Webster Brooks, Foreignpolicyreview.org
The specter of a Hezbollah-led coalition victory in Lebanon’s June 7 parliamentary elections looms large over the Middle East . Under Hassan Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah’s March 8 Coalition is on the threshold of ruling the Arab world’s most ethnically and religiously diverse democracy. With all the legitimate instruments of state power at Nasrallah’s disposal, Lebanon’s transformation from a weak Balkanized state into a fortress of Iranian influence in the Levant is a foreboding certainty. Bracing for a strategic setback in the region, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unannounced stop in Beirut on April 27 to assess the situation and reassure America’s Lebanese allies they would not be abandoned in tough times. Laying flowers on the grave of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Clinton pledged support for the “voices of moderation”—the pro-American “March 14” Cedar Coalition led by Saad Hariri, (Rafik Hariri’s son) and promised that the Obama administration’s dialogue with Syria would not compromise Lebanon’s sovereignty.
