By Hussein Abdallah
BEIRUT: The heated debate over
Lebanon’s deportation of 14 Syrians cooled over the weekend as Damascus
reportedly released all of the men, leading the opposition March 14 coalition
to play down its calls for the Cabinet to resign over the issue.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati defended
last week’s deportation of the 14 Syrians because the men had been convicted of
criminal offenses. “There are Syrian detainees in Lebanon accused of crimes
related to politics. Syrian authorities are asking for their handover, [but] we
have rejected their request,” Mikati explained.
He added that General Security’s
decision to expel the 14 was not related to politics or events in Syria, adding
that six of the 14 men had attacked a Lebanese Army officer and vandalized his
house, four men forged official signatures, two carried out thefts, one was
convicted of sexual assault and another distributed pornographic movies.
“The humanitarian reality of the
Syrian refugees should not preclude the implementation of court rulings against
perpetrators of crimes or offenses which have nothing to do with politics,”
Mikati said.
Al-Jadeed television said Saturday
all of the 14 men were released by Syrian security forces, and one of them,
Tarek al-Hamawi, had already returned to Lebanon.
Progressive Socialist Party leader
MP Walid Jumblatt, whose party is represented in Mikati’s Cabinet, had earlier
criticized the deportation of the Syrians and demanded the government sack the
head of General Security if need be.
Amid rumors that Jumblatt had
relayed a strong message to Mikati over the issue, the PSP issued a statement
Sunday denying any such message had been sent to the premier, adding that any
misunderstanding between Jumblatt and Mikati would be sorted out between the
two leaders away from the media.
Meanwhile, Mikati was quoted as
saying he was ready for the possibility of forming a new government to replace
the current one.
“The Cabinet can go today, before
tomorrow, I don’t have a problem [with this],” An-Nahar quoted him as saying.
“Beware of thinking that I am
attached to it. On the contrary, I’d prefer to form a government of one
[political stripe], like in any other country in the world. And when this is
possible –and I hope it will be soon – I will be ready,” the prime minister
said.
Mikati added that his government,
which is dominated by the March 8 coalition, has succeeded in resolving some
issues, but admitted that it failed in other fields “as a result of known
political complications.”
“Beware of thinking for a moment
that anyone can use the fate of the government to intimidate us,” he said.
Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj
Hassan also defended the Cabinet, saying it has kept up stability in the
country, despite its flaws. “This government, despite all its flaws, has
handled many sensitive issues with patience, thus maintaining stability in the
country,” he said during an iftar banquet in the southern town of Bint Jbeil
Saturday.
Since the formation of Mikati’s
Cabinet in June last year, the opposition March 14 coalition has repeatedly
demanded the resignation of the government and has held it responsible for all
security and socio-economic problems, including assassination attempts on
opposition figures.
In a bid to defuse political tension
in the country, President Michel Sleiman had called for a national dialogue
that brings together March 8 and the March 14 forces. After two rounds of talks
at Baabda Palace, both sides remained in standoff over discussing a national
defense strategy.
The March 14 coalition insists that
the only issue on the dialogue’s agenda should be the fate of Hezbollah’s
military arsenal, a demand that the March 8 forces have repeatedly shunned,
accusing their rivals of trying to disarm the Shiite group rather than
developing a way to protect Lebanon from Israeli aggression.
Another round of talks is scheduled
to take place on Aug. 16 under Sleiman, who moved over the weekend from Baabda
to his summer residence in Beiteddine.
March 14 MP Ahmad Fatfat said his
coalition was still discussing whether to participate in next week’s talks. “We
are still discussing whether to participate in the next round of dialogue. We
are reluctant because of Hezbollah’s position on the national defense
strategy,” he told LBCI television Sunday.
“Will Hezbollah accept the
dialogue’s agenda? And if it did, will it commit to carrying out the dialogue’s
recommendations?” he said.
“Every time the president tries to
move a step forward, the other side comes out with a political discourse that
takes us back to square one,” Fatfat said. Fatfat was hinting at a speech by
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah in which he went beyond the issue of
discussing a defense strategy to call for finding ways to liberate the
remaining occupied territories, mainly the Shebaa Farms and the Lebanese part
of the border town of Al-Ghajar.
Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms is disputed
territory between Lebanon and Syria. Lebanese governments in the past have
repeatedly called for a demarcation of borders between the two neighbors to
decide the fate of the land. Damascus believes a demarcation is not possible
while the area remains under Israeli control.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Aug-06/183528-release-of-deportees-cools-calls-for-new-cabinet.ashx#axzz22kAg3sDl
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