You have to wonder if, during their talks last week in Damascus, the acting US assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, and…
Browsing: Lebanon
This week, the State Department’s top Middle East diplomat is slated to meet with Syrian ambassador to the United States Imad Mustapha in what will be…
We were delighted to realize last week that Daniel Bellemare, the head of the United Nations commission investigating the killing of Rafik Hariri and over a…
Author: Aram Nerguizian Read the Full Report Synopsis: The purpose of this report is to examine the force development challenges that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)…
The rocket attacks yesterday across Lebanon’s southern border with Israel were a worrying sign that the conflict in Gaza may escalate into a wider conflagration. Hizbullah,…
Responding to the Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, the Lebanese Shiite militia cum political party Hizballah denounced the Jewish state and organized large rallies.…
From the summary: ………………………………………………………… Hezbollah did some things well, such as its use of cover and concealment, its preparation of fighting positions, its fire discipline and…
“Don’t panic,” the former US ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman, told his Lebanese friends at a conference organized jointly last week by the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation…
The investigation into the 2005 assassination of the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri is nearing its end—and a trial in international court looms. Insiders say the…
You have to hand it to Michel Aoun, he never goes half-way. Here was everyone else staying in Syria for a few hours, two days at…
According to press reports, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will set March as the deadline for work to begin at the Hariri tribunal. The latest…
BEIRUT, Lebanon — For years, the Lebanese military was ridiculed as the least effective armed group in a country that was full of them. After the…
PolicyWatch #1415 This PolicyWatch is the third in a three-part series examining the situation in Lebanon two years after the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution…
PolicyWatch #1414 This PolicyWatch is the second in a three-part series examining the situation in Lebanon two years after the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution…
PolicyWatch #1413 This PolicyWatch is the first in a three-part series examining the situation in Lebanon two years after the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution…
So, Israel’s strategy the next time it enters into a war with Hizbullah is to destroy much more of Lebanon than it destroyed in 2006. The…
This past Monday, a Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) transport was targeted by a car bomb that killed five soldiers and wounded twenty-five others. The strike was…
Conventional wisdom holds that when Iran’s supreme leader says, “Jump,” millions of Shiites, from the Beirut slums to the Saudi oilfields, ask, “How high?” But a…
The national dialogue is on track again, albeit with its next session delayed until November 5, no doubt so that everyone can first absorb the results…
The headline in the pro-opposition Al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday described the reconciliation in Tripoli as an event that “broke” the authority of the Hariri camp. The…
Not very long ago, you will remember, there was the Friends of Lebanon group of states, whose declared aim was to defend Lebanese sovereignty, territorial integrity,…
It was remarkable that so few Lebanese politicians responded to the statements that Bashar Assad made last week to a Russian business magazine, in which the…
Weeks ago, Michel Aoun’s political adversaries were already predicting that the general’s first act once the government was formed would be to demand that the prerogatives…
There is growing concern in Israel and the United States that Hizbullah intends to alter the status quo in Lebanon by deploying anti-aircraft missiles to end…
This week, Lebanon’s new national unity government is slated to announce its ministerial statement (bayan waziri), the policy document that will define Beirut’s working parameters and…
Hizballah has much to celebrate. With the formation of a national unity government in Lebanon last week, it is now well positioned to block any effort…
It is easy to dismiss the National Christian Gathering established last week as largely an assemblage of pro-Syrian politicians, has-beens, and never-beens. In fact launching the…
There is a scene in the film “Apocalypse Now” where two characters, Captain Willard and Colonel Kurtz, are talking. Kurtz rules over a mad, mini-kingdom in…
If there is one thing that has characterized commentary on the Middle East in the United States in recent years, it is self-flagellation. One article after…
The May 25 election of Gen. Michel Suleiman as Lebanon’s twelfth president was a central element of the Qatari-brokered compromise between the March 14 coalition and…
The most worrying development in the coming months in Lebanon may be only partly visible today: a concerted effort by Syria, Iran, and Hizbullah to undermine…
Developments in Lebanon are being viewed with great concern in Israel. In the aftermath of Hizbullah’s recent military and ostensible political victories, many Israelis are saying…
Listening to the speeches of President Michel Suleiman and Hizbullah’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah earlier this week, it is becoming apparent that there are really only two…
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic, and freely admits…
On May 21, after five days of mediation, Qatari officials announced a compromise solution to the Lebanese crisis between the pro-Western government and Hizballah-led opposition backed…
Nothing less than a titanic clash between two logics is at play in Beirut, and in the larger Middle East. When the Cedar Revolution rose against…
This week, the democratically elected, pro-Western Lebanese government took the bold and unprecedented decision to confront Hizballah. Since its election in 2005, the government had avoided…
Once we accept that this week’s alleged labor unrest was only the latest phase in Hizbullah’s war against the Lebanese state, will we understand what actually…
It was a mixed week for the head of the Democratic Gathering, Walid Jumblatt. His call for an all-party dialogue under the auspices of the speaker…
Let’s thank Michel Aoun for informing us that the shooting of two Phalangist sympathizers in Zahleh on Sunday by a hanger-on of parliamentarian Elias Skaff was…
When Syria’s foreign minister and one of its Lebanese marionettes both mention the Hariri tribunal in the space of two days, you know the topic is…
Recently, we’ve heard Hizbullah’s secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, pick up on a theme dear to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It goes something like this, to…
Stratfor Global Intelligence Summary Syria’s ruling al-Assad family is experiencing an internal struggle, as the Feb. 12 assassination of top Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah in Damascus…
In recent weeks, a message has been coming out of Iran, one transmitted to Arab leaders and now through proliferating press reports. It is roughly this:…
In the Middle East, it is widely believed that Syria is obstructing the election of a new Lebanese president. Amid this crisis, many are beginning to…
When Hezbollah official Imad Mughniyeh was assassinated earlier this month in Damascus, the collateral damage was felt in academic departments, newsrooms, think tanks, and cafes far…
** Hezbollah: A Short History by Augustus Richard Norton Princeton University Press, 2007, 183. pp. This book begins with what the author claims is a puzzle:…
Another round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is certainly likely, but I don’t consider it inevitable, particularly in the short term. There are several reasons…
Rarely a day goes by without someone writing an article protesting against the incapacity of Lebanese politicians to come to an agreement on the future of…
Syria has vowed to soon release the results of its inquiry into the assassination of Hizbullah official Imad Mughniyeh. However, there is increasing likelihood that the…