Image showing combination of Hezbollah and FPM logos. The bottom reads "for the sake of Lebanon"
Lebanon’s two major opposition parties, Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), recently celebrated the third anniversary of their 2006 memorandum of understanding. This agreement brought together two seemingly disparate constituencies – one Shia and the other predominantly Christian – in what was commonly seen as a partnership of mere of political convenience.
However, Al-Manar highlights commentary made by former minister Michel Smeha who suggests that this relationship fostered ‘coexistence’ in Lebanon over the course of several challenges in recent years.
While Smeha’s credibility as an objective oberserver, being an individual who moved from the anti to the pro-Syrian camp in the aftermath of the country’s civil war, the relatioship forged by the MOU has nevertheless demonstrated resilience through the course of developments that stirred sectarian tensions, especially Hebollah’s May 2008 ‘coup‘.
The ‘strength’ of this alliance may indeed have members of the pro-western camp concerned over upcoming elections for June of 2009. Maintaining this relationship, however, may continue to have a ‘normalizing’ effect on Hezbollah, discouraging it from undertaking any drastic action against Israel, which would potentially alienate it from of its domestic political ‘partners’.