LEBANON: Syria Comes In From the Cold

By Mona Alami BEIRUT, Jul 25 (IPS) - Syrian skies seem to be finally clearing after a very long storm and the virtual shunning of President Bashar al-Assad from the international political scene for almost three years. Many may perceive the recent rapprochement between Syria and France as a mere dalliance, but others believe it can herald a new -- and more peaceful -- dawn in Lebanon. Lebanon's fate has traditionally been linked with Syria's, which has used the Land of the Cedars numerous times in recent history to gain leverage regionally and internationally. At the end of the eighties, after Syria supported the first U.S. war on Iraq, Syria was handed an implicit mandate over Lebanon, one that ended in February 2005 with the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, for which the Damascus regime was widely... [read full story]