Hariri Urges End to Bickering amid FPM-LF War of Words
As a renewed war of words between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces escalates, Prime Minister Saad Hariri has stressed the need to abide by Lebanon's self-declared dissociation policy and not to engage in heated debates that might derail the government's work.
"PM Hariri's stances and missions stem from the government's Policy Statement, especially in terms of the dissociation policy and the Arab League's resolutions,” Hariri's adviser Nadim al-Munla told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Sunday.
“PM Hariri calls on parties concerned to refrain from engaging in any political exchanges that might derail the government's work from its track in this period, and he is in contact with all ministers in this regard,” Munla added.
Calls for coordinating with Damascus in order to repatriate Syrian refugees have sparked a new clash between the FPM and the LF.
“Shallow thinking is thinking that it is okay if the displaced remain here for a few extra years as long as some ambassadors are satisfied, whereas strategic thinking is to confront no matter what we endure, because our identity is threatened and not only our economy,” FPM chief MP Jebran Bassil has said.
“They once said that we were xenophobic and today they are saying that we support normalization with Syria, but we are the Free Patriotic Movement, and we tell them that bravery should have been when the Syrian (regime) was here, not when it return to Syria,” Bassil added.
Deputy PM Ghassan Hasbani of the LF meanwhile warned that "normalization with the Assad regime means that Lebanon has started to engage in the game of axes in the region, making it part of the conflicts, and this is against the dissociation policy that we agreed on."
"Everyone backs the return of the refugees," he said.
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