Maronite Bishops Call for Dialogue, Say Cabinet Issue Should be Resolved within Constitutional Framework
Maronite Bishops urged on Wednesday Lebanese politicians to cooperate with President Michel Suleiman's call for dialogue, saying the cabinet issue should be resolved within the constitutional framework.
Following their monthly meeting under Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and with the partial attendance of papal envoy Cardinal Robert Sarah, the bishops urged “all politicians to abide by the Baabda Declaration and mainly the article that calls for steering Lebanon clear of conflicts.”
“The crisis in the country over mainly the cabinet issue cannot be solved outside the national constitutional principles,” the council of Maronite bishops said in its statement.
The Lebanese should “hold onto national unity and legitimate institutions,” it said, urging them not to jump into an unknown that would let the country face a mysterious fate.”
The March 14 opposition has called for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Miqati's cabinet and the formation of a new salvation government following the Oct. 19 assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan.
The coalition has also refused to sit at the national dialogue table with Hizbullah despite insistence by President Michel Suleiman to resolve the deepened rift at the all-party talks at Baabda palace.
In their statement, the bishops condemned al-Hasan's assassination and called on the state to speed up the payment of compensations to the families whose homes and property were damaged in the car bomb blast that killed al-Hasan and two others, including his bodyguard.
The council also called for holding the 2013 parliamentary elections through a new law that guarantees the best representation of all factions.
It congratulated al-Rahi on his appointment as cardinal and welcomed Sarah, who has been tasked by Pope Benedict XVI with visiting Lebanon “to express his compassion with the Syrian people and its suffering.”
Benedict called for peace in Syria on Wednesday but admitted that a planned visit by a Vatican delegation to the conflict-torn country would not go ahead because of conditions in Syria.
Circumstances in Syria "have not rendered possible" the visit, the pope said at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, adding that he had dispatched Sarah to Lebanon to discuss the crisis.
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