The transcript of the Jan. 26, 2007, Mosaic Intelligence Report (available for viewing at Google Video):
"In his last State of the Union address, President Bush warned of an epic battle between Shiite extremists backed by Iran and Sunni extremists aided by al-Qaida.
He was, of course, talking about Iraq.
But the scenario he was describing has recently spread to Lebanon, bringing that country dangerously close to civil war for the second time.
"The Lebanese army has lifted an overnight curfew in Beirut that was imposed after street battles between students from rival political parties killed four people and wounded 200 on Thursday. It was the first curfew to be imposed on Beirut since the 15 year civil war that erupted in 1975.
Thursday’s violence began as a row between Sunni supporters of the government and Shia opponents at Beirut’s Arab University, but it rapidly flared from a scuffle to violent clashes between pro- and anti-government activists.
These clashes overshadowed a foreign donors conference in which $7.6 billion was pledged to help Lebanon recover from last year’s conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and to support the Western-backed government against the opposition.
The Sunni and Shiite conflict in Lebanon is not building without foreign support and encouragement.
Whilst Fouad Siniora’s Sunni government has been enjoying the backing of the United States and Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria have been edging Hezbollah along.
Following a meeting between the President of Syria, Bashar Al Asad and Iran’s top national security official, Ali Larijani, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Prince Saud al Faysal, openly warned Iran against intervening in Arab affairs during an interview with the French daily “Le Figaro”.
“We hope that Iran will be a good neighbor, that the Iranians will be a part of the solution and not the problem. It is what we repeat to them: you do not interfere with our affairs”, he said.
The Saudis realizing that their eagerness to get rid of Saddam Hussein has weakened the Sunnis and strengthened the grip of Iran in Iraq, are now very troubled by the prospect of losing yet another Arab country to the Iranian sphere of influence.
All competing parties in Lebanon have been accusing each other of inviting foreign intervention to their country, the US is in the picture, so is France, Israel and others but most importantly Lebanon has now been transformed into a battle ground between Saudi Arabia and Iran reviving an ancient animosity that might set the entire region on fire.
I am Jamal Dajani for the Mosaic Intelligence Report to learn more about this program or to share your thoughts visit us at Linktv.org/mosaic."