March 14 Demands Formation of New Govt. that Respects Baabda Declaration

The March 14 camp held an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday in order to condemn the two-day clashes that took place in the southern city of Sidon, demanding the formation of a new government.

Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said: “In light of the clashes, we stress the need to form a new cabinet that adheres to the Baabda Declaration and the memorandum we presented to President Michel Suleiman.”

The meeting was also an occasion to demonstrate the unity of the camp, he added in a brief statement.

The meeting, held at the Center House in downtown Beirut, included deputy Speaker Farid Makari, MPs Butros Harb, Robert Ghanem, Georges Adwan, Nohad al-Mashnouq, Dory Shamoun, Marwan Hamadeh, Fouad al-Saad, Nadim Gemayel, Jean Oghassabian, and Antoine Zahra, former MPs Nayla Mouawad and Samir Franjieh, March 14 General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid, National Bloc leader Carlos Edde, and Independence Movement leader Michel Mouawad.

On June 18, a delegation from the March 14 alliance handed Suleiman a memo that calls for Hizbullah's “immediate” pullout from Syria and the deployment of the Lebanese army along the border with the war-torn country.

The memo hinted that the March 14 alliance will not accept the participation of Hizbullah in the new cabinet that Premier-designate Tammam Salam is seeking to form.

In June 2012, a national dialogue session approved the Baabda Declaration that demands that Lebanon disassociate itself from regional conflicts.

At least 16 soldiers were killed and 50 were wounded in two days of clashes with the armed supporters of Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in Sidon.

More than 20 of al-Asir's supporters were killed, according to a security official.

Dozens of them were also arrested, but there was no sign of the cleric.