Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea insisted that Parliament, not the government, must extend the mandate of Army Commander General Joseph Aoun and called for the Army to be deployed on the southern border in application of Security Council Resolution 1701.
In an interview with LBCI on Thursday evening, Geagea criticized the government’s silence at a time when Hezbollah may drag Lebanon into a war with Israel.
While acknowledging that the decision of war and peace currently rests with the pro-Iranian group, he said that the head of government, Najib Mikati, must call for the application of Resolution 1701 to protect Lebanon from war. “I would have preferred for Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah leader) to withdraw from the South and hand it over to the Army instead of making his speech tomorrow, Friday,” he said. Geagea noted that that if Nasrallah were to drag Lebanon into war, he would be committing a “great crime” against the country.
Geagea reiterated his call for an extension of the term of the Army’s Commander-in-Chief General Joseph Aoun, praising his patriotism and professionalism. He explained that his parliamentary bloc presented a draft bill to this effect in Parliament because the government, “composed mainly of the FPM and the Amal-Hezbollah duo, wants a commander-in-chief tailored to their own interests and not those of the country. They have some names of officers they want to propose to replace General Aoun, but all the generals they support are very close to them,” he warned.
Geagea lashed out at FPM leader Gebran Bassil, accusing him of neutralizing all Maronite positions for his own ambitions and political interests. “If there is anyone who wants to push the Maronites out of the state, it is Gebran Bassil,” he accused.
The LF leader spoke at length about the war in Gaza and the Palestinian cause, pointing out that “Lebanon does not have the possibility to influence a regional war or a united front” against Israel, as advocated by Iran and Hezbollah. He stressed that “the strength of the opposition in Lebanon lies in the fact that it is sovereign and free and is not influenced by anyone.”
He drew a distinction between the Palestinian cause and those who use it for their own ends, and he acknowledged the importance of armed struggle “granted it leads to results.” “The armed struggle that Hamas and its allies have been talking about for so many years has led nowhere, except to reduce the territory that the Palestinians could have had,” commented the LF leader, who called for “a real solution to the Palestinian cause.”
