Lebanon holds IS at bay, for now
The failure of the Islamic State’s plan to control territory and create an emirate in Lebanon bodes well, says a Lebanese security official who claims that Lebanon has clamped down on the major three terrorist hotbeds in the country.
A prominent Lebanese security official recently described a relatively optimistic picture of the current security situation in Lebanon. The official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the most positive factor is the failure of the Islamic State (IS) in the region. The official said that the terrorist group has been defeated, along with its plan to establish a state and its dream of a caliphate. There are several reasons for these failures, one of which being the number of heinous crimes committed by its members throughout the areas it controls.
These factors led to the deterioration of the popular Sunni situation that accompanied IS’ first advancement in Mosul and various areas in Syria in June 2014. IS committed a massacre against the Sunni al-Shaitat tribe, imposed Sharia on some Sunni areas that tried to express their anger toward these practices and executed Sunnis. One of the reasons behind the failure of IS’ plan is the reaction of the neighboring Arab countries toward its expansion, especially the countries of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia in particular, which believe that IS poses a threat to their regimes, royal families and wealth.
