Egypt Salafists Threaten to Besiege Lebanon Embassy in Support of Asir

The Egyptian Salafist group Ahrar on Wednesday threatened to besiege the headquarters of the Lebanese embassy in Cairo should Lebanese authorities fail to “lift the siege imposed on Sheikh (Ahmed) al-Asir and his companions.”

The group claimed that Asir and his supporters were being harassed “due to their heroic stances in supporting the Syrian revolution.”

“We call on the Lebanese regime – if there is a regime – to stop this farce immediately and lift the siege imposed on Sheikh al-Asir and his companions at once, or else we will be obligated to besiege the Lebanese embassy in Egypt and embarrass the Lebanese regime before the entire world,” the Islamists said in a statement.

Egyptian authorities have not commented on the threat while the areas surrounding the Lebanese embassy have not witnessed any extraordinary security measures.

On Tuesday, Asir's supporters made a “distress call to our supporters in the Islamic world” on their Facebook page.

They called on them to “prevent bloodshed against scholars, clerics and worshipers who are comprised of men, women and children at the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque which is standing in the face of the Iranian occupation of Lebanon under the leadership of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir.”

The army on Tuesday stopped a car carrying a fake license plate in the vicinity of the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Sidon, as several security sources denied reports that security forces were preparing to storm the mosque.

“Reports that the army encircled the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Abra are baseless and supporters of (Sheikh Ahmed) al-Asir went on alert after the army stopped a car carrying a fake license plate in the vicinity of the mosque,” Lebanon's National News Agency said.

Asir's official Facebook page claimed that the army was preparing to storm the mosque.

The reports prompted Asir's supporters to block roads in the Beirut areas of Corniche al-Mazraa and Qasqas and Tripoli's al-Nour Square.

Asir and his supporters have staged several rallies recently to protest claims that Hizbullah gunmen were residing in two apartments near the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque.