Geagea Says State Split, Believes Arab Coalition to Intervene in Syria
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea considered on Thursday that the Lebanese state is fragmented, expressing belief that the Saudi-led Arab coalition will head to Syria after the crisis in Yemen ends.
“The state is incomplete and will never rise amid the absence of the strategic and security decision in it,” Geagea reiterated in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper el-Yom el-Sabe.
He said that the main point of contention between the March 14 and 8 alliances is the abnormal situation in the country.
“The March 14 coalition is seeking for the rise of an actual state, while the March 8 alliance deems the situation in the country as ideal.”
The LF leader reiterated that Hizbullah and its allies in Lebanon, who are affiliated to Iran, are obstructing the presidential elections, saying: “Since the first moment I expressed readiness to discuss the name of a third candidate, but unfortunately Hizbullah and its allies are not ready.”
“It is useless to discuss the name of a third candidate... even if I said I'll withdraw from the presidential race this will not change anything,” Geagea added.
He considered that Iran is “seeking to fortify its role in the Middle East by controlling the presidential polls in Lebanon or pressing for the election of its candidate.”
MPs failed on several occasions to elect a new head of state over lack of quorum. President Michel Suleiman's term ended in May without the election of a successor.
Hizbullah and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc have been boycotting electoral sessions due to a disagreement with the March 14 camp over a compromise presidential candidate.
Geagea expected that the Arab coalition will head to Syria in the upcoming months at the end of the crisis in Yemen.
“This is why Iran's allies reject Saudi Arabia's intervention” against the Huthi rebels, the Christian leader told his interviewer.
More than 215,000 people have been killed in Syria in four years of conflict, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as the brutal civil war entered its fifth year.
Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in Yemen on March 25, announcing that it had put together a coalition of more than 10 countries, including five Gulf monarchies, for the military operation to defend Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansur Hadi's government against Huthi rebels.
It said that it will continue its operation Decisive Storm until Hadi is restored to power and the rebels, backed by Iran, are defeated.
The military move against the Shiite Huthi rebels triggered fury from Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran, Hizbullah's main regional ally, with officials in Tehran warning that the military action threatened to spill over into other countries.
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