It seems that rarely a year or two can go by without some crisis in Lebanon. The last one occurred in 2008 when the Saniora Government threatened Hezbollah's telecommunications infrastructure, bringing Hezbollah's military wing onto the streets of Beirut along with its allies, the Shiite organisation Amal. The current crisis has its origins in the protracted investigations of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (formerly the UN International Independent Investigation Commission), the UN investigation into the death of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, which have been running for 5 years. At first Syria and four Lebanese generals, imprisoned without charge for four years, were held responsible for the assassination but the generals were released after the witnesses who provided the evidence against them were found to be making false accusations.
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