Dr. Walid Phares:That day…UNSCR 1559 Became A Reality/It is not over, other March 14 days are still ahead/د. وليد فارس لم ينتهي الأمر وأيام 14 آذار أخرى آتية بإذن الله
Dr. Walid Phares:That day…UNSCR 1559 Became A Reality It is not over, other March 14 days are still ahead د.وليد فارس لم ينتهي الأمر وأيام 14 آذار أخرى آتية بإذن الله
Dr.Walid Phares/Face Book/March 14/18
After 15 years spent working tiredly and relentlessly to get the UN Security Council to issue a resolution to liberate Lebanon from foreign forces, particularly the Syrian occupation; after a decade and a half of being deprived from seeing the land of the ancestors and my family, we finally were able to have the UN issue what was numbered UNSCR 1559 in September 2004 and have world powers ask Syria to leave Lebanon in April 2005. Up till the vote in New York no politician in Lebanon believed in such work, or proposed to help. It was only when the people took to the streets after February 14, 2005, that more people dared protesting and the snowball grew day after day.
On March 7, we headed with a group of NGOs to the UN again and asked for the implementation of 1559 under Chapter 7. At the end of the meeting, some among us including myself, spoke to hundreds of supporters in front of the UN Building.
In my speech I called the Lebanese inside Lebanon to rise and flood Beirut with hundreds of thousands of people to prove to the UN that the country is in support of 1559. My remarks were a message to the international community to stand by Lebanon as it was rising.
The next day Hezbollah and its allies organized a huge demonstration of more than 200,000 participants, topping the anti Government protesters. The pro Assad powerful march frustrated us throughout the day and we wondered if the people will accept to be treated as a marginal minority.
That night on Fox News the anchor asked me “how come the pro Assad demonstration can mass five times more than the demonstrators against Syrian occupation.” Without any report from Lebanon or any material evidence I told him: “Wait, the revolution isn’t over yet. A majority of Lebanese will take to the streets and will overwhelm Hezbollah.” I spoke from my instincts.
The Lebanese who were courageous enough to march in downtown Beirut after February 14, were an evidence that a majority of citizens will respond to Hezbollah. I told the world media that night, without any assurances: “give them a week, and you will see.” I told myself that the free Lebanese will march, they will have to. And one week later, on March 14, a million and a half marched and forced the world powers to order a retreat by Assad.
I remember that day in New York, and that week which saw the rise of a nation bled for 15 years and suppressed for another 15. Historians will write about the bravery of the men and women who protested and suffered inside Lebanon and about those in exile who sacrificed, until that victory day on March 14.
It is not over, other March 14 days are still ahead….
