Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh on Tuesday voiced concerns over a possible “dangerous thing being plotted against Lebanon under the slogans of humanitarian corridors and support for the (Syrian) opposition.”
“Security-wise, some places in Lebanon are calm and other places are tense. The atmosphere is being prepared day after day and it is heading towards negativity, not positivity. Who sensed the presence of (the extremist group) Fatah al-Islam before the eruption of its conflict with the army?” Franjieh said in an interview on OTV.
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MP Akram Shehayyeb, a member of Druze leader Walid Jumblat’s National Struggle Front, on Tuesday called for unveiling the fate of Syrian dissident Shebli al-Aysami who was last seen in May in the Mount Lebanon town of Aley.
Aysami, 86, is a co-founder of Syria's ruling Baath party who fled his native country in 1966 over political differences.
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Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun slammed on Tuesday the National Struggle Front’s boycott of Monday’s parliamentary session, accusing its leader MP Walid Jumblat of only seeking to ensure his own interests.
He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “It seems that the MP was never part of the parliamentary majority.”
Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali on Monday called on the Lebanese state to be “very strict” in controlling its border with his country and to prevent “the infiltration of gunmen” from Syria into Lebanon.
“There is a safe haven for extremist groups, which are being given several labels, and we urge the Lebanese state to pay attention to this safe haven,” Ali said, referring to Lebanese border towns in the North and the Bekaa provinces.
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The Phalange Party called on the government on Monday to carefully follow up on the flow of Syrian refugees into Lebanon, warning of a “new form of naturalization” facing the country.
It said in a statement after its weekly politburo meeting: “A crisis committee should be formed to address the possible repercussions of the Syrian unrest on Lebanon.”
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Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stated on Monday that his party will not “stoop so low as to respond to some thugs” who have recently criticized his positions on Syria.
He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Such slogans only reflect their political bankruptcy and their claims of defiance are really aimed at achieving Israeli goals.”
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Fadel Shaker, a Lebanese pop star turned outspoken supporter of Salafism, an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam, on Sunday stressed the “need” for artists to support the beleaguered Syrian people, urging them to “reject the massacres” taking place in Syria.
Speaking at an anti-Syrian regime sit-in organized in Beirut’s Martyrs Square by Salafist Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir, imam of the Sidon’s Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, Shaker said: “Haven’t they seen the massacres in Homs, Daraa, Deir al-Zour and other regions?”
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Syrian artillery gunners pounded the mainly rebel-held city of Rastan on Sunday, as 15 people were killed across the country and the Red Cross began delivering aid to refugees from the battered Homs district of Baba Amr, monitors said.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed seven people in the central province of Homs, three in the restive countryside around Damascus, one in the northern province of Aleppo, one in the central province of Hama, one in the southern province of Daraa and another in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour.
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177 Syrians were killed on Saturday, mostly civilians, including 6 defected soldiers in clashes between the regime army and the Free Syrian Army across the country.
Head of the Free Syrian Army told al-Jazeera that “the Free Syrian Army killed more than 100 regime troops in Reef Damascus.”
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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Saturday in its weekly report that the number of Syrians who had fled to Lebanon since the crisis in their country had reached 7,085.
The number increased since last week by 142, according to the U.N. organization’s statement.
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