Lebanese Communications Minster Marwan Hamadah told the France 24 network Monday that clashes between Hizbullah and the Lebanese army represent "not just a battle for Lebanon [but] a battle for the Middle East." He added that the violence is "not yet an all-out civil war."
At least 59 people have died in the fighting that broke out last week in Beirut, where Hizbullah at one point controlled the city and forced the Lebanese army to lay down its arms. Violence has subsided, but clashes were reported in Tripoli a short time ago. The Arab League, worried that an Iranian-Syrian axis with a Lebanon controlled by Hizbullah would lead towards its domination of the Middle East, is trying to calm the crisis.