Nasrallah Says Only State Must be Responsible for Security, Denies Receiving Chemical Arms from Syria
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday stressed that state authorities must be responsible for security across Lebanon, denying accusations that his party has received chemical weapons from Syria.
“The joint task force has taken over all the security checkpoints in Dahieh. We welcome this step and greatly appreciate this national decision taken by state officials," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
"We hope that the state and its officials carry out their national and legal duties towards all of Lebanon's regions," he added.
He called on residents of the group's stronghold in Dahieh, and those passing through it, to show "cooperation and respect" for the security forces and their measures.
“I call on everyone to deal with these security forces in a spirit of national responsibility. These men are shouldering a very big responsibility and they are performing a major mission for which they must be thanked,” added Nasrallah.
“We hope these security forces and state authorities will shoulder their full responsibility and assume all the intelligence and preventative missions,” he said.
Around 1,000 army troops and security forces deployed Monday in Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hizbullah normally keeps a tight grip on security.
The security points were established after car bombings in the southern suburbs that killed 27 people on August 15 and wounded more than 50 on July 9.
Following the bombings, Hizbullah turned the southern suburbs into a fortress with guards in civilian clothes policing the streets, stopping and searching cars, and asking motorists for their identity cards.
Nasrallah said Hizbullah's investigations into the second attack, in the Rweiss neighborhood, showed that “Takfiris” affiliated with the Syrian opposition were behind it.
"We have reached conclusive results, as promised," he said.
"It is a Takfiri group working within the framework of the Syrian opposition and located on Syrian soil," he added, saying both Lebanese and Syrian nationals were involved in the attack.
"I think that (Lebanese) official security forces have reached the same conclusion," said Nasrallah, whose group has fought alongside regime forces in the Syrian conflict against the rebels.
Hizbullah has always kept a tight grip on its Dahieh stronghold, but its security apparatus became increasingly visible after the attacks, raising tensions.
There were multiple incidents with citizens and journalists at the checkpoints, and a clash at one with Palestinian refugees earlier this month left one dead and four injured.
“From the very first moment, statements rejecting autonomous security were issued ... Some parties rejected autonomous security in principle and we respect and back this stance. We are advocates of this stance because we reject autonomous security and it has never been part of our agenda and we have never practiced autonomous security,” said Nasrallah.
“We only resorted to this option when we found that there is a security vacuum and we only intervened to prevent the entry of booby-trapped cars,” he added.
“Some parties said that this is Hizbullah's plan and accused the party of seeking autonomous security to 'complete its mini-state scheme,' but today's deployment refuted their claims, as Hizbullah would have rejected this issue if it was seeking autonomous security,” Nasrallah noted.
He reminded that “from the very first day” Hizbullah contacted the state and “asked them to shoulder their responsibilities, but they said that they had a personnel problem.”
“Those who accuse us of seeking a mini-state condemned the measures and attacked them with the aim of demonizing this sincere national endeavor,” said Nasrallah.
Hizbullah's leader stressed that only the state should be responsible for security in all regions, noting that his party members would leave “any area to which the state might send forces.”
“Today it happened in Dahieh and tomorrow it might happen in Baalbek and we welcome and cooperate with any efforts that contribute to the success of the mission,” he said.
“I thank all the brothers and sisters, all the families, all the people. I thank the army, the security forces and the Palestinian factions, especially the family of the martyr Mohammed Samrawi over their noble stance on the regrettable incident in Burj al-Barajneh,” added Nasrallah.
Turning to the issue of Syria's chemical arsenal, Nasrallah said: “The U.S. defense secretary warned that chemical weapons might be transferred to Hizbullah and on the next day the (opposition) Syrian (National) Coalition claimed that the Syrian regime has delivered chemical arms to Hizbullah and some 'smart' opposition officials claimed that we have received a ton of chemical agents and this is a laughable accusation."
"The thing is not like transporting wheat, flour or conventional weapons and some parties in Lebanon joined the media campaign and said they fear that the chemical weapons might be transported to Lebanon," said Nasrallah.
He warned that these accusations have "dangerous repercussions on Lebanon and on all people."
"I categorically deny these baseless accusations. I call on the Lebanese to be cautious while launching such accusations, which might have repercussions on everyone," Nasrallah added.
Commenting on the issue of the stalled national dialogue, Nasrallah said some parties have again “rejected dialogue and set preconditions and they are the same parties who had impeded dialogue and insisted on (Najib) Miqati's resignation.”
“Following the cabinet's resignation, they did not return to dialogue and they set the precondition of forming a new cabinet,” he noted.
“Those who are obstructing dialogue in Lebanon are well-known and we are willing to take part in dialogue regardless of the issue of some parties' participation. We see a national interest in dialogue regardless of the possible outcome,” Nasrallah went on to say.
“Some said that Hizbullah does not want to discuss the intervention in Syria, but on the contrary, we want to discuss this point and we agree on Speaker (Nabih) Berri's agenda. We agree to discuss who started the intervention, its forms, the timing of our intervention and whether there is a national interest in it,” he added.
Referring to a recent op-ed written by ex-PM Fouad Saniora and published in the Foreign Policy magazine, Nasrallah said: “We want to understand what does intervention in Syria mean. Isn't it intervention when some leaders urge, contact, exert efforts and write articles in some media outlets to called on the American president to wage a military aggression against Syria? An aggression that would have dangerous repercussions on the region, the world and Lebanon. Is this neutrality? Is this self-dissociation? Which is more dangerous? This move or the sending of Hizbullah fighters to specific locations in Syria?”
“We are willing to discuss any topic, including the intervention in Syria. We are willing to discuss this issue more than any other topic,” Nasrallah noted.
Source: Naharnet
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