Siniora to Asharq Al-Awsat: Boycott of Parliamentary Elections Hands Lebanon over to Hezbollah

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is racing against time to persuade Sunnis to take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections, which kicked off with expatriate voting on Friday. The elections will be held in Lebanon on May 15.

Siniora told Asharq Al-Awsat that the polls are a "turning point in the confrontation against preventing Hezbollah and its allies from taking over Lebanon."

He chose to field a list in the elections in spite of head of the Mustaqbal movement, Saad Hariri's decision earlier this year to suspend his political career.

"The scene cannot be left empty to be filled by individuals seeking personal interests," explained Siniora.

Moreover, he stressed that a boycott of the elections was "futile", citing the Christian boycott of the 1992 elections when one candidate managed to win a seat at parliament with only 47 votes.

He also cited a Sunni boycott of Iraqi elections, whose negative impact is still being felt.

Asked why he opted to support a list and not run himself, he replied: "I obtained everything any politician could dream off in Lebanon." He said he served as finance minister in five governments headed by late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. After his assassination, he served as prime minister for four and half years. He also ran for parliament and led the Mustaqbal movement for eight years.

"I chose not to run this time because I want to set an example of a person who can work in public life while not necessarily pursuing a position in power," he said.

Furthermore, he stated that he did not want to "turn his back on the people." So, he chose to embark on the elections after making the necessary consultations with the right people and groups, who all agreed that "it was not right to abandon the scene."

"This drove me to take this position, which has been received positively by Sunnis and others in Lebanon and on the Arab level," Siniora remarked. "The Arabs want Lebanon to rise again and to stand by their side."

"They are keen on Lebanon and keen that the situation will not deteriorate further given the negative impact that will have on the Arab world," he continued.

He added that even though taking part in the elections has its own share of problems and difficulties, they are marginal compared to the problems or crises that may arise if a boycott were to happen.

On this note, he called on everyone to "take a serious and firm stance to vote. I call on them to take part in the electoral process, which is a duty for everyone. I call on them to choose right, meaning to choose those who will effectively support the Lebanese state and restore its role, authority and dignity, and prevent it from falling in the hands of those who will abuse it to serve the interests of others."

Moreover, contrary to Hariri's supporters, Siniora said he does not believe that his suspension of his political career was also a call to boycott the elections.

Hariri simply said he will not run in the elections and neither will members of the Mustaqbal movement, he explained.

He denied claims that Hariri had called on Muslims or the Lebanese to boycott the polls.

"I believe it is in Lebanon's national interest for voters to turn out heavily at the ballot stations, and not listen to the views of people who do not weigh the negative impact this boycott, should it happen, will have," he added.

"No one can step away and believe that he would be doing himself favors or that a boycott is the only way to express disapproval of the electoral law that should not have been ratified in the first place," he went on to say.

"Personally, I was opposed to this law. I also opposed Michel Aoun's election as president," Siniora continued.

The law, he elaborated, violates the constitution and limits the freedom of choice of the voter by forcing them to vote for one list and cast a "preferential vote" to a candidate on that same list. This creates additional problems to the candidates because it will lead to disputes between candidates running on the same list, he explained.

"Instead of a boycott, a complaint should have been made over the law when it was submitted at parliament," Siniora said. "We are now ruing our mistakes. Now, instead of committing another sin, we should express our rejection of this law by voting for those who are also opposed to it so we can reach change."

To that end, he hailed the recent positions of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif al-Derian, who clearly called for people to take part in the elections and to vote for the right candidates who can stop the ongoing collapse and save Lebanon.

"Salvation does not lie in standing aside or by taking negative stances, rather it lies in positive stances by electing people who can change this law," he stressed.

Describing the Beirut Confronts list that he is backing in the capital, he said: "It is unique for two main reasons: It is not a grey list, rather its stances are clear over restoring the Lebanese state and reviving the constitution, completing the implementation of the Taif Agreement, respecting international and Arab resolutions and the independence of the judiciary and practicing real democracy at parliament."

Democracy, he added, has been ruined through the "gimmick of consensual democracy that has ruined the mechanisms of the democratic system."

"The other reason is that the Lebanese people must realize that elected candidates are headed to parliament, not a walk in the park, so you must send people who are qualified to play this role, not simply because they have high popularity," he added.

The post-elections phase must focus on bringing in people who believe in restoring the state, its role and capabilities so that it would underscore the main principles on which these elections are held, meaning it should reflect the voice of the people, stressed Siniora.

He therefore, called for the formation of a parliamentary coalition comprised of people who believe in these values.

"We want to reclaim Lebanon and the state's free will from those who are trying to kidnap it, meaning Hezbollah and other groups," he declared. The coalition must be keen on Lebanon and its independence and it must prevent any violations by Israel, which is still Lebanon's enemy, and other rivals, who are trying to seize Lebanon and prevent it from practicing its freedom of choice.

Moreover, Siniora called for putting an end to the "gimmicks that are governments of national unity." Such governments, he explained, are formed during times of war or when dangerous problems arise. "When conditions return to normal, the majority returns to ruling and the minority returns to the position of the opposition."

Furthermore, Siniora refuses to become embroiled in the "maze of consensual democracy," which he described as another gimmick, with a sole purpose of "empowering Hezbollah so that it can have a minority through which it can control the majority."

"We are seeing how a small minority is being allowed to impose its will on the majority. We have reached a point where the government where does not take decisions, but spends its time arguing. We have seen this obstruction throughout the years," he continued.

"We have wasted 60 percent of the years from 2008 until today without reaching any agreement and when agreements are reached, they are usually a product of some tradeoff," he added.

"They have ruined the parliamentary democratic system," charged Siniora.

On the repercussions of a Hezbollah victory in next week's elections, he warned: "It will change the face of the democratic Lebanon, its freedom, economy, culture, openness, respect for the role of the state, its free voice, constitution and independence of the judiciary."

It will consolidate the factors that have "ruined the democratic system, independence of the judiciary, internal balances and Lebanon's foreign policy and relations with Arab brothers and friendly nations. Respect to Arab and international resolutions will be completely abandoned."

"It will no longer be possible to save Lebanon if we continue like this," he warned.

Siniora is realistic, saying the elections "will signal the beginning of the real struggle, which must be peaceful, democratic and clear. The people must therefore, assume the responsibility of the change."

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.

Siniora to Asharq Al-Awsat: Boycott of Parliamentary Elections Hands Lebanon over to Hezbollah