BEIRUT: Future bloc MP Riyad Rahhal urged Saturday Lebanon’s security authorities to immediately announce the parties involved in the kidnapping of the seven Estonians released late this week.
The Estonians, in their 30s and 40s, were released Thursday morning, nearly four months after they were kidnapped at gunpoint by masked men on March 23 near the eastern Bekaa city of Zahle shortly after re-entering into Lebanon on bicycles from Syria.
Speaking to a local radio station, the Future bloc lawmaker also urged President Michel Sleiman to discuss a new defense strategy if “he is calling to convene the national dialogue committee,” reported the National News Agency.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, head of the Future Movement, said during an televised interview Tuesday that he would be willing to resume national dialogue sessions on condition that the issue of the U.N.-backed court probing his father’s assassination not be tabled during the talks
In late June, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon issued indictments and arrest warrants against four members of Hezbollah in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Hezbollah has repeatedly denied involvement in the killing.
During the interview with Voice of Lebanon Saturday, Rahhal also tied Lebanon’s stability with the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons.
“There can be no stability in the country except through the removal of illegitimate weapons because they are the obstacle in Lebanese political life,” Rahhal said.
The politician also urged the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati to “change its course to becoming a Lebanese government and not a government of Syria and Hezbollah.”
The March 14 coalition has criticized Mikati’s government over its stance toward the STL and has vowed to bring down the Cabinet through democratic means.
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