TEHRAN — Former Lebanese foreign minister Adnan Mansour has castigated Lebanese Forces Party leader Samir Geagea for the bloody Thursday in Beirut, saying Geagea is seeking to push Lebanon to the verge of collapse and anarchy.

Snipers loyal to Geagea fired on people who were peacefully protesting against the judge investigating blast at the port of Beirut happened in August 2020.

Mansour also said Geagea is not “the representative of the Lebanese people and he enjoys no support among the Lebanese.”

The former senior diplomat said Geagea has a “destructive plan for Lebanon and he does not want Lebanon to live in clam.”

Geagea's record is “full of assassinations and bloodshed, and the Lebanese government should not allow him to make adventures, he pointed out.
 
The deadly Thursday shooting came shortly after Hezbollah took practical measures to lessens the pains of the Lebanese people through importing fuel from Iran and relative stability had returned to Lebanon with the election of Najib Mikati as prime minister.

He said the judge investigating the blast is politicizing the issue, adding the Lebanese judicial system is unfortunately politicized. 

The Lebanese judicial system should have independence, he said, adding influence on the Judiciary prevents it to issue fair rulings and this does not benefit Lebanon.

“In such an environment one cannot expect fair decisions.”

The former chief diplomat said though investigations have not reached a conclusion, some political groups are seeking to accuse one side for the explosion without presenting evidence.
 
Mansour also said remarks by American officials and Congress members also show that the United States embassy in Beirut has a role in the Thursday tragic shootings.

“However, Lebanon will not enter into civil war,” the former diplomat assured.

The former foreign minister went on to say that studies about the port explosion should be “transparent”. 

The Lebanese seek an investigation of the port incident far from political motivations, Mansour insisted.

He said political approach toward the port incident prompted negative reactions by the people but snipers fired at them.

He added Lebanon is caught in difficult and dangerous situation.

Lebanon is already in crisis resulting from the U.S. sanctions and bitter political infighting. The value of national currency has sharply decreased and the country is facing tough fuel crisis and power outages.

In a commentary published on Saturday, the Tehran Times said Lebanon took another step closer to a devastating civil war after militants affiliated with firebrand politician Geagea opened fire on peaceful demonstrators protesting against the judge whom they accuse of using blast at Beirut port to politically target Hezbollah and its allies. 

The episode began when Tarek Bitar, the judge who leads the investigation into the Beirut port blast, started to issue subpoenas for some Lebanese politicians to interrogate them about the explosion which razed the port to the ground. These politicians accused the judge of exploiting his mandate as a tool to target and discredit them. 

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayed Hassan Nasrallah warned about the Bitar-led investigation going astray. In a recent televised speech, the secretary openly cautioned that Bitar is misusing the investigation and that his efforts will lead nowhere. 

“We said from the beginning that we wanted to investigate the explosion of Beirut Port, and I say honestly if the families of the martyrs and the wounded abandon the investigation, we do not abandon it, and we consider that we are among those who have been morally, politically and media-affected,” Nasrallah said, adding, “The current judge, instead of learning from all the mistakes of the previous judge, on the contrary, completed these mistakes. And he went even further.”

Underlining that Bitar is politically motivated and has nothing to do with justice, the Hezbollah chief told the families of the victims, “You will not reach justice with Judge Bitar, who engages in politics and uses blood to serve political targets.”