Aoun Slams Christian Foes over Electoral Law Delay, Accuses Them of Harming Christians
Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday complained that “no progress has been made concerning the electoral law” under which the 2013 parliamentary polls will be held, blaming his Christian rivals, the Lebanese Forces and the Phalange Party, for the delay.
“I hold responsible those who are rejecting the laws proposed by the Orthodox Gathering and the government, because they are obstructing justice, especially the LF and the Phalange Party. Their stance is a commodity for sale and they are claiming to be defending the rights of Christians,” said Aoun after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.
“I don't know what 'consolation prizes' the LF and the Phalange Party will get, but that will definitely harm Christians,” Aoun added.
Recalling the 2008 Doha Conference, where he pushed for implementing the 1960 electoral law in the 2009 elections, Aoun said: “Yes, in Doha we 'liberated' 10 parliamentary seats for Christians in the North and 11 in other regions, but we accepted the 1960 law for one time only because it was so much better than the 2000 law, and we were not ashamed of what we did in Doha.”
Slamming the draft law proposed by the LF and the Phalange Party, Aoun said “dividing Lebanon into 50 electorates is aimed at achieving political ends.”
He vowed that “the 50 electorates law will not be passed in parliament, even if the parliamentary committee approves it.”
“If the LF and the Phalange Party are with the law proposed by the Orthodox Gathering, (under which each sect would elect its own MPs), let them support it,” Aoun added.
“As long as the country is sectarian, I will keep defending the rights of Christians,” he pledged.
Asked about the blast that recently hit a Hizbullah arms cache in the Bekaa town of Nabi Sheet, Aoun said: “Everyone knows that the Resistance has missiles that can reach Haifa and beyond, so storing them in several locations should not surprise anyone. This is normal and I'm speaking technically and not trying to defend Hizbullah. No one should be surprised that they have a huge amount of ammunition.”
“I hope we will reach a stage during which the army will be capable of defending the country and the country would benefit from that,” Aoun added.
Asked about Al-Arabiya television's report that claimed Hizbullah was involved in the 2005 assassination of prominent MP and journalist Gebran Tueni, Aoun said: “When judicial authorities have their say, we will voice our opinion, and if the charges are confirmed, we will voice a very strong condemnation.”
Asked whether he supports referring Tueni's case to the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Aoun said: “Let the judiciary decide.”
Hizbullah on Monday denied involvement in Tueni's assassination, after Al-Arabiya television broadcast Saturday a report claiming that Damascus and Hizbullah's intelligence department were behind the operation.
“Al-Arabiya's document on Hizbullah is fake and not everything published is a real document and you can tell that from the content,” Hizbullah's State Minister for Administrative Development Mohammed Fneish told reporters as he entered a cabinet session at the Grand Serail.
Later on Monday, Hizbullah issued an official statement denying “any involvement whatsoever” in Tueni's assassination, saying it is “awaiting the judiciary's ruling in this case.”
“With the help of members of the intelligence department of Lebanon's Hizbullah, Mission 213, which was assigned to them on December 10, has been successfully accomplished with excellent results,” said an allegedly leaked Syrian document obtained by Al-Arabiya.
The document, dated December 12, 2005, was sent by head of the operations department in the Syrian intelligence, Hasan Abdul Rahman, to then chief of national security department Assef Shawkat, according to Al-Arabiya.
“In concurrence with Assef Shawkat's letter on accomplishing the mission and on the same day the letter was sent to the Syrian presidential palace, a booby-trapped car was awaiting Lebanese lawmaker Gebran Tueni to end his life while on his way to work, in an assassination operation described as mysterious back then,” Al-Arabiya added.
A leaked U.S. Embassy cable dated December 19, 2005 said Syria was likely behind Tueni's assassination in 2005, which was aimed at silencing his caustic remarks against the regime of President Bashar Assad.
The WikiLeaks cable, which was published exclusively in al-Jumhouriya newspaper, added that the assassination was also a message to the Lebanese opposition that “no one can protect them.”
Source: Naharnet
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