Lebanon urges Arab states to support its army

Lebanese Army soldiers stand near a military vehicle as they are deployed after clashes in south Beirut March 23, 2014. (Reuters) 

 

By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Monday, 24 March 2014 

 

Lebanon’s foreign minister called on Arab countries on Monday to support the Lebanese army to counter fallout from Syria’s civil war, which he said threatened to tear the country apart, Reuters reported.

Around 1 million Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon, a displacement that has strained public infrastructure and threatened to upset the sectarian balance.

Also, a security source told Agence France-Presse Monday that 26 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in 12 days of clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus fighters in Lebanon’s second city Tripoli.

This “is threatening the existence of Lebanon,” Reuters quoted Gebran Bassil as telling reporters before a meeting of Arab League leaders in Kuwait on Tuesday.

“This would create a danger also to the whole (of) humanity, because if the Lebanese model would vanish, then a big clash is to be expected between civilizations, religions and all aspects or differences in the world,” he said, speaking English.

Power in Lebanon is split between Shiites, Sunnis, Druze and Christian leaders - reflecting the mixed population - and many fear that Sunni refugees, who represent the majority in Syria, could disrupt the fragile demographic balance.

Communal tensions in Lebanon were stoked last week by the fall of the Syrian border town of Yabroud to Syrian government forces and their allies in the Lebanese Shiite political and military movement Hezbollah.

The fighting prompted a chain reaction of car bomb and rocket attacks, roadblocks and protests along sectarian lines that took days to calm and revived memories of Lebanon’s own 1975-90 civil war.

Tripoli

In Tripoli, Snipers from both sides were still deployed in flashpoint areas of the northern port city, as the fighting subsided on Monday for the first time in nearly two weeks.

Tripoli has seen intense sectarian clashes since the war in neighboring Syria erupted three years ago, with gunmen from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tebbaneh battling fighters in the Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen.

“Twenty-six people have been killed in 12 days of fighting, and 135 others injured,” the security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The dead were 18 civilian residents of Sunni Bab al-Tebbaneh, seven civilians from Jabal Mohsen and one soldier,” said the source, adding that two children and two disabled people were among the civilians killed.

“There were also three fighters from Jabal Mohsen and six from Bab al-Tebbaneh killed.”

Arabs discuss Syria’s conflict

Meanwhile, Bassil, who became foreign minister in a cabinet formed last month, said a preparatory meeting with his Arab counterparts on Sunday discussed Syria’s conflict, now in its fourth year, the refugees and support for the Lebanese army.

“We hope that these decisions will be translated into reality by direct and tangible help and aid to Lebanon in backing the army, because the army of Lebanon is fighting terrorism for all the Arabs and all the world,” he said.

Bassil said the only way to protect Lebanon and its borders was to give additional support to the army. Saudi Arabia donated $3 billion to the army in December for upgrades and asked France to supply weapons using a large proportion of these funds.

“We cannot live with new military camps, whether Syrians or others, inside Lebanon,” he said. “Support for the army is something real for facing this coming danger.”

Lebanon is already home to large camps for displaced Palestinians where state authority does not fully extend. Many Lebanese trace the origins of their own civil war to militarization in the camps in the 1970s.

Lebanon’s military nowadays is religiously mixed but some Syrian rebels and Lebanese have accused it of being in thrall to Hezbollah, which has sent fighters to support President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite minority.

In a video posted online this week, influential Lebanese Sunni militant leader and cleric Ahmad al-Assir called for Sunnis to defect from the army.

(With AFP and Reuters)

Last Update: Monday, 24 March 2014 KSA 18:05 - GMT 15:05