Reports

Since 1982, the Shia Hezbollah movement has turned the Lebanese-Israeli border into one of the most volatile in the region. With help from Iran, it has also consolidated political power in Lebanon and expanded its involvement in the Syrian civil war. After its stunning success in last year’s elections, Hezbollah ...

Almost exactly a year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron got officials and investors from 50 countries to agree on an $11.1 billion reform and investment program for Lebanon. Fast forward 12 months, and the country remains a shambles. With no signs of progress on any of the key structural problems ...

Lebanon today is the world’s only country that has two armies and two governments in peacetime. Its shadow government wields more power than the official one, while its economy, politics, military, soil, water and even the air is toxic. Interference from its neighbors has negated any chance of pulling the ...

Lebanon’s ramshackle state and the last vestiges of public services are falling apart. President Michel Aoun's election at the end of October has done little to end the country's political paralysis, as Hezbollah continues to block the formation of a new government. Unless it relents, the next stop may be ...

This summer, the streets in many of Lebanon’s cities were not only scorching hot and humid, but also stank to high heaven. Rubbish collections stopped on July 17, when Beirut’s main landfill was closed, and the government has since been unable to decide on another disposal site. The paralysis is ...

The Syrian civil war has turned into a fully-blown regional conflagration. Shia Muslim groups are on one side, linked across Lebanon, through Syria, to Iraq and Iran. On the other side are Sunni Arabs, including Islamic State extremists, backed by the Arab Gulf states for whom the Islamic Republic of ...

The Arab Spring has exposed the contradictions that have defined the political map of the Middle East for nearly 100 years when the West asserted its own interests while ignoring calls for an independent Arab state. The open revolt against dominating pro-Western regimes which has taken place across the Middle ...

The Lebanese government has indicated the dates when it plans to hold a long-awaited first round of competitive bidding for licences to explore offshore oil and gas on its territory. But the potential risks are high in a country which has no proven reserves and which is sandwiched between Israel ...

Many conflicts in different countries in the Middle East are blamed on inter-sectarian strife between Shia and Sunni Muslims. But while a simple answer to create separate states for each sect may have superficial appeal, the complex relationship between the sects and within them across many of the countries, makes ...

Lebanon, once dubbed the ‘Switzerland of the East’ looks set to some degree, at least, to return to its glory days. After years of turmoil and vulnerability since the start of its civil war in 1975, the country, ironically, could benefit from the crisis in neighbouring Syria, and the tension ...