Berri Urges 'Different' Treatment of Refugee Encampments after Arsal Battle
Speaker Nabih Berri has urged the Lebanese authorities to deal with the Syrian encampments “differently” after many gunmen taking refuge there joined militants last weekend and took over the northeastern border town of Arsal.
“From now on, we should deal with the refugee encampments differently and not to tolerate” the presence of armed men there, Berri was quoted as saying by several newspapers that hit the newsstands on Friday.
He called for taking more precautions “because what happened in the town could take place again in Arsal and other areas.”
“The situation is no longer the same,” he said.
Berri added that several of the town's residents cooperated with the jihadists in their battle with the Lebanese army. “The judiciary will take action against them.”
The militants, who came from Syria and overran Arsal, mostly withdrew back across the rugged hills separating the two countries, allowing Lebanese troops to free seven security members and ambulances to evacuate dozens of casualties.
The seizure of Arsal over the weekend marked the first time that Islamic extremists from Syria carried out a large-scale incursion into Lebanon and raised fears of a further spillover of the conflict across the porous border.
The militants took with them around 35 captives from the army and Internal Security Forces who were in the town's outskirts when the attack was launched last Saturday.
Asked if the gunmen were seeking an exchange of prisoners with Roumieh inmates, Berri rejected any type of negotiation or swap.
Many Islamists are held in Roumieh, Lebanon's largest prison.
The speaker also expressed surprise at France's procrastination in delivering military assistance to Lebanon under a $3 billion Saudi grant announced last December.
“I am afraid that it has come under pressure not to provide the army with advanced weaponry out of fears that they would be used against Israel,” he said.
Berri revealed that he urged Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri to pressure Paris on the military assistance and that he told U.S. Ambassador David Hale that Washington should provide “U.S. arms hidden in Lebanon” to the Lebanese military.
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