Mideast Expert Says Hezbollah Controls Shia In Lebanon

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Middle East Institute Scholar Graeme Bannerman says that the Shia community in Lebanon considers Hezbollah as their mentor and their leader. (0:27)
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Mideast Expert Says Majority Of Hezbollah Are Shia

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Middle East Institute Scholar Graeme Bannerman says that 95 percent of the Shia voting population has voted for Hezbollah in the recent Parliamentary election in Lebanon and that for this reason the organization cannot be pushed aside from the political arena. (0:15)
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Middle East Experts Surprised At Lebanon's Election Results

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Middle East Institute Scholar Graeme Bannerman says "Lebanon is not a democracy, it is a greed republic". (0:20)
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Expert: Lebanese President On 'A Balancing Act'

Bilal Saab, a Lebanon expert at the Brookings Institution, explains that the Lebanese president is faced with a 'balancing act' as he should try to satisfy two opposing groups. Indeed, the radical Hezbollah party does not trust the President for his Western inclinations whilst the March 14th coalition of anti-Syrians believes the President is too lenient with the Syrians. As a result, the President might not be granted additional powers. (0:41)
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Scholar: Unity In Lebanese Elections

Graeme Bannerman, a Middle East Institute adjunct scholar, explains that there has been no change in the balance of power in Lebanon, with all ethnic groups being represented through the elections. (0:42)
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Scholar: Thank Lebanese Minister of Interior For Succesful Elections

Graeme Bannerman, a Middle East Institute adjunct scholar, says that the Lebanese Minister of Interior is to thank for the success of the June 7th election. Bannerman explains that the Minister was a non-partisan in the elections, and in a surprising move, the opposition parties agreed that the job was well done. (0:25)
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What the United States have accomplished in Iraq

Ambassador Tom C. Korologos comments on the United States accomplishments in the Middle-East and Iraq. Korologos also comments on the situation in Afghanistan. (0:54)
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Key to transforming the Middle East: “be in the game every single day”

Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) says that if the United States wants to see a transformed Middle East with Iraq and Lebanon as “pillars of that transformed Middle East” then the U.S. must be “in the game every single day.” He said the U.S. has had a policy of giving pronouncements which are rarely followed by action, but that Iran is “in the game every single day.” (1:49)

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Kahlilzad On Lebanon: "Unmasking Hezbollah"

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Kahlilzad statements at the Security Council stakeout on Monday regarding Hezbollah and the recent conflict in Lebanon (1:51)
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“Hezbollah had exerted control over pretty much all of West Beirut”

Council on Foreign Relations Fellow Mohamad Bazzi describes how he woke up today to gunfire, as Hezbollah fighters moved methodically through the streets. He says they took over offices and media under the Sunni leader, Saad Hariri, but then turned them back over to the Lebanese army. He says by midday Hezbollah was able to exert control over pretty much all of West Beirut. (1:06)
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Violent outbursts caught people in Lebanon by surprise

Mohamad Bazzi, Council on Foreign Relations fellow on the ground in Beirut, says that the recent outbursts of violence caught most people in Lebanon by surprise. He says that the violence over the last four to five days is rooted in events that transpired over the weekend, when Hezbollah was accused of spying on the Lebanese state with a camera trained on a runway of Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport. (0:59)
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Lebanese blogger Tony Badran says blogs can also be used to spread propaganda

Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute panel on bloggers in the Middle East, Lebanese blogger Tony Badran says that blogs can be used both for dissent against regimes and also tools for disinformation by regimes. (0:30)
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