Franjieh defends Hezbollah, denies it needs a Christian cover

By Ali Hussein

On the occasion marking the so called  “Ehden massacre”  the leader of the “Marada” movement, former MP Suleiman Franjieh defended the Iranian backed Hezbollah and claimed that it does not need a cover in order to cover it.

The so called Ehden massacre took place on 13 June 1978, part of the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. It was an inter-Christian attack that occurred between the Maronite clans. A Phalangist squad attacked the mansion of Frangieh family in an attempt to capture Ehden, killing nearly 40 people including Tony Frangieh, Suleiman’s father and his sister Jihane.  After the massacre, the power of the Frangiehs is reported to have declined.

At the initial phase of the Lebanese civil war, more specifically in the summer of 1976, the major Maronite leaders formed the Lebanese Front, institutionalizing their cooperation. However, the relations among the members of the Lebanese Front were damaged in May 1978 over  president Suleiman Frangieh‘s ) pro-Syrian position and his intention to leave the Front.  Eventually Frangieh left the alliance later in 1978. ^\

The Marada chief was named after his grandfather the late former Lebanese president Suleiman Franjieh.

According to Lebanese media reports , Hezbollah intends to nominate Franjieh to replace his other ally president Michel Aoun and they view Franjieh as being another photocopy of Aoun

Franjieh is allied with Hezbollah and Syrian president Bashar al Assad . His grandfather was blamed for the 29 years of Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

The Syrian occupational forces withdrew from Lebanon after the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafic Hariri and the Cedar Revolution that followed .

Two Hezbollah operatives were indicted by the UN backed court STL (the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ) in Hariri’s murder .

Aoun was blamed for providing a Christian cover for Hezbollah in its role as a proxy of non-Arab Iran and in violating Lebanon’s stance over distancing itself from regional conflicts when it initiated an attack against Israel and sent its fighters to Syria to help the embattled Syrian dictator during the Syrian civil war and trained the Houthis of Yemen who overthrew Yemen’s legitimate government

Many in Lebanon are comparing Franjieh to Aoun and are expecting that he will be providing a Christian cover to Hezbollah just like Aoun did before him .

The majority of the Lebanese want to be rescued from Hezbollah’s grip . They view the militant group as the new occupier of Lebanon.

Under Aoun everything collapsed in Lebanon 

Under Aoun Lebanon defaulted for the first time on its public debt

Under Aoun the Lebanese currency collapsed and lost more than 95 %v of its value . The exchange rate was set at 1500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar since 1997 and prior to the May 15 election the rate was as high as 34,000 to the dollar.

Under Aoun more than 3 in four Lebanese were declared by the UN as poor .

Under Aoun bread , fuel and and medicine became a luxury that the average Lebanese could no longer afford .

Under Aoun the government owned utility company could only provide 2 hours a day of electricity and the Lebanese were forced to purchase power from privately owned power generators at exorbitant prices 

Under Aoun the depositors in the Lebanese banks could no longer access their bank accounts while the politicians were able to transfer billions to their foreign accounts with the full knowledge of the Central Bank .

Under Aoun Lebanon’s relations with the Arab Gulf states were damaged prompting all of them to stop investing in Lebanon , even though before Aoun ‘s term they were the biggest financial supporters of Lebanon and its central bank .

Under Aoun the Beirut Port witnessed the largest ever non-nuclear explosion that killed 218 people wounded over 7000 destroyed a huge section of Beirut and left 300, 000 homeless . Hezbollah reportedly illegally imported and stored 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate to supply the Syrian regime with this explosive for its barrel bombs that it used to kill Syrian civilians .

Under Aoun Lebanon witnessed the exodus of hundreds of thousands of highly educated Lebanese professionals who were seeking better living conditions elsewhere 

The majority of the Lebanese want to be rescued from Hezbollah’s grip . They view the Iranian backed militant group as the new occupier of Lebanon.