Published Monday, August 19, 2013
Future Party leader Saad Hariri commented on Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on Twitter, accusing the party of defining who is a terrorist according to its own interests.Hariri appears to be calling for a national conference in order to designate what constitutes terrorism and to come to a consensus on the mechanism to fight it. In effect, he’s telling those who are being killed and those who are murdering them to wait a little longer in order for everyone to come to a common understanding.
More dangerously, Hariri is sending a message to the Lebanese authorities – and particularly those over which Future has influence, like some of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) – not to accede to calls for combating terrorism, for the matter requires national consensus.
Not only does Hariri provide radical Islamist groups with political cover, in addition to funding and arming them, he is now declaring that they cannot be touched. This is after Future’s MPs have established a record of incitement against the Lebanese army, going so far as to openly defend Ahmad al-Assir’s gang in Saida after they killed over a dozen soldiers.
Contrary to Hariri’s attempts to portray the jihadi terrorist attacks as a legitimate part of the Syrian conflict and against Hezbollah’s involvement it, such groups have been active in Lebanon for over a decade now and are benefitting from the daily dose of sectarian incitement that Hariri’s team feeds its supporters on a daily basis.
On the point of national consensus, we have to ask Hariri the following:
– Based on what consensus was he able to rob property owners in downtown Beirut to create a real estate monster called Solidere?
– What about the privatization of the mobile phone sector and the embezzlement of millions in funds intended for national reconstruction after the civil war?
– And who was it that accused Syria – and then Hezbollah – of assassinating Rafik Hariri, then establishing an international tribunal partly funded from the national treasury? Did he have national consensus to do all this?
– Do Hariri’s current attempts to carry out Saudi wishes to form a government without Hezbollah and get an extension for President Michel Suleiman have the blessings of the Lebanese people?
It’s clear that Hariri no longer has any connection with this country. His extended presence outside Lebanon has turned him into little more than a subordinate, fulfilling the commands of the Kingdom of Darkness and the West.
The Resistance, for its part, is obligated to defend its people – particularly in those areas where the state is virtually absent. This is not a matter of choice for them.
Ibrahim al-Amin is editor-in-chief of Al-Akhbar.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
---
| |
| Local Editor | |
 Lebanese General Security asserted that Naameh car bomb was processed to be detonated. The target was all the public areas of the resistance, not only the southern suburb of Beirut (Dahiyeh), security sources told Al-Manar.The sources described arresting the terrorist network as a great achievement since it prevented vanishing the souls of dozens of civilians. The General Security had confiscated Naameh car and  arrested a number of the gang members, yet two of its most dangerous members fled away.The General Security accordingly circulated their photos: Mohammad Qassem al-Ahmad (Lebanese 1983) Saeed Mohammad Bahri (Lebanese 1985) A General security statement mentioned that who have been arrested are the Lebanese Tarek Tabara, and the Palestinians Ahmad Saeed and his brother, Khaled. Ahmad Saeed, who has a close relation with Ahmad al-Assir's brother (Amjad), leads the gang and induces its members to carry out terrorist acts as he preaches in one of Naameh mosques, guiding his followers towards "jihad." In Ersal, a Lebanese, in his twenties, was arrested over involvement in the car bombs file as well as weaponry trade. In this context, H. Hojayry was also arrested over embroilment in Bir al-Abed explosion last July. The General Security Directorate stressed that its measures are in the context of coping with the terrorist networks that threaten the national security and stability. |