ABSTRACT
Throughout its young history, Lebanon, as a mosaic of seventeen Christian and Muslim religious communities, has always been the favourite battleground for clashing regional and global interests. At the time of writing, Lebanon is in the midst of a new Cold War opposing, on one side, the Bush administration and its European and Arab allies and, on the other side, the Islamic Republic of Iran that has emerged as a major hegemonic power in an area extending from Teheran to Beirut. In its quest for regional supremacy, Iran is backed by the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and their proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
