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Lebanon’s Opposition Prepares to Confront Amal, Hezbollah with Unified Lists

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a parliamentary session at UNESCO palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 20, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a parliamentary session at UNESCO palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 20, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Lebanon’s Opposition Prepares to Confront Amal, Hezbollah with Unified Lists

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a parliamentary session at UNESCO palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 20, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a parliamentary session at UNESCO palace in Beirut, Lebanon September 20, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Opposition groups have high hopes that the October 2019 uprising would achieve a breakthrough in the next year’s parliamentary elections.

Such breakthrough, which electoral experts expect in many constituencies, would constitute a major achievement in the strongholds of Hezbollah and the Amal movement.

The Bekaa third district, which includes six Shiite seats, South Lebanon’s third constituency, which has eight Shiite seats, and South Lebanon’s second constituency, which includes Tyre and Sidon villages with six Shiite seats, are the main strongholds of Hezbollah and Amal, which the opposition seeks to breach.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Human Rights Activist and Lawyer Wassef al-Harakeh said that the Shiite sect is part of the national fabric, “although it has a certain specificity that well-known political parties try to exploit to make it feel always targeted.”

“After all, it is not easy to make a change in a society that is greatly influenced by religious legacies,” he remarked.

Harakeh asserted, however, that people remain influenced by the possibility of change and are looking for salvation.

“Here comes the role of the opposition groups to put forward a real project that would change this status quo,” he underlined.

“We will fight the electoral battle in all areas and with unified lists in the regions where Hezbollah and Amal have a strong presence,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

A Shiite opposition figure, Ali al-Amin, agrees with Harakeh, saying Hezbollah has so far “succeeded in suppressing this situation.”

“Therefore, the elections will constitute a test, despite our belief that there are no free elections under Hezbollah’s arms,” Amin stated.

Al-Amin told Asharq Al-Awsat about “extensive contacts among all opposition groups to strengthen an electoral front in the face of the ruling system, especially the Shiite duo.”

He continued: “The ability to achieve a breakthrough is possible in more than one area, especially areas that Hezbollah does not fully control, such as Zahle and Jbeil. Some breaches can also be made in Baalbek-Hermel, and in the South.”

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Arab World

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.