Abu Faour Meets Berri, Warns against Disregarding Taef Accord

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Dispatched by Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, MP Wael Abu Faour held talks Monday in Ain el-Tineh with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, amid a growing spat between the latter and President Michel Aoun over a disputed decree.

“It seems that the debate over this issue has started to raise another debate over the issue of the Taef Accord and the need to respect its stipulations and spirit,” Abu Faour said after the meeting.

“We cannot accept the claim that the seniority decree has become behind us and that the debate over this issue should end. The decree has not become behind us and it has not entered into effect,” Abu Faour stressed, emphasizing that “there is still a constitutional dispute over this matter and there is still a national and political problem that should be addressed through talks.”

Noting that Prime Minister Saad Hariri is trying to mediate to resolve the Aoun-Berri spat, the lawmaker urged “respect for the Taef Accord,” pointing out that the 1989 agreement “is not only a text but also a spirit.”

“This spirit stands for partnership: national partnership in decisions and in state institutions. We hope some parties do not have the intent to disregard the Taef Accord,” Abu Faour went on to say.

The Aoun-Berri spat broke out after the president and the premier signed a decree granting one-year seniority to a number of officers. Berri and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil have insisted that the decree should have also carried the finance minister's signature.

Aoun and his aides have argued that the decree did not require Khalil's signature because it did not entail any “financial burden,” a point Berri and officials close to him have argued against.

Ain el-Tineh sources have meanwhile warned that the decree would tip sectarian balance in favor of Christians in the army's highest echelons.

The officers in question were undergoing their first year of officer training at the Military Academy when Syrian forces ousted Aoun's military government from Baabda in 1990. They were suspended by the pro-Damascus authorities until 1993 before they resumed their officer training course as second-year cadets.

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