Lebanon land of choice for proxy warriors

The tiny country has long been vulnerable to foreign meddling, with a power-sharing system for 17 Muslim and Christian communities that keeps the government weak and sometimes tempts rival groups to seek help from allies abroad.

The United States, France and other big powers are widely seen as part of this game, along with regional players like Israel, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

"Israel's attack on Hizbollah was directed to a great extent at Iran," said Lebanese commentator Michael Young. "Hizbollah's actions have also been much influenced by Iranian interests."

Hizbollah, the only Lebanese faction to keep its guns after the 1975-90 civil war on the grounds it needed them to fight Israeli occupation, seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

That set off a confrontation that taps into interlocking conflicts across the Middle East, from Israel's quarrels with the Palestinians to Iran's nuclear dispute with the West, Sunni-Shi'ite tensions in Iraq and the US "war on terror".

The US ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Tuesday Iran could use the Lebanon war to foment more trouble in Iraq, accusing Tehran of already having "some forces" there.

"The region is very much interconnected. What happened in Lebanon affects things here," he said.

Some pro-Western Arab capitals, alarmed at rising Iranian influence since the US-led war in Iraq upset the regional power balance, initially criticised Hizbollah's "adventurism".

But Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have toned down their public hostility to the Shi'ite Islamist guerrillas and swung behind Lebanon, where more than 900 people have been killed.

NO CONSULTATION

Hizbollah, whose sway over Lebanon's big Shi'ite community rests on its voting power and welfare network as well as its guns, says it is fighting Israel in defence of the whole country -- though it did not consult its Sunni, Druze and Christian compatriots before igniting the conflict.

Its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, mocks Arab nations with big defence budgets but no stomach for a confrontation with Israel, in contrast to his fighters battling Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and firing rockets into the Jewish state.

Even Jordan's pro-Western King Abdullah has acknowledged that Hizbollah fighters have become heroes for ordinary Arabs.

He said Israel, with which Jordan has a peace treaty, was perpetuating militancy by refusing to give up Arab lands it captured in the 1967 war in return for peace with all the Arabs.

"A fact America and Israel must understand is that as long as there is aggression and occupation there will be resistance and popular support for the resistance," he said last week.

But the United States has adopted Israel's view that Hizbollah and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement must be combated along with al Qaeda in the global "war on terror".

President George W Bush blames Hizbollah and its allies for the Lebanon war. "Syria and Iran sponsor and promote Hizbollah activities all aimed at creating chaos, all aimed at using terror to stop the advance of democracies," he said on Monday.

Washington, which has refused to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, saw Israel's offensive as a chance to destroy Hizbollah's armed power, loosen its influence in Lebanon and that of its allies in Iran and Syria, which also back Hamas.

After four weeks of conflict, in which up to 1,000 people in Lebanon and 100 Israelis have been killed, there is little sign that these far-reaching objectives are being achieved.

SO FAR UNSCATHED
Undeterred by events in Lebanon, Iran remains defiant over its nuclear programme, despite UN Security Council pressure to halt uranium enrichment or face possible sanctions.

Iran and Syria have watched as Hizbollah rockets they are accused of supplying rain down on the Jewish state, so far escaping the devastating Israeli retaliation visited on Lebanon.

No concerted attempt has been made to engage them in efforts to calm the Lebanon conflict. France has said Iran can play a stabilising part, but says there can be no role for Syria.

After working with the United States to force Syria to pull its troops from Lebanon after last year's killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, France is determined not to let Damascus use Israel's offensive to reassert its grip there.

Last week's huge pro-Hizbollah rally by Shi'ites in Baghdad was another reminder of how the Lebanon war is rippling across the region and creating fresh hostility to the United States.