Suleiman Voices Shame and Pride at End of his Term
President Michel Suleiman expressed pride and shame at the end of his tenure, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Friday.
According to the daily, Suleiman told the employees of the Baabda Palace in a farewell meeting that he was at first ashamed to be elected as a president after the May 7, 2008 incident but now he feels proud for leaving the post in accordance with the democratic norms.
On May 7, 2008 Beirut witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Hizbullah opposition and pro-government gunmen following a decision by the government, then headed by Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, to dismantle Hizbullah’s private telecommunications network.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah deemed the incident as a “glorious day” for the resistance, while the March 14 alliance described it as one of the most troubling developments in recent years.
The outgoing president, who is expected to leave the office on Saturday after a ceremony held at the Baabda Palace, said that he wanted to end his term by handing over the presidency to his successor and not with vacuum prevailing in the country.
“I had a dream to hand over the presidency to a new head of state elected by the parliament but this wasn't achievable,” Suleiman said at the end of his six-year term.
The parliament failed anew on Thursday to elect a president in a fifth session of its kind, raising fears that the vacuum in the country's top Christian post would affect Lebanon's power-sharing agreement under which the president should be a Maronite, the premier a Sunni and the speaker a Shiite.
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