On December 12 a top Lebanese Army commander,
Brigadier General Francois Hajj, was killed in a
Terrorist bombing in the suburb of Baabda southeast
of Beirut. Hajj, 54, who was close to army commander
Michel Sleiman and tipped to be his successor, was
killed along with his bodyguard in a rush-hour
blast. This was the first assassination of a high
ranking officer of the Lebanese Armed Forces in
decades. The first set of questions is: Why was he
murdered, who may have perpetrated this terror
attack and what could be the consequences of this
dramatic development?
1) General Francois Hajj was born in the Christian
town of Rmeish in southern Lebanon. His home
village had a history of resistance against Terror
forces since the late 1960s. Many of its
inhabitants enrolled in the Lebanese Army over the
past decades. A number of them were involved in
opposition to the Syrian occupation and Hezbollah.
Hajj joined the Lebanese army Academy in 1972 and
graduated in 1975. He also commanded the Special
Forces brigades (Maghawir) before he was promoted
to LAF operation chief. According to many sources
in Lebanon, he was selected to become the next
commander of the Lebanese Army. Hence, the
assassination aimed at preventing Francois Hajj
from being appointed by the next President, yet to
be elected, as the top military man in Lebanon.
General Michel Soleiman, who has been nominated by
the majority coalition in Parliament for the
Presidency was grooming Hajj to become his
successor. In addition the slain commander had in
past months and years refused to accept
Hezbollah’s exclusive areas of control in south
Lebanon and in the Bekaa valley. Moreover he was
credited for coordinating the Lebanese Army
offensive against the Fatah Islam Terror group in
Nahr al Bared camp in north Lebanon over the
summer. The strike can be understood as a message
to the Lebanese Army not to attempt to confront
terror groups in the future, including Hezbollah.
2) The parties that can execute such operations
in Lebanon, and have an interest in it, fall under
the umbrella of the Syrian-Iranian Mihwar (Axis)
which includes the Syrian intelligence, the
Pasdaran network, Hezbollah, Ahmad Jibril
Palestinian group, as well as other smaller
pro-Syrian militias. This “axis” has been accused
by the Cedars Revolution of perpetrating a series
of assassinations since 2005, including against
Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and a number of
leaders and MPs, last of whom MPs Walid Eido and
Antoine Ghanem, all opposed to the Syrian
occupation and in favor of disarming Hezbollah.
3) With the assassination of Hajj, the
pro-democracy majority is now facing the reality
of terrorism again. But this time the violence was
directed against the very institution which is
supposed to protect this democracy, the future
President, the Parliament and civil society: The
Lebanese Army. What seems to be a logical next
step is for the current Government in Lebanon and
its legislative majority to ask the United Nations
Security Council to issue a new resolution calling
for the following vital measures:
a. Put Resolution UNSCR 1559 (withdrawal of
Syrians, disarming Hezbollah and electing a new
President) under Chapter 7 of the Charter
b. Supervising the election of a new President
of the Republic under UN protection.
c. Extending a UN support to Lebanon’s Army to
confront the Terror campaign.
However the March 14 Coalition and the Seniora
cabinet have been intimidated by many
assassinations: Thus the likeliness of seeing them
initiate these dramatic moves is not high at this
point, but not impossible eventually.
International -including US, European and Arab-
support is covered by a good number of UN
resolutions, a Franco-American understanding, and
a bipartisan set of resolutions issued by the US
Congress and Arab moderate frustration with
Iranian-sponsored violence in Lebanon. It will
boil down to the rise of a courageous group of
leaders out of Lebanon calling for help. And it is
precisely that group which is targeted by the “axis.”
****
Dr Walid Phares is the Director of the Future
Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies. He is the author of War of
Ideas.
Phares@walidphares.com
http://www.defenddemocracy.org//publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=613768
