Syria, Iran & Hezbollah Occupy Lebanon
By: Elias Bejjani*
January 19/2011
Edmund Burke: "Evil Prevails When Good Men Fail to Act"
What is currently going on in my beloved home country Lebanon is extremely 
pathetic, very bizarre, dreadful and explosive.  While the prevailing enforced 
status quo is unprecedented. It is well known internationally as well as legally 
that when an occupying force withdraws from a country that it occupies the 
withdrawal must include all military, civil and paramilitary personnel, and all 
secret services bodies in a bid to allow the people of that country to run their 
own affairs independently.
 
This golden thumb rule was not implemented by the notorious Syrian Baathist 
occupation when the Syrian authorities were forced in 2005 to withdraw their 
occupying army from Lebanon after 28 years of barbaric, iron-fisted oppression. 
Syria left behind fully intact the notorious Hezbollah militia within its de 
facto mini-state that is much stronger and better equipped than the Lebanese 
army. It also left intact four Syrian military camps camouflaged under 
Palestinian armed factions and thirteen other armed Palestinian refugee camps 
that are all mini-states over which the Lebanese government has no authority or 
presence.
 
Since 2005, Syrian intelligence services scattered all over Lebanon have 
infiltrated all governmental institutions, directly and through their Lebanese 
and Palestinian armed militias. Hezbollah and other terrorists, mercenaries, and 
spies have assassinated numerous patriotic Lebanese figures including clergymen, 
parliamentary members, politicians, journalists, and intellectuals. At the same 
time Syria, with the help of its 'Axis of Evil' ally Iran, prevented Lebanese 
authorities from implementing the "Taef Accord" along with UN Resolutions 1559, 
1701 and 1757. These resolutions called for the disarming the illegal Lebanese 
and Palestinian militias, entering and controlling the mini-states, safeguarding 
the country's borders with Syria, and an independent government free from 
foreign interference.
 
In response to direct orders from the two axis of evil countries Iran and Syria 
and against the wishes of the majority of the Lebanese people, on January 
12/2011, Hezbollah  toppled Lebanon's national coalition government. It is 
further threatening to topple by force Lebanon's democratic, secular, and 
multicultural government if it allows the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) 
designated by the UN General Security Council to continue its investigation of 
the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's Sunni Prime Minister Raffic Harriri and 
twenty-two others. 
 
On January 17th 2011, the STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare submitted the 
tribunal's indictment to the Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen. It is strongly 
believed that top members from Hezbollah, Syria and Iran will be indicted. 
Fransen has up to 10 weeks to either accept the indictment and publicly announce 
it or send it back to Bellemare asking for more investigation in the crime.
 
In 2006, Hezbollah instigated a devastating war with neighboring Israel that 
killed more than 1,500 citizens and injured 4,000 others, displaced almost one 
third of the country's population, ruined thousands of buildings and houses, and 
destroyed most of the Lebanon's infrastructure with losses estimated at 20 
billion dollars. The UN intervened to put an end to the war and the UN Security 
Council issued Resolution 1701 that called for the disarmament of Hezbollah and 
all other armed militias alongside Lebanese authorities to deploying their own 
armed forces all over the country.
 
In 2008, Hezbollah invaded the Sunni West Beirut suburbs and a part of the Druze 
Mount Lebanon killing and injuring hundreds after which it forced the "Doha 
Accord". This accord gave its leadership the upper hand in the government, 
legitimized its weaponry, as well as its terrorist mini-state. Meanwhile, Syria 
and Iran kept on supplying Hezbollah with all sorts of weaponry among which are 
more than 50,000 long, short and medium range rockets.
 
Since then, the Lebanese authorities have failed to implement any of the three 
above mentioned UN resolutions. Lebanon's governmental authorities have become a 
hostage to Hezbollah which has by force, bribery, and trafficking spread its 
armed control all over Lebanon and erected military bases on all Lebanon's 
strategic posts. As of now, the entire South Lebanon is under its full control 
with attacks on UNIFIL forces through by its militia occurring every so often.
 
Lebanon is a completely occupied country according to each and every legal 
criterion. Iran's Hezbollah proxy army in Lebanon has become a lethal threat not 
only to Lebanon and Israel, but also to peace and tranquility in all the Arabic 
countries, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and many other states. Sadly, 
Hezbollah's terrorist military grip on Lebanon's governmental institutions is 
escalating on a daily basis.
 
The UN has an obligation to enforce its two major Resolutions 1559 and 1701 and 
not to bury its head in the sand. Appeasing Hezbollah has only made its UNIFIL 
troops in south Lebanon mere hostages and under the mercy of both Iran and 
Syria.  We call on the UN Security Council to vigorously implement UN Resolution 
1701 lest Hezbollah topple the Lebanese government and replace it with an 
Islamic republic similar to the Iranian one.
 
In conclusion, the Lebanese people alone are by any means no longer able to 
disarm Hezbollah, dismantle its mini-state or rule their country independently 
as long as this Iranian-Syrian armed terrorist proxy has the upper hand. Needless to say that force and military deterrence are the only two languages 
that Hezbollah and its evil masters in both Iran and Syria will understand. A 
final military confrontation between the Free World and the 'Axis of Evil' that 
includes Iran, Syria and Hezbollah is inevitable. Based on the lessons of 
Hitler's aggression, the sooner this bloody confrontation occurs the better.  
Every passing day makes the price of blood and treasure to be paid more and more 
expensive.
 
*Elias Bejjani
*Canadian-Lebanese Human Rights activist, journalist and political commentator
*Email  phoenicia@hotmail.com
*Web sites http://www.10452lccc.com &
http://www.clhrf.com
*Mailing phoenicia group 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenicia/.