Iran buying Lebanese Christian properties
Last spring, there were rumors of an attempt by Syria and Hezbullah to wall off the Bekaa Valley and use it as a weapons zone.And in August 2007, I reported that Hezbullah was buying land north of the Litani River and turning it into a no-go zone. At the time, I cited a report from Charles Levinson that Hezbullah was attempting to connect its stronghold in southern Lebanon with the Bekaa Valley.
There are, however, more sinister accusations. Jumblatt and other Druze leaders have been most vocal with accusations that Hezbollah has a grand plan to Shiitize what was heretofore a mixed Christian-Druze area in an attempt to create a contiguous swath of land connecting the south with Hezbollah’s other stronghold in Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley.See the map at top left (the same one referred to by Levinson as "below"), and go back and read the whole thing to refresh your memory.
Getting rid of this irksome band of Christian and Druze villages would not only split the Druze off from their ancestral home in the Chouf Mountains, but would also mean weapons from Syria would have unfettered access to Hezbollah in the south without passing through potentially unfriendly territory. See the map below which has been floating around various anti-Hezbollah circles and claims, rather dubiously I think, to depict Hezbollah’s secret plans for a Shiite state inside Lebanon.
In light of the above, this report from Al-Arabiyah, which indicates that Iran is buying up Christian lands in Lebanon, should not be too surprising (Hat Tip: Elder of Ziyon).
The recent rise in Iranian purchases of property owned by Christians stirred controversy in Lebanon as the Islamic republic is accused of dividing the country along sectarian lines and embarking on a Shiite infiltration scheme.According to Lebanese economic expert Dr. Ghazi Wazni, the law is unlikely to pass.
The Shiite purchase of Christian land in Lebanon drove Lebanese Labor Minister Botros Harb to submit to the cabinet a draft law that prohibits the sale of land across religions.
Harb’s proposal mirror Lebanese fears of a scheme that enables Iran of exercising growing economic influence in Lebanon through Shiite businessmen who buy lands and houses owned by Christians and take advantage of Lebanon’s free market economy.
The draft law, of which AlArabiya.net obtained a copy, consists of six articles and an explanation of the way in which they are not in violation of the Lebanese constitution.
The first article of the law stipulates that sale of property should only be among members of the same religion for the coming 15 years and that any contracts that violate this law should be annulled. This includes what the law describes as “fake contracts” where the purchasing party is not the real beneficiary of the deal.
According to the draft, those who violate this law whether by sale, purchase, or mediation will face five to 10 years in jail and fined double the price of the sold property.
In addition to economic drawbacks, Wazni argued that the law will have an opposite result to what it aims at since it will enhance divisions and make owning property dependent on religion.So is this an attempt to expel Christians from Lebanon? (Where are the people who are selling the land going?) Is it an attempt to clear militarily strategic areas of non-Muslims in preparation for war (as the attempt to link the south to the Bekaa clearly was)? One thing this probably isn't is the innocent machinations of a free-market economy.
When asked about Iran, Wazni replied that Iranian investments are concentrated in the south and that he did not notice the same happening in other parts of Lebanon.
“However, Shiite investments have been growing in many parts of Lebanon.”
Wazni concluded by saying that it is very unlikely that Harb’s proposal will be approved.
“The possibility of approving this law or putting it on the cabinet’s agenda is zero percent.”
What could go wrong?
Labels: Bekaa Valley, Iran, land purchases, Southern Lebanon
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:23 PM
2 Comments:
Thinking a little further out, if title search info in Lebanon certifies that Iranians have paid Lebanese, and therefore have title to the land, then how can it be that Jews buying land in Israel, including the "settlement" areas over the years, can be discounted by the region? Will the U.S. stand with separate laws, rules, etc. for Jews? Will the U.S. stand with families (Pali) who farm land they don't own (have never bought from anybody) and vociferously complain about having to go through a gate in the fence between their house and the farmland they don't own? Will the U.S. stand with those who expel Jews from wherever, confiscating their assets with no recompense??? Israel needs title search maps of all the fence areas, Judea and Samaria, etc. etc. TITLE SEARCH 3-D MAPS AND DATABASES.
Hezbollah can take over the rest of Lebanon if it wants to. But at the moment, domestic quiet serves its interests and that of its patron, Iran.
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