Jumblat Calls for Confronting Self-Security Measures across Lebanon

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat stressed on Monday that it's crucial to confront attempts by certain areas or parties to beef up their own security measures, which makes it more difficult for security forces to carry out their tasks.

“We should all voice our support to security forces despite our political disputes,” Jumblat stated in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website.

He called on all parties to be loyal only to the state and the Lebanese army amid the security chaos, which facilitates its tasks and prevents further deterioration.

“We shouldn't form security islands that will eventually depict further division among the Lebanese,” Jumblat said.

On Friday, two powerful blasts rocked the northern city of Tripoli, killing over 35 people and wounding 900 others.

These attacks came eight days after 27 people were killed and around 300 wounded in a car bombing that rocked the Beirut southern suburb of Ruwais, a Hizbullah bastion.

The Ruwais blast prompted Hizbullah members to cordon off Dahieh and search cars entering the area.

However, critics accuse Hizbullah of using its arsenal to impose its will, such measures reinforce the fortress-like image of the southern suburbs, where the Lebanese army and police rarely venture.

Jumblat pointed out that the security situation and the civil peace comes at forefront for Lebanese people.

He called on the rival parties to resume dialogue and end the political deadlock.

“The political, moral and humanitarian responsibility requires the foes and the media to use a civilized rhetoric to confront the current situation,” the Druze leader said.

He said that “terrorist bombings killed innocent people, inflicting new tragedies,” he added.

The bombings that targeted Beirut's southern suburbs and the northern city of Tripoli “are further evidence that “terrorism” doesn't differentiate between an area and another or a sect and another.”

He warned that terrorism will hit again and the Lebanese sides should ed the political and media escalation, which will only increase the tension and facilitate the work of the perpetrators.