Lebanon

Secretary of State James A. Baker III met Lebanese leaders in eastern Lebanon today, the first visit by a U.S. Secretary of State to Lebanon since 1983, Voice of Lebanon radio said. The radio said President Elias Hrawi, Prime Minister Rashid al-Solh and Foreign Minister Faris Bouez were meeting Baker in the town of Zahle, 33 miles east of Beirut. Zahleh, a predominantly Christian town, sits on a hill nine miles west of the Syrian border. Baker has been in the Syrian capital of Damascus, and was also scheduled to go to Saudia Arabia today.

BEIRUT - Lebanon's prime minister resigned Friday due to an impasse over a new election law and the cabinet's refusal to extend the tenure of the national police chief. Najib Mikati's resignation comes at a time of rising tensions and sporadic violence in Lebanon largely linked to the civil war in Syria. Lebanon and Syria share a complex network of political and sectarian ties that are often inflamed, and many fear that the war in Syria will bring violence to Lebanon. These tensions have roiled Lebanon's fragile political scene as well.

In the midst of Lebanon's renewed civil war it is difficult to focus on individual tragedies. But of all the tragic Lebanese hostage victims of terrorists few cases are more pathetic than the two Beirut Jews murdered by militant Muslims in December. Neither Haim Cohen, a department store accountant, nor Isaac Tarrab, an elderly professor, had any involvement in partisan Lebanese politics nor in the Arab-Israeli conflict. On the contrary, they were two of a tiny handful of Jews remaining in Lebanon out of a community that remained vibrant and active until the last decade.

Thirteen years ago, Syrian President Hafez el-Assad sent his army into Lebanon to prevent an alliance of left-wing Muslim militias and Palestinian guerrillas from toppling the Christian-led government. Since then, Assad has brought his frail, faction-ridden neighbor firmly under Syrian control, cleverly playing the sectarian warlords off against one another to maintain a semblance of order and a rough balance of power. Last month, Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun, the Christian commander of the Lebanese army, upset this fragile equilibrium by imposing a blockade on Muslim- controlled ports.

Pressured by allies to back off from a confrontation in Lebanon, the United States has reduced the size of a naval force assembled in the eastern Mediterranean, Pentagon officials said yesterday. But the officials also said that 15 ships of the Sixth Fleet would remain on patrol off Lebanon, where U.S. hostages held by extremists have been threatened with death if the United States attacks. The Pentagon officials, who asked not to be identified, said yesterday that the shift was designed to cool tensions raised by reports that the United States was planning a military move to free the hostages.

Revolutions do not stand still. They either move forward or they die. We are at the dawn of a glorious, delicate, revolutionary moment in the Middle East. It was triggered by the invasion of Iraq, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and televised images of 8 million Iraqis voting in a free multiparty election. Which led to the obvious question throughout the Middle East: Why Iraqis and not us? To be sure, the rolling revolution began outside the Middle East with the Afghan elections, scandalously underplayed in the American media.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, Lebanese gunmen clashed in street battles Monday as sectarian tensions linked to the 14-month-old uprising in Syria bled across the border for a third day. At least five people have been killed and 100 wounded in Lebanon's second-largest city since the gun battles erupted late Saturday, security officials said. Residents say differences over Syria are at the root of the fighting, which pits neighbor against neighbor and raises fears of broader unrest that could draw in neighboring countries.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hundreds of Syrians fled to neighboring Lebanon on Saturday to escape the violent crackdown against an antigovernment uprising that has claimed the lives of more than 800 civilians, Lebanese security officials and a leading human-rights group said. President Bashar al-Assad, meanwhile, reportedly has set up a committee to lead a dialogue with the opposition, the latest offer by the regime as it struggles to end the unrest threatening his family's 40-year-old dynasty.

THE LEBANESE and the Israelis are similar tribes. Both have been in the crosshairs of terrorists, Lebanon from within, Israel from without. While the Muslim world has actively called for the destruction of Israel, it has worked in a more subversive way to undermine the sovereignty of Lebanon. This country, divided between Christians, Druse and Muslims, has been brought to heel by Islamic radicals in league with Syria to transform what was once a symbol of democracy into a puppet of terror-loving Damascus.

An American engineer who was kidnapped in Lebanon overpowered his captors and then, with the help of Syrian troops, escaped to Damascus yesterday, Lebanon radio and U.S. officials said. A source close to the Syrian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the American was delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, but said he was rescued by Syrian troops who overpowered his kidnappers after finding out where he was being held in Lebanon. The discrepency in the reports could not immediately be reconciled.

BEIRUT - Syrian rebels and Hezbollah guerrillas battled Sunday in their worst clashes yet inside Lebanon. Syria's foreign minister, meanwhile, rebuffed an appeal by the U.N. and the Red Cross to let humanitarian aid reach thousands of civilians trapped in the rebel-held town of Qusair, under regime attack for the past three weeks. The Red Cross said many of the wounded were not receiving desperately needed medical care. Meanwhile, thousands of Hezbollah militants were massed around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, according to rebels and a senior commander in the Lebanese Shiite movement, broadening Hezbollah's backing of President Bashar al-Assad's forces and stoking fears of an imminent assault on the city.

BEIRUT - Eighteen rockets and mortars rounds from Syria slammed into Lebanon on Saturday, the largest cross-border salvo to hit a Hezbollah stronghold since Syrian rebels threatened to retaliate for the Lebanese militant group's armed support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The rockets targeted the Baalbek region, the latest sign that Syria's civil war is increasingly destabilizing Lebanon. On Friday, the Lebanese parliament decided to put off general elections, originally scheduled for June, by 17 months, blaming a deteriorating security situation.

BEIRUT - Gunmen killed three Lebanese soldiers in a drive-by shooting on a government checkpoint near the Syrian border Tuesday, Lebanon's military said, escalating tensions in a country deeply divided by the civil war next door and fearful of being engulfed by the conflict. Sectarian clashes tied to Syria's war have broken out with increasing regularity in Lebanon, while rockets fired from across the frontier have struck Lebanese border villages with growing frequency. That violence, coupled with the Hezbollah militant group's direct intervention in the Syrian conflict has deeply shaken Lebanon and threatened to throw off the country's precarious sectarian balance.

BEIRUT - A pair of rockets slammed into a car dealership and a residential building in strongholds of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group in Beirut on Sunday, wounding four people in a new sign that Syria's civil war is increasingly rattling its fragile neighbor. Lebanon's sectarian divide mirrors that of Syria, and Lebanese armed factions have increasingly taken sides in the fighting next door. There was no claim of responsibility for Sunday's rocket attacks, but they struck just hours after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed to propel Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to victory.

BEIRUT - Opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad traded heavy machine-gun fire and mortar shells in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, leaving five people dead in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting there in years, officials said Thursday. Tripoli has been a frequent flashpoint of sectarian tensions stoked by the civil war in neighboring Syria. The latest overnight deaths brought to 16 the number of people killed in clashes there this week, and the overall number of wounded rose to 190, said a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

BEIRUT - Lebanon's prime minister resigned Friday due to an impasse over a new election law and the cabinet's refusal to extend the tenure of the national police chief. Najib Mikati's resignation comes at a time of rising tensions and sporadic violence in Lebanon largely linked to the civil war in Syria. Lebanon and Syria share a complex network of political and sectarian ties that are often inflamed, and many fear that the war in Syria will bring violence to Lebanon. These tensions have roiled Lebanon's fragile political scene as well.

Cyprus working toward bailout NICOSIA, Cyprus - Lawmakers in Cyprus approved three key bills Friday that aim to raise enough money to qualify the country for a broader bailout package and help it avoid financial ruin in mere days. A total of nine bills were approved, including a key one on restructuring the country's ailing banks, which lost billions on bad Greek debt; a second on restricting financial transactions in times of crisis; and one that sets up a "solidarity fund" into which investments and contributions will flow.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister warned Wednesday that a victory for rebels in the Syrian civil war would create a new extremist haven and destabilize the wider Middle East, sparking sectarian wars in his own country and in Lebanon. Nouri al-Maliki stopped short of voicing outright support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's embattled regime. But his comments in an interview with the Associated Press marked one of his strongest warnings yet about the turmoil that the collapse of the Syrian government could create.

MUNICH - Israel's defense minister strongly signaled Sunday that his country was behind an air strike last week in Syria, telling a high-profile security conference that Israeli threats to take preemptive action against its enemies were not empty. "We mean it," Ehud Barak declared. Israel has not officially confirmed its planes attacked a site near Damascus, targeting ground-to-air missiles apparently heading for Lebanon, but its intentions have been beyond dispute. During the 22 months of civil war in Syria, Israeli leaders have repeatedly expressed concern that high-end weapons could fall into the hands of enemy Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militants.

BEIRUT - Syria's civil war spilled over into neighboring Lebanon again Sunday, with gun battles in the northern city of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's regime that left four dead. Nine Syrian judges and prosecutors also defected to the opposition. It was the latest setback for the regime, which appears increasingly embattled with rebels making gains in northern Syria and near Damascus, the capital. The defecting judges posted a joint statement online urging others to join them and break ranks with Assad's regime.