On the heights of Harissa, thirty kilometers north of Beirut, the war raging in southern Lebanon seems far away. The threat of an extension of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has receded, after a new escalation in August, but it leaves a bitter taste. “Palestine is a national cause that goes beyond Lebanon. Why open a front in Lebanon when other Arab countries do nothing?”asks Elie Naïm, 50, who came to pay his respects at the Maronite Christian sanctuary of Our Lady of Lebanon on Sunday 1is september.
The maintenance worker castigates the decision taken by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite party, in October 2023 – after the Hamas attack on Israeli territory and the reprisals carried out in the Gaza Strip by Israel – to open a front in support of Hamas, at the cost of more than 600 deaths in Lebanon, including 132 civilians according to a count by Agence France-Presse. “Hezbollah decides against our will because it has the weapons and it is the strongest. All the Christians of Lebanon are against the war and against Hezbollah, like half of the Muslims elsewhere”says Denise Marheb, a 60-year-old printing worker, even more sharply.
Since October 2023, Christian political leaders have been echoing the unease expressed within their community. Denouncing the fait accompli imposed by Hezbollah, they fear that the Shiite party will take advantage of an increased role on the regional scene, alongside its Iranian sponsor, to impose its diktat in Lebanon. They already accuse the Shiite party of prolonging the presidential vacuum for nearly two years in order to have its favorite elected to this post reserved for a Maronite Christian.
Christian “Cover”
“Who gave Hezbollah the right to unilaterally involve all of Lebanon in the war, without even consulting the government? And above all, to the latter, I say: but where are you?”criticized, Sunday, from his stronghold of Meerab, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF), Samir Geagea. Defending the idea of a “Free, strong and independent state”the sole holder of the decision on war and peace, the Christian leader called for the immediate election of a president. “The most important thing is that Hezbollah does not make mistakes in its post-war calculations and does not impose anything from within.”at-the having you.
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The LF, the Christian Kataeb party and the Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Rai, are the main opponents of the war launched by Hezbollah against Israel. In June, the Patriarch had called for the implementation of UN resolutions, in particular 1559 voted in 2004, which calls for the disarmament of militias in Lebanon, something to which Hezbollah is opposed. He had called for the election of a president to guarantee that “Lebanon is no longer a launching pad for terrorist acts that compromise the security and stability of the region.”
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