http://lebanon.seamargroup.com Thoughts and comments on life in Lebanon from a foreign resident Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:33:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Well, yesterday the Lebanese parliament gave an overwhelming vote of confidence in the national unity government formed by Fouad Siniora, despite reservations expressed by some of the 60 members who spoke and sometimes heated debate between members of different political persuasions. So now the second stage of the process agreed ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/08/13/wednesday-13-july-2008/ I have been somewhat negligent lately - nothing posted since 28 May, the day that the new president was elected. Now, today, more than seven weeks after the Doha Agreement was signed, we finally have the promised National Unity Government formed. Having seen the bickering and bargaining that has gone ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/07/11/32/ My comment earlier today about the presence of the Turkish prime minister at the election of the new Lebanese president last Sunday may well have been right. Today the Syrian president met a visiting UK parliamentary delegation in Damascus and referred to the possibility of Lebanese/Israeli peace talks. It looks ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/05/28/28-may-2008-2nd-posting/ One week after the successful conclusion of the talks in Doha, Lebanon has a new president - the consensus candidate Michel Suleiman - and the parliamentary majority has nominated outgoing Prime Minister, Fouad Sinioura, as their choice to form the next government. Now begins the process of forming the new ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/05/28/wednesday-28-may-2008/ The Lebanese political leadership has stepped back from the abyss and concluded a deal in Doha in the early hours of this morning. Everyone agrees that no one got everything they were demanding but an undoubted winner is the Hizbullah led opposition who have been allocated 11 members in a ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/05/21/thursday-21-may-2008/ The events of the last 10 days have resulted in a new situation in the country. Hizbullah has used its weapons against Lebanese - something it said it would never do - and proved that its military strength could enable it to take over the country if it wished, the ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/05/16/friday-16-may-2008/ As I write this, at 4.15 pm local time, we have had main electricity continuously for the last 48 hours. To people in most parts of the world this may not seem unusual, but in Lebanon the electricity supply has been quite severely rationed for many years. A combination of ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/04/13/sunday-13-april-2008/ The Arab League "Summit" in Damascus a week ago has done nothing to resolve the Lebanese political situation. Boycotted by Lebanon, and attended by only low-level delegations from about half the membership, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, it was destined to become a non-event. On the surface, we seem to ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/04/06/sunday-6-april-2008/ I shall be going to Cyprus this evening for five days, where progress towards a solution to the division of the island looks a better prospect that at any time in the past and much more likely than a solution to the political stalemate in Lebanon. During my stay in ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/03/23/sunday-23-march-2008/ Alice in Wonderland seems an appropriate comparison to the situation in Lebanon sometimes. You may recall that in December 2006 the pro-Syrian opposition withdrew its five cabinet members, thus, in their eyes, rendering the government unconstitutional. However, the Prime Minister did not accept the resignations,  the ministers stayed at home but ... http://lebanon.seamargroup.com/2008/03/20/thursday-20-march-2008/