Lebanese MP Wants Credit for “Victory”
Still believe that Lebanon is going to take action to disarm Hizballah, or guard the Syrian border to make sure Hizballah isn’t re-armed? Then read the statements of Parliamentary leader Saad Hariri—whose own father was assassinated by Syria: Hariri slams Assad for trying to ‘steal’ Lebanon victory.
BEIRUT (AFP) - Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri has accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of trying to rob Lebanon of its “victory” against Israel while failing to fight for the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
“We feel sad when the Syrian president tries to steal the victory of Lebanon,” Hariri said in response to a speech by Assad on Tuesday, in which he accused the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon of serving Israeli interests.
“He wants to be a partner in the confrontation against the Israeli occupation, but we would have hoped that he practiced this partnership on the occupied Golan Heights front,” he said to loud applause on Thursday.
The Golan Heights were conquered by Israel in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war and unilaterally annexed in 1981. Anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders have repeatedly complained that Syria’s efforts to recover the territory have been insufficient. Peace talks between Israel and Syria broke off in January 2000 amid disagreement over the strategic plateau, which overlook Israel’s northern Galilee region and commands the approaches to the Syrian capital Damascus.
“We would have hoped that he would break the silence — even for one time only — the terrible and long-standing silence on this front that remains so dear to the hearts of all the Arabs,” said the son of assassinated former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
It’s just a matter of time until the ceasefire falls apart.