St Martyr's Square is empty and downtown Beirut is closed-up and silent as the tourist season that never came draws to a close. Armed policemen are positioned at every corner, soldiers waiting for violence chew gum behind roadblocks as the seat of government in the Grand Serail is encircled by the nine-month-old tent city, built by opposition protesters, that now festers in the summer heat.The silence is filled with crackling tension as campaign posters and graffiti demand diametrically opposed realities for tomorrow, marking out the frontlines of the deepening struggle for Lebanon's political identity.
The lines of division
Nadim Shehadi, a senior advisor on Palestinian affairs to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the British-based Chatham House's Lebanon Representative, spoke to ISN Security Watch at his Beirut office about the struggle. "Lebanon is a divided country, one bitterly at odds over the future of the state. The government, led by the Sunni Muslim Hariri Bloc and its Christian allies, espouse a Riviera vision for the country: One where a weak and independent central state at peace with its neighbors and open to the West returns to what the country was before the civil war," he said.
"The opposition, dominated by the Shia Muslim Hizbollah and Amal, sees Lebanon as a fortress on the frontline in the war with Israel and the United States, closed to the West. France and Saudi Arabia have been the chief investors in the Riviera, Iran and to a lesser extent Syria are the stakeholders in the Citadel."