Mustaqbal Stresses 'Commitment to March 14', Calls for 'Seizing Chance' of Hariri's Initiative

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed Tuesday its “commitment” to the March 14 coalition as it called for “seizing the chance” created by “ex-PM Saad Hariri's efforts to end the presidential vacuum.”

The bloc emphasizes on “the importance of the efforts that ex-PM Saad Hariri did and is still doing to launch an initiative that would end the presidential vacuum,” it said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

It was referring to a new momentum in the country that followed a Paris meeting between Hariri and Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh. The talks sparked intense speculation that a deal was in the making for the election of Franjieh as president.

The Hariri-Franjieh initiative was however met by objections and reservations from Christian parties in both of the March 8 and March 14 camps.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc warned in its statement that “the country is going through an extremely dangerous situation amid growing threats in the region,” urging all parties to “exert efforts to elect a new president, which would lead the country into a new phase that would revive the role of state institutions and the vitality of the political life.”

Addressing the unease that the Hariri-Franjieh meeting has created among the ranks of the March 14 forces, the bloc stressed its “commitment to the coalition of the March 14 forces and the principles on which the Independence Uprising was built, and its ultimate faith in the goals that the March 14 forces are struggling for.”

“Today more than ever, the bloc holds onto the principles of the March 14 forces which are based on deep-rooted belief in coexistence and in a democratic system based on freedom and respect for human rights,” Mustaqbal added.

It also stressed keenness on “extending the state's ultimate sovereignty across all regions.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, al-Mustaqbal's main Christian ally, has recently warned that the March 14 coalition “must not make any step unless it serves the principles and objectives of March 14.”

“'March 14 First' means carefully and fully heeding the voices of hundreds of thousands of people who took to the squares of freedom on March 14, 2005,” Geagea said.

Y.R.