18 January 2011

BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman urged rival Lebanese factions Monday to cooperate in order to resolve the country’s deepening political crisis, saying there was still a chance for a settlement despite the current tensions over a U.N.-backed court probing the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“The primary and most important responsibility [for solving the crisis] falls on our shoulders as Lebanese to bring about the appropriate political solutions through institutions and honest and creative dialogue,” Sleiman said in a speech addressing Arab and foreign diplomats at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on the occasion of the New Year.

“We still have the opportunity despite the current polarization to prove our ability to manage our own affairs by ourselves and take bold and wise choices that would lead us again to the paths of stability, justice, growth and economic and social development,” he said.

Sleiman’s speech came shortly after he issued a statement earlier in the day postponing until next Monday binding consultations with M.P.s on the formation of a new government following the collapse of Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s national unity Cabinet last week. The two-day consultations were scheduled to begin Monday after Hizbullah and its allies in the March 8 coalition resigned from the Cabinet, forcing its resignation and plunging the country into a deeper political crisis.

The resignations of the 10 March 8 ministers and Minister of State Adnan Sayyed Hussein, local to Sleiman, came in a widening rift between the March 8 and March 14 camps over the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s indictment into Rafik Hariri’s assassination. The indictment, which was filed by the U.N. prosecutor Monday, is widely believed to implicate some Hizbullah members in Hariri’s killing, raising fears of sectarian violence.

Sleiman said the past year has been marked by a state of stability and an increase of deposits and of the economic growth rates. “Moreover, Lebanon was keen on meeting all constitutional deadlines, including the municipal elections which were held on time, in order to stimulate the spirit of democracy and ensure requirements of regional development,” he said.

“However, the end of the year 2010 witnessed a paralysis in state institutions’ work, particularly that of the Council of Ministers and, unfortunately the National Dialogue Committee,” Sleiman said.

“That is mainly due to circumstantial and structural considerations, among which figures the controversy surrounding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon pertaining to politicization and loss of credibility, as well as what naturally occurs within consensual systems governing states characterized by pluralism,” he said. “All this has led to the Cabinet’s resignation and to launching parliamentary consultations to form a new cabinet, in accordance with the democratic process and the Constitution’s provisions and spirit.”

Sleiman added that the summit meeting attended by Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Syrian President Bashar Assad and himself at the Presidential Palace in Baabda had consecrated an approach to ensuring Lebanon’s stability and warding off the threat of strife as a result of the S.T.L.’s indictment.

“In addition to our efforts to overcome obstacles and reach rational and reasonable solutions for the difficulties that emerge in our political life and intercept our national course, we will, in parallel, pursue efforts, within the framework of our national constants and commitments, aimed at reinforcing our national unity and defending our sovereignty and natural resources, including our oil and gas fields across our coasts,” he said.

Sleiman stressed the need to implement the 1989 Taif Accord, which ended the 1975-90 Civil War, by drafting a new law for the Lebanese nationality and parliamentary elections, examining further the draft law of administrative decentralization and “clarifying how to address issues pertaining to constitutional ambiguities and distribution of responsibilities in order to ensure the proper functioning of institutions.” – The Daily Star

Copyright The Daily Star 2011.