![Police forces gather outside the parliament building in Downtown Beirut November 5, 2014. Lebanon's parliament extended its own mandate until 2017 on Wednesday, a move protesters camped outside and rights groups say denies citizens their democratic privileges. Lebanese politics has become deadlocked amid security concerns resulting from Syria's civil war next door. Parties supporting the extension bill say the security situation is too unstable to hold elections. This would be the second postponement of the](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/11/RTR4CXK7-1.jpg/RTR4CXK7-1.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Kkg-kRxp)
Sami Nader is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Lebanon Pulse, an economist, Middle Eastern affairs analyst and communications expert with extensive expertise in corporate strategy and risk management. He currently directs the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, focusing on the economics and geopolitics of the Levant, and is a professor for USJ University in Beirut. On Twitter: @saminader
![Police forces gather outside the parliament building in Downtown Beirut November 5, 2014. Lebanon's parliament extended its own mandate until 2017 on Wednesday, a move protesters camped outside and rights groups say denies citizens their democratic privileges. Lebanese politics has become deadlocked amid security concerns resulting from Syria's civil war next door. Parties supporting the extension bill say the security situation is too unstable to hold elections. This would be the second postponement of the](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/11/RTR4CXK7-1.jpg/RTR4CXK7-1.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Kkg-kRxp)
![World Bank President Jim Yong Kim shakes hands with Lebanon's Minister of Economy and Trade Allan Hakim (L) upon his arrival at Beirut international airport June 2, 2014. REUTERS/Hasan Shaaban (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR3RVNB](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/11/RTR3RVNB.jpg/RTR3RVNB.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=LHL3rkoG)
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Sami Nader
![A Lebanese soldier uses a pair of binoculars in the Shebaa area of southern Lebanon, as he looks towards an Israeli position near the border with Israel October 8, 2014. An attack by Hezbollah on Lebanon's border with Israel which wounded two Israeli soldiers was a message that the group remained ready to confront its old foe despite its engagement in Syria's civil war, the group's deputy leader said. The soldiers were wounded by a bomb planted by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in the Shebaa hills, drawing Isr](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/10/RTR49DBJ.jpg/RTR49DBJ.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=frqxwQv1)
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Sami Nader
![A man walks past a closed branch of Fransabank in Beirut September 4, 2013. Banks and private business corporations saw a one-day strike being held in many parts of Lebanon on Wednesday, organised by economic committees aiming to pressure Lebanese political parties to form a cabinet to maintain the country's economy, local media reported. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON - Tags: BUSINESS) - RTX136NZ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/09/RTX136NZ.jpg/RTX136NZ.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=FauWVACa)
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Sami Nader
![Former prime minister Saad al-Hariri (R) speaks during a meeting with the members of the "14 March Alliance" as former President Amin Gemayel (2nd R) and Samir Geagea (2nd L), leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces listen in Beirut August 8, 2014. Al-Hariri returned to Lebanon on Friday for the first time in three years, on a visit seen as reasserting a moderate influence over the Sunni community following a deadly incursion by Islamist militants. REUTERS/Dalati Nohra/Handout via Reuters (LEBANON - Tags: P](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/09/RTR41QUW.jpg/RTR41QUW.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=syB_hU5h)
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Sami Nader
![People are seen leaving Lebanon's Central Bank in Beirut July 7, 2011. Lebanese banks which worked for years to build up business in neighbouring Syria have been quietly implementing U.S. and European Union sanctions against Damascus to avoid jeopardising their international operations, bankers and economists say. Picture taken July 7, 2011. To match Feature LEBANON-SYRIA/BANKS REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON - Tags: BUSINESS) - RTR2XHQQ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/08/LebaneseCentralBank.jpg/LebaneseCentralBank.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=zIsugq3i)
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![Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai reads as he is surrounded by security personnel during his a visit to Birim, a northern Israeli village whose Maronite Christian residents were displaced 66 years ago May 28, 2014. The Lebanese church leader who defied warnings from the powerful Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah movement by accompanying the Pope on a Holy Land visit pledged on Wednesday to help dispossessed Christians in Israel. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly (ISRAEL - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTR3R8AA.jpg/RTR3R8AA.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=OQkJQiZY)
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![Traders are seen busy working in Audi Bank's dealing room before the end of Beirut's stock exchange trading session in Beirut, Lebanon in this April 3, 2006 file photo. Picture taken April 3, 2006. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi - RTR1CEXZ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTR1CEXZ-1.jpg/RTR1CEXZ-1.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=6YaLd4Mb)
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![Smoke rises from a oil refinery in Baiji, north of Baghdad, in this picture taken through the windscreen of a car, June 19, 2014. Iraqi government forces battled Sunni rebels for control of the country's biggest refinery on Thursday as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki waited for a U.S. response to an appeal for air strikes to beat back the threat to Baghdad. Secretary of State John Kerry said President Barack Obama still had "all options" open to him but U.S. regional allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia echoed conc](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/07/RTR3UPGO.jpg/RTR3UPGO.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=S-iU11Q-)
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![Turkey's Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek speaks during the 4th Istanbul Finance Summit in Istanbul September 19, 2013. Turkey will get only brief relief from the surprise postponement of a reduction in U.S. economic stimulus and must press ahead with plans to rebalance its own economy, Simsek said on Thursday. To match Interview TURKEY-ECONOMY/ REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTX13R39](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTX13R39.jpg/RTX13R39.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=rnOAasTs)
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![Lebanese riot police stand guard at the Lebanese Central Bank in Beirut February 25, 2013. An open-ended strike by teachers and civil servants entered its second week today for the government to approve the wage hike proposal. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3E9U4](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR3E9U4.jpg/RTR3E9U4.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=dHgU0bup)
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![A rainbow is seen over Zaytouna Bay in Beirut May 21, 2014. REUTERS/Hasan Shaban (LEBANON - Tags: ENVIRONMENT) - RTR3Q94Q](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR3Q94Q.jpg/RTR3Q94Q.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=ZVl9mhZE)
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Sami Nader