Berri: Haret Hreik strike indicates likelihood of further Israeli escalation in coming period

BEIRUT — Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told local newspaper al-Joumhouria that the Israeli strike on Haret Hreik in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday “indicates the likelihood of an increase in the pace and scope of Israeli escalation in the coming period," the newspaper reported on Tuesday.

For the first time since June, Israel carried out an airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, killing five Hezbollah members, including Haytham Ali Tabataba'i, commander of Hezbollah’s elite al-Radwan force, and a leading figure in the militia’s hardline wing.

Berri said he expects there not to be "any serious intervention from the mechanism committee, which is busy monitoring the Lebanese Army while turning a blind eye to the Israeli army’s violations of the cease-fire agreement." The 'mechanism committee' is a cease-fire monitoring body, consisting of Lebanon, France, the U.S., Israel and UNIFIL.

"The most dangerous aspect of the attack is that it brought the southern suburbs and Beirut back into the circle of Israeli targeting," Berri continued. "This shows there are no real guarantees to protect the capital and its suburbs, given the enemy’s freedom from any restraints and its persistence in violating Lebanon."

Berri also criticized comments made by Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea regarding the latest attack on the southern suburbs, “at a time when we are in dire need of unity, because internal cohesion is the most important and strongest weapon in confronting the Israeli threat.” Geagea had called for the establishment of “a true state in Lebanon, one that would hold a monopoly over weapons” following the attack.

Regarding the fate of the Egyptian initiative to avoid an escalation in Lebanon, Berri said: “We will wait to see what the Egyptian Foreign Minister brings with him during his visit to Beirut on Wednesday.”

Diaspora law

Berri also commented on the parliamentary elections' diaspora law, saying: "The law currently in force is the one that will apply.”

Berri categorically refuses to put on the agenda of any plenary session an amendment to the electoral law sent by Cabinet to Parliament to allow the Lebanese diaspora to vote for all 128 MPs, while Article 112 of the current legislation limits their vote to only six seats.

He noted that granting urgency status to the draft law submitted by the government “is nothing but a blatant scandal,” noting that “the electoral law is a constitutional law and is almost the only one to which the concept of urgency does not apply."