Al-Khalil says 'sectarianism' blocking port probe-related decree, not him
Caretaker Finance Minister Youssef al-Khalil on Friday defended himself in the face of accusations blaming him for blocking a judicial appointments decree that would allow the probe into the Beirut port blast to resume.
“Youssef al-Khalil wants justice for the port’s victims and for their families. He wants it yesterday rather than today and today rather than tomorrow. It would have been easy for me to sign the draft decree and claim false heroism by sending the time bomb to the premier and the president, seeing as their signatures are also needed,” Khalil said at a press conference.
“This decree does not only concern the appointments related to the port blast’s probe, but also a host of various judicial appointments,” he noted.
“Let me tell the families that I had worked, since day one, to remove the obstacles preventing the signing of the decree, and I relentlessly followed up on the issue and was promised that it would be resolved several times,” Khalil added.
“My mistake is that I tried to play the role of the mediator in the arena of the sectarian spider so that we all achieve the results we want,” the minister went on to say.
He also stressed that “what has blocked and is still blocking the decree is not Youssef al-Khalil but rather sectarianism.”
Source: Naharnet
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