By NNN-KUNA,
Beirut : The committee — entrusted with drafting the manifesto that will enable the government to win over the approval of the parliament so as to start ruling the country in earnest — announced Friday it had finally completed drafting the much-awaited document.
The draft policy statement will be turned over to the cabinet for its perusal after which it will go the parliament for its endorsement, in full accordance with the terms of the constitution, said minister of Information Tariq Metri, following a meeting of the committee headed by prime minister Fuad al-Siniora.
The policy statement mentions in a special passage the right of the Lebanese army and people to complete liberating occupied lands, said Metri, adding that the committee was cognizant of the enormity of the task it had been given and worked hard to bring out a document that would satisfy all political persuations and blocs.
What kept the committee from issuing the draft policy statement sooner was the issue of arming resistance groups such as Hizbollah which had become a bone of contention between the majority bloc in the parliament and the oppposition.
Majority representative in the parliament and minister of state Naseeb Lahoud told reporters after the conclusion of today’s committee meeting that the draft manifesto “deals head-on with the political and economic challenges facing the average Lebanese citizens who go about their daily chores seeking a decent living.” Picking one misgiving in the draft statement, he underlined that the passage about arming resistance groups such as Hizbollah should have mentioned that all issues pertaining to resistance and liberation of occupied lands ought to be the sole responsibility of the government and only the government. However, he said, that did not deter the committee members from coming to a consensus about what the document should emphasise.
A member of the opposition, on the other hand, who sat on the drafting committee, and is minister of communications — Gibran Basil — said that the committee thrashed candidly the question of armed Palestinians outside of their alloted refugee camps. The government, he assured, was adamant about addressing that issue.
Furthermore, he noted that the committee discussed the problem of not allowing the permanent repatriation of Palestinian refugees on the Lebanese soil, stressing that Lebanon should not be burdened by itself with having to find a solution for what is essentially a dilemma that faces the Arab states collectively.
It is expected by some observers that next Monday the cabinet will convene to endorse the policy statement in its completed form.
The new government of national unity is made up of 30 ministers and is the first in the administration of president Michel Sleiman, who was elected for his post last May 25, only four days after the Doha Accord which in effect put an end to a Lebanese domestic crisis that protracted for over one and a half years.