Lebanon clashes are new sign of region's strengthening sectarianism

Conflicts between hardline Sunni groups and Lebanese army are direct challenge to authority of fragile state

Martin Chulov

guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 June 2013


".........The call to arms was a response to Nasrallah's speech on 25 May, in which he acknowledged his group's large-scale role in the border town of Qusair. His tone was perceived by some in the Sunni world as a direct challenge. And, ever since, an already grave situation in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon has been steadily worsening.

Lebanese identity, only tenuously tied to the notion of nation state even in the best of times, is lurching ever closer to sect. In Iraq's Anbar province, Sunni resentment at the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad is palpable and an insurgency is again raging.

All the while, a potent form of sectarianism appears to be calcifying well beyond the Levant. In Egypt, four Shias were killed and dozens wounded when their small community was stormed on Sunday. In Saudi Arabia, the eastern areas populated by Shias are again restive and fearful.

In Bahrain, the scene of a failed Shia revolt against a Sunni-led monarchy in 2011, the effects of the latest regional deterioration are being keenly felt.
Now it's getting serious."