Aoun Calls on Lebanese, 'Especially Christians', to Prepare for Street Protests
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said Friday that Christians should be prepared to take to the streets soon to protest what he called “the usurpation of all the rights and posts of Christians.”
“We Christians are facing an existential threat because 'the foxes of Lebanese politics' are usurping all the rights and posts of Christians,” said Aoun at the annual dinner banquet of FPM's Metn committee.
“They don't want a president who represents you, they want him to be subservient to the foreign forces,” Aoun added.
He lamented that Christians “are losing more than two thirds of the parliamentary seats due to an electoral law that violates the Taef Accord, which stipulated equal parliamentary seats and proper representation.”
“We will not leave our country, we will not emigrate, and we will not settle for words,” Aoun stressed.
“What happened in the cabinet yesterday and what might happen next week require a forceful response from us and our dignity is bigger than the crisis,” the FPM leader added.
He said “all Lebanese, especially Christians, are invited to take to the streets.”
“You will know the nature of our action next week,” Aoun added.
Noting that the coming week “will witness a major transformation in Lebanese politics,” the FPM leader told supporters that he is not asking for “money or blood” but rather a “popular will.”
Aoun's remarks come in the wake of a stormy cabinet session that witnessed arguments among ministers on several controversial issues.
The cabinet sessions had been suspended for more than three weeks over a dispute over the appointment of top security and military chiefs.
The FPM leader has been lobbying for political consensus on the appointment of Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz, his son-in-law, as army chief as part of a package for the appointment of other top security officers.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam has rejected claims that he is suppressing some parties in the government, warning them not to challenge him.
Salam reiterated in remarks to al-Liwaa newspaper that no party can impose its stance on others. “The opposition of five ministers does not abolish the support of 18 others who voted on the decree to export” agricultural and industrial products.
The decree was passed despite the objection of the ministers of the FPM, Hizbullah and the Tashnag Party, who stressed that no issue should be discussed until the appointments of high-ranking military and security officials were made.
Y.R.
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