UK Ambassador Urges Govt. to Show 'Commitment to Reforms'
British Ambassador to Lebanon Chris Rampling met Thursday with Prime Minister Hassan Diab at the Grand Serail.
After the meeting, Rampling said: “The formation of a new government is an important step for Lebanon. The UK has been consistent in calling for the urgent formation of an effective and credible government, which reflects the aspirations of the Lebanese people.”
He added that along with “other members of the international community,” Britain stands ready to “support Lebanon.”
He, however, noted that the government must first “demonstrate its commitment to the reforms which Lebanon desperately needs.”
The meeting was also attended by Lebanon’s new environment and administrative development minister Demianos Qattar, who had served as finance and economy minister in the past and was once nominated for the Lebanese presidency.
23 January 2020, 20:05
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Rampling specifically cited, as needful of reform, Article Twenty-Four of the Lebanese constitution which assigns half of the seats to its legislature, the Chamber of Deputies, to Christians, who make up about a quarter of the population. He said, "This may have made sense when France was trying to cling to its former Syrian domains, but now this is just a mandate for instability and insecurity."
23 January 2020, 21:51
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Not 1 cent should be given to Hizbollah government. They are not fooling anyone. Hizbollah cost to Lebanese economy is in the hundreds of biliion dollars. It bankrupted the country, eliminated investments, scared away all western firms, made Lebanon an armed outpost for Iran radicals, and now its puppet government want to mortgage the future of our kids and steal their money. We object to all acts of violence, but we'll prepare for the million-person march on Feb 14 and we'll write all governments to put Bassil and his cronies on the list of supporting terrorists. We will liberate Lebanon from Iran's Hizbollah or divide the country and join the European Union like Cyprus.
