The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea reiterated that “the axis of resistance is trying to prevent anything positive that could happen in Lebanon,” a possible reference to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
He added: “What Hezbollah is doing in the south, based on physical evidence, has not benefited Palestine in anything, but perhaps harmed it. The Iranian attack, in turn, instead of benefiting Palestine, has harmed it. The evidence for this is that as a result of this attack, the world returned to sympathize with Israel again, after there was a change in the international position regarding what is happening in Gaza.”
He added there is nothing more that I wish for than for Iran or Hezbollah ” to occupy Tel Aviv, but this is not the reality.”
He said that “all these military operations did not benefit Gaza in any way, according to witnesses ,” stressing that “there is no more brutality, destruction, and devastation than what is happening in the Gaza Strip, and it is not possible for more to happen there than what happened. And all the military operations that were launched from southern Lebanon did not help Gaza, but its result was the loss of more than 300 lives, the complete destruction of some southern villages and partial destruction of other villages, and the country was devastated, in addition to billions of dollars in direct and indirect economic losses.”
He accused Hezbollah and its allies of disputing and disrupting the presidential election. He also accused them of disrupting the municipal elections.
He made the comments during the opening of a national meeting in Maarab under the title “1701 in Defense of Lebanon”, in the presence of representatives of several political parties and key figures
He added that disrupting the presidential elections led to the disruption of the rest of the constitutional institutions.” Until we reached the reality that there is almost no longer a state in Lebanon.”
Geagea emphasized that “the problem is the presence of a state that confiscated the military decision-making in Lebanon and legislated illegal crossings on the eastern border. There are approximately 25 illegal crossings without any state control and the body of the late “Forces” coordinator, Pascal Suleiman, passed through them without any control or oversight. “
He is referring to the Lebanese Forces official who was kidnapped and killed by armed Syrian refugees , who took his body to Syria and dumped it there using illegal crossings that are under Hezbollah’s control
He added ” there is a group that still holds power and refuses any solutions because its ideology and political project go in a direction different from what the country needs.”
Geagea pointed out that the military operations of Hezbollah carry risks that outweigh all other problems they created in Lebanon so far. These operations took place based on a decision by Hezbollah only .” The government was not even consulted . The party allowed itself to launch military operations under the pretext of supporting Gaza, stressing that “no one or any party has the right to throw a people into war.”
He added that “the Palestinian issue is of utmost concern for all of us, because it is a right and one of the most important issues in the region, and we are with the Palestinians and fully support their rights, but to be with it is one thing and to use it and benefit from it is a completely different thing.”
He pointed out that “the government should not continue to claim that it is a caretaker government, but rather in cases of war it is a full-fledged government and is responsible for what happens in southern Lebanon, and the parliament is also responsible,” focusing on the fact that “Hezbollah justifies its presence by claiming it is defending Lebanon.
Contrary to what appears to us today after the devastation taking place in the south, it has become clear that Hezbollah is unable to defend Lebanon, and this is what we already know.”
Geagea explained that if “the party remains where it is at the present time it could expose our southern borders to an invasion and our southern regions to many more problems,” pointing out that “the situation is dangerous’ .
H e went on to say:
We have a solution in our hands, which is for the Lebanese army to deploy alone across the entire border, and for Hebollah to withdraw to the interior, at least in the first stage, this solution should have been implemented, because Resolution 1701 is an international resolution and all successive governments have agreed to it. So where is the problem with that?
He asked: “Are we sacrificing all of Lebanon, just so that the party can remain in the south?”, indicating that “the people of southern Lebanon are paying the price for Iran to have a military base on the borders of Israel. Is this permissible at a time when it has become clear that this military arm has not provided anything of value to the Gaza Strip?” ?
Translated from Arabic ( El Nashra)
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