A woman holds a portrait of the assassinated Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, during a ceremony at the height of Ashura, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on July 6, 2025. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
Despite his smile, Tom Barrack shook up the Lebanese political scene far more than Hurricane Morgan. While his visit to Beirut last week felt like a summer breeze, it has since been followed by a political storm sweeping through the country.This paradox sums up the American envoy’s approach, an expert blend of carrot and stick. His warning — followed by a partial walk-back — about the risk of Lebanon, whose very existence is under threat, returning to Bilad al-Sham fits squarely into that pattern.If this rhetorical bombshell revealed anything, it’s the chronic fragility of the Lebanese patchwork. A single sentence was enough to deepen the polarization: on one side, those who blame Hezbollah for the “dissolution” of the state and for the internationalization of the Lebanese file; on the other, those who claim to defend a “betrayed...
Despite his smile, Tom Barrack shook up the Lebanese political scene far more than Hurricane Morgan. While his visit to Beirut last week felt like a summer breeze, it has since been followed by a political storm sweeping through the country.This paradox sums up the American envoy’s approach, an expert blend of carrot and stick. His warning — followed by a partial walk-back — about the risk of Lebanon, whose very existence is under threat, returning to Bilad al-Sham fits squarely into that pattern.If this rhetorical bombshell revealed anything, it’s the chronic fragility of the Lebanese patchwork. A single sentence was enough to deepen the polarization: on one side, those who blame Hezbollah for the “dissolution” of the state and for the internationalization of the Lebanese file; on the other, those who claim to defend a...
