Charbel Hails All-Party Talks, Says 2nd Round Will Have Positive Impact on Ground
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel considered on Monday that the national dialogue between Lebanese foes eased the tense situation in the country.
“I expect that the results of the second round of the all-party talks will have a better impact locally,” Charbel told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).
He stressed that the dialogue will not be able to “prevent” the armed activities on the ground.
President Michel Suleiman headed all-party talks at the Baabda palace between Lebanese leaders in an attempt to restore calm in Lebanon after several security incidents in the country.
Asked about the tension in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared last week, Charbel said that it was a “coincidence and not planned.”
He voiced hope that the situation would not deteriorate, noting that the “army took measures in cooperation with the Palestinian committees.”
A Palestinian was killed and three others were wounded on Friday when the Lebanese army opened fire during a spat at the camp.
The violence erupted after the army arrested a Palestinian man who didn’t have identification papers.
The arrest prompted hundreds of the camp’s residents to block roads with burning tires and hurl stones at army troops.
On intelligence reports that Lebanon will witness a new wave of assassinations, Charbel urged the media not to address the issue as it “obstructs the work of the security agencies.”
On Sunday, An Nahar newspaper reported that the head of al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora has received warnings from regional and western powers urging him to be wary of plots to assassinate him “in order to create strife in Lebanon.”
Speaker Nabih Berri was the first to speak of an assassination list in Lebanon.
Lebanese authorities received warnings from a number of countries saying that fundamentalist forces had infiltrated Lebanon to assassinate a number of Lebanese figures.
In April, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea was the victim of a failed assassination attempt at his Maarab residence. Phalange Party MP Sami Gemayel had also recently revealed that he too was victim of a failed attempt on his life.
Concerning the deployment of the army in northern Lebanon, the minister pointed out that the army and security forces can’t fully control the Lebanese-Syrian border.
However, Charbel said that most of the legal crossings were under control.
“The situation is getting better daily particularly amid the coordination between the Lebanese and Syrian armies,” he told the radio station.
A political decision was taken by Lebanese leaders to deploy the army in Tripoli after gunbattles erupted between the dominant Alawite Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and mainly Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh.
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