Tensions are rising in the eastern Mediterranean between Israel and Lebanon, this time over roughly 430 square miles of contested waters that contain considerable underwater gas reserves. Iran, Hezbollah and Syria are all interested in a war with Israel, each for their own reasons. Tehran and Damascus want to save the embattled regime of Bashar Assad, while Hezbollah…
In this week's Heritage in Focus podcast, James Phillips discusses the aftermath of the Arab Spring and escalating tensions around Israel. David Weinberger hosts. To get regular updates on Heritage in Focus podcasts, visit our RSS feed or subscribe on iTunes. To listen to more Heritage in Focus podcasts, return to the Podcast page.…
With at least two ongoing wars, President-elect Barack Obama may well be entering the Oval Office facing the toughest national security landscape for any American president in some time. A tour of the foreign policy horizon shows that America's 44th president will have his hands full with a panoply of problems that would vex any head of state, much less one who is…
Ariel Cohen on Reuters 5/08/08…
Felipe Calderón, who began his single sexenio (six-year term) as President of Mexico in December 2006, has made significant progress in the fight against narcotrafficking, but Mexicans are still waiting to see whether his government will successfully challenge the private- and public-sector monopolies and duopolies that dominate huge portions of mexico economy. These…
Yesterday's reported death of the terrorist mastermind Imad Mugniyah, if true, is a major blow to the Hezbollah organization, its backers in Iran and Syria, and other terrorist groups who have cooperated with Hezbollah or Iran, often working through Mugniyah. He was involved in many of the most lethal and high-profile terrorist attacks in the Middle East and…
Peter Brookes explains the presence of al Qaeda in Lebanon on Fox News.…
(Archived document, may contain errors) 302 October 24, 1983 STANDING FIRM IN LEBANON I INTRODUCTION The multinational force MNF) dispatched to Beirut to help end the violence that has claimed 100,000 Lebanese lives over the last decade has itself been engulfed in viol.ence On October 23 more than 200 American servicemen were killed in a suicide bombing of the…
A new report by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) on the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon,...…
Senior Obama Administration officials held a background briefing on Friday in which they discussed the “alarming...…
The Lebanese Shia Islamist militant group Hezbollah is becoming more aggressively involved in Syria’s civil war, which...…
Israel announced on Thursday that it had shot down a drone approaching its coast about five miles west of the northern...…
Iran defiantly continues to expand its uranium enrichment program despite international sanctions and multiple U.N....…
French President Francois Hollande told reporters yesterday that Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group based in...…
Bulgarian authorities yesterday accused Hezbollah of perpetrating a bombing that killed six people last summer, a...…
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently made comments that have fueled speculation about the looming confrontation...…
Lebanon has been roiled by mounting political tensions in the wake of another assassination of a Lebanese leader that is...…
The United States joined many Western nations in expelling Syrian diplomats yesterday in a coordinated reprimand of the...…
Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs