Lebanese snub president’s call for urgent national dialogue

Lebanese observers have dismissed a call by President Michel Aoun’s for an urgent national dialogue, describing it as “too late.”

Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper quoted some observers as saying that Aoun’s call “did not include anything new,” and fell well short of expectations.

Meanwhile, others saw the call as “very late” denouncing his attempts to distance himself from the political system which he spearheads.

On Monday, Aoun called for a national dialogue among different governing parties in the country to put an end to the governmental paralysis.

“The deliberate and unjustified disruption that leads to the dismantling of institutions and dissolution of the state must stop;” Aoun said in a televised speech, adding that these practices may lead to the “ruin of the state.”

Aoun: Lebanon to continue indirect border demarcation talks with Israel

Aoun also called on the parliament to pass important legislation including; the capital control law, convening an urgent dialogue on a financial recovery plan, administrative and financial decentralization, and defence strategy.

Commenting on Aoun’s statements, the head of Foreign Affairs Department in the Lebanese Forces Party, former minister Richard Kouyoumjian said the defence strategy should only be discussed by the Lebanese Army and should never be a matter for political consumption.

Kouyoumjian added on Twitter that Aoun should demand that Hezbollah hands over its weapons and become a Lebanese party instead of being an Iranian Revolutionary Guard.