Aoun urges no govt. formation obstacles, says state responsible for facing Israel
President Joseph Aoun noted Tuesday that “Shiites are not the only ones threatened, but rather entire Lebanon,” reiterating that “if one of us loses, we all lose.”
“We have very big opportunities that we must seize together and there is no time to waste,” Aoun told a delegation from the Higher Islamic Shiite Council led by Sheikh Ali al-Khatib.
“Reconstruction is necessary and this is the first item on my agenda and one of the reasons that pushes me to speed up the government’s formation, so that I begin visiting foreign nations to ask for assistance in reconstruction,” the president added.
Accordingly, he said that no “obstacles” should be put in the way of the government formation process.
“Any attack on any spot in Lebanon is an attack on entire Lebanon and we are pressing for Israeli withdrawal and the army’s deployment in the south,” Aoun said.
He added that disappeared imam Moussa al-Sadr had “tried to distance Lebanon from conflicts because Lebanon with its size does not possess the capabilities.”
“Unfortunately, had there been a state back then, he would not have been forced to become the imam of the resistance,” Aoun said.
“Had there been a state and an army, no one would have resorted to resistance. Today the phase is different and the state is responsible, not a single component. The entire state and the entire Lebanese people are responsible. It is not acceptable that a single component bear the burden of this conflict, seeing as all Lebanese must take part in bearing its burden,” the president added.
Promising that he will work to secure the release of the Hezbollah fighters that Israel has been holding captive since the latest war, Aoun reassured the Shiite delegation that “no one will defeat anyone, no one will let down anyone and no one will break anyone.”
He added that the appointment of Nawaf Salam as PM-designate on Monday was the result of “a democratic process that led to a certain result.”
Source: Naharnet
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