Caretaker Minister of Interior, Judge Bassam Mawlawi, on Tuesday affirmed after a meeting by the Central Security Council that it was the duty of all the country’s security apparatuses to maintain order through all the available means.

“During the period of [presidential and governmental] vacuum, our ministry and all the country’s security apparatuses will exert all the necessary efforts to maintain security and order because it is the request of all the Lebanese citizens alike.”

Mawlawi then declared that the number of crimes in Lebanon was not not increasing in comparison to the same period last year, adding that the security situation in Tripoli “is much better.”

Mawlawi further stressed “the freedom of the media and the protection of its property,” explaining that what had happened during a political talk show aired live on MTV “is now in the custody of the judiciary.”

He then affirmed that the medical and health conditions in Lebanon’s prisons were improving and that the cholera vaccine was being provided to prisoners on all Lebanese territories.

Mawlawi finally stressed that the situation in Syrian refugee camps was “very well controlled”, adding that “the Information Division has managed to arrest 8 terrorist cells during the year 2022.”