FPM, PSP Ministers Argue on Army’s Role in Akkar
A request by Free Patriotic Movement cabinet ministers to task the army with controlling the security in the North and put the Internal Security Forces under its command was rejected by ministers loyal to Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, media reports said Thursday.
Several Beirut dailies quoted sources as saying that the FPM ministers called during the session held at Baabda palace for the implementation of article four of the defense law similar to the measures taken in the eastern Bekaa valley to strike with an iron fist any attempt to tamper with the security of the northern province of Akkar.
The situation in the North badly deteriorated when on May 12 the General Security Department arrested Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi in the city of Tripoli on charges of contacting a terrorist organization.
His seizure prompted deadly fighting between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh, which is majority Sunni, and the Alawite Jabal Mohsen that is pro-Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Al-Mawlawi was released on bail on Tuesday but the Syrian crisis had already spilled over into Lebanon.
The situation became tenser when rival parties also fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in Beirut early Monday, killing at least two people.
The spark for the violence was the killing on Sunday of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed, an anti-Syrian Sunni cleric, and his companion at al-Kweikhat army checkpoint in Akkar.
“The security situation in Akkar has spiraled out of control … We should either leave it for gunmen or the army should resume its control on it,” Minister Jebran Bassil, who is loyal to FPM chief Michel Aoun, told the cabinet on Wednesday.
But PSP ministers Wael Abou Faour and Ghazi Aridi rejected the proposal, saying any solution to the deterioration of the security situation should come through a political decision.
“The army is receiving a full political backing and we should help it by embracing it … and not by complicating its mission and inciting the people against it,” Abou Faour replied.
“Akkar is not Kandahar (a conflict-torn province of Afghanistan) and Tripoli is not Tora Bora (a mountainous section of eastern Afghanistan where slain al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding),” he stressed.
As Safir daily quoted ministerial sources as saying that the FPM ministers were seeking to put their request for a vote but they decided to wait until next week to see how the security situation would evolve.
A statement read by Information Minister Walid al-Daouq on Wednesday, said the cabinet voiced support for the army and promised to provide it with all the necessary tools to enable it to protect the country.
The cabinet also tasked the ministers of defense and interior to submit recommendations aimed at activating the role of security agencies.
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