Local News
Lebanon Sunnis bitter in Lebanon power shift toward Shiite Hezbollah
By The Associated Press
May 17, 2008 - 5:06:38 AM

BEIRUT, Lebanon: For three years, Sunni Muslims have dominated Lebanon's government. Now they are bitter and fearful after Hezbollah's seizure of parts of Beirut in street gunbattles — an ominous sign of how the country's latest political crisis has sharply worsened sectarian tensions.

"They entered and they carried out the plan. But who did they liberate Beirut from?" wondered Mohammed Zaghloul, 41, who roasts nuts for a living.

He sat idle on a street corner of a neighborhood once controlled by Sunni groups. A picture of prominent Sunni chieftain from the time of Lebanon's civil war, Ibrahim Koleilat, has faded on a wall nearby.

Zaghloul's question is key for Lebanon's future and could have implications for the entire Middle East.

Until recently, Lebanon's ongoing political crisis has been largely only political — all sides worked hard to keep the ever-present sectarian issues from surfacing.

But last week's fighting roiled up some of those issues and their long-term impact remains unclear. Unchecked, sectarian tensions could stoke a full-fledged civil war, such as the 15-year conflict between Christians and Muslims that ended in 1990. A new conflict would send tremors across the region.

For now, Hezbollah's dominance is still evident on the streets, even though its fighters have pulled back and both sides agreed to talk to try to resolve an 18-month political stalemate.

Flags of Hezbollah and Amal flutter on the streets in predominantly Sunni areas of Beirut seized by the two Shiite groups in recent fighting. Some pictures of the late prime minister Rafik Hariri, the Sunnis' icon, have been spray-painted over.

"It is strife already," said top Sunni leader Saad Hariri, whose Muslim West Beirut residence is guarded by the army. The parliamentary majority leader said the latest fighting violated the dignity of his Sunni community. "How are we going to heal the wounds?"

At least 65 people were killed in the clashes that saw Hezbollah and Amal fighters overrun positions of the Sunni Future group, and seize large swaths of Sunni areas of Beirut.

In other Sunni-dominated regions, in the central part of the eastern Bekaa Valley, the northern port city of Tripoli and the adjacent Akkar and Dinniyeh regions, where fundamentalists operate, Sunnis revolted and seized territory, attacking fellow Sunnis allied to the Hezbollah-led opposition and fighting the Alawite community, an offshoot Shiite sect, in a Tripoli neighborhood.

The former Sunni stronghold of Tarik Jadideh in Beirut, still guarded by the Lebanese army from a Shiite onslaught, is a stark reflection of Sunni passions.

A graffiti of "Oh Omar and Abu Bakr" — names of first Muslim caliphs important to Sunnism — is spray-painted on a wall, while pictures of the late Hariri and his son, Saad, adorn facades and blue ribbons of Hariri's Future movement decorate the streets.

Mohammed Kamel, a man in his 50s who runs a tiny store for used books, said the Sunnis were no match for the armed Shiites during the fighting. "The weapons they had were much stronger. They had rockets. A Kalashnikov cannot face the big guns."

The fear is so strong that many refused to talk to a reporter or be named.

On Monday, one resident said Shiites on about a dozen scooters entered the area from a nearby Shiite neighborhood. A fistfight ensued, and two motorcycles were set ablaze. Another recounted how he was picked up in Noueiri, a Shiite district across from an army checkpoint, and beaten up simply because he was from Tarik Jadideh.

In the 1975-90 civil war, Christians first fought Palestinian guerrillas and Muslims. Then, Christians fought Christians and Muslims fought Muslims. After the conflict, most militias voluntarily disarmed as part of a power-sharing political settlement. Hezbollah was allowed to keep its weapons by the government and Syria, which controlled Lebanon until 2005.

Sunnis are Lebanon's second-largest sect, numbering slightly less than the 1.2 million Shiites. Largely city dwellers, they are an educated and merchant class that has long been seen as the political power here, along with the Christians.

After Syria's 2005 withdrawal following Rafik Hariri's assassination, Sunnis backed by Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia dominated the country's politics, while Christian numbers dwindled and Shiite influence waned.

In November 2006, five Shiite ministers bolted out of the government, claiming it was marginalizing them. The Sunni-led majority in turn accused the Shiite groups Hezbollah and Amal of towing the line of their allies, Syria and the overwhelmingly Shiite Iran.

Tensions soon flared, prompting the spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunnis to denounce Hezbollah and appeal to the Islamic world to intervene. Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani said the "Sunni Muslims in Lebanon have had enough" — a statement that fanned concern the Sunni community would put up a fight.

Paul Salem, director of the Middle East Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Beirut, said a radicalization of the Sunnis could invite al-Qaida and similar brands of extremists.

For now, Sunni disenchantment could go either way.

At a funeral last week of a Sunni lawyer slain with his mother in a rocket attack, a colleague of the deceased was all anti-Hezbollah anger. "Those who stormed the area are aggressors," said Omar Tarabey.

But nearby, sitting outside their clothing shore playing backgammon, Mohammed Jawhari, a Sunni, and Ali Sabra, a Shiite, say they get along just fine by staying away from heated political topics.

The latest turmoil in Lebanon was a "pity," Jawhari said.

"I hope things will be over quickly," said Sabra, his business partner.