For the first time since the watershed moment in February 2005 when Sunni former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed by a car bomb, Lebanon finds itself with a one-sided, mainly pro-Syrian government.
It is an ironic development, crystallising the steady political comeback the Syrians have staged since their troops were obliged to pull out of Lebanon in May 2005, in the face of Lebanese and international outrage over the Hariri assassination.