Rivals Tehran, Riyadh Pledge Billions to Lebanon’s Army

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Hezbollah, strained by the deployment of thousands of its fighters in Syria, has become increasingly reliant on the army for maintaining domestic stability.

“They need the army, and they absolutely realize that,” said a Western diplomat who is based in the region and spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a lack of authorization to discuss the subject with the media.

But that relationship has angered many in Lebanon’s Sunni community, which is sympathetic to Syria’s Sunni-led rebellion.

They accuse the army of taking orders from Hezbollah, citing the military’s refusal to stop the group’s fighters from entering Syria and its confrontations with Sunni militants tied to the war next door.

“In the eastern Bekaa area, the LAF is playing a direct support role for Hezbollah operations, and, for example, they will deploy to areas that Hezbollah has cleared and then set up checkpoints,” said Tony Badran, a Middle East analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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