Video - Former Hizbullah Leader Subhi Al-Tufayli: Iran Forces Hizbullah to Participate in the Syrian War.

Video - Former Hizbullah Leader Subhi Al-Tufayli: Iran Forces Hizbullah to Participate in the Syrian War.

Subhi Al-Tufayli: I know for a fact that the vast majority within Hizbullah strongly oppose [joining] the Syrian war. However, a resolute decision to participate [in the war] has been imposed upon them.

Interviewer: By Iran?
Subhi Al-Tufayli: Yes.
Interviewer: Even Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah opposes this?
Subhi Al-Tufayli: I don't want to name names, but I'm talking about the situation at hand. Everyone realizes how dangerous this is. First, of all, this is internal strife among Muslims, which will be devastating to all. This is the beginning of things to come. I say to the Shiites, to Hizbullah, and to the non-Shiites as well: We are heading towards a horrific war, which will destroy everything. The fatalities will be numbered by the millions.
Interviewer: Fatalities on which side?
Subhi Al-Tufayli: Muslim fatalities. Hizbullah's joining the Aflaqi Ba'thists in the killing of the Syrian people invites Muslims from all over the world to come to Syria.
[...]
Interviewer: The [Syrian] opposition attacked Hermel.
Subhi Al-Tufayli: After we entered Syrian villages and bombed them, some shells fell [in Lebanon]. I am against this. I say to the Syrian opposition that this is a crime. Yet we must make it clear that the main responsibility for what has happened lies with the Shiite leaders who joined the war in Syria. If the people of Hermel, Baalbek, the north and the south of Lebanon wish to be safe, they should stay away from the war in Syria.
[...]
With regard to going to fight in Syria, the vast majority in Hizbullah are against it.Source: Memri.

Related: Fear In Lebanon Over Possible Slide Into Sectarian War.Memri.By: E. B. Picali.


The recent months have seen a considerable increase of tension between Sunnis and Shi'ites in Lebanon, to the extent that there is growing fear of a confrontation between the two sides – especially between the Shi'ite Hizbullah and Sunni Salafi elements. On February 27, 2013, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki – both of them Shi'ites – expressed concern that a sectarian war might break out in the region, including in Lebanon. Al-Maliki said to the television channel Russia Today: "If [the Syrian opposition] wins [the war in Syria], civil war will break out in Lebanon [as well]…"[1] Nasrallah said in a speech he delivered that day: "There are those who are accelerating Lebanon's descent into sectarian fighting, in particular fighting between Sunnis and Shi'ites."[2] Two weeks later, Lebanese Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, a Christian, likewise warned that "winds of civil war have appeared on the horizon."[3]
Arab and Lebanese press also warned against sectarian war in the country. Jean 'Aziz, a columnist for the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar,  claimed that the current climate in Lebanon is reminiscent of the eve of the civil war in 1975.[4] An April 2, 2013 editorial in the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi claimed that "sectarian tension in Lebanon is awaiting only a match to light it," and that "Lebanon is gradually sliding towards the volcano of the Syrian revolution."[5]
The Sunni-Shi'ite strife in Lebanon is, to a great extent, a reflection of the sectarian tension in the region at large. This tension has grown in the last two years due to the emergence of a Sunni bloc in the region headed by Qatar and Turkey, which forms a counter-weight to the Shi'ite axis headed by Iran, and especially in light of Iran's involvement in Syria, Lebanon and the Gulf states. In addition to these regional factors, there are domestic factors that exacerbate the sectarian tension in Lebanon, namely: the involvement of the rival Lebanese factions in the Syrian war (the Shi'ite Hizbullah is fighting alongside the Assad regime against the Syrian rebels, most of whom are Sunni, whereas the Al-Mustaqbal faction and Salafis in Tripoli are supporting the rebels);[6] the exclusion of the Al-Mustaqbal faction, the primary representative of Lebanon's Sunnis, from the centers of power upon the establishment of the Hizbullah-dominated Mikati government in June 2011; Hizbullah's weapons, which many Sunnis believe are intended to guard sectarian, rather than national Lebanese, interests; and the growing power of the Salafis in Tripoli and of Salafi sheikh Ahmad Al-Asir of Sidon, who challenge Hizbullah's right to keep these weapons.
The sectarian tension in Lebanon has expressed itself in several violent incidents. The severest of them occurred on March 17, 2013, when four Sunni sheikhs were beaten and assaulted with cold weapons by Shi'ite youths in two different locations in Beirut. The incidents evoked a furious response by Sunnis, who held protests, blocked roads, burned tyres and even threw firebombs in Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon and Akkar (in Northern Lebanon).[7] The statement of Lebanese armed forces chief Jean Qahwaji, that March 17 had been "the most dangerous [day] in the last eight years in terms of [Lebanon's domestic] security,"[8] reflects the extent of the tension. However, it seems that tension between the sides rose even further in the last two weeks, after Salafi leaders issued fatwas calling on Sunni youths in Lebanon to embark on jihad in Syria in response to Hizbullah's involvement in the fighting there.
This report will review the escalation of sectarian tension in Lebanon during the recent months.Read the full story here.A must read.