A brief of tonight’s News Bulletin:
The ruling regime is in a precarious position, and President Michel Aoun’s era is even more precarious. What the Maronite Patriarch Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi said about the international conference and impartiality put the system and the covenant in front of a historical obligation that goes beyond politics and power sharing. For a time, the system appeared to have organized its circumstances in a systematic and well-thought-out manner. Money is taken and robbed from Lebanese wallets and what is left in the state treasury, while Hezbollah is focused on its regional and national strategic agenda. The ostensible authorities are obsessed with amassing the greatest amount of wealth at the expense of the people, while the true ruler, Hezbollah, is waiting for the right regional developments to change the rules.
The seeming officials are concerned with their quotas, chairs, and gains, whereas the true official is looking forward to a single goal: to reach a founding conference that will redistribute power in Lebanon. He favors having an international conference to explore how to put Taif into effect and opposes holding a founding conference to bypass Taif and reach a new power distribution in Lebanon.
Al-Rahi is seeking neutrality, unification of armaments, and a single Army on all Lebanese territory, however Hezbollah rejects neutrality because it prevents it from using the slogan of fighting Israel to protect its weapons and keep this weapon in the domestic balances game. In an even worse situation, the system has crumbled, and the Covenant has lost the support of the Lebanese population, losing its unique function as custodian of the constitution, Lebanon’s unity, and legitimacy. Is the system and the covenant cognizant of the gravity of the situation? Or will they stick to their policy of burying the ambitions of the Lebanese ?
