Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has warned against turning a blind eye to the dangers of the Iranian-Israeli war taking place on Lebanese territories, calling for a historic stance on strengthening the Lebanese state.
“The state’s absence in favor of the Hezbollah mini-state, which was sucking the capabilities of the state, is no longer acceptable,” Geagea told Asharq Al-Awsat. “We’ve seen where Hezbollah’s decisions on war and peace have taken us.”
That mini-state took Lebanon to war and left it “in rough seas without a captain to steer it,” he said.
On the Lebanese government, he said: “Rather than making every possible effort to move Lebanon out of this war .... Lebanese officials are acting out of narrow interests and have turned into a relief committee.”
“To sum it up, there is neither a government nor a state, rather there is a relief committee,” he said.
According to Geagea, following the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27, Lebanon’s “decision-making has fallen into the hands of Iran and what’s left of Hezbollah fighters, led by Iranian officers.”
Iran is leading the war, according to its own interests, he said.
Geagea also lashed out at Lebanese officials for not acting to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701. “I had in vain warned them” that the situation would get worse, he said.
Yet the LF chief insisted that the state is still capable of acting to end the war. “The government should meet and announce that it rejects the current situation and decide to deploy the army (in the south) and implement Resolution 1701.”
“I am not saying that the government should ask the army to clash with (Hezbollah), but it should start from somewhere,” Geagea told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The LF chief responded to his critics who slammed him for calling for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559 that states the need to disband and disarm all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias. He said: “This is my suggestion to end the war, but they didn’t like it. Let them make their own proposal.”
“So far, we haven’t seen any international envoy in Lebanon to discuss ways to end the war. We had to move to make an attempt to end this destructive war” by suggesting to implement Resolution 1559, he said.
Geagea also said that he had no fears over civil peace because “no side has an interest in” causing civil strife. “This, however, doesn’t stop certain problems from appearing, particularly that around half of the Lebanese population is in a certain form of displacement.”
