|
Geagea Tells Aoun, Hariri to Form Govt. without Hizbullah
[An Nahar] Lebanese ForcesA Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader  Samir Geagea... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... has called on President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah ... Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistanceand purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... ... and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. to form a government without  Hizbullah should the party continue refusing to hand the PM-designate the names of its three Shiite ministers."Any political party has the right to have a viewpoint about the formation process, but that should not be more than a mere viewpoint. President Aoun and PM-designate Hariri have the right to endorse or reject this viewpoint. The party concerned can also grant or withhold its confidence from the formed government. This is the constitution and this is democracy," Geagea said in an interview with the Central News Agency. "But no party can say, ’You either do what we want or there won’t be a government,’ and this is what Hizbullah is doing today," the LF leader added. Warning that the economic and social situations "cannot withstand further confusion," Geagea said Aoun and Hariri "must take a decision" in light of their "constitutional responsibility." "They must tell Hizbullah, ’We want you in the government, give us the names of your ministers, and you have the right to voice your opinion on the issue of representing the independent Sunnis with a minister’... or else they should form a de facto government should the party refuse to hand the names," Geagea added. The new government was on the verge of formation on October 29 after the Lebanese Forces accepted the portfolios that were assigned to it but a last-minute hurdle over the representation of pro-Hizbullah Sunni MPs surfaced. Hizbullah has insisted that the six Sunni MPs should be given a seat in the government, refraining from providing Hariri with the names of its three Shiite ministers in a bid to press him. Hariri has rejected the demand, announcing that he’d rather step down than give the aforementioned politicians a seat from his own share in the government. Posted by: Fred 2018-11-27 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=528505 |