Former Lebanese Prime Minister and current Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri launched a vehement attack against the Hezbollah militant group for its alleged interference in the Syrian crisis.
“Where is this policy of dissociation that prevents the use of the Lebanese territories for interference in Syria, or is Hezbollah exempted from abiding by it,” Hariri said in a statement on Thursday.
“We weren’t speaking against the truth when we said that the resistance is no more the main purpose of Hezbollah but that there are other roles for its weapons.”
The opposition leader also lambasted the Lebanese government for not reacting to Hezbollah’s alleged attacks inside Syria.
He also criticized the claim that the Shiite group was defending the Shiite residents of Syria.
“If the allegations that Hezbollah was defending Shiite [Syrians] were proven true, this means that the party has been transformed into a militia that defends one section of the Lebanese community.”
“What would the role of the Lebanese Armed Forces be in this case?” the MP inquired.
“Has the government chosen to disassociate itself from Lebanese citizens that the party is saying are in danger?” he said.
“What is Hezbollah doing on the Syrian front and who gave it the authority to defend the Lebanese border if we are assuming that it is seeking to halt the attack of Syrian armed groups?” Hariri wondered.
“Hezbollah is presenting new evidence of the danger of the use of the illegitimate weapons, … which it is using for interests that do not serve national ones,” noted the former prime minister.
Hariri also rejected what he called “Iran’s tireless attempts to save the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and tasking Hezbollah with doing its dirty work in Homs.”
“Lebanon will not deign to be transformed into an open ground to achieve this dirty mission and the government is completely responsible for the silence over this terrible squandering of national security,” stated Hariri.
Louay al-Meqdad, spokesman for the Supreme Council of the Free Syrian Army, has accused Hezbollah of shelling Syrian territory with artillery and rocket launchers from bases inside Lebanon.
Three Hezbollah members were killed on Wednesday in an attack by the Islamist al-Nusra Front in a border town between Lebanon and Syria, the Turkish state-run Anadolu agency reported.
This is in addition to the three Lebanese Shiites that were killed on sunday as admitted by Hezbollah
“The attack targeted a Hezbollah patrol in (the Bekaa border town of) Zeita, killing three of the party’s members,” informed sources told Anadolu.
The sources revealed: “The party had an agreement with the Free Syria Army to neutralize these towns from the ongoing Syrian conflict”. “But Hezbollah has since the attack decided to deploy members in eight frontier villages”.
The Syrian opposition has long accused the group of helping the Syrian leadership crack down on the uprising — a claim the group has repeatedly denied.
Hezbollah has announced that its ranks are now on full alert in eight Lebanese-Syrian border towns following an attack that was carried out by Syria’s Al-Nusra Front against a Hezbollah patrol, Turkish Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday.
Anadolu also quoted its sources as saying that “thirteen Al-Nusra Front members attacked a Hezbollah patrol in the Lebanese southern town of Zeita which led to the death of three of the Shiite group’s members.”
Hezbollah has been supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad ever since the uprising began in March 2011, even though the group supported revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Bahrain. The group says it is backing the Syrian regime because of its support for the anti-Israel resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine and because it is willing to implement political reforms.
Hezbollah dominates the current Lebanese government of PM Nagib Mikati
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