LONDON — Marwa Osma is a Beirut-based political analyst and lecturer at Lebanese International University (LIU).
An expert on Islamic movements and the Levant region, Osman has been following developments in Syria and Lebanon closely, looking beyond the political smokescreen to understand the realities of a conflict which has devolved into a series of overlapping crises and clashing agendas.
No longer contained within Syria’s borders, Syria’s civil war has spilled into Lebanon, further crippling the state’s already weak infrastructure. Wrecked by deep socio-political and economic tensions, Lebanon has had to accommodate nearly 1.2 million Syrian refugees since 2011 — a figure that doesn’t include the estimated tens of thousands of people who have not registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
With a long history of sectarian conflict, Lebanon’s situation is becoming increasingly volatile as the Syrian civil war persists. From two recent suicide bombings in Beirut to street fighting in Tripoli, it’s clear that the Syrian conflict threatens to engulf the region as it stretches beyond the country’s borders.
Beyond the political narrative, beyond foreign agendas, Osman speaks to MintPress News about the human costs of the war that could ignite a region.