❊ The Qatari Emir’s Trip to Lebanon

I find the Emir’s visit to Lebanon quite significant. It is a known fact that Hezbollah prefers the Emir of Qatar over the Saudi King as an arbitrator, and the Emir is obviously enjoying that role. He pointedly came at the same day as the Saudi King and the Syrian President without crossing their paths. He will spend more time in Lebanon and unlike the others, he will visit the Lebanese south.

A lot has been made of the fact the the Syrian president came with the Saudi Monarch. The takeaway was that President Assad and King Abdallah represented both sides of the Lebanese divide, and that they could together calm things down. That analysis ignores the possibility that Assad could have “sold out” Hezbollah. The party of God continue to look warily at Syria’s acrobatics, and is scratching its head trying to guess what Syria’s quid-pro-quo could be.

Enter the Emir of Qatar, who likes to portray himself as an independent broker. Hezbollah likes to give weight to the Emir as a way of kicking Saudi Arabia’s authority in the side. I Expect a lot of rice to be thrown at him in southern villages in the upcoming days.

One thing is for sure, things remain in flow and the coming few months remain uncertain for Lebanon.

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.