The file of “remnants of the Syrian regime in Lebanon” has shifted from the realm of politics to the circle of security, within the framework of official coordination between Lebanon and Syria aimed at preventing any security threat to Syria emanating from Lebanese territory, specifically from northern Lebanon. Former MP Ali Darwish confirms to that the ongoing security campaigns in the north, which target the arrest of military figures from the former Syrian regime’s leaders, especially in the Jabal Mohsen and Akkar regions, come in the context of normal security measures demanded by members of the Alawite community in Lebanon, and include the arrest of all those wanted by justice or who have committed violations of the law.
Former MP Darwish explains that the natural role of the army requires arresting any wanted person and handing them over to justice, pointing out that the people of Jabal Mohsen and Akkar received the army’s recent measures in the region with positivity, welcome, and relief, on the basis that any suspicious Syrian figure present in the “Alawite” areas in particular, must be subject to justice.
However, Darwish is keen to distinguish between the humanitarian aspect on the one hand, which includes sympathy, embracing, and sheltering the innocent who were forced by security conditions to move to Lebanon, and harboring suspects who have taken refuge in the Alawite areas, which refuse to harbor them on the other hand.
Darwish stresses that the Alawite community has embraced in the past period the innocent who took refuge in the northern regions, on the humanitarian level in particular, pointing to a message from the members of the community, in which they affirm that “the Alawites in Lebanon are not concerned with the political aspect in Syria firstly, and secondly, any wanted person on Lebanese territory will not have refuge in any area where Alawites are present in the north.”
Darwish concludes his speech by emphasizing the need for the army to be vigilant of every suspicious person, confirming that the security measures focus only on the suspects and that the members of the Alawite community in Lebanon support and endorse them.
