Saniora Meets Qahwaji, Asks Army to 'Protect' Residents of Northern Border Area

Head of the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, ex-PM Fouad Saniora, on Wednesday stressed that the Mustaqbal Movement supports “the deployment of the Lebanese army on Lebanon’s borders.”

After talks at his office with Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, Saniora told MTV: “The Mustaqbal Movement’s stance is clear in demanding the deployment of the Lebanese army on Lebanon’s border in order to reassure the residents and protect them from all the attempts we’re witnessing.

“There are violations, encroachments and security incidents that left several people dead and wounded,” Saniora added.

The Lebanese army deployed on Saturday in the northern border area of Wadi Khaled after media outlets reported that members of the rebel Free Syrian Army were present in the region.

“On Saturday morning the military carried out three airdrops in al-Rami village near Wadi Khaled and searched the area for hours,” a military source told LBC.

MP Moein al-Merehbi confirmed the incident, slamming the deployment of the army as “Syrian orders to President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, and Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji.”

Saniora said the army’s deployment “should not cause one way or another any kind of harassment for the residents and should not be accompanied by raids.”

“This is what I discussed today with the army commander when he visited me and we also discussed a lot of issues,” the former premier noted.

He stressed “the importance of communication with the army command so that all things be raised in a smooth and proper manner that would yield results,” revealing that “the MPs of the Akkar region will communicate with the army commander in the next few days in order to clarify everything.”

Saniora underlined that Mustaqbal “has always supported the return of the state and the control by its security authorities -- including the army and the Internal Security Forces -- of everything related to security in Lebanon.”

“The state has the right to have its army on the border, as the issue has nothing to do with self-disassociation, and we do not want to prevent the army from performing this role,” he added.

But Saniora noted that “we have a duty towards our brothers across the border (with Syria), as they are extremely suffering because of the military operations against civilians, and this has led to the fleeing of a scores of civilians, children and elderly people to Lebanon.”

“From the onset, we said that we are not interfering in Syria’s domestic affairs, but we cannot remain apathetic towards what’s going on in Syria. Therefore, the refugees in Lebanon must not be persecuted or mistreated,” Saniora said, rejecting “attempts to kidnap some of them or to hand them over” to Syria.

Asked whether the army approved of such practices, Saniora said: “This was among the things I discussed with the army commander and we will follow up with him on the issue.”

Al-Akhbar newspaper has recently published reports depicting the Wadi Khaled area as a military base for the rebel Free Syrian Army.

According to the daily, FSA officers and troops are moving freely along the illegal border crossings, smuggling weapons and transporting injured soldiers.

Thousands of Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon amid a deadly crackdown on a popular revolt against President Bashar Assad’s regime, now in its eleventh month.

In November, the Syrian army laced the Lebanese border with landmines in a bid to curb arms smuggling and hamper army defectors and refugees from fleeing.

Syrian troops have also staged deadly incursions into border villages in neighboring Lebanon.