Qifa Nabki
Iran
UN Sanctions on Iran: How Should Lebanon Vote?
As Michael Young points out in his column in The Daily Star today, there’s a decent chance that Lebanon will soon find itself in a bit of a tight spot vis-à-vis the proposed UN resolution to sanction Iran. Apparently, Obama administration officials believe that they can persuade China to get onboard, which would then put … Continue reading
Game-Changer: Nasrallah Announces a New Hezbollah Deterrence Strategy
What began as an apparent mistranslation of Ehud Barak’s remarks regarding Israel’s peace negotiations with Syria has snowballed into the clearest possible articulation of a new strategic posture by Syria and Hezbollah towards Israel. Let’s rewind the tape to last week. On February 1st, Ehud Barak made some remarks at an IDF gathering, saying something … Continue reading
Egypt Selling Lebanon Down the Nile?
An astute reader of this blog sent me the following commentary, which speculates about the significance of several curious little signals coming out of Egypt. ** In a sudden cloud burst of optimism, the Cabinet Alert Level was raised to orange Monday evening, only to come crashing down on the rocks of further demands by … Continue reading
Syria, Turkey, and the Four Seas Strategy
Haaretz correspondent Yoav Stern has written an interesting article for Syria Comment called “Syria’s Four Seas Strategy“. It’s worth a read, but if you’re too busy to click over, here’s the executive summary. Turkey’s cancellation of a joint air force exercise with Israel last week is just the latest nail in the coffin of the … Continue reading
The Next Lebanon War
Anyone else feel that there’s a creepy symbiosis about Israel and Hizbullah’s messaging strategies these days? Take this little tidbit from al-Manar’s website, which cites an article in The Times (a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper) about Hizbullah’s growing arsenal. The original piece states: According to Israeli, United Nations and Hezbollah officials, the Shia Muslim militia is … Continue reading
Qifa Nabki 
And the people say…