"This is a big vote of confidence in Beirut ... The past fifteen months have seen Lebanon return to the top of the international news agenda", said Simon Wilson, the British Broadcasting Corporation's editor of the Middle East bureau, on Tuesday. Wilson was BBC bureau chief in Jerusalem .

Information Minister Ghazi el Aridi, who attended the launch ceremony, said the BBC's decision to come back to Lebanon is an indication of the "full return of freedom to Beirut."

Wilson (L) said the BBC is interested in expanding its coverage of Lebanon into areas other than politics.

"We think Lebanon is a main crossroads in the Middle East, politically, geographically and especially economically. Our ambition is not to only cover conflict but also the wonderful changes here in the fields of culture and business," he said.

Kim Ghattas, who heads the English service and Nada Abdel Samad, who is in charge of the Arabic service launched in 2007, will cover Lebanon and Syria from BBC's new downtown offices at Riad el Solh Square.

Jim Muir (L), a self-proclaimed "Arabist" and one of the BBC's most seasoned Middle East correspondents will report on the Middle East politics using Beirut as his base .

"I reported all major events in Lebanon in the 70's and 80's, but I had to leave (for Cyprus) in 1980 because I was on a Syrian hit list," Muir told reporters at Tuesday's reception at the new headquarters.

"When I first came here in 1975, I landed behind the Cinema Orient and could see immediately that Beirut was just so full of life, and then it became a battle field obviously. Now the country has come back to life, and the new downtown is a symbol of this," Muir said.

BBC never stopped reporting from or about Lebanon. It did this thru a combination of local and visiting journalists. Wilson acknowledged that the timing of the decision to reopen the BBC's Lebanon desk was influenced by the political developments following former PM Rafik Hariri ‘s assassination and the Syrian withdrawal, though he was careful to emphasize that "we never completely left."

Top picture: Lebanon's Minister Ghazi Aridi during the Inauguration of BBC's new office in Downtown Beirut.

Source: Naharnet and dalatinohra