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In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

11/20/08
Pakistan: Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq  —Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
11/13/08
The View from Gaza  —Taghreed El-Khodary, New York Times journalist in Gaza and Harvard University Nieman Fellow (2005-2006). Interviewed by Middle East Bulletin.
11/04/08
Getting on the Right Track  —Dalia Rabin, chairperson, Rabin Center, and daughter of the late Yitzhak Rabin. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives

“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Lebanon’s Search

December 5, 2007

General Michel Suleiman, the commander of the Lebanese army, seems to be assured of occupying the vacant post of president, now that the parliamentary majority has endorsed him as its compromise candidate. However, there are still some thorny issues to settle before the opposition agrees to give its blessing to General Suleiman’s election, and further problems loom large assuming he is eventually installed.

The army commander was not among the declared candidates in the weeks running up to the expiry of the mandate of Emile Lahoud on November 24th. However, he had always been considered as the most likely fallback option in the event that the government and the opposition failed to reach a consensus on one of the figures that had put their names forward. The general has carefully fostered an image of political neutrality, although the fact that he was appointed in 1998 during the era of Syrian control over Lebanon has tainted him with the stain of Damascus’s approval in the eyes of some.

The breakthrough for General Suleiman came when the March 14th bloc, which holds a slender parliamentary majority, declared that it was ready to propose a constitutional amendment enabling him to stand. …
The March 14th bloc presented this as a major concession on its part, because it entailed the formal abandonment of its notional right to employ its parliamentary majority to elect one of its own candidates. The move invited reciprocation from the opposition through lifting its boycott of parliament so as to allow the assembly of a quorum of at least two-thirds of the members. However, the opposition, comprising the Shia bloc of Hizbullah and Amal, as well as the Free Patriotic Movement of Michel Aoun, a former army commander and a candidate in the contest to succeed Mr Lahoud, appears to be setting conditions. These are said to include the proviso that General Suleiman should limit his tenure to two years, until fresh parliamentary elections are held in 2009 according to a revised election law, and that the new parliament should elect the next president.

The opposition is also thought to be seeking assurances on the make-up of the new government. Access the full article>>