Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun said, at a press conference after the bloc’s weekly meeting on Wednesday, that he is concerned about the United Nation’s performance because it is not pressuring Israel to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
He said that the remarks about the South Lebanon incidents -a reference to last week’s series of explosions of what is thought to be an underground Hezbollah arms storage facility in Kherbet Selem, its residents’ clashes with UNIFIL forces as well as the Kfar Shouba event, during which people, led by Development and Liberation bloc MP Qassem Hashem, cut through barbed wire laid by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) near Baathaiil Lake and staked Lebanese and Hezbollah flags over an Israeli observation post - are upsetting. Western countries, including US, Israel and the EU fear the presence of hidden rockets in South Lebanon, but do not mention daily Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, he said.
“We do not want anyone to talk about Hezbollah’s arms anymore. The insolence should stop. Our weapons are nothing compared to the weapons Israel receives from other countries.”
On the cabinet formation, Aoun called for the majority to speed up the process, adding that the Lebanese should stop “waiting around” for foreign states to interfere. However, he said that the fear is not from “the outside states, but from the inside.”
“We are standing still. No one with free will accepts to stand in such a position. We refuse this submission to external powers,” he said.
When asked about Speaker Nabih Berri’s optimism about the government’s formation before the end of July, Aoun said he hopes that the speaker’s expectations are “right.”
He reiterated his demand for proportional representation in the new cabinet, adding the shares and portfolios of the new government have not been set yet.
Aoun also touched upon the relation between Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt and the Syrian regime, saying, “I am not even close to Jumblatt. I do not know how he handles the Syrian issue. However, I do know that pigeons always return to their flock, and Jumblatt has a flock,” a reference to Syria.
-NOW Staff