Questions abound on Hariri’s relation to radical Salafist backers
Almost two weeks after the Doha agreement put an end to 18 months of political conflict in Lebanon, the situation on the ground remains shaky. Sectarian and partisan-inspired incidents have become almost a daily occurrence in Beirut and other areas. In the past week alone, Lebanese opposition forces documented 37 instances in which...Celebrities and celebration take their toll
BEIRUT (IPS) � In the dark streets across from the main Hamra road, one of the major commercial arteries in the Lebanese capital Beirut, light streams from behind the drapes of a first floor apartment. A politician's speech blaring from a TV resonates loudly in the night. As music cues the closing credits of the show, sudden...
Siniora to head Lebanon government
May 30th, 20080 The U.S.-backed March 14 bloc nominated Fouad Siniora as prime minister Tuesday, although members of the Hizbullah-led opposition signaled they were unhappy with Siniora becoming head of the new cabinet. President Michel Sleiman's office made the announcement on Wednesday, following the president's meeting with legislators and the...Will the U.S. negotiate with Hizbullah?
Editor's note: This is the fifth and final installment of Franklin Lamb's series on Hizbullah, reprinted from counterpunch.org. What the Bush administration wants from Hizbullah � A public announcement of, and adherence to, a Hizbullah policy that separates Islam from terrorism in the minds of the Western public, i.e. between...Will U. S. policy in Lebanon and the Middle East ever change?
"Absolutely not! Without a credible deterrent force, there is no real Lebanese sovereignty. Israel came very close to getting nearly all it wanted with the 1983 May 17th agreement. Had Hizbullah not prevented this, Lebanon today would be colonized with near confederation status with Israel. The Bush administration's democracy and...
A victory for Lebanon
May 23rd, 20080 The agreement gives Hizbullah and its opposition allies enough control in the government to have veto power over legislation. Beirut � After 18 months of living on the streets in an encampment that has paralyzed this city's downtown, Lebanon's opposition supporters started going home Wednesday. They dismantled their...Lebanon’s Sunni bloc built militia, officials say
The Future Movement used a security firm to assemble a private force, officials say. But the fighters were no match for Hizbullah. BEIRUT � For a year, the main Lebanese political faction backed by the U.S. built a Sunni Muslim militia here under the guise of private security companies, Lebanese security experts...The Israeli project has failed in Lebanon
Note: This is the third installment in Franklin Lamb's extraordinary series. The fourth installment will appear in the next issue. Dahiyeh � Despite the media hype these days, many Middle East analysts as well as the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by former presidential candidate Joe Biden...
Transformation in Lebanon
May 16th, 20080 Events in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon continue to move erratically, with simultaneous gestures of political compromise and armed clashes that have left 46 dead in the past week. The consequences of what has happened in the past week may portend an extraordinary but constructive new development. If Lebanon shifts from...The Israeli project has failed in Lebanon
Why the Bush administration wants to negotiate now with Hizbullah Note: This is the second installment in Franklin Lamb's extraordinary series. The third and fourth installments will appear in the next two issues. Dahiyeh � As discussed below, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the Bush administration...
Lebanon on the brink as violence erupts
May 9th, 20080 Nasrallah hits out at government BEIRUT � Hizbullah's leader Hassan Nasrallah has warned that any crackdown by the government on the Shi'a organizaion would be tantamount to a "declaration of war." Hassan Nasrallah's comments were broadcast on television on Thursday, as street clashes in Lebanon between government loyalists and...
Bush to Nasrallah: An offer Hizbullah cannot refuse?
May 3rd, 20080 The Bush administration no longer believes there is a viable military option � American, Israeli or combined � for destroying Hizbullah "The Bush administration parking a flotilla from its U.S. 6th fleet off the coast of Lebanon was made necessary, it claims, to demonstrate Washington's 'commitment to...Christian divisions complicate politics
BEIRUT (IPS) � The political crisis gripping Lebanon has chipped away at what has been viewed by most since the 2005 parliamentary elections as an unlikely alignment of two political heavyweights. The recent falling out between Michel Aoun, head of the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Michel Murr, the Greek...Assassinations shake Christian town
BEIRUT (IPS) - The lush Bekaa Valley is nestled between snowy Mount Lebanon and the Syrian border. The region, reputed for its wine production, was this week the witness to a violent crime in the Christian city of Zahleh, where two members of the anti-Syrian Kataeb party (Phalangists) were gunned down. In the courtyard of Zahleh's...
Hizbullah has new weapons to wage war
April 11th, 20080 Teir Dibba � The Shi'a "martyrs" of this hill village are normally killed in the dangerous, stony landscape of southern Lebanon, in Israeli air raids or invasions or attacks from the sea. The Hizbullah duly honors them. But the body of the latest Shi'a fighter to be buried here � from the local Hashem family � was flown back to......
Battle of Lebanon’s political players on billboards
BEIRUT � Hours after Hizbullah commander Imad Mughnieh was killed, huge billboards of his burly face stenciled like the iconic Che Guevara portrait or a photo of him in battle fatigues were printed and ready to display all over Lebanon. Pictures of this man on America's Most Wanted list are among the first images to greet visitors...A smart Arab investment
Social and industrial awakening in the Middle East and North Africa may start in unexpected ways. The most potent indicator of social change is the status of women's education. Nine years of schooling for every woman would wipe out a large segment of poverty. It would also significantly reduce children's school dropout rates and......
Lebanon bans prize-winning animated film ‘Persepolis’
BEIRUT (AFP) � The Oscar-nominated film "Persepolis," which has annoyed authorities in Iran for its critical portrayal of the Islamic revolution, has been banned in Lebanon, an interior ministry official told AFP on Wednesday. The official, from the ministry's general security department, would not give a reason why the French...Hopes of peace remain unfulfilled
BEIRUT (IPS) � The pages of Lebanon's history are drenched in blood. And, more than 30 years after the start of the 1975 civil war, Lebanese factions are still pitted against each other in a...Time to step back from the brink
WASHINGTON (IPS) � Describing the current Lebanese political impasse as a moment "pregnant with incredible danger," a U.S. expert this week urged rival factions and their international patrons to adopt of a formula of "no victim, no vanquished" in order to mitigate a possible descent into civil war. "When I think back to...U.S. warship worries Lebanese
Regional crisis likely, given Saudi Arabia's threat to boycott Arab summit Beirut � Washington's decision to deploy the USS Cole off Lebanon's coast is kindling grim memories of a past conflict here � and fresh concerns over another war. While the U.S. State Department says the Cole and other warships are being sent to......
Why Lebanon hasn’t slipped into civil war
Rival factions have worked hard to defuse points of conflict. Washington � Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, was killed by a huge explosion near downtown Beirut in February 2005. Since then, the country has seen � in addition to the Israeli bombardments of summer 2006 � more than a dozen other mysterious assassinations....
Mughnieh murder could trigger retaliation
February 16th, 20080 'This is something that Hizbullah cannot let pass' Beirut � A shadowy senior Hizbullah commander, thought to have masterminded spectacular terrorist attacks in the 1980s, was killed Tuesday in a Damascus car bombing that will almost certainly trigger a retaliation from the militant Shi'a group. Hizbullah top military leader Imad......
Nasrallah: We’re ready to fight
As Hizbullah mourns official, March 14 bloc observes anniversary of Hariri murderBEIRUT � In a speech to supporters mourning the death of a senior commander, the secretary-general of Hizbullah has said that his movement is ready for open warfare with Israel, accusing Israel of killing Imad Moghniyeh in a car bomb blast in the Syrian...Lebanon: The show must go on
BEIRUT (IPS) � A bomb tears through the bustling Chevrolet area on the outskirts of Beirut. Bad news travels fast: Captain Wissam Eid from the Internal Security Forces has been killed in the blast. This is a typical day for Lebanese citizens. The year 2007 has already been grim for most Lebanese businesses. Crisis after crisis has......
