MP Elie Mahfouz announced Tuesday that lawmakers, political figures, and representatives of the “Sovereign Front” will file a complaint with the Public Prosecutor against Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem, accusing him of inciting sectarian strife and endangering civil peace.
Speaking after an emergency meeting at MP Ashraf Rifi’s Achrafieh office, Mahfouz warned that “silence or turning a blind eye to Sheikh Qassem and his armed organization will expose the Lebanese to imminent danger.”
He described the gathering as taking place at “a fateful moment in Lebanon’s history, in the midst of the largest operation to rescue and liberate the country from decades of Iranian hegemony that have weighed heavily on the Lebanese Republic and brought assassinations, invasions, and oppression upon its people.”
Mahfouz added that while the presidency and government have pledged to restore state sovereignty and end the “abnormal situation of uncontrolled weapons sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Qassem has instead “threatened the entire Lebanese people, exposing Lebanon to danger.”
The meeting was attended by MPs Ashraf Rifi, George Okais, Camil Chamoun, and Elie Khoury, along with former MP Eddy Abi Lama and Dr. Abdel Majid Awad.
Participants tasked Rifi with coordinating the filing of a criminal complaint against Qassem and anyone else identified in the investigation.
On Friday, August 15, Qassem delivered a televised address warning against the government’s drive to disarm the group.
He accused officials of executing “an American-Israeli order to eliminate the resistance” and cautioned that any attempt to strip Hezbollah of its weapons risked plunging Lebanon into civil war and igniting sectarian conflict.
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