Mustaqbal Calls for Referring Attacks on Clerics to Judicial Council
Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called for referring Sunday's attacks on Muslim clerics in Beirut and Shiyyah to the Judicial Council, describing them as “a crime that jeopardizes civil peace.”
“The bloc condemns the attacks on the clerics in Khandaq al-Ghamiq and Shiyyah at the hands of elements hired to create an inter-Muslim strife and an inter-Lebanese rift,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.
Dar al-Fatwa clerics Sheikh Mazen Hariri and Sheikh Ahmed Fakhran were attacked in the predominantly Shiite area of Khandaq al-Ghamiq on Sunday while two other clerics, one of them identified as Omar al-Imami, were attacked in the southern Beirut suburb of Shiyyah.
“We have witnessed several repeated attempts as part of the Syrian regime's plot to blow up the situations in Lebanon,” al-Mustaqbal bloc said.
“The crime against the clerics and some stances that ensued reveal the real intentions of the sides behind the incidents which have nothing to do with Muslims,” it added.
“The bloc notes that Lebanon's well-known enemies are behind what happened,” it said.
The lawmakers urged the Lebanese to be “vigilant in the face of conspiracies and to comprehend the threats of the strife that is aimed at achieving well-known political goals.”
“The spread of the culture of the hegemony of arms is the root of the problems the Lebanese are suffering from and we hold the government responsible for what happened and call for unveiling the plotters of this crime and referring it to the Judicial Council, given that it is a crime that jeopardizes civil peace,” the bloc said.
Separately, the bloc reiterated its call for forming a “neutral government” that can “pull the country out of this terrible polarization.”
Commenting on reports that an agreement on an electoral proposal was reached in Rome under the auspices of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, the bloc expressed its “openness to discussing the proposed formulas that can contribute to overcoming the current dilemma, on condition of ensuring voters' freedom of choice and proper and just representation according to the principles that enhance Muslim-Christian coexistence and respect the Taef Accord.”
The bloc also condemned the latest Syrian and Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
“We reject the violations of sovereignty and the attacks against Lebanon that are being committed by the Israeli enemy and the Syrian regime,” the bloc said.
It lauded President Michel Suleiman's condemnation of Monday's Syrian air raid on a Lebanese border area, noting that the president is “always at the forefront of defending national sovereignty.”
The bloc called for “filing a complaint with the Arab League and informing the U.N. officially of this attack.” It also called for sending a letter containing “the violations of the Syrian regime's army” to all Arab presidents and kings “to put them in the picture of the Syrian regime's attacks against Lebanon.”
On Monday, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said “Syrian warplanes bombarded the outskirts of the towns of Khirbet Younin and Wadi al-Khayl in Arsal's barren mountains.”
But Damascus on Tuesday denied that its air force conducted such an attack, accusing “hostile” countries of circulating the media reports.
President Michel Suleiman tasked on Tuesday Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour with sending a letter of protest to Syria over air raids in the northeastern border area.
On Monday, a high-ranking Lebanese army official confirmed to Agence France Presse that Syrian air strikes took place along the border area, without saying whether they had struck inside Lebanese territory.
But a security services official on the ground told AFP that Syrian planes had fired four missiles at Arsal, where many residents back the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Al-Manar television, which belongs to pro-Damascus Hizbullah, said the warplanes had targeted two barns used by "armed men" in the Wadi al-Khayl area of Arsal.
Washington also confirmed Syrian forces had fired at northern Lebanon, calling the strikes "a significant escalation in the violations of Lebanese sovereignty that the Syrian regime has been guilty of."
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