Is Syria guilty in events of Lebanon?

PanARMENIAN.Net - No serious causes were always necessary in order to begin a war in Lebanon: last year Israeli soldier Shalit's abduction served as a cause for a war, this year - disorders in the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp. Principally nothing new, Lebanese people got used to wars, if it is only possible to get used to such a disaster at all. Nevertheless, as the time goes on, the situation of people in Lebanon becomes harder, especially the situation with the Christian community, one of which is the Armenian rather large community. And though still there is no serious threat to the Armenian community of Lebanon, it is not excluded the possibility of immigration of Armenians. More than 100 000 Armenians today reside only in Beirut, which tries not to participate in military operations as much as possible. "However, we are citizens of Lebanon and this imposes certain obligations on us. We live together with citizens of Lebanon and we cannot sit and watch how the country again turns into a arena of bloody war," editor-in-chief of "Azdak" Armenian newspaper Shahan Kadakharyan said.

The conflict began when early in the morning of May 22 the Lebanese Army tried to attack an apartment in Tripoli, working out a version that connects the recent robbery of a bank with a group of radical Islamists known as "Fath al-Silam". The group responded with an attack on army positions around the refugee camp. Despite the fact that the organization has some 200 members, "Fath al-Islam" is involved at least in a series of blasts, which took place in Christian districts of Lebanon during recent years. The leader of extremists Shaker Absi assures that he is loyal to Usama bin Laden. In other words, collisions in the north of Lebanon show that "Al-Qaida" managed to penetrate even this part of Mediterranean region, which up to this moment was known for its moderate Islam and religions tolerance.

Indeed, a lot of cabinet members of Lebanon are sure that militants of "Fath Islam" are only marionettes of Syria. They say "Fath Islam" has close ties with Syrian special services, the group up to this moment considered Syria as its patrimony, despite the fact that Syria withdrew its troops from that country two years ago.

The Times in one of its columns writes that the situation is dangerous and tangled for Lebanese soldiers placed around the Palestinian refugee camp. "Their enemies want exactly it, the newspaper added. Syria wants the international community to stop its efforts to clear if Damascus is involved in the murder of Rafik Hariri. In other words, the matter is about state blackmail. And it is necessary not to allow those who blackmail to succeed," Times indicates.

Experts think Syria's goal is to destroy the hope of Lebanese government to establish an international tribunal for the suspects who allegedly are involved in the series of political assassinations, which started in 2005 with Rafik Hariri's murder. And though Syria rejects its participation in the above-mentioned assassinations or the recent violence acts, there exist obvious evidences for those crimes. A day before his assassination Hariri was busy with mobilizing political forces, in order to challenge the Syrian State. Mass protests after the death of Hariri made Syria to withdraw his troops from Lebanon. However still there are a lot of forces in Lebanon, which share the Syrian viewpoint on Lebanon as a stronghold in the struggle against western influence.