BEIRUT: Beirut MPs will meet in Parliament Monday to reiterate their long-standing demand for declaring Beirut an arms-free city following a series of incidents that threatened security in the capital, MP Mohammad Qabbani said Sunday.

Qabbani, a member of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s parliamentary bloc, said the “heavy deployment of gunmen” in west Beirut a few days ago had created panic among the population and called for action by the government and political parties to put an end to the state of insecurity.

He said Monday’s meeting is not confined to only Future MPs, but also includes all MPs representing Beirut.

“We will reaffirm our demand for making Beirut an arms-free city even though we are aware that such a demand is difficult to meet under the current circumstances,” Qabbani told The Daily Star. “But we will continue to press this demand until it is fulfilled,” he said.

Qabbani referred to two incidents last week that revived fears of the sectarian street clashes between rival gunmen that had rocked west Beirut in the past leaving scores of people dead. He said a dispute over a parking spot in the west Beirut neighborhood of Zeidanieh Friday night led to a gunfight and “a heavy deployment of gunmen that terrorized the population.”

“Is there a more ridiculous reason for the outbreak of fighting than this?” he asked. “What national cause is served with the proliferation of arms in residential areas?”

Police sources said two men were wounded in the Zeidanieh clash.

Qabbani also referred to a gunfight two days before the Zeidanieh incident involving gunmen from rival factions in the Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood. No casualties were reported in this clash.

In order to maintain security in Beirut, Qabbani renewed his bloc’s demand for the political parties that have influence on gunmen to “lift their cover” from those gunmen and for the government to act firmly against them.

Asked if the government, which is dominated by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies can act firmly against the gunmen, Qabbani said in English: “If there is a will, there is a way.”

For his part, Hariri, speaking to his supporters on the popular social networking website Twitter Saturday, said the latest security incidents in Beirut underlined “the need to withdraw illegitimate arms from it.”

Future MPs introduced the slogan of “a demilitarized Beirut” last year after clashes between rival gunmen in the Aisha Bakkar area left a number of dead and also after armed clashes between supporters of Hezbollah and those of the Islamic Charitable Projects Association in the Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood left three dead in August.

Hezbollah and its March 8 allies have rejected the Future Movement’s demand on the grounds that it targets the resistance’s arms.

The Future Movement and its March 14 allies have denied that claim. They called for taking weapons away from the various parties and limiting them to the legitimate military forces.

Similar calls for making Tripoli an arms-free city were made by the city’s Future MPs in June after bloody clashes between gunmen from the mainly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh district and fighters from the predominantly Alawite Jabal Mohsen neighborhood left eight people dead.