Israeli conspiracies in Lebanon

No Lebanese group has claimed responsibility for the assassination, but the March 8 opposition group has said the terrorist act was a result of internal disputes in the March 14 group.

The totalitarian March 14 group, which is under the influence of certain Western and regional Arab countries, has accused Syria of carrying out the assassination. It has also called upon the UN Security Council and the Arab League to supervise the Lebanese presidential election.

No evidence has been found to suggest any Lebanese group played a role in the Ghanem assassination, but it seems very likely that the Zionist regime had a hand in the murder.

This was the third assassination of a March 14 group member in the past two years, and the Zionist regime clearly benefits from these terrorist acts.

After its humiliating defeat in the 33-day war with Lebanon, Israel began efforts to spark a civil war in Lebanon by attempting to foment a dispute between Muslim and Maronite groups just as it did in the 1980s.

The attempt to assassinate Marwan Hamade, and the assassinations of Gibran Tueni, Pierre Amine Gemayel, and Antoine Ghanem, all members of the Lebanese parliament, should raise some questions.

Through its current policy, Israel is seeking to pave the way for direct military intervention by the United States and other Western countries in Lebanon.

The U.S. and France have recently said that in order to prevent such assassinations and to protect Lebanese political figures, they must deploy troops in Lebanon. This can be seen as a prelude to a Western military occupation of Lebanon.

The presence of these forces would undoubtedly further complicate the situation in Lebanon and give the Zionist regime a free hand to assassinate Muslim political figures and disrupt Lebanon’s internal affairs.

In the upcoming election, if a puppet president selected by the March 14 group is elected, the U.S., Israel, and France will force the new president to implement UN Resolution 1559 and to carry out their plan to disarm Hezbollah.

Regional and extra-regional powers will certainly try to influence the presidential election and the next Lebanese government, and if their chosen candidate does not win, they will use the military option to attempt to disarm the Islamic resistance movement.

(Sept. 24 Tehran Times Opinion Column, by Hassan Hanizadeh)

PA/HG

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MNA