All Policy Analysis by David Schenker

Two Tuesdays ago, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt spent 35 minutes with the president of the United States. In many ways, the meeting was unusual. First, protocol dictates that President George W. Bush meet with his counterparts; he does not typically meet with foreign parliamentarians. Moreover, between 2003 and

On February 20, the Lebanese cabinet -- with a Hizballah-led opposition boycott -- extended the term of the UN commission investigating the February 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. While the commission's work can now continue for as long as one more year, any future decision about organizing

Violent clashes in Beirut on January 25 between students of rival political parties have overshadowed the promising news that Lebanon received pledges of $7.6 billion at the Paris III donor conference on Lebanon's economy. The violence, which was largely along sectarian lines, was the latest in a series of escalating

On January 25, Lebanon will participate in Paris III, the third international donor conference for Lebanon convened by French president Jacques Chirac since February 2001. The top agenda items are grants and soft loans for Lebanon and the economic reform plan of Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora. For Siniora and

President Bush's address to the nation on Iraq last week dispensed with many of the 79 recommendations included in the 142-page report of the Iraq Study Group. The headline on the speech was the decision to surge 21,000 troops, rather than downsize the U.S. military presence in Iraq as the

Six weeks into the standoff between Hizballah and the government of democratically elected Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora, Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa returned to Lebanon today to continue his mediation efforts. Preliminary signs suggest that an Arab League-brokered deal may be gaining traction. On December 15, at the end

On November 20, 2006, David Schenker and Nohad el-Machnouk addressed The Washington Institute’s Special Policy Forum. Mr. Schenker is a senior fellow at the Institute specializing in Arab politics and former Levant country director at the Pentagon. He had just returned from Lebanon prior to the forum. Mr. el-Machnouk served

The assassination of Lebanese minister of industry Pierre Gemayel last week was yet another in a seemingly endless series of brutal murders of anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon. But while Gemayel’s death was tragic, for Lebanon watchers, the killing didn’t come as much of a surprise. For weeks Hezbollah Secretary General

Hezbollah rockets stopped raining on Israel nearly two months ago, but the Shiite organization’s onslaught continues. Today, instead of directly attacking Israel, the Party of God is targeting Lebanese intellectuals and politicians who have the temerity to question Hezbollah’s hegemony over local Shiite politics. There’s no debating that Hezbollah is

The United States is sounding the alarm about a possible coup in Lebanon, and Hezbollah is threatening to flood the streets with its supporters if it doesn't get more cabinet seats. FP spoke recently with regional expert David Schenker about the country's fragile politics, whether Hezbollah is rearming, and Syria's

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made headlines last week when he claimed during a rally that Hezbollah still possessed 20,000 rockets and missiles after this past summer's war with Israel. The rally and the announcement were audacious: Some 350,000 supporters gathered in South Beirut to see Nasrallah appear publicly for the

Lebanon has secured pledges for assistance roughly equal to its $3.6 billion estimate of what is required to rebuild from the recent war. Though foreign assistance will be an important element in the short-term physical reconstruction, it will do little to help Beirut contend with the longstanding structural maladies afflicting

Advocates of U.S. diplomatic reengagement with Syria have received a clear answer from Damascus. On August 15, Syrian president Bashar Assad gave a lengthy speech to the Syrian Journalists Association condemning the Bush administration, disparaging the United Nations, declaring support for Hezbollah and regional “resistance,” and calling for the removal