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| Qatar`s emir makes high-profile visit to South Lebanon |
Qatar`s emir on Saturday made a high-profile visit to south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold destroyed in a 2006 war with Israel and whose rebuilding the emirate is helping finance.
"Lebanon is still facing many challenges, primarily the choice of its citizens to maintain the nationalism and Arabism of Lebanon," said the emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Lebanon is "a nation that is home to people of all confessions, both Muslim and Christian," the emir noted at the town of Bint Jbeil, which witnessed some of the fiercest fighting in the deadly war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Accompanied by President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the emir was greeted by Hezbollah officials in southern Lebanon, a stronghold of the Shiite militant party.
Sheikh Hamad arrived in Lebanon for a three-day visit on Friday, the same day that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah made an unprecedented joint visit aimed at defusing political tensions.
Fears of renewed conflict in Lebanon rose in July after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah revealed he knew the UN tribunal probing ex-premier Rafiq Hariri`s murder was poised to indict members of his party, which is backed by Syria and Iran.
In May 2008, a government bid to curb Hezbollah`s power brought Lebanon close to a new civil war when a week of sectarian clashes killed more than 100 people as opposition militants led by Hezbollah seized large swathes of Sunni areas in Beirut.
Qatar, which had pledged massive aid to help rebuild the south after Israel`s devastating war with Hezbollah, also played a key role in ending the 2008 crisis, brokering a deal for the formation of a national unity government.
