Banks Association Receives 'Reassurances' from Geagea as He Warns against 'Manipulating' Taef

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea warned Tuesday against “manipulating” the Taef Accord, the country's post-civil war constitution, amid controversy over the constitutionality of a legislative session that is poised to be held amid an expected boycott by the main Christian blocs.

Speaking after a meeting in Maarab with a delegation from the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), Geagea noted that the banking sector “has always been a main staple of Lebanon's economy, especially in recent years.”

“I briefed them on our real stance on the importance of the financial laws that are of concern to them … We support these laws and I promised them that we will pass them within the deadlines later this year,” Geagea said.

Urging Speaker Nabih Berri to “take into consideration all the proposed bills so that we can decide on them in the Nov. 12-13 legislative session,” Geagea warned that “the issue of respecting the National Pact of coexistence is very critical, and any manipulation of this pact implies a manipulation of the Taef Accord.”

“This should not happen under the excuse that we don't have an alternative at the moment,” Geagea cautioned, hoping al-Mustaqbal movement and its leader ex-PM Saad Hariri will play “a key conciliatory role” in this regard.

ABL chief Joseph Tarabay meanwhile said the Maarab visit was part of a series of meetings that the association intends to hold with political leaders.

He noted that Geagea gave the delegation “enough reassurances that the financial laws that the international community is demanding will be approved before the end of the year.”

“We want these laws to be issued in a session respecting the National Pact, not to become an excuse to disregard the National Pact,” Tarabay added.

The 1943 National Pact is an unwritten agreement that set the basis for the political system in Lebanon, which is based on a sectarian distribution of power.

The ideas of the National Pact provided the basis of the Taef Accord that stipulated, among other things, equal power-sharing between Christians and Muslims.

The legislative session is scheduled for November 12 and 13 amid a boycott of the Kataeb Party over the ongoing presidential vacuum.

The Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement are unlikely to attend either over the failure to include the parliamentary electoral law on the session's agenda.

Y.R.