Lebanon
(Reuters)FACTBOX: Facts about Lebanon’s Hezbollah
(Al Jazeera) Timeline: Crisis in Lebanon
May 11
Fighting spreads east of Beirut
Fighting between rival militias in Lebanon has spread to the mainly Druze mountains just south of Beirut.
Hezbollah and its anti-government allies, using heavy weapons and small arms, attacked areas held by followers of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
May 10
Hezbollah Begins to Withdraw Gunmen in Beirut
(NYT) BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah and its allies began withdrawing their gunmen here in the capital on Saturday evening, raising hopes for a political settlement after four days of street battles that left at least 29 people dead. The fighting has stoked fears of a broader civil conflict.
(The Independent) Robert Fisk: Hizbollah rules west Beirut in Iran’s proxy war with US
Another American humiliation. The Shia gunmen who drove past my apartment in west Beirut yesterday afternoon were hooting their horns, making V-signs, leaning out of the windows of SUVs with their rifles in the air, proving to the Muslims of the capital that the elected government of Lebanon has lost.
And it has. The national army still patrols the streets, but solely to prevent sectarian killings or massacres. Far from dismantling the pro-Iranian Hizbollah’s secret telecommunications system – and disarming the Hizbollah itself – the cabinet of Fouad Siniora sits in the old Turkish serail in Beirut, denouncing violence with the same authority as the Iraqi government in Baghdad’s green zone.
When Hamas became part of the Palestinian government, the West rejected it. So Hamas took over Gaza. When the Hizbollah became part of the Lebanese government, the Americans rejected it. Now Hizbollah has taken over west Beirut.
… No, this is not a civil war. Nor is it a coup d’etat, though it meets some of the criteria. It is part of the war against America in the Middle East. The Hizbollah “must stop sowing trouble,” the White House said rather meekly. Yes, like the Taliban. And al-Qa’ida. And the Iraqi insurgents. And Hamas. And who else?
May 9
BBC’s Roger Hardy explains Lebanon’s apparently unending political crisis and its global implications.
High stakes of Lebanon crisis
The more immediate causes of Lebanon’s current - and apparently unending - political crisis go back to the war between Israel and the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.
