The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

New blog: Politique arabe de la France

Politique arabe de la France is a blog on, er, France's Arab world policy. In French of course. Rather wonky but useful to follow -- after all, the Us is not the only Western country whose Arab world policy matters.

One item of note is an explanation of the significance of an open letter by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah to "a French friend" -- i.e. Jacques Chirac -- in which, blogger Emmanuel believes, Nasrallah implies that a return of French influence in Lebanon would be welcomed by Hizbullah. An interesting exploration of how France might be convinced to let Hizbullah retain its weapons and gain more importance in Lebanese politics in exchange for influence.