Tarek Mitri, the Information Minister announced that the cabinet already has a draft of the statement that is due to present to the nation, in the immediate future.
In spite of its division, the cabinet has to come out with a unified vision of the national and political objectives, to pursue for the good of the country. That is the theory.
The issue of weapons of the resistance to discuss the file on the table of dialogue can only be discussed within the Drafting Committee and the Committee decides whether its members agree on the text submitted to the Cabinet in order embodied in the ministerial statement or any other option, but we have not yet reached the Agreement on that.
Mitri put it nicely. The weapons of the resistance [emphasis mine] will stay as they are. Can we really talk of a national [not private, sectarian etc] defence strategy, as long as the state has no control whatsoever over Hizballah's military wing? I truly don't see how that can happen in practice. Nonetheless, I am sure the cabinet will find a formula, to express just that knowing they are at the hand of Hizballah. Take July 2006 war as example. Again the double standard becomes standard in Lebanese politics.
Aside from this problem, the country has many others, and I hope the statement will address some of them.
In other news, Lebanon complained to UN that Israel is harasing its people.
“Hundreds of people throughout Lebanon received threatening phone calls on their landlines from Israel,” Telecommunications Minister Gebran Bassil said.
“The phone would ring, the person would answer and they would hear a message saying, 'this is from the state of Israel. Abandon Hezbollah or there will be another war, like there was in 2006.”
Meanwhile, the conflict in the North continues, and the security forces have to be firm said MP Ahmad Fatfat of the Future Movement.
I don't think that yesterday's incidents in North Lebanon will lead to a big explosion, but it depends on the decisions the army makes, and the army has a security and political cover in the North.
