A few days ago Nizar Abdel-Kader published an online article “ Out of the Quagmire” on a Middle-East roundtalbe website called Bitter Lemons.  In the middle of the article he writes, 

To circumscribe the Lebanese disaster, now is the opportune moment for the five permanent members of the Security Council and Israel to alter their views and positions in dealing with this highly complicated and multi-dimensional crisis. Left alone, the Lebanese government may be devoured by the intricacies of domestic differences and destabilized by the pressures exercised by Iran and Syria. The longer the current crisis continues, the higher the risk that events will descend into a vicious downward spiral, reminiscent of the multi-national force deployed in Lebanon in 1982 and the failure of the May 17 agreement. Olmert must not repeat the same mistakes committed after the 1982 invasion. The greatest risk remains an attempt by Syria and Iran to use their proxies in Lebanon to oppose the deployment of a peacekeeping force.

Read the rest of his words here.

Mr. Nizar Abdel-Kader is a political analyst and columnist at ad-Diyar newspaper, Beirut