MP Samir el-Jisr: Tripoli's deteriorating security situation is result of security apparatuses' absence

MP Samir el-Jisr said on Sunday that the deteriorating security situation in the northern city of Tripoli is the result of the absence of security apparatuses in the city.

El-Jisr's comments were made following a meeting at his residence attended by MPs Mohammad Kabbara and Bader Wannous, former MP Mustapha Alloush and former Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi.

"The responsibility of maintaining the safety and preservation of people's rights is a duty. Whoever does not feel entitled to assume this responsibility must resign or be dismissed," he said.

El- Jisr categorically denied that there was any place for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) "to exist and flourish in Tripoli."
The port city of Tripoli has long been a stronghold of Sunni Islamists in northern Lebanon.

But the city has become increasingly volatile in recent months due to the civil war in neighboring Syria, where the Sunni majority is leading a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

Disputes from neighboring Syria's civil war frequently inflame sectarian grievances in Tripoli. These clashes pit gunmen from both the mostly Sunni Bab Tabbaneh district and the Jabal Mohsen district which mostly comprises residents of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, a Shiite Islam offshoot.