Word: lebanon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...report, by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, reconstructs the events that it says led up to the car-bomb murder of Hariri, including the August 2004 meeting in Damascus during which Bashar Assad threatened the billionaire Lebanese politician if he got in the way of Syria's domination of Lebanon...
...much trouble does Assad face? Rice said last week that the U.S., while not currently contemplating using military force to overthrow Assad's regime, does expect a "change in behavior," in particular an end to Syrian meddling in Iraq and Lebanon. For Assad, the risk is that mounting international pressure, perhaps in the form of sanctions, could undermine his authority at home--a thought that has sent Syrians into a quiet frenzy of speculation. What was once imponderable--the end of the Assad family's 35-year hold on power--is suddenly being discussed as if it is a real...
...recent months the President's ability to control events has slipped. Some government insiders criticize Assad for allowing the country to be drawn into a diplomatic row with the U.S. and failing to stop the popular protests against Syria in Lebanon this spring, which forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Syrian dissidents are more determined than ever to speak out. Days before the Mehlis report was released, members of 14 opposition parties and rights groups signed the Damascus Declaration, calling for a democratic constitution that would push Assad's regime out of power. The secret police broke up a press...
Among some Syrians, there is growing suspicion that feuding within the regime may have caused the death this month of Ghazi Kenaan, the Interior Minister who was Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon from 1982 to 2002. The government declared that Kenaan, in despair over media reports about his interrogation by the U.N. investigators, had committed suicide at his desk. But Mehlis' 54-page report, released nine days after Kenaan's death, made only brief mention of the dead man--fueling speculation that Kenaan was coerced to take his own life or was murdered, either to eliminate a potential Alawite...
...rare glimpse into the workings of Syria's police state; if its findings are true, it also makes a devastating case that Assad family members were complicit in state-sponsored murder. The report, quoting an unidentified Syrian witness "who claims to have worked for the Syrian intelligence services in Lebanon," says that senior Syrian and Lebanese security chiefs first decided to kill Hariri last September. A month later, the U.N. report says, a Lebanese security chief who worked closely with the Syrians told a visitor, "We are going to send him on a trip--bye-bye, Hariri." The witness said...