Listen to the article
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea did not beat around the bush: there will be no Hezbollah president in Baabda, and he rejects any dialogue with what he calls the criminal obstructionist axis responsible for Lebanon’s collapse, political assassinations, the country’s isolation on the Arab and international stage and the obstruction of political and judicial institutions. Geagea vowed to carry his confrontation through until the end, stating, “We will not submit, weaken, compromise or be afraid. Our battle will persist.”
During the annual mass for the martyrs of the Lebanese Resistance, led by Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai and organized by the Lebanese Forces (LF) on the first Sunday of September in Meerab, LF leader Samir Geagea emphasized that his party would refuse to engage in dialogue with the obstructive Hezbollah axis, which he regards as an “elite criminal team.” He added, “The assassination of Elias Al-Hasrouni is indicative of the kind of dialogue the obstructionist axis is promoting.”
Murder of Elias Hasrouni
The most recent LF martyr, Elias Hasrouni, who was the party’s regional leader for Bint Jbeil, was kidnapped and killed on August 2 in an ambush in Southern Lebanon, a region under the complete control of the pro-Iranian militia.
Samir Geagea considered it “a premeditated assassination.” He continued, “The obstructionist axis is a criminal axis! What did Elias Hasrouni do to be killed? All he did was prevent Hezbollah from doing what they wanted, and that’s why they killed him. This is the axis of the Moumanaa and Hezbollah: they do whatever they want, violating laws and the Constitution.”
Read more
“You’re not green without borders, you’re black without borders, and we’ll become the confrontation without borders!” reiterated Samir Geagea, in an allusion to the US-sanctioned non-governmental organization “Green Without Borders,” which, under the guise of environmental activism, supports Hezbollah operations in Southern Lebanon.
Read more
“They won’t step foot in Baabda”
About the blocking of the presidential election, the LF leader criticized calls for dialogue, pointing out that this is a means for the obstructionist camp to impose their project. “Why do they call for dialogue only when the presidential election is approaching?” he asked.
He continued, “Why can we elect the Speaker of the House normally, but to elect a president, we have to have dialogue? Quite simply because they’re incapable of getting their candidate elected, and we’re not going to commit suicide by submitting to Hezbollah. To Baabda [presidential palace, editor’s note], they won’t enter.”
Geagea also criticized the Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil’s negotiations with Hezbollah. “Despite all the atrocities committed by the Moumanaa axis, some people are still trying to make deals with them, as if nothing has changed, as if no one has died,” emphasized the LF leader. As a reminder, Gebran Bassil admitted in early August that he was in the midst of negotiations with Hezbollah regarding the presidential elections–in the same spirit as the Mar Mikhael agreement of 2006. If his demands are met, this bargaining could lead him to abandon the opposition supporting the candidacy of former minister Jihad Azour, who became his own candidate on June 4, and perhaps support that of Marada leader Sleiman Frangieh, whom he had sworn not to allow into Baabda.
The LF leader also stressed that “Lebanon cannot be saved without a broad, clear, inflexible opposition, and there can be no salvation without a well-defined rescue process and a sovereign president.” And to emphasize the point to the undecided, “These politicians make us think of Stockholm syndrome: a complete denial of reality, justifying their position by claiming to be outside political alignments. But which alignments are they talking about? Today, you have to choose the Lebanon you want: is it the Lebanon of drugs, smuggling, corruption, ignorance, poverty, regression and scarcity, or the Lebanon of message, culture, civilization, progress, development and abundance that has been sung by writers, poets and people the world over? We are not asking for the impossible; we simply want to live like all other human beings, in a real state free of corruption, a state that assumes its responsibilities and prevents our destiny from being in the hands of obscure and criminal actors outside the state, the Constitution and the law.”
Addressing “Lebanon’s friends abroad, especially those with a long history of democracy, freedom, human rights and a functional state with well-run institutions,” in other words, France, Geagea implicitly criticized the initiatives of President Macron’s team a few days before the return of his special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian. He stressed that he expected them to “help the majority of Lebanese who share the same values to build a state and real institutions in Lebanon.”
He continued, “We didn’t expect them to follow the other side and its decoys, its compromises of ‘president against prime minister,’ sometimes violating the Constitution and the rules of the real democratic game, bypassing parliament through secondary agreements misleadingly called ‘dialogue.’ These decoys have been at the root of Lebanon’s destruction over the past ten years.”
The LF head also assured us that he will go all the way in the confrontation against Hezbollah and the obstructionist camp. “We will not submit, we will not weaken, we will not compromise and we will not be afraid. We will continue to fight. We are ready to endure the vacuum for months, and we will accept nothing less than a president who embodies, even to some extent, our convictions and aspirations, equal to the rescue mission the country needs.”
Sovereigntist audience
The religious service began at 5:30 PM at the party’s headquarters in Meerab, attended by LF supporters and various political figures, especially from the sovereignist opposition. Among those present were MP Salim Sayegh representing former President Amine Gemayel, MP Marwan Hamadeh representing the Progressive Socialist Party parliamentary bloc, MP Sajih Attieh representing the National Moderation bloc, MP Elias Hankash representing Kataeb party leader Sami Gemayel, MP Nadim Gemayel and former minister Alain Hakim representing the Kataeb party, Renewal bloc MPs Achraf Rifi, Michel Moawad, Fouad Makhzoumi and Adib Abdel Massih, MP Ghassan Skaf, Leader of the National Liberal Party MP Camille Chamoun and all the MPs of the LF parliamentary bloc. Colonel Tony Moawad represented the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Joseph Aoun, and Colonel Jean Awad represented the Director General of the Internal Security Forces, General Imad Osman.
