If there were doubts about whether Hizbullah participated in the assassination of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, for many people the party’s secretary general, Sayyed…
Browsing: Lebanon
For Washington, the death this week of Lebanon’s most prominent and respected Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, was a bittersweet moment. In 1983,…
On a hilltop overlooking Israel’s former occupation zone in south Lebanon, Hezbollah has built what the international press has dubbed the Shiite militia’s “Disneyland.” Mleeta, Hezbollah’s…
Amend Penal Provisions That Criminalize Defamation and Libel (Beirut, July 8, 2010) – The Lebanese government should immediately drop criminal charges against three men for posting…
Hizbullah has been terribly excitable in recent weeks. It has threatened, condemned, demanded, and warned, all suggesting the party is not quite relaxed about the prevailing…
As expected, the summit between the Lebanese and Syrian presidents, Michel Sleiman and Bashar Assad, yielded statements redolent with platitudes and elusiveness. At the end of…
The Ghosts of Martyr’s Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle By Michael Young (Simon & Schuster, 295 pages, $26.00) This past February, Le Monde…
There is growing alarm at the serious allegations of major arms transfers to Lebanon through its land borders. I am concerned that such activities have the…
ForeignPolicy.com, April 14, 2010 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak sent officials in Damascus and Washington scrambling when he claimed Tuesday that Syria is providing the Lebanese…
No one could fail to notice that it was a Syrian spokesperson, Wi’am Wahhab, who spilled the beans recently about Hizbullah members being called in for…
There was a revealing moment last Saturday in the interview conducted by Al-Jazeera’s Ghassan bin Jiddu with Walid Jumblatt, which may explain to some extent what…
On February 26, Syrian president Bashar al-Asad hosted Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah for a dinner in Damascus. Nasrallah is a routine…
An interesting news item has appeared lately in several Arabic newspapers, including the local Al-Liwaa. Reports, citing Lebanese judicial sources, suggest that the prosecutor of the…
The Lebanese government, cobbled together from disparate elements, has had a predictably fitful start. However, one headache may be looming that will severely test Prime Minister…
The debate over whether to attend the commemoration this weekend of Rafik Hariri’s assassination has divided the March 14 faithful. Some will be present on Sunday,…
Only days after it was announced that the chief investigator, Neguib “Nick” Kaldas, would soon leave the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, we now hear that the…
The statement released Thursday by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon announcing that its chief investigator, Naguib “Nick” Kaldas, would be leaving on February 28 is more…
In December, the Lebanese Web site Qifa Nabki featured a satirical “news story” discussing U.S. arms transfers to Lebanon. According to the article, the U.S. gifted…
In his Ashoura speech this past weekend, Hizbullah’s secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, irritated many Christians. He recommended that they take stock of their situation, especially,…
Below the Future Television offices in Kantari, there is a digital counter to record the number of days that have passed since the assassination of Rafik…
The Obama administration would like to move Syria into the camp of more moderate Arab states, but there is scant evidence that Syria is willing to…
In the shambles that is the Maronite leadership, Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has over the years been a beacon on the matter of Lebanon’s sovereignty. His inflexibility…
On December 14, Lebanese president Michel Sulaiman is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House. It is widely anticipated that during his…
In October, Lebanon was elected to one of ten non-permanent member seats on the United Nations Security Council. Come January 2010, Lebanon will assume Asia’s “Arab…
A Victory for Islamism?: The Second Lebanon War and Its Repercussions Executive Summary This study, translated from the original Swedish, examines the international community’s long series…
As the permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with Germany, prepare for a dialogue with Iran in October over its nuclear program, Hizbullah is…
PolicyWatch #1583 On September 10, after seventy-three days of trying to formulate a government, Lebanon’s prime minister designate, Saad Hariri, resigned his mandate. Although Hariri’s pro-West…
So it’s as clear as a bomb explosion on St. Valentine’s Day: Lebanon’s government crisis is and always was about Syria and its yearning to regain…
We’ve reached the point where we can assume that virtually everything currently being said about the Special Tribunal for Lebanon dealing with Rafik Hariri’s assassination is…
Allow me, despairing reader, to cite from Bashar Assad’s speech of March 5, 2005, before the Syrian Parliament. You may remember it as the one in…
Did Walid Jumblatt really need to drop his political bomb last Sunday at the Beau Rivage Hotel, Rustom Ghazaleh’s former headquarters, in a neighborhood once exemplifying…
The news on Wednesday from Nabih Berri was that we are closer to a new government than anyone thought. If the Parliament speaker’s optimism is justified,…
PolicyWatch #1557 Six weeks after the pro-West March 14 coalition defeated the Hizballah-led alliance in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, no new government has been formed in Beirut.…
As prospects increase for a conflict over Iran’s nuclear program, Hizbullah and Israel are clearing the way for a possible war between themselves by bending Security…
When Walid Jumblatt visited Hassan Nasrallah recently in a catacomb of Beirut’s southern suburbs, he took with him two books, Tariq Ali’s “The Duel: Pakistan on…
Few weeks after the Lebanese parliamentarian elections, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Council of Development and Reconstruction (CDR) launched the National Human Development…
Michel Aoun’s yawning emptiness was on display a few weeks before the parliamentary elections, when he was asked why he would not debate his Kesrouan rival…
As the Hizballah-led March 8 coalition campaigns ahead of Lebanon’s June 7 elections, the group has been forced to contend with the unexpected exposure of its…
With three days left until Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, it’s difficult not to get caught up in the predictions game, even though the dangers of that were…
On June 7, Lebanon goes to the polls to elect a new government. All told, 587 candidates are competing for the 128 parliament seats, and with…
The article published in Der Spiegel accusing Hizbullah of being behind the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, appears to use conceivably correct…
By Erich Follath The United Nations special tribunal investigating the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has reached surprising new conclusions — and it…
Hezbollah militants display arms and an image of Hassan Nasrallah. (Credit: AFP Photo/Mahmoud Zayat/Newscom)’Yes, sometimes I go into the room with my advisers and I start…
Special to Shaffaf Samer Marchi, 18, a twelfth grader at the American Community School in Beirut, conducted this interview with Chibli Mallat, former candidate to the…
The killing of four Lebanese soldiers on Monday reawakens some old thoughts about a phenomenon I’ve watched over the years, one that should not be underestimated…
Two months away from Lebanon’s elections, we can begin to discern clarity amid the vapors of boiling ambition. Over 700 candidates are registered to contest 128…
Lebanon’s wine production dates back to biblical times, but its modern winemaking is only starting to attract attention — impressing foreign visitors with everything from bold…
PolicyWatch #1494: Special Forum Report Andrew J. Tabler and Magnus Norell On March 13, 2009, Andrew Tabler, Magnus Norell, and John Hannah addressed a special Policy…
On March 13, 2009, Andrew Tabler, Magnus Norell, and John Hannah addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute to discuss the Washington-Beirut-Damascus triangle.…
This Saturday, Lebanon’s pro-West March 14 coalition officially kicks off its election campaign in Beirut. Two weeks ago, the Hizballah-led opposition — backed by Syria and…