Former Lebanese premier returns from exile amid crisis

AS reported in 'The Japan News' :

Former Lebanese premier returns from exile amid crisis The Associated Press BEIRUT (AP)—Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, considered Lebanon’s most influential Sunni Muslim politician, returned unexpectedly to Lebanon Friday after three years of self-imposed exile. His surprise return comes at a delicate time for the country after a week of bloody battles between the army and Sunni extremists from Syria have exacerbated Lebanon’s own simmering sectarian tensions. The seizure by the militants of Arsal, a mostly Sunni town filled with Syrian refugees and surrounded by Shiite villages, has further entangled Lebanon into Syria’s catastrophic three-year-old civil war. Hariri’s return is being seen as a bid to reassert his leadership over the Sunni community in Lebanon amid growing concern that many in the community are being radicalized by the increasingly sectarian war next door. The revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad is being overwhelmingly fought by Sunnis, many of them dominated by a radical Islamist ideology. The Lebanese Shiite militia Hizbollah has actively fought on the Syrian government side. Hariri, a Saudi-backed politician, left Lebanon in January 2011 after his government was brought down by Hizbollah and its allies. He has since split his time between Paris and Saudi Arabia, citing concerns for his safety.