Several days ago, Hezbollah fighters guarding Shiite Lebanese citizens living in and around 14 Lebanese villages located in Syrian territory clashed with armed opposition groups affiliated with radical Sunni Islamist factions. The incident, the first of its kind, portends a possible transition of Syria’s sectarian strife to Lebanon. Also, in a sense, this confrontation proves that historical mistakes do not fade with time.

Today, the area on both sides of the Syrian-Lebanese border is paying for the mistake made by François Georges-Picot and Sir Mark Sykes at the beginning of the last century. The French and British colonialists, respectively, laid out a demographic and political map of the countries of the Levant which were under their mandate. Their vision was based on circumstantial interests and without consideration of the requirements of the historical and geographical reality.

According to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the French gave Syria a region of Lebanon, which comprises 14 villages inhabited by Lebanese clans from the neighboring Lebanese area of Hermel. They are Shiite Muslims and still live inside Syria, although, legally, they are Lebanese citizens.

Since the start of the turmoil in Syria — which was accompanied by sectarian categorization between the Sunni Muslims, most of them against the Syrian regime, and the Alawite and Shiite Muslims who support it — the Sykes-Picot Agreement has had negative effects on the demographic balance in that region. Security incidents have taken place more than once during recent months among these Shiite villages, which are located in the middle of the smuggling line in the countryside between the Lebanese town of Arsal, Al-Qa’, Lake Homs, Al-Qusayr and Talkalakh.