BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday said he did not condone Hezbollah’s armed offensive against Takfiri terrorists in northeast Lebanon’s Arsal outskirts.
Hariri, speaking to The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, added that he preferred to see the Lebanese Army conducting the operation against the militants entrenched in the mountainous border area with Syria.
The prime minister has close to Saudi Arabia which is widely believed to be supporting terrorists fighting to topple Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
Arsal is the latest front for Hezbollah in its battle with Takfiri militants to secure Lebanon's Syrian border.
Hezbollah has made rapid advances against Nusra Front since launching the offensive jointly with the Syrian army on Friday, aiming to clear the terrorists out of their last border foothold.
The terrorists have repeatedly attacked Lebanese army troops in the area and killed or taken them hostage.
Hariri’s contention that Hezbollah should have left the battle to the army to fight the terrorists is out of place because Nusra and Daesh militants have been in the area for months, where Lebanese troops have taken no serious action against them, or rather they have unable of taking one.
In 2016, after the majority of parties agreed on electing President Michel Aoun, the country ended a two and a half year presidential vacancy under a bargain which elected Hariri to the post of prime minister.