Hariri to Nasrallah: Your Speech Drags Lebanon Further into Syrian Turmoil
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri lashed out on Saturday at Hizbullah chief's Friday speech, accusing him of dragging Lebanon further into the Syrian turmoil.
Hariri took to Twitter and slammed Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's message as “catastrophic.”
“Nasrallah contradicted himself by calling for self-restraint and at the same time announcing his readiness to personally go fight in Syria,” he said.
The former premier continued: "It is good that Nasrallah is enthusiastic to fight terrorism.”
"But we don't understand why he drew a red line in (the northern Palestinian camp of) Nahr al-Bared. Wasn't it Takfiri weapons fighting the army then? Hizbullah explains terrorism according to its own interests.”
Hariri stated: "If Nasrallah wants to combat terrorism, he should seek the Lebanese people's approval first instead of starting a war in (Syrian President) Bashar Assad's defense.”
The head of al-Mustaqbal Party condemned Thursday's “crime” in the southern suburb of Beirut but noted, however, that Hizbullah's war in Syria “is also a crime.”
"What would you do after Assad's regime collapses?” Hariri asked.
“Nasrallah is laying the foundations for a tense neighborhood with the new Syria and his speech drags Lebanon further into the Syrian turmoil.”
Hariri reiterated his calls for the state to be “a common ground” for all factions.
“Whenever there is a common collective decision we can really protect Lebanon. The army represents all the Lebanese and the people resist through their army,” he said.
"Hizbullah is no longer a resistance when it becomes an entity above state, the army and the people.”
In a broadcast speech he gave at a ceremony marking the end of the July 2006 war, Nasrallah announced on Friday that he is “ready to personally go fight in Syria if necessary,” vowing also to double the number of Hizbullah's fighters in the neighboring country as a response to any new attack against the party's stronghold.
Nasrallah explained that his combat in Syria is against Takfiris, whom he accused of being behind Thursday's deadly blast in the southern suburb of Beirut.
Twenty-four people were killed and more than 325 others wounded on Thursday afternoon in a powerful car bombing that went off between the suburbs of Bir al-Abed and Ruwais.
Source: Agence France Presse
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