Bassem Mroue

The 1973 Arab-Israeli war lead few years later to peace between Israel and Egypt. The 1991 Gulf War was followed months later by the Madrid peace conference. In 1993, the Palestinians signed a peace agreement with Israel and Jordan became the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state a year later. The question today is whether the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group will lead to a peace agreement in the near future. Less than a week before hostilities ended, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are planning to put forward a peace plan to the U.N. next month. At the same time, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni appointed Yakov Dayan to be a "project manager" for possible peace talks with Syria. Peace talks between Syria, Lebanon and Israel have been stalled for six years. In 1993, just after the Oslo agreement was signed I was chatting with a colleague in Cyprus about the future of the Middle East and we were both wondering h...

I wrote last week about the deadly battles between Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon in the last three days before the cease fire went into force. The Israeli army was trying to reach the Litani River before the cease fire was in force and they were not able to achieve this goal by Monday. Hezbollah then said that they had destroyed about a two dozen Israeli Merkavas, a claim that Israel denied. Nehemia Shtrasler wrote an article about what happened in the 72 hours before the cease fire in an article published today in Haaretz, "Three terrible days." Also today, Israeli commandos landed deep in eastern Lebanon and clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas. One Israeli officer was killed and two were wounded while Lebanese security officials said three Hezbollah members were killed. The group denied any of its members died. Television footage showed blood in a fields around the village of Buddai as well as equipment left behind by Israeli troops. The Israeli...

After years of waiting, thousands of southern Lebanese went out to the streets of their towns and villages to welcome their national army with traditional dancing, flowers and the Arab welcome gesture of throwing rice. It has been a moment that most the people have been waiting for decades. The army reached Thursday the barbed wire on the Lebanon-Israel border and the deployment of the 15,000 troops was to continue for days. The troops are to be backed by thousands of U.N. peacekeepers in the next few weeks. Four days after the cease fire went into force, life was going back to normal in Beirut with people going out during the day and rubble was being removed from heavily damaged areas so that reconstruction can begin. Still when I drive around the capital at night all the memories of the 1975-90 war come back to me especially because the roads at night are almost empty and dark due to electricity cuts. But now that fuel tankers have entered ports, hopefully electricity will come back ...

Only an hour after the cease fire went into force at 8 a.m. today, thousands of Lebanese started their march back to their homes in southern Lebanon, Beirut's southern suburbs and the Bekaa. They were all happy even though many feared that they will not find their homes the way they left them. Israeli bombings not only killed more than 1,000 Lebanese and wounded thousands others but also destroyed many villages around the country as well as large parts of Beirut' southern suburb that is the home for about half a million people. Now that the war has ended, other problems will surface especially that Ramadan is a month a way, schools should begin early September and winter is coming. People who went back Monday were defiant and many of them said that Israel's bombing only made them respect and love Hezbollah and its leader more and more. This was not the first time that large parts of Lebanon were destroyed but as it was rebuilt in the past it will again. Homes, bridges, powe...

My colleague Hussein walked into the news room and said Hezbollah is organizing a tour in the southern suburbs adding that whoever wants to go should be at Hadi Nasrallah's street at noon. I took a flak jacket and a helmet then went to Hadi Nasrallah street and the closer we go to the end of the road the more destruction we saw. As I left the car and looked around, Haret Hreik looked more like an area destroyed by an earthquake rather than by aerial bombardment. A Hezbollah member took our names on a piece of papers then asked us to wait until his colleagues come to take us on the tour in nearby streets. It is not a good feeling when standing in an area that is bombed almost daily and is few hundred meters from the "security square" that used to house Hezbollah's headquarters and the home of the group's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah until all its buildings were flattened. At 12:05 several Hezbollah members, all in civilian clothes with blue or beige caps and carry...

A Day after resolution 1701 was adopted at the U.N. Security Council, Israel said it started its largest landing operation since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The Israeli army clearly wants to reach the Litani River before a cease fire is expected to take effect on Monday's 8 a.m. but it is proving not to be simple. What is clear is that landing hundreds of troops around southern Lebanon did not turn out to be big success with some 24 Israeli soldiers killed and more than 100 wounded Saturday alone. A helicopter was also shot down and a number of Merkavas were seen burning in television footage. Lebanese believe that Israel seems to be doing the same mistake that Ariel Sharon did as defense minister 24 years ago. Although the Israeli army reached Beirut in 1982 within days, after one month of fighting now Israeli troops have not even captured the village of Aita al-Shaab which is just on the border. Although they reached the town of Marjayoun, every one in Lebanon knows that it was an...

It was the second day in a row that a funeral for people killed by Israeli bombardment was taking place the area was bombed again by the Israeli military. In the southern town of Ghaziyeh Tuesday, dozens of people had to flee a funeral procession when missiles fired by Israeli warplanes landed few hundred meters from them. The bodies that were to be taken to rest in peace were put on the road as people fled. Others came back and carried the bodies on stretchers to the cemetery. On Wednesday, the same thing happened in Shiyah as the bodies of nearly 40 people killed in a Monday air raid were to be buried in the Shahidein cemetery. Alo Wednesday, there were heavy fighting on the border and at least 15 Israeli soldiers were killed until about 9 p.m. Hezbollah said three of its members were killed as well. Israel's Security Cabinet Wednesday approved a wider ground offensive in the south and they expected 30 days to damage Hezbollah. Many Lebanese believe that Israel is coming back to ...

I was sleeping at about 5 a.m. Monday when I was woken up by a strong explosion. I opened my eyes and waited for few seconds and another explosion echoed from a distance. I turned on the radio next to my bed and shortly afterward Voice of Lebanon had the breaking news. "Attacks renewed on the southern suburbs." The day ended with the bloodiest death toll since the war began. Forty-nine Lebanese civilians were killed in the south, Bekaa and the southern suburbs. Two Hezbollah guerrillas as well as three Israeli soldiers were killed. The worst air raid was in Shiyah and left 10 people killed and 43 wounded. The pictures of the dead and wounded being taken out of the rubble were very sad. A wounded man told Al-Jazeera television from his hospital bed "we were at home and the Israelis bombed us. They should have the courage and go fight against resistance fighters if they dare not bomb innocent civilians." The number of Lebanese killed since the war began is getting clo...

I arrived home at 1 a.m. after a long day of work. I met my two cousins and their families who came to stay with me after they were displaced from their southern Lebanese village because of heavy Israeli bombing. I haven't seen them since before I went to Iraq on June 26, so we a long chat about the family as well as the situation in Lebanon. It was about 2:30 a.m. when I was brushing my teeth and getting ready to go to bed when a load explosion echoed from a distance. I went straight to the bed room, picked up my cellular telephone and called the office to check if they heard the explosion. "Yes. Israeli warplanes are attacking the southern suburbs," my colleague Joe said. We chatted briefly then hang up. I opened the windows of my bedroom for fear glass might be shattered in case of an explosion then went to bed. As I laid my head on the pillow, another explosion echoed. I waited for more but nothing happened and went into a deep sleep. At midday Thursday I went to offi...

We were all in the sitting room of our apartment in West Beirut during a June 1982 evening as the Israeli army was advancing toward the capital. With no electricity, my parents, myself and my elder brother Hasan, sat with nothing much to do other than listening to the radio under the light of a kerosine lamp. As my father tuned from one station to another we heard Israel's Arabic-language radio station airing a message to Palestinian guerrillas calling them to take off their military uniforms, carry a white flag and surrender because they had no other choice. Then, it was not the first time Israeli troops had asked Palestinians to surrender. For days earlier, Israeli aircraft were dropping leaflets demanding the same thing. I remembered the 1982 message and the leaflets today when Israeli aircraft dropped some over the town of Nabatiyeh calling Hezbollah guerrillas to give up. The Palestinians then did not surrender and fought for 87 days in Beirut after Israeli troops imposed a de...

The first thing I did when I woke up today was watch television to see what was going on. Tuning between LBC, Manar, NBN, Future, New TV, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya there were no major reports other than air raids here and there during the night. But about half an hour after breaking news began with reports from the southern town of Qana. A building bombed by Israelis and many people are buried under the rubble, the stations said. More than 50 people, many of them women and children, were killed. The strike occurred at around 1 a.m. which could mean that they were sleeping when the war planes hit. The bombing brought condemnation from throughout the world and left Lebanese in shock as they saw bodies of children being extracted from under the rubble by members of the Lebanese Red Cross. It brought back the memories of the April 18, 1996 when Israeli bombing killed more than 100 people in a U.N. base in the same town. The night before I drove around the city but Beirut was not the one I ...

Heading to Baghdad International Airport on Thursday morning, I thought it was a quiet day in the city. The airport road, once known "death road," was not very crowded and the trip was fine. Later I knew it was not. As I was at the airport, four explosions occurred in the central neighborhood of Karradah killing at least 32 people and wounding many others. This is Baghdad where hardly a day passes without dozens of people losing their lives, in markets, coffee shops, mosques or even in their homes. Giving my passport to the immigration officers, he immediately looked at me and asked: "How is Lebanon?" Iraqi Airways flight to Damascus took about 90 minutes and it would have been great had a young boy sitting in front of me not vomited near me. Poor boy, he got sick for it was the first time he rides an airplane. From Damascus' International Airport to the city's downtown, pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah were everywhere. In cars, on billboards, s...

Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat had a good report about the investigation of last years assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The report, quoting well-informed Lebanese sources, said chief investigator Serge Brammertz reached very important information concerning the crime. The sources said Brammertz and his team have information about who was behind the crime and as well as other crimes that hit Lebanon in the past year. Brammertz is almost convinced that there was an explosion underground as well as one above. No wonder that earlier this month we saw a huge tent erected at the scene since it is clear that work is going on in the area. Read the interesting report . Bassem Mroue Beirut May 22, 2006

Al-Hayat today has a nice article about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in which the paper's correspondent Bassel Mohammed quotes three senior Iraqi security officials about efforts to capture the most wanted man in Iraq. One of the officials quoted in the story, Major General Hussein Ali Kamal, who is in charge of intelligence at the Interior Ministry, said he expects al-Zarqawi to be captured soon and that the Jordanian citizen is believed to be in an area south of Baghdad. I strongly believe that even if al-Zarqawi is captured or killed one day this will not have an effect on his group and their attack will continue same as what happened after Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003 and since then the insurgence has been on the rise. read the article. Bassem Mroue Beirut May 7, 2006

The Arab world is changing and many of its people are getting to know more and more about stock markets. Few years back, not many Arabs held shares in local stock exchanges but the recent boom in the Arab stock markets, mainly pushed by returns from high oil prices, helped a lot. We should not forget that business and financial news aired mainly on Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and MSNBC are attracting more viewers. Asharq al-Awsat has a nice article about how business news women are becoming stars . A friend of mine, who had no idea what the word share meant two years ago, calls twice or three times a week to tell me he bought shares or invested money in local mutual funds. He has been doing well so far despite a major decrease in prices in the past weeks, mainly in Saudi Arabia and UAE. A Lebanese woman I know told me about her Saudi friend who sold his house for about 200,000 U.S. dollars and put all the money in the stock exchange. I don't know whether he is in the red or the black. A...

الشاعر السوري ممدوح عدوان أنا شاعرٌ أو شاهدٌ متورّط لم يلق متكأً له في مفخرة بدم ترى ام بالدموع ملا ت هذي المحبرة وكتبتُ شعراً كي أعزّي أم رسمت على الدفاتر مقبرة نتعمد الإسرافْ لنستّر الفاقةْ الزاد خبزٌ حافْ والنفس أفّاقةْ الدمع نهرٌ جافْ ما بلّل الياقةْ والريح في الأعطافْ ذكرى بلا طاقةْ يبكي لنا الصفصافْ فنحنّ كالناقةْ تابوتنا مصيافْ والقبر ورّاقةْ باسم مروة بغداد 18 اذار 2006

I always wanted to see Saddam Hussein in person but never thought it will be the way it happened this week. Early in the morning we arrived at the court building where the former president is being tried. We waited and waited until the trial session started later than usual at about 2 p.m. We entered the court room and waited again but not much. Few minutes later the judges came in so we all stood up until chief judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman waved for everyone present to sit down. "Call the defendants," Abdul-Rahman told a man sitting at the back of the room. The man, wearing a brown suit, immediately stood up and started calling names written on a piece of paper he held in his right hand. "Defendant Saddam Hussein al-Majid." My eyes were glued to a door where a colleague told me the defendants will come from. The door opened and Saddam appeared in his elegant black suit being escorted by two guards. As I looked in shock at the 69-year-old man walk to his ...

Atwar Bahjat was not only brutally killed along with two of her colleagues this week near Samarra but her funeral ended bloody as well with shootings and a car bomb that left 3 people dead and 10 wounded. What did this woman do in order to be murdered and also be shot at as she was carried in her coffin to her resting place in the Karkh Cemetery near the western neighborhood of Abu Ghraib. Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi said two policemen were killed and five were wounded when the convoy was shot at as it headed to the cemetery. When journalists, relatives and friends were returning to Baghdad later in the day, a car bomb exploded leaving one soldier dead and five others wounded. Luckily Al-Arabiya's team that went to the funeral returned safely to Baghdad. Baghdad is passing these days through a very difficult period. The bombing of the Imam Ali al-Hadi and Hassan al-Askari shrine in Samarra had terrible repercussions. Many Sunni mosques were attacked and near 200...

It was so sad and shocking to know the first thing in the morning when I turned on the television on Al-Arabiya that their Baghdad correspondent Atwar Bahjat and two of her colleagues were killed near the Iraqi city of Samarra. The station said the woman and her two colleagues, Adnan Khairallah and Khaled Mahmoud were stopped by two gunmen Wednesday afternoon near Samarra and shot near their car. They had tried to enter the city earlier in the day to cover a bombing that damaged a holy Shiite Muslim shrine but were prevented. I met Atwar few times in the past three years and was always impressed by how courageous she was in chasing the news whether it had to do with violence or politics. She confidently stood in front of the camera speaking live from Baghdad's dangerous streets. Why was she killed? I hope we will know one day when her killers are captured and brought to face justice. The death of Atwar and her colleagues raised the number of journalists killed in Iraq s...

It was Monday February 14, 2005 and I had some things to do before leaving to Egypt the next day on a 10-day vacation. I left home at about 11 and went to Hamra street where I bought my favorite newspaper, Al-Hayat. Then headed to my barber Ali in Makdisi street since I was in desperate need for a haircut after seven weeks in Iraq. My friend Hamza, who I was supposed to use his flat in Cairo called me and said he will ask the man who takes care of the apartment make sure it is cleaned before I arrive on Tuesday. Not finding Ali, I decided to go back home and give it another try in the afternoon. At 12:55 as I walked in Sidani Street near Bliss street I heard a massive explosion. I asked myself immediately whether what I heard was a blast or Israeli war planes have broke the sound barrier. I picked up my telephone and called my boss who was north of Beirut but confirmed he felt something. Things started getting clear when I saw thick black smoke billowing from downtown Beirut. ...