Geagea Says Silence over Syrian Incursion is ‘National Treason’
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Monday that most officials discussing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon are missing out on its purpose which is related to justice, stressing that the silence over the Syrian infiltration in the eastern Bekaa valley can be considered a “national treason.”
“They are tackling it (the STL) from a technical point of view, but it is a moral compensation to the millions who lost their beloved ones… To stop the political crimes and to establish the civil peace,” Geagea told al-Joumhouria newspaper.
He stressed that the STL probing the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri is transparent, saying that “all the talk that it’s politicized is a baseless conspiracy.”
The STL was created by a 2007 U.N. Security Council resolution, at Lebanon's request, to try those responsible for Hariri's murder. He was killed in a suicide car bombing along with 22 other people including a bomber on February 14, 2005.
“They don’t want the international tribunal or any other local court,” Geagea said.
He warned that any “manipulation” with the STL will force the international community and the Arab countries to “impose economic sanctions on Lebanon.”
A dispute rose recently over the funding of the STL, which Lebanon is bound to pay $32 million to the court, nearly half of the court’s annual $65 million budget.
Asked about the Syrian infiltration into the Lebanese territories in the eastern Bekaa valley, Geagea rebuffed the cabinets’ position, stressing that the Syrian incursion is an “obvious violation of national sovereignty.”
“The cabinet’s stance is despicable,” he told the newspaper.
He noted that while some foreign governments issued a statement expressing fear of this infiltration, the Lebanese cabinet didn’t make any statement on the issue which “reaches the extent of a national treason.”
In a second incident since last week, Syrian troops entered the outskirts of Arsal village on Thursday and shot dead a Syrian national living there.
Earlier, Syrian tanks entered the same region in a brief incursion that raised fears of the revolt against the regime in Damascus spilling over into Lebanon.
Concerning Lebanon’s decision to abstain from voting on the U.N. Security Council resolution against the Syrian regime, Geagea said: “It’s time for Lebanon to become an independent country.”
“We don’t want to meddle in Syria’s affairs but there are international rules for dealing with refugees, and the Lebanese government should respect them and halt any attempt to arrest and detain them,” he added.
On the issue of “Lady of the Mountain” gathering, Geagea told the daily that the meeting is independent, and every once in a while whenever there are important developments, they hold a meeting.
He noted that some of the participants in the meeting belong to parties while others are independent; however, the invitation isn’t made on the basis of the parties.
“It is a political, intellectual, cultural, social and independent forum,” Geagea stressed.
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