The radical Shiite Hezbollah organization has suffered an unexpected drubbing in the Lebanese elections. Just a week ago, Hezbollah was considered the favourite to take enough seats to form and lead a coalition government.
The Western-backed coalition took 68-seats in the 128-seat parliament while the Hezbollah coalition won 57-seats. Both sides have said they want a national unity government but the Hezbollah leadership has yet to speak out on the election results.
All that happened was that the status quo was maintained. You should check out Juan Cole's informative post on the election if you haven't already.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link RM. It was really informative. Still, while the status quo has been maintained, just a week ago many observers were speculating on a Hezbollah alliance victory. In that context this election is something of a welcome upset.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile it's beginning to look as though the knives are out for Ahmadinejad in Tehran. Wouldn't that be manna from heaven for Obama?