Qablan: Those Who Commit the Crime of Destroying Lebanon

The Grand Jaafari Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qablan delivered a speech at a memorial celebration in the town of Hzarita, addressing the political forces by saying: "Political cowardice and national estrangement are treason, and reliance on international influence has ended amidst a region boiling over a volcano, while Tel Aviv sinks into the quagmire of urban warfare and will not emerge victorious even if it expends a million tons from Washington and NATO's arsenal. Those leading the war of terrorism and genocide are Tel Aviv and Washington, not the peoples of the region. Protecting homelands requires confrontation and sacrifices, not escape and surrender. What the resistance is doing on the southern front is a guarantee for a thousand years of sovereignty. National solutions require solidarity and solutions, not estrangement and enmity. Leading the army is a national duty, and the most important is the presidency. Any presidential settlement passed through the Parliament requires the formulation of national solutions because the presidency, in its circumstances, position, and the realities of the country and the region, is a national issue, not a market for profits or a game of party interests. Those who boycott national solutions and the presidential settlement commit the crime of destroying Lebanon, not those who prevent the international project from seizing Lebanon and its presidency." He added: "We all know that the country is open to foreign influence, and the political stock market is known. American fingers await any gamble, and the history of the democratic game is exposed. What is required is national democracy, not numerical options, and reliance on Washington is a loss for Lebanon. External tours have no purpose other than to recycle state positions to serve the interests of Washington and the West at the expense of Lebanese interests. The solution is in the hands of the Lebanese only, and the hired voices put Lebanon in the line of the wind."