Lebanon is experiencing a race between rising tensions following the kidnapping and murder of Pascal Sleiman, the coordinator of the Lebanese Forces Party in the Jbeil area, and efforts to ease the situation and prevent escalation. The pace of communications among political forces to calm the situation and avert a heightened response has accelerated, especially since the charged atmosphere has led to reciprocal accusations, culminating in Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah dedicating a significant part of his recent speech to discussing the incident and directing accusations at Christians.
The tension between the Lebanese Forces and Hezbollah has escalated, despite numerous attempts to contain it, a role taken on by the Maronite Patriarchate and the army leadership. Nasrallah accused the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party of being instigators seeking civil war, revealing that threatening messages were sent to Shia in Jbeil and Kesrouan, describing the situation as extremely grave and not to be overlooked.
Nasrallah's comments provoked the leaders of the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb, prompting them to escalate politically and reject the investigations revealed by the army leadership, which tied the kidnapping and murder to a car theft scheme by a gang specializing in stealing cars. Following this tension, there were assaults on Syrian workers in various areas based on accusations against a group of Syrians linked to the kidnapping, prompting political communications aimed at deescalation.
According to sources revealed to "Al-Jarida", Army Commander Joseph Aoun contacted Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea to discuss the investigation details and urged him to reopen the international highway connecting Beirut to the north. Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi also entered the communication line to ease tensions while waiting for the investigation to expand to clarify what happened, although the Lebanese Forces insist that there is a political background to the operation.
Based on political communications, the Lebanese Forces preferred to wait for the investigation to be completed and pushed for an expansion of inquiries, deeming the narrative of a car theft as weak. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Forces also took a political pause in light of ongoing attempts to contain the issue, rather than letting it escalate further.
According to available information, a communication will take place among various Christian forces to hold an expanded meeting in Bkerke to discuss the implications of the crime and how to politically contain it for the upcoming stage, as some Christian forces are seeking to meet with others in Lebanon to find common ground and prevent the division from taking on sectarian or denominational characteristics. They aim to present a political proposal calling for a political settlement that would rebalance power to prevent the escalation of such incidents, which could lead to clashes in various regions, according to "Al-Jarida" of Kuwait.
