Lebanon Caught Between U.N. Commitments and Internal Splits (DIVISIONS‪)‬

Lebanon's political leaders have never been as split as they are now. Although Lebanon's political history has generally been marked since the country's independence from France in 1943 by turbulence that erupted into civil wars in 1958 and 1975, the feuding parties had managed with the mediation of regional powers to strike peace deals to end their bloody conflicts. The latest of such deals were the 1989 Arab-brokered Taif Accord signed by Christian and Muslim lawmakers in the Saudi summer resort of Taif that ended the 1975-90 civil war, and the 2008 Doha Accord that ended a political stalemate that left the country without a president for more than a year and erupted into sectarian street fighting between pro- and anti-government groups in Beirut and other areas. The violence flared up after Hizbullah's supporters briefly took over the Muslim sector of West Beirut to protest a government decision to dismantle the party's private telecommunications network. More than 80 people were killed in those clashes. The Doha Accord, reached in the Qatari capital of Doha in May 2008, was signed by leaders from the Western-backed March 14 coalition and the rival Syrian-backed March 8 alliance led by the powerful Shiite Hizbullah group. Now the two rival parties are sharply split over two major explosive issues that are threatening to destabilize Lebanon: Hizbullah's weapons which the March 14 group wants put under state control, and the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) which Hizbullah and its March 8 allies want dissolved or at least they want the Lebanese government not to deal with it. The STL is probing the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Hizbullah's arsenal has been the target of scathing attacks by caretaker Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and his March 14 allies since Hariri's Cabinet was toppled on Jan. 12 following the resignations of the ministers of Hizbullah and its allies in a long-simmering rift over the STL.