Berri: Parliament Paralysis Threatening National Security
Speaker Nabih Berri has warned that the paralysis of the parliament was harming Lebanon's national security and threatening its internal stability.
Blocking legislation leads to political and constitutional problems but also threatens the country’s national security, and ways to protect it and consolidate its stability, said Berri in remarks published in As Safir daily on Tuesday.
Several blocs have been been boycotting parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a president since May last year. The country's top Christian post at Baabda Palace was left vacant when President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ended.
Christian blocs have also announced that they would not attend sessions which Berri is calling for to approve important draft-laws.
Some are claiming that parliament should only meet to elect a head of state while other MPs are calling for adding other draft-laws to the agenda of the sessions.
In his remarks to As Safir, Berri stated that there were several draft-laws that needed to be approved to guarantee security in the country.
Among them is a draft-law that gives immunity to Frenchmen who are tasked with training the Lebanese army on the use of the French weapons recently supplied to the military under a $3 billion deal signed between Riyadh and Paris.
French authorities have informed Beirut that they will not send the training team to Lebanon if the draft-law was not approved, said Berri.
He added that the parliament should also approve a draft-law on a World Bank loan for the construction of the Bisri dam.
“Does any Lebanese have an interest in obstructing this project?” Berri wondered.
In January, the World Bank signed an agreement with the Lebanese government granting Beirut a $474 million loan for the construction of the dam, which aims to improve water supplies in the country.
G.K.
H.K.
9 years
and the other half is owned by iran :)
so cut the BS and admit that both sides are bad to Lebanon if you dare :)
9 years
(1). I am truly sorry my dear FT to tell you that the truth is more like it is the Hezbollah led M8 alliance that is causing most of our problems. Your side sadly is the one blocking the election of a new president believing that Aoun is the only one who should rule. You are blocking literally everything that makes Lebanon move forward. You are doing every single thing to serve the interests of both Syria and Iran, even if that meant setting the country on fire. It is your Hezbollah that takes us to wars after wars, the 2006 one included. It is your Hezbollah that refuses a political settlement over Shebaa. It is your Hezbollah that prefers foreign interests to ours, and here I can name Syria, Iran, Bahrain and Yemen to cite a few. It is the M8 side that is thwarting every single effort to bring about a lasting solution for Lebanon.
9 years
(2) FT. The M14 side has been decimated by political assassinations, do you care to tell me by whom and for what? Is Syria anonymous to this or her stalwarts in Lebanon? M14 won 2 consecutive elections, who is it that messed up the true development of democracy but Hezbollah and its lackeys at the FPM? People like Saad Hariri have done all they could to allow the moderates orientate the country, what did you nearly get but radicals who tried to take over? Did M14 try to derail the good functions of the state? Did M14 ever try to ruin a season, any season? Did M14 do any terrorist attack that would taint the image of Lebanon? Is it M14 that is now impeding the election of the new president? Or before that the new PM's post? And what about the other official appointments, who is blocking them? It is now truly incredulous to see and note in bold ink how Hezbollah and its M8 allies accuse others of the very damaging mistakes they're committing, why is that ya FT?
9 years
(3). Would your HA or the FPM and the other lackeys settle for nothing else but the total destruction and demise of Lebanon? personally I am inclined to feel so, because since the year 2005, when your Syria masters got booted out of Lebanon, you people saw nothing and sought nothing but Syria, Lebanon which is the very country and soil that brought you to existence seems a long distance way off, Syria and Iran are the only ones who veil your eyes, your hearts and your everything. FT, you people give us a break, you're no longer welcome anywhere, you people talk too much and yet don't understand that this will be your one big undoing.
9 years
totally agree with your comment :)
what is harming Lebanon is not electing a President.