Aoun Decries Constitutional Chaos, Says It is Difficult to Run a State with Three Heads

President Michel Aoun meets with a delegation of European Union ambassadors. (NNA)
President Michel Aoun meets with a delegation of European Union ambassadors. (NNA)
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Aoun Decries Constitutional Chaos, Says It is Difficult to Run a State with Three Heads

President Michel Aoun meets with a delegation of European Union ambassadors. (NNA)
President Michel Aoun meets with a delegation of European Union ambassadors. (NNA)

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said he was working on “forming a government of full powers”, which would assume all of the presidential authorities if no agreement was reached on his successor at the end of the presidential tenure on Oct. 31.

“Lebanon needs political and sovereign reform, in addition to structural changes in the system,” Aoun said, pointing to “constitutional chaos under a caretaker government and a newly elected parliament with divergent affiliations.”

The Lebanese president stressed that it was difficult to manage the state with the presence of “three heads.”

He referred to efforts to obstruct the investigations into the explosion of the port of Beirut and into the responsibility of the Banque du Liban for the current monetary crisis.

Aoun was addressing a delegation of European Union ambassadors, headed by Ambassador Ralph Tarraf, who underlined the importance of Lebanon implementing reforms and respecting constitutional deadlines, in particular the presidential elections.

“Political and economic reasons come at the forefront of the factors of the crisis that Lebanon is currently witnessing,” Aoun said, pointing to “the corruption that plagued (the system) that was ruling in the past, in addition to mistakes committed in managing the deposits in the Central Bank.”

“Lebanon today needs political and sovereign reforms, in addition to structural changes in the system,” the president remarked.

For his part, Tarraf said: “More than three years have passed since the economic system started to decline and more than two and a half years since Lebanon failed to pay its debts and the government submitted a financial recovery plan, while the Lebanese decision-makers are still unable to implement the necessary measures to get Lebanon out of the crisis.”

French Ambassador Anne Grillo said that her country had stressed, since the CEDRE conference, on the need to adopt new rules for work.

“We are all witnessing the decline of the Lebanese institutions… As members of the EU, we are ready to help Lebanon and assume our role in the international community in this context, but in return we must be able to convince the concerned authorities of the commitment of the Lebanese authorities to the required reforms,” she told Aoun.



Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
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Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)

Politicians in Beirut said they have not received any credible information about Washington resuming its mediation efforts towards reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon despite reports to the contrary.

Efforts came to a halt after US envoy Amos Hochstein’s last visit to Beirut three weeks ago.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri dismissed the reports as media fodder, saying nothing official has been received.

Lebanon is awaiting tangible proposals on which it can build its position, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The only credible proposal on the table is United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, whose articles must be implemented in full by Lebanon and Israel, “not just Lebanon alone,” he stressed.

Resolution 1701 was issued to end the 2006 July war between Hezbollah and Israel and calls for removing all weapons from southern Lebanon and that the only armed presence there be restricted to the army and UN peacekeepers.

Western diplomatic sources in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that Berri opposes one of the most important articles of the proposed solution to end the current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

He is opposed to the German and British participation in the proposed mechanism to monitor the implementation of resolution 1701. The other participants are the United States and France.

Other sources said Berri is opposed to the mechanism itself since one is already available and it is embodied in the UN peacekeepers, whom the US and France can join.

The sources revealed that the solution to the conflict has a foreign and internal aspect. The foreign one includes Israel, the US and Russia and seeks guarantees that would prevent Hezbollah from rearming itself. The second covers Lebanese guarantees on the implementation of resolution 1701.

Berri refused to comment on the media reports, but told Asharq Al-Awsat that this was the first time that discussions are being held about guarantees.

He added that “Israel is now in crisis because it has failed to achieve its military objectives, so it has resorted to more killing and destruction undeterred.”

He highlighted the “steadfastness of the UN peacekeepers in the South who have refused to leave their positions despite the repeated Israeli attacks.”