Statement touching the Iranian president

The General Secretariat of March 14 forces issued a statement after their weekly meeting:

The General Secretariat discussed the proceedings of the Iranian President’s visit last week and reviewed the following content and serious implications:

• The Lebanese state, was unable to perform its duty and receive the guest in a formally decent manner. The appearances accompanying the reception inside the airport as well as outside it were enough to show a scene that is unfamiliar to the history of official receptions. It appeared as if the guest was having a reception for himself, and that the convoy is moving in Tehran Airport and not in Beirut International Airport.
• At the Presidential Palace, we heard the guest a speech of friendship and respect to Lebanon’s sovereignty. The guest also heard the Lebanese President talking about Lebanon’s firm adherence to resolution 1701 as well as the Arab peace plan. Only hours later, the Iranian President contradicted his words as well as those of our Lebanese President in Dahyeh and in the south of Lebanon. Ahmadinejad gave himself the right to put Lebanon inside the “resistance and opposition front which is led by Iran”. He considered Lebanon as the frontal line of this opposition. He also gave the “Islamic Resistance” the task of “liberating Palestine” and “changing the face of the region” and “overthrowing the global arrogant regime”.
• The Iranian President’s positions which were given away from some official meeting were not those of a visitor to a friendly and independent state as much as they were an insinuation of an inspection visit to an Iranian base on the Mediterranean Sea.
• This visit came to affirm the fears expressed by the open letter to the Iranian President, which was published in the Lebanese newspapers on the day of his visit and was signed by 250 Lebanese personalities working in public affairs. This letter had warned about the danger of the emergence of a Shiite Issue in Lebanon and the Middle East because of the Iranian interference, stressing that the Lebanese Shiites are an authentic component and a crucial partner in our final state for all its citizens rather than being a part of any external plan.
• March 14 forces distinguish between the spiritual Lebanese families which are considered as the cornerstone of the Lebanese co-existence, and between some political parties whose options fall under a regional strategy which Lebanon has no interest or ability to be in. Therefore, the truth of the internal conflict is not in the real or contrived details which would likely give the balance of power to one group or another. The truth of this conflict is between who is loyal to Lebanon, the conditions of the Lebanese sovereign and independent state, and the Charter of Co-existence, and between those who pledge their loyalty to another state with other conditions.
• March 14 General Secretariat assures that its approach towards the internal issues will be in a spirit of dialog and pacification. In this regard, it renews its commitment to the STL and commends the effort of the Minister of Justice in his legal approach to the so-called false witnesses’ issue.
• Finally, the General Secretariat noticed MP Michel Aoun’s clear confusion after the Iranian President’s visit to Beirut, and his attempt to minimize this confusion through inventing fake battles under the title of reform. MP Aoun has considered himself as innocent of all the financial fraud that was committed and is accusing others of it. Anyway, this is an occasion to invite him to the initiative of lifting the banking secrecy from his accounts as well as the accounts of his family members.
• Aoun’s failed attempt to move the battle from one of fixing Lebanon’s identity to a battle of sabotaging the Christian-Islamic and the Christian-Christian relations will negatively bounce back to him. This is what is shown every day. The General Secretariat assures that it is not listening to Aoun anymore or to anything that he says.