Word: sectarian
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...Bremer's rules were designed to force Iraq's sectarian political leaders to work together and find the compromises necessary to build consensus. But they may also have inadvertently built in a basic instability to the system. The Shiites, in particular, will be watching carefully to see that democracy gives their leaders a political dominance equivalent to their demographic dominance. If the Bremer rules are perceived to be holding them back, they'll challenge them. After all, the primary purpose of the new National Assembly is for the Iraqis themselves to design their own rules for the next stage...
...Hizballah's efforts to apply the brakes to a Syrian withdrawal signal a failure of initial opposition efforts to forge an anti-Syria consensus with Nasrallah's movement. It may be touted as non-sectarian, but in reality it represents an amalgam of traditional political forces from the Christian, Sunni Muslim and Druze communities. Hizballah speaks for the majority of Shiites. And its response to the opposition campaign betrays a measure of suspicion that its rivals may be engaging in the longstanding tradition of Lebanese factions drawing in foreign allies to reinforce their own positions...
...very clear-eyed about what's at stake here when we stir up the Lebanese opposition. The Syrians believe that retaining control over Lebanon is a vital interest of theirs. They can stir up considerable trouble in Lebanon using Hizbollah. That can lead either to chaos and sectarian war in Lebanon, or a flare-up on the border between southern Lebanon and Israel, or both. The Syrians have ways to say to us, 'You want us out of here, then you live with the consequences.' We may find ourselves in a situation which has the potential to disrupt the Israeli...
...security. There remains considerable concern in Lebanon that current moves to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could leave almost a half million Palestinian refugees to be settled permanently in Lebanon, a country of less than 4 million people - a prospect that could significantly destabilize the already fragile ethnic and sectarian balance. (Despite their fierce differences, the political factions representing Lebanon's Maronite Christians, Shiites and Sunnis have tended to concur in their enmity towards the Palestinian refugees, who remain confined to squalid camps on the margins of Lebanon's major cities...
...Syria has cultivated politicians from all ends of the sectarian divide, while also dominating Lebanon's own intelligence and security services. But it is more than some nostalgic ?Greater Syria? concept that has driven Damascus to keep a tight hold on affairs in Lebanon. There are certainly economic benefits for Syria to maintain control over its economically dynamic neighbor whose progress and integration into the world economy puts Syria's own decrepit economy to shame. But Lebanon's primary importance to Damascus is its value as a strategic trump card. The organizing principle of Syrian foreign policy over the past...