Opposition MPs blame government for security problems

Independent Christian MPs held the government responsible for the security incidents that occurred recently in the country.

“We hold the government responsible for the recurrent security explosions,” March 14 MP Boutros Harb said in a statement following the Tuesday meeting at his residence.

The opposition lawmakers also warned that “political struggles” might impact the upcoming parliamentary elections and lead to its postponement after months of debates and discussions that resulted in the approval by the parliament’s joint commissions of the Orthodox law that calls for proportional voting along sectarian lines.

Tension rose in Beirut on Sunday where two Sunni Sheikhs in the Shiite neighborhood of Khandaq al-Ghamik where attacked.

The incident was followed by an assault on two other Dar al-Fatwa clerics in the South Beirut suburb of Shiyyah.

Following the incident, protesters in Sunni areas of Lebanon’s capital began cutting off access to roads, causing tensions to rise in the city and army units to deploy to the scene.

The assaults have sparked a wave of condemnation from the majority of Lebanon’s political parties, with the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal Movement also expressing their firm rejection of the attacks.

Regarding the Syrian attacks against targets inside Lebanese territory, the MPs commended the stance of President Michel Suleiman who, earlier on Tuesday, deemed it “unacceptable” and instructed Foreign Minister Adnan Mansur “to send a message of protest to the Syrian side so that such operations are not repeated.”

Syrian warplanes on Monday bombed Lebanon for the first time since the uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime began in mid-March 2011, prompting strong condemnation from France and the US.

NOW