Jumblat Says Country Will Not Slip into Sedition over Arsal Captives

Progressive Socialist Party Leader MP Walid Jumblat expressed relief on Monday over the local situation, saying that the country will not slip into sedition.

“The soldiers are subjected to various threats while carrying out their duty,” Jumblat said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

He pointed out that the state will undertake all the necessary measures to ensure their safe release.

Jumblat reiterated his total rejection to the principle of swapping the abducted soldiers and policemen with the Roumieh prison Islamist inmates.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Tammam Salam pleaded for his countrymen to be calm in a rare televised appeal, as anger swelled over the continued capture of soldiers and police by militants in Syria.

The call came after photos emerged showing that militants of the Islamic State group had beheaded a second captive Lebanese soldier on Saturday.

Militants in Syria, including the Islamic State group, are holding around 20 soldiers and policemen. They were seized after militants briefly overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in August, the most serious spillover yet of Syria's conflict into the neighboring country.

Families of the captive men have blocked highways, burning tires and vowing to punish Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

H.K.

M.T.