An acrimonious row between Egypt and Lebanon's Hizbullah has added to long-running tensions, reports Lucy Fielder from Beirut A heated dispute between Hizbullah and the Egyptian government dominated headlines this week, after the Shia group's secretary-general, Hassan , hit back at allegations of stirring strife in the Arab state. This spat was the latest and most sensitive episode in a wrangle that boiled over during the Gaza conflict earlier this year, when Hizbullah accused Cairo of complicity with Israel in its siege of the beleaguered Palestinians. It started when the office of Egypt's prosecutor-general accused Iranian-backed Hizbullah of planning attacks in the country, monitoring the Suez Canal and tourist facilities in Sinai, setting up businesses to cover for spying and spreading Shia religious beliefs among Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslims. So far 36 Hizbullah operatives of different nationalities had been detained, while 13 remain at large. The scale of the allegations was unprecedented, although tensions have prevailed for several years between the group and Cairo. Analysts say Cairo hopes to undermine, through the arrests, those who have called for the state to do more to help the Palestinians in Gaza. hit back at the allegations with a detailed televised speech. He confirmed that Lebanese Sami Shehab, who was arrested in Cairo, was a member of Hizbullah. Shehab had been providing logistical support to help the Palestinians transport weapons and people into the Strip to help the resistance, he said, adding that the other allegations were fabricated and aimed at tarnishing Hizbullah, Hamas and other resistance movements. "If helping the Palestinian brothers, whose land is occupied and who are being besieged, killed, displaced, and starved, is a crime, then I today officially confess to that crime, and if it is a sin then it is a sin by which we seek to get nearer to God and we do not ask His forgiveness for it," said. He went on to accuse Egypt of blockading Gaza through its control of the Rafah crossing, in complicity with the Israelis and United States. His comments provoked an angry reaction from the Egyptian pro-government media, with the state-owned Al-Gomhouriya calling the "monkey sheikh" and an unrepentant criminal. Beirut-based Hizbullah expert Amal Saad-Ghorayeb said had used his response to the Egyptian allegations to embarrass Cairo. "He was saying the real allegation is we're helping the Palestinians, and that's something we take a pride in; he was throwing it back in [President Hosni] Mubarak's court and making it backfire against the Egyptian regime," she said. But Egypt's response would likely be limited to sentencing the detained men and a row in the media, she said, since few beyond Egypt's borders appear keen to get involved. In Lebanon, reaction even from the Saudi- backed Sunni Future Movement, led by Saad Al-Hariri, for example, was muted, while Hizbullah supporters saw the allegations as a badge of honour for the group. Even many critics of the group see the row as a politically motivated one that is part of the ongoing rancour between the Shia party and Arab state and timed to undermine the group in the elections. Prime Minister Fouad Al-Siniora requested an official briefing on the dispute from the Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon, Ahmed Badawi, but the government shows little sign of wading in. "Egypt's hoping this will weaken Hizbullah on the eve of the parliamentary elections by provoking more Sunni, anti-Shia sentiment against it," said Saad-Ghorayeb, a political scientist at the Lebanese American University. But no major side in Lebanon is seen as wanting a conflagration before the June elections, so criticism of Hizbullah's actions and 's admission has largely been limited to editorials in the press supportive of the anti-Syrian 14 March movement. " simply erred in using his position as the leader of Hizbullah to make a series of uncalled-for remarks about the Egyptian regime of President Hosni Mubarak," the English-language Daily Star wrote last week. "Why would take on Egypt after being caught red-handed running an arms smuggling network in that country?" Washington and the West have also been unusually quiet. All eyes appear to be on the US warming towards Iran under President Barack Obama. With Iran-US talks a real prospect, and Obama's high-profile visit to regional power Turkey last week, Egypt was keen to show Washington it still played a regional role, Saad-Ghorayeb said. There was also little sign the row threatened the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Syria that began after the Gaza conflict, she said. "There may have been a green light from the US or Saudi Arabia, but with the attempt to reach out to Syria and Iran, I don't know whether this is the best strategy at the moment." Hilal Khashan, who chairs the political science department at the American University of Beirut, also believed the dispute's regional effect would be limited. "I don't think this will have much to do with the Arab outlook, which is not very good anyway, though they've been trying to contain their differences," he said. He said the row was part of the ongoing dispute between Iran and the pro-Western Arab states, which see the Shia power as an encroaching threat. "This has to do with the continuing confrontation between the international community and Iran over its ambitions, including its nuclear programme," he said, describing Hizbullah as the "long arm of Iran", which wanted to destabilise its Arab opponents in the region. Accusations of Hizbullah being an Iranian tool to destabilise Tehran's rivals are not new, so the effect of the latest wrangle on the group is likely to be limited, analysts say. "If anything, this could increase Shia support for Hizbullah, but otherwise it's unlikely to have any real impact in Lebanon; the Lebanese are already divided by sect," Khashan said. Saad-Ghorayeb said beyond Lebanon's borders Hizbullah's prestige will only be heightened by its admission, not for the first time, to helping the Palestinians fight Israel. "This is going to make Hizbullah more popular on the Arab Sunni street, rather than weaker," she said.
