Hariri Slams Hizbullah's Fighting in Syria: Its Involvement is a Crime against Lebanese, Syrians
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri condemned on Tuesday Hizbullah's fighting in Syria alongside the Syrian regime, warning that it will drag Lebanon towards the strife that President Bashar Assad had “vowed to spread in the region.”
He said in a statement: “Hizbullah's actions in Syria are a crime against Lebanon and the Lebanese and Syria and its people.”
Hizbullah's fighting in Syria is a form of defense of the Syrian regime and not an act of defense of certain sectarian interests as the party had claimed, he continued.
“Who tasked Hizbullah with defending a segment of the Lebanese people in Syria?” he asked.
“Dragging Lebanon towards the game of death that the Syrian regime has actively sought once again proves Hizbullah's actual role in Lebanon and Syria and demonstrates, through the victims, destruction, and blood, the real purpose of the party's arms,” stressed Hariri.
“The crime of leading Lebanese youths to death in Syria and in defense of a criminal regime is a part of a greater crime of dragging Lebanon towards a bloody regional strife that the Lebanese, starting with Hizbullah's supporters, do not seek,” he declared.
“I therefore call on all Lebanese to express through peaceful means their rejection of this crime,” he stated.
The former premier also voiced his opposition to the Lebanese calls for jihad to aid “the oppressed” in Qusayr and Homs in Syria.
“These calls only help meet Hizbullah halfway in its crime and help justify the party's actions,” he explained.
Islamist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, the imam of Sidon's Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, on Monday announced the creation of the “Free Resistance Brigades,” urging whoever is capable of heading to Syria to go there to aid “the oppressed” in Qusayr and Homs.
He also called for fundraising in order to finance jihadist fighters seeking to enter Syria “to support our people.”
Also on Monday, Salafist cleric Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi of Tripoli announced that he has decided to “send men and weapons in support of our Sunni brothers in Qusayr.”
He called on "all Sunni men to be fully prepared ahead of sending the first batch (of fighters) to perform the jihadist duty in Qusayr.”
Commenting on the kidnapping of Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo Youhanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo and Iskanderun Boulos al-Yaziji in Syria on Monday, Hariri condemned the crime, saying that these actions “favor the enemies of the Syrian revolution.”
“We strongly condemn this act that contradicts the most basic of humanitarian and moral principles and the values of the Syrian revolt,” he added.
The two archbishops were kidnapped at the hands of gunmen on Monday.
Ibrahim picked up Yaziji in his car from a village on the Turkish border and his deacon was driving the vehicle, NNA said.
“When they arrived at the outskirts of the city of Aleppo, an armed group intercepted them and forced them to step out of the car, killing the driver and abducting Ibrahim and Yaziji,” reported the National News Agency.
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