Only a few lucky ones have managed to catch Emile Lahoud's LIVE interview on Al Jazeera channel this afternoon. I thought that زمن الزعماء انتهى... and I thank President Lahoud for proving me wrong. Well, for those of you who didn't catch the interview try to search it up online and please send me a copy of the video file if you ever find it because I couldn't. I'll try to post here the points that I carved in the back of my head for you guys to read and, hopefully, adore.

A. Emile Lahoud basically said that in order for Lebanon to "talk" the following has to be abided by:

1. Cease fire and for the Israeli army to retreat back to where they came from.
2. Shaba'a farms.
3. The Lebanese people are going to vote on the kind of government they wish to have. حكومه وأحزابwise. Every vote will not be taken for granted. No one will be defined as a minority. The Lebanese civil wars were a result of minorities and we will never have that again. Lebanon belong to the Lebanese and no decision shall be taken without their complete approval. What good is it for one person to take a decision and have the rest of the countrymen pay for that decision? If the entire population vote on it then everyone will be more than happy to accept the consequences of their decision, good or bad. We are Lebanese and we have the right to choose.
4. We will not accept the presence of international forces at our borders. We already have security council troops over there and they are welcomed then to bring reinforcements if that would make things better. Lebanon will not live to be another Kosovo.

B. He blamed the US for not denouncing the Qana bombing now and not denouncing it in 1996. He threw in the government's theories about Israel and the US Harriri assassination and demanded full investigation on that aspect, and when asked why jump to that assumption he said that they've already proven they're capable of such horrific actions. He kept referring to Harriri as الرئيس الحريري. I could only bow my head to the respect and humbleness this man showed.

C. Then came the million dollar question about Al Moqawama i.e Hezbollah... to which he basically said that the more the Israelis' aggressions stay, the more they all want the moqawama to stay. He also added that after the year 2000 it was voted among the people in Lebanon as to whether they should put more into the Lebanese army or whether they should simply and completely trust the Hezbollah presence... and to that the answer is pretty obvious. It's the year 2006 now and Hezbollah are there defending the Lebanese.

D. When asked about his statements and whether they were "official", he said that he's just a Lebanese man and the official statements would be issued and spoken out eventually from the government house of assembly.

His words were patriotic yet well poised. As far as I could tell, his words were not "terrorist-friendly".... and yet the world still finds it hard to understand.

My definition of a 'Leader' would be a person who would say everything I'd want to say without having fingers pointed at him or me or the rest of the countrymen. A person I would so gladly follow into hell... if hell is to be my ultimate choice.

Posted by Яαgιи Яαvєи on Monday, July 31, 2006 at 7/31/2006 09:23:00 PM | Permalink