Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour commented on claims that Hezbollah has part in the ongoing Syrian events.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour commented on claims that Hezbollah has part in the ongoing Syrian events, stressing that “media sometimes tackle inaccurate news. From time to time we hear that elements from Lebanon have taken part in the Syrian events.”

“The issue is that some Lebanese villages and their residents are in the Syrian territories. The Demarcation that took place in 1920 stated that there are Lebanese villages that have the Lebanese nationality and are on Lebanese lands. They are almost 20 villages, like Al-Qaseer, Al-Qasr, and others. These Lebanese villages have Lebanese residents that carry the Lebanese nationality, and what actually happened is self-defense by the Lebanese residing there… They were attacked by gunmen and clashes took place. This doesn’t mean that there is interference in the Syrian affair or participation in the military operations,” Mansour said in an interview with Russia Today.

The Lebanese minister further stressed that “the historical, geographic, and humanitarian specialty that binds Lebanon and Syria, does not permit it to interfere or take a side.”

He added that “at first, we said that foreign intervention in the Syrian affairs will not help Syria to get out of its crisis, it would rather complicate the crisis more. This is why today, and after almost two years of the crisis… it appears to us that the disassociation policy that Lebanon adopted was a wise policy which preserved Lebanon from problems and misfortunes.”