Last week Lebanese security forces arrested Omar Bakri and several associates on terrorism charges. Bakri, as you’ll recall, is the Lebanese national who was once leader of the London-based Islamist outfit Al-Muhajiroun and returned to Lebanon in 2005 after he was thrown out of England following the 7/7 bombings of London buses and underground. Now that he’s in trouble, Bakri has retained the legal services of one of Hezbollah’s MPs.

Given the last few years of Shia-Sunni conflict throughout the Middle East, a collaboration between a Sunni fundamentalist and Shia Islamist may seem improbable, but the fact is that there’s plenty of inter-confessional cooperation. Hezbollah itself, for instance, has plenty of connections to Sunni radical groups in Lebanon and the rest of the region. And as for the Sunni radical in question, it’s not the first time Omar Bakri has reached out to an ostensible enemy. “I believe the last time we heard from him,” says Middle East analyst Jonathan Spyer, “Bakri had turned to Her Majesty’s Navy to help him get out of Lebanon during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. In a similarly shameless gesture, Bakri is now begging for help from the Shia. This is classic Omar Bakri.”