Riyadh: Saudi Arabia on Thursday urged Lebanon’s people to act “wisely” and end clashes in the city of Tripoli, which has been wracked by a wave of violence linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
Riyadh was following “with deep concern the bloody events taking place in Tripoli... that benefit nobody but those who do not mean well for Lebanon and its people,” said foreign minister Prince Saud Al Faisal.
Saudi Arabia “urges all parties involved to put an end to this fighting and act wisely”, the official SPA news agency reported quoting Prince Saud.
Prince Saud expressed the kingdom’s support for “strengthening the authority of the Lebanese state and its control over all its territories”.
Riyadh affirmed its “confidence in the Lebanese government’s keenness to take all measures that would preserve security and stability for the Lebanese people in all their sects and beliefs”, the minister said.
A new wave of Syria-linked clashes between Sunni and Alawite residents of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli has claimed eight lives since the weekend.
The confrontations came after a brief lull in clashes, following a flare-up last month in which 31 people died and more than 200 were wounded.
The fighting in Tripoli, which has flared sporadically since the beginning of the Syria uprising in March 2011, has largely been confined to the Alawite-populated Jebel Mohsin and the mainly Sunni Bab Al Tabbaneh areas.
