Mustaqbal: No Side Has the Right to Usurp Govt.'s Decisions on War and Peace
The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed on Wednesday that the government alone is responsible for issues of war and peace, adding that the Shebaa operation earlier during the day should remind all Lebanese factions of the importance of preserving stability and security.
It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “No side has the right to usurp the will of the Lebanese people and replace the constitutional authority of the state that is tasked with making national decisions.”
“We therefore reject any act that may involve Lebanon in matters that do not serve its interests,” it said.
It made its remarks in light of Hizbullah's attack on Wednesday against an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven wounded in the incident that prompted Israeli shelling on southern regions.
A Spanish member of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was killed in the Israeli shelling.
Hizbullah's attack came in retaliation to an Israeli airstrike on January 18 on Syria's Quneitra region in the occupied Golan Heights that resulted in the death of six party members and an Iranian general.
The Mustaqbal bloc offered its condolences over the death of the Spanish UNIFIL member, calling on all sides to respect U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.
Commenting on the army's recent battles with extremist armed groups along the Lebanese-Syrian border in the eastern Bekaa, it said: “The troops who fell in the recent Ras Baalbek battle died in defense of Lebanon's freedom, dignity, and security against criminal terrorists who do not serve the Syrian cause.”
It also noted that the Change and Reform bloc's proposal that the Lebanese army cooperate with its Syrian counterpart to confront terrorist border threats “contradicts the state's policy of disassociation and the Baabda Declaration.”
Such a suggestion also makes Lebanon appear supportive of the Damascus leadership against the Syrian people given their plight to overthrow the regime, continued the bloc.
“We consider that the Lebanese army and legitimate security forces are the sole sides qualified to confront terrorism in Lebanon and protect its borders,” it stressed.
Eight soldiers were killed in clashes between the army and armed groups in the Ras Baalbek region on Friday in another round of fighting with extremists from Syria.
The Change and Reform bloc proposed on Tuesday that the army cooperate with the Syrian army to confront such threats, demanding also that it put an end to such battles.
Since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, the army has repeatedly waged battles with extremist groups along border regions with Syria.
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