Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri warned Monday that Lebanon was threatened with a renewal of civil war unless rival Lebanese factions acted to elect a president and fight religious extremism.
Speaking during a talk at the Wilson Center in Washington as part of his current visit to the United States, Hariri stressed that his flurry of regional and foreign political activity was primarily aimed at protecting Lebanon from the repercussions of regional turmoil, particularly the 4-year-old war in neighboring Syria.
He also said that the removal of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad is the only way to restore stability in Syria. “I believe this will happen sooner rather than later,” he said.
“My only priority remains to protect Lebanon. I hear many in the international community often repeat that given all that is happening in the region, Lebanon is still in a good place,” Hariri said during the session, attended the president of the center Jane Harman, heads of research centers, intellectuals, editors of newspapers and magazines, Lebanese Ambassador to the United States Antoine Chdid, former MPs Ghattas Khoury and Bassem Sabeh, Nader Hariri, chief of Hariri’s staff, and media adviser Amal Mudallali.
“At least there is some relative stability. However, this stability is not sustainable unless state institutions are strengthened and the war in Syria is resolved,” he added, according to a statement released by his media office.
“We, the Future movement, are doing everything we can. We have said clearly that we will never allow civil war to return to our country,” Hariri said. “We will never resort to violence no matter what despite the fact that we are only faced with violence and assassinations.”
Hariri warned that if the current status quo persists, “it will become increasingly difficult to prevent the flames of the region from igniting civil strife in Lebanon.”
However, he said a new civil war in Lebanon can be averted only if the conflicting Lebanese parties implemented a clear set of action steps, on top of them the election of a president, coupled with the international community’s commitment to end the war in Syria.
“First, we need to elect a president. A vacuum in the presidency is very dangerous and contributes to the paralysis of all state institutions,” Hariri said. “This false sense of ‘business as usual’ without a president is very dangerous.”
“Second, we need to stress and abide by the Baabda Declaration which calls for the neutrality of Lebanon in the Syrian conflict,” he said. “Third, we need to fight all sorts of extremism – Sunni or Shiite.”
In order to fight Muslim extremism, Hariri called for a clear international policy to support the voices of moderation in the region, blaming Assad for the proliferation of radical Muslim movements in the region.
“Bashar Assad is no voice of moderation. He is the factory that manufactures extremism,” he said.
Hariri said there are more than 40,000 ISIS and Nusra Front fighters in Syria, including thousands from around the world, versus over 20 million moderate Sunni Syrians.
The former premier, who has denounced Hezbollah’s military intervention in Syria, said the party’s “involvement in defense of the Assad dictatorship in Syria has imported terrorism to Lebanon.”
“We argue that the Lebanese security agencies, namely the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Internal Security Forces, need to fight against terrorism – which is why I am doing everything in my capacity to provide support and assistance to them,” Hariri said.
He reiterated that the Future Movement’s dialogue with Hezbollah was aimed at defusing sectarian tensions in the country. “However, on key issues, such as withdrawing Hezbollah fighters from Syria and electing a president in Lebanon, Hezbollah will only listen to Iran.”
Hariri warned of what he called the “rapid expansion of Iran’s sphere of influence” in the volatile region. He said the ongoing fight against ISIS should be accompanied by action to check Iran’s expansion.
“Today, the Arab region is faced with two major challenges, which seem to be feeding off each other. On the one hand, Iran’s expansionist policies have led it to interfere in Bahrain, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, to name a few Arab countries,” he said. “On the other, extremists and jihadists claiming to fight in the name of Islam are threatening to destroy the very fabric of society.”
“How both threats feed off each other is clear: Iran’s allies, the former Maliki government in Iraq and Assad in Syria have both orchestrated the release of jailed elements of al-Qaeda by the thousands, that later established what is now known as Daesh or ISIS, with the Assad army going as far as handing over the oil province of Raqqa to them, now their stronghold and launchpad,” he said