Berri Accuses 'Political' IS of Targeting State Institutions
Speaker Nabih Berri has said that Lebanon is confronting jihadists on the eastern border with Syria and “political” militants inside the country.
“Lebanon is confronting the terrorist Islamic State group on the border and the political IS in the interior,” local dailies quoted Berri as saying in remarks published on Monday.
“There are suicide bombers targeting the Lebanese political system and its institutions,” he told his visitors.
“Or else how would we explain the conditions of the presidency, the parliament and the cabinet?” Berri wondered.
Asked by his visitors about the controversy on the possible extension of the terms of the army and Internal Security Forces chiefs or the appointment of new officers, Berri said that his priority is to preserve the two institutions.
“If for some reason, the appointment of officers was not possible, then I don't mind the extension of the terms” of those currently leading the military and ISF, he said.
ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous is set to retire in June while the term of army commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji expires at the end of September.
Several parties, including the Free Patriotic Movement, consider the extension of their terms illegal.
FPM chief MP Michel Aoun warned in remarks to As Safir daily on Monday that his representatives in the cabinet would reject any extension.
But Berri stressed that his priority lied in stopping vacuum from reaching the two top institutions, which are now confronting terrorism.
He said that the parties refusing the extension should speed up the election of a president. “Then, not only new army and ISF chiefs would be appointed, but all institutions would be regulated and the state would partly recover.”
Lawmakers from Aoun's Change and Reform bloc and their allies from Hizbullah have been boycotting parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a new head of state.
The vacuum at Baabda Palace will enter the one-year mark in May.
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