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2020-11-09 09:09:22
Exclusive – “Al-Sail” / In response to US sanctions: Bassil does not provoke Washington and responds internally with escalation
Al Sheraa Magazine November 9, 2020
Representative Gebran Bassil did not intend to take increasing positions against Washington after the US sanctions against him, responding to the many advice he was given.
Among those who advised him, there is a resigned deputy who allied himself in the last parliamentary elections with the Free Patriotic Movement and has a good relationship with several US officials.
The resigned deputy, after contacting the Undersecretary of State for Near East Affairs, David Schenker, asked Basil to be patient and not take positions that lead to “breaking the jar” with Washington or “closing the return line. “, citing the aforementioned US official that any word from Basil about it The framework will expose him to further attacks by publishing documents and documents that led to the announcement of the imposition of sanctions against him in accordance with the Magnitsky Act.
Schenker was in the aforementioned contact strictly speaking of Basil, which was not surprising, especially since he excluded him on his recent visit to Lebanon and did not meet with him despite the insistence of the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement to request a meeting. with him and despite the fact that the US official did not leave anyone. Notable political leaders did not meet with him.
The first thing Bassil did, based on the advice he gave him, was to prevent the Free Patriotic Movement from going to the headquarters of the US Embassy in Awkar to demonstrate and sit there to protest the sanctions against its president. Attempts have been made over the past Saturday and Sunday to meet and address Aoukar, but Bassil personally worked hard to prevent any movement from the street in his movement against the Americans, in anticipation of all that could accompany the insults and slogans that “They add insult to injury.” As for him, he considered that his response in his media appearance on Sunday would be enough to refute the sanctions he pointed out.
For all these reasons, Basil tried to defend himself and respond to what was expressed in the circumstances of the announcement of the sanctions against him without taking provocative positions or of the type that he knows to upset Americans, stating that there is no evidence or evidence against him.
He did not leave a sentence to moisten the relationship with the Americans without using it, elaborating his ideological disagreement with Hezbollah, the position on Israel, peace with him, his right to security, etc., as if he was thus forwarding his credentials to the Americans. speaking of the oppression he was exposed to as a result of the sanctions. Of course, benefiting from the new environment that represents the transfer of power in Washington from Republicans to Democrats and the change that will happen with President-elect Joe Biden, which will affect all those who are behind the sanctions against him, including Mike Pompeo and David Schenker.
Bassil notably revealed four demands that the Americans wanted to implement, and only one of them was revealed, which is to break the relationship of the current that leads with Hezbollah, in a way that clearly shows that Hezbollah wants to exploit its rejection of this demand to Hezbollah level and at the level of the axis to which it belongs.
What is surprising about Basil’s words is that he spoke about the continuation of Mar Mikhael’s understanding with Hezbollah on the basis of expressing fear for the country of sedition in case this understanding did not exist, and not on the basis of implementing the provisions. of the aforementioned understanding in the letter, at the national and reformist level, or on the basis of the alliance. This allowed him to arrive at the ministry four years ago before the presidential arrangement, and to strengthen his presence in it after the election of his uncle, Michel Aoun, as President of the Republic.
Bassil did not reveal what the Americans were asking for and whether this was related to the demarcation of the maritime borders with the Zionist entity, which raises many questions about the three remaining demands and the reasons that led the leader of the movement to speak about his existence, which can only be placed in an attempt to reap profit. Mister path beneficial harmful.
And if the talk started widely in Lebanon and the United States about the disappearance of David Schenker, one of the hawk symbols in the Donald Trump administration, who will soon become former president, then Gebran Bassil’s bet is on the new administration and the attractiveness that you will work to reach through an American law firm, as announced. In order to annul the sanctions that portrayed him as corrupt, perpetrator and responsible or one of the prominent officials of the state of collapse that Lebanon is experiencing.
In this context, he expressed that the decision to sanction him is political, and can be removed with a pencil stroke, as he said, just as it was taken with a pencil stroke. Perhaps this is what prompted President Michel Aoun to be the first to send a congratulatory telegram to President-elect Joe Biden, hoping this is an opening. Due to a relationship with his administration that differs from that of the current administration.
However, Bassil’s problem is not limited to this context, since the issue affects his ambition, not his “dream” of reaching the presidency of the republic to succeed his uncle, a matter that was and continues to be the cornerstone of his priorities and the priorities of Aoun, who had previously spoken on this matter.
Gebran Bassil was Yemeni because he was close to the presidency when Trump’s chances of remaining in the White House declined and Joe Biden’s increased. Since the latter will reinforce the nuclear deal with Iran, which means that the road is ahead for him, that is, the leader of the Free Movement, to reproduce the experience of his uncle when he became president when he was able to obtain the title of His Excellency the President for the circumstances produced by the aforementioned agreement that was in charge of Biden during the presidential term. Old American.
Basil was not satisfied with what he had imagined, after the sanctions were issued against him that he received information about the possibility of announcing them against him, but he was betting on the possibility of not issuing them and that the new administration dismisses them, but the Bassil’s field accounts were not identical to Al-Baidar’s accounts, especially since the penalties against him and the descriptions contained in him became part of his image, whether he succeeded or failed with the new administration to cancel these sanctions.
Of course, Hezbollah, in solidarity with Basilio in the position against the United States sanctions against him, will not hesitate to help the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement to get out of the new situation in which he lives, but this matter is not fundamentally related with his candidacy for the presidency, especially since the party was avoiding. Always the commitment or promise to be “so and so”, Gebran Bassil, Suleiman Franjieh, or others, a candidate for the presidency in the next elections, and the status of its officials has always been, especially its Secretary General, Mr. Hassan Nasrallah, that things depend on your chance and it is too early to speak on this issue.
In any case, what happened to Bassil as a result of the US sanctions can be described, as one expert on the US-Lebanese relationship put it, as a thunderbolt for him, and he will not be able to get rid of its consequences since it goes beyond anything that was exposed from the Lebanese street and the “national uprising against thieves” that began on the 7th. October 10 – October of last year, when the popular campaigns against him focused on his responsibility to bring the country’s situation to the level of crisis and collapse it has reached, which are getting worse every day.
Despite the implications of what happened on the general situation in the country, Bassil seemed to be responding internally to what the Americans were subjected to, through the escalation that began against Prime Minister Saad Hariri without naming him on the issue of government formation , and opening fire on the majority of the members of the political class, which warns, as a previous reference says, that the remaining period of the mandate of President Michel Aoun will be the most difficult for Lebanon, and that Bassil’s role in the two remaining years will be one of obstruction and escalation, in different ways and directions, with the goal of restoring the popular glow among Christians that was exposed. Due to a significant decrease due to the policies adopted.
The bottom line is that if Basil, as is evident from what they have witnessed in recent days, does not want to get involved in any position or response to Washington after the Schenker threat did what it did in his behavior, posture, and reaction, then today he intends to respond to the sanctions to which he was subjected. It can do that, that is, within Lebanon.
And through his recent talk on the specifics of what happened on the subject of government formation and what he called the standards unit, it is clear that he is still dealing with the same mindset that led him about a year and a half ago. to the situation that resulted from the events at Shamoun’s grave, while he is working to try to defend himself through the attack. Ali Hariri, who today seeks to form a government to implement the French initiative, in light of the facts that everyone knows near and far.
Perhaps this is what prompts us to say that we are facing a new chapter in the Jabarani or Basilian biography, which is full of problems with all the political parties in Lebanon, without exception. These are problems that did not provide specific vital signs within the Free Patriotic Movement itself.
