Aqil was considered the second-in-command in the organization after leader Hassan Nasrallah. If indeed he was eliminated, Hezbollah once again finds itself vulnerable to Israeli intelligence.
"This elimination is intended to protect the citizens of Israel," Biden said in a brief statement to the press, adding that Israel was not seeking regional escalation.
The Radwan Force is central to Hezbollah’s military doctrine, which emphasizes asymmetric warfare against a technologically superior adversary like Israel.
Keynote speaker Waddah Khanfar, an ex-Al-Jazeera official, is identified by many as a Hamas member himself, raising questions as to the private US university’s proximity to the Hamas axis.
The Middle East is on edge after deadly attacks that blew up radios and pagers of Hezbollah, killing 37 people and wounding around 3,000 and overwhelming Lebanese hospitals.
The explosion of thousands of Hezbollah's mobile communication devices has spread fear across Lebanon, leaving people terrified they might be carrying bombs in their pockets.
Iran is outraged over the injury of its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, during an explosion involving Hezbollah pagers, demanding international condemnation of Israel.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib fears war with Israel due to recent Hezbollah explosions and urges the UN and US for intervention, while the UNGA votes against Israel.
US State Department stated that they are issuing the sanctions in coordination with Australia and Canada, who are also rolling out new sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations.
Jordan's King Abdullah appointed a reformist government led by Jafar Hassan to advance IMF-backed reforms and modernization efforts amid economic challenges.
“We would urge Iran not to take advantage of any incident, any instability… to further increase tensions in the region,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington.
Rigging pagers so that they explode in the hands of hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and operatives simultaneously from Beirut to Damascus is obviously something not done overnight.
News of the envoy's injury comes amid panic across the streets of Lebanon as hundreds of members of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah were seriously wounded.