 The Lebanese Army went on full alert around the country's Palestinian refugee camps yesterday as part of security measures linked to fears of an Israeli attack, while the government asserted its refusal to allow Palestinians to carry arms outside the camps.
| Israel, of course, has been rattling sabers in the direction of Lebanon for months, now, lining people up along the border and having them make faces and jump up and down. |
Observers said the Palestinian guerrillas inside the camps also went on alert in response to the army clampdown, one day ahead of a meeting between the Lebanese government and Palestinian factions to discuss the fate of Palestinian arms in the country. In numerous statements, both sides played down the possibility of violence and expressed their faith in dialogue.
| ... the while grimacing at each other and making frightful faces. |
Premier Fouad Siniora, who earlier in the week criticized a Palestinian armed presence outside the camps, will be meeting with Palestinian factions today to discuss the issue.
| If I was running a small nation, I don't think I'd be overjoyed at the thought of a Paleostinian armed presence inside the camps, either. |
In an interview with LBCI, Siniora said: "We are absolutely not on the road to confrontation with the Palestinians and we have no intention or desire to do so. Our Palestinian brothers are visitors and guests and we have to have dialogue with them." Over the past week the Lebanese Army has surrounded border posts of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), sparking the group's anger and criticism from some Lebanese groups.
| PFLP-GC is headed by a Syrian ex-captain, if I remember correctly. I can't recall it having been involved in any operations within Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza in the past four years, though I suppose I could have missed something. I believe it may have figured in one or two Beirut booms during that time. |
The main point of contention revolves around the movement of Palestinian fighters across and around the Syrian border in the Eastern Bekaa Valley. In the LBCI interview, Siniora called on the Syrian regime to reign in the Palestinian groups over which it has sway. "I don't want to blame Syria for what is happening, but I call on the Syrian leadership to practice in this case the necessary self-restraint through its ties with Palestinian factions," he said.
| It's p-u-s-i-l-l-a-n-i-m-o-u-s, right? With two L's? |
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