by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Group's expanding power in Lebanon reflects Iran's deepening influence in arc of territory from Tehran through Baghdad and Damascus.
Hezbollah's larger
role in Lebanon's new unity government points to a growing appetite to
shape state affairs and builds on unprecedented military clout the group
is wielding after helping turn the tide in Syria's war.
The Shiite terrorist group's expanding
power in Lebanon reflects a deepening of Iranian influence in an arc of
territory from Tehran through Baghdad and Damascus that its foes Saudi
Arabia and Israel have struggled to counter.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has assumed control
of three ministries in the government led by the Western-backed Prime
Minister Saad Hariri, the largest number of portfolios it has ever held.
The new government was formed on Thursday, ending nine months of wrangling.
The most significant portfolio under
Hezbollah control is the Health Ministry, the first time Hezbollah has
controlled a ministry with a large budget, though the Shiite doctor it
picked for the job is not a party member.
More broadly, Hezbollah and its political
allies from across Lebanon's sectarian spectrum have emerged with more
than half of the cabinet's 30 seats, reflecting a May parliamentary
election which the group declared a victory.
Salem Zahran, an analyst with links to
Hezbollah leaders, said the government would go down in its history as
the "first big shift and the first step along a long road" towards more
influence in government.
"This transformation is because Hezbollah
has accumulated an excess of power after it has nearly finished with the
military battles in Syria," he said. "I believe that Hezbollah will
build up even more involvement in the Lebanese state."
Hezbollah, founded by Iran's Revolutionary
Guards in 1982, is by far the most powerful group in Lebanon. Its clout
in the region has grown since it joined the war in Syria in support of
President Bashar Assad.
Lebanese government posts are parceled out
according to a complicated sectarian system that caps how many positions
any one group can hold. The post of prime minister is reserved for a
Sunni Muslim, a job Hariri has now held three times because of his
status as Lebanon's leading Sunni.
But Hariri's Sunni dominance was shaken by
the May election in which he lost more than one-third of his seats in
parliament, many of them to Hezbollah-allied Sunnis. Hezbollah managed
to secure a cabinet seat for one of its Sunni allies.
This is a big gain for Hezbollah and its
allies who have long sought to erode the Sunni dominance built by the
Hariri family after Lebanon's civil war, with the backing of Riyadh.
As Hezbollah's clout has grown, Saudi
Arabia has turned its focus away from Lebanon to other parts of the
region, weakening Hezbollah's opponents who had benefited from its
backing.
Hariri's ally, the staunchly anti-Hezbollah
Christian Lebanese Forces party, was forced to cede significant ground
during nine months of political wrangling over government portfolios,
though it gained seats in parliament.
Hezbollah's biggest Christian ally, President Michel Aoun and his Free Patriotic Movement, made fewer concessions.
The most significant among them was
providing the ground needed for Hezbollah's Sunni ally to join the
cabinet – a point of friction between the allies. But Aoun, who backs
Hezbollah's possession of weapons, still controls one-third of the
cabinet.
"Strategic imbalance"
Nabil Boumonsef, a Hezbollah critic and
An-Nahar newspaper columnist, said Hezbollah's role was "growing very
clearly" and noted that Hariri allies failed to secure all their
demands.
"This strategic imbalance confirms that
Hezbollah's influence in this government is stronger than in the
previous one for sure. This absolutely cannot be denied," he said.
This poses questions for the United States,
whose Lebanon policy twins military aid to the Lebanese army and
support for Hariri with growing pressure on Hezbollah through sanctions.
The U.S. State Department said in a
statement it was concerned that Hezbollah would continue to occupy
ministerial positions and was allowed to name the health minister.
"We call on the new government to ensure
the resources and services of these ministries do not provide support to
Hezbollah ... We look to all parties in the new government to uphold
Lebanon's policy of disassociation from regional conflicts and its
international obligations," it said.
The United States has imposed new sanctions on Hezbollah as part of its strategy to counter Iran.
The front-page headline of the pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar said Hezbollah needed "a government amid the storm."
"Hezbollah benefits today from the
government led by Hariri specifically ... because Hariri, with his
Western and Gulf [Arab] facade could be a safety net or helper, keeping
options open, when it comes to escalating American sanctions," Al-Akhbar
wrote in its main story on the government.
A senior Western diplomat said Hezbollah's opponents would keep a close eye on how Hezbollah manages the Health Ministry.
"The other parties will closely monitor the
funds Hezbollah has in the ministry and will cry foul when something is
happening, because they know the Americans are looking in the same
direction," the diplomat said.
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2019/02/03/building-on-syria-war-gains-hezbollah-scores-political-win/
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