Hizbollah has been one of the staunchest supporters of the regime of
President Bashar al-Assad, but now there are bitter arguments within its ranks
about whether it is time to change course.
The Telegraph
"....Now in Mr Assad’s time of need Lebanon’s Shias have mostly been loyal in
return - providing logistical and moral support and
even sending fighters into
Syria’s civil war to kill his enemies.
But in Lebanon there are as many Christians and Sunni Muslims as there are
Shia. Now, as doubts grow that Mr Assad will survive and Syria’s civil war
begins to spread into Lebanon, The Sunday Telegraph has been told of secret
arguments raging inside Hizbollah’s ranks about whether the time has come to
stop backing Mr Assad......
“If it looks as if he is in real danger, we will send thousands of our men
into Syria. And if America or Nato is stupid enough to intervene, we will be
there defending Arab lands.”.....
Since it was founded in the 1980s it has built a reputation as a formidably
disciplined organisation, tolerating no public dissent. But a year ago the rival
Palestinian militant organisation Hamas, which controls Gaza, abandoned its
support for Mr Assad. Now, insiders say, Hizbollah is engaged in a fierce debate
behind closed doors over whether to follow suit.....
They say it is now urgent to end their support for Mr Assad, so that a new
relationship can be formed with whoever comes to power in Syria next.
“There is an awareness inside Iran and Hizbollah that they are going to have
confrontation with the Sunnis, or are going to have to bridge the gap between
them,” the source said. “The hardest topic is Syria. The future of Hizbollah and
the Shia is directly related to the future of Syria. If Bashar is to be
sacrificed, let’s sacrifice him and not Syria.”
The most dramatic sign of dissent within Hizbollah is the cancellation of a
forthcoming party convention that is usually held every three years - the first
time anybody can remember it being dropped. The official explanation is that it
would be a security risk.....
Beyond Lebanon, Hizbollah’s prestige, once sky-high, now looks tarnished.
Instead of being praised among Arabs for standing up to Israel, it is seen by
many as the lackey of a bloodstained dictator.
When Hamas abandoned its support for Syria, under pressure from Palestinians
appalled by the regime’s slaughter, Ismail Haniya, its leader in Gaza,
dramatically announced it during Friday prayers in Cairo. “I salute the Syrian
people who seek freedom, democracy and reform,” he said. There were calls of “No
Hizbollah and no Iran” from the crowd.
For sticking with the Damascus regime, Hizbollah has been criticised by Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, and the Gulf States.
Its support for the Assad regime was “an obvious strategic mistake”, said
Abdel-Halim Qandil, the co-founder of the new left-of-centre Egyptian political
party Kefaya (Enough). “It would have been better to be neutral or to keep
silent,” he said.
There is growing unease even among Hizbollah’s grass-roots supporters in its
political heartlands of South Beirut, and speculation that it will lose out
politically as well.
“My mother has always voted for Hizbollah, but she has seen the television
pictures of dead children in Syria and she is horrified,” said one Hizbollah
supporter. “Of course she is behind the resistance. But for the first time in
her life I think she may not vote for them in the next election.”".
