Clashes continues for a second day in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley May 8, pitting Hezbollah [2] against the Sunni and pro-government Future Movement [3]. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah charged the government with crossing a "red line" by challenging the independence of the resistance movement.
The government called for Hezbollah's secure communications system—fiber-optic cables separate from the Lebanese national network—to be dismantled. It also protested concealed surveillance cameras found at Beirut airport, and sacked an army general in charge of security who was described as a Hezbollah sympathizer.
Nasrallah warned in a televised news conference that the moves were "tantamount to a declaration of war...on the resistance and its weapons in the interests of America and Israel". He pledged Hezbullah would "cut off the hands" of anyone who tried to touch its arsenal. (Daily Star [4], The Guardian [5], May 9; Daily Star [6], May 8; )
The government crackdown came days after claims were raised in the New York Times [7] that Hezbollah is training Iraqi Shi'ite militias in Iran.
See our last post on the Lebanon [8].
