Aoun Warns War to Move to Lebanon if Assad Ousted, Slams 'Takfiris'
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Wednesday warned that the violence in Syria would spill over to Lebanon if the embattled Syrian regime was ousted, rejecting the presence of what he called “Takfiris on our border.”
“Those who backed Israel’s war on Lebanon in 2006 are the same ones who are backing the inner war against Syria, that’s why we should think of good neighborliness and the neighborhood’s security, as we cannot live with Takfiri groups on our border that are interacting with the Lebanese domestic scene,” Aoun said on the 23rd anniversary of the so-called Liberation War he waged in 1989 against Syrian forces stationed in Lebanon.
A Takfiri is a hardline Islamist who practices Takfir, which means to accuse others of apostasy or of being an infidel. Takfiris usually declare takfir upon anyone who does not conform to their hard-line interpretation of Islam.
“When we first talked about Syria, we said that we support reform and that we do not want the presence of extremism on our border, as we cannot accept the rise to power of certain people under the slogans of democracy and human rights, while in the end there will be neither democracy nor human rights, as there is no democracy in their sharia (Islamic law),” Aoun added.
“Let us suppose that the Syrian regime was ousted, what is the alternative in that case? Our safety is at stake and war will reach us. We do not want to close our eyes and say ‘let the (Muslim) Brotherhood rule.’ Where (will they rule?) In (the predominantly Christian Lebanese district of) Keserwan?” Aoun wondered.
Recalling the previous stages, Aoun said everyone blamed him for “declaring war against Syria.”
“But the truth is I did not declare war against Syria, as when a country is occupied it would use everything in its capacity to liberate its land, and we did not bombard the Syrian cities or any inch of Syria,” he added.
He went on to say that “what’s happening in Syria is an international aggression rather than a domestic revolution.”
Source: Naharnet
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