Berri Fears a Repeat of the 2005 Scenario: The American Law Destroys Lebanon

Nicolas Nassif

Both stances of House Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Walid Jumblat from the Sunday Verdun explosion intersected, both warning of making premature deductions that carry sedition and accusations. Jumblat referred to it as a "fifth column", while Berri later expressed fears from the fabrication of the 2005 scenario.

Since the explosion that targeted the main building of BLOM Bank in Verdun last Sunday, Hizbullah has remained completely silent about it, while March 14 parties hinted some times, and boldly accused Hizbullah at other times, of being behind the bomb due to the recent tough struggle with the administration of the Bank of Lebanon and Lebanese banks.

Hizbullah didn't want to take a stance so as not to be viewed in the position of defending itself, nor to falsely join the group of those condemning the incident. This bomb might not need but a casual stance by Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during his first expected appearance.

The Parliament Speaker's comment on those reactions, while believing that MP Walid Jumblat's stance was as he expected, expresses fear from a repeat of the 2005 scenario: "Few minutes after the assassination of PM Rafik Hariri in February 2005, fingers of accusations were directed towards Syria firstly, then to Hizbullah, after making sure that Syria was not behind it, in which it was not mentioned in this regard anymore."

Berri continued: "When the bomb went off, I immediately expected accusations against Hizbullah. The party didn't respond, and this issue is decided by it. Up until now, the security and judicial investigations must be awaited before anyone judges. For our part, we are cooperating with the department of information in gathering evidences and data from the cameras located in the area to chase the perpetrators' vehicle and the roads they might have gone through from Verdun. The available security information now does not signal that they approached the Ain al-Tineh area nor the surrounding security zone, nor that they passed in the area that the cameras here could cover. Anyways, we shall wait and leave dealing with the issue to the administration of the Bank of Lebanon, which we fully trust. There are some Lebanese banks that made mistakes. Some of them erred since the time of the issuing of the American sanctions law. According to me, I am with applying our Lebanese law, and the procedures identified by the Bank of Lebanon. I said this to the American Deputy Secretary of Treasury when he visited me."

The Parliament Speaker recalled some details of the dialogue he conducted with the US Deputy Secretary of Treasury for Terrorist Financing Daniel Glazer, whom he received in the presence of the US Ambassador to Lebanon Richard Jones on May 27th. He uncovered some of the issues they discussed: "I asked him first how they would apply the law? Do you believe every danger immediately? You have here dishonest spies. Now I am an honest spy. Have you been looking for the biggest cooperator with Hizbullah? It is me. There are more than 200 municipalities which I share with Hizbullah. Either the mayor of the municipality belongs to Hizbullah, or his deputy belongs to the Amal Movement, or the opposite. The second biggest municipality after the Municipality of Beirut is the one of Ghobeiry, which I also share with Hizbullah. It is funded by the Ministry of Finance which is managed by an Amal Movement minister."

"Do you expect that the minister of finance would carry the municipality's money, which hits monthly up to one billion and 400 million Lebanese pounds, almost 18 billion Lebanese pounds a year, in bags, instead of sending cheques? I am the Speaker of the Parliament, and I pay the salaries of the MPs by cheques. Do you expect me to carry bags of money for the 13 Hizbullah MPs as well? Do you know how the Lebanese intertwined society is composed? Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah is Hizbullah's Secretary General, and his brother is a member of the Amal Movement. There is no Shiite house that doesn't embrace a member of Hizbullah and another of Amal Movement. One is with Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and the other is with me. What you are doing is destroying Lebanon, unless the Law of Sanctions doesn't only target Hizbullah, but also all the Shiites. In addition, there is a huge political group that supports Hizbullah, such as the Free Patriotic Movement. What would you do for them?"

Berri further added: "Had this been the problem, don't you need a solution? He said yes. So I told him that I have a solution and if they agreed on it, then we would all apply it, otherwise nothing should be applied. Do you trust Riyadh Salameh? He nodded as yes. Do you trust his operating team? He also nodded as yes. Then the solution is here, in the Lebanese laws, applying them and submitting to the Bank of Lebanon. The Lebanese Parliament issued in November of 2015 some laws that are stricter than yours, in which they represent the highest international submitting standards of the global banking system. Such standards are not only applied on Hizbullah, but rather on all the Lebanese people. Let the solution be in the hands of the Bank of Lebanon and those Lebanese laws. At the end of the meeting, he went outside to announce the two main issues that were discussed in our meeting: that the American law doesn't target the Shiites, as well as stressing on his trust in the governor and the administration of the Bank of Lebanon."

The American visitor's viewpoint hid behind the thought that there is a law issued by the Congress, and it would be applied. However Berri replied: "Instead of chasing people, chase the account. Observe its financial flow, and whether it is suspicious, then act."

Source: al-Akhbar, Translated and Edited by website team