Gemayel: No Confidence in Govt. 'Architected by Hizbullah'

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel on Wednesday lashed out at Hizbullah during his debate of the Cabinet's Policy Statement in parliament, describing it as the “architect” of the new government.

“The wooden rhetoric is of no use and no government can succeed without an opposition. We will not grant this government our confidence and we hope it will gain our confidence if it works in the right way,” Gemayel said.

“We will not give the government our confidence in advance, because what we have witnessed does not call for confidence in a government that took nine months in the making for the sake of splitting shares. We will not give confidence to a government that lacks confidence among its ministers,” the MP went on to say.

“Is there confidence between the ministers of al-Mustaqbal Movement and Hizbullah or between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces or between the Progressive Socialist Party and the FPM?” he asked.

And noting that Hizbullah has “architected the government,” Gemayel called for “acknowledging that Hizbullah imposed its Druze and Sunni allies and stripped the President of the one-third-plus-one veto power.”

“We will not accept religious 'dhimmism' and we will not accept political 'dhimmism'. A party should not be allowed to implicate a state and this flaw cannot continue,” Gemayel added.

A dhimmi is a historical term referring to non-Muslims living in an Islamic state with legal protection. The word literally means "protected person", referring to the Islamic state's obligation under the Islamic sharia law to protect the individual's life, property, and freedom of religion, in exchange for loyalty to the state and payment of the jizya tax.

“We are not aggressing against anyone but are rather trying to create the minimum foundations for the rise of the state and we want the army to be the sole protector,” Gemayel said.

“Why didn't you stop arbitrary employment before? What has changed? In the statement you said that you will provide 24/7 electricity, will you bring new (power generating) ships?” the MP added, addressing the parties represented in the government.