U.S. Embassy ruled out the return of Syrian army to Lebanon

The U.S. Embassy ruled out on Thursday the return of the Syrian army to Lebanon, calling on Christians to open the doors of dialogue instead of focusing on fears.

This comes in response to Rifaat Eid, the head of the Arab Democratic Party, who called on Wednesday for the return of the Syrian army (more…)

13 year old boy killed in renewed Tripoli clashes

A 13-year-old boy was killed and at least four other people wounded by sniper fire in the Lebanese city of Tripoli in north Lebanon on Wednesday . (more…)

The ‘secretive sect’ in charge of Syria

Considered by some Muslims a heretic sect, this small Levantine minority have survived persecution and the Crusades to rise to the top and take over the Syrian establishment.

Alawite practices, which are said to include celebrating Christmas and the Zoroastrian new year, are little known even to most Muslims. (more…)

Pity the tiny nation

Woe, again, is Lebanon. Pity the tiny nation that seems condemned to be dragged into virtually every one of the region’s conflagrations. Such is the fate of a perennially divided country.

Right from the start of the uprising against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, it was inevitable that similar tensions would echo inside the borders of Syria’s smaller, weaker, more subdivided neighbour ( (more…)

Charbel: Al-Qaeda doesn’t exist in Lebanon

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Wednesday that there are individuals in Lebanon who sympathize with Al-Qaeda, but that the group as an organization does not exist in the country does not have any bases and does not receive any funding. (more…)

Renewed fighting rocks Lebanon’s Tripoli

Heavy fighting rocked Lebanon’s northern port of Tripoli for a fourth day on Wednesday, wounding
at least six people in a city where sectarian tensions have been growing over the revolt in neighbouring Syria, security sources said.

The fighting in Tripoli, 70 km (43 miles) from Beirut, has highlighted how violence in Syria can spill into Lebanon (more…)

Syria’s neighbors funding, arming rebels, report

Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by the Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials. (more…)

Saudis holding union talks with Bahrain

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain discussed a political union at a meeting in Riyadh yesterday in a development that could see the tiny Gulf kingdom largely absorbed by its neighbour.

Critics of the deal, the details of which are yet to be made clear, say it might affect the line of succession in Bahrain where the Sunni al-Khalifa royal clan has been split on how to respond to demands for democratic reform from the Shia majority. (more…)

EU slaps new sanctions on Syria

European Union foreign ministers on Monday imposed new sanctions on the Syrian regime, urging it to adopt a U.N.-backed peace plan that so far has failed to stop the mounting carnage.

At the same time, effects of the Syrian conflict are being felt in neighboring Lebanon, where clashes have killed at least seven people near Tripoli. (more…)

Hezbollah’s no 2 : Hariri is not the sole Sunni leader

Hezbollah’s no.2 , Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem on Wednesday questioned former PM Saad Hariri’s leadership of the Sunni community in Lebanon and stressed that he was “not their sole representative”. (more…)