Paula Astih – Middle East
Hezbollah threatened to return to war with Israel, in parallel with the violent political campaign launched by representatives and leaders of the party against the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, against the backdrop of his adherence to the option of negotiation and his failure to thank Iran and the “resistance,” leading to the statement by one of the party’s representatives that whoever wants to be like (the leader of the South Lebanon Army militia established by Israel) Antoine Lahad, we will fight him as we fought the Israelis.
The party’s field position came to enhance the level of escalation. He explicitly called on the displaced people not to settle in their towns and villages in the south or the southern suburbs, and to remain in their places of displacement while only inspecting their properties. This reflected a clear trend in the party’s readiness for a stage that might witness a renewal of war, which is what the Vice President of the Party’s Political Council, Mahmoud Qamati, spoke about, addressing the party’s audience by saying: “Do not settle in your villages in the south, not even in the suburbs. Check on your property, and do not Settle down and do not leave your places of displacement.”
Based on this atmosphere, on Saturday, the South-Beirut road witnessed a stifling crowd of citizens who returned and left again their southern towns where they arrived on Friday, while activists close to Hezbollah circulated on social media a statement calling on “the families who returned to their homes during the truce period, to prepare only the basic and necessary needs and prepare to return immediately to the safe places of displacement where you were.” The statement also stated: “We want the field to be empty except for Hezbollah men, so that the response to the violations will be painful, precise, and without any human cost among the ranks of our steadfast people.”
Aoun threatened the fate of Sadat
After Hezbollah had for a long time shunned Aoun from its campaigns that were focusing on Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, it recently opened fire on both of them after the preliminary Lebanese-Israeli meeting that was held in Washington, last Tuesday. Matters reached the point where Hezbollah’s resources and borders file official, Nawaf al-Moussawi, said that when the President of the Republic takes steps alone in the direct negotiation file, “he will no longer be a president accepted by anyone in Lebanon, as he is not more important than Anwar Sadat, who when he took steps alone in this regard.” The type was boycotted by all Arabs and isolated. The late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was the first Arab president to sign a peace agreement with Israel in 1978, and he was assassinated during a military parade on the anniversary of the October War.
Wholesale escalatory positions
In the past few hours, MPs and party leaders launched attacks on Aoun, demanding that he back down from the negotiation process. In a press conference, the Deputy Chairman of Hezbollah’s Political Council, Mahmoud Qamati, denounced the “blatant official ingratitude outside of diplomacy,” considering that “the President of the Republic thanked the murderer and the criminal, and did not thank the one who saved us, which is Iran.”
He added: “The state is running and running towards humiliation and humiliation and towards abandoning sovereignty, step after step, instead of clinging to its strongest cards.”
For his part, party representative Hassan Fadlallah said: “Whoever wants to be (Antoine Lahad), we will fight him as we fought the Israelis.” He added: “We were the only ones to choose resistance, and we only asked the authority not to stab us… We gave you an image of victory, so do not give us an image of humiliation.”
Hankash: Let them learn lessons from the American-Iranian negotiation
The representative of the Lebanese Phalange Party, Elias Hankash, responded to the positions of the party’s representatives and leaders, saying, “Hezbollah is still waiting for a signal from Iran. If it is informed of the decision to commit to the negotiation path, it will comply, knowing that if Tehran itself is negotiating with what it calls (the Great Satan), then the party must take lessons from what is happening after it opened a war to support Iran militarily, and stopped the war to support it in its negotiations.”
Hankash said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that “the attack on President Aoun is unjustified and is a response to (Hezbollah).” He added: “We expected a little maturity and wisdom from them in their dealings at the national level, but every time their leaders confirm that they are disconnected from reality and pursue an ostrich policy, not caring about what is happening around them.”
Hankash stressed that “President Aoun is the one who represents legitimacy, and he took the initiative to negotiate directly with Israel, and this is what will happen, and all of Lebanon will follow him except for (Hezbollah).” He said: “These negotiations must go in parallel with everyone’s commitment to the state’s ceiling, the exclusivity of weapons, and the extension of Lebanese sovereignty over all Lebanese lands. Otherwise, the party will be placing itself in confrontation with all the Lebanese, and it will once again be the reason for delaying the establishment of the state in Lebanon… and this is not surprising from an Iranian faction that prides itself on being a follower of the legitimacy.” For the Revolutionary Guard.
Aoun’s positions
President Aoun had addressed the Lebanese with a speech in which he clarified the directions of the Lebanese authority in the next stage, stressing “the restoration of Lebanon and Lebanon’s decision for the first time in nearly half a century,” stressing that “today we are negotiating on our own behalf, and deciding on our own behalf. We are no longer a card in anyone’s pocket, nor an arena for anyone’s wars, and we will never return.” He stressed that direct negotiations with Israel “are not weakness, nor retreat, nor concession; Rather, it is a decision that stems from the strength of our belief in our right, our concern for our people, and our responsibility to protect our homeland by all means, especially from our refusal to die for anything other than Lebanon. Negotiations do not mean, and will never mean giving up any right, giving up any principle, or compromising the sovereignty of this country.
As he affirmed his readiness to go wherever he was “to liberate my land, protect my people, and save my country,” he made clear that his mission was one, clear, and specific; It is to save the country and its people.
