Word: lebanons
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Syria will have few friends at the table Sunday when Arab foreign ministers convene in Cairo to discuss the crisis in Lebanon, which has been without a President for six weeks...
...Most Arab governments blame Syria for the political impasse in Lebanon, using its Lebanese allies to block the election of a new head of state, and the Cairo meeting is expected to call on Damascus to wield its influence to end the crisis...
...Crucially, Syria also has lost, for now, a potential friend on the other side of the Atlantic. French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced last week that Paris was severing contacts with Damascus until Syria facilitates an election in Lebanon. Sarkozy's ultimatum effectively ended an intense bout of diplomatic mediation in December, when senior French envoys shuttled between Paris, Beirut and Damascus to attempt a compromise deal between feuding Lebanese factions. Although the U.S. is recognized as the most powerful broker in the Middle East, France's historical ties to Lebanon and Syria grant it considerable influence in those two countries...
...bitter end to the Bush Administration's misguided policy of shoving democracy down the throat of the Middle East and Muslim world. Since 9/11 there has not been a single country in that region that has had peaceful and successful elections. Hamas's victory in Gaza, the stalemate in Lebanon, elections in Iraq and now Pakistan - none of them have led to the stability, modernity and civil society this Administration promised...
...common denominator between Pakistan, Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq is an ongoing war, wars without end, wars that poison democracy. The Bush Administration is particularly culpable in creating the chaos in Pakistan because it forced a premature reconciliation between President Musharraf and Bhutto; it forced Musharraf to lift martial law; it showered money on Musharraf to fight a war that was never popular in Pakistan. The Administration could not understand that it can't have both in Pakistan - a democracy and a war on terrorism...