Berri Calls for Declaring Security-Development State of Emergency in Northern Bekaa

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday the need to declare a state of security and services emergency in northern Bekaa, in particular, in the border town of Arsal and the nearby villages.

Berri pointed out in comments published in As Safir newspaper that security forces and the Lebanese army should control the security situation in Arsal and prevent any gunmen from staying in it or on its outskirts.

The speaker and head of the AMAL movement considered that the security control should be accompanied by establishing a development plan to rectify the living conditions of the residents and the conditions of the Syrian refugees simultaneously.

Berri noted that the town of Arsal was held captive by few people, adding that the residents of Arsal reject the use of their town as a conduit and rejects harboring those who are targeting the nearby villages.

He called on the state to embrace the people of Arsal.

On Saturday, al-Labweh residents blocked the road leading to and from Arsal in the wake of a rocket attack on their town that left a young man dead. They said that the rockets were fired by gunmen operating in Arsal's outskirts.

The road was reopened on Sunday afternoon at the request of the family of the slain young man before it was blocked again late Sunday in the wake of a deadly suicide car blast that rocked the nearby town of al-Nabi Othman.

On Tuesday, demonstrators blocked several key roads throughout the country to protest the continued closure of the only route leading from and to the border town of Arsal.

The standoff around the eastern town is the latest in a growing spillover of the Syrian conflict into Lebanon.

Arsal is a town of 40,000 Lebanese and 52,000 Syrian refugees for whom the road is a vital lifeline.

Another 200 Syrian families have arrived in Arsal over the past few days, fleeing the fighting after Syrian troops seized Yabrud.