Miqati Says Syrian Arrest Warrants Political, Legally Void
Prime Minister Najib Miqati said on Saturday that the Syrian arrest warrants against former PM Saad Hariri and al-Mustaqbal lawmaker Oqab Saqr are politically motivated and have no legal value.
“These warrant are political and legally void,” Miqati said during a meeting with Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi at the Grand Serail.
Syrian authorities issued on Tuesday arrest warrants against Hariri, Saqr and Free Syrian Army member Louay al-Meqdad on charges of “arming and financing terrorist groups in Syria.”
However, Media reports said on Thursday that the Interpol will not deal with the Syrian arrest warrants against Hariri, Saqr and al-Meqdad in line with its constitution and rules.
Saqr described the Interpol's announcement as a “heavy blow” to President Bashar Assad and his regime.
Miqati urged officials to join efforts to “save” the country instead of “betting on the foreign variables.”
He considered that his proposal, in which he called on the rival parties to reach and agreement on a new electoral law so that his cabinet would step down, is an appropriate solution for the current political impasse.
“Boycotting the constitutional institutions and escalating the political rhetoric is a suicide,” the premier stressed.
Head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora noted that Miqati's proposal does not help ease the political crisis in Lebanon.
Lebanon plunged in a political crisis in October after the March 14 alliance blamed the government for the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan.
Following al-Hasan's murder in a car bomb blast in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district, the opposition boycotted all parliamentary activity and called for the formation of a salvation cabinet to oversee the parliamentary polls in 2013.
Asked about the recent clashes in the northern city of Tripoli between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, Miqati said that “we provided the army with the political cover to control the situation in the city, we didn't neglect the matter.”
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