The UN commission headed up Cardinal Sfeir takes a decision of no decision on Lahoud
Nov 07, 2005
Lebanon's Maronite Christian bishops on Wednesday urged an end to mounting pressure on pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud to resign. The Council of Maronite Bishops said that calls for Lahoud's resignation "has got Lebanon into an awkward situation. The presidency should remain above this dispute."
(yalibnan.com, 3 November, 2005) Beirut - The bishops said that the situation "harms the economic situation" and that the "constitution has the last word in such cases", indicating they support Lahoud completing his term.
Lahoud is facing pressure to resign following the February killing of Rafik Al Hariri, and after a UN report implicated Syrian security officials and Lebanese allies in the murder.
"This dispute is paralyzing political activity in Lebanon and distracting officials from taking an interest in deteriorating daily affairs of citizens", the bishops said.
by Judge Detlev Mehlis has reported that a member of the Al Ahbash group suspected of involvement in Hariri's murder had called president Lahoud on his cellular phone minutes before the bomb explosion that killed Hariri on February 14. Lahoud denied the report.
Some political analysts think that Cardinal Sfeir, the spiritual leader of the Christian community has been under tremendous pressure to act on replacing Lahoud. His reluctance to act stems from the fact that there is no clear cut candidate that he could name that will be able to satisfy all the Lebanese. Obviously Sfeir did not want to take the decision of no decision on his own and that is why the decision not to act on the presidency at this stage is a collective decision by all the bishops.
Will this decision of no decision stop the pressure on Sfeir? Not really...
Lahoud is so isolated at this stage that he has almost completely lost his legitimacy as the president of the republic. The majority of the Lebanese associate Lahoud with the Syrian occupation. Most feel that Lahoud should have stepped down when the Syrians left Lebanon in April. After all, president Assad forced the Lebanese parliament to amend the Lebanese constitution and again forced it to vote to extend Lahoud's term by another 3 years.
The most important issue here is not the president but the presidency. If the presidency loses its importance as a key power base, this will be bad news for Lebanon, since we will lose the check and balance system of government that was established by the Taif Accord.
Even though the president should be a Christian Maronite, he is supposed to be the president of all the Lebanese. Cardinal Sfeir therefore has a national responsibility to exercise and quickly. The time to act is now! If Sfeir does not want to name a single candidate, he should at least come up with a list of candidates, and let the parliament decide. There are many Maronite leaders that qualify. Lahoud should go to preserve the Republic, not a disgraced individual.
The UN commission headed up Cardinal Sfeir takes a decision of no decision on Lahoud