MADRID, 7 May 2005 — Lebanese Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, who returns home from exile today, said the Hezbollah militia must not be disarmed by force but persuaded by dialogue and integration into a new national political scene, in an interview published yesterday.
“It must be integrated into Lebanese society and politics, it must remain in the Lebanese context,” he told the daily El Mundo. “That is our point of view and it must be implemented with dexterity because no one wants Lebanon to fall into the abyss again.”
Aoun went into exile in France 15 years ago after mounting a coup in an unsuccessful bid to force Syrian troops out of Lebanon near the end of the country’s long civil war. He is returning after the departure of Syrian forces and the suspension of charges against him linked to testimony he gave to a US congressional committee in September 2003 which were deemed damaging to Lebanon’s relations with Syria.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Parliament will meet today under intense pressure from the opposition in an 11th-hour bid to seek compromise on a controversial electoral law 22 days ahead of much-awaited legislative polls.
It comes as Prime Minister Najib Mikati flew to New York yesterday for talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the elections and Syrian troop withdrawal.
Pro-Syrian Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri issued a terse statement late Thursday saying Parliament would meet this morning after President Emile Lahoud signed a decree to hold elections later this month.
In a series of meeting with opposition leaders, including Christian MPs and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, the speaker said he was opposed to any attempts to throw out the 2000 electoral law. “Over my dead body,” he was quoted as saying by the Beirut press Saturday.
But he told Jumblatt he would agree to a slight amendment to please the opposition, which is demanding greater representation in the elections based on the “qada,” or smaller constituency, rather than the larger “mohafaza.”
“Berri’s compromise is to allow elections on a qada basis across Lebanon, except in the south,” where he can count on the majority vote of his Shiite constituents, Jumblatt told reporters.
Opposition Christian MPs of the Qornet Shahwan movement issued a statement calling on the Lebanese people “to be vigilant and work together, through the elections ... to build a modern country”.
The movement met with Maronite Church leader, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, to discuss today’s parliamentary session, reiterated anew their rejection of the 2000 electoral law. Sfeir later told reporters the polls must provide for a better representation of Christians.
