Youssef Diab wrote in Asharq Al-Awsat:
The overturning of the ammunition-laden truck belonging to Hezbollah was an unprecedented embarrassment to the Free Patriotic Movement, the party’s sole ally, especially since the incident took place in an area with Christian symbolism, and resulted in the death of one of the supporters of the “movement” in addition to another death from Hezbollah. And questions were raised about the future of the relationship between the two parties, and whether the party had lost the Christian cover for its weapons, which the Christian movement had always secured since February 6, 2006 through the Mar Mikhael understanding that President Michel Aoun signed with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.
In its first comment on the Kahala clashes, the “Free Patriotic Movement” considered that “what happened at the elbow of the town of Kahala is a warning bell for the imminent danger of a decomposing state and a convulsing society.” And he directed a direct criticism of the party, and said: “May God have mercy on (Abu Youssef) Fadi Bejjani and every victim who fell as a result of the failure of Hezbollah or the security forces and an attempt to exploit the bidders, including politicians and media professionals.” The Free Movement statement added: “As we offer condolences to the family of the martyr Bejjani and all the people of the beloved Kahala, we declare our solidarity with them, and we consider the state, with its security and judicial apparatus, responsible for controlling the situation, conducting investigations, and revealing the truth.” And he declared his rejection of “every exploitation of the painful incident with the aim of tense the atmosphere and causing sedition that many seek at home and abroad, and any exploitation of events, whether emergency or artificial, calls on us as Lebanese to expedite the solution of our problems, only through constructive and purposeful dialogue, because any sedition is tantamount to collective suicide. With the wise to prevent it ».
In the clearest position that expresses this Christian group’s dissatisfaction with the party’s weapons and its role at home, Walid Al-Ashqar, a member of the Free Patriotic Movement’s political council, considered that “covering the party’s weapons is limited in turn to confronting the external danger, not the internal one.” He said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat: “From the beginning, we said that the weapons are aimed at Israel, but when they are directed inward, we reserve it.” And he believed that “when this weapon is used against the civilian and safe people of the town of Kahala, we do not accept it and we will have a public position rejecting it.”
Al-Ashqar believed that “the resistance is practicing an external mission, which is to defend the homeland against Israel, and we do not accept that its weapons are aimed at civilians in Kahaleh or any other Lebanese town.” He criticized what he called “the failure of the Lebanese army and security forces,” considering that “if the intervention had been faster than that, there would have been no casualties, and matters would not have reached this level of crisis and tension.”
For his part, the head of the “Meeting of Our Lady of the Mountain,” former MP Fares Saeed, ruled out that the Kahalah incident would lead to a rift between the Free Patriotic Movement and “Hezbollah,” and expected that “the movement would deal with it as a passing incident that does not spoil friendship with an issue.” In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, Saeed said, “All Lebanese public opinion has begun to look with concern at Hezbollah’s weapons, and this has emerged with the Druze in the southern town of Shuya, with the Sunnis in the Khaldeh region, and now with the Christians in Kahaleh.” He pointed out that “the movement’s concern about the party’s behavior is one thing, and the dissolution of the alliance is another.” And he said: “We cannot build on what happened political ends for the relationship of the two parties, especially since Gebran Bassil (the head of the Free Patriotic Movement) no longer has any political ally, especially since he tried to open channels of communication with internal and external parties and even with the Americans, and he did not find anyone to accommodate him.” .
The Al-Kahala incident continues to weigh heavily on the security situation, and Saeed warned that “the Al-Kahala area constitutes an extension of a military road that starts from inside Tehran and reaches Beirut and southern Lebanon, and Iran fought wars for it in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon and will not give up this spot that connects Tehran to the Mediterranean.” ». And the head of the “Meeting of Our Lady of the Mountain” considered that “the biggest loser from what happened in Kahala is the Lebanese army, which represented in the Christian subconscious the only shield available because of its composition and Christian leadership.” He was surprised at how, “instead of the army protecting the people as the militias, transferring the truckload of ammunition to other trucks, and perhaps transferring it to Hezbollah’s stores, and instead of being the ally of the people, it showed that it is the ally of Hezbollah’s militia.”
As for the writer and political researcher Tawfiq Shoman, who is familiar with the atmosphere of “Hezbollah”, he confirmed that the incident “put the country above a focus of security concern, but its repercussions were contained quickly, and the Lebanese army made efforts beyond returning to contain the situation.” Admitting that what happened “raised questions about the fate of Hezbollah’s relationship with the Free Patriotic Movement, especially since the victim, Fadi Bejjani, was a supporter of the movement,” Shoman told Asharq Al-Awsat: “I do not think that this incident will lead to closing the open doors between the movement and the party. A high-level decision between the two parties to expand the ground for dialogue, which includes several titles, including the presidency of the republic. Therefore, the Kahala incident will not constitute a barrier that prevents the ongoing dialogue between the party and the movement, with reference to the existing communication between the head of the movement, Gebran Bassil, and leaders of the party to address the effects of some of the positions launched by officials in the movement.
2023-08-11 03:49:43
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