whats happening in lebanon (sp)

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im a little confused

― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

basically an ex-pm got blown up, everybody blames the syrians. enough protests/political action by the people got the current pm (in the syrian's pocket) to resign, so new elections will be held. international community, including many other arab states, are urging syria to withdraw troops (they've been there since '76). syria put forward a plan but as of right now supposedly Bush has rejected it.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:21 (twenty years ago)

as for analysis, I would be super-psyched if the syrians finally left. tho lebanon still has its share of problems (basically hezbollah), it's apparently gotten much better through the 90s. i've always wanted to go there.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:22 (twenty years ago)

syria put forward a plan but as of right now supposedly Bush has rejected it.

The only plan Bush or Isreal seems likely to support is for Syria to get completely the fuck out of there. They do not want to do that. So though the PM has resigned, this could easily lead to more tension in the country, not less.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

Israel, obv. I hate it when I misspell that.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:24 (twenty years ago)

Israel Is real.

anyway, yeah. I'm not even really sure what the Syrian plan is, though. Everything I've read, seen on tv, has been sorta vague.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

"Partial withdrawal," I keep reading.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)

yeah I guess they want to stay on the border? But the excerpt I saw of Assad's speech wasn't very specific.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:27 (twenty years ago)

OTOH, many are predicting that Syria will cave and withdraw completely, as it has no friends left. Not even Saudi Arabia.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:38 (twenty years ago)

i dunno about "no friends," prolly Russia sells them weapons. Haven't seen what the Russian position on all this is.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:40 (twenty years ago)

Russia isn't saying anything on their behalf, and Syria's not going to go to war with anyone based on Russia's support. One assumes they don't want to be blown to hell while most of the world just smiles.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:42 (twenty years ago)

(Which may be assuming too much. We'll see.)

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

Syria's not going to go to war with anyone based on Russia's support.

i believe they have before, with israel. and perhaps lebanon counts.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

Wait... here we go.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1040196.cms

Ok, so... no friends.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:50 (twenty years ago)

interesting. thx for the link. dunno if it's smokescreen, perhaps they're being sincere.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:52 (twenty years ago)

i believe they have before, with israel.

Russia was a world power then, and anyway we didn't already have an army stationed next door.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:55 (twenty years ago)

they are still a world power, but yes, iraq complicates things.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 6 March 2005 01:58 (twenty years ago)

seven months pass...

Hmmm.

Syria's Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan has committed suicide, the official news agency in Damascus says.

He was reportedly questioned by a UN investigator last month over the murder of ex-Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.

For many years Kanaan was Syria's powerful intelligence chief in Lebanon, which was dominated by Syria until its military withdrawal earlier this year.

He returned to Damascus in 2002 as political intelligence chief and joined the cabinet in 2004.

"Interior Minister Brig Gen Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide in his office before noon," the Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) reported.

The authorities are carrying out the "necessary investigation" into the incident, Sana reported.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 12 October 2005 16:09 (nineteen years ago)

those crazy Syrians.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 12 October 2005 16:45 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

US Embassy car bombed.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 16:08 (seventeen years ago)

ten months pass...

I'd like to know why Lebanon went wrong from the mid-seventies onwards. Anyone lived there or studied the place, and feels like giving me a primer?

As I understand things, it had been a pretty sophisticated place for hundreds of years up til then, but turned very bad very fast, and not necessarily foreseeably. So what happened, and why then?

― Ismael Klata, Friday, 21 November 2008 17:34 (sixteen years ago)

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