New Texts Out Now: Rula Jurdi Abisaab and Malek Abisaab, The Shi‘ites of Lebanon: Modernism, Communism, and Hizbullah’s Islamists
►http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/20023/new-texts-out-now_rula-jurdi-abisaab-and-malek-abi
Simultaneously, a field study by a group of Syrian and foreign researchers addressed truce and reconciliation processes that either succeeded or failed, as well as the prospects and conditions of the settlements. Although the study, issued by the Madani Foundation, relies on opposition sources and lacks an accurate documentation when compared with the surveys by the International Crisis Group, it has enumerated the most important obstacles that hampered the settlements in Syria.
The almost 60-page study said that the most important obstacles to settlements in Syria are “the regional intervention, the presence of fighters from other areas, the absence of independent reliable mediation and independent control, the presence of pro-[regime] paramilitary factions, as well as military tactics (as a temporary situation that requires the presence of a truce and that ends as [the truce] ends) and finally a growing economy of war,” which is considered by government officials as one of the main problems that hinder the achievement of reconciliation at a broad level.