Bassil Calls for Election of New President, Democratic Electoral Law
Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil stressed on Sunday the importance of electing a new head of state and the drafting of a more democratic and just electoral law.
“Lebanon is in the eye of the storm... Instability in the region and the Syrian conflict have repercussions on our country, which is facing the most dangerous existential threat in its recent history,” Bassil said from Dakar during his statement at the La Francophone summit.
The 15th Summit of La Francophonie kicked off on Saturday in Dakar's Senegal, in the presence of around 35 heads of state and delegation leaders.
Bassil, who headed the Lebanese delegation to Dakar, called for the election of a new head of state without any foreign interference.
“We are calling on you to help Lebanon and let the Lebanese live in peace.”
Lebanon has been without a president since May when the term of Michel Suleiman ended over differences among the parliamentary blocs on a compromise head of state.
Concerning the Syrian refugees crisis, Bassil said that the number of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon surpassed two millions in compare with Lebanon's 4-million population.
“Lebanon is seeking to achieve a balance between the humanitarian needs of the refugees and the country's nonnegotiable right to preserve its stability.”
The minister pointed out that the cabinet adopted a clear strategy in this regard.
Lebanon has all but shut its frontiers to new refugees, allowing only humanitarian exceptions across, and the state is beyond its absorption capacities and urgently needs other countries to share its burden.
Lebanon had said it would ask the U.N. to stop registering refugees who enter the country from war-torn Syria, formalizing a decision to all but close its borders to them.
It already hosts more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees, an enormous strain for a country with a population of just four million.
The influx has tested overstretched infrastructure and created fresh tensions.
Bassil also lashed out at the terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, that are threatening the country's security.
“These organizations are spreading ideologies that are far from our culture and political system.”
He noted that the army is firmly responding and combating these groups to eradicate them.
A battle between Lebanese troops and militants in northern Lebanon was widely expected after members of the Islamic State group and al-Qaida's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, launched several attacks in areas on the border with Syria.
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