Beirut blast has shaken up people’s lives but hasn’t loosened the grip of Lebanon’s ruling class
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Roshan Amiri
- . November 8, 2021
- . Update: August 31, 2020 2:52 pm
Iraq– Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi was unharmed after a “failed assassination attempt” Saturday night with a “drone bomb” targeted his residence in Baghdad’s Green Zone. No one claimed responsibility for the offense. And it is not yet known whether there were any wounds or the damage extent. According to security sources, three drones were employed in the attack on the Iraqi Prime Minister Moustafa al-Kadhimi residence, two of which were fired down by the prime minister’s security agency.
The authors launched the drones from a site near the Republic Bridge, said one of these sources, adding that “two drones were shot down” in flight. The third managed to detonate his charge against the residence, injuring two of Kadhimi’s bodyguards. Kazimi wrote on Twitter to be safe, calling for calm and refraining. Sources told The Arab Post that a “rocket” hit Mustafa al-Kazimi’s home in the Green Zone, a massively protected area in the Iraqi capital center that houses the US embassy and other institutions. After the raid, security forces were deployed mainly in and around the Green Zone.
Rocket strikes against the Green Zone are intermittent. On 31 October, three rockets fell in Mansour, a nearby neighborhood, without producing any injuries. The raid on Mustafa al-Kazimi, who has been in power since May 2020, comes when Iraq is torn apart by severe political tensions linked to the early parliamentary elections last month. Hashd al-Shaabi, an influential coalition of pro-Iranian former paramilitaries, is vehemently disputing the election outcomes.
According to the first preliminary results, the Alliance of Conquest saw its number of seats in Parliament drop. The arguments pitted several hundred Hashd supporters against security forces near the Green Zone as early as Friday. A security specialist said one protester died, while a Hashd al-Shaabi source affirmed that at least two people lost their life.
Supporters of Hashd al-Shaabi launched two sit-ins at two different entrances to the Green Zone to protest the election, which the Hashd leadership calls a “fraud” and a “scam.” Despite its electoral defeat, the Hashd will remain a significant political force in Parliament, thanks to the game of alliances and the co-option of independent members. According to preliminary results, the Sadrist current led by the influential Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr won the legislative elections, with more than 70 seats out of the 329 seats.
Final election results should be published in a few weeks. The United States condemned the drone attack on Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, calling it an “apparent act of terrorism.” “We are relieved to learn that the prime minister was unharmed. However, this apparent act of terrorism, which we strongly condemn, was aimed at the heart of the Iraqi state,” State Department spokesman Ned Price stated. “We are in close contact with the Iraqi security forces tasked with defending Iraq’s sovereignty and te ruling class of Lebanon.
The disaster was looming for all the six years and all the ruling people during this tenure of six years are responsible for it – for doing nothing to avoid the inevitable fate of Beirut. Presidents, Prime ministers, transport ministry, key security apparatus chiefs, port authorities and administers are all to be blamed, not just one. Leaders both of ruling state of Lebanon as well as parallel state of Hezbollah, which closely monitors Beirut’s airport and seaport and uses them at its will, are all to be blamed.
Read more : Middle Eastern rich people’s profits during COVID-19 enough to pay Beirut blast repair bill, Oxfam shows
Today’s state of Lebanon which is in tight grip of leadership and Hezbollah are an aftermath of 30 years of political and economic dismal ruling. Before the rise of Civil War in 1975, Lebanon was a ‘fiscal paradise’ – vast capitalism, bank secrecy and bogus taxation made it an ideal territory for money laundering, all kinds of trafficking and capital evasion. After the war there was an agreement constitutionally achieved in 1989 between Lebanese factions under Saudi monarchy and Syrian command. Hariri’s assassination in 2005 compelled Damascus to remove its troops from the country after massive angst from people.
But the alliances in Lebanon with Damascus were at opposite ends still, pulling strings. The triple alliance has been running the joint government for 15 years now –Hezbollah, the Syrian ally and Lebanese agent of Iran; Michael Aoun, Syria’s foe who about-turned in 2006; and Amal, Shia sectarian movement led by Nabih Berri. Now this alliance is also involving Hariri’s son Saad. The result is the same – economic policies that are proving disaster for the country.
The current collapse of Lebanese economy, superseded by Beirut blast is the result of full spectrum of country’s ruling class. The uprising against the powerful regime that started on October 17 last year with slogan “All of them means all of them” signifies the collective responsibility of ruling strata for current chaos in Lebanon. The Beirut blast have rekindled the anger among people against the regime and accelerated the uprising.
