Sectarian tensions in Lebanon rose after the clashes in the northern city of Tripoli between Sunni Lebanese who support the Syrian rebels and Alawite Lebanese who support the Syrian government.In Beirut, two rockets hit a largely Shi'ite suburb Sunday -a day after Hezbollah's leader vowed to prevent the fall of the Syrian government and to send tens of thousands of fighters to Syria if necessary.Lebanon, recalling its own civil war, has managed to maintain basic calm and stability though this might be be changing, says Paul Salem of the Carnegie Middle East Center.“The tensions in Syria are beginning to introduce increasing pressures on Lebanon and we might be entering a more difficult period,"Salem said.Hezbollah forces are now fighting alongside Syrian government troops in a major offensive against rebels in Qusair,which lies along the highway linking Damascus to the Mediterranean.Beirut-based political analyst Kamel Wazne says Hezbollah's future is closely tied to the Syrian government's."I think Hezbollah, they feel that Syria is a strategic ally and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is in a strategic co-existence.Any collapse of that regime means a weakness for the resistance to Israel and for Hezbollah," Wazne said.On the rebel side, the Syrian conflict is drawing in Sunni fighters from Lebanon and around the region.
