by AP — Driving back to base after firing rockets towards Israeli positions from a border area last month, a group of Hezbollah fighters was accosted by angry villagers who smashed their vehicles’ windshields and briefly held up the convoy. It was a rare incident of defiance that suggested many in Lebanon will not tolerate provocations by the powerful group that risk triggering a new war with Israel. As Lebanon sinks deeper into poverty, many Lebanese are more openly criticising Iran-backed Hezbollah. They blame the group – with the ruling class – for the numerous, devastating crises plaguing the country, including a dramatic currency crash and severe shortages in medicine and fuel. “Hezbollah is facing its most consequential challenge in maintaining control over the Lebanese system and what is called the ‘protective environment of the resistance’ against Israel,” said Joe Macaron, a Middle East analyst in Washington. The incident along the border and other confrontations – including a deadly shooting at the funeral of a Hezbollah fighter and rare indirect criticism by the country’s top Christian religious leader – leave the group on the defensive.

The anger has spread in recent months, even in Hezbollah strongholds where many have protested against electricity cuts and fuel shortages as well as the currency crash that has plunged more than half the country’s six million people into penury. In its strongholds, predominantly inhabited by Shiite Muslims, it is not uncommon now for people to speak out against the group. They note that Hezbollah is paying salaries in US dollars at a time when most Lebanese get paid in Lebanese currency, which in almost two years has lost more than 90 per cent of its value. Protests and scuffles have broken out at gas stations around Lebanon and in some Hezbollah strongholds. In rare shows of defiance, groups of protesters closed key roads in those areas south of Beirut and in southern Lebanon. In recent speeches, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah appeared angry, blaming the shortages on what he describes as an undeclared western siege. The chaos in Lebanon, he said, is being instigated from a “black room” inside the US embassy.

القاضي بيتر جرمانوس ‏يكشف عبر الـMTV ‏أنه ساهم بانتاج دراسة قانونية ‏في عهد ميشال سليمان ‏تقول إن حكومة تصريف الاعمال ‏لا تستطيع تولي صلاحيات رئيس الجمهورية ‏بعد انتهاء ولايته ‏وعليه لا بد أن يكمل الرئيس في منصبه ‏الى حين انتخاب البديل. لا علم لي بهذه الدراسة ولم اطلبها ولم اضطلع عليها. ولكن عام ٢٠١٣ جاء […]