Israel should adhere to a ceasefire, implement UNSCR 1860
President Michel Sleiman said on Saturday that Israel should adhere to a ceasefire in order to implement UNSCR 1860. He told visitors at Baabda that all reactions were due to Israel’s oppression and mistreatment of the Palestinian population and also their decision to deprive them of their basic rights, beginning with the right to return.
Sleiman said that Israel should withdraw from Gaza because it was the one who invaded. The Palestinians, he added, were defending their own land and themselves against an occupation that was continuing its “massacres” against children in particular. Sleiman said that the brutality of these crimes had not been witnessed in history.
Sleiman later met with Interior Minister Ziad Baroud and the members of Election Monitoring Committee in Baabda. He said that if the committee succeeded in its duties, its steps would develop democratic elections in Lebanon. He called for members to maintain their independence and respect their work, because, he said, they owed nothing to anyone as they were democratically chosen by the cabinet. Sleiman told them that the neutrality required from them was not a negative but positive development, in as much as they could convince the people of their impartiality. Sleiman said that the cabinet should follow up the committee’s work by appointing governors and the judges. He added that the state, its head and the ministry’s impartiality would lead to the success of this experiment.