Back in 2006, the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah was riding high. Having fought the Israeli army to a standstill, the organization’s leader Hassan Nasrallah declared “divine…
Browsing: Lebanon
Beirut, Lebanon IN 2009, National Geographic published an article on Syria by a special correspondent, Don Belt, who had interviewed President Bashar al-Assad. In 2000, shortly…
By BRET STEPHENS The Lebanese are a people who famously can’t agree about anything. So how is it that Beirut’s political establishment, soon to be under…
This week, Lebanon served up a reminder for the United States and the partisans of the Arab uprisings: don’t count your democracies before they’ve hatched. Having…
Metransparent Exclusive Syrian credible sources claim billionaire Rami Makhlouf has incurred the wrath of President Bashar Assad for his recent off the record statements to a…
The visit to Lebanon of Jeffrey Feltman, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, is another visible sign of why Lebanon can expect…
On Wednesday, Syria got a reprieve at the United Nations Security Council, when Russia, China and Lebanon opposed condemnation of the Syrian regime’s brutal repression of…
By Associated Press, Thursday, March 31, 8:39 AM JERUSALEM — The Israeli military on Thursday released a map detailing what it says are nearly 1,000 underground…
Two developments in the past 24 hours, one inside Lebanon, the other in neighboring Syria, have the potential to exacerbate communal relations between Sunnis and Shiites…
Reading between the lines of NOW Lebanon’s interview this week with François Roux, the head of the defense office at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, one…
One thing has been intriguing me since the beginning of the popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. Why is it that virtually everyone, in describing the…
Despite the talk of a “coup” circulating in recent days in March 14’s ranks, Saad Hariri and his allies must take the measure of where they…
By ANTHONY SHADID BEIRUT, Lebanon — There is a hint of Shakespeare in it all, if Lebanese politics did not feel like the pulp fiction of…
To abort the putsch led by the “Lebanese Republic’s Supreme Leader”, to safeguard the republic against the terrorism of an armed party, to recover the stolen…
While there is still some doubt as to what will happen next Monday, when President Michel Sleiman will call for consultations to form a new government,…
Two questions are essential in approaching the events of the past week in Lebanon. The first is, Can Syria can accept a Hezbollah-dominated government in Beirut?…
French sources informed Shaffaf that Turkish minister of foreign affairs shall arrive to Paris next Friday at the end of a 5-day visit to Syria and…
Did the opposition fall into a trap by bringing down the government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri? Did the United States, in aborting a Saudi-Syrian understanding…
The Hague, 18 January 2011 Yesterday I signed an indictment in the Hariri case and filed it with the Registrar for transmission to the Pre-Trial Judge.…
Yesterday, January 12, as Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri prepared to meet with President Obama in the Oval Office, the Hizballah-led opposition withdrew its support from…
Michel Aoun has announced the end of the Syrian-Saudi initiative, with no results. “[W]e’ve reached a dead end,” said the general Monday. But is that true?…
Recently, the Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, offered up an interpretation that he has frequently repeated since moving closer to Syria and taking his distance from the…
A WikiLeaks cable details a discussion that took place as pro-Iranian and pro-Syrian groups laid siege to Beirut and threatened the government of Lebanese prime minister…
Little attention was paid last week to an Al-Hayat interview with the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Ghadanfar Roknabadi, particularly what he had to say about Syria’s…
By Patrick Galey and Richard Hall Exclusive BEIRUT: An alleged Hizbullah operative linked by recent media reports to the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri…
Posted By David Kenner The old saw goes that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Omar Bakri seems to have leapfrogged over that…
by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles [ comment ] In late July 2006, I traveled to Tehran to see my family and relatives, and to work…
By JAY SOLOMON in Washington and MARGARET COKER in Beirut The United Nations-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is…
By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Syria needs to pressure Iran and Hezbollah to rein in their activities in Lebanon if it wants to rebuild…
GVF — In a letter to the head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the former Secretary-General of the Islamic Iran Participation Front Mohammad Reza Khatami…
Hossein Mohammadi Following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s trip to Lebanon, a group of Iranian émigré journalists and political and legal activists in a letter to Lebanon’s prime minister…
Beirut- Shaffaf Sources in Baabda Palace revealed that tension prevailed in the meeting between President Sleiman and his Iranian counterpart at Baabda prior to their joint…
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad’s trip to Beirut this week will likely produce a flurry of rhetorical challenges against Israel and perhaps even a visit to the…
Last week an amusing rumor circulated in Beirut. It went like this: The former head of the General Security Directorate, Jamil as-Sayyed, irritated the Syrians by…
A former U.S. ally under Bush’s Freedom Agenda, the country is now being neglected in the name of “engagement” with Syria — and the results could…
Posted By David Kenner All eyes in the Middle East are on Iran, but it may be Lebanon that is closer to war. On Sunday, the…
Hezbollah has been spreading word that it may soon implement an apocalyptic scenario to prevent Lebanese collaboration with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Will the party…
Shaffaf- Beirut: The official schedule of Iran’s president visit to Lebanon has not been finalized yet, with question marks still hanging about his possible visit to…
The rhetoric of Hizbullah representatives lately has been so extreme, so contrary to the conventions of courteous political exchange in even semi-democratic Lebanon, that we have…
Walid Jumblatt has been apocalyptic in predicting what lies ahead for Lebanon. The Druze leader may be overstating things, but is legitimately worried about a Sunni-Shiite…
No one could have imagined that within five years, Lebanon’s young PM would become a slave of his father’s murderers. No one, that is, aside from…
If there were doubts that the rivalry between Syria and Hizbullah has reached new levels of complication, then consider the recent statements by the Parliament speaker,…
PolicyWatch 1693 is the second in a two-part series discussing U.S. military assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). This piece addresses the program’s future direction,…
You had to agree with the pro-Hizbullah daily Al-Akhbar when it observed in its Wednesday edition that one could only “naively” assume that the Burj Abi…
To contribute towards the historic renovation of the Maghan Abraham Synagogue in Beirut: National Bank (ALLENBY BRANCH) 20126004 Allenby Street Beirut Central District P.O. BOX 110435…
Marvel at the contempt Hizbullah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, must feel for us all, that he would expect us to believe his presentation last Monday telling…
Since the 1980s, the Shia terrorist group Hezbollah has not been given to blunt public moralizing about the need for women to wear the veil. It…
Yesterday, Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) soldiers opened fire on an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit removing a tree near the border security fence. In the resulting…
By Ulrike Putz in southern Lebanon Did Israeli soldiers really just want to move a tree? Who shot first and what role did a Shiite commander…
Lebanon is caught up in a game of political billiards these days, each side playing a second ball against the third. And who is benefiting most…