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Joseph Aoun and Nawaf Salam are at the centre of an internal political trial in Lebanon. As negotiations with Israel advance under US pressure, their opponents suspect a reconfiguration of power to the detriment of Hezbollah. Between sovereignty, ceasefire and arms debate, the executive faces a crisis of legitimacy.

Nabih Berri again became a central player in the Lebanese crisis. Between distrust of the diplomatic sequence, defence of the Shiite camp and the desire to avoid an internal rupture, the President of the Chamber imposes himself as a figure of blockade as well as stabilization, in the heart of a Lebanon fractured by war and negotiation.

In Washington, diplomacy between Lebanon and Israel is progressing, but the southern front continues to impose its pace. Around Bint Jbeil, fighting blocks any credible truce. Between American mediation, Israeli military pressure and Lebanese prudence, the war recognizes negotiation without giving it priority on the ground.

Bint Jbeil has again become the military and symbolic epicentre of South Lebanon. The Israeli army claims a decisive advance, while Hezbollah tries to maintain a resistance to it in a ravaged urban environment. This battle is beyond the ground: it weighs on the direct discussions between Beirut and Israel, on the Israeli security zone strategy, on the future of the return of the inhabitants and on the ability of the Lebanese State to take over one day in the South.

In France, a new bill revives the debate on the assimilation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Its critics see it as a tool of censorship designed to muzzle Israel's criticisms and support for Palestine, at the risk of impoverishing public debate and undermining freedom of political expression.

After Trump, an Israeli minister said on Thursday 16 April that Benyamin Netanyahu had to speak with Joseph Aoun, in what would be an unprecedented exchange between the two countries at this level for decades. But Beirut quickly opposed a denial, claiming that it had no information about such contact. The episode sheds light on the current phase: diplomatic channels exist, but every gesture remains in a battle of communication, sovereignty and balance of power.

The Israeli-Lebanese negotiations opened in Washington caused Lebanon to react to the internal fracture lines. The Maronite League, Ibrahim Kanaan and Gebran Bassil all support, to varying degrees, the diplomatic path, but with different limits. Between the call for a cease-fire, the refusal of an imposed peace, the defence of sovereignty, the place of the state and the sensitive issue of Hezbollah's weapons, these positions illuminate a political moment when diplomacy progresses without dispelling the fundamental tensions.

Contact Lebanon Israel: Beirut said that it was not aware of anything after Donald Trump announced an exchange scheduled for Thursday.

The presence of Antoun Sehnaoui at the Holocaust Museum in Washington rekindled a lively controversy in Lebanon. His philanthropic gesture, displayed alongside Morgan Ortagus, is re-read through the banking crisis, frozen deposits, Israeli bombings and the increasing rejection of financial elites in Lebanese opinion.

Lebanon filed an urgent complaint with the Security Council and the Secretary-General of the United Nations following the Israeli strikes of 8 April 2026, which targeted several parts of the country, including Beirut. More than just a gesture of protest, Beirut seeks to gain legal recognition of the gravity of the bombings, document the human record and prevent this day from being absorbed by the broader narrative of the war. The complaint is part of a strategy of diplomatic pressure as well as official memory.

Israeli bombings in Lebanon continue to increase the human balance. According to the Ministry of Public Health, 2,167 people were killed and 7,061 injured between 2 March and 15 April. The latest NNA dispatches report new Israeli strikes in Harouf, Qadmous, Qlaila and Bint Jbeil Caza. The article goes back to the daily accumulation of losses, the pressure on hospitals, the criticisms of the United Nations and the need to clearly name Israel when the strikes are attributed to it.

The petition against the Yadan law exceeded 700,000 signatures, a level rarely reached on the platform of the National Assembly. However, the Law Committee decided to classify it, excluding the hypothesis of a specific debate in the Chamber. The decision is based on a procedural argument: the bill will be considered the next day in a public sitting. But the episode goes beyond parliamentary technique. He again raised the question of the real place accorded to citizen petitions and revived the controversy over a text accused by his opponents of threatening freedom of expression.

By repeating that its right to enrich uranium is "indisputable" while ensuring that the level of this enrichment remains negotiable, Iran has clarified its line for further trade with Washington. Tehran does not seek to close the door, but to prevent the resumption of dialogue from being read as a renunciation imposed by American war and pressure. Pakistan is now serving as a channel for diplomatic survival, while the United States continues to demand a much harder and more lasting framework for Iran's programme.

Lebanon enters into direct discussions with Israel without genuine freedom of negotiation. Beirut first calls for a ceasefire, the return of internally displaced persons and relief from the humanitarian crisis, while Israel demands progress on Hezbollah before any truce. This asymmetry is aggravated by the Israeli election period, which pushes Benyamin Netanyahu to post a hard line to convince his base. Between internal divisions, weakened institutional mandate and increased financial dependence, the Lebanese State seeks less a global agreement than a space to save time.