'Time when people could threaten Lebanese with raised finger won't return': Achraf Rifi to Hezbollah:

Sunni MP from Tripoli, Achraf Rifi, a staunch opponent of Hezbollah, reaffirmed Thursday his "support" for Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, following the Raouche incident in Beirut. "The time when people could threaten the Lebanese with a raised finger will not return," he declared after his meeting with the head of government.

"I say to the defeated mini-state: The time when people could threaten the Lebanese with a raised finger will not return. That finger is broken forever, and our will, as free Lebanese, is stronger and more solid than any project of chaos or tutelage," said Rifi, who had already, in recent days, voiced his support for the prime minister on his X account.

During the commemoration organized last week in the seaside Raouche district for former Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, the party projected, despite the official ban, the face of its previous leader as well as his emblematic raised-finger gesture, a sign repeatedly used as a symbol of challenge or threat. "Arrogance has lived out its last days. The state is stronger than any militia display," Rifi added.

Under fire from the Iranian-backed party, Salam has received broad support from the Sunni community. "I am convinced that Prime Minister Salam, a son of Beirut, came out stronger through his attachment to the law, and that he will not back down in protecting the institutions. All free Lebanese are with him," said Rifi, also calling for the enforcement of government decisions regarding the disarmament of the party.

'I don't want a police state established in Lebanon'

On a different note, the Tripoli MP denounced the arrest of individuals without prior judicial decision, a week after the controversial questioning of Shia sheikh Abbas Yazbeck, a university scholar highly critical of Hezbollah, by General Security.

"I don't want a police state established in Lebanon; we want a state of law, and that no one is arrested or subjected to investigation without a judicial warrant, because that is how we protect people's freedoms and rights," he said. "This security mentality, in the style of the old Syrian intelligence, is not suitable for us; we want to establish a state in the full sense of the word."

In the same spirit, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday condemned the revival of "police-state practices by certain security agencies."

Last June, Salam called on "the security agencies and armed forces" to "immediately cancel ... all wanted notices and watch lists" issued without judicial authorization, that is, "blacklists" of individuals not based on court decisions, in a government memo. This decision was taken after it was found that some such documents and lists were still in circulation and had not been previously canceled, despite a Cabinet decision ordering this on July 24, 2014.