Qifa Nabki
Hezbollah
Nasrallah: UN Tribunal Will Indict Hizbullah Members
Hizbullah’s secretary-general Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah gave a press conference this evening, in which he addressed the issue of forthcoming indictments from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). You can watch the entire thing on YouTube (see here for parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). For those who don’t speak Arabic, a summary in … Continue reading
Israel, Syria, and Lebanon: Thinking Outside the Box
Maybe you all can help me understand an idea that I’ve repeatedly encountered among various neoconservative Mideast watchers, with regard to the question of whether or not to engage Syria. In a nutshell, the idea is that the best way for Washington to get what it wants–namely a Syrian regime that doesn’t threaten American or … Continue reading
Damocles’s Armory
I know several foreigners who are traveling to Lebanon this summer, and so I’m routinely asked about the chances of “something happening” while they are there. I usually adopt a thoughtful expression, pause for a moment, and tell them not to worry. This seems to work. Sometimes, if I am feeling mischievous, I adopt a … Continue reading
SCUD-D vs. Fateh-110
The Syria-Hizbullah-SCUD crisis has generated an incredible amount of press in the last week. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman was dressed down yesterday before Congress for defending Obama’s engagement policy with Syria, and Foreign Policy alone has carried something like three opinion pieces about the issue just in the past couple of days. (For … Continue reading
Scudding Right Along
DAMASCUS, Syria — U.S. and Israeli officials have reacted negatively to reports that Syria has transferred Scud missiles to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel has called the development a “game-changing” move by Syria which has the potential to tip the region into a military conflagration. “Syria claims it wants peace while at the same … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…