Hezbollah heartland hit as battle rages in Syria

Free Syrian Army Fighters ride motorcycles at a souq in Darkush town in Idlib yesterday.AFP/BeirutTwo rockets hit Hezbollah’s heartland in Beirut yesterday as the Lebanese Shia group battled alongside Syrian regime forces and Damascus said it agreed “in principle” to attend a Geneva peace conference. The early morning attack came as Syria’s fractured opposition held an unscheduled fourth day of meetings in Istanbul on the peace conference proposal and after Hezbollah pledged to fight for “victory” in Syria. Its chief Hassan Nasrallah said it was in the militant anti-Israeli group’s own interest to defend President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. “I have always promised you a victory and now I pledge to you a new one” in Syria, he said. Hours later, two Grad rockets slammed into Al Shayyah area of southern Beirut, a security source said, wounding four Syrian workers at a car dealership. It was the first time the Lebanese capital’s mainly Shia southern suburbs have been targeted during the more than two-year-old conflict in Syria. An AFP photographer said the second rocket damaged an apartment block. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack which Interior Minister Marwan Charbel denounced as “sabotage”. “We hope that what is happening in Syria will not spill over into Lebanon,” he said. During the past week, 31 people have been killed in clashes in Lebanon’s northern port of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of Syria’s regime. The army found two abandoned rocket launchers in Aitat, southeast of Beirut’s southern suburbs, the security source said. “The people will not be intimidated by such acts and are determined to defend the resistance (Hezbollah)... We will prevent all sectarian dissent,” Hezbollah MP Ali Ammar said. With the violence in Syria spreading, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said his government would attend “in principle” the Geneva peace conference Washington and Moscow are hoping to hold next month. “We think... that the international conference represents a good opportunity for a political solution to the crisis in Syria,” Muallem said. The opposition’s long-standing position is that, after more than two years of devastating conflict which has killed more than 94,000 people, it will not negotiate until Assad agrees to leave. “We are ready to enter into negotiations that are aimed towards transferring power to the people, towards a democratic transition. And that of course means Assad cannot be a part of Syria in the future,” opposition spokesman Louay Safi said in Istanbul. Meeting in the Turkish city since Thursday, the deeply divided opposition National Coalition has yet to reach an official position on the peace conference dubbed Geneva 2. Delegates said efforts to reach an agreed position were being delayed by pressure from some Gulf Arab backers for an overhaul of its membership. Syrian Kurds opposed to the regime also want to participate in the conference, either as Coalition members or not, representatives in Istanbul said. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Paris would host today a meeting with Russia and the US to prepare for the conference, as China, an ally of Damascus, said it “is open and actively disposed” for a political solution.Arab League chief urges Hezbollah to stop involvement

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi urged Hezbollah to stop fighting alongside government forces in Syria’s civil war, after two rockets hit a Shia Muslim district of Beirut.Al-Arabi condemned yesterday’s attack as well the ongoing clashes in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli between factions supporting opposing sides in Syria, which have left 25 people dead in the last week.“(Al-Arabi) urged the leaders of Hezbollah to reconsider their stance and not get involved in the killing in Syria, stressing that the only way to protect Lebanon ... is to protect Lebanon’s internal unity,” the Arab League said in a statement.“This criminal incident, in addition to ongoing armed clashes in the city of Tripoli, are unacceptable destructive acts that aim to stoke the fire of sectarianism, provoke reactions and upset security in Lebanon,” added the statement on the league’s website, quoting al-Arabi.