Benjamin Netanyahu is a nasty creature and a compulsive liar. In order to enhance his chances of successes at the poll, he is prepared to kill not only people in other countries but also his own. Such are the ways of criminal politicians!
The Saudi-engineered Sa‘ad Hariri resignation has important implications for leaders of the Islamic movement worldwide. Are they prepared to learn the proper lessons or continue the chase the money trail with disastrous consequences?
Lebanon finally has a president in 29 months. Saad Hariri, a former prime minister, had to submit to ground realities by accepting the choice of Hizbullah, his political rivals, for president.
After two weeks of political uncertainty, the situation in Lebanon began to stabilize on January 25 when the Hizbullah-led alliance secured the support of 68 parliamentarians compared to 60 for the ousted Prime Minister Saad Hariri. President Michel Suleiman asked Najib Mikati, another former prime minister, to form the new government.
The Lebanese government collpased on January 12 following the resignation of 10 Hizbullah cabinet ministers. Another minister, Adnan Sayed Hussein, an ally of Hizbullah, resigned a few hours later bringing the total to 11 ministers quitting the 30-member cabinet.
The larger story from Lebanon’s June 7 parliamentary elections was neither the “defeat” of Hizbullah, as the Western media claimed, nor the resounding victory for the US-Saudi backed and financed March 14 movement. Its real significance lay in the fact that it may usher changes in Lebanon’s political landscape in ways that would have been unthinkable barely five years ago.
The fighting in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp outside Tripoli last year drew attention to a little-noticed phenomenon in Lebanon, the growth of salafi jihadi influence among the Sunni community. NASR SALEM discusses the background and implications of this development.
The long-simmering crisis over the election of a new president for Lebanon refuses to go away. As President Emile Lahoud's term came to an end without an elected successor at midnight on November 23, Lebanon stared into a power vacuum unprecedented in its history. Months of intense international mediation and backroom negotiation between rival politicians from the two main opposing factions – the Western-backed March 14 coalition, which holds a narrow parliamentary majority, and the opposition spearheaded by Hizbullah – failed to break a tense stand-off over the choice of a compromise presidential candidate.
