We will be leaving Lebanon today after a few days reporting on the conflict and political crisis in here. The country is still tense though there is hope that a visit by Secretary General Amr Moussa today could provide an opportunity for rival factions to come to some sort of agreement.

But the ingredients for violence are still there. Another trigger could set things off again. Lebanon always seems to be on the edge of a precipice.

The airports and major roads out of Lebanon are still blocked by the opposition so we will be driving out of the country through Syria.

This week-end, check out a special half hour show on how Arab media are covering the U.S. elections. It was a fascinating discussion with top regional media leaders at the recent Arab Broadcast Forum in Abu Dhabi.

Check out the program description here.

Southern Gaza Strip, May 13, 2008. A Palestinian drives a horse cart to transport school children back from their schools in Rafah refugee camp. Gaza has been virtually sealed by Israel and Egypt since the seizure of the territory by Hamas, a group that Israel and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization. Gaza now suffers from widespread shortages of fuel, electricity and many basic goods. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

The country is in political crisis, street fights are rocking Lebanon, yet it seems the money ain't going anywhere.

The Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star reports that despite the factional violence that has left at least 59 people dead "no abnormal currency transfers out of Lebanon have taken place and the banking sector is functioning normally despite the worst internal strife since the 1975-1990 civil war."

"Backed by nearly $14 billion in foreign currency reserves, Lebanese banks have again weathered the immediate negative effects of the fighting in Lebanon," according to the same report.

Check out the full story here.

Our story today will look at how developments over the last few years in the Middle East have given Iran more influence over Arab countries. From Iraq, to Gaza, and now to the current political struggle in Lebanon, Tehran is holding the cards.

We will be talking to analysts and journalists about the political and military proxy battle between the Tehran/Damascus axis and Western governments, including the United States.

According to Hezbollah expert Amal Saad-Gorayeb, what is unfolding in Lebanon now is the end of "the current U-S agenda in Lebanon."

U.S. President George W. Bush yesterday reaffirmed his support for the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, but can Western powers now do anything to save the Lebanese government from collapse and a defacto power shift to Hezbollah and its Iran backers?

According to Lebanese analyst Rami Khouri, what is happening in Lebanon is more nuanced:

"The Army has assumed significant power as it is funded and trained by the United States and receives political guidance by the Iranians [via Hezbollah]. It is the first Iranian-American joint venture."

We will be speaking to him as well later today.

Watch our story throughout the day on CNN.

Beirut, May 12, 2008. Standing in part of the offices of Future television, the pro-government network torched by opposition supporters two days ago. There is still smoke curling up from the debris.

We are off to check out the city; both in the neighborhoods that experienced some of the worst violence over the last few days, and those areas of the capital completely untouched by the recent sectarian and political tension.

Beirut is nothing if not a city of contrasts: one war-ravaged building from the civil war era will live side-by-side with a new swanky boutique; one neighborhood will see raging gun battles, while life will go on in another, uninterrupted.

I've been coming to this country for years now, and I've seen it go through periods of economic and social optimism, damaging political assassinations, a month-long war with Israel and now, uncertainty over whether the people in this land can ever leave peacefully together.

Watch out for our story on today's Your World Today and on CNN International throughout the day.

I will be taking the long road to Beirut in a few hours. The airport is still closed, so our CNN team is driving in.

There is a lull in the fighting in the Lebanese capital and Hezbollah has withdrawn its armed men from the streets. But will it stay calm for long?

We will report on where the country goes from here, whether the Siniora government can survive and what life is like for ordinary residents of Beirut. We'll also look at the damage - physical and financial - to country mired in this protacted and divisive tug-of-war.

I just got off the phone with a journalist in Beirut who told me you could hear a pin drop throughout Beirut as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah began a live speech on television.

I am listening to the speech live and Nasrallah just said : "Whoever shoots at us, we will shoot them back."

He also called a crackdown on his supporters from the pro-western Lebanese government a "declaration of war."

This follows two days of demonstrations in which pro- and anti-government protesters clashed and the spectre of Lebanon's ruinous civil war reappeared in some Beirut neighborhoods.

This is a new phase in Lebanon. Is the violence stoppable now?

I want to open the blog today to a discussion on the situation in Lebanon. Email us your thoughts at mideast@cnn.com or add a comment below.

Thanks,

Hala

A fellow journalist I've interviewed several times in Lebanon, Habib Battah, posts an interesting entry on the tense situation on the streets of Beirut today.

He writes:

"The chaos came as a surprise because up until last night organizers had pitched the event as a simple labor strike to pressure the government into raising the minimum wage. But by early Wednesday, a completely different plan seemed to be in place. In a clear show of force, the Hezbollah-led opposition had actually hired dump trucks and bulldozers to enforce what was thought to be a voluntary act of staying home from work. The move caught most Lebanese off guard, eroding the notion that this was a spontaneous 'public' outcry against the government's labor policies."

Pro- and anti-government demonstrators have been clashing today and the army has been forced to keep rival protestors apart.

Cars and tires went up in flames and in mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods, the ominous crackle of gunfire could be heard throughout the Lebanese capital.

“This is a turning point. There can be no more cohabitation between the Government and the opposition. All trust is gone,” a Lebanese expert on Hezbollah, Amal Saad Ghorayeb told the Times of London.

Tomorrow will be a real test for Lebanon: will protestors stay home?

Lebanon's opposition parties, including Syrian/Iraninan-backed Hezbollah, called a general strike across the country. Protesters blocked roads with burning tires and paralyzed Beirut's international airport.

While attending the Arab Broadcast Forum in Abu Dhabu over the last few days, I chatted with leading Lebanese anchor Shada Omar. She told me the two sides seem as far apart as ever and that a political compromise between the western-backed government of Fouad Siniora and the Hezbollah-led opposition grows more and more improbable by the day.

Politicians in Lebanon have tried - and failed - to agree on a consensus President almost twenty times since last November.

Many wonder if all-out violence will break out if rival parties cannot find a way to govern together. The conditions are certainly there.

Popular - and provocative - Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe performed in Bahrain Wednesday night, despite opposition from religious politicians and conservative clerics.

According to today's Gulf News, Wehbe wore a "floor length dress, but with spaghetti straps."

Hey, you didn't expect her to wear a turtleneck, did you?

The concert venue was just a few hundred meters from the Parliament, where Islamist MP's had objected to the show because, according to them, Wehbe has "no respect for traditional and religious values."