Debate on AL Vote Continues, Aoun: Arab Chose the Losing Path
All Lebanon was there.
The hearts danced with each kick.
The hands were raised for every whistle.
And what the Lebanese politics has separated along the passing decades was gathered Tuesday by the Lebanese football game.
Lebanese people as well as politicians set their differences aside to celebrate a stunning World Cup qualifying victory by the national football team.
Lebanon Enjoys Victory:
As President Michel Suleiman and other political figures joined more than forty thousand supporters at Beirut's Stadium, the Lebanese national football team defeated South Korea in a shock 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying match.
After the match, the Lebanese football team headed to the Grand Serail where it met with Prime Minister Najib Mikati as well as the government's ministers.
Expressing his delight and proud of the Lebanese national football team, Mikati congratulated each and every player on the national team, to the Lebanese Football Federation and to all my countrymen and women."
He said the victory offered an example for Lebanon's warring politicians.
"When we asked the team who scored the winning goal, they responded: We all did,'" Mikati said. "We learned a lesson from this short visit, that the government should be a unified team working toward one goal: Success and winning."
The players were each awarded 10 million L.L by the government for the performance.
Lebanon against Isolation
Meanwhile, the Lebanese government held a meeting at the Grand Serail discussing the country's position at the Arab League on Syria.
Agreeing that any ministerial decision should serve the country's national interest, Mikati stressed that "Lebanon will remain interactive with its Arab surrounding and part of the Arab world."
"The national interest and civil peace should be the main criteria of any decision that must be taken," acting Information Minister Wael Abu Faour told reporters after the meeting.
He also noted that "Lebanon's vote at the AL stemmed from historical and geographic cocerns that take into consideration the Lebanese sensitivities of which our Arab brother are aware."
"The Lebanese policy, as the president has affirmed, is against isolation which punishes the people and severs the means of dialogue," the minister added.
For his part, head of "Change and Reform Bloc" MP Michel Aoun emphasized that "the Arab countries have chosen the wrong and losing path by deciding to boycott Syria."
"These states that have limited themselves to a certain axis and there is something that is steering them away from historic paths," he warned explaining that "the Arab initiative was announced in a provocative manner and it was phrased in a way that would force Syria to reject it."
"Someone caused the failure of the Arab initiative and the escalation was clear on ground," Aoun added.
In parallel, the "National Unity Platform" warned that the "most recent incident is resembled by suspension of Syria's presence in the AL."
In its weekly meeting headed by former PM Salim al-Hoss, the platform condemned the step.
"Developments have shown that Syria is targeted by major foreign forces pressuring the largest number of Arab countries to take a negative attitude known from Syria," the statement added.
"The Arab League resolution against Syria is a departure from the League Charter and contrary to the laws and regulations," it also noted asking the following:
"Where was the AL when the Zionist entity was recognized, or when the enemy occupied an Arab capital, or when occupation entered Iraq and destroyed it, and we always ask where is the AL from Palestine, and the repeated wars on Lebanon?"
At another level, Lebanese newspapers reported that "March 14" members are to attend Wednesday's Parliament session, to raise Lebanon's position at the AL.
However, parliamentary sources informed "an-Nahar" Lebanese daily that "the session will be limited to the agenda and seven questions posed by several lawmakers."
At the security level, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel announced that five brothers were arrested in a raid on an apartment in al-Nabaa over the attacks on 11 people, mostly taxi drivers, in the past three months.
Source: Lebanese newspapers, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org
