PFLP-GC: 'Saniora Clamping Anti-Palestinian Famine Siege,' Jund El Sham: 'We Shall Slaughter Him'
Syria's radical Palestinian allies have accused Premier Saniora of ordering the Lebanese army to clamp a famine siege around their bases in the Bekaa Valley and the Naameh hills south of Beirut, while a notorious terrorist faction threatened to 'slaughter' Lebanon's reigning authority plus chief U.N. Hariri investigator Detlev Mehlis.
The siege claim came from Ahmed Jibreel's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, the closest Palestinian faction to President Assad's regime, which said the weeklong encirclement of the PFLP-GC positions by the Lebanese army has escalated in recent days to a starvation operation.
"It is obvious to all that the noose has been tightened even against the loaf of bread to our fighters," said the group that sent a suicide assailant on a hang glider from South Lebanon to a northern Israeli army base in 1989 to shoot dead eight soldiers before he was gunned down.
Media reports said PFLP-GC bases in the Bekaa Valley as well as in the Naameh hills, 10 kilometers south of Beirut's rim, have been ringed by Lebanese troops in the wake of alleged infiltration of guerilla fighters from Syria as well as truckloads of weapons.
The PFLP-GC statement, which was highlighted by An Nahar Wednesday, said "certain sides in the Lebanese government scheme to plunge the army, which has told us it is enforcing a political resolution, in a conflict that leads to partitioning it and derailing it off its mission of defending Lebanon and its sovereignty against the Zionist enemy."
That was a reminder of the army's disintegration along sectarian lines in the early years of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, when Yasser Arafat's Palestinian guerrillas fought alongside a coalition of leftist and Muslim Lebanese groups against Christian militias.
These sides, the statement went on, "are insisting on dealing with the question of Palestinian arms from a narrow security angle in order to serve the determination to hastily enforce resolution 1559," which provides for the disarmament of Hizbullah and all 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
"Therefore, we hold Prime Minister Fouad Saniora responsible for the consequences of these measures," the statement said, asserting it would not lay down arms or allow "adventurers gambling with Lebanon to tamper with any Palestinian position or camp piecemeal."
The PFLP-GC served indirect notice, however, that it would not shoot at Lebanese soldiers. "Our guns will remain trained against the Zionist enemy and we shall not be dragged into the plan of sedition."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hurriedly called Premier Saniora by telephone from Gaza Tuesday night and renounced the PFLP-GC aggressive defiance, Al Mustaqbal said.
"The rude PFLP-GC statement does not reflect our stance," Abbas was quoted as saying. "We are guests in Lebanon. We respect Lebanon's laws and security. We do not want weapons outside the camps. We are on your side
The siege claim came from Ahmed Jibreel's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, the closest Palestinian faction to President Assad's regime, which said the weeklong encirclement of the PFLP-GC positions by the Lebanese army has escalated in recent days to a starvation operation.
"It is obvious to all that the noose has been tightened even against the loaf of bread to our fighters," said the group that sent a suicide assailant on a hang glider from South Lebanon to a northern Israeli army base in 1989 to shoot dead eight soldiers before he was gunned down.
Media reports said PFLP-GC bases in the Bekaa Valley as well as in the Naameh hills, 10 kilometers south of Beirut's rim, have been ringed by Lebanese troops in the wake of alleged infiltration of guerilla fighters from Syria as well as truckloads of weapons.
The PFLP-GC statement, which was highlighted by An Nahar Wednesday, said "certain sides in the Lebanese government scheme to plunge the army, which has told us it is enforcing a political resolution, in a conflict that leads to partitioning it and derailing it off its mission of defending Lebanon and its sovereignty against the Zionist enemy."
That was a reminder of the army's disintegration along sectarian lines in the early years of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, when Yasser Arafat's Palestinian guerrillas fought alongside a coalition of leftist and Muslim Lebanese groups against Christian militias.
These sides, the statement went on, "are insisting on dealing with the question of Palestinian arms from a narrow security angle in order to serve the determination to hastily enforce resolution 1559," which provides for the disarmament of Hizbullah and all 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
"Therefore, we hold Prime Minister Fouad Saniora responsible for the consequences of these measures," the statement said, asserting it would not lay down arms or allow "adventurers gambling with Lebanon to tamper with any Palestinian position or camp piecemeal."
The PFLP-GC served indirect notice, however, that it would not shoot at Lebanese soldiers. "Our guns will remain trained against the Zionist enemy and we shall not be dragged into the plan of sedition."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hurriedly called Premier Saniora by telephone from Gaza Tuesday night and renounced the PFLP-GC aggressive defiance, Al Mustaqbal said.
"The rude PFLP-GC statement does not reflect our stance," Abbas was quoted as saying. "We are guests in Lebanon. We respect Lebanon's laws and security. We do not want weapons outside the camps. We are on your side
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