Lebanese Minister : Aoun, Bassil Are Replicating Civil War Phase
By gowidenews 24 Oct, 2018
From the report received says that the
Minister of State for the Displaced in the caretaker go...
Beirut - Youssef Diab
Minister of State for the Displaced in Lebanon’s caretaker government, Moeen al-Merehbi, accused President Michel Aoun and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil of “re-producing the stage of civil war.”
In an interview with Asharq al-Awsat, Merehbi warned of attempts to turn the role of the prime minister obsolete and distribute his powers to political components, which he said would bring about great differences within the cabinet.
He accused a political party of trying to force the prime minister-designate to abandon his mission, pointing out that Saad Hariri’s renunciation to form a government “will be a catastrophic blow to the country.”
Merehbi, a member of Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Bloc, described disputes over government’s structure as “unacceptable”, noting that some parties were seeking to impose new norms that “dictate wishes and demands in the formation process.”
“There are citizens, who are treated as half citizens, while others enjoy full rights,” he said.
The deputy wondered if some sides wanted the government to see light, “especially that Hezbollah and its allies, including the Free Patriotic Movement, had 18 ministers, while the others, including al-Mustaqbal Movement, the Lebanese Forces, and the Progressive Socialist Party had only 12 ministers, and yet, they don’t facilitate the formation of the government.”
Underlining “the many concessions offered by Hariri, including the election of Michel Aoun as president and the adoption of the horrific electoral law”, Merehbi said that Hariri’s rivals were seeking to “drain the seat of the prime minister and distribute his powers to political components, which would create great differences and problems inside and outside the government.”
He described the cabinet formation process as an ongoing vicious circle since Hariri’s appointment on May 26, based on the results of the parliamentary consultations, when 111 deputies nominated him for the post.
“The Lebanese can no longer bear the consequences of what is happening, and they can no longer remain hostages of some parties in power or to foreign agendas,” Merehbi stressed.
He noted in this regard that Lebanon “is now under the authority of Hezbollah, which is using the state to serve the Iranian agenda.”
“In a recent TV interview, Prime Minister Hariri referred to Western warnings of sanctions on the ministries that Hezbollah will receive,” the deputy said, stressing that the upcoming executive authority “will not be a government of salvation, but will only delay an imminent collapse.”
On the file of the return of the displaced, which is being implemented in two parallel lines, the first through the Russian initiative aimed at returning all displaced persons to their country, and the second through measures adopted by the Lebanese general security apparatus in coordination with the Syrian authorities, Merehbi noted that the Lebanese state was waiting for a response from Russia to determine the start of the plan’s implementation.
“The Russian initiative seems far from being implemented because the Americans, the Europeans and the so-called friends of Syria are not prepared to finance reconstruction pending the crystallization of the political solution. They refuse to pay money with the presence in power of a criminal who destroyed his own country and who will not bring security and peace to Syria,” he stated.
As for the return of thousands of Syrians through the mediation of the Lebanese general security, Merehbi said that this return “is modest and limited to the general security’s potential.”
Comments