A Tuesday night shooting of a supporter of the American-backed Future Bloc threatens to break up the unity government and cause a return to civil strife in Lebanon. Hizbullah and allied pro-Syrian parties have placed the country on the verge of a new civil war for more than year, but an agreement was reached two weeks ago to form a new unity government that would give Hizbullah more power. The agreement included the prohibition of weapons to settle political disputes.
A Future Bloc officials threatened "to suspend its participation in the consultations to form a government," the French news agency AFP reported. Hizbullah has filled a social and political vacuum in Lebanon and has taken over strategic areas, which they can use for attacks on Israel with advanced weapons that have been smuggled from Iran and Syria since the end of the Second Lebanon War two years ago.