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Learning from Lebanon's Cabinet

(Foreign Policy) Michael Singh - This week, Lebanon served up a reminder for the U.S. and the partisans of the Arab uprisings: don't count your democracies before they've hatched. Having thrown off the yoke of Syrian occupation in 2005, Lebanon once again finds itself under the control of Iran and Syria. Hizbullah's actions illustrate the dangers of not excluding from democratic participation extremist groups which act as proxies for foreign powers, reject democratic values as a matter of principle, or fail to renounce violence. Hizbullah is a creature of Iran, conceived and built by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Many of its cabinet allies are themselves clients of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Indeed, it is no coincidence that this cabinet was formed just as the Assad regime finds itself in crisis. The writer is managing director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council.
2011-06-17 00:00:00
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