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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101228.html
Siniora Stands Fast
[Washington Post] David Ignatius - Watching the demonstrations in Beirut with seeming serenity is Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the man the Hizballah protesters are targeting. During our discussion on Monday he was the picture of calm and confidence. "We all have to realize we have Iran on our borders," Siniora explains. "But Iran has to understand it cannot impose things on the Arabs." The hard edge of Siniora's strategy is that he is prepared to play the sectarian game, too. On Sunday there was a huge counter-rally in support of the government by angry Sunnis in the northern city of Tripoli. "They don't have the numbers," Siniora said of the Hizballah-Aoun alliance. The Sunni trump card is rarely discussed but universally understood: Syria, a crucial ally of Hizballah, is an overwhelmingly Sunni country. If the Syrian-Iranian alliance squeezes the Sunnis in Lebanon too hard, there is likely to be a backlash inside Syria.