I'm spending the week in the lively and fascinating Lebanese capital city under the auspices of a group called New Opinion here in Beirut, with about nine other American journalists of various ideological hues. I arrived Sunday afternoon.
My first impressions are like pretty much any other westerner's, and thus rather mundane. It's a very western and open city, with a great deal of English-language signage in the shop windows (which seem to alternate between American and British spellings), lots of bars and restaurants, even strip clubs (I believe we walked past one last night), flowing wine and great food. The area adjacent to the airport would seem to be a Hezbollah stronghold, based on the presence of a smattering of posters featuring Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader. We're staying in a hotel that is, I believe, just on the Christian side of the city, up the hill from the American University of Beirut.
Well, naturally it's a deeply complex place of which I know very little, so I'll do my best to refrain from making stupid political judgments (this is my first trip to an Arab city). I'm grateful that we'll be here March 14, which as you may know is the anniversary of the famous "Cedar Revolution" demonstrations of 2005, the massive pro-democracy outpouring that took place in the wake of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri in February 2005. The demonstrations led to the departure of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
The immediate concern of the Lebanese people is the Hariri tribunal, which got underway just last week. The Guardian's excellent Ian Black wrote about what to expect here. It's the UN-sanctioned investigation into the Hariri assassination (just about everyone suspects the Syrians, who deny vehemently any involvement). I say immediate, although in fact as Black reports it's expected that getting to a result will take as long as five years, given expected Syrian non-cooperation with the proceedings. With this long-awaited process finally underway, it should be amazing to witness the commemorative demonstrations or festivities this coming Saturday on this fourth anniversary of the original protests.
In the meantime, this is a fortuitous week to be here for another reason, since our visit follows directly on the heels of secretary of state Hillary Clinton's pledges that the Obama administration would seek negotiations with Syria and would invite Iran to a conference on Afghanistan. Those are fairly remarkable developments, although of course, this being the Middle East, no one should expect too much too soon. (US political aside: remember how candidate Clinton belittled candidate Obama for suggesting negotiations and new diplomatic efforts with US foes like Syria and Iran? I guess she understands who the president is.)
We'll be having meetings throughout the week with various officials and intellectuals. I'll keep you updated. And I very much plan on not getting beaten up.
