Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 22)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 22)
- المحتوى
-
For the first time in the 15-year-old civil war, the Lebanese crisis is
being regarded as a regional conflict, heading towards further com-
plications. Failure to resolve 'the internal conflict has opened the way
for external factors to play an increasingly larger role, so that they
now appear to dominate the situation.
Since March, Lebanon has been sub-
ject to a bloody and bitter conflict,
beading to the death of hundreds of its
citizens. This conflict was punctuated
by weekly and sometimes daily cease-
fires which the isolationist forces, led
by General Aoun, never honored, but
rather exploited to serve their tactics.
Ever since Aoun, the head of the
military government, plunged Lebanon
into this bloody war, the country has
been suffering more lethal bombard-
ments. Arbitrary shelling has become
part of the daily routine, while the
Lebanese have been observers
-witnesses to the fragmentation and
destruction of their country.
Thousands of Beirut’s 1.5 million in-
habitants have fled the city since the
battle between General Aoun and the
nationalist forces broke out on March
8th. The fire is still raging, grinding
toward a brutal military climax;
Lebanon is farther away from a
political settlement than at any other
time.
Developments in Lebanon are tragic
for all concerned. The internal conflict
between the isolationists and the na-
tional progressive forces has been ex-
acerbated by outside interference. As
each group sought to strengthen its
position by appealing to outside forces,
the conflict has become increasingly
regionalized and internationalized.
«No Red Lines Anymore»
Since March, more and more
Lebanese have come to support the
demand of the nationalist forces for
political reform. In June, the Arab
League’s three-state committee sug-
gested that the Lebanese parliament
meet outside the country to draw up a
document on political reform, to be
discussed at a subsequent meeting of
22
the parliament in Lebanon, when con-
ditions would permit. A number of
Maronite MPs residing in East Beirut
publicly expressed their readiness to at-
tend such a session. However, they
were publicly attacked and threatened
by General Aoun, and consequently
silenced. In July, the Maronite
patriarch Sfeir called for reform and
the equality of all sects in Lebanon, in
the interests of a political solution. He
was planning a meeting between
political figures from East and West
Beirut, to prepare for a session of the
Lebanese parliament. This move was
also blocked by General Aoun and the
continuation of the war.
The nationalist and progressive
forces were in fact quite patient in rela-
tion to Aoun’s criminal isolationist
plan. They had hoped to avoid a
devastating total confrontation.
However, Aoun persisted in his mad
war, refusing dialogue or a cease-fire
before the pull-out of what he calls the
«Syrian occupation.» In Aoun’s words,
«Frankly speaking, I am not prepared
to reach understanding with anyone
whe tries to negotiate with me on
reform before liberation» (Al Qabas,
Kuwait, July 3rd).
When it became clear that Aoun has
no intention of stopping, the na-
tionalists took action. Suddenly, Aoun
and his isolationist allies found
themselves in a critical situation in
Beirut and the surrounding hills, as
Souq Al Gharb was attacked by the na-
tionalist forces. In mid-August, 16
Lebanese organizations that oppose
Aoun joined together in the Lebanese
Nationalist Front, supported by Syria
and Iran.
This escalation was presaged by the
deadend in the efforts of the three-state
committee (Saudi Arabia, Algeria and
Morocco), formed at the Arab Summit
in Casablanca in May. After three
months, the committee had still not
been able to enforce a comprehensive
cease-fire in the fighting between
Aoun’s forces and the Lebanese na-
tionalists. In a move that almost
everyone now regrets, the committee
announced its failure on July 31st, and
the guns of Lebanon sounded again in a
desperate ‘war of survival’ as described
by Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Pro-
gressive Socialist Party (International
Herald Tribune, August 25th).
In the statement issued at the end of
the meeting of the three states’ foreign
ministers, the committee expressed
«great disquiet at the loss of human
lives and the untold suffering caused to
the Lebanese people.» It announced
that its mediation efforts had come to a
«deadend in both the political and
security fields,» mainly because
«Syria’s concept of spreading (the
Lebanese state’s) sovereignty is dif-
ferent from that of the committee» (A!
Safir, Lebanon, August Ist).
Damascus, in reply, accused the
committee of failing to heed an agree-
ment to halt arms supplies to both sides
as part of a deal to allow Lebanon’s
warring factions to build a new unified
government. In a letter to the com-
mitte, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq
Al Sharaa said, «Aoun and his allies are
responsible for the committee’s
failure,» accusing the general of trying
to partition Lebanon into mini-states
along sectarian lines (Al Safir, August
Tth).
The relative optimism that prevailed
when the Arab committee began its ef-
forts in the early summer, vanished in
August, to be replaced by bitter
military confrontation. The na-
tionalists’ ground offensive against
Souq Al Gharb on August 13th came
against a background of four days of
incessant shelling. Souq Al Gharb, in
the hills southeast of Beirut, is the
frontline position guarding Aoun’s
forces at the Presidential Palace and the
Defense Ministry, five kilometers
away. Three hundred fighters of the
Lebanese nationalist forces attacked
Aoun’s positions there. Although there
Democratic Palestine, October 1989 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 35
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