With a troubled history of war and civil strife, and a deeply fragmented ideological makeup, Lebanon’s pre-existing tensions have been drastically exacerbated by the nearly four-year-old neighbouring conflict in Syria and an influx of refugees. With more than a quarter of its population of nearly 6 million now made up of refugees, 1.5 million of them Syrian, sectors of the country are facing a severe blowback, predominantly along sectarian lines.
Surge of violence
The past few months have seen a surge of violence in the northeast region of the Bekaa Valley in the town of Arsal. A mainly Sunni town also hosting a large number of Syrian refugees, Arsal and its surrounding region is known for harbouring families and fighters of Sunni insurgencies, including Jabhat al-Nusra, a group linked to al-Qaeda; derivatives of the Free Syrian Army; and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Such groups fight independently in Syria to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime, but have also been known to fight in concert when it is mutually beneficial, as has often been the case in Lebanon’s border region.
Arsal is also an active smuggling route, notorious for trafficking arms, funds and people to support jihadist groups in Syria, Lama Fakih of Human Rights Watch told Ricochet. It has been the site of a series of Lebanese Army raids attempting to take out Sunni militants as well as violent confrontations spilling over from Syria, intensifying Lebanon’s sectarian divide.
One such confrontation took place last August in Arsal, when Sunni insurgents, including al-Nusra and ISIS, captured 30 Lebanese soldiers following clashes with the Lebanese Army. Four of these soldiers have since been killed (two beheaded and two shot), while seven have been released and one died from injuries. The latest killing took place at the beginning of December, when captors shot Ali Bazzal, 24, allegedly in retaliation for the Lebanese Army’s detainment of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s ex-wife and her child, as well as the wife of Anas Sharkas, an al-Nusra military commander.
Claiming responsibility for Bazzal’s execution, al-Nusra released a statement on Dec. 5, which read, “Executing prisoners of war in our custody is our response to the filthy Lebanese Army detaining our wives and kids.” Lebanese officials hoped to use the detention of those closely linked to Baghdadi as leverage for the release of the remaining Lebanese soldiers. However, after the killing of Bazzal and threats from ISIS to carry out further executions, the Lebanese Army released the women.
Families take a stance
When not blocking highways and streets throughout Lebanon, the families of the captured soldiers spend their days and nights camped in tents outside of the Lebanese parliament buildings in Beirut in an effort to protest the government’s failure to secure their release. Prior to Bazzal’s execution, Ricochet spoke to his mother, Zeinab Bazzal, whose despair and desperation have become a tragic symbol in Lebanon of the increasingly brutal tactics used by extremist groups. Seemingly indifferent to whether her message was disseminated, she expressed outrage at the government’s failure to act and stated, “We can only count on God. We are doing this protest to deliver a message and to make it easier for our sons.” Her son was executed a few days later.
Family members then took up arms, blocking roads in the northern Bekaa Valley region in Bazzal’s hometown of Baalbek, and calling on authorities to carry out the death penalty against those responsible for his execution and to block aid to Syrians in the town of Arsal, whom they consider “terrorists and not refugees.”
Blaming refugees, closing borders
This is not the first time Syrian refugees have served as scapegoats. Lebanese civilians have become increasingly paranoid and insecure due to the influx of predominantly Sunni refugees, particularly in the north. According to Fakih, authorities in Lebanon are failing to protect refugees against attacks, which are reportedly occurring in a climate of official indifference and discrimination, with forcible expulsions and imposed curfews by both officials and armed groups.
In a drastic move, Lebanon has recently closed its borders to prevent further entry of refugees from Syria, with the exception of those who can prove they require entry for humanitarian reasons, an arbitrary condition that officials have yet to define, says Fakih. In practice, entry is often permitted to persons who are affluent, Christian, or businesspeople, whereas denied entry and bans of up to six months have been imposed on refugees coming from ISIS-controlled regions.
The fate of the 23 remaining captured soldiers and their family members remains to be seen. Negotiations to release the hostages are ongoing since Turkish and Qatari mediators have withdrawn and been replaced by a prominent Muslim sheikh from Arsal, Mustapha al-Hujeiri. Al-Nusra has submitted a three-part demand to the Lebanese government, and ISIS similarly demanded a swap of prisoners held in both Lebanon and Syria, but it is questionable whether the government is in a position to fulfill such demands as a consequence of its deep division and lack of unity. Although analyses of the negotiations criticize the Lebanese government as negligent and indifferent to the outcome, the power to secure the soldiers’ release may in fact lie in the hands of other groups, reflective of the much larger sectarian and political issues within Lebanon. George Ghali, a Lebanese human rights activist, told Ricochet that the issue may be the role of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite paramilitary group backed by Iran, and its participation in the Syrian conflict.
Hezbollah: between sectarianism and nationalism
With significantly more power and resources than the Lebanese Army, Hezbollah is officially considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Canada, yet it is a de facto ally in their fight against ISIS. Hezbollah has been fighting alongside the Assad regime in the Syrian conflict since the beginning of 2013, both to prevent the regime’s topple and to ensure survival against the extremist Sunni movements attempting to destroy Shiism. Anonymous sources suggested to Ricochet that Hezbollah’s superior role in the Lebanese government and power over the army, Hezbollah and thus Lebanon may simply be a proxy, or at worst a puppet, of the Syrian regime.
According to a retired Lebanese army Major General, as a large population of Shiites and Christians supports Hezbollah for defending Lebanon against extremist groups, Lebanon is likely to be the next state officially hit by ISIS, Hezbollah’s main enemy. Unofficially, this has already begun. The black ISIS banner is reportedly being flown in the north, while Sunni groups are targeting Shiite and Alawite towns and neighbourhoods by planting booby traps and car bombs. Ricochet has spoken to Human Rights Watch, who have indicated that in a climate of impunity, increased victimization of the Sunni population, including arbitrary detention and torture, by both Lebanese officials and Hezbollah, has led Sunnis to begin retaliating within Lebanon by joining Sunni movements in Syria, including al-Nusra and ISIS.
With a history of marginalization, particularly visible in the northern Lebanese town of Tripoli, the local Sunni population is becoming further radicalized and more and more youth are being recruited for the caliphate of ISIS, an official with Human Rights Watch told Ricochet.
Not officially one of the Arab nations to join the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, Lebanon participated in its launch and is friendly to the coalition’s efforts to contain radicalism. Earlier this month Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam claimed that Lebanon’s position not to join the coalition resulted from the weakness of its military force. Though the U.S. shares intelligence with Lebanon, it is seemingly limited in its powers to provide further military support and resources due to its close relationship with Lebanon’s long-time enemy, Israel. A U.S. domestic law stipulates that it must ensure Israel’s “qualitative military edge” over neighbouring countries.
Hezbollah supporters, human rights groups and former Lebanese Army members indicate an overwhelmingly common response to the situation: the sectarian tensions are unlike anything the region has seen since its 1975-1990 civil war. Not only has the neighbouring conflict in Syria and its spillover in Lebanon pitted groups against each other and created a backlash against Lebanese civilians and Syrian refugees alike, it will also affect the country for generations to come. Without proper external support, Lebanon will be increasingly unable to control the security situation in an already dire state.
This is not simply an issue of the Middle East. The state of the world depends on the security and stability of the region. Continued support for leaders who cause deteriorated conditions on the ground will lead to further grave consequences.
