When the article dropped, myself and several colleagues were stunned. TIME magazine had gotten an interview with one of the four men accused by an international court of killing Rafik Hariri. This man was subject to an INTERPOL arrest warrant and, if we are to believe the Lebanese authorities, the focus of a nationwide manhunt.
What the anonymous suspect said was not exactly life changing. It didn’t need to be. The sensational point of the article was that the magazine had managed to get an interview in the first place. The shockwaves had began.
If, like me, you take more than a passing interest in the security situation in Beirut, you might have set aside some time this evening. For that’s when BBC World documentary series, “Murder in Beirut”, was due to be screened. It was going to deliver shocking truths regarding Hariri’s assassination.
More than that, though, it was going to tell us what a lot here already know – or think they know: Hizbullah killed the premier. At least it was, if we believe Al-Akhbar’s front page on Monday. The decision to shelve the production, given Lebanon is currently at any time 60 seconds from disaster, has raised eyebrows along with anticipation to see the finished product.
“Murder in Beirut” was officially withheld in order for the World News channel to ensure it complied with their stringent editorial standards; a spokesperson for the BBC told me the film would definitely be shown, just, you know, not yet. But as Sharif Nashashibi of Arab Media Watch pointed out, why did it take producers and BBC executives until six days before broadcast to realise there may have been some discrepancies? One’s thoughts can’t help but drift towards comments made by Hizbullah and their Christian political allies the FPM, in recent days, warning of all-out carnage if Hizbullah is implicated in the 2005 bombing.
The incident today at a clinic in south Beirut – wire copy won’t print those two words without first saying ”the Hizbullah stronghold of” – demonstrates one of the first incidents of popular uprising against STL investigators, even if several occurences and threats of attacks prompted former investigation heads to seek refuge in the quieter climbs of Mount Lebanon.
The beleaguered court has been beset with a string of high-profile resignations and accusations of politicization since its inception and popular support for the probe into the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is it an all-time low ebb. (more…)
I watched the brilliant blue and gold explosions light up the Beirut skyline last night in silence, before the huge pops of thunder reached us on the roof of a Hamra hotel. Celebratory gunfire – that scourge of the town – ripped through the flat, close air.
As I’m sure many of you will be aware, Lebanon had its first post-Syrian general elections. They were billed as the closest in a generation and could have proven to be pivotal in the Middle East peace process.
On one side was March 14, a Western-backed coalition lead by the Future Movement’s MP Saad Hariri. On the other, the Hizbollah-dominated March 8 alliance, seen as leaning towards Iran and the foundation of an independent Islamic state.
Fortunately for those of us with fair skin and blue eyes, March 14 won, an outcome that never seemed so straightforward during campaigning and polling. Speaking with entire subjectivity, this is a good thing for Lebanon. It means that the huge amounts of US aid dollars will continue to flow into the country and that the delicate but so far finely-kept peace should be maintained.
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