Geagea evaluates opposition sit-in as more detrimental than USS Cole

 

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea commented on the disruption of the presidential elections in Lebanon. “If Syria continues to disrupt the election of a new president in Lebanon, we will call on Arab countries to boycott the Arab Summit in Damascus,” he said.

 

Geagea criticized the parties who opposed the deployment of American guided-missile destroyer the USS Cole off Lebanon’s coast. “The Syrian army occupied Lebanon for 30, with military tanks and its intelligence. There was a tank and an intelligence operative at the neck of every Lebanese citizen. Some did not see this as an occupation but sang the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon.”

 

He also questioned the effect of the Cole on Lebanon. “What did it impede? Did it camp out in Riad al-Solh?” he asked, noting that the sit-in was more detrimental to the Lebanese economy and freedom than an American battleship “somewhere in the Mediterranean, far from Lebanese waters.”

 

The LF leader warned that the uproar around the USS Cole was an attempt at evoking an “artificial crisis.” He also noted the US support for the Cedar Revolution, which he said helped preserve the existence of Lebanon.