Amos Hochstein

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib revealed in an interview with CNN that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a ceasefire just days before he was killed on September 27 in an Israeli attack in Beirut. Habib referred to a US and French proposal for a 21-day ceasefire, which, according to initial reports, was supported by the Israeli government.

The case involving the mass explosions of pagers in Lebanon, which resulted in the death of 12 people, including two children, and injured nearly 3,000, resembles a spy thriller.

A recent announcement by the Taiwanese company initially thought to have manufactured the pagers adds a new dimension to the ongoing thriller regarding who made the devices that turned into bombs against Hezbollah fighters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the current phase of fighting against Hamas in Gaza is winding down, setting the stage for Israel to send more troops to its northern border to confront the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Expert Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former Pentagon official, joins Thanos Davelis to break down why Biden administration officials like Amos Hochstein, who are encouraging Iraqi Kurds to sell oil to Turkey, are doing not only Iraq, but Iraqi Kurds and US interests from the Middle East to the Eastern Mediterranean a disservice.

The Israeli military on Saturday said it shot down three unmanned aircraft launched by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah heading toward an area where an Israeli gas platform was recently installed in the Mediterranean Sea.

Two Saudi officials told The Associated Press the Saudi energy minister informed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, of the kingdom's commitment to the group's current roadmap of cautious monthly  increases. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to brief journalists.

The amount of oil smuggled into Turkey from areas of Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is economically insignificant, the United States said on Dec. 4, after Moscow accused Ankara of profiting from the trade.

The U.S. has adjusted its policy in the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), turning its focus on targets, including energy infrastructure facilities, that are more difficult to replace, U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein has said. 

Bulgaria's government is to issue guarantees worth BGN 215 M (EUR 109 M) for the Interconnector Greece-Bulgarai (IGB) project in 2016, the cabinet's press office has said.

The decision, announced at a Wednesday cabinet meeting, has turned IGB into the single state-guaranteed investment project for which the government will secure funding by taking out more loans.