Geagea Slams Opposition, Says Berri is Confrontation Speaker
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said that if the Hizbullah-led opposition wants a consensus prime minister then Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri should resign.
"If they want a consensus premier then Nabih Berri who is a confrontation leader should resign," Geagea told Future News TV Wednesday.
"Demanding a consensus premier requires the presence of a consensus speaker," an issue not mentioned in the Doha accord, Geagea stressed.
His comment came after Lebanon”s new president Michel Suleiman asked outgoing PM Fouad Saniora to form a new national unity cabinet despite reservations by the opposition.
Geagea said he backed Saniora for premier, not MP Saad Hariri, because the Mustaqbal movement leader is preoccupied with preparing for the parliamentary elections due in the summer of 2009.
The LF leader said veto powers held by the opposition in the new government would not have an effective impact because the cabinet”s main assignment is to set the stage for next year”s polls and not to take strategic decisions.
Under the Arab-brokered Doha accord which ended Lebanon”s political crisis, the opposition gets veto power over all government decisions.
Geagea also criticized Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah whom he described as "aggressive" in his latest address.
He said Nasrallah is going a different way than the rest of the Lebanese, adding that the Hizbullah leader”s allegiance to the Faqih rule means that there are two states in Lebanon.
Geagea insisted on national dialogue under the supervision of President Suleiman to tackle Hizbullah”s status.
Nasrallah "closed the dialogue door over the issue of Hizbullah”s arms and this is unacceptable," Geagea said.
He reiterated that if security in Beirut remained loose then "we would ask for Arab peace forces to protect the capital."
He said the force should be from neutral Arab states like Qatar, Tunisia, Algeria and others.