The announcement on Monday by the Lebanese branch of Hamas of the creation of a new group called the “Al-Aqsa Flood Vanguards” with the mission of “liberating Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” continued on Tuesday to provoke widespread criticism from the ranks of the opposition, who denounced it as a flagrant attack on Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the move was “unacceptable” and that Lebanon “will not accept it.” However, he assured a consular delegation he received at the Grand Serail that “the parties concerned have explained today (Tuesday) that there is no question of taking military action.”
Beirut MP Nadim Gemayel stressed Lebanon’s commitment to UN Security Council resolutions 1701 and 1559, noting that “it is the army’s responsibility to apply them.”
Resolution 1701 put an end to the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, while Resolution 1559, adopted in 2004, calls for the disarmament and disbanding of all militias, whether Lebanese or foreign.
On his X account, Gemayel asserted that “Lebanon is not an alternative homeland, even less an alternative war field for jihad. Let anyone who wants to fight or wage jihad to go and do it elsewhere than in Lebanon,” he concluded.
Tripoli MP Ashraf Rifi considered Hamas’s decision to create the Al-Aqsa Flood Vanguards to be “a serious mistake.” He therefore called on the Palestinian movement to “reverse” its decision, all the more so as it “harms the Palestinian cause to the benefit of the obstructionist (Iran-backed Hezbollah-led) axis.”
Batroun MP Ghayath Yazbeck also warned against this decision, which would only “cause the destruction of Lebanon.” “Only the army should be present in South Lebanon,” he wrote on his X account.
As for former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, he stated that the fact that the Palestinians “are planning to take armed action from Lebanon is unacceptable and we reject it.”
Stressing that the Lebanese people continue to support the Palestinian cause, Siniora recalled in a statement that “Lebanon abrogated the Cairo agreement, which authorized Palestinian armed actions from its territory, after having paid, for decades, a heavy price in terms of human lives, stability and development.”
Siniora also pointed out that the Lebanese people abide by the Taif Agreement, which they regard as a pact of national coexistence. He recalled that, in accordance with this agreement, “all armed militias must be disbanded and the Lebanese state must extend its authority over the entire territory.” Siniora reiterated Lebanon’s commitment to the implementation of Arab and international resolutions, principally UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
