Aoun urged to check facts with Sfeir, not media

 

Sources close to Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said on Thursday that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun should seek clarifications “directly” from Sfeir rather than rely on reports circulated by the media.

 

The sources told An-Nahar daily that the Constitution stipulated that in the event of a power vacuum presidential powers are handed over to the “government as a whole” and not to Premier Fouad Siniora.

 

On Monday Aoun lashed out at Sfeir, saying he “does not represent public opinion, but rather the Church.”

Aoun also criticized remarks made by the prelate in support of the Siniora government.

 

Addressing a delegation from the coastal town of Jbeil at his residence in Rabieh, Aoun said Sfeir “is free to express his opinion regarding the political situation … but he does not [have the right to] decide our

constitutional powers on our behalf.”

 

Aoun accused former President Amine Gemayel and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea of blocking a meeting aimed at deciding on a consensus president drawn from a list Sfeir had compiled

 

He asked Sfeir to clarify his stance on the meeting.

 

Speaker Nabih Berri has postponed for the 11th time a parliamentary session to elect a new president to

January 12.

 

On the oppositions” “political basket” demand, the sources said the Maronite Church does not advocate such a settlement “since it will lead to bringing a president with no authority.”

 

The country has been without a head of state since Emile Lahoud”s term expired on November 23.

 

The government and the opposition have agreed on Lebanese Army commander General Michel Suleiman as the man for the job, but remain at odds over the election process and the shape of a new administration.

 

The opposition is demanding a “basket” of guarantees on the new government line-up ahead of any vote.
 

The majority has insisted that the make-up of the government is within the prerogatives of the president, traditionally drawn from the Maronite Christian community, many of whose members now fear marginalization.

 

The Bkirki sources said the Council of Maronite Bishops does not “quarrel” with politicians – neither with Aoun nor with Geagea.

 

They stressed that the Church stood at an equal distance from all political factions and does not back one party against the other.

 

The Council of Maronite Bishops warned on Wednesday that history would not forgive states or individuals who block solutions to Lebanon”s ongoing political crisis. “The hateful political atmosphere and the political bickering which prevailed in Lebanon over the past months won”t help in easing the current impasse,” the bishops said in a statement following their monthly meeting.

 

“History will not forgive perpetrators. All states or individuals who block solutions are responsible for the tragedies the Lebanese people are enduring,” warned the statement, which was read by the council”s secretary, Monsignor Youssef Tawk.

 

The bishops noted that “the constitutional controversy over the presidential elections even after agreement on a candidate … reveals the vast differences between politicians.”

 

Sfeir met Thursday with several political and religious figures, including Minister for the Displaced Neameh Tomeh, former Maronite League chief Ernest Karam and the head of the Arab Islamic Council, Sayyed Mohammad Ali Husseini.

 

Tomeh said the government would not resort to “any defiant steps and is working to facilitate the lives of the Lebanese amid the power vacuum.”

 

“Defiance is not in our nature and the current government is working on spreading a message of peace and national cohesion,” he added.