Amjad Abdi

Recent movements by Thomas Barrack, the US Special Representative for Syria and Lebanon, combined with warnings and analyses from Abdul Bari Atwan, have once again placed a fundamental question on the agenda of public opinion and political elites in the region. Is what is being promoted today as the "rapprochement of Damascus and Beirut" merely a temporary, tactical security adjustment, or does it hold the initial signs of a broader strategic engineering that could permanently redefine the political and security balance of the Levant?