Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Lebanon has been threatened by the revolt in neighboring
Syria.

Clashes have erupted between supporters and opponents of Syrian
President Bashar Assad in northern Lebanon. Officials said the supporters
consisted of Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah operatives as well as Syrian
Alawite laborers who have long lived in Lebanon.

“The security of Lebanon and Syria are connected,” Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said. “And if the fire engulfs Syria, then its flames will reach Lebanon.”

On Feb. 10-11, at least three people, including a soldier, were killed
and 25 injured in fighting between Sunnis and Alawites in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. Sunni fighters employed rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in an attack on an Alawite neighborhood.

“We are looking to find a permanent solution,” the leader of Tripoli’s
Sunni Muslim community, Sheik Malek Al Shaar, said.

Lebanon contains more than one million Syrian laborers, many of them Alawites. Officials said the Assad regime has urged them to demonstrate in support of the president, who has been battling a Sunni revolt since March 2011.

Tripoli, which contains a Sunni majority influenced by Al Qaida, has
been a stronghold of anti-Assad activity. The latest fighting with the
Alawites began with hundreds of Sunnis holding street demonstrations after
mosque prayer on Feb. 10.

Officials acknowledged that Lebanon has been swept into the Sunni revolt
against Assad. Damascus has pressed the Lebanese Army to attack suspected
Syrian rebel strongholds in the north as well as in the Bekaa Valley.

“We will not allow Lebanon to be used as a platform to attack others or
a conduit for settling political scores in order to execute Israeli and
American projects,” Hizbullah deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem said on
Feb. 12.

On Feb. 11, a jeep that entered Lebanon from Syria was stopped in the
Bekaa and three of its passengers were kidnapped. The Lebanese Army and
Internal Security Forces were rushed to the area in an unsuccessful effort
to capture the unidentified abductors, who later demanded a $2 million
ransom for each captive.

Officials said Sunnis have been arming in several parts of Lebanon,
financed with money believed provided by Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They said
Sunnis were supporting the arms and equipment flow to the rebels in Syria.

Syria has sought to reduce tension along its border with Lebanon. On
Feb. 11, the Assad regime was said to have reached a ceasefire agreement
with the Free Syrian Army for its withdrawal from the Syrian resort town of
Zabadani, located along the border with Lebanon.

“Cooler heads in the military somehow prevailed over whoever has been
issuing orders to shell Zabadani with heavy artillery,” Syrian opposition
Kamal Labwani said. “In the end it was in the interest of the two sides to
prevent a bloodbath.”

On Feb. 12, Al Qaida called on Sunnis in Lebanon to support the revolt
against Assad. Al Qaida leader Ayman Zawahiri released a video message that
warned the Syrian opposition from relying on help from the West.

“If we want freedom, we must be liberated from this regime,” Zawahri
said in the eight-minute video. “If we want justice, we must retaliate
against this regime. Continue your revolt and anger, don’t accept anything
else apart from independent, respectful governments.”

  Adnan Mansour, Al Qaida, Ayman Zawahiri, Bashar Assad, Bekaa Valley, Hizbullah, Naim Qassem, Sheik Malek Al Shaar, Syrian revolution spills into Lebanon: Assad appeals to 1 million Alawites, three killed in Sunni vs. Alawite clashes