Lebanon’s PM During the 2006 war with Israel, he told the BBC that his nation had been abandoned by the world community.
According to Fouad Siniora, trying to bring about peace was not being done with enough initiative, and it was intolerable to let Lebanon disintegrate apart.
We are currently facing a very challenging scenario that calls for significant local, Arab, and global commitment.
“You can push things in a tremendous catastrophe—sometimes to the verge of falling—without truly understanding what it implies in the long run.
“It’s taking place while the US government is extremely preoccupied with the elections.
Additionally, we are unable to choose a president since certain national organizations, particularly Hezbollah, have been insisting that they want a president that will not stab that group in the back,” Siniora said.
About 20 years ago, Hezbollah members crossed the border and attacked Israeli soldiers, sparking the start of the most recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon. A month-long struggle began when three were killed and two were kidnapped.
Siniora distanced the Lebanese government from the events in a statement she released in the days that followed.
He believes that by not acting in the same way, the nation’s current leaders have let their people down.
That day, this government did not act in the same manner as my government. My administration made it quite evident that we were unaware of Hezbollah’s plan to cross the border at the Blue Line in order to kidnap and murder Israeli soldiers.
“No action has been taken this time by the Lebanese government. The advantage of what we did is that we created a distance between the Lebanese government and Lebanon on the one hand and Hezbollah on the other,” he explained.
Lebanon’s leader, Siniora, has expressed his belief that the country has lost its sovereignty due to Hezbollah’s kidnapping and Iran’s interference in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. He was a key architect of UN resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war and required a buffer zone south of the Litani River to be free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons. Despite the deployment of UN peacekeeping force Unifil and the presence of the Lebanese army, Hezbollah’s people and military infrastructure remained in the area.
The Lebanese political system has left Hezbollah’s influence difficult to control. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since its last elections in 2022, and leadership is in short supply. Siniora also argues that the conflict in Lebanon should not be linked to the ongoing Gaza conflict.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has called for simultaneous ceasefires in both Lebanon and Gaza, but Siniora believes that Lebanon cannot afford to get involved in such a matter, especially given the ongoing situation in Gaza. He believes that continuing to link Lebanon’s situation with Gaza is not wise.
(BBC)
