Kabbara Holds Meeting on Tripoli Clashes: State Conspiring against City for Foreign Reasons
A meeting was held on Monday at the Tripoli residence of Mustaqbal MP Mohammed Kabbara to tackle the latest clashes in the city, which the lawmaker said is the product of a foreign conspiracy.
He said: “The political authority and Higher Defense Council are both conspiring against Tripoli.”
“They want to spread chaos in the city because it is predominantly Sunni,” he added.
“They want to break and destroy it,” stressed Kabbara.
The MP urged Prime Minister Najib Miqati to “assume his responsibilities or resign because Tripoli can no longer withstand” more violence.
The meeting was attended by various political and security authorities.
MP Moeen al-Merhebi withdrew from the meeting out of his conviction that it would not yield any results.
He accused the army command of failing to implement the decisions of the Higher Defense Council, holding it responsible for any bloodshed in the city because it does not want to get involved in the clashes.
He accused General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim of “following a Syrian agenda in Lebanon with disregard to standard rules of procedure.”
“All the civil authorities in Tripoli, starting with the premier, lawmakers, and clergymen, are demanding the army’s intervention in the areas that are witnessing clashes,” he added.
“It appears however that the army does not want to assume its responsibility,” he continued.
Merehbi told LBC television: “It appears that the army needs a decision from the U.N. Security Council to deploy in Tripoli, which means that there is a conspiracy against the country.”
Meanwhile, Voice of Lebanon radio reported that differences in opinion emerged during the meeting at Kabbara’s residence over how to tackle the Islamists’ movement, with some sides saying that their actions are not harming the city.
Clashes erupted on Saturday between the rival Tripoli neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen after the General Security Department’s arrest of an Islamist, Shadi al-Mawlawi, by luring him to an office of Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi’s welfare association under the pretext that he would receive health care.
Al-Mawlawi was seized for allegedly contacting a terrorist organization. Media reports said that the suspect is an avid supporter of the Syrian revolution against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
At least four people have since been killed and 70 wounded in the unrest.
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