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Mount Lebanon Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Ali Jouzou on Wednesday accused Hizbullah of carrying out an armed invasion of Lebanon, vowing an eye-for-an-eye response if Hizbullah gunmen do not withdraw from Sunni sectors under his jurisdiction.

Jouzou declared his stand to reporters after meeting Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri at the latter’s Qouraitem Palace residence in Beirut.

“This is an invasion by Hizbullah and a deployment of its weapons in the Lebanese street,” Jouzou said of clashes that raged in the Saadiyat area south of Beirut on Sunday evening between Hizbullah gunmen and Sunni residents of the Kharroub Province.

“We are with Hizbullah when it fights Israel, but it is not permitted at all for Hizbullah to fight us in our neighborhoods and areas,” Jouzou added.

“So long as Hizbullah has resorted to weapons, then let the state (government) allow us to carry weapons and arm our sons to enable them defend themselves,” angry Jouzou said.

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he vowed.

Jouzou said: “We advise Hizbullah leaders to withdraw those gunmen … this is not accepted. Pull them so that we can safeguard Shiites at first.”

“What happened in Saadiyat couple a days ago was a real combat. Buildings have been hired and gunmen have been deployed in them … this poses a direct threat to all of us,” he added.

He accused Hizbullah of “erecting barriers between the Sunnis and Shiites, between Shiites and Shiites and between Sunnis and Sunnis.”

Jouzou called for a “speedy treatment by the government of this issue by pulling Hizbullah-controlled gunmen out of the Kharroub Province … We would not allow those to reside in our region with their weapons.”

(Naharnet)