By putting Hezbollah members on the stand, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is investigating former leader Rafik Hariri’s assassination, could topple a delicate political balance.
The Syrian opposition is fragmented, the regime’s core appears coup-resistant, and the West fears President Bashar al-Assad less than the radical Islamist alternative.
The bombing follows Lebanon’s arrest of a Saudi member of an Al Qaeda-linked group that bombed the Iranian embassy in Beirut in November.
Saudi Arabia is flexing its muscles in Lebanon, where the army is overshadowed by the powerful militant group Hezbollah, a key ally of Saudi rival Iran.
Syrian government forces claimed victory over rebels along a highway linking Damascus with northern ports. Chemical inspectors hope to load weapons for decommissioning there.
Iran’s embassy was targeted today by suicide bombers angry at Tehran’s strong backing for the Syrian regime. Saudi Arabia is throwing its weight behind anti-Assad forces.
Israeli airstrikes? Israel has sought to limit the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah, and is suspected of launching airstrikes at Syrian military targets that may have held weapons for the group.
The most effective forces fighting to topple Syria’s Bashar al-Assad are jihadis, some linked to Al Qaeda. They’re also a reason he has a shot at winning his war.
The international effort to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile is unprecedented for its tight deadline and dangerous security situation.
Syrian President Assad is likely to ride out a US attack that’s designed to be limited.
After attacks in its Beirut stronghold, Hezbollah is trying to protect people with new measures – while also not disrupting their lives too much.
That’s one theory. The distance the rockets were able to travel indicated use of a long-range weapon that only a local Al Qaeda-linked group is believed to have.
Lebanese Sunnis lack the military organization of their Shiite rivals and have a tradition of nonviolence.
With Sunni-Shiite tensions higher than ever because of war in neighboring Syria, it didn’t take much to spark deadly fighting in the Lebanese city of Sidon. Hezbollah quickly jumped in.
Rebels abandoned the strategic city of Qusayr on Wednesday in a significant victory for Syria’s Assad regime and a psychological blow to opposition forces.
A rocket attack on Shiite neighborhood in Beirut Lebanon was the first attack of its kind since 1990. The attack appeared to be retaliation for the Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian civil war on the side of Bashar al-Assad.
Israel as well as Syria and its Lebanese-ally Hezbollah all have little interest in a wider conflict. But as Israel grows more assertive across its borders, the chance of a miscalculation is on the rise.
The Shiite militant group in Lebanon has sent drones over Israel in the past, linking their use to Israeli violations of Lebanon’s airspace.
Rebels fighting the Syrian government are shelling villages on the Lebanese side of the border in order to curb a Lebanese group’s efforts to help the Syrian regime.
In northern Lebanon, the kidnapping of a member of the powerful Shiite Jaafar clan has created yet another arena for Sunni-Shiite tensions fomented by Syria’s unrest.
By Nicholas Blanford
Jan. 16, 2014