Lebanon’s defense minister says no one should jump to conclusions about the deadly sectarian violence that erupted last Thursday in the capital, Beirut. However, the leader of the powerful Shiite faction Hezbollah lashed out Monday, accusing the Christian Lebanese Forces of stoking civil war.
Lebanese Defense Minister Maurice Slim said the demonstration Thursday by followers of Hezbollah “deviated from its course and clashes erupted.”
The protesters were demanding that Judge Tarek Bitar be removed from the investigation into the giant explosion at the Beirut port that rocked the entire city last year.
Thursday’s confrontation sparked fears of a possible sectarian conflict along the lines of the 1975 to 1990 civil war.
The clashes killed seven people and wounded 32. So far, 20 people from Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces have been arrested.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech on Monday, accused the Lebanese Forces of killing its supporters and inciting “civil war.” He boasted that his group had 100,000 fighters, but said they were meant to defend Lebanon from external enemies not to engage in an internal conflict.
Political analyst Dania Koleilat Khatib with the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut told VOA both sides need to bring the tensions down and for the probe into the 2020 port explosion to continue.
“Hezbollah put themselves in a corner, she expressed; adding “it’s in their own self-interest, if they back down. The best thing for them is to lay low. If they are intelligent, they should accept the investigation and even if it leads to them. What we see from them is the arrogance of power. And it’s not only Hezbollah.”
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, an adversary of Hezbollah, meanwhile, has denied organizing last week’s violence. He said Nasrallah and other political leaders need to focus on “getting the country and the citizens out of the tragic situation” Lebanon faces, including economic collapse and an energy crisis.
Many Lebanese also say they want to see justice achieved for those who lost their lives, were injured or made homeless by the Beirut port blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history.
Observers say that lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar must not be hampered by any party, otherwise they say the probe will go nowhere.
Meanwhile, analysts say Lebanon’s new government, formed last month, could be paralyzed by divisions, including objections by Hezbollah, over Bitar.
By trying to question three former ministers about the blast who have links to Hezbollah, the judge has found himself in a political battle that once again brings Lebanon to the brink.
