Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun slammed on Tuesday the Internal Security Forces, describing them as an armed gang.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun slammed on Tuesday the Internal Security Forces, describing them as an armed gang.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “If only it were a militia because it is an armed gang that is working against the laws.”

Addressing the dispute between Change and Reform bloc MP Nabil Nicola and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, Aoun remarked: “This is an individual incident, but it may affect our ties with the minister.”

“Why should the MP be blamed? Is it because he labeled the ISF as a militia?” he wondered.

“They are an armed gang working against the laws,” he noted.

“If only they were a militia, because a militia liberates land, but the world has wronged militias,” Aoun said.

“Militias have a national goal to confront an occupier,” he stressed.

Nicola had told al-Jadeed television on Tuesday that Charbel “is ignorant of Lebanese laws.”

Addressing former Premier Fouad Saniora’s comments on the Appeals Court’s approval to review the verdict in Karam’s case, Aoun said: “Saniora is not being accused, but he is being condemned.”

Touching the call to resume national dialogue, Aoun said: “We have spent years discussing Hezbollah’s arms. This is not a real issue.”

“I have presented a defense strategy. Let them study it and present their own,” he added.

“The greatest mistake lies in saying that the decision of war and peace lies in the hands of Hezbollah, whereas Israel holds this power,” he noted.