The international investigation into the assassination of former Premier Rafiq Hariri and subsequent crimes certainly violates Lebanese sovereignty, there is no doubt of that. This is not just in terms of the investigators’ violation of “morals” in the neighborhood of Ouzai and of people’s sanctity.

Around two weeks ago, Iraqi Ambassador to the Kingdom Dr. Ghanim al-Jumaily visited the offices of Al-Hayat in Riyadh. We talked a lot about the current situation in Iraq and the numerous crises which affected it and disbanded its people. Two days before this visit, I carried an article in Al-Hayat headlined “Lebanon and Denial,” in which I stressed the necessity for Saudi Arabia to rearrange its political priorities in the region because Iraq constitutes a strategic depth to it and enjoys a common border with it - considered the longest with the neighboring states after Yemen.

The situation in the region, especially in Lebanon and Iraq, appears to be on the brink of returning to square one. The wager on the compromises and half-solutions to act as an alternative for the explosion and the decisive settlement - or their postponement in a best case scenario - completely collapsed. Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah shot the first bullet at the international tribunal for Lebanon.

“Islam has demonstrated the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality. Islam has always been a part of America’s story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States, starting businesses and contributing in bringing about many of its achievements.”

My personal campaign against the Bush administration, the cabal that pressed for war against Iraq, and a US right wing that was complicit in this war is a foregone conclusion, and is something that should come from any citizen who supports his fellow citizens and humanity itself. But the biggest portion of my anger, frustration and disappointment with the human spirit involves Muslims themselves and the American liberal media, and their failure to prevent the war or demand justice for its victims.

Let us forget yesterday’s sensitivities and the past few years. Surrendering to them puts policies in small cages, invalidates the present, and booby-traps the future. This applies to relations inside countries with diverse constituents, and to relations among neighboring countries as well. Dialogue inside countries cannot take place on the basis of the victor and the defeated, the strong and the weak, or with the language of provocation, command, or absolute refusal of what has changed, in addition to ignoring the balance of forces and demographic and political realities.

Did we need 391,823 documents on the U.S. war in Iraq to know that the Bush administration has committed the worst war crimes in modern history since 1945?

Hezbollah’s call, a few days ago, for boycotting UN investigators looking into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri can be considered the culmination of the party’s stance on the Special Tribunal. Indeed, Hezbollah has shed doubt on this tribunal since its establishment, voiced reservations to sanctioning it and withdrawn its ministers from the government cabinet in protest to its sanctioning, which resulted in a political and security crisis, one which could only be contained in the Doha Agreement and the election of a President of the Republic.

There is increasing groundwork currently underway in the Eastern Mediterranean, in order to establish an oil industry, in light of recent gas discoveries in its maritime areas, amid sharp political disputes among the countries of the region. Here, we will try to briefly showcase the most important developments in this regard.

In its criticisms of the government of Spanish Prime Minister Luis Zapatero, the only comment that the Spanish People’s Party had regarding the civil unrest that broke out in occupied Melilla, was describing the impoverished suburbs of the city- where Moroccans take refugee- as the most fragile areas in all European cities.