Three months after formation of a new government and end of the 13-month political deadlock, the Lebanese people who are fed up with the bitting economic crisis and power struggle of the political parties are looking forward to see improvement of the conditions through implementation of the government promises.
Meanwhile, although the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati is taking slow steps to attract international aids, with its gradual advances assissted by Hezbollah to assuage the people's suffering, especially when it comes to providing fuel as the winter is arriving, obstructions and challenges are put ahead of the government by some home and foreign sides begin to increasingly surface.
Butcher of Sabra and Shatila the main implementer of the foreign-designed divisive policies
In the months since Mikati took office, Saudi Arabia, which has cut off all support for the Lebanese coalition government to put pressure on Hezbollah, represented the biggest challenge to Beirut. It severed ties with Lebanon and pushed other Persian Gulf Arab monarchies to take similar steps under the excuse of remarks made by Lebanon's Information Minister George Kurdahi who criticized Saudi-led Yemen war and hailed the Yemeni people's resistance.
However, the summoning of the ambassador was not the end of Saudi Arabia's actions and hostilities against Lebanon. Samir Geagea, one of the main figures of the right-wing camp and close to Saudi Arabia, the US, and the Israeli regime in Lebanon, who has in his black record massacring of the Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982, has been tasked with a mission of destabilization and crisis in Lebanon over the past few weeks.
A deadly attack on peaceful protests arranged by Hezbollah supporters against judge's bias and a ruling issued by the court related to Beirut port explosions could take Lebanon to devastating civil war if it was not for Hezbollah chief Sayed Hassan Nasrallah's show of self-restraint in the face of a foreign plot.
Lebanese political circles and the media described the crime an arrangement by the US embassy in Beirut implemented by Geagea-led Lebanese Forces.
But the failure to provoke a civil war and tarnish the image of the Hezbollah through the conspiracy of the Beirut port bombing probe was not the end of the actions of Samir Geagea and his foreign backers, and he has recently resorted to another way to strike at the Mikati's government.
Geagea claimed on Tuesday that Hezbollah and its allies are seeking to postpone parliamentary elections for fear of losing because his party will be the first to win if the election is held and the Free Patriotic Movement, the main ally to Hezbollah among the Christians, would lose.
This meaningful stance, which is intended to inflame the political climate in order to worsen the economic situation and disrupt the work of the Mikati government, as well as to divert public opinion from Hezbollah-provided services mainly in fuel delivery, was responded by a Hezbollah representative in the parliament.
Ibrahim al-Mousawi, of Loyalty to Resistance bloc, held that these remarks were intended to make provocations for votes and to sow division and sedition. He noted that Hezbollah, which has formulated its strategy based on "great national principles and bonds", sees the elections as an opportunity for the Lebanese people and eligible voters to renew the political life by electing their representatives. Talking sarcastically about Lebanese Forces, al-Mousawi said: "But those who do not have real national principles and who pursue policies based on circumstances that are not based on any national principles or values are waiting for elections so that they may be able to change all equations."
Hezbollah response reflected the movement's mobilization of its achievements and potentials for the service of people as the main benchmark with which people assess the political parties. Hezbollah response was aimed at returning Geagea's plot to him.
Saudi Arabia invests on Geagea for street tensions
The foreign pressures on Mikati government are coming along with Saudi efforts to spark street riots using figures close to Riyadh. According to Al-Nashra news website of Lebanon, those who took to the streets of Tripoli on Monday were supporters of Baha Hariri, Saad Hariri's brother, in coordination with Lebanese Forces and General Ashraf Rifi, a former General Director of Lebanese Internal Security Forces, with direct funding from Saudi Arabia.
The arrangement comes amid worsening economic conditions, especially as the American dollar in Lebanon reaches 25,000 Lebanese lira, to provoke street protests against Hezbollah and Mikati government.
Lebanon's political circles believe that with Saad Hariri put out of Saudi support, his brother Baha is trying to take the street protests leadership as this requires Saudi bankrolling. On the other hand, with Saad Hariri retreating from his past stances, Saudi Arabia is throwing all its political and financial weight in Lebanon behind Geagea.
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