Report: Qahwaji's Term Likely to Be Extended for One Year
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The decision to refer Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji to retirement will likely be postponed, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.
It said that his term will be extended for a year in order to appease all political powers given that some forces, mainly the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun, have opposed the extension.
The decision to extend his tenure will likely be announced during a meeting for the Higher Defense Council on Monday, said Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) Sunday.
The extension also includes Chief of Staff Walid Salman.
The Council is scheduled to convene on Monday under President Michel Suleiman.
Caretaker Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn had proposed that Qahwaji's term be extended until an agreement is reached on his successor, but further consultations with the concerned authorities agreed that the extension should last a year.
Aoun vowed on Friday to challenge before the Constitutional Council the extension of Qahwaji's term, saying that it as “illegal and harms army ranks.”
The extension of Qahwaji's term which ends this September when he turns 60 – the maximum age for the post of the army commander – had created a disputed among the political foes.
Political leaders that support the extension of Qahwaji's mandate argue that the security situation in the country can't endure any vacancy in military posts.
28 July 2013, 09:38
05
Mr. Qahwaji,
With the exxtension behind you now, and with Mr. Sleiman being able to see better .......... lets get started on making sure that justice reaches HA just likke it reached Asir. Lets clean house and restore the dignity of the country and the LAF.
28 July 2013, 10:02
01
@ helicopter... how strange that you do not mention the hundreds of thousands of armed Palestinians on Lebanese soil, even stranger that you do not mention armed Syrians either. Lebanese news media do not mention them either.
Is it myopia? Or mass hysteria? Or some other more dramatic and ethnic reason since the above two armed factions are predominantly from a certain sect??
28 July 2013, 22:57
01
The Lebanese... uhm, tend to not think about them -- because they really are powerless against them--always have been since the conception of the camps. Sometimes, repression is indeed the needed temporary fix. Justifiably so as well I suppose, seeing as how they dissociated themselves from a new civil war when Assir was chased out of the country.
28 July 2013, 10:33
23
Aoun is not really worried about the extension of Qahwaji, he is worried that his daughters will be jealous from each other since he managed to freeze the country for SIL 1 but couldn't do the same for SIL 2 ... w SIL
28 July 2013, 14:54
22
God bless Qahwaji and the LAF for rooting out Asir and his fellow terrorists and for bringing the rule of law to Lebanon. No to terrorism!
28 July 2013, 16:41
12
Please tell me that you're all joking. I'm not taking sides, but everyone knows that HA helped the army in abra. Till now, HA is protecting the army, whether I or we like it or not, this is the currewnt situation now. So no matter who becomes General of the army, our LAF have no say in anything over the whole country. That's miserable, that's why I hate Leabanon, with a passion. All I learned in lebanon is war, corruption and hatred. Thanks be to God I left.
