foreign minister abdallah bou habib in beirut, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. mr foreign minister, ijust wonder whether right now it feels to you like this conflict is spiralling out of control. you are watching it from beirut as the war rages in gaza between israel and hamas. but do you fear it is going to spread much wider? well, we are afraid that it may spread. but i can say that i am now less pessimistic than i was at the beginning. i think here there is a conviction, at least in lebanon, that we don t want war. we have a lot of problems, economic, political and social problems, and everyone in lebanon does not want war. but it all depends on israel. israel also threatened us many times, to have a pre emptive strike on lebanon, and what s happening in gaza. i mean, you cannot.you know, the people here are interrelated. we have half a million palestinians in lebanon. and, you know, there are a lot of people that are resistance minded. they re not only in lebanon. in syri
foreign minister abdallah bou habib in beirut, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. mr foreign minister, ijust wonder whether right now it feels to you like this conflict is spiralling out of control. you are watching it from beirut as the war rages in gaza between israel and hamas. but do you fear it is going to spread much wider? well, we are afraid that it may spread. but i can say that i am now less pessimistic than i was at the beginning. i think here there is a conviction, at least in lebanon, that we don t want war. we have a lot of problems, economic, political and social problems, and everyone in lebanon does not want war. but it all depends on israel. israel also threatened us many times, to have a pre emptive strike on lebanon, and what s happening in gaza. i mean, you cannot.you know, the people here are interrelated. we have half a million palestinians in lebanon. and, you know, there are a lot of people that are resistance minded. they re not only in lebanon. in syri
foreign minister abdallah bou habib in beirut, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. mr foreign minister, ijust wonder whether right now it feels to you like this conflict is spiralling out of control. you are watching it from beirut as the war rages in gaza between israel and hamas. but do you fear it is going to spread much wider? well, we are afraid that it may spread. but i can say that i am now less pessimistic than i was at the beginning. i think here there is a conviction, at least in lebanon, that we don t want war. we have a lot of problems economic, political and social problems, and everyone in lebanon does not want war. but it all depends on israel. israel also threatened us many times, to have a pre emptive strike on lebanon, and what s happening in gaza. i mean, you cannot.you know, the people here are interrelated. we have half a million palestinians in lebanon. and, you know, there are a lot of people that are resistance minded. they re not only in lebanon. in syria
foreign minister abdallah bou habib in beirut, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. mr foreign minister, ijust wonder whether right now it feels to you like this conflict is spiralling out of control. you are watching it from beirut as the war rages in gaza between israel and hamas. but do you fear it is going to spread much wider? well, we are afraid that it may spread. but i can say that i am now less pessimistic than i was at the beginning. i think here there is a conviction, at least in lebanon, that we don t want war. we have a lot of problems economic, political and social problems, and everyone in lebanon does not want war. but it all depends on israel. israel also threatened us many times, to have a pre emptive strike on lebanon, and what s happening in gaza. i mean, you cannot.you know, the people here are interrelated. we have half a million palestinians in lebanon. and, you know, there are a lot of people that are resistance minded. they re not only in lebanon. in syria
of the most important financial minds, to tell us whether the oour zone is about to come apart. why in the world can t north korean nurses and doctors come back from the middle east? it s a fascinating tale. finally, back home, the former governor of michigan, jennifer granholm, tells us what her experience of cutting taxes and reducing spending taught her. all this coming up. but first, here s my take. last week the international atomic energy agency issued its most serious warning about iran s nuclear program. it argued that iran seems to have experimented with various technologies that suggested it was trying to build not just a nuclear program but a nuclear weapons program. this finding, to be clear, is at odds with the views of the former head of the iaea, mohamed elbaradei, as well as the report issued a few years ago by the united states national intelligence council. it s difficult, to be sure, what to make of these intelligence judgments because they are judgm