Geagea: Some Claim to Defend Lebanon in Syria as They Paralyze 'Heart of Lebanon' in Baabda

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday said that an alleged “inter-Christian” dispute is not behind the ongoing presidential vacuum in the country, slamming some parties for “paralyzing” the presidential palace while claiming to be “defending Lebanon in Qalamoun and Syria.”

“How can we believe that some are defending Lebanon in Qalamoun and the rest of Syria, in Iraq and Yemen, while they are paralyzing the Baabda Palace – the very heart of Lebanon?” said Geagea at an LF rally, in an apparent reference to Hizbullah.

“How can we believe that they want a strong president while they could not even tolerate a consensual par excellence president?” he added.

Geagea warned that “the continued insistence on obstructing the presidential vote … is leading to vacuum and paralysis at the constitutional and security posts, one after the other.”

“This exposes the claims of some parties who attribute the vacuum to an inter-Christian dispute and raises questions about their ultimate objectives,” Geagea added.

The rival camps have failed to elect a successor to president Michel Suleiman although around 24 parliamentary sessions have been held for this purpose. A boycott by the MPs of Hizbullah and MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc has stripped the sessions of the two-thirds quorum required to hold a presidential vote.

Geagea held a landmark meeting with Aoun on Tuesday after which a joint LF-Free Patriotic Movement document was announced. In the so-called declaration of intent, the two parties called for the election of “a strong president who is embraced by his (Christian) community and capable of reassuring the other components of the country.”

Turning to the issue the Syrian conflict and its impact on Lebanon, Geagea slammed Hizbullah on Friday over its military intervention in the neighboring country.

“You did not commit to the 10,452 square kilometers so that you now witness the convoys of arms and gunmen violating Lebanon's border '10,452 times per day',” Geagea said, addressing his party's members at the rally.

“Some are trying to impose on the (Lebanese) army a battle in the utmost peripheries of Arsal's outskirts to serve the objectives of a non-Lebanese (force),” added Geagea.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had recently warned that Hizbullah would intervene against the militants of al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Arsal's outskirts if the state failed to do so. Since Wednesday, Hizbullah has made a series of military advances in Arsal's outskirts, capturing several posts from al-Nusra's hands.

Both Hizbullah and Aoun had called on the Lebanese state and army to “liberate” the town and its outskirts.

Separately, Geagea called on the Military Court to “restore the confidence of the Lebanese in their state,” citing the initial jail term that was handed to ex-minister Michel Samaha, which was eventually revoked on Tuesday by the military court of cassation.

“The military court of cassation is today asked to erase the hallmark of shame that was created by Michel Samaha's verdict in the Assad-Mamluk-Samaha case,” he said, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad and Syrian security chief Ali Mamluk.

The court set a July 16 date for Samaha's retrial after it accepted an appeal filed by State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr, who argued that the four-and-a-half years' jail term was too soft in light of the offenses that Samaha was convicted of.

The verdict had sparked a storm of criticism from al-Mustaqbal movement, the March 14 forces and civil society activists, who slammed the ruling as too light.

During the trial, Samaha confessed to transporting explosives from Syria for use in attacks in Lebanon at the behest of Mamluk.

The trial had been postponed multiple times because of the absence of Mamluk, who remains in Syria, but after a judge separated the cases against the two men, a first trial session began on April 20.

The Lebanese judiciary has issued an arrest warrant for Mamluk and sent Syria a formal notification of the warrant and charges, but received no response.

Y.R.