War in south Lebanon: Opposition wants ‘government to face its responsibilities’

The opposition has not given up. Since the start of the fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on Oct. 8, Hezbollah’s opponents have been pressing for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which had put an end to the 2006 war between the two sides, once and for all.

While the opposition believes that it is more pressing than ever to respect this resolution, following the Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday evening, it also seems aware that its own efforts to push the government to assume its responsibilities will not suffice. Pressure must also be made on the political and diplomatic authorities to spare the country “the heavy toll of a war that does not concern it,” an anti-Hezbollah MP said.

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Against this background, Mikati and opposition MPs — including Georges Okas (Lebanese Forces), Michel Moawad (Renewal bloc), Marc Daou and Michel Doueihy (Oct. 17 movement), Adib Abdel Massih (independent) — held a meeting at the Grand Serail with caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati on Thursday. Former Economy Minister Alain Hakim, delegated by the Kataeb, was also present.

L’Orient-Le Jour learned that several anti-Hezbollah MPs requested this meeting a few hours after the strike.

“Our priority is to avoid an all-out war, and to ensure the implementation of Resolution 1701 as soon as possible, especially after such an attack, which could lead the country into a devastating escalation,” MP Moawad told L’Orient-Le Jour, after the meeting with Mikati.

“Everyone knows that the current conflict will only end when Resolution 1701 is applied to the letter. That’s what we want,” he added.

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Mikati is said to share this point of view. “He assured us that he will soon start an initiative to increase the army’s staffing, with 8,000 soldiers to be deployed in south Lebanon,” said an MP who was present at the Grand Serail on Thursday, on condition of anonymity.

According to the MP, Mikati is expected to hold talks in the near future with the ambassadors of the five permanent UN members to Beirut.

MP Daou said as he was leaving the Grand Serail that his camp “does not accept that Lebanon serves as a battleground for settling scores and being exposed to dangers for regional objectives,” without giving further details.

“What matters most to us is the Lebanese people, who today need to unite behind their cabinet, their parliament and their army,” he added. This is what prompted another participant to the meeting to say that the initiative aims above all “to get the cabinet to face its responsibilities.”

Ministers at the service of the ‘resistance’

The anti-Hezbollah MPs perceive that the official vision about the current conflict needs to be unified first. At a time when the cabinet was pressing in diplomatic circles for a way out of the crisis through Resolution 1701, ministerial figures gravitating in the orbit of Hezbollah expressed a different point of view.

This is particularly true of caretaker Labor Minister Moustapha Bayram, Hezbollah’s representative in the cabinet. “It’s the resistance that will decide on the next phase,” he said in response to a journalist’s question at the end of the cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the Grand Serail, the day after the strike.

Bayram is not the only minister on the opposition’s radar. There is also caretaker Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib. Bou Habib’s remarks on Sunday evening to the local al-Jadeed channel came as a surprise. He said, “it is normal to discuss with Hezbollah and to take its approval for everything related to the conflict.”

“This kind of statement is unacceptable,” said Moawad. Adib Abdel Massih agreed, saying that “It’s not normal for a minister to say things that could further implicate the Lebanese state” in the ongoing conflict.

He, however, said the outcome of the ministerial session was good; at the end of the session, the cabinet said it “strongly denounces” the attack on the southern suburbs and that it is logistically ready to deal with any escalation.

“It is good to reassure that medicines and fuel are sufficient for the next phase. But the most important thing is to implement Resolution 1701 as soon as possible,” said Abdel Massih.

The opposition seems to have an eye on the cabinet and the other on parliament. The opposition components are still waiting for Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to respond to the petition they submitted to him 10 days ago, in which they asked for a plenary session to adopt recommendations that would summarize Lebanon’s official position on the ongoing war.

But none of them is deluding itself by anything. “He’s not going to respond to this request. Already, his parliamentary bloc did not even receive us for a meeting focused on unblocking the presidential election. But we will continue our efforts,” said Abdel Massih.

He indicated that opposition representatives are due to hold talks shortly with the UN representative in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, without ruling out the possibility of a meeting with the ambassadors of the five countries committee involved in the Lebanese dossier, namely the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.

This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour and translated by Joelle El Khoury.