Lebanese officials are holding their breath in worried anticipation of what might befall their country in the near future. The security and political situations already suggest that this small country may not be able to safely skirt the repercussions of events engulfing the region. It is now believed that Lebanon is not only being buffeted by the Syrian crisis, but also by the sectarian fighting in Iraq, which itself is now connected to events in Syria. The country is also being affected by the sometimes discreet, oftentimes open, and always wide-ranging tug-of-war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
A new conviction seems also to be making its way through the corridors of political power in Lebanon, according to which the country will not succeed in averting a fall into the looming precipice — unless an Iranian-Saudi agreement were to be reached in this regard. Current political realities do not, however, point to such an eventuality in the near term, as the Iranian-Saudi conflict appears to be at a peak, with international and regional circumstances colluding to prolong it.
