Charbel Blames Deficiency of Tripoli Plan on Number of Politicians' Security Personnel

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel snapped back at the critics of the security plan in the northern city of Tripoli, saying top officials should support him before making any criticism of shortcomings.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published on Friday, Charbel said: “The security plan is still on and will be completed.”

“I have taken measures during a meeting at the Internal Security Forces general directorate, which are expected to lead to positive results on the ground soon,” he said.

Asked about a shortage in policemen to impose security in Tripoli, Charbel said: “Before accusing the Interior Minister, they should stand by him.”

“Let (political) personalities give up half of the (security) personnel (assigned to them) and I can guarantee you that an important number of (ISF) members can serve Tripoli and other” cities, the caretaker minister added.

Al-Mustaqbal MP Samir al-Jisr told An Nahar, however, that “there is no security plan in Tripoli.”

“It is only based on words and the (deployment) of some men … while there is an urgent need to deploy at least 600 (ISF) members,” he said.

Jisr lamented that Tripoli is witnessing shootings on citizens and infringements on public and private properties.

“There is an insistence to create chaos in Tripoli to cover the crime of the mosques,” he said, referring to two deadly explosions that targeted Sunni mosques in August.

Tripoli witnessed renewed sectarian tension on Thursday after several residents of the neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen were injured in a shooting.

Several assailants shot the Tripoli municipal workers in their feet in the area of al-Zahriyeh.

There were also limited clashes between the residents of Jabal Mohsen, who are mainly Alawites from the sect of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh, but they were quickly contained.

Tripoli has been witnessing in the past month tit-for-tat confessional attacks, a direct spillover of the Syrian war on Lebanon.