Khalil Hits Back at Bassil, Warns against Sectarian Incitement
Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil snapped back Friday at Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, accusing him of resorting to sectarian incitement for political gains.
“Someone is trying to use big slogans to cover up for the nature of his real practices in governance, administrations, the state, the political system and everything that has to do with the affairs of this state,” Khalil said at a press conference he held a few hours after a press conference by Bassil.
“Partnership in this country does not mean that someone should be in a certain post or else the post ceases to exist. Partnership does not mean that one's candidate should be the only candidate under the threat of blocking the rise of state institutions. Partnership does not mean that someone's relative should be in a certain post or else the Lebanese should wait one, two or three years simply and patiently,” the minister added.
Commenting on Bassil's call for establishing a “civil state,” Khalil said: “We welcome the civil state and we were the first ones to propose it.”
He added: “Inciting sects against each other is a dangerous and sensitive thing.”
“Let us directly go to a phase in which we can improve our political system in a manner that truly allows the Lebanese to have a real state. This requires His Excellency, the president, to immediately, clearly and frankly send a direct letter to the parliament speaker on the implementation of Article 95 of the Constitution. This is how we can be serious about the issue,” Khalil went on to say.
Answering a reporter's question, the minister said: “We are not in a battle against anyone or against Minister Bassil. We do not consider ourselves to be in a battle against his political movement, but rather in a battle to achieve real reform in the country.”
“This country cannot be ruled unilaterally or through two- or three-party agreements,” Khalil warned.
In his press conference, Bassil accused Khalil's AMAL Movement of making false allegations about “a Christian-Sunni agreement against Shiites” and of seeking to sow discord between Bassil's Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbullah and also between the FPM and “the Sunni and Druze components.”
Source: Naharnet
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