Syria, Iran & Hezbollah Occupy Lebanon

By: Elias Bejjani*

Edmund Burke: "Evil Prevails When Good Men Fail to Act"

What is currently going on in my beloved home country Lebanon is extremely pathetic, very bizarre, dreadful and explosive. While the prevailing enforced status quo is unprecedented. It is well known internationally as well as legally that when an occupying force withdraws from a country that it occupies the withdrawal must include all military, civil and paramilitary personnel, and all secret services bodies in a bid to allow the people of that country to run their own affairs independently.

This golden thumb rule was not implemented by the notorious Syrian Baathist occupation when the Syrian authorities were forced in 2005 to withdraw their occupying army from Lebanon after 28 years of barbaric, iron-fisted oppression. Syria left behind fully intact the notorious Hezbollah militia within its de facto mini-state that is much stronger and better equipped than the Lebanese army. It also left intact four Syrian military camps camouflaged under Palestinian armed factions and thirteen other armed Palestinian refugee camps that are all mini-states over which the Lebanese government has no authority or presence.

Since 2005, Syrian intelligence services scattered all over Lebanon have infiltrated all governmental institutions, directly and through their Lebanese and Palestinian armed militias. Hezbollah and other terrorists, mercenaries, and spies have assassinated numerous patriotic Lebanese figures including clergymen, parliamentary members, politicians, journalists, and intellectuals. At the same time Syria, with the help of its 'Axis of Evil' ally Iran, prevented Lebanese authorities from implementing the "Taef Accord" along with UN Resolutions 1559, 1701 and 1757. These resolutions called for the disarming the illegal Lebanese and Palestinian militias, entering and controlling the mini-states, safeguarding the country's borders with Syria, and an independent government free from foreign interference.

In response to direct orders from the two axis of evil countries Iran and Syria and against the wishes of the majority of the Lebanese people, on January 12/2011, Hezbollah toppled Lebanon's national coalition government. It is further threatening to topple by force Lebanon's democratic, secular, and multicultural government if it allows the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) designated by the UN General Security Council to continue its investigation of the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's Sunni Prime Minister Raffic Harriri and twenty-two others.

On January 17th 2011, the STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare submitted the tribunal's indictment to the Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen. It is strongly believed that top members from Hezbollah, Syria and Iran will be indicted. Fransen has up to 10 weeks to either accept the indictment and publicly announce it or send it back to Bellemare asking for more investigation in the crime.

In 2006, Hezbollah instigated a devastating war with neighboring Israel that killed more than 1,500 citizens and injured 4,000 others, displaced almost one third of the country's population, ruined thousands of buildings and houses, and destroyed most of the Lebanon's infrastructure with losses estimated at 20 billion dollars. The UN intervened to put an end to the war and the UN Security Council issued Resolution 1701 that called for the disarmament of Hezbollah and all other armed militias alongside Lebanese authorities to deploying their own armed forces all over the country.

In 2008, Hezbollah invaded the Sunni West Beirut suburbs and a part of the Druze Mount Lebanon killing and injuring hundreds after which it forced the "Doha Accord". This accord gave its leadership the upper hand in the government, legitimized its weaponry, as well as its terrorist mini-state. Meanwhile, Syria and Iran kept on supplying Hezbollah with all sorts of weaponry among which are more than 50,000 long, short and medium range rockets.

Since then, the Lebanese authorities have failed to implement any of the three above mentioned UN resolutions. Lebanon's governmental authorities have become a hostage to Hezbollah which has by force, bribery, and trafficking spread its armed control all over Lebanon and erected military bases on all Lebanon's strategic posts. As of now, the entire South Lebanon is under its full control with attacks on UNIFIL forces through by its militia occurring every so often.

Lebanon is a completely occupied country according to each and every legal criterion. Iran's Hezbollah proxy army in Lebanon has become a lethal threat not only to Lebanon and Israel, but also to peace and tranquility in all the Arabic countries, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and many other states. Sadly, Hezbollah's terrorist military grip on Lebanon's governmental institutions is escalating on a daily basis.

The UN has an obligation to enforce its two major Resolutions 1559 and 1701 and not to bury its head in the sand. Appeasing Hezbollah has only made its UNIFIL troops in south Lebanon mere hostages and under the mercy of both Iran and Syria. We call on the UN Security Council to vigorously implement UN Resolution 1701 lest Hezbollah topple the Lebanese government and replace it with an Islamic republic similar to the Iranian one.

In conclusion, the Lebanese people alone are by any means no longer able to disarm Hezbollah, dismantle its mini-state or rule their country independently as long as this Iranian-Syrian armed terrorist proxy has the upper hand. Needless to say that force and military deterrence are the only two languages that Hezbollah and its evil masters in both Iran and Syria will understand. A final military confrontation between the Free World and the 'Axis of Evil' that includes Iran, Syria and Hezbollah is inevitable. Based on the lessons of Hitler's aggression, the sooner this bloody confrontation occurs the better. Every passing day makes the price of blood and treasure to be paid more and more expensive.

*Elias Bejjani
*Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
*Email phoenicia@hotmail.com
*Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com & http://www.clhrf.com
*Mailing phoenicia group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/.