Al-Hout: Abstention Aimed at Giving Miqati a Chance to Review Policy Statement

Jamaa Islamiyah MP Imad al-Hout said Wednesday that the group has decided to abstain from voting on the cabinet’s policy statement at parliament in an attempt to give Premier Najib Miqati a chance to review a series of stances made in the ministerial statement.

Al-Hout told several local media outlets that the Jamaa Islamiyah can neither condemn the Special Tribunal for Lebanon without any evidence nor defend it.

“We would judge it based on its performance,” he said.

“It would be just for us to leave the chance for the tribunal to prove its credibility,” al-Hout added.

The March 8 and 14 forces are at loggerheads on the clause of the STL in the policy statement. The speeches of MPs during the parliamentary sessions are mainly addressing that specific clause.