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Lebanon: Islamic Sunni Groups Start Military Bloc to Confront Hezbollah | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Tripoli, Asharq Al-Awsat – Former Lebanese Deputy Khalid al-Dahir has revealed that the Islamic Sunni movements in north Lebanon have started to form a political and military bloc capable of confronting what Hezbollah had done in Beirut and other Lebanese areas.

Dahir told Asharq Al-Awsat, “We held today(yesterday) a meeting away from the media, which included at least 50 hawks from the Islamic leaderships and was aimed at taking action against the coup of the so-called Hezbollah militia. We agreed on an escalatory and programmed campaign to reject the attack on the Sunnis, the mufti of the republic, the ministers, and the deputies, and in particular Deputy Saad al-Hariri.”

When asked to comment on the claim that he does not have the necessary manpower

al-Dahir told Asharq Al-Awsat, “Time will prove to them the force capable of restoring balance to Lebanon. We are not a substitute for the army but an auxiliary element so that the weapon remains in the state’s hand. Our weapon is also one of resistance and we will hand over our weapon when the weapon resisting Israel is withdrawn.” On the type of weapons these groups have and who supplies them, he said, “We will have enough weapons to fight these evil people who desecrated Beirut. All the people are providing us with weapons. This is apart from our large stockpile of faith and creed.”

Though Dahir confirmed that the Islamic trends’ meeting yesterday included all the parties, among them the Salafist Trend, and that coordination between them is full, Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal, founder of the Salafist Trend in Lebanon who made a “call to arms” to the Sunni youths in a statement he had issued, appeared less violent when talking in his office in Abu Samra area in Tripoli yesterday. Al-Shahhal told Asharq Al-Awsat, “We called for mental and logistical mobilization in all the Lebanese areas. If the crisis, violation of dignities, and the hegemony and control attempts continued, then it is our right to defend ourselves. Groups have started to coalesce, each in their region, to form in the end a single defensive group bound by the Shariaa and moral rules.”

Al-Shahhal denied that the desire is to form a militia like the Hezbollah one “unless this become necessary” adding, “If they calm down, we will calm down. If they sabotage it, we will sabotage it and destroy all the barriers and there will be no red lines before us then. We will defend fiercely everywhere. When we issue a call to arms this means there is a harbinger of danger and misfortune.”