Bassil Says 'No Iranian Occupation', Blasts Salameh, Political Rivals

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday noted that “there is no Iranian occupation of Lebanon,” as he lashed out at political rivals and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh.

“Today they want to convince you that there is a new occupation that has come to Lebanon, which is the Iranian occupation, but if there is an Iranian occupation, we as FPM will be the first to confront it, the same as we confronted the Israeli occupation and Syrian tutelage,” Bassil said.

“Do not be afraid. There is no Iranian occupation of Lebanon, because no one can occupy our culture, religion or faith. No one can occupy or step on this land and these mountains,” the FPM chief added, in a speech in Kfardebian.

“We want to have friends in the world, not to be the cronies of anyone,” he stressed.

Apparently hitting out at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Bassil added: “They take political money from foreign forces to be tools for nations and foreign intelligence agencies. They kill when they are asked to and they endorse policies such as toppling the Orthodox (electoral) law and the President’s powers.”

Moreover, the FPM chief said that President Michel Aoun’s tenure has “confronted the wrong financial policies and dismantled the regime.”

“This is the most important and no one else would have been able to do it,” Bassil added.

“We are being liberated from the political regime that has ruled Lebanon since the 1990s and it is disintegrating. They are falling one after another, but the financial regime remains, led today by the governor (of the central bank)… The lie of pegging the exchange rate has ended and they can do no magic after today,” the FPM chief went on to say.

He added that Salameh “cannot remain in his post if we want to restore confidence in the lira.”

“He is being judicially prosecuted in seven countries in Europe… If the United States is behind him, we want to topple him, and if the political regime is behind him, it must fall and he should fall with it,” Bassil said.

He added: “We will liberate Lebanon’s economy and this is the objective and the battle, before, during and after the elections. Remember well that we’re the ones who liberated Lebanon from every occupier and tutelar, and we will liberate it from them and their policies.”

Referring to political rivals, Bassil accused them of preventing the FPM from “providing electricity and fixing the financial policies.”

“But we in return prevented them from seizing control of the country,” Bassil boasted.

He added: “Their scheme of seizing control of the country has fallen, the naturalization (of Palestinian refugees) has fallen and the integration of the displaced Syrians has fallen, because Syria is rising and the Syrians will return home.”

“The scheme of allowing terrorism to enter from the mountains (of the eastern border) has failed and we’re the ones who prevented them,” he said.