[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] After two weeks of popular protests in Leb against the country’s corrupt political class, Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too....
has handed his resignation. While some see this development as a victory for the protesters, such assessments miss the mark. The same political barons will now consult to form a new government, a process in which Iran’s arm in Leb, Hezbollah, has final say. Far from signaling a change in the system, the episode will have marked its regeneration.
Leb’s serious economic crisis, meanwhile, will still be there. Hariri’s gambit is to return as the head of a new government, in partnership with Hezbollah, present a plan for some reforms, and hope for a bailout from international donors. For the United States, this is not a desirable outcome. The Trump administration should carry on with its sanctions policy while continuing to oppose a bailout for Beirut. Insofar as the new government will be formed in partnership with Hezbollah, bailing out such a government means bailing out Hezbollah.