Al-jamaa al-islamiya candidate drops out of election race
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora announced Friday that Saudi Arabia would provide funding to resolve Sidon”s "40-year-old" garbage-dump saga, while receiving good news about his election chances in the city after a key rival dropped out of the race.
During a gathering in Sidon, Siniora said Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Development Fund would dedicate the amount of $20 million to resolve the environmental crisis generated by the coastal dump, as part of a grant to finance development projects across the country.
"This kind initiative will contribute to resolving an environment problem that is more than 40 years old," Siniora said.
He added that the project would lead to the creation of a filled-up land that would be used for several environmental projects. Siniora said Saudi Arabia”s grant "does not conflict with an earlier donation offered by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for the same objective."
"We want all the people to help this city and we do not want to compete with anyone," Siniora said, in response to a statement issued by Sidon Mayor Abdel-Rahman Bizri, who said that the municipality was working to achieve the same project.
"Sidon”s municipality was working hard to achieve what Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is talking about now, as the municipality received a grant from Alwaleed bin Talal Foundation to that purpose and faced many obstacles," Bizri said.
"However, the dump crisis cannot be resolved unless a solid-waste-treatment plant is established, or the current dump is closed and waste is treated by [the sanitation firm] Sukleen," he added.
Meanwhile, Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya politburo official Ali Sheikh Ammar announced on Friday his withdrawal from the upcoming parliamentary polls in Sidon, "to serve the interests of Future Movement”s candidates, Education Minister Bahiya Hariri and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora."
Ammar said his withdrawal "falls within the agreement between Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya and the Future Movement for the parliamentary elections in Beirut and Sidon."
Following a visit to the Islamic group”s headquarters in Sidon, Siniora said he would be extending a hand of friendship to all the people of Sidon. He added that the city needed unity and solidarity, not internal conflicts, and that it was very normal to have different points of view.
For his part, Ammar said the group would support Siniora in Sidon in the upcoming elections. He also commended Siniora”s role of in "looking out for the citizens of the coastal city."
"We consider Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Minister Bahiya Hariri as the candidates of Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya in this district," Ammar said.
Also on Friday, Opposition MP in Sidon Osama Saad criticized Siniora”s economic and social policies, adding that the successive governments "disregarded the coastal city and deprived it of development projects."
Saad added that Siniora and the Future Movement were promoting "tense and sectarian rhetoric that harms Sidon”s interests."
Elsewhere, President Michel Sleiman called on the Lebanese to respect the results of the June parliamentary elections, regardless of the winning party.
During a meeting on Friday with a delegation of election observers from the Arab League, Sleiman said gaps in the current electoral law should not be used as a pretext to reject the elections” results.
The president also stressed that nothing would obstruct holding the parliamentary elections on June 7.
For his part, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir described power-sharing between the opposition and pro-government forces in the government as "a new invention in Lebanon."
In a speech delivered at the 13th anniversary of the establishment of the Antonine University on Friday, Sfeir said that "only wise people can learn from past crises."
Meanwhile, Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri reiterated that the upcoming parliamentary elections would determine Lebanon”s future.
Addressing his visitors on Friday, Hariri said voters would have to choose between "achieving Lebanon”s independence, freedom and sovereignty, or maintaining the country as an arena for regional conflicts."
Hariri also urged his visitors to vote for his party”s complete list "without excluding any name," in order to "support the establishment of a powerful state and army."
Meanwhile, Hizbullah MP Mohammad Raad said he was confident that the opposition forces would win the majority in the June legislative polls.
The Hizbullah MP also accused Siniora of hampering the work of the government, saying: "The government”s work is obstructed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who is working with the utmost selfishness."
During a political gathering on Friday, Raad said the Lebanese would have the opportunity to "determine Lebanon”s identity" through the elections.