Lebanon has also been open to cooperation with Western intelligence services. In an interview with Al Jazeera, then Minister of Interior Ziad Baroud said he never received any requests to interrogate European nationals.

He suggests that if any requests were ever made, they might have come to the Ministry of Justice. Al Jazeera went to interview the Minister of Justice at the time of the Nahr Al-Bared conflict, Charles Rizk. Diplomatic cables exposed on WikiLeaks put him at the heart of a political storm a few years ago.

It was alleged that he cooperated with the US in trying to find a loophole in local law so that Lebanese citizens could be extradited to the US. But he told us that his ministry and the public prosecutor acted upon information from the intelligence service. In the interview, Rizk refused to discuss his own role, denying any wrongdoing.