2008-06-09

Security: Pretext to Delay Government Formation?

Security: Pretext to Delay Government Formation?

Readers Number : 698

09/06/2008 "There are no difficulties in the formation of a national-unity government," Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman said on Sunday.

However, while the Lebanese treasured their president's optimistic statement, there was no breakthrough looming, one week and a half after Fouad Saniora was designated to form the government. Instead, the security situation returned into light in an obvious attempt to turn the focus away from the new government complications within the ruling bloc.

Indeed, fabricated security incidents continue to take place on a daily basis in specific regions in Lebanon, in recurrent violation to the decisions taken Thursday by the Central Security Council. On Sunday, for instance, clashes erupted in Saadnayel and Taalabaya, in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A day earlier, Future movement members assaulted Lebanese citizen Ali Sabra who was working in Tarik Jdide. The Lebanese National Opposition had presented President Suleiman, Speaker Berri and PM Designate Saniora with a list of violations and attacks against citizens by Future Movement and Progressive Socialist Party members in Beirut, south Beirut, north Lebanon and Mount Lebanon.

It goes without saying that the various incidents are pushed by political considerations particularly when the Future movement decided to suspend consultations on government formation under the pretext of individual security incidents. According to observers, the loyalty bloc is in fact exploiting the situation to delay the government formation, given the many problems it's still facing within its own body to satisfy all its components and reach an acceptable ministerial assortment.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah stressed its refusal to use the fabricated incidents as a pretext to disavow the Doha Agreement signed on May 21 between loyalty and opposition leaders, urging the security forces to assume their responsibilities.

"When any security incidents happen, there is a normal security reference in the government, and that is the Internal Security Forces and the Lebanese judicial system," Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Kassem told Kuwaiti daily Al-Dar. "I do not think that continuous reference to the presence of armed men in the streets will address existing problems in a practical way," he added, stressing that "the army is controlling the situation in Beirut in coordination with security forces."

For his part, Minister of Work in the caretaker government Trad Hamade said that security services were responsible for preserving security, accusing "some political groups" of obstructing the agreement that was reached over the security plan established by the Central Security Council. "In order to reach a national-unity government, everyone must be committed to the Doha Agreement and to the distribution of power shares that it lays out," he told Voice of Lebanon on Monday.

On Sunday, member of Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Hussein Hajj Hasan urged security agencies to apprehend troublemakers from all sides stating that "we are responsible for all the citizens."
Addressing a rally in Baalbeck, Hajj Hasan also called for refraining from manipulating security incidents to escalate tension, stressing it should be contained and defused to safeguard the Doha Accord. "We presented our list of attacks to the three top officials but, unlike the loyalty bloc, we did not exploit these incident to increase tension or delay the formation of the government," he said.

Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah also stressed the importance to abide by the Doha accord, slamming the delaying of government formation as an "open maneuver that aims at dispelling its achievements concerning participation.
He stressed this delaying wouldn't serve the agreement warning that any attempt to disavow it result in negative repercussions holding the obstructers complete responsibility and calling to form the government as soon as possible.

No comments: