Sunni / Shia violence escalates in Sidon in southern Lebanon
Assir Threatens to Tear Down Hezbollah Posters
Sheikh Ahmad Assir told Sidon officials Friday that they had two days to remove all Hezbollah posters from the city before he and his supporters take to the streets to tear them down.
“We call on officials to take down all Hezbollah posters in Sidon within two days,” Assir told followers during Friday prayers at Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque. “Over my dead body will Hezbollah put posters in Sidon. Over my dead body will there be posters of Hasan Nasrallah or [Speaker] Nabih Berri in Sidon.”
The sheikh, a staunch opponent of Hezbollah, was critical of security forces for “guarding” Hezbollah’s posters while doing nothing when supporters of the party tore down his posters.
“When we wanted to organize an activity in Sidon and put up posters, we were required to ask permission from the municipality. After we received permission, we put up posters, but Hezbollah supporters came and tore them down and destroyed them,” Assir said.
“When we asked security forces to intervene, they were hesitant and told us ‘We’ll take a look,’ but they did not do anything. In the meantime, Hezbollah put up posters to provoke us. In reaction, some of my supporters tore them down, but security forces stopped us.”
Assir’s ultimatum came just two hours after some of his supporters tore down a few of Hezbollah’s posters.
“After a couple of days passed, we dared them to put up posters,” he added.
During his sermon, Assir also attacked the Hezbollah chief over the Syrian crisis and the party’s support for the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, describing Nasrallah as a “war criminal” and accusing Hezbollah and Iran of killing Rafik Hariri and intelligence chief Wissam al-Hasan.