside Iran. While the military exchanges have drawn international attention, Nournews contends that the more importan...

In a sharp departure from diplomatic calls for de-escalation, Israel’s military has signaled it is bracing for a prolonged conflict with Iran, despite President Donald Trump's demands for a ceasefire and Tehran's announcement that it has terminated its attacks. As reported by Maariv, the IDF insists that the Iranian missile barrage was a clear ceasefire violation that was anticipated, not a surprise. Consequently, Tel Aviv has activated pre-written contingency plans, launching retaliatory strikes against targets in both Iran and Lebanon while preparing its forces for what could be an extended period of fighting. The Israeli military explicitly frames the recent events not as a new round of hostilities but as a direct continuation of an ongoing campaign. This narrative shift suggests that Israel views the two-month ceasefire as a paused interlude rather than a concluded chapter. "We are preparing as an army for several days of fighting and even for an extended period,"...

Tehran announces a "suspension" of operations after the first direct exchange since the truce; Trump demands both sides "immediately stop shooting" Iran and Israel exchanged direct fire for the first time since their April truce on Monday, in a sharp escalation that has all but collapsed the US-brokered ceasefire and revived fears of a full regional war. The latest round began when Israeli warplanes struck the southern suburbs of Beirut — the heartland of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah — without warning and over explicit American requests to hold off. Israel said the strike was retaliation for Hezbollah fire on its northern towns. Iran answered with multiple waves of missiles aimed at northern Israel and Tel Aviv, its first direct attack on Israeli soil since the ceasefire took hold in April. Tehran cast the barrage as a "warning," insisting that any continued assault on Beirut's suburbs crossed a red line it would not abandon. Israel then struck back...

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's ruling Civil Contract party won Armenia's parliamentary election held on Sunday, 7 June 2026, according to preliminary results published by the country's Central Electoral Commission, handing the incumbent a renewed mandate to press ahead with his westward foreign-policy turn. Preliminary figures showed Civil Contract leading comfortably, with early official tabulations putting the party at roughly 57 percent of the vote. Samvel Karapetyan's pro-Russian Strong Armenia alliance trailed in second place with about 21 percent, followed by former president Robert Kocharyan's Armenia Alliance at around 9 percent and the Prosperous Armenia party, which crossed the electoral threshold at just over 4 percent. Voter turnout was reported at about 59 percent. In an early-morning press briefing, Pashinyan hailed what he called a "historic victory" for his party, describing the outcome as a major political achievement, though he acknowle...