Why the IMF deal keeps stalling, what Lebanese people actually want, and the assets nobody is talking about. The dinner was winding down. MPs, ministers, and diplomats were saying their goodbyes to the French ambassador, whose posting in Lebanon was ending. It was sunset in Faqra, Lebanon's mountain
What running for office in Lebanon taught me about how power actually works, and why it was never meant to be reformed. The Illusion of Elections Lebanon holds elections. They are real, contested, and occasionally produce surprises. The 2022 elections sent a record number of independent candidates to parliament, including
Nabih Berri is searching through the constitution. Constitutional clauses. The Taif Agreement. The ambassador's legal authority. He is not specifying what he means. He is leaving it vague, letting people wonder if he has a legal weapon or if he is just buying time. But here is the
When Hezbollah's ministers did not resign from the Council of Ministers yesterday, that silence was more significant than the tire-fires burning in Beirut's streets. A government party rejecting a framework is theater. A government party rejecting a framework while staying at the cabinet table is
In 2000, Israel withdrew from Lebanon. As part of that withdrawal, the Lebanese state accepted a structural limitation: keep the Lebanese army disarmed enough that it could never threaten Israeli territory. For 26 years, this constraint held. The Lebanese army was permitted to exist, but not to build the capacity
Here's the final draft, this is the current state of the file you'll publish. Within a day of Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian signing the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding at Versailles, Israeli strikes continued hitting Lebanon. The same document that declares an "immediate and permanent
The morning after the US and Iran announced their memorandum of understanding, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun received a phone call. The caller was not the American president who had spent months building a sovereign Lebanon-Israel negotiating track. It was not the secretary of state whose department hosted four rounds
In 2006, the bill was $3 billion. Today it is past $20 billion. The fight over south Lebanon is moving to a front the state cannot afford to lose.