There has been fighting in Tripoli, which is a majority Sunni, of Syrian extraction city. Hezbollah have been attempting to set up a security square in the city and this appears to have been rejected by the inhabitant. As Judah has just pointed out to me, this bodes very badly for the stability of the Syrian regime as the families of those fighting against the Syrian supported Hezbollah turn against the government that's fighting them.
P.S. When Hezbollah stormed the offices of Sa'ad Hariri they hung a photo of Bashar al-Assad (click this link and watch the video to see for yourself).
Friday, 9 May 2008
Fighting in Tripoli and what that means
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2 comments:
Israel's bombing Hezbollah to pieces in 2006 obviously failed. The UK and US Government let that happen for a month before pushing through the peace agreement, watching that. Israel later realised in a report the war had been unsuccessful, meaning they hadn't killed of Hezbollah, it didn't say anything about the innocent people they killed. Maybe the USA will have a go at bombing Lebanon this time.
I'm afraid Alasdair that your view is not very nuanced or indeed accurate. The Summer's war of 2006 war fought to clear Hezbollah from the border of Israel not completely obliterate it, that would have been impossible. The stated aim (see Mark Regev especially) was to improve Israel's security for its northern towns. Yes it waged the war badly, and yes lots of innocent people were killed. Evidently, this is horrendous. However, viewing the current civil strife/war soley through the prism of US/Israel and Iran/Syria is too weak. There is much more going on. The US will not "have a go" at bombing Lebanon. "Having a go" at bombing anywhere is not, thankfully, in the foreign policy play sheet of any nation. What would they bomb? Where? How would that improve the situation in anyone's eyes? The only possibility for the Lebanon crisis to directly (as opposed to by proxy) bring in its neighbours or any other power would be if the Canton Hezbollah carve out is openly aggressive to Israel. It probably will have much angry rhetoric but they will not want to fight the Israelis. They have enough on their plates storming West Beirut and gearing up for an epic battle with the Maronites and the Sunnis.
The crisis is serious and we shouldn't be glib about it.
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