Sayyed: I am the first minister that is ready to resign

Minister of State Adnan as-Sayyed Hussein said Sunday during an interview with OTV that Lebanon faces an existential crisis if the current path persists, and that the government should leave as quickly as possible if it cannot confront the strife.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) began with national consensus, but has become the subject of a dispute that must be resolved through agreement, Sayyed said

Sayyed , who is one of the ministers allocated to president Suleiman said that he is the first minister that is ready to resign.

“I am the first one ready to resign if there are not specific tasks for which I can be held accountable.”

He added that although the cabinet is not doing its job as set out in the Ministerial Statement, there is still hope that it could fulfill its promises

The tribunal was established under difficult conditions and there are “serious legal observations regarding its establishment,” he said, adding that the tribunal’s investigation cannot be permitted to threaten people’s interests or public order.

He was referring to the the clash in Dhahyia (a Hezbollah stronghold ) between the STL investigators and the women at a clinic.

Sayyed Hussein also said that if state ministers do not have any specific missions, they ought not to burden the state and the cabinet should be composed of 24 ministers rather than 30.

Former president Amin Gemayel urged today President Michel Suleiman to defend the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in line with his presidential oath.

Tension escalated in Lebanon following reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will soon issue its indictment into the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Last July, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that the tribunal is “an Israeli project” that will indict Hezbollah members. Nasrallah accused Israel of being behind Hariri’s assassination but refused to provide the evidence to STL to support his claim. Hezbollah and its March 8 allies have been calling for the abolition of STL.

Some leaders are concerned that should the court indict Hezbollah members, it could lead to a Shiite-Sunni strife.

In his speech last Thursday Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on “every official and every citizen to boycott the work of U.N. investigators” probing the murder of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.