Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Moscow Urges International Community to Monitor ‘Dangerous Tendency’ in Lebanon

The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on the international community to carefully monitor the "dangerous tendency" in Lebanon, as well as in Syria and Iraq.
“We urge partners in the international community to carefully and objectively access the extremely dangerous tendency that we clearly observe in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon,” the ministry said, adding that in the past few days the situation in Arsal, northeast of Lebanon’s Beirut, has deteriorated.
Rebels from the Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State (IS) on August 2 attacked Arsal, located along the border with Syria, targeting the Lebanese Army’s checkpoints. More than 10 Lebanese servicemen have been killed, with hundreds of Lebanese security troops and civilians taken hostage by terrorists, according to media reports. “It is essential to abandon the double standard practice and refrain from steps leading not to containment but in opposite, to boosting terrorist and extremist threat in the turbulent Middle East region,” the statement reads.
The ministry further added: “Authorities in Damascus, Baghdad and Beirut are facing a common danger of the spreading international terrorism that does not acknowledge interstate borders and seeks to gain control over new territories.” Following the attacks by violent extremist groups in Arsal, the UN Security Council expressed support for the efforts of the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Internal Security Forces in their fight against terrorism and in preventing attempts to undermine the stability of Lebanon.
The local government estimates that at least 3,000 families from Arsal have been displaced so far. The Security Council stressed “the need to further efforts to build up the capabilities of the Lebanese security forces to counter terrorism and address other security challenges."

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