Berri, Army Snap Back at Critics, Defend Military Deployment in North
Speaker Nabih Berri slammed on Wednesday March 14 coalition MPs who have accused the Lebanese army of deploying in northern areas bordering Syria at the behest of the Assad regime.
“The army is carrying out the duties that its leader Gen. Jean Qahwaji has ordered,” Berri told An Nahar and As Safir dailies. “This is a patriotic institution that implements the government’s policy of distancing itself from the events in Syria.”
“The army is not supporting any side against the other,” he said, adding “it stands at an equal distance from everyone and implements its missions on the ground in accordance with this nationalistic spirit.”
“The army is organizing things on the border of the two countries,” Berri stressed. “Enough attacks on this institution.”
The speaker’s retort came after al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc MPs, who are part of the March 14-led opposition, have accused the army leadership of deploying troops on the northern border with Syria at the request of Syrian authorities to arrest armed men allegedly belonging to the rebel Free Syrian Army which is fighting government troops.
Berri made his comments a day after the army command wondered in a communiqué about the criticism launched by some parties on the timing of the military’s security measures.
The communiqué said that the army is carrying out its duties to preserve the citizen’s security.
“The military’s presence throughout the nation is a very natural phenomenon in addition to being a comprehensive popular and nationalistic demand,” it added.
The army command also urged Lebanese politicians not to shove the military institution in the political bickering, stressing that it is “keen on protecting the residents of northern areas against any attack on their lives or their properties no matter what the source was in parallel with its firm decision to prevent the spread of arms inside Lebanese territories.”
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