Shi'ite group says it "respects" decision to temporarily put truce on hold for further discussion.
By BRENDA GAZZARhizbullah 298.88(photo credit: AP)
Several Sunni factions in Lebanon announced Tuesday night that they are freezing a truce they had signed with Hizbullah a day earlier.
The agreement, intended to defuse sectarian tension, prohibited any Muslim group from attacking fellow Muslims.
"The agreement will be temporarily frozen pending appropriate circumstances that allow for its implementation," Sheikh Hassan al-Shahhal, who signed the memorandum with a Hizbullah official, told reporters Tuesday, according to The Lebanese Daily Star. The Sunni community, he said, needed to stand "more than ever" united and to shun divisions, while the memorandum needed further study.
Hizbullah officials said Wednesday that they respect the groups' choice of freezing the memorandum of understanding for more discussions and revisions.
"They will find Hizbullah is always by their side in any decision they find appropriate," the press release said, according to the NOW Lebanon news site.
Hizbullah signed the agreement on Monday with some Salafist groups, followers of a radical form of Sunni Islam. Many Salafists consider Shi'ites to be heretics.
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