Lebanese Forces (LF) MP Georges Okais held the state responsible for any harm befalling any LF and Kataeb Party officials and their partisans following threats against them made by Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday.
Nasrallah lashed out at the LF and the Kataeb for allegedly accusing the Iranian-backed party of orchestrating the kidnapping of LF coordinator in Jbeil District Pascal Sleiman, who was kidnapped on Sunday and found dead in Syria the day after.
Denying any implication of his party in the kidnapping, Nasrallah said, “It is very, very, very dangerous” to make such accusations, and that the LF and Kataeb were “seeking by civil strife.”
Okais retorted to Nasrallah’s comments during an interview with LBCI on Tuesday, stressing, “We have not accused anyone… we said it is a political crime.”
“It is true that we do not have full confidence in the state’s institutions, but what is required is to reveal all the facts related to the crime. It is our right to assess the situation, and it is up to the state to prove otherwise,” Okais added.
He warned against those who are trying to depict the battle as one “between Christians and Shiites,” while it is rather “a battle between Hezbollah’s politics and its sidelining of the state and usurping its decision-making on one hand, and the sovereigntists on the other.”
“We are being threatened by a party that is subject to international judgments, that threatens judges of removing them from their positions and which controls the country and the decision of war in it,” Okais added.
Sleiman was kidnapped on Sunday by a suspected Syrian gang who allegedly wanted to steal his car. His dead body was found a day later in Syria.
