World
Former PM Fouad Siniora says Hezbollah has turned Lebanon into a ‘failed state’
The man who was prime minister of Lebanon during the last Israeli invasion of the country in 2006 has both Israel and Hezbollah in his sights.
Talking to me in the hills above Beirut, Fouad Siniora says the Israeli forces are killing too many civilians in Gaza and in Lebanon.
He says the targeting of peacekeeping soldiers in southern Lebanon is just one example of what he described as war crimes.
He said: “This is something very bad what Israel has done and I hope it will awaken the attention of the whole world.”
But his anger was aimed also at Hezbollah, who he says have hijacked the country and the government.
He tells me he sees a great chance to reduce the influence of Hezbollah, given the weakened state in which they find themselves.
Read more: Live updates from the Middle East conflict
He says Lebanon must “turn a problem into an opportunity”.
“You cannot rule the country when you have two states… the state of Hezbollah… and the proper state that has been diminishing in authority,” he said.
Mr Siniora also insisted that Iran had to stay out of Lebanese affairs.
He said: “Lebanon cannot afford that Iran continues to mess around not only directly but also through its tentacles”.
Beirut, seen from where Fouad Siniora and Mark Austin spoke
He told me he believes Lebanon is already a failed state and could collapse completely unless there is a ceasefire and a full implementation of the UN resolution reinforced back in 2006.
If not, he predicts a very dire future for Lebanon.
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Israel said on Saturday that dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel as the country marked Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military ordered residents of 22 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate immediately, and a UN peacekeeper was shot in Lebanon, the United Nations force in the country said.
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The unnamed man is the fifth peacekeeper to be injured in three days.
“Conflict is like a virus and if you don’t deal with it quickly, it spreads,” says Mr Siniora.
But looking out from his terrace over Beirut, the palls of smoke from explosions still rise into the blue sky and it is clear a ceasefire is nowhere in sight.