Lebanese Rivals, in a Tangled Web of Alliances, Face Off in a Crucial Stage in Elections
By JOHN KIFNER
Published: June 12, 2005
BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 11 - Parliamentary elections enter a crucial stage in the mountains above Beirut on Sunday as rival anti-Syrian candidates - those of a long-exiled general and of an unlikely coalition of civil war enemies - face off for the first time.

A Hezbollah supporter with a toy gun at a rally in Baalbek on Friday.
Lebanese politics, dominated here for decades by neighboring Syria, are always religious and tribal. But this election is developing into a tale of intrigue tangled even by Levantine standards, a quintessentially Lebanese mélange of bloodshed, betrayal and a raven-haired beauty.
Indeed, the campaign is now so convoluted that Gen. Michel Aoun, the anti-Syrian nationalist who returned from 15 years in exile, has allied himself with politicians widely regarded as Syrian vassals. And in a breathtakingly odd moment the other night, Sheik Hassan Nasrullah, the Hezbollah leader whose Shiite guerrillas drove Israel out of southern Lebanon, exhorted his followers to vote for candidates of the outlawed Christian militia, the Lebanese Forces, invoking the name of its assassinated leader, Bashir Gemayel, who cooperated with the Israelis' invasion in 1982 and was elected president behind their tanks.
The assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February set off the tumultuous chain of events - including rallies calling for an end to Syrian occupation that eventually drew a million and a half Lebanese across religious divides - that forced the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to end his country's 29-year occupation. The withdrawal set the stage for the unlikely coalitions of former civil war enemies. Most of them once cooperated with Syria. Their chances seem good to gain control of Parliament, a development that would almost certainly be followed by an attempt to oust the president, Emil Lahoud, who was hand-picked by Syria. Last September, President Assad had ordered the Lebanese Parliament to amend the Constitution to extend Mr. Lahoud's term by three years.
General Aoun was able to return after the withdrawal. In Lebanon's darkest days in 1989 and 1990, with the civil war at its anarchic worst and an impasse over who would become president, General Aoun, who commanded the Lebanese Army, took over the presidential palace and attacked and defeated the main Christian militia, the Lebanese Forces. This period is little known to the outside world because most foreign journalists had left after a wave of kidnapping of foreigners and attention was focused on the brewing 1991 Persian Gulf war, and the United States, assembling an alliance against Iraq, turned a blind eye to Syria's role in Lebanon in exchange for a token Syrian contingent.
Syria attacked in force, along with remnants of the Lebanese Army and some Christian militias, overwhelming General Aoun. He took refuge in the French Embassy and was eventually spirited off to exile in France, where he became a symbol of resistance to many Christians.
The assassination of Mr. Hariri, widely believed by Lebanese to be Syrian-backed, was followed on June 2 by the killing of a well-known Beirut journalist, Samir Kassir, who had been sharply critical of Syria.
On Thursday, Walid Jumblatt, the Druse leader of the anti-Syrian opposition, said in a television interview that "tens of Syrian intelligence officers are still running free," roaming his Shuf Mountain stronghold and eating lunch in the Bekaa Valley. All the opposition figures are targeted for assassination, Mr. Jumblatt said. "There seems to be a decision somewhere, with or without the knowledge of President al-Assad, to carry on with the assassinations and continue the sabotage campaign."
On Friday, Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said that Washington had received information about "a Syrian hit list targeting key Lebanese figures of various political and religious persuasions for assassination." Asked if Syrian intelligence was still operating here, Marwan Hamadeh, a leading opposition strategist who barely escaped a car bomb last October that killed his bodyguard, replied, "Absolutely."
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