Geagea slams 'reckless' Hezbollah as MP threatens to take up arms
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday said the military drill that Hezbollah carried out Sunday in the South is “totally rejected at a time that the Lebanese are struggling night and day and every moment to rebuild their state and regain Arab and international confidence in this state.”
“Hezbollah addressed a clear message to all Lebanese and the Arab and international communities by saying that ‘no matter how much you try and seek, we will not allow the rise of a real state in Lebanon,’” Geagea said.
“Hezbollah is totally mistaken if it believes that this drill can boost the chances of its presidential candidate,” he added.
“The drill is a reckless action that will only harm Lebanon … and benefit Israel,” the LF leader went on to say.
Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel for his part described the drill as “a provocation message against the Lebanese and the Arab Summit.”
MP Nadim Gemayel meanwhile said the military exercise was “a message to the domestic arena more than being a message to Israel,” threatening to “publicly carry arms and rebel against the state if officials do not take a stance over what happened.”
“I might call on our supporters to carry visible weapons and not stop at checkpoints, because we’re supposed to be equal,” he warned, in remarks to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
MP Ashraf Rifi for his part said “it was not a resistance movement that organized military parades, but rather a tool practicing hegemony.”
“You won’t terrorize anyone with these bravadoes and we will be in your face,” Rifi added.
“What you did contradicts with the spirit and text of the Taif Accord and remember that the ink of the resolutions of the Jeddah Arab Summit has not dried yet,” Rifi went on to say.
Hezbollah put on a show of force on Sunday, extending a rare media invitation to one of its training sites in southern Lebanon, where its forces staged a simulated military exercise.
Masked fighters jumped through flaming hoops, fired from the backs of motorcycles, and blew up Israeli flags posted in the hills above and a wall simulating the one at the border between Lebanon and Israel.
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said in a speech Sunday that the exercise was meant to "confirm our complete readiness to confront any aggression" by Israel.
Source: Naharnet
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