Hariri’s bid for arms-free Beirut in limbo Friday, 03 September 2010 04:29

BEIRUT: A chorus of calls for an “arms-free” Beirut triggered by a deadly battle outside a mosque last week is fast fading after Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement warned against any attempt to disarm it.

After an August 24 gunfight between supporters of the Shia Hezbollah and those of Sunni faction Al Ahbash — two loosely allied Syrian-backed parties — western-backed Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri launched a campaign calling for Beirut to be stripped of its omnipresent weapons.

But Hezbollah has cautioned the Hariri camp against raising the issue of its huge arsenal.

“As usual, the situation is very, very precarious on all levels,” said Sahar Atrache, Middle East and North Africa analyst at the Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group.

“Having these weapons spread everywhere is alarming, especially as security and stability in Lebanon are clearly not under control,” Atrache said.

“And again, what we do in Lebanon is try to handle the immediate consequences of the situation, and not the overall situation.”

Last week’s four-hour street battle in the west Beirut district of Burj Abi Haidar began as a row over a parking space but swiftly escalated with the use of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

The violence raised fears of a repeat of May 2008, when gunmen supporting a Hezbollah-led alliance clashed with supporters of the Sunni prime minister.

Close to 100 people died in the week-long battle which saw the Hezbollah camp seize control of much of mainly Sunni west Beirut.

A slew of ministers and security officials met this week in a bid to forge an agreement on arms control in the capital, but failed to announce what measures, if any, the state would take. “Can we afford all these weapons in Lebanon?” Hariri said late on Wednesday.

“Addressing this issue means we need to recognise the existence of these arms across Lebanon,” he said, adding that 1,500 soldiers had been deployed across the capital.

Hariri’s comments were the latest in a harsh exchange of words between his Saudi-backed bloc and the Syrian-and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, sparked by the Burj Abi Haidar clash.

“It is unacceptable that anyone go too far in their initiatives, which have no point but to complicate internal politics and increase mistrust among Lebanese,” Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad said.

Hezbollah is the only Lebanese faction that retained its arsenal after the 1975-1990 civil war.

The Shia party, which has two ministers in the government, argues its weapons are necessary to defend Lebanon against Israel with which it fought a devastating war in 2006. AFP

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