Word: rafik
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...prolonged suffering on the Lebanese people in a futile attempt to transform the country’s mix of competing political creeds into one norm. Based on this understanding, the world should—temporarily—abandon the idea of an international tribunal for the slain Lebanese leader Rafik al-Hariri, because it will most likely lead to more hostility. Instead, the international community should focus on helping Lebanon cure itself of the evil that, in recent history, we have seen its people inflict on each other...
...Pierre Gemayel was the latest victim in a ruthless series of political purges. Anonymous assassins gunned him down last Monday while he was driving his car in Beirut. Before him, Rafik al-Hariri, former prime minister and a leading Sunni figure, was assassinated in February 2005. Samir Kassir, an exceptional Lebanese journalist, was assassinated four months after the Hariri incident. George Hawi, former chief of the Lebanese Communist Party, was murdered a few weeks later. And Gebran Tueni—Nadia’s son, also a distinguished journalist and parliamentarian—was blasted into oblivion in December...
...Iranian and Syrian activity is taking place against the backdrop of growing instability within Lebanon's government and Saturday's upcoming vote among government ministers to bring the assassins of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri before an international tribunal - a process that is expected to implicate high-level Syrian officials. Hizballah pulled out of the country's coalition government recently after its push for greater representation was rebuffed; many observers viewed the push for effectve veto power as motivated by its concern that prime minister Fouad Siniora would try to begin the process of Hizballah's disarmament that...
...received anonymous death threats intended to pressure him into voting for a controversial three-year extension of the presidency of the pro-Syrian incumbent, Emile Lahoud. Ahdab ignored the threats and voted against the extension. He was not the only politician under pressure. Then-Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was allegedly directly threatened by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to support Lahoud's extension, despite his deep opposition to the move...
...With more mayhem likely, local suspicion for Gemayel's murder falls on those who would most benefit from instability in Lebanon. Siniora's allies blame Syria, whom they also accuse of assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. Since Hariri's death, a bombing campaign has killed or injured a series of anti-Syrian politicians and journalists. The last murder, of newspaper publisher Gebran Tueni, took place in December of last year...