BEIRUT: Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya MP Imad Hout said over the weekend that his party’s Al-Fajr Brigades, which he described as a resistance group, would use its weapons to defend the nation, in an announcement that the March 14 coalition sought immediate clarification on.

“The aim of Al-Jamaa [al-Islamiya] through its Al-Fajr Brigades is not for military parades and possessing arms for the sake of it but Al-Jamaa [al-Islamiya] will take out its weapons when there is a threat to the country’s security and this is the sole purpose of the weapons,” Hout, speaking on the subject of the national defense strategy, said in Akkar, north Lebanon, Saturday.

Hout described the Al-Fajr Brigades as “the hand that defends the nation against the Israeli occupation and any external enemy.”

The Beirut lawmaker’s statement drew swift reactions from the March 14 coalition.

In a statement Saturday, the opposition group’s general-secretary, former MP Fares Soueid, voiced puzzlement on Hout’s remarks in “which he revealed the presence of an armed wing belonging to Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya under the name of the Al-Fajr Brigades, which, according to MP Hout, aims to protect Lebanon in the face of Israeli or external aggressions against Lebanon.”

“We would like to stress that the March 14 coalition struggles for the transition to the state, which alone has the authority to defend Lebanon … Any weapons beyond the Lebanese state, under any pretext, are absolutely rejected,” Soueid added.

He said the opposition grouping wanted clarifications from Hout and Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, a member of the March 14 coalition, about the remarks.

“The March 14 coalition would like to stress that it was through its votes that deputies entered Parliament who adhere to the defense of Lebanon and the sovereignty of its decision and the establishment of a single state free from all illegitimate weapons.”

Hout’s statements came during a conference organized by Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya in Akkar, the northernmost Lebanese district bordering Syria.

In his speech, Hout warned against any side monopolizing the use of the term resistance, saying the resistance needed to be made up of various elements from Lebanese society and “under Lebanese state control.”

He also urged all Lebanese sides to return “state institutions and the rule of law and to allow the Lebanese Army and security forces to be the sole authority to be tasked with protecting the nation and citizens.”