Articles
Assad thinks he can survive by confusing his neighbours
Bashar Al Assad will be ruthless with his neighbours if he thinks that will help him maintain his grip on power in his own country.
As politicians hide, Lebanon is skittish about the future
Lebanon, and Hizbollah, may continue to weather the Syrian tempest, but many troublesome questions wait to be answered once the Assad regime falls.
A bomb plot shows Syria's weakening hand in Lebanon
A clear indication of Syrian decline in Lebanon is that both the president and the prime minister did not hesitate to endorse the incarceration of an intimate ally of Bashar Al Assad.
Misjudging Iran's rationality is a recipe for more calamity
Would a nuclear-armed Iran really be a disaster? Or even a serious problem?
Syria's conflict spills over into Lebanon's muddled politics
Lebanon's domestic politics are a mess, with the Hizbollah-backed government badly mismanaging the refugees and violence spilling over from Syria.
As Syria's civil war explodes, preparing for the aftermath
The pace of change in Syria appear to be speeding up sharply. There's a lot to be done to prepare for the new dawn.
Invoking the past serves only to poison the present
Yitzhak Shamir, Yasser Arafat: while Palestinians and Israelis keep heeding the dead, the future will never get a chance to start.
Russia surrenders its options in Syria by arming Assad
Russia thought it was in a strong diplomatic position in the Syrian crisis, but it is becoming clear that the opposite is true.
Syria's fragile neighbours still fear Assad's waning power
Syria's agony is sending political sparks into the dry underbrush of incipient conflicts in neighbouring countries. But nobody wants to copy the ordeal Syria is facing.
The generals, not the dictator, hold the keys to the regime
If Syria is to enjoy a pluralistic post-Assad era, then any delay in initiating the political transition could be ruinous.
Syrian crisis allows for rare common ground in Lebanon
The conflict in Syria has divided the Lebanese along political and religious lines. But no one in Lebanon wants to succumb to a Syrian civil war, and that alone is a worthy basis on which to pursue engagement.
Western 'realists' inspire the deadly stalemate in Syria
Henry Kissinger has outlined a form of non-interventionism almost certain to perpetuate Syria's suffering.
Collective rights came with a cost for the individual
In all the tumult of the Arab revolutions, too little attention is being paid to the rights and needs of the individual.
Lebanon pays the price as Hizbollah shores up support
Hizbollah is pursuing its own interests on the sidelines of Syria's troubles - and that's not good news for Lebanon.
Syria lets loose a bogeyman on Tripoli's troubled streets
The violence in northern Lebanon is not happenstance. Both Damascus and Hizbollah benefit by aggravating fears of a sectarian conflict.
