Hariri Slams Official Silence over Hizbullah Fighting in Syria, Urges Agreement on Vote Law to Avoid Vacuum
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri criticized on Monday President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker Premier Najib Miqati, and the Lebanese army command's silence over Hizbullah fighting in Syria alongside the country's regime forces, while urging officials to reach an agreement over a parliamentary electoral law.
He wondered in a statement: “Where is the national, constitutional, and moral responsibility towards the crime being committed by a major Lebanese faction through meddling in the internal Syrian war?”
He compared Hizbullah's fighting to Israeli assaults on Lebanese towns in the South and Syria's invasion of Lebanon in the 1970s, adding: “Hizbullah has chosen to replicate the Israeli crimes in Lebanon and its people in the Syrian town of al-Qusayr and the villages of Reef Homs.”
“The greatest tragedy in Hizbullah's involvement in Syria is the fact that no one in the Lebanese state considers himself responsible for the Lebanese-Syrian border or of the daily violations by hundreds of fighters who have chosen to usurp the role of the state and ignore the wishes of the Lebanese people,” he remarked.
On this note, Hariri slammed the official silence on Hizbullah's meddling, asking: “Was there a decision taken that the Lebanese people were not informed about and which entails the state's handing of its security, military, and constitutional institutions to Hizbullah?”
Have they “acknowledged that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is above the state and its institutions?” wondered the former prime minister.
“The party's war in al-Qusayr is part of a decision to eliminate the Lebanese state,” he declared.
“We are seeking responsible individuals who can stage the parliamentary elections, while Hizbullah is seeking all means to take Lebanon to the abyss,” he noted.
“The president, government, and all concerned officials must end the current charade that sees the state act as an employee working for Hizbullah and its regional sponsors,” Hariri continue.
At least 23 Hizbullah fighters were killed and 70 wounded in battles in the Syrian border town of al-Qusayr, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.
A handful of Hizbullah fighters killed in Syria have been brought back for burial in Lebanon, with senior officials from the group occasionally paying condolences in person to the families of those killed.
The Observatory said that at least 55 people were killed in Qusayr on Sunday, most of them rebels, excluding those Hizbullah fighters and regime soldiers.
Nasrallah has acknowledged that members of his movement are fighting alongside Syrian troops against the rebels seeking Syrian President Bashar Assad's ouster.
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