Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar Assad (AP)
At least they have an ocean view. Apart from that, some 40 members of Lebanon’s ruling coalition have little to cheer about, and plenty to fear, as they hole up in a luxury seafront hotel, protected by military guards, armored personnel carriers, bomb-sniffing dogs, and formidable concrete barriers – all that now stands between them and the risk of assassination. …
The grim prospects now facing Lebanon – up to and including a possible descent into civil war – are also being faced by more than 120 feuding legislators arrayed on both sides of the country’s jagged political divide, as well as by its 4 million long-suffering people. … The outcome of the unfolding dispute is important, not only for Lebanon itself, but also for the stability of the entire Middle Eastern region. …
Foreign and local observers are agreed on one score – this country’s future depends on its ability to select a new head of state, to do so quickly and, most of all, to manage the feat without also precipitating an internal free-for-all, the kind of bloodbath that has erupted in Lebanon before. Access the full article>>