Miqati Urges Respect for Official Decisions Instead of Raising Anti-Stability Slogans

Prime Minister Najib Miqati urged Lebanese officials on Thursday to respect constitutional institutions and give up their “challenging slogans” to ensure stability in the country.

At the inauguration of a phase of the expansion and rehabilitation program at Beirut Port, Miqati said: “National unity is the guarantee to having a stable Lebanon capable of confronting challenges.”

“Stability needs cooperation between constitutional institutions …The respect of the constitution is a duty because it is the foundation of laws,” he said.

“It is our responsibility to put the national interest above anything else,” Miqati said, adding that “each official should respect the institutions and its decisions before raising challenging slogans and emotions that target the stability we are hoping for.”

These slogans put the country in a crisis that the citizen would pay a high price for, he stressed.

The PM was sending a clear message to ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and mainly Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas who is refusing to sign a transportation allowance decree approved by the cabinet, describing it as “illegal.”

Miqati also hit back at his critics who accused him of suspending cabinet sessions in an attempt to avert a showdown over the renewal of the cooperation protocol between the Lebanese government and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is probing ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination.

“What happened in the past days at the level of the cabinet wasn’t and won’t be an escape from responsibilities … On the contrary, it was a respect for constitutional institutions that should be kept above political differences,” he said.

On the rehabilitation project, the premier said: “The opening of this vital project is a clear sign that positive cooperation leads to positive results.”

It is also proof that stability in Lebanon requires national unity, he added.