The assassination on Tuesday of Pierre Gemayel, Lebanon’s industry minister, was another brutal blow of the axe to the cedar tree that gave its name to the nation’s so-called ‘revolution’ last year. That uprising was triggered by another death — the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri in February 2005 — and forced the resignation of the pro-Syrian government of the time. The shooting of the 34-year-old Gemayel, a scion of the country’s leading Christian family and an outspoken opponent of Syrian influence, shows how desperately fragile Lebanon’s gains have been and, frankly, how illusory were its claims to independence after the 2005 uprising.
It is no surprise that Gemayel’s murder has spawned fears of a return to civil war, and it was certainly a savagely aimed intervention in Lebanese high politics. At the heart of the turmoil besetting Fuad Siniora’s government is its determination to expedite the UN plan for an international trial of suspects in the Hariri assassination.
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