Asir Warns: We Will Escalate if Our Demands Were Not Met

Islamist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir called on Hizbullah on Sunday to “recognize how things are developing in the southern city of Sidon before the situation gets out of control”, warning the cabinet that not responding to his demands will “alert his movements”.

“We will escalate our movements in a completely different manner if our demands were not answered,” Asir stated in a speech he gave after he lead his supporters in a march towards Sidon’s Abra neighborhood apartments where allegedly Hizbullah gunmen reside.

He noted: “They tried to prevent us from reaching al-Karameh, Elia and al-Nejmeh roundabouts but we did, even making it to (Beirut’s district of) Tariq al-Jadideh”.

“I pity the army members installed among us here,” he said, calling instead for deploying them to the border to face “Israeli and Syrian dangers”.

Asir expressed: “(Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hasan) Nasrallah chose the Prime Minister, appointed a foreign minister that follows an Iranian agenda and is threatening the Lebanese people”.

“Can’t all this be considered an Iranian occupation?” he asked, urging the Shiites of Lebanon to “take to the streets and reject the Iranian plan that hurts the sect first and foremost”.

Adir’s supporters returned back to Asir’s Bilal bin Rabah Mosque and no clashes or problems were registered.

Earlier this week, Supporters of Asir staged a sit-in at Sidon's Elia roundabout as the Islamist cleric himself led a rally in Tariq al-Jadideh.

Asir and his supporters has also rallied in the past weeks near the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Abra to protest claims that Hizbullah rented apartments in the vicinity of the mosque.

Last month, the anti-Hizbullah cleric urged officials and authorities to force the evacuation of apartments allegedly inhabited by Hizbullah gunmen near his mosque to avert a possible “strife or any dangerous incident.”