A proxy civil war is underway in Lebanon

The serious developments unfolding in Lebanon create the perfect recipe for a civil war which might be worse than the one that erupted in 1975 and lasted for 15 years, warned Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the news website Rai Al Youm.
Lebanon is now home to a proxy war between outside powers – and the Lebanese people are paying dearly for it in their blood, security, well-being, national unity and territorial integrity, the writer said.
The car bomb that exploded in a high-security area in downtown Beirut as the Lebanese people celebrated Christmas was predictable, and similar bombings are likely to take place as the country slides into chaos, sectarian strife and retaliations.
The danger lies not only in the killing of Mohamad Chatah, a former Lebanese minister and prominent adviser to Saad Al Hariri, chief of the March 14 Bloc, along with five other people, but in the other car bombings and political assassinations re-emerging in the country.
This will cause panic and turmoil and exacerbate the economic crisis in Lebanon, especially now that the warring parties have greater experience in bombings and large numbers of fighters, according to the writer.
The war of words that erupted two weeks ago between Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and his opponent, Saad Al Hariri, leader of the March 14 Alliance, during which they pointed fingers at each other over responsibility for the bombings and escalating tension, have paved the way to the latest blast.
That war is part of a larger war between Saudi Arabia and Iran on Syrian territory, amid a conspicuous Shiite-Sunni polarisation across Lebanon, the writer said.
In an interview with Lebanese broadcaster OTV, Mr Nasrallah openly accused Saudi Arabia of being responsible for the blasts near the Iranian embassy in the Southern suburbs of Beirut, an Hizbollah stronghold. Mr Saad Al Hariri struck back in a statement made on his behalf by Nouhad El Machnouk, an MP in Saad's Future Bloc, which announced "resistance to the Iranian occupation of Lebanese decision-making" and pledging to kick out the Iranian occupiers.
All the ingredients for a repeat of the 1975 civil war are there: instigators, sponsors, arms, gunmen and clerics' sectarianism-fanning fatwas.
Alas for the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have taken refuge in Lebanon from the sectarian strife in their homeland, sectarianism is rapidly spilling over into Lebanon.
As long as Mr Al Hariri is adamant that he is going to liberate Lebanon from the Iranian occupation and Mr Nasrallah is bent on liberating Syria from the radicals – and as long as Iran and Saudi Arabia continue to reject dialogue to find a way out of the bloody conflict in Syria – the worst should be expected in Lebanon.
Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's great enemy
The Egyptian government had no choice but to make the decision to brand the Muslim Brotherhood group a terrorist organisation in view of a plethora of evidence everywhere around it, said the Dubai-based daily Al Bayan in its editorial on Sunday.
In Sinai, terrorist attacks have been targeting troops and army installations. In the cities and at universities, no one has been safe from the Brotherhood's terrorist actions. But the last straw came last week with the terrible explosive attack in Al Mansoura which left 14 people dead and more than 30 injured.
"The government made the decision because there was no time to waste" in the lead-up to the referendum over the constitution and finalisation of the road map for the future, the paper said.
However, containing terrorism isn't the responsibility of the state alone. It requires the participation of all the components of society who must support their leadership and isolate the Brotherhood's terrorist ideology.
"A new Egypt is being forged on foundations that set it up for a future as a civic state, a state for Muslims and Copts alike, where loyalty is for the homeland and nobody else," Al Bayan added.
The international community should also support Egypt's plans for stability. It must demonstrate a more serious stance towards the Muslim Brotherhood's terrorist actions and its desperate attempts to spark civil and sectarian strife in Egypt.
Corruption scandal brings era to an end
Since the Justice and Development Party's accession to power in 2002, its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan has relied on popular support to protect him from the erosion that afflicts most ruling parties in democratic systems. He thought his Islamic cover would give him and his party further immunity, noted Abdullah Iskandar, the managing editor of the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.
The Islamist leader wagered on wearing out the military establishment, and with the military out of the picture, Turkish-European relations were significantly improved.
"Mr Erdogan became a necessity for the West, especially because his early years in power witnessed great economic advances in Turkey, which in turn translated into increased exchanges with European nations," the writer said.
Mr Erdogan became an acknowledged political partner with the West, and many Arab Islamists looked to Turkey as a role model. But Islamists have failed in inheriting power in the Arab Spring countries and the Turkish Islamist model is now failing as well.
The corruption scandal in Turkey revealed that corrupt ruling-party officials have been protected by the cloak of Islamism – as if the pretence of piety alone is sufficient to cover up blatant infractions of the law.
* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk
translation@thenational.ae