Mufti Slams Hizbullah Border Tour, Bassil's 'Sectarian Qualification' Law
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan on Sunday slammed Hizbullah's border tour for journalists and the party's foreign roles as he criticized an electoral law proposed by Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil that involves sectarian voting in the first round.
“All disagreements are permissible except over three issues: coexistence, state institutions and tampering with the security of the South. We can bear any burden except the burden of undermining coexistence and what is being said about religious or sectarian qualification violates the constitution and coexistence,” Daryan warned in an address to the nation marking the Isra and Mi'raj Muslim holiday.
Turning to Hizbullah's border tour, the mufti said: “We reached U.N. resolution 1701 after a destructive Israeli war, so why create excuses for the enemy?”
“We do not need bloodshed, displacement and destruction after which we say that we emerged victorious,” Daryan added.
“Since we have defeated the enemies one thousand times, I want us to triumph over ourselves, our ambitions, our greed and our ploys, even for a single time,” the mufti went on to say.
“My brothers, return to the greater jihad, which is the jihad of the soul, after you roamed east and west,” Daryan added, addressing Hizbullah's members without naming them.
On Friday, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said contacts were underway with the Lebanese army over the presence of Hizbullah gunmen during the media tour organized Thursday by Hizbullah along the border with Israel.
"As to reports speaking of the presence of armed individuals among the delegation, UNIFIL reminds that this would be a breach of resolution 1701; and as per the resolution, the Lebanese authorities bear the main responsibility to verify the presence of unauthorized armed individuals in the area between the Blue Line and Litani River," a UNIFIL statement read.
Hizbullah, which fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006, on Thursday brought dozens of journalists on a rare and highly-choreographed trip to the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel.
"This tour is to show the defensive measures that the enemy is taking," said Hizbullah spokesman Mohamed Afif, on a hilltop along the so-called Blue Line.
Thursday's tour sought to paint Israel as afraid of a new conflict, while depicting Hizbullah as ready for war despite having committed thousands of its fighters to bolstering Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.
Journalists were taken from the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, with Hizbullah fighters in full military regalia stationed along the route alongside the group's yellow flag -- despite a ban by Resolution 1701 on any armed paramilitary presence in southern Lebanon.
Faces smeared with black and green camouflage, the fighters stood silently holding guns and RPG launchers.
"We do not fear war, we don't hesitate to confront it. We yearn for it and we will confront it if it is imposed on us, and God willing we will win," a Hizbullah commander dressed in military fatigues and sunglasses told the reporters, reciting a famous statement for Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
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