Human Rights

Lebanon’s protests have entered their fourth week, but have produced very few results. The uprising scored an early victory by prompting Prime Minister Saad Hariri to announce his government’s resignation on October 29, fulfilling one of the protesters’ demands. Yet, nine days after Hariri’s resignation, little apparent progress has been made on forming a new government, and it remains unclear whether that government will take the form demanded by the protesters – namely, a smaller cabinet of independent technocrats.

Two weeks after they began, Lebanon’s anti-government protests have not abated. Despite certain developments like Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation, the protesters have not cleared the streets and are still insisting on their original demand to bring down the entire political class in government. The following update provides the latest state of play, analyzing speeches by Hezbollah’s Secretary-General and Prime Minister Hariri’s resignation.

Nasrallah’s Speeches and the Street’s Response

In a previous blogpost UANI highlighted the astonishing claim by the Iranian embassy in Copenhagen that Iran was “as safe as Sweden.”  Now the same ludicrous comparison is being parroted by an American travel agency on the West Coast.

If you’re considering travel to Iran, you would be wise to check on your country’s travel advisory.

“Nicht verhandelbar” (“non-negotiable”) is a recurring refrain among Germany’s political top brass, deployed to signal Berlin’s unbending commitments to inter alia: hosting Syrian refugees (2015), the Paris Climate Accords (2016), open borders within the EU (

Iran’s revolutionary regime, which marked its 40th year in power in February, has achieved global notoriety for its nuclear program, repression of the Iranian citizenry, and support for international terrorism. The Islamic Republic’s most catastrophic and enduring legacy, however, may be the war it has waged against Iran’s environment, which threatens to make Iran largely uninhabitable.

With the Syrian civil war–a conflict in which nearly 500,000 people have been killed and over 12 million have been displaced—entering its eighth year, the Assad regime’s Iranian-backed brutality shows no signs of abating. The Islamic State has been largely uprooted in Syria, and Assad and his allies have resumed focus on reconquering and consolidating their control over lost territory. Priority one has been Eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb which is the last rebel-held enclave in the capital region.