Aoun Warns of Lebanese Civil War if Assad Falls
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربيةFree Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has expressed fear that Lebanon would witness a new civil war if Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime falls.
“The repercussions of what’s going on in Syria cannot take us to such a war,” Aoun told As Safir daily in an interview published on Saturday. Yet he warned that “the regime’s collapse could lead to a war.”
Syria has been engulfed in turmoil since March 2011 when the regime launched a violent crackdown on protestors that activists say has left 14,400 people dead.
Aoun advocated regime change but said change should come through other means. “Sooner or later there would be a negotiation on the change of the regime,” he said.
If the Syrian president “wins the war and the regime stays, then Assad himself should make changes to give larger freedoms” to his own people, the FPM chief added.
Asked about the parliamentary elections of next year, Aoun doubted that the polls could be held if the security situation remains the same.
Northern Lebanon has witnessed severe gunbattles between rival groups that have left scores of victims.
Despite his doubts, Aoun began preparing for the electoral battle which should come under a proportional representation law, As Safir said.
Proportionality satisfies not just Christians but also all minorities whether religious or political , Aoun told the newspaper.
Our leaders should be able to detach external affairs from internal affairs. Our internal situation is bleeding and yet we add to the current situation negative effects of external developments. Our politicians should strongly oppose any reference to war when speaking of external affairs. That is the reason borders exist.
for once aoun is admitiing the assad regime will fall, and not "it will be over next tuesday" :)
we have said all along, M8 was prepaing for a take over of the country (which will not happen, thus a civil war) in case this regime falls.
it is amazing how long it took aoun to realize this! what a leader! :)
Lol, General, your part of the plan as much as Hariri and berri and Nasrallah and Geagea are. Your all part if the plan to have a war in Lebanon within the next 3 weeks
The only way there will be a civil war in Lebanon is if "Hizb-allah-yistiron" decides to attack its Lebanese countrymen once more with the so called "resistance weapons" they have accumulated. Maybe the ClAOUN is trying to tell us something. Listen to the ClAOUN.
march 8 : they sacrifice lebanon for themselves....
march 14 : they sacrifice themselves for lebanon
General (brain) Electtic is out again with the same old tactic or tradeoff : security v/s dignity..
Stupid indeed!
the only people that want war are people like you general..you just want power at any cost,even if it kills your people or destroy your nation
Assad will fall and who promotes to the war will fall with him!
Lebanon is a country of peace forcibly of Aoun and Assad!
I beg to differ..
It is not 'If Assad falls', it's When Assad falls, the region and specially Lebanon will experience a Detente..
Similar to the removal of a Malignant Tumor from a Patient..
However,some groups, among whom Aoun's Camp, will suffer from Postpartum Depression
who would trigger a new civil war but you? you d be sh... in your pants to lose all the privileges bashar granted you so like him you d prefer to bring chaos to lebanon instead
This is BS from the BS Merchant of Rabieh. Assad is trying to hold on to power domestically by attempting to reinstitute terror and fear among the Syrian people. He does this with his shabiha shooting children in the head and slitting the women's throats and leaving the bodies to be found by their families.
Assad is trying to hold power interationally through instilling fear of what will happen when he is gone. The WMD, who will get them? Moslem Brotherhood on Israel's border! Renewed civil war in Lebanon. Aoun is thus doing internationally what the shabiha do domestically. They do intimidation by terror and he does fear through BS.
There will be no civil war in Lebanon because no one wants one. Aoun will go down when the Assad Regime goes down and he will have only himself to fight, a civil war in his head.
But Aoun is consistent. Everything he touches turns to kharada. When he was a Lebanese nationalist, the end results of his efforts was the complete occupation of Lebanon by Syria, even to the East Beirut districts where the Syrians never could enter.
When Aoun joined the Assad Regime in 2006, it was the kiss of death for the Assad Regime. Now it too turns to kharada.
For all those claiming that nothing will happen to Lebanon regardless of what happens to Syria, give this a thought:
If Assad goes down, that is one out of three gone. If Iran goes down, that is two out of three gone. What is the third?
The Hezbollah militia that all of you act like is the devil-incarnate.
Whatever happens in Syria, Lebanon is far from free. There will be another war here, whether unprovoked or provoked. The day al-Qaeda sets off a car bomb here, then you will start having some real discussions on this site.
hizbushaitan are already blowing up cars here, and we know there will be a civil war, thus we are ready.
geha your ready to shit your pants.its this mind set that murders our country,you are ready for what mate,bomb's going off left,right and centre,this side blaming that side and both killing eachother while the third party watch's and laugh's from far???
This is scare talk about war in Lebanon if Assad falls. It is promulgated by the Assad people as a means to cause everyone to stop before applying the coup d gras on the Assad Regime.
Yes, there are Israeli sympathizers too who are not anxious to see the Assad Regime go. It has been the friend of Israel since 1974 and kept the peace on Israel's Syrian border. They too spread the fear of what will happen to the Syrian WMD stockpiles and other fears to freeze the international community from acting to stop the fall of the regime.
The array of interests cautioning against taking Assad down is amazing. Aaron David Miller, Daniel Pipes, both strong Israeli supporters, Michel Aoun, Hassan Nasrallah, Vladamir Putin and Khomeni. Does no one not see this convergence of interests of those who seemingly are mortal enemies? Not at all, they are all in bed with each other.
Israel needs Hezbollah to pose a threat to its security from Lebanon and the threat has to be from an Iranian power projection so that Israel can make the case to the US that it deserves to remain as a strategic ally to the US to confront Iran and continue to collect the $3.0 billion from the Camp David Accords.
Nasrallah to remain relevant needs Israel to feel threatened, so Nasrallah needs Assad as his means of resupply so that Nasrallah may threaten.
Russia, a major supplier of diamonds to Israel, needs entry into the Middle East and Iran is its portal.
Iran wants nuclear parity with Israel and needs Assad to stay in place so that Hezbollah can be resupplied and pose a conventional deterrent to Israeli military action against its nuclear development facilities.
Aoun wants to keep his belly full and his son in law happy and is a fellow traveler with Nasrallah who directs him to Assad.
And the US sits back with Boeing and Lockheed and the rest of the guys from the military industrial complex playing on everyone's fears that can only be allayed by buying US manufactured arms. The Saudis just concluded a $40.0 billion dollar purchase of advanced fighter aircraft from Boeing. Exports of arms are up 40% this year and in a lagging economy, the US cannot afford peace, then who would buy our guns??
With Syria in civil war, its a much larger market that tiny Lebanon, so no civil war in Lebanon, market dynamics say sales are better in Syria. More people to kill so a longer time to make profits.
I think there is hope for Lebanon. Just because as Beiruti is saying it is a small market.
IF we could unite, as a people and keep this sectarian crap behind us, nobody would put effort on ruining it again. Not worth it. Iraq, Syria and egypt are big attractive "markets" in different ways.
this is a good analysis but it is taking into account part of the problem: the west plus russia.
however, iran is not tackled in this equation.
iran needs to export its influence outside its borders, and after losing any hope in Bahrain (at least for the time being) and the way things are going in iraq, as well as in syria, they are no putting all their strength in lebanon.
this is a factor that we should not oversee in any analysis.
If there is a civil war Judas Aoun will stab his own people in the back. That is for sure.
so mishoo you have admitted the current government in which you hold seats is incompetent, cause if there was a competent governement we should not have a security situation should we? therefore why don't you and the rest of the government stand down, hand over to a transitional one who can rebuild the basic institutions, invest in governement departments so that they can carry out their jobs properly and also prepare for the upcoming elections. unless you want to backflip on your views again.
Aoun is diagnosed with the Alzheimer deices permanently since his return to Lebanon, so do not be fool and believe of any of his advice, he always speak in reverse. There is no hope with him and there is no cure for his sick head.