BEIRUT: Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi acknowledges the “profound crisis of trust” between Hizbullah and Prime Minister Saad Hariri, but believes that the government will eventually sort out the issue of false witnesses in the Rafik Hariri assassination case.
As a top aide to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, Aridi has been a constant presence in Jumblatt’s meetings with officials and diplomats, and is upbeat about the state of relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia.
“Despite everything that has been said recently about a divergence between Syria and Saudi Arabia … or a fall-back in Syrian-Saudi relations … despite all of this, there is a positive climate between these two Arab countries,” Aridi told The Daily Star in an interview.
“The leaders in each country are determined to have excellent relations, in terms of securing everything necessary to preserve stability and security in Lebanon,” he added.
However, Aridi is less upbeat about the relationship between the two main camps in Lebanon, led by Hizbullah and Hariri.
“I have said, on more than occasion, that meetings held with Prime Minister [Saad] Hariri, or with Sayyed [Hassan] Nasrallah, have led to re-establishing contact between the two sides, and this is very important, with no exaggerations or misconceptions,” Aridi said.
“Contacts don’t mean a solution for the problems; contacts, during one, two or three sessions, don’t mean that we will rebuild trust,” he added.
“However, no contacts mean severed ties, or a vacuum.”
The minister said that both sides were genuine in their desire to prevent an escalation, and rely on dialogue and cooperation to find a way out of the country’s current impasse.
“In the end, this has dispelled the climate of worrying pessimism, where we were awaiting, from one moment to the next, a kind of explosion in the country. Now, things aren’t like this, certainly not.”
Lebanon should do its part to benefit from the “umbrella” of protection provided by Syria and Saudi Arabia, Aridi said.
In contrast, the minister said he had “no trust” in a role for Washington, when asked about the recent visit to Lebanon by Jeffrey Feltman, the United States assistant secretary of state for Middle East.
“Personally, I don’t trust American policy at all. It’s very easy for an American envoy, or American statement, or American figure, to engage in incitement, and call for sovereignty, independence and freedom, and adhering to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL),” Aridi said.
The minister said Lebanese were also keen to support such things, but the issue was one of what politicians needed to do in practical terms.
The minister said Lebanese were also keen to support such things, but the issue was one of what politicians needed to do in practical terms.
Aridi said that any deterioration of the political situation in Lebanon, with rival sides impugning each other’s patriotism, or hinting at a chaotic situation on the ground, worked to serve Israel’s interest.
Meanwhile, the current conflict over witnesses who have misled the STL investigation could be solved, the minister said, preferring to focus on the positives. “We still have consensus,” he said, indicating that no political group or figure opposed the idea of prosecuting the so-called false witnesses in the Hariri case.
“Will this consensus collapse just because of a disagreement over the judicial body that should take charge of the matter?” he asked. “In the end, there’s a possibility of finding a way out. Lebanon is a country of deal-making. We might agree on a formula. The important thing is that no one is backing away from the false witnesses issue.”
Aridi said Lebanon had not reached the point of halting its funding of the STL and asking for Lebanese judges to pull out of the process.
Nonetheless, while a minimum level of consensus existed on one aspect of the STL, Aridi acknowledged that a mere meeting between Hariri and Nasrallah would be very useful, since “the crisis of trust is profound.”
“The anxiety of each side vis-à-vis the other … is very big. This requires huge efforts to restore trust between the two sides,” he said.
A general sense of anxiety among the public about the political situation is palpable and understandable, the Progressive Socialist Party official said.
Aridi spoke about a scenario of general chaos if the political situation experienced a serious deterioration, hinting that since only one side was armed, a traditional military confrontation seemed unlikely. Instead, there was the prospect of bombings and assassinations, Aridi said, since intelligence agencies from various countries, including Israel, were active in Lebanon.
“It would be a series of events … we might know when it begins, but we won’t know how far it will go, and how it will continue, or the party behind it,”Aridi added.
No comments:
Post a Comment