By Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari
MAARAB, Lebanon (Reuters) – The pinnacle of Lebanon’s largest Christian celebration mentioned Iran-backed Hezbollah ought to relinquish its weapons as rapidly as doable to finish its year-long warfare with Israel and spare Lebanon additional loss of life and destruction.
Samir Geagea, Hezbollah’s fiercest political opponent in Lebanon, spoke to Reuters on Thursday at his mountain residence and celebration headquarters in Maarab, north of Beirut, as Israel carried out waves of strikes on areas Hezbollah holds sway.
“With the destruction of all of Hezbollah’s infrastructure and its warehouses, an enormous a part of Lebanon can also be being destroyed. That is the worth,” he mentioned.
Hezbollah’s critics in Lebanon, akin to Geagea, say it unilaterally pulled Lebanon into a brand new warfare after it started firing at Israel in solidarity with Palestinian group Hamas following the Oct. 7 2023 assault on Israel that sparked the warfare in Gaza.
Hezbollah says it’s defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression and has vowed to maintain preventing, saying it won’t lay down its arms or permit Israel to attain political features on the again of the warfare.
The extraordinary stress of Israel’s army marketing campaign, which has escalated and expanded since late September to incorporate floor incursions into southern Lebanon, introduced a chance to get the nation again on monitor, Geagea mentioned.
“If the challenges and the costs paid are so huge, then we will make the most of them to get the scenario again to regular,” he mentioned, calling on Hezbollah and the Lebanese state to swiftly implement native accords and worldwide resolutions disbanding armed factions outdoors the management of the state.
“That’s the shortest strategy to finish the warfare. It is the least expensive approach for Lebanon and for the Lebanese individuals,” he mentioned.
Faltering diplomatic efforts on a ceasefire have centred on United Nations Decision 1701, which introduced an finish to Hezbollah’s final lethal battle with Israel in 2006.
Israel has insisted that this time round, it needs to maintain finishing up strikes in opposition to Hezbollah threats even when a truce is agreed.
Geagea mentioned he was against granting Israel that possibility however mentioned Lebanon had little energy to cease it, particularly if an excuse remained within the type of Hezbollah’s armed presence.
‘ARMS RACE’
Lebanon’s inhabitants is a mosaic of greater than a dozen spiritual sects, with political illustration divided alongside sectarian strains. Non secular divisions fuelled the 1975-1990 civil warfare, which left some 150,000 individuals lifeless and drew in neighbouring states.
Geagea’s celebration, the Lebanese Forces, was one of many fundamental warring factions through the civil warfare and aligned itself with Israel, together with when Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon reached Beirut, and its chief, Bashir Gemayel, was elected president.
Gemayel was assassinated earlier than he may assume workplace, and Geagea mentioned he noticed no parallels with that interval at this time.
The Lebanese Forces relinquished its weapons in keeping with the Taef Accord, which ended the civil warfare and referred to as on all militias to disband.
Hezbollah didn’t, saying it wanted them to battle Israel’s continued occupation of southern Lebanon. However the group refused to disarm when Israeli troops withdrew in 2000, citing ongoing threats.
Regardless of his decades-old opposition to Hezbollah, Geagea, 72, mentioned he opposed the Lebanese military forcefully disarming the group.
He mentioned he does “not see the potential of any civil warfare” breaking out and mentioned that his celebration “categorically” didn’t need one to start out.
Nonetheless, he famous that the mass displacement of principally Shi’ite Muslim Lebanese into Sunni and Christian-majority areas may spark “issues right here or there” in a rustic that was already struggling an financial disaster earlier than the warfare.
They embody 1000’s who’ve fled into areas which can be strongholds of Geagea’s celebration. In Beirut, Lebanese Forces flags have been put up in a single day in neighbourhoods the place the group has robust assist, however no clashes have been reported.
Greater than 1.2 million individuals have fled heavy Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s south, japanese Bekaa valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
In current weeks, Israeli troops finishing up incursions into southern Lebanon have laced total villages with explosives and detonated them, leaving border cities in ruins.
Hezbollah says it has managed to maintain Israeli troops at bay by stopping them from holding any floor in south Lebanon.
However Geagea disputed that studying, saying Israel’s “new army doctrine” was to enter areas, perform operations, and go away, and that the warfare’s subsequent section may see villages deeper into Lebanon being hit.
He mentioned Israel’s army and financial energy would all the time give it a bonus over Hezbollah, even when the group re-armed.
“Do you’ve gotten the power to enter this arms race?” he mentioned.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari in Maarab; Modifying by Alex Richardson)