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Hezbollah’s Rivals in Eastern Lebanon Race to Influence Votes of Clans

Government election officials carry a ballot box into polling stations in Beirut, Lebanon, on 5 May 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Government election officials carry a ballot box into polling stations in Beirut, Lebanon, on 5 May 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Hezbollah’s Rivals in Eastern Lebanon Race to Influence Votes of Clans

Government election officials carry a ballot box into polling stations in Beirut, Lebanon, on 5 May 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Government election officials carry a ballot box into polling stations in Beirut, Lebanon, on 5 May 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Opposition forces are racing to win over clans and families in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate in eastern Lebanon, in an attempt to secure their votes in the electoral race, in the face of the list of Hezbollah and its allies.

The various forces opposed to Hezbollah are trying to take advantage of the party’s failure to nominate candidates from the region’s clans and families for the upcoming parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for May 2022.

The party has selected the same figures, who won in the previous elections, including MPs Hussein Hajj Hassan, Ihab Hamadeh, Ibrahim Moussawi and Ali Meqdad.

The list put forward by the Lebanese Forces party in Baalbek-Hermel is likely to obtain the majority of votes among the opposition groups, according to recent opinion polls.

The Shiite alliances in the list facing Hezbollah will play a key role in the results of the elections. However, these alliances are yet to crystallize, pending the announcement of the Shiite candidates.

The clans are distributed in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate in the regions and villages of Bouday, Makna, Al-Kenisa, Hermel, Al-Hadath, Sha’at and Riha, in addition to the border villages inhabited by Lebanese on the Syrian side of the northern Bekaa region.

Candidates representing the clans are looking forward to fighting their electoral battle in a unified electoral list. They blame the entire political class for the deteriorating economic situation and the prevailing corruption.

In this regard, clan sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the major clans and families “could win two seats if they unite and gather the Shiite voices that are not loyal to Hezbollah and its allies.”

“We consider ourselves the strongest, and we can offer our people what others have not been able to give,” said Dumr Meqdad, a social activist and a candidate for the parliamentary elections.

He added: “When the moment comes to make a decision, we will rally around each other alongside our clans.”

A list representing the region’s clans is preparing to engage in the electoral battle. It is composed of Medhat Zeaiter and Khaled Jaafar from the Lebanese border region, in addition to Dumr Meqdad, Youssef Shamas, a candidate from the Nassreddine family, as well as an independent activist from the town of Arsal.

On the other hand, the Lebanese Forces party is seeking to build a strong list to win over the clans, following its successful experience with Shiite candidate and former MP Yehya Shamas in the 2018 elections.

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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
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Houthi Network Recruits Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine

Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)
Honoring a Yemeni fighter in the ranks of the Russian forces (local media)

In a nearly one-minute video, a young Yemeni man tells how he and his colleagues traveled to Russia on the promise of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering”, but ended up fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The young man, whose face was covered, expressed with his colleagues their desire to return to Yemen. They said they did not wish to suffer the same fate as their friends and get killed.
Last Sunday, The Financial Times said in a report that Russia’s armed forces have recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, brought by a shadowy trafficking operation that highlights the growing links between Moscow and the Houthi militant group.
Later in video recordings, young Yemeni men spoke about the practice of Houthi smugglers who take advantage of the difficult economic conditions of Yemenis to recruit hundreds of them, and send them to fight alongside Russian troops.
The network of traffickers operate from Yemen and other Arab countries, and coordinate with others within Russian territory.
The Houthi network recruited hundreds of Yemenis and sent them to fight in Russia, according to sources close to their families and others in the Yemeni government.
In one of the videos, a group of Yemeni recruits said they worked in Oman, when a medical equipment company founded by a Houthi politician, Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, lured them by promises of lucrative employment in fields such as “security” and “engineering” in Russia.
They said they were promised a salary of $2,500 per month. But arriving in Moscow, they were received by a representative from the Russian Defense Ministry who told them they will work as security guards at Russian facilities.
Two days after their arrival, the recruits were sent to camps, where they trained for combat and received a salary of between $185 and $232 a month. They are now calling on the Yemeni government to intervene to return them to their country.
But another Yemeni, Ahmed, who is familiar with a group of recruits, explains that he and his friends had warned these young men not to go to Russia where they risk getting involved in the ongoing war.
The recruits told him that they could escape to Europe and seek asylum as hundreds of Yemenis did before.
However, after arriving with the help of a Houthi-linked medical company, many have apparently been coerced into the Russian military, forced to sign fighting contracts at gunpoint and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
A member of the Yemeni community in Russia told Asharq Al-Awsat that smugglers are luring Yemeni young men to go to Russia to work for salaries of up to $2,500 per month and are then transferred to Arab capitals, including Muscat, Beirut and Damascus, to be then transferred to Russian territory.
After their arrival, he said, the recruits are taken to weapons training camps, allegedly as employees of a security company. But they are later sent to fight on the front lines with Ukraine along with mercenaries from other nationalities.
Activists and members of the Yemeni community in Russia estimate that there are about 300 young Yemenis who refuse to join the fighting in Ukraine and want to return to their country.
“Those men were tempted by the dire economic conditions in Yemen due to the ongoing war,” the activists said.
A Yemeni recruit of the shadowy trafficking operation said that Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a prominent Houthi politician, is one of the main recruiters. He is assisted by his brother Abdul Waheed, who was appointed by the group as director of Al-Masrakh districts in Taiz Province.
The recruit said that the group of traffickers includes Hani al-Zarriqi, who has been living in Russia for years, and Mohammed al-Iyani, who lives in a Yemeni neighboring country.
Two relatives of the recruits accuse al-Jabri and his aides of arranging the transfer of the young men from Yemen to a neighboring country, and from there to Moscow, on the pretext of working for private security companies. The traffickers receive a commission of between $10 and $15 thousand per person.