The leader of the Marada, Sleiman Frangieh, in Beirut in October 2016. (Credit: AFP archive photo)
Thursday evening, in an interview with the Al Jadeed channel, the head of the Marada movement, Sleiman Frangieh, spoke for the first time after several months of silence on the situation in Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, his historical ally, whom he considered a "friend."
"I tell you that the regime that was in place was a dictatorship, that's true. We never defended it by saying it was a democratic regime," acknowledged the Maronite leader, while emphasizing that it is now necessary to "give the new regime time to see what happens" and his wish to see "Syria stabilize."
'I don't know a Christian who does not want to leave Syria'
Frangieh was nevertheless alarmist about the fate of Syrian minorities, particularly Christians, estimating that they were safer under the Assad regime's rule than since its overthrow by the coalition of Islamist rebels led by the current interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa.
"Under Assad, there were two million Christians. Then, after the war started in 2011, they were between 500 and 600 thousand in the regions held by the regime. Now, they are only 100 to 150 thousand, and they all want to leave. I don't know a Christian who does not want to leave Syria," he said. "In Assad's time, no one was targeted for their religion. Someone could be targeted politically, but not for their religion, and that is no longer the case in Syria today," he added.
Former President Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar come from the Alawite minority. Under the father's dictatorship, the regime bloodily suppressed a Sunni Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the city of Hama in 1982. Under Bashar al-Assad's regime, thousands of opponents, mostly Sunni but also from other minorities, notably Christian, languished in the regime's prisons.
Frangieh mentioned the communal tensions in Syria. In recent months, massacres have targeted the Alawite and Druze minorities in the country. "The other day, in the heart of Damascus, Sharaa's men killed, massacred people and they destroyed everything. A man in Hama was assaulted because his fiancée was with him in his car," he cited haphazardly to support his claim. "What is happening is not reassuring for all minorities in the region," he repeated.
'Signs of Syria's dislocation'
The former Lebanese presidential candidate and favorite of the Shiite tandem Amal-Hezbollah also addressed Sharaa, while the latter was in Paris on Wednesday for an official visit to the Élysée Palace, to meet with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron. "I expect President Ahmad al-Sharaa to implement his words. There can no longer be elements out of control [among Syrian security forces]. After a month, two months... six months, when will he discipline them?" he questioned.
The head of the Marada, however, called for continued bilateral relations between Beirut and Damascus: "With whom should the Lebanese state speak on the subject of Syrian refugees or borders? With the Syrian state. There must be peaceful relations between the two countries," he said, before reiterating his doubts about the neighboring country's near future. "I do not see signs of a division of Syria, but rather of dislocation. And that would be very dangerous, as it could provoke a civil war that would make all minorities flee and destroy the country," he concluded.
Historical ally of Bashar al-Assad, constantly repeating the "familial" nature of his relationship with the former Damascus ruler, Frangieh saw his presidential ambitions buried in the aftermath of the fall of the former Syrian regime, the main pillar of his regional support, after his ally on the Lebanese scene, Hezbollah, was significantly weakened by the war against Israel last year in Lebanon.
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour.
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