A coordinator in the Christian Lebanese Forces party was kidnapped in the Byblos District of northern Lebanon on Sunday, with officials expressing concerns the kidnapping could exacerbate already heavy tensions between various factions in Lebanon.
According to MTV Lebanon, four armed individuals riding in a white car kidnapped Pascal Sleiman, the coordinator for the Lebanese Forces in the Byblos District, between the towns of Maifouq and Lehfed. The Lebanese Al-Jadeed TV reported that Sleiman’s phone was later found on the side of the road.
The background of the incident and the identity of the kidnappers is still unknown.
The head of the Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea, arrived at the party’s offices in the Byblos District on Sunday night to follow up on the investigation into Sleiman’s kidnapping.
The kidnapping has sparked anger from supporters of the Lebanese Forces, who blocked roads in the Byblos District on Sunday night.
Local businesses to strike in condemnation of kidnapping
The Lebanese Forces called on businesses in the Byblos District to go on strike on Monday in order to denounce the kidnapping.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nijab Mikati spoke with Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, the commander of the Lebanese Army General Joseph Aoun, and other security officials and asked them to intensify the investigation into the kidnapping to bring Sleiman home has soon as possible, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.
Mawlawi contacted Sleiman’s family and assured them that the military and security services are “doing everything necessary to uncover the circumstances of the kidnapping.”
Samy Gemayel, the leader of the Christian Kataeb Party, warned that the kidnapping is a “very dangerous development,” adding that his party “stands alongside the people of the region and friends in the Forces so that this incident does not go unnoticed.”
Ketaeb Party MP Elias Hankach appeared to warn of violence erupting in statements to Al-Jadeed on Sunday night, saying, “We believe in the logic of the state, but if there is no state, let everyone take his rights into his own hands.”
The Lebanese Forces party is one of the main critics of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Sectarian violence has erupted between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces in recent years.
In October 2021, several people were killed in violent clashes that erupted in the Tayouneh area of Beirut where it meets Ain El Remmaneh and Chiyah, a site famous for sectarian clashes between Shi’ites, Sunnis and Christians during the 1975 civil war in Lebanon, as it marked the border between east and west Beirut.
Hezbollah blamed the Lebanese Forces for the clashes at the time, while the Lebanese Forces blamed Hezbollah.
