Wearing tatty green Israeli army webbing over his black leather jacket, Walid shoulders an M16 rifle and squints down the barrel. “How much is this one?” he asks. “It’s worth $1,200,” replies Abu Rida, a tough, barrel-chested arms dealer.

Arrayed on a bed in Abu Rida’s home in southern Beirut were more weapons for sale — an automatic pistol, two AK47 rifles and a Heckler & Koch G3 rifle, altogether worth about $3,000 (£1,500), more than double the price of 18 months ago. With Lebanon mired in political crisis for more than a year, Lebanese have been buying arms in huge numbers, seeking to protect themselves should the tensions explode into civil war.

Evidence of the numbers of weapons purchased over the past year came during new year celebrations. Revellers customarily greet the new year by firing rifles into the air; this year the streets echoed to the rattle of automatic gunfire and the sky was streaked with tiny red beads from tracer rounds in what was the heaviest celebratory volley since the end of the 16-year civil war in 1990.

On Wednesday Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the powerful Shia Hezbollah organisation that heads the pro-Syrian opposition in Lebanon, gave warning of “decisive measures” if negotiations with the Western-backed Government failed to produce results within ten days. Lebanon has been without a president since November 24, when the pro-Syrian incumbent Émile Lahoud left office. Pro and anti-Syrian factions have agreed on General Michel Suleiman, commander of the Lebanese Army, as his successor, but the election has been postponed because of the opposition’s demand for a prior agreement over the composition of the next government, electoral reforms and key civil service appointments.

Tensions are running high on the streets of Beirut. In Basta, a mixed Shia and Sunni neighbourhood, seven people were wounded on Tuesday, when rival supporters of Hezbollah and the Future Movement clashed over a political poster, forcing the Army to intervene.

All this is good news for Abu Rida and other arms dealers. The weapon of choice is the AK47 rifle. Eighteen months ago the most popular version of this classic weapon, the “Circle 11” (after symbols stamped on the metalwork), fetched about $500; today it is worth more than $1,000.

Outside Abu Rida’s door potential customers and colleagues inspect his latest acquisitions. Apart from weapons and ammunition, he is selling an Israeli army flak jacket and military webbing, booty seized by Hezbollah fighters during the summer 2006 war between the Shia group and Israel.

The majority of weapons come from a pool of arms inside Lebanon; relatively little is smuggled from abroad. Palestinian refugee camps, hosting multiple armed groups and lying outside the jurisdiction of the Lebanese state, also provide a good source of weapons.

Abu Rida said that the weapons he sold were for individual protection and consisted of nothing larger than heavy machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades. “You don’t need mortars for street fighting,” he said with a chuckle. Sales have peaked and most of his customers now visit him to stock up on ammunition. “Everyone’s armed themselves by now,” he said.

The surge in arms sales has fuelled accusations by rival political factions that opponents are building militias in anticipation of war. Anti-Syrian politicians have accused Hezbollah of arming and training its political allies in the opposition at camps in the Bekaa Valley, a charge that the Shia group denies. It also denies that it is providing weapons to other Lebanese factions.

Analysts say that, despite the crisis, Lebanese leaders have no wish to descend once more into civil conflict and have attempted to dampen tensions on the street in recent months.

Cost of an AK47

Afghanistan £6; Cambodia £20; Colombia £400; Iraq £325; Lebanon £400; Nicaragua £50; Pakistan £125; Russia £120; Somalia £325; Uganda £60

Sources: controlarms.org; reliefweb.int; Small Arms Survey 2002; Times archives

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