Geagea: A Cabinet that Does Not End Hizbullah's Fighting in Syria is Not Promising
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea slammed on Thursday a ministerial policy statement that seeks to respect all parties' stances, stating that “the problem lies in Hizbullah's fighting in Syria and that this reality must change.”
“Any talks to overcome the current security situation in the country necessitates a change in the reality of things and this is what's expected from the new cabinet. Any cabinet should adopt new policies,” Geagea said during a press conference held in Maarab.
“And therefore, a ministerial policy statement formula that insists on respecting all parties' stances becomes useless because the problem lies with one of these parties and its decisions,” he added.
Geagea considered that the deteriorating security situation in Lebanon is caused by the fact that the state “does not own the military or the security decisions.”
“But Hizbullah does, and the party is confiscating these decisions and fighting in Syria,” he stressed.
He continued: “Hizbullah is not fighting fundamentalist groups in Syria but the Free Syrian Army and for this reason it is subjecting all the Lebanese to danger. The March 8 camp are reiterating that fundamentalists would have reached Lebanon if Hizbullah did not get involved in the Syrian war and I remind you that the last fundamentalist group to have presence in Lebanon was Fatah al-Islam in 2007, and Hizbullah back then was the only party not to criticize its presence.”
The LF leader assured that if the Baabda Declaration was not implemented, the security situation would remain the same.
“This means that social conditions in Lebanon will continue to deteriorate,” he noted.
“Any cabinet that does not change the reality of Hizbullah's fighting in Syria does not promise much.”
The committee tasked with drafting a ministerial polity statement concluded its sixth meeting on Wednesday without reaching a final accord on its formula with media reports revealing that the Baabda Declaration will not be mentioned per se, but would be replaced instead with “the conclusions of the national dialogue sessions.”
Geagea also lashed out at Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's decision to impose a "dhimma pact" on Christians, hoping that the Syrian opposition would triumph as soon as possible so that ISIL won't be the only image given of the Syrian people's revolution.
"The presence of such a regime in Syria is the reason for ISIL's existence," he said.
"The regime sought to create it in Iraq and therefore both the Damascus rulers and ISIL must be eliminated," Geagea pointed out.
Separately, the Christian leader tackled the 2009 abduction of Middle East Airlines engineer Joseph Sader, expressing that it is “very, very, very shameful that four years have passed since the kidnapping while the former cabinet did not open a probe in this matter.”
Source: Naharnet
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