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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epsteinbd who wrote (2990)	4/23/2002 7:38:14 AM
From: Cage Rattler	Respond to of 32591

Hizbullah resurgent <<JANE'S>> 22 April 2002 By Sue Lackey, JDW Special Correspondent, Beiruit On 15 April US Secretary of State Gen Colin Powell met Lebanese President Emile Lahoud in Beirut to demand that Lebanon and Syria halt escalating attacks along the border with Israel by the armed wing of the Lebanese Shi’a Muslim Hizbullah (Party of God). Meanwhile, the Lebanese government insists the escalating border conflicts are a legitimate resistance to Israeli occupation of the disputed Shebaa Farms area, raising serious questions about who actually controls Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. A recent redeployment of Syrian army troops away from Beirut to a point above the village of Rashaya on the southern tip of the Bekaa Valley leaves southern Lebanon practically under the complete control of Hizbullah’s armed militia (Jane’s Defence Weekly 10 April). In the two decades since Hizbullah was formed, it has adopted the Muslim Brotherhood model of political integration, becoming a viable political force in south Lebanon with elected members of parliament, hospitals, building loan societies, and construction companies. Hizbullah also provides the de facto control mechanism over the main Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al Helwi, near Saida. The group has become increasingly sophisticated, rebuilding the shattered villages of the south, maintaining its own television station, and giving the disenfranchised Shi’a community its first organised voice in Lebanese public affairs. Alarmed by the growing influence of an armed militia in an already splintered country, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has repeatedly called on the Lebanese government to provide a viable military presence in the south to supplant UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The government has been unable, or unwilling, to do this. "What we have noticed in the last few days is a more proactive patrolling by the Lebanese Army and police in order to detect and hopefully deter the attacks along the Blue Line [the border with Israel]” said Staffan de Mistura, the personal representative of Kofi Annan. “I am optimistic in the medium term, but I am worried in the short term. The Blue Line is the best game in town at the moment; there is nothing to replace it." One thing the Lebanese Army has done is redraw the boundaries of the area of the south slated for demining under the auspices of the United Arab Emirates and under the supervision of UN Humanitarian Demining Teams (JDW 28 November 2001). However a recent clash between Hizbullah and a UNIFIL team in the disputed Shebaa Farms area left four unarmed observers, one French, one Irish, and two Norwegians, severely beaten and drew a very public rebuke from de Mistura. In response, UN representatives received personal apologies from Hizbullah Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, and from his counterpart in Saudi Arabia, suggesting an influence over Hizbullah that extends far beyond Damascus. "Iran is the ideological head of Hizbullah, but military operations are co-ordinated with the Syrian military," said a senior Lebanese Army officer. "There has been a [tacit] agreement which [Hizbullah] accepts, that they do not undertake any armed attacks outside of the disputed area of the border without the approval of the Lebanese Army. What they do in Shebaa Farms is up to them." Recent indications in the south point to a mobilisation of sorts by Hizbullah forces and the group is suspected by intelligence sources to be aiding the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in an attempt to open a front with the Israelis on Lebanon’s border. Hizbullah has also escalated its attacks on Israel Defence Force positions and northern Israeli towns. Because of its unwritten agreement with Hizbullah that any attacks in the Shebaa Farms area are simply acts of resistance, the Lebanese Army, and indeed the government of Lebanon, have an excuse for ignoring an escalating conflict they are indeed powerless to stop — a fact of which Hizbullah is eminently aware. 640 of 1,319 words>> janes.com