Rai opposes Aoun’s call for street protests
Hussein Dakroub/The Daily Star/July 07, 2015
BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai opposes anti-government street protests planned by MP Michel Aoun’s supporters for this week while the country is gripped by political tension and divisions, a senior source in Bkirki said Monday. The patriarch fears that the Free Patriotic Movement’s street demonstrations might be exploited by some people to undermine the fragile security and stability in the country, the source said.“In this politically tense situation, divisions, the escalating violence in the region, and the people’s fears of the future, Patriarch Rai is against the use of people in the street to achieve political objectives,” the source told The Daily Star. “Patriarch Rai fears that although the people know how these matters [street protests] begin, no one can predict how they will end,” the source said, referring to the possibility of infiltrators joining the protests to destabilize the country. The source confirmed reports that Rai had spoken by telephone with Aoun over the weekend to advise him against resorting to street protests after the Cabinet refused to address the issue of military and security appointments during last week’s session.
Aoun has called on his supporters to stage street demonstrations against the government for passing a decree last week allotting $21 million to help export agricultural and industrial products by sea, while ignoring the FPM’s demand to discuss the appointment of senior military and security officers. The FPM leader said his supporters have begun preparations for street protests in Mount Lebanon and north Lebanon. Prime Minister Tammam Salam has scheduled a Cabinet meeting for Thursday despite the conflict that erupted with the FPM’s two ministers over the passing of the decree on supporting industrial exports. All signs indicate that the Cabinet session will witness a new confrontation between the FPM’s ministers and their allies on the one hand, and Salam and the majority of ministers on the other, similar to the split that cast the Cabinet into disarray last week. FPM officials said the party’s ministers and their allies would try to prevent the passing of any decree before the issue of military and security appointments is addressed.
Backed by their allies in Hezbollah, the Marada Movement and the Tashnag Party, the FPM’s ministers have insisted that they would not allow the Cabinet to discuss any topic before it approves appointments of new security chiefs, including the appointment of Aoun’s son-in-law, Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz, the head of the Army Commando Regiment, as Army commander. Future MP Ahmad Fatfat lashed out at Aoun for threatening to resort to street protests, saying all political parties can also mobilize their supporters in the street. “Let no one threatens us with street [protests]. All the parties have supporters to mobilize in the street. But we are determined not to resort to the street or to arms,” Fatfat told LBCI channel.
“We fight our political battles within the [state] institutions and with our alliance with the March 14 parties.”Responding to Aoun’s labeling of his political opponents as “political Daesh,” an Arabic acronym for ISIS, Fatfat said: “Gen. Aoun seems to feel that he is falling behind and he considers that if he follows the current wave of extremism in the region, like Hezbollah’s accusations of betrayal or Daesh’s takfiri remarks, he will gain [public support] in the street. But these practices have only pushed the country into a confrontation.”Aoun’s planned street demonstrations were also criticized by Future lawmaker Ammar Houri.
“Gen. Aoun’s renewed campaign amounts to a flight from reality as a result of the complications Aoun and his movement are facing because of his contradictory proposals, which oscillate between ‘it’s me or no one’ as manifested in [Aoun’s demands] for presidency as well as key ministerial and military posts,” he told the Free Lebanon radio station. Houri said that although taking to the street is a democratic right as long as it is complies with the law, that priority should be given to the country’s sectarian coexistence formula, national principles and the election of a president. Meanwhile, a delegation from the Future Movement Sunday held talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the Saudi city of Jeddah on the situation in Lebanon, particularly the latest Cabinet crisis over the security appointments. The delegation included Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, MPs Mohammad Kabbara and Fatfat and former MPs Bassem al-Sabeh, Ghattas Khoury and Mustafa Allouch. The meeting was also attended by Hariri’s chief of staff Nader Hariri, Secretary-General of the Future Movement Ahmad Hariri, and Hariri’s media adviser Hani Hammoud.
Salam acting as if he were president: Aoun
The Daily Star/July 07, 2015 |
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Tammam Salam is acting as if he were president, Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun said Tuesday, in a fiery speech attacking his political rivals and calling on them to resign.“We [in the Cabinet] agreed on a particular mechanism to assume the prerogatives [of the presidency], but ministers are now being eliminated,” the FPM’s leader said after his bloc’s weekly meeting. “The prime minister is playing two roles now; the premiership and the presidency.” He added that violating this mechanism would sideline the constitution.
His comments came after Cabinet passed a decree last week allotting $21 million to help export agricultural and industrial products by sea, ignoring the FPM’s demand to discuss the appointment of senior military and security officers. During the heated speech, the Maronite leader and presidential candidate also called on politicians accusing him of disrupting state institutions to “resign and go home” if they had “one drop of dignity.” Aoun supports his son-in-law and Commando Regiment chief, Brig. Gen. Shaml Roukoz, to succeed Army commander Jean Kahwagi, who is set to retire in September.Addressing rival politicians who have accused him of disrupting the Cabinet for the sake of Roukoz’s appointment and his own election as president, he said:
“To all these midgets speaking now, [I say] patriotic objectives have always been our priority.”
Aoun said he had rejected an offer for the presidency presented by the U.S. ambassador in 2007 that came on the condition that he broke his party’s alliance with Hezbollah. “I answered that national unity was more important than the presidency,” he said. “The presidency was never more important to us than state institutions.”The 80-year-old politician also read out a letter he had sent to the kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco, and Algeria’s president on July 10, 2014 during the Arab summit. In the letter, he argued that politicians ruling Lebanon since the early 1990’s had failed to fully implement the Taif Accord, only choosing to follow those parts that marginalized Christians’ interests. “Those who have governed since the beginning of the 1990’s have only applied part of the Taif Accord, by moving prerogatives from the president to the other branches,” he said. Following comments from his son-in-law Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil earlier Tuesday – who had announced the FPM’s readiness to “topple the system” – Aoun said Lebanon was suffering from a “crisis in the system.”He said the country had failed to adopt an electoral law that guaranteed fair representation of Christians, whose lawmakers were still chosen by non-Christian voters, adding that “most constitutional amendments” stated in the Taif Accord were not enacted.
Articles concerned with administrative decentralization and development were overlooked, he said, which resulted in the failure to achieve “partnership between Lebanon’s [sectarian] components.” Controversially during his speech, Aoun’s also said majority Christian areas were the only ones who paid the “bills,” while districts of north, east and south Lebanon were “broke.”
He gave the example of the Water Company of Beirut and Mount Lebanon contributing $600 million to the construction of two water dams, while the resources from other areas’ water companies were “stolen.” The FPM’s chief said the only way in which he would “accept the system again” was if an electoral law with a fair representation of Christians was adopted. “But currently, we are not okay with it.” He said after such a law was adopted, parliamentary elections would be held and a new president would finally be elected by the new parliament.
“The current parliament is illegitimate and does not have the right to elect a president,” he said, adding that even he as a lawmaker was illegitimate. “After all the recent regional developments and the emergence of ISIS and Nusra … we should at least refer to the people.” “It is unacceptable that this majority elects a president. We should respect the political changes with time.”
FPM ready to collapse Lebanese political system: Bassil
The Daily Star/ July 07, 2015
BEIRUT: Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil warned Tuesday that the Free Patriotic Movement was ready to topple the current political system in Lebanon, reiterating support for federalism in an interview with Al-Akhbar. “We are ready to topple any system that doesn’t accept us … They are excluding us,” Bassil said. “They have been obstructing our draft laws for a decade … Today they will see something different, things will take another course of action. This is not a threat, but we are compelled to defend our existence and dignity,” the minister remarked.
FPM leader Michel Aoun has called on his supporters to stage street protests against the government for passing a decree last week allotting $21 million to help export agricultural and industrial products by sea, while ignoring the FPM’s demand to discuss the appointment of senior military and security officers.
The FPM leader said his supporters have begun preparations for street protests in Mount Lebanon and north Lebanon. Bassil, who is Aoun’s son-in-law, said the party “wants to restructure state institutions … Our endeavors will not be traditional.” He said the problem was no longer linked to security and military appointments but “related to the jurisdiction of the president, equality, the citizenship law, and administrative and financial decentralization.” Asked about Aoun’s call for Lebanon adopting federalism, Bassil said “if they want us to choose between [the marginalization of] our role, existence and dignity or federalism … then we will choose federalism … when you give me two options I will choose that which keeps me alive.”
Aoun’s recent call for federalism drew the ire of several officials, including Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch John X Yazigi and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt. Bassil accused politicians of shifting the prerogatives of the presidency and premiership to one person, saying “we cannot accept that … It’s a matter of life or death.” “The prime minister (Tammam Salam) is a merely a premier and it is the ministers who should assume the tasks of the president. He must respect this formula … I will act at the Cabinet as a president and will not allow anyone to undermine my jurisdictions.”
Prime Minister Tammam Salam has scheduled a Cabinet meeting for Thursday despite the conflict that erupted with the FPM’s two ministers over the passing of the decree last week.
Backed by their allies in Hezbollah, the Marada Movement and the Tashnag Party, the FPM’s ministers had insisted that they would not allow the Cabinet to discuss any topic before it approved the appointment of new security chiefs – Aoun favors the appointment of his son-in-law Brig. Gen. Shamel Roukoz as Army commander. Bassil said that the FPM had “sacrificed a lot during the formation of the Cabinet to avert chaos in the country, but now the government, the Parliament and the whole country left us behind.” He accused the Future Movement of taking the country to the unknown, suggesting that a foreign country was “behind the movement’s decisions.” “They want to control Lebanon amidst the current situation in the region. They insist on … violating the Constitution and taking over the jurisdictions of the president.” Bassil urged the Future Movement to compromise with various factions in Lebanon. “It is in their best interest.”
“Our movement will have no ceiling … systems change.”
Security situation ‘under control’ amid protest fears: Machnouk
The Daily Star/ July 07, 2015/BEIRUT: Lebanon’s security situation is in hand, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Tuesday, following FPM leader Michel Aoun’s call for street protests after the government ignored his request to discuss key security and military appointments. “The security situation is under control,” Machnouk said, in remarks published Tuesday by local newspaper An-Nahar. Regarding the FPM’s call for protests, he said that the “law protects political action,” and that there was “no problem with any peaceful demonstration.” Aoun has called on his supporters to stage street demonstrations against the government for passing a decree last week allotting $21 million to help export agricultural and industrial products by sea, while ignoring the FPM’s demand to discuss the appointment of senior military and security officers. The FPM leader said his supporters have begun preparations for street protests in Mount Lebanon and the northern part of the country. Prime Minister Tammam Salam has scheduled a Cabinet meeting for Thursday despite the conflict that erupted with the FPM’s two ministers over the passing of the decree. All signs indicate that the Cabinet session will witness a new confrontation between FPM ministers and their allies on the one hand, and Salam and the majority of ministers on the other – similar to the split that cast the Cabinet into disarray last week. FPM officials had said the party’s ministers and their allies would try to prevent the passing of any decree before the issue of military and security appointments was addressed.
