For Lebanese, Syrian Crisis Cuts along Sectarian Lines
Within both the March 8 & 14 Alliances, reactions differ at the grass-roots level regarding the events transpiring in the country bordering Lebanon, Elie Hajj reports
The reaction of the Lebanese people to the ongoing crisis in Syria is split along sectarian and party lines. With some difficulty, all parties agreed to the “self-distancing” policy. The government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati depends on this policy in order to avoid domestic confrontations linked with the events transpiring in the neighboring countries.
Before the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, divisions over national and political issues split Lebanon along party and sectarian lines. The March 14 Alliance is a coalition of political parties comprised of the Future Movement — a Sunni Muslim-majority party that was founded by the late President Rafiq Hariri — and Christian parties, most notably the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party, and the National Liberal Party, in addition to regional and leftist groups, the Democratic Left Movement, and independent figures.
In contrast there is the March 8 Alliance, a coalition of political parties led by its Shiite contingent of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, and counterbalanced by the Christian-predominated Free Patriotic Movement. The coalition also includes parties directly linked to the Syria regime, such as the Baath Party and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, as well as regional parties, such as El Marada Movement, and independent figures.
It is widely known that the March 8 coalition has, varying from one regime to the next, formed an alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile the other coalition, March 14, is linked with so-called moderate Arab countries and the West.
