Geagea: No One Wants to Target Shiites in Lebanon

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed Monday that “no one wants to target Shiites in Lebanon,” in connection with the ongoing row over representation in the new government.

“Some are trying to depict what’s happening in the issue of the formation of the government as being targeted against Shiites, and some have gone to the extent of saying that they will not accept the elimination of an entire sect,” Geagea said in a statement.

He added: “These atmospheres are totally distant from reality, seeing as no one wants to target Shiites in Lebanon. Shiites are a historic and essential component in this country and no one can or wants to eliminate an entire sect. No one is thinking of this and we will not tolerate anything of this sort.”

Geagea, however, explained that the objective is to “overcome the tragedy that we have been suffering for the past months or rather years.”

He added that this “tragedy” is the “distribution of shares” among the ruling political forces “at the level of the executive authority,” which according to Geagea, led to the rise of “statelets within the state” and to the “paralysis of the government and institutions as well as corruption.”

“The French initiative came to present a different proposal for salvation: a government without a distribution of shares as the primary condition, and a government whose members are not named by the ruling blocs,” the LF leader said.

Warning that Hizbullah and Amal Movement’s insistence on retaining the finance portfolio will push other parties to cling to the portfolios they currently hold, Geagea pointed out that such a scenario would produce a government similar to the previous ones.

“Accordingly, we support the full rotation of portfolios among sects and parties, and we totally reject that the ruling blocs name ministers in the government,” the LF leader added.