Lebanon: Poll Shows 51% want Hezbollah Disarmed

Surprised? I am.

The poll by IPSOS for the French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour found 51 percent of respondents supported the group's disarmament, with 49 percent against, a difference within the survey's margin of error.

However, the poll found a wide divergence of views among Lebanon's various religious communities.

Among the Shiite community -- Lebanon's largest and the support base for Hezbollah -- the poll found 84 percent of respondents wanted the group to keep its weapons.

But among the Druze and Christian communities, 79 percent and 77 percent respectively wanted the group to surrender its arsenal.

Among the Sunni community, the poll found a slender majority of 54 percent in favor of the group disarming.