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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Nasrallah plot linked to Iraqi sectarian violence |
| 2006-04-16 |
| A senior Hezbollah official said nine men charged with plotting to assassinate the Shiite Muslim group's leader wanted to avenge killings of fellow Sunnis in Iraq, an ominous sign that the sectarian bloodshed may be spilling over into the region. Government officials declined Saturday to confirm the report, but such a spillover would be particularly worrisome in Lebanon, where a fragile balance among Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and other sects is already under strain from tensions over relations with neighboring Syria. The target of the alleged plot, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, is striving to avert any rift, saying late Friday that he would not blame Lebanon's Sunnis if the conspirators were shown to be motivated by Sunni militancy. “We don't seek a vendetta and we don't seek revenge,” he told thousands of supporters in a suburb south of Beirut while urging all Lebanese to work together on “civil peace, coexistence and state-building.” A top Hezbollah official, Sheik Mohammed Kawthrani, told The Associated Press late Friday that the nine men arrested early last week were “Salafists who saw in Sheik Nasrallah a good Shiite target to avenge the death of Sunnis in Iraq.” “Salafists” is the term used for radical Sunni Muslims who follow a strict interpretation of Islam and view Shiites as heretics. They are blamed for most of the bombings, kidnappings and killings targeted at Iraq's Shiites. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted terrorist, are considered Salafists. A judicial official said Saturday that authorities could not comment on the plot's motivation because they were still interrogating the nine men charged Tuesday, who are mostly Lebanese. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Nasrallah has had little direct connection to the conflict in Iraq, which has been strained by a cycle of revenge killings between Shiites and Sunnis in recent weeks. An attempt to kill him in the name of Sunni revenge could suggest a troubling turn for two communities that have been divided for centuries. Shiites are a minority in most Arab states, but they are a majority in Iraq, and the defeat of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime has intensified tensions over the religious rift as Shiites there have gained power. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak angered Shiites across the region recently by saying they are more loyal to Shiite-dominated Iran than their own Arab nations. An assassination of Nasrallah also would be a heavy blow to the delicate stability of Lebanon, an ethnically and religiously diverse nation where a devastating 15 years of civil war ended in 1990. Tensions already are at levels not seen since the end of the war because of last year's assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, a Sunni. Many Sunnis and Christians blame neighboring Syria, while Hezbollah and other Shiite groups are Syria's closest allies here. Still, Shiite leaders have sought to calm frictions with Sunnis, who with Shiites account for about two-thirds of Lebanon's 3.5 million people. Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the country's top Shiite cleric, insisted in an AP interview this week that Shiite-Sunni violence in Iraq would not shake “the realities on the ground between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon.” Ibrahim Bayram, a prominent Shiite author who writes for Lebanon's leading newspaper, An-Nahar, said Hezbollah views Sunnis as potential allies who could give the Iranian-backed group an opening to a Sunni-dominated Arab world suspicious of Iran. “A main challenge for Hezbollah is to win over the Sunnis,” he said. “Hezbollah believes that winning over everyone in Lebanon and not the Sunnis would amount to nothing.” |
| Posted by:Flelet Spavinter3070 |