Beirut will host a rare summit of regional leaders this weekend–all the more remarkable for having been organized on very short notice. There are reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be joined by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Erdogan and Ahmadinejad are apparently planning visits as … Continue reading
The most significant piece of information that was announced last night during Hizbullah secretary-general Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah’s press conference was not the fact that members of his party would soon be indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. That much we’ve known (or, at least, been told) for several months. Rather, the most noteworthy thing … Continue reading
I’ve written a review of Michael Young’s new book for The Nation. An excerpt is pasted below with a link to the rest of the review. A Forest of Fathers One weekend during the spring of 2008, I found myself in a discussion with a friend about Lebanon’s latest political crisis. In Beirut the office … Continue reading
A reader of this blog asked me to advertise the following vacancy: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is looking to recruit Lebanese lawyers and jurists for its National Visiting Professionals program. The positions are relatively well paid at over 1000 euros per month and include travel costs to The Hague. This would be a great … Continue reading
Hizbullah secretary-general Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah will be interviewed this evening on al-Manar at 21:30 PM Beirut time (14:30 PM EST, 18:30 GMT). I expect it to be an important exchange, and the choice of an interview format (rather than a formal address) may suggest that Nasrallah is aiming to defuse tensions resulting from all the … Continue reading
And the people say…