Members of Health and Medical Workers in Sidon transfer a wounded Palestinian injured during clashes at the Ain Al Hilweh camp in July. EPA
Members of Health and Medical Workers in Sidon transfer a wounded Palestinian injured during clashes at the Ain Al Hilweh camp in July. EPA
Members of Health and Medical Workers in Sidon transfer a wounded Palestinian injured during clashes at the Ain Al Hilweh camp in July. EPA
Members of Health and Medical Workers in Sidon transfer a wounded Palestinian injured during clashes at the Ain Al Hilweh camp in July. EPA


The clashes at Lebanon's Ain Al Hilweh refugee camp had a regional dimension


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August 30, 2023

In early August, fighting broke out in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, Ain Al Hilweh, after Islamist groups assassinated a leading Fatah security official, Abou Ashraf Al Armouchi. While some linked this to longstanding tensions between Fatah, the main Palestinian faction, and extremist Islamist groups, the message was probably different.

To many analysts in Lebanon, what is happening in the Palestinian camps is tied to regional dynamics, in particular Iran’s efforts to hedge against a widening of normalisation between Arab states and Israel. Recently, there was talk of a possible breakthrough in relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, particularly a Wall Street Journal article mentioning agreement on “the broad contours of a deal”. While the US State Department played down the newspaper story, Iran cannot have been reassured.

For Tehran, an alignment of Arab states with Israel represents a strategic threat in a region where the Iranians have spent years building up their influence in countries such as Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria. Evidently, Iran regards its control over the Palestinian card as the cornerstone of an effort to sponsor an alliance of forces opposed to Arab-Israeli rapprochements. Lebanon has taken on a central role in this context.

Not that Iran’s contacts with the Palestinians are new. In the early 1980s, Iran had established ties with Palestinian Islamists in Ain Al Hilweh, a pattern documented in Bernard Rougier’s ground-breaking book Everyday Jihad. The Iranians were also behind what is known as the Association of Muslim Scholars, a grouping of Lebanese and Palestinian Sunni clerics founded in 1982 by Iran’s ambassador in Beirut. It sought to spread what Mr Rougier described as a “revolutionary vision” of Islam, in line with that of the Iranian regime.

While Iranian influence declined somewhat in the early 1990s, as Salafist influence rose in the former pro-Iranian Palestinian Islamist networks, today Tehran and Hezbollah have close ties with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Ain Al Hilweh. Prominent leaders of both groups have relocated to Lebanon, as my Carnegie colleague Mohanad Hage Ali, who has closely followed developments on the Palestinian front, has written.

Flames and smoke rise after an Israeli air strike in Gaza in April. EPA
Flames and smoke rise after an Israeli air strike in Gaza in April. EPA
The Iranians must have regarded their reconciliation with Saudi Arabia last March as the first real sign of Arab recognition of Iran’s stakes in the Middle East

Earlier this year, Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, outlined a new strategy that he described as “the unification of fronts” against Israel. What he meant was that Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad would co-ordinate their actions on a succession of fronts, from Gaza, through Lebanon, to southern Syria (as well as perhaps the West Bank).

Indeed, in early April, and again in July, an unidentified group fired rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon. The first salvo followed Israeli attacks against worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque, while the second came after Israel’s major military operation in Jenin.

The Iranian and Hezbollah scheme appears to be advancing on two levels.

The attacks from Lebanon seem to be designed to impose a new deterrence doctrine with Israel, where Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are telling the Israelis that they will face a much more unpredictable and multifaceted reaction to Israel’s military actions in the future, from across the country’s borders. Hezbollah has already thrown into this mix the possibility that in an eventual conflict, pro-Iranian Iraqi Shiite combatants might also be deployed to Lebanon.

On a second level, Hezbollah is trying to erode Fatah’s standing within the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, and the Ain Al Hilweh tensions should be understood in this light. Mr Hage Ali sees Fatah losing on all sides, writing recently in Diwan, the blog of Carnegie’s Middle East programme: “What may be emerging on the regional level is an Arab camp that undermines Fatah by normalising with Israel … and a pro-Iran camp that backs Fatah’s foes.”

There are definite risks here for Hezbollah, not least that the party’s Shiite base does not want to see southern Lebanon again pay a price for the Palestinian cause, as happened between the late 1960s and early 1980s. Nor is Lebanon in an economic condition that would allow it to absorb the heavy destruction from Israeli bombing that a conflict would invariably cause.

Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh meet at an undisclosed location last year. AFP
Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh meet at an undisclosed location last year. AFP

However, the interests of the Lebanese are secondary for both Hezbollah and its sponsors in Tehran. The Iranians must have regarded their reconciliation with Saudi Arabia last March as the first real sign of Arab recognition of Iran’s stakes in the Middle East. However, ties have not improved since then as rapidly as some expected, and the recent meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was widely seen as an effort to inject new momentum into the rapprochement.

An improved relationship does not imply the end of politics. Both sides will continue to try to accumulate means of regional leverage to preserve their power. Gradual control over the Palestinian file would represent a major Iranian gain, especially if the region becomes more polarised over the improvement of Arab-Israeli dealings down the road.

Hezbollah is playing a central role in this complicated regional dance, by supporting Hamas and Islamic Jihad in their endeavour to erode Fatah’s sway inside the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. This comes at a time when morale in Fatah is very low and the organisation’s ageing leadership appears to be increasingly out of touch with Palestinian public opinion. The Iranian and Hezbollah plan is still a work in progress, but expect it to move into higher gear in the near future.

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Beat Namibia by three wickets
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UAE fixtures
Free admission. All fixtures broadcast live on icc.tv

Tuesday March 15, v PNG at Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Friday March 18, v Nepal at Dubai International Stadium
Saturday March 19, v PNG at Dubai International Stadium
Monday March 21, v Nepal at Dubai International Stadium

Islamophobia definition

A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.

The schedule

December 5 - 23: Shooting competition, Al Dhafra Shooting Club

December 9 - 24: Handicrafts competition, from 4pm until 10pm, Heritage Souq

December 11 - 20: Dates competition, from 4pm

December 12 - 20: Sour milk competition

December 13: Falcon beauty competition

December 14 and 20: Saluki races

December 15: Arabian horse races, from 4pm

December 16 - 19: Falconry competition

December 18: Camel milk competition, from 7.30 - 9.30 am

December 20 and 21: Sheep beauty competition, from 10am

December 22: The best herd of 30 camels

Fixtures

Tuesday - 5.15pm: Team Lebanon v Alger Corsaires; 8.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Pharaohs

Wednesday - 5.15pm: Pharaohs v Carthage Eagles; 8.30pm: Alger Corsaires v Abu Dhabi Storms

Thursday - 4.30pm: Team Lebanon v Pharaohs; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Carthage Eagles

Friday - 4.30pm: Pharaohs v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Team Lebanon

Saturday - 4.30pm: Carthage Eagles v Alger Corsaires; 7.30pm: Abu Dhabi Storms v Team Lebanon

TWISTERS

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Starring: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos

Rating: 2.5/5

MATCH INFO

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At a glance

Fixtures All matches start at 9.30am, at ICC Academy, Dubai. Admission is free

Thursday UAE v Ireland; Saturday UAE v Ireland; Jan 21 UAE v Scotland; Jan 23 UAE v Scotland

UAE squad Rohan Mustafa (c), Ashfaq Ahmed, Ghulam Shabber, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Naveed, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan

Ain Issa camp:
  • Established in 2016
  • Houses 13,309 people, 2,092 families, 62 per cent children
  • Of the adult population, 49 per cent men, 51 per cent women (not including foreigners annexe)
  • Most from Deir Ezzor and Raqqa
  • 950 foreigners linked to ISIS and their families
  • NGO Blumont runs camp management for the UN
  • One of the nine official (UN recognised) camps in the region
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  • Submit their request
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Recipe

Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo

Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Method

Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.

Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.

Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking,  remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.

Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.

 

Updated: August 30, 2023, 6:28 AM