Salam Meets Prominent Security Officials, Discuss Developments

Prime Minister Tammam Salam chaired on Saturday a meeting that was attended by high-ranking security officials to discuss the latest security developments in the country.

Media reports described the meeting as “positive.”

The meeting was attended by deputy PM and Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, General Prosecutor Judge Samir Hammoud, Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, State Security chief George Qaraa, General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, Higher Defense Council chief Mohammed Khair, Internal Security chief Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous, Army Intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Edmond Fadel and head of ISF Information Branch Imad Othman.

A meeting for the Central Security Council was presided by Mashnouq on Friday night.

Sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Saturday that the meeting highlighted the dangers imposed by the developments in the region, stressing the importance of preventing the conflicts from impacting Lebanon.

Mashnouq reportedly called on security agencies to boost their measures and cooperate with each other and with the judicial authorities to maintain stability in Lebanon.

The Lebanese security forces began implementing strict security measures recently and kicked off security plans across the country to reduce crime rates and clamp down on terrorists.

Police and army have been carrying out large-scale raids and managed to arrest scores of offenders.

The meetings come as fighting intensified in the past week in the mountainous Qalamoun region across the border from Lebanon, where Hizbullah fighters along side Syrian forces engaged in battles with jihadists from the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, who are entrenched on the porous border between Lebanon and Syria.

The IS, which controls several areas in Syria and Iraq, aims to spread to Lebanon as its fighters position in the outskirts of Bekaa towns bordering Syria and the Lebanese army is in adamant efforts to stop their efforts to infiltrate the country.

H.K.

D.A.