Govt. Calls for Avoiding 'All-Out Confrontation' with Israel, Raises ISF Personnel to 35K

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

The government on Thursday called for avoiding a full-blown war with Israel, a day after a Hizbullah operation killed two Israeli soldiers in the occupied Shebaa Farms, as it agreed to increase the number of the Internal Security Forces' personnel after managing to find a “middle-ground solution.”

“The cabinet discussed the situations in the South and some ministers expressed their stances in a calm debate during which all parties showed keenness on avoiding a deterioration,” Information Minister Ramzi Jreij announced after a cabinet session at the Grand Serail.

The cabinet condemned the Israeli attacks against some southern towns in the wake of the operation in Shebaa, urging the U.N. to “shoulder its responsibilities in preventing attempts to jeopardize peace in this region,” Jreij said.

The council of ministers called for “depriving the Israeli enemy of the chance to drag Lebanon into an all-out confrontation that would threaten the entire region,” stressing its commitment to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and the U.N. forces' role in southern Lebanon.

It also offered condolences over the death of a Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper who was killed by Israeli retaliatory shelling after Hizbullah's operation.

The cabinet underlined that “confronting any aggression must occur through the unity and solidarity of the Lebanese before anything else,” Jreij added.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven others wounded in Hizbullah's attack. The group announced that its “Quneitra Martyrs Group” targeted an Israeli military convoy in the Shebaa Farms.

The operation comes in response to a Jan. 18 Israeli air raid on a Hizbullah convoy in Syria's Quneitra which killed six Hizbullah fighters, including prominent militants, and a top Iranian general.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned after Wednesday's operation that "those behind today's attack will pay the full price."

He also warned that "the government of Lebanon and the Assad regime share responsibility for the consequences of attacks originating in their territory against the state of Israel."

Separately, Jreij said the cabinet approved a decree “raising the number of the ISF personnel from 29,995 to 35,000.”

OTV said the government agreed to increase the number to 35,000 as a “middle-ground solution.”

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, the cabinet was supposed to discuss the recruitment of around 11,000 new ISF members and its financial cost, amid reservations expressed by the March 8 alliance.

The daily said the thorny issue was included on the agenda of the government after an agreement between the rival parties to fortify the number of security members while taking into consideration the sectarian balance.

Al-Joumhouria reported that the March 8 coalition expressed reservations over increasing the members of ISF from 29,000 to 40,000.

The alliance had argued that recruiting new members would pose a serious financial challenge, while considering it an attempt to “create a new army.”

The matter was first mentioned during the tenure of ex-ISF chief and current Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi after recruiting 4,000 new members.

Kataeb party sources told al-Joumhouria that its ministers would voice their support to the move during Thursday's session, taking into consideration the security challenges.

The conflict in Syria has regularly spilled over into Lebanon, with the border region often particularly volatile.

As for the presidential vacuum, Prime Minister Tammam Salam reiterated his call for the election of a new president, noting that the parliament held the 18th electoral session yesterday amid a lack of quorum and “hoping the election will take place as soon as possible.”

During the session, Salam also tackled the death of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, describing him as “Lebanon's friend, who was a symbol for patriotism and moderation.”

“The government wished success for the new king in performing his missions,” Jreij said.

Y.R.

M.T.

Comments 34
Thumb geha 29 January 2015, 09:55

this is the best move ever, and I agree with anonymetexasusa, as it will free up the army to enable it to do its duties properly.

Thumb freedomarch 29 January 2015, 14:34

I second you Geha% 100 right.

Default-user-icon josephani (Guest) 29 January 2015, 11:16

aha look geha the idiot is back

Thumb freedomarch 29 January 2015, 14:37

Yes jose your back... an idiot A s s without class ...

Default-user-icon TheCh (Guest) 29 January 2015, 11:55

pourquoi? we keep complaining about the security conditions in our country, and as soon as something is done about it, we complain again?

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 13:35

the ISF is nothing more than rifi's personal militia, they know no rule of law and are corrupted to the bone. remember when they mutinied against ziad baroud and charbel nahhas? that was only the visible part of the iceberg.
more resources on them means more kids being harrased, beaten up for a hashish cigarette and their parents paying more bribes to get them out... when the real threats facing this country are military, whether in the bekaa or the south. what we really need is more soldiers, we should spend this money on the army.

Thumb freedomarch 29 January 2015, 14:30

WOW MOwati-n That will be hard ... Gen Ibrahim is in Control and your words show your deep sectarian mind. HOPE we have a pill for such sickness. GOD help our Government.

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 15:20

you see sectarianism where there is none, and don't see it when your friends make hateful sectarian remarks all day, some even calling israel to "eradicate all shias"...
what a clown you are, and a pathetic hypocrite.

and ps: gen ibrahim is in the general security, not the ISF. i'm amazed at how little you guys know, compared to how much hot air you move around.

Thumb LEBhasNOhope 29 January 2015, 15:23

Yes mono. You are so right. We should not help grow our legitimate institutions that answer to the state ( which you refer to as a militia). However we should support a militia that is above above the law which you shamelessly label as patriotic. Seriously, you have no shame and no concience.

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 15:38

Try to read properly before answering and stay on topic: I said grow the army not the ISF, is the army not an "legitimate institution"??
The ISF has a track record of corruption, uselessness, abuse, mutiny and collusion with takfiri groups, and on top of this the main threats we are facing are military.
I wonder what kind of country you guys want, with the hezbollah disarmed, the army unequipped and weak, and just some policemen to beat people around. Looks just like mahmoud abbas's palestinian "authority"...

Thumb LEBhasNOhope 29 January 2015, 16:04

You crack me up. We've all seen how much support your bosses have given the army. This is nothing more than an excuse to stop the growth of legitimate state institutions

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 16:10

yea you're cracked up alright, must be from banging your head on walls. keep turning in circles, and pretending to answer things i didnt say while ignoring those i did say.

Thumb LEBhasNOhope 29 January 2015, 17:29

your words are hollow momo. we've all seen you and know who you are.

Default-user-icon Jaafar Ibn Iblees (Guest) 29 January 2015, 18:21

Are you still secular today mowaten?

Thumb ex-fpm 29 January 2015, 19:23

وقد تبيّن ان شربل جورج خليل قصد شاليه صديقه المدعى عليه ل.ز ثم منزله في غبالة الذي أمن له خط هاتف خلوي عائد للمدعى عليه جو سلامة كل ذلك بمساعدة من ايلي مناسا الذين حاولا اعانته للهروب من وجه العدالة، وبأن مروان طانيوس خليل زوّد لويس زوين برقم هاتف خلوي يعود للمدعى عليه محمد علي سليمان الساحلي الذي اقدم بنقله الى منزل المدعى عليه حسين علي مظلوم في منطقة بريتال بالاشتراك مع الدركي محمد مظلوم الذي كان يستعمل بطاقته العسكرية لتأمين مرورهم على الحواجز من دون متاعب.
كما تبيّن ان المدعى عليه كارلوس خليل اقدم على نقل المدعى عليهم جوليانو سعادة، ايلي وشربل كريستيان وماريو خليل على متن سيارته الى منطقة ادما وان ايلي وكرستيان وماريو قضوا الليلة بمنزل عبدو فوزي خليل بمحلة زوق مصبح. كما تبين ان المدعى عليه بشير قاسم الحاج حسن قام بايواء كل من المدعى عليهما شربل شربل خليل وجوليانو سعادة في منزله بالاوزاعي. كما تبين ان جبرايل رزق قام بتخبئة جيب الرانغلر في منزله الكائن في بلدة بقعاتا.

Thumb ex-fpm 29 January 2015, 19:25

and the ISF member named by the general prosecutor as mohammad mazloum is a Riffi milia man? and those who gave the murderers of yves shelter in Ouzai are also Riffi's men?
Full story here
http://www.annahar.com/article/209871-التفاصيل-الكاملة-لاعترافات-المشتبه-فيهم-بقتل-ايف-نوفل-في-التحقيقات

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 13:37

the ISF is in bed with those internal threats, they play along with takfiris and had a direct hand in arming some of them like ahmad assir. they are greedy and corrupted, and would run you over while speeding 3akss ser to get their taouks... we dont need more uniformed thugs on the streets, we need more soldiers.

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 14:30

you know nothing anonyme, all you're good at is repeating the worn-out ready-made propaganda lines against HA. boring.

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 15:21

lol yea, we're terrified.

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 16:11

since when does having an opinion and voicing it means being scared? dude just give it up, you're an absolute and systematic failure.

Thumb _mowaten_ 29 January 2015, 17:23

oh no my poor friend, that was -really- not what i meant by "failure". maybe you should look it up, if you can find your way to google

Missing peace 29 January 2015, 17:55

isn't it up to the lebanese army to decide of peace or war after the green light from the gvt or is it up to a party?

that is the question ... now if it is up to hezbollah to decide , it only means that M8ers prefer a party to govern rather than the government... that they place the fate of the country in the sole hands of a political party... thus they do not believe in a country called Lebanon....

Thumb Mystic 29 January 2015, 18:08

ISF are boy scouts, they are corrupt and work for Rifi. They are best at smuggle Al Nusra women, and provide al nusra men drugs in Roumieh.

Thumb nickjames 29 January 2015, 19:16

"Hezbollah just proved yesterday that their way is the only one that can prevent israeli aggressions" - Mowaten from another article.

Momo how can anyone take that seriously? This "attack" happened in Shebaa Farms, which is Syrian territory hence the reason for the retaliation. Hezbollah could have retaliated from anywhere in South Lebanon, but it chose the one disputed area.

War will not break out because these last exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel have occurred in the Golan Heights and not on Lebanese territory, so Hezbollah is not provoking Israel to attack Lebanon (unless Hezbollah now fires rockets from Lebanese territory) so this goes to show that even Hezbollah knows that the Golan is Syrian territory. Through their actions, Hezbollah have contradicted their own propaganda lmaooooooooooo

Thumb nickjames 29 January 2015, 19:28

Texas, the US policy in Syria is a total failure. They plan to train rebels bla bla that's all talk until I see them fighting. Obama's foreign policy is the worst by any US President ever, and I mean ever. Obama has allowed terrorists to expand their power, Iran is gaining influence and building a nuclear weapon, he allowed his important ally Mubarak to just rot, and he still won't play ball with Sisi who has proven he's a willing partner. All in all, Obama has let terrorists -- both Sunni and Shia -- to turn the Middle East into one big quagmire.

Thumb nickjames 29 January 2015, 19:41

Lmaooooooo Big Qawmi,

Hezbollah is carrying out the Israeli agenda just like March 14 and all the Zionist Arabs in the region. The West, the Zionist Arab kings, and the Iranians all have a gentlemen's agreement over Lebanon, which is to keep it weak by supporting factions and not the state. The only reason there's conflict is because the stupid Arabs are always fighting themselves.

Thumb nickjames 29 January 2015, 20:15

Hated puppets (like Assad) who are fighting the natives (Daesh and Nusra). Sounds like Arabs are fighting themselves John...

Thumb nickjames 29 January 2015, 19:42

IF the Lebanese Resistance was able to retaliate from the Golan heights they would have.

Shebaa Farms is in the Golan Heights, John. You wanna argue it's in Lebanese territory then you can argue with someone else because I've stated my opinion on the Farms many times on this site and don't feel like repeating it. Shebaa Farms is Syrian territory.

Thumb nickjames 29 January 2015, 19:58

The majority of Lebanese are ignorant, John. You know Lebanon once tried to prove Shebaa Farms belonged to them by showing the UN a hand drawn map using crayons?? While the Farms at one point were in Lebanese (in the 1930s and 40s), by the 1960s Syria was clearly administering the area (whether they took it over illegally is irrelevant because Lebanon did nothing about it, Lebanon basically gave the land to Syria).

Plus, this did not become an issue until the year 2000. Why didn't the Lebanese say something in 1967 or 1981 about this?? And it wasn't even the Lebanese government who protested in 2000, it was Hezbollah.

Thumb nickjames 29 January 2015, 20:01

Furthermore, when Haffez al-Assad was asked about Shebaa, he said "Syria and Lebanon are one country." Years later, when his son Bashar was in power, he proposed to demarcate the borders after Israeli troops leave the area (when in reality Shebaa is so small it can be demarcated in an hour if there was a political will).

Thumb ex-fpm 29 January 2015, 21:12

@nickjames:
A note to say that upon the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, Lahoud the then Lebanese President issued a public statement congratulating the Lebanese on the liberation of ALL occupied land and sent a letter to the UN agreeing to the new blue line and to having all Lebanese territory back under sovereign rule. It was not until he was called to Damascus and reprimanded by Assad that the Shebaa farms issue first surfaced.

Thumb nickjames 29 January 2015, 20:03

John, you're right about Mubarak. But what about Sisi, why is Obama not working with him? Sisi has the backing of almost all the Egyptians, he was the Field Marshal of the Egyptian Army, return to army rule, he's strong...

Thumb ex-fpm 29 January 2015, 20:13

isn't a coincidence that you and flamethrower appear at the same time. Flamethrower just posted on another article. Strange?

Thumb Mystic 30 January 2015, 08:25

The saudi donation is not even in the hands of the LAF yet. That was a pure lie.