Geagea Warns of Change in Lebanese Status Quo over Soaring U.S.-Iranian Tensions
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea warned that the Lebanese status quo was in tatters after the U.S. accused Iran of trying to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
In an interview with the Saudi al-Riyadh daily, Geagea said: “After the confrontation between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia on one side and Iran on the other went out of hands, I am no longer sure that we could keep this status quo.”
“We should wait a bit to see in the coming days and weeks the repercussions of this incident and its effect on Lebanon,” he said.
Iran has strongly denied any involvement in what the U.S. says was a plot by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds force to kill the Saudi ambassador by hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million.
News of the alleged plot has sent tensions soaring between Tehran and Washington, foes for more than 30 years ever since Islamic students took U.S. diplomats hostage in their embassy in Tehran after Iran's 1979 revolution.
“We can’t deny that the situation in the region moved within days from a very cold confrontation into boiling hostility,” Geagea told his interviewer.
He said Riyadh is a major player in the Middle East and the plotters thought that it would stop playing that role if it was targeted.
“I think that targeting the ambassador of Saudi Arabia is aimed at sending a message that it shouldn’t interfere in anything going on in the region,” the LF leader added.
Asked about what the situation in Lebanon would be if the Syrian regime collapses, Geagea said: “Any new regime that would replace the Assad regime in Syria won’t take any friendly stance from” the Syrian supporters in Lebanon.
He expected Palestinian armed bases outside the refugee camps in Lebanon to disintegrate if the opposition takes power in Syria, adding that Damascus would stop sending arms to Hizbullah and would eradicate camps aimed at training the party’s fighters.
“These would definitely bring a change to the Lebanese scene,” Geagea said.
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