Lebanon

A former Treasury official describes how the group has continued to expand its criminal and operational activities worldwide despite the changes wrought by the Syria war and Iran nuclear accord.

Despite setbacks in Syria, and anxieties over a potential future conflict with Israel, the group has substantially widened its reach in recent years.

On January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, indefinitely prohibiting all Syrian refugees from entering the United States and banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen. The executive order unleashed a storm of criticism

At the beginning of the year, one of the members of the Lebanese Parliament had previously voted for singer Myriam Klink during the presidential election session, causing the whole session to erupt in laughter, with some nearly divulging their own fantasies about the ‘sexy singer’. Today, however, she is being

March 6, 2017 There is no hiding the religious zeal that gripped Lebanon’s Shiites when, in 2013, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah launched the group’s campaign to defend the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad. Thousands of fighters, imbued with the illusion of rapid victories, crossed the Lebanese border into Syria believing

Following accusations that Syria had assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2005 under UN Security Council resolution 1559. In a speech to parliament announcing the withdrawal, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that “Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon does not mean an end to Syria’s

The heavy presence of pro-Iranian and pro-Syrian ministers is troubling, but Hariri and his allies can still preserve Lebanon's sovereignty by pushing for a balanced electoral law and a timely parliamentary ballot.

Officials in Washington and abroad should pay close attention to the group's self-styled 'ambassadors,' who are increasingly being implicated in criminal and terrorist activities around the world.

Although filling the long-vacant office could help pull the country out of its political stagnation, Hezbollah and Iran will continue undermining Lebanese state institutions unless the situation next door in Syria changes significantly.