Reflections in Lebanon on the sudden collapse of the Damascus regime. Many Lebanese and displaced Syrians celebrate the day, as for everyone it is a historic and decisive event for the future. The fear of a new tyranny that will replace the one that has just been overthrown alternates with the hope of a democratic and coexisting Syria. Hezbollah has lost a powerful ally, but this does not necessarily mean a softening of its positions.
Beirut () – «Justice has finally been done! Those who believe in the power of prayer couldn’t help but think on Sunday, December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, that diligent prayers and the hand of God played a role in the sudden fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime. . The immense happiness caused by the fall, after years of suffering, of the tyrant of Damascus – a fall that some have compared to that of the Soviet Union – was proportional to the state terrorism that he practiced in Lebanon from the mid-1970s and during almost 40 years.
Victims of the Assads
In fact, the overthrow of a dynasty of tyrants of unimaginable sadism and Machiavellianism led the Christian, Druze and Sunni political classes to go to the tombs of their great victims from the first moment. Prime Minister Nagib Mikati and the two former Sunni prime ministers Fouad Siniora and Tammam Salam visited, paying tribute, the grave of Rafic Hariri, in the center of Beirut, killed by the explosion of a “van” loaded with 1,000 kg of explosives ( 2005). An occasion to recite the “fatiha”, the first sura of the Koran and the essence of the holy book for Muslims.
In the Druze mountains, a crowd paid tribute to the grave of Kamal Joumblatt, shot dead in his car on the Chouf peaks in 1977; At the same time, the leader of the Kataëb party, Samy Gemayel, and his father, former president Amine Gemayel, together with his widow Solange Gemayel, laid flowers at the grave of President Bachir Gemayel. A figure still alive in the memory of the Lebanese, buried under the rubble of his party headquarters by an explosive charge a few days after his election (1982), along with his brother Pierre Gemayel, murdered at point-blank range in an ambush in Beirut , and all the “martyrs” of the Christian faction. In Zghorta, northern Lebanon, MP Michel Mouawad and his mother Nayla paid their respects at the grave of the newly elected President of the Republic René Mouawad, killed in a car bomb attack on Independence Day, November 22, 1989 Lebanese.
In the media, the list of victims of the Syrian regime – political figures and leaders, journalists and writers, religious and military figures, not to mention the “disappeared” whose relatives are still searching – is increasingly long. The scenes of jubilation that began in the evening continued throughout the day from Akkar to Saïda, and in Tripoli in particular, with cries of “Allahou Akbar.” There were deafening gunshots, honking horns and revolutionary chants that brought together the population and many Syrian emigrants afraid of returning to their country and falling into the clutches of the regime’s henchmen.
In Halba, Akkar, youths forced the door of the local office of the Syrian Baath Party and destroyed furniture and documents. Near the Masnaa border crossing, two Syrians with opposite destinies crossed paths: one was trying to return to his country after years of exile, the other was fleeing the inauspicious fate that the fall of Assad could bring him.
Incalculable repercussions
In political terms, the fall of Bashar al-Assad has had incalculable repercussions in Lebanon. The fall of the regime triggered an extraordinary flow of Syrian families returning to their country, having fled in the past for fear of revenge from the men in power, rampant poverty in Syria and compulsory conscription into the army. Furthermore, there is a widespread belief that the fall of Assad, with the removal of purely political obstacles, has encouraged hundreds of thousands of refugees to return to their country of origin, thus reducing the burden that their presence represented on Lebanon. Furthermore, the fall of the Syrian regime, following the ceasefire and the agreement on the implementation of Resolution 1701, should further weaken Hezbollah. However, it is not certain that this weakening will be reflected in a softening of the “Party of God”, whose disarmament is provided for in Resolution 1701.
In any case, Hezbollah has lost a powerful ally and has been territorially isolated from its source of arms and money. By the way, the Lebanon-Israel-France-United States Ceasefire Oversight Committee, chaired by a Centcom officer, General Jasper Jeffers, met yesterday for the first time; a date full of meaning, from which the army of the Jewish State must begin to consider its withdrawal from Lebanon, which has not yet begun.
On the domestic front, the current interim prime minister, Nagib Mikati, announced that a commission will contact the new Syrian authorities to obtain a list of political prisoners released from the regime’s various prisons. The hope is to find some of them still alive or, at least, to confirm their death. For their part, the parties that defend the sovereignty of Lebanon, such as the Lebanese Forces and the Kataëb, have called for the repeal of the Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination imposed by Damascus on Lebanon (May 22, 1991) and the commission of coordination attached to it.
An uncertain future
An episcopal source also spoke about the collapse of the Assad regime in Lebanon. “The Lebanese are happy to have gotten rid of an oppressive regime that made us live under its yoke,” a Maronite bishop told on condition of anonymity. The prelate also specified that he was not speaking on behalf of the Church, but as a Lebanese citizen. However, he continued, we have to know what comes next. The rebel groups are heterogeneous. They are interested in presenting themselves as moderates and thus winning over public opinion. But they could be wolves in sheep’s clothing. We do not want one tyranny to replace another in Syria. Let’s wait and see.”
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