Mustaqbal 'Optimistic' about post-Cabinet Era, Looks forward to Suleiman's Role

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc expressed on Tuesday that it sees “the future in a positive light now after the cabinet has resigned”, noting that it looks forwards to the role President Michel Suleiman will play.

"Suleiman's openness to all factions and his respect for constitutional requirements will allow a transition towards a stage of cooperation between political parties,” al-Mustaqbal said in a released statement after the lawmakers' weekly meeting at the Center House.

The MPs remarked: “As such, we can stay away from the region's turmoil”.

"We demand the formation of a cabinet that can hold a free parliamentary elections as soon as possible based on a law that assures just representation”.

Al-Mustaqbal also urged the cabinet to call for national dialogue sessions.

Commenting on Prime Minister Najib Miqati's “long-awaited resignation”, the MPs stated that the cabinet “violated people's will at the election polls and was formed after a black coup,”

They said the cabinet's era was characterized with “the dominance of militia over legal authorities”, listing thoroughly what they called the “practices and abuses against Lebanon and its people”.

"This cabinet was close to overthrowing the political system in Lebanon and transforming it instead into a totalitarian one,” al-Mustaqbal's statement said.

“It almost turned the country into an exporter of sectarian and civil wars”.

Miqati announced last week his resignation after a cabinet session in which he failed to pass the extension of Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi's term and the formation of the committee to oversee the elections, stressing that all political forces must shoulder their responsibilities to “pull Lebanon out of the unknown”.

Separately, al-Mustaqbal hailed the Arab League's decision to offer Syria's opposition a seat at Tuesday's summit in Doha: “This step will constitute a transitory path towards Syria's democratic and civil future that would reflect people's aspirations”.