Lebanon's year-old unity government collapsed today after Hezbollah ministers and their allies resigned over the expected conclusions by a U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Terrorists fleeing like cockroaches? Sounds about right...
The walkout ushers in the country's worst political crisis since 2008, which goes to show how fucked the country is that a government collapse is only the worst political crisis in two years. The tribunal is widely expected to name members of Hezbollah in upcoming indictments, which many correctly fear would re-ignite sectarian tensions that have plagued the tiny country for decades.
Violence has been a major concern as tensions rise in Lebanon, where Shi'ites, Sunnis and Christians each make up about a third of the country's four million people. In 2008, sectarian clashes killed 81 people and nearly plunged Lebanon into another civil war. The current government was formed in November of 2009
Hezbollah, is backed by Iran and Syria, and has denounced the tribunal as an "Israeli project", urging Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri — the son of the slain politician — to reject any findings by the court even before it announced any indictments. And to no one's surprise, the prime minister refused to break cooperation with the tribunal. Prime Minister Hariri's office had no immediate comment on the walkout, and interestingly, Mr. Hariri happened to be in Washington to meet with President Obama.
If only it was as easy as inditing terrorists in their actions to get them all out of their positions of power in Middle Eastern government...
The walkout ushers in the country's worst political crisis since 2008, which goes to show how fucked the country is that a government collapse is only the worst political crisis in two years. The tribunal is widely expected to name members of Hezbollah in upcoming indictments, which many correctly fear would re-ignite sectarian tensions that have plagued the tiny country for decades.
Violence has been a major concern as tensions rise in Lebanon, where Shi'ites, Sunnis and Christians each make up about a third of the country's four million people. In 2008, sectarian clashes killed 81 people and nearly plunged Lebanon into another civil war. The current government was formed in November of 2009
Hezbollah, is backed by Iran and Syria, and has denounced the tribunal as an "Israeli project", urging Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri — the son of the slain politician — to reject any findings by the court even before it announced any indictments. And to no one's surprise, the prime minister refused to break cooperation with the tribunal. Prime Minister Hariri's office had no immediate comment on the walkout, and interestingly, Mr. Hariri happened to be in Washington to meet with President Obama.
If only it was as easy as inditing terrorists in their actions to get them all out of their positions of power in Middle Eastern government...
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