Mustaqbal: Hizbullah Intimidating Lebanese after Entangling Them in Syria War

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday rejected what it called "Hizbullah's intimidation against the Lebanese," while stressing that "Tripoli and the North will always be supportive of the state against Lebanon's enemies.”

“The events that Lebanon are witnessing require addressing the core of issues in order to pull the country out of the current crisis,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting, reiterating the need to “reach an agreement over a new president instead of pushing the country towards new dilemmas.”

Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May.

Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the elections.

Turning to the security situation in northern Lebanon, especially in Tripoli, the bloc emphasized that “Tripoli and the North have always been and will always be supportive of the state and the army” in the face of “the enemies of Lebanon whose plots are well-known.”

Accordingly, Mustaqbal condemned “the suspicious attacks against the posts of the army and security forces in the city at the hands of outlaws,” demanding “the strictest punishments” against the assailants.

The bloc's remarks come in the wake of recurrent armed attacks against the army in Tripoli and the neighboring northern region of Akkar, where the soldier Milad Mohammed Issa was recently shot dead.

Commenting on recent defections by some soldiers from the Lebanese army, the bloc describe them as “individual cases that do not enjoy political, popular or familial cover from the residents of the North and Lebanon in general.”

Mustaqbal also criticized remarks by Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem, who boasted that Hizbullah prevented the Islamic State group from reaching Beirut, describing his statement as “blatant intimidation and blackmail against the Lebanese.”

Hizbullah “contributed to stoking the problem and importing it into Lebanon through its fighting alongside the regime in Syria,” the bloc added, accusing the party of “entangling Lebanon and the Lebanese in the inferno of the ongoing war in Syria.”

“Hizbullah's major sin is its participation in combat outside Lebanon alongside a tyrant regime that is fighting its people, which implicates Lebanon in problems that are beyond its capacity and threatens to undermine its internal unity, domestic peace, national economy and security stability,” Mustaqbal went on to say.

Y.R.