Position of Lebanon in the 2006 Lebanon War had made comments on television saying that Israel should consider a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah. On 13 July, a prominent Lebanese Druze member of parliament, Walid Jumblatt, criticized Hezbollah in an interview with the French daily "Le Figaro": "Hezbollah played a very dangerous game by kidnapping these two soldiers. ... Israel has withdrawn from Lebanon. These kidnappings took place outside our country's borders. Hezbollah is raising the stakes, with the support of Iran and Syria, which in the past year has become a satellite state of Tehran. … Hezbollah will have to explain itself to the Lebanese. ... [We need
Syrians in Lebanon 29 year old Syrian occupation of Lebanon created negative sentiment in the Lebanese people towards Syrians. According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Syrian armed forces detained, without trial, thousands of Lebanese citizens, many of who not only remained arrested, but were transported to Syrian prisons in violation of international law. Coupled with the kidnapping and assassination of critics to the Syrian regime, what HRW described as a terror campaign, resulted in the Lebanese press censoring any sentiments against Syrian policies in Lebanon. In July of 1991 forty supporters of Michel Aoun were arrested in in Kesrouan for handing