March 14 Calls on Miqati, Cabinet to Commit to 1757 or Step Down
Following a broad meeting for the March 14 forces at the Bristol Hotel in Beirut on Sunday, the coalition called on Prime Minister Najib Miqati and his government to announce their commitment to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1757, which established the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, or step down.
“As a national, democratic opposition … we call on the premier to openly and directly declare his commitment to Resolution 1757 in parliament on Tuesday morning, and to announce his commitment to the practical steps for implementing this resolution, or to step down along with his government,” the March 14 forces said in a statement recited by former premier Fouad Saniora after the meeting.
The March 14 forces described Saturday’s speech by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as a “rhetoric that relies on the hegemony of arms and force over all the Lebanese, the thing that confirms that the government is subject to this rhetoric.”
“Justice, especially when it is in competent and trusted hands, is our essential means today for protecting Lebanon and preventing its return to the pre-2005 Cedar Revolution era, at a time the Arab peoples have broken the walls of their prisons and started to embrace the dawn of freedom and dignity,” the coalition said.
“The waves of assassinations flourished amid the presence of illegal weapons and … it is unacceptable anymore that illegal arms maintain hegemony over the State,” the March 14 forces stressed in their statement.
“March 14 is adhered to the implementation of all the resolutions of international legitimacy, especially Resolution 1757 in all its stipulations,” the coalition stressed.
It also voiced its commitment to “confronting the path that has been undermining coexistence, the State and the political system, which had started with the armed takeover of the capital in 2008, and which was not halted by the Doha Accord, March 14 forces’ victory in the 2009 elections, the (formation of) national unity governments, or our continuous efforts to put the considerations of national reconciliation above all else.”
That’s why “we will continue our struggle in order to end this hegemony which is reliant on weapons,” the March 14 forces vowed.
They pledged that they will “start seeking to topple this government, which is the result of a coup, starting Tuesday, should the premier fail to declare his commitment to Resolution 1757.”
The conferees also decided to “launch an Arab and international political campaign aimed at liberating the republic from the captivity of weapons, and to ask the Arab governments and the international community not to cooperate with this government should it fail to implement the Resolution 1757’s stipulations.”
“We have been with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and we will keep on backing it for the sake of fulfilling justice, preserving the dignity and rights of the Lebanese martyrs and citizens, and immunizing political life against the acts of assassination,” the March 14 forces pledged.
They concluded the statement by saying: “No to Hizbullah’s government. Yes to freedom and justice. Yes to coexistence, democracy and the Constitution. Glory to Lebanon and immortality to our martyrs.”
The STL on Thursday submitted to the Lebanese authorities a sealed indictment and arrest warrants in the case of the 2005 assassination of Hariri and his companions.
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