![A man selling petrol and gas waits for clients in Ain Tarma neighbourhood, Damascus January 23, 2013. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT ENERGY) - RTR3CUPA](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR3CUPA.jpg/RTR3CUPA.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=RbVeiO1x)
Mohammad Harfoush is a Lebanese journalist reporting for the Kuwaiti Al-Anbaa newspaper and the author of Eritrea: Basic Facts.
![A man selling petrol and gas waits for clients in Ain Tarma neighbourhood, Damascus January 23, 2013. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT ENERGY) - RTR3CUPA](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR3CUPA.jpg/RTR3CUPA.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=RbVeiO1x)
![Lebanese policemen stand guard at the entrance of a residential building where former Lebanese government minister Michel Samaha lives, in Beirut August 9, 2012. Samaha, a former Lebanese government minister with close ties to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was detained in Lebanon on Thursday for questioning over what the Lebanese prime minister described as security-related matters. A security source said Samaha, detained in the early hours, was being questioned about alleged plans to cause instability](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR36IDD.jpg/RTR36IDD.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=nIqRBDbY)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![A man kisses a woman as they hold up a placard during a protest demanding to legalize civil marriage in Lebanon, at Martyrs' square in downtown Beirut February 4, 2013. Lebanese laws do not recognise civil marriages conducted in Lebanon. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi (LEBANON - Tags: CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3DCHX](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR3DCHX.jpg/RTR3DCHX.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=8M-ksoV2)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![Lebanon's Hezbollah supporters gesture as they pray during a ceremony to mark Ashura in Beirut's suburbs, November 25, 2012. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel on Sunday that thousands of rockets would rain down on Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities if Israel attacked Lebanon. In a speech marking the Shi'ite Muslim festival of Ashura, Nasrallah said Hezbollah's response to any attack would dwarf the attacks from Gaza during the eight-day conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas rule](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR3AUNS.jpg/RTR3AUNS.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=SBddRSyS)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![Palestinian children who were living in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp before fleeing Syria, hold up banners during a protest in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Beirut January 17, 2013. Banners read, "The International Committee of the Red Cross is the conscience of the international community towards refugees" (R) and "Why the international community miserly to some places, and generous in some others?". REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON - Tags: SOCIETY IMMIGRATION POLITI](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR3CK63.jpg/RTR3CK63.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=IW0TckBP)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![Fighters from the Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra sit in their tank near Taftanaz military airport January 12, 2013. Picture taken January 12, 2013.REUTERS/Abdalghne Karoof (SYRIA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST MILITARY POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR3CFWU](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/01/RTR3CFWU.jpg/RTR3CFWU.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=kMsp7x5w)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by the patriarch of Lebanese Christian Maronites, Bishara Boutros al-Rai, as Lebanon's President looks on upon his arrival at Beirut's airport September, 14, 2012. REUTERS/ Jamal Saidi (LEBANON - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS) - RTR37YUG](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/01/RTR37YUG.jpg/RTR37YUG.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=DCcdSLiu)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![Lebanese soldiers set up concertina wire after Palestinians threw stones at the army post and started a fire at the entrance of the Ain al Hilweh refugee camp near the port-city of Sidon, in south Lebanon, June 19, 2012, to protest the recent clashes that happened between Lebanese army soldiers and Palestinians in a separate refugee camp in Lebanon. The Lebanese army shot dead two Palestinians in a refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli on Monday after confrontations broke out during the funeral of](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/01/RTR33VIV.jpg/RTR33VIV.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=XwC9BfDG)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![Lebanese army soldiers inspect a car at a checkpoint in the port city of Tripoli, northern Lebanon, during clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites December 6, 2012. Two men were killed by sniper fire in Tripoli on Thursday during sectarian clashes between gunmen loyal to opposing sides in neighbouring Syria's civil war, residents said. REUTERS/Stringer (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST MILITARY TRANSPORT)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/01/lebanon-RTR3B9MS.jpg/lebanon-RTR3B9MS.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=-eb2-xhB)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![U.S. actress Mia Farrow (C), a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, sits with children of Syrian refugees at an UNICEF office in Wadi Khaled, north Lebanon, January 14, 2013. Farrow is on a two day visit to Lebanon, meeting Syrian refugees. REUTERS/Roula Naeimeh (LEBANON - Tags: SOCIETY POLITICS ENTERTAINMENT)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/01/1-RTR3CG48.jpg/1-RTR3CG48.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=-3vpeZA6)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman (5th from bottom) presides a cabinet meeting at the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut January 3, 2013. Lebanon, now a haven for 170,000 Syrians fleeing civil war, has asked foreign donors for $180 million to help care for them and said it will register and recognise refugees after a year-long hiatus. The Beirut government has officially sought to "dissociate" itself from the 21-month-old struggle in Syria, nervous about the destabilising impact of the increasingl](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/01/lebanon-cabinet.jpg/lebanon-cabinet.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=pMx_AiZU)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush
![Relatives of Lebanese who had gone missing in Syria on Friday chant slogans during a protest to enquire about their relatives' fate, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, December 3, 2012. At least 12 Lebanese gunmen were killed in a Syrian army ambush in the central Syrian province of Homs, a security source and people close the men's families said on Friday, a sign that Lebanon is getting further tangled in Syria's war. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 Lebanese fighters had gone missing and a secon](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/01/1-RTR3B63J.jpg/1-RTR3B63J.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=ysWQH0Oe)
![Mohammad Harfoush](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/Harfoush.jpg/Harfoush.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=fLIfEPnO)
Mohammad Harfoush