Geagea: Those Fearful of Extremists Coming to Power in Syria Must Quickly End Crisis
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted on Sunday that the longer the Syrian crisis lasts, the greater the chances of extremists coming to power should the current regime be overthrown.
He said: “Those fearing the rise of extremists should quickly end the Syrian crisis.”
He made his statements during a speech at a dinner for the Lebanese community in Qatar.
He continued: “We cannot demand democracy and then back down from this call when we realize that its results may not necessarily meet our expectations.”
“We either want democracy or we don’t,” he declared.
The key to ensuring that democracy will be respected is by requesting the new sides in power to maintain it, “otherwise they will meet a fate worse than their predecessors,” he remarked.
“Exploiting democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring is unacceptable,” stressed Geagea.
In addition, he noted that democracy cannot be maintained in Lebanon, while a dictatorship still stands in Syria.
“We will not judge a new regime or ruling party in an Arab country based on its name,” he stated.
“We will judge it based on its agenda and how well it exercises democracy and respects human rights,” he explained.
Addressing those who say that the developments in Syria are a conspiracy against the resistance, Geagea said: “The Syrian people have the right to exercise their full liberties and it is time that they live their lives as they want to.”
Addressing the dispute in Lebanon over the government’s extra-budgetary spending, he said: “We don’t want to strike a deal with the other team, but we want all sides to be dealt with equally under the law.”
“The issue of the $11 billion does not exist, but they fabricated this problem,” he added.
Furthermore, Geagea stressed that governments between 2006 and 2008 had no choice but to resort to extra-budgetary spending because parliament was deliberately shut down by the March 8 camp.
“They are using the issue of the $11 billion for political blackmail, nothing more,” said the LF leader.
“I challenge them to form a parliamentary committee to verify how these funds were spent,” he continued.
The March 8 forces, mainly the Change and Reform bloc of MP Michel Aoun, are demanding records on how the governments of former Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri spent the $11 billion.
Saniora stresses the spending was made to cover the expenses of increase in wages of civil servants, subsidize electricite du Liban and pay the interest on the national debt and compensations to the victims of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon in 2006.
He said that the total of additional spending between 2006 and 2009 amounted to $11 billion. While the 2010 spending totaled $5 billion, and the amount spent in 2011 totaled $6 billion.
Geagea traveled to Qatar on Friday where he held talks on Saturday with Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.
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