Lebanon

Just days after Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and Syria’s President Bashar Assad traveled to Beirut to quell the fears that another regional war was just around the corner, fighting broke out between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) in Southern Lebanon. The trouble started when an Israeli battalion commander was killed […]

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) apparently exchanged fire today in Southern Lebanon. One high-ranking officer was killed on the Israeli side, and at least two soldiers and one journalist, were killed on the Lebanese side. It may be too early for analysis, but it looks like the violence has […]

Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah announced in a press conference Thursday that he expects Hizballah members to be charged in the investigation into the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, and that as a result, Lebanon was now entering a “very serious phase”. Depending on who is charged within the group, the indictments could be extremely damaging […]

Last Thursday, Parliament introduced legislation that would significantly change the status of Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees. The proposal would have increased Palestinian access to employment, social security, and land ownership. A vote on the bill has been pushed back a month to allow time for negotiation and consensus building. It seems that the prospect of Palestinian […]

Thousands of people from all over Lebanon and the Middle East turned out today to mourn the passing of Grand Ayatollah Hussein Fadlallah, who died this past Sunday at the age of 75. The loss is big not only for Lebanon, but for the entire region, as Fadlallah was a highly revered and influential figure in […]

Thousand of people rallied in Beirut this weekend in support of Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee population. The demonstrators demanded equal rights for the Palestinians, many of which have lived in Lebanon for generations. Currently, Lebanese Palestinians are restricted in what jobs they can hold, get paid less than Lebanese citizens for doing the same jobs, and […]

The Kuwaiti newspaper As-Siyassah is reporting that Hizballah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been invited to Ankara to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Neither Hizballah nor the Turkish government have confirmed the story, but if it is true, it marks a significant deterioration in Turkey’s relationship with Israel in the wake […]

Lebanon’s abstention in last week’s United Nations Security Council vote on Iranian sanctions should have surprised no one. The vote not only represents internal divisions among the Lebanese political establishment, but also that country’s precarious position in the escalating confrontation between Iran and the West. Steadily over the last thirty years, Hizballah has gained traction […]

The presidents of Syria and Lebanon are scheduled to meet next Tuesday in Damascus to discuss the relationship between the two neighbors, as well as how recent developments in the region might affect them. Meetings between Lebanese and Syrian leaders are growing more commonplace, as their once frosty relations continues to thaw at a steady […]

Lebanese leaders and citizens are expressing their outrage over last Sunday’s botched Israeli raid in international waters off the coast of Gaza that resulted in at least 9 deaths. Since the Hamas-led government took over control of Gaza in 2007, Israel has had the territory under siege. In 2009, Israel launched an assault on Gaza […]

Officials from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) have stated that they expect charges to be filed in the Hariri murder case between September and December of this year. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hairri was assassinated in 2005 by a massive explosion as his motorcade drove through the streets of Beirut. The STL was established […]

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is scheduled to meet with President Obama in Washington on May 24th, and the two will have much to discuss. Hariri and Obama Lebanon’s and the United States have a long relationship loosely based on their common democracy and Christian influence. But the relationship between America and Lebanon is not […]