Geagea Warns against Forming a 'Cabinet of Contradictions'
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday warned against forming a cabinet containing representatives of both the March 8 and March 14 rival political camps.
“An active cabinet that can pull Lebanon out of this dangerous abyss can only be a cabinet driven by a single horse in the right direction and call it whatever you want to call it,” said Geagea at a rally titled “Era of Justice” that was held in Maarab on the occasion of the imminent start of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon trial.
Addressing President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam, Geagea added: “We all want a new cabinet as soon as possible, but not any cabinet is a real cabinet. A cabinet of contradictions will not be able to achieve anything or do anything.”
“We want a real government. We are all waiting for you and Lebanon is waiting for you, so don't be late. Do not give up your constitutional powers and act according to your beliefs,” he went on to say, addressing the two leaders.
Commenting on the assassination of former minister Mohammed Shatah in a powerful car bombing in downtown Beirut, Geagea said “they did not kill Mohammed Shatah because he was holed up in Qusayr, Qalamoun's mountains or Aleppo” in Syria.
“They did not kill him because he posed a takfiri threat to Lebanon or because he was recruiting suicide bombers,” he added.
Geagea noted that “they killed Shatah because he represented a moderate, open-minded approach that exposed the major chasm between him and them.”
“They killed you because they did not want the Lebanon that resembles you in moderation, tolerance and enlightenment, but rather the image of (fugitive Fatah al-Islam chief) Shaker al-Absi, which would justify their existence,” added Geagea.
“They killed you because they belong to the abominable dark ages,” he said.
The LF leader called for adding all the assassination cases to ex-PM Hariri's case, which is being probed by the STL, “given the fact that they are all connected.”
“The era of justice and truth for Lebanon has come. It is the first time that we sense the presence of a serious will to achieve justice,” he said, referring to the start of the STL trial on January 16.
“It would have not been possible to achieve a sense of justice in Lebanon had it not been for the heroic steadfastness of the Lebanese in the face of the killing machine,” he noted.
“The era of justice has come so that life can return to normal. Our objective is not punishment, but rather to protect Lebanon from the hands of criminals and to establish a real state,” Geagea clarified.
He emphasized that “the triumph of justice would be a triumph for all the Lebanese,” pointing out that “those saying justice would undermine coexistence want neither justice nor coexistence."
In an apparent reference to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, who has said that the rival political camps “are causing all the bombings,” Geagea said “someone who is suffering from despair and a blurred vision has put the blame equally on both parties.”
“If both the victim and the criminal are responsible for the crime, then this is the the end of the world with all due honesty,” said Geagea.
“Choosing between the state and the fictional state, the criminal and the victim, stability and instability, justice and tyranny, freedom and oppression, and enlightenment and darkness is exactly like choosing between good and evil. There is no place for retreat or neutrality,” he added.
The cabinet formation process was put on the front burner after Speaker Nabih Berri proposed a revised 8-8-8 government formula and President Suleiman said he would form a so-called neutral cabinet if the political rivals don't agree on an all-embracing government within ten days.
Amid the LF's rejection of Hizbullah's participation in the cabinet, the March 14 camp has reportedly accepted the 8-8-8 formula in principle, but it is awaiting answers pertaining to the ministerial policy statement and the rotation of portfolios among political parties.
Source: Naharnet
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