Geagea Says Bid on Life Triggered by His 'Attempt to Put Christians at Heart of Arab Spring'
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Thursday that the rival domestic and regional camp “has an interest” in eliminating him from the political scene, noting that his “attempt to put the Christians at the heart of the Arab Spring is an additional factor in the assassination attempt” he escaped last week.
“I changed my lifestyle after the assassination attempt to prevent the perpetrators from making another bid,” Geagea said in an interview on Al-Arabiya.
He accused a “professional and major political side” of perpetrating the attack, stressing that it was not the work of “individuals.”
“At least six people are estimated to have taken part in the operation, which means that it was well-organized,” he noted.
Last week, Geagea announced that he had been shot at twice by "snipers" as he was walking with bodyguards outside his fortified residence in Maarab.
"I heard two shots, so I dropped to the ground," he said, adding that the bullets made two holes in the wall of his house.
Lebanese security services who later arrived at the scene confirmed the incident, which they said they were investigating.
During the interview on Thursday, Geagea said he was confident that President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi and ISF’s intelligence bureau chief Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan are “serious concerning the investigation” into the attempt on his life.
“But officials (of lower ranks) may not be as serious,” the LF leader added.
Asked whether he feared for the life of Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat, Geagea said: “In my analysis of how the other camp thinks, yes I'm seriously afraid for Walid Jumblat.”
“I don't think that Lebanon will return to civil strife because at least the March 14 camp -- which has grown bigger due to several factors -- is keen on preserving civil peace, although sometimes it does that at the expense of its own interests,” Geagea said when asked about a possible return to civil war in Lebanon, on the eve of the 37th anniversary of the civil war that erupted on April 13, 1975.
Geagea accused the rival Hizbullah-led camp of “impeding the democratic life with its weapons,” but noted that the March 14 camp was willing to wait for the 2013 parliamentary elections to seek a change in the political equation, saying that stems from keenness on preserving security in the country.
And he stressed that “the other camp will not come to the dialogue table before the fall of the Syrian regime and before it abandons its arms.”
Source: Naharnet
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