"...From a US perspective, a Saudi-Syrian deal that avoids a deadly crisis & keeps 'the inept residue of March 14' in power is not a bad thing.."

'Inept' but oh, so suave: Catherine Deneuve, Louis Vuitton's guy & Saad ...

Slightly old piece in FP, flagged by our friends at SyriaComment. Here

"... This is not only a settlement the U.S. can live with but one it should support, even if tacitly. It advances broader U.S. objectives in Lebanon, in part simply by avoiding renewed sectarian conflict and preserving a government led, however ineptly, by the residue of the March 14 movement. More significantly, and despite Nasrallah's attempts to delegitimize the Special Tribunal, the indictments will bend Lebanon's tenuous balance of power in directions favorable to U.S. interests, placing Hezbollah on the defensive and diminishing Iranian influence in favor of a Syrian-Saudi co-dominion over critical Lebanese security issues. It is not too late, however, for the U.S. to undermine these modest gains..... let events unfold, and be prepared to take advantage of incremental but positive shifts on the ground.

The key brokers of a settlement are Saudi Arabia and Syria. The Saudis see their role as defending the interests of Lebanon's Sunni community, sometimes against the narrower interests of Saad Hariri and his supporters, and balancing the influence of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran in Lebanon's domestic affairs. The Syrians see their role as Lebanon's principal power broker in all matters domestic, and have used this and previous crises to restore the influence Syria lost following Hariri's assassination in February, 2005.... From a U.S. perspective, a Saudi-Syrian deal that avoids a deadly crisis and keeps Saad Hariri in power is not a bad thing..."