7th Committee Session on Monday, Resistance Article Almost Similar to Previous Policy Statement
The committee tasked with drafting the cabinet policy statement will hold its seventh session on Monday afternoon amid ongoing differences between bickering camps on the resistance article which is still facing objections from March 14 Christians.
Pan-Arab daily al-Hayat said the committee is expected to adopt an article on the resistance almost similar to the previous government”s ministerial statement.
However, ministerial sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that March 14 representatives will seek for the adoption of a formula that does not turn them into "false witnesses."
The sources added that discussions during the committee”s meetings are mainly restricted to the March 8 and 14 Christian parties whereby Change and Reform bloc representatives are defending Hizbullah while the Shiite party”s representative Minister Mohammed Fneish is trying to keep dialogue calm.
Labor Minister Boutros Harb told al-Hayat: "Our ambition is to stress that all security decisions should be made by the state and its legal institutions."
"The resistance cannot be given a legal status apart from the state," according to Harb.
He said, however, that intensive contacts are being made to find "the proper formula" although discussions during the seventh committee meeting on Monday are not expected to focus on the resistance issue.
The ministerial committee is scheduled to discuss the policy statement”s economic and financial chapter. Al-Hayat said the political chapter would most probably be discussed during a meeting on Tuesday.
President Michel Suleiman has also stressed that "there is consensus to adopt the formula of the previous cabinet over the resistance."
However, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea rejected the inclusion in the policy statement of any reference to Hizbullah”s arms in defense of Lebanon.
"What”s the use of any state in any nation in which it isn”t the decision-maker of war and peace?" Geagea wondered.