Mustaqbal Hopes Interception of Arms Ship Will Lead to Halting Weapons Smuggling into Lebanon

The Musatqbal bloc hailed on Thursday the security forces for their interception on Friday of a ship that was smuggling weapons to Syria.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “We hope that the interception of the ship would pave the way to the confiscation of weapons that are being smuggling into Lebanon through various crossings.”

The ship, Lutfallah II, was halted by the Lebanese navy as it was sailing off the Batroun shore, north of Beirut.

Three containers loaded with arms being smuggled to Syria were discovered on board.

Addressing local economic developments, the bloc condemned the deteriorating living conditions in Lebanon, blaming the government disputes for the current reality.

“We hope that the negative impact on the people’s livelihood would end with the removal of the government, which would rid the people from erroneous policies,” it remarked.

“The government’s spiteful practices have blinded it and negatively affected economic growth in Lebanon,” it continued.

The Mustaqbal bloc added that the government is obligated to finalize a state budget, noting that the same government had failed to finalize a budget for 2011.

Lebanon has been without a budget since 2005.

Commenting on the government extra-budgetary spending dispute, the bloc hope that the issue would be resolved in order to revitalize the functioning of the state.

Disputes between the March 8 majority and the March 14 opposition coalition have prevented the legalization of the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending bill of Premier Najib Miqati’s government.

The March 14 forces have conditioned their approval of the 2011 spending bill at parliament to the legalization of $11 billion spent by the governments of ex-Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri between 2006 and 2009.