Alwaght- While Lebanon’s political scene in recent weeks has been in a state of confusion and uncertainty because of a failure to elect a president and form a new government and this has been a driver for foreign interference, the death of a UNIFIL soldier seems to even have broadened the foreign meddling in the country’s home affairs.
On Thursday, a UNIFIL peacekeeper was killed in southern Lebanon, with his death remaining shrouded in mystery to the moment. According to reports, on Wednesday night, two UNIFIL vehicles were moving to Beirut to replace forces. One of them for unknown reasons drove away from its main route and entered Al-Aqebiya town in the south, where people were in the streets to watch a World Cup match. They reportedly went surprised to see the UNIFIL patrol and asked it out. This incident strained the conditions in the town.
Moving hastily to return to its main route, the vehicle unintentionally ran over a Lebanese citizen. In the meantime, armed people who were in the crowds fired at the UNIFIL car. It hit one of the buildings while fleeing and overturned, and an Irish soldier was killed. The exact details of how he was killed have not yet been announced, and a joint investigation is underway between the UN and Lebanon.
Although Hezbollah and the Lebanese army have said that this incident was accidental and not pre-planned, the opponents of Hezbollah, both inside Lebanon and in the region, tried to fish in the troubled waters by pointing the fingers of blame at Hezbollah. The opposition media outlets as well as some social media users claimed that Hezbollah was behind this incident and tried to relate it to presidential election process . Anti-Hezbollah accusations come as since the deployment of UNIFIL mission to Lebanon in 1978, such incidents have occurred several times, but the anti-Hezbollah controversy in the current conditions is purposeful.
Riyadh and Paris start their moves
Amid Lebanon power vacuum caused by a failure to elect a new president, Saudi Arabia and France have once again started their diplomatic moves and in a meeting recently held in Paris, they discussed election of a president in Lebanon and death of the UNIFIL soldier. According to sources familiar with the talks, no agreement was reached between the Saudi and French officials in this meeting because the positions of the Saudis were “vague.” There are differences between Saudi Arabia and France on Lebanon president election. Paris insists that the president must be approved by the parliament and all political factions, but the Saudis insist on figures close to them.
Saudi Arabia-Lebanon ties have been hit by many challenges in recent years, and the Saudis, who could not get their pawns into the parliament through diplomatic channels, tried to force Hezbollah to retreat by applying extensive sanctions and with the complicity of US. Therefore, the death of the UNIFIL soldier seems to have provided them with a good opportunity to re-implement their failed plans.
The Saudis insist on their choices for president while their acolytes, including Saad Hariri, in the past years experienced a downturn in parliamentary elections due to their poor and dependent performance. Ignoring the Lebanese demand for rise of new and independent figures which is showing itself in the stances of Hezbollah and its allies, Saudi Arabia and its puppets inside Lebanon interpret these demand a violation of Taif Agreement.
Taif Agreement, which was signed in 1989 to end the 15-year civil war in Lebanon between all Lebanese political groups in Saudi Arabia, determined a power sharing mechanism among Maronite Christians and Muslims (Shiites and Sunnis), according to which the post of president belongs to the Maronite Christians, the speaker of the parliament post is given to the Shiites, and the post of prime minister is given to the Sunnis.
Currently, two major factions among Christians, one close to the Hezbollah (Free Patriotic Movement led by Gibran Bassil) and the other close to Saudi Arabia (the Lebanese Forces led by Samir Geagea) are competing for the post.
US sanctions as a fire support to Saudi and French agenda
Along with the Saudis, the Americans, too, have increased their moves to influence the Lebanese developments. The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in a recent letter to the State Department and Department of Treasury called for sanctions on those hampering the presidential election process. The letter claims that Hezbollah and its allies have declined to prioritize the needs of the people over their interests. Lebanon, the letter goes on, needs an elected and strong government that is not under the influence of the foreigners and prioritizes the nation’s needs. But Hezbollah, Amal Movement, and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) are obstructing the parliamentary sessions to elect a new president.
Americans claims come while Hezbollah and FPM are doing their best to end the national political crisis as soon as possible, but their resistance to the foreign pressures is called an obstruction. The Americans pretend to support the Lebanese while their massive sanctions and halt of economic aids to Beirut are the source of the unprecedented economic crisis in the country.
According to Riyadh and Washington, Hezbollah’s success in electing an independent individual for the president post will further strengthen the role of this movement in the Lebanese developments, and this will increase the power of the Hezbollah and its allies to foil Western and Arab interventionist plans in Lebanon. Since Lebanon’s political parties are these days busy holding parliamentary meetings to elect a new president, the killing of the UNIFIL soldier can be a pretext for Washington and Riyadh to wrest a concession from Hezbollah and impose their own choice on the Lebanese people. In recent days, reports suggested that Saudi Arabia and Qatar agree on General Jeseph Aoun, the army chief, being the new president.
The Arab-Western push for imposition of their choice comes as Hezbollah and its allies are opposed to these choices and insist the new president should stand in the face of the Americans and prioritize Lebanon’s national interests. Hezbollah and its allies have the majority in the parliament and any scenario will fail until the movement and its lawmakers agree on the new president choice.
The perpetuation of the crisis by the West and Saudi Arabia comes as in recent months tensions have been escalating between Hezbollah and Israel over maritime borders. The tensions inside Lebanon can serve the Israeli interests as they can distract Hezbollah from watching Israel.
The stepped-up Western-Arab moves after the death of the UNIFIL soldier support the hypothesis that perhaps this incident was pre-planned by the foreign actors to put strains on Hezbollah. After all, all of their past scenarios have failed and they had to try a new way. In other words, this incident serves Washington and Riyadh agenda and propaganda that are meant to execute their plans in Lebanon.
