Ghosn Warns Armed Forces Won't Tolerate Attempts to Target Stability
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn said Thursday that the Lebanese army and security forces will not tolerate any attempt to employ the current circumstances in the region against internal stability.
“Security agencies and mainly the Lebanese army are on alert” over the challenges that Lebanon is facing from the influx of refugees escaping the fighting between government troops and rebels in Syria, Ghosn said.
“They have taken a series of precautions either through upgrading efforts to preserve internal security or through stronger measures to control the border,” the National News Agency quoted him as saying.
His comment came amid a controversy on how to deal with the rising number of displaced Syrians and Palestinians. There are estimates that the current number of refugees will rise from 150,000 to 300,000 in the next six months.
Several cabinet ministers, including the defense minister, are calling for a stricter border control and for consolidated efforts to prevent the infiltration of gunmen through illegal crossings on the porous border with Syria.
The influx “could lead to the infiltration of some gunmen or terrorists to Lebanon in an attempt to tamper with its security and stability,” he warned, saying “we won't be lenient with anyone who tries to take advantage of the current circumstances to manipulate internal stability.”
He said however that “it is almost certain that the (refugee) crisis will grow.”
Ghosn also called on the Lebanese to set their differences aside and cooperate to overcome the problem along with the delicate economic situation in the country.
03 January 2013, 12:48
13
Hizbala and M8 cronies should remember that the Syrians welcomed them in 2006...
03 January 2013, 13:19
03
Ours is probably one of the very few in the world where a minister gets commendation for doing his job. In the absence of a rotten system in which ministers are doing anything but their job, the honorable Ghosn mustn't expect anything in the way of a tap in the back since this is what's expected of people like him, in fact since we attained independence. Maybe they've not been drilled enough in the exercise that anyone called a public servant is an employee of the state, the state of the people, for the people and by the people. OK Mr. Minister, you get back to that job and make sure we sleep well at night, what else did you expect?
03 January 2013, 15:31
03
Hezbollah are being pro-refugees to try to gain some points with the sunnite population of syria. It is an easy way to get popularity points without giving any real concession. They keep Aoun to sawwid wijjo, and take the good man's role, hoping that later there will be less hatred for them from the new syrian regime.
Al nosra anyone?
