Hariri’s bloc not to hold ceremony on 11th anniversary in Lebanon
Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/March 13/16
Beirut: The March 14 alliance will not hold an eleventh anniversary ceremony on account of sharp divisions between its leading figures, former prime minister Sa’ad Hariri and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, even if the latter’s officially designated candidate for the presidency, Michel Aoun, is scheduled to make a televised appearance to mark the occasion.
Ironically, Aoun will not commemorate the 2005 Cedar Revolution but another March 14 anniversary, the one that occurred in 1989 when he, in his capacity as Prime Minister in a deeply divided country caught between the two rocks of war and occupation, declared a “Liberation War” against Syrian forces present in Lebanon. That tragic chapter ended on October 13, 1990, when Syrian troops invaded and occupied areas under Aoun’s control, overran the presidential palace where Aoun was squatted, allowing him to reach the French Embassy, and tolerated his exile to Paris.
More than a decade later, and in the midst of epochal changes throughout the region that involved the Hezbollah militia, Lebanon has lost significant ground, preoccupied with woes that covered the gamut from trash to traffic and including electricity shortages, simply because its political elite, including Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, were mired in perpetual negotiations. Hezbollah ignored the will of the Lebanese, and even if it signed-on to a disassociation policy, immersed itself fully in Syria as an Iranian satrapy. Its ministers served in the “Lebanese Government” but Hezbollah leaders preferred the Iranian velayet-e faqih [Jurisconsult of God] to the Lebanese Constitution.
On Saturday, and after eight months of intense discussions, the cabinet devoted nearly eight-hours to a session marred by what ministerial reports described as “outbidding and blackmail” in order for some officials to roll up a bargain from the trash solution, as reported by Al Nahar.
According to the daily, several ministers sought to get the biggest bulk of the profits, prompting Prime Minister Tammam Salam to threaten to suspend the session and carry out his threat to resign. “If any of the discussions taking place at this session were leaked and the people learn that the dispute is based on financial gains, while they believe that we are here to discuss how to end the crisis, then the government cannot continue to cover this situation,” Salam affirmed.
Hapless citizens wondered how they could restore the authority of the state, uphold law and order, exercise democratisation, and otherwise pretend to be a functioning democracy, when its leaders devote months to weighing how best to dispose of garbage?
On Saturday, a few thousand protesters chanted: “We are fed up,” and threatened to escalate their anger by calling for strike movements across the country starting on Monday, although the deal worked out to pay large sums of money to various entities paled in comparison to fresh preoccupations that isolated Beirut from its natural Arab environment and brought the so-called Daesh project to their shores.
Indeed, and because of recent disputes over Hezbollah’s participation in several regional wars, most Lebanese — Muslim as well as Christian — were startled by a video in which two Daesh members threatened just about everyone.
Two heavily bearded terrorists urged Lebanon’s Sunni population to “revolt,” with images of Sa’ad Hariri meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi King Salman, as they explicitly accused Hariri of purchasing millions of dollars worth of weapons for the army and security forces that “have no purpose but to kill Sunnis.”
Using vile language, they identified Hezbollah as “the source of crime and oppression in the country,” and warned “the dictators of the Lebanese statelet,” which apparently include Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam, and Interior Minister Nouhad Al Mashnouq, to get ready for the “arrival of the Islamic State,” referring to the Daesh terror group.
Neither Michel Aoun nor any other Christian leader reacted to the video contents reserved to Christians, who were urged to convert to Islam “and if they fail to do so, then they will not be able to confront [Daesh].”
