BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani said Tuesday that he would not compromise on issues of principle such as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

“Our national and Islamic positions remain the same and will never change and we will not compromise on the issues of principle,” Qabbani said during an Eid al-Fitr sermon at Al-Amin Mosque in Downtown Beirut

“We won’t compromise [at the expense of] achieving justice or the international tribunal,” he said in reference to the U.N.-backed court probing former statesman Rafik Hariri’s assassination on a Beirut seafront six years ago.

“We won’t compromise on justice for all Lebanese and for their rights to equal opportunity in public institutions,” he said.

Qabbani also said Lebanon must not return to a time of war, and vowed never to compromise on the strategy to build a capable and just state, or on national unity or the Taif Accord, the agreement negotiated in Saudi Arabia, designed to end the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War.

“We won’t go back in time to seek fighting, war and [sectarian] strife,” Qabbani added.

The mufti also reiterated his rejection of the naturalization of Palestinians in Lebanon.

“Naturalization is an Israeli objective aimed at dissolving Palestinians outside their homeland,” Qabbani said.