Recent reports indicating that Israel and Syria are indirectly engaged in Turkish brokered peace talks suggest a major (albeit overdue) development in the Mid-East peace-making process. Since the collapse of the Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations in May 2000, I have consistently been advocating the need for Israeli-Syrian reconciliation specifically because there is not a single dispute in the region that is not affected in one form or another by this conflict.

The Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan says that Arab states express a wish to move their financial and banking center from Lebanon to Armenia as Armenia makes serious steps to become the regional financial center by dedicating northern town of Dilijan specially for this purpose.

Michel Suleiman officially became the President of Lebanon yesterday as a conclusion was reached in a series of events that resulted in the election be delayed by over a year.

Lebanon's US-backed government in Beirut has reversed measures against Iran ally Hezbollah that set off the worst violence since the country's 1975-1990 war.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called on the army today to restore law and order across Lebanon and remove gunmen from the streets, accusing Hezbollah of staging an armed coup.

By Friday afternoon it had started to calm down in Beirut. Only sporadic gunfire was heard after a day of fighting claimed the lives of eleven persons and left many wounded. Without much resistance from the pro-government forces, the superior military machine of Hizbollah confirmed its grip on the Western part of Beirut. With Hizbollah's military action, the political crisis that has been looming in the country for the past 18 months has reached a climax.

Syria is criticizing the deployment of U.S. warships off the Lebanese coast.

A Hezbollah lawmaker in Lebanon says the U.S. deployment of warships off the Lebanese coast is a threat against the country.

Lebanon's parliament has postponed Monday's scheduled presidential election, the latest in a series of delays during the country's political crisis.

The final report of the Winograd Commissionon on the inconclusive 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas blamed the military and the Govt. for failing to protect Israel from 4,000 Hezbollah rockets and faulted decision-making.

Lebanese officials say a car bomb blast in a Christian suburb of the capital Beirut has killed at least six people, including a top security official. Edward Yeranian reports from Beirut

Country faces tenth postponement to vote to elect its President in Lebanon parliament is due to the gap widens between the pro-Western ruling parliamentary majority and Syrian-backed opposition.