President Ali Abdullah Saleh said: “Now that we are done with the interview, I want to ask you a question: Why do some Lebanese insist on playing roles that exceed the capabilities of their country?”
He added: “Our confirmed information says that young Houthis go to Syria and enter Lebanon without having their passports stamped. Then, they return to Syria in the same way. The information asserts that these people attend ideological courses in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and some of them pursue military training in the Bekaa.”
“If you play this kind of cards, your country will no longer have friends in the region,” he said. “I don’t want to raise the issue publicly in the media now, because it is an Iranian matter before being related to your [Hezbollah]; I will raise it at the appropriate time. But why are you harming yourself because of roles of this kind?”
That was in the last week of March 2009. Ali Saleh was preparing to go to Doha to participate in the Arab summit, carrying an amount of blame on Libya and Qatar because of their “sympathy” with the Houthis, as he said.
His words came back to my mind as I was reading analyses saying that the war in Yemen cannot end until a formula pertaining to the Iranian-American relations was reached in the Biden era. Some analysts stress that the Yemeni side will not be present in the complex deal, which may take place in open or closed negotiation rooms without official announcements.
I also remembered Ali Saleh’s words, because Lebanon is already paying the price today for meddling with the affairs of other countries, training and arming maps, without having any right to interfere in them. Ali Saleh knew that Lebanon would suffer the consequences of playing the role of proxy in a conflict that outweighs its size and capabilities.
In fact, what drew my attention was the success of the Iranian attack in the region - especially after the uprooting of Saddam Hussein’s regime - in converting a set of maps into mere papers that the Iranian negotiator could use with the new US administration.
The Iraqi politician said: “Experience has taught us not to be delusional. We have a government that is making a serious attempt to regain the foundations of the state. Its attempt is like walking into a minefield. You have to walk slowly, consolidate what you get, and then move forward again. The factions have been addicted to sharing the state, its powers, and its bounties, and will not simply retreat from this unique and golden opportunity. The elections may give the state project a chance, but it will not cause a coup.”
“We do not lie to ourselves, and we will not lie to you,” he added. “The decisive element in the future of Iraq is not at all internal. Unfortunately, we will not be at the table. We fear that the future of Iraq is a card in the US-Iranian negotiations that may be launched during the Biden era to revive the nuclear agreement and restore its effects. The Americans and Europeans are now talking about the need to deal with the ballistic missile and Iran’s regional behavior. I am concerned that Iran might make concessions in its nuclear program, but will try to stick to its regional gains in the Arab countries, where it almost succeeded in grasping the decision.”
These are not simple words. We are not talking about a marginal state, which has few resources and is compelled to sell its decision to curb poverty. We are talking about a rich country that would have been a model in progress, had it not been for the authoritarianism and adventures, followed by mismanagement and the decline of the notion of the state.
An Arab’s heart is broken when he/she balances, for example, the Iraqi and Israeli economies… When seeing the status of Israel in the eyes of Washington, Moscow, and major capitals, and Baghdad’s constant inability to build strong international relations because it must first meet the conditions of the Iranian crossing.
Israel collected more military and diplomatic papers before the arrival of the Biden administration, while the Iraqi government is being drained by missiles targeting the Green Zone or the US embassy, and before that the attacks against the state restoration project, to which Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s government is trying to adhere.
If the Iranian influence in Syria is known far and wide. In Lebanon, too, it no longer needs evidence. In Lebanon, the epidemic hunts down the citizens, most of whom are below the poverty line, while hatreds continue to prevail.
President Michel Aoun has the right not to like the Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, and to try to wage against him a battle that he wanted to instigate against his father. But why would the oppressed Lebanese pay the price for the president’s hatred for the man, who was designated by the Parliament to form the government?
I know that General Aoun is not a sentimental man. It is no secret that he does not like Hariri, Berri, Franjieh, Jumblatt, Geagea, and many others. He accuses them of conspiring against the Republic’s boy, Gebran Bassil, and his “natural right” to strengthen his grip on the palace.
But why are the Lebanese forced to live without a government, while citizens die at the entrances of hospitals or perish in their homes? How does Aoun accept history to tell that Lebanon collapsed and disintegrated during his era?
The absurdity reaches its climax when someone tells you that the government will not be formed before the crystallization of relations between Washington and Tehran, and perhaps not before Biden provides guarantees about the future of the “boy of the republic”, who was punished during the era of his predecessor. What a shame!
From Sanaa to Beirut, through Baghdad and Damascus, crises pinned down Biden's rope. Tehran has succeeded in penetrating the maps, not by cultural or economic strength, but by sectarian accounts, missiles, drones, and militias. It turned maps into papers.
