|
The Council of Maronite
Bishops called on Wednesday for the immediate implementation of the Arab
initiative to solve the deadlock in Lebanon, while sounding the
alarm concerning "strenuous" economic conditions faced by the
Lebanese. The Maronite bishops said it was
unfortunate that a Lebanese president was not able to participate in the
recent Arab summit, especially after the Arab League had stressed the need
to elect a president in Lebanon.
"We call for
internal and external cooperation to implement the Arab initiative to solve
Lebanon's crisis," the bishops said after their monthly meeting in Bkirki.
The three-point
Arab initiative calls for the election of the commander of the Lebanese
Armed Forces, General Michel Suleiman, as a consensus president, the
formation of a national unity government and the drafting of a fair and
representative electoral law.
"The
situation in Lebanon is preventing the country from recovering on the
economic level, and this pushes economic sectors and the working class to
complain of declining living conditions and to threaten strikes," the
bishops said.
"The
present situation could damage summertime tourism. This requires the
government to take steps to facilitate the arrival of tourists to Lebanon,"
they added.
The Maronite bishops said that the government must deal
with the problems regarding the standard of living "in a responsible
manner."
They also said
that some citizens in the Bekaa region have been
complaining that some of their land and water has been taken over.
"We call on
the government to take the necessary measures and to treat everyone with
fairness," the statement added.
national
causes and concern for citizens and the fate of the nation," the
statement read, the council called for the election of the LAF commander as
a consensus candidate as the first step in an initiative "which would
reactivate parliamentary life." The council also called for the
formation of a national unity government "which would in turn agree on
a new parliamentary electoral law that would achieve justice and reflecte the honest will of the Lebanese people."
The statement called
for an end to the opposition sit-in in the Beirut Central District, saying
it had led to "the paralysis of economic life in the heart of the
capital Beirut."
The Hizbullah-led
opposition has been staging a sit-in in downtown Beirut since December 2006 to demand more
say in government decisions.
The council discussed
the recent Arab summit held in Damascus and Lebanon's
decision to boycott the meetings for the first time in the history of Arab
summits. "Lebanon's
absence from the summit works as a political statement rejecting the
presidential vacuum and confirming the Taif
Accord as a basis of the nation," the muftis said.
They invited all Arab
states to work for the implementation of their "constructive
reconciliatory initiative in Lebanon."
|