TRIPOLI, Lebanon— When Sahar, an interior designer, woke up Sunday morning, she saw that the streets in her hometown, Lebanon's second largest city, had been decorated overnight with dozens of green-and-white Saudi Arabian flags.

While she'd been sleeping, another Tripolitan, Omar, had met up with friends and other locals in the predominantly Sunni city's main square. Their mission for the evening? To send a clear signal that the Sunnis of Tripoli are aligned with Saudi Arabia and not Iran — the primary backer of Shiite armed group Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and a powerful political and military force in Lebanon. This provocation followed the announcement days earlier by Saudi Arabia and five other Gulf states that Hezbollah was recruiting Gulf youth for terror attacks.

The following morning, Sahar and Omar, who both asked that their last names be omitted because of the sensitive nature of the conversation, met with International Business Times at a cafe in Tripoli. Both are Sunni Muslims who have lived in the city for most of their lives, but neither are religious conservatives: Sahar was wearing a short dress and colorful aviators while Omar smoked cigarette after cigarette.