Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said during an interview with MTV on Wednesday that he was not surprised when he heard about PM Saad Hariri’s resignation but what surprised him the most was the timing.
He dismissed all the rumors surrounding the resignation and urged the politicians to focus more on the reason behind it
Geagea decried Hezbollah’s military parade in Qusayr, its tour for journalists on the southern border, its announcement that tens of thousands of foreign fighters will take part in any future war with Israel, the party’s alleged involvement in Kuwait’s al-Abdali cell, and its negotiations with the IS group during the army’s border offensive.
The Qusayr parade was Hezbollah’s first ever military parade on foreign soil. In the parade Hezbollah showed a wide array of artillery: Soviet-made T-72 tanks, Russian Kornet anti-tank missiles armored personnel carriers, rapid response motorcycles and KS-12A anti-aircraft weapons.The most significant and worrisome vehicles on display were the American-made M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs), the type provided to the Lebanese army (LAF) by the United States, prompting many analysts to speculate that the group may have received them from the LAF.
The Hezbollah tour for journalists on the southern border with Israel took place the day when Hariri was meeting with US president Donald Trump to convince him to help train and equip Lebanese army
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last July that a future war waged by Israel against Syria or Lebanon could draw thousands of Shiite fighters from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan countries including Iran and Iraq.
Kuwait authorities seized last August a huge arms cache smuggled from Iraq and hidden beneath houses near the border, by members of a cell linked to Hezbollah . Three suspected members of militant cell were arrested.
Geagea on Wednesday said we are undoubtedly in a crisis, but it is similar to the rest of the crises that we went through, and like we managed to overcome the previous crises, we will overcome this crisis. He ruled out a military strike against Hezbollah
Addressing the issue of a new cabinet he noted that a technocrat cabinet alone cannot resolve the political crisis in the country or with Saudi Arabia in the wake of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation
Commenting on his his recent visit to Saudi Arabia he said : Saudi officials were dismayed by the situation in Lebanon and they were not waiting for me to describe the situation.
He stressed that the crisis that we are going through was not born today. Hariri’s resignation is the result of a long accumulation.
Commenting on his yesterday’s meeting with president Aoun he said
The meeting was friendly and we discussed the current crisis. I emphasized on two points: the first is that he made a good step by not rushing things and going straight to parliamentary consultations, and the second is that we must address the core of the issue and not the technicalities.
Geagea reiterated in his interview that the focus in Lebanon should be the causes of Hariri’s resignation stressing that “Hezbollah should end its involvement in the region’s crises” in order to spare Lebanon any repercussions.
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