The Spite towards Lebanon

Why the persistence to assasintae General Wissam al-Hassan? All these great measures to get rid of one man shows a lot of spite. It is spite that can only be compare to that the Iranian and Syrian regime had to President Rafiq al-Hariri. The assassination of General al-Hassan is one more in a series of horrific crimes, with Lebanon as the crime scene. The crimes began with the establishment of the Syrian regime. They decided to destroy Lebanon and turn its people against one another. That regime had a historical hatred towards Lebanon and its people. At first, it expressed this hatred directly but after Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000 it had to depend Hezbollah and other parties in the Lebanese territory, networks that expanded and gained power with time. These networks covered areas with Christian majorities, especially after Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon after the assassination of President al-Hariri and his companions. They even turned Christian Leader of Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun into a puppet in the hands of the party 2006. The balance of power, especially in Lebanon, always leaned towards the Syrian presidency during the reign of late Hafez al-Assad. When Bashar al-Assad took his father seat as president, the scales gradually began to tip in favour of Iran and its representatives in Lebanon. The Syrian regime’s first victim was late President Saeb Sallam who was the prime minister in the ‘70s. Saeb Sallam dared investigate the assassination of General Mohamed Omran, one of the high ranked Alawites officers in Tripoli. After a conflict with Hafez al-Assad, Omran seeked refuge in the capital of Shamal Lubnan (North Lebanon). He had to be eliminated ... and the Lebanese authorities had to cover up the crime instead of investigating it. The Syrian regime politically assassinated Saeb Sallam. After he resigned from his position as prime minister in 1973, the president of the republic was not allowed to hire him in the new government. Saeb Sallam was not allowed to enter the Syrian territory, even though his wife was Syrian. Saeb Sallam wasn’t the only one politically assassinated for opposing the Syrian regime. There is also the case of President Taqey Addin al-Solh who was also married to a Syrian woman. In the eyes of the Syrian regime, the political or physical assassination of any Lebanese figure was required as soon as this person became capable of gathering supporters in Lebanon There is one common idea between all these assassinations. It is the idea of Lebanon. The Syrian regime can’t stand the name Lebanon. Among the reasons after the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri is that he brought life back to Lebanon. The Syrian regime assigned the “Palestinian Liberation Army” – which was originally stationed in Syria- the task to take over some sites in Beirut in 1976. This was to wedge barriers between Muslims and Christians in Lebanon... Maybe this was the only task the Syrian regime thought it could give to the Palestinian Liberation Army! Wissam al-Hassan was killed for several reasons. The first was for exposing the Syrian regime and destroying Syrian and Iranian joint efforts in Lebanon. The Syrian regime – first on its own, and then with the cooperation of the Iranian regime – wanted control over all Lebanese institutions, specially the state security institutions. It succeeded in doing that since General Michel Aoun enabled the Syrian forces to enter the Palace of Baabda and the headquarters of the Lebanese Ministry of Defence in 1990 for the first time since the foundation of the Lebanese Republic. Wissam al-Hassan founded a pure Lebanese body. It’s another hidden reason to assassinate him and continue to eliminate people who gave their lives for the idea of Lebanon. Both Syrian and Iran can’t understand the extent of the damages they’ve caused to Lebanon. But there will always be a Lebanese person standing in their faces telling the facts as they are. -- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.