Abou Faour: Protests Can't Elect a President, Hizbullah Exerting Major Efforts

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour has stressed that “the election of the president must take place in parliament, not in street protests.”

Denying that Lebanon is going through a “National Pact crisis,” the minister said “no sect is seeking to dominate another.”

“There is a political crisis resulting from a host of political demands for an influential political group, some of which are rightful,” Abou Faour added.

“However, the main National Pact flaw is the vacancy of the presidential post,” the minister noted.

Lamenting that “the presidential void will likely protract for another long period,” Abou Faour cautioned that “popular protests will not achieve anything and might complicate things further.”

“The Free Patriotic Movement does not need to prove the strength of its popular representation and we have all tried the game of resorting to street protests,” the minister added.

“Hizbullah, like all forces, is keen on stability and it is exerting major efforts to restore the government's political quorum,” Abou Faour stated.

“Prime Minister Tammam Salam is giving a chance to these efforts and he does not want an escalation out of his keenness on institutions and his assessment of the threats, and we support him in this responsible approach,” the minister added.

The FPM, which has the biggest Christian bloc in parliament, has suspended its participation in cabinet sessions and national dialogue meetings over accusations that other parties in the country are not respecting the National Pact.

The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state based on Christian-Muslim partnership.

The FPM's boycott of cabinet meetings was initially linked to the thorny issue of military and security appointments. The movement has long voiced reservations over the government's decision-taking mechanism in the absence of a president.

Addressing Salam, FPM chief Jebran Bassil has recently warned that “the son of late PM Saeb Salam must pay great attention when he says that the government is respecting the National Pact when it convenes in the presence of ministers representing only six percent of a main component of the country (Christians).”

Bassil has also warned that the country might be soon plunged into a “political system crisis” if the other parties do not heed the FPM's demands regarding Muslim-Christian “partnership.”

The FPM has also announced that it will resort to street protests to press for its demands.

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh has hit back at Bassil over the issue of Christian representation, saying Marada and the other Christian parties in the cabinet “represent a lot more than six percent.”