Writer Criticizes Hezbollah, Urges “Arab or International” Force in Lebanon

Text of report by London-based newspaper Al-Hayat website on 12 May

[Commentary by Jamil al-Dhiyabi: "Hezbollah and the Taleban Anniversary"]

Hamas hijacks Gaza while Hezbollah hijacks Beirut. Muqtada al- Sadr threatens Iraq while the Al-Qa’idah organization threatens the whole world. “Bailed out” and extremist militias and movements suppress nations and topple governments. I believe that there is no difference between what the Taleban did in Afghanistan in the 1990s and what Hezbollah has done in Lebanon except for the difference in time and geographic location. The international stands are inconsistent and most of them are “lacklustre”. The primary defendant is Iran that has no “true” friends left except those that operate like it and that fear its intentions and the expansion of its influence.

I am not in the process of talking about Al-Qa’idah or Hamas or Al-Sadr’s militias since the state of affairs in Lebanon requires an analysis of Hezbollah’s coup against its country and people by using arms, force, and threats to cut off the hands of its opponents. It is said that Hezbollah’s last fig leaf fell after Al-Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah’s designs and Iranian agenda have been exposed. Syria is baring teeth that are said to be white as it laughs at the presence of a new ally called Qatar. It proclaims that what is happening in Lebanon is “an internal affair” while Hezbollah mounts Syrian flags and pictures of its president on the rooftops of buildings and institutions, on burning streets, and on closed roads in an act of “coup” against the homeland and the citizen. Hezbollah is transforming the homes of Beirut into rubble and its streets into fertile ground for militias armed to the teeth. Hezbollah is preparing to turn Beirut into an arena to settle scores that serve the interests of countries for which it cares distant from Lebanon’s interests. Hezbollah has finally been exposed as it discarded the “ideological” mask behind which it hid many years of extortion, a mask that conceals an Iranian-Syrian face. The party’s justifications and its so-called “resistance” against the enemy have fallen. It has shown that its enemy is within Lebanon after it suppressed the land and the people and wreaked on them ruin, destruction, and the muzzling of mouths.

I affirm that the time is suitable to draw up a mechanism to disarm Hezbollah on the basis of United Nations resolutions 1559 and 1701. This is especially true after it pointed its guns at the Lebanese interior, turned against the government and the people, and embarked on the mission of settling scores with the sons of its own people, occupy national facilities and institutions, and hijack the capital of its country by force. Al-Sayyid Nasrallah’s claims that his party’s policy is to establish a strong, free, and independent Lebanon and his claims that its power is to protect Lebanon from an external not an internal enemy have finally been exposed as false. Is this the Lebanon that is occupied by force that Nasrallah wants and for which he preaches after he hijacked its capital, silenced its media, and shut down the schools and universities? Did not Nasrallah claim that the muzzles of his guns will not be aimed at the interior but will always remain pointed at the Israeli enemy? Has Lebanon turned into an enemy of his party? Are not Nasrallah’s actions of spreading panic and hijacking the country a legitimate justification for the others to defend themselves? Do his actions not pave the way for a civil war the first loser of which will be Hezbollah and the entire Lebanese people?

Hezbollah is losing. It proclaimed civil disobedience and lost. It is losing as it burns the roads and closes the airport. It bore arms and besieged homes and is losing. Why is it losing? It is losing because the world gave the party the chance to lay down its arms and military materiel on the basis of United Nations Security Council resolutions that call for disarming any militia outside the state and the law. What Hasan Nasrallah’s “militia” is doing will turn Lebanon into a second Iraq. It will expel security and stability from the streets of Beirut and will open the doors wide to the growth of the allies of Al-Qa’idah, Fatah al-Islam, and others. The Hezbollah-led opposition in Lebanon is similar to an internal current that is tied to the interests of countries with their own agendas and strategies. It is turning Lebanon into a “scapegoat” that is drawing the attention of world to what these states are doing. Thus, the circles of conflict in the region will expand until the world becomes preoccupied with the special agendas of these states and their stands against international legitimacy.

Lebanon is on the threshold of a fresh phase of turmoil. Lebanon is under the threat of a sectarian and civil war that is looming in the very close horizon. Jihadist sites on the Internet have posted calls to champion the Sunnis in Lebanon against what they called the “revolt” of the Shias and the “coup” of Hezbollah. The factors for civil war can be seen among the Lebanese people and their various sects and denominations after Hezbollah created justifications for them. The statements by officials inside Lebanon do not augur an imminent relaxation even if the situation has calmed down for the time being. This is particularly true since Nabih Birri, the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, remains silent about actions that threaten the government and the people. Lebanon is in dire need of an Arab or international protection force to bring security and stability and impose the control of the state over all its institutions and decisions. Lebanon needs support to build a strong state that is capable of defending the people and their public and private institutions. Lebanon needs a stand that would restore power to the government and stand against the practices of Syria and Iran.

Originally published by Al-Hayat website, London, in Arabic 12 May 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.