Gemayel: Presidential Election or Undesirable Options

Christian factions of the March 14 alliance called Wednesday for the speedy election of Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman president to avert facing undesirable options.

 

The call was made in a statement read to reporters by ex-President Amin Gemayel after an extraordinary meeting of Christian leaders allied in the majority alliance to tackle the situation after the car bomb assassination of the army”s chief of operations, Brig. Gen. Francois el-Hajj.

 

The statement noted that the Lebanese were distressed by el-Hajj”s assassination on the second anniversary of MP Jibran Tueni”s killing.

 

“It is no coincidence that this crime was committed following nomination of the army commander for president and the efforts to block this process, in which domestic and foreign parties took part,” the statement noted.

 

Such attempts, the statement said, are an “orchestrated scheme targeting the Lebanese entity and aiming at

changing Lebanon into an arena for settling regional and international disputes.”

 

It stressed that such threats “endanger the Christians” mere existence.”

 

The statement urged Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to call for a “special (parliamentary) session to adopt the constitutional mechanism capable of allowing the election of Gen. Michel Suleiman.”

 

It also urged Prime Minister Fouad Saniora”s government to convene “immediately” and adopt a decision to refer the el-Hajj crime to the U.N. enquiry investigating the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes.

 

Gemayel said the crime “targets the homeland and its stability.”

 

“We insist on holding the presidential election as soon as possible, because through electing the president we can speed up the process to reconstruct security and intelligence agencies,” Gemayel added.

 

Failing to elect a president through a full constitutional process would lead us to “options that we do not hope for,” Gemayel warned.