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Comment and Opinion

Haaretz: Hezbollah’s war of survival, by Zvi Bar’el

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Over the past year the town of Arsal in east Lebanon, on the Syrian border, has become a prison for some 40,000 civilians and as many Syrian refugees who fled there from battles.

This town, famous for its carpet industry, is now surrounded by military forces – the Lebanese Army on the west and Syrian militias in the east, including Nusra Front, which is associated with al-Qaida, and Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The town, with its predominantly Sunni population, served as an important logistic center for the rebels in Syria, especially for the Free Syrian Army that even set up an improvised hospital there for its wounded soldiers.

In recent days Arsal has become the focus of a political controversy between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened this week that if the Lebanese Army doesn’t free Arsal, Hezbollah will. The Al–Mustaqbal faction, led by Saad Hariri, Nasrallah’s rival, and a number of Lebanese cabinet members, warned Nasrallah not to take action in Arsal, because the army is responsible for protecting Lebanon.

The conquest of a Sunni town by Hezbollah, a Shi’ite organization, could reignite a war between those who support Hezbollah’s involvement in the war in Syria and those who accuse it of bringing the war into Lebanon.

Read the article in full at Haaretz.