News, economy and analysis from across the Middle East
Lebanon and Syria: politics, conflict and reconstruction.
A month after Rafik Hariri's assassination, perhaps a million Lebanese filled central Beirut. It was the largest demonstration in the country's history, and within weeks Syrian troops were gone.
Thirty-four days of war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 ended with neither side achieving its aims. The Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab was among those who drew a simple conclusion: force alone would not solve the region's conflicts.
In 2011 European governments repeatedly tried to get the UN Security Council to condemn Syria's crackdown. Russian and Chinese vetoes set a pattern that lasted the whole war.
In the summer of 2011, the Assad government offered a 'national dialogue' while its forces kept shooting protesters. The opposition's refusal to take part set the course for years of failed talks.
The 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister triggered a revolution, a UN investigation and a special international court. Fifteen years later, the court named one culprit, and left the bigger questions open.
As Syria's uprising turned into full-scale war in 2012, countries from Asia to the Gulf pulled out their citizens and shut their embassies in Damascus.