On the afternoon of January 9th the BBC News website published a report headlined ‘Army chief elected Lebanon’s president after years of deadlock’ which underwent considerable amendment some four hours later and is currently credited to David Gritten.
That report’s description of a terrorist organisation proscribed by many countries and bodies, including the UK government, reads as follows:
“Lebanon’s parliament has elected the country’s army chief as president, ending a power vacuum that has lasted more than two years.
Joseph Aoun’s candidacy for the mainly ceremonial role – which is reserved for a Maronite Christian under a sectarian power-sharing system – was backed by several key political parties, as well as the US, France and Saudi Arabia.
A rival preferred by Hezbollah, the powerful Shia Muslim militia and political party supported by Iran, withdrew on Wednesday and endorsed the commander.
His election comes six weeks after Lebanon agreed a ceasefire to end a war between Israel and Hezbollah, which left the group significantly weakened and devastated areas where it holds sway.” [emphasis added]
Readers are not told that Hizballah chose to start that war with its unprovoked attack on Israel on October 8th 2023 before the report continues:
“The Lebanese army, which Aoun had led since 2017, was not involved in the conflict and has a key role under the ceasefire deal. It is required to deploy soldiers in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdraw and to ensure Hezbollah ends its armed presence there by 26 January.”
Gritten does not inform BBC audiences that the Lebanese army has shown limited signs of fulfilling those requirements in the month and a half since the ceasefire came into effect.
Neither are readers told that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) were also supposed to play “a key role” in implementing the terms of UN SC resolution 1701(as well as previous resolutions and agreements) which was not enforced, thereby creating the conditions for the recent conflict.
“8. Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:
– full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;
– security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL as authorized in paragraph 11, deployed in this area;
– full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of 27 July 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese State;
– no foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its Government;
– no sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as authorized by its Government;”
And:
“11. Decides, in order to supplement and enhance the force in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operations, to authorize an increase in the force strength of UNIFIL to a maximum of 15,000 troops, and that the force shall, in addition to carrying out its mandate under resolutions 425 and 426 (1978):
(a) Monitor the cessation of hostilities;
(b) Accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the South, including along the Blue Line, as Israel withdraws its armed forces from Lebanon as provided in paragraph 2; […]
(e) Assist the Lebanese armed forces in taking steps towards the establishment of the area as referred to in paragraph 8;”
Relevant information concerning the failure of the LAF and UNIFIL to implement UN SC resolution 1701 (including during Aoun’s seven years as “army chief”) would have enabled BBC audiences to better understand Gritten’s next two paragraphs:
“In a speech to lawmakers following his election on Thursday, Aoun declared that “a new phase in Lebanon’s history” had begun.
The 60-year-old pledged to work during his six-year term to ensure that the Lebanese state had “the exclusive right to bear arms” – a reference to Hezbollah, which had built a force considered more powerful than the army to resist Israel before their 13-month conflict, in violation of a UN Security Council resolution that ended their last war in 2006.” [emphasis added]
BBC editorial guidelines on ‘War, Terror and Emergencies’ state: “We should not adopt other people’s language as our own…”. Gritten’s portrayal of the purpose of Hizballah’s military force as being to “resist Israel” is not only blatant adoption of that terrorist organisation’s language but also erases from audience view the fact that the terrorist organisation’s aim – as stated in both its 1985 ’open letter’ and again in its 2009 ‘manifesto’ – is to ‘obliterate’ Israel.
The challenges facing Lebanon’s new president are considerable and if BBC audiences are to understand them – and consequent future events – they must be provided with accurate and impartial information which explains the decades of background to those challenges. That information cannot be complete without accurate portrayal of Hizballah as a terrorist organisation and the role it has played in pushing Lebanon to repeated crisis points (including the two-year “power vacuum” cited in Gritten’s report), as well as information concerning the failure of UNIFIL and the LAF to implement the UN resolutions which attempted to address some of those challenges decades ago.
Related Articles:
Gitten like Bowen have no real clue what is going on – they make it up as they progress