March 14: How Can the Army Enter Arsal and Not Siddiqin?

March 14 General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid questioned on Wednesday the double standards adopted in tackling security issues in Lebanon, asking why it is easy for the army to enter the town of Arsal while it is prevented from entering the town of Siddiqin.

He wondered after the General Secretariat’s weekly meeting: “Why was it allowed to pursue Syrians in Arsal, while the army, which is responsible for protecting Lebanon and implementing U.N. Security Council 1701, was thwarted from heading to Siddiqin?”

A huge explosion went off in an alleged arms depot in the Hizbullah stronghold of Siddiqin in the South overnight.

Party members prevented the security forces from reaching the area.

Soaid asked: “Why is the army forbidden from conducting an investigation only after Hizbullah’s security forces had informed the Lebanese public of what it wants?”

Addressing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, he said: “The funding of the tribunal is an integral matter that the Lebanese government should commit to out of respect of justice and in order to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into a confrontation with the international community.”

On the developments in Syria, he stated: “Syria is seeking shelter behind the Lebanese government because it appears that it has lost its diplomatic ability to persuade the Arab and international circles of its points of view.”

He predicted that Prime Minister Najib Miqati will therefore not remain in power for too long because the Syrian regime is slowly losing its Arab and international legitimacy.

Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen were the only countries who opposed an Arab League decision to suspend Syria’s membership from the organization.

The government’s position has sparked the condemnation of the March 14-led opposition, which has labeled the stand as an act of consent to the Syrian regime’s bloody crackdown against anti-regime protests that have been raging since March.