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04 September 2012
By Franklin Lamb One
would be correct in imagining that life's no bowl of
cherries for Hezbollah these days.
Pressures, often intense, resulting in being sucked
into the vortex of the powerful maelstrom and violent
whirlpool of Lebanese and regional politics can't be
bringing much pleasure to Lebanon's National
Resistance led by Hezbollah and that includes this
observers Dahiyeh neighborhood.
Following their one on one meeting last weekend, US
secretary of state Clinton and Turkish Prime Minister
Erdogon Hezbollah are seeking to intensify pressure on
both Hezbollah and Syria. One project is reported to
be US instructions to their March 14 allies to force a
vote in Lebanon's Parliament allowing the deployment
of international troops along Lebanon's northern
border with Syria. Some
March 14 politicians have been publically calling for
the deployment of an international force positioned
along the poorly demarcated border between Lebanon and
Syria. These US-Saudi supported forces have also
revived the Welch Club-Jeffrey Feltman project first
floated in 2007 at Israel's request following its
defeat during the 33 day July war. Hezbollah's
internal and external opponents are reportedly seeking
a quick "modernizing" of the current airport at Kleiat
near Sunni Akkar close to Tripoli in North Lebanon.
According to one Member of Parliament, "The Americans
and some internal sides had already "dusted off" the
file of the revival of the Sunni Kleiat Airport." One
of its intended uses is expected to house
international troops and American forces for
"training, storage and forward supply." The
Feltman idea, which was publicly exposed four years
ago, now envisages a "liberated geographic zone" to
pressure Syria and others with a base for military
operations in the region, never died. It was rather
put in storage pending future opportunity. With the
Syrian chaos and crisis the sought opportunity may
have arrived with Pentagon analysts and American
allies agreeing with Clinton and Erdagon that the time
for a regional Kleit airbase is now. It may be
recalled that in 2008, an American military delegation
examined the Kleiat runway "for logistic purposes
pertaining to cooperation with the Lebanese Army"
according to US Embassy Beirut. During Congressional
testimony, the Pentagon told Congress that "the
current runway at Kleiat is perfectly suitable for
planes transporting military equipment. But it does
not have the necessary qualifications to be a civil
airport."
Few political analysts here doubt that such
a project would vigorously opposed by the Lebanese
National Resistance. Hezbollah official Sheikh Naim
Qassem has condemned such moves "as a method to
destroy the country." He stated last week that "Hezbollah
refuses to allow Lebanon to intervene in Syrian
affairs and categorically rejects the deployment of
international forces to the northern borders. That is
a Zionist project to destroy Lebanon in the same way
as Syria. When they lost the ability to influence the
Syrian equation, they began proposing suspect projects
like deploying international forces to the north to
support the buffer zone. If the March 14 group stops
sabotaging Lebanon's north with arms, smuggling and
militia work, and stability would reign. They are
responsible for tensions that hit our people in
Tripoli, Akkar and the north in general." As
though working in concert with the US and its
sponsored groups in Lebanon, pressure from the
colonial occupiers of Palestine to instill fear among
Lebanese is reflected in the increased number of daily
warplanes and reconnaissance planes violating this
country's airspaces, recently focusing also on Tripoli
and the Kleiat airport area. This week's incidents
included flyovers in the south, east and north of
Lebanon add to a total of more than 8000 Israeli
violation of UNSCR 1701 while UNIFIL watches and takes
notes from its base in Naquoria, near Tyre.
According to one UNIFIL source, Israel is also trying
to tax Resistance forces in the south and force them
into revealing some of their locations near Kfar Kila
where Israel recently built another wall, as well as
Resistance preparations for the coming
Israel-Hezbollah war.
Targeted by Al-Qaeda and Its New Allies
Increasing threats of violence against Hezbollah and
Shiites by the Al-Qaeda affiliated Abdallah Azzam
Brigades, active in Lebanon and Syria, appear designed
to peel away support from Hezbollah and to ignite more
sectarian conflict in Lebanon. One recent threat was
posted on a jihadist website on 8/17/12 and is being
broadcast here by the US-Saudi backed March 14
opposition. The audio recording warns Shiites that
"the positions of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement
vis-à-vis the Syrian revolution do not serve your best
interests … If you maintain your arrogant attitude,
you will be punished, and you will pay. You only have
yourselves to blame."
According to Dr. Ahmad Moussalli, political science
professor at the American University of Beirut and an
expert on political Islam: "This Al-Qaeda unit
considers current conditions in Lebanon and Syria to
be a golden opportunity to strike against targets that
were far from their reach in the past. Looking at the
border situation now, they can transfer militants from
Syria to Lebanon in order to carry out attacks against
Hezbollah and their supporters." These
forces, increasingly seen as working with some
elements in the March 14 grouping, are also trying to
instill confusion in Hezbollah neighborhoods over
understanding the Party's role in the Syrian crisis
given that Hezbollah officials support the popular
uprisings of the Arab spring and Islamic awakening. A
Hezbollah source reports that the complicated
environment here in Lebanon and the region are not
easy ones given internal and external enemies. One
friend acknowledges also the danger of Hezbollah as
the leader of the international Resistance risks being
viewed as simply a local Shia party which would be
dangerous to the party and this country on multiple
levels.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea regularly repeats
charges that "the March 8 alliance of being behind
the deteriorating security situation in the country in
order to create as many spots of tension as possible
along with incidents to decrease pressure on the
Syrian regime." In a direct reference to Hezbollah,
Geagea said "There are enormous strategic dangers that
stem from the presence of a statelet within the state.
The state has no authority over it because the owners
of this statelet and their allies are paralyzing it." Geagea
and his allies has also condemned Hezbollah for the
"appalling silence" with which it met the abductions
of Syrian and Arab nationals in Lebanon.[We condemn]
Hezbollah's appalling silence regarding these
incidents that take place in its regions of influence,
while its Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
claims that things got out of hand without condemning
these incidents. That means that he gives his total
consent for these acts."
According to Hanin Ghaddar writing in New York
Times, "Something fundamental has changed: the
Shiite militant group Hezbollah long Syria's powerful
proxy in Lebanon has become a wounded beast. And it is
walking a very thin line between protecting its assets
and aiding a crumbling regime next door." The
March 14 Youth organizations, normally working within
their individual parties have begun a combined efforts
to confront elements of the Hezbollah led Resistance.
Last week at the Universite Saint Joseph, hundreds of
students from the Lebanese Forces (LF), the Future
Movement, the Kataeb, al-Jamaa al-Islamiyah and the
National Liberal Party (NLP) staged a rally
ostensibly to call for the resignation of Foreign
Minister Adnan Mansour and the expulsion of Syrian
Ambassador Ali Abdel-Karim Ali, but also to attack
Hezbollah. Since
the surprise arrest of former Information Minister,
Resistance and Al-Assad Michel Samaha on 8/9/12 , and
the subsequent charging him along and Syrian
National Security head General Ali Mamluk with
plotting "terror attacks," key pillars of government,
including the President Suleiman and Prime Minister
Miqati appear to be distancing themselves somewhat
from the Assad regime. Rumors are circulating that
within the Hezbollah leadership some are having
private doubts about the party's relationship with the
Assad regime.
Hezbollah realizes that there is a need to create a
balance, however delicate, between Lebanon's national
interest, primary of which is to be free of future
Israeli occupation and Lebanon's position in regional
Arab causes. Presumably Hezbollah's research center
and other think tanks are reviewing earlier actions
and in some cases will modify original stances to meet
the changing realities in Lebanon and beyond. The
party and the Shite community are being advised of a
need to continue advocating the politics of openness,
dialogue, and partnership in order to preserve
Lebanon. There
currently obtains in Lebanon, as next year's crucial
Parliamentary election approaches, an especially ugly
political atmosphere prevailing with internal and
external groups seeking to hold Hezbollah and the
wider Shia community responsible for many current
problems ranging from power cuts, security, public
security, poor water quality, inflation and weak
infrastructure. Some from my neighborhood have taken
to the streets in the past few months to protect
against the increasing power cuts. The
coming weeks will reveal what, if any, success foreign
and domestic anti-Resistance forces achieve in using
the Syrian crisis to dismantle Hezbollah.
Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and is
reachable c/o
fplamb@gmail.com |
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