By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:49:41 +0000

I found Andrea’s work really interesting! Its point in distinguishing peace reaching and victory will appears fundamental to understand to reach a true long lasting peace.
I don’t agree with John’s comment, the fact that Ahmad el Assir is considered a terrorist doesn’t affect it’s popular character and appeal. According to John analysis, Ben Laden was never popular. Andrea doesn’t affirm that el Assir is an official representative of any Sunni movement, he remain nonetheless followed by thousands of individuals and he is therefore a popular Sunni religious figure.
Second, the literature of the “naive error” you seemed to found are pretty serious, unless you believe those are “naive sources”.
Finally your point on the Saudi Arabia support is perfectly true although not fundamental for the good understanding of the dynamics that Andrea is describing.
Great job Andrea!

By: John

John — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 19:35:36 +0000

I salute the effort of Andrea in writing this piece. Though filled with naïve errors, the piece becomes evidently wrong when Ahmad el Assir is described as a “popular sunni religious figure” when in reality, even by the Al-Mustakbal (the major Sunni political party) admission, he is a terrorist (attacked and killed soldiers from the Lebanese armed forces in Saida, June 2013) that allied himself on many occasions with the Al-Nusra movement (al qaeda in Syria) and the “islamic state”!
On another hand, it is very difficult to ignore the monetary support of Saudi Arabia to the Hariri family and through them the political organization of the sunnis in Lebanon and Saudi meddling in internal political affairs of Lebanon.

Comments on: Lebanon and Islamic State Reveal Cracks in Arab World

By: Carl

By: John