Baidoun: Political Shiism Must Correct Its Mistakes, Lebanon Can't Have Two Armies

Former minister and AMAL Movement defector Mohammed Abdul Hamid Baidoun on Monday called on "political Shiism" in Lebanon to "correct its mistakes."

Speaking at a ceremony organized by the March 14 forces to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, Baidoun said: "We have said more than once that the Resistance (Hizbullah) considers its weapons sacred and that a majority of the Lebanese considers the (Special) Tribunal (for Lebanon) and justice sacred."

As he stressed that "everyone respects the Resistance's achievements," Baidoun went on to say that Hizbullah "cannot go on as a separate army and Lebanon cannot have an army that is subject to accountability – the Lebanese Army – and the Resistance's army, which is above accountability."

"If the Resistance wants to go on as an army, it should behave like the Lebanese Army, which does not interfere in politics and whose arms do not belong to a sect or a group," Baidoun told a rally of several-thousand people at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center (BIEL).

Addressing the issue of the U.N.-backed tribunal probing ex-PM Hariri's murder, Baidoun stressed that "the international tribunal is not a conspiracy," adding that "not everything issued by the (U.N.) Security Council is a conspiracy."

On January 12, Hizbullah and its allies toppled Saad Hariri's cabinet in a long-running feud over the STL.

Hizbullah-backed Najib Miqati was then appointed to form a new government, which Hariri's alliance has refused to join and has labeled "Hizbullah's government".

Hariri has refused to join Miqati's government unless he guarantees his cabinet will see the tribunal through.

Hizbullah meanwhile is demanding Lebanon end all cooperation with the court, which it says is a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy.