Qifa Nabki
March 14
The View From Mukhtara
Walid Jumblatt has long cultivated a reputation for spotting the angles before anyone else. As international pressure mounted on Syria in 2004, Jumblatt joined the vocal opposition to Lahoud’s rule in a move that broke with several years of close ties with Damascus. In 2009, following the Lebanese parliamentary elections and the much-touted (but ultimately … Continue reading
Lebanon’s Political Honeypot: What’s Behind the Telecoms Spat
The following commentary is by a well-informed reader of this blog who goes by the pseudonym “Charles”. He was one of the authors of the excellent Lebanese Political Journal blog (largely defunct since about 2007, but a must-read during the post-Hariri assassination years), and his intervention provides some much-needed context on the larger issues behind the telecoms showdown … Continue reading
Coup-Coup in Lebanon: Minister Baroud Resigns Over Telecoms-ISF Showdown
Lebanese Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud resigned yesterday following a bizarre showdown involving two different branches of the Internal Security Forces, Minister of Telecommunications Charbel Nahhas, and Baroud himself. March 14 is calling it a Telecoms Ministry-launched coup against the executive branch of the Lebanese government; March 8th is calling it an ISF-launched coup against the … Continue reading
Lebanese Stalemate: The Syria Theory
I have tried to resist viewing the current stalemate in Lebanon’s cabinet formation as the product of Syrian meddling. After all, there are more than enough local obstacles in Lebanon for Syria to bother getting its hands dirty. Some of these obstacles include: Michel Aoun’s struggle with President Sleiman over cabinet shares; Michel Aoun’s struggle … Continue reading
Syria: Conveniently Vulnerable Once Again?
A few days ago, the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Daniel Bellemare, filed an amended indictment in the investigation of the 2005 murder of Rafiq al-Hariri. The only details reported about the new indictment were that it contained “substantive new elements,” which is what passes for breaking news on the STL front. Today, … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…