Rifi: Arsal Doesn't Need 'Patriotism Check-Ups', Army Can't be Lectured by Militias

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi stressed Tuesday that the northeastern border town of Arsal is a “patriotic town,” noting that the Lebanese army should not be lectured by “militias” about controlling the security situation there.

“Arsal is a patriotic town and its residents do not need a patriotism check-up at every juncture,” said Rifi after meeting a popular delegation from Arsal.

“We won't allow anyone to insult Arsal or implement regional agendas and everyone knows the martyrs of Arsal's people in the fight against Israel and many of its residents are soldiers in the Lebanese army,” Rifi added.

Sectarian tensions surged in recent days in the northern Bekaa region after a number of Baalbek and Hermel tribes announced the formation of what they called al-Qalaa Brigade and said they stand ready to intervene militarily in Arsal's outskirts against extremist militants if Hizbullah gives them the greenlight.

“The army is patrolling Arsal the same as it does in any other region in Lebanon. We are with the state, the army and the institutions and against the statelet (of Hizbullah),” Rifi underlined on Tuesday.

“We will continue our political struggle against the statelet and we'll preserve coexistence in the northern Bekaa region and we won't tolerate attempts to undermine the country's unity,” he added.

The minister noted that anyone who harms coexistence and unity is “a criminal who will be held accountable.”

“Enough with exaggeration and abnormal proposals. We stand by Arsal's residents and the government is with you,” Rifi told the delegation.

He emphasized that the army is “naturally tasked with defending every grain of soil” in Lebanon.

“It is in charge of preserving security (in Arsal). The army has a legal cover and we trust it and let no one try to lecture it,” added Rifi.

“The graduates of militias have no right to lecture the army and its command,” he said, noting that “the army commander cannot be replaced in extraordinary situations or in times of war.”

“We must be vigilant over what's happening in the region and we won't allow a replication of the Iraqi experience. Anyone who does that would be burning the country,” Rifi said.

On Monday, the minister reportedly warned during a cabinet session that “we have become before a four-party equation involving the army, the people, the resistance and 'Hashed al-Shaabi'.”

The Shiite-led Hashed al-Shaabi militia is a government-sanctioned paramilitary force that has played a key role in Iraq's fight against the Islamic State jihadist group.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has recently warned that “our people in Baalbek and Hermel” will not tolerate “the presence of a single terrorist in the outskirts of Arsal and the Bekaa,” calling on the state to act against the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front militants who are entrenched in Arsal's peripheries.

Y.R.