A Lebanese general security (front) and Hezbollah security are seen standing outside the home of former Lebanese Brigadier-General Jamil Sayyed (poster) following his arrival from a trip to Paris, on September 18, 2010. Sayyed, who was jailed for four years in Lebanon without charge in connection with the killing of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005, accused current premier, Saad Hariri, earlier in the week of selling his father's blood in order to frame Syria for the killing, prompting the country's top prosecutor to summon him for questioning. (Getty Images via Daylife)
NOWLebanon's Ana Maria Luca details Hizballah's coercive use of its arms and militiamen at Beirut International Airport:
Related Posts:When Major General Jamil as-Sayyed stepped off his plane from Paris at the Beirut International Airport on September 18, he was welcomed by Hezbollah gunmen, who drove onto the runway in vehicles without license plates and took him to the airport’s VIP lounge. Although he no longer holds an official position in the Lebanese government, the former head of General Security ... held a press conference in the Foreign Ministry’s lounge, designated for heads of state and ministers. Then he was escorted home by the same armed men.
Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Ministry of Interior was asked for permission for the armed guards to have access to the airport runway and the VIP lounge. But nobody moved a finger to stop them.
Some say that the event was a power play on Hezbollah’s part to send a message to the government that it has the military strength to fight back in case some party members are indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon .... Hezbollah’s representatives defended the incident, saying the party acted within its rights....A source in the airport, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear he would be harmed, confirmed that the airport security officers had orders from high-ranking politicians not to intervene when the Hezbollah escorts drove their tinted-windowed cars onto the tarmac. The source also said the airport security officers were afraid that if they tried to stop the Hezbollah agents protecting Jamil as-Sayyed, they might have opened fire at them.
According to Moukalled, the event was one of the rare occasions when Hezbollah vehicles and the party’s armed security officers are shown on television. “This is the first time we see them after May 7, 2008,” she said. “They don’t usually let us film them. Even on May 7, 2008, they closed TV stations, stopped journalists from filming and confiscated some of the footage so that they wouldn’t be seen on camera. Everything was planned. The media knew hours before that there were going to be Hezbollah bodyguards at the airport. It was a clear power play.”...According to Minister of State Jean Ogassapian, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud submitted a report during last Tuesday’s cabinet session asserting that “the armed men who entered the airport were MPs’ bodyguards.” Ogassapian said he found it a weak excuse and argued that the government should have dealt with the incident differently.
Baroud answered back in a short statement issued by his office after the cabinet meeting, saying that he wants to keep the Beirut International Airport safe.
Hezbollah’s response to the controversy came from Loyalty to the Resistance MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi, who said that "What happened at the airport was our right as MPs and political sides to open the VIP lounge and to be present there because we are the makers of honor. There will be no compromise on defending ourselves from false accusations, and we have the right to use what we believe appropriate for that.”...
No comments:
Post a Comment