MENA Minorities

Quntar (Mitte) posiert mit regimetreuen (Para-)Militärs für ein Erinnerungsfoto  im syrischen Dair ez-Zor Am 19. Dezember 2015 starb Samir Quntar bei einem israelischen Luftangriff im Damaszener Vorort Jaramana. Quntar war eine Symbolfigur – je nach Blickwinkel für den Kampf gegen Israel oder für brutalen palästinensischen Terrorismus. Sein Verhältnis zur Hisbollah und seine Rolle im syrischen Bürgerkrieg waren aber weniger eindeutig als es auf den ersten Blick erscheint.  Samir Quntars Mythos beginnt in den 1970er Jahren während des libanesischen Bürgerkrieges. Eher untypisch für einen Drusen und wohl auch gegen Widerstände in seiner Umgebung schloss er sich als Teenager der Palästinensischen Befreiungsfront (PLF) an und nicht der Progressiven Sozialistischen Partei des legendären Drusenführers Kamal Jumblatt. 1979 war er Teil einer Kommandoaktion im nordisraelischen Nahariya und nahm einen Vater mit seiner vierjährigen Tochter als Geisel. Quntar tötete beide, das Mädc...

Very insightful piece about Samir Quntar and the Golan Druze by Nour Samaha, I am briefly cited as well. Blurred Future by Nour Samaha, Newsweek Middle East (...) Who was Kantar and What Was He Doing in Syria? At the age of 16, Kantar, a Lebanese Druze, was sentenced by an Israeli court to five life terms plus 47 years for his role in a 1979 military operation in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya. He was eventually released in a prisoner exchange deal between Hezbollah and Israel in 2008.  He joined Hezbollah’s ranks soon after. Following the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, Kantar was tasked with heading up the Popular Syrian Resistance (PSR), an obscure group that was created in 2013. Backed by the Syrian government, and supervised and equipped by Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the PSR’s aim was to recruit local Syrians from the southern Quneitra province, near the Golan Heights. The recruits were tasked with carrying out operations ag...

What are the implications of Russia's intervention for Hizballah? Here you will find some interesting answers: Hezbollah’s New Ally In Syria  by Nour Samaha, Newsweek Middle East Russia’s involvement has also seen an increase of Hezbollah fighters on the ground. Sources close to the party confirm that approximately 2,000 fighters have been added to the battlefield, specifically in the areas around Aleppo and Idlib, in the immediate aftermath of Russian airstrikes, adding more foot soldiers to the thousands already present there.   “For example, before Russia’s [involvement] there were around 200 fighters in Aleppo and Idlib, predominantly advisors,” said one source. “Now there are between 1,500 and 2,000.”(…)

I have a problem every time read that Beirut's southern suburbs are something like "Hizballah territory". Of course this is true to some extend in a way that the southern suburbs is their power base and there Hizballah is in a league of its own. However, neither are all inhabitants (of whom many are not Shia) followers of the "Party of God" nor are they the only powerful party here. The so far 43 victims of the bombing last Friday in Burj al-Barajna deserve a more nuanced approach. Here you can clearly see the funeral of a supporter of the  Amal-party. The corpse is covered by a green (the color of Amal) flag and the funeral procession is guarded by uniformed Amal-militiamen.

Phillip Smyth, who writes the blog Hizballah Cavalcade about Shiite militias in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, has an extensive policy paper (more a monograph) on Shiite militias in Syria out via the Washington Institute. I haven't read it yet, but after browsing through the notes my expectations were raised. The Shiite Jihad in Syria and Its Regional Effects by Phillip Smyth, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Btw there is also an interesting posting from last month on Hizballah Cavalcade about a new Shabak militia in Iraq .

In case you didn't know, Lebanese Hizballah has branched out in Syria. Now the Syrian branch has received a kinda official status by the regime-another sign for the rising influence of Iran on the regime. Ancient diplomat Ignace Levierr provides an analyses for Le Monde , where he operates the blog Un oeil sur la Syrie (which you should read on a regular basis if your French is better than mine). Le Hizbollah syrien prend un caractère officiel by Ignace Leverrier, Le Mond Blog / Un oeil sur la Syrie

An in deph report about the current dynamics in Lebanon's Bekaa-valley (covering the Situation in both Shia and Christian villages) can be found at the NYT: Sectarian Wedge Pushes From Syria Into Lebanon by Anne Bernard, The New York Times  

Lebanese Druze leader and head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Junblat expressed his current frustration with Hizballah unusually frankly in an recent interview with the Associated Press. A main reason (which is not featured in that article) why Junblat is pressuring Hizballah is also the unwillingness of Hizballah's March 8 camp to elect a new president by denying quorum. Junblat, who has proposed his own "centrist" candidate Henri Helou, has declared he won't vote neither for Michel Aoun, the unofficial candidate of March 8, nor for Samir Geagea, the candidate of March 14. Junblat's parliamentary block holds a swing vote in the National Assembly. AP Interview: Druse Head Scorns Hezbollah on Syria by  Bassem Mroue, Associated Press The decision by Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group to join the civil war in neighboring Syria and fight along President Bashar Assad's forces was a historic and moral "mistake" toward the Syrian peo...

Fascinating report by Anne Bernard, the Beirut bureau chief of the New York Times, from Saiyida Zainab near Damascus, which houses the Shia shrine of the prophet Muhammad's granddaughter (or one of them to be exact). Protecting the shrine serves as a pretense for the involvement of Hizballah and Shia fighters from Iraq in Syria. Muslim Shrine Stands as a Crossroads in Syria’s Unrest   by Anne Bernard, The New York Times

Map: Funerals of Hezbollah Fighters killed in Syria, as of 29 March 2014 by Hisham Ashkar. He localized no less than 313 funerals and has some other great work on bis Blog mostlyoff as well - strongly recommended.

At The Syrian Observer  Journalist Yahya Alous shines some light on the growing secterianism in Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus with a large Druze and Christian population. The town is currently witnessing an influx of pro-government Shiite fighters: Jaramana or Beirut's southern suburb?   by   Yahya Alous, The Syrian Observer In Jaramana, various types of Shiite songs have recently arrived from Iraq, in addition to the sounds of mournful prayers and calls, either calling for the intervention of Hussein, or for his help in seeking revenge. Decked with yellow flags, SUVs freely roam the streets of the city, bearing posters calling for the attention of Hussein and Zeinab. And in other corners of the city, people from different parts of the country wander the streets, proudly wearing sectarian symbols and slogans on their shoulders. This is the new look of the city, which has become a hotbed for these certain kinds of militant groups. This city, which is als...

An interesting piece on regime-minorities relations in Syria was was published recently: " The early reversal on minorities in Syria " by Yahya Alaous for The Syrian Observer . It has some very interesting arguments, which deserve some further discussion. The author argues that the regime might turn on the minorities (not the Alawites of  course)   once their service in the civil war is not any longer needed because their freedom threatens the regime's authority. Here a comparison is drawn to the war of Saddam Husain against Kuwait, his former ally against Iran. Even if I don't think the Syrian minorities can be compared to oil-rich Kuwait by any means, the main argument is definately valuable: What was accepted reluctantly by the regime in the past because of considerations concerning the minorities will no longer acceptable in the same way because the regime has enough burdens. So the regime will not hesitate to alleviate the burdens whenever it can—and ...

Lebanese news portal Now. published an extensive interview with Philip Symyth, a leading expert on the still underreported phenomenon of Shiite militias in Syria, who operates the blog  Hizballah Cavalcade .

Update: Hizballah in Qalamun Unterdessen kann die Beteiligung von Hizballah an der Offensive in Qalamun als gesichert angesehen werden. YA LIBNAN : "20 Hezbollah fighters killed in Qalamoun, Syria battles" SPIEGEL ONLINE : "Bürgerkrieg in Syrien: Die Schlacht um die Höhlen von Kalamun"

Nach den Bombenanschlägen in Hizballah-Hochburgen im Juli (9 Tote 53 Verletzte) und August (22 Tote 325 Verletzte) befürchtet die schiitische Miliz nun Anschläge während des Aschurafestes Mitte November, berichtet das Internetportal Naharnet unter Berufung auf die libanesische Tageszeitung al-Joumhouria . Während des Aschurafestes gedenken die Schiiten der Schlacht von Kerbala und des Martyriums des Kalifen Husain. Es ist der höchste schiitische Feiertag und teilweise durch Hizballah propagandistisch vereinnahmt. Laut demselben  Bericht gibt es auch nach wie vor intensive Kontakte zwischen Hizballah und der Progressiven Sozialistischen Partei (PSP) des Drusenführers Walid Junblat: Meanwhile, Hizbullah sources revealed to the daily that contacts are ongoing between the party and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat over a number of issues. The contacts are being held between caretaker Ministers Wael Abou Faour and Ghazi al-Aridi and MP Akram Shehayeb, r...