Mufti Qabalan: Resistant Action Liberated Lebanon, Not Neutrality

Shiite mufti Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan hit out anew Friday at Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s call for Lebanon’s neutrality.

“Lebanon’s situation is internationalized and global forces deal with it as a raging frontier in the conflict of axes, using all their suspicious financial, monetary, economic and political capabilities to achieve their interests,” Qabalan said in his Friday prayer sermon.

“All of this obliges us to be very wary of the West and its choices,” Qabalan added.

“Anyone who wants to know the West’s stance on the causes of Arabs and Lebanon should carefully evaluate what’s going on in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Sinai, in addition to the GCC rivalries,” the mufti went on to say.

He added that he strongly condemns the call for neutrality, because “neutrality between a scheme that is besieging Lebanon and a project that wants to rescue Lebanon is unacceptable.”

“The issue of Lebanon being a neutral support country and not a confrontation country according to Arabs’ historic resolutions did not prevent Tel Aviv from occupying Beirut and it did not push Arabs to expel Israel from Lebanon. Most of them instead stood idly by as Beirut was being destroyed and the residents of the South and others were being displaced,” Qabalan said.

“What liberated Lebanon was the resistant action as a choice siding with Lebanon’s rights and sovereignty, not the neutrality that crucified Lebanon at the U.N. Security Council throughout Israel’s occupation of Lebanon,” he added.

He said that Lebanon’s salvation lies in “siding with Lebanon’s rights and interests, even if they were in China, in the face of lethal neutrality.”

“We must take action quickly because the country is dying, and we in turn welcome and Western or Eastern support for Lebanon without any political calculations, despite our reservations over the disappointing experience with the West,” Qabalan went on to say.