Renewed sectarian conflict in Lebanon?
Fearing a War, Lebanese Prepare by Buying Up Arms
Potential for Violence Between Religious Sects Leaves Many Anxious
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...=moreheadlines
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(Find the inaccuracy in the graphic, win a cookie)
Meanwhile, back at the neighborhood firefight...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7390943.stm
Supporters of Lebanon's Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition have been involved in fierce armed clashes in the streets of Beirut.
Television reports showed gunmen firing rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in Corniche al-Mazraa and Ras al-Nabaa.
The fighting began after the leader of Hezbollah described the government's move to close its telecommunications network as a "declaration of war".
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The Lebanese Armed Forces
A new and very useful report on an understudied topic:
Aram Nerguizian (and Anthony Cordesman), The Lebanese Armed Forces: Challenges and Opportunities in Post-Syria Lebanon, CSIS, working draft 10 February 2009.
For those of you interested in the historical evolution of the LAF, I would also flag Oren Barak's forthcoming The Lebanese Army: A National Institution in a Divided Society.
Re-Imaging the Lebanon Track: Toward a New U.S. Policy
Re-Imaging the Lebanon Track: Toward a New U.S. Policy
Quote:
Executive Summary
In the Century Foundation report entitled “Re-Imaging the Lebanon Track: Toward a New U.S. Policy,” Beirut-based political analyst Nicholas Noe argues that, contrary to conventional wisdom, a viable roadmap for disarming Hizbullah through domestic peace-building exists within Lebanon itself—and that it should be pursued vigorously by the Obama administration.
Recognizing the deep challenges confronting both a Syrian-Israeli peace agreement as well as any “grand bargain” between the United States and Iran, Noe suggests these efforts can and should be explored concurrent with US-led efforts in Lebanon, but that the prospects for failure on both tracks, as well as the fast approaching elections this summer, means a new, Lebanon-focused policy is needed in the immediate term.
Based on his reading of Hizbullah and the multitude of limitations it faces, Noe concludes that Obama administration policymakers can better serve U.S. and Lebanese interests by breaking with their predecessors’ inflexible, often needlessly aggressive, approach.
Instead, he urges that they work toward undermining the rationale Hizbullah relies upon to justify its independent weaponry by driving a wedge between it and its vital political alliances and soft supporters across the spectrum of Lebanon’s confessional system. To do this, Noe suggests the following steps:...
View the full Executive Summary and Webcast - released December 10, 2008 - at:
http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=EV&pubid=243
Palestinian refugees, Lebanon, and the role of the international community
Building a better relationship: Palestinian refugees, Lebanon, and the role of the international community
Source: International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Date: 15 Jun 2009
Quote:
Summary
In recent years, official Lebanese policy towards Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has undergone major changes. Increasingly, Lebanese officials have voiced their support for improved social and economic conditions for the refugees, while at the same time maintaining staunch opposition to their permanent resettlement (tawteen) in the country.
These policy changes have been marked by the formation of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee (LPDC), by limited policy reforms in areas ranging from employment to the issuance of ID to unregistered refugees, as well as an unparalleled change in the tone of official pronouncements. The government has also been an essential partner with UNRWA in efforts to reconstruct Nahr al-Barid refugee camp (NBC), destroyed in fighting between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the radical Fateh al-Islam jihadist group in 2007. Just as important, LPDC has sought to change the narrative of Lebanese-Palestinian relations in a way that holds out greater promise to all communities.
These changes in policies have profound implications for the humanitarian circumstances of the refugees, as well as the economic and security interests of Lebanon. Improved Lebanese-Palestinian relations could also pay significant dividends for the region and international community too.
The continuation and deepening of the reform process is far from certain, however. It could be derailed by political changes following the recent June 2009 elections, local and regional developments, and limited Lebanese government policy capacity. A failure to deliver on promises of NBC reconstruction (due to insufficient donor support) could prove especially damaging.
...
lawsuit halts NBC reconstruction
Roman ruins put Nahr al Bared camp rebuild at risk
Mitchell Prothero, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: September 05. 2009 11:56PM UAE / September 5. 2009 7:56PM GMT
Quote:
BEIRUT // The seemingly endless struggle by Lebanon’s political factions to form a national unity government appears to have spilt over the efforts to rebuild a Palestinian refugee camp destroyed in 2007, as a major political party has filed a lawsuit to halt reconstruction.
A lawsuit filed by the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), led by the former general, Michel Aoun, demanded that the rebuilding of the Nahr al Bared camp be halted in order to protect Roman ruins that were discovered during the clean up of the 2007 siege, much to the anger of the camp’s 20,000 former residents who are still displaced since the fighting.
...
After the lawsuit succeeded last week, Khalil Mekawi of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee held an urgent meeting with prime minister Fouad Siniora and warned the prime minister that this decision might cause outrage among Lebanon’s estimated 250,000 Palestinian camp residents that could spill out across the country, leading to, in his words, “chaos”.
Depressing news indeed for those who were hoping that a new chapter in Lebanese-Palestinian relations might be forged in the aftermath of the 2007 NBC clashes.
(Also, UAE-based The National is emerging as an excellent source of English-language regional news, for those of you who may not have seen it before.)