...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...'s government formation process, despite shy attempts by a number of politicians that have failed to yield tangible results.
In this regard, Hezbollah MP Hassan Ezzeddine said Tuesday that his party is holding talks with all sides over the government formation issue to remove obstacles hindering the formation of a new cabinet capable of facing Lebanon’s severe economic, social and financial crises.
Ezzeddine said the new cabinet must address the people’s needs by adopting reforms to fight corruption.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible...
sources from the Free Patriotic Movement
Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic...
and the Shiite duo said there no new developments regarding the cabinet formation process, affirming that there are no current talks between the political parties.
For their part, FPM sources blamed Hariri for the deadlock, saying there is no hope for talks to take place since Hariri is still traveling.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible...
Hezbollah and the Amal Movement supported Speaker Nabih
KnobbyBerri
...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians...
’s initiative.
"It became clear that until today, there is no decision to form a cabinet, particularly from President Aoun and MP Gebran Bassil," the sources said, adding that the US and Arab countries support Berri’s initiative.
The sources were referring to the separate visits that Under Secretary for Political Affairs David Hale and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry made to Beirut last week to discuss the political and financial crises.