LEBANON: 1,000 days, no end in sight

Lebanon’s parliament today, the fourth time, announced a delay in choosing a new president. Speaker Nabih Berri said negotiations between the pro-Western and anti-Syrian camp and the Syria- and Iran-backed opposition faction continued.

Lebanon also marked 1,000 days  since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

Lebanese commuters passing through central Beirut are greeted by the beaming face of their former prime minister on a large billboard with a digital counter tallying the number of days since his killing above the words, "The truth, for the sake of Lebanon." 

It is a constant reminder of his assassination in a powerful bombing that cost the lives of 21 other people and led to spiraling tensions and instability in the whole country, on Feb. 14, 2005.

As noted by the blog Perpetually Itinerant, the "situation is quite tense nowadays in Beirut and there are fears of more political assassinations which will only escalate the already unstable situation."

A panel of international -experts has been investigating the assassination of Hariri and other politicians and journalists for more than two years. The United Nations Security Council has established an international tribunal to try those responsible for the killing. The process of selecting the judicial core and the location of the tribunal is underway. 

But the tensions between pro- and anti-Syrian forces revealed by the assassination continue to split the country in two.

The Western-backed movement blames Syria for the assassination — and all the instability that followed.

The opposition faction has derided the tribunal as a Western tool unfairly penalizing Syria for its opposition to what it calls U.S. and Israeli hegemony.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: Today marked 1,000 days since the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as shown by this billboard in downtown Beirut. Credit: Raed Rafei