This led to the development of Beirut as the playground of the Middle East in the 1960s, a role that it lost during its 17-year civil war which ended in the early 1990s.

Since then Beirut has been re-built as a business, financial and leisure destination under the auspices of the Solidere development company.

But the Lebanese capital has yet to re-capture its former regional role mainly due to a series of regional and local political crises.

http://www.ameinfo.com/kuwait/