 | No surprise here, is there? |
Syria's staunchest allies Hezbollah and Amal swept south Lebanon's general elections yesterday, in a victory widely seen as a vote for anti-Israeli fighters to keep their weapons. The Amal-Hezbollah list, dubbed the "steamroller", claimed it had won all 23 seats up for grabs in the two southern constituencies by a landslide. "I thank all my people in the great south for renewing their confidence in the list and for the victory of all its candidates," Amal leader and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told a news conference in the south. "The results have not changed from the past at all and the south came out to say its word for resistance, for liberation, for development," he said after polls closed.
Many in the Shiite heartland see a vote for Hezbollah as a vote for the group to retain its arms as a defense against neighboring Israel, which occupied the south for 22 years until its 2000 pullout. Hundreds of supporters waving green Amal flags celebrated outside Berri's villa as results began to trickle in. Others drove through streets of southern villages and towns flying yellow Hezbollah and Amal flags. Hezbollah, which Washington labels a terrorist group, and the more moderate Amal are the dominant forces among the Shiites, Lebanon's largest sect. |