Mustaqbal Lauds Bkirki Treaty: Combating Terrorism Needs National Solution

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc hailed on Friday the Bkirki Treaty that was announced by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, saying that it helps “fortify Lebanon's immunity because it asserts national principles stipulated in the Baabda Declaration.”

It said after its weekly meeting that the treaty “adds central meanings to the Lebanese national entity.”

Announced on Tuesday, the Bkriki Treaty calls for staging the presidential elections on time and adhering to Lebanese national principles in order to save the country from dangers threatening it.

Addressing the latest bombing in the country, the Mustaqbal bloc noted: “Lebanon's national will is suffering from many problems in combating terrorism.”

“These problems are mainly exacerbated by Hizbullah's participation in the fighting in Syria,” it continued.

“The Mustaqbal bloc demands that Iran lift its hand off Lebanon and prevent Hizbullah from being dragged further into the crisis in Syria,” it added.

“The only realistic solution to this problem lies in the army's deployment, with members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, along the Lebanese-Syrian border,” it explained.

“Combating terrorism can only be achieved through a national solution that can take place through the constitutional, security, and military institutions,” it remarked.

The military institution will be tasked with imposing the Lebanese state's sole authority throughout the country, it said.

On Monday, a suicide bomber blew himself up on board a minibus in the Choueifat region south of Beirut killing himself and wounding two people.

The blast is the fifth to hit Lebanon this year, and comes after at least four people were killed on Saturday in a suicide bombing in the eastern town of Hermel.

Many have targeted strongholds of Hizbullah, which has drawn the ire of Sunni extremist groups in part because of its role fighting alongside the regime in Syria.

In addition, the Mustaqbal bloc said that terrorist attacks target the whole of Lebanon.

“This dangerous phenomenon must be confronted through comprehensive measures on the national level and through the state's institutions,” it said.

The Lebanese people had confronted dangerous terrorist phenomenons in the past, such as during the battles at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in 2007, it noted.

“The Lebanese people achieved major national victories at the time as a result of their united political, national, and security stands,” it said.

“The Lebanese people stood behind the army in order enable it to eliminate terrorists at the camp,” it remarked.

The Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon was almost totally destroyed during a months-long conflict between the Lebanese army and the al-Qaida-inspired group Fatah al-Islam in 2007.

The fighting killed some 400 people, including 168 soldiers.