Mansour accused of serving Iran’s interests not Lebanon’s

MP Jamal Jarrah, a key member of the Future Movement parliamentary bloc accused caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour of serving foreign interests at the expense of his own country’s security, and preventing Lebanon’s voice from being heard at the ongoing Geneva II Syrian peace talks.

“When Mansour follows the instructions of Iran and the Syria regime, he must defend Hezbollah’s presence in Syria,” Jarrah said in an interview with Future TV on Thursday.

“He has forgotten the consequences of Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria that are felt inside Lebanon, and the series of explosions and terrorist acts happening in Lebanon.” He said.

Jarrah added that the international community is aware of Mansour’s allegiances.

“The international community and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon…know that that minister does not express a patriotic Lebanese view.”

“As a result, his words have no weight, which means Lebanon is absent from the Geneva II conference, and Iran is present.” He said

The long anticipated Geneva II Syrian peace talks kicked off Wednesday morning in the Swiss city of Montreux.

World powers have gathered in an effort to bring the civil war in Syria to an end, though top officials have voiced pessimism as to whether the talks will yield any results.

As expected Lebanese caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister defended Hezbollah’s role in Syria during his address at Syria peace summit stressing that the objections to the intervention of the Shiite group Hezbollah in the war in Syria aim at serving the interests of takfiris.

“Those who claim that Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria carries repercussions on Lebanon want to cover up the entry of takfiris and extremist groups,” Mansour said on Wednesday during his speech at the so called Geneva II meeting

“They want to divert attention from the facts on the ground and cover up the crimes.” Mansour , a close ally of Hezbollah said .

Emad Wakim, a key member of March 14 alliance predicted last November that “if Mansour goes to Geneva he will be representing Hezbollah and not Lebanon”.

Many politicians have on several occasions described Mansour, who represents Speaker Nabih Berri in the cabinet as being “a Syrian Foreign Minister”.

Thousands of Hezbollah fighters are helping the forces loyal to the Syrian regime of president Bashar al Assad in the war against the Sunni rebels who are trying to topple the regime, despite the fact that Hezbollah signed the Baabda declaration which calls for distancing Lebanon from the Syrian events

Syria’s government and opposition, meeting for the first time, angrily spelled out their mutual hostility today at a UN peace conference where world powers also offered sharply divergent views on forcing out Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian opposition spokesman Monzer Akbik said UN peace conference on Wednesday that Assad lay at the heart of the conflict: “Assad is the problem,” he said. “We say ‘democracy’, they say ‘Assad’ … We’re talking about a nation, they’re talking about a man. So Assad is the problem and Assad must go in order to start the transition towards democracy.”