BEIRUT: In a defiant response to the execution by ISIS of two Lebanese soldiers, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Sunday Lebanon has “several options” to free its captured soldiers, warning that the militant captors were seeking to incite sectarian strife in the country.
Speaking in a televised speech to the Lebanese Sunday night, Salam stressed that national unity was crucial to defeat terrorist groups threatening the country’s security and stability, and to prevent sectarian strife.
His speech came a day after ISIS militants slaughtered Abbas Medlej, one of the 11 Lebanese soldiers they captured during clashes with the Army in the Bekaa Valley town of Arsal last month. Medlej was the second soldier to be beheaded by ISIS, less than two weeks after the killing of 1st Sgt. Ali al-Sayyed.
Referring to ISIS militants who have slaughtered the two soldiers, Salam said: “They are negotiating with us with blood because they are barbarian. They have no religion and they understand only the language of slaughter because they believe that it will help them attain their objectives.”
“Blood is precious but we will not be intimidated. We will not lose our way or surrender to the feelings of revenge,” he said. “Our determination will not be weakened. We will uphold our cohesion, patience, wisdom and our insistence on bringing back our sons by all means.”
Salam sent a strong message to the soldiers’ captors. “We are not in a weak position. We have several options. There are various elements of strength in our hands,” he said, without elaborating.
The Cabinet last week gave the Lebanese Army a free hand to launch a military operation to free the captured soldiers, rejecting the militants’ demands to swap the 23 hostages with Islamist detainees held in Roumieh prison.
Salam said the government would not rest before it secures the freedom of the captured soldiers. “Let the families of the kidnapped [soldiers] know that the Army will not abandon its soldiers and will not spare any effort to bring them back to military ranks,” he said. “We are pondering all means to liberate our prisoners.”
Salam has opposed any negotiations between the government and the soldiers’ captors that would require a prisoner exchange.
He thanked Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani for his efforts to resolve the hostage crisis. A Qatari delegation that had met with ISIS and Nusra Front commanders on the outskirts of Arsal last week has delivered the militants’ demands to the government.
Salam said the battle against terrorism was long, but assured the Lebanese that terrorist groups would not be allowed to prevail. “ Lebanon will not be defeated. Those terrorists will definitely be defeated,” he said.
Salam said the slaughter of Medlej might be followed by similar incidents. “It is a chapter of a long struggle with terrorism which did not start with the recent incidents in Arsal,” he said.
Salam added the five days of ferocious fighting between the Lebanese Army and ISIS and Nusra Front militants in Arsal last month were preceded by a wave of car bombs that were planted in several Lebanese areas, in addition to several clashes between militants and the Army and security forces.
“Despite their sharp political divisions, the Lebanese have been able to contain the repercussions of these terrorist acts and foiled the key goal of these acts which is to incite strife in the country,” Salam said. “The Lebanese are called upon today to uphold this stance as the only way to pass the difficult test we are all facing.”
Salam said the “criminal killers” of the soldiers were seeking to inflame sectarian strife which would lead to the destruction of national peace. “We have no choice but national unity, no matter how great the pain is,” he said.
Earlier Sunday, Salam chaired a meeting of a ministerial committee tasked with overseeing the hostage crisis following the beheading of Medlej.
The committee, which includes the ministers of interior, defense, finance, justice and foreign affairs, expressed its condolences to Medlej’s family, lauding them for their “national stand.”
The participants decided to pursue contacts with political and security leaders to deal with the issue of the kidnapped soldiers.
Medlej’s family called for calm and unity against takfiri groups, saying citizens need to support the state and the Army, not slip into civil strife.
“Our choice remains as is – Lebanon a country of coexistence for all its components,” a statement issued by the Medlej family said. “The terrorist act that killed our son Abbas is a crime against all Lebanese; Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Druze.”
The Turkish news agency Anadolu had reported Saturday afternoon that an ISIS commander told one of its reporters that the extremist group had beheaded Medlej over an escape attempt.
Security forces beefed up security measures in the Bekaa Valley, setting up checkpoints after several roads were blocked with burning tires by the families of the kidnapped soldiers.
A senior Hezbollah official said his group would not target Syrian refugees in Lebanon in response to Medlej’s killing.
“We will not assault any Syrian refugees,” said Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek, the head of Hezbollah’s religious committee. He argued that such a move would only serve to spark sectarian strife.
“If ISIS and those aiding it are planning sectarian strife in this country, then we will turn off the sectarian flame,” he said.
For his part, MP Walid Jumblatt said he supported indirect negotiations with the militants to secure the release of the captured soldiers. In a speech during a tour in the Shahhar villages, Jumblatt rejected the idea of a prisoner swap with the militants, but stressed the need to speed up the trials of Islamist detainees in Roumieh prison.