In an interview with Kuwaiti daily al-Anbaa to be published tomorrow, Walid Jumblatt said he has information that Iran might allow Hizbullah to invade the government building and occupy Beirut. Jumblatt added that Hizbullah is working in concert with Emile Lahoud, who might invoke obscure legal arguments to justify staying in power. The PSP leader, who is en route to the US to ask about the delay in forming the Rafiq Hariri tribunal, called on the Lebanese army to remove Syrian installed president Emile Lahoud. He described Hizbullah as an extension of the Iranian revolutionary guard and part of a "Persian project" that starts in Persia and ends in Lebanon and Syria via Iraq.
Jumblatt said he didn't trust Nabih Berri's talks, and hinted that the speaker is endangering the lives of deputies by bringing them to the parliament for no purpose. He reiterated that March 14 has two presidential candidates, Nassib Lahoud and Boutros Harb, and that the parliament's majority has the right to elect a president "anywhere".
| Jumblatt described the scheduled electoral session on October 23rd as "imaginary" because the "opposition" has no intention to attend. |
Jumblatt statement came after Hizbullah yesterday stepped up its attacks on March 14, accusing Hariri of "defending the US", and warning of "measures" ready in place should March 14 deputies elect a president without their approval. Hassan Nasrallah's finger-waving deputy vowed not to let parliamentarians have a session if there is no agreement. MP Mohammad Raad visited Lahoud to put the final touches on the "measures", and issued a statement afterwards threatening the parliament's majority. Lahoud has repeatedly said he would not hand over power to Siniora, and that he has alternatives in place that he refused to disclose.
| Hizbullah has also been training and arming pro-Syrian parties, as well as Aoun's party, amid rumors that the post-election plan might involve dispatching armed elements to the presidential palace to keep the March 14 president from assuming power. |
This week, Al-Shiraa reported that Hizbullah has dispatched armed members to Shia villages in Mount Lebanon to prepare for the scenario of March 14 electing a president. The pro-Hariri weekly speculated that Hizbullah is either preparing to storm Baabda, which is not far from Kayfoun and Qmatieh, or to control the Beirut-Damascus highway in the event of two governments.
Military escalation seems to be on the Syrian agenda for Lebanon. In an interview with a Tunisian newspaper, Bashar Assad predicted that Lebanon "will not know stability in the near future" because some Lebanese (March 14) "had chosen to side with Israel and submit themselves to foreigners instead of taking the Arab path and that of resistance." In other words, they left Syria's orbit. Or should we say Iran?