AFP USA

US President Donald Trump on Monday suggested Americans would like a dictator as he signed orders to tighten his federal clampdown on the capital Washington and to prosecute flag-burners.In a rambling 80-minute event in the Oval Office, Trump lambasted critics and the media as he complained that he was not getting credit for his National Guard-backed crackdown on crime and immigration.”They say ‘we don’t need him. Freedom, freedom. He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying: ‘Maybe we like a dictator,'” Trump told reporters.But he then insisted: “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person.”Trump — who attempted to overturn the results of his 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden at the end of his first term — said before winning a second term in November that he would be a “dictator on day one.”Republican Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington earlier this month to counter what he alleged was an out-of-control crime problem, also taking federal control of the city’s police department. Trump said he was considering whether to send in the military to the cities of Chicago and Baltimore as he targets a series of Democratic strongholds. He sent the National Guard to Los Angeles — against the mayor’s and governor’s wishes — in June.The president was particularly disparaging of Illinois governor and vocal opponent JB Pritzker, who has strongly rejected any move to send in troops to Chicago.”When I see what’s happening to our cities, and then you send them, and instead of being praised, they’re saying, ‘you’re trying to take over the Republic,'” said Trump.”These people are sick.”On Monday, he further tightened his clampdown by signing an executive order to investigate and prosecute people who burn the US flag — despite a 1989 ruling by the Supreme Court saying that the act is protected by freedom of speech laws.”If you burn a flag you get one year in jail — no early exits, no nothing,” Trump said. – ‘Violent fish’ -Trump announced new measures tightening his grip on security in Washington, ordering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to set up a specialized unit within Washington’s National Guard for public order, and ending cashless bail.He also indicated that he would soon be changing the name of Hegseth’s department.”World War Two, it was called the Department of War,” Trump told reporters. “Between us, I think we’re going to change the name.”Democrats have repeatedly accused Trump of pushing presidential power way past its constitutional limits, most recently by deploying the National Guard in the US capital.Billionaire Trump has also clamped down on everything from the federal bureaucracy and “woke” politics to his political opponents.But the 79-year-old rejected all the criticisms in his angry and wide-ranging diatribe in the Oval Office, speaking for more than 45 minutes before taking reporters’ questions.Trump rejected opponents who have called him racist by proclaiming “I love Black People” — before describing a Salvadoran man who is set to be deported to Uganda in an immigration row as an “animal.” He went on a long detour about what he called a lack of gratitude from Pritzker about measures to tackle an invasive fish species in the Great Lakes.”We have a very, pretty violent fish that comes from China. China carp, Chinese carp. You see them jumping out — they jump into boats and they jump all over the place,” Trump said.Trump also called his Democratic predecessor Biden a “moron” and dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal 2022 invasion of Ukraine as being the result of “big personality conflicts.” 

US President Donald Trump said Monday he hoped again to meet North Korea’s leaders as he fired off an extraordinary attack against the South’s leader hours before opening talks with him.Trump, who met Kim Jong Un three times in his first term, hailed their relationship and that he knew him “better than anybody, almost, other than his sister.””Someday I’ll see him. I look forward to seeing him. He was very good with me,” Trump told reporters.Trump contended that North Korea has been firing fewer rockets since he returned to the White House on January 20.Trump has boasted that he has solved seven wars in as many months back in the job — a claim that is contested — but has been quiet on North Korea despite the unusually personal diplomacy during his 2017-2021 tenure.Trump once said that he and Kim “fell in love.” Their meetings reduced tensions but failed to produce a lasting agreement.Since then, Kim has forged a close relationship with Russia, including sending troops to fight against Ukraine, and has dug in on refusing any dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program.- ‘Purge or revolution’ -South Korea’s new President Lee Jae Myung is a progressive who supports dialogue with North Korea, a potential area in common with Trump.But hours before starting what he hoped would be a friendly first White House meeting, Trump took to social media to launch a surprise attack that was extraordinary even by the standards of the volatile US leader — who acknowledged he did not know if his claims were true.”WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.He did not initially specify to what he was referring.Asked later by a reporter at the White House for clarification, Trump said: “Well, I heard that there were raids on churches over the last few days.””Very vicious raids on churches by the new government in South Korea, that they even went into our military base and got information. They probably shouldn’t have done that,” he said.”I heard bad things. I don’t know if it’s true or not. I’ll be finding out.”He said he looked forward to seeing Lee, but added: “We won’t stand for that.”Trump did not explain further but South Korea last month carried out raids on locations connected to the Unification Church, the religious movement often referred to by the derogatory term Moonies.Known for mass weddings, the church was founded by the late Sun Myung Moon, who was an avid supporter of conservative causes both in South Korea and the United States.The church, which has also come under fire in Japan, is under investigation for allegedly offering luxury items as part of lobbying efforts in Seoul.Prosecutors are investigating whether a shaman passed along a diamond necklace and designer handbag on behalf of the Unification Church to the wife of impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol.South Korean prosecutors have also probed a far-right pastor accused of inciting a riot against a court that ordered the arrest of Yoon.Yoon, a conservative with close ties with the United States, was impeached after he briefly imposed martial law in December in a massive expansion of power in the face of a deadlock in parliament.His tactic was a throwback to South Korea’s earlier era of military rule and was swiftly reversed after an impromptu popular revolt.Trump has tested the limits of his own presidential authority, sending troops into both Washington and Los Angeles.It is not the first time Trump has stunned an unsuspecting foreign leader with a disputable claim.In May, Trump ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in a White House meeting by alleging a “genocide” against white farmers by the post-apartheid government, which denies any such campaign.

The US government could take stakes in other companies after doing so with chipmaker Intel, Donald Trump’s top economic advisor Kevin Hassett said Monday — with the president himself expressing hope to have more cases like it.Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, cited Trump’s plans for a sovereign wealth fund in a CNBC interview, saying “I’m sure that at some point there’ll be more transactions” in the semiconductor industry or others.He was responding to a question on whether a recently announced deal for the US government to take a 10-percent equity stake in Intel was the start of broader efforts towards similar moves in other industries that authorities have been funding.”I hope I’m going to have many more cases like it,” Trump told reporters separately. “There will be other cases. If I have that opportunity again, I would do that.”Under the agreement with Intel, the US government will receive 433.3 million shares of common stock, representing a 9.9-percent stake in the company, Intel said in an earlier statement.This amounts to an $8.9 billion investment, funded partially by $5.7 billion in grants awarded but not yet paid under the CHIPS and Science Act — a major law passed under former president Joe Biden, which Trump has criticized. The other portion comes from a different award.Hassett said Monday that “the federal government has been giving money away” to companies.He maintained that under potential deals like that with Intel, “these are going to be shares that don’t have voting rights,” adding that the government plans to stay out of how companies are run.- Company risks -Intel warned in a securities filing on Monday that the government’s equity stake could limit its ability to secure grants from government entities in the future — among other risks.It noted that the timing for receiving the funding, and its ability to fulfil conditions for the funds, “remain uncertain.”Intel additionally noted that its international business could be “adversely impacted” by the US government being a significant shareholder.Critics of the deal warn it could be bad for the company’s viability if politics are seen as driving business decisions.In February, shortly after Trump returned to the presidency, the White House published a plan for the world’s biggest economy to set up a sovereign wealth fund.A sovereign wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that manages a country’s excess reserves, typically derived from natural resource revenues or trade surpluses, to generate long-term returns.For now, Hassett said the deal with Intel came out of “a very, very special circumstance because of the massive amount of CHIPS act spending that was coming Intel’s way.”

Elon Musk’s companies xAI and X filed a sweeping US antitrust lawsuit Monday against Apple and OpenAI, alleging the tech giants formed an illegal partnership to stifle competition in artificial intelligence and smartphone markets.The 61-page complaint, filed in federal court in Texas, accuses Apple and OpenAI of entering an exclusive deal that makes OpenAI’s ChatGPT the only generative AI chatbot integrated into Apple’s iPhone operating system, while blocking rivals like xAI’s Grok.”This is a tale of two monopolists joining forces to ensure their continued dominance in a world rapidly driven by the most powerful technology humanity has ever created: artificial intelligence,” the lawsuit states.The plaintiffs claim Apple holds 65 percent of the US smartphone market, while OpenAI controls at least 80 percent of the generative AI chatbot market through ChatGPT.Apple and OpenAI announced their partnership in June 2024, making ChatGPT the exclusive AI assistant accessible through Apple’s Siri voice assistant and other iPhone features.The lawsuit alleges this arrangement gives ChatGPT exclusive access to “billions of user prompts” from hundreds of millions of iPhone users.The complaint also accuses Apple of manipulating App Store rankings to favor ChatGPT while delaying approval of updates to the Grok app.Musk’s companies are seeking billions in damages and a permanent injunction to stop the alleged anticompetitive practices. They have demanded a jury trial.”This latest filing is consistent with Mr Musk’s ongoing pattern of harassment,” OpenAI said in a statement to AFP.Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The lawsuit follows threats Musk made earlier this month that triggered a fiery exchange with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.Altman called Musk’s accusation of ranking manipulation “remarkable,” charging that Musk himself “manipulates X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like.”Musk called Altman a “liar” in the heated exchange.Both men were original founders of OpenAI before Musk’s departure in 2018 and now have a highly conflictual relationship.Musk founded xAI in 2023 to compete with OpenAI and other major AI players that have poured billions of dollars into AI since the blockbuster launch of the first version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022.

A Salvadoran man at the center of a row over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown was rearrested on Monday and is set to be deported to Uganda, officials said.Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March and then sent back to the United States, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.The Department of Homeland Security said the 30-year-old Abrego Garcia “will be processed for removal to Uganda.”Abrego Garcia was released last week from a jail in Tennessee, where he is facing human smuggling charges, and allowed to go home to Maryland pending trial.He was required to check in with ICE in Baltimore on Monday as one of the conditions of his release.Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, told a crowd of supporters outside the ICE field office that his client was taken into custody when he turned up for the appointment.”Shame, shame,” the protestors, some of whom were holding signs saying “Free Kilmar,” chanted.”The notice stated that the reason was an interview,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “Clearly that was false. There was no need for them to take him into ICE detention.”He was already on electronic monitoring from the US Marshal Service and basically on house arrest,” he said. “The only reason that they’ve chosen to take him into detention is to punish him.”The attempt to deport Garcia to Uganda in East Africa adds a new twist to a saga that became a test case for Trump’s harsh crackdown on illegal immigration — and, critics say, his trampling of the law.- ‘Administrative error’ -Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.Then he became one of more than 200 people sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.But Justice Department lawyers admitted that the Salvadoran had been wrongly deported due to an “administrative error.”He was returned to US soil only to be detained again in Tennessee on human smuggling charges.Abrego Garcia denies any wrongdoing, while the administration alleges he is a violent MS-13 gang member who smuggled other undocumented migrants into the country.On Thursday, when it became clear Abrego Garcia would be released the following day, government officials made him a plea offer: remain in custody, plead guilty to human smuggling and be deported to Costa Rica.He declined the offer.The case has become emblematic of Trump’s crackdown on illegal migration.Right-wing supporters praise the Republican president’s toughness, but legal scholars and human rights advocates have blasted what they say is a haphazard rush to deport people without even a court hearing, in violation of basic US law.

An expected United Nations Security Council vote on the future of the blue helmet peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon, which has faced US and Israeli opposition, was pushed back on Monday as negotiations continued.The Council is debating a French-drafted compromise that would keep the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed in 1978 to separate Israel and Lebanon, in place for one more year while it prepares to withdraw.Talks began last week and it had been thought a vote could come as soon as Monday, but diplomatic sources indicated that a vote would now come by the end of the week. The force’s mandate ends Sunday.In the latest draft text seen by AFP, the Council would signal “its intention to work on a withdrawal of UNIFIL with the aim of making the Lebanese Government the sole provider of security in southern Lebanon.”Under a truce that ended a recent war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, Beirut’s army has been deploying in south Lebanon and dismantling the militant group’s infrastructure there.Lebanon has been grappling with the thorny issue of disarming Hezbollah, with the cabinet this month tasking the army with developing a plan to do so by the end of the year. The Iran-backed militant group has pushed back.Under the truce, Israel was meant to completely withdraw from Lebanon, though it has kept forces in several areas it deems strategic and continues to conduct strikes across Lebanon. The resolution would extend until August 31, 2026 the mandate of the 10,800-strong force made up of Indonesian, Indian, Italian, Ghanaian, Nepalese and other nationalities.It was not clear if Washington, which wields a veto on the Security Council, would accept the compromise language, with a State Department spokesman previously telling AFP it would not comment on Council deliberations.The text also contained language “condemning the incidents that affected United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon premises and forces, injuring several peacekeepers” — a reference to strikes by US ally Israel on UNIFIL positions that have caused injuries and damage. Israel was not specifically named.Ahead of the vote, a senior UN official warned that “to completely eliminate (UNIFIL’s) capacity at this point, or very quickly, would not serve anybody in the region,” calling any abrupt withdrawal risky.The official said UNIFIL had facilitated the deployment of 8,300 Lebanese armed forces troops to 120 locations, assisting with logistics, funds and even fuel as well as training support.UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric last week called the force’s support of Lebanon’s army “critical,” adding “we have always felt and known that UNIFIL is a presence of stability along the blue line.”

A Salvadoran man at the center of a row over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown was arrested on Monday and is facing deportation, officials said.Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March and then sent back to the United States, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.ICE was “processing him for deportation,” Noem added in a post on X.According to Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, the government intends to deport him to far-flung Uganda.Abrego Garcia was released last week from a jail in Tennessee, where he is facing human smuggling charges, and allowed to go home to Maryland pending trial.He was required to check in with ICE in Baltimore on Monday as one of the conditions of his release.Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, said his client was taken into custody by ICE when he turned up for the appointment.”The notice stated that the reason was an interview,” Sandoval-Moshenber said. “Clearly that was false. There was no need for them to take him into ICE detention.”He was already on electronic monitoring from the US Marshal Service and basically on house arrest,” he said. “The only reason that they’ve chosen to take him into detention is to punish him.”The attempt to deport Garcia to Uganda in East Africa adds a dramatic new twist to a saga that became a test case for Trump’s harsh crackdown on illegal immigration — and, critics say, his trampling of the law.- ‘Administrative error’ -Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.Then he became one of more than 200 people sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.But Justice Department lawyers admitted that the Salvadoran had been wrongly deported due to an “administrative error.”He was returned to US soil only to be detained again in Tennessee on human smuggling charges.Abrego Garcia denies any wrongdoing, while the administration alleges he is a violent MS-13 gang member who smuggled other undocumented migrants into the country.On Thursday, when it became clear Abrego Garcia would be released the following day, government officials made him a plea offer: remain in custody, plead guilty to human smuggling and be deported to Costa Rica.He declined the offer.The case has become emblematic of Trump’s crackdown on illegal migration.Right-wing supporters praise the Republican president’s toughness, but legal scholars and human rights advocates have blasted what they say is a haphazard rush to deport people without even a court hearing, in violation of basic US law.

SpaceX delayed a planned test flight for its Starship megarocket by 24 hours until Monday, saying it needed time to troubleshoot problems, in the latest setback for Elon Musk’s behemoth after a series of explosive failures.The recent problems have led some observers to doubt whether the world’s biggest and most powerful launch vehicle will be capable of taking humans back to the Moon — or achieving Musk’s dreams of colonizing Mars.The rocket had been scheduled to blast off on its tenth flight from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT) on Sunday.However, around 15 minutes before lift-off, SpaceX scrubbed the flight, which is a relatively common event for space launches.”Standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems,” it said on X.Musk later posted on the same platform that a “ground side liquid oxygen leak needs to be fixed.” SpaceX said it had rescheduled the launch for “as soon as” the same time on Monday, though it cautioned that the timing was still “dynamic and likely to change.”Road closures nearby Starbase indicated that Tuesday had also been cleared for a potential attempt.The hour-long mission had planned to put the rocket’s upper stage through a series of trials before the lower stage booster splashed down in the Indian Ocean.- String of explosions -Starship is central to billionaire SpaceX founder Musk’s ambition of colonizing Mars, while NASA is counting on a modified version to return Americans to the Moon.However, the rocket’s upper stage — which is the spacecraft intended to carry crew and cargo — has exploded in all three previous test flights in 2025.Two of the failed tests sent debris raining down over Caribbean islands, while the other reached space before breaking up. Then in June, another upper stage exploded on the ground during a “static fire” test.The 403-feet (123-meter) rocket is designed to eventually be fully reusable, but the company has not yet managed to get the upper stage to deliver a payload to space or return to the launch site.After an investigation into the previous failed flight in May, SpaceX said it would “intentionally stress the structural limits” of the upper stage, in the hopes of sounding out a successful return.SpaceX has succeeded in catching the lower stage booster with giant “chopstick” launch tower arms three times, but the tenth flight will not attempt the feat.The company’s “fail fast, learn fast” ethos has long been credited with its remarkable track record, giving the US company a commanding global lead in launches thanks to its Falcon rocket family.But the Starship setbacks have raised doubts over whether the company can repeat that success with easily the biggest rocket in history.- ‘Lot of pressure’ – Dallas Kasaboski, a space analyst for consulting firm Analysys Mason, told AFP before the rescheduled launch that the recent failures were beginning to take the sheen off SpaceX’s golden reputation.”I think there is a lot of pressure on this mission,” he said. “We’ve had so many tests and it hasn’t proven itself reliable — the successes have not exceeded the failures.”Will Lockett, a former engineer turned commentator, went further, arguing on his Substack newsletter that the rocket’s failure to deliver a payload to orbit yet suggested “the concept of Starship is fundamentally flawed.” Musk, the world’s richest man, has staked the company’s future on Starship, planning to eventually retire its current generation of rockets and spacecraft in favor of the new system.Even if the tenth test eventually succeeds, formidable technical hurdles remain — from making the system fully and rapidly reusable at low cost to proving it can refuel super-cooled propellant in orbit, a prerequisite for deep-space missions.Still, SpaceX is pressing ahead, increasing the frequency of launches despite criticism from environmental groups over ecological impacts. 

SpaceX called off a planned test flight for its Starship megarocket on Sunday, saying it needed time to troubleshoot problems, in the latest setback for Elon Musk’s behemoth after a series of explosive failures.The recent problems have led some observers to doubt whether the world’s biggest and most powerful launch vehicle will be capable of taking humans back to the Moon — or achieving Musk’s dreams of colonizing Mars.The rocket had been scheduled to blast off on its tenth flight from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas at 6:30 pm local time (2330 GMT).However around 15 minutes before lift-off, SpaceX scrubbed the flight, which is a relatively common event for space launches.”Standing down from today’s tenth flight of Starship to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems,” it said on X, without elaborating. SpaceX did not immediately announce a new launch date, but a countdown on the company’s website suggested there would be another attempt at the same time on Monday evening. Road closures nearby Starbase indicated that Monday and Tuesday had been cleared for potential attempts.The hour-long mission had been planned to put the rocket’s upper stage through a series of trials before the lower stage booster splashed down in the Indian Ocean.An hour before lift-off was scrapped, Musk posted on X that “Starship 10 launching tonight.” The normally prolific poster remained quiet on X after the postponement.SpaceX had also earlier flagged a “technical update on Starship” which did not appear to take place.- String of explosions -Starship is central to billionaire SpaceX founder Musk’s ambition of colonizing Mars, while NASA is counting on a modified version to return Americans to the Moon.However the rocket’s upper stage — which is the spacecraft intended to carry crew and cargo — has exploded in all three previous test flights in 2025.Two of the failed tests sent debris raining down over Caribbean islands, while the other reached space before breaking up. Then in June, another upper stage exploded on the ground during a “static fire” test.The 403-feet (123-meter) rocket is designed to eventually be fully reusable, but the company has not yet managed to get the upper stage to deliver a payload to space or return to the launch site.After an investigation into the previous failed flight in May, SpaceX said it would “intentionally stress the structural limits” of the upper stage, in the hopes of sounding out a successful return. SpaceX has succeeded in catching the lower stage booster with giant “chopstick” launch tower arms three times, but the tenth flight will not attempt the feat.The company’s “fail fast, learn fast” ethos has long been credited with its remarkable track record, giving the US company a commanding global lead in launches thanks to its Falcon rocket family. But the Starship setbacks have raised doubts over whether the company can repeat that success with easily the biggest rocket in history.- ‘Lot of pressure’ – Dallas Kasaboski, a space analyst for consulting firm Analysys Mason, told AFP before the canceled launch that the recent failures were beginning to take the sheen off SpaceX’s golden reputation. “I think there is a lot of pressure on this mission,” he said. “We’ve had so many tests and it hasn’t proven itself reliable — the successes have not exceeded the failures.”Will Lockett, a former engineer turned commentator went further, arguing on his Substack newsletter that the rocket’s failure to deliver a payload to orbit yet suggested “the concept of Starship is fundamentally flawed.” The world’s richest man has staked the company’s future on Starship, planning to eventually retire its current generation of rockets and spacecraft in favor of the new system.Even if the tenth test eventually succeeds, formidable technical hurdles remain — from making the system fully and rapidly reusable at low cost to proving it can refuel super-cooled propellant in orbit, a prerequisite for deep-space missions.Still, SpaceX is pressing ahead, increasing the frequency of launches despite criticism from environmental groups over ecological impacts. 

The United Nations Security Council will vote Monday on the future of the blue helmet peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon that has faced US and Israeli opposition.The Council will vote on a French-drafted compromise that would keep the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed in 1978 to separate Israel and Lebanon, in place for one more year while it prepares to withdraw.In the latest draft text seen by AFP, the Council would signal “its intention to work on a withdrawal of UNIFIL with the aim of making the Lebanese Government the sole provider of security in southern Lebanon.”Under a truce that ended a recent war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, Beirut’s army has been deploying in south Lebanon and dismantling the militant group’s infrastructure there.Lebanon has been grappling with the thorny issue of disarming Hezbollah, with the cabinet this month tasking the army with developing a plan to do so by the end of the year. The Iran-backed militant group has pushed back.Under the truce, Israel was meant to completely withdraw from Lebanon, though it has kept forces in several areas it deems strategic and continues to conduct strikes across Lebanon. The resolution would extend the force’s mandate until August 31, 2026.It was not clear if Washington, which wields a veto on the Security Council, would accept the compromise language, with a State Department spokesman previously telling AFP it would not comment on Council deliberations.The text also contained language “condemning the incidents that affected United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon premises and forces, injuring several peacekeepers” — a reference to strikes by US ally Israel on UNIFIL positions that have caused injuries and damage. Israel was not specifically named.Ahead of the vote, a senior UN official warned that “to completely eliminate (UNIFIL’s) capacity at this point, or very quickly, would not serve anybody in the region,” calling any abrupt withdrawal risky.The official said UNIFIL had facilitated the deployment of 8,300 Lebanese armed forces troops to 120 locations, assisting with logistics, funds and even fuel as well as training support.UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric last week called the force’s support of Lebanon’s army “critical,” adding “we have always felt and known that UNIFIL is a presence of stability along the blue line.”