NNA - Amal/Hizbullah lamentation councils sprang up during the countdown to the 10th of Muharram-Ashoura, in 208 southern Lebanese villages of all three sectors with senior clerics seizing on the occasion to illustrate their ideological confessional position; Justifying for instance Hezbollah's involvement in the Syrian conflict on the side of the regime, senior party cleric Hassan Izzuddeen, stated that Assad's supportive role of the party necessitated the intervention. He vowed that his party will be part and parcel of Assad's ultimate victory on enemy rebels.



In Blatt, cleric Kohdr Badruddeen, lashed out at the pro-Hariri camp and clamoured for a national unity government.



In Tyr, cleric Issam Kassab, preferred to speak about "pure religious meanings of Hussein's martyrdom" while another cleric Ali Khashshab, froze in time bringing to life the deadly struggle for power between Mu'awiya and his son Yazeed and ultimately Hussein saying the latter represented genuine legitimacy of a divinely-sanctioned paradigm of Islam.



======G.G./R.K.