BEIRUT: Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel Monday backed President Michel Sleiman in his row with Hezbollah over the controversial tripartite defense formula, as rival ministers tasked with drafting the Cabinet policy statement held an eighth meeting under Prime Minister Tammam Salam.
"Targeting the president contributes to the collapse of the state and spreads chaos in all legitimate institutions,” Gemayel said during a news conference at the Kataeb Party headquarters in Saifi.
"Attacking Sleiman is unacceptable and we will place our MPs and ministers in the current government under his disposal,” he said.
The Kataeb Party has two ministers in the Cabinet, one of whom is a member of the panel drafting the ministerial statement.
The dispute between Hezbollah and Sleiman started Friday when the president implicitly attributed the delay in approving the policy statement to the party’s insistence on including the ‘Army, people, resistance’ defense formula in the document.
Hezbollah maintains that the tripartite equation, which the party commonly refers to as a “golden” formula, is the only viable means of protecting Lebanon from Israeli aggression. The formula has been adopted by past Cabinets.
“All sides should not cling to wooden [inflexible] equations that hinder the release of the [Cabinet’s] policy statement,” Sleiman said.
Hezbollah hit back at Sleiman, saying the president needed “specialized care” because he could “no longer differentiate between gold and wood.”
Gemayel and his allies in the March 14 coalition demand that the issue of the resistance be placed under state authority, thus denying Hezbollah the right to use its weapons at will against any Israeli attack.
Hezbollah and its March 8 allies have outright rejected the demand.
Gemayel argued that Hezbollah had "lost its legitimacy," citing the party’s military involvement in neighboring Syria and for having used its weapons inside Lebanon for political reasons.
“There is no consensus over the resistance; therefore, we cannot impose something on half of the Lebanese who don't believe in it,” he added.
During his chat with reporters, Gemayel also said his party opposed providing “political cover” for Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria.
“If we provide Hezbollah with political cover, the entire Lebanese community will be subject to attacks,” he said.
Although ministers tasked with drafting the Cabinet policy statement reached a “satisfactory formula” on the disputed Baabda Declaration, they have so far failed to agree on the issue of the resistance.
No comments:
Post a Comment