President Michel Suleiman said on Tuesday that the Lebanese constitution calls for establishing a senate which he described as an essential solution for balance in the country.
“The senate is a very important body of the state,” Suleiman said after holding talks with French Senate President Gerard Larcher. “We, in Lebanon, should work to form a senate after creating a national committee to abolish confessionalism.”
“The Lebanese constitution calls for establishing a senate. Senates are essential solutions for bringing balance to countries,” the president told reporters.
Parliamentary sources told An Nahar daily in remarks published Wednesday that Suleiman’s stance brings to the forefront the issue of the Taef accord’s full implementation.
Larcher, for his part, underlined the “special friendly ties between France and Lebanon.”
Suleiman also said all efforts would be deployed to hold democratic elections on June 7 and allow the Lebanese to “freely express their will.” During his second-day state visit to Paris, Suleiman met with Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe at the Hotel de Ville.
In remarks to reporters, Delanoe said any violation of Lebanese sovereignty “would be met by a strong response by the French people.”
He added: “Lebanon cannot be but an independent state. I already told this to Syrian President Bashar Assad.”
Suleiman also laid a wreath of flowers during a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe, before his meeting with Larcher at the Senate.
The president returns to Beirut on Wednesday.
[Naharnet, March 18 2009]
Filed under: News, Michel Suleiman
