There is anger and disappointment in south Lebanon that a $62 million World Bank cultural heritage and urban development loan will not cover Beaufort Castle. The castle, a 12th century monument built during the Crusades, was used both by the PLO and Israel and its Lebanese allies as a strategic outpost during the war years and up to May 2000.
Mustafa Badreddine, a former president of the municipality of Nabatieh, under whose jurisdiction Beaufort Castle falls, said he was at a loss to explain why the