An appearance of peace has returned to Lebanon; but as Hezbollah grows in power, political tensions are becoming palpable. Has the country finally entered a long-term settlement, or are we witnessing the preliminaries to a new conflict?
Thanks to massive financial and military backing from Iran and Syria, Hezbollah has emerged as a powerhouse over [...]

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Editor’s Note: This week’s Terrorism Weekly is the second chapter of Fred Burton’s new book, GHOST: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent. Burton is vice president for counterterrorism and corporate security at Stratfor. He is the former deputy chief of the counterterrorism division of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.
Chapter Two: Down the Rabbit Hole
“CT03.” [...]

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A new civil war has been averted in Lebanon, and Israel and Syria are back at the negotiating table. But Hezbollah is stronger than ever, and its arsenal is brimming with weapons — partly because the United Nations monitoring program has failed. By Daniel Steinvorth and Alexander Szandar more…

Possible Prisoner Exchange: Deal Imminent between Israel [...]

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srael and Hezbollah are once again close to a deal that would bring two kidnapped Israeli soldiers back home. Details of the agreement, negotiated by a German middleman, indicate that the two might not still be alive. By Ulrike Putz in Beirut more…

Syrian-Israeli Negotiations: Olmert’s Deft Golan Deal
SPIEGEL ONLINE Interview with Lebanese Minister Nayla Moawad: [...]

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“If you have tears, prepare to shed them now….
Oh, what a fall was there…
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down.”
–William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar,” Act 3, Scene 1.
May 21, 2008, is a date–like December 7 (1941) and September 11 (2001)–that should now live in infamy. Yet who will notice, mourn, or act the [...]

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Lebanon’s factions appear to have halted a nascent civil war — at least temporarily — with an agreement struck Wednesday in Qatar between the Western-backed government of Fouad Siniora and the Syrian-backed Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah. But the peace deal cannot fairly be called a compromise. Hezbollah won That’s the result of its stunning military [...]

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Whether Lebanon veered close to “civil war” this month—a question broached by many newspapers—seems purely academic at this point, and perhaps irrelevant. Beirut settled into a tenuous calm after Lebanon’s cabinet conceded (CNN) the immediate demands of Hezbollah, but the upheaval resolved none of the many issues destabilizing the country. Lebanon’s paralyzed government, Beirut’s inability [...]

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But by the next morning, the battle for Beirut was mostly over. After just six hours of all-out fighting, Hizballah militants were in control of areas of West Beirut that had previously been the government’s preserve. This made for some incongruous scenes. Bearded men with rifles and rocket launchers secured lingerie shops and a Starbucks [...]

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The Bush administration accused Iran and Syria on Friday of fueling ongoing violence in Lebanon by inciting members of the radical Shiite Hezbollah movement to take up arms against the country’s western-backed government.
As Hezbollah militants seized control of large parts of Beirut, the administration denounced the show of force, which it said was being supported [...]

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The rattle of gunfire and crump of exploding rockets that shook the near-deserted streets of Beirut Wednesday seemed to signal the arrival of the long-feared showdown between the Western-backed government and its opponents led by Hizballah. Thick plumes of black smoke from barricades of burning tyres cast a deep pall over the capital, as many [...]

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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Supporters of the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah, trying to enforce a general strike called by labor unions, clashed with government supporters and blocked roads in Beirut on Wednesday, escalating tensions as the country remained mired in its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
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The government said on Tuesday that it would act [...]

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Three years after Syria ended its near 30-year military presence in Lebanon, Damascus stands accused of still pulling strings there and leaving its tiny neighbour paralysed by political deadlock.
On April 26, 2005, Syria withdrew the last of its officials who had reigned as the true powerbrokers in Beirut, as the final 14,000 troops of a [...]

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Israel is concerned that Iran might start moving weapons to Hezbollah by means of ships that anchor in the Beirut port, government sources in Jerusalem said.
The sources said oversight of marine vessels by UNIFIL (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) was not efficient enough to enforce an embargo on weapons shipments into Lebanon [...]

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