Attacking President Michel Sleiman is Unacceptable, Contradicts National Consensus
Lebanese Forces Executive Council head Samir Geagea affirmed that Hezbollah did not intend to drag Lebanon into a war with Israel. He noted instead that an Arab country was behind the rocket-launching from South Lebanon, in order to regain political weight that it had lost during the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
In an interview with the Qatari Al-Rai newspaper, to be published on Monday [tomorrow], Geagea said that attacking President Michel Sleiman was unacceptable and contradicted the national consensus. Geagea also praised the president’s objection to the suspension of the Arab Peace Initiative, which was proposed during Friday’s Doha meetings, contrary to the position of his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, who called for parties “to kill the initiative.”
“We felt for the first time in 30 years that we have a free national authority, based on the people’s interests and not connected to any foreign engagements,” he noted.
He said that proposing the suspension of the Arab Peace Initiative was only a rhetorical statement, adding that the Arab Economic Summit in Kuwait intended salvage as much as possible from the situation in Gaza.
Geagea noted that the Gaza crisis was a result of a strategy, which Arabs were not responsible for, and it proved that the Lebanese Forces’ defense strategy proposal was correct. He added that it was now time to collect Palestinian weapons that are outside refugee camps, even if this matter necessitated the use of the nation’s legitimate security forces.
The confrontation in Gaza reflects a "major tragedy that necessitates a reconsideration of (Hizbullah leader) Hassan Nasrallah”s resistance theory."
*Additional reporting by Naharnet