Lebanese Forces Party leader Samir Geagea criticized the armed Hezbollah group for fighting against Israel in support of its ally Hamas, saying the fighting had harmed Lebanon without affecting the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday evening, Samir Geagea said that Hezbollah must withdraw from areas along the border with Israel, and that the Lebanese army must deploy at all points where the Iran-backed movement’s militants take up positions.
His statements came as Western diplomats sought to mediate a de-escalation of the border conflict amid fears of the outbreak of a wider war.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israeli military sites on October 8, a day after Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel in a surprise attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
The almost daily violence was mostly confined to the area along the border, and the fighting led to the deaths of 12 soldiers and 10 civilians in Israel. More than 350 people were killed in Lebanon, including 273 Hezbollah fighters and more than 50 civilians.
Geagea said from his heavily guarded headquarters in the mountainous village of Maarab, “No one has the right to control the fate of a country and a people alone. Hezbollah is not the government in Lebanon. There is a government in Lebanon in which Hezbollah is represented.”
Geagea, whose party has the largest bloc in the 128-member Lebanese House of Representatives, seeks to portray himself as an opposition leader against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah officials said that by opening a front along Israel’s northern border, the armed movement is reducing pressure on Gaza by keeping several Israeli army divisions on alert in the north rather than participating in the months-long offensive in the Strip.
Geagea added, “All the damage that could have happened in Gaza happened. What is the benefit of the military operations that were launched from southern Lebanon? Nothing.”
Geagea said that Hezbollah aims, through the ongoing fighting, to benefit its main supporter, Iran, by granting it a presence along the Israeli border.
Geagea called on the armed movement to withdraw from the border areas and deploy the Lebanese army in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Geagea also discussed the campaign undertaken by his party to return Syrian refugees who fled the war to Lebanon.
These calls intensified after a Syrian gang was blamed for the killing of Lebanese Forces official, Pascal Suleiman, last month, in an alleged failed robbery, although many initially suspected political motives.
Lebanon, with a total population of about 6 million people, hosts what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says are about 785,000 Syrian refugees registered with the United Nations, 90 percent of whom depend on aid for their livelihood. Lebanese officials estimate there may be 1.5 million or 2 million, of whom only about 300,000 have legal residency.
Rights groups say that Syria is not safe for return, and that many Syrians who returned have been arrested and tortured.
Geagea, whose party strongly opposes the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, stressed that only a small percentage of Syrians in Lebanon are true political refugees.
Geagea suggested that his country follow the approach of Western countries such as Britain, which issued controversial legislation last week to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Geagea, who headed the largest Christian militia during Lebanon’s civil war between 1975 and 1990, said, “In Lebanon, we must tell them: Guys, go back to your country… Syria exists.”
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