Lebanon

The decades-long campaign of violence against those accused of insulting Islam seems to be succeeding

Within the space of a few months, Iranian proxies and allies in Iraq and Lebanon suffered significant setbacks in parliamentary elections. Some commentators have ventured that the era of Tehran’s hegemony may be over. While it is hard to predict the final outcome of these electoral shifts, such hopes might be premature.

Violence on the streets of Beirut on Thursday, October 14 reminded older Lebanese of their country’s tragic civil war.

The success of Prime Minister Najib Mikati in forming a government, where his predecessor-designate Saad Hariri had failed after trying for months to craft a political deal with Hezbollah, marks a clear tilt toward Damascus.

On August 4, 2020, the world watched in horror as videos from the Port of Beirut blast flooded the internet. For one year, we’ve also watched politicians evade responsibility for the illegal storage of ammonium nitrate. The reality that most people, especially the Lebanese, have come to accept is that justice is extremely unlikely.

On July 1, 2021, Pope Francis met with an ecumenical group of Christian leaders from Lebanon to discuss and pray for the rapidly declining state of the Mediterranean country.

It’s now up to the Biden administration to decide if it will work with US allies to save the Middle East’s “last bastion of Christianity” or let it fall into the hands of Iran, Turkey, Russia, and China.

A healthy majority of people in Lebanon continue to reject the sectarian, clannish, and quasi-tribal order of Lebanese politics, and the US should use Global Magnitsky sanctions against the country’s corrupt rulers.

President-elect Joe Biden must construct a foreign policy agenda that prioritizes confronting Turkey, on its belligerent international conduct, and stabilizing the spiraling economic, political, and security situation in Lebanon.