Lebanese MP says country is enduring civil war déjà vu

Lebanon is trapped between two threats, Marwan Hamadeh, member of the Lebanese parliament, said in an interview on Al Arabiya’s Studio Beirut program, as he discussed the current political situation in the country, as well the arrest of former Lebanese cabinet minister Michel Samaha.

The two threats Hamadeh referred to are the internal implosion the Syrian regime is trying to orchestrate, and the second being a potential war inflicted by Israel on Iran.

Hamadeh said the Lebanese people are currently enduring the same scenario they encountered during the civil wars of 1975 and 1982.

On the case of Samaha, Hamadeh said that while no one is obliged to either believe or disbelieve the story, they must acknowledge the facts as we wait for the final verdict. The former minister is not personally important in the case, Hamadeh said, but rather the plot he was organizing.

“Today’s events remind us and confirm that the heresy of Fateh al-Islam is nothing but the Syrian regime’s creation,” Hamadeh said, referring to the radical Sunni Islamist group noted for its fight against the Lebanese army mid-2007 in a Palestinian refugee camp.

It is alleged that the group is made up predominantly of Syrians as well as maintaining close ties with Syria.

Moreover, Hamadeh indicated that if anything would happen to the current Syrian Maronite Patriarch Mar Boutros al-Rahi, “it would be the start of a civil war and the Sunnis of Lebanon would be the first suspects.”

In an interview with Reuters in March, al-Rahi said “All regimes in the Arab world have Islam as a state religion, except for Syria. It stands out for not saying it is an Islamic state ... The closest thing to democracy [in the Arab world] is Syria.”

According to Hamadeh, the ideology of the Syrian regime has not changed since the era of President Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez and uncle, Rifaat. “This ideology relies on the minorities’ coalition,” he said, seeing as the Assad family is followers of the Alawite Muslim minority in Syria.

“Hezbollah went too far in supporting the Syrian regime,” Hamadeh added, while saying that the regime is bombing Azaz in a devastating and calculated way, knowing that the Lebanese hostages are there.

However Hamadeh said that Hezbollah “knows well how to analyze what is going on, and how to perceive the regime’s collapse everywhere.”

“We participated in the national dialogue in spite of our conviction that it is useless,” Hamadeh said, “but our goal was to show our partners where they are taking us, either the civil war or a regional explosion.”