Democratic Palestine : 32 (ص 33)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 32 (ص 33)
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Renewed Civil War?
With joint Arab efforts underway to solve the Lebanese crisis, inter-
nal fighting erupted on both sides of the main political demarcation
line, as various forces scrambled to strengthen their hand in the event
of a pending settlement. By March, prospects for a solution seemed
dim as major battles erupted between the nationalist forces and the
army units of General Aoun’s military government.
There have been many attempts to
resolve the Lebanese crisis in the past,
but all have failed because they
couldn’t resolve the contradictions
between the nationalist forces and the
reactionaries who are tied to the Israeli
and US plans for the region. For years,
there has been no joint Arab role vis-a-
vis Lebanon, chiefly due to the con-
tradictions prevailing among the Arab
states. In fact, the role of some Arab
states added to Israeli and US interven-
tion in Lebanon, has further ag-
gravated the problem. Finally,
however, the Arab governments decid-
ed to take action, setting forth a solu-
tion, at least in theory.
THE ARAB LEAGUE
COMMITTEE
Arab foreign ministers met on
January 12th in Tunis, and decided to
form a seven-man committee, headed
by the Kuwaiti foreign minister, Sabah
Al Ahmed, and including the foreign
ministers of Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan,
the United Arab Emirates and Sudan,
plus Secretary General of the Arab
League Qlibi. This committee was
assigned responsibility .for contacting
all the parties involved in the Lebanese
conflict, to discuss their ideas and sug-
gestions for a solution based on na-
tional reconciliation. As stated by the
committee, the Arab League had come
up with this initiative based on «desire
to aid Lebanon maintain the unity, in-
dependence, sovereignty and security of
its territory... We confirm the Arab
countries’ willingness to give all forms
of support Lebanon needs to confront
the Israeli aggression against
Lebanon’s sovereignty... and to help
the Lebanese state impose its actual
authority over all of Lebanese soil.»
Democratic Palestine, March 1989
Throughout January, the seven-man
committee was convened in Tunis,
holding a series of meetings, some with
Prime Minister Selim Hoss and
Parliament Speaker Hussein Husseini,
representing the legitimate government
of Lebanon; and others with General
Michel Aoun, head of the military
government appointed by the outgoing
president, Amin Gemayel. Husseini
and Hoss stressed the necessity of
coupling new presidential elections with
political reform. Aoun, on the other
hand, insisted on the priority of Syrian
withdrawal from Beirut. Clearly, the
general was trying to cover up his rejec-
tion of political reform of the sectarian
system, and to avoid discussing the ef-
fects of the Israeli occupation on the
Lebanese crisis.
Though these meetings did not result
in any compromises that would make a
solution between the two rival govern-
ments possible, the committee arrived
at six basic principles regarding a solu-
tion for the political and constitutional
crisis, which can be summed up as
follows: It is necessary to link the
Lebanese presidential elections with
political reforms; the Lebanese pro-
blem is basically an internal one, but
has been aggravated due to its connec-
tion to the overall Middle East crisis,
external intervention and the fact that
some parties have resorted to outside
help to strengthen their position inter-
nally.
In February, the committee carried
out a series of meetings with Lebanese
religious leaders. A final round of
meetings was scheduled for mid-March
in Kuwait, to be attended by the leaders
of Lebanon’s major political parties
and militias. However, parallel to
these meetings, three rounds of fighting
occurred in different areas of Lebanon.
NO WINNER, NO LOSER
The recurring conflict between the
Amal movement and Hezballah broke
out again at the beginning of this year,
focusing on Iqlim Al Tuffah, a district
in South Lebanon between Sidon and
Nabatiyeh, near the Israeli-occupied
zone. The bloody conflict resulted in
173 killed and 340 wounded; 15,000
people were driven from their homes.
This unholy war pitted the two main
Shiite parties in Lebanon against each
other, competing for control of
political decision-making in the Shiite
arena in the South, as a step towards
controlling the whole Islamic arena in
Lebanon. Historically, the two parties
have had differing views of the future
of the South, the solution to the
Lebanese problem and the Palestinian
presence. Meanwhile, the impoverished
masses of the South have been the vic-
tim of the conflict, added to constant
Israeli aggression and the harassment
cf Lahd’s militias.
There have been many calls for a
ceasefire, but these always turned out
to be temporary truces wherein the two
sides took a breather and prepared to
start the war anew. Amal is determined
to remove Hezballah from the South
and establish its own hegemony,
politically and militarily. It wants the
South as a card in its hand to be played
unilaterally in the case of efforts to
resolve the Lebanese crisis. Hezballah,
for its part, seeks to consolidate its
military positions in the South, which
would augment its political influence as
well as that of its main backer, Iran, in
Lebanon.
This war contributes to the Lebanese
crisis that is entering its fifteenth year.
The only benefactors of such fighting
are Israel and its agents, the Lahd
militias, who are exploiting the chaos to
enact mass expulsions, seeking to
change the demographic composition
of southernmost Lebanon. Seventy-
four southerners were expelled from the
occupied zone in January alone, in
punishment for refusing support to
Lahd’s militias. Added to this are the
Israeli air raids, targetting the Palesti-
nian resistance and Lebanese national
movement.
On January 30th, Syria and Iran
sponsored a «comprehensive and final»
agreement, signed in Damascus by
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