LF Urges Hizbullah to Hand Over Suspects in Bulgaria, Harb, Hariri Cases

Lebanese Forces parliamentary bloc urged Hizbullah on Friday to hand over the party members accused of being involved in a bus bombing in Bulgaria and in the Rafik Hariri and Butros Harb cases to concerned authorities.

“This is just another chapter of the harm Hizbullah's military wing is causing to the country's security, economy, and its international relations,” a released statement said after the bloc's weekly meeting, demanding the party to disarm and hand over its weaponry to the Lebanese army.

“We call on Hizbullah to follow the lead of other Lebanese parties and convert into a strictly political movement,” the statement added.

The LF MPs said: “Hizbullah must act responsibly and stop involving Lebanon in serious cases”.

The Bulgarian government said Tuesday that Hizbullah was behind a bomb attack in July that killed five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian.

The bombing on a bus carrying Israelis at Burgas Airport on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, the deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004, also killed the Bulgarian bus driver and the bomber. Some 30 people were wounded.

The bloc condemned the “exploitation of (Bekaa town of) Arsal's incident for electoral gains”, calling on concerned authorities to pursue “a transparent probe” in this case.

The lawmakers stated: “We demand extending the legal bodies' authority on all Lebanese territories”.

"Accusations must be directed towards those involved in the incident only while the rest of the town must remain free of such reputation,” the bloc remarked.

Major Pierre Bashaalani and First Sergeant Ibrahim Zahraman were killed in clashes in Arsal last Friday as the army was seeking to apprehend a wanted suspect, who was also killed in the unrest.

Following the incident, the army had sealed off all the entrances to Arsal and brought in reinforcements as part of measures aimed at arresting members of an armed group that targeted the patrol and killed Bashaalani and Zahraman. The army also erected checkpoints at the entrances of the town to check the identities of passers-by.

The MPs also discussed the situation of refugees fleeing the neighboring war-torn country and coming to Lebanon, asking the cabinet to reach out to Arab nations and to the international community for help in this regard.

"We condemn critiques against President Michel Suleiman's statement regarding the deportation of Syrian opposition members back to their country,” they expressed, explaining that these activists are “facing torture, jail and murder in Syria”.

Suleiman said Thursday there are instructions not to deport any Syrian to his home country in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

His tweet came in response to a call by non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch for the Lebanese government to keep its open border policy so those fleeing Syria can safely enter Lebanon.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had announced that the number of Syrians who to Lebanon since the eruption of the conflict in March 2011 has reached 242,000.

Suleiman had urged donors during the International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria held in Kuwait to provide Lebanon with $370 million assistance for refugees from Syria and called for countries to take in some of the displaced after ringing the alarm bell.