Berri warns Lebanese not to be dragged into 'sedition'

Speaker Nabih Berri on Saturday warned the Lebanese against being dragged into "sedition" in the wake of the Lebanon-Israel agreement.

"O my people in Lebanon, all of Lebanon, this is sedition," Berri said, apparently referring to the agreement and Hezbollah's rejection of it.

"Be in strife like a young camel: neither a back to be ridden nor an udder to be milked," Berri added, quoting Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb. The quote warns the faithful against being dragged into sedition.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said that Lebanese officials who signed a framework agreement with Israel on Friday in Washington could not enforce the deal without sparking a civil war.

Lebanese "authorities will be unable to impose the implementation of the agreement signed in Washington unless they go, with American support, to civil war," said Fadlallah, whose party has long rejected the direct Israel-Lebanon talks.

He added that "what happened in Washington is an attempt to disrupt the Islamabad path, and without the resistance (Hezbollah) nothing will pass," referring to the initial agreement between the U.S. and Iran on halting the Middle East war, which includes Lebanon.

After the announcement of the agreement in Washington, dozens of people riding motorbikes, some waving Hezbollah flags, gathered in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iran-backed group, before roaming Beirut's streets and scuffling with the army on the airport road.