David Kenner
foreignpolicy.com
November 22, 2013

Lebanon celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independence today with a parade of marching soldiers, sword-wielding cavalrymen, and camouflage green tanks in downtown Beirut. But the scene a 15-minute drive away presented a stark reminder of the central government’s limited power. The Iranian embassy remained pockmarked from the Nov. 19 double suicide bombing, which killed 25 people and wounded 147 more, while the façade of the adjacent building was torn to shreds.

The attack was likely the handiwork of al Qaeda-linked militants — just one of the many radical Sunni groups that are viewed as an increasingly dangerous threat by American intelligence officials and mainstream Sunni Lebanese politicians alike. Bolstered by the raging violence in Syria, these jihadist groups pose a mounting danger to the tenuous peace that has prevailed in Lebanon since the beginning of the uprising next door.

Lebanon’s mainstream Sunni leadership, while condemning the Iranian embassy attack, also deplored Hezbollah’s decision to intervene militarily on the side of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which has led to an increase in Sunni-Shiite tensions and radicalization that made the bombing possible.

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