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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanon army chief ‘worried’ ahead of UN indictment |
| 2010-11-07 |
| Lebanon’s top army chief admitted that he is concerned about tensions in the country ahead of an indictment from a UN-backed court on the assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. ‘I am worried but I am not afraid,’ General Jean Kahwaji, who rarely makes public statements, told the daily An-Nahar. ‘We have deployed sufficient troops in Beirut and have studied all other areas at risk,’ he said. ‘The army will be firm... in all areas and particularly Christian areas,’ he said without elaborating. Lebanon’s diminishing Christian community, estimated at less than 30 percent of the four-million population, divides its loyalty between rival camps headed respectively by Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain former premier, and Shia Hezbollah. Powerful and armed during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, Christian leaders have since turned in their weapons, relying instead on alliances with Saudi-backed Hariri and Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah. |
| Posted by:Steve White |