BEIRUT: Fears that Lebanon’s political crisis may spill into the streets are mounting as armed incidents between rival clans multiply and politicians from the ruling coalition warn they stand ready for confrontation with the opposition.

The ongoing struggle for power between the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority and the Hezbollah-backed opposition has sparked street clashes after weekend violence and angry political speeches.

Instead of working to calm an already tense situation, politicians from both sides seem bent on fanning the flames of discord.

Two political heavyweights from the anti-Syrian majority, made up of Sunnis, Christians and Druze, have ratcheted up the rhetoric by saying they were ready for confrontation with the Iranian and Syrian-backed opposition.

“You want disorder? It will be welcomed. You want war? It will be welcomed. We have no problem with weapons, no problem with missiles. We will take them from you,” Druze leader Walid Jumblatt thundered on Sunday.

He also accused the opposition of blocking parliamentary efforts to elect a new head of state.

The day before, the head of the Future movement, Saad Hariri, said that if the country’s destiny was confrontation, they were ready.

This toughening of rhetoric amid an already delicate situation has translated into clashes on the streets of capital Beirut and its outskirts.

At least two people were wounded on Sunday in a gunfight between Druze supporters loyal to Jumblatt and a pro-Syrian Druze group in Aley, east of Beirut.

Shots were also fired on Sunday in an altercation between Hariri supporters and pro-Syrian parliament speaker Nabih Berri’s security services, a security official said.

The number of violent incidents has increased sharply since Jan 27, when seven people were killed, including members of Hezbollah and Amal, south of Beirut when a street protest against powers cuts erupted into violence.

“The opposition has for a long time played this game of increasingly powerful rhetoric. Now the majority has decided to adopt the same strategy,” political analyst Nabil bou Monsef wrote in the influential daily An Nahar.

Saint Joseph University legal expert Ziad Barud said: “It amounts to an overall escalation, of which the consequences are known to everyone, but nobody does anything to avoid the worst.

“It is as if the Lebanese learned nothing” from the 15-year civil war, he added.

This brutal conflict broke out on April 13, 1975 after Christian militants machine-gunned a bus transporting Palestinians in east Beirut, hours after the death of a Christian outside a neighbouring church.

Experts believe the current situation is not in immediate danger of descending into civil war, however.

“There will be a balance at the political level, with waves of violence here and there” because of the deadlock between the rival political factions, Barud added.

Politicians, divided over how to share power at the heart of government, recognise that Lebanon’s political crisis is its most serious since the end of the civil war in 1990.

Sessions to elect a successor to pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud have been postponed 14 times, with MPs now scheduled to meet on Feb 26.

Despite the efforts of Arab League chief Amr Mussa to help hammer out a solution to the stalemate, the feuding factions have been unable to agree to a deal.

Tensions are expected to be further heightened with demonstrations planned for Thursday to mark the third anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Saad’s father, a rich businessman, was killed along with 22 others in a car bomb attack in the heart of Beirut.

The majority accuses Syria of being behind the Hariri killing, which is the subject of an international investigation. Damascus denies it was involved.—AFP