Geagea Hits Back at Nasrallah, Says Berri Could Retain his Post if he Joins March 14

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday snapped back at Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and stressed that the March 14 alliance would only bring Speaker Nabih Berri to the speakership if he falls out of the March 8 coalition.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel “Aoun is no longer the top Christian leader in the country,” Geagea told several local newspapers in response to a televised speech made by Nasrallah on Monday.

The Hizbullah secretary-general accused some Christian members of the March 14 coalition of trying to drag Lebanon into Sunni-Shiite conflict and stressed that Aoun was still the country's top Christian leader.

The LF chief is expected to make a full response to Nasrallah's accusations during a press conference he is scheduled to hold at 1:00 pm Wednesday.

In his remarks to the dailies, Geagea shrugged off reports that Berri had received death threats similar to March 14 opposition officials, mocking that the speaker was staying at his residence in Ain el-Tineh “in solidarity with us.”

“But there is no real danger against him unless he decides to change his political affiliations,” the LF leader, who has limited his movements after escaping sniper fire at his residence in Maarab in April, said.

Several March 14 officials have received death threats and there were recent media reports about plots to assassinate Berri.

Opposition figures have also been the target of murder plots and assassinations, the latest of which was the Oct. 19 car bomb blast that killed Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan, and two others.

Asked whether he insisted on rejecting the election of Berri as speaker if March 14 won the 2013 parliamentary polls, Geagea said: “It's only natural for us to reject a speaker from the March 8 alliance if we win the elections unless Berri decides to join March 14.”

“It is only then that we would be glad to keep him in his post,” he added.