Latest in Lebanon
Two weeks of protests appear to be ending in Jerusalem, France pushes through a ceasefire in Libya but peace remains elusive, Saudi Arabia and Qatar trade accusations of politicizing the pilgrimage to Mecca, and Lebanon’s Saad Hariri lobbies Washington.
The Lebanese Armed Forces maintain a complicated coexistence with Hezbollah. They're also one of the few checks on the terrorist organization and other sectarian extremists—and they need U.S. help.
Syria’s latest ceasefire falls apart. The U.S. and Israel agree on their latest and largest aid package. And the Saudis go on a charm offensive to promote economic reforms.
Paul Salem explains why Lebanon has avoided the political and security challenges brought on by the Syrian conflict next door and highlights major risks that still lie ahead.
In nearly five years since the war began, Turkey has been a welcoming host to nearly two million Syrian refugees, particularly compared to others.
Seen, on the one hand, as a security threat and, on the other, as able to work and therefore capable of relying on themselves, single refugee men often fall through the cracks when it comes to receiving aid, and they live isolated existences at high risk of exploitation.
The Syrian civil war is pervasively sectarian; Lebanon is still recovering from its own sectarian civil war. But dropping a million and a half refugees from the current conflict in the cauldron of the former, strangely results in something like sectarian peace.
Omphalos's first dispatch—this time from Lebanon—on refugees, security, and Syria.
Bernard Rougier comes on the show to discuss Lebanese Sunni jihadism.