| Saudi-Arabia ber sine borgere om å forlate Libanon etter at en shia-klan har kidnappet 30 sunnier som hevn for at Den frie syriske hær har kidnappet en slektning i Syria. Den sekteriske konflikten sprer seg med galopperende fart. Det som før var et opprør mot Bashar al-Assad, er blitt en konflikt mellom shiaer og sunnier. The Meqdad clan, a Lebanese Shiite family, has kidnapped 30 supporters of the Free Syrian Army including a Turkish businessman in Lebanon in retaliation for Syrian rebels kidnapping a relative of the clan in Syria. The Meqdad family claimed they would swap their hostages for Hassan Meqdad, who was taken by rebels. The Meqdad family issued a statement to local television saying it held Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey responsible for Hassan Meqdad’s kidnapping and would be willing to “take escalatory measures depending on the latest developments.” It did not say exactly what those measures would be, but the Saudi Embassy in Beirut issued a warning to Saudi citizens in Lebanon on Aug 15 to leave the country immediately. Combined with increasing political tensions in the region, such an escalation could influence the regional political negotiations over Syria. Stratfor: The Regional Politics Behind a Kidnapping in Lebanon |
