Lebanon’s Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn tried to justify Syrian army violations of Lebanese territories by saying :” Those complaining about the Syrian move should be reminded about the daily Israeli land, maritime and airspace violations.”
He also tried to justify the killing of Syrian nationals by the Syrian troups inside Lebanon by saying
that unlike the US, Lebanon does not support the opposition in Syria.
“The US wants to support the Syrian opposition, but we don’t ,” Ghosn told Al-Manar TV after meeting with US Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly.
“During the meeting with Connelly expressed her stance and I expressed mine; our positions were contradictory.”
Ghosn said that the Syrian army’s incursion into Lebanon “is being investigated in order to find out what happened !”
Ghosn represents president Michel Suleiman in the cabinet !
Syrian troops entered Lebanese territory on Thursday and shot dead a Syrian national living in a remote border area of the eastern Bekaa region, a security official told AFP.
Another Syrian patrol crossed the Lebanese borders, but this time in the North which triggered panic among residents.
According to As-Sharq al-Awsat newspapers Thursday edition, “around ten Syrian soldiers entered the Lebanese territory in the northern town of Halwas and patrolled the area on Wednesday.”
The daily quoted an unnamed local resident as saying that “the people are scared of the behavior of Syrian soldiers.”
This incident follows another in the Bekaa , which took place on Tuesday. Syrian army tanks crossed the Lebanese border near the town of Arsal and fired several gunshots within Lebanese territory.
Media outlets reported that the tanks fired in the direction of a battery factory in Aarsal, adding that the Syrian troops suspected fleeing gunmen had taken refuge in the building.
The Lebanese army has until now maintained complete silence about both incidents
Thousands of Syrians have fled into Lebanon in recent months, often using illegal border crossings, to flee the unrest gripping their country.
March 14 outraged
March 14 MP Ammar Houry said on Thursday “what we’ve seen in the Bekaa town of Arsal confirms the Syrian identity of this government. ” He slammed the cabinet for ignoring the violations of the Lebanese territory by the Syrian army during its Wednesday ’s session.
Houry, in an interview with Voice of Lebanon , said” the government of Hezbollah exercised neutrality over the Lebanese sovereignty and buried its head in the sand like an ostrich.”
He added: “Maybe this government does not consider Arsal and some areas of the north as a Lebanese territory, and therefore its citizens should not be protected by it .”
Houry concluded: “There are those who objected to our branding of the overthrowing of the previous government as a “coup” by Hezbollah and Syria, while the current government is determined each day to to prove our point.
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