Making Peace with Israel Rescues Syria from Hariri Tribunal
Mount Lebanon Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Ali Jouzou on Sunday attacked Syrian President Bashar Assad for saying that the Lebanon situation remains fragile because certain states back fundamentalism.
"It”s not President Bashar al-Assad”s right to talk about terrorism in Tripoli and the north when he is the prime exporter of terrorism and still takes part in killing and assassinations and attacks against Lebanese civilians via his supporters in the south and the north and in Beirut and the mountains and the Bekaa," Jouzou said in a statement issued Sunday.
"The Syrian president has forgotten that he left Lebanon due to the assassination of Premier Rafik Hariri … and that the era of (Syrian) tutelage was full of blood, destruction, killings, assassinations, turmoil and terrorism," Jouzou added.
"There is a long history of acts of terrorism on our territory during the (Lebanese) civil war; and Tripoli witnessed black days behind which Syrian intelligence stand."
He accused Assad of trying to get away with the tribunal to try suspects in the Feb. 2005 assassination of Hariri that was blamed on Syria. Damascus has denied involvement in the killing.
"Syria today wants to get away with accusations by any means. This is why it is throwing itself into Israel”s arms … thinking that it would save its head from the tribunal by making peace with Israel," Jouzou said.