BEIRUT: Lebanon teetered on the edge of a “new wave of insanity” Sunday as Hizbullah and the Future Movement traded angry accusations of undermining the state.

The mudslinging came after Jamil al-Sayyed, a former chief of General Security, returned to Beirut and announced he was commencing legal action against State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza’s request for interrogation.

Sayyed, who came back to Lebanon on Saturday under heavy Hizbullah and Lebanese Army security, called Mirza’s actions “illegal” and based upon “false evidence.”

“Mirza is supposed to be a public prosecutor – i.e. neutral – but considering these lawsuits he became my personal adversary,” Sayyed said.

Sayyed was held for four years without trial under the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) into the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, who was killed by a car bomb in 2005.

Sayyed, as well as Hizbullah and some political allies, have accused security officials, politicians and judges close to Prime Minister Saad Hariri of fabricating evidence in order to implicate him and three others in the crime.

Mohammad Kabbara, Tripoli MP and member of Hariri’s Future Movement, accused Sayyed and Hizbullah of undermining the Lebanese judiciary in a bid to discredit the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), a UN-backed court created to try suspects in the Hariri killing.

“The enemies of truth and justice, meaning [Hizbullah] and its allies, have brought down the Lebanese state in preparation to bring down the international tribunal,” he said in a press conference Sunday.

Speculation has increased following comments from Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that party members may be implicated in Hariri’s killing after indictments are issued by the STL.

Kabbara also warned against attempts to unseat Hariri as the leader of Lebanon. “Whoever threatens the leader of the Sunnis or the position of prime minister, with his own hands or not, the Sunni sect will teach him politeness,” he said.

Hizbullah spokesperson Ibrahim Moussawi countered Kabbara, accusing the Future Movement of “running the country like an abandoned farm.”

“The latest stances adopted by some of the leaders of the Future Movement constitute a coup on state authorities from within,” he said. “What is dangerous is that some members of the Future Movement are raising tensions and instigating sectarian feelings through dragging the country toward civil strife after labeling political stances on a sectarian basis.”

Hizbullah’s parliamentary bloc leader Mohammad Raad said the party would refuse to be influenced by sectarian rhetoric.

“We refuse that Lebanon becomes a hostage to the games and schemes of politicians who do not have a clear national strategy. We feel that Lebanon will witness a new wave of insanity in the coming days and weeks because certain groups have failed to confront facts and realities,” he said during an honorary high school ceremony in Nabatieh Sunday.

Sayyed held a news conference Saturday at Rafik Hariri International Airport, reiterating his insistence that those responsible for false witnesses be brought to book.

“There is no judiciary or justice if false witnesses and those behind them are not held accountable,” he told reporters.

In a repeat of his previous direct attack on the prime minister, Sayyed said he would not accept any STL indictment “before [former UNIIIC chief Detlev] Mehlis, [General Security Head Ashraf] Rifi, [Head of Internal Security Forces Information Branch Wissam] al-Hassan and [State Prosecutor Saeed] Mirza are in Lebanese prisons or in prisons in The Hague.”

He added that there would be no confidence in the UN

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court until “the Arab world and especially the Sunni sect realize why the conspiracy of false witnesses happened, why [Saad] Hariri and March 14 were involved, why they took over the country and why they punished the Lebanese through false witnesses.”

The head of the Internal Security Forces snapped back at Sayyed vowing to take legal action against him.

“Prison is made for you and people like you and for killers under your protection,” he told Sayyed in a statement on Saturday. Rifi also enumerated what he dubbed as the “atrocities” Sayyed did when he was at the head of General Security.

Sayyed’s comments at the airport repeated those he made last week, which prompted fierce reaction from Hariri’s allies and led Mirza to push for legal proceedings against the former general.

Hizbullah sources vowed to “take off the unjust hand that harms Sayyed.” In remarks published Sunday by pan-Arab daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat, the sources accused “some judges” in Lebanon of being “politicized and dishonest.”

Future Movement MP Okab Saqr warned that belligerent rhetoric risked tearing Lebanon’s delicate sectarian balance apart at the seams.

He said Hizbullah’s support of Sayyed was “the first direct gunfire from Hizbullah aimed at the Syrian-Saudi understanding. This is through targeting institutions and going down to the street.

“The street Sayyed and Hizbullah refer to is surely not demonstrations, taking into consideration the weapons they own,” Saqr said. He added the dispute was not a Sunni-Shiite disagreement.

“The confrontation is not between March 8 and March 14, it is between a party who wants to shake the foundations of the state and a party who wants to preserve its institutions,”he added.

Media reports Sunday suggested that Hariri was soon due to return from Saudi Arabia. Sources were quoted as denying that Hariri was considering bowing out of politics due to the STL fracas, but as refusing to deny his disgust with the affair.

The Cabinet will meet Tuesday for a regular session and Hariri is expected to be in attendance.

Dispute raged in his absence.

Kabbara accused Hizbullah of having “brought down the entire Lebanese state either through attacking Sunni leader Saad Hariri or through attacking the position of prime minister.”

Moussawi, for his part, said the issue of false witnesses would not be muddied by political antagonism.

“All this noise will not succeed in making the public overlook the necessity of trying false witnesses and those who fabricated them as a first step toward the truth,” he said.