Ghosn Slams Geagea's Call for Army to Enter Ain el-Hilweh
Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn hit back Thursday at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea over the latter’s call for the army to storm the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.
“Those behind such calls do not belong to Lebanon, its unity or its future,” Ghosn said in an interview on Al-Manar television.
“Instead of criticizing the army and pushing it into things that defy logic and the national and humanitarian sense, let them care about the people’s needs,” Ghosn said, adding that Geagea’s remarks “are rejected and cannot be accepted under any excuse.”
Last week Geagea stressed the need for the Lebanese authorities to remove all arms inside and outside Palestinian refugee camps, calling on the army to enter Ain el-Hilweh and arrest the head of a Takfiri cell recently busted and accused of plotting bombings against army barracks.
Asked during an interview on Radio Voice of Lebanon on whether such a scenario could lead to “another Nahr al-Bared War,” Geagea said: “I don’t think the issue requires a war similar to Nahr al-Bared, … but should the situation demand a Nahr al-Bared-like war, so be it, and let the Lebanese state extend its authority over its entire territory.”
Ghosn told Al-Manar that the busting of the extremist cell had proved his previous controversial warnings that al-Qaida was present in Lebanon.
Source: Naharnet
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