Lebanese MP calls for Hezbollah's withdrawal

Lebanese MP Fouad Siniora urged Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from Syria on Friday. He added that the resistance group’s involvement in the conflict was shameful and that a neutral government should be formed. “Hezbollah must withdraw its militias from Syria and [fighters] from Bekaa and the south and return home so they can no longer be used as a means of fueling the flames of this strife,” Siniora said in his home city of Sidon, south Lebanon. He expressed his support for Syrian people and criticized the Lebanese party for using weapons that were originally allocated to them for fighting the Israeli occupation. Siniora also condemned the Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour for the speech that he delivered at the meeting of Arab foreign ministers, asserting that his opinion does not reflect the position adopted by the Lebanese government. The Arab League denounced the foreign intervention in Syria, particularly by Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour objected to the rebuke, saying over 40 countries were involved in the Syria crisis on the ground. On the Cabinet formation, Siniora said a non-political, national government that wins the trust of the Lebanese needs to be established. Last month Hezbollah admitted for the first time it was fighting in Syria, arguing it is defending the resistance group from being targeted. More than 80,000 people have been killed in Syria so farand more than 1.5 million have fled the country since the uprising against President Bashar-al-Assad began in 2011, according to UN estimates.