The leader of the Lebanese Forces (FL), the country’s main Christian party, said on Sunday that the fall of Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria signaled the “end of the game” for Hezbollah, which he called to lay down its arms .
The Lebanese Islamist terrorist group, allied with Assad but largely weakened after more than a year of hostilities with Israel, had to withdraw its troops from Syria after the flash rebel offensive, which captured the capital Damascus from Syrian power on Sunday , ending an unchallenged reign since 2000.
“The game is over (..) every day that passes is a day lost for you and for the Lebanese,” declared Samir Geagea addressing Hezbollah during a press conference, welcoming the fall of Bashar al- Assad.
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Samir Geagea, a fierce opponent of Syrian hegemony, is the only militia leader from the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) to have served an 11-year prison sentence during Syrian rule over the country, which lasted 29 years.
Scenes of jubilation took place in several Christian and Sunni regions on Sunday in Lebanon after the announcement of the fall of tyrant Assad by Islamist rebels.
“Your popular base today needs a real state, reconstruction,” added the leader close to Saudi Arabia and the United States, while Israeli strikes ravaged the strongholds of the Shiite terrorist movement for two months of open war, from the end of September to the entry into force of a ceasefire on November 27.
Hezbollah’s opponents in Lebanon and abroad say the war against Israel and the fall of Bashar al-Assad have significantly weakened the group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the fall of a “central link” in the “axis of evil” led by Iran, seeing it as “a direct consequence” of the blows his country dealt to Tehran and Hezbollah.
Samir Geagea called on Hezbollah, the only formation created by Iran to have kept its weapons after the civil war in the name of the fight against Israel, to establish with the Lebanese army “a road map aimed at dismantling its military infrastructure” .
He spoke ahead of a parliamentary session scheduled for January 9 to elect a new head of state, after more than two years of presidential vacancy in Lebanon, due to differences between Hezbollah and its adversaries, including the FL.
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