"We are supporting the cause not the judge, and we challenge them to check the Ministry of Energy from the 90's!", Gebran Bassil.

April 25, 2021

(See Translation in Arabic Section)

Sydney - M E Times Int'l:  The head of the Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc, MP Gebran Bassil, gave a speech that focused on three topics: Justice, the government and the borders.

Here are some excerpts that were included in his speech:

I-Justice:

Lebanon cannot be established while corruption continues along those lines. Corruption is no longer a side issue. Corruption is an obstacle to reform and without reforms, there is neither money nor resurgence. Reforms have become equal to recovering people's money or at least partially compensating it.

Moreover, it is not possible to combat corruption without an honest, bold, independent and effective judiciary system. It has become clear to the Lebanese that there are decent judges who are interested in pursuing corruption cases regardless of whom it affects.

They are only driven by their conscience and responsibility. On the other hand, it is clear that there are helpless or corrupt judges who, through corruption, collected their money, properties and palaces and are employed by some politicians either to open fake files or to stop serious files.

There is no salvation if the reform judge doesn't prevail over the corruption judge.

What is the issue of the day in the judiciary system?

Quite simply, the banks and the Central Bank flooded the market in Lebanese pounds and bought dollars and transferred it abroad until they dried up the market of dollars and made people aware of the shock of losing it and then panicking.

What is happening today is an attempt to prevent a judge from reaching the truth, because he decided to reveal the amount of money that was transferred abroad and the identity of its owners.

There was speculation on the Lebanese pound and the Banque du Liban (BDL), instead of intervening to reduce the price, by pumping dollars and buying pounds, did the opposite: the market sank in the Lebanese pound and the BDL bought dollars at a price other than the official determined rate.

What's hidden in this file? What is there to fear? Let her complete her job and prove she is not right! Not every time you will cover-up files and prevent access to their endings! What are they doing to stop the investigations?

This file was previously opened and covered-up. Judge Aoun’s mistake was that she, without any review, dared to open the file again based on a complaint submitted to her; and we even heard about the case like others.

Despite this, the judge did not give up her powers and continued the investigations. The Judicial Council tried to isolate her and when it did not succeed in gathering the necessary votes, it referred her to inspection in preparation for her suspension. All this is with one goal: to stop the investigations and not have access to information about the funds transferred abroad.

What did the moral assassination team do and lie: This is our money and our accounts and we revealed it. Do you dare do like us? Please pass the law on account and property disclosure.

That is why they want to get rid of her, we understand this, because we have had the same experience. Correction is forbidden, fighting corruption is forbidden. It's forbidden to harm the gains of the corrupt system, otherwise you will become corrupt and you will be mentally assassinated and this is what happens to her.

Do you see that she is a rebel against justice and not seeing the BDL as a rebel against criminal scrutiny?

But the question remains, where are your money Lebanese people?

Who took it? Who transferred it? Ghada Aoun, Gebran Bassil and Michel Aoun?

So, we are with the cause not with the judge. With the issue of recovering the Lebanese funds that were smuggled abroad in a discretionary immoral manner. Until today, it has been smuggled because of the parliament’s refusal, from a year and a half to today, to pass the Capital Control Law.

There may be remarks on Judge Ghada Aoun's performance because of her daring to reach the truth, but this is a form and not basis. She is not corrupt, nor does she fabricate files; No one can stop her or influence her. She does not even respond to anyone.

The thief is afraid of auditing and opening files but a decent man should rejoice over that.

Did you understand why we resort to justice comfortably even if they try to fabricate files for us, and we are not afraid because there is nothing against us. The truth, even if they tried to falsify it, would not change!

Did you understand why they flee and are afraid of the decent judges?

This is the difference in dealing with justice. We counted 65 files that we presented, from the communications file in 2009 to the fraudulent fuel file in 2020. We have been submitting files for 12 years and they were closing them. We will not remain silent and start to pursue them, starting with the ships' file. We will keep following it to find out the truth about any commission on the ships.

1-    The Capital Control Law to stop the leakage of funds abroad; this is a continuous financial crime from October 17 until today.

2-    Criminal scrutiny of the BDL accounts (followed as soon as the government is formed, by all State departments accounts auditing). This is not the demand of the President of the Republic alone, or a group of Lebanese, but rather it is the demand of every party that wants reform, and it is the demand of the International Monetary Fund and any party in the world that wants to help Lebanon. No one will help a broken country without knowing the size of its debts. There is a financial gap in the Banque du Liban, estimated at 55 billion dollars, and the BDL is denying it!

3-    Recovering funds transferred abroad, this is a law that we have advanced in and must be approved if they are honest by returning part of the depositors' money, because transfers have been made only for politicians, influential people and capital owners.

This is the subject of Judge Ghada Aoun's judicial investigation, and it is the same as the proposed law presented by us. Do you think you can hide these facts forever? If you work at nights after 12 o'clock, to erase and hide data and some information, does it mean it is over? Can you hide the fact of billions of dollars shipped "bank note" abroad?

Here, precisely, the countries can help Lebanon because the money has been transferred to banks abroad, and it is easy to track them and know its details.

This is the real help to the Lebanese people by exposing corruption and returning money to Lebanon.

For example, the European Union is looking into a paper to set incentives for Lebanon to go through with reforms, and in return, punitive measures are put in place if they are not followed.

In either case, the European Union should not seize all the money smuggled out of Lebanon to European banks after October 17, 2019 (or even before it). We, ask the European Union, its states, and the associations concerned with combating corruption to take serious measures and prosecute those responsible for the misuse of public money and its smuggling from Lebanon.

Our deputies have started a tour on the European embassies, to deliver messages in this regard.

We call on the Lebanese government to assume its responsibilities and to correspond with the authorities concerned with the issues at hand.

For example, did the Lebanese judiciary do all its duties and carry out all the required procedures that the Swiss judiciary filed against the governor of the BDL? This is a question that shall be answered.

This is part of the international judiciary that we will resort to if you continue to oppress the Lebanese judges. Just as we will have to demand an international investigation committee into the port of Beirut explosion, if the Lebanese investigation does not reveal the facts of the bombing a year later. The play of accusing us and holding some officials responsible for deliberate or intentional killing has ended. Now a new path has started with Judge Bitar, to search for who brought in the goods and smuggled or used them and how they exploded. We are waiting for this.

Well, a judge that you don’t like how she looks, has seized a computer, and a group of peaceful protesters, young men and women; you did all this craziness - the forces of a vehicle and the information striking force! (You did not move against ISIS like this).

We have always been the party of principles; we cannot stand as spectators watching the conflict between truth and falsehood. Those who wasted the Lebanese’s money, want to destroy the judiciary system, scrutiny and investigation; and are trying to get us out of the equation, to swallow the money without accountability, and then swallow the state’s assets and property.

The Lebanese people have today to repeat and accept as a slogan: Judgment - Accountability - Recovery.

This is your battle Lebanon, demand your rights and stand with the judge who is in pain and fighting to get your money back. A decent judge who is armed with the truth, not silent about the truth and holding a truce with the corrupt.

The battle is the battle of a people whose money has evaporated; and a judge or political team is forbidden to try to work in order to respond to them, or else they will be considered as obstructing the government.

One more time we have been asked who is naming the Christian ministers, and we refuse to let it for others to decide.

It has been agreed that the rest of the Christians would only be named by Christians, without adding the number to the president of the republic's share - this solved the problem.

Let the Prime Minister present to the President of the Republic a full ministerial formation according to the well-known methodology, meaning every ministry to be named by the respective sect and authority, provided that the nominees is from non-partisan specialists. They are proposed and approved or rejected by the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. Easier than that?! Please present it. The answer is no.

What did you tell the whole world? If I say the third plus one, he will make me the president of the republic. See this joke and lie.

II- The Government:

Did you know why they wanted the half plus one in the government? To administer the government and its decisions.

They hide the half plus one of their share, by accusing us of the third plus one.

Not once did we raise the issue of the third plus one in the government; We were just asking who would name the Christian ministers; They wanted to name the Christians, the number that will bring them to half plus one.

We do want to participate, and the president has made six statements acknowledging that he doesn't want the third!

And they are insisting to tell other countries that we and the president want the third. They are liars.

They say they accept only a government of specialists without politicians. Also liars. No question at this point. And everyone accepts it. Liars because a prime minister without a specialization wants to head a government of specialists and a head of a political party wants to head a government in which there is no politicians.

We said we don't want the third, even though the constitution has provided for the third as a guarantee for any minority in the Council of Ministers, and three of the pillars of Taif said it was a guarantee for Christians and compensation for them for losing the president's powers.

Externally, everyone is familiar with the position of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia towards Hariri, who considers it a barrier to the government formation? What can we do in this regard?

Internally, problems are many, and they are increasing. No one can escape from them. He wants to remain an appointed prime minister to escape the problems of the country? Or he puts the following equation recently said to the Americans: Free hands - Absolute freedom to form a government, and if it has not the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives, it becomes a caretaker government. This could be one of his goals, but is there a new caretaker government that saves the country and accomplishes reforms? This is how Saad will be given the government and entrusted with reforming the country? Who was unable to hold a government meeting work over one item from Cèdre, despite the support of all the government of national unity, today he wants to make reforms bigger than Cèdre?

Today we want him as a prime minister to take responsibility and not flee like he did on October 17th, and he is assigned with this matter since months ago.

What will we do if Hariri was not convinced? If the whole world failed to convince him, what should we do?

And if he does not seem to give up the assignment and the president of the republic, of course, will not resign and if the House of Representatives does not want to withdraw the assignment from him, on the basis that this matter will cause a major constitutional and regulatory problem in the country, what can we do? Watch the country collapse? And he travels as usual holding the card of assignment to identify himself instead of using it to form the government. There is one case that remains to be considered in order to withdraw the assignment from him, which is the resignation of the House of Representatives, so his assignment becomes null. Which means early elections.

Is it the time for early elections? Of course not! Because the priority is for reforms to stop the collapse.

III- Boundaries:

This is a national and strategic issue related to the géopolitique of the region and the world, and all countries are interested in it.

On the contrary, the elections will cause great tensions on the ground, with the fear of a security chaos in light of the increasing cases of social breakdown.

We know it well in all its dimensions and we have paid big prices for its consequences, because we did not compromise on borders, benefits or corruption, and we kept this file clean until today. It has started seriously with us, and for today we have not allowed to neglect it. It is true that there have been many mistakes by Lebanese officials, but till today this wealth has not been stolen from the inside or exploited from the outside.

The problem is that it is still non invested, due to the failure of officials for decades to do something, due to laziness, ignorance and fear from outside. The last inaction was the delay in the sea blocks decrees from 2013 to 2017 after the arrival of General Aoun to the presidency.

Today the Israeli is imposing a fait accompli on us. Today we have to regain the initiative. The negotiations that started and Line 29 may open a new opportunity if we know how to deal with them or it will be misfortune if we don't know.

I suggest here that Lebanon quickly form a negotiating delegation headed by a representative of His Excellency the President of the Republic and a membership of representatives of (the Prime Minister), Foreign Affairs, Works, Energy and the Lebanese Army of course, to complete negotiations with Israel, to review negotiations with Cyprus, and to start negotiations with Syria, according to one standard and one way by demarcating the border.

I sent more than 20 books on the necessity of negotiating with Syria from 2010, and was rejected due to the failure of some senior Lebanese officials. See where we came to believe that the Syrians demarcated the borders according to their interest.

And I warned that the border with Cyprus must be completed, and see where we have come to line 23 today.

We must have learned and as for the negotiations with Israel, in my opinion it is necessary to resume them according to three principles:

1 - To stop any exploration or production work by Israel in any disputed area. Israel has many invested wells, and Lebanon has not started with a single well. What would happen if Israel did not start with one of its wells, in exchange for all the subsequent delays it caused to Lebanon?

2- Neglecting lines 1 and 23, and agreeing on a new line between the Hoff line and line 29, because they are the only two lines that follow the same principle of "the center line", with the difference that the line 29 depends on the zero effect of Tikhilat rock, and the Hoff line depends on its effect 100%. This line must be drawn up by international experts and I suggest that an American company specializing in this field be agreed upon. More clearly, this line takes into account an impact ratio between 0 or 100%, resulting in preserving a field to Israel (Which is Karish) and a field to Lebanon in Block 9, which the field to be named Qana.

3- An additional factor must be introduced to draw the boundaries, which is the sharing factor of wealth through a third party, which would be a company or alliance of prominent international companies that would produce and distribute shares between the two through two separate agreements with the company.

With my great concern for the rights and wealth of Lebanon, the Lebanese must know that the borders outside the territorial waters, meaning 12 miles away from the coast, are economic borders and not sovereign borders, and one can do in them what secures his economic interest. So, the issue is not a matter of abandoning an inch or a centimeter of land or soil. Rather, it is oil and gas, we should do everything to secure our interest in them. Consequently, the solution that some do not understand is the marriage between borders and wealth, that is, what is on water and what is under the water ... Here is an equation that solves the problem.

Final:

Imagine that he accuses us of Nazism, He who has cut the cross to kill people with it, and dumped our hills with toxic waste.

Imagine what torture and injustice that someone like him is accusing us of Nazism. He who has the militia’s logic, thought and behavior. He has the best CV he can offer for the Nazis.

On the other hand, we are the party of diversity, with Muslims and Christians, left and right-leaning. We do not have an oath do not restrict anyone's freedom by any means. We have infinite democracy to the point of harming ourselves, and we have unlimited freedom.

A party is accused of being Nazi and those have a militia, in their career and ideology, have become a model. The model of lies, deceit and nothing ... Nothing and no concern only to target the Free Patriotic Movement. What did he say? Electricity file.

(I am Gebran Bassil and the former ministers of the FPM) We are challenging them to investigate the Ministry of Energy from the 90's. In our days, there is nothing but the cost of electricity subsidies that was decided by the government of the martyr Rafik Hariri in the 1994, and they refused to back down from it despite our opposition and bore the loss to the treasury from the 94th. There is nothing in corruption except with fraudulent fuel from the year 2005, which is known who is behind it and against it. We voted against it three times in the Council of Ministers and everyone voted for it. And we ended up complaining about the judiciary.

Ultimately, truth and the right shall win.