No 'military council' for Lebanon's Sunnis

The Sunni Mufti of Lebanon's second largest city of Tripoli, Sheikh Malek Chaar, has rebuffed the idea of a Sunni military council for the area, saying “Sunnis in Lebanon will not have a military council and will not allow others” to obtain one. Chaar, who was speaking during an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa, added that the cleric who “announced the formation of a military council admitted that it was a slip of the tongue.” Lebanon’s As-Safir reported Tuesday that Sunni cleric Salem Rafehi had announced the formation of a “Sunni military council in Tripoli” in a religious sermon delivered during the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. Turning to the ongoing deadly clashes in Tripoli, Chaar said the fighting “is not [related to] a local cause over which people of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen are fighting.” He added that the violence between Sunni and Alawite gunmen was not motivated by “religious” causes. Street battles broke out late Monday night between pro- and anti-Syrian regime gunmen from Sunni and Alawite groups, whose rival districts – Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen respectively – are divided by a thoroughfare called Syria Street. The Mufti labeled the fighting as “an explosion of the political tension present in Lebanon in general which is [worsening] due to the Syrian events.” “Although most Alawites left Jabal Mohsen because they refused to fight [people living in their city], something which the Sunni sect also refuses, it is very difficult to find a final solution for the recurring clashes between [Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen],” Chaar said. He also voiced hope that Hezbollah would prove its non-involvement in what is happening in North Lebanon “and issue a fatwa banning the possession of [non-state] arms and [utilising] them [against] Lebanese people.” The military arsenal of Lebanon’s Shiite group Hezbollah is one of the thorniest political issues in the country. He also denounced the "hysterical spread of weapons all over Lebanese territory". "Every weapon outside the south is a weapon directed against Lebanon and the Lebanese, and the resistance should not adopt any weapon found outside the circle of confrontation with the Israeli enemy. The Lebanese have the right of political and religious differences and sectarian diversity, but they do not have the right to attack the lives of others," he said. "We need a parliament whose members does not belong to some parties who strongly want weapons," he added.