Word: shia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...understatement to say that Nabih Berri is an unlikely figure to become America's go-to guy and negotiating partner in Lebanon. After all, the leader of the Shia Muslim Amal party became Speaker of the Lebanese parliament with Syria's forceful backing in 1992, a post he still holds. And Monday, he minced no words in calling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's fly-by in Beirut a failure because she wasn't willing to support an immediate ceasefire...
...with Hizballah's leadership in hiding from Israeli air raids, Berri has become the acceptable face of Lebanese Shia. And since Hizballah has given him the authority to negotiate on its behalf, Berri has taken a surprising position. His people say that Berri - and by extension Hizballah - would be willing to discuss all of the U.S. proposals, including using a multinational force to help the Lebanese government take control of southern Lebanon...
...long ago, Berri's role as Hizballah's representative at the bargaining table would have been unthinkable. Amal and Hizballah were once rivals for authority among Lebanon's Shia - their militias fought each other during the Civil War - but the two pro-Syrian groups have become close ever since the end of Syria's occupation of Lebanon last year. The fight with Israel has brought them even closer...
...serve as a model for Lebanon, where parties are often feudal arrangements of patrons and clients, based on ethnic or religious affiliations. The first drive had been held in Achrafiyeh, Beirut's most upscale Christian neighborhood. Holding the second in the Bekaa would allow us to reach more Sunni, Shia, and Druze Lebanese-Americans - a chance to demonstrate one of the American ideals I love most: that our diversity is our strength, and that we value all citizens, regardless of race or religion. Those ideals, of course, often aren't honored; the most recent instance of that, in my mind...
...Hizballah's key patrons, it's difficult to describe Iran as neutral in the unfolding conflict. Since the Ayatollah Khomeini launched Hizballah in the early eighties to spread Shia revolution, Western officials say Iran has kept contingents of Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, the most strategic area outside its own borders where Tehran can exercise influence. Western diplomatic estimates of how many are there and where exactly they are vary, but several hundred Revolutionary Guards are believed to operate in the Hizballah-controlled Beqaa Valley, providing operational training to the movement's guerilla forces. For its part, Iran insists...