Mufti Says Street Power Would Overtake State's Rule amid Absence of Cabinet

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani warned on Sunday that “the governments of streets” will take control of Lebanon if the Lebanese rival parties failed to form a new cabinet.

In his message on the occasion of Islamic New Year, Qabbani said: “If a fair cabinet was not formed in Lebanon soon … then the governments of streets, neighborhoods and regions will be in charge.”

Premier-designate Tammam Salam has so far failed to form his cabinet over conditions and counter conditions set by the rival March 8 and March 14 camps.

The Mufti criticized politicians who he said continue to challenge each other dragging along their supporters.

“The infection is being transmitted and is turning into enmities between people and groups in the streets and mainly in (the northern city of) Tripoli," he said.

Qabbani warned that all Lebanese would someday regret their actions but at a time when remorse would be useless.

The regret would come “when regions and neighborhoods drown in the sea of blood and murder” based on sectarian identities, he said.

“It has already started … and it has expanded,” he said.

Qabbani urged the Lebanese army to take stern measures to impose the state's rule of law, which without it Lebanon would head toward chaos and enter the region's wars.

Tripoli has for years witnessed deadly fighting between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

But on Saturday, the enmity between them took a new turn when masked men attacked a van carrying civilians from Jabal Mohsen in al-Tabbaneh area and injured six of them.