Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Lebanon is central to Middle Eastern affairs, as a playground for Iranian, Syrian, Israeli, U.S. and European interests. In 2005, people said to be associated with Hezbollah and the Syrian government assassinated the pro-American Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. As the United Nations draws near to issuing indictments in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which it formed to investigate that killing, Hezbollah is digging in its heels.

Lebanon is central to Middle Eastern affairs, as a playground for Iranian, Syrian, Israeli, U.S. and European interests. In 2005, people said to be associated with Hezbollah and the Syrian government assassinated the pro-American Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. As the United Nations draws near to issuing indictments in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which it formed to investigate that killing, Hezbollah is digging in its heels. The group now holds cabinet posts in the Lebanese ruling coalition, and threatens to bring down the government if the UN implicates it.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies research fellow Tony Badran writes regularly on Lebanese politics for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and other publications of note, and follows related developments in Syria in the Arab press, and through his own sources in the region.

Badran also focuses on Lebanon’s maritime issues with Israel, border issues including the influx of Syrian refugees amid the violence in summer 2011, Hezbollah’s arms smuggling through Syria, and the ongoing machinations behind the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.