Is this the beginning of the end for Hizballah? It may very well be so if the army splits and the clashes go beyond Beirut. While Hizballah threatens the government, a group of Lebanese lobbyists are in the United States asking the UN to put Lebanon under Chapter VII. If and when that happens, Hizballah will be buried, but it may take Lebanon with it too.
Grand Mufti, Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani warned against the consequences of the strike that developed into a riot, on Wednesday in a live address to the Lebanese people.
“We thought Hezbollah was concerned with resisting Israeli occupation, and yet it (Hezbollah) has begun to occupy Beirut,” Qabbani said. “What happened today was an attack on homeland security and on the security of the Lebanese people in Beirut and other areas ravaged by the occupiers.” “We look to the Arab world to tell them that Lebanon is being subjected to the domination of the party with external support, under the pretext of resistance,” he continued. “Here is Hezbollah, occupying Beirut and the Rafik Hariri International Airport, and blackmailing the Lebanese government.”
Not all Shias are Hizballah, and Shia Mufti Sheikh Ali Al-Amin is a proof of it.
“The Shia sect rejects being outside the state. It also rejects any faction violating the role of the state under any pretext, said Mufti Sheikh al Amin.” “When the state decides on something, it must implement it.”
The Shia nobility tries a comeback. Ahmad Assad and his group, the Lebanese Option Gathering, Hamade and others try to provide an alternative to Amal and Hizballah. I doubt they will succeed. People are fed up with zaims, the feudal leaders. Nonetheless, the Shia need an alternative and they need it fast in order to replace Berri as Speaker of the House and to put an end to Hizballah's militia and the Stockholm syndrome many Shias suffer from.
Update.
- Free Patriotic Movement leader General Michel Aoun in live press conference
- Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri in live press conference
- PSP leader Walid Jumblatt live on LBC's Kalam An-Nass