Lebanon
الجمهورية اللبنانية
The Next War: Six Global Hotspots to Watch
RealClearWorld
The Imminent Hezbollah-Nusra War
Hanin Ghaddar, NOW Lebanon
Lights Are Going Out All Over Lebanon
Michael Karam, The National
The Syria War Could Last 10 Years
Michael Totten, Dispatches
Syria Could Be Iran's Vietnam
Thanassis Cambanis, Foreign Policy
While the Middle East has a powerful claim on the world's attention (or at least Washington's), the world has no shortage of potentially explosive hotspots. Whether it's conflictin...(full article)
The Syrian Salafist group Jabhat Al-Nusra declared in Jordan that it has set the confrontation with Hezbollah militants in Syria as a top priority. Jordan-based al-Qaeda-affiliate ...(full article)
It's back to Lebanon and the grinding mediocrity of a country with neither direction nor the guts to take a firm position on the escalating tragedy of the Syrian civil war. Econo...(full article)
I wouldn’t be surprised if Bashar al-Assad falls sometime soon, but I also will not be surprised if the year 2020 rolls around and Syria has all but ceased to exist as a nation...(full article)
By supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the hilt, Hezbollah and Iran are risking their hard-won reputation as stewards of an anti-Israel and anti-U.S. alliance that trans...(full article)
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Drought Is Ripping the Arab World Apart - Mitch Ginsburg, Times of Israel
Syria is 85 percent desert or semi-arid country. But it has several significant waterways. The Euphrates runs in a south-easterly direction through the center of the country to Ira...
U.S. Credibility Not on the Line in Syria - Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post
We must understand that the Syrian conflict is fundamentally a civil war between a minority elite and the long-oppressed majority -- similar to those in Lebanon and Iraq. People fi...
On the Verge of a Regional Mideast War - Irish Times
The uncertainty added by the Israeli raids, although sanctioned in advance by the US, complicates President Obama’s predicament by adding to growing pressures on a deeply rel...
The New Black Hole of the Mideast - Michael Totten, Dispatches
Until awfully recently, Lebanon was the country in the Eastern Mediterranean that acted as a gravitational black hole that sucked in the neighbors...
The Arab Spring Has Been Great for Israel - Eyal Zisser, Israel Hayom
The Arab Spring, which has left the Syrian regime mired in a bloody civil war the past two years, has also increased Israel's freedom of operation to levels not seen in years. Afte...
If Assad Falls, Hezbollah Loses - David Blair, Telegraph Blogs
If Bashar al-Assad falls in Syria, the balance of power in the Middle East will be transformed. Hizbollah, the radical Shia movement in Lebanon, stands to lose more than just abo...
World's Most Dangerous Terrorist Not Named bin Laden - Mark Perry, FP
His true identity as the violent mastermind of Hezbollah would have come as a shock to his Damascus neighbors, who thought he was a chauffeur in the employ of the Iranian embassy. ...
Hezbollah Turns Syria into Lebanon - Hassan Hassan, The National
Fears that the Syrian conflict may spill over the country's borders are being realised, but in reverse: the Lebanese conflict is coming to Syria. ...
The Beginning of the End for Hezbollah - Michael J. Totten, World Affairs
I am finding a bit of homegrown optimism in some quarters of Lebanon now, despite the fact that the economy is on its back and the Syrian war threatens to blow the country to piece...
Why Hezbollah Is Fighting in Syria - Ali Hashem, Al Monitor
According to the source, Hezbollah decided to intervene militarily in the wake of three incidents. "The first was a full scale attack by Syrian rebels on Shiite villages on the bor...
The Power Ship Keeping Lights on in Beirut - Simon Tisdall, The Guardian
A ship moored off Beirut is helping Lebanon overcome electricity shortages -- and many developing countries may follow suit....
The War on Christians in the Middle East - Kirsten Powers, USA Today
Tragically, Christians have been forced to abandon homelands they have occupied for thousands of years. Up to two-thirds of Christians have fled Iraq in the past ten years to escap...
Northern Lebanon Is Burning - Michael J. Totten, Dispatches
Syria has pushed its civil war into Lebanon and is winning a propaganda war in the process....
Will Arab Spring Ruin Lebanon's Democracy? - Dexter Filkins, New Yorker
Wouldn't it be ironic if the popular awakening sweeping the Middle East had the unintended effect of undermining the one established Arab democracy?...
Lebanon's Political Merry-Go-Round - The Daily Star
In the wake of the collapse of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, everything points in the direction of sitting down to engage in dialogue to chart the coming phase. Every...
Lebanon Is Collapsing - Gulf News
Lebanese infrastructure is slowly collapsing under the strain of coping with more than a million Syrian refugees, fleeing the bitter war in their own country. Every day, more peopl...
The Coming Mediterranean Dash for Gas - Yuri Zhukov, Foreign Affairs
Exploratory drilling near the coasts of Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey has unearthed vast reserves of natural gas. Competition over the rights to tap those resou...
North Lebanon Is Ready to Blow - Michael J. Totten, World Affairs Journal
Lebanon always looks and feels like it's ready to erupt into armed conflict, but today it's more ready than usual. The Syrian civil war next door weighs heavily on this place. Sunn...
Is Now a Good Time to Invest in Lebanon? - Peter Coy, Bloomberg BW
One good reason to invest in Lebanon is that eventually the Syrian civil war will end and at that point Lebanon would be a natural base for the rebuilding effort, Tony Ghorayeb, ch...
Hezbollah's Leader Should Heed His Own Advice - The Daily Star
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah is to be commended for sounding the alarm over the threat of sectarian tensions in Lebanon. In his speech Wednesday night he gave a level-h...
Hezbollah-Sunni War Is About to Start - Hanin Ghaddar, NOW Lebanon
So Hezbollah has decided to be part of an upcoming regional war, and to drag Lebanon into it. The war between Alawite/Shiite fighters and Sunni jihadists will not stay within the p...
New Law Reduces Lebanese to Sect - Sami Atallah, Daily Star
If approved by Parliament, the Orthodox law will structure political and social interactions by making sectarian identity politically most salient. This is troubling since the ne...
Free Syrian Army vs. Hezbollah in Lebanon - Michael Totten, Dispatches
Syrian rebels are (again) threatening to attack Hezbollah targets in Lebanon to retaliate for Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria’s civil war. They’ve said this before and it wa...
Assessing Israel's Strike on Syria - Michael Weiss, World Affairs Journal
Last week saw what might have been the first incursion by Israeli warplanes into Syria airspace in six years. The strike took place on Wednesday (January 30th), and by week’s...
EU Must Respond to Hezbollah's Attack in Bulgaria - Washington Post
On Tuesday the Bulgarian government confirmed what most of the world has known for months: The bombing of a bus carrying Israeli tourists in the Black Sea resort of Burgas last Jul...
If Israel Strikes Syria Again, All Bets Are Off - Shashank Joshi, Telegraph
With every passing week, we see more and more evidence that Syria’s civil war is both seeping out of the country’s borders and, like a flame sucking in oxygen, is pulli...
Israel Has the Right to Prevent Syria Spillover - Jerusalem Post
Whatever the facts regarding purported Israeli attacks, it is clear that Israel has a right and an obligation to prevent the anarchy in Syria from spilling over to Lebanon and enda...
Lebanon First Act of Iran-Israel War - Jonathan Schanzer, Globe & Mail
“Do you remember South Lebanon? All of Lebanon is now South Lebanon.” These were the words of a senior Israeli official in a closed-door meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday, just ...
What's Behind Israel's Mystery Attack on Syria? - The Daily Star
The “big news” in the Middle East Wednesday took place in Syria, but few people can say with absolute certainty what actually happened. The Syrian army announced that ...
Syria Looking a Lot Like Lebanese Civil War - Gwynne Dyer, NZ Herald
The most frustrating part of covering the Lebanese civil war (1975-90) was that after a while there was nothing left to say. Syria is starting to feel just the same....
The International Elite Bubble - Michael J. Totten, World Affairs Journal
I'd like to see a world where the majority of people everywhere have cosmopolitan values. That world might [be] less interesting to write about, but more pleasant to live in. We&r...
Hug Hezbollah to Death if Necessary - Michael Young, The Daily Star
The party’s political strategy, in light of what the removal of the Assads would mean for Lebanon, will fail. Otherwise we may see violence, which March 14, the prospective benef...
A Mideast Islamicized, or Balkanized? - Michael Zimmerman, J'lem Post
We see in the "Arab Spring" (or "Winter") that elections have not been accompanied by minorities' rights being protected, a central feature of real democracies....
Ten Conflicts to Watch in 2013 - Louise Arbour, Foreign Policy
Every year, around the world, old conflicts worsen, new ones emerge and, occasionally, some situations improve. There is no shortage of storm clouds looming over 2013: Once ...
How Iran Arms Its Allies - Lee Smith, Weekly Standard
An explosion in southern Lebanon last week destroyed what is believed to have been a Hezbollah weapons depot. This latest in a series of mysterious accidents in Hezbollah-controlle...
Lebanon's Year of Living Dangerously - Michael Young, The Daily Star
Lebanon never ceases to depress, and the Lebanese never cease to depress by harping on that fact. And yet, as 2012 closes, with mediocrity on all sides, there are hopeful signs of ...
Where Is the Middle East Going? - Barry Rubin, Jerusalem Post
An attack from Lebanon on Israel is increasingly unlikely because that country is moving toward a civil war of its own....
The New Middle East's New Problems - Joschka Fischer, Project Syndicate
The political epicenter of this troubled region has shifted from the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians toward the Persian Gulf and the struggle for regional mastery betw...
The Threat from Emboldened Sunnis - Michael Young, Daily Star
In recent days, the regime of President Bashar Assad has suffered significant setbacks in northern Syria. This may not be the end, but it only affirms that the dynamics of the conf...
Paralysis in Beirut Bodes Well for Hezbollah - Michael Young, National
The Lebanese today are facing a range of dangerous challenges. The country continues to be shaken by the war in neighbouring Syria; the economy is suffering; sectarian relations ar...
Is This How the Israel-Iran War Begins? - Michael Rubin, Commentary
The Iranians often quip that they play chess while their opponents play checkers. Let us hope before it is too late that the Iranian regime comes to realize, despite its overconfid...
The Christians of Hezbollah - Hassan Mneimneh, German Marshall Fund
In the political culture of Lebanon, usually recognized for its maze-like complexity, the alliance between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah armed group and the predominantly Christi...
Can Hezbollah Face Israel Alone? - Robert Fisk, The Independent
Hezbollah was once the Lebanese "resistance," the tough, courageous, self-sacrificing guerrilla army which drove Israel's occupation soldiers out of Lebanon 12 years ago. Today, it...
The Long Struggle for the Levant - Anthony Elghossain, Democracy Arsenal
At its heart, Hassan’s assassination was another salvo in the long struggle for the Levant. For more than a decade, rival factions—each aligning Lebanese and Syrian act...
Lebanese Hopes Fade Away - Rory Jones & Rima Abushakra, The National
Nada Saab had just set up her stall at the Beirut International Exhibition & Leisure Centerwhen a bomb ripped through part of the city killing eight people and any hopes of econo...