Mustaqbal MPs: Some Army Intelligence Practices Resemble Syrian Practices

The practices of some army intelligence officers “clearly resemble those performed in the past by Syrian intelligence agents, especially in the North, and we have already clarified this point to the army commander,” MP Ahmed Fatfat said Sunday, following a meeting in Tripoli for a number of Mustaqbal bloc MPs.

The meeting which was held in “solidarity” with bloc MP Khaled a-Daher was attended by MPs Ahmed Fatfat, Mohammed Kabbara, Moein al-Meraabi and Kazem al-Kheir -- who all hail from North Lebanon.

“We are voicing our solidarity with our colleague Khaled al-Daher and clarifying our position: We, in the Mustaqbal Movement, had shown our commitment to state institutions before anyone else. We are the ones who have backed the Lebanese army in all circumstances,” said Fatfat after the meeting.

“We’re not the ones who prevented the army from deploying in the South, up until the year 2006, we’re not the ones who put ‘red lines’ against the entry of the Lebanese army to the Nahr al-Bared camp, we’re not the ones who assassinated martyr pilot Samer Hanna,” Fatfat said, in clear reference to Hizbullah.

“In support of the army and the army institution, we urge the army command to take all measures necessary to immunize the military institution against these practices,” Fatfat added.

Criticizing recent remarks by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah without naming him, Fatfat said: “We have heard remarks that anyone who criticizes the army or the Resistance would be serving Israel, and we reject this accusation. We clearly say that those who had served Israel were the ones who prevented the army from deploying in the South, particularly Hizbullah, which had served Israel by moving its militias from the South in order to fight its fellow citizens.”

Asked about recent calls for lifting the parliamentary immunity of MP Daher, Fatfat said: “They will have to lift the immunity of everyone present here, and maybe of more MPs as well.”