By Hussein Abdallah
BEIRUT: Syria is expected to summon
30 Lebanese officials on suspicion of funding and supporting anti-regime armed
groups, reports said Monday, several days after President Michel Sleiman
demanded that Syrian President Bashar Assad clarify his stance on a recently
uncovered terrorist plot in Lebanon.
Damascus has repeatedly claimed that
opponents of the Syrian regime in Lebanon are aiding the rebels leading the
17-month uprising against Assad.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah officials
refused to comment on Sleiman’s remarks, amid reports that the group has
privately expressed dismay at the president’s recent position.
“We have decided not to comment on
this issue,” Hezbollah MP Nawwar al-Sahili told The Daily Star Monday.
Former Information Minister Michel
Samaha was charged last week in a terror plot intended to undermine Lebanon’s
security. Samaha allegedly possessed several explosive devices. Also charged
was a high-ranking Syrian army official.
Sleiman has expressed hope that
Assad was not involved in the plot.
“I hope with all my heart that no
Syrian officials have anything to do with these explosives and that [the plot]
was orchestrated by unofficial elements,” Sleiman said in remarks published by
local newspapers Sunday.
In his confession to the Internal
Security Forces’ Information Branch shortly after his arrest on Aug. 10, Samaha
said Assad wanted bomb attacks in Lebanon, according to sources.
Sleiman said Assad has not yet
called him about Samaha’s arrest.
“I expect [Assad] to call me, but he
has not yet,” he said. “When Syria made accusations against 33 Lebanese
officials in the near past, I contacted President Assad to inquire about the
issue. Today, there is a Lebanese accusation against a senior Syrian official
and I expect the president to call and explain the situation.”
Lebanon’s judicial authorities have
accused Syrian Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk of having links to the terror plot.
Nevertheless, Sleiman described his
relationship with Assad as “good and open.”
Sleiman confirmed that he saw the
explosives allegedly transported by Samaha from Syria to Lebanon “with my own
eyes.”
“I was shocked at what I saw, and
thank God these explosives did not explode.”
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television and
Sky News Arabia said Monday that Syria’s judicial authorities were expected to
issue summons for 30 Lebanese officials on suspicion of funding and supporting
armed groups in Syria.
No further details were given, but
the move could be a response to the charges pressed against Mamlouk.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea
praised Sleiman’s position Monday and described it as “honorable.”
Geagea urged Sleiman and Prime
Minister Najib Mikati to take further action by recalling Lebanon’s ambassador
to Damascus and asking Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon to leave the country.
Geagea, a key opposition leader,
said Lebanon should file an official complaint against the Syrian regime to the
Arab League and the United Nations Security Council.
Meanwhile, Future Movement MP Ahmad
Fatfat told The Daily Star Monday the Lebanese government “is completely absent
when it comes to pointing the finger at Syria’s role in Samaha’s plot.”
“The president’s position shows he
is concerned about defending Lebanon’s sovereignty, but the big question
remains: Where is the government in all that?” Fatfat said, criticizing Mikati
for “not doing anything” in response to a “violation of the country’s
sovereignty.”
“This proves that the government is
run by the Syrian regime and [Hezbollah leader Sayyed] Hasan Nasrallah,” Fatfat
added.
The Mikati government was formed in
June 2011, several months after the March 8 coalition toppled a national unity
government headed by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
March 8 ministers resigned from
Hariri’s government, thus stripping it of the necessary quorum required for any
Cabinet to stay in office. The resignation was prompted by differences with Hariri
and the March 14 coalition over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which later
accused Hezbollah members of being behind the 2005 assassination of late Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri.
Hezbollah and its allies managed to bring Mikati
into office with the help of Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid
Jumblatt.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Aug-21/185199-damascus-set-to-retaliate-for-samaha-arrest-with-own-summons.ashx#axzz245GhTCxA
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