he joined us via skype and told us about mohammad chatah and lebanon's challenges. >> well, this man was a very moderate voice in lebanese circles although he was part of the march 14th coalition. he, as a sunni leader from tripoli has been extremely vocal during the past several years, attacking hezbollah specifically, calling it to withdraw from syria and return to lebanon. i suppose one could say that this is packback for his he will quenc to submit that hezbollah must submit to the will of the government of lebanon which, of course, hezbollah has not done. so perhaps, that might be the reason behind the assassination. lebanon has not really cleansed itself from the 15 years long civil war, the fact that there are two regional forces that are trying to articulate foreign policy. the lebanese are caught in the middle of this. they don't know how to extricate themselves from the kind of troubles that have been imposed on them and, of course, when you are not aware of the problems that you have at home, outsiders will varies easily manipulate those. >> elsewhere, at least two people

there were quick accusations from mohammad chatah political party implizing that either hezbollah or the syrian government could have been behind the assassination, they denied it. >> how important was chatah to lebanese politics. >> he is an important figure. he is somewhat behind-- he was one of the main advisors to hariri, the former prime minister and he was seen even by political opponents as a consensus builder, someone who was able to reach across political and sectarian lines even at moments of extreme tension, so in that sense his presence would be soarly missed at a time like this. >> how much of a grip does the violence that's happening in syria have on what is happening in beirut or what has been happening in beirut in recent months? >> well, of course there are existing conditions in lebanon that predate the syrian war, as is in the string av sass nations that i mentioned before. but since the syrian war has accelerated, there have been a number of violent attacks in beirut and other parts of lebanon which are seen as being part of the spillover from the syrian war which