Leaked documents obtained by Al
Arabiya disclose important information about Assad’s plan to start a civil war
in Lebanon. (Al Arabiya)
| by AL ARABIYA
( October 2, 2012, UAE, Sri Lanka
Guardian) In
recent months, Northern Lebanon has been the scene of deadly clashes. The
violence in Lebanon left dozens killed and left a shadow of insecurity hanging
over the habitants of the northern coastal city of Tripoli and its
surroundings.
But what may have first appeared
to be impulsive sectarian hostilities between inhabitants of the same region,
now seems more likely to have been a premeditated strategy by Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad to instigate a conflict in Lebanon.
Revelations based on newly-leaked
and highly-classified Syrian security documents, obtained by Al Arabiya, unveil
the Syrian regime’s plan to destabilize Lebanon’s security through
“eliminating” relevant figures.
The confidential files were
acquired by Al Arabiya with the assistance of members of the Syrian opposition
who refused to elaborate on how they got hold of the documents.
Al Arabiya says that it has
verified and authenticated hundreds of these documents and that it is has
decided to disclose the ones with substantial news value and political
relevance.
Turmoil ‘impossible to calm down’
A leaked file revealing the strategy of the Syrian regime to create
chaos in neighboring Lebanon. (Al Arabiya Exclusive)
In a document dated April 5,
Major General Bassam Merhej, Director of the Presidential Security Office,
writes to Brigadier General Hassan Abdel Rahman, Chief of the Syrian Special
Operations Unit in Foreign Intelligence; the orders were clear: creating
disorder in Lebanon.
Merhej orders Abdel Rahman to
meet with “friends” in Lebanon but without informing them “in any way” of the
details of the operation.
The General also requests sending
a high-level commander to Lebanon in order to supervise the mission.
In the same document, Merhej gave
two orders to kill:
First, “discreetly” eliminating
all personalities named on a separate list provided by the ‘monitoring
division’ (the list wasn’t attached to the document).
Second, he requests Abdel Rahman
to eliminate “figures renowned for their religious-sectarian affiliations;”
stating that the goal is to “create turmoil in Lebanon that would be impossible
to calm down.”
At the end of the month of May,
Tripoli and its neighboring villages witnessed deadly sectarian clashes and
violent riots in reaction to the killing of a Muslim cleric, allegedly by the
Lebanese army.
Army troops shot dead a Sunni
cleric, when his convoy reportedly failed to stop at a checkpoint in North
Lebanon.
A fellow passenger in the car of
the cleric, Ahmad Abdel Wahed, a figure known for his support of the
anti-regime uprising in neighboring Syria, was also killed.
Sheikh Abdel Wahed was born in
al-Bireh and was vocally opposed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Mission ‘8/23’
A written order to Brigadier Chawki Makhlouf to go to Lebanon and
accomplish the mission. (Al Arabiya Exclusive)
During this time, Lebanese Prime
Minister Najib Miqati appealed for calm in the wake of the cleric’s killing, as
the army said it “deplored the regrettable incident that took place near a
checkpoint” and that it had opened an investigation.
In a second leaked top secret
document obtained by Al Arabiya, Hassan Abdel Rahman sends a written order to
Brigadier Chawki Makhlouf, for the latter to go to Lebanon and to accomplish a
mission he referred to as “8/23.”
Abdel Rahman’s file was sent on
May 12. A week later, Sheikh Abdel Wahed was killed.
Al Arabiya’s exclusive series on
the newly-leaked Syrian security documents continues tomorrow.
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