BEIRUT: Several MPs called over the
weekend for the expulsion of Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon over the recent
indictment of former Lebanese MP Michel Samaha as well as two Syrian military
figures.
“It is time that Syria’s ambassador
to Lebanon be summoned and that he and the explosives be returned to Syria and
our envoy in Damascus be recalled until there is a democratic order there which
acts without enmity toward Lebanon,” March 14 MP Marwan Hamade, a fierce
opponent of the Syrian regime, said in comments published by An-Nahar newspaper
Sunday.
On Saturday, Samaha, a former MP and
two-time information minister, was indicted by Lebanon’s military tribunal for
plotting to assassinate political and religious figures in the country and
planning terrorist attacks.
In an unprecedented move, Syrian
National Security Bureau head Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk and a Syrian brigadier
general, who was identified as Brig. Gen. Adnan, were also included in the
indictment.
Judge Sami Sader, the government’s
deputy commissioner at the Military Tribunal, also charged the three men with
creating an armed group aimed at undermining the authority and prestige of the
state.
Samaha was arrested by the Internal
Security Forces’ Information Branch Thursday on suspicion of being involved in
a plot to carry out bomb attacks in Lebanon on behalf of the Syrian regime.
Hamade also urged Foreign Affairs
Minister Adnan Mansour to inform his counterparts at a ministerial Arab League
meeting, which had been set to take place later in the day in Saudi Arabia but
was later canceled, due to “the aggression against Lebanon that almost breached
civil peace.”
Mansour said Saturday that there
would be no alteration of diplomatic ties between Lebanon and Syria until the
courts issue their verdict.
“There have been no diplomatic steps
taken and there will not be until the judiciary has its final say,” the
National News Agency quoted him as saying Saturday.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said
Sunday that Lebanon adopted its policy of dissociation toward developments in
the region “out of conviction” in order not to interfere in the affairs of other
states and “for this reason we will not allow anyone to interfere in our
affairs or that Lebanon be turned into an arena for settling scores or to
import foreign crises.”
He added, “In light of the
information and results, we will take a political stance and decision that is
in tune with safeguarding Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence and to
disallow anyone from threatening the Lebanese and their safety.”
In the statement, made through his
information office, Mikati said he had instructed authorities to get to the
bottom of the revelations that explosive devices had entered the country.
“I asked relevant security
authorities to conduct investigations to determine who and how explosives
entered Lebanon and to bolster [security] at all border points,” Mikati said.
MP Akram Chehayeb, a member of the
National Struggle Front that has been highly critical of Assad, also said it
was time for Syria’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali to leave.
“Is it not time for Lebanon to kick
out the ambassador of the rogue regime that is hostile to its people and all
the people in the region?” he asked in a statement Sunday.
Chehayeb said Ali needed to explain
his position given the Samaha case.
“The ambassador of the Syrian regime
to Lebanon does not miss an opportunity to assure the regime’s keenness over
the security, stability and peace in Lebanon ... but what does he say after the
military tribunal’s indictment of former MP and Minister Michel Samaha that the
regime requested him to do things and provided him with the necessary
explosives and money to strike at Lebanon’s security, stability and peace?” he
asked.
Chehayeb also called on Lebanese
officials to explain their position given the alleged revelations in Samaha’s
case.
“Given what was leaked in terms of
reliable testimonies that incriminate the Syrian regime, its intelligence and
ruling symbols and demonstrate what this regime holds for Lebanon, what is the
position of officials toward a regime that has lost its credibility and
violated international and Arab treaties and agreements of cooperation and
coordination between Lebanon and Syria and after there is tangible evidence
that this regime wants to undermine Lebanon?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Mohammad
Safadi issued a statement Sunday denying reports that Milad Kfouri, who sources
identified as providing incriminating footage in the Samaha case, was still
under the minister’s employment.
“Some media referred to Mr. Milad
Kfouri, whose name has become linked to the case of the arrest of former
Minister Michel Samaha, as being under the employment of Minister Safadi within
a security capacity,” the statement said.
Safadi’s office said the minister
had turned to Kfouri in 2005, in the aftermath of the assassination of former
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, when politicians had turned to security firms to
provide protection. “It was within this context that there was cooperation with
Mr. Kfouri, who presented himself as an owner of a firm offering security
services and on this basis he was contracted,” the statement said.
Safadi’s office said Kfouri ended
his contract in the third week of July 2012 “for reasons he did not wish to
clarify and his work ended there.”
Security sources told The Daily Star
that a man from the Kfouri family had provided what they described as
incriminating evidence of Samaha saying Assad had desired bomb attacks in the
country.
“This is what Bashar wants,”
security sources quoted Samaha as saying of the Syrian leader, in a video shot
by Kfouri, who was working as a Lebanese undercover agent for the Internal
Security Forces’ Information Branch.
The sources also said that, in the
video, Samaha can be seen and heard saying that Syrian Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk
had handed him the bombs in addition to cash to be distributed to would-be
perpetrators of the attacks in Lebanon.
When interrogators screened the video in his
presence, Samaha promptly admitted to being the man on film, the sources said.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Aug-12/184337-hamade-calls-for-expulsion-of-syrian-envoy-to-lebanon-over-samaha-case.ashx#axzz23Ova9jeY
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