Hariri mobilizes Future Movement in Bekaa Valley

CHTAURA, Lebanon: A top Future Movement official launched an internal dialogue over the weekend with the party’s base in the Bekaa Valley, hoping to roll back Hezbollah’s influence in the region and to promote an anticipated dialogue with the party.

The Future Movement’s Secretary-General Ahmad Hariri met with Bekaa Valley officials at Chtaura’s Park Hotel during a two-day visit in which he discussed the upcoming dialogue with Hezbollah and its necessity amid the ongoing problems facing the country.

Officials hope the anticipated dialogue will reduce sectarian tensions in the region, which have been exacerbated by the ongoing captivity and killing of Lebanese servicemen by ISIS and the Nusra Front.

Hariri’s meetings focused on the need to mobilize the Future Movement in the Bekaa in order to rebuild the party’s influence in light of the rise of extremist movements.

Hariri stressed the need to support the Lebanese Army in the face of allegations that the military is discriminating against Sunnis, and heard concerns from local officials about Future’s decline in the region.

“Our political sacrifices ... pale in comparison to the great sacrifices of the Lebanese Army,” Hariri said at a dinner during his tour. “What is happening to the Lebanese Army in the form of terrorist attacks has nothing to with political differences, but is linked to the insanity of Hezbollah’s complicity in Syria which opened hell on Lebanon and the Lebanese.”

Hariri told visitors of the need for dialogue but also stressed that the Future Movement does not trust Hezbollah, and that the dialogue may eventually reach a stalemate.

But he said the dialogue would not confer legitimacy to Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria or its opposition to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is trying five members of the party for their alleged complicity in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Attendees at Hariri’s meetings stressed the need for the Future Movement to launch new projects in the Bekaa Valley that would provide new jobs for citizens and boost the party’s support.

Hariri lamented the killing of policeman Ali Bazzal, who was killed Friday by Nusra while in captivity. But he said the killing should not lead to sectarian tensions and the militants ought to be combatted by promoting coexistence.