Report: Israel and Lebanon to hold ceasefire talks in coming days

Report: Israel and Lebanon to hold ceasefire talks in coming days

Itamar Eichner

Israel and Lebanon are expected to hold talks in the coming days aimed at securing a durable ceasefire that would see the Hezbollah terror group disarmed, two Israeli officials said Sunday, as diplomatic efforts intensify alongside continued fighting along the northern border.

Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed reported that the only point confirmed so far is an agreement in principle to hold negotiations, though no date or location has been set. According to the report, possible venues under discussion range from Cyprus to Paris. The channel also cited U.S. sources as saying the Israeli side does not oppose the principle of holding talks with Lebanon but is not yet ready to enter them and is waiting for practical steps from the Lebanese government.

CNN reported Sunday that former minister Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recently visited Saudi Arabia and discussed a possible arrangement for a ceasefire on the northern front. An Israeli official told CNN the visit took place sometime “in the past two weeks” — after the outbreak of the war with Iran — and against the backdrop of fighting with Hezbollah after the Lebanese terror group joined the conflict.

Dermer stepped down from the government last year, but after the war began Netanyahu asked him to coordinate Israel’s handling of the Lebanese file. If talks are held with Beirut, Dermer is expected to represent Jerusalem. In recent days he has also taken part in several meetings of the smaller security Cabinet.

CNN noted that, according to an Israeli source, Dermer’s appointment to lead possible contacts with Lebanon does not necessarily indicate “concrete plans” for direct negotiations between the governments in Jerusalem and Beirut. If such talks were to take place, they would be historic, particularly as reports say the Lebanese government does not rule out the possibility of normalization in the future.

A source familiar with the matter said Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam are currently forming a negotiating delegation for possible talks with Israel.

Earlier Sunday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar denied reports that Israel could soon hold direct talks with Lebanon. Asked about those reports and about a U.S. report from the previous evening that Israel had warned it was running low on missile interceptors, Sa'ar said: “To both questions, the answer is no.”

Sa'ar spoke during a visit to the Arab town of Zarzir near Nazareth, where 60 people were injured and about 300 homes were damaged by a direct hit from an Iranian missile. He accused the Lebanese government of not doing enough to disarm Hezbollah, saying Israel therefore had to act.

“If the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army want to change something, they must take action to stop the attacks carried out by Hezbollah from Lebanese territory against Israel,” Sa'ar said. “So far they have done nothing meaningful to stop it. Incidentally, ministers identified with Hezbollah are still members of the Lebanese government. We support peace and normalization in the future, including with Lebanon.”

“We have no real, deep disputes with the state of Lebanon. The problem is Hezbollah,” he added. “Hezbollah operates according to instructions from Tehran, not Beirut, contrary to the will of Lebanon and its citizens. Since the ceasefire in November 2024, Lebanon has not truly done what it needed to do to disarm Hezbollah. We are now seeing the results. We also expect serious steps from Lebanon to stop the fire toward Israel. That is what needs to be done now.”

The United States and France are involved in diplomatic efforts. It was reported Saturday that the two countries are trying to arrange a direct meeting soon between Israeli representatives and officials from the Lebanese government to reach a ceasefire agreement and understandings under which the Lebanese state would be responsible for disarming Hezbollah.

The aim is to halt the escalation and prevent an Israeli ground operation in southern Lebanon. For now, however, Israel intends to expand its operations in Lebanon regardless of any talks.

“It’s hard to believe a broad ground operation in Lebanon can be prevented, and it seems the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces will have to do the difficult work of dismantling and disarming Hezbollah,” a source familiar with the matter told Ynet. “But that does not change the fact that alongside that — or shortly after — there could be a dramatic shift with the Lebanese government. The Lebanese government also wants Hezbollah disarmed. We are entering a long and complex campaign against Hezbollah. It is hard to believe diplomatic negotiations with the Lebanese government will stop that, but there is definitely talk that the day after Iran we could see a new page with Lebanon, as we are seeing with Syria. There’s a reason Ron Dermer is involved.”

Assessing Iran’s Ability to Hold the World’s Oil Supply Hostage

Assessing Iran’s Ability to Hold the World’s Oil Supply Hostage

Antonio Graceffo

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on March 14, 2026, that the Strait of Hormuz is open to all countries except the United States and Israel, describing it as closed only to “tankers and ships belonging to our enemies, to those who are attacking us and their allies.”

The statement came immediately after U.S. strikes on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub. The regime derives most of its revenue from oil exports.

Iran earned $65.8 billion from oil, petroleum products, and gas exports in the last fiscal year, while total government revenues were projected at around $45 billion, meaning oil export earnings alone exceed the entire state budget.

Iran sells about 80 percent of its oil to China. Beijing depends on discounted Iranian crude to reduce manufacturing costs. Iranian crude has traded at around $8 per barrel below Brent.

This discount helps lower production costs at a time when export volumes are at record highs but profit margins have collapsed.

The share of loss-making Chinese manufacturers has doubled since 2018, and producer prices have fallen continuously for more than three years.

While Iran attempts to hold the world’s oil supply hostage, the war is also restricting Iran’s ability to export oil. Iran has sent at least 11.7 million barrels of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began on February 28, all destined for China.

However, shipments of approximately 1.22 million barrels per day are significantly lower than pre-war levels. Iran had exported 2.16 million barrels per day in February, the highest level since July 2018.

Iran’s only alternative export outlet, the Jask facility on the Sea of Oman, which bypasses the Strait entirely, has rarely been used. Loading a single Very Large Crude Carrier can take up to 10 days there, compared to one or two days at Kharg Island, making it logistically marginal.

The U.S. struck more than 90 military targets on Kharg Island, destroying naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers, but deliberately preserved the oil infrastructure.

President Trump wrote on Truth Social, “For reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the island.” Trump added, “However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

Kharg Island processes 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports. A CIA document from 1984 described the facilities as “the most vital in Iran’s oil system, and their continued operation is essential to Iran’s economic well-being.”

Although some people want to believe that Iran is in a position of advantage, it would be extremely easy for President Trump to crash Iran’s economy and take a chunk of China’s economy with it.

Iran’s social-media propaganda accounts are claiming that the IRGC will allow safe passage for tankers whose oil was paid for in Chinese yuan. Accounts supporting the regime are portraying this as the death knell of the petrodollar and claiming that America’s economic power is collapsing.

However, the yuan proposal is largely propaganda and de-dollarization signaling. Iran floated the idea, China’s own analysts warned against it, no country has formally agreed to the condition, and the few ships that have actually passed did not price their cargo in yuan.

The U.S. 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, is already conducting operations against Iranian threats in the area. At the same time, Iranian missile and drone strike volumes are down 92 percent since the conflict began.

A JINSA report from March 5 stated that approximately 75 percent of launchers were destroyed. Analysts attribute the decline to U.S. and Israeli strikes on launch infrastructure, underground facilities at Esfahan and Ahvaz, airbases, and production sites.

The drone picture, however, is different. Iran’s production capacity before the war was reportedly about 10,000 units per month, leading analysts to believe that Iran could sustain drone harassment in the Strait of Hormuz for months.

However, it is unlikely that Iran is still operating at pre-war production levels. CENTCOM confirmed that it continues to strike Iran’s industrial base, including factories and weapons warehouses.

Even before the war, Iran faced its most severe energy crisis in decades, with frequent power outages and disruptions to natural gas supplies. In summer 2024, Iran’s electricity shortage was estimated at 14,000 megawatts, equivalent to roughly twice the total electricity production of Azerbaijan.

The 12-day war in June 2025 damaged oil storage sites, refineries, and power stations. A year earlier, Israel blew up two major Iranian gas pipelines, disrupting supplies that provide roughly 70 percent of the country’s energy. More than 86 percent of Iran’s electricity comes from gas-fired plants, leaving the country dangerously exposed.

Even before the latest attacks, shortages of natural gas forced authorities to burn mazut, a cheap and highly polluting heavy fuel oil, to keep power plants running.

The initial U.S. and Israeli strikes on February 28 targeted Iranian oil refineries and export terminals alongside military sites, hitting Iran’s own production capacity in the opening hours.

By March 5, the combined U.S.-Israeli force had advanced to a second phase specifically targeting Iranian defense-industrial assets, including missile and drone production facilities.

The IDF issued evacuation warnings for the Abbas Abad Industrial Zone and Shenzar Industrial Zone in Pakdasht, Tehran Province, both key defense-manufacturing areas.

While America-haters are celebrating the IRGC taking such a staunch position against the United States and Israel, the threat has limited practical effect on its stated targets.

The United States imports only about 0.5 million barrels per day from the Persian Gulf, roughly 7 percent of total U.S. crude imports and about 2 percent of overall petroleum consumption, with the vast majority coming from Canada and Mexico.

Israel does not import Persian Gulf crude and has no Israeli-flagged commercial vessels transiting the strait. Nearly all Hormuz oil flows to Asia. China accounts for approximately 38 percent, with India, South Korea, and Japan taking most of the remainder.

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Terry James: Be Not Ignorant

Be Not Ignorant

Terry James

Hoping this isn’t perceived as condescension aimed at the reader; it is, I’m convicted, good to think on what Paul was given by the Holy Spirit to urge us to not be ignorant. The instruction is crucial to understanding these prophetic days in which we find ourselves.

Paul uses this “be not ignorant” statement of instruction three times in the course of his epistles addressing Christians. These include his letters to the Romans, the Corinthians, and the Thessalonians. The emphasis on not being ignorant speaks of God’s strong desire for believers to understand what He wants us to fully comprehend.

While I present here all three of Paul’s instructions to “be not ignorant,” I want to look in particular at his letters to the Romans and the Thessalonians to imply that his teaching is especially relevant to where we are on God’s prophetic timeline.

Here are the three statements:

1. Romans 11:25–32: Israel’s Condition, Purpose, and Future

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

2. 1 Corinthians 12:–11: Spiritual Gifts

 

3. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18: The Rapture

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Paul here makes it profoundly important—even mandatory—that we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ understand the things covered in these instructions.

Anytime God’s Word emphasizes something three times, the matters involved are vital to being understood—and believed.

So, we reflect on Paul saying that he would not have us to be ignorant about the mystery of Israel and all the things that involve His chosen people.

The apostle wants all generations of believers to understand that despite Israel’s opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ and denial that He is their Messiah, the people of Israel are still His. They will at a future time be saved–that is, become believers in Jesus Christ as Savior and Messiah.

This will happen during a period of great trouble for them (Jeremiah 30:7). That Tribulation era will take place after the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. This will be when all believers of the Church Age—the Age of Grace—are taken to Heaven in the Rapture.

During that time of Jacob’s trouble, God will bring out of the House of Israel a remnant of born-again believers who will be true Israel for all of eternity.

We must not be ignorant, then, of the significance of Israel. We must be aware that when Israel dominates the prophetic world horizon, the time of Christ’s return is very near. We must not be ignorant of Israel’s position, Paul is telling us.

The question to believers in Christ, then, should be: Is the nation Israel on the scene today in any significant way?

There is certainly no excuse for anyone, believer or not, to be ignorant in considering this question.

This brings us to Paul’s third exhortation.

Believers—Gentiles and Jews who have come to Christ for salvation during this Age of Grace—will be called into the clouds of Glory when Israel is at the center of world controversy. The last believer of this Church Age will accept Christ for salvation, and Jesus will call all Christians in the Rapture. This will be when the “fullness of the Gentiles will be come in,” as Paul prophesied.

The apostle told the Thessalonians all about that coming Rapture of the Church—God’s eternal family of believers who lived and died during the Age of Grace.

There is no excuse for us to be ignorant of just how near we must be to that call from our Savior. Can’t you sense the Holy Spirit’s assurance that this world so full of anti-God wickedness and turmoil is about to change in a twinkling-of-an-eye moment?

We are not to be ignorant. We’re to rely on God’s promise:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4: 17-18)

From Church Pews To Courtrooms: How Christians Are Being Labeled Extremists

From Church Pews To Courtrooms: How Christians Are Being Labeled Extremists

PNW STAFF

Not long ago, millions of Americans grew up with a routine that today might sound quaint--Sunday morning church, Sunday evening service, and a midweek Bible study. For many families in the 1980s and 1990s, this rhythm of worship was not unusual. It was simply part of life.

But in parts of the Western world today, the same behavior is increasingly being viewed through a very different lens. In a growing number of legal battles--from Europe to the United States--Christian parents, foster families, and even churchgoers are finding themselves treated not as ordinary citizens exercising religious freedom, but as potential extremists.

The case of Daniel and Bianca Samson in Sweden is perhaps one of the most disturbing examples.

When Church Attendance Becomes "Extremism"

In 2022, Swedish authorities removed the Samson family's two daughters after an argument common in many households. The couple refused to allow their young daughter to wear makeup or have a smartphone. Upset, the girl reported alleged abuse at school--an accusation she later retracted. Prosecutors investigated and found no evidence of abuse.

One might assume the case would end there. It did not.

Instead, Swedish social services kept the girls in foster care and began labeling the parents "religious extremists." The evidence cited? The family attended church three times a week and maintained conservative Christian rules in their home.

Nearly four years later, the daughters remain separated from their parents, placed in different foster homes and allowed to see their family only once a month under supervision. The parents have been cleared of abuse and even completed state-mandated parenting training, yet the state still refuses to reunite the family.

In legal filings, the government explicitly pointed to church attendance and faith-based parenting as signs of "religious extremism."

For millions of Christians worldwide, the implication is chilling: practicing your faith seriously can now be interpreted by the state as a threat.

A Growing Pattern

The Samson case may sound extreme, but it is far from isolated.

For years, Christian foster parents and adoptive families have faced legal barriers if they refuse to affirm gender-transition treatments for children placed in their care. In several jurisdictions, couples have been denied the ability to foster or adopt because they hold traditional Christian views about gender and sexuality.

In states such as New York and Oregon, Christian agencies and foster parents have gone to court after being told they must endorse gender ideology or lose their licenses. Some have won partial victories, but only after years of legal battles that drained resources and placed families under intense scrutiny.

In another case that sparked controversy in the United States, a judge in a custody dispute ruled that a child could not attend a Calvary Chapel church with one parent because the judge labeled the church a "cult" due to its strong biblical teachings about gender, marriage and Jesus being the only path to God.

Think about that precedent for a moment.

A court deciding which church a child may attend--based not on abuse or harm, but on theological disagreement.

If such rulings become normalized, the implications for religious freedom are enormous.

Faith Under Pressure

Ironically, many of the practices now labeled "extreme" were once pillars of Western culture. Weekly worship, moral instruction at home, and parental authority over children were not fringe behaviors--they were the foundation of community life.

If those practices are now considered suspicious, it reveals less about Christians than about the cultural transformation occurring around them.

The question facing the West is not merely legal or political. It is civilizational.

Will societies that once championed religious freedom continue to protect it--even when faith contradicts modern ideology?

Or will they quietly redefine devotion as extremism?

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JD Farag: What The World Says What The Word Says

What The World Says What The Word Says (video)

 J.D. Farag

Pastor JD speaks about all the voices clamoring for our attention begging the question of who or what am I listening to? Am I listening to what the world says or am I listening to and more importantly heeding of what God’s Word says?