Visitors to Bkirki stress need to elect Suleiman
Political figures visiting Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir in Bkirki on Monday all agreed on the urging of electing the consensus candidate, Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) commander General Michel Suleiman, as a president. MP Michel Murr, who recently withdrew from the Change and Reform bloc, said he was very optimistic about Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri”s latest initiative for reviving dialogue, giving it an 80 percent chance of success.
“Speaker Berri is very serious about his new proposal and is willing to resume the dialogue which will eventually lead to the election of a president,” he added.
Murr also discussed with the prelate the main points to be discussed during dialogue sessions, namely the drafting of a qada-based electoral law, in addition to the shape of the next government. “These two matters can easily be solved and there should be a presidential election no matter what.”
Moreover, Murr added that parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri”s expected participation in the dialogue sessions “is a very good sign.”
When asked about the reasons of his withdrawal from the Change and Reform Bloc led by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, Murr answered that he left the coalition when he realized that “Christian parties were responsible for the actual deadlock and the presidential vacuum.”
As for foreign interference allegedly contributing to the blocking of electing a president, Murr said Berri received positive signs during his last visit to Syria, and both Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem as well as President Bashar Assad reiterated that the presidential election was “a strictly Lebanese matter.”
He added that Assad”s expected visit to Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well as Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert”s talks about handing back the Golan Heights to Syria were also “very positive signs toward the clearing up of regional tensions.”
On Monday, Sfeir also met with National Liberal Party head Dory Chamoun, who stressed the importance of electing a president “as soon as possible.”
Sfeir and Chamoun also discussed the outcome of Chamoun”s latest trip to the US.
Chamoun expressed his pessimism toward Berri”s latest initiative saying that “some people, such as MP Michel Aoun don”t want to see anyone but themselves elected as president.”
He added that the only solution to the deadlock was the election of a president “through simple majority.”
As for the parliamentary electoral law, Hindi said that the best method to be adopted, “would one that would create a balance between Christians and Muslims while representing equally and proportionally all Lebanese communities.”
Meanwhile, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Beirut Elias Audeh deplored the country”s “miserable condition” in his Easter Monday sermon in Downtown Beirut”s Saint Georges Cathedral.
“People have to get over themselves, their own interests and foreign interests for the country to be saved … We have to free our nation,” he said.
He described Lebanon as the prisoner of its own citizens who were seeking division instead of unity.
Audeh said that the whole world cared about Lebanon and was trying to solve the continuing crisis “whereas Lebanese people have thrown their nation in a hole, leaving it to die.”
“How can there be a dialogue through these fiery speeches?” he asked, saying that politicians” rhetoric had reached very low levels.
Audeh also denounced the prevailing state of paranoia among the Lebanese, saying that people stopped trusting each other when they started fearing one another.
“We wonder if politicians and citizens still know the meaning of the word responsibility,” the archbishop said adding that the Lebanese people should start by learning the meaning of “patriotism.”