The Guardians of the Cedars Party issued the following weekly communiqué:
The decision to open up to the Syrian regime, as is currently happening in Lebanon, is too soon too fast. It is too soon because the Lebanese people are not ready to accept such a public openness given the magnitude of the tragedies that the regime inflicted on the people for the past three decades. It is too fast because the Syrian regime has not, to date, shown any genuine desire to change its inimical behavior towards Lebanon or to abandon its ambitions to control the country, except for its consent in principle to exchange diplomatic missions which we still consider a formality of procedure but not of substance. The borders remain a free for all, with daily convoys of weapons and gunmen that pour in from Syria in violation of those borders to bolster the positions of the pro-Syrian Lebanese and Palestinian organizations inside the country. There is also the issue of the missing, the disappeared and the detainees which has been relegated to futile
special commissions which, truth be told, specialize in covering up and stonewalling the issue in order to dilute it out of existence.
The argument for mending relations with Syria, after its withdrawal from Lebanon, is a fallacy. First, because Syria is effectively still in Lebanon through its security and political proxies, and it is capable of destabilizing it and undermining its decision-making whenever it chooses. In addition, Syria is present in every speck of Lebanon’s political life. Second, mending relations must begin by an initiative from Damascus, and not from Beirut, since it is Damascus which aggressed Lebanon and occupied its territory and not the other way around. Hence, there should be no equivalence between the aggressor and the victim, or between the torturer and the victim.
And if the intent of this openness is to give the Syrian regime a free exoneration from the many crimes it committed in Lebanon, the Lebanese people categorically reject this move, particularly since their wounds have not healed and the magnitude of the horror is etched in their hearts and minds and in their national conscience. To just walk over the bodies of the martyrs and dance on their graves is simply despicable and scandalous.
As for the claim that opening up to the Syrian regime leads to bolstering the influence of “the Christians of Lebanon”, it simply is refuted by reality and history. No one has suffered more at the hands of the Syrian regime than the “Christian Lebanese”, not to mention that regime’s sponsorship of the Taef Agreement which has voided the authority of the Presidency of the Republic, which is the “Christians” highest post in the State, and the Syrian regime’s invasion of the Christian regions of Lebanon, which eliminated what was left of their political influence.
Those clamoring for reconciliation with Syria and gaining its favors should emulate the rulers of the State of Kuwait who, to this day, refuse any reconciliation with those regimes that supported Saddam Hussein in his invasion of their country.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz
December 6, 2008
special commissions which, truth be told, specialize in covering up and stonewalling the issue in order to dilute it out of existence.
The argument for mending relations with Syria, after its withdrawal from Lebanon, is a fallacy. First, because Syria is effectively still in Lebanon through its security and political proxies, and it is capable of destabilizing it and undermining its decision-making whenever it chooses. In addition, Syria is present in every speck of Lebanon’s political life. Second, mending relations must begin by an initiative from Damascus, and not from Beirut, since it is Damascus which aggressed Lebanon and occupied its territory and not the other way around. Hence, there should be no equivalence between the aggressor and the victim, or between the torturer and the victim.
And if the intent of this openness is to give the Syrian regime a free exoneration from the many crimes it committed in Lebanon, the Lebanese people categorically reject this move, particularly since their wounds have not healed and the magnitude of the horror is etched in their hearts and minds and in their national conscience. To just walk over the bodies of the martyrs and dance on their graves is simply despicable and scandalous.
As for the claim that opening up to the Syrian regime leads to bolstering the influence of “the Christians of Lebanon”, it simply is refuted by reality and history. No one has suffered more at the hands of the Syrian regime than the “Christian Lebanese”, not to mention that regime’s sponsorship of the Taef Agreement which has voided the authority of the Presidency of the Republic, which is the “Christians” highest post in the State, and the Syrian regime’s invasion of the Christian regions of Lebanon, which eliminated what was left of their political influence.
Those clamoring for reconciliation with Syria and gaining its favors should emulate the rulers of the State of Kuwait who, to this day, refuse any reconciliation with those regimes that supported Saddam Hussein in his invasion of their country.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz
December 6, 2008
Posted on 07 Dec 2008 by Administration