Fadlallah: Arab League initiative lacks clarity

Source: Daily Star, 12-01-2008
BEIRUT: Senior Muslim-Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said on Friday the decisions reached during the meeting of Arab foreign ministers earlier this week had been issued in a "blurry" manner. "The decisions issued following the Arab foreign ministers' meeting do not enjoy any clarity," Fadlallah said during his weekly Friday sermon from the Imam Hassanayn Mosque in Haret Hreik.
"Debate will be launched again by this party or that regarding numbers and stands," he added.
Arab foreign ministers approved on Sunday a resolution, which says a national unity government in Lebanon should be formed in such a way that no one party can impose or block any decision.
The draft endorses the choice of the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Michel Suleiman, as the next president of Lebanon and says he should be the arbiter in any contested decision.
Fadlallah said the problem in Lebanon resides in the fact that its youth have lost hope in having a respectful life.
"And religious authorities, through their sermons, are following political positions [...] in a bid to warn people on one side and bring them into labyrinths on the other," he said.
He said Lebanon's internal crisis was linked to the regional crisis "which will remain present until the US administration achieves its strategic interests at the expense of Lebanon's."
The cleric slammed US President George W. Bush's visit to the region, saying it constituted an attempt to reject the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
"We all have to understand that peace with the Palestinians can only be reached through the "Israeli" will and its unattainable conditions," Fadlallah said.