i've been trying to puzzle out how the two big middle eastern stories of the morning, the disclosure that israel and syria are engaged in peace talks and the new power-sharing deal for lebanon, will affect each other. the lebanese deal strengthens the hand of hezbollah, it gives them a veto over cabinet appointments and will lead to the presidency of michel suleiman(who has been hezbollah's choice for the post). meanwhile, a peace deal between israel and syria is likely to include some requirement that syria cut off its support for hezbollah. on the surface, in terms of hezbollah's power, it may be a wash. one deal would strengthen the group and the other would weaken it.
on the other hand, one that strengthens hezbollah is an actual deal, whereas the israel-syria thing, for now, is just talk. it's not fair to put the two on equal footing.
