ANALYSIS

Hizbollah's fate to loom large after Lebanon polls

By Mariam Karouny ,  May 24 , 2005

BEIRUT, May 24 (Reuters) - With Syrian troops gone, a U.N. demand for Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas to disarm poses a challenge for any government that emerges from forthcoming elections.

The Syrian withdrawal last month fulfilled the first part of U.N. Security Council resolution 1559. The second demands that the hardened Shi'ite Muslim fighters who helped drive Israeli troops from Lebanon exactly five years ago give up their guns.

"Hizbollah is a Lebanese matter and we understand that so far, but the new Lebanese authority must disarm the group," a Western diplomat said. "There is no place for a private army in the region any more. Both Hizbollah and Lebanon know that."

Hizbollah won popularity and prestige in Lebanon and the Arab world when its relentless guerrilla attacks helped drive Israel from the south in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation. 

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