BEIRUT — The Lebanese government has nearly doubled the size of its security forces in recent months by adding about 11,000 mostly Sunni Muslim and Christian troops, and has armed them with weapons and vehicles donated by the United Arab Emirates, a Sunni state.
The dramatic increase in Interior Ministry troops, including the creation of a controversial intelligence unit and the expansion of a commando force, is meant to counter the growing influence of Iran and Hezbollah, its Shiite ally in Lebanon, Cabinet minister Ahmed Fatfat said in an interview this week.
The quiet, speedy buildup indicates that Lebanon's anti-Syria ruling majority, led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, has been bracing for armed sectarian conflict since the withdrawal of Syrian forces in the spring of 2005. It also reflects growing tensions across the region between U.S.-allied Sunni Muslims who hold power in most Arab nations and the increasingly influential Shiite-ruled Iran and Hezbollah.
Over the last week, government officials have moved about 8,000 troops -- 5,000 from the army and 3,000 from the newly expanded Internal Security Forces, or ISF -- into Beirut in preparation for a massive Hezbollah-led demonstration set to begin today, Fatfat said.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has summoned his followers to the capital, and has urged them to stay in the streets until the government collapses.
About a month ago, the new ISF troops were given weapons and equipment donated by the United Arab Emirates, a confederation of Sunni states in the Persian Gulf, said Fatfat, who brokered the deal while serving as interior minister.
Some critics in Lebanon worry that the force could get involved in militia-style fighting in the event of street violence.
Fatfat spoke this week from the prime minister's headquarters, where he and other Cabinet ministers have been staying and working under guard. With talk of civil war, the pro-Western ministers fear for their lives.
"In Lebanon, it is dangerous to make politics," Fatfat said. "When I went into politics in 1991, I ... took out an American life insurance policy. But now it is more serious." He said Hezbollah and its allies were "trying to make a coup d'etat."
Even with its expansion, the ISF is inferior to Hezbollah and the Lebanese army, analysts say. But the ISF is the only Lebanese armed force devoted to protecting the Sunni-led coalition struggling to maintain political control, analysts say.
