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With the escalation of confrontations between Israel and Iran, and the possibility of the conflict spreading to include Lebanon, the question arises: When will this nightmare end? Will Lebanon be able to withstand these challenges? Is the fate of the war in Lebanon linked to reaching a solution to the regional conflict, or will Lebanon pay a heavy price for being an ally of the Islamic Republic?
Representative Yassin Yassin stated to the newspaper that Lebanon is facing two simultaneous wars, saying: “There is a Lebanese war that no one is paying attention to, and there is the Iranian-Israeli war taking place in the region.”
He added: “We have a team in Lebanon that has turned today into a militia with banned weapons, and for many years it has been rebelling against the decisions of the Lebanese state, from the stage of assassinations in 2005, to the events of May 7, to the issue of the blocking third, all the way to entering the Syrian war despite the government’s decision at the time to distance itself, then entering the first support war for Gaza, with which we have no connection, and which is a war that Lebanon had no ability to bear.”
He added: “Today we also entered into a second war of support, despite all the rational voices that were saying that it is not permissible to bring Lebanon into such a situation. Therefore, we entered a war of support with Iran, and this means that we are linked to the decision of war and peace in Iran.”
Yassin explained that if the fighting between Iran and Israel stops, this may have a positive impact on the situation in Lebanon, stressing that the solution must stem from an internal Lebanese decision, saying: “The Lebanese, including this team, i.e. Hezbollah, must hand over weapons to the Lebanese state and abide by its decisions.”
In response to the question of the role played by Hezbollah in liberating the south, Yassin said: “No one denies the accumulation of resistance experience, and may God have mercy on the martyrs. This is something we never deny. I personally was a resident of the West Bekaa regions that were occupied. The Lebanese National Resistance Front liberated West Beirut, and liberated Rashaya and Sidon in the 1980s, and there were accumulations of resistance work.”
He continued: “In 2000, Israel withdrew, but in 2006 we entered into a war, and we all remember the famous phrase: If I had known. And today we also entered into a war of support.”
He added: “I say that Lebanon can no longer bear any more pain and pain. We entered the 2006 war and did not have the ability to bear it, and today we entered a war of support in support of Iran only, and we have no compunction about it.”
He added: “The economic situation in Lebanon is fragile, and the social situation is also fragile at all levels. We are entering the country into a holocaust that we have nothing to do with, while what is required is that we use reason to protect our people instead of engaging them in wars that they cannot bear.”
He asked: “What has this war achieved in the balance of power? What has it given to Iran? Or what has it changed in the balance of power with Israel?”
Yassin emphasized: “We have been against Israel since our birth, and no one outdoes us in our hostility to it, nor in our love for Palestine and the Palestinian people. But support for Palestine must be rational and in a way that can actually change the balance of power.”
In his response to the criticism directed at him because of his condemnation of the support for Gaza, he said: “It is enough not to put Lebanon and its people in a holocaust, while we are already unable to even protect them or provide them with the most basic necessities of living.”
He continued: “The Lebanese state is also incapable, because the political class that ruled the country contributed to weakening the state’s institutions, most notably the Lebanese army.”
He explained: “I remember that some of the military vehicles in the Lebanese Army were presented to it from the United States in 1982, and are still in use today, while the state is unable even to secure spare parts for them or transport them from one point to another.”
He continued: “How do we ask this army to go to war tomorrow, when the state institutions themselves may be completely destroyed in the event of a large-scale war breaking out?”
He pointed out that the responsibility for weakening the state does not lie with one party, adding: “I do not accuse just one political team, but rather most of the political forces participated in weakening the state. Everyone is responsible for what we have reached today.”
Yassin concluded his speech by saying: “They are all responsible for our arrival here, and they are all responsible for the collapse that Lebanon has reached today.”
