Miqati Seeks to Contain Tripoli Tension amid Renewed Call to Announce it Arms Free City

Premier Najib Miqati returned to Beirut on Sunday, a day earlier than schedule, to contain the tension in the northern port city of Tripoli that has left at least three people dead.

Upon his return from a two-day official visit to Paris, Miqati held a telephone conversation with Speaker Nabih Berri and informed him that he came to Beirut a day earlier to end the “abnormal situation” in the capital of the North.

The PM stressed to the Speaker the necessity of providing all facilities to the Lebanese army to carry out its tasks throughout Lebanon.

The crisis in Syria and the regime’s 11-month crackdown on protestors spilled into Tripoli on Friday when gunmen from the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen engaged in armed battles.

Bab al-Tabbaneh is mainly Sunni while Jabal Mohsen’s residents belong to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect.

The gunbattles were a clear indication on how the violence in Syria is enflaming emotions in Lebanon.

The fighting, which left at last three people dead, ended on Saturday after the Tripoli lawmakers agreed on a ceasefire.

On Sunday, Tripoli Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar headed a meeting of Ulemas in the city and northern Lebanon. The conferees urged “the state to extend its authority across the country and to protect the citizens from armed aggression.”

They also urged political parties not to protect those undermining security and stability.

“I will meet with PM Miqati today at the Grand Serail today in hopes to finding a solution to the Tripoli tension and turning Lebanon an arms-free country,” al-Shaar told Voice of Lebanon (93.3) on Monday.

The two-day fighting renewed calls to announce Tripoli an arms free city.

MP Ahmed Fatfat, who is from the opposition al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, told An Nahar daily published Monday that Miqati “should take a bold decision towards the spread of arms in Tripoli and work on disarming all parties.”

“The army should carry out this mission within the next five days,” he said although he doubted that officials in Jabal Mohsen would accept such a move.

Another al-Mustaqbal MP, Khaled Zahraman, told VDL that Tripoli has become an arsenal for light and heavy weapons. “We should move for this city as we moved for Beirut earlier.”

Calls by al-Mustaqbal movement to announce Tripoli a weapons-free city were made in June last year following similar clashes between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh.