Rifi prays in Khalde, vows to end 'Iranian presence in Lebanon'

MP Ashraf Rifi prayed on Friday at the Khalde Mosque before moving to the house of the father of Hassan Ghoson, who had been slain in clashes with Hezbollah-linked gunmen.

“The incidents that happened in Khalde were in defense of the residents, Lebanon and all Sunnis in Lebanon,” Rifi said.

“We tell Hezbollah that we will live with it as a Lebanese component, but we will not bow to the Iranian scheme. We call on you to draw lessons from Iraq, where the Arab Shiite Iraqis rejected the Iranian scheme,” Rifi added.

“Shiites are our brothers, but we are against the Iranian scheme that killed all our icons, and I’m speaking from a security background. Together with the martyr Wissam al-Hassan and the martyr Wissam Eid we proved that the killers were a squad from Hezbollah,” the legislator went on to say.

Turning back to the case of the Khalde clashes, Rifi lamented that “there has been no justice neither equality in this case.”

“Those who caused the crime did not hand over anyone. Our Christian brothers in Ain al-Remmaneh defended themselves and they managed through their capabilities to secure the release of all detainees, whereas we have not been able to do so because we are fragmented,” Rifi added.

“The Arab tribes are our own army alongside the Lebanese Army and they have a presence across the area. We won’t accept that 17 young men stay at the Military Court after they were aggressed against, while the other group has no detainees,” the MP said.

He added: “In Iraq they have ended the Iranian presence and in Lebanon we will end the Iranian presence and we will live with our Shiite, Druze and Christian brothers in accord, harmony and respect.”