The Hezbollah parliamentary bloc hoped on Thursday that the ministerial policy statement would be brief and that it would tackle national “priorities” like security and resistance matters, Hezbollah MP Mohammed Fadlallah said after the meeting of his bloc.
“We hope a consensus is reached over a proposal that is short and that tackles priorities like security matters, politics, the resistance and daily life issues,” the bloc’s statement said in reference to the concerns of the ministerial committee tasked with drafting a policy statement.
The Hezbollah statement expressed that the new cabinet was produced after a settlement, adding that the party has offered concessions to ease the formation of the council of ministers.
“This is a political consensus cabinet that aims at transitioning the country towards stability and we have contributed to the government’s formation and did not stop at ministerial portfolios because we preferred to put the country’s interest first.”
The bloc’s statement continued: “Our priority is to resist to terrorism and elect a new president who launches an active initiative to achieve a total national consensus, agree on a just electoral law, and adopt an acceptable defense strategy.”
“We call for taking advantage of the prevailing positive atmosphere and to stop giving reasons for perpetrators.”
The March 14 alliance is opposed to including in the statement the so called resistance formula ” People + Army + Resistance ”
Let the people live
Hezbollah’s statement comes after Prime Minister Tammam Salam announced on Wednesday that the ministerial policy statement will be “short,” noting that his cabinet will only take office for three months until the presidential elections are held.
“All points in the policy statement are to be discussed and there is no draft that has been agreed on by all factions, but we have the intention to have a short statement,” Salam announced on Future TV, in his first televised interview since the cabinet’s formation.
He added: “The cabinet will rule for three months and therefore, we will not prepare a 30-page policy statement. We have to work while taking into consideration that the presidential elections will take place on time.”
He also stated that the slogan of his cabinet will be “let the people live.”
The premier stressed that communication between all political factions in the country is necessary to reach an accord on the policy statement.
He also revealed that the atmosphere was positive earlier in the day during the ministerial committee’s meeting over the policy statement.
“All political factions realized that they have to offer concessions at one point. Concessions were first about the rotation of ministerial portfolios, and then they were manifested in Hezbollah and March 8’s acceptance of the 8-8-8 lineup.” He said in reference to the difficulties faced in forming the cabinet
He credited former PM and Future Movement MP Saad Hariri of facilitating the formation of the cabinet .
“Trust became mutual and it eventually lead to the cabinet’s formation,” Salam said.
“What we achieved was ‘made in Lebanon’ without any diplomatic interference or international conferences and this issue wasn’t highlighted in the media.”
He also praised president Michel Suleiman who “suffered with him and supported him” throughout the process.
“There is total harmony between us and this is because we are not linked to any political faction,” he explained.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.