REPORTER: Sophie McNeill:
On Tuesday 23 January, the residents of Beirut awake to find their city covered in a blanket of thick black smoke. The fight to control this small, divided land has once again taken to the streets. After months of political deadlock, the opposition, dominated by the Shia Muslim organisation Hezbollah, called a nationwide strike, forcing the country to a standstill. MAN 1: No, no, no. MAN 2, (Translation): We want a Lebanese government that works for the benefit of the Lebanese people. If it wants to work for America, France and Israel, let it damn well go to America, France and Israel. MAN 3, (Translation): God is great. Victory for Islam.
The government of Fouad Siniora is made up of Sunni Muslims, Druze and Christians, and it's strongly supported by the United States. A sectarian battle between Sunni and Shia Muslims is now emerging as the critical divide in Lebanese politics, and it's become deadly. Later that day in West Beirut, a shoot-out takes place between young Shia and Sunni Muslims. I arrive just as the army was trying to get the situation under control. Cordoned off to one side of the road, these young Shia men chant in support of their Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, also known as Abu Hadi. CROWD: Abu Hadi! Abu Hadi! These young men are displaying a sense of Shia pride as they perform their traditional Shia ritual, CROWD (Translation): We'll never be humiliated. On the other side of the street, the Sunni kids are furious. They tell me that the Shia opposition strikers had no right to enter their neighbourhood. SUNNI MAN: I really hate them. REPORTER: Why do you hate them so much? SUNNI MAN: You will never understand it. It's like a religious problem. As long as they hate us, we will never like them. REPORTER: You'll never like them? SUNNI MAN: No, of course not. Can you like someone who hates you? REPORTER: You think they hate you? SUNNI MAN: Yeah, of course. If every time they try to come to our places, what - do you think they love us? It was the brutal assassination of Rafik Hariri two years ago that laid the foundations for this latest political crisis. Following public outrage at the murder of the anti-Syrian former prime minister, Syrian troops were forced to withdraw after 23 years in Lebanon. A new anti-Syrian coalition won the subsequent elections. It signalled a significant shift away from Syria and towards the West. But Lebanon's new direction was rudely interrupted in July of last year. Israel launched a land and sea war on the country after the border kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas. Over 1,200 Lebanese civilians were killed and the country devastated. And after Israel was forced to withdraw by UN pressure, Hezbollah proclaimed itself the victors of the war. But a confrontation soon emerged between the Western-backed government and the newly empowered Hezbollah. Hezbollah accused Siniora's Government of being puppets of their US backers after the government refused to form a cabinet of national unity. The Hezbollah opposition then resigned. The political battle spilled on to the streets with the nationwide strike and widespread civil disobedience. By night's end four people had been killed. But Prime Minister Siniora wasn't going to move an inch. FOUAD SINIORA, LEBANONS PRIME MINISTER, (Translation): Today's general strike has turned into acts of harassment that exceeded all limits and reminded us of the times of strife, war and domination. Just below Siniora's office, and in the middle of downtown Beirut, is the opposition protest camp. Hezbollah supporters Hassan and Ali have been living at the camp since it began in December. HASSAN, HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTER, (Translation): I've been sleeping here for the past 55 days. I also have friends who sleep in other tents. ALI,HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTER, (Translation): We became ill from the cold and the stormy weather. But we are steadfast, even if we are sick. HASSAN, (Translation): Those who were steadfast under the smart bombs can will stay until the fall of this stupid government. For Hassan and Ali, Siniora's biggest failing is his solid support from the US. Hassan can't understand why Siniora accepts backing from America who he blames for the recent war with Israel. HASSAN, (Translation): It did nothing, even though it's the superpower. And that was through Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. American joined hands with the Israeli Government to kill our children, men and women and destroy Lebanon completely. Hezbollah Sheik Khodor Nour Eddin is reading about the latest US gifts to the Lebanese security forces. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN, HEZBLLAH POLIYICAL COUNCIL: These gifts is not for helping Lebanon, it is for helping the Americans' goals in Lebanon. A leading member of the Hezbollah Political Council, the sheik believes America is bolstering Siniora's Government in an effort to try and destroy Hezbollah. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: The main reason of the war was striking Hezbollah. Now, the Hezbollah won the war here, so they asked Siniora to continue the war but in a new way, in political way. The American Ambassador, Jeffrey Feltman, says his government's support is important for the spread of democracy in the Middle East. JEFFREY FELTMAN, US AMBASSADOR TO LEBANON: We've pledged a total of over $1 billion for Lebanon - economic support, financial support, support to help build up the armed forces, things like that. Sheik Nour Eddin believes America's interference in internal Lebanese politics is creating the sectarian tension. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: Sunnites and Shi'ites in this region were living together from hundreds years and we hadn't any sectarian war. Why now we have sectarian war? Because of Americans. So the Americans' goal from this sectarian wars is preparing Arabs to be away from attacking Israel, from fighting with Israel, to go to fight Iran and to be with them as partners in fighting Iran. REPORTER: What do you have to say to that? JEFFREY FELTMAN: It's absurd, it's ridiculous. We want to see a democratic Lebanon in which all parts of Lebanese society are represented. Mohammed is a member of the Sunni pro-government organisation Future Youth. He and his friends are going to pray at the grave of Rafik Hariri, the murdered former prime minister. Mohammed is worried that Hezbollah is backed by the Iranian Government.
MOHAMMED, (Translation): First the financial and material support from Iran to Hezbollah is the first point that..how can I say it..that makes us believe it is under the control of Iran. Okay? Hezbollah has its own institutions and is organised because of the Iranian support. And second, they are surely giving them weapons, they are passing weapons on to them and supporting them with everything. These people have an agenda that they want to implement and they want to do it through Lebanon. REPORTER: And, Ambassador, it seems like what's happening here in many ways is a proxy war between the United States and Iran. And the ones caught in the middle are the ordinary Lebanese. JEFFREY FELTMAN: The US doesn't have any arms here. The US doesn't have any military forces here. The US does not have, the US is not subsidising an independent militia that reports to us. Iran is doing all those things. With claims of Iran and America lining up behind the two opposing sides, the situation begins to spiral out of control. Two days after the strike, an argument between a government and an opposition supporter in a university cafeteria ends in deadly riots and shooting. TAXI DRIVER, (Translation): Please no camera here. There are too many gangs here. Here at the Makassad Hospital in West Beirut, dozens of young men arrive with gunshot wounds. This young lady heard that her brother was shot but she can't find him. GIRL, (Translation): He is down at the clinic. He is injured in his legs.. Would they want this for their brothers? No. It is whats happening to Lebanon. I hope he is good, this is all I ask from God.
REPORTER: You found this bullet? DOCTOR: This bullet I found in my patient. REPORTER: How many years has it been since you've seen bullets? DOCTOR: From the last war that happened. From the last war that happened, 15 years ago. Most of the patients and families here are Sunni Muslims, and they're targeting their anger at Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. WOMAN, (Translation): And they came to the university wearing helmets and armed. Are they coming to study or to shoot us? May God punish them and their Hassan Nasrallah. MAN, (Translation): F##k him and his beard. He is a terrorist. It's obvious. MAN 2, (Translation): Religion disowns him. It disowns him, the terrorist. He is a terrorist, a Jew! Olmert is more honourable. The men are calling for the Sunni political leader Saad Hariri to let them take revenge. MAN 3, (Translation): Just let Saad Hariri give us the order, and well sacrifice our blood for him, for the Hariri family and all the Sunnis. They are outsiders, Iranians. They came to Beirut. Mohammed Bazzi grew up in Lebanon and now works as a reporter for the American paper 'Newsday'. MOHAMMED BAZZI, JOURNALIST: In a lot of ways it's similar to what Saddam Hussein used to say about the Shia in Iraq - he used to say they're Iranians, or this whole idea of kind of a fifth column within society. And that's very dangerous, that's a very dangerous rhetoric because it's divisive, it can split people up. It can engender this feeling that these are strangers that are living in our midst. WOMAN, (Translation): And now theyre killing our children. Let Israel wipe them out. To hell with them! I hope they become extinct from this world. MOHAMMED BAZZI: The Sunnis are feeling more scared because they are feeling this regional situation where the Shia appear to be on the rise in several places - Iraq foremost place but also Iran. And they see this wave of sort of Shi'ite power, almost, coming to Lebanon and they might be swept up in it. If it's left unchecked, it can drag Lebanon into a situation similar to what's happening in Iraq, where there is this total sense of mistrust between the two sects. REPORTER: I'm on my way now to the Shia hospital to see how many admissions they've been getting tonight. As we could see back there at the Sunni hospital, there were lots and lots of young men coming in with gunshot wounds and many other injuries. So now we're going to the Shia hospital to see how many they've had hurt. Hezbollah won't let me film freely around the hospital or talk to families but they allow me to take a few pictures in the foyer. BOY, (Translation): We were returning from university when men armed with sticks and rocks attacked us. They talk democracy, let them practise it. They started throwing grenades at us and shooting at us, and the hospital knows that. DR BERRI: Well, we have seen a lot of injured. We had about 75 patients, 75 injured, some with gunshot. Two killed. About more than 19 with gunshot. The Hezbollah stronghold of the Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut. The whole village has turned out for the burial of a young Hezbollah supporter who was killed in the student violence of the night before. I was approached by 17-year-old Hezbollah supporter Ali Rayya. ALI RAYYA: I want to say we are not terrorists. We love peace and not terrorism. People think that we are terrorists but we are not that we love peace. This martyr was killed because we are defending a democracy but people don't see it like that.
OK? After the funeral Ali invites me to his home.
ALI: This my house. REPORTER: Hi. GIRLS: Hi. Hello. Hello. REPORTER: Can you explain who's this on the wall, Ali?
ALI: It's Hassan Nasrallah. It's the face of Hezbollah. We take money to resistance. REPORTER: To the resistance? ALI: Yes. Ali says he wants to show people that they shouldn't be scared of Hezbollah or their supporters. ALI, (Translation): The whole world looks at us like we are terrorists, so I wanted you to come and see my house and how we live, and that we are not like that. Ali takes me along to Ashura, the traditional Shia day of mourning for the death of Imam Hussain. Unlike Sunnis, Shi'ites believe Hussain was the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad, and they still mourn his murder in 680AD. CROWD, (Translation): Any supporter of Hezbollah? At your service, Nasrallah. Who will sacrifice himself? At your service, Khamenei! Oh, Hussain! Oh Hussain! Who are you? Hezbollah! Your leader? Nasrallah. At your, service Hussein! Death to Israel! Death to America. God, God preserve Nasrallah for us.
Ali too strongly believes that America and Israel are the cause of all the Middle East's problems. ALI (Translation): They say this because Israel and America are stealing all the wealth of Islam and all the wealth of Muslims and all the oppressed people on earth. And this is why they are shouting "Death to America and Death to Israel". Sectarian differences have clearly been revealed since Hezbollah and their allies pulled out of the government. Hezbollah insists the real reason it withdrew from Cabinet was because the government broke an election promise to allow Hezbollah to continue as an armed resistance and to keep its weapons. Sheik Nour Eddin is adamant that any effort by the government or the UN to disarm Hezbollah will fail. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: Here it's good to know... look, Sophie, it is good to know that in any place you can buy weapons. Here we laugh when we see them - they are going to look for the borders between Lebanon and Syria. Maybe we will take weapons from the borders of Israel itself. OK? So it is not limited between the borders or such things. REPORTER: So it is not a problem? Getting weapons is not... You're not worried. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: We'll get weapon maybe from any country, from any merchant. REPORTER: Not a problem? SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: You have money, you can buy. For Hezbollah supporters, the July war proved to them that they need their arms more than ever, and they don't trust that the Lebanese army can defend them. HASSAN'S FRIEND (Translation): Is this the army that will resist Israel? It couldnt even confront or arrest a few insurgents, which confirms the existence of Hezbollah in Lebanon is for the protection, support and peace of all here. If it wasn't for Hezbollah and their weapons pointing at Israel, then none of would be alive. For Sunnis who fear an armed Shia militia in their midst, Hezbollah must be forced to hand in their weapons. RANA AL ADEEN, GOVERNMENT SUPPORTER: We want peace with Israel. We don't want war. And we have an army that can defend us just in case Israel tries to get back inside Lebanon. So we believe that the cause of their existence is over. They don't. They have survival. They want to keep their arms, we don't want. That is the issue. That is the main issue.
It's the day before thousands of pro-government supporters are expected in downtown Beirut for the commemoration of Rafik Hariri's death. But two buses have just been blown up in the hills above Beirut - the first time civilians have been targeted like this for years. MOHMAMAD YAMOUT, (Translation): The explosion today was to scare the people from going down to the demonstration tomorrow. But this of course will fail. We're going down and we won't be scared of anyone. On the streets of Lebanon there is now a real fear that the dark days of the civil war are returning. JEFFREY FELTMAN: I am convinced nobody wants civil war here, but I worry that decisions being taken are in fact leading the country in that direction.
At the rally the next day, thousands of armed Lebanese troops are needed to separate government supporters from the Hezbollah activists still camped outside Prime Minister Siniora's office. ( CROWD, (Translation): We don't want sectarianism, but God is with the Sunnis! We don't want sectarianism, but God is with the Sunnis. With the foot soldiers of each side increasingly identifying as either Sunni or Shia, it seems, as in Iraq, that this centuries-old sectarian split could well tear Lebanon apart. Reporter/Camera
SOPHIE MCNEILL Editors
ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS
NICK OBRIEN Fixer/translator
MOHAMMED SHREIF Subtitling
JOSEPH ABDO Producer
MARTIN BUTLER
ASHLEY SMITH
On Tuesday 23 January, the residents of Beirut awake to find their city covered in a blanket of thick black smoke. The fight to control this small, divided land has once again taken to the streets. After months of political deadlock, the opposition, dominated by the Shia Muslim organisation Hezbollah, called a nationwide strike, forcing the country to a standstill. MAN 1: No, no, no. MAN 2, (Translation): We want a Lebanese government that works for the benefit of the Lebanese people. If it wants to work for America, France and Israel, let it damn well go to America, France and Israel. MAN 3, (Translation): God is great. Victory for Islam.
The government of Fouad Siniora is made up of Sunni Muslims, Druze and Christians, and it's strongly supported by the United States. A sectarian battle between Sunni and Shia Muslims is now emerging as the critical divide in Lebanese politics, and it's become deadly. Later that day in West Beirut, a shoot-out takes place between young Shia and Sunni Muslims. I arrive just as the army was trying to get the situation under control. Cordoned off to one side of the road, these young Shia men chant in support of their Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, also known as Abu Hadi. CROWD: Abu Hadi! Abu Hadi! These young men are displaying a sense of Shia pride as they perform their traditional Shia ritual, CROWD (Translation): We'll never be humiliated. On the other side of the street, the Sunni kids are furious. They tell me that the Shia opposition strikers had no right to enter their neighbourhood. SUNNI MAN: I really hate them. REPORTER: Why do you hate them so much? SUNNI MAN: You will never understand it. It's like a religious problem. As long as they hate us, we will never like them. REPORTER: You'll never like them? SUNNI MAN: No, of course not. Can you like someone who hates you? REPORTER: You think they hate you? SUNNI MAN: Yeah, of course. If every time they try to come to our places, what - do you think they love us? It was the brutal assassination of Rafik Hariri two years ago that laid the foundations for this latest political crisis. Following public outrage at the murder of the anti-Syrian former prime minister, Syrian troops were forced to withdraw after 23 years in Lebanon. A new anti-Syrian coalition won the subsequent elections. It signalled a significant shift away from Syria and towards the West. But Lebanon's new direction was rudely interrupted in July of last year. Israel launched a land and sea war on the country after the border kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas. Over 1,200 Lebanese civilians were killed and the country devastated. And after Israel was forced to withdraw by UN pressure, Hezbollah proclaimed itself the victors of the war. But a confrontation soon emerged between the Western-backed government and the newly empowered Hezbollah. Hezbollah accused Siniora's Government of being puppets of their US backers after the government refused to form a cabinet of national unity. The Hezbollah opposition then resigned. The political battle spilled on to the streets with the nationwide strike and widespread civil disobedience. By night's end four people had been killed. But Prime Minister Siniora wasn't going to move an inch. FOUAD SINIORA, LEBANONS PRIME MINISTER, (Translation): Today's general strike has turned into acts of harassment that exceeded all limits and reminded us of the times of strife, war and domination. Just below Siniora's office, and in the middle of downtown Beirut, is the opposition protest camp. Hezbollah supporters Hassan and Ali have been living at the camp since it began in December. HASSAN, HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTER, (Translation): I've been sleeping here for the past 55 days. I also have friends who sleep in other tents. ALI,HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTER, (Translation): We became ill from the cold and the stormy weather. But we are steadfast, even if we are sick. HASSAN, (Translation): Those who were steadfast under the smart bombs can will stay until the fall of this stupid government. For Hassan and Ali, Siniora's biggest failing is his solid support from the US. Hassan can't understand why Siniora accepts backing from America who he blames for the recent war with Israel. HASSAN, (Translation): It did nothing, even though it's the superpower. And that was through Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. American joined hands with the Israeli Government to kill our children, men and women and destroy Lebanon completely. Hezbollah Sheik Khodor Nour Eddin is reading about the latest US gifts to the Lebanese security forces. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN, HEZBLLAH POLIYICAL COUNCIL: These gifts is not for helping Lebanon, it is for helping the Americans' goals in Lebanon. A leading member of the Hezbollah Political Council, the sheik believes America is bolstering Siniora's Government in an effort to try and destroy Hezbollah. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: The main reason of the war was striking Hezbollah. Now, the Hezbollah won the war here, so they asked Siniora to continue the war but in a new way, in political way. The American Ambassador, Jeffrey Feltman, says his government's support is important for the spread of democracy in the Middle East. JEFFREY FELTMAN, US AMBASSADOR TO LEBANON: We've pledged a total of over $1 billion for Lebanon - economic support, financial support, support to help build up the armed forces, things like that. Sheik Nour Eddin believes America's interference in internal Lebanese politics is creating the sectarian tension. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: Sunnites and Shi'ites in this region were living together from hundreds years and we hadn't any sectarian war. Why now we have sectarian war? Because of Americans. So the Americans' goal from this sectarian wars is preparing Arabs to be away from attacking Israel, from fighting with Israel, to go to fight Iran and to be with them as partners in fighting Iran. REPORTER: What do you have to say to that? JEFFREY FELTMAN: It's absurd, it's ridiculous. We want to see a democratic Lebanon in which all parts of Lebanese society are represented. Mohammed is a member of the Sunni pro-government organisation Future Youth. He and his friends are going to pray at the grave of Rafik Hariri, the murdered former prime minister. Mohammed is worried that Hezbollah is backed by the Iranian Government.
MOHAMMED, (Translation): First the financial and material support from Iran to Hezbollah is the first point that..how can I say it..that makes us believe it is under the control of Iran. Okay? Hezbollah has its own institutions and is organised because of the Iranian support. And second, they are surely giving them weapons, they are passing weapons on to them and supporting them with everything. These people have an agenda that they want to implement and they want to do it through Lebanon. REPORTER: And, Ambassador, it seems like what's happening here in many ways is a proxy war between the United States and Iran. And the ones caught in the middle are the ordinary Lebanese. JEFFREY FELTMAN: The US doesn't have any arms here. The US doesn't have any military forces here. The US does not have, the US is not subsidising an independent militia that reports to us. Iran is doing all those things. With claims of Iran and America lining up behind the two opposing sides, the situation begins to spiral out of control. Two days after the strike, an argument between a government and an opposition supporter in a university cafeteria ends in deadly riots and shooting. TAXI DRIVER, (Translation): Please no camera here. There are too many gangs here. Here at the Makassad Hospital in West Beirut, dozens of young men arrive with gunshot wounds. This young lady heard that her brother was shot but she can't find him. GIRL, (Translation): He is down at the clinic. He is injured in his legs.. Would they want this for their brothers? No. It is whats happening to Lebanon. I hope he is good, this is all I ask from God.
REPORTER: You found this bullet? DOCTOR: This bullet I found in my patient. REPORTER: How many years has it been since you've seen bullets? DOCTOR: From the last war that happened. From the last war that happened, 15 years ago. Most of the patients and families here are Sunni Muslims, and they're targeting their anger at Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. WOMAN, (Translation): And they came to the university wearing helmets and armed. Are they coming to study or to shoot us? May God punish them and their Hassan Nasrallah. MAN, (Translation): F##k him and his beard. He is a terrorist. It's obvious. MAN 2, (Translation): Religion disowns him. It disowns him, the terrorist. He is a terrorist, a Jew! Olmert is more honourable. The men are calling for the Sunni political leader Saad Hariri to let them take revenge. MAN 3, (Translation): Just let Saad Hariri give us the order, and well sacrifice our blood for him, for the Hariri family and all the Sunnis. They are outsiders, Iranians. They came to Beirut. Mohammed Bazzi grew up in Lebanon and now works as a reporter for the American paper 'Newsday'. MOHAMMED BAZZI, JOURNALIST: In a lot of ways it's similar to what Saddam Hussein used to say about the Shia in Iraq - he used to say they're Iranians, or this whole idea of kind of a fifth column within society. And that's very dangerous, that's a very dangerous rhetoric because it's divisive, it can split people up. It can engender this feeling that these are strangers that are living in our midst. WOMAN, (Translation): And now theyre killing our children. Let Israel wipe them out. To hell with them! I hope they become extinct from this world. MOHAMMED BAZZI: The Sunnis are feeling more scared because they are feeling this regional situation where the Shia appear to be on the rise in several places - Iraq foremost place but also Iran. And they see this wave of sort of Shi'ite power, almost, coming to Lebanon and they might be swept up in it. If it's left unchecked, it can drag Lebanon into a situation similar to what's happening in Iraq, where there is this total sense of mistrust between the two sects. REPORTER: I'm on my way now to the Shia hospital to see how many admissions they've been getting tonight. As we could see back there at the Sunni hospital, there were lots and lots of young men coming in with gunshot wounds and many other injuries. So now we're going to the Shia hospital to see how many they've had hurt. Hezbollah won't let me film freely around the hospital or talk to families but they allow me to take a few pictures in the foyer. BOY, (Translation): We were returning from university when men armed with sticks and rocks attacked us. They talk democracy, let them practise it. They started throwing grenades at us and shooting at us, and the hospital knows that. DR BERRI: Well, we have seen a lot of injured. We had about 75 patients, 75 injured, some with gunshot. Two killed. About more than 19 with gunshot. The Hezbollah stronghold of the Bekaa Valley, east of Beirut. The whole village has turned out for the burial of a young Hezbollah supporter who was killed in the student violence of the night before. I was approached by 17-year-old Hezbollah supporter Ali Rayya. ALI RAYYA: I want to say we are not terrorists. We love peace and not terrorism. People think that we are terrorists but we are not that we love peace. This martyr was killed because we are defending a democracy but people don't see it like that.
OK? After the funeral Ali invites me to his home.
ALI: This my house. REPORTER: Hi. GIRLS: Hi. Hello. Hello. REPORTER: Can you explain who's this on the wall, Ali?
ALI: It's Hassan Nasrallah. It's the face of Hezbollah. We take money to resistance. REPORTER: To the resistance? ALI: Yes. Ali says he wants to show people that they shouldn't be scared of Hezbollah or their supporters. ALI, (Translation): The whole world looks at us like we are terrorists, so I wanted you to come and see my house and how we live, and that we are not like that. Ali takes me along to Ashura, the traditional Shia day of mourning for the death of Imam Hussain. Unlike Sunnis, Shi'ites believe Hussain was the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad, and they still mourn his murder in 680AD. CROWD, (Translation): Any supporter of Hezbollah? At your service, Nasrallah. Who will sacrifice himself? At your service, Khamenei! Oh, Hussain! Oh Hussain! Who are you? Hezbollah! Your leader? Nasrallah. At your, service Hussein! Death to Israel! Death to America. God, God preserve Nasrallah for us.
Ali too strongly believes that America and Israel are the cause of all the Middle East's problems. ALI (Translation): They say this because Israel and America are stealing all the wealth of Islam and all the wealth of Muslims and all the oppressed people on earth. And this is why they are shouting "Death to America and Death to Israel". Sectarian differences have clearly been revealed since Hezbollah and their allies pulled out of the government. Hezbollah insists the real reason it withdrew from Cabinet was because the government broke an election promise to allow Hezbollah to continue as an armed resistance and to keep its weapons. Sheik Nour Eddin is adamant that any effort by the government or the UN to disarm Hezbollah will fail. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: Here it's good to know... look, Sophie, it is good to know that in any place you can buy weapons. Here we laugh when we see them - they are going to look for the borders between Lebanon and Syria. Maybe we will take weapons from the borders of Israel itself. OK? So it is not limited between the borders or such things. REPORTER: So it is not a problem? Getting weapons is not... You're not worried. SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: We'll get weapon maybe from any country, from any merchant. REPORTER: Not a problem? SHEIK KHODOR NOUR EDDIN: You have money, you can buy. For Hezbollah supporters, the July war proved to them that they need their arms more than ever, and they don't trust that the Lebanese army can defend them. HASSAN'S FRIEND (Translation): Is this the army that will resist Israel? It couldnt even confront or arrest a few insurgents, which confirms the existence of Hezbollah in Lebanon is for the protection, support and peace of all here. If it wasn't for Hezbollah and their weapons pointing at Israel, then none of would be alive. For Sunnis who fear an armed Shia militia in their midst, Hezbollah must be forced to hand in their weapons. RANA AL ADEEN, GOVERNMENT SUPPORTER: We want peace with Israel. We don't want war. And we have an army that can defend us just in case Israel tries to get back inside Lebanon. So we believe that the cause of their existence is over. They don't. They have survival. They want to keep their arms, we don't want. That is the issue. That is the main issue.
It's the day before thousands of pro-government supporters are expected in downtown Beirut for the commemoration of Rafik Hariri's death. But two buses have just been blown up in the hills above Beirut - the first time civilians have been targeted like this for years. MOHMAMAD YAMOUT, (Translation): The explosion today was to scare the people from going down to the demonstration tomorrow. But this of course will fail. We're going down and we won't be scared of anyone. On the streets of Lebanon there is now a real fear that the dark days of the civil war are returning. JEFFREY FELTMAN: I am convinced nobody wants civil war here, but I worry that decisions being taken are in fact leading the country in that direction.
At the rally the next day, thousands of armed Lebanese troops are needed to separate government supporters from the Hezbollah activists still camped outside Prime Minister Siniora's office. ( CROWD, (Translation): We don't want sectarianism, but God is with the Sunnis! We don't want sectarianism, but God is with the Sunnis. With the foot soldiers of each side increasingly identifying as either Sunni or Shia, it seems, as in Iraq, that this centuries-old sectarian split could well tear Lebanon apart. Reporter/Camera
SOPHIE MCNEILL Editors
ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS
NICK OBRIEN Fixer/translator
MOHAMMED SHREIF Subtitling
JOSEPH ABDO Producer
MARTIN BUTLER
ASHLEY SMITH