The murder of the Lebanese Forces leader, along with that of a Hezbollah banker, has triggered internal tensions. He also looms over Beirut the specter of an escalation of the confrontation with the Israeli army and of Iranian retaliation for the assault on the Damascus embassy. The warning from the leader of the Maronite Church: “Without a president, only weapons proliferate here.” Geagea promises a “long” but “democratic” confrontation.
Beirut () – In Lebanon, the prospect of a serious escalation between the Israeli army and Hamas, on the one hand, and Hezbollah, on the other, is increasingly clear. The embassies of France and Russia have asked their citizens to avoid traveling to Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Syria. The decision comes as Iran threatens to hit Israel, accused of attacking the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1.
For Lebanon, these events are compounded by two concomitant crimes that local observers say threaten civil peace, as the country is deeply divided over whether Hezbollah should open a “support front” for Hamas on its southern border. These two incidents were the kidnapping and murder of Pascal Sleimanhead of the Lebanese Forces for the Jbeil region, and the assassination in Beit Méry (east of Beirut) of Mohammad Srour, a Hezbollah banker.
Pascal Sleiman, kidnapped on Sunday and found dead in Syria on Monday, was buried yesterday in his village of Mayfouk, in the Jbeil area. The Maronite Patriarch himself presided over the funeral, underlining the seriousness of a tragedy that the Lebanese Forces consider “a political crime, until proven otherwise.”
The body of banker Mohammad Srour, subject to US sanctions that accuse him of having orchestrated the transfer of funds from Iran to Hamas, was found on Tuesday in a villa in Beit Méry, a town overlooking Beirut, with at least five gunshot wounds. The perpetrators did not touch the money he was carrying. Srour's family called the crime “planned.”
The Maronite Patriarch, Monsignor Béchara Raï, who presided over the funeral of Pascal Sleiman in the Saint-Georges church of Jbeil, described it as “deplorable that the crime was committed by displaced Syrians whom Lebanon had welcomed with all humanity, while some of them act without any humanity and are now a threat to the Lebanese. He did not hide his tears of emotion as he remembered his wife's words of faith and hope upon hearing the news of her death.
Underlining that “the absence of a president has fostered chaos and the proliferation of weapons,” the leader of the Maronite Church wondered which party “takes advantage of this chaos, when the decision on war and peace is not in the hands of the State.” “.
Geagea: “It will be a long confrontation”
“Do not bet on our desperation,” Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea told supporters gathered outside the church. Addressing the crowd via a giant screen from his headquarters in Meerab, Geagea said: “And now where will we go? The answer is simple: if there is danger, we will be there, we are the Lebanese Forces. The confrontation continues. It will take time Because real solutions take time.” Geagea assured that the battle will be “democratic” and “away from any desire for revenge”, but the gaze of his supporters was not going in this direction.
According to journalist Mohammed Barakat, a Mossad provocation aimed at provoking civil unrest between Lebanese Christians and Shiites cannot be ruled out. “The two crimes appear to have been planned to pit one against the other,” he declared, and the fact that Pascal Sleiman's death was attributed to Hezbollah is “a red herring” intended to implicate the Shiite movement. The journalist, who undoubtedly believes it was a premeditated murder, states that “car thieves are not murderers.” The Lebanese army arrested four Syrians for the murder; But Barakat believes that if the perpetrators of this crime disguised as car theft were indeed Syrian, the instigators were not.
