Civil peace Cost is Submission to Extortion
March 14 General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soueid told LBC on Sunday that “disregarding everything for the sake of civil peace will require Lebanon to submit to extortion by Hezbollah.”
He said he disagrees with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt that maintaining civil peace will require only compromises.
“Since Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in May 2008 that ‘weapons protect weapons,’ we became in need of a guarantee that they will not use their weapons inside Lebanon,” he said.
He added that Hezbollah is afraid. The party has been going through an obvious decline since Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon, which led it to clash with Muslims on May 7, Christians on June 7 and to remain in permanent conflict with Israel, Soueid said.
Soueid said March 14 Christians are required to engage in dialogue with Hezbollah, as March 14 is required to have a unified approach on all issues.
He acknowledged President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri are cooperating with each other and affirmed that March 14 has no problem with the president having a strong presence in cabinet.
Soueid said instead that the problem lies with March 8 as they have laid a series of accusations against Sleiman because his professionalism and objectivity do not serve the opposition.
He also said that the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL are responsible for implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, in reference to recent protests in South Lebanon.
Soueid noted that the LAF is in an awkward position because they will clash with Hezbollah if they announce the party is violating UNSCR 1701. If they do not mention domestic infringements, he said, they will be questioned by the international community about how they are implementing the resolution.
“What is needed is for the Lebanese, and especially Hezbollah, to be rational and not give Israel an excuse to launch a new war against Lebanon, as that is a burden that cannot be carried,” Soueid said.
He also said that Saturday’s Khirbet Silm incident in which residents injured 14 UNIFIL members as they were trying to investigate the location of an explosion at a Hezbollah munitions depot on Tuesday, “took place in Hezbollah’s area of influence and such an assault cannot take place without someone pushing the people to do it.”