Jumblat Says Officers Decree 'Unnecessary', Rejects 'Isolation' of Berri
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Wednesday described a disputed decree issued by President Michel Aoun as unnecessary, throwing his support behind Speaker Nabih Berri in the ongoing spat.
“The disputed decree was unnecessary, but now that the decree has been issued, there is no need to isolate Speaker (Nabih) Berri and consequently a major sect,” Jumblat said in an interview on Future TV.
“Let's keep the army as it is. The new army command has won battles against terrorism and let it address its own affairs,” he added.
Jumblat also revealed that Berri has sent him “a solution plan with (MP) Wael Abu Faour who will submit it to Prime Minister Saad Hariri.”
“The solution plan is aimed at returning things to the constitutional course,” Jumblat noted.
The Aoun-Berri spat broke out after the president and the premier signed a decree granting one-year seniority to a number of officers. Berri and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil have insisted that the decree should have also carried the finance minister's signature.
Aoun and his aides have argued that the decree did not require Khalil's signature because it did not entail any “financial burden,” a point Berri and officials close to him have argued against.
Ain el-Tineh sources have meanwhile warned that the decree would tip sectarian balance in favor of Christians in the army's highest echelons.
The officers in question were undergoing their first year of officer training at the Military Academy when Syrian forces ousted Aoun’s military government from Baabda in 1990. They were suspended by the pro-Damascus authorities until 1993 before they resumed their officer training course as second-year cadets.
Turning to the issue of parliamentary elections, Jumblat said “a five-party alliance stands for isolating a certain party” and that he is against such a move.
“The electoral law was imposed as a de facto situation by the major parties and we tried to delay it and we have not received any guarantees,” he added.
Source: Naharnet
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