Geagea slams govt. for 'ceding strategic decisions to Hezbollah'

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday lashed out at the caretaker government for “ceding the strategic military and security decisions to Hezbollah” and “putting the Lebanese people and Lebanon’s higher interests in the face of the region’s storms and the open conflicts among all its parties.”

“At a time all Arab countries, from the biggest one to the smallest one, are distancing themselves from the ongoing conflict in Gaza and the Middle East, we don’t understand according to what logic Lebanon is being implicated in this war, especially that it is currently the smallest and poorest nation due to its ongoing financial, economic and political crisis,” Geagea said in a written statement.

“Perhaps the caretaker government, seeing as it is acting in caretaker capacity, cannot carry out developmental projects and economic initiatives and cannot rehabilititate the infrastructure and so on, but at the core of its responsibilities lies the mission of sparing Lebanon war and confronting the dangerous things that threaten the citizen’s security, life, family, work, interests and future,” Geagea added.

He also accused the government of “endorsing the Axis of Defiance’s stance on the ongoing wars in the Middle East.”

Geagea is apparently referring to recent stances by caretaker PM Najib Mikati, who on Friday noted that pacifying the situation in south Lebanon without taking into consideration what’s happening in Gaza would be “illogical.”

“Based on our Arab identity and principles, we demand a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible, in parallel with a serious ceasefire in Lebanon,” Mikati added.

“We do not accept that our brothers be facing genocide and destruction as we seek an own agreement with anyone,” the premier went on to say.

More than three months of cross-border violence have killed 190 people in Lebanon, including more than 140 Hezbollah fighters and over 20 civilians including three journalists. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and at least six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.

The violence has also displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border.