Naharnet

Geagea: Tampering with STL Funding Stirs Dormant Strife

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea warned on Wednesday the parliamentary majority against ignoring the will of the majority of the Lebanese people regarding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

He said after holding talks with MP Fouad Saad: “The current majority’s ongoing tampering with the issue of the funding of the STL will awaken the dormant strife.”

“Ignoring this issue will increase the national divide and will lead to an international boycott of Lebanon and sanctions against the country,” he cautioned.

On Syria’s repeated incursions into Lebanese territory, the LF leader held Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour and other officials responsible for the situation.

“They are dealing lightly with this issue even though a case such as the country’s sovereignty should not be treated as a joke,” Geagea stressed.

He emphasized the importance of coordination between the Lebanese and Syrian armies in order to avoid errors.

Addressing the ongoing debate over increasing minimum wage, he suggested that this matter can be resolved through the formation of a joint committee that includes two or three ministers and representatives of employers and labor unions.

These officials would be charged with devising a plan to follow up on the economic situation and reach appropriate solution to problems, said Geagea.

Furthermore, he noted that the rise in transportation tariffs, school tuition fees, and prices of consumer goods that accompanied the increase of minimum wage by LL 200,000 “is a sign of a lack of a clear economic plan.”

“It is an indication of the government’s great confusion in that the minimum wage increase was not positively met at all,” he continued.

He warned that maintaining the current policy will subject Lebanon to the same dangers of bankruptcy other countries are suffering from.


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