U.S. Destabilizing Lebanon to Break Mideast Resistance : Analyst

PRESS TV
10/24/2012

The United States says it wants a new government in Lebanon after last week’s deadly bombing in Beirut created a political turmoil in the Middle Eastern country.

US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in Washington on Tuesday that the Lebanese need to elect leaders who will be able to deal with what she calls the threat of a spillover from the Syrian crisis.

On October 19, a car bomb blast in Beirut’s eastern Ashrafiya district killed at least eight people and injured scores of others. The intelligence chief of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, General Wissam al-Hassan, was also among those killed in the blast.

The blast was the first major bomb attack in Beirut since 2008. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the government was trying to identify the perpetrators and that they would be punished.

Many observers say this is a plot by US and Israeli intelligence to stir unrest in Lebanon, and alienate the supporters of the Syrian government. The US announced that it will send an FBI team to help investigate the deadly bombing.

Press TV talks with Dr. Syed Ali Wasif, the president of the Society for International Reforms and Research, from Washington, to shed more light on the issue. Below is the transcript of the interview.

Press TV:  The US is blatantly supporting efforts to topple the Lebanese government, is that something legal under international law?

Wasif:  Of course not, but the problem with this word “topple”, it has different meanings and connotations, depending on when and where you are using this word “topple.” Lebanon is a democracy so I do not know how the US government or its intelligence agencies would try to topple an elected government by the people. By all means the government in Lebanon is a true representative of its people; it is an elected so I don’t know how the US government would do this kind of illegal act in the open, so first.

The second definition of this toppling of a government, which comes under the international legal norms as illegal, is of course staging a Coup de tete, taking advantage of the security and military forces to stage a Coup de tete and topple a government, be that an elected government or any other form of governance. So as yet, we do not know the kind of the strategy would adopt, if it adopts.

Press TV:  Why do think the US is looking for instability in Lebanon? Why do you think it will benefit from instability in Lebanon?

Wasif:  Well, it is so simple. I think every child in that area now knows the kind of politics, the geopolitics being pursued there, in that region. It is totally a politics or a power play or a race going on for influence there in terms of resistance and in terms of US pressure in that region.

So the US with its allies like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and so on, they are there to support the policies there in support of monarchies, in support of dictatorial regimes and on the other hand, it is Iran the super power of that region, and Russia, China and so on and Lebanon of course and Syria. They are the countries which are the countries of resistance. So resistance from the international capitalist movement, from neo-imperialism, so this is the tussle going on between the resistance movement there, led by Iran in that region and supported by Russia and China.

And on the other hand the NATO forces and the EU, I am surprised that even a neutral country like Switzerland has now jumped in and has lost its five decades of neutral status and it is now supplying weapons and is financing and funding the terrorists in Lebanon and in Syria.

So Lebanese political structure is based on consociational principles, that is. power sharing mechanism on the basis of population. So it is a proportionate power sharing mechanism called consociationalism.

So I think it would be difficult for any power to topple the government in Lebanon because it would destabilize the region and it could spillover in the region that would cost, I think, a third World War. So it is a kind of playing with fire and I wouldn’t recommend anybody to do that.

AHK/MN/JR

2012-10-25 23:00:13

Source: http://www.freepeoples5thestate.com/2012/10/us-destabilizing-lebanon-to-break.html