Iran, Lebanon say Syria war tearing Middle East apart, urge Hezbollah exit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Neighboring Iraq warned that Syria's civil war is tearing the Middle East apart and Lebanon's president urged his country's Hezbollah movement on Thursday, June 20 to pull its fighters out of the conflict, Reuters reported.

After two years of fighting that has killed more than 93,000 people, Syria's turmoil is dragging its neighbors into a deadly confrontation between Shi'ite Iran supporting President Bashar al-Assad and Sunni Arab Gulf nations backing the Syrian rebels.

Both Iraq and Lebanon have suffered growing violence at home as the Syrian conflict turns increasingly into a proxy war along confessional lines.

"Iraq is in the most difficult position in this regional turmoil and the conflict in Syria has become a regional conflict by all standards," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Reuters in an interview in Baghdad.

"We are doing our best to maintain a neutral position, but the pressures are enormous and for how long we can hold really is a matter of further developments in Syria."

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman appealed to Hezbollah, the main Lebanese Shi'ite movement, to pull its guerrillas out of Syria, saying any further involvement in its neighbor's civil war would fuel instability in Lebanon.

"If they take part in a battle for Aleppo, and more Hezbollah fighters are killed, it will lead to more tension," Suleiman told the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir in an interview published on Thursday. This should end in Qusair, and (Hezbollah) should return home."