Can Nasrallah Unite Lebanon?
By RANNIE AMIRI “Differences among the Lebanese have reached the edge of suicide.” – Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, in a meeting of the country’s Christian and Muslim religious leaders after renewed violence in the city of Tripoli. The foreboding statement by Lebanon’s newly-elected president at first seemed out of place. It came on the heels of clashes between Sunnis loyal to the government in the Bab al-Tebbaneh quarter of Tripoli and Alawite supporters of the opposition in the neighboring Jabal Mohsen quarter. The June 22nd-23rd clashes ultimately left nine dead and 45 wounded before the Lebanese Army stepped in to end the fighting. The situation in Tripoli though pales in comparison to the events that unfolded in Beirut more than a month prior. At that time, Hezbollah’s men swept across and extended control over nearly all of West Beirut after Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s cabinet ordered the group’s private telecommunications network dismantled. Beirut appeared to be poised
