Two deadly car bombs in Beirut on Wednesday were a direct challenge to the new government under Prime Minister Tammam Salam. The bombs went off in a largely Shiite district in south Beirut where support is strong for Hezbollah, whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said he will never accede to demands that Hezbollah withdraw its forces from Syria. An Al Qaida-linked group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, took responsibility for the attack in a message posted on its Twitter account. The same group was behind last year’s strike outside the Iranian Embassy.
Lebanon’s fragile peace is in danger of vanishing as the terrible violence from Syria spills over into its daily political life. Until now, Al Qaida has had a very modest presence in Lebanon, although there are many other groups with violent skills at their disposal. However, these bombs seem to indicate that Al Qaida and its allies in Lebanon are taking a more active position, which may well be due to their powerful showing in the last two years of the Syrian civil war as the religious militias have fought their way from relative obscurity to become the dominant force fighting the government, as well as their rival Free Syrian Army.
The attacks were condemned by Lebanese politicians from all across the political spectrum, with a common message that such acts are a deliberate effort to incite sectarian strife and undermine Lebanon’s fragile democracy. It does not help anyone that Lebanon is also home to more than one million Syrian refugees, who have fled the violence destroying their homes. This large number of people is a destabilising factor in Lebanese politics, not just because of any political allegiance they may carry, but also because of the extraordinary pressure such numbers put on providing basic utilities such as water, power and food.
The continuing bombings linked to the Syrian war have left Lebanon on the edge and all politicians in power will need to focus on rebuilding the essential national consensus that will carry the country through this crisis despite its deep sectarian divides.
