EXPERT BRIEF R E G I O N A L

Lastly, the brief ends with an examination of the existing cracks in the alliance under six main titles: (1) the 2019 protests; (2) Lebanon’s economic crisis and isolation; (3) the Beirut explosion and changing The national, regional, and international developments of the last three years have made the future of the alliance more uncertain than at any point over the past fifteen years 2 threat per. [...] This weakened the defining political claims of the March 14 alliance and blurred the lines between the previously opposing camps rendering the alliance irrelevant to its base.30 In this period, due to the increasing Iranian influence in the region, Saudi Arabia increased the intensity of its’s threatening policies against Hezbollah have increased in intensity.31 Saad Hariri’s resignation on 4 Nove. [...] Endemic corruption, Hezbollah’s isolationist policies, the ramifications of the Beirut Port explosion, the 6 This weakened the defining political claims of the March 14 alliance and blurred the lines between the previously opposing camps rendering the alliance irrelevant to its base changing Maronite discourse, foreign policy divergences and increasing international pressure, and the deadlock in f. [...] The explosion in the Port of Beirut, considered to be under Hezbollah’s control and allegedly one of the main supply areas in the Syrian War, strengthened the discourse among Hezbollah’s opponents that its weapons are a threat to Lebanon and Lebanese Christians.54 The FPM that portrayed itself as the patron of the Christians, felt pressure to take harsher and more critical stances towards the trau. [...] On the other hand, pro-Syrian (Hezbollah and Amal) politicians held the minority of the seats in the Cabinet of Ministers and the Parliament.