Lebanese President Michel Sleiman noted on Friday that the Lebanese resistance is more noble and more important than anything.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman noted on Friday that the Lebanese resistance is more noble and more important than anything, and should not get bogged down in the sands of dissension, whether in Syria or Lebanon.

Sleiman believed the Lebanese people are willingly turning Lebanon into a battle ground through the unrest in the northern city of Tripoli and through smuggling militants to fight by the side of Syrian opposition in al-Qusayr region.

“The concept of resistance must rise above sedition on the internal scene or in fraternal countries,” said the president on the occasion of the Resistance and Liberation Day.

“We must therefore not pay the price of the democracy of others,” he remarked after meeting Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji at the Defense Ministry in Yarze.

“Lebanon has not reaped the rewards of the liberation of southern Lebanon” and its people have not liberated themselves from their allegiances to political powers, he continued on the 13th anniversary of the liberation of southern Lebanon from the Zionist occupation.

"The resistance has fought and liberated because it acts for a national cause and not a confessional one," Sleiman added.

“How can a country that has provided such a great example of resistance and sacrifice adopt practices that deepen sectarianism?” he wondered.

“Resistance and liberation are high concepts that should recognize the results of democratic, legal, and constitutional practices,” Sleiman said.

“The concept of resistance must rise above sedition, whether on the local scene or in neighboring countries, because the resistance has fought for national and popular, not sectarian, causes,” declared the president.

On the upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon, Sleiman said: “Elections are a democratic practice that we should not abandon.”

During the last two days, the Syrian army foiled many attempts by takfiri militants trying to infiltrate into the Syrian territories from Lebanon northern part and fight by the side of militant mercenaries in the border city of Qusayr against the Syrian government.

Suleiman continued: “We will not allow vacuum at the army and we have tasked the Military Council, headed by Qahwaji, to tackle the affairs of the military institution after the formation of a new government.”

“The army is Lebanon's salvation and it enjoys the support of all Lebanese,” he stressed.

Political powers must support the army instead of simply exploiting it to protect themselves, he demanded.

The army has been tasked with containing clashes that broke out on Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli.

The clashes erupted between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen. At least 23 people have been killed in the recent round of clashes.