Saad Hariri

Saleh El Machnouk Responds to Qifa Nabki

The political commentator and activist Saleh El Machnouk, whom I discussed in a recent post about Saad Hariri’s declining relevance among Lebanese Sunnis, sent me a response over email a couple days ago which I publish below with his permission. As you’ll see, it reinforces the point I made earlier about the possibilities for public … Continue reading →

Alley Politics: Saad al-Hariri vs. Za’im al-Zaroubeh

Lina Khatib has an article in the Guardian today about the response of Lebanon’s Sunnis to the bloodshed in Syria, the violence in Tripoli, etc. It’s worth reading along with Mustapha Hamoui’s report for the Heinrich Böll Stiftung and his previous writings on the topic at his blog (here and here). Lina remarked on an interesting difference … Continue reading →

The Number One Sunni in Lebanon

Shortly after Najib Miqati became prime minister of Lebanon early last year, he went on Marcel Ghanem’s venerable political talk show, Kalam el-Nas.

Marcel asked him to respond to his opponents’ critique that he was not “Sunni enough” to assume the post from which Saad Hariri had been unceremoniously ejected by Hizbullah and its allies. Miqati responded with a hysterical tirade… Continue reading →

Hizbullah, Mikati, and the STL Funding Showdown

Ever since Najib Mikati took over as Prime Minister of Lebanon earlier this year, things have gone relatively smoothly. With no opposition in the cabinet, there have been few opportunities for conflict (with the exception of the odd squabble between Michel Aoun and his disgruntled allies). All that could change next week. The cabinet must … Continue reading →

@yuhaa ‘l-Lubnaniyoun: The Zu`ama Discover Twitter…