Syria Street, Lebanon. London, United Kingdom - Reports of Syrian forces shooting across Syria's borders with Lebanon and Turkey serve as a reminder that what happens in Syria has serious implications for surrounding states too. The situation in Turkey is, perhaps, well-known - as the Turkish government has made evident its growing displeasure at the spill-over. Because of such events, patience in Turkey with Bashar al-Assad's regime is wearing thin, but in Lebanon, given its internal tension between supporters and opponents of the Assad regime, such a prospect is much less likely. The introduction of the Annan Plan, which appears to be making some fragile progress, only increases uncertainty about what the outcome (and who the winners) will likely be. In the end, however, it is unlikely that any of the regime's regional and international critics will intervene militarily in order to halt any renewed bloodshed inside Syria itself.
Syria Street "People are dead in the streets. 'Displaced Syrians' Hezbollah. What will happen to Lebanon? A year has elapsed since the onset of the Syrian revolution against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The ruthlessness by which the Assad regime has addressed this revolution attests to its refusal to seriously reform or to even contemplate a peaceful transitions of power similar to the Yemeni situation. Amid all this ruthless carnage all across Syria, the real question remains as to what will be the ramifications of these events on the region in general but, more specifically, on the Lebanese political scene.
The Syrian military presence in Lebanon, which lasted since 1976, was brought to an end in 2005 following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. But despite its rapid eviction, Syria continued to wield considerable political influence through its traditional allies but more so through Iran’s proxy, Hizbullah. The Lebanese public at large is sharply split over the Syrian revolution. Makram Rabah is a PhD candidate at Georgetown University's history department.
Assad's Lebanese Invasion - By Mitchell Prothero. BEIRUT – The blacked-out sport utility vehicles entered the small mountain village of Arsal, in the furthest reaches of Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, at midnight on a cold night late last month. The mostly Sunni residents of the town immediately knew what was happening: Hezbollah had come to grab someone from his bed. The target appears to have been a Syrian relative of the dominant local tribe, the Qarqouz, who had taken refuge in the village, which lies just a few miles from the Syrian border.
With close families ties on both sides of the line, as well as a central government presence that doesn't even live up to the designation of "weak," the tribes make little distinction between Syria and Lebanon, and many make their livings plying that most cliché of all Beqaa trades: cross-border smuggling. Whether the wanted man is a dissident Syrian remains unclear -- the family certainly denies any such thing. The Arsal incursion, however, did not go how Hezbollah planned. ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images. Post-War Lebanon and Its Reconstruction. Centre for Lebanese Studies.
Lebanon: Reading. The Assassination of Rafik Hariri. Opinion :: Columnist :: The Hariri assassination needs a motive. This time, at least, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon managed to navigate through an official’s resignation by immediately appointing a successor. The tribunal’s president, Antonio Cassese, stepped down this week, to be replaced by Sir David Baragwanath of New Zealand.
The smoothness of the transition aside, Cassese’s departure with a trial looming did little to bolster the institution’s credibility. In recent months, the debate over the special tribunal has been largely defined by those yearning for its failure. Even the prime minister, Najib Mikati, is in a bind. On the side of those who endorse the tribunal, present company included, there has mainly been uncritical acquiescence to whatever the institution does.
Tactically, this is understandable. The indictments issued by the tribunal offer us, bluntly, a crime without an articulated motive. Motive is the key to most crimes. When you put this together with what the Syrians were then saying, a hypothesis becomes clearer. Opinion :: Columnist :: Indictments II, a disappointing sequel? The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is lucky to have Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah as a foe. On Tuesday, he again described the institution’s accusations as part of a conspiracy against Hezbollah. Were it not for the secretary-general, whose anxiety tends to confirm the tribunal’s seriousness, observers might have examined more critically the shortcomings in the United Nations investigation of Rafik Hariri’s assassination and those of many others between 2005 and 2008. There are reports, which may well be true, that further indictments are forthcoming.
Last year officials from the tribunal’s prosecution office were privately declaring the indictments would be issued in stages. Any final verdict on the success or failure of the legal process is premature. However, from what we know, there is reason to doubt that the outcome of the trial will be the identification and conviction of all, or even a large number, of those behind the Lebanese killings. Mehlis based his strategy on a number of factors. Qifa Nabki | A Lebanese Political Blog. What is a Virgin? * What follows is a germ of a longer and more detailed piece. The names, dates and places related to this court case have been omitted in order to protect the anonymity of the plaintiffs. In recent years, the Lebanese Druze Court of Appeals adjudicated a particularly ugly divorce.
The case concerned a young couple who had recently been married and divorced by the Druze Court of First Instance, which had found both members of the couple equally responsible for the failure of their marriage. Undeterred, the wife and husband have filed separate appeals at the Druze Court of Appeals, but for opposing reasons. The husband has sought to overturn the ruling, which grants favorable terms of divorce to his wife, arguing that his wife is at fault for the divorce and thus should not benefit from alimony or financial settlement. The wife seeks to modify the ruling to increase the alimony owed her and wishes to be declared innocent of any wrongdoing. Lebanon news - NOW Lebanon :: If not now, when?
Lebanon’s Don Quixote.