Word: hariri
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...maxim that all politics is local. With so many foreign powers meddling in the country's perennially sectarian struggle for control, Lebanon functions as a kind of political barometer of the Middle East. And that's why the news Thursday, Sept. 10, that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri had given up trying to form a consensus government three months after his ruling coalition won the country's parliamentary elections is a sign of a more general unease in the region: Lebanon's political crisis - and the broader Middle East cold war of which it is an expression - is far from...
...election victory in June by Hariri's U.S.- and Saudi-backed alliance seemed to promise the closing of a three-year chapter of war and political upheaval. Ever since it fought a 33-day war with Israel in the summer of 2006, the Shi'ite Hizballah movement has challenged the legitimacy of the Lebanese government, accusing it of secretly trying to disarm the anti-Israeli "resistance." For its part, the ruling coalition has accused the Hizballah-led opposition of attempting a coup d'état at the behest of Iran and Syria. After Hizballah prevailed decisively in a brief armed...
...tempting to see the breakdown as a result of a regional game of brinkmanship. Syria has been slowly working its way back into the good graces of the international community after having faced widespread condemnation over accusations that it planned the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, father of the Prime Minister-designate. As the Obama Administration has reached out, Syria has made progress on some of the outstanding points of contention between the two countries. It has for the first time officially recognized Lebanese sovereignty, by opening a Syrian embassy in Beirut. (Damascus has traditionally viewed...
...even a friend," says a French diplomat who asked not to be named. Sarkozy's trust, he adds, was especially appreciated by Damascus given the hatred former French President Jacques Chirac reserved for Assad - whom he blamed for the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister and Chirac intimate Rafiq Hariri. "There's some genuine gratitude at work right now," the diplomat says. (Read "Did Hizballah Kill Rafiq Hariri...
...Eastern state after a four-year hiatus. Analysts say the gambit, which follows special envoy George Mitchell's visit to Syria earlier in June, is intended to soothe regional tensions and combat Iranian influence. The U.S. had withdrawn its ambassador after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, a crime many suspected Syrian intelligence officials of orchestrating...