Omar Karami’s Brother: Our Family is Not Honored by Being Represented by Faisal
Maan Karami, the brother of former Prime Minister Omar Karami, stated on Thursday that the family does not accept “charity” from any side in Lebanon.
He asked his nephew, Youth and Sports Minister Faisal, if he is content that “AMAL presented a major sacrifice of letting go of a ministerial position.”
Addressing former Premier Karami: “You refused having General Sami Minkara assume the position of Tourism Minister in 1993 as your representative, so how can you accept that your son take over the position of Youth and Sports Minister?”
“Is the title of minister just cause to sacrifice the history of his family, which he bluntly said that he does not represent?” he asked during a press conference from Tripoli.
“We thank him for his statement because the family is not honored with him,” Karami continued.
“He earned the position out of AMAL’s charity and one of its leaders said that it made a major sacrifice by abandoning a Shiite position for the Karami family. Does that make him happy?” he wondered.
“Omara has meanwhile carried the family legacy through difficult times … and he left power with his held up high and his conscience clear because for him, governing is a means, not an end,” he stressed.
“We reject the charity and we apologize for not being able to accept the sacrifice that they constantly remind us of,” Maan Karami stated.
He declared: “Whoever accepted the sacrifice must endure its consequences before God and history, which will remember his grandfather Mufti Abdul Hamid and his slain uncle Rashid. He (Faisal) does not represent his position, family, or country.”
Turning to the residents of Tripoli, Karami warned: “Beware of strife and those igniting it. We will not be used to fuel it. Strife is lurking among us and we will refuse charity and others’ sacrifices and whoever accepts them will be judged by history.”
Faisal Karami was chosen as the seventh Sunni minister in cabinet after Speaker Nabih Berri’s AMAL party agreed to sacrifice one of the party’s governmental shares for him.
This is the first time that the government includes seven Sunni ministers and five Shiite ones.
In the past, the governmental positions were divided equally between Lebanon’s three main sects, the Sunnis, Shiites, and Maronites, with each being given six ministers.
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