BEIRUT: Interior Minsiter Nouhad Machnouk warned Tuesday of looming security concerns in Lebanon that promise to be graver than those burdening other parts of the region, as he stood by his decision to hold off on the parliamentary vote.
“The security situation in the upcoming phase in Lebanon will be greater than all fires [ravaging] the region” Machnouk told Sky News Monday evening.
According to the interior minister, if polls are held in Lebanon, the country could face witness tensions worse than those in Iraq and Syria because citizens make electoral decisions according to “tribal mentalities.”
The problem in Lebanon is not merely an issue of border-control, but is also linked to the degree to which Lebanese mentalities are impacted by the struggle in Iraq and Syria, he said.
“Some groups considers what is happening in Syria to be an existential crisis [threatening] them and consider what is happening in Iraq to be a matter of life and death,” he added.
According to the interior minister, his opposition to holding elections stem from his role as interior minister and not his allegiance to the March 14 bloc that supported the extended mandate. Machnouk cited the polar division in Lebanon over the crisis in Syria as another cause behind the impossibility of holding polls.
The presence of terrorist groups and the threat of car bombing across the country justify the cancelation of the vote especially since the government wouldn’t be able to protect tens of thousands of individuals who would gather over a series of days to cast in their ballots, he said.
Despite his alarmism over potential security crises, he claimed that the current security situation in Lebanon “could still be described as under control.”
Speaking on the reasons behind the relative stability, Machnouk said that preemptive measures executed by security forces and a political truce agreed upon by Lebanon’s rival factions have prevented major escalations with regards to security threats.
According to the interior minister, the implicit truce between Lebanon’s rival factions stems from both necessity and pragmatism. Machnouk also said that a major regional shift would be unlikely.
Machouk dismissed the claim that Hezbollah was responsible for protecting Lebanon from ISIS. If it came down to Hezbollah protecting Lebanon from ISIS then the confrontation would be deemed “one sect fighting another sect and one extremist fighting another extremist,” Machnouk said while noting that extremists could not be defeated by their own kind.
Hezbollah however, remains integral to the preservation of political stability and the election of an upcoming president, the interior minister noted, stressing that dialogue with the party was essential.
With regards to the presidential stalemate that ensued after Former President Michel Sleiman left office last May, Machnouk said that neither of the two rival candidates, Lebanese Forces Leader Samir Geagea nor Free Patriotic Movement Chief Michel Aoun, would win the post of the presidency.
The interior minister forecasted a prolonged vacancy that wouldn’t be resolved any time soon given strategic differences between Lebanon’s rival parties, especially those pertaining to Hezbollah’s involvement in the crisis in neighboring Syria.
Speaking on negotiations to secure the release of 27 Lebanese servicemen held hostage by ISIS and the Nusra Front, Machnouk said that negotiations “are still at the start,” highlighting that the militants have yet to issue the exact names and numbers of Islamist inmates detained in Roumieh prison.
“Negotiations haven’t revealed any serious advancement, all that is happening is that the door for negotiations is still open,” he said.
When asked whether or not he supports a swap-deal in return for the abducted servicemen, Machnouk said that he preferred not to use that term, but said that negotiations were likely to lead to a “form of agreement.” The Nusra Front however, has yet to receive a response from the Lebanese government over this issue, he said.
The Nusra Front and ISIS militants are also asking for female prisoners detained in Syrian prisons.
According to the interior minister, Lebanon hasn’t directly communicated with the Syrian government through security channels. “There hasn’t been direct commination or specific requests,” he said.
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