Saudi warnings mark Lebanon jitters

[David]

AP


BEIRUT, Lebanon - Saudi Arabia is warning its citizens against traveling to Lebanon, the U.S. Embassy is urging Americans to be vigilant and French cultural centers in two major Lebanese cities have temporarily closed.

Lebanon's intractable political crisis is no longer business as usual — not after the slaying last week of a top fugitive Hezbollah commander, Imad Mughniyeh.

The killing prompted the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to declare "open war" against Israel, which Hezbollah and Iran accused in the assassination. Israel, which denied any role, went on high alert. A Hezbollah retaliation would most certainly draw Israel's wrath and risk igniting another war.

It also could sharpen Lebanon's internal turmoil between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the Western-backed government. Over the weekend, government and opposition supporters engaged in fistfights in the streets of Beirut in clashes that injured more than a dozen people and wrecked cars and shops — the latest in frictions between the two camps.

And even though most recent incidents of violence have not touched foreigners and have been quickly quelled by the army, they have heightened fears across Lebanon and increased its sense of vulnerability.

They also evoked memories of the civil war, when fighting, bombings, kidnappings and assassinations drove most foreigners out. Plus, scenes from the devastating 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war when many scrambled to flee the country are still on people's minds.

The Saudi advisory, issued Monday, was clearly prompted by Mughniyeh's Feb. 12 killing in a car bombing in Syria and Hezbollah's subsequent retaliation threat.

"There is a real Saudi fear ... that the entire region might slide into chaos if Nasrallah carried out his threat to retaliate," said Edmond Saab, executive editor of Lebanon's leading newspaper, An-Nahar.

Although the move can be seen as "a precautionary measure to protect Saudi citizens, it is a signal that the region faces threat of chaos starting from Lebanon," Saab told The Associated Press.

The Saudi warning — which was open-ended — is especially significant because the oil-rich kingdom is a major financial supporter of Lebanon, and Saudis make up a large segment of the 1 million tourists who visit annually.

In the cities of Sidon in the south and Tripoli in the north, two French cultural centers have been closed until the end of the month. The U.S. Embassy restricted its personnel around the Feb. 14 anniversary and has been telling Americans here in recent advisories to exercise caution because of security conditions.

Saudi Arabia, the United States and France have been major backers of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora in Lebanon's 15-month crisis, which has been compounded by the failure of rival parliament factions to elect a president since November, when President Emile Lahoud's term expired.

The Lebanese government has criticized Nasrallah's threat, with Saniora bluntly saying it isn't in Lebanon's interest to have a confrontation with the world.

But it's no secret the government would be unable to stop the powerful Hezbollah if it decides to strike.

The power struggle within Lebanon also has led to a regional showdown with Syria and Iran, which back the Hezbollah-led opposition and reject America's Mideast policies.

Despite the increased fears, the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon so far "has not put in place any special measures," spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said.

Mughniyeh was suspected of masterminding the pro-Iranian Muslim militant kidnap squads that snatched foreigners off the streets of Beirut during the civil war and held them for years. He was indicted by the United States for a 1985 hijacking of a U.S. jetliner in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed.

He also was suspected of involvement in suicide bombings in Beirut in 1983 and 1984 that killed more than 270 Americans and 58 Frenchmen, as well as bombings in Argentina in the 1990s against the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish center that killed more than 100.