Mustaqbal, Osama Saad Disagree on ‘Biggest Winner’ in End of Asir Sit-in
Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc sources said Friday that the biggest loser in the end of a 35-day sit-in launched by Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the southern city of Sidon is “the party that Hizbullah tried to mobilize.”
The sources made their remarks to An Nahar daily, a day after Popular Nasserite Movement leader Osama Saad, a Hizbullah ally, said Asir’s protest failed and reiterated accusations that ex-PM Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal movement that is part of the March 14 opposition coalition supported the cleric.
“Out of our awareness of the suspicious objectives of the sit-in we launched efforts with Hizbullah and Amal in ending it,” Saad said as he claimed victory in Asir’s decision to remove his tents that were blocking Sidon’s northern entrance.
Al-Asir agreed to end his sit-on on Wednesday following a deal with Lebanese authorities brokered by Palestinian factions.
“The biggest winner” is Sidon, al-Mustaqbal’s sources said. “The city was saved after it was heading to a fate similar to the city of Tripoli” where scores were killed and injured in the past years in sectarian clashes between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.
“Since day one al-Mustaqbal movement rejected the blocking of roads and called for a peaceful freedom of expression,” they told An Nahar.
The sources described the end of the sit-in as “subordination to the will of Sidon’s residents at a time when some (people) sought to drag the city into trouble.”
“The biggest loser is the side that Hizbullah sought to mobilize,” they added in clear reference to the Popular Nasserite Movement whose supporters blocked last Friday the Sidon roundabout of al-Murjan with burning tires to protest al-Asir’s sit-in.
The protest came a day after a brawl between al-Asir’s supporters and Nasserite Abu Ali Skafi left a vehicle and several shop windows damaged.
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