On October 20, the conservative Keyhan daily carried the following piece by Ali Hekmat Shouaib on its Arabic website: “If we were to judge any accord based on criteria and indications connected to the repercussions and outcomes of this accord’s implementation, then we can say that the Ta’ef Accord is not longer suitable as a basis for the Lebanese formula based on the following:

“1. This accord was established under an international and regional sponsorship with its two active parties being Saudi Arabia and Syria. This settlement suffered a major earthquake that affected its pillars and nearly drove it to collapse when America launched its war on Syria with the Saudi support...
2. A strategic change occurred in the early twenty first century at the level of the regional environment that consisted of the rise of the Resistance axis’ powers in the region and them actively aiding, along with Syria, to defeat the Zionist entity during the July war that America launched against Lebanon using an Israeli tool; in addition to the axis’ main role at the level of the Iraqi resistance and ousting the occupying Americans from Iraq..., and the axis’ support for Syria in its battle against America...

“3. The economic power gained by China over the past decades is expected to keep growing. In addition, powerful economic blocs have formed that include important countries like China, Russia and India thus forming entities like the BRIC countries that operate under the flag of confronting the American monopolization of the international system. This has dramatically reduced the American focus on West Asia and the Middle East... The Americans’ abandoning of the Kurds last week in Syria constitutes a proof to this matter...

“4. The process of the implementation of the Ta’ef accord in Lebanon has re-empowered the poles of the civil war and the warlords that are definitely connected to foreign regional parties. It has also served to enhance their financial and political authority, which is based on looting the state’s financial resources... This is because the Ta’ef accord...has failed to revoke political sectarianism... The only positive element that this accord played and that actually served the local players and the civil warlords was to pave the road for them to proceed with financially draining the state and splitting the political control between them.

“5. The increasing awareness of the Lebanese people that was prompted by the technological revolution in the world of communications and the social communication networks has caused a large part of these people to think outside the box of their sect and look at the real regional scene thus realizing that there’s a war between the Resistance axis and the American-Saudi-Zionist axis rather than a war between the Sunnis and the Shi’is as the US axis’ media outlets are trying to promote..."