Hariri: Syria Negotiates on Behalf of March 8
Hariri for a President who can Reclaim Christian Power
MP Saad Hariri said postponement for the ninth time of a parliamentary session to elect a new president for Lebanon is a clear indication that Syria is “trying to prolong the presidential vacuum.”
“What happened (at parliament) is a practical translation of Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa”s words on the political level.”
Hariri said everybody in the Arab, Muslim and international world “knows that the Syrian regime negotiates directly with international intermediaries on behalf of March 8, representing a list of demands identical” to those presented to the majority March 14 Forces.
He was surprised to hear again about the one-third veto power, a key demand by the Hizbullah-led opposition.
“I”m astonished, Hariri said “… since everybody knows that our stance is adherence to a president with a balanced voice, meaning that neither the majority will enjoy a decisive two-thirds nor the opposition will have a one-third veto power where as the president is the guarantor for all decisions.”
“This is how we see, from our point of view, a president who can really be a strong head of state with a reinforced authority which enables him to regain Christian rights that have been wasted during the period of the (Syrian) tutelage,” Hariri said.
He believed that relinquishing the majority”s two-third power and the opposition”s one-third veto authority “makes a consensus president a real arbitrator in all national matters.”