Lebanon Government Collapses: What's Behind The Crisis

Behind Lebanon's New Political Crisis

Few would have imagined, when a massive explosion killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, that the aftershocks of the blast would be powerful enough to bring down Lebanon's government six years later. The fragile coalition government led by Hariri's son, Saad, collapsed on Wednesday in a dispute over how to respond to the imminent release of a U.N. tribunal's indictments of those accused of the murder, plunging this divided and conflict-weary country once more into the spotlight of regional anxiety.

Lebanon's government is dissolved when more than one third of its 30 cabinet members withdraw, and on Wednesday all 10 ministers belonging to the opposition led by the militant Shi'ite Hizballah movement announced their resignations. Hours later, they were joined by an eleventh minister representing Michel Suleiman, the Christian president, forcing the collapse of Saad Hariri's government.

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