Crisis: Syria's Role in Lebanon Revived, Analyst (Lebanon-Report‪)‬

Although Lebanon's newly-elected prime minister, Najib Mikati, was brought in by Lebanese factions allied to Syria, it is Iran's domination that is growing in the country, not Syria's, because the same factions, backed by a massive arsenal, have been serving the Islamic republic's interests as their topmost priority, a leading analyst said on Jan. 28. Hizbullah, the Iranian-and Syrian-backed Shiite militia, and Iran itself "see their influence grow every time Syria imposes leaders on Lebanese Sunnis or Christians," Redwan Sayyed wrote in the London-based daily ASHARQ AL AWSAT. The prime minister's office in Lebanon is always allocated to a Sunni, while the president and the house speaker are reserved for Maronites and Shiites respectively. "It seems the Syrians have forgotten the reaction to what happened in 2005 and are hoping again that the United States will need their services in Lebanon and will strike a deal with them. No one knows if this will be the case again," he added in the Saudi-owned newspaper. The 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri beefed up local and international pressure on Syria, which withdrew its troops from Lebanon in April that year, 28 years after they came in on a peacekeeping mission at the height of the country's 1975-90 civil war.