Following his meeting with Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rahi in Dimane on Saturday afternoon, which was devoted to discussing the general conditions in the country, former President Michel Sleiman stated that he called on the Patriarch to “form an independent group to address the current situation.”
“I urged the Patriarch to form a truly independent group of intellectuals and politicians to seriously address the situation,” he said.
“The meeting was an opportunity to confer with His Beatitude over what he said in his sermon on the issue of neutrality, which must be serious and at core of efforts by a Lebanese political intellectual mobilization group to form a document that would serve as a national pact, because everything we discuss on the security, economic and social level has no value if we do not start with the general policy of the state first and foremost,” Sleiman stated.
He added: “The first item that should be discussed at the cabinet table is public policy and not the endorsement of a security or economic policy, for public policy is what is appropriate for security and the economy and not the isolation that cuts off our economy.”
Over the recent Baabda meeting, Sleiman said: “While I do appreciate the President's initiative, yet this meeting contributed to the economy’s deterioration…and we gave an indication that we are a one team for this country and not a united national team, since the Christian parties were absent, so were the former heads of government, and they represent large segments, regardless of the talk about the Charter.”
Sleiman concluded by hoping that "the upcoming sessions would carry a clear agenda or document, as indicated by His Beatitude in his homily."
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