The situation in Lebanon is stable but not beyond relapse and Iranian influence over internal Lebanese affairs should be carefully balanced else it could trigger a new round of civil tension. This is the message that Egyptian officials are giving in response to questions on a sequence of visits by Lebanese politicians to Cairo and the time and attention accorded them by President Hosni Mubarak. …
Egyptian officials are not hiding their political sympathy with the Lebanese majority, which wishes to keep Lebanon away from any political or military confrontation with Israel. … Nor are Egyptian officials shy about expressing their unease, shared with other regional powers, especially Riyadh, over Iran’s influence in internal Lebanese affairs. Egyptian and Cairo-based Saudi diplomats argue that if Syria and Iran are holding extensive meetings with their allies in Lebanon to prepare for legislative elections, it is the right of other political powers to play a balancing game. …
In its pursuit of exercising a certain presence on the Lebanese political scene (in harmony with the marked presence of like- minded Saudi Arabia), Egypt does not seem to be planning to bolster the Sunni community per se in a country sensitive to its ethnic composition. It is rather trying to confront Iran’s rising political influence, as it has recently been doing in Iraq. Access the full article>>