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Mikati: Lebanon Keen to Steer Clear of Repercussions of Escalation in Palestinian Territories

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with Army Commander Joseph Aoun at the Grand Serail in Beirut on Monday. (Dalati & Nohra)
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with Army Commander Joseph Aoun at the Grand Serail in Beirut on Monday. (Dalati & Nohra)
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Mikati: Lebanon Keen to Steer Clear of Repercussions of Escalation in Palestinian Territories

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with Army Commander Joseph Aoun at the Grand Serail in Beirut on Monday. (Dalati & Nohra)
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati meets with Army Commander Joseph Aoun at the Grand Serail in Beirut on Monday. (Dalati & Nohra)

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed on Monday that Beirut was keen on steering clear of the repercussions of the escalation in the Palestinian territories.

His remarks were the first official statements since Hezbollah fired rockets towards the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms on Sunday.

He stressed that the government’s priority was to preserve security and stability in the South and commit to United Nations Security Council resolution 1701.

A statement from his press office said the PM held local, Arab and international contacts to stress his government’s position and the need for calm to be maintained along the Blue Line that borders Israel.

He also demanded an end to the constant Israeli violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty and its withdrawal from occupied Lebanese territories.

“Friendly and fraternal countries underlined their keenness on keeping Lebanon away from the explosive situation in the Palestinian territories,” added the statement.

Fortifying Lebanon against these regional developments demands the immediate election of a new president of the republic and an end to the current political tensions, it continued.

“The threat to Lebanon would not target one segment of society or one political movement, but it will have dangerous repercussions on all the people and the situation in the country as a whole,” Mikati said according to the statement.

“Given the regional tensions, it is no longer acceptable for internal divisions and tensions to persist,” he added, calling an end to incitement and stressing the need for unity as Lebanon and the region wade through “one of the most dangerous phases” they have ever seen.

Moreover, he remarked that the developments in the Palestinian territories were an “inevitable culmination of the Israeli enemy’s policies towards the Palestinian people,” who are demanding their legitimate rights.

The first step towards the solution to the conflict lies with the international community assuming its responsibilities in pressuring Israel to return to peace based on the Arab peace initiative that was declared from Beirut in 2002, he went on to say.

Anything other than this will continue the cycle of violence that benefits no one, he warned.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib echoed Mikati’s comments, saying: “We don’t want Lebanon to become embroiled in the war.”

The PM is carrying out several contacts to that end, he added after talks with Mikati. “All international powers are also urging us to refrain from becoming dragged to war and this is also Lebanon’s position.”

He said he briefed Mikati on the Arab League meeting that will be held in Cairo to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Mikati also met on Monday with Army Commander Joseph Aoun to discuss the security situation.

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At Syria Cemetery, People Search for Missing Loved Ones

File photo: People searching for bodies in a trench believed to be a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus in December (AFP)
File photo: People searching for bodies in a trench believed to be a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus in December (AFP)
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At Syria Cemetery, People Search for Missing Loved Ones

File photo: People searching for bodies in a trench believed to be a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus in December (AFP)
File photo: People searching for bodies in a trench believed to be a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus in December (AFP)

Weeping, Fairuz Shalish grasps the red earth at an unmarked grave in Syria that she believes may hold her son, one of tens of thousands of people who vanished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

Thousands poured out of the country's web of prisons in the final days of Assad's rule and after the opposition factions toppled him on December 8.

But as the weeks go by, many families are still desperately searching for news of relatives who were detained or went missing during years of his iron-fisted rule.

Shalish, 59, has not seen her 27-year-old son Mohammed since military security personnel stormed their home near Homs around dawn in early November, just weeks before Assad's ouster.

"I was screaming," she said at the Tal al-Naser cemetery near Homs.

"They shot him in the leg, he fell on the ground and two of them came and opened fire" repeatedly before taking him away, she said, a foul smell lingering in the crisp winter air.

"He has four young children... he has a son who is two," she told AFP.

"I tell him that (his father) will be back tomorrow."

The fate of detainees and others who went missing remains one of the most harrowing legacies of Syria's conflict, which started in 2011 when Assad's forces brutally repressed anti-government protests.

Arbitrary arrests, violence and torture were all part of a paranoid state killing machine that crushed any hint of dissent.

"There were people who accused (Mohammed) of being in contact with revolutionaries in the north," Shalish said.

Her other son, detained at the same time, was later released, but she was told unofficially that Mohammed had died, without receiving any formal notification.

'Need to be certain'

At the sprawling cemetery, pieces of construction blocks serve as makeshift headstones in the dirt where Shalish sits.

At an earlier visit, she learnt that an individual buried there had the same date of death as her son.

But she has been unable to obtain authorization to exhume the body, which was identified only by a code.

"If I have to go to the end of the Earth, I will go. I need to see if it's my son or not," she said.

"I need to be certain, so my heart can be at rest."

Adnan Deeb, known as Abu Sham, who is in charge of burials at the Tal al-Naser cemetery, sorts through ledgers containing the names of people who are interred there, leafing through worn, handwritten pages of records, organized by date.

He said that after the uprising started, authorities began bringing bodies from the military hospital to be buried at the cemetery.

"Some had codes, while others were identified by name," said the towering man in a long black robe, his head wrapped in a traditional keffiyeh.

"Sometimes we'd get 10, sometimes five... They'd bring them in ambulances or in pick-ups or military vehicles," he said, adding that some bore signs of torture.

"It was an atrocious sight. Atrocious. But we had no choice but to do our job," he added.

Still looking

Deeb estimated several thousand former detainees could be buried at the cemetery.

He expressed hope that the military hospital's computer systems would eventually reveal the names of the bodies identified only by codes.

People need to "know where their children are buried", Deeb said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has said determining the fate of the missing will be a massive task likely to take years.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, has said more than 100,000 people have died in detention from torture or dire health conditions across Syria since 2011.

Rafic al-Mohbani, 46, from Homs, has been searching for answers for more than a decade.

His eyes flash with rage as he recounts how his brother Raef and brother-in-law Hassan Hammadi disappeared on their way home from work in June 2013.

"They told us they were at the military security branch in Homs. We went and asked, and they said they transferred them to Damascus. After that, we don't know what happened," he said.

"We paid several sums of money to several people" secretly, he said.

"We got a lawyer, and still couldn't find out anything."

After prisoners began streaming out of Assad's jails last month, "we posted the photos again, we've been looking at cemeteries and hospitals", Mohbani said.

He also visited Tal al-Naser cemetery, with no success.

But the gaunt man, who works as a mechanic, said he still had hope of learning the two men's fate.

"God willing, justice will prevail for us and everyone in Syria."