General Francios al-Hajj
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. |
